September goal progress...

 For brevity, I have deleted some of the goals from original list which were embarrassingly miserable fails.  :) 

PERSONAL MONTHLY GOALS

• Turn computer off by 9:00 pm on work nights
• I've written this one off
• Get back to a more Paleo eating plan
• woohoo!  Paleo daughter moved in and is doing all the cooking!  :)
• Take my lunch to work twice a week
• nope
• Walk for fifteen minutes 15 times a month
• nope
• blog 20 times a month
• 11 / 20
• have one or more of the kidlets overnight once a month
• every night, and loving it

PERSONAL ANNUAL GOALS

• Lose 25 pounds
• ummm...the year's not over yet...I've still got time, right?
• Organize home office / craft room
• Organize photos
• having worked on this last month made the in-law project much easier this month...I found and have all non-digital photos for the project scanned
• Paint cabinets in guest powder room
• not yet
• Reorganize laundry room
• not yet
• Paint laundry room cabinets
• not yet
• Build / finish the garage apartment
• Done!   Yea!!!
• Complete the 2013 Reading Challenge
• presently on book number 11 of 12 from the challenge list, and have read 19 others...way down from last year, but my schedule has changed drastically, so...

GIVING GOALS (for the year)

• Knit 12 hats to donate
• I have a feeling this is not going to get done
• Donate 12 boxfuls of household goods / clothes to Goodwill
• I quit counting...I think we can count this one fulfilled!
• Donate 12 books to the library
• 19 / 12
• Donate to two good causes
• fulfilled

FINANCIAL GOALS (for the year)

• Be more deliberately mindful of finances
• I am mindful that we have spent a LOT on construction...now back to SAVING mode
• Contribute maximum to our IRAs
• Carey's, yes...mine, not yet
• Add $100 to each of the five college funds
• done
• Price / plan future kitchen remodel
• in progress (and will be for a LONG time)

CREATIVE GOALS (for the year)

• Hand quilt Rita May's quilt top
• not going to happen this year...will be deleting from 2013 list next month and added to 2014's
• Make 52 cards 43 / 52
• Knit 6 dishcloths 4 / 6
• Sew 2 hot pads 1/2
• Knit 1 cowl
• Make 6 Pinterest projects   6 / 6

Sweets for my sweets...

Bobby's choice was

The Cheesecake Factory's Toasted Marshmallows Smores Galore cheesecake

and Diego chose

their Fresh Strawberry Shortcake

Today I took two of the boys out for lunch.  On the menu was pasta, cheesecake, and strawberry shortcake.  But I also worked in holding doors open for a lady, no cell phones at the table, napkins in laps, and how to twirl fettuccine.

And lest you think that I had the will power to forego dessert, I didn't.  I had Carrot Cake Cheesecake, but for some reason the photo got lost in cyberspace.

When the cat's away...

So I've mentioned that the boss is out of town this week, haven't I?  Well nevermind.  It's been very quiet.

Thursday is my favorite day at work.  It's the only day my coworker and I overlap.  Today she brought her current issue of Country Living magazine.

She wanted me to see a craft project they featured.  I, of course, had to try it immediately.

Their version...

And mine...

Because, you know, when the cat's away, the mice will play.

ps: The book I used was one of several extra, outdated copies of tax guidelines.    And here's the instructions and the template for the mice.  It was super easy...took about ten minutes.

What I'm reading Wednesday...

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

I'm a bit behind the times reading this one.  I was browsing my library ebooks awhile back and added my name to the reserve list, then promptly forgot about it.  Received an email a few days ago that it was available.

It did not grab me from the beginning...took quite awhile, actually.  But this is a time that I am really glad I stuck with it, because I am definitely hooked now.

Hidden treasure...

So, I'm still going through photos to scan for project.  I brought a couple of boxes with me to work.  I woke up early and couldn't go back to sleep, so I just came in an hour early to beat the traffic and started going through the boxes. So many have faded terribly.  So many are tossable.

Then I came across a letter tucked in the box. A handwritten letter...seven pages...both sides...from my great-Aunt Ruth to my mother.  She was a great letter writer, my Aunt Ruth.  This one is filled with news of the weather (coldest on records of 108 years) and of family (Edgar's kitchen needs a thorough cleaning...she and my mother were always cleaning his house on visits after his wife died), and sweet things like 'Ed looks at Kasey's pictures every day and grins from ear to ear'.

That's the beautiful thing about snail mail.  A letter from 1979 is even better today than the day it first arrived.  It's a bridge to loved ones long missed.

Techno trauma drama...

Yesterday I started a project at the request of an in-law.  It involves finding, scanning, and emailing about 50 photos.  I got completely and utterly frustrated and quit for the day.

At 10:30 a.m. this morning, I went back to it.  

It is now 3:01 pm., and I have one photo scanned, and it came out so dark, that even editing it in Photoshop did not help.

Since the kids moved in, the only trouble we have had is with our wireless network.  Kasey works from home, so she needs reliable, quality connectivity.  My wireless router, while working great for the two computers we had in the house previously, was not cutting it with the added computers.  So we switched to the kids' router. 

