No, really. It was a very busy August/September/October. But I'm back now, and ready to dive in to some interesting personal finance dilemmas. However, it's been an eventful month or two. I'll fast-forward through the commercials and give you a peek of things I want to talk about soon:

1. The Grige and I both navigated (and survived) our performance reviews at work, which led to some interesting discussions about "alternative raises", what "cost of living" even means and whether or not failing to include your projected overtime in your salary predictions makes you just another shmoe at the Kellogg's plant.

2. Everyone is shocked because they thought nothing good could ever come out of Detroit again. I'm referring with equal excitement to the Lions, the Tigers and the AWESOME "imported from Detroit" Cadillac commercials (oh my!) which are all dominating in their respective fields this fall. Mitten-five, Michiganders!

3. My childhood best friend moved to NYC and got engaged (yay!). She's got my wheels turning on the whole wedding industry thing, which I've been dying to write about. She's also asking (and answering) some great questions about what money (and love) does to your politics, your values, and your life plans. Unfortunately, I also discovered that I can no longer de-facto hate everyone who has two full bathrooms in a major east coast city. Balls.

4.  Our gym is closing. No one is surprised, every other gym in the neighborhood is at least twice as expensive. But now what? Pay upwards of $60/month to be sweated on by a bunch of strangers in a trendy gym full of former sorority girls? Get fat? Buy a dog to force me to run outside every day? Stop eating whatever we want whenever we want it? Ugh.

5.  Oorrrrrrrr I could start doing yoga every day. While expensive, I can say with confidence that this is the only form of exercise I've ever truly enjoyed enough to look forward to every day.

6. Football season has begun, and the Grige and I are testing our theory that watching games at a sports bar will still be cheaper than paying for cable + ESPN package + Big 10 Network. So far, so good....but it's only November.

7. When I was working crazy over-time, I discovered that the extra pay is totally justified by the extra expenses you rack up. When you get home at 11:00 pm, there is no time to cook. Therefore, you either learn to plan better or the people at Chop't Salad learn your name and start preparing your salad before you arrive to order it. You also stop riding your bike because it's too dark and your dry-cleaner starts charging you for storage because your clothes have been there for so long. Fail.

8. Cecilia is breaking my heart. I am officially the owner of the most expensive "cheap vintage" bike ever. Also, I am totally tired of feeling disenfranchised by the gear heads at the bike shop. I pay you to work on my bike, not to make me feel like an idiot.

So that's the run down - I'm looking forward to an exciting holiday season and hopefully more regular posting.

welcome back,
Double E