Doing a Duathlon

I've had a few fitness goals for this year:

• March: 5k run (completed in really awful weather)
• April: 62-mile bike ride in Salem (an hour south of Portland)
• May: 55-mile bike ride to the coast
• August: summit South Sister in the Bend area

I was supposed to do the 62-mile ride yesterday. It hasn't been a great training season so far - I haven't had a ton of motivation, and my training partner has really been off for a few years now, but hasn't fully admitted it. I think it's a combination of something medical going on, and also not being in the same place mentally she used to be. We've done some training together but everything is a struggle and she's exhausted after not a ton of effort - and I'm not motivated enough to do more on my own! 

So, she got a bad head cold before this event, and her longest ride for the season was only 25 miles (at which point she was exhausted). I'd ridden longer, a couple whopping 36-mile rides, but wasn't exactly chomping at the bit to do more. So when she got sick I was actually kind of glad - the weather was looking horrible anyway, and I didn't want to drive 2 hours and bike for 6 hours in crap weather... or at all, to be honest. 

BUT THEN I remembered that another friend was doing a duathlon this weekend! So I joined her. We had to run 5km, bike 15 miles, and run another 5km. I hadn't even been running in a couple of weeks and have been struggling with discomfort, so I wasn't sure how it was going to go at all! 

The weather was actually not bad at all, so that was the first good news. We got there early to set up our bikes and gear in the transition area - every athlete stages their biking shoes, helmet, gear near their bike so they can change from running mode to biking mode and then back again. Some people had their stuff in buckets which was pretty smart - gives them a place to sit to change their shoes! I just piled my stuff on the ground and then draped a trash bag around the shoes & helmet in case of rain. 

The first 5k went reasonably well - I ran (...trotted) the whole thing which was a pleasant surprise. I got to the bike and felt a little bit tired/unsteady, but once I was geared up and got to pedal, it felt nice to use my legs that way. It took me an hour to do the 15 miles, which is a pretty good pace for me! We had to go east, then west, then east again along a flat and open stretch of road, and the westward part had a fair bit of headwind, so it was nice to finish with the tailwind pushing me along. 

I got back to the transition area and hung up my bike...and couldn't believe I had to do MORE...putting on my shoes I was kind of in a daze and really not sure how I was going to do anything else. I knew there were only about 10-15 people behind me in the event, but at least I wasn't in last place! 

Somehow I managed to trot almost the whole first half of the final 5k, and on the turnaround I alternated walking and jogging as much as possible. I ran across the finish line and only got rained on a little bit! I knew that my friend was behind me so I hung out about ten minutes so I could see her cross the finish line and walk back to our gear together. 

I never ever ever would have expected to do a duathlon. I honestly don't know if I'd do it again, but at least I know (at the moment) that I can do it if I want to! Talk about unexpected places in life! 

Last day!

I've been at my current company for 8 years and 9 months. I've had several different positions there, and even made the switch to being a remote employee 2 1/2 years ago. So now that I'm wrapping it up, it's ending with a whimper instead of a bang.

My colleagues have had a LOT of changes over the last few years, including lots of departures. Typically everyone in the department goes out to a local bar for a send-off; I've felt sad I couldn't participate in those for the last couple of years I've been working from home. And today, there will be no send-off for me! I feel a little bummed and mostly pretty glad, because I would likely be a little emotional, and also because I feel a little guilty at being so happy to escape.

My new job starts Monday and I think it's going to kick my butt for quite a while. I'm nervous about it, but excited to work for a company that is SO highly rated by its employees.

It's weird to leave libraryland - I spent 4 years and 9 months in a public library, and now 8 years 9 months at a company that works with libraries, and that's 13 1/2 years in one world! But, it's not a surprise, either - when I started library school my plan was to focus on information architecture and knowledge management, and no one was as surprised as I was when I actually became a professional librarian for a while! Moving back to a purely software company job was pretty obviously going to happen at some point, and now that day has arrived.

I'll be sure to buy myself a beer this afternoon.

