I never made my update at the beginning of the month with my goal updates. Life has been a little crazy lately.

Crazily enough, I traveled this week for work and then flew back to Austin on a plane with a bunch of people coming in for SXSW. So far I’ve had a blast with it, and I hope all of our visitors have, too!

Back to the goals – February was a plateau month, weightwise. That’s a little disappointing, as I didn’t make my planned 5lb loss, but I at least got a lot of workouts in, so hopefully March will be better. Of course, for the next few days I’ll be walking a LOT, but there will also be copious free drinks available, so we’ll just have to see.

On the book reading front, I’ve read a few more for my Goodreads challenge, although only one or two more thst I’d never read before. Without being able to check for certain, I think that brings my total up to 6 of 10.

Now I am off for more SXSW shenanigans, so perhaps sometime this week I’ll have time to update more.

When I got home from work today, I decided to go walk the neighborhood – something I haven’t done in a while. It’s sadly true that I can definitely make myself walk further when walking outside than when on the treadmill or elliptical. Something about the timer on the machine makes me feel like I’ve worked harder in a shorter time, whether or not it is true.

At any rate, today I decided to walk the back way: the way I usually drive to work. I knew where I was going to turn around and come back, and I sort of knew how the cross-streets connected…so I set out. Aside from the fact that the back road has no sidewalk and therefore is not a route I’ll be taking often, it added a good distance to the walk. After about a mile, I took stock of the distance I had come and realized that the total distance I was planning on walking would be about the same distance as a walk to work. Suddenly, it hit me — I could totally manage a walk to work! Perhaps I’d challenge myself and walk to work on Fridays.

Yeah. Then reality hit. Three-quarters of the way through the walk, I realized how winded and sweaty I was — not terribly on the latter, as it is pretty cool outside, but it was not a small amount of energy I was putting out. My overall walk today was about four miles – and it is about six miles to walk to where I work. In other words, it’s do-able if I absolutely need to do it, but it’s not something I will do every day, or even once a week. Perhaps if I had a gym membership at work so I could take a shower once I got there….

One thing that did come out of today’s walk – my determination to walk several miles a day is reborn. Last year I was making the effort to walk an average of 8000 steps a day. We have a 10000 steps challenge through our wellness program at work, and I had not rejoined it yet this calendar year. Perhaps it is time for me to sign up for that again, as I’ve noticed that lately I was averaging about 6000 steps a day. Today’s total so far: 12,149.

So, there’s a little thing known as the Winter Olympics happening starting this weekend. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. I continue to be in awe of the athletes who can compete at which levels that most lesser mortals despair.

In the spirit of these events, I’ve undertaken my own Olympic Challenge. Well…two, actually.

First, I am competing in the second Ravelympics. My prowess shall be unmatched in WIPSdancing and SweaterboardCross. Okay, perhaps not unmatched — as a matter of fact, I am pretty sure some of the other competitors will blow my efforts out of the water. The Ravelympics are not about competing against each other, however – they are about setting and obtaining a difficult goal for yourself.

The other challenge is one that won’t be completed in 17 days. For this one, I have a time limit of one year and one half – to read one book from every year that I have been alive. This means I have to come up with a list of books published from every year since the year of my birth. Re-reads are allowable, so long as you actually read the book. I have yet to make my list, but I’ve got ideas for a few of the years already. This challenge fits in nicely with my goal of reading at least 10 new books this year. I’ve already read four new ones, but those were all published long before I was born, so I need to get cracking on my list.

I had intended to post this on Friday — my list of goals for 2010. Once again, I refuse to call these ‘resolutions’, as some are long-term goals. Besides, you’re expected to break resolutions – that’s the nature of the beast. You might fail to reach a goal, but if you are at least working towards it you should see some progress.

So, here we go.

• Lose 5 lbs a month. This is different from my past versions of this goal. Yes, I want to get back to my high school weight, or even my college weight – this is a restatement of that goal in a way that helps me keep it sane. I’ve been working out and walking, and working with my dr on this, and I think it is totally do-able.
• Read at least 10 new books in 2010. I have a large collection of books, and quite a few that I haven’t cracked the cover on. In the past five years or so I’ve been bad about keeping up with my reading list, although I’ve still collected books here and there that I intended to get to. Time to stop reading the fluff in bed (or at least read new fluff – which tends to be my major time for reading.
• Get more organized. There are still a few boxes around here with books needing shelves, plus items that don’t always find their home again at the end of the day. I’ve successfully kept my apt from being a disaster area this past year, now I need to step it up just a little more.

There, that’s pretty much it. I could wax eloquent about some other things I should or want to do, but keeping it simple is more realistic. Gone are the days when I thought I could change my habits by some simple resolutions in the first week of the year.

Okay, the title has little to do with this post, but for some reason the lyric got stuck in my head. At any rate, the year is almost over, and I feel the need to do a retrospective. That takes time, however — so here’s a meme (after the jump) in the meantime. Read more »

…the year is almost over. How did that happen? How can a new decade be about to start? (Yes, you start counting at zero, not one. Sorry, I am a bit pedantic about math as well as grammar – even when I screw it up. )

Since my birthday, I’ve made a new fitness resolution (which I’ve mostly kept to), I’ve started the most expensive med that I’ve ever had the ‘privilege’ of taking, and sang a few (3 plus 2) concerts — the plus 2 actually being church services, so they don’t count so much as concerts. I’ve been weaving, knitting, and crocheting like mad. There are even a few things I can show off, like this purse I made for my niece:

Sonie's purse

Yeah, been making a few of these bags, some scarves and some other items – some for pressies, some just because I can’t stop playing with the yarn!

