My checkbook tells me I have -$8.09 right now. Granted, that won't actually go into affect until the payments and everything clear, but that's what my balance is.
My online banking account is claiming I have about $75 more than I think I have.
Okay, something is off. Where? When? How?
Sadly, I don't know.
What of the unfortunate practices I fell into the habit of back when my first laptop went blooie was not balancing my checkbook with the statements the bank sends me.
I think it's very safe to say that this practice needs to change. ^^;
All I need to do is find the other check book registers that I've filed out and find all the bank statements and see where the two of them don't match. Which just goes to show that I should have kept up with that even when the first data file went bye-bye.
That's all.
This might take me awhile. ^^;
On the plus side, the imbalance isn't going the other way. That would be even more annoying.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Friday, August 12, 2011
Health challenge update
I've updated my points on the health challenge website for work. Thus far this week, I've accumulated 16 points!
I shall need to add exercise to my schedule tomorrow and see how that helps. I've been meaning to anyway - just not anymore tonight, since I've been up since 4am. ^^;
Tonight's dinner was fish, veggies and rice. Was very tasty, and from one of my Light & Tasty cookbooks. Dad liked it too, which is always a plus.
The downer is I'm still hungry, but you're supposed to be a bit hungry shortly after eating if you really want to lose weight healthily. (Loosing 20 pounds in one month technically isn't good for you, though that is what happened to me when I changed my portion sizes to what they're supposed to be.)
I shall need to add exercise to my schedule tomorrow and see how that helps. I've been meaning to anyway - just not anymore tonight, since I've been up since 4am. ^^;
Tonight's dinner was fish, veggies and rice. Was very tasty, and from one of my Light & Tasty cookbooks. Dad liked it too, which is always a plus.
The downer is I'm still hungry, but you're supposed to be a bit hungry shortly after eating if you really want to lose weight healthily. (Loosing 20 pounds in one month technically isn't good for you, though that is what happened to me when I changed my portion sizes to what they're supposed to be.)
Changes to the blog
I have decided to separate out what I'm putting into this blog. Mainly to make things more interesting, and to make it so people who are mainly interested in my crafts aren't needing to pass by the weight loss and book posts.
This blog will now only be for my weight lose and financial goals. :)
I will have other blogs (and possibly either a tumblr or a comicpress/wordpress site) for the crafts, musical interests, language studies, mathematical studies, and my book.
News on when each launches will be pending.
This blog will now only be for my weight lose and financial goals. :)
I will have other blogs (and possibly either a tumblr or a comicpress/wordpress site) for the crafts, musical interests, language studies, mathematical studies, and my book.
News on when each launches will be pending.
There's motivation for ya!
At work this week we started the Health Challenge. You get four points for 30 minutes of exercise per day, and one point for certain foods, and relaxing. Every day I take a bit of "me time" so I haven't had issues with that one. :D
The store that gets the most points wins $1,ooo for a fun fund event (like a pizza party (which would be counter-productive, but you know what I mean), of a bowling party, or similar), and they will also choose 25 associates to each also win $1,000.
I can use that, right? So hey, incentive ho~! :D
The store that gets the most points wins $1,ooo for a fun fund event (like a pizza party (which would be counter-productive, but you know what I mean), of a bowling party, or similar), and they will also choose 25 associates to each also win $1,000.
I can use that, right? So hey, incentive ho~! :D
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
This isn't working.
Not the blog; that's fine.
No, what's not working is my attempts to follow Bill Phillip's suggestion on when to exercise. He recommends getting up an hour early and doing it then.
So, being an attempting chick, I tried this. Normally when I get up, I get up around 3:30-4 AM, because I have to be to work by 5. (This includes about 1/2-1 hour of sleeping in by hitting snooze, as I've learned if I set my alarm for about an hour before I *have* to get up, I'll actually get up on time.) So I set my alarm for 2/2:30 - including the alarm setting on my cell phone - intending to get up around oh, 3am, so I can exercise for an hour before having to get ready for work.
This didn't work.
