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December 30, 2004
The Beginning of 2005
As we get ready to ring in 2005, I was thinking about what I wanted to accomplish in the coming year. An idea I stole from my brilliant der_flounder, I am setting goals this year, but not making resolutions. In my past, resolutions have
been grand sweeping proclimations of intentions to change my life in big ways. They never stick and are rarely realistic.
I thought I would take an opportunity to state my goals for 2005.
- I will continue to attend Weight Watchers meetings, with the intention of healthfully losing weight with
a goal weight in mind. - I will maintain the sytems I have put in place that make my life move more smoothly.
- I will strive to my absolute best at my current job, picking up as many new skills and knowledge as possible.
- I will finish paying off my credit card, and start saving for the wedding.
- I will set exercise goals on a weekly basis.
That's it. Nothing exciting or complicated. It's not all as easy as it looks, but thinks these few goals will help make 2005 a
very successful year ideed!
Last night I finished reading
Last night I finished reading Bergdorf Blondes, lent to me by
Today is my last day of work this week, before the long weekend. I also have my weigh in at WW today. I have been having a strange pain in my heel since yesterday, and I hope it doesn't cause more problems for me today.
Quote of the Day:
"Would ye both eat your cake and have your cake?"
This is commonly misquotes as "You can't have you're cake and eat it, too."
-John Heywood,
December 29, 2004
Is it Tuesday or Thursday?
I know it's really Wednesday, but these long weekends/short weeks are throwing me off my game. I just had a great lunch with my old co-worker Buck. He has been at a new job for 6 months now, but he caught me up with all the co-workers we used to share. I have missed out on a LOT. It was good to see him and get the skinny.
Talking to Buck has reminded me just how un-creative my current job is. *sigh*
Quote of the Day:
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
December 28, 2004
Public Service Announcement
Recycle Your Tired Sneakers
We've found a good use for your crummy old sneakers. Unlikely as it may seem, Nike wants them. The company's Reuse-A-Shoe program collects worn-out athletic shoes, grinds them up, and ships them off to be used in surfacing athletic courts and playgrounds in underserved communities. It takes about 2,500 pairs of shoes to build a tennis or basketball court, and 15 times that number for a running track or soccer pitch. If every Organic Style reader recycled just one pair, we would keep 300 garbage trucks of sneakers out of the landfill and provide the raw materials for 300 basketball courts. Check out Nike's Web site for a list of shoe stores that accept donations (nikereuseashoe.com). All brands of footwear are welcome. Or ship your cast-offs to: Nike Recycling Center, c/o Reuse-A-Shoe, 26755 S.W. 95th Avenue, Wilsonville, OR 97070. Talk about fancy footwork.
Posted by La at 4:37 PM | Comments (0)Pajama Day!
Yesterday was a wonderful Pajama Day! That is a day when you wear your pjs all day and don't do much. It was great. I spent the majority of the day on the couch. I did manage to write my thank you notes, fill my new spice rack and bake some banana muffins. The film of the day was Return of the King Extended edition, which as you would expect was great but 4 hours long. I noew understand why they had to do a little more editing.
I am back at work, but it is so quiet here there isn't much to do. No matter I am sure I can busy myself somehow. Tonight I need to put the rest of my Christmas gifts away. Far too many packages and bags have not budged from where they landed upon returning home this weekend.
Gift highlights you ask? Well there was the iPod Mini from Flounder, a Cuisenart and Spice rack from Mi Mama and very lux 410 thread count bed sheets from
Quote of the Day:
Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
December 26, 2004
Success!
Christmas was a clear success. This first year of traipsing between Pennsylvania and Maryland and three households. We arrived and escaped each home relatively on time, everyone loved their gifts and good times were had by all. But even with all that merry making,
I am looking forward to today, but in all honesty, by dinner time last night I was hitting my limit on family togetherness. I am an extrovert, but there is only so much non-stop group activity (especially with people I want to think kindly of me) that I can take. I am SO GLAD I ended up taking tomorrow off! I am really looking forward to vegging, watching It's a Wonderful Life, updateing my iTues collection, and setting up my new (anc much coveted) spice rack! Not exciting I know, but it will be the perfect ending to a wonderful holiday and a BEAUTIFUL way to start my three day work week!
Quote for the Day:
"Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works."
