Quick Entry

Today was a rainy day.  Much to my surprise, I managed to go for a run inbetween heavy downpours. I ran for about 50 minutes. I could've ran for my regular hour, but it started to rain. Also, I organized a local hiking activity for my social networking groups. The strange thing? It is a hiking group.  I planned a hike and only one person signed up. Even even stranger was that in the two Weeks my event was posted, no one visited the site. How do I know? When you click on the member's tab, all members can be grouped by date they last visited.  Is this more proof that I have the power of invisibility?

The hike will be about 6 hours long.

Today, I spent about $36 dollars. I used my dollars and cents pad to keep track of each financial transaction. I really need to know where my money goes. If I can keep it up for a few months, them I should eventually be able to t start budgeting.

Bedtime, long hike tomorrow.

Quick Entry

I haven't been jogging in several days.  Here in NYC, we are in the middle of a heatwave.  However, I wouldn't know, I've slept through most of it.

Today (Tuesday, July 17th) I went to a book club meeting.  The theme of this club is sci-fi/fantasy.  The discussion was held in a midtown bar.  I arrived about 15 minutes early.  The hostess suggested that I wait for the group in the bar section and "have a drink" while I wait.  Even though I don't really drink alchol, I bought an apple martini.  No, I didn't drink it.  I didn't want to sit for fifteen minutes without buying something.  The drink came to $9 plus $2 for a total of $11 for a 3 oz drink.  Then, upstairs, the group met.  My dinner was a $20 turkey burger with dry bun and hard fries.  The conversation was ...okay.  However, the members seem to take their sci-fiction waaay too seriously.  Instead of having a simple discussion about liking or not liking the book and why, most of the discussion was philosophically focused making comparisons to real world.  After two hours, the group meeting ended.  The first thing I did was go to McDonald's.  I ordered two apple pies and a smoothie.  Headed home, I stopped to play Lotto, bought cookies from Subways, and bought milk.  I remembered to bring my "dollar and cents" memo book to keep track of any and all things I buy.  I was very annoyed with myself for forgetting to bring a pen with me.  However, I did manage to record all expenses for this day.  The plan is to stick with keeping a daily log at least for 4 or 5 months so that I can learn where my money goes each month, and learn how much I spend each month.

I Need to Get Back on Track

I think the title says it all.  Lately, I've been very frustrated that my finances are a messy shambles.  I've been getting very tired of living paycheck to paycheck, having no clue where my money goes, or how much I spend in any given day, week, or month.  Scrounging around for loose change to tie me over until next payday was really hitting the bottom of the barrel.  Today, I finally paid my cell phone bill, so now I have access to the Internet on my cell and tablet.  AT&T has been a real "pill" about their bills.  They shut off my service with the bill only 15 days late.

On the left is a photo of book similar to one I bought at Staples today.  Starting tomorrow, my goal is to record ANY and ALL expenses made on a daily basis (anything from bills paid, to buying a daily newspaper.  I need to know where my money is going.  How is it a single guy with my car, family,  addictions, or other expenses, can't seem to keep money in the bank.  I'm getting older now, I need to keep better track of how much money I spend and where my money goes.  Right now, my goal is to carry this booklet around (the way I do with my calendar booklet).  Hopefully, if I keep track of all of my expenses for 4 or 5 months, I should begin the Year 2013 being able to create a realistic budget, and a better understanding of my finances.  I do know one of the things I'm going to have to stop doing is spending hundreds of dollars on school supplies and resource books.  Every school year, I start off spending 1 ~ 2 thousand dollars on classroom materials and supplies.  I'm not doing that this coming school year....I can't afford to.

Exercise has been another inconsistency.  Although, I've been running from time to time, I haven't been consistent with it.  Strange that my body has adjusted to the hourly runs so quickly, but hasn't shown real results. 

I just finished reading "Daemon" by Daniel Suarez for a book club I joined recently.   The book was okay.  It turns out the 617 page book was only the first part of a two part book.  Even though it ends with a bit of a cliffhanger, I have no interest to read the other half of the book.

