To do's

I love lists.

So not only did i have a list of Goals but i had a House To Do List.

As you can see i only got a few of these things done in the last year, but it's a work in progress.

Basement

• Wall unit
• Lighting
• Comfy sofa
• Sell futon and love seat
• Artwork
• Tile floor (round door)
• Clean coat closet
• Organize laundry

Garage

• Power wash floor
• Sell fridge

Stairwell 1

• Lighting
• Artwork
• Banister

Kitchen

• Organize
• Paint
• New Appliances
• New Countertops
• Cabinets
• Floor
• Hardware

½ Bath

• Paint
• Mirror
• Lighting
• Floor
• Décor

Living Room

• Table lamps
• Décor for corner unit
• Painting for back wall

Dinning Room

• Organize

Stairwell 2

• Lighting
• Artwork
• Banister

Master Bath

• Fix shelves
• Fix outlet
• Re caulk

Master Bedroom

• Light kit
• Table or floor lamp
• Wall switch
• Lock on door
• Remove curtain rods

Guest Bedroom

• Organize

It's good to have goals

At the beginning of 2009 i wrote myself a new list of goals. It had goals for this year, 5 years, and 10 years.

The only goal for this year was: Get a new, better paying, job I love.

And i did. Go me!

My new job is the best thing that happened to me in 2009. i started looking in Feb and by July i had it.

I have a great boss, a great cube mate, i love what i do, and my commute is only 6 miles.

2009 a Crappy year in review

Of course there is a lot of stuff missing, good and bad. But these are the bad highlights. I am hoping that 2010 will be MUCH better.

• I have cancelled my New Years Eve party due to underwhelming RSVP’s
• My Christmas party was cancelled due to snow (although fun the impromptu dinner did not make up for it)
• Thanksgiving was ruined by my painful wrist
• My close friends had a baby who was born with severe problems like congenital myotonic muscular dystrophy, clubbed feet, and cysts on his brain which caused him to have a stroke in utero.
• a long time family friend died after a VERY long battle with Cancer
• My grandmother Niva was admitted to the hospital, was transferred to hospice, and died from dementia
• My other grandmother had stints put in her heart
• My grandfather had a quadruple bypass
• My step-grandfather was sent back to Chile, and then came back because his son stole his money.
• My best friends grandmother died
• I got in a car accident, and now my heater does not work and it’s freezing out.
• My cousin’s son was forced to visit the dad he hates in a place he hates, several times this year, because the law sucks.
• My January NYC trip was cancelled due to the fact that I had the plague and could not stop throwing up.

The Blizzard of 2009

The bushes in the first picture of my last post are now entirely under snow.

When we woke up on Sunday the plan for the day was to cook the turkey. My friend walked through the snow to bring me the citrus, herbs, and butter I needed to cook the bird with.

Meanwhile Russ shoveled snow with the neighbors outside. That was when I got the idea to invite the neighbors to dinner. So I walked around and explained that I had a 21lb turkey and that it needed to be cooked. And would they please all come for dinner. One neighbor agreed. Please note I have never met any of these people before.

My friend and I spent the next 4 hours cooking turkey and watching Pride and Prejudice.

Eventually she had to walk home to her family and Russ and I made potato latkes and scotch and mushroom risotto. I also whipped up some garlic green beans.

Our neighbor John came over with some beer and then we got an older couple who is new to the neighborhood. They bought wine, sweet potato casserole, and cookies. And then came Skender, our neighbor from across the street. He’s a little awkward but he was fun and the best part is his name spelled backwards is REDNEKS! Too hilarious.

My friend who helped me cook the turkey came back with her husband and daughter, they pushed their way though the slush with the stroller. They brought like 8 different cheeses. The Domestic Empress came with her lobster quiche, baked brie with mushrooms, and Plaza White Sauce which she had her brother pick up in Newport News on his way home for the holidays. And MoBot braved the snow in her mothers Jeep to bring me green beans and hang out with us.

Now I’m not usually a complete klutz but during the course of the dinner I made the spoon fly out of the green beans and onto the floor and then tried to help The Domestic Empress and made the mistake of going out onto the driveway in converse high tops. Needless to say I slipped and fell on the ice. It was straight out of a cartoon. My neighbors must think I’m crazy.