Tracking spending

It's time to start a new notebook for tracking my spending. That's right, I track what I spend. And yep, I do it old-school. In 2007 I bought a tiny, awesome notebook from my neighborhood stationery shop (remember those? the shop went out of business shortly thereafter after nearly 100 years in the same spot), and I resumed tracking my spending after several years' break. This time, the habit stuck!

I know I tracked my spending for a while in the late 90s or early 2000s, but I can't remember what I did with the information, and I don't think I did it very long. I know I was inspired after a bout of reading Your Money or Your Life (highly recommend) but I  don't know if I got much out of it.

Perhaps I was in a better place financially when I started tracking in 2007. I know I started it easy: in June, I tracked grocery spending only. In July I added restaurants. By September I was tracking all my spending, as far as I can tell, and even started sorting it into categories. The categories changed a bit over time: by the end of 2007 they were: groceries, eating/drinking out, coffee out, bills, entertainment, gifts, charity, travel, transportation, clothing, household, upkeep/health, misc. In the intervening years I've added hobby (typically cycling and knitting expenses go here), booze, and house. (Household expenses are things like a new spatula or set of sheets; house expenses are things like a ladder or the yard guy.)

It's fun to look back and remember - at the beginning of 2007 I was just under 20k in debt, including grad school, my small car loan, and a credit card. In July 2007 my notes show I had 70k saved for retirement - more than my salary, and not bad for 36, but not super amazing either. Thanks to the power of writing things down, I can figure out by what percentage I've increased my salary (thanks, Past Me who negotiated hard during one promotion!), by what percentage my retirement savings have gone up (thanks, markets and Continually Diligent Me!), and by what percentage my bills expenses have increased (okay... you can't win 'em all).

Anyway, those notebooks above represent seven years of data. I'd be really bummed if I lost one, but more importantly they represent a really great habit I've developed. Now I'm starting a new notebook and I think I'm going to adjust a little bit of the way I track things - large lump-sum expenses like for travel or furniture won't show up in the monthly figuring, just the annual, so my month-to-month spending can be a little bit more apples to apples. But I'm definitely busting out that book to keep up this routine!

p.s. I'm partial to using hard-to-find pocket-sized notebooks from Spain. Last time I bought three, and am opening the second. I'm kind of thinking about buying a few of the latest model to have as backup against the tragic day (...in six years...) when I log my last entry.

Catchup

If I don't do some kind of update, I'll never get back on the blogging wagon!

Hawaii was great fun - I went on two dive trips, for a total of four dives. One of the dives was advanced and we went down to 100 feet! I have to admit I freaked myself out a little bit at the depth, but once I calmed down and got my ears to clear it was fine. We explored a barge! And everyone could  hear whales singing! I confess I'm not sure *I* identified the whale song, but probably because I was borderline hyperventilating, I could barely focus on anything outside my body. All in all the dive experience was fun, and the next time I'm someplace tropical for a period of time I think I'll pay to take the advanced dive certification course.

The house is still standing, though the night I came back from vacation I had a dream that the oven caught fire, the fire department wouldn't come, then it spread to the attic, then the whole ceiling caved in from a deluge. So, I guess the reality is settling in a little bit - owning a house is all well and good but is a responsibility too! Also, there's the whole yard thing - at the moment my sister is doing the lion's share of work out there, but I keep thinking I shoulda got a condo. Oh well, I didn't, and I can handle this. I'm going to spend the next few years lessening the grass imprint and boosting the path/bed/ground cover/patio/deck elements. Or at least that's the plan. I DO talk a good game!

Spring has sprung and while it's not the glorious SUMMER that was in Hawaii, it's been pretty lovely this week. My garden is starting to grow, and I get five more sets of plant starts soon.

AND I'm heading out of town for another week - I get to go visit my stomping grounds in the Bay Area. It will be a very very very intense week though so I hope I squeeze in sufficient volumes of Fun.

Beers of Germany - part two

In my last post I showed the glassware associated with the various beers I ordered in Germany, Belgium, and Amsterdam.When I got back to Germany, I got a bit braver at striking out in new directions when I ordered beer. Germans put STUFF in their beer!

For example, you can get lemonade in your beer. This was super yummy and felt really refreshing on a warm spring day. It's a lot of liquid to drink, but it didn't feel at all boozy.