N.B.: "Eat, Drink and be merry."
-Ecclesiastes 9:7
December 24, 2004
Merry Christmas!
It's Christmas Eve and I just wanted to take a moment and send out early morning Christmas wishes!
Special *hugs* to
December 22, 2004
It's Friday!
It's really Wednesday, but having the next two days off, today is Friday for
Last night I had a delightful (if calorie packed) dinner with Red and Signe. Very good times.
I am very excited that
to do tonight in anticipation of her arrival. So much so, I wish I could have taken today off to get the
place in shape. It's nice to keep things in proper context though -- J will love us even if our house is
messy.
Today is my last chance to get any work done at all before the holiday weekend. My whole department
has been a bit lax in our productivity over the last few days. I do feel like I have to make an effort this
very special Friday, and earn my money a bit.
Now a minute for weight loss talk. I am going to weight in today. Let me be clear, I have not really
been working the program for a few weeks now. The fact that I haven't gained all the weight back
before now is a miracle. I expect no such miracles today. I have making lots of noise about rededicating
myself and making forward motion, but I've been all talk, no action. SO, today I am weight in. My goal
is not to gain any more weight between today and my next weigh in (probably next Wednesday). Like
so many others, the holiday treats that have been paraded before me, and my own lack of caring have
lead to holiday gorgeing. So starting right now I am putting my foot down and putting a stop to it. I will
walk my 2 miles to WW and pay-up.
Quote of the Day:
A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.
December 21, 2004
Aerobic Porn?
I am on Amazon.com, pre-ordering the next Harry Potter installment and looking for a new work-out DVD when I come across something totally unexpected: Totally Nude Aerobics. Yeah. I was surprised too!
Posted by La at 2:44 PM | Comments (0)December 20, 2004
Freezing!
Holy Sh*t it's cold! Wind chill this morning? Minus 8 degrees. Is this what winter feels like?
It's Monday, but it's only a three day week for me as I have taken off work Thursday and we are closed Friday. All but 2 or 3 gifts have been wrapped and are sitting prettily under the Christmas tree. I have a wee bit of baking I would like to do for the SPs and my Dad's family but that will be simple and I will take care of that on Thursday.
A little exciting thing,
We did go see A Series of Unfortunate Events, which was delightful. Quite diverting and very entertaining.
On Saturday I did go help Mi Mama bake and that was pretty hard work! We worked for 8 hours straight and at the end I was spent. So many cookies, cakes and marshmallows I can't even tell you.
Now I have to go make a list so help be get through the next few days. Cheers!
Quote of the Day:
The only reward for love is the experience of loving.
December 17, 2004
Last night and I
Last night
Today I am only eatting foods that are healthy and good for me. I need a clean fresh start, and today is it. So far I have done very well, even visited the office bagel and donut table (an evil treat given to us every Friday!) walking away with only coffee and a banana. I have already had breakfast (All Bran bar, and yogurt smoothy) so I am saving the fruit for lunch. I did have coffee but with fat free creamer and equal, which I deemed exceptable. Now I am guzzling water. I told you it was a good start.
To my annonymous commenter: No I did not weight in yesterday, but I might tomorrow. That is all I can promise.
Tomorrow means baking with Mi Mama, going to see Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, and I hope some gift wrapping! Sunday bring ceiling fan shopping. Good times!
Quote of the Day:
There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.
December 16, 2004
You know you are in an action film if...
I got this little bit O' Funny from McSweeney's.
Guide to Determine If You Are in a Jerry Bruckheimer Movie.
BY PETER W. SUDERMAN
1. Your girlfriend is a waitress, but could be a model.
2. A bus explodes.
3. A psychopathic millionaire devises an elaborate plan to murder you or someone you know ...
4. ... and you feel compelled to stop it.
5. You are Nicholas Cage.
6. Despite a total lack of training, you are able to shoot and fight with the accuracy and ability of a special-forces soldier.
7. You are a cop or scientist, but could be a model.
8. A building explodes.
9. After capturing you, a terrorist with a foreign accent reveals the details of his plot in a long-winded speech.
10. The light always hits your face in just the right way.
11. You are in a shootout on the streets of a major city ...
12. ... and it involves helicopters and rocket launchers.
13. Everyone around you is a model.
14. Teams of well-trained henchmen are shooting at you, but they all miss.
15. You are engaged in a knockdown-dragout brawl with the leader of a major crime organization ...
16. ... in slow motion.