But all in all it was a good night. We met out neighbors, and had a great time.

I still have not braved the snow in the convertible. Perhaps tomorrow. My parents were kind enough to come pick Russ and I up and drop us off at work and at the buss stop. Our streets are still so bad the usual bus that Russ takes won’t come near the house yet.

Thank god this is a one day work week.

BTW yesterday was also the Winter Solstice so Merry Belated Yule to everyone!

it's my party, and i'll cry if i want to!

Every year for the past 6 years i have thrown a Christmas dinner for my friends from high school.

The 7th annual dinner was scheduled for tonight and now it looks looks like this outside...

We have had over 12 inches of snow fall since 9pm last night with no end in sight. actually you can hardly see this bush anymore and this picture was only taken a few hours ago.

I took yesterday off from work just to get ready. I bought beer, wine, liquor, food, and i decorated 3 tables for everyone to sit at. they look like this...

i was so excited.

since everything has been called off now i'm doing what i always do when i feel like crap, eating cheese. Brie and fig preserves to be exact.

Russ is cooking. he is making pasta with chicken and vegetables in port wine.

I still have a 21lb turkey sitting in my fridge that needs to be cooked soon before it goes bad. i think thats the plan for tomorrow, but my friend with all the stuff to make the turkey is stranded about a mile away. i might have to trek to her house tomorrow to get all the stuff.

stay tuned...

6WD

A few years ago I did the Six Word Diet (6WD) and it worked great.

The 6 words?

Eat 100 Calories Every 90 Minutes

For me it was great, I could eat whatever I wanted as long as I ate a very small portion.

I lost over 10 lbs in a week which is ridiculous. Now it’s not really healthy to loose that much in a week but I have a very slow metabolism and this diet jump starts it hence the almost immediate loss of weight.

There are many ways to modify the diet and if you want to read more about it you can download the book at http://sixworddiet.com/

The last time I did this diet I modified it two ways. I could eat whatever I wanted on the weekend (Friday night to Sunday night) and to make it a bit more convenient I ate 175 calories every 2 hours.

If you are an exerciser or a muscular person you can eat up to 100 calories every hour but the weight loss will not be as rapid.

I like to use the trick from the lady’s at cook yourself thin take the weight you want to be and multiply by 10 and that’s the number of calories you should eat everyday. I would like to weigh 140lb’s so I need to eat 1400 calories everyday. During my day I have to eat 8 small meals if I am eating every two hours so if I divided 1400 by 8 = 175 calories per meal.

I have decided to start again after the holidays. And this time I don’t think I’m going to take weekends off although it depends on how fast I am loosing weight.

The hardest part was coming up with different meals so that I did not get bored, packing everything for work (5 of my meals will be eaten at work), and not eating myself stupid when I get home at night.

So until January I’m going to work on figuring out meals with approximately 175 calories in them. Using foods that can be packed the night before, and coming up with something to distract me from eating too much at home.

Some of my favorite foods that you can eat a lot of on this diet are: asparagus (26 sticks!), popcorn, sweet potato, mushrooms, and shrimp. So it’s really not that bad. There are no restrictions on what I can have so if I want a donut, or mac and cheese, or spaghetti that’s fine. It’s all about portion control and making your body think that it’s feasting not fasting.

If anyone decides to do this with me let me know because I could always use someone to bounce meal ideas off of. Happy shrinking!

* NOTE: I am NOT being compensated to talk about the Six Word Diet.

I could use a hobby

I used to have all kinds of things that I did to keep busy. I could spend an entire day in my room alone and feel fulfilled.

I used to be in theater and in chorus. I tried sports like horse back riding, ice skating, tae kwon do, fencing, gymnastics, ballet, and a million others, I traveled, and groups.I Read, watched TV, went to the movies, colored, crafted, sewed, did community service and volunteer work, babysat and did a million other things.

Then came a period in my life when all I did was work and go to school. I had 4 jobs and went to school full time. I loved working at Curves and talking to all my customers everyday, I loved working at a catering company planning weddings for people and eating great food, I loved working at the renaissance festival 3 months out of the year, I loved taking tickets at all the awesome concerts in town, and although I never loved school work I loved learning and was proud to get a degree.

6 days after my last final I was offered a job, and 12 day before my technical graduation date (I did not go) I started working. And I never looked back.

