6.30 AM Saturday Morning

Castleton Mist
Originally uploaded by lloydsm2004.

Gus, go back to bed! Daddy doesn't work today.

Gus! Lay Down! Daddy can sleep in this morning!

Allright, we're getting up.

Its my fault for getting him on such a set schedule that the boy can't even sleep in on Saturday and Sunday. So I was up at 6.30 AM, we went for a walk, I got a paper, and now I'm sitting here pulling out paint and all my brushes, etc. Might as well get an early start.

The color of my kitchen is going to be Castleton Mist. I googled a picture of what Castleton Mist looks like and came up with the attached picture. My color doesn't really look like this, but if you were curious about what mist in Castleon looks like, well, here you go...

Tonight I'm being DD for a friend of mine, crazy Ed. We're going to Boston, although I'm more going under protest and because I'm not doing anything else. I generally don't like bars.

At least in Massachusetts the bars are all non-smoking! I don't come out of them smelling like a smoke factory.

Last March Rhode Island went all non-smoking too. If your state hasn't done it yet, I suggest you get on the horn with your state legistlator and DEMAND IT!

Sorry to all my smoker friends out there. You have a right to do whatever you want, I don't want to deny you that. However, your second hand smoke is noxious.

Love the smoker, not the habit :)

Ah...the Joy of Rebates

Mary Jane
Originally uploaded by lloydsm2004.

You really have to love the idea of rebates. You give somebody money now to reduce their price later. What twisted mother fucker from Harvard business school invented that racket?

I rarely buy things based on the idea that I'll be getting a rebate. However, I bought a laptop back in September. Part of the deal is that it came with a $400.00 rebate.

I mailed my rebate in the day after purchase. 3-1/2 months later and still no rebate. Not that I expected it within a few weeks. Maybe a month to 6 weeks. I am now at week 14.

Corporate america makes me want to do some heavy drugs.

I normally am not into drugs. But every once in a while I get the urge to smoke a big fat...I'm not saying that on here...Do you think I'm going too incriminate myself? Drugs are bad, M'Kay...Don't do drugs. Besides, my mother reads this shit. I don't need her to know that her pure and innocent baby boy isn't so pure and innocent.

I saw Brokeback Mountain the other day. Great movie. Wonderful cinematography. I can't say too much, I'm hardly any sort of film critic. I think though you have to go into the movie expecting to see something about maturing in life.

The most frequent comment I heard people say when coming out of the movie is, "Not a lot happened." I would have to disagree and say a whole helluva lot happened.

I don't know, if somebody wants to discuss I'd be happy to sometime. I'm still digesting and pondering it to a degree.

Happy New Year!

Well, not quite, but it is getting close.

Who knows how things will end up this weekend, so I figured I'd better put this post up sooner rather than later.

The biggest happening of my New Year's weekend - painting! There's no way better to start a New Year than with a fresh coat of paint to brighten things up. I'm also going to be hanging curtains in the kitchen too . I know, that is so Martha of me.

Speaking of Martha. Have you seen her show? I've only caught it a few times, but after seeing it I'm beginning to think she is some sort of social retard. And why would I think such a thing of Miss Martha? Here is a snipet of what I remember her saying in an interview with Ann Courie:

Martha: "Have you seen Memoirs of a Geisha?"

Ann: "Not yet, but I'm looking forward to it."

Martha: "It most hold special meaning for you."

Ann: "how so?"

Martha: "Being Japanese."

Ann: "I guess so."

Martha: "Was your mother a Geisha?"

Now most of the above was made up, but honest to God Martha Stewart asked Ann Courie if her mother was a Geisha!

The other memorable Martha episode from 2005 was the high school reunion show. The producers brought in a bunch of people from Martha's high school. Martha didn't remember any of them. The only thing she could recall from high school is that she was on the prom decorating committee.

That is all from the New Year frontline in Warwick. Have a safe and fun New Year's Celebration, wherever you are!

Dude, You're Getting Screwed

Dude, You're Getting Screwed
Originally uploaded by lloydsm2004.

