The Good & the UGLY...

The Good…
** I survived the opera and lived to tell of the event. It actually was an amazing opera. The classic tale of Hansel & Gretel was wrapped up together with wonderful costumes, sets, a bit of fog, and cute children filling in various extra parts. Did I mention I was in amazing seats? I was in the 4th row of the balcony. I didn’t need to use opera glasses to see their faces on stage. I was amidst all those people that had jewels, furs, and tuxes; but I wasn’t as out of place as the guy that showed up in a t-shirt and holey blue jeans.

** I finally got a battery for the “Health-O-Meter” scale.  After weeks of forgetting to pick up the batteries, I finally remembered!  Though, I tend to wonder how much of the forgetting was subconscious.



The Ugly…
** This occurred after I put the new battery in the “Health-O-Meter”. (Who thinks up these names for scales?) I took off every stitch of clothing (hoping that this would help) and stepped on. OMG! When the digital red numbers stopped looping around, it was pretty UGLY! So UGLY, I wanted to take the new battery out and drop the scale from my third floor balcony. But I didn’t!  It's obvious, the "Health-O-Meter" was working properly but was not being agreeable to my vanity.

** The REAL Ugly… that I’m 15 lbs. heavier than what I had expected! So now I’ve got 32 lbs. to lose before I get to my goal weight. OUCH!

The Good…
** I want to end this on a positive note. I got on the scale this morning and I’m down 5 lbs.!  5 lbs. in 3 days!  I’m heading in the right direction. Only 27 more to go!

Up for an Afterlife Experience?

I recently received two free tickets for the Opera. A friend who’s going out of town gave them to me and just asked me to make sure they would get used.  The tickets are for Hansel & Gretel written by Engelbert Humperdinck.  The first time they told me this they quickly went on to say,"No, not THAT Humperdinck!"  I, of course, said," Wow!  THAT really would have been an interesting opera if he had."  They just sighed and laughed.

This year, I’ve become enamored with the Opera and have been able to go due to a series of friends similar to this friend. I thought it would be easy to find someone to go with me.  Oh, but not so!  I’ve asked quite a few friends and had a series of responses; mainly with the idea of no behind them. Some have been nicer than others. I asked one friend who I’ve gone to sporting events with and I know he’s gone to theater events in the past. A semi-cultured person and I figured I would ask. It was a long shot; I knew. But I was rather surprised at his response.

My Friend: “Let me put it to you this way… There’s near death which equals the ballet. Then, there’s death, AND then there’s opera!”

Me: “So are up for an afterlife experience?”

MF: “Yeah, very funny! You should take that stand up comedy on the road.”

Me: “Oh come on… I’ll even take you out for a good stiff drink afterwards. That’ll bring you back to life!”

MF: “No, really. I think I’ll pass.”

The ever so strange thing is that I had a near run in with a deer coming down a newly snowed canyon picking up these tickets from my friend's place.  Hmmm... So thus it looks like I’m going to be doing a solo afterlife experience on Saturday. Figures! The afterlife may be calling me...  Now I just have to wait for the fat lady to sing and pray that I’m reincarnated!

A Wonderful Read!

It was as I was taking a break from reading Moby Dick and I discovered a read I REALLY liked. I found myself about 175 pages into Moby Dick and I needed a break from the book. Sometimes, this happens I need a break from a book because I get bored or I’m struggling with the language. Then, I’ll end up reading back and forth between two books for a bit. I must admit that Moby Dick for me is a challenge because of the language and sentence structure.

It was shortly prior to this that I had purchased “The Memoirs of Cleopatra” for my Nook and I thought what the heck. I’ll see if I can haul my way through the two of them. I was a bit shocked when I opened “The Memoirs of Cleopatra” and it was about 1250 pages. That’s the problem with the Nook a thick book doesn’t really show itself until you open it.

 

I started reading this new book with an image of Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra and past that really didn’t know that much about her. But my hats off to the author Margaret George; within a short amount of pages she was bringing Cleopatra alive to me. She intertwines historical events and details of life in the period into a well crafted experience. I will every now and then venture into historical novels but this was a page turner. I found myself immersed in Cleopatra’s time and enraptured with it. I read the whole 1250 plus pages in under 10 days. During the 10 days I found myself staying up till the wee hours of the morning reading and couldn’t seem to put the book down. I was addicted and needed my Cleopatra fix.