I could go on, but it is past midnight.  I need to get up early so that I can do my morning run.     

Quick post

I'm still cut off from the AT&T network until I pay my bill. I am posting a blog entry with the benefit of free wifi. It is true, you get what you pay for, but in a pinch, beggars can't complain.

Anyway, after two days of being very lazy and doing nothing but eating junk food, I managed to force myself to do my one hour jog...midday no less. But I managed to do it without any injury, pain, or discomfort.  Midday really isn't the best time to go running, but I really needed to break the lazy, hazy spell I've been under.  Tomorrow, the plan is to try to run first thing in the morning. I will be joining a social networking group trip to the movies to see "Prometheus" and "Ted". Personally, I would've passed on seeing"Ted", but for some strange reason THAT is the movie that's getting the most buzz. Afterwards, the group will be heading to a BBQ restaurant. I already have fried onion rings on my mind.

190lbs.

Dental Update

Today, I had my appointment to adjust my braces.  This was about my fourth or fifth time having them adjusted.  However, today was the first time that a new assistant did the adjusting.  I think she may have tightened the braces too tight.  This is the first time that I feel discomfort.  She also seemed to have been having some difficulty getting the wire in the way she wanted to.

After the dental appointment, I went to the petshop to spend more money on the class hamsters.  It turned out none of the students wanted one.  Plus my coleague kept the males and females together.  I think she had about nineteen hamsters in the tank.  Whenever, there was a conflict within in the tank(a fight), or one was looking fairly raggedy, I would offer to take one with the idea that students would want to adopt some of them.  Well, that didn't happen.  So now, I kind of feel responsible for the hamsters that I offered to take.  Right now, I have 6 hamsters.  Two of the hamsters are from my colleague.  One was the pregnant female I didn't realize was pregnant when I offered to take one.  Of her litter of 7, only 3 survived.  Now, the living arrangements are male and female containers.  I also need to separate "Raggedy Andy"(the old hamster). from the younger males.  It got to the point Andy was viciously attacking the other males.  The last fight was so bad that I (stupidily) put my hand in to try to break up the fight, only to have Raggedy Andy bite me.  His teeth were so sharp they went through my hand like a hot knife through butter.

Diet

After my lazy morning, I was able to go for a midday run today.  I ran for an hour and 5 minutes.  Unfortunately, I lost the benefits of the run with a high calorie dinner with a slice of cake and a pint of Haagen Daz ice cream.

Tomorrow, I have my 6 week check up with the dentist.

After the diet

Quick entry.  On the last day, I broke the diet....hard.  Since then, I've been on a bit of a binge.  KFC, MacDonald's, etc... On Friday, I easily had about 3,000 calories.  McDonalds "Big Breakfast", A club sandwich with chips and soda for lunch, and Subway sub for dinner.  Hopefully, I can get back on track on Monday.  I managed to end the school year with nothing but compliments about my weightloss, and now, I'm inching back up in the weight gaining dept. 

In fact, I think I'm going for my morning run.  Even though it is almost midday, and we are in a bit of a heatwave, I need to get out of this chair.  It would be nice to do an hour, but I will have to settle for my regular 30 minute.  Starting on Monday, I'm going to have to really get my act together.  I don't want to return to work having regained all the weight that I've lost. 

I also need to go pay my bills.  AT&T has cut off my service for a 15 day late bill.  Unfortunately, I've grown accustomed to having a smart phone.  My diet program, Foursquare, and other social networking apps, are on my phone and tablet.  Strange -- in a good way, I haven't been obsessing about the lack of mobile connection.  I miss the programs, but I having been going stir-crazy, nor have I been motivated to get off my rearend to go pay the bill.  I guess in a strange way, that is a good thing. 

Time to go do my run.  I'll try to post an entry this evening about whether or not I did the run.

Normally, I power down and turn off my desktop computer, but having the speed and convenience of a smartphone, I don't feel like waiting the 7 or 8 minutes for my desktop to turn on, so I'm going to put it in sleep mode. 

Time to run and see if I can loss at least one pound.

To be continued...