Catching Up, Checking In, & Etc...

It’s been about three weeks since I’ve been on here.  Life gets busy and I have dropped the ball on my postings here.  There’s been a great deal going on.  I’ve been trying to get more cycling in for preparing for RAGBRAI that I will be going back to Iowa for in less than 15 days.  I just got a suggested list of what to bring today and need to start doing a prelim packing.  This is the first time I’ve ever done anything like this and I’m still not sure what to expect. 

I’ve also had a bit of a “maintenance” issue with my apartment and had a weekend that I stayed in a hotel.  Thank goodness the Utah Arts Festival was going on and I just made a mini vacation weekend of it.  I’ve still managed to do a bit of painting.  I’m currently trying to do a bit of catching up with a couple of commissioned pieces. 

Then, more recently they’ve done some changes of job responsibilities at my work.  I’ve been doing some training and just haven’t had the time that I normally would have to jump on here and upload a post.  They’ve referred to my new job responsibilities as a job “promotion” but at the same amount of pay.  But they did say that they would re-evaluate in 4 months.  Hmmm…. Not sure how that works and not too sure if I’m really happy about the whole thing.  But I’m playing along for now.  I’m rather in a wait-n-see mode.

 Checking In…

AND since this is a Friday, I’ll do a quick check up and a late end of month report.  As far as weighing in, I’m at still needing to lose 8 lbs. to my goal.  It seems to be a constant now without even trying.  I was rather hoping that with doing more cycling that my weight would have dropped down but I will admit that I’m probably eating more because I’m cycling more—so I guess you could say it’s a bit of a vicious circle in that sense.  Darn it!

Month End…

1)      Saving Money—Did very well this last month with this one.  I managed to save 3o% more than what I had planned for the month.  Most of that was thanks to the art booth I had up at the Little Red Riding Hood Bike ride at the beginning of the month.  I’m hoping to be able to put some more in savings this month with catching up with some commissions.

2)      Uncluttering My Life—Well, the “maintenance” issue in my apartment helped me out HUGELY with this goal this last month.  It forced me to go through some closet areas and other things. But I had already also donated quite a bit of stuff to a local Boy Scout troop for a HUGE Yard Sale they had in Mid-June.  Between those two events, I’ve managed to cut back on quite a bit of the items I don’t need and don’t use.  Amazing sometimes what we decide to hold on to.

3)      Cutting Down on Eating Out—Not good this month either!  There wasn’t enough time to cook at home between the cycling and the “maintenance” issue.  So drive thru’s became some what of the norm for my dinner meals, I will admit.

STATS For June…

383 miles Cycling

13.5 miles Running

47 mintues on the elliptical

And I’m now up to

28 Books read for the year!

(I think 60 books is attainable!)