light bulbs and those who don’t make them

Dear people who make energy efficient light bulbs,

We really want to use your product. As I understand it, my light bill will be lower because they use a fraction of the electricity and millions of tons less global warming pollution. This is really cool and we strive to be those people who do good stuff for the environment. Well, and honestly, I really care about my utility bills.

I’m really excited that you, people who make energy efficient light bulbs, figured out if households replaced just three 60-watt incandescent bulbs with efficient bulbs, the pollution savings would be like taking 3.5 million cars off the road! That’s super cool.

But let me tell you who we are NOT. We are NOT people who buy houses that stay really warm. We are people who buy houses that are super old and need a lot of love. We are people who also buy period pieces to match that old, cold but wonderful house. And you know what, people who make energy efficient light bulbs? Your damn bulbs don’t fit into our period pieces. So that means we’re not saving money on our utility bills or taking those cars off the road. What do you think about that?

Do you want to know what I think? I think you should get to cracking at creating something for your target audience – people who eat local foods, buy furniture from antique shops and only own one (small) car. We are the people who are looking for ways to cut down on energy costs in our old home. What are you doing to help us?

Thanks for not thinking about me and my family,

This Girl & That Guy

chandelier not using energy efficient light bulbs

stop searching, start deciding

I just saw a Microsoft commercial where these men are going crazy and looking for something to bring down the stress. They are breathing in bags, sweating, frantically running around – then one of them searches “yoga poses” on the Bing decision engine. They all start doing tree pose and downward dog in hopes of feeling better. Well, I thought the commercial was clever but the tag line really spoke to me. Is it because I’m in a Marketing department now?

“Stop searching, start deciding.”

Brilliant.

Katie (of Ski-batcial) still may be searching, but for now, she’s decided. She quit her secure PR job in downtown Chicago, moved to Vail and is waitress. And couldn’t be happier.

Liz (of My Candid Gallery) is dedicating her mental wellbeing, health and spirituality to yoga. And also cooking her fiancé one dinner per week for an entire year! Ok, some of you may say “wait, I cook dinner for my partner every night…” but trust me, coming from a woman who doesn’t make anything except oatmeal, this is a quite a quest!

Jessica (of Dream, List, Act: 101 Goals in 1001 Days) is achieving 101 goals in 1001 days. One of them includes having a baby!

These women stopped searching, wrote down their decisions for the public to see and are acting upon them. I think that’s pretty inspiring.

My decisions are simple:

• Do the best work possible, every single day. It makes the 70 hour work weeks worth it.
• If you can’t exercise, at least eat well. We don’t have time to squeeze everything into one day.
• Give up on the idea the house is going to be “done” anytime soon.
• Relax, visit with friends, and make time for family. All these things are important. Squeeze them in.
• Hire somebody to clean the house. See all the above? Yeah, it’s money well spent.
• Travel. Duh.
• Be present in everything you do.
  

I will always be searching for something but I’ll have you know that Bing will never help me decide. I’m a Google girl all the way.

2009 year end review

Everybody has their list of accomplishments for the year and we, of course, have ours. I’d say it’s been quite a year, but I’m really looking forward to 2010. 

Let’s see…what did we do this year? 

We went to Peru. 

hike to machu picchu

I paid off my car. 

happy car owner back in 2006

I watched my best friend get married and I successfully didn’t cry during the speech. 

bride and bridesmaid

We bought a house and moved back to Indiana. 

we're moving!

We celebrated our first wedding anniversary. 

anniversary

I put us on a hugely aggressive 3 year “pay off our student loans” plan. 

this is what happens when BFF needs a date to a barn dance.

We visited Charleston, Columbia, Asheville, Savannah and Hilton Head. 

met up with my parents in hilton head

We voted for the first African-American President and watched him get sworn in with the rest of Charlotte. 

inaugural speech

It was an amazing year and an even better decade! Cheers to the future and a safe New Years!

get yo money, honey!

That Guy and I were pleasantly surprised to see our first-time homebuyer check arrive at our home only six and a half weeks after we submitted our paperwork! Good work, Government! We are tucking that money safely away in our savings account until we know exactly what we want to do with it. If I had to take a tiny little guess, it would be the kitchen!

Taxes aren’t our friend – I don’t do my own - BUT lady friends, it is SUPER easy and even I figured out how to do it from the ambiguous websites the government seems to think is helpful.

Here is a step by step “how to” on getting your 8k BEFORE filling out your 2009 taxes.

1. You have to fill out a 1040X form: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040x.pdf 
2. Here are the 1040X instructions: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040x.pdf
3. Then fill out the 5404 form: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f5405.pdf 

All you need is your closing date and your 1040 from 2008 to reference how much you made last year and a couple other things.

Done AND Done. It takes 10 minutes. I’m sure this will apply if you buy a house in 2010 after you fill out your 2009 taxes, too.

P.S. I’m trying to figure out how to blog with Word, so if you have me on a reader you might see some random test posts. Please ignore – thanks!

the ikea antonius laundry bag

Have you ever put something together from IKEA? 

Before we left Charlotte we did a big IKEA visit and ended up with a couple things, one of them being hampers. Wait – it wasn’t one IKEA visit. It was three: One to scout. One to purchase. One to finish purchasing because my car wasn’t big enough to fit all the items. That Guy wasn’t annoyed with this process at all - I promise! 

So I get my antonius laundry bags to my new house in order to fill the massive open space in the bathroom where a jack and jill counter should be located. It will be, someday. But for now we’ve got two $11 hampers. 

So, I start putting them together… 

not a good sign

Step one: Get everything you need. Hammer? Check! Wrench! Check! 

getting easier!

Now – Dump everything on the floor. Done! 

this will hold my clothes?

There are no photos of me putting them together but it was a sight. You had to hammer those metal things together. They didn’t slide in nice and snug – I had to bang the hell out of them but I guess I know first hand that those suckers are not going to fall apart. Not that you could compliment me on my craftsmanship, I’m deaf now because it was such a loud process. 

the final product

nice and snug

The creases are starting to work themselves out, which I’m thankful for. We’re really happy with our IKEA purchase, needless to say! 

You might be wondering why our bathroom looks so modern – the previous owner remodeled it earlier this year. Right where the hampers are located used to be the closet for the guest bedroom. He added a single standup shower (across from the hamper) which is separate from the tub. 

I hope to move the toilet next to the window, use that space for a jack and jill sink and get that beige OUT of my life! That’s much farther down the pipeline though. 

BTW, I never used the wrench. Why did they have it on the instructions? One may never know.