Resolutions - who needs 'em? and other random topics

The whole idea behind a monthly recap regarding my New Year's resolutions was to make myself accountable.  But it's not working.  So we are going to abandon this topic, hopefully forever.

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I work mostly with people whose first language is not English.  Firstly, I am impressed at how well they not only speak English, but how well they understand the language.  Still, certain words seem to be mispronounced by all of them.  One that readily comes to mind is "synonyms" - my colleagues put the stress on the second syllable - syNONyms.

And then there are the words that don't seem like words:  "updation", "prepone", "parallelly".  Initially, I considered these creative alternatives, but discovered that they are in Internet dictionaries.  In my own defense, they are not in my battered 1968 edition of Webster's New World DIctionary.  It is truly a new world out there.

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I've had my NookColor for a while now, carry it with me everywhere I go, but find I don't use it very often, except to play Solitaire.  In fact, I have not been reading much lately at all.  I blame Netflix streaming for that - I am currently marching through "Law & Order: SVU".  But I did finish Birds in Fall, a sad novel about a plane crash off the coast of Nova Scotia, and am working on another sad story, The Bird House, about a woman whose memory is failing.  Geesh, maybe I need to pick out happier themes, maybe then I would read more.

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Apropos of nothing, isn't she cute?!?

I feel dumb

When I purchased my Nook, I also became a member of Barnes & Noble's "club".  (It was free, or I paid $25 for the membership and the price of the Nook was reduced by $25, or something like that.)  Later, when I wanted to register my membership number on BN.com, I could not find my membership card.  In fact, I had no memory of receiving a membership card.  I looked in my wallet, my purse, the little orange pouchI use for all my other customer cards, but could not find it.  I concluded I had never received it, and sent B&N an email requesting my card.  They sent me a new card, with a new number, which I registered.  Fine. 

Last night, while buying pet food, I rummaged around for my Pet Supplies Plus customer card and found... the original B&N membership card. 


On my way home from Pet Supplies Plus, I passed a gas station and noticed that regular was below $4 per gallon.  I decided to fill up at the Marathon near my house.  A few blocks later, while waiting at a traffic light, I had the feeling there was some place I wanted to stop on my way home, but could not remember where.  The grocery story?  The library?  Then I glanced at the BP station to my left, saw that regular was below $4 per gallon, and remembered.


And don't get me started on names and faces!


This kind of stuff happens to me all the time.  Part of the problem is my sedentary job - on weekends, when I am more active, I feel much more astute.  Part of the problem is I move through my days in a haze - same ol' same ol', lather, rinse, repeat.  I'm getting to that age where a headache is a brain tumor, indigestion an impending heart attack, and forgetfulness the onset of Alzheimers.  Re the latter, denial is a good thing, because really, what are you going to do about it?


Now, pardon me while I go do a crossword puzzle.  If I can find a pen.  And my glasses.  Which are on my face.

Resolutions - April recap

No real progress in April.  I caught a bad cold that suppressed my appetite, but if I did not eat, I felt lightheaded; then when I started to feel better, I also felt ravenous.  Meditation went out the window, but I was more active despite my illness.  Pluses and minuses.  And so it goes.

This past week I was on a business trip, which is usually an opportunity to overeat, but I did okay even though Monday turned into cookie day.  Also, I ordinarily eat a lot of nuts and avoid carbs in the form of bread and pasta, but on this trip, that was reversed.  I rarely felt hungry and even though it seemed like I was eating a lot, did not gain any weight.  I must rethink my nut-laden ways.

The hip problem that I reported in the March recap is better.  My massage therapist targeted two muscles she thought might be the culprits - the psoas and something else that begins with p - and while I am not 100% cured, there was significant improvement.  Tomorrow I get another massage, so we'll work on them again.  Deep tissue massage is not an instantaneous cure-all, but it does keep the aches and pains to a minimum.

Does anyone know anything about raw milk?  I find there is a nearby source.  There is a "call out" to gauge interest.  I will go to see what it is all about.  I find that a lot of foods I loved as a child don't taste very good anymore, and milk is one of them.  We used to get milk delivered to our doors, practically right from the cow.  Now who knows where it comes from, or how far (especially organic milk), or what the cows are fed.

And speaking of food, I am reading (on my Nook!) Blood, Bones, and Butter, by Gabrielle Hamilton.  She owns a restaurant in NYC, and the book describes her journey through food and the food industry.  Very interesting and very well written.

