Re-evaluating

She looks so thoughtful here. Almost like she's not the kind of dog to enjoy eating cat poop. 


Remember when I made all those New Year's resolutions? Yeah that was fun. And (not suprisingly) fairly unsuccessful. I was reading a blog post recently on whether we're more likely to stick to goals if we share them or keep them to ourselves. I think either way, it's about a 50/50 shot for me. But it's nice to write things down, and now that we have a little less than two months left to 2010, I've been thinking about what I really hope to do by the end of the year:


+ Read 5 books. (I've already got 2 of them started.)
+ Scan all those pictures our parents gave us for our wedding slide show so we can have a copy and then finally return them.
+ Sell old electronics and the swing set left by the previous home owners on Craigslist. (If you want a swing set, new all-in-one printer that can't print borderlessly, vacuum with broken hinge (but still sucks in the way vacuums are supposed to), old laptop or old digital camera (runs on AA batteries!), holla.)
+ Finish the birthday present I was going to make for my friend's daughter's second birthday. She's now 3 years and 2 months old. 
+ Clean the grout in the bathroom.
+ Go through all the boxes in the basement. 
+ Paint all the trim in the house white (in progress). 
+ Bake bread (I bought the ingredients a couple months ago).
+ Take one day or evening and spend some quality time with DSLR tutorials and my Nikon Charles. 


Here we go... 

And the Paint Goes On

House progress is coming along slowly. The kitchen wallpaper stripping and painting and office painting wore us out, so we've been putting off further projects. But it's time to get back to the home improving.

My parents kindly came in one weekend and we were able to get the living room, dining room and guest room painted Olympic's Quaking Grass. 

Before you think I've completely lost all sense of taste, please know that the hardwood floors will be installed in a couple weeks (Good riddance, blue carpet!) and I've picked out some neutral slipcovers.

And then one Saturday I got the pantry painted, shelves relined and organized. It looks so much crisper and cleaner now.

Next on the agenda: painting the trim white so it will be ready for the quarter-round once the new floors are in. Exciting!

Downsizing

Ever since Charles (my Nikon DSLR) came into my life, we have gone everywhere together. Even Walmart. Because you don't know when the perfect photo opp will appear and you want to be ready with your best gear. Charles compensates for so many of my photography shortcomings, much more so than his predecessor, a Sony point-and-shoot who was never even named.

(And yes, even Walmart has photo opps. One day I saw some crushed color ink cartridges in the parking lot and the colors mixing with the rain/oil puddle was really pretty. But my camera was at home. Le sigh.)

What Charles has in quality though he lacks in portability. His weight pulls on my shoulder. And while I feel more legitimate taking random photos with a professional-looking camera, I also feel like more of a creeper/paparazzi wannabee. (This might have more to do with my general insecurities than anything related to the cameras.) Unnamed Sony is much more lightweight and discreet.

When we were moving, I often left Charles at home and was so relieved to have my purse return to an acceptable weight. So for now, until I change my mind, my unnamed Sony gets to go with my on my daily trips.

My shoulders are so grateful, but my heart misses Charles.

The Benefits of a Clean Desk

There's nothing quite so peaceful as having a clean desk. 

Even if 2 inches away the rest of the desk mess lives, at least my desk is clean. 

P.S. Isn't that a lovely wall color? Sadly it's a small room and the office is so full of desks that I think the color is a little too dark for the situation. I need a lighter color to open up the room. Right? Right. 

The Wall

When Lee goes running with me, he often instructs me on "the wall": that place where you feel like you can't run any farther, but if your husband is with you he makes you keep going anyway because he's mean, but then in five minutes you realize you're doing just fine and feel awesome and maybe husband was right.

Walls in Europe are extra pretty. Even the leaning ones.


As part of my ongoing struggle with running, I had been going through a phase where I decided not to tackle the wall. If I just took it easy and avoided the wall then I would be happier, run more, and improve more. Except I didn't start running more and I still ran at the pace of a fast walk.

So after months of running rarely and always stopping for a walk break after a mile, on Saturday, I ran through the wall, and ran my whole loop of 2.18 miles without stopping! We don't need to discuss my pace (Okay, it was 12 minutes.), but I ran a little over two miles without stopping! If that doesn't deserve a handful of cookies, I don't know what does! (Curing cancer definitely. Also, completing your EGOT. How did I not know before that Audrey Hepburn is an EGOT-er?!)

