You spin me right round

AT | the cure | week 1

My girlfriend and I just about completed the first week of "the cure" (we have a couple of small tasks yet to be crossed off). This week was "Whole Apartment"- mainly including: cleaning the apartment (sweep/mop/vac/dust) and making a repair list.

By cleaning the apartment, we kicked our streamlining process into gear, thus sliding us into Week 2 which focuses on the Kitchen.

The kitchen closet is now cleaned out- and ready to have useful items put into it. A number of items- broken fan, old shower curtain liner (that sounds kinda gross, but it was practically brand new) made it to the dumpster. While some- clothes drying rack, jackets, towels- made it to the Yard Sale pile in the living room.

The large white free-standing cabinet was cleaned out and made its way to the bedroom- clearing some space in the kitchen and adding storage in the bedroom.

Next tasks in the Kitchen- move pictures/art around, clean and sort all cupboards (food/dishes/pots+pans). Kitchen should be complete by next weekend if all goes well. :) When the Kitchen is complete, I will post some before + after pics. This was a great room to start with, as it needs a minimal amount of work- it really got us motivated with 'the cure'.

We will continue to add to the Yard Sale pile in hopes of having one on Saturday. A great Yard Sale rule to live by- if it doesn't sell, it doesn't go back inside. Therefore, it gets donated, trashed, or left on the curb for someone to take.

Stay tuned for more progress!

Hot stuff

Step # 3 of the directions off a package of recently purchased frozen ravioli:

3. Cook until reaching a minimum internal ravioli temperature of 165 F for at least 15 seconds.

Awfully complicated for a bag of frozen cheese.

Youngme vs. Nowme

A neat site I stumbled upon. I'll have to dig out some family photos and try to recreate them.
(sample pics in post)

Interesting concept but...

...where do you go pee?






(Dinner in the sky website)
(more pics)

'Damn, it feels good...'

Denzel Washington playing a tough guy? Russell Crowe playing a cop?
C'mon. That's such a stretch for those two.

Glad I didn't buy the DVD before watching it.
American Gangster fell flat.
I think I saw this before.

Oh yeah, back in 1991, except it was called New Jack City, starred a real O.G.,and was a BADASS movie.
*Ring, ring*- Hey Denzel, it's for you. It's Nino Brown. He wants his movie back.

'The Cure' countdown

About 2 months ago, my brother told me about a book he was reading, to help him get his apartment in order, titled Apartment Therapy: the eight step home cure. Since then, I've been anxiously awaiting the week of April 21st (my chosen start date), so I can begin the process.

Yes, I know what you're thinking. "Apartment Therapy? I'm not gonna read a bunch of touchy-feely crap like that. My apartment is fine just the way it is."

Are you sure?

First off, this book gets right to the point and tells you how to clean up your living space and why you should do it (organization at its best). And no, it's not a bunch of "touchy-feely crap". If it was, I wouldn't have read it.

The concept of the book is to create a workable space for you to live in and help turn your apartment into a home over the course of 8 weeks. It involves a lot of streamlining (getting rid of the stuff you don't need/use), rearranging, and making some new purchases.

Before I read the book, I mentally took note of all the things in my apartment that I liked and disliked. I found some likes- spacious, good layout, lots of windows. But, I found a lot of dislikes- piles of stuff everywhere, closets full to overflowing, and no workable space for items that I use regularly.

So, I bought the book and started reading. The first night, I read 50 pages (I think that's a new one-day record for me. Not much of a reader.). As I read, I kept thinking "Yes, this is exactly what I need to do". I think I drove my girlfriend nuts for a few weeks, because I couldn't stop talking about all the ideas I had for our apartment together. (Okay, a few weeks is an understatement.)

Looking around your apartment, and seeing all the changes that need to be made may seem overwhelming. That's where Apartment Therapy comes in. The plan is spread out over 8 weeks for just that reason- so you can take all the tasks one at a time.

I (we) are looking forward to this challenge. Over the course of the next 2 months, my girlfriend and I will be creating our "home" to come home to. I'll keep you posted.

Also, my brother will be posting his progress on his blog, in case you want some different ideas.

Hold the anchovies

In 1994, a 29 year old man invested $20. He continued to spend $20/year on his investment. What did he buy 14 years ago? A domain name. Not jacknicholson.com or starwars.com or anything "big name". Nope. He bought "www.pizza.com" and held onto it. Now, 14 years later, he is 43 years old, and he's spent $280 on his investment. Just recently, he sold it for $2,600,000. Yep, 2.6million dollars. All for the word "pizza". You can view the article here.