Whew

Finally starting to feel better.  This cold has been one m-fing misery.  I'm not used to being sick - can't imagine how I would react to developing a chronic condition of some sort.  Not very well, I'm afraid.

A few weeks ago, I asked my SO how he felt about being 60.  He said, it did not bother him, but the prospect of turning 61 next month does.  What a difference a year makes.

I won't reach 60 for another 18 months, but I already dread it.  It feels like the beginning of the end.  No longer will I be able to cling to middle age.  I picture the final third (if I'm lucky) of my life as being a slow but steady decline.  I wonder if this cold signifies what is in store for me.  Bah.

One of my brothers is a financial advisor, and his advice it to work as much as you can for as long as you can, so you won't run out of money.  My goal is to retire as soon as possible, while I can still do all the things I want to do.

A head hunter contacted me a week or so ago, and I was tempted by his offer.  If I were inclined to follow my brother's advice, I might be interested in a new job.  But I'm interested in having no job.  My current employer is plumping up my 401k, so staying put seems like the best choice for me right now.

We'll see.

Snot nosed kid

I cannot believe how sick I have been this week, can't remember the last time I had such a bad cold.  One disadvantage of being able to work from home is, as bad as I feel, I can still manage to get something accomplished but no one sees just how big a sacrifice that is.  During conference calls, I can hear others sniffling as well, so I am not alone.

New 'puter and a new vector

After a certain amount of dithering, a little bit of research, and a frustrating hour with my old laptop, I treated myself to a new HP Pavilion.  My old PC is a Pavilion as well, so I felt comfortable with the quality.  And I think (hope) I got a good price.  I won't know for sure because once I purchase what amounts to a big ticket item for me, I stop looking at advertisements.  No sense torturing myself.

Originally, I looked at the 17" ones, but they are HUGE.  I don't watch movies on my computer (that's why I bought a big screen TV), so I went with the 14" model.  Why the 17" one was less, I don't know - most of the features were identical.  Maybe small is preferable when the public shops for laptops.  Who woulda thought?

Meanwhile, I managed to catch a cold from my granddaughter.  The past several years have been relatively illness-free for me, but now there is this drooling creature who sticks everything into her mouth, and sneezes so hard her pacifier flies several feet, and does not cover her mouth with the crook of her elbow or wash her hands AT ALL.  Oh, well.  My immune system needs to be exercised.  Just wish the cold had hit during the week instead of the weekend.

Speaking (obliquely) of work, the past few weeks have been difficult.  Part of the problem is a looming deadline on a big project where a lot of smaller projects all need to interact.  People are getting a little tense.  From my perspective, I find myself NOT invited to meetings and NOT `cc'd on memos, and yet expected to know what is going on.  Goes hand in hand to having a role for which I was NOT trained (just expected to magically know what to do).  My current project is winding down soon (it's part of the looming deadline pastiche), and there has been talk of a subsequent release, but no one is keeping me in the loop.  My line manager has discussed what I may be working on next, and it involves a role I liken to being the guy with a shovel who follows the elephants in a parade.  So, yeah, a little stressful.

And I'm at that awkward age:  too young to retire, too old to start over.  And there is the money and the benefits and the green building and relatively nice co-workers and the ability to work from home, etc.  A lot of perks.  Too bad the work itself is so stultifying.

Poor me.  I have to work for a living.  Wah.  Wah.  Wah.

Apple lost a potential customer

As I reported earlier, I had trouble purchasing an iPad 2 from the local Best Buys.  I thought the claim that they were all sold out was legit, but apparently not.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/zd/20110408/tc_zd/262901

Oh, well!  Best Buy lost Apple at least one customer.

Regarding my NookColor, I am discovering there are things I like about it and things I don't.  As a reader (which is its main purpose in life), it is fine.  I have not yet purchased a book, but I have subscribed to a couple of magazines.  Also, I downloaded a sample of a cookbook to preview.  Unfortunately, the sample was not large enough to include any actual recipes.  Maybe that was on purpose?  I wanted to see how I liked using the Nook as an electronic cookbook, but I guess I will have to do that another way.

The Gallery (where photos are stored) is kind of whacky.  Sample photos that come on the device cannot be deleted, even though there is a delete button; I will try it through the PC interface.  Once you enter the slide show, there is no obvious way to exit directly back to the Gallery, either.  Still, I like using it as a photo album.

