A Reading Goal of 60...

Last year I set my sights on reading 60 books in the year, and I came pretty close.  I read 58 total over the year.  This year, I would like to set 60 as the goal and hope I get very close.  But I’m off to a bit of a slow start.

I managed to read a couple of quick books that were less than 350 pages.  But it’s the most recent thick one that REALLY slowed down my starting pace for the year.  I just got done reading the 1000+ paged “World Without End” by Ken Follett.  At about ¾ of the way through the book, I started to refer to it as the “Book Without End”. 

My first clue should have been that a friend just handed over this book and said it was not their type of book but maybe I would like it.  Not that it was badly written but I think it was a BIG book that should have been broken into several books.  There were quite a few instances where the book could have ended but no such luck.  You turn the page and there was the start of a new chapter.  It was the never ending story; kind of like the movie but without the irritating music.  Yesterday when I got done reading, it was like the ending was anticlimactic!  It was like the bad after taste left over from something bad I ate.  Ugh!

This morning, I started a new book, No. 4 for the year, “The Art of Racing in the Rain” by Garth Stein and I was almost bawling my eyes out after the first chapter.  Now this is a book, and it was after lunch today that I find myself already starting on Chapter 11.  It’s a captivating story and it’s going to be a quick read for me. If you are a “dog” person this is definitely a book you can relate to. 

It is written from the perspective of a dog named Enzo who is philosopher with nearly a human soul.  In fact, in his next life Enzo is convinced that he’ll come back as a human.  I can tell that this book is going to be an emotional rollercoaster for me because of my love of dogs.  But so far, it has been an enjoyable read and a page turner.  I guess for my next book choice, I’ll need to choose something lighter.

Well, that's 3.5 down AND ONLY 56.5 books to go in 10.5 months!  She-esssh! No Problem-o!

Self Imposed Deadline....

Okay, yesterday I imposed a deadline on myself to come up with a list of New Year's Resolutions.  Well, I thought about it over night and came up with a few....

1) Save More Money!  I know, I know that I used this one last year BUT it's always a good one to have.  At least, I think so!  Besides, it's awlays good to have some money off to the side for those "Rainy Days" that happen in life.  AND this would make it easier to do some of those items that are on my "Bucket List" too!  So I'm putting this on the lsit for another year.

2) Unclutter My Life!  I had this on the bottom of the list last year, and it rather turned out to be more of an after thought than a goal or something to work on.  But I'm putting it higher up on the list this year and am really going to focus on cleaning the closets out and nick-nacks.  Just a VERY thorough Spring Cleaning of what I have in my one bedroom apartment.  Besides, I really don't have much room as it is!

3)Learn Spanish!  It's another item that's on my "Bucket List" that I would like to try to focus on.  I kind of get tired of feeling like a minority in my own neighborhood.  All my neighbors seem to speak Spanish and here I am- "No Espanol!"  It's kind of embarrassing!

4) Get to my Goal Weight!  I'm within 12-13 lbs. of my goal weight and DAMN IT!  I want to get there THIS year.  Last year I lost about 22 lbs. and I don't think that it's unrealistic to lose the last 12 to 13 to get to my goal.  So that's on my list for this year.

5) Cut Down On Eating Out!  So the other night I run through the Wendy's Drive Thru and the manager asks how my art show went last month... Yeah, I think I've been visiting THAT Drive Thru a BIT TOO MUCH!  And bonus, by working on this goal I'll also be helping out on two of the other goals.

6) Do One Century!  I blew this last year because I waited until the end of the year and then had bike mechanical problems.  Some of you may remember my riding 30 miles with my rear bike brake rubbing REALLY hard.  Doing a canyon like that was interesting in its own way.  So I want to shoot for attempting the Century earlier in the cycling season.  That way it won't be a last minute failure.

There's the list for this year!  I'm keeping it short on purpose.

Flash Month...

Wheeewwwpp! That’s the sound of January made as it went zinging past.  The full realization of its passing didn’t hit me until today when a co-worker wished me a “Happy Groundhog’s Day!”  WHAT?!!?  Yep, sure enough January had come and gone. It went by in a flash!  Here today and gone tomorrow.  I also realized I forgot to drop off the check for rent yesterday.  OOoopppss! (Guess where I’m going immediately after work today!?)

Photo- "Jane's Addiction" - watercolor on paper done by me.

 The first two weeks of January, I was dealing with preparing for my art show and the last two weeks I was recovering from the art show.  Meanwhile, January just breezed on by.   On the good side of all this is that I’ve managed to sale quite a few paintings; which has been rather cool.  I’ve also managed to rack up about $525 total donation to the Salt Lake City Habitat for Humanity charity.

