Unmitigated

Brightening My Days

Still unemployed by choice. Still working on projects. I have been doing some more cooking, with recipes from all the Marias out there. I have branched out into baking, of a sort. I found an easy, no-knead bread recipe on Mother Earth News (someone linked there...Jan/Maria?), and a fruit galette that I made with blueberries and raspberries from Three Many Cooks.

The bread was awesome, and calmed my bread-making fears. Its easy to screw up bread. Then I remembered...I have a bread machine! Remember when everyone had a bread machine? Back in the 80s or early 90s. So far, I have made a french honey bread, that I used blueberry honey in, and a traditional Italian bread. Next, I am thinking of some Hawaiian sweet bread, or some beer bread. 

Before I talk about the next two-and-a-half projects, I wanted to point out that my wonderful husband, who goes by the name JimStyro, has posted again on his blog, Speaking in CAPS! It's been a very long time. Pop over if you get a chance, you will see an awesome picture from Ms. Partly Cloudy's wedding. Also posting recently after a long absence is Captain Dumbass. You won't believe how much Mickey Finn has grown. Protect your iPods.

OKay...next project: We use Microsoft Money to keep track of finances, which means that we have receipts to enter in a piece of software. We generate, on average 2-3 receipts per day. No big deal, right? What if the primary enterer hasn't had the time or the inclination to enter data in awhile....like, since May of 2011? View my Purgatory:

That there is over 200 receipts that need to be entered.The first step in getting our finances organized, and my project for the rest of today, and probably part of tomorrow. Yesterday, I alphabetized them, as I prefer to enter all the receipts from a single vendor at once. The biggest pile? Quiznos, where JimStyro eats lunch nearly every day. 

Once that is accomplished, I move on to the junk drawer. Drawers. Just in the living room and kitchen, there are EIGHT junk drawers. Eight. In the basement, there are three storage areas that are disastrous, and I'm not even going to talk about the garage, which will need to wait until it is warmer outside before I can attack. I want a dedicated space for my yoga practice, and a space where I can work on stained glass projects. The living room over carpet is NOT a good place to cut glass.

If I don't emerge from Microsoft Money by Saturday....send the Marines.

Blogging 101 Class

This is my first time writing a post on my android tablet. The interface is weird, and I am still getting used to typing on a flat keyboard, so we will see how it goes.

Last Thursday, the item I chose to finish was a PowerPoint presentation that I would need for a class I am teaching today. At the History Attraction where I work, today is the All Staff conference. Back issues prevent me from attending most of the day, since I still can't sit for very long, but a few months ago, I agreed to teach an afternoon session for blogging newbies, which they are calling Blogging 101.

In a little bit I will leave for yoga class, then I will have just enough time to come home, get cleaned up, and go visit my place of employment for a couple hours. It will be nice to see everyone, but I wish I had a shirt that said, "Ask me about ANYTHING ELSE." I am in one of those states where I have disappeared, and I am only a dysfunctional set of vertebrae. Sounds like a first world problem to me, so enough.

While I was making the bed this morning, my mind wandered where it often does during household tasks: The Newlywed Game. If Bob Eubanks were to ask us, "How many pillows are there on your bed?……" How would I answer? There are 8 rergular pillows on our bed, but there is also one little decorative pillow. I always think that we would have planned something out ahead of time, like, 'always use the widest possible definition for objects' or that we would have somehow come up with a secret code...one blink for no, two blinks for yes.

Then I remember...we have bee married for more that 26 years, and nobody is going to invite us to be on the Newlywed Game, and who the hell thinks about this stuff? Probably just me.

And just so you know, the android post thing is not going to work. You can only select a single category, and since there are no directional arrows on an android keyboard (at least none that I was able to find) it's a big pain to try to get the cursor to the bottom of the post if you need to go back and edit, for some reason. Trust me on this one. I have been able to comment pretty well with the tablet, so that makes me happy.

Which is good, because I just had the hot flash from Hades, so I am now a clammy mess. Yeesh, this day is not starting out too well, is it?

Today's Task

Why is this simple pile of paper so damn daunting? Nothing in here is time-intensive. Some of the stuff in this pile will net us some cash. And yet, here it sits. It's all very neat, really, it's just waiting to be attended to. Every once in a while, I will get the yen to be productive (sadly, the whiles are very, very once-ish), and I will whip through a pile like this, culling, updating, paying, filing, etc. Today is the day. But only because I am making it happen. No yen in sight. It's mostly medical, which I handle in our household, because medical billing and insurance are ridiculously complex, although I am not complaining. I am grateful to have some really wonderful insurance coverage, enabling us to get treatment when we need it.

 

How long do you think it will take before the next pile accrues?

Strutting

I'm not really strutting, but I must say I am feeling pretty self-righteous. Got up this morning around 7:00, because I like to. I'm definitely a morning person. Had some breakfast, read some blogs, had a cup of coffee, recaulked half the tub, drove to yoga class, stretched like crazy, felt really good, drove home, picked up a scrip at the pharmacy because I planned it that way, and home before noon. Now, I get the rest of the day to feel good about myself.

 

And completely push from my mind the fact that I ate FIVE Dunkin' Donuts in 24 hours.

 

Thank God those are gone.

What Was That Last One Called Again?

Oh, yeah. Getting my shit together. Finishing things.

Second item finished is something I can't blog about right now, because there is a surprise involved (though the surprise is included to make me feel less shitty about taking so long to make things right. So, less of a surprise than a penance that will end up being kind of cool, but not as cool as if I hadn't been such a shithead in the first place.) Are we all clear on that? Okay, then.

I have finally decided it was time for my diet to grow up, at least a little bit. The Lucky Charms and Pop Tarts Daily Regimen tasted awesome and was sooooo happy-making, but my admittedly very small inner-adult was protesting. Not very much, because she's pretty juvenile, too, but still.

So I went to Costco on the way home from Yoga class, and now the fridge is absolutely bulging with fruits and vegetables. And yesterday, I started the day with a lumbar epidural steroid injection, which meant I couldn't drive (not that I would have anyway...that's another issue, the not wanting to leave the house, ever, thing, but one small step, you know?), so I was at home with things to eat that were GOOD FOR ME and my body felt all weird all day, probably from the anesthesia, but I like to think it was from the intestinal shock of actual nutrients.

Plus, there's that thing of feeling like a trim, graceful middle-aged woman with wonderful fashion sense who is stunned at every mirror to see this frumpy, lumpy person with formerly awesome hair that has become all dry and yucky-colored, and weighs about 25 pounds more in reality than in my imagination. How does that happen? 

And saggy. Gah! I don't like the saggy at all. I once heard that there are two ways to age...to wrinkle, or to sag, and I am definitely in the latter category. Any wrinkly people out there? Would you prefer the droopy-dog look?

*Sigh* , I don't think this post turned out to be very uplifting. Maybe the whole "getting my shit together" thing required a brain-dump. Let's hope.