Journey & Adventure

Happy National Pink Flamingo Day! You're welcome!

I mentioned in a previous post that J and I were creating a business plan that could assist us with our post-retirement sustainability plan.  I mentioned I would continue to sell jewelry as the area we are looking at retiring to has a great cruise ship business.  Well, J is also getting in on the "crafting" experience.  Here are some of his Surfing Flamingo creations (wine bottle candle lanterns and wine bottle wind chimes).  I personally LOVE them, but then again, I'm kinda bias.  Tell your friends - we will ship with the US, Canada and internationally too!

That’s what I feel like I’ve been doing lately – slacking, procrastinating, stalling or diddlefarting – the act of doing very little, while appearing to be very busy.  Diddlefarting is an art form and I’m proud to say that I have mastered it through many years of practice. In my previous jobs, I had plenty of time on my hands, so I became creative with how to pass time while maintaining the sense of having an extreme workload.  If you want, you can read about the finer details here .  *Disclaimer:  Results may vary.  Use at your own risk. Now, I’m very busy (for real), but with that said, I’m feeling burnt out this week and with that comes lack of motivation to work on the mundane task of this job.  So, for the time being, I’ve brought out the binders and sticky notes and it’s time to practice a little diddlefarting. Tell me, do you diddlefart?

Apart from our early retirement plans, and our scuba diving/travel adventures, J and I are truly boring people. We have little to no social lives, we don’t go to many movies, we don’t go to many organized events and we don’t participate in organized sports and we are basically okay with that. I like my quiet time. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a very social person when the opportunity arises, but I don’t need to participate in social activities on a regular basis. This train of thought came about when I was speaking with The Boy this past weekend. He asked what we’d been up to since he’s been off at school. My response was “nothing at all”. To that, his response was “What’s wrong with you guys? You used to be fun.” He’s right. We weren’t always this boring, but have somehow evolved over the years. I realize age might have something to do with it, but mostly it started around the same time our 5 Year Plan came into focus. Preparation for early retirement costs money and mo...

The early retirement plan is chugging along.  I wish I could say it was ahead of schedule, but such is not the case.   If anything, it’s lagging behind slightly. We have made a conscience decision that J would not go back to work.  He would instead spend his time working on the projects around the house, maintaining the yard and really just getting us in a better position to get the maximum return on the house when it’s time to sell.    Well, who knew we had so much unfinished business around our place.  He’s been off work a year now and the to-do list is still a mile long.  Believe me, it’s not for lack of working on things.  In fact it’s far from it - we finish one project and two more come to mind.  There are things we could probably leave and let the next home owner deal with – like new closet organizers, but since we don’t want to leave a dollar on the table, we are working to make things perfect.  Although we re...

I don’t know what has gotten into me today, but I am exhausted – mentally and physically. The simple thought of walking to my car tonight after work is exhausting me. I’m thinking it’s the weather as it’s been grey, dreary and raining for a few days now. Yesterday was our first warm day / night of the year. It is so nice to have the windows open at night and listen to the sounds of the frogs croaking and rain coming down. It’s not so nice once stupid dogs start to incessantly bark somewhere in the distance. If I could only figure out where… The pace at work continues at a rapid speed. I guess it’s a good thing because my days flash by like lightning. It would be nice to actually know what day of the week it is though. My sister-in-law is coming home for a visit from Ireland this week. J and I will head to Toronto to pick her up from the airport on Saturday. It will be nice to see her, but alas – I’ll have to forgo my nap that day. *sigh* On the upside, it’s ...

My friends have entered a contest to win an all expense paid vacation for one month to Panama. The contest is sponsored by International Living. These are the same friends that have an early retirement plan in mind for next year. So by voting, you'd be helping them out to get a head start. They are currently in second place in the voting, so it would be much appreciated (by me and them) if you could go to this link and vote for them. If you have more than one computer in your house - vote on each one of them, smart phone - vote with that too, at work - even better. VOTE NOW! Let's help them live the dream....