Things to do for 2014 - March update

Man, where did March go?

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.

To be read at some point this year:
- Brotherhood of Fear: A Willi Kraus Novel by Paul Grossman
- The Black Country by Alex Grecian
- The Devil's Workshop by Alex Grecian - due out in May

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.

8. Finish painting our house - The painter that completed our downstairs is returning to paint our bedroom and the office.

9. Frame and put up our pictures.

Have gotten the layout for 2 rooms so far. Working on the living room 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

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.

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.

26. More to come...