There's also a thing called "Berliner Weiss mit Schuss" that I was on the lookout for. My great-aunt and -uncle lived in Germany in the 1950s, as part of his military tour of duty. My great-aunt is still extremely active and sharp, and when I saw her this spring she told me about living in Berlin, and recommended I look for that particular item on the beer menu. It turns out that "Berliner" is a brand of beer. They are known for making a rather bitter form of weiss, the wheat beer common in the area. The "mit Schuss" bit is where it gets odd - Germans will put in a shot of brightly colored sweet syrup, either red or green. This takes the bitter edge off the beer, and adds either raspberry or woodruff flavor. Yeah... I don't know what woodruff flavor is, and I preferred the raspberry version. I tried both, though, like the adventurous traveler I want to be!

Here is the red. I was so proud to order "Berliner Weiss mit Schuss" and was confused when that wasn't enough information - until I remembered the red/green bit. I randomly chose red.

When I next got the chance to get this, I went with green. I also randomly pointed at something on the all-German menu and accidentally got scrambled eggs for lunch. oops.

Mary got in on the Berliner action. On the right, another verson of the red. On the left, something that was not very nice at all - I thought it was going to be another lemonade-in-beer, but it was SOUR. Perhaps it was lemon JUICE in beer. It was the only drink I didn't finish:

And last, and weirdest, and most oddly tasty: banana juice in beer. Yes. And look - more of that yummy Franziskaner! In this case we got a good-sized bottle of beer, and a glass with about 5 inches of banana juice in it. Then you pour in the beer at will. The beer & banana juice foamed a lot, but didn't stay fully mixed, so there was plenty of juice at the bottom of the glass to mix with the leftover beer.

If there's any other beer-juice mixtures, I don't know about them, but I'll keep an eye out on my next trip in July. Otherwise I'll stick with what I tried!

Beers of Germany, Belgium, and Amsterdam - part one

The region I was traveling in (Germany, Belgium, Amsterdam) offered beer, a LOT of beer. Every beer comes in unique glassware, so you can tell at a glance what everyone is drinking. Observe:

Krombacher, in a schnitzelhaus in Hannover, Germany. We got the same brand of beer but different styles - if you look closely you can see our glassware is different.

The beer menu at this pub in Bruges was literally at least 20 pages long. I ordered an Ezel completely at random and was disappointed to get a bottle of beer (I am probably wrong to be snobbish like this but my perception is that draft beer is better) - but it also came with its own distinct glass!

Also in Bruges - this is Kasteel brand beer.

In case there's any doubt that Kasteel = castle, check out the base of the glass:

I enjoyed poking around Ghent, and I wandered pretty aimlessly after my sister took off to return to Germany and her homework (responsibility is so boring!). I wound up stepping into a pub, where I incredibly awkwardly ordered a beer from the bartender. His English was probably fine but I find that MINE fails me when I get embarrassed about language barriers. I wanted to convey that I like dubbels (one of two main styles of Belgian beer) but he thought I said I wanted a Duvel. That worked, too.

I was traveling solo in Amsterdam and only went to a couple of pubs. I forgot to get a picture of the Jupiler I tried. Well, I probably thought of it but it was awkward since I was sitting at the bar. Anyway, at the second pub I visited (on another day!) I had some privacy to get this shot of the Texels - the bartender recommended it as a local special beer.

Back in Germany, my sister and I traveled to follow the good weather. Here is her Franziskaner, I think the only beer we had in more than one place. She orders the dunkelweizen - it's a weissbier/wheat beer, as the glass indicates, but dunkelweizen means dark wheat, and it's a little more robust than a regular weiss. We both liked that style a lot.

In Lubeck we both ordered pretty randomly, I think. I can't remember whose is whose, but the Duckstein on the right looks like a dunkelweizen, so it's probable that was Mary's since she knows that's what she likes. I probably had the Erdinger weissbrau on the left. I'm certain I drank it all!

To be continued, with more on the German beer front.

What I did on my spring vacation...

Well friends I'm back from my break!