The bad news-- I didn’t work out at the gym for a little over two weeks during the month.  I found I had gained 5 lbs. in the two weeks.  Ugh!  But in the last week, I’ve ran about 8 miles and had two pilates classes.  I got on the scale yesterday and discovered I had lost 3 of the 5. 

AND I still need to come up with some New Year’s Resolutions!  Not that I MUST make them but I kind of feel like I’m rather aimlessly wandering around in life without some extra goals to attain.  So thus I’m going to give myself a deadline for New Year’s Resolutions…tomorrow.  And hopefully, unlike the Groundhog Movie, tomorrow will come? I HOPE...

Getting Back to Normal?

The 100 Salt Lake City Porches Art Show was this last Saturday and it was a very successful event. I had about 75 people that came, sold 9 more porch paintings, some note cards, and a couple other watercolor paintings.  It was a very fun event with my friends, Jay & Jerry, playing music.  A BIG Thank You for all who showed up! 

I think I surprised a great deal of people by the variety of the porch paintings that I had produced over what was about a year’s time.  I tried to put the paintings in order that they were painted.  I think my progression of improving was obvious as you went through the show.  But I also thought it was just amazing to see all of the variety of architecture that happens in Salt Lake City.     

This week, I've been making painting deliveries (both new purchases and borrowed), returning art stands, and other items borrowed for the art show. I'm hoping that by the middle of next week I'll be back to normal.

Normal!?!?  Well, at least a semblance of normal for me.  I need to get back to working out on a more regular basis and start watching what I eat more closely.  With getting ready for this art show, I’ve been doing a great deal of fast food eating—Not good!  AND I still need to sit down and make some New Year’s Goals!

Last night I finally managed to get a bit of time in the gym.  It had been almost a week and a half since I had any kind of working out.  Of course, I CAN now safely say I’m totally recovered from the Zumba, Boot Camp, and Pilate’s weekend.  Last night, I surprised myself and managed to run 2.1 miles in 22 minutes.  Nice!  I can’t even begin to complain about running a 10:28 mile; especially after doing virtually no working out for almost 2 weeks.  I of course pushed myself and did another 25 minutes on the elliptical machine.  I was beet red and sweating profusely when I got off the machine.  I probably looked a terror to the Middle Eastern man running on the treadmill; awhhh…, Fair Game!

Now to get to those late New Year’s Goals….

Still Recovering & Buy Art From a Pirate?



Photo: "Mannequin on Deck"; Watercolor on 8" x 10" Paper. It and several
others will be at my art show this Saturday.

My body is still trying to recover from last weekend’s list of workouts I did.  Saturday, it was a hip-hop fast paced Zumba class where I’m sure I looked part idiot – part spasmostic.  It was a challenge to keep up and trying not to run into anyone else in the class but I will admit it was fun!  A good cardio workout too! 

Sunday came and I tagged along with Diane to a Boot Camp Work Out.  OMG!  During the warm up period, I found myself already in trouble.  1.5 minutes of “flutter kicks”?!!! (Flutter kick= lying on back, hands under small of back, lift legs off of floor and scissor kick without touching floor.)  The 1.5 minutes felt like 3 minutes of literally wrenching my gut. 

From there we stood up and did what I refer to as a “tsunami” of squats where we would “rest” for 10 seconds in the squat position.  Then as fast as we could go from squat to stand and back to squat in under 30 seconds.  We repeated this a few times and the “rest” was no rest no matter how much the instructor said it was.  My front thighs are still feeling this one today (4 days later.).  The rest of the Boot Camp went thru a series of dead lifting and “burp bees”, swinging kettle balls with push-ups, and arm press with 15 lbs. weight bar with jumping pull-ups.  By the time I got to the jumping pull-ups, my arms were saying NO MORE.  I had to opt out.

It was ¾ thru the day that I realized I was still signed up for reformer pilates early Monday morning and I was still very so sore from the morning.  But Monday morning came and I hated the thought of paying for a class and not showing.  So I went to class, but I’m glad I did because it ended up being a good thing.  The instructor took up some really good stretches at the end of the class that made all the difference to me walking half way decently.