The fact I can load my own files onto it is another plus.  So far, I have loaded PDFs, although it is supposed to support MS Office documents as well (in view only mode).  I should try that feature, although I doubt I will carry the Nook out to the garden while viewing my gardening spreadsheet.

I tried downloading an audio book from my local library, but it was in WMA format, which the Nook apparently does not support.  All the audio files on my laptop are also WMA, so no downloading them, either.  I have not tried listening to Pandora or any other Internet radio on it yet.

B&N provides a few free books, including three for children.  Only one will download; the others have "technical difficulties".  Maybe I will call their help line and see just how helpful they are.  The one that did download, a simple Richard Scary one, entertains my granddaughter.  The Nook will read it for you, if you so desire.  One negative thing about reading picture books is, if you touch the screen to point something out, sometimes you end up turning the page or changing the mode.

One area of frustration is the Web browser.  I finally realized that I could upsize the text size easily, so now I can read and select items on the screen more easily.  And some sites (like FB) have Android-specific versions, which makes it easy to navigate.  But the Google Reader does not, plus while I can scroll the screen up and down, I cannot scroll within the feed display window.  Then I read about NookFeed, so I tried that.  It can be synced up with Google Reader (yay) but the navigation buttons do not appear on my Nook screen (boo).  I sent NookFeed some feedback AND left a note on their FB wall, but no answer.

Officially, there are no apps for the Nook - at least, not yet - but there is a way to "root" it and download Android apps.  I have not tried this because 1) I don't want to void the warranty, and 2) I don't want to screw up my Nook.  After the warranty runs out and/or I find some guts, I may try it.

The NookColor is a little heavy for carrying around in my purse, but using it to look something up on the Web is faster than my laptop (which admittedly is really old).  One of my coworkers has a cell phone that can act as a WiFi hot spot, so we tested it with the Nook, and that worked well.  Said coworker is the guy I go to with questions about new technology, and he was favorably impressed with the Nook.  That says something right there.

Resolutions - March recap

As I struggled just to maintain my weight loss this past month, it occurred to me that the dead of winter is NOT the best time to resolve to eat less and exercise more.  Maybe we should make April Fool's resolutions instead?

DST helped and hurt.  The change made it difficult to get to bed on time to get enough sleep and get up in time to meditate before work.  However, the extra daylight at the end of the day makes it easier to get out and walk.

My right hip has been bothering me in the "it hurts when I do this" kind of way.  Additional walking seems to help, yoga class sometimes aggravates it.  It is not keeping me from everyday activities, though, so I'll keep self-treating it for a while.

Even though I gained back two pounds this past month, I can't fault what I eat, just how much.  I have been on a soup-making orgy - the freezer now contains three different kinds of lentil soup - but I also have noticed my appetite decreasing as the days lengthen.  Not sure how I am going to deal with hot weather, though - ice cream!

That was the weekend that was... FUN

Last week I was feeling a bit overwhelmed, so I decided to take today as a vacation day.  (That is another perk of my hateful job - lots of paid vacation and holidays.)  I spent the past three days doing a lot of the things I love, like babysit my granddaughter and visit with my daughter and talk to my son and my dad on the phone; watch some movies, play with my Nook, blog; cook, bake, eat; spend time with my sweetie (who brought lunch one day and dinner the next!); knit, dig in the compost, shop online for more stuff to knit and grow; etc. etc. and so forth.  Now I am pretending that I don't have to go to work tomorrow.

Scratch that itch

Wednesday night I came this close to purchasing an iPad.  My SO and I went to Best Buy to check them out.  And they ARE cool.  Having done my research ahead of time, I knew what features I wanted.  The store had two iPads in stock, one matching my criteria.  But when I added up the cost for the gadget plus all the accouterments, the total was close to $1000.  That gave me pause.  Enough pause that we walked.

While shopping for odds and ends at Target, I continued to debate whether to get the iPad, which led to a discussion of whether I had a tendency toward denying myself pleasure.  My SO said, no, that I was just being a Libra, weighing the pros and cons (ad nauseam, I might add).  Also, even though my mother has been gone for almost 40 years, I still hear her voice in my head, saying, "But you don't NEED one."  Even so, when we reached the checkout, I turned to my SO and said, "You know we're going back to Best Buy, don't you?"

