Tag: me

Radio. No static.

It’s been years since I’ve had crystal clear radio reception.  Or even good, solid radio reception.  We have lived in this house for six years and the floor of house above us that is not ours blocks the really good radio reception.  It wasn’t bad until my stereo receiver died.  The next receiver I bought did not get very good reception at all.    Before, I just had to construct a coat hanger antenna and not stand in a specific place and things weren’t too bad.  With the new receiver all I could do was try to ignore the static.

Enter this little gem.  I spent way too much money on it, but I’m flush with my tax return and this was my big splurge. It sits on the shelf next to the stereo (it can even sit sideways) and suddenly my NPR reception is a beautiful, beautiful thing.  It’s also quite pretty and simple.  I love it.
 

Just when I was ahead of schedule


I wash my face with a half-and-half solution of castor oil and jojoba oil.  I just had mixed up a new batch two days ago.  But sadly, I put it on an unstable surface in the medicine cabinet so look what happened when I opened the door.  Happily, it all ended up on the counter and was pretty easy to clean up.  It still set me back a good ten minutes, though.

Guess what national holiday it is?


I love my birthday and the birthday fairies at work are happy to oblige me in celebrating.  Not only was my desk decorated but there was a poem waiting for me on my computer AND a happy birthday email.  Three different kinds of Mac & Cheese were delivered to me through the day.  Also, given that I work in an elementary school and was wearing a “Today is my birthday sticker” I received hundreds of birthday greetings.  Kids also love birthdays and many of them wished me happy birthday multiple times.

This was an awesome vacation!

I know not why blogger chose to rotate my photo that was in the correct orientation before I uploaded it.  Blogger is not my friend right now.  But onto the point!

This vacation was awesome!  Every time I have a long school vacation I make myself a planning calendar.  It has the days of the vacation and sometimes the goals.  Then I write in what’s happening and have the whole vacation at a glance.  This vacation I accomplished all my goals:  paint bathroom, paint bedroom, garden, finish reading a friend’s book, clean out physical inbox, catch up blogs.  Not only did all that get done, but I did social things with my friends, did work trades with my friends, watched a whole lot of (mostly Channing Tatum) movies and even read.  It was fabulous!

Menorah!

My friend Deborah invited people over to celebrate the sixth night of Hanukkah. As it has been before, it was a lovely and relaxing evening that left me wanting to celebrate Hanukkah too. Luckily for me, my Unitarian faith has no problem incorporating other religious traditions into my spiritual practice. Deborah mentioned that she bought her menorah at the Goodwill, so I resolved to keep my eyes open for one too. Instead, I scored at New Season’s 75% off holiday merchandise sale. I brought home this beauty:

for a steal!
I’m not sure yet what my 2012 Hanukkah celebration (beginning the evening of December 8) will look like, but I’ve got the main piece of equipment and I can’t wait.

How did those 2011 resolutions go?

Well, it turns out I forgot one entirely. I was going to cook four different kinds of vegetables each week. That would explain why I had a separate “V” designation for chores accomplished (as compared to the “F” for anything to do with food. I did cook/prep a lot more vegetables early in the year and then less so the second half of the year.

I did do a very good job cooking food and not throwing out a lot of it. That list on the fridge I referenced in the resolution post did help a lot. I discarded the sheet at one point, but will bring it back. The notebook also helped and I have already purchased my notebook for 2012. I backslid a bit in November/December and ended up throwing out more food than I wanted. But overall this was a pretty good success.
Push ups. I still love them, but apparently not enough to really do them every day. Early in the year I did them pretty consistently and if I were in my mid-twenties, I would have been churning out my age. Alas, I am in my late thirties and didn’t ever reach that number. I think I pushed too hard at the beginning and ended up incredibly sore which was a deterrent.
Resolutions for 2012? I’m pondering them right now.