December 9 – Party Prompt: Party. What social gathering rocked your socks off in 2010? Describe the people, music, food, drink, clothes, shenanigans.

Party. “a social gathering, as of invited guests at a private home, for conversation, refreshments, entertainment, etc.: a cocktail party.” (dictionary.com) Not pictured: Me.

I’m not a big social butterfly. I’m more comfortable with my laptop and a blanket than I am in trendy clothes with a bunch of people and loud music. It’s not that I don’t enjoy some company from time to time, but parties are so very often so impersonal and shallow. They get dominated by the most flamboyant, leaving the wallflowers like me to stand around awkwardly, wondering how long I need to stay before I can leave without being rude.

So, I can’t think of a single party I attended in 2010. And that’s just fine. I went, on several occassions out to dinner with a couple friends. I had a few friends over to the house and made them dinner. We had a beer or two, watched some movies. Had a good time. But no loud music. No rambunctious people. Just good times. Good friends.

Maybe my problem is I’ve never been to the right kind of party. But at nearly every one I’ve ever been to, I always just end up feeling awkward and left out. So, down with the parties, I say. Up with the smaller get-togethers. One or two people. Some good food, good beer, and even better conversation.

When January rolled around, I was just about 4 months into my current job, a job in which the typical training period is about 3 months. I was still learning, still experiencing new situations, and in the midst of what seemed like constantly changing coworkers. It was topsy-turvy, and I wasn’t so sure about it.

Honestly, I’m still not. I’m in an industry I never expected to be, but when I took the job, I was desperate. I was just coming out of 10 months of near-unemployment, and the bills were piling up. I had some work, but it was pretty sparse, and money was pretty tight. But, along came this job , and suddenly we were able to shift out of mere survival and actually work for some of the things we wanted.

And while we bought the house in 2009, we were able to put some work into the house this year. We bought new furniture, filled in some bare spots on the walls with pictures and art, mounted the TV to the wall, put in some home theater equipment. It’s been great turning this house into a home. We were able to take a vacation, and put some money in savings.

It’s been a welcome change of pace, and we’ve been able to regroup, and make some plans to make life even better down the road.

I don’t mean to say that 2009 was at all a bad year, a lot of it just seemed like a rat-race, especially since I was at home so much, what with the being unemployed and everything. Here’s hoping to an even better 2011, with an emphasis on growth, rather than regrouping.

(This post is inspired by Reverb10)

In any event, I’ve been setting my alarm for 6:30 every morning for the past couple weeks. This has allowed me some extra peace throughout the day, as I get my blogging done, I read up on blogs, and I make a few comments here or there. Then, I move on to working on this or that, whatever needs to get done. It’s really been pretty nice, even if it’s difficult to get up at such an ungodly hour.

But yesterday, I discovered something amazing about getting up with so much time to spend before having to get ready for work: naps. That’s right. Yesterday, I took a nap before 10AM. I did my usual thing, I got my chores done, then I had extra time! So I took a nap. From 9:00-9:30, I experienced that oft-hoped for nap that I hated so much when I was 5.

When I woke up, I felt refreshed and energized, ready to begin my day. Only, I had already begun my day! I had already accomplished a few tasks and was ready to move into the tedium of the day job. So. The moral of the story?

If you want to start your day off right, forget a big, full breakfast. Forget coffee. Get some stuff done, ZEN HAVE A NAP.

I think society today has a fundamental misunderstanding of what credit is, and how one goes about using it. Credit seems to be looked at as an equivalent to overspending, to debt, to despair, or desperation. Credit need not be any of these things; rather, it can be a way to help manage your spending, manage your finances, and help you achieve a standard of life well above what you may have previously considered, while still remaining within your means. The misunderstanding is purely a lack of education.

