February has breeze by I’m going to just go through a list of what’s happened.

1. 2 people I’ve known passed away in February. One was from school, his name was Lashaun. He was really nice to everyone and played on the football team, was only 41. I don’t know all the details but he’s the second classmate in under 6 months. Really makes you think about how delicate life is. The other one is one of my exes (from 2008) parents. She was very welcoming of me into her home and was 76.
2. Got my new passport in record time. The new one has so many more protections against counterfeiting and integrates a lot more tech. Going to use it on an upcoming trip to Quebec City later this month.
3. I made corned beef hash myself in a dutch oven and not a crockpot. Big mistake. Never again.
4. Saw the Lisa Frankenstein movie with friends. It was cute and romantic in a dark and twisted way.
5. Went to 2 escape rooms with friends. The second was on a whim but I needed to see some friends after going close to a week and half without since the superbowl.
6. Superbowl party, used my CBS phone app to stream it which came in handy since I didn’t manage my time well and didn’t want to be around my friends all sweaty. The party itself was at a friend’s house and I just brought ice and napkins so pretty low cost.
7. Considering downgrading my tech. The 12.9″ iPad Pro is great for video and using as a secondary monitor (the original reason why I bought it) but for reading it’s still kind of bulky compared to my old school Kindle. I’ve owned it since October 2020. The 11″ model might be the sweet spot. The thing is Apple is going to release new models late March so kind of too early to upgrade unless it’s a killer deal. Next is my dSLR camera. It takes great pictures but it’s bulky to put into a suitcase.
8. In January I forgot to mention I bought a Canon – PIXMA TS6420a Wireless All-In-One Inkjet Printer – Black from Best Buy for $59.99 to replace my $20 craigstlist Canon printer from a few years ago.
9. I switched from Spectrum internet over to Frontier FIOS. It took a total of 3 visits, the first the tech confirmed that the drop or line from their system to my apartment was no longer good. The second was to have a tech install the new line. Third was for the tech to install the new ONT box, remove the old one and install my router. I have 1Gig Down/Up for 59.99
10. Contributed $738 to my Roth IRA this month. Playing catchup, I have $5,389 contributed, $1,111 max left in contributions to make before I hit the deadline for 2023. For 401k I contributed $1784 with pre-tax dollars plus my employer match.
11. Enjoyed a simple but romantic pre-valentine’s day dinner with my bf at a nearby Italian restaurant. They had a buy one get one 50% off entree package I discovered accidentally. Got a small vase of flowers from the supermarket and some chocolate / snacks. Didn’t get a card which he was okay with since he thought they were super corny anyway. I found the last container of chocolates with a rainbow flag on it.
12. We decided to try a new restaurant together called Pacific Table in Las Colinas without a reservation. Next door was a cool spot called Club Monaco with lovely decor and drinks. No complaints at all, everything was so nice.
13. Last Sunday we went to the North Texas Auto Show completely on a whim at Kay Bailey Hutchinson center. It was the last day and we got in right before they closed the parking garage. A quick google search yielded $3 off per ticket and $20 to park. I’ve been going to car shows since 1990 and tech has come such a long way.
14. I got on the bike again on one of the 90º days here, wore my new bike shorts that are all lycra with some foam padding. Was a little worried about material ripping but it was all smooth sailing and I felt soo much more free than with my bike shorts plus the lining. I think the lack of additional friction material also made me move a little bit faster too.
15. I finally bought a new standard sized non-biking water bottle from Amazon. The price dropped by 25% the day I got it, I wrote the seller asking for a price match but honestly don’t think they give a crap. It was $37. The last bottle I bought was in 2019 and got a free one so maybe it’s not that bad after all.
16. Finished another season of cornhole. Our team had a really good playoff day, almost won the first game with my teammate but lost by about 2 points. The people we were playing shouldn’t be playing at our level, they were far too good.
17. Got my Ray Ban sunglasses fixed. The day I was getting my car scratch repaired I dropped them between my seats. In haste I broke one of the temples, drove to a local eyeglass repair place and they basically said nothing they could do so I looked at online options and worldoptic to the rescue. It took a bit longer than I expected between my spam filter and the replacement parts coming from Italy.
18. Finished up with taxes. Owed a whopping $3, the fee to TurboTax was about $94.87 after taxes. Debating whether to keep using TT in future years at least while my tax situation is not overly complicated.

I keep hearing bearish news reports about how the stock market is due for a big correction, this is 1999/2000 again, the US is due for a major recession, AI is going to take away all of our jobs, China is going to surpass the US as the #1 world superpower, we’re going to war, parts of the US are becoming more dangerous than third world countries. Maybe there is some truth to it. The best you can do is try to stay sharp, work on skills, and control your spending.

But yeah not a ton of strategy changes between last month and this month. For my net worth to be up $17,439 (more than I owe on my car) in one month is crazy. Just a year ago I was at $185,923 net worth so up $91,762 since.

Hope anyone reading this is in a good spot, I know some people have it rough out there. Peace.