This Halloween marks the fourth week of my marriage to my beautiful bride (that’s a photo of me at the wedding when she gave me my precious ring — somehow I lost my tux before the ceremony). What have I learned in my first four weeks? 1) I’m always wrong. Period. And 2) A new life together takes a lot of work.
First up on the to-do list: new shared bank accounts and closing the old personal ones. We got that done this weekend and it was surprisingly easy (I’m of the belief that the List should rate banks, as I’d rate my new financial institution highly, but that’s for another post). Next up: filling out reports for all the service companies we hired for our wedding ceremony. I’ll be rating and reviewing the reception hall, the florist, the photographer and the DJ. I should have done this weeks ago, but hey, I just got married — I do what I want (if it’s OK with the wife).
What else? For the long term, we need to find a home to purchase in the next two years; figure out a shared financial investment strategy (with the economy, I’m thinking of buying stock in the manufacturers of Ramen and refrigerator boxes); determine how to reduce our now shared debt; and decide on whose medical insurance we’ll use. I’ve got the feeling my Angie’s List membership will definitely come in handy in the future.
Josh is an associate editor at
Angie's List magazine. He has two dogs, Simon and Clem, and likes Thai food, Portland, Ore., and riding his motorcycle. For the low price of $1.00 US, he will give you his sincere and succinct opinion about anything.
Alright. I’m hoping this is the last high-price-gas-related post I’ll ever write and you, loyal reader, will ever have to read (yeah right). If you’re like me, you’re fed up with news reports and articles that reiterate the same well-known thing over and over…and over.
Man In La-Z-Boy Watching Television: Honey, check this out — did you hear about this? The six o’clock news is saying gas prices are high! Have you heard ’bout that? They’ve even got a reporter at a gas station interviewing normal, everyday people about how they feel about these so-called high gas prices!
Man’s Wife In Kitchen: Dear — as you well know, I’ve just returned to our home after living under a giant igneous rock for the past two years, subsisting on a diet of rain water and pill bugs — so, no, I haven’t heard about these so-called “high” gas prices.
[Man’s Wife In Kitchen places pill bug in mouth and chews thoughtfully] Continue reading ‘25 Days Later’
Josh is an associate editor at
Angie's List magazine. He has two dogs, Simon and Clem, and likes Thai food, Portland, Ore., and riding his motorcycle. For the low price of $1.00 US, he will give you his sincere and succinct opinion about anything.
“Goodnight, sweet princess.”
Yes, it is appropriate to misquote Shakespeare’s Hamlet in reference to the death of my beloved Honda Accord.
She had 263,000 miles on her when she made that final shift into overdrive, and she was epic in every way a car can be. Continue reading ‘Changing gears’
Matthew is the senior editor for local affairs at
Angie’s List magazine. When he’s not at the Blue House, he enjoys reading and writing fiction, playing guitar and riding his bicycle.
…my new home:
According to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill the number one reason you should bother to write a good introduction is because you never get a second chance to make a first impression. I hope I succeeded in writing a good introduction of my new home.
It lies in the Indianapolis neighborhood known as Williams Creek. I have famous neighbors in the area — Peyton Manning lives around the corner in Meridian Hills. Continue reading ‘I would like to introduce…’
Conor is an associate editor for
Angie's List magazine. He has a cat named Kanye and a puppy named Sherman, his favorite movie is
Back to the Future, he loves playing basketball and his favorite place is his couch.
I’m one month into riding my bike to work and already the reviews are pouring in:
“We laughed. We cried. Two thumbs up,” say Ebert & Roeper, mistaking my commute for the Italian neorealist drama, “The Bicycle Thief.”
“Keep it short and you’ll limit the helmet hair,” says my barber.
“Um, could you bring an extra change of clothes on humid days?” say my co-workers. Continue reading ‘This is how I roll’
Matthew is the senior editor for local affairs at
Angie’s List magazine. When he’s not at the Blue House, he enjoys reading and writing fiction, playing guitar and riding his bicycle.
I love summer. The weather’s warm, the beer’s cold, and there are lots of parties and things to do. First, I get a high percentage of days I can ride my motorcycle. I ride to work, take pleasure cruises with my fiancee around town on Sundays, and take longer three- to four-hour excursions through southern Indiana’s beautiful hills and curvy country roads with a group of fellow motorcycle enthusiasts. Continue reading ‘Summertime fun’
Josh is an associate editor at
Angie's List magazine. He has two dogs, Simon and Clem, and likes Thai food, Portland, Ore., and riding his motorcycle. For the low price of $1.00 US, he will give you his sincere and succinct opinion about anything.
After several years of braving wooded trails and busy city streets, I’ve put my mountain bike into semi-retirement. I’ll still take her out for rugged riding, but as of a few months ago, I have a new two-wheeled mainstay — my Giant Tran Send.
Giant Tran Send? Isn’t that what Matthew was glowing about in a previous blog post? Yes. Same bike. We both have a sleek, urban-utility commuter bike with fenders and a rack on back, except mine is gray and Matt’s is blue. “Hello, inner 8-year-old” is right. It glides on the paved trails of Indianapolis and helps make my 13-mile roundtrip to work a breeze. Continue reading ‘Hey! That’s my bike!’
Mandy Miller is senior online editor for Angie's List publication department. When she's not focusing on the
magazine's website and other online offerings, she's tackling a mounting list of home improvements she thinks she can do herself. Plus, she really likes to ride her bike, play with her puppy, Boo Radley, and take naps.
Like Matthew, I’m also turning to two-wheeled transportation in an effort to alleviate some of the sting of the price at the pump. However, I prefer my two-wheeled transport with a little more horsepower.
My motorcycle-riding season has been on since about mid-March, when the first inkling of good spring and summer riding weather first arrived. At the time, the thought of ponying up my first-born child (or the future deed to my firstborn, as I have no children (that I know of)) to pay for gas hadn’t occurred to me — I just wanted to ride like the wind. But now, the thought of averaging 50 miles per gallon on my motorbike versus the 25 miles per gallon my compact pickup provides only sweetens the deal (if it’s not raining, at least). Continue reading ‘Get my motor runnin’…’
Josh is an associate editor at
Angie's List magazine. He has two dogs, Simon and Clem, and likes Thai food, Portland, Ore., and riding his motorcycle. For the low price of $1.00 US, he will give you his sincere and succinct opinion about anything.
I bought a bike last week from Angie’s List A-lister Indy Cycle Specialist. Not just any bike. A Giant Tran Send commuter bike with rack, fenders, bell and built-in compass.
“Hello, inner 8-year-old.”
I feel like that kid in A Christmas Story who longed for a “Red Ryder carbine-action, 200-shot Range Model air rifle BB gun with a compass in the stock and a thing which tells time.”
I might blow out a knee, but I can’t shoot my eye out with the Tran Send.
When I moved to Indianapolis this month to join Angie’s List, everything came together to make my dream of bike ownership come true. Continue reading ‘I won’t shoot my eye out.’
Matthew is the senior editor for local affairs at
Angie’s List magazine. When he’s not at the Blue House, he enjoys reading and writing fiction, playing guitar and riding his bicycle.