I would recommend this book and I am now curious to read the other two historical novels written by Margaret George. If they are as well written as this book, they will be a pleasure to devour the words on the pages.  Now the REAL challenge is going back to Moby Dick.

50/50 Dieting & a "little" OCD…

Since Monday, I’ve been trying to be good as far as my diet. I’ve been trying to stick to 1200 calories per day plan. I’ve managed that about half of the days so far. Not a real good start. My hardest challenges have been—food brought in at work and late in the evenings at home by myself. Yesterday one of the guys at work ( a lot of us at work refer to him as Martha Stewart) brought two full slabs of slow cooked pork ribs with bottles of BBQ sauce to enjoy. It made my planned lunch pale in comparison. Besides, how could I pass up a free lunch of pork ribs? I did however limit myself to three ribs with about 3 tbsp. of very spicy hot BBQ sauce. Yum!




The other side issue of late evenings at home alone? I get bored and I’m one of those that eat when I’m bored. To this end, I’ve tried to stay busy trying working on my 100 Salt Lake City Porches Painting Project. I’ve also been trying to use the rest of the yarn that I got to make knitted wash cloths that I gave out for Christmas gifts. I have two large half spools of Sugar’n Cream yarn. I’ve now knitted 8 dish cloths in the last week. I have the feeling that these wash cloths are going to turn into birthday presents for the next few months. Either that or SURPRISE! You are getting a present just BECAUSE!



But even with keeping myself busy with painting and knitting, I’ve dangerously wandered into the kitchen late in the evening. I have had low fat yogurt on hand just in case but you can only eat SO much yogurt; and I’ve never been fond of fruit. Hmmm… so I’m thinking that I may try to drink a whole 8oz. glass before I actually eat anything. Maybe that will help



Another possibility for the evenings…I checked out the gym at my apartment’s club house. I was surprised they had what looked like a new treadmill & elliptical machines. Nice! Also, a new flat screen TV in the upper corner. I’m planning on visiting there a couple nights a week; instead of going to the 24 Hour Fitness gym with Diane in the wee hours of the morning. (Sorry, Diane!) My gym membership expired and I can’t seem to bring myself to pay for another year. Yep, I’m being a cheapskate! But I really want to work on saving money too. (Another New Year’s Goal!)



The OCD? This morning I was trying to locate a certain black turtle neck sweater in my closet. I was getting rather frustrated. And thinking I REALLY needed to work on one of my New Year’s goals of “Uncluttering my Life”. So when I should have been getting ready for work, I found myself organizing my closet. All the dresses on one end; all the skirts next to them. Then, I put all the short sleeve shirts together and the long sleeves together. Tonight if I get in the really OCD mood I may put everything according to colors.  OH MY!!

New Year; New Goals...

A beautiful sunrise photo I took a few days ago from my balcony. 

It’s the dawn of a New Year and I have myself playing with idea of setting new resolutions for this Year of 2011. I find it exciting and for me it’s rather like a blank canvas that is calling me to paint a new scene. What will it be? And how will it turn out? Hmmm… that is certainly food for thought.


And as I am sitting here enjoying a cup of coffee, and my mind is perusing through all of the possibilities; I can’t help but reflect on how I only attained about 40% of last year’s resolutions. Which I will admit was rather dismal and I can’t help but think that I need to be more realistic. No matter how much you may want to set goals and plan ahead; life has a way of throwing a few wrenches with possibility a few crow bars at you, or whatever other tools that may come to mind. There’s no possible way to see around that curve in the road and know what’s coming your way.

So what I’m trying to say is that maybe I need to set goals that are perhaps a bit vaguer? But then again I just might be too easy on myself. This is the dilemma that I find myself in as I am need of another cup of joe. But then again I maybe just over analyzing this to death; …which I do have a tendency to do. Hmmm… Okay so with all that going on in my head, here is the list that I’m thinking of…

GOALS...
1. Save more money! This was the one goal that I really did manage this last year. I now have enough in a savings account that if out of necessity I could go 6 months at my current cost of living if I lost my job. Not bad and I’m thinking I should continue this and try to work towards a full year.

2. Find a balance with my running and cycling. Run some more of those fun 5K’s. Last year, I ran two half marathons and I felt that I really had accomplished something. It was fun running and finishing one of them alongside a friend. But I did all this running and it came at the cost of not being able to enjoy my cycling as much. With that in mind I’m thinking of signing up for more 5K runs and giving myself the time to enjoy my cycling.