And back we went, but the model I wanted had already been sold.  Thanks, Mom.

I'm not the kind of person who purchases things in hopes that they will make up for what is missing in my life.  For one thing, there is not much missing.  For another, I have never been particularly attached to things.  When asked by my kids what I wanted for my birthday, I could never think of any things, but there were other non-tangible gifts I would have liked.  Like someone to clean the litter box.  I suggested that once, but was told no.  Giving things is so much easier than giving oneself.

Anyway, over the next two days, I continued to examine the iPad issue.  Would I regret buying it or not buying it?  Maybe I would be happier/better off with a new laptop.  Or a Nook.  Or a different, less expensive model of the iPad.  I would lean one way, then read an article that would tilt me the other.

And was "the universe" telling me NOT to buy the iPad?  Friday after work, I tested that possibility again, by stopping by another Best Buy.  Nope, they had none in stock, except some old models.  Well, okay then.  As I was leaving the shopping center, though, my car magically found its way to Barnes & Noble.  About 15 minutes later, I headed home, a new Nook in my possession.

And I was very happy.  I scratched the itch to buy myself something frivolous, but without spending so much money.  Win win.  Even my mother might understand.

P.S.  The sales people in B&N are WAY nicer than the staff at Best Buy.

Temptation

I have never owned an Apple product.  No iPod, no iPhone, no Mac.  And yet I am strangely tempted to treat myself to an iPad 2.  I'm just not sure I would make good use of it.  Would I read books on it?  Do crossword puzzles?  Blog?  Or would I just carry it around because I want to look cool?  My head says, Don't waste your money, but my heart says, For once in your life, buy something frivolous!  I'm such a Calvinist.

Many years ago, Judith Viorst wrote a book called Necessary Losses.  When I read it, I was too young to really get it.  Now, as I have had to give up one thing or another, I do.  After years of responsible alcohol consumption, I planned to do some serious drinking in my late middle age, only to lose my tolerance for booze.  I am still pretty limber, but the aches and pains are starting to catch up with me.  This morning, on the tail end of a hormonal roller coaster ride, I actually wanted to have a baby.  Thank god that is not even remotely possible anymore, but it still makes me sad to think so much is behind me now.

It's not that I don't have things to look forward to, or that I don't appreciate what is in my life right now.  It's just that suddenly my life is about two-thirds over.  When you are five years old, a year represents 20% of your life - the time between Christmases or birthdays is interminable.  When a year feels more like 1 or 2%, though, the days fly.

So, do I want to spend my (relatively) few days left on earth obsessing over an electronic gadget in hand?  Damn straight!

The week in review

• Monday - I work at one of those places that goes through the motions of annual reviews.  These are also known as "self assessments".  But first, one has to define one's goals, aka MBOs (manage by objective).  Besides the usual project-related goals, the company assigns a corporate level one.  This year's corporate goal is to SIMPLIFY - we each are supposed to come up with something we personally can drive to help simplify the company.  The employees view this as a joke, of course.  HOWEVER, in my spare time, I have been rewriting an application I support, in MS Access.  If I can pull this off, it definitely would count toward simplification.
• Tuesday - My SO and I went to see Garrison Keillor at The Embassy.  What a great storyteller!  If you listen to "A Prairie Home Companion," you are familiar with his "News from Lake Wobegone" segment.  This was like that but instead of 10 minutes, he rattled on for TWO HOURS.  And two hours of Garrison is equal to two hours of laughter.  My SO and I were at the lower end of the age demographic of the audience, but close enough.
• Wednesday - Even though we were not out late Tuesday night, I scheduled this day as a vacation day, just in case.  Started with a massage; while the therapist was working my back, she asked, "Have you had this checked out?"  What?  She thinks I have a lipoma, aka "fatty tumor".  This aging thing is not really working for me.
• Thursday - My SO left for New Mexico, to visit his son and family.  So now I am off boy friend duty for a week or so.  I am really glad he is in my life, but sometimes I need a little alone time.
• Friday - Earlier this week, I purchased a book at Barnes & Noble (40% off and I had a gift card).  Today I stopped at Borders to buy Moleskines.  Once upon a time, I wanted to own a bookstore, but today's reality is I rarely visit them.  In fact, thanks to a great local library system and a small house, I rarely buy books at all.
• Saturday - The usual - laundry, vacuuming, soup making (Red Lentil and Squash from Love Soup) - plus grandbaby sitting.  See video clips below, if you dare.  One is from last week, one from last night.
• Sunday - Nada de particular.  I have been doing a little furniture rearranging (which is a good way to motivate myself to also do a little spring cleaning) and hope to complete the West Wing today.  When I work from home, I like to sit in the West Wing, at the bistro table by the windows, but the afternoon glare can be brutal.  Plus the bistro table was so cluttered with work and computer crap, I could not use it for other activities.  So I moved my desk from the family room, positioning it behind the love seat, just to see how that works.  I can now avoid the afternoon glare but still keep an eye on the bird feeders and bird bath; I can also eat my lunch at the bistro table.  Now I just need to put an area rug under my chair and put away the crap that seems to erupt whenever I attempt any cleaning that goes beyond vacuuming.

