Pick-A-Day

October 2012
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Random Musings for the week…

Stuff that’s been in my head, and I want to get it off my chest.

  • Recently I’ve been remembering a conversation that I had back when I lived in Bloomington between grad students – we were talking about money and debt. As I recall there was one spouse there, and the spouse said something like, “We’re young, we can afford to go into debt.” I haven’t thought of that conversation in years, yet in the past week I cannot get it out of my head – specifically how that one phrase was said. I wonder whatever happened to their debt.
  • I went and saw Angel’s Share last night, in “English” – I say “English” because it’s a charming Scottish film about a petty punk trying to go straight and I cannot always understand the Scottish accent. It did revive my (slight) urge to get a kilt. Lucky for everybody I know, I will never actually get a kilt.
  • Last Saturday, for the first time ever, I took a boat tour here in Berlin. I’ve always been a little doubtful about boat tours, but this one was fun—probably more due to the company than the scenery. It was advertised as a “Festival of Lights” boat tour and while I had a great time, I can say two things: (1) You couldn’t really see that much of the festival of lights from a boat on the river; and (2) I’m in no rush to take another boat tour. Of anywhere. Except, perhaps, the Staten Island Ferry.
  • Although I have plenty of life left in my current gym shoes, I’ve decided I want some additional back-up pairs that I can keep in storage. Surprisingly, the style I like is no longer offered on the American FiveFingers website, so I was forced to order them from the European website. More expensive than I planned, but I really like the shoes, so it’s worth it. Even better is the fact that I won’t need to buy shoes for the gym until 2016.
  • Haircuts rock.
  • As I noted on Twitter a brief while back, I finally worked up the nerve to tell my gym’s Chatterbox Chuck to STFU in the sauna – perhaps not in those words since I had to do it in German. I’m proud of the fact that I finally built up the courage to do it – and judging from the behavior of others, I suspect that the Chatterbox Chuck may start hearing it from others. I saw him, essentially, chase somebody else out of the sauna yesterday. I’d already left, so there was no need for me to remind him of my desire for silence.
  • I foresee two more trips to Ikea in the near future, maybe, depending on my nerves, this Saturday. I need a few small things that I want to take care of in the next week. Then, after my new sofa is delivered and other large pieces of furniture are moved around, I will need to return for whatever it is I will notice that I had forgotten on previous trips. How’s that for pre-planning?
  • My TV series of this winter is going to be Breaking Bad.

2 comments to Random Musings for the week…

  • 1. Debt. I’m flabbergasted that person said that. The best way to ensure your financial well-being is to not get into debt in the first place. There are good and bad debt, the only good debt is that which returns more money to you than the debt is costing you.

    2. No Comment.

    3. I still consider some of the best tourist money I ever spent the water taxi ride you and I took from Greenwich to the parliament in London back in 2003 (gosh, has it really been that long ago?).

    4. I shall call you Imelda because of your shoe collection.

    5. I agree.

    6. I have a nursing equivalent to your gym chatterbox. I’m fighting the urge to tell them what I really think, though they are about 3/4 of the way to jumping on my “last nerve’ with it.

    7. You can never truly figure out what your new place needs until the major furniture is in. The extra trips to IKEA do not surprise me. I did find a nice “floating” wall cabinet there but unfortunately it is too big for the space I want to put it. I’ll have to see if they have a smaller version.

    8. Let me know how Breaking Bad works out for you. I’ve got a few things in my instant view queue at the moment that I have to get through first, but I’ve heard from others they like Breaking Bad, so it may have to find its way to my viewing queue.

    Happy Saturday to you!

  • 1. It was 1999. The spouse was young.

    2. Good.

    3. That was fun, but I have no urge to do it again.

    4. I’m an amateur shoe collector. Very amateur.

    5. A few more weeks to go.

    6. I’ve avoided the gym chatterbox chuck for a week now…

    7. One more trip. Future furniture will not be flat pack…

    8. Breaking Bad’s first season was fantastic.