You know what happened? I'll tell you what happened. I kept hitting the snooze alarm until my normal time-to-get-up time, and sometimes even past it. I tried this for a week, and it was the same all week long, no matter what time I went to bed the night before. 9pm was my norm, so I tried 8pm and 7pm. Nope. Didn't work.
So, I've decided that despite my best intentions, AM get-up-early-and-do-this exercise isn't for me. The only problem with this is that he recommends doing this because it's before you've eaten anything, therefore you'll burn your breakfast as exercise calories, or some such fiddle faddle. Well, okay.
I'll try exercising in the afternoon.
My eating schedule right now is as follows: breakfast around 4-ish, meal 2 around 8-ish, meal 3 around 10-ish, meal four (if I'm able to take the break; sometimes we're too busy) around noon-ish, and then another small meal around 2-ish when I get home, then nothing until dinner around 5-7 pm. I've decided, since I have that 3+ hour stretch in the afternoon/evening when I'm not eating, I could probably exercise in that time period, around 3-4pm.
Granted, it's not quite what Bill Phillips had in mind in his "Body for Life" book, but at this stage, I'll take what I can get.
Anyway, last I weighed myself I was at 185.5, so I'm gaining again, despite efforts to the contrary. This is partially what has prompted me to up the ante in the exercise department. I hope to start this when my schedule re-rights itself, as it's a bit helter-skelter at the moment.
Though with the new scheduling system starting in a bout a month, it's entirely possible that I'll be able to start the whole exercise in the morning thing, as we'll be opening the desk later. Then again, I could also wind up back in flooring, the other department I worked in. :/ We'll see what happens. As long as I am able to keep my sleeping schedule somewhat regular, I should be okay, I hope.
No, what's not working is my attempts to follow Bill Phillip's suggestion on when to exercise. He recommends getting up an hour early and doing it then.
So, being an attempting chick, I tried this. Normally when I get up, I get up around 3:30-4 AM, because I have to be to work by 5. (This includes about 1/2-1 hour of sleeping in by hitting snooze, as I've learned if I set my alarm for about an hour before I *have* to get up, I'll actually get up on time.) So I set my alarm for 2/2:30 - including the alarm setting on my cell phone - intending to get up around oh, 3am, so I can exercise for an hour before having to get ready for work.
This didn't work.
You know what happened? I'll tell you what happened. I kept hitting the snooze alarm until my normal time-to-get-up time, and sometimes even past it. I tried this for a week, and it was the same all week long, no matter what time I went to bed the night before. 9pm was my norm, so I tried 8pm and 7pm. Nope. Didn't work.
So, I've decided that despite my best intentions, AM get-up-early-and-do-this exercise isn't for me. The only problem with this is that he recommends doing this because it's before you've eaten anything, therefore you'll burn your breakfast as exercise calories, or some such fiddle faddle. Well, okay.
I'll try exercising in the afternoon.
My eating schedule right now is as follows: breakfast around 4-ish, meal 2 around 8-ish, meal 3 around 10-ish, meal four (if I'm able to take the break; sometimes we're too busy) around noon-ish, and then another small meal around 2-ish when I get home, then nothing until dinner around 5-7 pm. I've decided, since I have that 3+ hour stretch in the afternoon/evening when I'm not eating, I could probably exercise in that time period, around 3-4pm.
Granted, it's not quite what Bill Phillips had in mind in his "Body for Life" book, but at this stage, I'll take what I can get.
Anyway, last I weighed myself I was at 185.5, so I'm gaining again, despite efforts to the contrary. This is partially what has prompted me to up the ante in the exercise department. I hope to start this when my schedule re-rights itself, as it's a bit helter-skelter at the moment.
Though with the new scheduling system starting in a bout a month, it's entirely possible that I'll be able to start the whole exercise in the morning thing, as we'll be opening the desk later. Then again, I could also wind up back in flooring, the other department I worked in. :/ We'll see what happens. As long as I am able to keep my sleeping schedule somewhat regular, I should be okay, I hope.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Monthly Update: May
This is going to be a semi-brief update- mainly because I'm updating before I go to work (as I've been forgetting to make this entry since Wednesday).