I’ve been terribly stressed this last week getting ready for my 100 Salt Lake City Porches Art Show.  Click here to get the 411 on the art show.  I’m so stressed in fact that I have a sty in my right eye that seems to not be going away.  The last two mornings, I’ve woken up to almost not being able to see out of my right eye.  I’ve had to apply warm compresses on it to make the swelling go down.  I’ve been wearing my sunglasses quite a bit because I can’t wear eye makeup (I feel SO nude!) and my right eye is slightly swollen with red.  I just hope it goes away before my art show this Saturday.  I was teasing a friend that I may have to find a sexy eye patch to wear for the show.  “Want to buy a painting from a pirate? Argh!”    

Looking Back & Thinking...

"Man in the Window"; Watercolor on 9" x 9" Paper done by me as a study in use of light.

The old year is over and the new one is just starting out.  It’s always interesting to look back over the year and see where and what you’ve done.  I’ve managed most of my goals for this last year and I’m still playing with some ideas of the goals for this New Year.  I'm thinking about what I want for my goals for this New Year. But first, here’s the review of the goals for this last year….

1.)    Save More Money! 

I did save more than the previous year but not as much as I had set out to do originally at the beginning of the year.  I think I had set out too unrealistically high of a savings goal and didn’t leave any room for those things that happen in life and the occasional need to splurge every now and then.  But even with all of that and some car repairs, I still managed to save about 70% of my original savings goal for the year which isn’t too shabby at all.  Early in September, I sat down and looked at the savings goal and made some adjustments accordingly.  I’m thinking I’ll keep up that new improved somewhat more feasible pace of savings for the New Year.

2.)    Finding More of a Balance Between Cycling and Running-

As I look over the post it notes that I kept track of my monthly stats, I see that I did improve this last year with trying to maintain more of a balance between the two.  Overall, I didn’t do as much mileage on the bike which sometimes I found a bit of a challenge.  Also, I think that a rainy Spring helped out with the balance issue too.  But I tell you I have been loving some of this warmer weather that’s been happening the last two weeks.  I’ve gotten in about 80 miles in, and this is late December & early January.  I went out this last Monday and I felt like I was cycling during the month of October.  Oh, but I bet the local skiers are NOT loving this!

3.)    Do 1 Century on the Bike. 

Never did quite do this one and the two times I attempted it were unplanned failures.  One time I was riding and later discovered I was riding the 45 miles I did do with the brake rubbing hard on the back tire.  The other time, my body broke down at the 75 mile marker and I had to turn around early.  And then, after all of that, I just wasn’t in to doing the whole Century thing.  I sometimes question whether I really want to push myself enough to do another one.  A few years back I did 8 Centuries in a year, and since then I’ve kind of been burned out on them.  I seem to love going anywhere between 60 to 75 miles and having enough energy to do something else in the day.  I don’t think that I’ll put this as a goal for the next year.

4.)    Be More Weight Conscious! 

I think I did very well on this one and I did manage to lose and keep off 22 lbs. total over the year.  I still have about 11 lbs. (as of weigh in this morning) that I would like to lose.  But I feel healthier and have had several comments that I’m looking good.  I would like to get down to my goal weight for this next year.

5.)    Commute more or Walk More to Work.

I didn’t do so well on this one.  Between rainy weather and colder weather, I kind of turned into a whimp.  Perhaps, I’ll toughen up and do more this next year?  We’ll see!

6.)    Finish the 100 Salt Lake City Porches Art Project. 

DONE!  I finished No. 100 the last week of the year.  In fact, #100 will makes its debut at the art

show that I am currently getting ready to do this Jan.14^th.  Click here and you can scroll thru the 99

 porches to see the progression.  I really can see how my painting has improved over the year.  I

 also have been amazed at the response during the project and it’s been fun meeting all these porch owners!

7.) Narrow Down the Clutter in my life. 

I did managed to make a few trips to the good will but there still is a few places in my one bedroom apartment that could use some work but the last couple of months I’ve been rather over ran with the remnants of the 100 Salt Lake City Porches Art Project.  But I will say at least it’s not ALL 100 that were in my small apartment, just mainly the about 76 that I haven’t sold.  BUT I have hope for a couple more at least to be sold during the show.

That how the year went and I want to think about what my goals will be for the next year.  But in the meantime, here are the Stats for the year….

302.50 miles running

  2307 miles cycling

  11.2 miles swimming

  44 hours and 19 minutes on the elliptical

  &

  58 Books Read! 

Happy Holidays!!



 I want to wish everyone the very Best for the Holiday Seasons!  I'll be off a few days and will probably finish the #100 Salt Lake City Porches Project.  Then, I need to start framing and prepping some of the paintings to be shown in an art show on Jan. 14th.  You can view #99 and get the details by clicking here.  The above picture is one of the many additional artworks that can be seen at the show.