I don’t really have a theme for this post. I just felt like I owed a blog post to….well, mainly to myself.

A few things have happened since my last post (in August):

1. Kitchen and bathroom condo renovations
2. We are expecting a baby in April
3. Rest of condo painting and fixing up (because of #1 and in preparation for #2)

Perhaps at some point I will post pictures. I have a bunch of in-process pictures and videos.

My wife blogs family stuff.

I still have some painting to do. Also need to replace our interior doors. There are a couple spots we need to tile. Our drop dead date was March 16th, but it doesn’t look like I’m going to hit that.

I’d like to blog more, but instead I write out ideas on my own personal, private Wordpress install.

I might turn this site into a lifestream. There will most likely be a redesign.

I’m also working on a site, mainly for pictures, for our son. I know, I could just have a flickr stream, but let’s be honest, old people don’t know how that works. Plus, I like the challenge of doing a bit of design and figuring something out.

My current work contract is up at the end of the month. Unless something else comes up before then, I’ll be out of work until I find that next thing.

That’s all for now. Lower your expectations and don’t count on an update for another 6 months. If you see something before then, you will be pleasantly surprised.

We don’t have a budget.

We both have jobs. Don’t have kids (cats don’t count). Have a mortgage payment, but otherwise few other bills.

But, my spending at grocery stores is simply out of control. The last few months haven’t been too bad, but there are times when I can drop some cash at Whole Foods with little to show for it.

I think it is hereditary. My father also loves grocery shopping.

We’ve decided to implement the Envelope Method of saving money.

My wife has set the limit of grocery shopping and eating out at $350 $450 a month. September will be our first month to try it out.

Basically, I’m going to put an equal amount of cash in envelopes for each week for both of us. So, approximately $56.25 a piece per week.

I get the feeling that isn’t going to go very far at Whole Foods. I already see myself stealing from asking my wife for money to go grocery shopping.

Looks like it is back to Giant. I’m not even sure the money will last at Trader Joe’s either.

Let’s not forget, this is only a test. It might fail after the first week. We’ll see how it goes.

Today, my wife and I picked up 45 pounds of hard red wheat.

I hope it soon marks a new day of homemade cereal.

We tried to buy a yogurt maker from Williams-Sonoma, but they were out of stock. Apparently, it is a popular item.

I’m going to attempt to make some sort of nut yogurt.

Is it sad that I am this excited about massive quantities of homemade bread and yogurt?

Yesterday, I ran my first half marathon. And possibly my last.

Not to say it wasn’t a good experience, but I don’t really enjoy running in a non-team sports context.

My wife, who previously ran the Marine Corps Marathon in 2007, also ran the half marathon.

Lessons learned:

• Probably should eat healthy the day before the run. My pre-race meals consisted of:

  Cereal

  Wawa Pankcake, Egg, and Sausage Breakfast sandwich (delicious!)

  Wendy’s Spicy Chicken sandwich and a small chili

  Whole wheat pasta, spinach, red pepper, and crab cakes (thanks to Ed and @mcbeth528)

• Training is actually important. I stopped training about a month before the race. That’s not really considered a taper. Part of the problem was dropping a knife on my foot (2 weeks before the race). The other part was laziness.
• Even after seeing the finish line during the race, all I wanted to do was walk. See my point about training above.
• Don’t sign up for a race which requires you to train during the winter. Any combination of cold, dark, or rain/ice/snow does not encourage running. Don’t tell me to run on a treadmill. Anyone who has tried it knows (but may not want to admit) that it is a horrible activity. Also, see my point about not training above.
• Irish stew and Yuengling is a wonderful post-race meal, even at 9:30 AM.

I wanted to finish in under 2 hours, but probably shouldn’t complain about 2:02:10.

All in all, we had a good time. We got to hang out in Virginia Beach the night before the race with Ed and @mcbeth528. We appreciate their hospitality and excellent pre and post race food (eggs with goat cheese after running = yummy).
It was definitely a different and exciting weekend for us and I look forward to cheering @mjrnows on in many future races. She’s running the Marine Corps Marathon this October, possibly to raise money for Jill’s House.

This year for lent, my wife and I are limiting our TV intake.

We are giving ourselves 4 hours a week, which includes movies. We specified 1 hour on Friday, 2 on Saturday, and one on Sunday. For simplicity sake, I guess we can just say 4 hours on the weekend. That will probably allow us 1 movie and a couple 40 something minute shows on Hulu.

This may help solve my Life/Life Balance issue. Or it may just drive me more towards the internet (I’m not sure “more” is even possible).

I haven’t figured out my video game usage yet, but since I haven’t been playing all that much, I’m not worried.

For the next 40 days and 40 nights our Netflix cue is going to grind to a halt. I will be auctioning off slots on our cue for $2 a movie. Please contact me for details.

Maybe I will use that NBC.com HD download thing to cue up some episodes of Heroes. Hulu and ABC.com are going to run out of episodes by the time we get back to our online TV watching.

Anyway, the point is, when I was younger I gave up bagels one year for lent and I never really went back. At the time, I was eating at least two bagels a day. I was young, I could afford the calories. Maybe the same thing will happen with TV. Probably not, but here’s to hoping for a more productive lifestyle.

(For those of you who have seen our cats, the picture above does look Kenzie, but its not. I found it on the internets.)