Where I went: 

My home base was Hanover, Germany. I took a day trip to Berlin, a 2-day trip with my sister to Bruges & Ghent (in Belgium) and I went on my own to Amsterdam for 3 days. The rest of the trips were in Germany, and selected in hopes of finding good weather. My sister and I went to Goslar (gorgeous day!) and Lubeck (not so much) and I did a trip on my own to Schwerin.

Traveling by train:
I used all 8 days on my Eurail pass and loved the convenience of just showing up and hopping on a train. It's possible to pay a bit extra to book a reserved seat, but not at all required. Once my train was so full I had to sit on the floor for a couple of hours, and once a kind woman let me have her seat while she visited friends elsewhere on the train, but the vast majority of the time there was no trouble with seating at all. Those trains are crazy punctual, and as my sister said, you just have to trust the timetable. If you are expecting a train to Brussels on platform 5 at 11:03, don't get on the one that is there at 10:50 or you might wind up going someplace unexpected! And don't wait around for an invitation to board when your train shows up - they often stay in the station for under 5 minutes. 

Clothes and Gear: 
I made some last-minute packing list changes (I ditched one cool-weather shirt and added two warmer-weather shirts) and my packing was nearly perfect. I could have skipped one of the short-sleeve shirts and the 3/4 sleeve sweater, but only because I got to do laundry twice. After all the agonizing I did over whether to bring my rain jacket, I guess I should be happy the first half of my trip *fully* justified its inclusion!


Food:
I managed to try several local specialties.
In Germany: In Hanover I had schnitzel, and in Berlin I got currywurst. In Lubeck (since it's near the Baltic sea) I tried fried herring - big mistake, crazy bony - and my sister got smoked herring, which was quite nice. Lubeck is also the home of a famed marzipan company, so I bought a little marzipan from them. We also tried salted licorice from a vending machine at the train station - YUK.
In Belgium: I had the famed waffles twice, but sadly concluded they're too sweet for me. In Ghent we found a local candy called "Noses of Ghent" that were cone-shaped things about the size of a nose. They're purple and a bit jellied inside and were kind of good but kind of gross. I also had some Belgian chocolate, of course! We had mussels for dinner, including fries with mayo. For breakfast our hotel included speculoos, a sweet spread made from cookies that is pretty yummy (Trader Joe now sells it labeled as Cookie Butter).
In Amsterdam: Fresh springtime asparagus is a big deal in that part of the world, and I had perhaps one of the best salads of my life at a randomly-selected cafe. It was made of mixed greens, walnuts, mushrooms, aged Dutch cheese, and asparagus. YUM. Speaking of cheese, I stumbled on a place that buys high-quality fresh cheese, ages it carefully, and wins awards for the results. I attended a wine/cheese seminar there and had a delicious time. The next morning I got to try a traditional breakfast offering in the Netherlands: chocolate sprinkles for your bread. They were quite good!

Drink:
Beer, beer and more beer. I took pictures and will post about that separately, but: Germany does some weird but tasty things to their beer! I had beer with lemonade in it while sitting in the sun in Goslar. In Lubeck I got to try "Berliner Weiss mit Schuss" which is a specific brand of wheat beer, with a shot of colorful sweet syrup poured in - that's the Schuss. You have to indicate if you want red or green syrup; red is raspberry and I really liked it. Green... is called woodruff flavor, but I don't know what that is. Suffice to say I wasn't a big fan, but it wasn't terrible. Finally, I tried banana juice in my beer - also delicious!

Sights:
Oh yeah, the TOURING thing. My sister and I usually found a Tall Thing (belfry) in whatever town we were in and paid to go up inside it. I did two free walking tours, one in Berlin, the other in Amsterdam (you tip the guide according to how well you liked it) - both tours lasted at least 3 hours! I took two canal boat rides, one in Amsterdam, the other in Lubeck. In Amsterdam I also went to the Van Gogh museum, the Anne Frank house (highly recommend it if you're headed that way), and caught the World Press photo exhibit.

And I walked and walked and walked and walked and walked. It was great.

...pictures to follow!

Vacation brain

You guys, I'm thisclose to being out of the office for 2 1/2 weeks!!! It's true that the first half-week is a work-related conference where I'm going to do a lot of standing, acting on my best behavior, and tons and tons of small-talking. But then on Wednesday evening I will be FREE.