Weight: 180.5 -- Only 35-40 pounds to go before I hit my goal! Only 20 pounds to go before I weigh what I did in high school. Sweet! I can fit into a size 16 jeans again, though 16P is pushing it.
Crafting projects for May:
Custom Ponies
Ponies finished: 0
Ponies painted and sealed: 11
Ponies re-haired: 2.5
I'm slowly making progress with these. I hope to have them done by June 21st, so I can sell some of them at the summer convention I'm gong to.
Jewelry
Silver pieces: 0
Other metals: 0
Beaded earrings: 0
Beaded necklaces: 57
Can you tell what I've spent the majority of my time doing this past month? I have a pair of earring and a bracelet repair to get to, though, so I hope to get those done this coming weekend. I've been slacking on the metal work, mainly because it's to cold in the basement for me to be down there for very long without breathing issues.
In the meantime, I've also started drawing again, which is both successful and not at the same time. I had forgotten how irritating it can be to get a pose just right, and I also forgot that I don't have a male mannequin - just a female. This has been making some irritating times, but at least I've completed one piece, even if it is a pastel.
Weight: 180.5 -- Only 35-40 pounds to go before I hit my goal! Only 20 pounds to go before I weigh what I did in high school. Sweet! I can fit into a size 16 jeans again, though 16P is pushing it.
Crafting projects for May:
Custom Ponies
Ponies finished: 0
Ponies painted and sealed: 11
Ponies re-haired: 2.5
I'm slowly making progress with these. I hope to have them done by June 21st, so I can sell some of them at the summer convention I'm gong to.
Jewelry
Silver pieces: 0
Other metals: 0
Beaded earrings: 0
Beaded necklaces: 57
Can you tell what I've spent the majority of my time doing this past month? I have a pair of earring and a bracelet repair to get to, though, so I hope to get those done this coming weekend. I've been slacking on the metal work, mainly because it's to cold in the basement for me to be down there for very long without breathing issues.
In the meantime, I've also started drawing again, which is both successful and not at the same time. I had forgotten how irritating it can be to get a pose just right, and I also forgot that I don't have a male mannequin - just a female. This has been making some irritating times, but at least I've completed one piece, even if it is a pastel.
Friday, May 13, 2011
Monthly Update: April
Well, I'm happy to announce that I'm now down to 181 pounds. I'm slowly getting there!
I expect to get more exercise this summer; at the very least, I'm going to be walking home some. Dad has a day-job doing corrective testing for math, and he needs the car. So, he drives me to work in the morning, and I walk home - half of which is uphill.
Yes, I would like to ride my bike, but at the moment I'm afraid I don't have the money to have it tuned up, and with the grinding noise it was making last fall, I dare not use it until I have it looked at.
Projects done: 17 fish pillows, 16 bone pillows
...
I've been spending too much time online, so I've been trying to keep from turning the computer on, even though my typing progress in my book has suffered for it. ^^;
I expect to get more exercise this summer; at the very least, I'm going to be walking home some. Dad has a day-job doing corrective testing for math, and he needs the car. So, he drives me to work in the morning, and I walk home - half of which is uphill.
Yes, I would like to ride my bike, but at the moment I'm afraid I don't have the money to have it tuned up, and with the grinding noise it was making last fall, I dare not use it until I have it looked at.
Projects done: 17 fish pillows, 16 bone pillows
...
I've been spending too much time online, so I've been trying to keep from turning the computer on, even though my typing progress in my book has suffered for it. ^^;
Saturday, April 16, 2011
By golly, it's an update!
Amazing, I know.
I've had various reasons for staying away from here, though much of it was a basic disinclination. Still, much has both happened and stayed the same in the intervening months.
First off, I had to deal with both tragedy and a sad sort of happiness, if that makes any sense.
The sad happiness is from the inclusion in my life of two "new" cats - and the new is in quotation marks because both are seven years old, and therefore only new to my family. They have been here since just before New Years. While I'm glad to have them, and know that if circumstances hadn't played the way they had they might still be in a shelter, I'm still saddened by what happened that caused me to acquire them.
