Tag: me

Dear Multnomah County Library,

Hi there. I know you are pretty busy being the most utilized library of cities our size and everything, but I have a small wish that I am hoping you will fulfill. I’m sure you probably think it is helpful to package entire TV series as one multi-disk package for people to check out. After all, it is easier to check out and watch an entire season of, say The Office Season Four over a three week period than it is to try and reserve say, disk one of The Office Season Four, watch it, return it, and reserve disk two.

But here is the deal. When handed all four disks of Season Four at the same time, I tend to want to watch all four disks right away. I have no self control. It’s like in Old Yeller, when the boy who doesn’t like Old Yeller ties the hunk of meat low enough so Old Yeller could eat it, but Old Yeller is Old Yeller and the next morning hasn’t touched the meat thus gaining the boy’s esteem and further winning our hearts? Except I’m not Old Yeller. Were I the dog in that situation, the morning would find the rope hanging slack and me sleeping off the meat food coma. With an entire season of a DVD that I can have for three weeks I will inevitably finish it before the first week is out.

I’ve recently checked out the series Sports Night, which I remember reading was good when it was playing on TV (where they only air one episode per week if you are lucky) but I wasn’t really watching a lot of TV at that time. It turns out that the buzz I heard lo those 10 years ago was right on. Likable characters, snappy dialog, zany-but-real situations, and every episode some character manages to bring up some random obscure topic to become obsessed with. I’m enjoying it tremendously. And therein lies the problem. The Sports Night DVD is not just one season, but the entire series. Six disks! 40-something episodes! I know my lack of self-control isn’t your problem but if only you would just give me one disk at a time I would be so much better off. Netflix operates that way. So do the movie rental stores. But you, oh generous library. You give me everything at once.

So think about it. More packaging, I know, and more checking in and out etc. But if all your various television series were packaged individually, just think of the boost in circulation numbers.

Sincerely,
Patricia Collins.
Proud Multnomah County Library Patron.

Whew. Thank goodness for the guidlines.

Okay, these are probably the most boring posts ever, but they are really keeping me in line. This morning, after not sleeping well last night, I really wanted to just go back to bed. But I couldn’t do that because I would have to mention it in the guidelines report. Also, as you will see below, I didn’t really meet my work requirement or my exercise requirement yesterday so I have already made plans to come closer to meeting both of them today. I’m on day 11 or so of these guidelines and I haven’t collapsed in food coma yet, nor have I lost a whole day doing nothing. I’m finding a good balance between work and leisure. So thank goodness for posts about guidelines.

  • Up and dressed to the shoes. Did it.
  • 1 hour study math test. I did
  • 1 hour blogs. I did.
  • 1 hour exercise. It was pouring when I got up and I put it off. Which means I didn’t do it.
  • 4 hours work. Hmmm. There was a good half hour or more of picking up. And, if you count doing my laundry I totally met this guideline. However, in doing my laundry what I was really doing was watching multiple episodes of Sports Night. So I didn’t really meet this goal.
  • Keep up with dishes and picking up. Yes
  • Nap maximum time 30 minutes. No nap.
  • Eat when hungry stop when full. Yep
  • Plan food the day before. Yes
  • Fruit and vegges watching movies. Yes.

All in all, not a bad day. And Sports Night is a great show.

Sunday and guidelines.

Watching TV on DVDs = crack. Especially when it is a half-hour sitcom. I sit down to watch two shows and four hours later I’m still sitting there. This was a mildly unmotivated day.

  • Up and dressed to the shoes. Did it.
  • 1 hour study math. Did it.
  • 1 hour blogs. Did it.
  • 1 hour exercise. 45 minutes riding my new bike home. Plus some walking to and from the train. Did it.
  • 4 hours work. I probably got an hour and a half in. It could have been more, but see above for my excuse.
  • Keep up with dishes & picking up. Nope. See above.
  • Nap maximum 30 minutes. I did not nap today. Surprisingly as I went to bed very late last night due to the joy of Contra Dancing.
  • Eat only when hungry, stop when full. Did it.
  • Plan food the day before. Did it.
  • Fruit and veggies while watching movie. I used my virtual “one free popcorn” coupon tonight. Then I had two oranges. We’re sort of awash in fruit right now.

Overall, not bad. I get a goodly amount done during the morning. I’d like to say that I am going to limit my TV viewing today, but I would be lying.