Resolutions - February recap

I can't believe I have not posted since the last Resolution Recap.  It's not that I don't think of things to write - I'm composing posts in my head almost all the time - I just do not get around to actually typing them into the blog.

February has been a month of ups and downs, or should I say downs and ups and downs?  I lost a couple of pounds, gained them back, then lost them again.  So my net loss for the month is 2 pounds, net loss since Jan 1, 6 pounds.  Not a lot, but I can feel the difference in regards to how my pants and bras fit.

My success with meditation is about the same - I do it most work mornings.  The exercise fell off a bit, partially due to mid-February doldrums and partially due to an addiction to "Grey's Anatomy".  I am almost done with season 6, so soon I shall have my life back, at least until season 7 comes out, but I might get that on disk to prevent the nightly GA marathons.

Another blogger I follow (found here) went through a cleanse as outlined in Clean.  I got the book from the library, briefly scanned it, and gave up after running across a section about dealing with hunger.  Sorry, I can't do hungry.  However, I did pay attention to the pre-cleanse "elimination" diet.  It is close to how I eat, so I was interested in ways to tweak my eating habits to further improve them.  If I had read the book, I might know why the author excludes pistachio nuts and bananas, but I'm guessing he considers them plus citrus and foods from the nightshade family to be too acidic and to cause inflammation.

Personally, I think most of us can eat just about anything in its natural form.  After all, humans are omnivores.  In general, the more processed or poorly prepared a natural food is, the more likely it is to be less healthy, if not downright bad for us.  Another consideration, however, is that we are all individuals.  One person's "health food" is another person's allergen.

That said, I did decide to make one change in my diet:  to eliminate coffee.  This was not an easy choice because I love coffee.  It doesn't love me, however, at least not as much as when I was younger.  Even though it has been less than a week, I have to admit that I do feel better without it, more energetic and less tense.  I drink some hot tea in the morning and some iced tea with lunch.  While tea has caffeine, it doesn't pack the jolt coffee does.  And since I don't like-like tea, I'm less likely to overindulge.

Anyway, that is all on the past month's status.  Hopefully, I will write something more interesting between now and the end of this month.  Perhaps.

Resolutions - January recap

Last year, Crazy Aunt Purl revisited her New Year's resolutions each month. I'm not sure it helped her, but I decided it couldn't hurt me. So here goes:

Meditate once a day on work days (these are my most stressful days)
I was 89% successful with this resolution. After all, it is not all that difficult to sit down and shut up, especially at 7am. In general, I did seem calmer, and I noticed a difference if I skipped several days in a row.

Practice yoga twice per week
I was only 44% successful with this one. Catching a cold mid-month did not help. Taking a weekly class did. My home practice has really fallen off, though, much to my dismay.

Get some aerobic exercise for at least 30 minutes three times a week
And by aerobic, I mean almost anything that involves putting one foot in front of the other. Sometimes that is walking, although the weather and ice-covered pavement was not very conducive to that. I have a spectacularly inefficient method of shoveling snow, a method that involves more walking and snow pushing than actual snow shoveling, so I count that. Again, that cold interfered, but I still managed a 69% success rate.

Turn out the lights by 10:30pm on the eves of work days
I neglected to keep track of this one, but I am guessing I was about 75% successful. Of course, just because I turn out the lights doesn't mean I sleep. And just because I fall asleep doesn't mean I stay asleep. But if the lights are on, I am definitely not sleeping. On a purely subjective basis, I have felt more rested this past month. I will pay more attention to this one, to make sure I am not fooling myself.