On December 18, I was forced to make the merciful and sad decision to have my Iddy Biddy, the orange and white poofball of a tabby cat that had spent 22 years of my life being my best friend and companion - sometimes my only friend - put to sleep. Over the course of one week had gradually stopped eating, and lost a lot of weight. The vet had thought it was her thyroid - and I must say I still wish it had been. Her blood tests came back showing she was in Stage 3 Kidney Failure. When she was diagnosed, we were given a survival rate, even with the best treatment available, of a bare 20-30%. Given her age and the standard risks that come with sedating a cat, we chose to be merciful, and had her put to sleep. Even at the end, though I know she must have been in a lot of pain, she didn't want to leave me, and I thank her and love her dearly for that. She's been gone for almost four months now, and I still miss her terribly.
One of the things I did during this time was to re-read the online comic ElGoonishShive (http://www.egscomics.com); while some see it as a sexual-niche comic, I see it more as an effort to tie in many things in a fun and silly way, and the comic was a good distractor from my grief. I also looked at many pictures of shelter cats. In an effort to cheer me up, one of my internet friends started showing me pictures of cats in various shelters in the towns between the two of us. After awhile, I started looking on my own, with my primary requirement being female and medium-haired, if not long haired.
During one of these idle searches, I found a 7-year old Tortie names Patches, who invoked both my protective nature towards kitties and my ire against her former keepers. She was given up because the person who had her after her original owner decided she was too much of a responsibility. Honestly, she was my second choice, but my first and third choices were adopted before I could go to the shelters they were in, and I was quite happy to "settle" for her. There was only one catch. During one of my searches through the cats in the shelter she was in, I found a pretty, poofy grey kitty that I hadn't seen earlier. most likely because I hadn't filtered for sex. His name was Squeak, and he was the same age as Patches, and had been given up for the same reason.
A few calls later found that they were siblings, and the shelter planned on them to leave the shelter together. They were both apparently traumatized, and hadn't stirred much in the room they were in. The lady I spoke to at the shelter was able to tell me that they'd been adopted from the shelter when they were two, and the elderly person who had them died recently. After that, they were shuffled from relative to relative, with no-one wanting to keep them, until they were finally dropped off at the shelter. Well, I'd be happy to take in two cats instead of one - city limit is three per house - I just had to convince my parents to let me have two cats instead of one.
Which actually turned out to not be very hard. I'd mentioned them to my brother, and her and his wife, during one of the times Dad had to pick them up while their car was in the shop, went about steering him towards the idea of having more than one cat in the house as being beneficial. It also didn't hurt that getting them both during the holiday season would be only $50 for the two of them, due to a combination of shelter standard policy and holiday sales. Patches was $50. Since Squeak was over 1 year old, I then got him for free. Buy one, get one free kitties? I can handle that!
Patches was the friendlier one at first, but now they're both fairly friendly. With the way Patches was scared so much and shied away from people touching her, once Squeak came out of his shell, we can only assume either she, he, or both were abused somewhere along the line.(Though if he was, he's recovered nicely.)
The only downside is Mr Squeak (as we've dubbed him, along with Shadow, Shadow Squeak, Squeaka-deak, and Shadow Stalker (based on how he used to slink around the house) likes to get into things he's not supposed to, and chew on things he's not supposed to. We've had to resort to spray bottles of water to keep him of the table in the dining room. We have also concluded, after seeing the various things he tries to each and concluding he most likely has the mental faculties of a toddler (or younger) that he and she will not go down the basement.
For one thing, even with Biddy, I was worrisome that she might be too curious about the sump-pump well and land in the water nose-first. Seeing as this one presents himself as less intelligent, I think there's a much greater possibility of this becoming reality. Another thing is his chewing; he doesn't really differentiate between what he shouldn't eat regardless of being scolded, having the item taken away, or spraying him with water. I knew someone in high school who had to take her cat to the vet for an emergency operation after he ate steel wool. Yes, steel wool - that funky metal scritchy-scratchy stuff used for cleaning dishes. Take the soap away, and you have what I use to clear up deep scratches in wax. Which is on my workbench. And given what else is down there - nails, sawdust, the wax itself - and what he's already tried munching on - tiger tail for jewelry, the pendant on my necklace, a beaded necklace I was trying to finish, and the corner of my monitor screen (yes, you read that right), we don't want to find out what he would try eating down there.