I knew my gas bill was going to be higher this winter, I had planned on it. So I've been keeping the thermostat set at 63 and making sure I'm doing everything possible to limit my use of the furnance (as much as possible to the event that I don't want my pipes to burst).

Luckily I don't have steam heat, so I don't have water pipes running through the entire house.

So I feel like I've been doing a pretty good job. Until yesterday.

I got my gas bill from New England Gas. Now I can't complain as much as some people because I have a small house, but my bill went from $41.28 in November to $141.82 in December and I didn't use any more gas than I used in November.

Sometimes it pays to own a small house. I can imagine the bill for some of my friends who own 2000 - 3000 sq ft homes.

Just to feel better I pulled out my bill from last December. I used a little less gas than I used this December -- I think it was a little warmer last December -- and my bill was $39.86.

Not one time last winter did my bill ever go over $100 because Gas is just one of those things that if you pay alot for it, you have nothing to show for it.

Now when my friends come over they always complain about how cold I keep my house and ask if I can turn up the heat. I tell next time wear a sweater and I pull out a blanket for them to cover up with. Sorry, but I'm not paying $10.00 to keep you a bit warmer for an hour.

So I can't wait to see my bill for January and February. January here tends to stay in the teens and single digits.

All I can do is smile.

The Perfect Lunch

I'm sitting here contemplating my lunch. I brought a bowl of Maruchan Ramen Noodes with me. Yes, the kind you just add hot water to and voila - dehydrated carrots, corn, and noodles become instant lunch.

There are 300 calories in my bowl of Maruchan noodles. I was considering getting a double cheeseburger from Wendy's instead, but just looked up the calorie content: 700. That does not include the french fries. On top of the fact I haven't had fast food in over two months and would probably wind up with a horrible case of indigestion and...well, we just won't go there.

So the geniuses who study diets tell us that one pound of body fat is equivalent to 3500 calories. To lose one pound I need to create a deficit of 3500 calories or burn 3500 calories through exercise (probably best to do a combination of both). Now the geniuses also tell us that if we reduce our caloric intake to under 1200 calories a day our metabolic rate actually SLOWS DOWN and the body stops burning fat.

Here's the part of a calorie diet that I enjoy. According to the calorie matrix the sample beer has 148 calories for every 12 ozs. (the sample beer they use is Carlsberg...How the hell they chose Carlsberg as a sample, I have no idea, but apparently it was in the median of their random sampling).

So here is my thinking...I can eat 4 packages of Maruchan Noodles every day (300 X 4 = 1200 calories) OR I can have approximately 8 12 oz servings of Carlsberg every day. So today, I am skipping my Maruchan noodles for lunch and having two beers. Hey...you can't beat that!

Home Improvements for 2006:

1 - Paint Kitchen (No more Princess Purple)
2 - Paint Bedroom
3 - Custom closets built in bedroom and bathroom
4 - Put up towel rack in bathroom
5 - Need a shed
6 - Clean up Florida Room, put lawnmower and yard tools in new shed
7 - Get the doorbell fixed
8 - Furnish my Florida Room
9 - New Front Door (anyone have an extra $800 laying around?)
10 - New Porch Light
11- Power wash the house
12 - Take down the god awful awnings and put up shutters
13 - Build Shelves in laundry room
14 - pait laundry room shelves
15 - Buy a spare bed for the second bedroom, which is currently empty
16 - Organize laundry room
17 - Vacuum and clean out basement
18 - Hydroseed
19 - Plant Flower Beds
20 - Mulch
21 - Remove Tree from backyard
22 - Haul old basketball hoop to dump
23 - Clean gutters
24 - install gutter helmets
25 - New shower door

Now the funny thing about this list is half this stuff isn't getting done, but I can dream can't I? Why do you ask is most of this not getting completed? Well you need to have a bank account much larger than mine to complete most of these tasks. But I will continue to watch and learn, and read about how to do these things yourself.

I broke down and cried the first weekend that I moved into my house. I was trying to put in a toilet paper holder and punched a whole in my bathroom wall. I patched the hole up, but I've never dared to put a hole in my drywall since.

If anyone has any advice on the above, please let me know!

Watch Out! Confusion Ahead!

