The My Day In Pictures articles are to keep friends and family updated on what is going on with my life. It was instituted at the request and for the benefit of one of my favorite people in the world, one of my aunts who is a retired telephone operator and lives a few hours away from me.
A few minutes after midnight, my entire family and their respective spouses, minus one of my sisters, met at a local movie theater to see the premier of Man of Steel, the new Superman movie. When it was over, we went home to take a shower, change into something comfortable for travel, and head to the…
The first dividend from United Technologies came in today. Actually, it was deposited two days ago, but I forgot to note it when I checked the accounts. I told you when I added the position to the KRIP portfolio, and then later answered questions about the valuation of the stock. It is such a small…
We took my sister-in-law to downtown Kansas City today to meet my brother-in-law on his last day at work. For the past few years, he was involved in the account records department at State Street, the global financial giant with $25 trillion in assets held in custody. I could be wrong, but I believe he…
They are growing! It’s working! The pink rose bush released a flush of roses today after only having one or two flowers, which I had cut for my desk. It’s gotten much bigger than it was only a week ago. I wasn’t sure if it would work in the spot because it isn’t getting as…
Yesterday was reasonably productive, but not in the things I needed to get done. I blame the rose project. My obsession has grown to the level of total infatuation. It’s a thing now; just like investing, cooking, writing, and music. At least it’s not a really expensive hobby like horse racing. To give you…
I found a replica Total SA oil truck for the collection, which I am planning on keeping in my home study for the new, personal energy portfolio I’ve setup for my family over the next 25+ years. It’s on its way from Germany. It is a 1:43 model, not the usual 1:64 model that is more popular in the United States, but that’s just a cultural difference.
The weather has finally turned nice in the Kansas City region so my day was spent in the landscaping section of several home improvement stores, picking up entire trees, flowers, garden supplies, and landscaping features. We ended up going everywhere from Lowe’s to local businesses to find what we wanted. I’m exhausted, and can hardly…
I am committed to this minimalism and de-cluttering project. Since beginning this change, it has been wonderfully freeing. If something hasn’t been used in the past twelve months, it is donated or discarded. Everything has a place and the systems at home were changed so that the basic act of living, going through the day, takes care of keeping everything maintained without any extra work. Now that this phase of the pantry is done, I am turning my attention to the library.
Several years ago, I told you one of my big strategies for achieving things was creating projects, giving them a code name, setting a deadline, and tracking them in Things task management software. At any given time, there are main projects that span several quarters, or in some cases, years, with several sub-projects underneath them.…
A few hours ago, I finished writing a piece about global investing through a Roth IRA, which was published to the About.com network. It got into some of the complexities of foreign investing, including the differences between share classes domiciled in various markets and currency translations. As I was thinking about whether there was anything…