17. Everything that has not yet exploded explodes.
18. You save the world.
19. Your name is Jack.
Posted by La at 12:08 PM | Comments (0)Trudging
The commute this morning was not a very pleasant one.
I am supposed to weight in today, but I don't know if I can face the scale. After last week, I swore I would take my 3.8 gain as a wake-up call and make changes. Yeah, not so much with the changing. I did do some quality grocery shopping last night, so the house is full of good stuff...but I am just unmodivated. I am concerned that seeing another gain today might knock me off the horse all together. What to do?
Tonight is my firm's holiday party at the Ritz. It should be fun. Flounder will be joining me. Nothing like a buffet, ugh! The holidays are the worst for food.
Quote of the Day:
The murals in restaurants are on par with the food in museums.
December 15, 2004
Lucky Girl!
Today I received a BIG gift! The coworkers that I assist most often went in together and bought me the roasting pan and carving knife off of our wedding registry. A wonderful suprise! Now I have a large pan for cooking an number of beast in! I am very excited and grateful!
I was talking to
I am so excited for Christmas, I can't even tell you. Not the presents so much (though I am always a fan) and just the day. With the singing and the special food and the family togetherness. I guess it's a good thing we have another weekend to get things together, but really I want to fast forward a week.
Quote of the Day:
To us also, through every star, through every blade of grass, is not God made visible if we will open our minds and our eyes.
December 14, 2004
Stitch Free!
Out went my stitches this morning. Apparently I am quite the good little healer, or so said the nurse who took care of me. Go self-healing skin! At lunch time I have a hair cut which I need very very badly. Now I have a chance of looking nice for my firm holiday party at the Ritz on Thursday. Flounder and I are attending, and at a minimum I am looking forward to good food, and possibly dancing with my fiancee!
Not so much with the gift wrapping last night. Muscles were to sore. I am recovering, but slowly. :(
Quote of the Day:
They can do all because they think they can.
December 13, 2004
Oh the Weight!
My shopping is complete and that makes me happy! I have three more packages coming in the mail, but everything I have purchased is either in-hand, or is in -route. Now for the wrapping. I was going to tackle that task last night, but opted for Cookie baking instead. Cinnamon Snaps! Yummers! The vast majority of these cookies are already out of the house. A smart move on my part must say.
What else is going on? I get my stitches out tomorrow. Um... what else? I did some ill advised exercise Sunday morning which has left me very, very sore. Walking slow sore. So that has slowed me down a bit. Otherwise, I am just enjoying the holiday goodness and trying to figure out what is going on this week.
Quote of the Day:
Cheerfulness, it would appear, is a matter which depends fully as much on the state of things within, as on the state of things without and around us.
December 12, 2004
and I were very
THIS!
I am happy girl! It is all charged and loaded. I almost don't believe I am saying this but I am lookinf forward to my commute tomorrow.
The weekend leading up to today was pretty dang great as well. Lunch with Signe and Bambi at Mon Ami Gabi. Delish! And then some marathon shopping. I arrived home exhausted physically and emotionally. However, I am officially done shopping. A lovely thing. I also go some good news about a few delayed christmas gifts which are finally on their way. This also made me happy.
Today Flounder and went to see Oceans Twelve. It was basically what you would expect. Funny, entertaining and chocked full of attractive stars. We both enjoyed it greatly.
So that leaves me on the couch messing around with my new toy. Thank you Flounder!!
Posted by La at 10:10 PM | Comments (0)December 10, 2004
I'm back, and I gained
I'm back, and I gained 3.8 pounds. Ok, New goal. The new goal is to get back down to my lowest (thus far) and stay there until January. I think just riding out the holidays with out a gain over all is a good as it is going to get.
I realize now one of the things I have been doing wrong. Breakfast. I have been eatting breakfast out FAR to often. Must change. MUST.
On the bright side, walking to and from my meeting I got in 2 miles. It wasn't even that hard. And in the rain no less! Go me! Now for me navel orange and Lean Cuisine lunch...
Posted by La at 1:12 PM | Comments (0)Facing the Music
I am heading out to weigh in at WW. Recently my attendance has been spotty and my food choices have been poor. I am hoping for a bit of inspiration! Wish me Luck!