I love planning meetings and I love going to new town and hotels and meeting new people. And for the most part my hours are steady and I could have time for other things but then I get home and I’m tired, I have to cook dinner, I watch a few shows and it’s time to go to sleep.

Two nights a week Russ goes to band practice, and for the most part I find stuff to do with myself, I clean, or go see a friend, or go see my mom, or run errands but last night I had nothing. I was too tired to do the dishes that needed doing but I wanted to leave the house or actually do something. Instead I showered and sat in bed watching Netflix videos on my computer. The movie was cute and entertaining but I wish that I had had some other project to work on. A hobby like Russ’s band practice that would require me to leave the house several nights a week. But I don’t.

I wanted to join a choir, but they all have expensive dues, ugly outfits, and make you pay per sheet of music. I wanted to take a floral design class but again it’s very expensive. I wanted to find a dance class but have not really found a place where I am interested in going or a class that I am particularly interested in. so what now?

I really don’t like sitting at home two nights a week rotting my brain with television and wasting precious time.

Any ideas?

New Banner

Thank you to Lauren of LFB Photography and Design for the new Festive Banner. With her help i plan to have a new banner for every season.

Check out her awesome Etsy shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/lfbphotography

I'm not taking them off unless i want to!

i saw this picture on http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/ today.

I personally think that it is rude for people to force guests to take off their shoes when you invite them to your house.

what if they have smelly feet, holes in their socks, or ugly feet and feel self conscious about them? you don't want to make your guests feel uncomfortable. if they want to take them off thats one thing, but don't give them an ultimatum.

As far as i can tell the person who made this sign is an Asshat.

that is all.

I can’t believe that just happened!

So today kinda sucked. It started out fine. I got up went to the orthopedics office and was told that my appointment was for tomorrow. So I got an appointment at an office across the street for 3:45 today and cancelled the appointment for tomorrow.

So I got to work late, my hand was hurting, and there was not much I could do.

At 3:00 I left work, got my X-rays from the hospital, and went to the ortho’s office.

He came in, took one look at my x-ray, said it was a tendon problem and decided what I needed was a Cortisone shot, no problem, I’m good with needles.

He jabs a 2 inch needle that is really thick into my wrist in several directions and all the way in. no problem. It oozed white from the numbing medication he had added to the needle. Again no problem.

I grabbed my stuff walked into the hall and promptly passed out on the floor; thank god the doctor caught me before my head hit the floor. My color came back, I drank water, and left.

WTF? I have no idea what happened.

saturday snow

Today it snowed in Northern Virginia. I woke up and the trees were beautiful and the day was still and magical.

We had no food in the house and plans to go to Costco. My parents picked us up and we went to Dunkin Donuts in 4 inches of snow and slush. We got coffee and donuts and went to the high school around the corner to wait for my brother to get out of the SAT’s. There was no snow on the ground when he left for the exam at 7am and we were worried he would not know how to drive home in the snow. So we sat in the car and ate donuts and talked for over 2 hours. My dad would periodically get out of the car and clean my brothers car and help all the other kids leaving clean there cars too (he’s kind of awesome that way).

We finally made it to Costco which had the shortest lines ever which was nice. I spent more money there than I should have and we went home.

I only got one load of laundry done today and my plan was to do about 4. I sat in front of the TV and caught up with all the shows I missed while in Chicago. I also bought UP and Star Trek so there will be some movie watching in the near future although Russ has this weird thing where he does not like to watch movies he has already seen, so I wonder why I bother buying movies when he won’t watch them with me.

Anyway that is all I have for today. I go to get my arm looked at on Monday morning so hopefully it will be good news. I can function much better now but I still can’t lift or pull anything and forget opening jars, it hurts.

I made a mistake

At the biggest solo conference of my working year I made a mistake. Actually I made several small ones and a big one.

And although I fixed it, it did not go unnoticed.

I’m upset with myself. My boss even told me that I was doing a good job and not to dwell but that she knew I would. She is a good boss. After my mistake we went shopping and to dinner, she quickly learned that shopping with me can mean dropping $100 in 30 minutes and we went to dinner and got back past my bed time and all was well.

And now that I have been through this once I know that next year things will be different.

But next year is far away and right now I feel like an idiot.