3. Do one century on my bike. I came close last year and if not due to a mechanical problem I could have done it. But I made the attempt too late in the cycling season and only had the one opportunity. Part of the reason I attempted it too late in the season was because I was training too much for running.

4. Be more conscious about my weight. Basically lose weight but I don’t want to focus on a particular goal weight. I feel like I would be setting myself up for failure if I did that and also would pushing towards unhealthy type of eating habits. I definitely would like to lose this the weight I gained over the holidays. It’s been a sugar fest from Hell the last few weeks. I would like to rein in all that bad holiday eating and work back towards the weight I was at during the end of the cycling/running season. I was within 6 lbs. of a goal weight that I had in mind for years. I was pretty pleased with myself and I think with some healthy habits and exercise I could be there again. I would like to work towards it in a more healthy way.

5. Commute more to work either on my bicycle or via walking. I think this will help with my other financial goals and also allow me to get more exercise. Sounds like a Win-Win situation to me.

6. Finish my 100 Salt Lake City Porches Project. I’m currently working on porch #9 and I think it is progressing well. I would LOVE to tie the project with a charity if I can and start selling them on-line on my Art blog. I also would like to have a showing of all 100 Salt Lake City Porches in one place; preferably not in my small one bedroom apartment. If you get the chance check out my Allgood Art blog.

7. Narrow down the clutter/things in my life. We live an age where things/items seem to collect around us. For some of us it is a status symbol. For others it maybe just in the pure joy of having some of these items around them. But lately to me quite a few of these items/things seem to be getting in the way and just collecting dust. Also, sometimes it seems as though some of these items require other items and can develop into an unseemly amount of MORE things. It’s not as though I can take these with us when we die and on top of that I only live in a small one bedroom apartment. So, part of my goal in this is clear out a great deal of those items that I don’t need. I would love to work towards being able to move everything in my apartment in one truck load if I needed to move. And yes I know that this may sound contrary to do a painting project of 100 Salt Lake City Porches. But even so, I would like to “clean up” some of my act. I have items that sit in upper areas of closets that have not seen the light of day. I also have a closet FULL (to over flowing) of clothes that I need to trim down. I will admit that I am a clothes horse and most of it is from thrift store finds that I REALLY should have never bought in the first place. WHAT was I thinking? So I’ll need to sit down and figure out what I need and what I don’t need. Then, I’ll start trimming down.

THERE! 
I think that's enough goals for one year, don't you?

A Year of Goals in Review...

It’s that time of year when you look back at it and figure out what you really did with it. Often times this can be a bit disappointing in that you don’t always reach those goals that you would have liked to. So here I am almost to year end and reviewing over those goals that I had set for myself at earlier this year.


It looks as though I hit my goals at about 40% of the time but I’ll let you decide. Here’s my goals and here what I did…


1.) Save more money. This I did accomplish but I only managed to save about 65% of the amount that was my saving goal for the year. 15 to 20% of this was due to no new increase in my work wages, in fact my yearly bonuses were down 18%. It was a tough year economically and I must admit that I’m grateful that I have a job. The other part that didn’t help with my saving over the year was my car repairs. But overall, I have enough in savings now for almost 6 months. Not a bad place to be considering how the economy is at current.

2.) Do a half marathon and maybe work towards a full marathon. I did the Salt Lake City Half Marathon in the Spring and then I did the Park City Half Marathon in August. After doing the half marathons I just really do not feel that I have a FULL marathon in me. It’s just too much, and I’m thinking I stick to the half’s or shorter distances. In fact, I’m really finding that I’m enjoying the 5K fun runs. I may try to do more of those in the coming year.

3.) Survive the Slow Salty Dog Tri. Well, we did not do the Slow Salty Dog this year. So this goal did not happen.

4.) Do at least one century bike ride. I didn’t do this. I got as far as a 75 mile bike ride with the intention of riding farther but had bike mechanical issues.

5.) Ride my bike up & over Little Mountain then Big Mountain to East Canyon and then all the way back. The day I attempted this I had a REALLY off day, and later I discovered that I had a rear brake pad that was rubbing BIG time. I made it to the top of Big Mountain and turned around.


And here are some interesting stats from the year….

384.75 miles running

1472 miles cycling

4.5 miles swimming

57 books read --- Oh how I am enjoying my Nook!

By the way..... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Happy Holidays!