But I don't think metaphorical walls are just present in athletic activities. I hit walls every afternoon, Monday through Friday, right after lunch. And last night I came home and was convinced that I would not be able to get anything done on my to-do list (Hello, chore chart!) and would probably just wind up being lazy and frustrated at my laziness all night. Somehow though, I managed to give Zoey her bath, and after that, I had a sudden burst of energy! I conquered my "I've been sitting at a desk for eight hours and am now incapable of accomplishing anything" wall and crossed most of the things off my to-do list! In under an hour too! I am master of wall conquering! For the past 72 hours at least.

(You get a virtual pretend cookie if you thought this post was going to be about The Greatest Wall of All Time. I'm looking at you Pinju.)

Edited to add: I ran 12 minutes per mile, not two miles in 12 minutes. Oops! That would've been pretty awesome though!

Chore Chart-ing

"cleanliness may not be next
to godliness but it sure feels
good"
- Nikki Giovanni

I have got to clean the apartment tonight. After lots of postponing and telling myself I'd do a little here and there, I'm back in my usual situation: I've gotten nothing done and everything needs to be done. Even mopping. (Bad snow. Bad.)

When I reach this point every 3-4 weeks, I reflect on how if I broke things down and did a little every night the apartment could be really clean, all the time, without entire panicked evenings devoted to the situation.

So to prevent future nights like tonight, I've made a chore chart. (You can actually view it here.)


I feel very dorky about it and like I need to pick up some gold stars on my way home from work. Maybe some poster board too. But I feel dorky about a lot of things (the magnitude of my love for Jane, romantic comedies and Glee) and scheduling things out is a generally effective way for getting me to do stuff.

The chore chart, in addition to being delightfully alliterative, runs Monday through Thursday on a four-week cycle. I still need to do a big cleaning tonight, but if I start the schedule on Monday, hopefully I won't have to do any big cleanings in the future and I can easily transition into cleaning twice the square footage once we buy a house. 

(And yes, Lee often helps around the house, but since he's generally pretty busy with working and schooling full-time, I do must of this and he helps with the dish drying, dishwasher unloading, trash disposal, kitty litter emptying and Zoey's evening potty trip.)


Is anyone else this crazy about cleanliness? Am I the only childless chore-charter (ooh...alliterations!)?


image: unusualimage

My Return to Paper

I like technology mostly. So over the past year or so I've tried to lean more on technology for certain tasks, specifically my calendar and to-do list.

That ends now.

I had been thinking about going back to a paper planner. I love Google Calendar and I will continue to use it since Lee is a computer calendar person and he can check it as necessary. But for me, it's back to paper.

So this weekend I bought a paper planner, with space for a to-do list, and since then my productivity has been rediculous! Maybe it's just the fact that I've reached the point where I HAVE to get things done (15 days til Christmas!), but things have been going so smoothly now that I have my planner and paper to-do list. I have accomplished all my tasks for the past three nights and now all of my long-distance gifting is crafted and shipped!


Oh paper, I will never leave you again! (Okay, that's probably unlikely, but I'll stick around for awhile!)

Week in Review: 12/4 and Blogiversary!

Wow. It's been one year of blogging thing. I'm pretty proud of myself for sticking with this. But mostly a HUGE thanks to my readers. I have a lot of fun doing this, but it would get boring after awhile without anyone to comment so thank you thank you. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside! I am sending you many virtual hugs right now.

Feel free to leave any thoughts or suggestions for the upcoming year in the comments or there's a link to e-mail me to the right. I spend a lot of time thinking about goals and plans for this thing but I can never make up my mind so now I will just let you tell me what I should do. Topics to discuss? more or less of anything?

My post from a year ago today/Evidence of improvement (at least I give you pictures now!).

I really love Lexington Children's Theatre and if you do some clicking on Facebook you can help them get $25,000 or something awesome like that. Trust me, they deserve it and are just amazing. Amazing productions, amazing outreach, wonderful people. So if you can, give them some clicks.


There has been a lot of doubt about the cause of Jane Austen's death because it's a tricky business retro-diagnosing people, but it's been in the news this week that once again, it was more likely TB than Addison's disease.

I've noticed recently that when discussing colors of things with Lee (like shirts) he likes to correct my "purple" with "eggplant". I think eggplant is the only fancy color name he knows so he likes to trot it out as much as possible. This would explain why, when I found the perfect color for our future kitchen, he called it "baby excrement" instead of "mustard". He even compared it to this one house we saw that truly had poop-colored counter tops but this kitchen and those counter tops are nothing alike! The offending counter tops had a lot more brown and orange in them. I am determined to see my mustard kitchen some day. Don't fear!

I also found some prints and cutting boards I want to hang up in this future kitchen as well.

