Books 2010

I updated my list of Books for 2010, and there are a total of 26, which was my goal for the year. It seems funny now because instead of finishing 2 books a month, I probably finished 26 books over several 3 day periods.

Unfinished books for the year include: The Infinities (awful) and The Inheritance of Loss (boring). I should admit that I haven't actually finished The Long Song, because Miss Beth got me Freedom for Christmas and I have been reading that instead - but I think I can finish it before the end of 2010.

I included a screen shot of my list for those that only read posts via email, but if you are on my blog, you can click the link for any book and it should bring you to the Boulder Book Store for your viewing or purchasing pleasure. I did accidentally link to the study guide for The Remains of the Day, but that is fixed now!

Thank Goodness for the Internet

Otherwise I would have had to guess what Jack was talking about based on his bizarre complaint and his inability to scratch me when he tried.

Howdy Stranger

Oh, hello, I didn't see you there.

Well here I am back in business and already thinking of New Years Resolutions with 3 full days left in 2010. I am going to ease back into blogging because I already have a full plate consisting of organizing my entire life, doing something a little different at work, starting a new exercise program, training my dog to be absolutely perfect, crafting, becoming an expert baker and cook, finding a religion, making more time for my family, keeping track of my camera, phone, glasses, ipod and wallet for an entire year straight.

I'll keep you posted!

Little Hippie at the Liquor Store

Friday night, Jack and I were wondering the liquor store on our way out for the evening. The boys had an offer of free tickets to a CU Basketball game, and I was going to send them on their merry way and have a glass of wine with the moms.

We were wandering up and down the aisles trying to pick out a bottle of wine, after Jack had unsuccessfully lobbied to be left in the car. I suppose I was taking too much time, muttering to myself, "Hmmm. What do I want, what do I want, what do I want?"

Jack decided to be helpful and said, "Well, what is your body telling you?"

I said, "Oh, I don't know, what is your body telling you?" because I wasn't sure what he was even talking about. He decided to give me an example, "My body is saying I WANT BEER."

Oh, OK. Thanks! I decided my body was telling me I wanted red wine. It never got any more specific, so I let my wallet make the rest of the decision.

A Little Story About A Christmas Project

Last December, I had a thought that I should get a frame with several spots for 5x7 pictures and at Christmastime I could use the frame to display a series of my kids on Santa's lap. Then I thought, "Hey, it's sort of a busy time of year, this is something I could do in January when everything settles down." Fast forward one month. I can't remember last January, but I must have been occasionally shopping for frames. I think at some point I thought, "I could just waut and do this next year at Christmastime." Fast forward one year. The kids had their picture taken with Santa (story for another post), and by my calculations, I should have a total of 6 pictures floating around that need to be in a frame. Frames with 3 spots for 5x7 pictures were buy one get one free. Hello! Time to cross a year old project off the to do list.

I got home from Micheal's with a 12 pack of food coloring and two picture frames and I was very happy. I opened the filing cabinet to my folder marked "pictures" and I found... 1 picture of the kids on Santa's lap circa 2008. That's it. That's how organized I am. I put something on my to do list, and it stays there for a year, and when I finally complete the 20 minute chore of purchasing a frame, the pictures are lost.

The pictures weren't in the baby books either. Because yeah, I'm not really keeping the baby books up to date, but I thought to check there.

Finally I thought to look in my nightstand. And what did I find? My old "to do list" folder. See, last March, I randomly thought I was going to quit my job, and I cleaned almost everyone out of my desk at work and chucked it into my nightstand drawer. What was I working on last March? Apparently shopping for a frame for Santa pictures, since the pictures were in there. I was also working on a bunch of other stuff that now doesn't seem quite so important.

BUT - the pictures are in the frame and the kids had a really good time looking at them today. So it was worth it. A year of thinking about doing something, 30 minutes doing it.

In other news: I have sugar cookie, chewy chocolate gingerbread, star wars sugar cookie, and peanut butter surprise cookie dough made. Tomorrow I hope to start baking.

Dodgeball 2

I was never a team sport person, so it took my completely by surprise when I had so much fun playing dodge ball last week. Luke's team won their game, and we went 2-0. It was really, really fun. I wondered if maybe I should join a dodge ball league. Luke wished there was a NDL or MLD.

It was a lot of running, and dodging, and sweating and laughing, and I felt like I got a work out in 20 minutes. I finally understood why people like to play sports. It's been very interesting. On the other hand, it is sort of detrimental to my workout routine. How I can I go back to the treadmill after the excitement of dodge ball? I recently finished a 6 week challenge on the wii (EA Sports Active: More Workouts) and it was pretty good. I felt like my abs and my legs were getting in pretty good shape. For the arms part, it uses a resistance band, and I couldn't get quite enough resistance to feel like it was working. I do have a resistance band that is tighter, but I can't hold it and the wiimotes at the same time so the trainer just keeps telling me I am doing it wrong. But after the 6 week challenge I thought, "Hmmm. I could probably do all these moves with weights instead of the band, and without the pretty wii scenery in a shorter amount of time..." So once I got up and sort of worked out without the wii. That was about 3 weeks ago. For some annoying reason, the wii seems to be the best motivator for me. I can do it at home, I don't like the program to remind me that I have missed a workout, so I don't miss workouts, and I seem to get sort of in shape. The problem is that once I finish a program on one of the wii games, I don't want to do it again. And now we have the added challenge of finding something as fun as dodge ball. I've been researching yoga studios, dance studios, cross fit gyms, the Y, regular gyms, and workout videos. And when I am not doing that, I am resting on the couch from the exertion of dodge ball until I can get up and gather the strength to start preparing for COOKIE EXTRAVAGANZA 2010.

So far I have the sugar cookie dough rolled out and in the freezer, along with the dough for chewy chocolate gingerbread. The problem is deciding what to do next:
1.) The dough that comes with the star wars cookie cutters?
2.) Chocolate peanut butter surprise?
3.) Pecan Cookies?
4.) Spritz?
5.) Ice box cookies?

And so on. 1 and 4 are definitely going to happen, just need to find the time. Then I am torn about the rest. I plan to get the dough all done this week if I can. Then I can bake on Saturday and maybe just relax and decorate Sunday.

As for dodge ball, it turns out that it's more fun when you win. I had hoped I would never know the loss of a dodge ball game, but last night did us in.

We have one more game Wednesday, and then may or may not go on to the finals. So it's still all dodge ball and cookie dough all the time at Casa de MetaMegan.