I head to Germany on Thursday night, and have a rail pass for Germany and the Benelux countries. Belgium is going to HAPPEN! I've had a fair amount of Belgian beer exposure thanks to a local specialty pub, but I'm still excited to drink a dubbel in Bruges! I also hope to visit Amsterdam - I'll be there for the bicycles and canals, thanks - and of course want to poke around Germany a bit. It would be cool to set foot in Luxembourg since I have the pass and am unlikely to be there again... but we'll see if it fits.

The real fun has been packing for the trip: I'm getting four days of work-clothes (which I'll send home with a coworker) + 14 days of travel clothes into a backpack-style carry-on. I admit it's fairly bursting right now, but I'll cut the volume in half when I can send home the work gear, leaving me a bag that will be not-hard to haul. It's coming in under 20 pounds right now, I think, and that includes my day bag with travel books.

What I'm bringing for work
- 1 pair pants, 1 skirt, 1 suit jacket
- 2 pairs shoes, neither of which are particularly comfortable or wonderful for standing around in.
- 1 3/4-sleeve ribbed top (black); 1 lightweight long-sleeve shirt (purple). Both of these will continue on the trip.
- 1 cowl-neck top
- 1 sparkly wrap thing for the evening reception
- 1 scoop-neck tank top to go with wrap & skirt
- a small duffel bag to send all that home in when I'm done (except the two shirts that are continuing on with me)

What I'm bringing to Europe (including what I'll wear on the plane):
- 2 pairs pants: jeans and khakis
- 2 pairs shoes:  Keens, and Merrells
- warmth: a rain jacket and a zip-up lightweight wool sweater, hat and fingerless mitts, scarf/wrappy thing
- 4 tops: 2 long-sleeve lightweight wool shirts (dark purple and turquoise); 1 3/4-sleeve ribbed top (black); 1 lightweight long-sleeve shirt (purple).

for both parts of the trip: 
- pajamas: t-shirt & shorts
- miscellaneous toiletries, socks, etc.
- camera; ipod touch; cell phone (to be stored away until I return to the states); chargers & a plug adapter; two guidebooks; passport & rail pass; knitting project.

I am not sure how much knitting I'll do, but after having to make an emergency run from a bluegrass fest so I had some knitting on hand, I'd rather not travel empty-handed again! I have music, podcasts, and several books on my ipod touch, so I don't need to bring other entertainment. If it were to get lost or broken I'd be really upset but I could deal... I guess. 

If I get heartily sick of my belongings, I can jettison the pajama top (on the last day of the trip, that is!) since it's an ancient ratty t-shirt; my Keens are also nearing the end of their life and they can go too. They're not at the point of being uncomfortable or I wouldn't bring them, but the Merrells I bought were intended to replace them anyway. I think it's important to have a change of shoes, which is why I'm bringing the Keens at all. There's not much else that I would get rid of! I could MAYBE pare my packing by another shirt, but I'm okay with wearing one and packing three. I'll have access to laundry at least once, possibly twice, and could probably get by without doing it (absent any horrible spills).

You can possibly guess how productive my last day in the office is.

Sweater: finished!

I should've gotten a standing shot. It fits great!

Pattern: Aidez
Yarn: Cascade Yarns Ecological Wool, bulky on size 10 needles. It took EXACTLY 3 hanks, I had like a gram or so left (and an entire bonus hank I don't know what to do with but can't return).

Travelly goodness

I spent last weekend in Portland seeing good friends, hugging cute kids, dying Easter eggs, eating yummy food, and getting lots of fresh air. It was so lovely!

I'm getting semi used to my new camera. Its colors seem more saturated than my old camera, which maybe isn't a bad thing but does strike my eye a bit harshly. I think its red tones are even more vivid - check this one out:

Am I nuts?

Also, I really have to go over the instructions so I can use the macro mode better - I was having trouble getting a flower shot this weekend. I loathe that instructions are now on cd - I want a BOOK I can carry around and flip through at my leisure. sheesh.

Anyway, I'm off for more awesome travel soon, so I really better get on that.

