The week begins

I reached my goal of at least 10 posts, yay!

I couldn't get to yoga yesterday, but was able to make it today. The class was a little rough, but I am happy overall that I started the week out right with yoga. I have had a problem with leg cramps in the past and one of my instructors suggested I am not replenishing my electrolytes. So today I had a vitamin water before yoga and... no cramps!

I don't want to pay extra $5-$10 a week the waters would be though, so I just bought some electrolyte pops and we'll see how those go for now.

My no-buy month ends Wednesday and I believe I have successfully stuck to it. Can't believe its almost October, but ready for hockey season!

...but if I had my way, I'd take the rain

My intention last night when I got home from yoga was to write a blog post. But since the power was out in the entire neighborhood, I did the next best thing, pen & paper! The weather has cooled off considerably since it's been raining for two days straight.. but I do love it. It makes me miss Vancouver a lot.

I took 5 days off from yoga and these past 2 practices have been really rough... but at the same time, I notice more starkly my improvements over the past two months. I still hope to improve my balance, but the standing series is much better than when I started. During floor series today, I noticed how strong my spine is and I wonder if that comes from all the years of volleyball... I am glad though that there is strength in my spine and hopefully that will lead to a stronger practice all around.

I've reached a point in my practice where I am able to mentally check out and just do the postures. I haven't yet figured out if that's actually a good thing, but it's nice to suddenly realize we're moving into camel pose and it seems like we just began.

Every day in class I stare at the 60 day challenge wall and consider attempting it... but I can't seem to mentally prepare myself for class five days a week, much less every day (or more!) for two months. Until then, I find peace in the classes I do get... the hour and a half I give to myself.

"Practice yoga, and all is coming." - Guruji

The true death panels.

Interesting true story at the Mudflats.

Miscellaneous Thoughts on $

I spent most of the day re-reading the archives over at Get Rich Slowly. Over the years since I found the blog, J.D. has put out some really great articles about real life money management... he (and his guest bloggers) have covered pretty much every aspect of retirement planning and budgeting, what to do when you're a saver and your spouse is a spender, how to prepare kids for financial intelligence, and even brings up hard topics about what to do when you're financially smart but your family isn't. The commentors on every single post only further the usefulness and wealth of information.

I have managed to come up with a fairly long list of books on Paperback Swap over the past few weeks... there's something strangely satisfying about anxiously waiting for the books you want, hoping they'll come soon, instead of running out and buying it brand new whenever the whim strikes me.

I need to read every book in my collection and list at least 75% of them. I already feel as though I'm accumulating too much Stuff and would love to practice cutting it down early. Interestingly enough, my danger isn't in clothes and shoes like most people I know, but rather books and garden supplies. Go figure.

Since we're already more than halfway through September (and my no-buy is STILL going strong!), I've started thinking about doing wrap ups in a few months of my financial year and lay out my financial goals for 2010.

(Side note... It occured to me recently that next year is 2010. I thought back to 1999 when Y2K was all the talk at this point. I'm really glad that never happened.)

Are there any big financial goals you'll be working towards this next year?

Golden Sand

(from iamhome)

How gorgeous is this succulent in GOLD sand. I love it.

Heard on Kid Carson this morning...

In the mornings, I listen to Kid Carson, my favorite Vancouver radio show. I have gotten a TON of interesting news today... starting with bacteria breeding in shower heads. But the news that takes the cake is that Ottawa sent body bags to northern Manitoba as part of a 'Swine Flu' kit.

If that happened to me, I would wonder 2 things: 1) What the heck?? and 2) Do they know something we don't??

New 401(k) allocation!

Yay! This is WAY more in line with what it should be... so that is a step in the right direction. Overall, it has been a fairly decent day... just one or two blights on a good day. Another Monday down.

Egg Cave

I'm trying out this new online game. It'll probably hold my interest for all of a day, but figured I might as well... Basically, I have these eggs and I have to take care of them.. by having people click on them. Self promotion much?




If you're bored, feel free to click. This is mostly to help me keep track of them.

Hello Saturday

The weather has been really pleasant the past few days... hovering around 80 as opposed to 100. In fact, yesterday it was absolutely pouring when I left work, and as everyone else stood around looking bewildered, I rolled up my jeans, pulled out my umbrella and walked out into the storm. It made me miss Vancouver.

Fabulous Doodles by Brooke Hagel

Mystie Vogue Ready

Marie loves Fashion

Lily

I'm currently hooked on these gorgeous prints of fashion illustrations by Brooke Hagel. I was browsing Etsy when I stumbled across her shop! I would love to buy a couple of these to replace the current illustrations I keep in my bathroom.

So far so good...

with the fact that I've managed not to spend any frivolous money. But bad on the front that I got a speeding ticket yesterday and didn't go to yoga today. Nor did I get any milk for my cereal. Alas, such is life.

One good thing is that I enrolled in my 401(k) today! I researched a couple of the funds who's names jumped out at me and put 100% into one for the time being. That one is Oppenheimer Developing Markets, which Morningstar gave a 5 star rating. Since I consider myself a bold, young investor I'm not too worried for the time being, but will research the additional funds soon so I can be sure I made the correct choice.

In other investment news, my Roth IRA is currently sitting at a gain of $-9.81 net. That might sound crappy that I'm negative, but considering my first buy in was right because the economy started tanking, and the market in general has been going lower and lower, I consider $10 good for my (almost) two years. In fact, in February of this year I was at $-2,546. Market is looking good to me...

As far as match, I'm going to max out my 401(k) employer match (3%) and then put the rest into my Roth IRA like I've been doing. If I manage to max that out, I'll increase my 401(k) contributions. My 401(k) doesn't start until October, so we'll see how maxing contibutions for the match goes for the 3 months left in the year!

Feels like a Friday

Already the third and no blog post! Bad.

I could never justify spending $330 on a party dress, but if I could, this is what I'd buy.

(from Timeless Vintage)