Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge

Last night we met at Fado in DC. It’s an Irish bar down near the Verizon Center aka The Phone Booth. I was reluctant to wear a hat so people could recognize me, but James from DINKS Finance convinced me that a hat was essential so I wore my Washington Capitals camouflage hat. CleverDude just calls me anyway and then inadvertently plays hide and seek with me at the metro station. It was kind of funny to the casual observer. We were wandering around a huge pillar keeping ourselves just out of view of the other person.

Debt Hater picked the bar and I actually liked it a lot! It was a bit loud, but we were able to get a large table for all of us and their mini-burgers came with fries and tasty mustard. I walked out of there $22 lighter for a light dinner and 2 Boddington’s pints, but it was well worth it. Yesterday, I REALLY needed a drink.

I hadn’t seen Mrs Micah since Plonkee’s visit last year. Nor have I seen HC from One Big Mortar Board or Donna Jean from The Weight of Money in months. We also had some new faces appear, which is always nice. J from Budgets are Sexy and Jaylin from You Are Not Your Wallet joined us. I won’t tell you who had the faux hawk ala Capitals’ defenseman Mike Green, but it was pretty awesome.

If you are in the DC area, email me and I’ll add you to the happy hour list. They’re fairly impromptu and they don’t always have beer. (HC mentioned fancy hot chocolate somewhere instead. YUM!)

Plonkee came to DC for a visit. CleverDude was kind enough to pick the venue in Chinatown where we could have homemade noodles. I loved it. It was cheap and soupy and wonderful stuff. Total dive with roaches and all, but damn if the food wasn’t excellent. I will definitely eat there again, if only to watch the man make noodles in the window. I love watching people do that. They’re so tasty!

Then we stopped off for beer at dessert at RFD a few blocks away. I got a sampler of Brooklyn Brewery Chocolate beer and some Beeramisu to share. Tasty combination, but the Bell’s Cherry Stout beer that CleverDude got was the best. Plonkee, without my totally biased guidance, picked Yuengling!! YAY! (Yuengling is from suburban Philly. We like it there.)

Mrs. Micah was in attendance and due to my lack of foresight, no one else could come out since they mostly had other plans.

Nick of Punny Money was our fabulous host (boys can be fabulous too!) on the Red Line Metro. Cleverdude was also in attendence as well as Mrs. Micah and one of my friends who had a question to ask, but never got around to it. He was too busy telling me dead baby jokes of appalling humor. I suffered through it because he was giving me an old set of speakers for my new laptop. YAY!

Anyhow, I was really glad to see some familiar faces and to meet Mrs. Micah for the first time in person. I have to say I really liked her Sausage Lentil Soup recipe. It inspired me to make my own version this weekend in my crockpot. YUM!

I will post my variant this week. Hooray for Mrs. Micah for helping me cook more often at home. I really it need it this month.

I love the Washington City Paper. I was at the Yarn Harlot book signing event last night. As I waited for my friends to get their books signed, and deliver her a beer, I flipped through the paper and found a lovely ad on page 49.

Financial and Credit Literacy Day
Hosted by the Washington Area Community Investment Fund

Saturday, September 29th
9am-4pm
Kellogg Conference Hotel
Galludet University
800 Florida Avenue, NE
Washington, DC

RSVP: 202-529-5505

FREE ADMISSION and FREE PARKING!!!

The financial literacy seminar/workshop list looks very good. (link goes direct to an Adobe PDF file) There are seminars on targeted to teens/youth and women. Topics include Small Business Management (including federal contracting), Homeownership, Selecting a Mortgage, Managing Foreclosure, Credit Scores, Budgeting and Consumer Rights.

The ad says, “Bankers and housing counselors available all day.”

I do not know very much about this organization, but they do have an impressive list of sponsors. They were formed out of Arlington with the help of the local Catholic diocese, which if you don’t know, has one of the craziest liberal parishes in the US, St. Charles Borromeo. I actually have worshiped there because one of my closest friends used to attend. If you know their ministry, they’re very into social justice, often to the chagrin of the archbishop. I mention this because St. Charles is very active in low income housing initiatives in Arlington County and I could definitely see them supporting an organization like this.

It’s technically a non-profit loan fund, with 501(c)(3) status. I’m going to look into investing in it.

Free Money Finance has the latest Carnival of Personal Finance available. It’s edition #115!

While he’s got his editor’s choice picks, I am skipping them in favor of what else is out there that caught my eye.

Pinyo at Moolanomy asks what money wasters do you do? I do 1, 2, 6, and 10. But I definitely don’t do 3, 8, 9.

Saving Explained with the contrarian advice on emergency funds. I’m a big advocate of them, but I like to keep an open mind. Read the companion article he references about keeping small savings subaccounts assigned for specific financial goals. What do you think? Good idea? Crazy idea? I still think emergency funds are a great idea for anyone with a home, car, or unpredictable job market. I know that I just covered like 90% of the people out there, but that’s why I think an emergency fund is worthwhile for nearly everyone. It’s really only a question of how much, not if.