Calendar: April

My apartment is in the back of my building and faces a hillside covered with trees and shrubbery. It makes for a pretty lovely view, especially when the plum trees are in bloom.

I confess I lived here a few years before I realized it was plum trees back there, and I have yet to actually harvest and use them! They are tiny; my friend and I thought they were some overgrown cherry before realizing they were in fact wee little plums.

Many years ago a coworker brought in a bud vase like the one in the picture above. Turns out it's from a particularly nice balsamic vinegar sold at Trader Joe's. I have an apple juice jar I like to use as well...when I remember to have flowers!

Feeling like an old, old dog

Did I mention I'm taking scuba classes? Wow, is it hard to learn a new physical activity.

I'm not a real fan of learning stuff in general, believe it or not - not if it's hard for me to learn. Bring on the knitting, the jamming, the canning, the baking - those things all make sense (even if I can't yet properly caramelize sugar after all of four or five attempts). It's not that I'm totally out of learning-practice: I have a ridiculously hard job and even after almost five years I run into a wall every single day. You'd think I'd be more graceful about it by now, but most days I have a silent hissy fit ("This is hard, it's stupid, I don't understand, can't someone else do it?!") before I remember that everyone on my team is overworked, and that I'm the boss and therefore should do the hard stuff. (Maybe I need to get over that last bit.)

I do physical stuff too: biking, hiking, camping - admittedly in small doses. There's a lot of silent freaking out on those events, though, and a lot of self-doubt. But at least I have a lot of miles under my belt and know I CAN do it, even if it's hard and I'm not loving it.

Well, scuba is hard. I feel UN-graceful UN-comfortable and UN-adept. I am clumsy and disoriented and a little scared the whole time. When I talk over my lessons with friends I see I am learning and have learned a lot, but nothing about it feels easy or natural or smart. I can never find all the stupid hoses, the dumb buttons don't depress like they ought, the darn vest WILL inflate if I  hit the inflate button, even if I meant to hit the DEflate button.

Is it the hardest thing I've done? I don't know - it's for sure the most complicated, given how much you have to put together pretty much all at once. I've done things that are harder in different ways, sure, but this is very very very not-easy.

I will hang in through my course and hope that when I get to do real diving in real water with real scenery that my pity party will be firmly behind me. As ever, stay tuned!

WIP Wednesday: Restoring order to chaos

Dear blog-friends! It's been quite the busy few weeks around Exploring With Beth HQ. I'm getting caught up ever so slowly. Help buy me some time: what do you want to hear about? My parents' visit? My weekend in Los Angeles? My sweater? My favorite blogs?

Here's what I'd like to hear from you, two things actually:
YOUR favorite blogs, and why you like them (yes, you may pimp your own)

Your favorite gin. I got a little interested in the fancy tonic options (and will do a head-to-head tonic tasteoff between Q and Fever Tree some evening when I can tolerate a couple of gin and tonics), but haven't explored the gins out there. I have Bombay sapphire at home, and have no problem with Tanqueray. The ol' Bombay is getting low - what should I try next? It IS gin & tonic season, after all!

what I did this evening

I was busy tonight!

I made lemon curd, blackberry-rosemary simple syrup, and lemon meringue cookies. The lemon curd is from some Meyer lemons friends brought over - I still have, oh, nine or so left to do something with!

The simple syrup is for a VERY delicious drink called a Black Rose that a friend introduced me to recently. As tasty as it is now with grocery store blackberries, I hope I remember to harvest some berries this summer and make the syrup again. The rosemary is from the courtyard - is rosemary insanely prolific everywhere? It seriously grows in massive shrubs here.

What did I *not* do tonight? I didn't clean the floors or the bathroom, or deal with the miscellany scattered about. Yes, my parents are coming to visit soon (in 32 hours or so!) but I just know they want to see me in my natural habitat. Heck, I'll just run them ragged, then give them booze & sugary snacks and they won't even notice! It's all part of my Genius Plan for Visitors.

Fiscal fitness: Rolling over an IRA

Like many people who've been out of college for a while, I've worked for a number of employers. Naturally (since I preach the gospel of saving for retirement!) I've enrolled in each employer's retirement plan as soon as I've been eligible, and always contribute whatever it takes to get the full employer match.

