In light of my sites’ recent hacking due to an outdated file in a WordPress theme, I went all out with the new backup plan. My databases are now backed up monthly (since they don’t change that often), and a script will download to Dropbox, where they will also be copied to our CrashPlan backup. It’s not a 100% bulletproof disaster recovery system, but it’s close enough to make me feel comfortable again.
Camping last weekend was fantastic. We had the absolute perfect weather: not cold enough to require massive blankets at night, and warm enough to swim during the day. We played a lot of cards and did a lot of cooking and sitting around the campfire. Matt and I were paying extra attention to what we brought and used, and what we had to borrow from other people. We’re so used to camping with a group that we wanted to make sure we’re not missing something glaring when we camp at Itasca. I think we’re pretty well covered, though we did pick up a new cast iron pan because we had lust over Jumi and Josh’s. The only thing that will be a novelty is bringing dishwashing supplies and the giant water container we’ll have to fill at the pump.
….I’m ready to camp again RIGHT NOW.
What else? Oh yeah, travel stuff, since that’s all I ever think about. In case you didn’t see, I posted about our quick-and-awesome Chicago trip.
We’re pretty close to booking our Jamaica trip in February. I did some checking with Delta Vacations, which has package deals for much less than I can come up with myself ($770 airfare? no thank you), and they said we should be able to use our $800 in Delta vouchers toward that. If we arrange it over the phone, we can also split time between hotels, since we want to stay on the cliffs with Kris and Orsi part of the time, and on 7-Mile Beach for the rest. Yesterday we found out they’re planning on the same exact dates we are, so that should all work out very well.
We also decided to finally give in to American Express’ million offers and upgrade to the platinum SkyMiles card. I wasn’t interested at first because I thought the only incentive was the 15,000-mile bonus (5k MQMs, but I’m not going to qualify again this year anyway). Matt read the find print and noticed that instead of a yearly $100 companion voucher, it’s free. That makes the $50 extra annual fee worth it to us (it pretty much was anyway, since we always recoup that in luggage fees). SOLD.
They also have a deal where if you spend over $25k/year, you get tons of bonus miles. Even if we charged our rent, we wouldn’t come close to spending that much.
I also added a countdown widget to my phone, so now I know all the most important facts!
CAMPING: 21 days
HOCKEY: 30 days
SAN FRANCISCO: 56 days
JAMAICA: 163 days