However, my printer did not recognize that wireless signal...so every time we needed to print something, we had to reconnect my router, print, and then reconnect the kids' router.  All the while with this or that family member popping in to ask what is up with the router?

So the MAJORITY of my time today has been spent reading, digging, plugging, cursing, unplugging, un-installing, installing, cursing, re-installing, test printing, hoping, fingers crossing, hopes dashing, cursing, starting over, cursing, cursing, cursing.  It is FINALLY working for me.  Now whether it works for anyone else in the house, I really don't care.  ;)  

I just know that when they move into their new house, the couch is not the only thing they will be leaving behind.  They can set up a new router at the new house.  I don't want to start over again.

What I'm reading Wednesday...

Vienna Triangle by Brenda Webster

A novel about a graduate student researching the early days of psychoanalysis.  I'm reading it on my Kindle, and there are lots of editing errors, missing punctuation and such.  My favorite, though, was when an elderly character was out of breath after arriving at the main character's walk-up apartment...then when he left he stepped into an elevator...needs some proofing for continuity.

I'm about 90 per cent through it. And while it's okay, I'll be glad to move on to the next one.

Catching up...

A whole week since I last posted.

This week I found a piece for sale at a local auction's website.  This auction house holds its sales on a work night, so I only go to the sale if there is something really intriguing among the sale items.  

I fell in love with the green apothecary above...every inch of its 10.5 foot length to its 7.5 foot height.  I just knew it would be my perfect, once-in-a-lifetime piece for my living room.  The perfect depth.  The perfect color.   Each of its drawers opened pretty smoothly, and it still had the labels of the spices they had held in the shop which had been its original home somewhere in Eastern Europe.  

I had set a firm maximum bid that I was prepared to make on it.  I never even got to bid.  I never jump in at the beginning of bidding...I wait till only serious bidders are left.  Well, they blew by my maximum bid in the first fifteen seconds or so of bidding and went right on up.  It finally went for $3,200.  

I went home totally bummed.  I had already selected in my head which pieces I own at home that would have to be sold to make room (or rather would have to be sold to appease my husband for buying something so huge).

There are a few things I've come across in the past that I still think about and wish I had bought when I had the chance.  I have a feeling this is going to join their ranks.

My friend Pam kept cracking me up at the auction, because there was a rug that she insisted I should buy for my living room.  I kept telling her that it was almost a twin of the rug I already have in my living room, but she kept insisting.  Exhibit: A (home) and B (auction).

 




The colors are thrown off by the different lighting, and the auction photo is very blurry, but the border, the neutral colors...no way did I need one so similar.  Thanks anyway, Pam.

Friday I got my hair cut.  Took off a little more of the length that has been kind of hard to work with...and with the crimp the CPAP was causing at night it was even harder to deal with.  This feels better.  And boy did I luck out with having my appointment this week, because my stylist is having knee surgery next week and may be out for six weeks or so.  Maybe he'll be back just in time for my next appointment.  :)

And in other news...the kids looked at a possible rent house this afternoon, and it came up short (on space) so they think they may stay with us during the building process after all.  YAY!

Seven random thoughts on the 7th...

1.  Don't you love a rainbow?  This was on my way home from work Thursday.  All I had was my cell phone camera, but I had to pull off and get a pic.

2.  Kasey and family have been staying here for a couple of weeks now, and I feel like the luckiest person around.  Kasey has a smoothie ready in the fridge for me when I leave for work, and she has supper ready when I get home.  And I get lots of hugs and kisses from the kidlets.

Carey came up to me the other night, and in a very serious way says, "I love having them here, and getting to see and talk with the kids every day."  I feel the same way.

It looks like the house they were trying to buy is not going to work out.  It was very disappointing, as it was really perfect, but the short-sell process with the bank that owns the mortgage of the current owner was really difficult.  Now it seems that they will go ahead with their building plans.  (That was Plan 'A' before they found the short sell, so they already have blueprints, a lot, etc.)  They are thinking about renting a house during the building process, since it is going to be longer than for buying an existing house.  I understand.  It would probably be more comfortable for them...but I really wish they would stay here.

3.  Driving home from work Wednesday evening, I came to a rural stop light with poor visibility on the right.  I had the green.  The car coming from the left was stopped for the red, and just as I began to enter the intersection a pickup truck traveling at full speed (55+ miles per hour) came from the right and ran their red light.  It really shook me up.  Too, TOO close for comfort.  

4.  I stayed in my jammies all day today.  :O

5.  It is SEPTEMBER!  Time to start working on planning the Christmas gift list.  If I am going to make any gifts this year, I need to get in gear!

6.  I really do feel better since starting to sleep with the CPAP.  But it gives me some crazy bed head in the mornings!

7.  I am in the mood to make waffles.  

What I'm reading Wednesday...

Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan

Time to get the requisite summer beach read in before Autumn arrives here.

 The cover art doesn't seem to match the book's description...multi generations of disfunctional family meet for summer at family beach house.

Today is Tuesday, and I am...

...yearning for Autumn!  So far we are still having Summer with a capital 'S'!  I am thinking by three weeks we will have at least a slight cooling.  If I am wrong, I will be very sad.

Oh, and that photo is from a trip a few years ago.  :)  We don't get gorgeous color in the Fall.  Do you?