Craigslist Cleanout

Jay cleaned out the garage some this weekend, and in there was an old Ikea dresser that he got before we were married. It's damaged and not really worth anything, and Jay just wanted to throw it out. He didn't even want to take it to Goodwill because he thought no one would want it. I convinced him that we should just put it on Craigslist for free so that we wouldn't even have to move it. He was resistant, but I insisted. And I'm not even kidding - I got 6 emails in 9 minutes! The dresser was gone within 3 hours of posting.

So then I got bold. Next, we posted this built-in thingy that was removed at some point from somewhere in our house and has been sitting in our garage since we moved into our house. We were totally going to trash it and I figured we'd throw it up there (for free) to see if we got any takers. Within 2 minutes, 2 emails. About 24 hours, gone!

After that one, Jay was ready to post all sorts of stuff and thought we should try for some $$. The thing with Craigslist, though, is people are looking for deals, especially if the deal is it's free. But good lesson learned - if you want to take something to Goodwill (or apparently to a dumpster) and it's semi difficult to get there, just put it on Craigslist!

My First Favorite Songs

How awesome is his hair? I remember one time when I was probably 5, I was mad at my dad for some reason so he put this song on because he knew I liked it, and it took all that was in me to not get up and dance around.

My parents bought me this tape at Hastings in Conroe.

I can remember listening to this in the car and making my dad rewind it repeatedly.

I never knew a Beetle sang this song!

(from 1987)

I can't believe this song came out 10 years ago...

Now that we are done with the first decade of the 2000s, the beginning of the 2000s is much farther away than it seems like they should be. Here are some other albums that came out in 2001 that make it feel like a long time ago:

• Weezer's green album
• Jimmy Eat World's Bleed American
• Destiny Child's Survivor
  
• even N'Sync (the album with that Dirty Pop song)! Who knew they even made it out of the 90s?!
  

Google 4eva

Did you know that the most visited website in 2010 was Facebook? And that "facebook" was the most searched term, followed by "facebook login."

Google came in second. This is absolutely mind-boggling to me as one of Google's most dedicated customers (and yes I know I'm not actually paying for anything...but I am loyal). Do you know how many times a day I google "excel how to..."? Today, Google taught me about indirect cell referencing in Excel, explained that honey doesn't go bad, showed me how to get to a wedding cake tasting place (more fun when you're not the bride I think), helped me find a conversion chart for yards of trash into tons... I mean, what did Facebook ever do for me?!

Goal #6: Read More

Last week I sent a list of goals I have to Jay.

Sidenote: Although this is happening at the beginning of the year, I wasn't really inspired by the idea of New Year's Resolutions...I was inspired by a friend who was in town for Christmas and we met up with who is always trying out new things. For instance, this year she wanted to try some tap-dancing classes and is doing a series of paintings. Last year, her husband got her an accordion, so she learned how to play it. I figured if I didn't really think about what I would like to try out in life besides go to work everyday I might not ever do anything else.

Back to the main story. Goal #6 was "Read more." So now I'm a reader. And since I also decided that "you can't manage what you don't measure" (words of wisdom from a business school friend), I'm keeping track of what I read on Good Reads, which I actually joined probably a year ago and have never actually done anything with. So if you're on there, we can be friends.

I might try to set a goal like a book per month or something, but right now my only criteria is to not actually buy any books because of Goal #4, which was "Declutter our house and live more simply (ie buy less and buy more intentionally)." And since I don't think I've ever reread a book or see value in having most books after they are read, I with intentionally not buy any. Luckily I've already got about 5 or 6 lined up!

Pomplamoose

My mom asked me the other day who these people in this commercial were - she thought they looked like we should be friends with them. They are a band called Pomplamoose, and they are another good example of a band totally made by YouTube.

Here they are in action (for Jay):


And the girl is just amazing...and I've always loved this song:


I actually ran across them totally by accident when I was reading up on Ben Folds (did anyone see him on The Sing Off? - I just love him). They did this pretty cool collaboration with an author:

I just decided...

...that gift bags are cheating. Plus, you can regift them, which makes them that much less personal. And there is no challenge. For instance, I like to see if I can get 45 degree angles on all my corner folds. My brother-in-law likes to see how few pieces of tape he can use when wrapping.