last day at 30

Wow.  I usually amble straight through my birthdays without a second thought, but for some reason thinking that today is my last day at 30 is a bit ominous.  The more I think about it, 31 feels a lot older than 30...  30 is new and fresh, whereas 31 means you've already been in your 30s for over a year :(

Another thing that kind of bummed me out today is that I recalled a bunch of emails I sent to myself before I started law school.  While I was in New York, I wrote emails to myself that would be delivered in one, five and ten years.  Seeing as how I never got the one year email, it means that the message never got delivered, or it got caught in my spam filter.  Either way, it would have been nice to know what I wanted to tell myself earlier.  I think next time I'll just write a letter to myself in Word, and save it somewhere I won't open it.

big fat refund

For the past few weeks, I had been waiting eagerly for my W-2 so that I could file my taxes and get my refund.  Too bad I totally forgot about the stack of mail I picked up and left on my counter last week.  I found it yesterday, and immediately filed my taxes online courtesy of TurboTax - free federal, $9.95 state (at least for us poor students).  I'm looking forward to receiving my huge refund (woohoo for the Lifetime Learning Credit!).

However, chances are that I will blow it all soon on restaurants, camera gear and travel...

weekend update

Another solid weekend.

Friday was Kuma's Corner with Andrew and Tyler. Monster meal as always, although the wait is a turn-off.

Saturday morning I was up bright and early to go snowboarding at Cascade Mountain in Wisconsin.  Definitely way smaller that anything I've been to in California, plus you had to wait longer in the lift line than it took to come down.  Still, it was fun to go boarding and the snow was at least decent - packed but not icy (for the most part).  Afterwards, we went back to our suite at Comfort Suites, and ordered in Pizza Hut.  After a late night, we visited the world's largest Culver's on our way back on Sunday.  The Butter Burger had been on my list, and it did not disappoint - very solid fast food burger.  Also surprisingly delicious on the trip were the fried cheese curds, which tasted pretty much like fried cheese  (surprise?).

damn comcast!

Last night, Anthony Bourdain's show, No Reservations, featured the great city of Chicago.  Being excited about the show, I emailed a bunch of friends to remind them to set their DVRs, never imagining that when I came home I discovered that I don't get the Travel Channel!  Luckily a friend has it on his DVR, so I definitely plan on catching it soon.  At least I can read his blog post now so I can understand what everyone is talking about.