This morning it finally snowed a bit.  I was getting concerned about having a white Christmas.  For the last week it has been rainy and gloomy and there's some snow up in the mountains that you can see in the distance.  But it kind of feels like a snow capped gloom.  So this evening there's a light dusting of the white stuff.  I just hope it holds out until Christmas.  Please, please, please...

Why is it that for some of us Christmas just isn't Christmas unless we have the white stuff?  Have I been conditioned by some marketing company in some northern exposed area of Minnesota or maybe farther up north? Christmas and snow just go in hand for me.  I'm not sure how I would do to be in a southern area where snow just doesn't come.  I think I would probably be buying a bunch of white felt and putting layers out on the front lawn.  I could see the neighbors thinking I was some "Damn Yankie!" that should have stayed up North. 

Next week I'll be using up the last of my vacation days out of necessity-- use them or loose them.  I hope to be spending my time at home relaxing and possibly painting.  If you get the chance check out my "100 Salt Lake City Porches" project that I recently started on my other blog Allgood Art.  I've managed 6 porches so far.  I hope to have all 100 done sometime in November 2011.

But anyway, here's wishing you Happy Holidays to you and yours! May you receive some good presents and hopefully keep your sanity around the family!

A Gift Card Christmas!

This year I've decided to take the easy way out by choosing to give the plastic card no wrap option.  It's partial because things are a bit more financially tight this year and partially that I'm having a hard time deciding what to give some people on my list. 

For the last 7 years I've been giving out my Christmas booklets.  These booklets have had photos of my artwork combined with my poetry and recipes ( favorites that I've created or passed down from Mom, etc.).  The booklets have become too much for me both time wise and financially.  Lat year, I ended up making 100 + of them.  I had a great deal of people that just LOVED them but I just can't continue it.  It's getting to be TOO MUCH. 

So, this year I've had to budget myself and I decided not to put them in the budget.  Sorry Mom!  My list of retail locations this year are Walmart, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, Barnes & Noble, Target, Paradise Bakery, Wendy's, and McDonald's.
 
Here's 6 reasons I'm REALLY liking the gift card giving.....

1. No Wrapping paper involved.  No messing with scotch tape and the scissors to try to make the present look presentable.  I would highly recommend this for all of you that are all thumbs.

2. Time Saving!  You can go straight to the shortest line and the store and while waiting in line choose which plastic decorative card you want.  Most stores put them right up by the cashier.  Bonus!  No time spent wrapping presents, or picking up gift bags that are the right size.

3. Pawning off the decision making.  This is probably bad of me, but that way you are leaving the responsibility of the decision on to the giftee.  You can't choose the wrong size, color, or what not.  It's all on them.  I don't know how many times in the past I've gotten what I thought was the perfect gift and the giftee returned it.  It rather hurt my feelings.  (I guess I could add another reason in that it's emotionally more safe to do gift card too.)

4. A Guaranteed Perfect Gift.  By pasting the decision on, outside of making sure it's the favorite store of the person you JUST can't go wrong.  It's a given, and how many times in life does that happen?

5. It's easy to ship!  Put it in an envelope with their Christmas card and voila!  It's done!

6. It's easy to plan you budget.  Figure your total budget for Christmas and divide it among your Christmas list.  Put your prioritize at the top of the list and work your way down.  Increment it out by $5 rounding until you've budget has run out. 

Sorry if you've been down graded to a $5 gift card from McDonald's... please don't take offense, and do not think that it the valuation that I put on our relationship.  You just may have been at the near the bottom of my list? ;-)

Rearranging- Third Times the Charm~!

The weekend project was accomplished.  I managed to get the Christmas tree up.  It only took three attempts of rearranging my living room.  First the rocking chair was moved to my bedroom, and I stood the undecorated tree in that corner.  It just didn't feel right there.  So then, I moved the chair and table with lamp from the other corner.  Nope, that wasn't working out.  There was too much space.  Then, it was the final attempt in front of the window.  I moved furniture just a bit here and there to leave room to open the sliding glass door.  I also had to move my only plant- a snake plant (the only plant I haven't killed!)  So here's where it is this year and I even put a new set of lights on the balcony.  Nice!

Now it feels Christmas-y!

Here's a close up of my musical Christmas tree!

I also decided to move the peacock feather Christmas tree that was a present from Mum to a table other than the dining room table like I usually do.

Peacock Christmas Tree  up close.