Sometime this week I think I’ll color my hair, as at some point this year the first gray hairs decided to start making themselves known — and they have to be right at the top edge of my bangs. There are only a couple now, but once they get comfortable I know they’ll be inviting friends. Ah, the joys of getting older. …and I haven’t even hit the midpoint yet.

Today I turn 35. Mark that well, because it may very well be the last time I admit my real age.

This past year was supposed to be about change – changing my life for the better. Well, there was change, and quite a lot of it was good I suppose – but most of it wasn’t quite in the direction I was hoping. Although I have gotten much more active and taken better care with my nutrition, I still can’t seem to take off any weight. Some of this problem may stem from PCOS, but I can’t pin the blame squarely on that. I’d also planned to try buying property this past year, which didn’t happen — but I am at least in a bigger (and NICER) place and much happier for it.

So just over a year ago I changed jobs, moved into a better place, and in the past year have worked a lot on getting more active. If I can continue that trend in the year to come, maybe by this time next year I will have realized the rest of my goals. Of course, once you hit one goal you’ll immediately find another worth achieving, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

As I look back through my blog posts I find that in the past twelve months I’ve fallen away from blogging quite a bit – down to an average 2 posts per month I think – but I’ve gotten more active in social media. This doesn’t entirely surprise me – my favorite job I think was when I was working with the forums (fora?) at my place of employment. Perhaps one day I can settle back into that arena, but for now I am at least mostly satisfied with my job.

Still single, no children – but I’ve gotten more at peace with that, and having 3 of my sisters’ kids nearby gives me younglings to spoil. And to hand back to their respective guardians when they become pills. Heh.

In the meantime, I am still singing, still crafting, and still being a general busy person. TCC just started rehearsals for the fall holiday concert, and I’ll be singing with Conspirare in the spring. I don’t think I’ll be able to financially make a Shanghai trip that I was invited to sing for, but perhaps in 2011 or 2012 I’ll be able to take the next TCC trip overseas.

In crafting news, I finished a couple of projects and I’ve got this beauty currently on my loom.  Oh yes, I’ve rediscovered the joys of weaving — but don’t fear, for I haven’t given up my hooks and needles by any stretch of the imagination. The loom is a heck of a lot less portable, even if my rigid heddle is a travel loom.

So, forward as we mean to continue. This morning I enjoyed a bit of a lie in, but before too long I got up and worked out and had a healthy breakfast. Today I mean to go walking and perhaps do a little shopping as long as I’ve got the next few days off on vacation. (By the way, for anyone interested, Wii Fit Plus is actually much better than its predecessor, but if you want a serious workout I still recommend EA Sports Active. With the former you get more flexibility and balance, but you get more straight up exercise with the latter.)

Time to step away from the computer and go have some fun.

The chilly weather has descended upon us once more, heralding football games and holidays and snuggling under warm blankets. I decided I didn’t already have enough projects in play, and pulled out my long-forsaken loom. Unfortunately, I’d forsaken the poor thing long enough to have forgotten half the steps I need to remember to get the warp started – and then I remembered the Knitters Loom. Ah yes – glorious fun to be had while I re-assert myself in the ancient art of weaving!

The KL I have is the Ashford – although there is another popular model called the Cricket. This little wonder is fast to set up, fast to warp, and fast to get to the business of weaving. Here’s a shot of the warp I set up last night:

New warp on my KL

It took me a couple hours to get it arranged how I really wanted it, but now that I know what I am doing, it won’t take me near as long in the future. The warp is cotton Sinfonia in burnt orange, one of the last two skeins I have of that marvelous stuff. It’s a little too stiff of a cotton for me to make the BSS I had thought of and I have enough burnt orange hats, but I felt a scarf would be an appropriate use of this. One light enough for fall in Texas and perfect for those football game Saturdays — at least until it really gets cold.

This afternoon after work I came home and decided to use a white for the weft — Lion Brand Microspun, as a matter of fact. I cannot stand to knit or crochet with this yarn as it is so splitty, but it is so amazingly soft I couldn’t bear to part with it either. So before I was to head off to church for choir, I wove about a foot or so in this. I’ll have to post a picture later as apparently my widget isn’t working at the moment to send from my phone. I’m not entirely sure I like the white and orange together, at least not in a plain weave, but it should be one heck of a soft scarf.

There is one ball remaining of the burnt orange – enough for perhaps another scarf, with a different weft this time. My first scarf on this loom is much like the first piece of work I did on a four-harness table loom, a little hesitant and with a few errors. The errors this time are mainly spacing — which I am not sure whether they are a result of the type of loom I am using or whether they come from user error. Time will tell – and in a couple weeks, I think I’ll take the four-harness out for a spin again.

Not sure from where the following originated… However, here is a bit from a great clipping my mother has on her refrigerator door — I thought this was important to share.

12 WARNING SIGNS OF HEALTH

1. Persistent presence of supportive friends.
2. Chronic positive expectations — a tendency to frame events in a positive light.
3. Regular signs of joy in living.
4. Sense of spiritual renewal in the Lord.
5. Increased sensitivity to others.
6. A tendency to adapt to changing conditions.
7. Increased appetite for physical activity.
8. Tendency to identify and communicate feelings.
9. Repeated episodes of gratitude and generosity.
10. Compulsion to care for other people.
11. Persistent sense of humor – known to laugh out loud.
12. A life centered in the forgiveness of Christ!