So, did this translate into weight loss? I lost four pounds. Not a lot, but enough that I can now fasten my "fat jeans" and that counts for a lot.

Speaking of counting, I discovered that I DID need to count calories, at least initially, to keep from lying to myself ("I didn't eat THAT much today" - like a whole pizza is not that much). Once I had a better grasp on just what constituted 2000 calories, I abandoned the counting.

In general, I have yogurt, fruit, and nuts for breakfast, a salad for lunch, an afternoon snack of fruit, a "normal" dinner (tonight it was homemade vegetable soup and half a grilled cheese sandwich), and a bedtime snack of cereal, fruit, nuts, and milk. That sounds like a lot of food, but it is less than I ate before. I weigh the yogurt, cereal, and nuts, to make sure I am not fudging.

Sometimes I get hungry, but it is not that frantic kind of hunger. No foods are off limits, but I keep an eye on carb-carbs like bread. It helps that I don't have a sweet tooth. It also helps that I live alone so am completely in charge of what food comes in through the door.

I'm satisfied with January. Let's see how February goes.

I had BK, Betsy had morphine

Betsy likes to hang out at the front of the house while I shovel the driveway.  She scares up rabbits and follows their trails through the bushes and otherwise has a good time as only a beagle knows how to do.  Last Monday, once I finished with the snow, I found the front walk covered in blood.  It was surreal.  There was so much blood that at first I though Betsy had actually caught a rabbit and sacrificed it.  But no, her paw was bleeding.  By then, the bleeding had almost stopped.  I tried to see what the problem was, couldn't really tell, and since she wasn't limping, decided to just wait and see.

Tuesday Betsy seemed okay except she kept licking her paw and making it ooze and dribble, but it still did not seem to bother her much.  I washed it in warm water, poured peroxide over it, wrapped it up to protect the carpets, and continued to wait and see.

Wednesday I came home from work early because I was not feeling well.  Betsy's paw seemed worse.  Of course, her veterinarian is not open on Wednesday afternoons.  I debated whether to take her to the emergency clinic ($$$) and decided to wait until Thursday when we could visit her regular vet.

That's today.  We went to the vet this afternoon.  The bloodiness was due to one claw hanging by a few threads.  Dr. M offered to yank it off, but provided the option of morphine or no morphine.  Betsy  is so traumatized by each visit to the pet hospital that I opted for the morphine.  She is now virtually comatose, nothing like the picture above, which I took Tuesday.  She is also minus one claw.  It should grow back, eventually.  Meanwhile, she has some good drugs to sleep off.

Back to Wednesday, well, actually Tuesday night.  At yoga I felt less than energetic, but did not think too much of it, as I'm not a high energy person to begin with and I spend a lot of time sitting on my butt in front of a computer.  Wednesday morning I still did not feel very peppy, but I had not slept well, so again, I did not think too much of it.  At work, I developed a headache and figured it was due to lack of sleep.  Then I got the chills, but I am usually cold at work anyway.  Then I started salivating, the way one does prior to becoming nauseated.  I didn't throw up, but I did throw in the towel at noon.

The best thing about being sick now as opposed to being sick a month or so ago is, now I have a Blu-ray player.  I watched "The Kids Are All Right" (good but not a "must see" - why was it nominated for an Oscar?) and FIVE episodes from the first season of "Grey's Anatomy".  Five out of nine episodes.  The first season of Law & Order: SVU has 22 episodes.  Why the difference?  Inquiring minds want to know.

And today?  I feel fine.

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This evening I saw a Smart Car with the vanity plate "9VOLT".

Stuff

When I worked for a company that was big on diversity, we did not get MLK Day off.  This same company shares the name of a certain president, but we did not get Presidents Day off, either.  Now that I work for a Swiss company, I get both days off.  Much as I hate my job, I like my employer.

Last Monday I was busy doing those little things that I never seem to have the psychic energy to do at the end of the day.  Like clean off the coffee table.  And the diningroom table.  And the breakfast bar.  I also vacuumed.  Housework is one of those things that no one notices unless you don't do it.

I also bought some new shoes.  Over the years I have invested heavily in Earth shoes, for my back's sake.  But my back is much better while my satisfaction with the value of Earth shoes is much less.  So I decided to try something new.

