Category
Life
Things I do, things I think, etc...
Anything that doesn't fit the other categories usually gets thrown in here.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
New Apartment!
Well as mentioned earlier, in the beginning of the month Alison and I moved to our new apartment in Euless, Tx. The reason for our move was to both lower costs and increase quality of life. Since Alison transferred to the Grand Hyatt at the airport, we both were commuting to pretty much the same area and the 25-35 min commute really takes it out of you when you have to do it every day. At our new place we pay about 200/month less and there are many other savings that go along with living much closer to the airport. For example, less time commuting is less fuel and maintenance costs. Since my car isn’t dodging idiots on the highways anymore, I altered my insurance and save $400 a year. We pay less for electricity here, canceled our cable, and downgraded our internet to a $20 a month plan :-\ So while it did cost a little bit to move, we will break even in about 6 months and we actually are finding that we like the new apartment more than the old one in many ways. The new apt. is on the third floor so no more banging on the ceilings from people above us (used to make everything in the old place shake when they were home), has high ceilings, a much bigger kitchen, and about 175 sq. feet more area. Airplane noise is there but you don’t notice it after a while. Car alarms seem to be the biggest noise issue, when the neighbors aren’t fighting…
Anyways, on with the pics, right?!
| Standing at the doorway | Living room from behind |
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| Bookcase and aviation shrine | Our bigger and better kitchen |
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| My Desk | Alison’s Desk |
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| Bedroom and porch | Quick pic taken when we first got the keys |
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In other news, Eagle just put 75 pilots on the street so my sense of foreboding is keen, Adam :D
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Moving Soon!
Since Alison took the new job at the DFW Grand Hyatt at the airport, it doesn’t make a lot of sense for us to stay in our current apartment. It’s about 25 min away from the airport in good conditions, and if there is any kind of traffic it can easily take over an hour. To get to work we often have to leave way before work starts, and it’s expensive to commute. We have been looking at new apartments closer to the airport, and found one called Norstar at Bear Creek. It’s a nice area with a lot of apartments, and a little cheaper than what we are paying now. It’s right next to the Bear Creek parks, so we can take our bikes out often, and close enough to the airport that we don’t have to take any highways. It’s a nice place on the third floor and in the corner of the building so it should be quiet too. We’re pretty excited about moving although it’s a pretty busy time for us with my training so moving is a little stressful. Right after my airplane training I should have a good chance to move everything to the new place and it should work out nicely.
New Location:
Monday, January 05, 2009
School House Rock
happy new year if you’re not chinese
Well for the first time since mid October, I have to go to work today.
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Monday, December 29, 2008
Christmas 08
I’m mad because I already had this post typed out and firefox ate it. I guess I didn’t quite have the text box highlighted and I hit backspace which killed the lengthy post. Anyways, Christmas was good this year. I spent it in Dallas with Alison, and my mom and Tim flew down on the 23rd. It was a good year for giving gifts that people didn’t expect. I didn’t ask anyone what they wanted for christmas and did a good job I think. I got Alison a bluetooth mighty mouse for her iMac, and a music stand she had mentioned she needed. I like to listen to her play her flute and anything I can do to get her to play more is good. 
For my dad, I got him a digital picture frame since he likes electronic toys to play with. My mom was happy with her gift; a USB phonograph that she can use to convert her old vinyl records to mp3 and burn them on CD or put on her ipod. She was very happy with it. I stumbled across it at Macy’s while Alison shopped for something else. Probably would have never thought of it had I done all my shopping online (*nudge rick*). And for Tim, I got him a Fry’s gift card to force him out of my computer room and away from world of warcraft and come hang out with me for the day.
It was a very big year for me in terms of my video and games collection… I got the Die Hard trilogy, Austin Powers Spy who shagged me, Bladerunner, Blades of glory, Star trek 3, Tommy Boy, When we left earth on blurray, and Mirrors Edge and Lego Batman for the PS3. I also got a charging station for my ps3 controllers, a digital pic frame of my own, a Logitech G5 mouse, and a nice watch.
It was nice having them over for the week. It was the first time my mom’s been to Dallas. We went to the JFK museum, and had an okay time braving crowds for shopping. Alison and my mom and even me (but mostly alison) made a great turkey dinner and cookies and pies and we’ll be eating well for a while. I’m glad they came over. Looking forward to starting ATR training on the 5th of January.
Monday, November 17, 2008
LA Trip
Lately I've been going to Los Angeles for work, but recently Alison and I decided to go for fun and to visit my grandma on the 11th-14th. We took advantage of benefits from both our jobs, tried to keep the cost down, and still have a lot of fun.If you have benefits, use them! It's part of your salary and if you are not using them it's almost as if you're agreeing to work for them for less. We started our trip using my travel benefits, of course. Alison and I can travel together almost anywhere in the world for almost free. Starting 2009 I can get other people reduced fares but you will have to travel low-priority standby. Anyways we were lucky enough to score two first class tickets for the 3 hour flight to LAX. This was the first time I had ever gone first class, and it was quite impressive! The seats were very comfortable and reclined fully. We had breakfast served, drinks served in an actual glass, pillows, blankets, great service, etc.. It was amazing. I felt very out of place as the only one there without a Wall Street Journal newspaper.
Once we got to LA, it was Alison's turn. She works here in Dallas at the Hyatt Regency as a cook if you didn't know. She booked the Hyatt Century Plaza using her benefits, and they bumped us up to....the penthouse floor! They were so nice and courteous there, I couldn't believe it. I go to a lot of hotels when flying and this was a super nice place. They gave us free room and 50% off the restaurant. So we enjoyed a very nice fillet dinner there. We are trying to save money for a sofa bed in the living room, but it's been a while since we dressed up and went to a fancy restaurant. And for 50% off you just can't beat it.
The free hotel was great, but it wasn't terribly close to Arcadia, CA; an LA suburb. So we had to take a bus to go to the metro station and ride to the end of the line where we could get picked up by my grandma. All in all the trip to Arcadia took about 2 hours each way. It was great to see my grandma and I know she can't drive all the way out to where we were staying, but 4 hours commuting a day really took it out on us. We tried to take a taxi instead of the bus one way, but it didn't save more than 10 min and cost us three times as much to get there (then having to pay metro fare anyways for the train).
The day before we left, the 13th we had to ourselves. We contemplated going to disneyland and universal studios but they are soo expensive. We ended up sightseeing and visiting a cool farmer's market with some really great food. We got cheesecake and eclairs for treats and it was awesome to have something more homemade and not mass produced. Walked around downtown after that, and we visited Hollywood too. It is not the glamorous place it seems. We spent the last evening in Santa Monica at the beach watching the sunset and just being together. It was the best part of the trip for me.
When travelling standby you need to give yourself as many chances to get home as possible, since you only get a seat if there are any left over. So we got to LAX for the first flight out, at 6:00am. Luckily for us we got on the plane, even first class again for the flight home! Now I'm going to be spoiled forever... All in all, a great time.
