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You did not see the previous posts which did not, in fact, exist.  If you did see them, even though they do not exist, keep your trap shut about it until further notice.

The news blackout has been lifted.  We apologize for the (entirely necessary) inconvenience and thank several of you for your cooperation.  Lia was having a very stressful week on top of the whole getting-into-a-relationship thing, so to help keep stress from killing her we’ve been parceling out the news bit by bit to those closest to us.  I was, you know, just a tiny smidge excited about the whole thing and jumped the gun a bit.

Anyway, that’s more or less worked through so on to the loud and obnoxious rejoicing!

-The management.

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

Point of fact: every significant relationship I’ve had has necessitated a major change to my phone plan.  The last one made me change to a plan that provided more than 300 minutes per month.  This one – clearly a sign of the changing times – means I need a weapons-grade text messaging plan.

The pre-paid idea worked fine as long as I didn’t text, but when one received and one sent message hits me for $0.15 each time, a conversation starts getting visibly expensive.

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Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

This is Lia Slone.

Late Saturday night I asked her if I may court her.

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Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

Normally I’m not the kind of person to link to YouTube, but it’s clear that this cop’s mustache is an legendary item that grants him an impressive +5 stoicism.  I mean, as Will Smith would say: damn.  No way could I continue about my business in the face of that.

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

2.5 weeks in and I have what would easily be considered “beard” by those who are qualified to judge such things. Shame it’s going to be gone again in another week and a half. Shame that I’m going to wish it was gone this weekend when I have a pressing need to look presentable and/or dapper.

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

The TSA confiscated my deodorant.

What I’m learning from the TSA is that you can tell a terrorist by his impeccable hygiene. Clearly this is all a plot by the French.

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

Oh, man – this is better than watching pro wrestling!

I have to admit – I think they’re all weasels who are price-gouging the bejeezus out of their customers, but this is just hilarious to watch.  Like a hockey game that the Avs aren’t involved in, I really don’t care who wins – I’m just watching for the blood.

Sprint’s sitting back quietly trolling the waters with their own deals and T-Mobile’s just staying out of the whole thing at the moment.  Data and messaging need to drop about another $10/month each and I might consider jumping back into the wireless game (as soon as somebody ships an Android phone that gets more than a day of life out of the battery…).

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

I did my 3rd straight-razor shave this morning and I must say that I’ve gotten a lot better at it. No blood, no slits, no burn and a whole lot closer than the previous two.

I’m still having issues on the back-hand stroke for the with-the-grain pass on my right (dominant-hand) underthroat area – I haven’t learned the right motion to get that area just so.

I’ve upped the water content in my lather and that’s helped out. It’s a sloppier lather, but it keeps the moisture where it needs to be and I it’s not like toweling off my chest is a major hassle or anything.

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

I got arrested today.

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Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

I’m trying to get all budgety this quarter.  I’ve never been extremely good at them because I’ve never really had the need – with the exception of some unemployed time, the answer to “how much money do you have” was “enough”.

Since I’m a Mac owner now, the selection of personal finance tools is kind of slim, so I decided to try Mint.com, an online finance package.  Unfortunately, Mint and my primary financial institution – Edward Jones – do not get along at all.

1. Minor problem: My EJ account has 4 sub-components to it, all of which get brought in under “Investments” by Mint, even the money-market with check-writing, debit card and electronic bill-pay from which I do 98% of all my money moving.  That I can probably live with, but…
2. All of my paychecks show up as $0.00 “uncategorized” transactions for a number of shares equal to the amount of the check.  It’s really hard to do finance work when you’ve got nothing but $0.00 income items.  Can’t edit the share price, either.
3. It’s even harder to do finance when all of your electronic bill-pay elements show up as CREDITS.
4. …as well as your automatic transfers to your IRA.  Yeah, a credit in the money market and a credit in the IRA is kind of neat in a money-printing kind of way, but again: not helpful.

So that’s pretty much put the kibosh on me using Mint.com unless they get that fixed, but I’m not holding my breath.  Googling “mint edward jones” brings up a bunch of threads in Mint’s support forum that have these exact same problems and are nearly a year old.

To try and be positive, Mint did connect to all of my other accounts without a lot of hassle (except for one credit card at 1st Bank…) so that’s in its favor.

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

I’ve been feeling a little stressed this past week.  By “a little stressed” I actually mean “bordering on a psychotic episode”.  I am completely looking forward to my apheresis appointment on Thursday because afterward I’ll be a cheap enough date that I’ll be able to remove myself from the cares o the world for a night with very little effort.

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

I survived my first ever straight-razor shave. No cuts, no blood. Not the smoothest shave, but technique plays a major part in the process. I imagine that cheeks will be a bit easier than trying to work the odd angles under a chin.

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

…on my leg.

When you’ve got a brand-new straight razor sitting in the bathroom and your face is occupied with accumulating hair, what’s a guy to do but test out the razor on his legs?

Verdict: very sharp.  And the skin on my legs is very dry.

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

I held out for a long time, but I’ve finally become an actual fan of electronic bill-pay through my financial institution.  It does, in fact, make things easier and more convenient as long as I just log in and enter the bill as soon as it shows up in the mail.

I wish, though, that I had more fixed-rate bills that I could just auto-schedule.  Right now the only thing that’s a reliable fixed-cost is my HOA dues and I scheduled it to automagically cut the check every month so I don’t have to worry about it.  It’d be really nice to automate a few more of those…

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

They make everything better.

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

…and lo, the river Monday didst overflow its banks and continue right on into the lush Tuesday valley.

Bright spots: the gun shop in town got in a pistol I’ve been waiting to try out, so that’s Friday’s plan. Also, I got to exchange one large worry for a much smaller one this afternoon.

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

Boy, is it a Monday.

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

The First Annual No-Shave-November Charity Beard-a-thon For the Ladies starts in two short days.

…and I just put in an order for my very first straight razor.

What lousy timing. Oh, well – at least there’s a “no neckbeards” rule so I’ll have something that I can work on…

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

The Law: Whenever a failing device is being properly observed so as to document, analyze and correct the failure, the failing device will – without fail – fail to fail.

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

I wuvs oo so very much, but I need to you know that I am making chili of such nut-job potency that I fully expect you just to melt out of my way as I approach, much like the Red Sea was once fond of doing for passing Israelites.

Hugs,
-phil

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.