I was raised with the philosophy that there’s no better way to learn than by doing. That said, this philosophy is exactly how nearly everyone in this country learns about credit. The only problem is, they don’t get to experiment or make mistakes until the stakes are too great to allow for mistakes. When your only option to learn-by-doing with credit is to take out an actual credit card, and make decisions that affect your actual credit score, the likelihood of making some catastrophic error in judgment is multiplied. Then, you’re stuck with a decision that will haunt you for a good many years to come.

In a commercial era in which companies have repeatedly shown that consumer protection is non-existent (vis-a-vis the home lending debacle, other credit crises, etc.), education is key in avoiding those costly mistakes. I think there’s an easy, inexpensive way to teach young people the perils and benefits of credit. In effect, this would be a credit sandbox, a fully-functional credit environment, in which the user is free to use the extended credit however he or she wishes, but within safe confines, and any mistakes would not have any long-term ill effects.

Here’s what to do: This sandbox can be created by anyone for anyone else. So, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles–anyone–can help teach a younger loved one how to use credit. To set this up, simply purchase a reloadable pre-paid card from any of the major credit companies. Load this card with whatever amount you deem appropriate (for example purposes, I’m going with $100). The amount should be something reasonable (even if available credit on credit cards is often unreasonable).

Hand off the card to your loved one, advising them that with great power comes great responsibility. She may use the card without restriction, purchasing or paying for whatever she wishes. Set a monthly “cycle” date, on which payment will be due. This payment can be the full balance of the credit extended, or it can be a minimum payment based on the amount of credit currently extended. The payment is then added back onto the prepaid card, restoring the amount of credit available.

If a minimum payment is made, some “interest” penalty will be assessed. Since we’re not in the business of making money off of our loved ones, that interest can be deposited into an UTMA savings account or other similar fiduciary account, which the user will receive benefit of once he or she comes of age. Alternately, if the interest component is too complicated, it can be skipped altogether; however, the point is to paint as accurate a picture as possible of the way credit actually works.

This sandbox structure allows the student to make choices, whether good or bad. If the money is all spent on junk, it won’t be available for more important or more desirable purchases. Additionally, if the whole balance isn’t paid off, the student will have to learn to adjust spending to ultimately pay off the debt, or eventually the available credit will dwindle to nothing, and the minimum payments may become difficult to pay.

Of course, the hope is that the credit will be used responsibly, and payments made promptly, and our student merely gets to practice good habits in managing money and credit. If the credit is not used quite so responsibly, though, how better to demonstrate the hazards of poor credit management than simply practice in traversing them? The consequences of irresponsibility here are less severe, as the debt can be paid off in a number of ways, whether it be payment arrangements or simply having them work it off doing odd jobs here or there. The point is, there are consequences for irresponsibility with credit, and having to do some odd jobs is far more tame a sentence than life-long ruined credit because of an irresponsible mistake borne simply out of ignorance of the rules of the system.

Even in the face of irresponsible spending, hope remains that these mistakes will serve as first-hand teachers. In this case, an entire future isn’t ruined, just maybe a few weekends spent working in the yard. These mistakes, once made, should prove to be beneficial, in that they will not be repeated in the real credit world, where consequences are far more dire. As the old saying goes, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” and practice equals prevention.

Ingredients:

• 1 large onion
• Fresh Basil
• 10-12 Roma Tomatoes
• Garlic
• Dried oregano, rosemary, and thyme
• 2 large cans crushed tomatoes.
• 2 small cans tomato paste
• Heavy Cream
• Red wine (Cheap is a-okay)
• Salt and Black Pepper
• Sugar
• Olive Oil

Step 1: Preheat your oven to 375. Halve, and seed 7 Roma tomatoes. (To seed them most easily, just cut out the little seed pockets. I used a paring knife.) Lay them out on a sheet pan, and coat with olive oil, oregano, rosemary, salt, and some black pepper. Roast for 6-7 minutes, turn them, and roast for another 6-7 minutes. Time may vary based on size/ripeness. Just watch for the skins to pull away from the flesh.