Keen Presidio in walnut

These are both Keen shoes, two different styles but the same genre, purchased online from Planet Shoes (free shipping, fast service).  I wanted something kind of urban outdoorsie and these fit the bill.  Some of my friends favor Keens, so I was relatively sure of the quality.  And the price, while not great, was tolerable.

Keen Toyah in black


I haven't decided how much I like them.  For one thing, it feels weird to wear shoes with heels after years of that "negative heel technology".  Also, they feel stiff, especially the collars.  But - and this is a big plus - they make my big feet look smaller.  I don't know how, but they do.  And they are light weight, so I don't feel like I am clumping around in them.  I'll keep them.  We'll see if they get more comfortable with use.

Last Monday I also watched my granddaughter for a few hours in the evening.  The last few times I've had her, she has been fussy.  This time was much better.  She seemed interested in the music on the stereo, so held her in front of the speakers and we "danced" to Carly Simon and Conner Oberst.  By the time Carrie Newcomer started up, Baby N was asleep.  She slept through two episodes of "Law & Order: SVU" and probably would have dozed through a third, but her mommy came to get her.


You're so vain!

I don't watch much TV, but now that I have a Blu-ray and can stream Netflix right to my livingroom with just a few clicks of the remote, I am hooked on reruns of "L&O: SVU". I am about halfway through the first season. Interesting tidbit: One of the first season characters (who is already gone) is played by the same actor as that "mayhem like me" guy on the Allstate commercials. While streaming is fun and easy, I really, really, really hope Netflix does not stop offering DVDs because a lot of the movies I watch are not available to watch instantly. I am even willing to pay more than the stream-only customers.  And now I think I am.

Today is the first day of the rest of your weekend

Bumper sticker on a car with Colorado plates:  Honk if you think I'm Jesus.

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Have you seen that commercial on TV where someone calls customer service and talks to a burly man with a Slavic accent named "Peggy"?  Well, yesterday I received an email from someone on our help desk in Bangalore whose last name is "Johnson".

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We have new recycling service here in the Fort.  No longer will we have to separate our recyclables into paper and aluminum-glass-plastic1&2.  And there's more:  plastic 3-7 will also be accepted.  The two small bins we have had to lug up and down our driveways will be replaced with a single big bin on wheels.  I don't have the new big bin yet, and force of habit led me to separate my recyclables, but when they picked them up this week, I watched.  Yes, they took it all, including the plastic-5 containers, and they threw it all together into the truck.  I watched the sanitation worker bend and lift and toss while trying to maintain his footing in the snow and ice, and I was glad I work in a clean well-lighted place.

Speaking of Hemingway, I recently read A Moveable Feast which he wrote about his years in Paris.  It's been a long time since I read any Hemingway, like maybe 35 or 40 years?  His style appeals to me - no flourishes, no extra padding, adjectives and adverbs being the enemies of that one true sentence.

Last night I finished Shadow of a Doubt, by William J. Coughlin.  It's a courtroom-centered murder mystery, the type of book I usually save for "beach reading" (even though I never go to the beach).  Winter reading should center on more weighty topics, like How to Live.  I just started this book by Sarah Bakewell; it's a biography of the original essayist Montaigne.

What are you reading on these cold winter nights?

Just like (slow) magic

One aspect of growing older that I find disconcerting is the skin changes.  I have sun damaged skin that tends to mottle in the summer, plus these things crop up periodically.  Their official name is Seborrheic Keratosis.  My dad gets them, has them removed.  I have one on the very top of my head.  I showed it to my doctor, who said, "I could remove that, but we'd have to shave your scalp there."  Um, thank you, no. 

Another one of these things recently appeared on my left shoulder, in back where I ordinarily don't look and can barely reach.  It seemed HUGE because it was so raised.  My SO examined it and pronounced it NOT CANCER, and told me that he had had one on his leg.  He treated it with Mentholatum and now it is gone except for a spot of dark pigmentation. 

Dr. Gott writes a medical column that appears in my local morning newspaper.  He serves up legitimate medical advice, but he is also open to home remedies.  Frequent readers are bombarded with treatments such as putting a bar of soap under the sheets for nocturnal leg cramps, eating cherries to ease the symptoms of gout, and eliminating nail fungus with Vicks VapoRub.  Vicks and Mentholatum seem to be about the same, so it made sense that it might work on SK. 

