to do
ira funds check
masada ticks replace
film
medical bills
clean pigs
sort laundry
wash dog
wash floor
pay credit cards

sleeeeeeeeeeep

a recap so that I can some day catch up and write a good blog
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: unfinished
What did i do all week?

coming week:
mon: reed airport; chitra botanical gardens; liz restaurant; date with Brandon.

tue: terrible tuesday. Need to make reservation at sangria. also job interview.

wed: crap I promised something to someone, what was it? grandba; badminton;

thursday - crap what was it that I had to do???

friday - going out for Linda's b-day

saturday - liz's bday

sunday --- mercy, finally a day when nothing is planned. YET. AMEN!

mon - date with Brandon

tue
-interview
-Margarita from hell at el Meson with Gina, Frank, Mark, and Frank's about to be wife
- terrible wednesday at Sangria. It was Linda's idea and she didn't even show! WTF?
-talked to paul and set up sunday
-talked to mike

wed
- dinner at Jen's,
- badminton

thu -
-holly n downtown
-visited unkle mike
-chitra, romana, jen, serg at monsoon
-date with mike at dublin's
--bizzaro woman at the bar
--sausage fest
--going home to psychoanalyse mike for 2 hours

fri
-interview for job choice #1 postponed by two weeks!
- grandpa's death anneversary
- soundbar
- Chitra and Mo stuff

sat
-5K with Jessica, Bijoy and Holly and I participating, and Jenny B + L supporting, in crappy 40 degree windy weather. Heck, at least it didn't rain on us.
-man that man is hot
-din din at Koi, don't forget the molten icecream cake and the Ho incident.
-chromium
--chitra and mo part II
--Holly/Daniel
--Tony the boss

Sunday - wtf? no call from paul?
-hiking proposal will be rejected in leu of doing absolutely nothing all day. Need a day like that.

Upcoming plans:

Mon
a. date with Brandon?
b. hip hop class with holly

Tue
a. interview II with the brits
b. Terrible Wednesday

Wed - badminton with Chitra at night

Thu - AHA! nothing is planned. Hoorah Hoorah!

Fri - nothing is planned. Hoorah Hoorah!

Sat - dodgeball?

Sun - nothing is planned. Hoorah Hoorah!

the following week will be nuts: play, halloween, and a race added to the mix.

the MAN list
Mood:  accident prone
Topic: my own bachelorette show
Ok, so here's the list.

at the top of the list is this cute cute guy named Kevin from a certain bike shop. Problem, he hasn't called and it's been a week. Did I strike out?

then there's a very clever guy named Brandon. He has red hair and I don't like the name Brandon.

Then there's Mike. Mike's sooooo funny. Can't wait to go out with him.

Paul - what I like about Paul is that we have an insane amount of things in common. Separated at birth?

Chad - don't know if Chad's on the list. He lives too far and doesn't make it to Chicago enough. He pissed me off a few times already - I think I'm done here. That and he's too tall.

Kent - too desperate, he creeped me out, he's off the list.

Ken - this guy is a true daredevil, but is surprizingly level headed and easy to talk to

Kevin - different Kevin, he's interesting but conceited

Ben - just very different from what I'm used to, a very soft personality.

John - I'm trying hard here. I dunno if I'll dig him, he has some weird quirks to him

Brad - he's neat but may be too anal for me.

What was the name of that guy I met at the club the other night? Doesn't matter, he was 23 and too skinny.

I still wanna go out with that dude from that band. Even if he's a conceited bastard. I just want to see what's hiding behind that camo.

I'm tired and have a big day in a few hours, need to stop blogging and go to sleep.

whoop-tie-do, I must have a knack for this kind of stuff
Mood:  accident prone
Topic: my own bachelorette show
i must have this effect on people. Everyone I date ends up married except for me.

Ok, I'm pretty sure Ted's married or getting there.
Graham and Kevin are MIA, so it don't matter.
Tom's married and should be sending me pictures of his 1st-born child shortly.

That leaves: andy - I don't care enough to find out.

Mike - ok, I dunno what his status is, but he's not dating 's far's I know.

BUT now: Jason, ok we didn't date that long but he's engaged.

And BRAD is now dating someone, although he's not sure if it is serious, but that may be what he tells me.

OK, now I'm happy for all of them and everything, but heck, when's it gonna be my turn? I'm not alone or lonely, but it would be so nice to have someone to share my life with. I'm very lucky to have the best friends and family in the world, and I think everything else is together or getting there. But this one thing is missing. Obviously I'm doing my best to rectify the situation, but I'm beginning to get bitter, and have trouble with attending weddings, and looking at happy couples, especially with children. I don't feel off balance or like I need to find my center, but this is really getting me down. I'm going to go try to go on 10 dates with 10 radically different people in the next 10-15 days, and they all have similar interests. If that don't work, I'm going to take a wee little break. That's called giving up. I'm giving myself till the end of this month, and after that, hopefully I'll have a new job to keep me too busy to even think about dating, and I can stop worrying about it due to idle time on my hands.

Maaan, why'd I have to find out about Jason and Brad on the same freakin day? I guess I should be thankful, get it over with in one foul swoop.

space and weightlessness
Topic: web stuff
ok this is a bizzaro company, completely fascinating.

atlas aerospacehttp://www.atlasaerospace.net/eng/index.htm

Races to be run
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: On the way to Triathlon
Definites, if I'm in Chicago:

-flashlight 5K today
-universal sole 11/6 5K;
-11/14 trail challenge 2 5.75 miles;
-10/24 orienteering 10K trail run;
-12/11 4mile pub run;

Maybes:

-bristol 5K 10/9;
-11/21 ride and tie 10K (bike/run team) if I can talk a friend into doing it,
-11/25 turkey predictor 4K;
-adventure race if I can get a team together

flashlight 5K
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: On the way to Triathlon
Another weekend, another race.