Posted by La at 11:22 AM | Comments (0)December 9, 2004
I am sure this whole
I am sure this whole entry is entirely TMI,
however...
I just realized that I have been wearing bras that are 2 cup sizes and 2 inchs (back size) too small! Good Lord! What a difference a G makes. No, that was not a typo.
Really.
G as is gigantic, gargantuan and giant! I certainly feel better, but who knew? Sorry to post so strange personal info, but I felt compelled to share. The tape measure is your friend!
California Love?
It looks like I am California Bound! The trip in January is cleared with my boss and
Quote for the Day:
Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.
December 8, 2004
Gum
I just rediscovered Gum. Sugarless to be be specific. What wonderful stuff! I can't remember why I stopped chewing it, but gum has found it's way into the good column. In case you are wondering, currently in the bad column would be Banana Chips, Rude Commuters and Shopping Carts with crazy wheels.
It is such a great day outside, I believe I will go for a walk at lunchtime, even though Mi Mama is unavailable. I just can't pass up this weather. Perhaps I will bundle the exercise with a trip to the Bank. Yes, my life is that exciting.
Even though it is only Wednesday, I am really looking forward to this weekend. It will be chocked full of shopping and Christmasy good times. Maybe even a little home improvement.
The latest and greatest news comes in the form of possible travel. der_flounder is headed out to San Francisco again for more Apple training and I may tagalong. It's still up in the air, but it is an exciting prospect anyway. :)
Quote of the Day:
Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily this is not difficult.
Posted by La at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)
December 7, 2004
I read this Calvin this
I read this Calvin this morning and was surprised that it was originally published in 1993. I am wondering in 1993 what Calvin's Dad's other options were? Credit? Soft Cover? Book-on-tape? Movie Adaptation?
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In other news I had my teeth drilled today, which was not a terrible experience all in all. I will be happy when the numbness goes away though.
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I am wrapping up a book I have been reading for a couple of weeks now, Cloud Atlas. I have n't read any of the reviews (many of them calling the author the new Messiah of the book world) until now. I am in the last throws of this book, which may seem a strange time to read reviews, but I am glad I did. While interesting, inventive and engaging, this book is also fatuiging. Here are snipits of a few reviews --
San Francisco Chronicle:
David Mitchell's new novel, "Cloud Atlas," is a remarkable achievement, a frightening, beautiful, funny, wildly inventive, elaborately conceived tour de force. It places us not in one intensely imagined world but six: six different time periods, milieus, vocabularies and literary styles. Each of these tales more than earns its keep. Collectively, they constitute a work of art.
There's a motorcycle stuntman quality to Mitchell, who has two determinedly unconventional books under his belt, and it seems that with each new effort he'd like to add a few more cars to leap over. And a bus. And perhaps a building or two. There were moments in "Cloud Atlas," which has been short-listed for the Man Booker Prize, when you fully expect him to fall short. It never happens. In each story, I felt engaged in an entirely human quest.
That isn't to say you won't be tempted to rest your brain at times or avert your eyes. To read "Cloud Atlas" is to feel perpetually off balance, often disoriented, occasionally repulsed. But the rewards outweigh the struggle, and in the end, Mitchell offers his readers enormous and surprising satisfactions.
With ''Cloud Atlas,'' Mitchell has returned to the rather nutty method of ''Ghostwritten'': the novel gives us six separate stories, spanning the planet, that cover roughly 1,000 years of time. On one hand, Mitchell's strategy is boldly antithetical to what most narrative-driven novels have been up to since Cervantes. On the other hand, what Mitchell is doing is basically James Michener's ''Alaska'' with an I.Q. transplant.
''Cloud Atlas'' has already been published in England. The reviews have been messiah-worthy. (One critic wrote that the novel makes ''almost everything in contemporary fiction look like a squalid straggle of Nissen huts.'') In The Observer of London, Robert McCrum called ''Cloud Atlas'' ''a remarkable new novel by a significant talent,'' and made its Booker Prize nomination (''Number9Dream'' was a finalist) sound inevitable -- although The Sunday Telegraph caused a brief stir when it disclosed it would not review ''Cloud Atlas'' because its critic found the novel ''unreadable.''
