Everything in moderation.

I've fought it for a while, but I have decided to turn on Blogger Comment Moderation. If you are wondering why it is because I received a comment that I felt inappropriate for the blog. Some things are to be discussed and other things I've chosen not to discuss. It's not a large list, but it is a list I consider private and not up for conversation in a blog-like forum. If you have comments or questions about my personal life, feel free to ask me, I'm always up for some good conversation.

If the comment were from a non-anonymous source I could respond to the individual. But since it was I can only hope that they will let me know who they are so we could talk :) Thanks for reading and comment away!

Dave Ramsey

Just recently I have started listening to Dave Ramsey. For those of you unfamiliar with this guy, he is a financial planner based in TN that runs a radio show. It interests me for a few reasons. First I enjoy personal finance and working on budgeting, bills and the like. Call me crazy, but I enjoy the stuff and have been figuring a lot of it out as I go along. The other reason I like his program is because he comes at debt from the perspective that it is refreshing. He despises Credit Cards and pushes saving, esp. at an early age. There are so many folks I know (including myself) that are in some sort of debt or another and not clearing this up early will help with longer term investing. Here are the simple steps he proposes:

1. Put $1,000 in the bank
2. No New Debt
3. Stop Investing (current debt is eating heavily into your investment).
4. List all your debt accounts
- Pay the minimum on everything
- But pay as much as you can on the account that you owe the least.
- Next, pay off the next lowest account
5. Save 15% in "growth" mutual funds
6. Save for your kids college.
7. Work on paying off the house.

The thing I found most refreshing is that the biggest cure to fixing debt is: contentment...

Fall in Blacksburg

Fall is in the air and this weekend Erin and I did all things fall. Friday night we headed to a High School football game with her parents. I was introduced to all things "Salem Football" and I had a pretty good time. Salem won, but luckily the game was fairly exciting. The week before I saw Salem whip up on someone 41-0.

Saturday brought a hike to Tinker Cliffs. A little spot off of the Appalachian Trail about 3,000ft in altitude. The hike is one of the more difficult ones around here, but once you get to the top, break out the PB&J sandwich and see the views, it is all worth it. Check them out below:

Tinker Cliffs

The Trail

Yellow

What's shakin?

Life has been an interesting mix of busy but slowing down. It's allowing me to get plenty done, but at the same time become a little more reflective on what is going on around me. I have had an overwhelming sense lately to reflect and make sure life is headed in the right direction for both myself and for my family. Some thoughts on where to go with this include more time reading, photography projects, start the essays I have thought over so long. What ever I come up with I am sure will flesh itself out...

So this weekend is the annual Flag Football tourney at the University of Delaware in Newark, DE. This year there are 22 teams, possibly the most that have ever been there, so we are in for a really long Saturday. The past 3 years we have won this thing, this year I am cautiously optimistic. I am glad to see the fraternity bringing 4 teams and with my team we are bringing 5, pretty impressive.

Year 1 ReCap
Year 3 Prep

The Driving Experiment has went well. I did make it through the whole month without driving and have continued to ride the bike to work. Though I am taking a break for these next few days before the flag football tourney. We are looking to sell Erin's Saturn the end of this month.

The 5am Work Out plan is not gong to work. For me, going to bed at 9 o'clock is just too early. So the new plan is for me to get up and workout at 6am and for Erin to workout when she gets home from work. I can see getting the 6am thing down, but we may have to continue to experiment with Erin's gym time. The main problem is that we don't want to work out in the evening, because we'd never get to do anything else. Not really an option.

We've also been doing lots of Housework. By housework I mean getting rid of the piles, unpacking the boxes and cleaning. I actually spent this morning dusting the upstairs and cleaning the bathrooms. Boy do I lead an exciting life...! The next housework project -> Painting.

Of course since the house is cleaned up we can start having people over. I absolutely love to have people over, as I see our home as a gift and I'd like to use it to build relationships. This past Monday we had the Bible Study folks over, last Friday Erin's parents had dinner with us. In upcoming weeks we will host a dinner for the executive members of Alpha Rho, host an open forum for the fraternity (town hall meeting type thing), have the Paulettes over for dinner, have a couple friends over to watch Survivor, have a couple friends over to cook-out and have a bunch of people over to watch the Boston College vs Virginia Tech college football game. This will all happen over the next 2 weeks, great!