Land of Confusion
Originally uploaded by lloydsm2004.

I did something totally spontaneous on Saturday morning. I went hunting for a job in Phoenix.

This is my dilemma. I really love living in New England. I like my little house and the life I've built around me here, my job is going pretty well and I've started school and am looking forward to actually finishing my master's degree this time.

The problem is my mum is ill. Her mental capacity is slowly fading, and the cold plain truth is her time left is more limited than most people. I would love to spend some more time with her and also with my sister and my nephews and that just isn't going to happen when I'm 2,700 miles away from them.

All my life I've sort of rushed into things and really I need to think this one through. I feel very drawn to spending time with my family, but I also can't help to think that I'm in a good spot for myself and I'm finally turning my lazy ass around and fixing my life up.

I feel really good about my accomplishments over the past couple of years. I've had my share of mistakes (ahem, I'll still forget to balance my check book sometimes). But for the most part I at least try to live on a semblance of a budget and I no longer believe that if I have a check, I have money...But that's another story for another time :)

So I toss this back and forth. I think I'll take some time to really think about it, mull it over and make sure that its the best thing to do. For as much as I would absolutely love to see my family more, it would be a huge sacrifice for me to uproot my life again.

Until I decide then...

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Fall Semester 2005 Results:

I received my official grade report for the Fall 2005 semster from Rhode Island College today. Let me just explain my rant from a little earlier today regarding said A- received in Finance.

I am by no means a perfectionist. If I earned an A- through my own effort and hard work then I am fine with that. If, however, the evil tyrrant of a professor insists on group assignments and pre-assigned groups that I cannot control then I am *NOT* okay with my grade being lowered because of the lack of effort of students who just don't even try.

Had my group tried and put effort into working on our projects, you would have not heard a peep out of me about my grade dropping because of our group assignments.

So here are the results of my blood, sweat, and tears:

Managerial Accounting: A

Managerial Finance and Control: A-

GPA: 3.8

Nacho Jesus

Nacho Jesus
Originally uploaded by lloydsm2004.

Workers in Florida claimed to have seen the Image of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in a Nacho Pan.

What a Christmas Miracle!

A Letter of Thanks to My Finance Group

vengeance
Originally uploaded by lloydsm2004.

I just wanted to write a letter of extreme Thanks to my group in Managerial Finance & Control.

Thank you so much for all of your hard work and unending hours to make sure all of the work we turned in was top notch, neat, and organized. When you had to make a change, the the scribbles all over our assignments were the neatest they could be!

When we were scheduled to meet you all showed up and were ready to go. Everbody contributed to my efforts by sitting around and talking while I worked. When we broke up to finish on our own you all worked so diligently to finish your part of the assignment and get it to me five minutes before class started so that I had time to properly prepare.

Thank you for the hard work on our last case assignment, whereby you made my grade drop from an A to an A-, I really must thank you for that.

For all your hard work, I thank you.

Escape from the Zion Curtain

UT by Pat Beagley
Originally uploaded by lloydsm2004.

For most of my life I grew up in Utah. I couldn't wait to leave. I started looking at out of state colleges when I was 9, trying to decide on a foreign, exotic locale that was free from the prying, exclusive eyes of our Mormon neighbors.

No offense meant, but you people are mean and exclusive when you get together as a group. Growing up in Utah, living as a "minority", made me realize that pluarlity is a good thing.

The problem with Utah is there exists an unspoken caste system between the elect, the chosen, and the gentiles. The elect are the power elite (legislators, Church Hierarchy, prominent business people - usually a combination of all 3), the chosen are the faithful Mormons who exist to serve only their community, the gentiles are comprised of everybody else.

The insitutions which enforces and imprints these ideas is the public school system. In elementary school there is no rigid separation except that Non-Mormon members may be excluded from participating in activities with their Mormon friends (i.e. if you are not a member of our church you cannot join this Cub Scout Group, etc.). Thus the foundations are laid for the exclusion of non-Mormons from participating in social circles.

