There are Advantages to "Losing"

Megamind is one of Stephanie's and my new favorite movies. It's a funny, animated, superhero/supervillain story about, well, it's sort of hard to explain without either a) giving a really vague overview, or b) spoiling the whole plot. Anyway, suffice it to say that it's entertaining and fairly wholesome (watch me look back at this when we have kids and wonder what I was thinking...), a rarity for the current glut of cinematic productions.

Stephanie and I "lost" a few times tonight--we went hunting for a newly published geocache nearby in an attempt to get the "FTF" (first to find) designation, but were thwarted by waning daylight and a creek swollen with the runoff of the last few days' rainfall. We went looking for another one that only had one find on it, but after having our GPSr (the "r" is for "receiver") say we were exactly on top of the logged coordinates and looking for quite a while, we again came up empty handed. We decided to try for one more before calling it a night, but the location was far to busy to make an inconspicuous search, so we gave up for the evening and came home to yummy pasta. We're going to head out first thing in the morning to give it another go; hopefully we'll have more light and less water to work with!

Independence Day Weekend

PwC gave us July 1 off this year, resulting in a four-day weekend to kick off the month of July! One-and-a-half days are already behind us, in which we got the yard mowed, took Samwise (the latest feline addition to the fam) to the vet for his first shots, lunched with Andrea at Porky's, fitted my suit for Ben's wedding, dined with Keri at Olive Garden (and explored 2nd & Charles, a huge discount bookstore), and desserted (not to be confused with deserted) with Rob & Amy at Bruster's. We didn't get back home from our afternoon's explorations until 10:30 or so, and then we finally got in bed around 11:30--not super late, but when combined with the activities and totally abnormal sleep schedules of the last few weeks and a lack of alarms being set, we were out pretty solidly until 10 o'clock this morning, which is the latest we've slept in months.

Having a four-day holiday weekend is simultaneously a boon and a bane: a boon because it grants "extra" time to tie up loose ends and work on projects that have been neglected, time to do things out and about on a weekday that would normally find me at work, and so on; a bane because it can magnify fatigue--with nowhere to be at a certain time of the day, even our aspirations for the days struggle against our bodies' message of "I'm worn out! I need some time to recover!" So here, two and a half hours into the waking hours of our second day of the weekend, we've been up, taken care of the kitties' needs, breakfasted (Stephanie baked some tasty apple walnut muffins and bread on Thursday which we enjoyed this morning), straightened up a few things around the house, fought with the wireless for a while, and I shaved.

The latter may not sound like a big deal, but this is the first time I've shaved (less one trim of my neck and cheeks over a month ago) since the first couple days of April. I purchased a safety razor, shaving brush and soap off Amazon at the end of March, and my order arrived somewhere around April Fool's day. Up until that point, my experience with shaving was limited to electric razors and trimmers, so using a manual shaver was going to be a completely new undertaking. I had learned of the existence of safety razors from an article on Art of Manliness, and since my acute dislike for shaving--though multifaceted--was largely because of the way electric shavers tore up my face and neck, I decided to try this "throwback" method, since one of the claimed benefits was less razor burn because of the fewer blades (one) being used versus modern four- and five-blade razors and the numerous blades used in an electric shaver. Anyway, to make a longish story shorter, I shaved twice with the razor and was quite pleased with the results--especially since it was my first time with anything besides electric. But then I just got lazy again and stopped--for three months. Well, I finally decided that I was getting rather too bushy, and I wanted to use my razor more than twice every few months, so this morning I pulled out my beard trimmer (actually I pulled it out a couple days ago to make sure it was charged up enough to tackle my face jungle), and began methodically reducing my facial hair.

I like taking self-portraits as I shave off my beard; I do it most every time I shave, so there are certainly some repeated styles over time, but it's nonetheless a fun part of the initial trimming stage. So now, as I sit here typing, my face is nearly bare--I used the longest short guard to get everything evened up to a long stubble all over, and tomorrow I'll pull out one of my safety razors (I purchased a vintage Gillette at What's on 2nd? in downtown Birmingham two weeks ago and cleaned it up) and finalize the clean shave. From there, I hope to stay clean clean shaven for at least the rest of the summer. That will be the longest I've ever shaved consistently, so it's going to be pretty different for me. In a way, though, I'm looking forward to it since it will be something different, and we'll see how long I stick with it.

I'm Back!

Sometimes I don't know when to quit (see three consecutive verbose postings about a "last"). Sometimes I quit all too well (see a one year, almost-two-month hiatus from posting altogether).

Now I'm back, at least for the time being. Events in the last year of my life have nearly taken me "there and back again"--from Tuscaloosa to Huntsville to Birmingham, AL. I left my internship for a job and then left that job to take a full-time position back with PwC. My wife and I moved from a "regular" apartment, to an apartment in the in-law's basement, to a house we purchased in March. We found two tiny white kittens, brought them to Huntsville and watched them grow up, moved to Birmingham, took in a stray mother kitty and took care of her and her litter of four kittens (born on my birthday!) for about two and a half months now.

I learned about internal/cost accounting in a real-world, on-the-job situation. I kayaked for the first and second time ever--first 9 miles with my youngest brother, and then approximately 20 miles with one of my best friends (we missed our rendezvous location by several miles and were completely oblivious of it!). I learned how to lay tile. I learned how to drive a "three on the tree" 1970 Chevy pickup. I bought my second car ever (another Volvo of course). My dad got remarried and I was at the wedding up in PA. I found/was directed to an excellent, non-chain coffee place (Angel's Island Coffee in South Huntsville--if you're ever in the area, definitely swing by), which sadly became a moot point when we moved again (for the fifth time in three years!). I built a snowman in Alabama (snow fell in significant amounts on at least three different occasions this past winter). My wife and I bought our first house. My family visited for a week (my second brother for two weeks) earlier this month. I've gotten involved on Art of Manliness, LinkedIn, Yelp and GasBuddy.com (professional networking, reviewing local businesses and tracking gas prices as a local price spotter). I've discovered geocaching, and I actually found my first cache today.

And those are just some of the high points of the last year. Lots of other interesting and fun experiences were sprinkled throughout. I've missed blogging during my absence, but I still like the idea of sharing my thoughts and ideas, so I've returned to give it another go.