Feeling It

Ah, I had forgotten the agony of running on no carbs and I was rudely awakened to that fact this morning. I'm beginning to think that I'd rather be fat and be able to run than be skinny and feel like I'm living in hell every morning. The problem is that there doesn't seem to be any balance for me (in anything mind you). If I chow down on carbs, even low fat carbs, I will invariably eat high sugar carbs. Dammit. Anyway, I'm struggling to find some sort of solution. I know it is called moderation but who prescribes to that?

I was telling RG last night that the Level 3 poker is vastly different to the Level 2. The players are much much better so the tournaments last a bit longer. I feel very out of my league whereas on Level 2 I just felt frustrated. I guess Level 2 I felt competent but running bad and Level 3 I just feel like a moron. Excellent. You can definitely feel the strategy coming into play on Level 3. Ah well, it is all good.

It was very slow yesterday. Things are about to get really busy though. I have 200 items to mail, 1,000 postcards, and then the newsletter to get out before Monday. Now, it may not sound like much but the newsletter alone is about a 2 day event. The 200 piece mailer takes a ton of time due to the odd shape and weird mailing. The 1,000 hopefully I'll get off in the mail today. Yesterday, although I worked about 6 hours, felt like a holiday! I felt bad that I had time off to play some poker and chill. The poker was very quick as I consistently ended up 9th or 10th. Doesn't take too long to accomplish that. Ha, Ha.

I'd just like to mention that the little things in life are really marvelous. I got a try organizer which has since cleared my desk substantially and I am as happy as a lark!

I Love Quicken

I've decided Quicken is just great. I know it's not the most practical application when trying to run a business (or 2) but with a little bit of excel assistance it makes life so much easier. I cannot imagine how they did all the number crunching back in the day. Maybe they didn't? Maybe the IRS invented the calculator so people could not screw up on their taxes?

I am very happy with my budgeting efforts for the year. I decided to do my mid year comparison to last year's mid point a few weeks early because, well, I guess because it's a slow day. Hooray! I have to separate everything between business and personal and then of course I have to throw out a few categories (like taxes). The best result for me personally is that my overall spending is down 39% from the same time last year. The main categories that I've managed to slim down are clothing, dining, gifts given, home remodel (this one is huge as without it it's only a 29% decline) and personal. Some items like travel, dry cleaning, and insurance have seen some gains. Ah well.

Work is another issue entirely. Expenses are up a 41% but this is only about 1% above the budget goal for the year so it's not too bad. Yet. It's a little bit skewed as now I have a flat monthly fee whereas before I had the commission issue which was never really accounted. I guess if I take out that little factor then overall spending is really up only 20%. I would love to keep spending down a bit more but I'm not 100% sure how to do that and grow my business. I guess it's just one of those things.

Overall, I'm pleased and I can tell because...I'm spending more!! We are eating out waaay too much so hopefully this analysis will re-motivate me to tighten up a little bit and get things under control. My now 9lb weight gain is confirming this as well. I can tell when I fell a little spend happy. This is the best time to keep at it so that the end of the year, when things slow a bit, I won't even notice. Excellent.

For non poker players here's an analysis on my poker endeavors. I am following a set plan laid out by a professional poker player. I'll compare it to running. Each week I have to run a minimum 10 laps (play 10 poker tournaments). I start out very slow with just a fast walk initially and this is at Level 1. I have to win a medal, either gold, silver, or bronze in 5 of the 10 laps that I run. If I succeed in winning my 5 medals I get to advance to the next level which is slightly more difficult than the previous level (the poker buyiin is higher so the players are better). I had been stuck on Level 2 for a good 9 weeks and it was enough to make me cry. I realized at the start of week 8 that I had been running in laps with hurdles, which is a non-requirement and way more difficult, and I think that had contributed to the 9 week agony. This past week I ran 11 laps and placed gold 5 laps, bronze 2 laps, and had no placements for 4 laps. I ran 11 laps since I had already won my required medals and I needed some more stamina for the ensuing rounds. Which I'm scared of. Wish me luck :-). The ultimate goal is to run a marathon that only 36 runners are allowed to compete in. Hmm.....the odds are tiny at this rate but it's a nice hobby to have.

