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Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Things to do for 2014 - July

I really need to catch up:

1. Complete the first two levels of Rosetta Stone - German

2. Read 25 books - Last year, I read 16 books, four short of my 20 book goal. This year I've upped it to 25 as I don't feel I read nearly as much as I should.

Finished reading:
- The Yard by Alex Grecian
- It by Stephen King. Can I tell you, I wasn't scared while reading the book, but now I'm still a little scared... especially when it comes to bathrooms.
-The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
- Napalm and Silly Putty by George Carlin - While I enjoy Carlin's stand up routines, the book didn't really translate too well, despite my attempts to read it with his voice in my head. I think I'll stick to his stand up instead.
- The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie
- The Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie
- The Mist by Stephen King.
Brotherhood of Fear: A Willi Kraus Novel by Paul Grossman - I enjoyed this installment. I finished it during the week we were away and I'm sad that I now have to wait for the next book in the series. *sad face*
- Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Graeme-Smith
- Red Dragon by Thomas Harris

To be read at some point this year:
- The Black Country by Alex Grecian
- The Devil's Workshop by Alex Grecian - due out in May

I'm getting there, but I need to step up my reading.

3. Spend less time on the computer in my non-working hours

4. Maintain the blog with regular posts - I've come up with a tentative schedule for postings, but it is still a work in progress.

5. Go through the Digital SLR for Dummies book and improve my photography skills. - I've made it through chapter 1,which is the intro chapter... so really it's kinda like I haven't started looking at the book :/

I really need to get on this one.

6. Continue to photograph Gimli and Merida.

7. Lose 20 lbs. - Last year, I struggled with this and am struggling with it again as the year begins. I was doing well, then I stopped exercising and all the progress I did was lost.

January 31 2014
- down 4 lbs to 144
- lost an inch
- I've been working out my arms and they look a bit better. Not chiseled or anything, but you can see the muscle start to take shape.

February 28 2014
- 144 lbs
- lost another inch/ inch and a half
- I'm starting to see changes - ie I was able to wear a pair of pants through a full dinner and dessert and didn't feel like the button was going to pop off.  This is good news.

March 31 2014
- Am the same as I was at the end of February.
- To say I'm disappointed is an understatement, though my tailbone isn't helping. My arms look great though, so there's that. For April, I'm going to ease back into my stomach exercises and I'm sure once we start running, it will be a big help.

May 31 2014
- Same as before. There's a slight decrease as I was able to wear a pair of pants that I haven't worn in a while.  I still have a way to go.

July 2014
- Same weight as before. I am seeing decreases in my waist and hips, though. I can finally see some progress, not as much as I'd like, but I'll take it!
- This past weekend I wore a pair of pants through an entire meal and it didn't make me uncomfortable. I'm counting this as a win!
- My arms and now shoulders are a bit wider than they used to be. This means tops that I can now wear because I've shrunk my muffin top, I cannot wear because the arms are too tight.

8. Finish painting our house - The office and master bedroom have been painted. This leaves just one room - the spare room. We did get a quote for this room, but had we decided to paint it, there would have been no room to move the bed and bookshelves what with the furniture from the master and office strewn about the upstairs level.

We will get to this one, probably later in the year.

9. Frame and put up our pictures.

Update:
 Pictures are up in the main bathroom and the office.

Working on downstairs next.

10. Go to The Arboretum at least once a month - weather permitting.

11. Discover local restaurants/bistros etc in my city or in the surrounding areas.

12. Take more pictures of Mike and me.

13.  Enjoy our backyard.

14. Surprise someone.

15. Put in more flowers/shrubs etc in the yard - We picked up some flowers yesterday and planted them today. We also transplanted our irises, which have never bloomed by the way, from the planters and into the ground. Maybe they will bloom now?  We filled in the planter boxes with the flowers we picked up.

Update: the irises are all dead. The spot where we planted them gets too wet and so it kills the flowers. I don't know what to do with that spot other than remove the mulch and put down some sod.

The flowers we bought are growing like crazy! We purchased a "viney" plant and it's spreading quite nicely, to the point where I had to separate a small bit of it. I placed that little one by the fence and I'm hoping it takes and starts to cover the fence.

16. Move off of "Medium" on the drums in Rock Band and to "Hard".

17. Complete the Minas Tirith 3D puzzle

18. Take up running. I'm nowhere close to the point of doing a 5k of straight running, but it's something I want to do. The ultimate goal is to do one of the RunDisney events at the parks.

Well, we are planning on going to the 5k and 10k races in January. We've booked our rooms already - (Yay DVC members!) and our running training will start once the weather improves. I've got it in my mind to start in April, but we'll see. We're also going to do smaller runs closer to home to focus on a timed race.

I will admit, this is not something I'd ever thought I'd be doing! I've been a self-confessed "non-runner" all my life.

Update: We now go running three times a week and I'm up to run/walking 3k. I hope I'll be up to 5k proper by the end of August and then I'll start training for the 10k!

19. Put in a smaller garden in the backyard.

20. Organize the spare bedroom so it actually looks like a bedroom and not a place to shove "stuff".

21. Scan in our baby pictures.

22. Start putting together our Disney album.

23. Start cooking more Trinidad type food.

24. Work on the corgis' recall.

25. Travel to a new place. - We went to Cozumel, Grand Cayman and Falmouth, Jamaica this year.
Read about the Cozumel Regatta here.

26. Go through my MasterChef and Gordon Ramsay cookbooks and make the recipes. - I've done a couple recipes from the MasterChef book. These posts are coming also.

27. More to come...

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