1. Brian got a new car.
2. Dad got sick and was hospitalized for 2 weeks.
3. We got puppy Leah.
4. I traveled to Richmond for work.
5. Both my parents health has been stabilized.
6. We went to San Diego for vacation.
7. My maternal grandmother passed away. Click here to see neat a mausoleom my mom’s family built in Cambodia.
8. We bought a dining set (my half of the deal since Brian got the new Macbook). Only one more room to fill – formal dining room.
9. We threw a holiday party.
10. Took a much needed vacation where I did absolutely nothing.

So here’s my personal resolution for 2009. I know it’s silly to make resolutions especially when they’re broken in about 2 months, but hopefully, just maybe I keep these resolutions.

1. Workout 4-5 times a week
2. Learn how to meditate
3. Read at least 1 book a quarter
4. Eat more veggies
5. Eat out no more than once a week at work
6. Cook more
7. Blog more
8. Wake up earlier and begin a morning routine (ie. do chores, walk the dogs, eat breakfast, chill, then get ready)
9. Organize our closet
10. Do more gardening
11. Read the news more
12. Organize the stuff in our cabinets
13. Fix the hole in the ceiling of our dining room
14. GO TO EUROPE

I think all of these are attainable, with the exception of the last one. We’re hoping to plan a big trip for the fall, but I haven’t even begun to do my research. I was hoping I was going to get some that research done during my holiday vacation, and I suppose I still have a couple days left, but the task seems to be overly daunting. Maybe I should just call the travel agent that a friend recommended.

Happy New Year everyone!

One other update. I’ve been getting these pesky debt collector calls from some fake law office. They’ve even called my in-law a couple times. It’s for a credit card that opened college and couldn’t pay off because I was too stoopid and poor. I did eventually pay off all my debts before we got married and bought the house, so I’m not sure how they got my info. Everytime they call, they keep telling me they’ll file a lawsuit in my county. I once called them back and told them to stop calling. Finally I sent them a Do Not call letter. If they continue to call me or anyone else, they’re officially breaking law. Not that they weren’t breaking the law before by making false claims. I checked my credit report and it does not show any bad debt. I even checked the credit report I bought about a year ago and didn’t see anything bad. Hrmph. I wish they would go away. I read somewhere that Buffalo, NY is the breeding ground for these pesky debt collectors. It’s days like these that I’m glad I have a good standing career and was able to address any bad marks. Nowadays, I can’t imagine how people can deal with the stress of bad credit. I’m glad my credit is high, and I’m glad we have no debt other than a mortgage, car payments, and student loans.

Despite all our spending, Brian and I do make it a point to save a good amount in our 401K and regular savings. We still need to combine our accounts to make it easier for tracking. It’s just a matter of getting our butts to the bank. In the meantime, I do put in about 30% of my income into a savings account that’s not for retirement. We both also have a pretty good amount in our emergency fund. I think Brian feels like it’s still not enough. That’s kinda funny because a friend’s boyfriend feels the same way. With that said, I hope we can continue with this path. Brian and I briefly talked about how long I plan on staying home when we have our first child. I said 12 weeks, which is the max without really losing my job. He was thinking something like a year. I never anticipated staying home longer than the 12 weeks. I guess it depends on the state of where we are at that time. I certainly don’t plan on being a SAHM my whole life.

I had a small ephipany the other week. For awhile I was unsure as to where I wanted to be in my career. I was happy with my position, and in my opinion I’ve reached a point in my career where it would take others a few more years to get to. I know I’m good at my job, although at times I feel like I should be more organized. It’s hard to do so when you’re jumping from meetings to meetings. I like my job and I definitely want it to evolve into something more. I’m still unsure as to what that would be, but I have clearer vision of the path I want to take. I hate talking about work since I know coworkers may be reading this.

Last year, Brian came home and made dinner. This year we’re doing the same, although we’ll be cooking together. I splurged (got carried away) at Central Market. I have to admit that place is a rip off, but it’s hard to avoid at times. Anyway, so that’s our plans for vday. Too bad our fireplace doesn’t work, otherwise, we can enjoy a good movie in front of the fireplace.

Speaking of which, I think we’ll wait until the summer to get it fixed. It may be cheaper then.

Anyway, I’m a little over halfway done with re-reading my PMP Textbox. I got some other study materials from Amazon which I’ll conquer this weekend. Only one month to go.

I’m also looking at the PM Certificate program at UTD. But I wonder if the certificate is redundant to the PMP Certification. I certainly wouldn’t mind taking the courses if it actually helps me do my job better. Although there is an interesting Business Intelligence Certificate course at SMU that also looks good. I did see some of my old professors teaching some of the classes within this program. Both programs are about 18 credit hours each, which essentially is an entire semester. However, with the UTD course, I think I can work up to getting a Masters.