Clever Dude with the skinny on Carfax used car reports. Read to the bottom and follow the Consumer Affairs link from Super Saver as well.

Make Your Nut has advice on how to have a big party on a small budget. I don’t think 20 is really a big party, but the advice is still great for entertaining on a shoestring. The main thing is, your friends will bring you more beer than you will ever drink if you don’t stop them and assign them something else to bring. ‘Bring chips!’ ‘Bring salsa!’ ‘Bring a salad!’ ‘Bring some bread!’ ‘Bring some dessert!’

Grad Money Matters on the Joys of Homeownership. HAHAHA. Damn if I haven’t been there, cursing myself at buying a condo. “What was I thinking?!” is an unfortunate thing to say to yourself after the mortgage is signed.

Big Hunt was pretty good and very uncrowded, which is unusual for them on a summer Thursday night, but I misread their website. Wings are Tuesday nights, and beers are a dollar off on Thursdays. I think that last fact is why our check was pretty decent. My contribution was $18.00 for 2 beers and appetizers. I took the bus and metro, so that was about $4.50 round trip and I got to drive one of the bloggers home the rest of the way from the bus. So about $22.50 for the evening, which is certainly a lot less than dinner out the night before. (Outback steak and margarita which ended up being crazy expensive, $30+.)

In attendance:
Mike from Clever Dude Personal Finance
Nick from Punny Money
JerichoHill, moderator of the Get Rich Slowly Forums
HC from One Big Mortar Board
James from Dual Income No Kids
Penny Nickel from Money & Values

Our guest of honor, SingleMa, was sick and couldn’t attend. But now I have her number and can drunk dial her if she misses the next one!!

All you other bums who said yes and didn’t show up, I mock thee. Too bad work sucks and you had to stay late. It was a good time. Expect another one in August. Next time I’ll break out a different, but very snappy hat.

PS- I added a some links to my blogroll of attendees. For some reason, I thought all you guys had been added already. So if you are a DC PF blogger and haven’t been added, you will definitely be added to my blogroll if you turn out for a happy hour! (Because I’m a lush and I love drinkers! Just kidding. Teetotalers are ok too and I can find a more restauranty location instead of a bar for next time. It’s just harder to predict a crowd of bloggers and planning stinks if we have to have headcount and sit down reservations.)

In honor of Single Ma’s new job in DC, and to welcome her to Northern VA, HC of One Big Mortar Board and I decided to have a happy hour.

Ground rules: No complaining if this is inconvenient. I can’t please everyone all the time, much as I would like to do that. Next time *YOU* host.

BIG HUNT
1345 CONNECTICUT AVE NW
WASHINGTON DC 20036
202 785 2333 - DUPONT CIRCLE METRO
6pm till whenever

PLEASE RSVP via email so I know whom to expect and send further details

Red and Orange line metro accessible
(But Orange is further away in Farragut Sq. Closest is Dupont Circle on Red)

15 cent wings till 7pm, so feel free to show up sooner than 6.
$3 Red Hook pints, but the beer selection is really good.
Try the black bean dip. I love it.

Realistically, I will be there around 6 or later because I have to schlep from my job in the suburbs.

I hope you can make it, if you’re a local in DC or in town for business!

The Washington Post has a free stuff resource guide that was published last Thursday. I don’t know if you need a log in. You might. Try Bugmenot.com if you do.

It’s focused mostly on DC area stuff, but there is plenty in there for people who live all over the US.

With that, let me plug my favorite bi-ennial-ish arts show, Art-O-Matic! It’s in Crystal City, VA this year instead of it’s usual locale of DC. It’s metro and bus accessible. Drinks and snacks are sold but mostly to fund the event. Donations are accepted. It’s free and there is a lot of good stuff there, say the 3-7 people I know who regularly display their work or perform there.

For those of you who don’t know Art-O-Matic, it gets its name from its first venue inside a laundromat. The organizers try to find an old office building every two years or so and open it up, warehouse-style, for artists’ galleries and performance areas. This is the third or fourth time I’ve gone. It’s usually in November, but due to some issues they moved it to April this year.

If you are local to DC, check it out. It’s free and fun!

Right now, my favorite stuff there is Tim Hayes, 4traits, Dead Men’s Hollow, Tim Tate and Laurie Breen.

I’m cooking myself dinner at home tonight. If you want to chat with me via the Meebo window, please scroll down for the window on the left sidebar.

I know the site looks like crap in Microsoft IE version 7.x. I haven’t figured out why yet and frankly, I’m sick of noodling with the PHP right now so it’s not going to get fixed anytime soon.

Will probably sign off at 10 or 11pm EST, so Cap, please remember I can’t stay up all night just to talk to you.

I’m on Meebo chat tonight. If you want to chat with me, use the window in the left-hand sidebar. You can change your name and stuff. Sorry that this site looks awful in MS Internet Explorer. It’s optimized for Firefox. Make the switch!