Donkee House

What and Where in Boston

The husband and I will be taking a small trip up to Boston in May.  Neither of us have been to Boston and we don’t have a clue as to where to go, where to stay, where to eat, where the cool shops are, etc.

So we need your lively opinions, recommendations and help!  These are some of my burning questions:

• Neighborhood – would like a cool neighborhood with cafes, great and varied restaurants, fun shops and not too noisy (meaning, not too close to any college, bars and clubs).
• Lodging – would ideally like to stay at a bed & breakfast, but a boutique hotel is also nice.  Nice bathroom is an absolute must!  I will be fine with spending up to $250 a night.
• Food – where and which are great restaurants?  Expensive and fancy does not necessarily mean great in my dictionary.  Great is authentic and tasty food (no fusion schmusion anything, please.  If I want Japanese, I will go eat Japanese) with no pretense at great prices.  A great price is $100 dinner for two.  Then again, our favorite little Mexican place in Astoria cost $20 TOPS for dinner for two.
• Shopping – where are the best furniture, vintage, and thrift stores?  When and where are the best flea markets?  Any craft fairs in May?

I am now taking any and all suggestions.  I will forever hold you near and dear in my tiny, decrepit and rotting heart for your kindness and generosity…

2010 Already?

photo credit: Sukanto Debnath

I don’t know about anyone else, but 2009 pretty much flew by for me.  It seems like just last minute that I got used to typing/writing “09″.  I consider myself very lucky for having a wonderful year.  Now, there were some downs as well as ups, but the ups, I feel, outweighed the downs in 2009, for sure.  Maybe this calls for some sort of list?

Downs

• BPV (vertigo) – ugh…that sucked ass BIG time.  Still reeling a bit now (2.5 months later) – so still sucking ass little time.
• Besides vertigo, I got sick more often in 2009.  I washed my hands like crazy (they are so dry now…), but that didn’t seem to help.  Scratch that…I KNOW washing hands help, but perhaps I bathed in some germy, bacterial and viral concoction while sleepwalking and boy, I had or still have to fight the good fight every once in a while.
• Reality TV – I got sucked in and I tried to suck the husband in too because I’m quietly evil that way.  American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance and Hell’s Kitchen.  Adam Lambert gave us chills (in a good way), some dances made the husband cry and who doesn’t love a raving and cursing lunatic?
• We didn’t travel in 2009.  We did go to Florida and North Carolina to visit family, but we so wanted to go back to Aruba or somewhere AWAY.  It WILL happen in 2010.

Ups

• We closed and re-financed our first investment property.  We have a decent amount of equity (25-30%) and making a slight positive cash flow each month.  The re-financing was a harrowing and frustrating procedure, but we finally made it through.  If banks had necks, I would sneak up to one (just one to get my anger out) from behind and choke it with dental floss.
• We re-financed our primary residence – our lovely, but constantly chaotic 2 bedroom co-op.  Chaotic is a mild term, you should see what the heck is going on right now.  You should…but I can’t show you.  If I did, I would then have to sneak up behind you with dental floss.  I’m working on something big (big for me) and have been hard at it for a bit now.  When it’s time to make it public, I will make an announcement right here!  Stay tuned for that, my donkee friends!  That was called a TANGENT…
• We paid off our HUGE tax bill from 2007.  AMT (Alternative Minimum Tax) can kiss our flabby asses!
• I visited my folks in Long Island more often.  I seem a bit less like the ungrateful daughter/sister/aunt that I am.
• I’ve become more tolerant of babies and children in general.  This is a direct result of my nieces, nephew and friends’ lovely children.  They’re just so awesome…
• I’ve finally let go of my bitchy, grouchy and miserable persona courtesy of my previous job.  I hit my one year anniversary in my current job in late 2009 and yes, it did take about one year for me to get over the trauma of the previous torture box.  I’m not all sugar and spice…I can be a bitch, a grouch and wallow in general misery, but only on special qualified occasions and every second week of the month, not 24/7 like before.
• I wake up earlier.  Voluntarily, not dragged out of bed cursing the world, scratching its face and kicking its balls.  Weekdays now is anywhere from 6 – 6:15am.  Weekends anywhere from 7:30 – 10am.  All times are approximate and so totally different from years before.  Weekdays used to be the last possible minute to LATE, like 7-7:30am.  Weekends used to be 2-4pm.  I kid you guys not.  I’m just not as tired as I was before.  I’m much less stressed and much more happy (see above).  There is just SO much more fun stuff to do now!
• I can’t bring myself to buy $500 boots, $300 shoes and $600 coats anymore.  What’s the point?  I’d much rather see that cash in the bank.  It’s a shift in thinking and mindset.  Whereas those $500 boots used to make me feel great, the high was always short-lived and really never provided much substance.  I was never really SATISFIED in all cylinders.  Fashion show-off me would feel great, but financially savvy me would feel really guilty and all around practical me knew that it was all so unnecessary.  Now that I’m shunning those expensive add-ons and parking that cash where it belongs (in the bank or actually, 2009 was paying all those medical bills), everything feels RIGHT.  I don’t miss those damn boots and I really have more than enough of…everything.  Oh, and thrift stores ROCK!
• I’m reading books out of my decades long comfort zone.  I’ve always been a literary snob and have always gravitated toward heavier stuff from back in the days.  I limited myself to (although they still remain favorites because they taught me so much and provoked me into thinking rather than just being entertained) Dostoyevsky, Kundera, Hesse, Steinbeck, Hamsun, etc.  The husband finally broke through my veil of literary snobbiness and convinced me to read other genres and started me on high fantasy and sci-fi.  With a roll of my mocking eyes and a righteous snort, I embarked on my first high fantasy series and I’m telling you…it’s MAGIC!  No, seriously…MAGIC!  Thank you to the husband for opening my eyes (my eyesight was and probably is so limited and narrow, but being the husband, that’s part of your job…to keep introducing me to things), thank you to Ursula Le Guin, to George R.R. Martin, to Scott Lynch, to Robert Jordan (RIP) and to Patrick Rothfuss for sharing your worlds.
• Donkee House was born.  A fledgling blog…still trying to find its identity.  Even though it’s still so very young, it’s already evolving into a more personal log rather than fitting into a certain niche or two.  I hope you guys will continue to ride with me as this space continues to change, evolve and move forward!
• I quit smoking on 2.26.09.