Have I mentioned that I'm mildly crazed by the amount of Christmas crafting I have left to do? Probably twenty times. I decided this week that we're not sending out Christmas cards this year because A. I normally see, e-mail or call the people I really care about and B. Removing them from my to-do list brings great peace of mind. I think printing and filling out this gift organizer from The Project Girl will also help.

Happy weekend-ing!

image: Orin Zebest

A Moment to Brag

Can I just take a moment to brag? Lee is freaking awesome.

I've been struggling with some laziness lately and to compensate I have made a ridiculous list of things I want to accomplish this week. I often ask Lee to help out, but for whatever reasons in how my crazy mind works I've spent a lot of time over thinking when I can get certain chores done this week and how Lee can help and maybe I should just do it all myself...

So this morning as we were getting ready for work I asked Lee if he could dust tonight and maybe something else, I hadn't decided, so much to do... And then -- this might not seem like much, but it meant a lot to my dorky OCD heart -- he told me, "Can you just tell me everything you want to me to do now because when additional tasks are hypothetically looming, I'm less likely to start on them." Then he incorporated an amusing analogy about needing to know how much the check needed to be made out for because once it was written he didn't appreciate requests for additional cash withdrawls. I could ask for any amount, but I needed to decide on an amount and ask. Which is totally fine with me.

Over the course of our relationship, one of the central frustrations has been me struggling to delegate yet getting grumpy that I do it all myself. And once I delegate, I micro-manage and don't understand why things aren't being done right now. (What do you mean Warhammer doesn't have a pause button?!) But lately we've really hit our chore groove and Lee has been sharing important insights, like how of all the kitchen tasks he least hates unloading the dishwasher (Oops, I forgot to add that to this evening's list. Hmm...) and he prefers a task list up front as opposed to me perpetually tagging on random things.

So tonight Lee will dust, vacuum and hopefully unload the dishwasher, leaving me plenty of time to go to the grocery, make dinner (tortellini, EVOO, garlic, parm -- both easy and delicious), laundry, and clean the bathroom. I feel so much better about my to-do list now!

Excessively Ambitious Weekend Plans

This is just an awesome picture I took at the zoo. It has nothing to do with what is about to follow. 

I've filled this weekend with more goals than is probably humanly possible, because I'm good at that and have a bunch of stuff to do. Perhaps I am most likely to be successful if I break it down into timed segments.

Friday
6 pm   Eat dinner with family
9 pm   Watch my Netflix movie (Crash) because I have been a ridiculous Netflix loser this month and watched nothing and I try to watch at least 4-6 because I'm all about calculating my price per film.
11 pm    Catch up on as many DVRed TV shows as possible: Glee, The Office, Project Runway, Models of the Runway (although I'm thinking that last one is kind of lame).

Saturday 
11 pm   Up and running. Not metaphorically, actually on the street running, during which time I will calculate a plan to start working out more regularly because I haven't been working out much at all lately.
noon   Hopefully it will be a long run, and now I shall do crunches. Then shower and look cute.
1 pm   Lunch
1:30 pm   Drive around town trying to find OPI's Moon over Mumbai. (Long story. For next week perhaps.)
3 pm   Return home successful and paint my nails. Perhaps finish catching up on TV.
3:30 pm   Finish writing My First Pride and Prejudice. Yes, I am turning Pride and Prejudice into a children's novel book/craft project for the cutest toddler in America. Of course, I've also thought about avoiding the whole mess and just buying her the comic book to get her started.
5 pm   Megan and Richie are coming over to visit and watch the UK game! I'm going to have UK fans to watch a UK game with! I'm so happy I could cry! To order pizza or cook? That is the question.
6 pm   Go Cats!

Sunday
9 am   Mass
10 pm   Coffee and donuts
11 pm   Church Round 2 with Lee's family
noon   Lunch
1 pm   Upload pics from Cedar Point. Write some blog posts for upcoming week.
2 pm   Work on children's novel book.
3:30 pm   Work on some craftiness surrounding someone's birthday present.
4:30 pm   Read some Lord of the Rings because I would like to finish it sooner than later so I can officially declare Harry Potter the winner.
6 pm   Dinner
Maybe this exercise wasn't necessary. Maybe I can get everything done this weekend. I probably should go to the grocery at some point...I should have put that in earlier...we'll allow this gap in the schedule because I'll be lucky if I stick to this through Friday evening. 
9 pm   Desperate Housewives premiere! Will Mike marry Susan or Katherine?! I DON'T KNOW!
10 pm   Get ready for bed and snuggle up with some Frodo until I fall asleep.