I guess I should take things step at a time…

In other news, my dreaded trip to St. Louis this past week went really successfully, which is a great thing especially with all the senior level people with me. Now they at least know that my clients love me. However, I do have alot work ahead of me. Yuck. This means I have no urge to go to work tomorrow. I’m sitting here putting off work as we speak. I’m also making pizza dough in my bread machine for dinner tonight. But I have get my butt to the store since we don’t have anything to make pizza with, arg.

Anyway…changing topics, I have some decisions I have to make that is rather life changing. Well, it’s not that drastic, but it is important.

Another different topic, I’m watching Top Chef, and there’s this commercial on TV, it’s basically an ad for some group formed for a book written by L. Ron Hubbard. Didn’t he write War of the Worlds?? Oh wait, duh. He’s the creepy scientology guy. No wonder this commercial was weird. Check out the website the ad was listing – http://www.thewaytohappiness.org

Alright, happy Sunday.

Speaking of anniversary, I don’t even know where to begin with the gifts. I’m so bad at this and Brian is so difficult to buy for. Arg! I guess I have about 3 weeks to think about it. We’re going to be spending that weekend in Hot Springs, Arkansas. No fancy trip for us this year I guess. Hopefully it’s as nice as it is seems. Anyway, I guess we need to book some boarding time for Reesey…

I guess we’re still looking into buying a resell home, but hopefully we can find one with all the stuff we want. We just don’t want to have to live too far away from work and civilization. I guess the stuff you see online is just some of the houses on the market, we’ll definitely have to get a realtor. Brian’s going to contact one of his clients to start the discussion.

Hopefully we’ll find a house by the end of April. If after we’ve reached that time frame and still haven’t progressed, I guess we’ll have to either stay in our current apt for another year or find other living arrangements.

I’m nervous about it all. Nervous that we’re moving too slow. Nervous that we won’t find a house we like and will keep looking for another year. Nervous because we’re actually serious this time and it’s a huge step… EEEK. But surely it’s not that difficult?? There are people younger than us or people with less money that have gone through this process. Why couldn’t we?

Anyway, we’re almost at our 6 month anniversary mark. Gosh time just flies by. We were eating dinner the other day, and Brian asked me what day Friday was. I guessed about a dozen times and never got it right. It’s not that I forgot, I just didn’t think about it. Whoops.

The in-laws were in town. Reesey enjoys having them, she’s so cute. Speaking of which, she’s been barking more lately. Maybe it’s just me, but she’s really annoying. I went to the gym yesterday morning and let her run loose around the apt. As I was walking towards the building, I can hear her barking from the end of the hallway. Gosh, I neighbors must hate us.

My back and neck has been killing me. The new pillow I bought solved the problem for a little while, but it’s no longer working. Maybe I need my pillow fluffy all the time? The massage I had a couple weeks ago helped, but didn’t get rid of it. I’m thinking about acupuncture, but that’s a scam. I had a series of acupuncture done in HS when I had bells palsy, but I don’t think it ever helped. I just remember the back of my neck burning from something she lit.

Yesterday during dinner, Brian asked what we wanted to do for vday. Since I’ll be working late that night, he’s going to cook me dinner. At first I kind laughed at the thought because he can’t cook. But I thought it was a great idea. So tomorrow, we’re going to stop by Central Market to plan our vday dinner. I think it’s kinda sweet that he thought about that all by himself.

So we’re hoping to start to look for houses in March and find one and close by May, so we’ll have time to move out of the apt. I can’t wait. Reesey seriously needs a yard to play in.

I guess I don’t have much to update…

The day is slowly creeping up. Not that we do it huge on Vday, we usually just go out for a fancy dinner at some restaurant we haven’t been to and he would send me flowers or buy me a card and I’ll buy him small. Last year we went to the Melting Pot for some fondue. I highly recommend by the way.

But this year, I just feel a bit apathetic. Maybe it’s because we’re already married?? And since vday is on a Wednesday this year, it just makes it much more silly to celebrate.

So after having to work late on Monday, I stayed out late on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday I had lunch with a friend from HS. We finally patched things up and I had a great time seeing her again. Wednesday the girls at work met up at someone’s house to play Texas Holdem. I’ve never played poker before, but I kicked ass which surprised everyone. I guess I have a good poker face, or maybe since we weren’t playing with money, I was much more brave.

Anyway, I got my Mypublisher album in the mail today. I rushed home from work during lunch to pick it up since I was so excited. The album is missing the first 4 pages. HRMPH. Also the quality is great, but the images themselves are a bit blurry. Maybe I shouldn’t have messed with the resolution despite what their help page was saying.

