From last night's American Idol finale...
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Three bags of shreddies
Well, shreddings. Three large garbage bags full, ready for recycling. I have wanted to tackle our filing cabinet ever since we moved and I finally got the kick-start I needed.
A couple of weeks ago I saw an item over at Uncluttterer on the FreedomFiler. It's essentially a system for managing household and/or small business files that is self-purging. I ordered the smallest kit that just comes with labels and instructions as I already had hanging file folders and a cabinet.
It arrived on Thursday and by midday Friday, our living room was awash in piles of paper to recycle, paper to shred and THEN recycle, old labels to throw away, and dust. By mid-afternoon today, I had two thirds of the cabinet purged, the shredding bags out on the back porch, the carpet vacuumed, and a basic system in place to manage our files.
I got rid of 10 years of tax returns, 6 years of bank statements and bills, pay stubs, immigration paperwork, user manuals and warranties for things we no longer own, etc, etc. It feels incredibly freeing to have all this empty space in the cabinet and to be able to locate important papers quickly without pawing through piles of out-of-date stuff.
I still have health records and the boys school and sports files to go through. Plus Z will have to deal with some of his bulging files full of financial and work stuff, old papers written in Arabic, and yellowing photographs from his childhood.
My ultimate goal is to get rid of our existing three drawer lateral cabinet because it's in our living room, is not attractive, and takes up too much space. There is simply nowhere else in the house to put it. I think I can get down to half the cabinet, which could then fit into a three-drawer standard filing cabinet that could be stashed somewhere unobtrusive. Or stored in some kind of attractive desk-type furniture thingy (maybe like this or this) in the study part of our living room.
A couple of weeks ago I saw an item over at Uncluttterer on the FreedomFiler. It's essentially a system for managing household and/or small business files that is self-purging. I ordered the smallest kit that just comes with labels and instructions as I already had hanging file folders and a cabinet.
It arrived on Thursday and by midday Friday, our living room was awash in piles of paper to recycle, paper to shred and THEN recycle, old labels to throw away, and dust. By mid-afternoon today, I had two thirds of the cabinet purged, the shredding bags out on the back porch, the carpet vacuumed, and a basic system in place to manage our files.
I got rid of 10 years of tax returns, 6 years of bank statements and bills, pay stubs, immigration paperwork, user manuals and warranties for things we no longer own, etc, etc. It feels incredibly freeing to have all this empty space in the cabinet and to be able to locate important papers quickly without pawing through piles of out-of-date stuff.
I still have health records and the boys school and sports files to go through. Plus Z will have to deal with some of his bulging files full of financial and work stuff, old papers written in Arabic, and yellowing photographs from his childhood.
My ultimate goal is to get rid of our existing three drawer lateral cabinet because it's in our living room, is not attractive, and takes up too much space. There is simply nowhere else in the house to put it. I think I can get down to half the cabinet, which could then fit into a three-drawer standard filing cabinet that could be stashed somewhere unobtrusive. Or stored in some kind of attractive desk-type furniture thingy (maybe like this or this) in the study part of our living room.
Three bags of shreddies
Well, shreddings. Three large garbage bags full, ready for recycling. I have wanted to tackle our filing cabinet ever since we moved and I finally got the kick-start I needed.A couple of weeks ago I saw an item over at Uncluttterer on the FreedomFiler. It's essentially a system for managing household and/or small business files that is self-purging. I ordered the smallest kit that just comes with labels and instructions as I already had hanging file folders and a cabinet.It arrived on Thursday and by midday Friday, our living room was awash in piles of paper to recycle, paper to shred and THEN recycle, old labels to throw away, and dust. By mid-afternoon today, I had two thirds of the cabinet purged, the shredding bags out on the back porch, the carpet vacuumed, and a basic system in place to manage our files.I got rid of 10 years of tax returns, 6 years of bank statements and bills, pay stubs, immigration paperwork, user manuals and warranties for things we no longer own, etc, etc. It feels incredibly freeing to have all this empty space in the cabinet and to be able to locate important papers quickly without pawing through piles of out-of-date stuff.I still have health records and the boys school and sports files to go through. Plus Z will have to deal with some of his bulging files full of financial and work stuff, old papers written in Arabic, and yellowing photographs from his childhood. My ultimate goal is to get rid of our existing three drawer lateral cabinet because it's in our living room, is not attractive, and takes up too much space. There is simply nowhere else in the house to put it. I think I can get down to half the cabinet, which could then fit into a three-drawer standard filing cabinet that could be stashed somewhere unobtrusive. Or stored in some kind of attractive desk-type furniture thingy (maybe like this or this) in the study part of our living room.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Comic Vision
Last Thursday, Z and I attended a fundraiser in support of the Foundation Fighting Blindness called Comic Vision. We attended with some business colleagues and had a very entertaining evening. It was downtown at Koolhaus, a little large for comedy, but it worked. There was some time for drinks and hors d'ouevres, a light meal, a live auction (although the auction items were all out of our price range, it was pretty entertaining to watch the auctioneer and bidding action), and then a series of acts by comedians. The highlights of the evening were Mark Walker, Meg Soper, and headliner Andrew Grose. Grose's act was spectacularly funny and I'd see him again any time.
A beautiful Beef Stroganoff
I'm not sure that I've ever made a real Beef Stroganoff before....perhaps only the kind that uses ground beef and canned cream soup, back in our grad school days.
We got some cremini mushrooms in our organic veggie box this week so I went trolling the internet for recipes. This one was an absolute winner. I made is as per the recipe except that I substituted double cream for creme fraiche as that's what I could find. The fabulous taste was well worth the somewhat finicky prep. It was met with raves by the rest of the household, and they only left me a tiny portion as leftovers for todays lunch.
This recipe will definitely go into my collection.
We got some cremini mushrooms in our organic veggie box this week so I went trolling the internet for recipes. This one was an absolute winner. I made is as per the recipe except that I substituted double cream for creme fraiche as that's what I could find. The fabulous taste was well worth the somewhat finicky prep. It was met with raves by the rest of the household, and they only left me a tiny portion as leftovers for todays lunch.
This recipe will definitely go into my collection.
Comic Vision
Last Thursday, Z and I attended a fundraiser in support of the Foundation Fighting Blindness called Comic Vision. We attended with some business colleagues and had a very entertaining evening. It was downtown at Koolhaus, a little large for comedy, but it worked. There was some time for drinks and hors d'ouevres, a light meal, a live auction (although the auction items were all out of our price range, it was pretty entertaining to watch the auctioneer and bidding action), and then a series of acts by comedians. The highlights of the evening were Mark Walker, Meg Soper, and headliner Andrew Grose. Grose's act was spectacularly funny and I'd see him again any time.
A beautiful Beef Stroganoff
I'm not sure that I've ever made a real Beef Stroganoff before....perhaps only the kind that uses ground beef and canned cream soup, back in our grad school days.We got some cremini mushrooms in our organic veggie box this week so I went trolling the internet for recipes. This one was an absolute winner. I made is as per the recipe except that I substituted double cream for creme fraiche as that's what I could find. The fabulous taste was well worth the somewhat finicky prep. It was met with raves by the rest of the household, and they only left me a tiny portion as leftovers for todays lunch.This recipe will definitely go into my collection.
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