ALRIGHT MOTHERFUCKERS. INSOM IS BACK. And, like Goobster, I'm going to fucking have some mofo HEADINGS.

July: Moving

We received this lovely piece of mail a few weeks ago.

We were expecting a slight increase of 200-300 bucks and eat the cost until our wedding on October 23rd. Nope. That's not happening anymore.

Los Angeles real estate, especially the rental market, is fucking bonkers. There's no other way to put it. They will absolutely rent our 840sqft studio loft for $2500 within a few weeks of us moving out. But we can't justify that cost, don't want to live here for another year, and certainly don't want to pay $3100 for that shit.

Luckily, we found an amazing and super underpriced place back in Redondo Beach (where I love). We offered to move in August 1st, which is far earlier than ideal but they won't take us unless we commit to July 15th. 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 2 stories, in a 5 unit building with an owner who has a first name, not a "Property Trust". So, now we're breaking our lease and moving out the weekend of July 16th. Because there's no way were going to find a place in that location for that price that takes dogs.

Also luckily, our current building is super nice and popular and we really do have one of the best units in the building (external facing, 7th floor, nice layout) and so I am pretty confident that they will be able to move someone in to our spot by August 1st (we're letting them show our apartment starting this week). Whenever they move someone in, we stop paying rent here. Cross your fingers for us, or August is going to be a very expensive month.

July: Geneva

MyEtherWallet is doing fantastic, although we've taken a short little break for the past couple weeks to regroup. We've been in talks with another company that does BTC/ETH -> USD/EUR/CHF and we're going to partner up to allow users on MyEtherWallet.com to cash out and users on their site to create a wallet within their site.

The guy who runs the company is a huge sweetheart, super intelligent business guy who I have no doubt will bring the best out of MyEtherWallet.com and help us take this "side-project" to the next level. That's exactly what we need if we want to get serious.

So, pending an approved Visa application for my non-US-citizen partner kvhnuke, we're heading to Geneva July 22nd - August 2nd to build out APIs for both, set up a Swiss company, and meet our new partner-team. Luckily, kvhnuke and my tickets and lodging and car will be covered. But randomuser wouldn't miss out of a trip to the most expensive place on Earth so we'll be throwing a pile of cash at a plane ticket. We try to not spend more than $300/one-way-ticket which is why we end up in places like Budapest and Curacao without actually knowing that we want to go there. Geneva's going to be probably closer to $2000 for his ticket. Ouch.

August: prepare for the wedding

August is going to be another super fun month. Hopefully we'll only be paying rent for one place and we're going to get serious about all the final details about the wedding. We need invitations, hair, makeup, dresses, suits for the groomsmen, centerpieces, and I don't even know what else. Seriously wish we had just eloped at this point. Every time I turn around, it's time to write another check. August is also going to be stag party month, bridal shower month, my birthday month, and work as much as possible to try to offset the stupid amount of money we're spending.

Another fun thing is we've been taking dance lessons. Which are awesome and super fun and amazing and ahhhhh. I love it. And I won't look a fool for our first dance.

September: DevCon2

Ethereum's second conference is in Shanghai mid-September. Tickets are 900 bucks each, flights are ~800 bucks round trip, and you can get an AirBNB for like 50-100/night. So we're probably looking at another $5000 for that trip, if we go. I haven't decided if we are going. It's another thing before the wedding, it's another long ass flight, and it's another pile of money. I really want to go it just...man. Just sooooo much money.

October: Get married

Eeks.

Where else is my hard-earned money going?

I signed up for StitchFix (referral link just because there are so many girls on here 😛 ) because I have NO business casual clothes. I've got business-business cloths and I've got sweats. That's it. And now that I don't have to see people everyday, I haven't gone shopping in like 2 years. So I signed up for a service that sends me clothes and then I buy them. My first one was freaking awesome. But (1) I realized that even my nice business clothes are cheap-as-fuck (both in terms of price and quality) and (2) I realized how awesome a service like this is. I hate shopping, but I also stick to clothes that I am comfortable with where this service just sends you stuff. Everything that they sent me I would have NEVER tried on myself, but they looked really great. You can see what they sent me here. In other news, I now have a Pinterest which is a tragedy in itself.

So here's the concept. You tell them all your measurements and style and ideal price point, you make a pinterest board with outfits you like, and then they send you 5 items. You try them on and then you keep the ones you want to keep and send back the rest. If you keep them all, you get a discount. That's it. You can request certain items and you leave feedback on all the items you try on to let them know how you liked the style, fit, and price. I get my next one tomorrow so we'll see if they nail it again.

My Brother

I haven't been able to talk about this much but my brother got released after spring training from the Nationals. They released like 15 guys, most of them pitchers. When I first heard, I was really sad for him but it turns out he was kind of over it. The most enlightening thing he shared was this:

When I played for Duke and stuff it was like we were a team and we were all working towards a common goal of winning. We'd all get up and run 5 miles at 5am and lift for 2 hours and then run to class. And then we would win and it would be awesome. Now, the team doesn't matter. It's all about your personal stats. And, as a pitcher who's stats are pretty reliant on the team behind me, that's not a good thing. There's no team anymore, you work out in this stupid hot Florida heat, and it's just not fun anymore.

So he got home and wandered around for a bit and talked about possibly going back to get his MBA. I told him he shouldn't do that until he works for a while.

Then he started talking with my cousin and found out that there is an amazing warehouse space for lease for super cheap, but still close enough to the rich beach cities, and decided he should open up a private training / pitching / whatever space. So that's what he's doing now. Lease is signed, demo was completed, and turf has been bought on the cheap. He's going to have a few batting cages in the back, a softer sports area in the middle, and an entry way / lounge area in the front. He already does a ton of private pitching lessons but uses random fields. He's also thinking of doing events / birthdays on the weekends. As someone who used to dress up as Arial the mermaid for kids birthday, I can tell you that they are a big money-maker.

So we've been helping out with that and doing logo, website, signage, marketing materials, etc. etc.

Here's the space:

Our dog is still adorable, but not the sharpest tool

Last weekend she accidentally jumped in the hot tub, because she didn't know where her daddy went and didn't realize there was going to be a boatload of hot water when she landed. 😂

And she still sleeps like a complete dork. Here's her this morning. Why? Can you breath?