This seems to be totally achievable! Not nearly as bad as I originally thought. Perhaps I should always specify my schedule like this. We'll see how things are on Sunday night. *fingers crossed!*

Out of Sorts

I'm feeling a little scattered to be honest. Disorganized in my head, perhaps.

Last week I had a horrible bout with the lazies which has caused things to compound and now I feel like I have a monster to-do list tonight, plus a lot of things/projects/thoughts circling in space.

I need re-do my craft space.
I need to read more.
I need to start Christmas crafting.
I need to make a birthday gift for the cutest toddler in America and I've been planning on making this for her for years and I'm so excited about it and I can't wait to share it with the world but I've been putting it off for two years. Maybe this weekend I'll start on it.
I need to get into an exercising habit that works with how it keeps getting darker earlier and my love affair with the snooze button but how once it's all over I love my morning "jogs." (I say I run but I'm pretty sure most would call it a jog.)
I need to make those pillows for the couch. 

Note: These are also things I want to do.

There's also a new project about to take over my life but that won't be revealed until next week (or maybe tomorrow), just to keep you in suspense. (And it's not a baby. I always suspect a baby first. Do others do that too or is it just me?)

But I'm determined to be productive tonight and hopefully get the ducks in a row (and watch Project Runway). I was catching up on my overgrown Google Reader and found some organization inspiration over at The Project Girl. I'm thinking I might have to print out several project planners over the weekend and ideally attach them to chicken wire but they might just wind up covering the fridge.

It's Possible!

I always thought to have a secret room in my house that could only be accessed via bookcase, I would have to spend millions on a haunted Victorian mansion, but not so my friends!



I found this on Lifehacker today. Secret bookcase rooms can be accomplished with some Ikea shelves and basic tools. I'm going to go ahead and add "secret bookcase doorway" to Lee's to-do list for the house we don't own.

My Garden!

I have had a ridiculously productive weekend!

• I watched three movies a coworker lent me (Hot Shots!, Hot Shots! Part Deux, and Top Secret -- hilarious wacky 80s/90s fun!) so I'm all caught up on my movies and ready for Netflix to send me Benjamin Button this week (Side note: I've talked about Google Reader causes pressure for me to read all the articles, but I have 300+ movies in my Netflix queue! That's some real pressure.).
• I've got a ton of stuff in my trunk for Plato's Closet and Goodwill.
• I cleaned out THE junk drawer that has been taking in random crap since middle school.

It's been awesome for my little OCD heart!

The big highlight is I bought some basil. A coworker gave me some of her chives that I planted months ago, so now with my basil, I think I'm done for this year. It's not much, but basil is what I wanted the most since I love to cook with it but never do since it's so expensive.Aww...little container garden with a fake snake to keep the chipmunks away!

New Craft Idea!

I've been struggling lately with trying to decide how I want to organize my calendar. I like having it electronic, but I don't like the calendar format on my phone. I have a Google calendar, but since I don't want to pay for the internet on my phone that's not a portable option.

I'm starting to consider a return to the paper calendar.

At Target yesterday I found one I absolutely loved! Tragically, I can't find it online because I'm going to botch this description. It was a standard, spiral-bound planner but it had a cover made from really cute fabric. At the end of the year, you could slip that planner out of the canvas cover and slide a new one in.

My next thought was, "I can make this!" It didn't seem difficult really, I'm just not 100% sure on my current abilities. Especially since this would rely more strongly on me actually sewing in a straight line. Maybe with some practice though I can get one done for Christmas.

Scheduling

Getting up and going running at 6 a.m. has not gone well this week. Surprise! We managed to go Monday morning. Tuesday and Wednesday was a nasty rain/snow mix. (I'll run in the cold but not in the wet!) And this morning was just general laziness. Last night Lee was actually the one to ask if we were going running in the morning and when I tried to get out of it he insisted. (What an excellently supportive running partner I have!!) However, I was able to get him to retract that at 6:15 this morning. (Even the best running partners have weaknesses.) Maybe tomorrow morning? I'm more likely to just wait it out and run on Saturday.

I've decided that I need to set a specific fitness schedule. I did pretty well last year when I started my 10-week beginning runner plan because I had a specific schedule so hopefully I can have the same luck this year. Let's try this:
Monday 30 minute a.m. run
abs/arms pilates p.m.
Tuesday Take Zoey for a long walk p.m.
Wednesday 30 minute a.m. run
arms/legs pilates p.m.
Thursday 30 minute a.m. run
Friday Take Zoey for a long walk p.m.
Saturday 40+ minute run
legs/abs pilates
Sunday Nothing!