Oh well, hopefully they’ll reprint it and hopefully I can tweak the resolution. Overall, it looks good and everyone thinks it’s amazing and the design looks like a pro did it.

In a related story, Brian and I were at Target, and we walked by the baby section. I stopped and looked and some fuzzy teddy bear and thought it was cute. I think Brian was a bit freaked out. Hehe.

Anyway, I guess our goals are like any other couples. We need us time, time to travel, time to save, time for careers etc. I want to at least end up in a director level at work before having kids. That’s a pretty aggressive goal, since most directors are in their mid 30′s, but we’ll see. I guess I’ll be ok with senior level.

Ok, so I found this house listing and thought it was cute. It’s in E. Plano though, so I think that’s a bit far from work. But seriously, do we even plan on working here forever? I would assume so at this point, but life changes. I think it’s close enough. The only downside about this house is that Brian doesn’t want a two-story. At least for our first house. Oh well. It’s cute though, I think.

I got my car back yesterday in working condition. Woohooo! Finally. Anyway, I gotta finish this wedding album TODAY and place in order so I can get it by Christmas. Eekkk.

I recently purchased a brand new 2006 VW Passat on November 4th, 2006. Just after 3 weeks and 1500 miles, I noticed that the air conditioning/heater fan was not starting immediately after the car was turned on. I took the car in the following week to have it checked out. After waiting 2 hours, the technician was unable to find the root cause and had to make a call to TechOne. I was told that I will receive a call the next day and that I would need to bring my car back in.

The next day I did not receive a call. I had to followup myself the day after and the advisor stated that the issue was a defective speed resistor. The part was ordered, and I received a call the following week. I came in that night after receiving the call and waited another 2 hours for the speed resistor to be replaced. Upon driving the car home, I noticed that the issue was not resolved. The fan still did not start automatically. The following day I drove the car around and noticed that the problem had worsened. The fan would take more than 10 sometimes 20 minutes before it actually started. That day, I called and made an appointment for that evening to bring the car in. Since then the service team still has my car and have no idea what the root cause of the issue is.

Unfortunately, this car has not performed well, nor was the service adequate. I am disappointed because I feel like my car is being worked on for an issue that appeared to be minor and yet there is no resolution. I do not trust that after the car is returned it will be in the shape that it was when I first brought it in.

I fear that the product I have purchased does not live up to par on what the VW corporation has promised its customers. I have had cars with over 100,000 miles and never once did I have an issue with them as this one. I fear that the car will continue to have problems; therefore in retribution I am requesting that VW will offer me a full extended warranty at no cost due to the uncertainty of the state of the car once it is returned back to me.

This is not a complaint on the service level that I have been receiving but rather a complaint on the competancy of your technical staff.

I look forward to your reply and a resolution to my problem, and will wait until the end of the week before seeking help from a consumer protection agency or the Better Business Bureau. Please contact me at the above address or by phone.

I’m never getting a VW again. I wouldn’t be so upset if it was 2 years from now, but the car barely has 1500 miles on it and it’s already effed up.

My car is still in the shop. They will probably work on it tomorrow and hopefully I’ll get it back tomorrow (it’s the third time it’s been in there, and they still haven’t fixed the issue, I’m livid everytime I think about it). Right now I’m in a loaner. I miss my car.

My other beloved is my laptop, which is also at the shop and has been there for over a month. I was supposed to get it back a couple weeks ago, but when testing it, the laptop had no video. Everything I own is broken! Ugh!

I’m thinking about picking up knitting. A coworker of mine knits and it’s so cool, so I want to learn. I knitted once. Yes, I knitted ONCE. I thought it was cool back when I was in the 4th or 5th grade and tried to knit for a day. I’m not sure what happened, maybe the yarn was ugly or something.

I don’t know what to get Brian for Christmas. I may not get anything from me this year. I am sad that I can’t think of anything to buy him. Oh well, I still have two weeks left.

Anyway, I have no urge to finish any work today. Thursdays are always slow, besides that I’ve already used all the resources my brain has to offer yesterday.

Last night I went through more pictures for the wedding album. It’s so hard to choose, and after looking at them some more I finally began to realize how good they were. I think I’m done picking out the photos, now I just need to finish it. I need to order by December 17th in order to get it by Christmas time. Too bad I missed all the special deals because I’m a big procrastinator.

A coworker asked at lunch today how married life was. My only response was there isn’t much of a difference. I guess after the high of the actual wedding day is over, everything seem to fall back into place. I guess the next big thing to look forward to is buying a house or having kids. I want to be able to get a house next year, but we’ll have to see where we are then, it’s hard to tell now. I guess we need to sit down and set some goals.

Anyway, I’m bored and ready to go home.