So yay me and all, but the down side of this is that I've had retirement accounts scattered all over the place. I always kept track of them (..sorta) but I knew it was a bad idea. It's easy to lose track of account paperwork; it's a drag to have to update your address with multiple organizations; it's hard to figure out your asset allocation if your money is held in different funds; you may be paying more in fees than if you consolidated! 

Once upon a time I had rolled over one account, but it was under duress: in 2001 I was laid off (for the second year in a row, thank you high tech) and my ex-employer told me I had to do something with that retirement account. I rolled it into a Roth IRA at Vanguard, which was a good call, but I ignored the rest of my accounts, since no one seemed to mind if I left them intact.

Time flew, as it does, and at the beginning of 2010 I still had three accounts to deal with:
 - the software company that laid me off in 2000 - that account was still maintained by my ex-employer, who mailed me quarterly investment reports
 - the state of Oregon's public employee retirement system, from my library gig that I left in 2006
 - the other retirement savings account from that same library job - if I recall correctly you can't contribute additional funds to the PERS account so you can contribute to a 403b (aka a 401k for public employees) instead

So it only took a full decade, but I did  finally begin to deal with those accounts. I contacted my former employer and got the paperwork to roll over the funds from 2000. Of course we'd had a couple of stock market crashes since then - it had fluctuated wildly over the years and still wasn't at its highest when I did the paperwork. I have to say it felt good to finally cut the cord with that employer!

I also closed the PERS account, but that was a little more complicated, involving two checks, one of which got lost, two 1099Rs (which confused me greatly), and one call to American Public Media's Marketplace Money show! The call was to help me understand which tax year I should claim the disbursement in, since I asked for it in 2010 but actually deposited the check in 2011 - the answer is: 2010! he said I could ignore it if I get a 1099-R next year. More likely I'll have a heart attack but I'll let that be Future Beth's problem.

Attentive readers may note that I still have to deal with the third account listed in the bullet points above. It's true, I do, and I will. Soon. I swear.

So, for my future reference - and yours! - here are the steps to roll over a retirement plan:
 - Decide where you want the funds to go, and open an account with that institution.
 - Contact the plan and tell them  you want to roll over your account into an IRA at the other organization. Since you will tell them it is a rollover, they will issue it to your chosen bank/investment house for your benefit. (If you give them the new account number that makes it all the smoother.)
 - If they mail the check to you, do not file it!!! (personal experience is speaking here!) - mail it to your chosen bank/investment house.Two of my checks went straight to Vanguard, so chances are yours will be mailed for you as well. Try to pay attention to make sure the money gets there!
 - Come tax time, look for a form 1099-R to come in your name. It will list the payer, the amount you rolled over, and should have the distribution code G which indicates it was a rollover and also indicates that you would have been unable to cash the check.
 - When you fill out your taxes you'll have to use a 1040 to declare the 1099-R information, but it's not a taxable event - it won't change anything about what you owe.

My resolution for 2011 is to get that last account rolled over. One of my little quirks is that I hate to use the phone so I tried requesting a rollover packet from their site, but I got the wrong thing. I'll try again today though.. here's hoping I have better success!

Before and after

The gory details on the sweater. Here is the before:

 

It was cool to finally get this far in the project. As I sorta thought, you just attach the sleeves 

and start knitting the rest of the shoulder cap along with the top of the torso. 

I think it would have worked if not for the matter of it being entirely too small! 

Here is the after: 

I didn't rip out the sleeves yet - there's a chance they may fit. Probably not really, 

but I guess I'm not ready to totally scrap this sucker. 

Even more nuts, I already cast on to start over!

2011:04

I should probably just get used to the idea of feeling like the year is flying by, hm?

I took this last November (hey, sorry, I live in California! It's crowded for a reason!) when I went to wine country. One of my friends has been a member at a couple of different wineries over the years, and I really love that she opts to pick up her quarterly wine delivery instead of having them mail it. That gets her to recruit friends to go on a day trip - and without that kind of nudge I could go a long time between visits to Napa and Sonoma and those parts.

