A flash back giggle

I was just thinking about how funny it was when the Pets.com Puppet (whom I loved and miss) was put on auto loan commercials. I mean, it was like he went to his agent and said, 'I got fired from Pets.com, please find me some new work.' Ahhh... that just cracks me up.

My Intervention Fix

It's like a drug, that Intervention show. Do you see the irony? It sucks you in and next thing you know, you're addicted. 10 oclock on Sunday.. you obsess.. The anticipation makes you sick. Wonder why you can't have it more often. You cry when they cry... yearn when they yearn. Sit on the edge of your seat when the intervention begins and hope to goodness that they say yes to get help today. Then, you can't even sit easy until you see the end to make sure they didn't relapse. Shame on you cynics for thinking it's contrived. I feel the rawness in my gut. I need an intervention for my addiction to Intervention.

Happy Birthday, Dad.

You would have been 63 today.

Webster, Where the Sushi is NOT worth getting

Monday night Rich and I decided to try the new local sushi place. I know I know, my brother would say that due to the lack of proximity to ocean water, it is impossible for the 'Cha to have suitable sushi, but he's really wrong. There are two good places downtown.. However, the proximity to our abode leaves it as a rare treat.

We live in Webster, a suburb complete with the motto "Where Life Is Worth Living", I kid you not. Don't make me get you a reference. We used to literally have to drive 20 minutes to get anywhere.. mall, good restaurants, my job, any normal nail place, etc... However, due to the odd surge in Websterians, the place is literally exploding with new McMansions, good shopping, and apparently ethnic restaurants.

Rich sent me the link from the local newspaper with the review of the new Webster sushi place and we were both excited. We decided to go that night before I got my hair and makeup done and slipped into my Elie Saab gown to watch the Golden Globes. (That's an ode to my mom. We used to call eachother before award shows and say things like, "I cant talk, the makeup lady's here.. or I'm wearing Valentino, how about you?")

So back to the subject of bad sushi... we ordered and spent the waiting time discussing how this would be our new regular weekly jaunt, sipping on a terribly flat diet soda.

And then the food came and disappointment cometh.

Dirty restaurant. Mediocre food. Annoying waitress. Bad Service. I was not at all impressed and even Rich who is less.. let's say... particular (code for opinionated) said it was mediocre.

The food critic for the 'Cha local paper has the worst taste in the entire universe. I kid you not she has never recommended a restaurant that I end up liking. As obsessed as I am with reviews (Rich mocks me by asking the People Magazine rating when I mention being interested in seeing a movie. And I refused to see anything less than two stars from Ebert. Why waste my time?), I will only go try restaurants that have a bad review from the 'Cha paper going forward.

To make the night even more disappointing, we got home and lost power for over two hours. Thankfully, my amazing husband ran out to get gas and revved up the generator in two seconds flat and the first thing I plugged in was the tv (screw the filled up sump pump and ever-warming fridge.. there were dresses to judge.) Rich finally got to sit down and join me after running around with extension cords getting ready to rewire the entire house. He pretended to be tortured and to want to change the channel to the hockey game, but each time a speech ran long he'd say, "Next set of breasts, please." So cute, my hubby. It ended up being a normal night... power went back on somewhere around Ugly Betty's win.

Not even bad sushi and a power outage could sour a night at the Globes....

Retirement: Cow Tipping and Bingo playing in the Sun

I went to see a Financial manager the other day because as obsessed as I am with the growth in my net worth, I am sick of managing my own finances and feeling like I need to keep up with the Morningstar Ratings of all the funds in my portfolio. Who has time for this crap? I want to pay someone to make me the monies. Rich is indifferent on the subject, but I know in the back of his head, he will be glad when I stop saying things like, "we're up 3% in the past six weeks" and other weekly outbursts when he is trying to watch his football.

I am right now in the interview stage, but the first woman I saw was quite impressive and seemed to be very goal oriented. She made me start thinking about things such as whether I would pay for college for my future children and would that include any schools or just state schools? When I told her that I would pay for Harvard if they get in, she did some quick calculations and estimated that two kids at Harvard starting in 20 years would set us back a total of $1.16 million for the four years. Holy mother of God.

Then we started talking about retirement. What 35 year old thinks much about retirement? So of course I came home and Rich and I mapped out our retirement plan, which includes living in Vermont for the summer and Florida (or some other warm place) for the winter. (Rich would be the king at one of those retirement communities... We call him the mayor of our neighborhood. He knows everyone, their pets, their life stories, the names of the plants in their yard, etc...) Rich wants to retire next year, but I dissuaded him. We do plan to retire early though. We plan to travel as much as humanly possible before athritis kicks in and my lack of calcium has me hunched over like the old creepy neighbor, Herbert, on the Family Guy.



I am shocked at how much we will have to save in order to live comfortably when we stop working. Millions of dollars. I come from a family where my father made me max out my 401k from the second I started working. Much of that stemmed from the fact that by the time I graduated high school, both my parents were not healthy and living off of disability. Had my father not saved 10% of every paycheck while he WAS working, the Kudesh family would have been in big trouble.

On the flip side of that is that I wish my parents knew they were not long for this world so that they could have spent the rest of their hard earned money.. traveled to more places, bought a second home, etc... Not like they lived poorly because they didnt at all.. I just wish they would have splurged at the end.

Oh well, at least I dont have to save for Parker and Murphy's college education.

A pre-Birthday Quote

"35 is not a Milestone, it's just the average between 30 and 40" - my friend Mike, 48.