This is not your ordinary 5K! The Flashlight 5K will be held in the evening, and the run will be along a paved bicycle path through the woods. In the outdoor camping tradition of Camp Fire USA, participants will be treated to a hotdog and marshmallow roast after the race. It's a unique experience, but with all the race amenities you've come to expect.

Event Date: Oct. 04, 2003 (Saturday)
Location: Busse Woods (this was sooo hard to find, took us 45 minutes!)
City: Elk Grove Village, IL US

I filled up on a bowl of pasta and tomato sause 1 hour prior to race time. Yum!

Holly, Bijoy and I ran.

And I won 3rd Place, Mens overall. That's right, mens. Ok, obviously they know something I don't know. Here's the blooper:

During the award ceremony, while they were announcing men's winners, I heard something vaguely resembling my name. I went up there, with hesitation due to the circumstance, I might add, and everyone kind of got really quiet. And I was like, "people, keep your prejudices to yourselves!" And everyone laughed. They butchered my name and my gender and where I was from for the award ceremony because I registered manually, not online. I did get 3rd best time in my age group for men and women, so either way, I've earned my 3rd place.

----------------
Our times:
Bijoy thinks his was 32 something.

Holly:

453 54 6 W25 Holly Greniuk, 25*, Chicago, IL 29:57.9 9:40

Me:
452 36 4 M25 Ireael Lerner, 26, Elk Grove Vlg, IL 26:53.0 8:40

My stats:
exe time 26:53
in zone (naughty naughty)2:19
average: 188

The important thing is this was a mile time average of under 9 minutes. The goal for the year is 8:30. 10 seconds to shave off in 3 months. I can do it!

I do know I pushed myself and paced well - afterwards I was a bit faint, and my legs are still huritng on Monday. (that could be from the dancing later that day too). I need to work a lot harder then this though, if I want to do well in the second trail challenge!

Notes to self, make sure eveyrone's shoes are adequately tied prior to the start of the race.

Oh yeah, the course is well laid out, if you can find it. Pretty. No big hills, but a long low grade hill stretch. Nice thing is, you run uphill in the beginning of the race, then you run downhill. What did I learn while watching the olympics? Up and down hill are different types of running. My first mile time was 8:03, my second was 8:34. The last one I whacked out on probably. I want that 25:45 time. Ok, let's do the math. the last 1.1 was in: (26:53-16:37)/1.1 =10.25/1.1 = 9.31, or 9:20. Regressing back to the comfortable. So I only had juice for 2 miles? I suck!

Another note to self, fist time trying smores made in a fire. Is that pathetic or what? We didn't have smores growing up in Russia. They had graham crackers, giant marshmallows, and hersey's. What else does a girl need? Nice goodie bag - an athletic pouch with a 1st aid kit, jelly belly jelly beans. Nice prizes for first place - flashlights! how cool is that! I want one. I dunno, doing 7 minute miles seems like the impossible right now, but I did shave off 1.5 minutes off my time in the last 6 months. Maybe the hard work will pay off.

Scottrade
Topic: Investment 101
Ok, Scottrade wins. I opened my account today. Woo Hoo, I now am an "investor". Right? Cool.

IRA
I learned about the different types of IRA's and rules from fool.com. Very good site for people like me. I'll definitely come back there for more investment advice and stuff.

I started talking to people and looking online and amassed a list of companies to investigate for the 401K rollover into an IRA. I don't think I'll qualify for Roth in the long run, plus Roth has some other restrictions I don't like. So I figured out that I need exactly the traditional IRA. By the way, you can pull money out of your IRA without a penalty to buy your first home or pay for a variety of things, such as a master's degree. You can't with a regular 401K. So you can build with a 401K especially if there's matching, then roll to an IRA, and take the money scott-free! Sweet! Not that you shouldn't save it for retirement, but...

The following excel spreadsheet is what I came up with. Invaluable were these two lists: JD Power for ratings - will definitely come back here for other information for the other financial projects I have, the site rocks, and takes you right to the info you need, and it's free, with no forms to fill out. Better then just asking a handful of your friends, this is what the country thinks. The other was a rather small list on Fool, but it exposes all the different hidden fees with the IRAs. Once the list was compiled, I called and called and called. The result is a full list of rules, fees, and services for a traditional or a rollover (like traditional, but named different and with fewer fees in most cases, but no other differences) IRA. Enjoy.

IRA in a nutshell: you can hopefully get away without paying any fees. You can buy no-load mutual funds or stocks and then it doesn't cost you anything to trade. Else if you want to buy other stuff, you should hopefully not pay much, and ideally it's a transaction, not a per stock fee. Ta-da! Fool.com has all the rules and ins and outs. Use it.

Must look into Legg Mason and Raymond James as well for full service investment. See how they fare to online companies. And only 2 hours to go before I have to work on opening an account and faxing a form.

Long Term Investment.
Topic: Investment 101

Talked to Legg Mason. They are fabulous. Rated #1 on JD Edwards. Will have to wait to get 10K I can risk to use them, hopefully by next year. Low cost, to no cost, and really nice. Clearly the personal attention of a small firm and yet they got the expertise. If they're still #1 on JD Edwards when I'm ready, I'm there. Of course, will have to look at others as well, but that's later.

http://www.jdpower.com/cc/finance/jdpa_ratings/OnlineInvesting.jsp
http://www.fool.com/dbc/tables/compare.htm?ref=aaira