Fin A LY

It's hard to believe, it's hard to grasp, I know some of you will be in pure shock. You may want to sit down for this: I get to move up a level in Poker. AMEN. It's hard to understand if you are not a competitive bitch that cannot associate the words grace and humility with loss. It's about time, dammit.

Now that my better half is working like a mad man all hours of the day I have begun to realize what a jerk I am. Apparently in my princess world I am the only one who is allowed to dictate what we do when according to my schedule. Alas, my princess world has had a nice fall on its fanny and reality is beginning to sink in. This has led to a few very painful realizations. 1) How has he put up with me for over two years 2) How could I not have made him a priority every single day 3) How will get rid of the bad habits that have developed in the last 2 years. To say this will require some work is an understatement. Wish me luck.

Signs your contractor may not be up for the job

1) He shows up smelling like booze. So much so you have to stand a few feet back
2) His hands are shaking so badly it's hard not to stare
3) His book of "references" include 5 photos of random furniture

I'm concerned. I'm stressed. What the @#%^ have I done. Oh well. At least Mike was there this morning to speak with him. It took all my will power not to howl in agony. Apparently it's hard to find people that you can say "here is the project, here is the budget, let's get it done".

I'm also very tired and cranky. The heat is not helping and to make matters worse I was so mad after meeting the contractor I insisted we eat at Wendys and not Subway. Hmm.....maybe not the smartest move? I'm also cranky at the thought of spending 2 days attending a seminar I'm not too psyched about. Why did I sign up for this thing in the first place? I figured I had to spend my education budget somewhere but did it have to be there? If I was smart I would have found the same seminar if Vegas and then written the whole trip off. Now that's a good utilization of my budget. Crap.

It almost rained a few minutes ago. I was very excited to see a few drops fall but now they have stopped. Could I use this as an excuse to run outside and smash every window in sight? I think I would feel better :-) I could create a new stress management budget!! Brilliant.

I Am An Idiot

Apparently I am an idiot. It turns out that there are 2 kinds of sit and go tournaments that one can play. They changed the interface and it is only now clear to me that this is the case. This just goes to show how much attention I have been paying to my tournament play. Ha, Ha. The first is just the standard tournament allocates 10 minutes to each level or round of blinds. The second is a speed tournament which allocates 5 minutes to each level. I would sometimes think..wow, this level went so fast and I don't have any chips and the blinds are up already. I think this makes a huge difference. I wish I had kept track of my data better (poker tracker does not import the files very well so I have been manually keeping track). It would be interesting to note how I place on the 2 different structures. The game title clearly states something like "Speed 2352525" but I just didn't really put too much thought into it. Hmmm. My strategy this week is not to play the speed tourney as I feel that is even more difficult and more of a disadvantage. I am a boo boo.

Here, Kitty Kitty

It's so freaking hot. We have opened the windows to allow any sort of breeze through the house. Consequently I can hear a cat (?) and it sounds like it is being strangled. It is very scary. I just yelled out the door to hopefully end the kitty noises. Today was nice as I decided to ditch work and actually spend some time on my house. I spent a good few hours figuring out what I will actually do with the damn thing. All things considered I'm a bit behind the curve. Ah well, what can you do? I'm just going to do the bare minimum, rent the thing out for a bit, and then figure the rest out later. Phew.

I'm dreading work this weekend. I'm not sure why. I had a client call me and declare that I was not giving them enough attention. This really irked me for various reasons and I'm having a hard time getting into the groove of things again. It just sucks. Whatever. WHAT EVER. So There. Did I mention it was hotter than hell? Man, this sucks. I guess the house has air conditioning for a reason. Hmmm...interesting.

Dot and I were commenting about how the traffic on the street is getting worse over time. We think this is a sign of all the interest in the Tennyson development area. I wish I had a million dollars so I could buy just about everything.