Guidlelines and Saturday

A bit of a weird day…

  • Up and dressed. Did this
  • 1 hour study math. Did this
  • 1 hour blogs. Did this. Mostly prepping pictures for posting. That takes a bit of time.
  • 1 hour exercise. I jogged for 26 minutes and also did two hours of contra dancing.
  • 4 hours work. I had about three hours. I kept fooling around on the computer and also, see Nap.
  • Keep up with dishes/picking up. I unloaded the dishwasher and hand-washed the dishes by the sink. When it is just me and I’m not doing a lot of cooking, it makes more sense to wash them by hand.
  • Nap maximum time 30 minutes. I set out to do this, but failed. I set my timer for 30 minutes and feel asleep on the couch. I awoke an hour later and checked to see how much time was left on the timer. Inexplicably, there were almost 13 minutes left, but the timer was not running. I hit start to see if the batteries were wonky, but it ran just fine. I concluded that during my sleep, I turned the timer off. Having already exceeded my guideline, I rolled over and slept for another hour. That cut into my work time.
  • Eat only when hungry and stop when full. I had a bigger lunch than planned and thus wasn’t hungry for dinner. So I fulfilled the first half of this after not fulfilling the second. Not ideal, but better than not fulfilling either.
  • Plan food the day before. Food was planned. Sadly, I did not stick to the plan.
  • Fruit and veggies while watching movie. No movie.

Overall, aside from the nap fiasco, this was a good day.

Friday and the guidelines

Thursday was guideline free, as it was Christmas. Friday I was feeling very unmotivated. Considering that, it was a good day.

  • Got up. I did.
  • 1 hour study math. Yep
  • 1 hour blog. Yes-sir-ee
  • 1 hour exercise. There was running. Or walk/jog/creeping along the ice, rather. There was also picking up the milk delivery.
  • 4 hours work. I spent a half hour cleaning off my desk. I went downtown to pick up my books which probably took an hour and a half. If you add in cooking dinner, I think I made it four hours. It was under mild duress, though. There was a lot of playing the never ending trivia game on Goodreads.
  • Keep up with dishes and picking up. Yes ma’am.
  • Nap. There was none, so that was under 30 minutes.
  • Eat only when hungry, stop when full. Yeah, not so much.
  • Plan food. Did. Did not actually stick to the plan, though.
  • Fruit and Veggies while watching movie. Nope. I had ice cream. Alas.

Well, tomorrow is another day. I will concentrate on meeting my various food goals.

Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday’s Guidelines.

To recapitulate:

Monday and Tuesday I was getting ready for various festivities so I was pretty busy, although “pretty busy” on vacation means lots of time for napping and movies etc. Wednesday I got up and did the last of the Christmas baking, cleaned up and that was that for exertion.

Up and dressed to the shoes: Monday Tuesday, Wednesday
1 hour study Math Test: Monday, Tuesday, none on Wednesday
1 hour blogs: Monday, Tuesday, not Wednesday
1 hour exercise: yes on Monday, none on Tuesday (prepping for Christmas Eve Eve), 20 minutes of shoveling snow on Wednesday
4 hours work: Yes on Monday, Tuesday, about three on Wednesday
Keep up with dishes/picking up: Yes on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
Nap maximum of 30 minutes: I had 30 minute or less naps all three days
Eat only when hungry, stop when full: Yes Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday I didn’t really do this
Plan food the day before: Monday, Tuesday, not Wednesday
Fruit and veggies while watching movies. I watched a movie Monday, and Wednesday, but not Tuesday. I had nothing to eat with any of them.

A Sunday with guidelines.

Okay, we were really snowed in today. The Max line wasn’t running due to frozen switches. I did very well with my guidelines.

  • Get up and dress to the shoes. Yep did this. I didn’t take a shower, because when you are snowed in and slightly cold all day there isn’t a lot of sweating going on. I’ll shower tomorrow.
  • 1 hour review for math test. Yep. Took the two hour practice test. It was pretty depressing. I think I might see if I can move that test date.
  • 1 hour work on the blogs. Did it. I got all the photos ready to post and wrote a few things.
  • 1 hour of exercise. Shoveled snow twice. Walked to the store and back across unshoveled sidewalks so even more effort was used. Matt and I went to get dessert at Pizza Fino, also over unshoveled walks.
  • 4 hours work. I rocked the work. Probably more like six hours.
  • Maximum nap time: 30 minutes. No nap today.
  • Keep up with dishes and picking up. Yep.
  • Plan food the day before. I’ll do that right after I finish this post.
  • Eat only when hungry and stop when full. Breakfast and lunch very good. I wasn’t super hungry for dinner.
  • When watching movies, eat nothing or fruits and vegetables. I’m going to have wine with my movie. For some reason this winter weather has me craving wine.