This flower was at Gundlach Bundschu just outside of downtown Sonoma. They are friendly, gracious, have lovely grounds, and their wine is really tasty. I highly recommend a visit if you're ever in town! If you can go with a member - all the better, as the tastes are free!

a momentous day

I just set up the final payment for the very last of my debt.

I paid off my credit card at the end of August, 2007. I haven't carried a balance longer than a month since then - I even paid for my entire trip to Ireland and Scotland out of money that I saved for it! (And I kept that trip as inexpensive as possible: $3,440 for three weeks in the UK (including all expenses) is pretty good.)

I paid off my car in March or April 2008. I've never been very proud of paying that off early, since I felt badly that I didn't have the $6,000 in the bank to buy the dang thing outright. But, my 20-year-old car was totaled and I needed a new-to-me car, and I *have* been proud that I got a year-old car for 6k, so I guess I can feel neutral about that, when all is said and done.

And tomorrow, April 2010, I am issuing the final payment for my student loans. I finished grad school in May 2004, so a six-year payoff isn't bad. The debt was never high in the first place - something like 17k, so including interest, I've paid just under 20k for my degree. (well.. it was a bit more, as I DID pay a little as I went.) The loan's rate was low, but I wanted to get it GONE and it feels really really really good. I've been funneling $267/month toward it, so it'll be like getting a raise!

My short-term plan is to save up to buy a bed frame & mattress. Long-term, I'll expand my emergency fund (from 2 1/2 months' living expenses to something more like 4 months). Then I'll save for a replacement fund for my car. Then I'll save for a house downpayment - though I really don't anticipate buying EVER, it would be nice if it was a realistic option. I've been funding travel already, so maybe I'll expand that a little, but all in all, I am in a good place. And I am furiously knocking on wood so that I don't jinx it!

Yay me!

straw-straw-strawberry goodness

I made strawberry-rhubarb jam a couple of weeks ago. I messed up, though, as it's way too sweet and not nearly tart enough. One of these days I'm going to get a digital scale for my kitchen endeavors!

Anyway, I decided to try to use the jam and add some rhubarb. I pulled a recipe for strawberry-rhubarb crumble from my copy of Joy of Cooking.

I've got some very cute little cookie cutters, and I tried to do a varying range of sizes of overlapping circles, going for a polka-dot look, but it didn't come out quite the way I wanted.

Then I had another strawberry disappointment! I got a bunch of amazingly beautiful berries at the Bowl, but they tasted like ... nothing. I guess I was deluded by their pretty faces. So, I sliced them, added a little sugar, pureed them, added a little cream, and froze the yummy results. It's not really ice cream, but it's not bad!

Exploring: Chicago!

I spent a few days in Chicago this week. It's too much to list (and I'm really tired from my travels and work) so I'll sum up. I had gourmet sandwiches from two different places. I joined friends to eat all manner of great food: Armenian, Italian, Tapas, and German. I watched the latest episode of Glee with friends (and have had Madonna songs in my head since), and got to meet in person with other friends I usually only see online. I also got to know a few coworkers better, and got to hear more about what some of them do for the company.

The niftiest part of the trip was walking in Millennium Park and getting to witness the most successful piece of public art I've ever seen. Most public art draws some attention, but the Cloud Gate was at the center of a buzzing ever-changing crowd of people. I loved it.

I've often wished I could see shadows of myself in places - at a guess, I've visited Chicago in 1994, 1996, 1999, 2002, 2005, and now 2010. I didn't visit all the same places each time, but I know I've overlapped over the years. Who knows how many more times I'll visit?

It was a bit chilly for me, even in April, but it was the first time I've left Chicago feeling like I could live there. I have absolutely no intention of doing so, though!

edited to add: aha!!!! It was really bugging me that I had no  memory of such an amazing (and prominently-placed) piece of art. The Wikipedia article explains it all. "It was unveiled in an incomplete form during the Millennium Park grand opening celebration in 2004, before being concealed again while it was completed. Cloud Gate was formally dedicated on May 15, 2006...."

yay, I'm not crazy, not this time.

edited again to add: check this link for lots of other pictures of the Cloud Gate