Congratulations California!

(I know I haven't buh-logged in forever, but this is worth a quick entry)

CONGRATULATIONS CALIFORNIA!

Breaking News from NY Times.com:

California Supreme Court Overturns Gay Marriage Ban

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The California Supreme Court has overturned a ban on gay marriage, paving the way for California to become the second state where gay and lesbian residents can marry.

The justices released the 4-3 decision Thursday, saying that domestic partnerships are not a good enough substitute for marriage in an opinion written by Chief Justice Ron George.

The cases were brought by the city of San Francisco, two dozen gay and lesbian couples, Equality California and another gay rights group in March 2004 after the court halted San Francisco's monthlong same-sex wedding march that took place at Mayor Gavin Newsom's direction.

Help!

Gary and I are doing so well on our debt reduction plan, but I need some help ASAP. You all need to talk me off the ledge: the buying ledge.

See, I've been bitten by the spending bug. And I'm perilously close to buying myself a nice new laptop computer. Specifically, this one:



(Mmmmm, pretty pretty blue...)

Last night I tried using Gary's laptop (it's a Mac) to work on some accounting homework, and it felt like I was in a foreign land. No right clicking. No F2 in Excel to edit the contents of a cell. No Control-D in Excel to autofill. All of my usual time saving short-cuts were missing! (And let's not talk about the fact that it took me 20 minutes and the "help" function to figure out how to put a simple folder labeled "John - school" on his desktop).

The sad part is, we just bought a new desktop computer last year, and it has been great and has everything I need. But it's literally on a desk that's two-feet-by-two-feet (actually, truth be told, the desk is a little table that folds into a triangle shape so it can fit in the corner of the room), which is just not useful when you need to complete projects in Excel while simultaneously having an accounting book, a notebook, and various pieces of paper spread out all around you.

I'm going to try my best to sit on my hands for now. Because we really don't need to spend another $1,100 on a laptop right now. But Christ it would be so nice to have that one pictured above.

Day 10,586

And poof! Just like that, in the blink of an eye, my 20s are over.

Today my twin sister and I turn 30 years old, flipping over the final page of our twenties and opening up the next chapter of our lives, our thirties.


(Here we are in 1979, enjoying a healthy snack of chocolate cake batter direct from the detachable beaters of mom's hand mixer.)

I have to say, I'm really excited about starting my thirties. Even if it does feel weird to write "thirties" there instead of "twenties."

My day began with a fantastic brunch prepared by hubby, a quick trip to mom's to spend some time with her, and then multiple hours back home playing with my present from Gary, a Nintendo Wii. (Watching Gary try to hit a baseball with the wireless Wii controller is worth the price of admission alone!)

Many thanks to our friends who came over last night for the birthday barbecue. It was great spending time with such truly good-hearted people. (And a shout out to those out-of-state good souls who were there with us in spirit... ;-)

Oh, Me?

My lord, has it really been nearly a month since I last posted?

Where does the time go?

Things have been good here. Just a little bit busy. We finally hired a new person in my department at work, so I'm no longer technically doing two jobs - just keeping busy training the new hire. She's doing amazingly well though, picking up on things quickly and always asking just the right questions.

My hubby and I had reason to celebrate this past weekend, going out for some yumma Indian food on Saturday night in honor of the fact that he is now finally finished with all of the work for his Master's degree!

It was 5 years in the making, and somewhat shockingly, he is now done. The graduation ceremony is toward the end of May. But from now until then he can finally, for the first time in years, have a normal 9-5 schedule. I'm so unbelievably proud of him. He really worked his butt off all these years, and he deserves the break as well as whatever new job might be coming down the road. :)

Speaking of coming down the road, we also did a bit of overland travel this weekend in the form of running. That's right: the weather is warm now, so the jogging shoes have come back out for their annual spring and summer usage.

I hadn't run at all since September (although I did clock a good amount of miles on the exercise bike this winter), but held my own on our Saturday jog, punching in 5 miles in just over 43 minutes. Not too bad. I have to get in gear so I can be ready for the annual Jim Kane Sugar Bowl 5 Miler that we love to participate in. Last year I ran it in 38 minutes 15 seconds, so I have to bring that 43 minute time down considerably.

The sad part, which is making me feel very OLD today, is how sore I am. Yes, I'm still sore today - a full two days after the run. And I'm still hobbling down stairs like an old man. Tonight if I'm still feeling so stiff I need to do some stretching, stat.

So I think that is all for now. I'll try to post more often, time permitting. Although it's hard when the weather warms up like this and all you want to do is be outside in the sunshine.

Ciao!