Pictures of Madison Grace Peanutbutter Johnson! She is so cute!
I just created a web page (nothing fancy) about songs that should not be played at weddings. I am open to any new suggestions. Just let me know.
Well, I guess spring will come early to Wisconsin. How early, I don't know. In Wisconsin they have Jimmy the Groundhog in Sun Prairie and he saw his shadow.
Check out the history page. I am trying to firm that up.
Well, here is the new year. I thought that since I had the webpage editor up, I might as well write a new entry. I was thinking how do I do the rss thing so people can check this automatically, but I really don't want to learn about it, so I think I shall continue to do this by hand. We will see.
As I wrote in August, we were working to get out of debt. I would like to say that we are early, and we are out of debt as of Dec 28th. It feels awsome!
I am using good old pico to edit this page today. Nice to know that all of my unix skills are not totally lost. Jennifer and I found the outdoor set we wanted today. It was awsome. Teak. Very nice. We will wait until we are 100% out of debt. I guess it would be good to proclaim the date to be out of debt here so that we are more motivated. The date will be Feb 1st, 2005. We could do it sooner, but this is a much more sane approcah. It will be nice to be out of debt and it is long time coming. I hope we can make our cars last and pay cash for the next one, but I am not sure that will be possible. Work has been fun, and outside of has been fun. I have been working on a database for work a lot at home. It is nice to be learning a new skill. It has been coming along nicely.
On the finance side of things, not much has changed. We did pay off the credit line at our bank and then cancel it. It is much better to deal with one's own money and not the banks. Feels better. Off to Maine next week, that will be nice.
Tax day. My brother's Birthday. The day Lincoln was shot. The day the Titanic sank. Wow.
Our finance stuff is starting to wind down. Too bad there isn't more to do to get our house in order. It has all been very fun! I did a write up in my personal journal on our steps to date and will try to sanitize it for the web and post it up so others could see at least our approach.
Taking it easy today. Doing a big startup at work, so I have had to go in and out. We are setting up a 403b7 for Jennifer. That means we will have all of the tax deffered acount types. 401k, Roth IRA x2, and the 403b7. If only we could fully fund all of them. We will be able to do that eventually, but not now. The 403b for the Green Bay Area Public Schools was the hardest to setup. They seem to code it and design it so that people don't set them up.
I am not sure if I should move this to a blog type system. That would require effort.
Man, I hate waiting in air ports. It is hard enough to find traveling for work fun, but then to have a plane delayed from 10:06 to 11:10pm, that stinks. Geeze.
I have been stuck here in Seattle since Tuesday. Things did not work out and I have to fly out on Saturday. It sinks. You may say "yeah, but I didn't get to go to Seattle." I really would rather be back at home with Jennifer and Allie. It has been fun, but I want to be back home. I have been making a bunch of updates to the content to the website. Take a look arround.
Well, I am back, or at least a bit. All of our finance stuff is nearly in order. I was approved for life insurance and Jennifer is jsut about to be (waiting on some forms in the mail). Jennifer and I really enjoying getting things in order. I may be repeating what I have said in previous entries, but I am still excited about it.
Working more on the webpage. I don't know how long this will last. Again, part of it is that my PC is now setup the way I like it. I don't know how long this can last. I did find out that the source my my crasing is the duel monitor setup with my external monitor. Oh well. I would rather have stability.
Maybe I am sticking with this webpage update thing. Jennifer and I did some small shopping today. It was nice. We did buy a lot of groceries. We are paying for everything in cash. It is funny that we are both fully automated with no stamps, no checks, no cash, and then also cash for everything else. It really worked well for us this week. We had about $50 left over from our last weeks budget. This is the first week that we had a surplus. Our budget is really starting to work. It handles normal weeks, no as good with weeks when we travel.
It was a big week for auto pays. The green bay water utility and us celluar have auto payment options. The former I guess has had it for awhile but it is not on their webpage. The later just added the option. We are now 100% auto.
We have had issues with our Associated Bank eBill Pay. We had setup a reoccuring transaction, and then canceled it. It was still there. We get an error that it is not there when we go to cancel it again. Associated bank says it is on our end. We went as far as going to the library to try it on a different PC. It had the same error there. They claim they will have their techs look at it on monday. I don't belive them.
I am home alone this weekend! Jennifer went back to Illinois to be with her family and celibrate her sister's birthday. Since Allie nearly killed Jennifer's Grandmother from an allergery attack, I am back dog watching. I am really getting into internet radio and radio shows on the internet. It really is opening up a big part of NPR for me. I don't know why, but I have stayed clear of this technolgy in the past.
I have taken the time, for the first time since moving to WI, to set up my PCs in a very nice way. I really like how they are setup now. Fresh reinstalls, clear install of apps that are needed, and clean non-vendor XP editions. Nice.
My finincancel work is working out well. I have began to get everything in order. It will be very cool in about 1-2 months.We now have a roth ira, a money market account with a brokerage firm, and auto withdrawls left and right. Now onto the debt! I was just thinking as driving home today in the 323 that if the 323 can last another 4 years (one more year of loan and 3 years of no-loan), we could be a nice car without a loan. It is really 6 of 1 or 1/2 doz of the other payment wise, except that you get ahead of the eightball and can keep on paying cash for cars. It would also be a nice emergency fund.
I just updated and added to the website. I think I am on to somthing. :-)
Updated: March 15, 2005