So yeah, 2009 was a pretty good year, right?  2010 started out with a bang…even though I was off work this week, I still was working mighty hard on my new venture that will soon come to fruition.  As for what I was doing on the stroke of midnight on the dawn of this new decade…I was playing Guitar Hero…I was rocking it out, folks!

So…was 2009 a good one or a bad one for you?  With all my might, I sure as hell wish it was a good one or that the good moments really shined for you!

Happy Holidays!

Garden Quad with Snow and Ducks, originally uploaded by pcgn7.

Signing off now as we get ready to head down to Raleigh for a few days.

Happy Holidays everyone – whichever holiday you celebrate, I hope you celebrate it safely and with loved ones.

As for us, we’ll be hanging with the brother-in-law, sister-in-law, three nieces and two cats. We’ll be eating, sleeping, laughing, eating, maybe a bit of bickering, gaming, eating, watching “Avatar”, eating, kidnapping a cat or two, eating, making merry and being all-around fools.  We’re good at it all.

US Lags Behind on Credit Card Tech

photo credit: TheTruthAbout…

Many countries have adopted or are in the process of adopting the chip-and-PIN credit cards rather than continuing with what Americans are most familiar with – the magnetic strip cards.  The reason many countries are changing from the magnetic strip to the chip-and-PIN with an embedded microprocessor chip is because chip-and-PIN helps to reduce fraud and counterfeit.  The chip stores and processes data and rather than require a signature for the purchase, the credit card owner punches in a pin number instead.  After all, signatures are easy to forge and honestly, only a handful of cashiers have ever check my signature against my credit card or license or anything else in all my years of using my credit and debit cards.  I also have a few different signatures depending on how rushed I am or my mood.

Most of Europe has already adopted the chip-and-PIN along with Brazil, Mexico, Canada and Japan.  China, India and most of Latin America are in the process.  As a result, a good amount of merchants will no longer accept magnetic strip cards. This has happened to me in Copenhagen in the supermarket.  So bring cash, folks.

US banks, meanwhile, have not and do not plan to convert to the chip-and-PIN – claiming fraud is not too huge an issue here (really?) and that the expense would be too high (about $5.5 billion).  So travelers – be informed, bring a bit of cash or some traveler’s checks.

Is it too much to ask that in order to fund the conversion, US banks should pay out just a bit less in bonuses?  US banks – think about all the foreign exchange fees you’ll be missing out on if we can’t use your cards abroad!

Read more at The New York Times.

Top 5 Places to Visit – Part 4 – Kenya

Kenya lies along the equator on the east coast of Africa.  Its climate runs the gamut from cool to hot and dry to humid.  When one thinks of Kenya, the first thought that usually comes to mind is wildlife.  The Big Five is the main attraction for many who visit – elephants, buffalo, leopards, rhinos and lions.  Of course, there are many others to see…cheetahs, hippos, giraffe, gazelle, etc.  In order to experience and learn as much as you can, the best bet is to go on a safari.

However, aside from wildlife you will probably never see anywhere else, Kenya is also home to white sand beaches for relaxing and water activities and mountains for climbing. The country is a perfect wrap for fun, adventure and education.

Image 1 via Kenya Odyssey

Images 2, 3 & 4 via Albatros Travel

Image 5 via The Safari Website

Image 6 via Kenya Advsior

Top 5 Places to Visit – Part 3 – Antartica

Antarctica is hauntingly beautiful.  It is vast and the brilliant white ice seems unending.  If ever there is a place to get away from it all, this has to be it.

Antarctica is the southernmost continent and is technically a desert due to its aridity.  It is mostly covered by ice – so much so that it is home to 90% of Earth’s ice.  Although there are no native and permanent residents – there is a continuous stream of scientists and researchers that call Antarctica home months at a time.   Due to the lack of a permanent population, there is currently no residing government.

As a result of its location, climate and terrain, Antarctica remains elusive and quite mysterious.  But for a once in a lifetime adventure and an exceptional education, Antarctica might very well be the best choice out there…

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Top 5 Places to Visit – Part 2 – Albania

Michel Setboun/CORBIS for National Geographic

Albania has been on my radar for the last few years.  Whenever people think about the Mediterrean region, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Croatia and France amongst others jump immediately to mind.  However, lesser known countries like Albania have been practically ignored…

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Top 5 Places to Visit – Part 1 – Galapagos Islands

Giant Galapagos tortoise, originally uploaded by sly06.

The Galapagos Islands have always been on my must see and experience list.  I’m an avid animal lover and would love to see them in their natural environment and free of cages.   As we all learned in science class, the Galapagos Islands were also where Charles Darwin studied and eventually developed his theory of evolution.  With such a rich history and a plethora of wildlife, no wonder it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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