Junior high school cements the exclusion and separation. You see, attached to every Junior and High school in Utah is a little nonconspicous building called a seminary. During school hours Mormons are "released" from regular school in order to attend seminary. If you don't attend seminary, you have an immediate label as being an outsider. As well in junior high school every single one of my Mormon friends stopped associating with me on a social basis.

Now that you have a background you might understand why at age 9 I started looking for a college as far away from Utah as I could get. My one driving force in life became the idea "I'm getting off this merry-go-round."

The straw that broke the camels back and finally made me make a permanent split with that great state was this:

I was sitting in a bar having a conversation with a guy. He wasn't drinking, at least not that I could tell, but he started telling me about how he had a gay identity and surrounded himself with the lifestyle, but did not commit acts of sodomy as he was part of the chosen and had to transcend earthly temptation.

The next day as I shuffled through the holy garments laying on the floor next to the bed, I made a decision:

"Goodbye, Utah...Hello, Lousiana!"

Beata Beatrix

beatabeatrix
Originally uploaded by lloydsm2004.

This is my favorite work of art. I just find the imagery in this painting fascinating.

I've seen one of the originals at the Art Institute of Chicago. I used to go down to the Art Institute on Sundays and sit and stare at this painting for hours and it is one of the few paintings that I've seen that actually invokes emotion in me.

Someday I want to go see the original at the Tate Gallery in London (at least, as far as I can recall, that is where the first original is).

Yankee Swap...

I'm wondering if Blogging at work falls under the auspices of misuse of company equipment? If so, I promise that I'll make up the time :)

So last week was the week of Christmas parties, including two Yankee Swaps. For those of you who don't know what a Yankee Swap here are the rules:

1 - Create numbers 1 - through how many gifts are being played

2 - Number 1 chooses a gift and displays it for everyone to see

3 - Player 2 goes and chooses a gift, they can either unwrap it or swap it with player # 1, and player#1 unwraps that gift.

4 - Player number three either chooses a gift to unwrap or takes player #1 or #2s gift. If they take a gift from somebody, then that person can either take another gift or go the pile and unwrap a gift. (I should mention we only allow each gift to be swapped once per round).

5- the above continues until the last person chooses and all swapping from the last round is complete.

6 - Player #1 then swaps their gift with whomever they choose.

So we had a Yankee Swap at work on Thursday and it was crazy. We were all wrangling over who got what liquor gift set. So every round the bottles of booze switched hands from person to person. I finally ended up with a Fleece New England Patriot's Blanket. Alas, no booze here. I think our work swap was the most vicious I had ever seen in my life. And of course, there were those who particpated who were disgusted with our hunt for the most premium liquor. Apparently somebody complained that 80% of the gifts were bottles of booze. I mean, come on, this is Rhode Island, not Utah...

I went to another Holiday Party yesterday and we had a very mild Yankee Swap. People were too nice. Not me, I handed a stack of picture frames right over for a bottle of Disaronno and two glasses. Pictures frames nice...Disaronno much nicer :)

Now what sucks about Yankee Swaps is that you always have the person who brings the crappy gift. Like the year before last I ended up with Gel Socks and a pumice stone for scraping feet. Who brings that as a gift? I can't even re-gift that I would feel so corny. Then last year I ended up with the gross box from Hickory Farms of Non-Pareils. I spent $35.00 on a gift last year and ended up with a gross box of mints that probably cost $2.00. I re-gifted the non-pareils.

So new Yankee Swap rule for work parties... You have to put your name on the gift you give. That way everyone knows what you brought and the person who brought the Regis Philbin CD can be shamed into not participating in future years.

Ah...Freak Out!

I have my finance final today. Wo to professors who give cumulative finance finals! At least he is letting us have a cheat sheet so I didn't have to memorize all the formulas. My last finance class she made us memorize the formulas, it was harsh.

Tomorrow is our office Holiday Luncheon followed by Yankee Swap. I am bringing my mum's famous orange jello salad to our shin dig. So after my final tonight I have to go home and make jell-o. I think I am now more stressed about making this jello dish...

As long as I don't really screw this final up tonight I should be all set to go with this finance class. Only 3.5 more years to go! Woohoo!