Which by default means that Patches - who appears to be the more intelligent of the two - won't go down there either.
They're both silly kitties, the little sweeties. ^^ I dearly miss my Biddy, but they're very good at filling the void.
Anyway, more updates will follow this one, though here are the basics for my counts:
Weight is down to 184.5, though I don't recommend trying what I wound up using to break the 190 mark - especially since I neither intended to get chicken-based food poisoning, nor do I ever wish to be that sick again. Then again, not being able to keep anything down for 4 days and therefore not eating for 4 days would do that. I got my very first IV drip at the beginning of December, and I have Chipotle to thank for it! I'm still debating whether I should talk to the manager there about making sure they test the internal heat of the chicken to ensure it's done. I had wondered why I'd never had this problem before, what with me always getting chicken and my co-workers reporting this happening to them at multiple Chipotle restaurants, but then I remembered that normally when I get the burrito to go, it's cold when I get home so i take the foil off and nuke it, therefore cooking the chicken past the salmonella point. Still, if I ever eat at one of them again, I shall be getting vegetarian.
In the last few months, I have:
-made 20 necklaces
-written 40 pages
-typed up 5 pages
-completed 1 custom pony
-begun 10 other custom ponies
-discovered the basement is too cold for me to work in during the winter these days
-found out that my allergy to Hyacinths has become worse.
Yes, I know those last two aren't progress, but the sentiment still stands.
I've had various reasons for staying away from here, though much of it was a basic disinclination. Still, much has both happened and stayed the same in the intervening months.
First off, I had to deal with both tragedy and a sad sort of happiness, if that makes any sense.
The sad happiness is from the inclusion in my life of two "new" cats - and the new is in quotation marks because both are seven years old, and therefore only new to my family. They have been here since just before New Years. While I'm glad to have them, and know that if circumstances hadn't played the way they had they might still be in a shelter, I'm still saddened by what happened that caused me to acquire them.
On December 18, I was forced to make the merciful and sad decision to have my Iddy Biddy, the orange and white poofball of a tabby cat that had spent 22 years of my life being my best friend and companion - sometimes my only friend - put to sleep. Over the course of one week had gradually stopped eating, and lost a lot of weight. The vet had thought it was her thyroid - and I must say I still wish it had been. Her blood tests came back showing she was in Stage 3 Kidney Failure. When she was diagnosed, we were given a survival rate, even with the best treatment available, of a bare 20-30%. Given her age and the standard risks that come with sedating a cat, we chose to be merciful, and had her put to sleep. Even at the end, though I know she must have been in a lot of pain, she didn't want to leave me, and I thank her and love her dearly for that. She's been gone for almost four months now, and I still miss her terribly.
One of the things I did during this time was to re-read the online comic ElGoonishShive (http://www.egscomics.com); while some see it as a sexual-niche comic, I see it more as an effort to tie in many things in a fun and silly way, and the comic was a good distractor from my grief. I also looked at many pictures of shelter cats. In an effort to cheer me up, one of my internet friends started showing me pictures of cats in various shelters in the towns between the two of us. After awhile, I started looking on my own, with my primary requirement being female and medium-haired, if not long haired.
During one of these idle searches, I found a 7-year old Tortie names Patches, who invoked both my protective nature towards kitties and my ire against her former keepers. She was given up because the person who had her after her original owner decided she was too much of a responsibility. Honestly, she was my second choice, but my first and third choices were adopted before I could go to the shelters they were in, and I was quite happy to "settle" for her. There was only one catch. During one of my searches through the cats in the shelter she was in, I found a pretty, poofy grey kitty that I hadn't seen earlier. most likely because I hadn't filtered for sex. His name was Squeak, and he was the same age as Patches, and had been given up for the same reason.
