It Feels Like Another Hump Day!

My Tuesday was rather productive, but I still didn't get everything done that I wanted to do. And I didn't goof off at all--I was busy all afternoon and I didn't even touch my puzzle, as much as I wanted to.

First of all, I moved a few picture frames around on the walls and I hung up a combination white board, mail bin, and key hanger thingy on my kitchen wall. It looked really cool when I ordered it online, but I think it's ugly as sin no that it's been delivered. Oh, it's functional and all, but the color is downright awful. It looks like it was dipped in sweet-and-sour sauce from a cheap Chinese restaurant, where I thought it was just gonna be stained bamboo.

Oh, it's stained all right... Burnt reddish-orange. It doesn't match a damn thing in my house, and if it did, I'd probably be fined by the Taste Police. Even the people wearing the Three Wolf Moon t-shirts and rocking the Velvet Elvis paintings are making fun of it.

I'll keep it, and maybe it'll become an ironic conversation piece, like 'Who has the ugliest thing hanging on their kitchen wall'? One time back in college we nailed an old tennis shoe to the wall over our avocado-green stove, but I think this thing runs a very close second.

After the wall hangings were done, I spent several hours at the computer printing and organizing all of my old bank statements, 401-k statements, brokerage statements, and trade confirmations. I picked up a few notebooks at Wallyworld a few weeks back, and decided that since I'm no longer technically 'broke', I should probably keep better records.

Back in late 2008 when the economy was starting to really tank and the liberals swept into office, I sold absolutely everything I had in the market and went to cash for a few months. I missed the absolute bottom by about four days the following March, but I got very close when I turned around and put everything in my retirement accounts into an S&P 500 index fund. It's up over 40% since then, and I'm feeling like I made a great move at the time.

I've also made a few other moves since then and they seem to be working out, I just hope that when the double-dip recession hits this summer it doesn't wipe me out again (and I still get to keep my sort-of job, too). Also, I'm just under a year from paying off my truck, too, and once that burden is lifted, I'll feel like a rich man even if I only work 12 hours a week!

Anyhow, all that record-keeping business took a lot longer than I anticipated, and I also burned through half of an ink cartridge. Seriously, E*Trade--if you insist on electronic statements, could you at least make them printer-friendly? Pretty please?

Today I have a few other pain-in-the-ass projects to do. Besides vacuuming the whole apartment, I'm going to move the mini-fridge and the second TV. The mini-fridge will go in the dining room next to the booze cabinet, it's natural home, but the other TV is gonna come back here to the bedroom. I'm not getting a cable box for it, but I can set it next to the desk and keep CNBC running in the background while I'm working at the computer. It'll be kinda like my old days at Schwab, except for that whole work thing and the fact that don't have to wear pants while sitting at my desk. They kinda frowned on that back in the day...

I'll move the TV back out to the living room once college football season starts up again, but for the next several months, it's gonna be in here next to the desk.

Anyhow, once I called it a day on my chores, I hit the rack and tried to get some sleep. I'm glad I did, because I got called in to work a couple of hours early. Busy is good! Tonight will probably be even better, as I've got some regular guys who come in every Wednesday night and they usually play for several hours. And before I left this morning, the floorman told me that I might be picking up an extra graveyard shift this weekend, too. I hope so--those are usually always good nights to be working.

In the meantime, I think I'll make myself a pot of coffee and find something to munch on. All I had for dinner last night was turkey jerky and green tea. It didn't quite fill the hole...

Later-

Mikey