Oh and on a side note...Why do co-workers think it is fun to bring in Christmas decorations which play music? All day long all I have been hearing is this stupid snowman play the piano and sing "Have a holly jolly Christmas..." I'm bringing a sledge hammer tomorrow.

What do you call a nun who sleep Walks? A roamin' catholic.

New England Crack

It is the bane of our existence in New England. Dunkin' Donuts Coffee. It permeates the very fabric of the soul, it is a metaphysical reality.

When I first moved to New England, I wondered why there was a Dunkin' Donuts every mile or so on every road, in the grocery stores, and my hell Providence's arena is even called the Dunkin' Donuts Center. Was this the precursor and lesser known cousin of Krispy Kreme? No, it is an entity unto its own that is uniquely New England.

I was first introduced to Dunkin' Donutes coffee about a week after I moved to Rhody. My roommate was dying for a Dunkin' Donutes Breakfast Sandwich and asked if I wanted to walk to the local DD. I was up for a walk so I said sure. I ordered a medium coffee. I was confused and befuddled and stood there for a few minutes, surely angering the line of customers behind me, when she me if I wanted my coffee regular...

What the heck is regular coffee? Well regular coffee at Dunkin' Donuts is coffee with cream and sugar. I thought regular meant that it was black. So of course I said, 'No, I'd like my coffee with cream and sugar."

"So you want it regular."

"Yes, regular with cream and sugar."

"one medium regular."

"Yes, one medium regular with cream and sugar."

"You want that with extra cream and extra sugar?"

"No normal amounts of cream and sugar."

"$1.02"

Phew...This had better be good. Now I'm not lieing when I say it tasted like the coffee that you get out of the bottom of a pot that had been burnt and caked with stale coffee for about two weeks. I told my friend...this takes like swill.

"of course it does, but just wait"

two days later I had a craving so bad for a DD coffee. I went and took a couple of swigs and thought...Oh God, this is gross, why was I craving it? And threw it in the garbage.

The second Friday after I started they brought in Dunkin' Donuts coffee for the whole office. I drank 3 cups...and almost cried when it was gone.

Now I find myself cursing that every Dunkin' Donuts has lines galore and wonder aloud why they don't put in more. Each morning, during my commute, every Dunkin' Donuts that I pass causes a mini-traffic jam as People wait to turn so that can get their coffee through the drive through.

I'm so hooked on this stuff I was actually late to work once because I waited in a 1/2 hour line to get into the Dunkin' Donuts in Seekonk. it surely is a sign that Dunkin' Donuts coffee is New England Crack!

Oh and even though its called Dunkin' Donuts, I never get their donuts. Dunkin' Donuts has nothing to do with donuts and everything to do with coffees and lattes.

Now when I get the chance to order, I get to add an extra step. I switched over to Splenda rather than regular sugar. So now I order a medium hot coffee with 2 Splenda and cream. During the summer months I switch over to iced coffee.

And now DD even lets you put flavors into your coffee. My favorite is Blueberry.

*Sip* Ah!

Non-Pareil

So I haven't been the most dedicated at posting here so far. I'm still trying to figure this whole design thing out. Being a total novice to web design its taking me a while to even conquer the basics. At least posting lets you point, click, and choose. Otherwise...I'd be sunk!

This past weekend was somewhat interesting. I'm in the midst of studying for finals (ahem..make that lame, miserable excuse at studying for finals). Yesterday morning I was reading the newspaper and drinking coffee. It was a cold, brisk New England morning and wanting to conserve energy, I pulled a blanket out and put it across my lap. I looked down and noticed a black speck on that blanket. I went to flick it off and IT JUMPED! It was a flea! ARGH!

I threw the blanket into the washing machine and ran to my local Stop & Shop (that's my local grocery store). I grabbed about 5 cans of flea spray and ran home. I put topical solution on my dog, put him outside, and went to town. There is not a surface that wasn't covered in my endeavor and everything that was small enough to put in the washer has now been washed. I never saw one more flea, and I've certainly not noticed any flea bites, so I'm hoping that my problem was very minor.