Step 2: Chop a large onion, 6-7 cloves of garlic, and some basil. Heat some oil in the bottom of your big stock pot, and sweat the onions and garlic until the onions are translucent. Lower the heat and add the basil, two cans crushed tomatoes, and about 2 tablespoons of sugar (this helps cut the acid). quarter the remaining romas, and add those too. Bring to a simmer.

Step 3: Remove and skin the roasting Roma tomatoes. They’ll be hot, but the skins should pull right off. Discard the skins, and let the roasted tomatoes rest.

Step 4: Add red wine, and let it simmer for about 15-20 minutes, covered. This will let the flavors marry, and it’ll keep it from reducing too much.

Step 5: Add two cans of tomato paste, to thicken the mixture and add cream. You can add as much or as little cream as you like. It’s really about taste here. Stir it in, and let it simmer some more.

Step 6: Add the roasted tomatoes to the sauce, and use your trusty immersion blender (you’ve got one, right?) or your trusty regular blender and blend the whole mixture until it’s smooth.

This whole thing should make quite a bit of sauce. Use what you want now, and freeze the rest. It’s freezes really well, and to thaw it out, just cut some off the frozen block and cover it over low heat. Stir it around until it thaws, and you’re good to go.

Enjoy!

I’ve never been terribly big on holiday decorating, but I’ve got to admit, I had a lot of fun putting up a tree, decorating it, and all that. Of course, it couldn’t really be as simple as all that. First of all, it isn’t a real tree. My mom was kind enough to give us an old fake tree she had, which was great, because that meant we didn’t have to buy anything. She even supplied most of the ornaments and lights and whatnot to go on it.

We put the tree together, and I strung the lights. We started to hang some ornaments, and that’s when everything just went horribly wrong. The tree is old, and its stand is plastic. One of the feet of the stand broke, and the tree began to topple, no axe required. I caught it, but not before a couple ornaments fell off, with their typical POP and resulting tinkle of thin glass exploding on the hardwood floor. We got a new stand, and reset the tree, with minimal damage done to the lights and the tree.

Well, there was some confusion in setting the bolts, and the tree began to promptly fall over. Fortunately, we had taken all the ornaments off before transplanting our poor tree, so nothing broke this time, especially because neither of us caught it before it hit the ground. Frustrated, we left it lying there on its side, vowing to try again later.

We tried again, and got the thing set, and began the process anew of arranging the ornaments. We finally finished, and were rather happy with the outcome. We put on the tree skirt, and stood back and enjoyed the moment. This was ours. Our tree. In our home. For our first Christmas together. Gushy and mushy as it may sound, the feeling was profound, and I’ve never felt more at ease or felt things were so right, even if the tree did fall over a couple times in the process. According to the countdown over there in the side bar, we’re about 18 days away from marriage, and although I may be a little nervous, I’m excited at the prospect.

Our tree. In Our house. For our first Christmas Together.

With our puppy, Thalia.

We even have a wreath.

We think she’s pretty awesome. She’s a 4-month-old Pembroke Welsh Corgi, and she’s got tons of energy. Well, sometimes. She can run around in circles, chasing who knows what, but sometimes, she’d rather just sit. Particularly when she’s on a leash. In fact, the first time we put her on the leash, the only reason she moved was because the electric door of Petsmart closed behind her and scared her. She’s a special one alright.

We’ve named her Thalia (Tall-ee-uh) after the Greek goddess of festivity, and muse of comedy. She certainly fits the bill with her rather strange demeanor. She’ll run around exploring, but when she gets tired of that, she’ll come into the room, look at you, and promptly flop on her side, as if some invisible hand suddenly pushed her over. Sometimes, though, she forgets to stop running before she does this, and proceeds to slide for a few inches before coming to a stop. We’re hoping she’ll figure out how to lie down.

One of the best things about Thalia, though, is how she acts when she gets tired. We already knew she had some trouble lying down, but she has picked one spot in our office that she likes, even more than the little doggy bed we’ve provided for her. It’s, well, just have a look:

That’s our dog, alright.