For me, the whole point of budgeting is to minimize expenses on boring stuff like groceries and laundry soap so that I can spend my dollars on fun stuff like booze and important stuff like an adequate savings account.
Tooth and Nail Manor – Dirty Carpet Edition
I adore my funny little house, but living in Tooth and Nail Manor with adorable animals and abundant lushes, keeping the living room carpet clean has been an effort in futility. Smelly, expensive, labor-intensive futility. Read more
Ginnels, Voyeurs and Squeegees
I live on the East Side of Detroit, where the coney dogs all have extra mustard and the houses are way too close together. Read more
Michelle’s Quarterly Review: Summer 2012
Summertime! Iced tea, cold beer, parades, festivals, heat waves, hot dogs, barbecues, dresses, sandals, bike riding, hooray! My Quarterly Review is a few weeks overdue, not due to procrastination, but due to a longer than usual period of reflection. It’s been a weird couple of months.
A Week Turned Into A Month!
Wibbly wobbly timey wimey, where did May go? Oh yeah. Listen, I’m as shocked as you are that I’m about to say this, but the weather has been way too nice to be inside on the computer. I’ve been taking advantage of every second of Michigan’s glorious, unseasonably warm spring. I’m not even going to apologize for my long delay, instead I offer this picture of my dog, because you can’t be mad when she’s making this face.
My dog is a forlorn muppet, your argument is invalid.
Shameless, ain’t I? Anyway, here are some of the things I’ve been up to:
Work, work and work.
My schedule has equalized slightly this month, but it’s still more than the usual corporate chaos. I’m looking forward to getting back on nights in the fall. Until then, I continue to experiment with how many toys I can fit on my desk before people stop taking me seriously.
Which should have been a long time ago, folks.
Bicycling!
I sprained my knee in the fall (not bicycling – it was far less cool) and had to put a moratorium on bicycling all fall and winter. I’m officially back in the saddle, and celebrated by riding my bike to the liquor store, naturally.
Guess how many bottles of vodka I can fit in my baskets? Hint: more than two.
Yarnin’
I’ve done a little bit of knitting and crocheting over the last month and I’m pleased to announce I should have a new free pattern available next month. It’s going to be a companion of sorts to the St. Patrick’s Day Bottle Carrier. It’ll probably be knit, but that’s subject to change. In the mean time, guess what happens when you get your hand-knit shawl stuck in the buckle of your sandal because you we’re sitting like a monkey? You pull about a yard of yarn out.
I learned some new swear words fixing it.
That about covers it. I just realized that this post makes me come off as Über-Girly. Does it help that Tony and I have been playing Diablo? Didn’t think so.
Speaking of Tony, we’ll be back to semi-regular posting in the near future, and we may even see a bit of Ariel as her schooling winds down. Cheers!
Michelle 2012
See you next week!
Hi! If you saw Ariel’s post last week, she’s taking some time off for school. Tony and I are taking some time off this week to celebrate with her. By celebrate I mean drink. But you knew that. Tony and I will be back soon to entertain you with more delicious talk about cocktails, budgets, finances, recipes, tutorials, goals and cocktails. In the mean time, I leave you with this dramatic interpretation of what is happening at my house tonight:
I'm the red one.
Michelle 2012
A Quick Announcement
It took me three and a half decades and a full year of unemployment to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. Well, not exactly what I want to be as much as what I need from a job. I finally worked it out, and now that the hard part is done, I am going to spend some time focusing on my education and training. I won’t be writing my weekly posts for Abundantly Lush anymore. I’ll still come around for cocktails.
Thanks to Mic and Tony for such a sweet opp.
Ariel 2012
Another Glass of Wine, Please
Terrasini, Sicilia, Italia
After finishing the Abundantly Lush Quarterly Review a couple weeks ago and discussing the potential of more travel in the nearish future and drinking large quantities of wine, I began reminiscing about my most recent trip out of the country. I miss Sicily. It’s beautiful in all ways. The scenery is breathtaking. It’s somewhat similar to coastal northern California, as both have similar climates, but add in the innumerable castles, greek ruins, and hot, olive-skinned Italians everywhere and it becomes another planet altogether. The language is like honey for my ears. Except that honey would clog up the canals and I’d be less likely to hear anything at all, so really it’s like some other sweet liquid that’s not so viscous for my ears. And the food, my gods, the food. There’s seafood for days! Months, even. I fondly recall the lovely platter covered with a cooked squid, whole, eyes and all, coming to the table. So good! And the pasta tossed in squid ink, black as night. Fantastic! But, the wine. That was by far my favorite part of the trip. At dinner the first evening, we ordered a bottle of a local variety that’s grown only in Sicily, Nero d’Avola, and it instantly became a favorite.
Now that I’ve been back in the States for a good six or seven months, I’ve managed to try like four or five different Nero d’Avolas, all of which were good. And most of which are in the $10 to $13 and less range. Get your frugal on and taste you some yummy wine! Read more
Five Posts to Inspire You
The last few weeks I’ve been reflecting on how different my outlook is on my finances, compared to what it was five years ago. I’ve really come a long way when it comes to budgeting and saving. As I looked through old bookmarks, I came across some great links that I think will help you if you’re new to frugal finances, because they definitely helped me. So here are five posts, some old, some new, that have made an impact on my finances: Read more
I Got Nothin’
Hello! I have been remiss in my duties. I have failed you, I have let you down. In other words, I don’t have anything to write about this week. In order to keep you interested and busy and never, ever bored, I instead offer you a gift.
It's not a lemur, although wikimedia commons is another fun place to get lost.
Without further ado, here are my favorite places to waste time online: Read more