Now...question...Gus gets flea treatments once a month...so where did aforementioned flea come from? Who knows...They are a big nuisance in New England. I generally am very vigilant about keeping an eye out for them though. I certainly don't want a flea infestation in my house.

So I also made a major decision this past weekend. I chose the color of paint for my kitchen. Now I just have to paint over that mess of a color that I had before. I picked out what I thought was a very nice color previously. It looked like a very blueish color that I thought would really have some shimmer. I put it up on my wall and it was a total horror show. My kitchen was Princess Purple.

The new color is a soft, very light, greenish/yellow. Its actually nice...you'll just have to trust me on that. But now, I'm going to have to put up a coat of Killz to cover the ghastly Princess Purple that now coats my cozy kitchen. The color is actually called Castleton Mist, it is a Benjamin Moore Paint. So you can look it up on their website.

Business School...

What is it about professors in business school that makes them think they have to assign group work? Do they think they are making things easier on us? Or do they purposefully try and complicate our lives?

Here is how I work in groups:

1 - Show up to the predesignated time coordinates

2- Wait for the group because every member is at least 30 minutes late

3- While I am waiting start working on the project

4 - Spend 30 minutes talking about class

5 - Spend 1 hour arguing about who does what

6 - break up the project and send everybody on their way

7 - Abe Froman does all of the work and turns in the entire project. Why? Because its my grade, too.

Scheduling Time with Gay Men...

Apparently I made the ultimate faux paux with my gay friends this week. Not understanding the subtleties of scheduling an event, I had made plans to go see "Rent" with a friend of mine on Thursday night.

Thursday morning I saw another friend of mine and mentioned that we were going and asked him if he wanted to come along. Oops!

I got read the riot act that I was inconsiderate and how he couldn't believe that I would plan something without checking with him. Apparently, I am supposed to check with every single friend that I have on what date and time will work for them, before committing to a time and place. I didn't realize going to the movies had become a Xanadu production number.

The problem is, you ask my friend, Timmy, to do anything and he's immediately got to check with John, Wayne, Mark, and Rick to see if they can go too and what their schedule is like. By the time you are finished you have a date two weeks later and all the fun of spontaneously going to a movie is gone. Honestly, every time I plan to do something now I feel like I'm planning a royal wedding.

Apparently, I do this all the time. Because I was told by Timmy that I never check with him before planning things. I was also told how inconsiderate I was and that I should find my own friends and quit hanging out with people he's known 6 months longer than I have. We apparently stake claims to our friends now a days and new friends are not allowed, even if they are the ones calling me and asking me to do things.

So did I remake my plans to include everybody? No. I went to the movie Thursday night and had an absolutely wonderful time. When I plan the DVD viewing party, I'll be sure to schedule it for a night when everybody's schedules work.

Welcome Notes...

Welcome to my Blog Spot. This is my first attempt at writing a Blog, or for that matter writing down daily events at all. I guess I used to keep a journal, but it was never very interesting.

So a little about me. My name is Abe Froman. Of course Abe Froman is not my real name, but maybe I want to maintain a little mystery here. I am 31. I live in Warwick, RI in a little beach cottage on the Narragansett Bay with my dog, Gus. Okay, here is the short of how I got to Rhode Island:

Born in 1974 in Flint, MI
My family moved at some point from Flint, MI to Salt Lake City, UT
Grew up from roughly 1976 - 1992 in Salt Lake City
Moved in 1992 - 93 for 1 year at Loyola University - Chicago
1993 - 1996 University of Utah in Salt Lake City
1997 - 1998 Miserable, failed attempt at living in a monastery outside of Washington, D.C.
1998 - 2000 Lived in Salt Lake City
2000 - 2003 Live in New Orleans, Louisiana
2003 - lost my job in New Orleans
2003 - Moved to Providence for a new job/fresh start
2005 - still living in Rhode Island.

So that is the short of it. I now work for a small consulting firm in Rhode Island. I do consulting work for small businesses, helping them to administer their 401(k) Plans. Its actually more interesting that it sounds.

I'm currently working on attaining a masters degree from Rhode Island College. Once that is complete, who knows what will happen.

Well I wanted to get this started for now. More posts will come later.