Getting Pulled In a Million Different Directions

This week has been crazy - all kinds of stuff pulling at my mind, body, and patience. Here's just a few things that have been pissing me off!

Weather
The weather has sucked, plain old sucked, this week. We had frigidly cold weather this past weekend with about 4" of snow on Saturday (which made house hunting - see below - oh-so-much fun on this past Sunday). But, for the most part, it's been dry and cold. Well, we finally get some percipitation roll in. It's the middle of January, so you'd expect it to be snow right? NOPE! It's freaking rain - and tons of it. As I type this, we've gotten about 4" of rain in the last 24 hours. Now, mind you, we had an exceptionally warm January, so the slopes (most notably Mtn. Creek) haven't exactly been dripping with snow. This storm is not helping them by any stretch of the imagination. Speaking of imagination - could you image what this storm would be like if it was snow. 40" of snow would do wonders to the ski/snowboard economy in the area. I'm just hoping to break even on my season pass at this point.

Working Out & Diet
With the cruise we're taking about 5 weeks away, the wife and I jumped back on the South Beach that we had so much luck with before. It's been two days, and I've already dropped 6 lbs. My body totally responds to this kind of diet. I'm also trying to get back in the groove of working out. So far, so good - although I kicked my own ass yesterday. Too much, too soon - I think. I'm trying to do a combination of weights, cardio, and yoga as a way of training for my main sports - snowboarding and surfing. I'm gonna try to put some swimming into the equation around March so that I won't be spent for surfing - although, I said that last year and it never happened.

Right now, I'm just going through a bit of carb withdrawals, so I'm sure that my mood and petulance for all things before me are partially due to that. It'll all be worth it in the end though as I'll look good and be healthier when it's all said and done.

Podcasts
I've just started looking around and playing with these. I figured they'd be a good way of learning about what's going on in the world while I'm at work - better than having Ozzie blasting into my ears all day long. Not that there's ANYTHING wrong with Ozzie, but learning something here and there won't hurt either :)

Work
I can't wait until this project is done - too much crap and not enough recognition. I don't even way to get into it.

Home Buying
This activity is something we just got into. This past weekend our landlord upped our rent by $60/mo. Now, that's nothing - $15/wk. Totally affordable. BUT, we've gotten to the point where we are sick of paying rent every month in an amount that would take up the vast majority of a mortgage payment. So, we're looking. We attended about five or six open houses last weekend and will do so again this weekend. Long story short, we beginning to define what we do and do not want/need in a home. Unfortunately, we're looking at spending $400k - $450k for a home and putting down, maybe, 5% downpayment. That's sad.