My resolution, as always, is to not make any resolutions.

Ash is going to try giving up soda for the whole year, which I think will be very difficult. John’s doing the same thing, but he’s done it before (and he really loves iced tea), so I think it’ll be easier for him.

Ash and I are also going to try eating at home more often, to save money. It’s arguable, in New York City, whether this actually saves any money. We just paid $156 for a week’s worth of groceries because nothing is ever on sale at the supermarkets in this city. I remember when I lived in California, they’d scan your groceries, and it’d show you the total. Then they’d scan your club card, and you’d see it drop 30-50%. Here, they scan your groceries, and it shows you the total. Then they scan your club card, and the total does not change. Seriously.

Why do they have to keep the soup in the cafeteria at atomic levels of heat? I mean, sure, if I needed to get my soup in the cafeteria and then walk with it to Nebraska and eat it there, it might be good to serve it at this temperature so that it’ll still be piping hot when I finally eat my lunch. But considering the fact that it’s a cafeteria, and that people purchase food there for immediate consumption, it might be nice to keep it at an edible temperature, or maybe a temperature slightly higher than edible, instead of a temperature used for melting steel.

Technically it dipped down below freezing sometime earlier this week, but I think this is the first day that it’s been below freezing, and it’s significantly below freezing. It was 19°F at ten o’clock this morning, which is quite cold for New York City. Usually our lowest low for the winter is around 10°F, so the temperature this morning was pretty close. And we usually only have a few days total that go down into the teens. So yeah, it’s officially cold.

We trimmed our Christmas tree a week ago, so today was completely free for the real American tradition practiced on the day after Thanksgiving: shopping!

Am I a glutton for punishment? Mayhaps. But for some reason, I’ve always done a good amount (maybe most) of my holiday shopping on “Black Friday.” I think it’s because of the sales. You really can get some great deals if you shop on this particular day, and hey, you’re going to spend money at all these places anyway, so you might as well take advantage of getting more bang for your buck. Half off here, buy one get one half-off over there, and so forth.

I can’t tell you where I went because Ashleigh might read this, and of course my wife is the primary recipient of Christmas gifts, especially since the rest of my family is Jewish. Although, really, I was also shopping for Hanukkah gifts. It’s just easier to say “Christmas gifts” because I don’t have to wonder which way I should spell it.

As thankful as we are for the wedding gifts we received, I was a little worried that we wouldn’t have room for all of these new kitchen appliances, dishes, cookware, and servingware in our tiny, itty-bitty New York kitchenette. If you need some perspective: Our kitchen has one drawer.

Ashleigh apparently has a previously-undiscovered talent, however, for finding a home for every single thing. Granted, there are a few strange placements (like a mixing bowl on top of a serving tray), but for the most part everything is either cleverly tucked away in a cabinet or else artfully displayed on the counter. I’m very impressed, and proud to call this clutter-conquerer my wife.

The board games, incidentally, fit neatly inside of our coffee table. Thank goodness for smart storage.

You may have noticed that napkin.org is back online and has new content. I handed over the reigns to Leslie, who is now the new owner of the site and your new napkin moderator. You should go visit the site and submit some new napkins for her!

I’m getting married in a couple weeks. It’s not as stressful as it should be, thanks in part to the fact that we did as much planning as possible and as much preparation as possible months in advance. Because of that, during the week leading up to the wedding, we only have to do one day’s worth of errands. Oh, and several hours of wrapping things.

I’m working on a PHP project at work, which makes me really happy because a) it gives me some brain exercise, and b) I think PHP is a very useful language, and using it at work gets me back in the swing of it.

We’re using PHP right now to work with XML output from a web service, and that’s exactly the sort of thing that’s really useful in the web world right now. I haven’t played around much with stuff like Google Maps, but this is really similar, and it might get me in the mood to do some kind of personal project with Google Maps when I’m done.

Amanda’s in town right now, which is really cool. I haven’t seen her in forever. And by forever, I mean a few months. Anyway, it’s especially cool because it’s Alex’s first time in the city, and he’s totally a guy who could enjoy living in New York, so I know he’s really enjoying it. Last night we joined them for fondue at Kashkaval, followed by dessert at Edgar’s Cafe (because Cafe Lalo was too crowded, and Edgar’s is a block away, never crowded, and just as good). Today on my lunch break I showed them the Chelsea Market, and we enjoyed “Witchino” blended coffee drinks at the Fat Witch Bakery. Sweet! Literally.

A friend of ours who used to work for a florist volunteered to do our wedding flowers, which was incredibly nice of her, and it’s going to save us a lot of money. She usually gets the roses from Costco (which is a good idea for anyone who needs a lot of inexpensive but high-quality flowers), but we want a specific variety of rose that Costco doesn’t carry. The bridesmaids’ dresses are dark red, and Costco only carries one shade of red, and Costco’s shade would clash horribly with the dresses. So Ashleigh and I went to Chelsea Flower Market one day with a swatch of fabric, and we decided that we wanted Black Magic roses.

I’ve been put in charge of finding wholesale Black Magic roses for the wedding. The best way to get roses is direct from the farm, it seems, because then they’re fresher (they last at least two weeks) yet cheaper. I’m pretty sure I’m going with Margareta Export Flowers (flowersandfreshness.com), because they have the best deal I’ve seen on Ecuadorian roses. NuSabana has a good deal too, but they’re Colombian, and Colombian roses tend to be smaller than Ecuadorian roses. Also worth a mention, if anyone out there is shopping for bulk flowers, is 2G Roses (FreshRoses.com), which is a grower in California. In the end it’s possible I’ll order from them instead, even though they’re more expensive, just because I won’t have to worry about the weather in Miami (where South American roses enter the U.S.) or about customs. Oh, and there’s also RoseSource.com; they sell Ecuadorian roses, and they have great customer service, but they’re a little more expensive.

If we didn’t care about the exact color, I’d consider Sam’s Club instead. They have the absolute lowest price for roses online, and they’re farm-fresh from Ecuador to your door, unlike Costco’s roses which are shipped to Costco first.