A few calls later found that they were siblings, and the shelter planned on them to leave the shelter together. They were both apparently traumatized, and hadn't stirred much in the room they were in. The lady I spoke to at the shelter was able to tell me that they'd been adopted from the shelter when they were two, and the elderly person who had them died recently. After that, they were shuffled from relative to relative, with no-one wanting to keep them, until they were finally dropped off at the shelter. Well, I'd be happy to take in two cats instead of one - city limit is three per house - I just had to convince my parents to let me have two cats instead of one.
Which actually turned out to not be very hard. I'd mentioned them to my brother, and her and his wife, during one of the times Dad had to pick them up while their car was in the shop, went about steering him towards the idea of having more than one cat in the house as being beneficial. It also didn't hurt that getting them both during the holiday season would be only $50 for the two of them, due to a combination of shelter standard policy and holiday sales. Patches was $50. Since Squeak was over 1 year old, I then got him for free. Buy one, get one free kitties? I can handle that!
Patches was the friendlier one at first, but now they're both fairly friendly. With the way Patches was scared so much and shied away from people touching her, once Squeak came out of his shell, we can only assume either she, he, or both were abused somewhere along the line.(Though if he was, he's recovered nicely.)
The only downside is Mr Squeak (as we've dubbed him, along with Shadow, Shadow Squeak, Squeaka-deak, and Shadow Stalker (based on how he used to slink around the house) likes to get into things he's not supposed to, and chew on things he's not supposed to. We've had to resort to spray bottles of water to keep him of the table in the dining room. We have also concluded, after seeing the various things he tries to each and concluding he most likely has the mental faculties of a toddler (or younger) that he and she will not go down the basement.
For one thing, even with Biddy, I was worrisome that she might be too curious about the sump-pump well and land in the water nose-first. Seeing as this one presents himself as less intelligent, I think there's a much greater possibility of this becoming reality. Another thing is his chewing; he doesn't really differentiate between what he shouldn't eat regardless of being scolded, having the item taken away, or spraying him with water. I knew someone in high school who had to take her cat to the vet for an emergency operation after he ate steel wool. Yes, steel wool - that funky metal scritchy-scratchy stuff used for cleaning dishes. Take the soap away, and you have what I use to clear up deep scratches in wax. Which is on my workbench. And given what else is down there - nails, sawdust, the wax itself - and what he's already tried munching on - tiger tail for jewelry, the pendant on my necklace, a beaded necklace I was trying to finish, and the corner of my monitor screen (yes, you read that right), we don't want to find out what he would try eating down there.
Which by default means that Patches - who appears to be the more intelligent of the two - won't go down there either.
They're both silly kitties, the little sweeties. ^^ I dearly miss my Biddy, but they're very good at filling the void.
Anyway, more updates will follow this one, though here are the basics for my counts:
Weight is down to 184.5, though I don't recommend trying what I wound up using to break the 190 mark - especially since I neither intended to get chicken-based food poisoning, nor do I ever wish to be that sick again. Then again, not being able to keep anything down for 4 days and therefore not eating for 4 days would do that. I got my very first IV drip at the beginning of December, and I have Chipotle to thank for it! I'm still debating whether I should talk to the manager there about making sure they test the internal heat of the chicken to ensure it's done. I had wondered why I'd never had this problem before, what with me always getting chicken and my co-workers reporting this happening to them at multiple Chipotle restaurants, but then I remembered that normally when I get the burrito to go, it's cold when I get home so i take the foil off and nuke it, therefore cooking the chicken past the salmonella point. Still, if I ever eat at one of them again, I shall be getting vegetarian.
In the last few months, I have:
-made 20 necklaces
-written 40 pages
-typed up 5 pages
-completed 1 custom pony
-begun 10 other custom ponies
-discovered the basement is too cold for me to work in during the winter these days
-found out that my allergy to Hyacinths has become worse.
Yes, I know those last two aren't progress, but the sentiment still stands.
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