''Cloud Atlas'' imposes a dizzying series of milieus, characters and conflicts upon us: a ship sailing amid some islands around New Zealand during the mid-19th century, wherein an American notary named Adam Ewing befriends, at risk to himself, a stowaway Moriori named Autua; a Belgian estate called Zedelghem in the 1930's, wherein a sexually indecisive aspiring composer named Robert Frobisher serves as amanuensis to an older, more accomplished composer; California during the 1970's, wherein a plucky journalist named Luisa Rey attempts to disclose an ''Erin Brockovich''-style industrial conspiracy; London during the here and now, wherein a 60-ish book editor named Tim Cavendish finds himself accidentally imprisoned in a home for the elderly; Korea in the (just) foreseeable future, wherein a genetically engineered ''fabricant'' named Sonmi-451 is interrogated for her crime of wanting to be fully human; and Hawaii in some distant and thoroughly annihilated future, wherein a young goatherd named Zachry bears unknowing witness to the final fall of humanity into superstition and violence and war.
Cloud Atlas asks the simple questions of our own time, which has a Darwinian vision. A missionary explains to Adam Ewing, son of the American revolution, his idea of a "ladder of civilisation" that will extinguish those races unable to join progress. Zachry's tribesmen believe Sonmi was "birthed by a god o' Smart named Darwin". Humans, someone says, have the intelligence of gods and the souls of jackals. Greed will destroy the world. Ewing, at the end of the book which is close to its beginning, as it has come full circle, sees the "natural" ideas of dominance and fitness as "the entropy written within our nature". He has saved the life of the last Moriori tribesman, whose peaceable family were destroyed by Maori warriors. The Moriori saves him, and individual acts of heroism and rescue stand against tooth and claw across the narrative web. Ewing goes back to become an abolitionist. Sonmi is a (briefly) freed slave whose presence has its half-life after defeat. Zachry becomes again the last of his peaceful tribe, and its storytelling memory. Ewing also says that "Belief is both prize and battlefield", and what Mitchell does is embody simple beliefs and make them vital and important.
If nothing else the review of the book make me feel a wee bit smarter. It is nice to know I am not the ONLY ONE this book wore out. It is not the sort of diverting story I have been reading of late. Perhaps a little workout like this one is good for the grey matter.
Posted by La at 11:58 AM | Comments (0)
December 6, 2004
Good times
I some how managed to enjoy a weekend that was both productive and restful. Imagine that! As you can see on
don't do the tree justice, I must say.
I also spent some quality time with Mi Mama and Micah on Sunday. I helped Micah shop for new shoes and aided
Mi Mama with she search for a cool fake Christmas Tree. There was success on both fronts.
Quote of the Day:
When you reach for the stars you may not quite get one, but you won't come up with a handful of mud either.
December 4, 2004
Saturday Morning
I have just had a really lovely lie-in. I am about to enjoy some (what I hope will be wonderful) Chocolate Macadamia Kona coffee. And then things to do things to do! Why and I typing and not doing? I'm lazy. LAZY! So I guess I should be off then right? Right!
Quote of the Day:
"Anyone can escape into sleep, we are all geniuses when we dream, the butcher's the poet's equal there."
-E. M. Cioran, The Tempation to Exist
December 3, 2004
I could get a realy
I could get a realy long entry out of yesterday. Most of it would whining however. Today I am choosing not to whine and instead focus on the positive. I will sum up the bad elements of my evening by saying DC traffic is not my friend.
On to the good parts of yesterday! Our beautiful new night stands arrived. LOVE. They are the perfect height, a lovely color and have both a shelf and a draw, which I really wanted. (Not that she reads this but...) Thanks Grandma! The stands came assembled (a new one for me) and are already in their proper places flanking our bed. Hurrah!
I am extremely happy today is Friday. I have an extremely festive weekend planned which includes getting the house ready for the holiday, cutting down, putting up and decorating the tree. I am also trying really hard over the next few days to reinstate as many of the useful systems I have developed as possible. Lately I have been letting the little things slide, and for me sliding little things always become big things I am not paying attention. So instead of dropping the mail on the kitchen table when I get home, I will sort the mail and recycle the trash right away. Instead of for a few hours to pass after dinner, I will do the dishes as soon as we are done. And so on, and so forth.
Quote of the Day:
Personality can open doors, but only character can keep them open.
Posted by La at 10:15 AM | Comments (0)