So I tried it.  Twice a day, I smeared a blob of Mentholatum on the latest SK and covered it with a BandAid during the day, sticking a small piece of toilet paper over it at night (the adhesive on BandAids irritates my skin).  After about a week, I could tell that the SK had shrunk.  After two weeks, I picked off what remained.  I am continuing treatment for another week, just to make sure it does not grow back. 

In just a couple of weeks, I went from OMG WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?  to IT'S GONE! without having to visit my doctor.  That's a win in my book.  I'm now treating another spot of SK on my tummy, and once the weather warms up enough that I don't need to wear a hat, I'm tackling that one on my head. 

DISCLAIMER:  I am not a medical professional of any kind.  I'm just saying that this worked for me.  Your results may vary, especially if what you are trying to treat is not SK but skin cancer.  If in doubt, get thee to your family doctor or a dermatologist.  Better safe than sorry.

That year-end quiz

1. What did you do in 2010 that you’d never done before? Went through a full body scanner at the FW airport.  I didn't even realize what it was until later.
2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? No and yes.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? YES - my daughter birthed my first grandchild.
4. Did anyone close to you die? Yes, another one of my college classmates.
5. What countries did you visit? Massachusetts.  It felt like another country, what with the traffic.
6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010? Confidence in my retirement accounts.  (This is a repeat.)
7. What dates from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? My granddaughter's birthday.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Showing up at work on a regular basis. This is another repeat.
9. What was your biggest failure? Weight gain.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? No.  Well, except when a took a dive at a local restaurant.  Received my first floor burn in years.  Otherwise, just my pride was hurt.
11. What was the best thing you bought? A lot of electronic shit:  had FIOS installed, bought a digital TV, a new digital camera, and a Blu-ray player.  That sounds really shallow, but world peace was not on sale.
12. Whose behavior merited celebration? No one impressed me this year.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? All politicians, everywhere.
14. Where did most of your money go? I paid off my mortgage and home equity loan.  Whoot!
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? My granddaughter.
16. What song will always remind you of 2010? I got nothin'.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? same but about different things
b) thinner or fatter? fatter
c) richer or poorer? poorer (on paper)
18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Exercise.
19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Eating.
20. How did you spend Christmas? With family.
21. Did you fall in love in 2010? Yes, with my granddaughter.
22. What was your favorite TV program? NFL Football.  And reruns of Law and Order: SVU.
23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? The Queen of Perfume at work guaranteed me a headache every day I was in the office.  She is not a bad person per se, but I spent some time and energy disliking her immensely.  Thankfully, we no longer sit near each other.
24. What was the best book you read? I'll say The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton.
25. What was your greatest musical discovery? None.
26. What did you want and get? To be debt free.
27. What did you want and not get? Chickens.
28. What was your favorite film of this year? "The Secret in their Eyes" and "Winter's Bone" and "Nathalie"
29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I visited my granddaughter on my 58th birthday.
30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Being able to retire.
31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010? Hand knits.
32. What kept you sane? Knitting and blogging and yoga.  Lather, rinse, repeat.
33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? No one this year.
34. What political issue stirred you the most? Climate change.
35. Who did you miss? My mom.  Again.  We could have been grandmas together.
36. Who was the best new person you met? Meeting someone new would require I be more social, and I'm not.
37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010. Facebook is a time suck.
38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. None.

Resolutions

Every year, I make the same resolution, sometimes to myself, sometimes out loud, sometimes officially, usually not, but always the same:  Lose weight.  This year is no different, but I want to twist it a bit and relabel it:  Eat less, exercise more.  And I want to make it more specific.

I have tried counting calories and following restrictive diets without much success.  One problem is calorie counting and dieting makes one think about food, and thinking about food makes one feel hungry.  A friend of mine who has successfully shed a lot of weight recently told me that her relationship with food has changed.  This tells me that overeating is not the problem, but a symptom of other issues to which food is not the answer.

How does this translate to me and my situation?  I know that I eat more when I am feeling stressed and/or tired.  Meditation and exercise are two ways to address stress, and exercise can help promote better sleep as can going to bed on time.  This translates into the following specific actions:

1. Meditate once a day on work days (these are my most stressful days)
2. Practice yoga twice per week
3. Get some aerobic exercise for at least 30 minutes three times a week
4. Turn out the lights by 10:30pm on the eves of work days

And that is all.  I think these goals are doable and measurable.  In fact, I have been easing into them over the past few weeks.  We'll see if they translate into weight loss.  Stay tuned!