My first day of guidelines.

How did it go? Pretty well.

I did get up, went jogging (4) and got dressed (1). For work (5) I spent from 8:30-3:00 (includes transportation time) decorating the tree at my Aunt Pat’s house. I also wrote my Christmas letter and went by the library to see if I could pick up the books on hold. Sadly, they were closed because of the snow. Oh! And I shoveled the walk. I just loaded up the dish washer (7) though have not picked up the house at all today. I actually packaged up the rest of my apple from breakfast this morning because I was full (9) but did get a little full for lunch and dinner.

On the didn’t side.
No nap (6) today, so well under my 30 minute limit. There was no studying for the math test (2) though that was on purpose as I want to take a 2 hour practice test tomorrow, so that will count for both days. I made my food plan (8) this morning, instead of last night. I haven’t watched a movie today, but if I do, I have my eye on a pomegranate (10) in the fridge.

On the maybe side:
I still have 34 minutes left of blog time (3) I may do the full hour.

Guidelines

Well, this evening begins my two weeks of Winter Break. One of the perks of my job is that I have a lot of vacation. Would that every American had this much vacation, I think we would be a much happier and healthier country.

As much as I love vacation, I sometimes get a bit off track. When free from the normal structures of my life, I sometimes want to be free from all structure and some parts of my vacations have passed in a food coma haze where I also either watch to many movies, read too many books or both.

The problem is that if I keep to my normal routine it doesn’t feel like vacation, it just feels like work in a different place. But if I discard all my routines I become a bit too free and that isn’t pleasurable either. Sometimes I have a project that keeps me occupied, but I wasn’t feeling up to a whole project thing this break. So instead, I decided to have guidelines. Things that aren’t quite my normal routine, but are things that will most likely make for a pleasurable vacation. Here they are:
1. Get up and dress to the shoes.
This is a Flylady thing. Flylady is always going on about putting on your shoes so you are prepared for anything. I’ve found it is true for me, and it is so cold that I need to wear shoes right now anyway.
2. One hour review for math test.
It’s coming up right after break is over and I would love to pass it the first time.
3. One hour work on the blogs.
The other one is caught up, but this one is horribly behind. Hopefully, I can chip away at this and get this post up in January or *gasp* December.
4. One hour of exercise.
Although if I jog, then 25 minutes plus stretching will do. I feel so much better if I exercise and it, sadly, is one of the main things that falls apart during vacations.
5. Four hours work.
“Work” means anything I am doing that is not officially leisurely. I’ve got a lot of little this and that in the project realm that could be finished, I could work on the blogs or do some house cleaning. Running errands counts too.
6. Maximum nap time: 30 minutes.
As vacations go on my naps tend to get longer which messes up my overnight sleep. I know that I can have 30 lovely minutes of napping (one of my favorite parts of vacation) without affecting my sleep, so that is where I will draw the line.
7. Keep up with dishes and picking up.
There is nothing worse then attempting to eat a lovely lunch and finding that there is no clean silverware. Okay, there are worse things, but a lack of silverware is a vacation downer.
8. Plan food the day before.
When at home, I tend to react with excitement to every item I see in the refrigerator. Thus my meals can become quite large. This should keep them normally sized.
9. Eat only when hungry and stop when full.
Yet another challenge while on break. Life is better for me when I can do this, though.
10. When watching movies, eat nothing or fruits and vegetables.
I have stockpiled a bunch of movies to watch over the break. I usually like to have popcorn, but fourteen days of popcorn would not be a pretty thing. However, I can have one bowl of popcorn, as long as I stick to having fruits and veggies the rest of the time.

I’ll check in mostly daily and see how I do.

Parking lots and snow

One thing I always remember about snow in Boise, is how a light snow would fall and cover everything, including the parking lots. People would drive to the mall, or the store, or someplace with a parking lot and take their best guess as to where the spaces were. They would then go in a shop, or perhaps work. Meanwhile the temperature would warm up and the snow would melt, exposing the actual parking spaces, many of which were difficult to park in, because the people who guessed would have guessed wrong, yet their cars were still there, parked outside the lines.

With that memory in mind, I was pleased to see this ingenious solution at a parking lot near my work.