Friday, May 16, 2008

All your daleks are belong to us...

I don't have a lot to say about this week. I turned the heel on my second RPM but I haven't had the patience to actually pick up the stitches to keep going. Work has been fine. I had a great trip with Ian's class to see pasta being made in Little Italy (in the Bronx of course). We went to Borgatti's. I had at least as much fun as the kids did, if not more.

Otherwise not much is going on at all. I did want to mention this. It seems the BBC doesn't want you knitting Dr Who patterns. It's all a bit ridiculous considering it's just fans trying to celebrate a show they love. Tsk tsk, it's certainly bad PR for the BBC.

Have a great weekend all!

Monday, May 12, 2008

Mother's Day

I'm pretty sure this was my best Mother's Day ever. Typically I ask to be left to my own devices for Mother's Day. Last year I spent the day with Maribel and her mom. Previous years I have spent it with good DVDs, music or books and the house to myself.

This year was a little more focused. Saturday night Bel came over. We ate pizza, drank Coronas and dyed each other's hair. The men in the house stayed well out of the way. On Sunday I woke up and brought my breakfast upstairs. Avery made me tea and I watched a few episodes of the West Wing while reading the Sunday paper in bed. So far, so good. Rinaldo and Ian returned from OT around 11:30 and it was present time.

Rinaldo picked up some good stuff. A great CD box set:


...and the first season of a favorite show:


There was also a Starbucks card slipped into the Blondie set. Rinaldo knows how to keep me happy. The best gift was last though. Look at what Ian made me in school:

Money can't buy anything as beautiful as that.

We then went to Uno's for lunch. It was still early so the place was empty. We all enjoyed the food. Then Rinaldo dropped Avery and I at the movies. What does a good son do for his fangirl mom on Mother's Day? He takes her to see the best superhero movie ever, Iron Man. Man I loved that film and oh how I love Robert Downey. Avery didn't even complain about my drooling, lol.

Then the husband met us in Yonkers and took us home.

I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day.

Thursday, May 08, 2008

Habit Forming

The NY Times had an article this morning on creating new habits and why it's good for you. I need to create new habits. I suck at it overall. I once read that if you can do something continuously for 3 weeks it becomes a habit but I never seem to make it past a week.

At the moment this is about food, exercise, chores and learning something new. Every morning I wake up and say today is the day I count my WW points and get to the gym and everyday by lunchtime the motivation is totally gone. I need to get my ass in gear. My goal 18 months ago was to lose 100lbs by the time I was 40. I've lost 50 gained back 20,then lost 10 again. There's a little over 14 months until my 40th. Time is growing shorter.

I did no real housework this weekend. While in the short term that was pleasant in the long term it leads to an increasingly messy abode. I told Gina on Monday that I was going to focus on a room a night so by the weekend the house would be clean and I could relax and enjoy Mother's Day. How many rooms have I worked on? None, zip, zero.

I am pathetic.

I've also decided to learn something new. Work is a bit more stable at the moment but I've always wanted to have something outside of work that I was good at and could potentially make money at. Something that is not retail. I may be here for the rest of my life but I'd like to know it's by choice and not because I have to be. I'm going to take some online tutorials to see if I can learn that way but if I haven't made progress by September then I'll take classes here. Either way I need to find the discipline to get this done as well...

...I hate self-discipline, lol.

All of this leads to a meme oddly enough. mzundercover got me for this one and I found it's timing fortuitous:

Rules:
1. Link to the person(s) that tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share 6 non important quirks/things/habits about yourself.
4. Tag 6 random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a post on their blog.

Quirks/Things/Habits

1- I'm afraid of heights but looking down doesn't bother me. It's looking up that freaks me out. I feel like I'm not on solid ground.

2- I have to sleep with a blanket all year long. No matter the weather. If its really hot I only cover my midsection.

3- I have vertigo going down staircases and escalators. I have to really focus on making each step as I go down,I feel like it's straight down, rather than feeling each step/ledge. It's improved a great deal since my first pregnancy. I think not seeing my feet helped a lot, lol.

4- I am obsessive about e-mail. I check it constantly. I am only happy if my inbox is empty by the end of the day. I have numerous folders that I file e-mails in once they are read, responded to or completed in one way or another. I have been informed my many, many people that this is somewhat freakish.

5- I cannot be productive between the hours of 9pm and 11pm. No matter what I promise myself I will do I simply find myself on the couch watching TV or reading. This has even started to extend to knitting. Oddly enough if I'm not tired I do sometimes get a second wind at 11. I'll write, clean or knit before bed if I'm up that late.

6- I'm not a big coffee drinker but when I go to work if I don't start my day with a small cup of coffee I find it harder to become focused. I read somewhere that caffeine does improve productivity and focus in some people. I guess I'm one of them.

Another quirk I have is my refusal to tag people for memes. So take it if you want it...

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Have you seen it?

I seem to have lost my energy, my will, my initiative to do anything.

Did I leave it here:



Or maybe I dropped it here when I was basking in the sun reading?


Maybe I forgot it after drinking a bit of rum over here?


I think I still had it while exploring Nassau:


Maybe one of my friends took it by accident?


I don't want to do anything at the moment but sit and read. I've finished two books and nearly completed a third since I've been back. While this sounds good it's a problem when there's a house to be cleaned, laundry to be done, work to do at my job, and a sock to be finished.

I hope I find it soon...

Friday, May 02, 2008

No vacation shots, just a meme

My GH buddy Glo has tagged me and you know I love when someone helps me with fodder for the blog:

The Rules:

1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Post THE RULES on your blog.
3. Post 7 weird or random things about yourself on your blog.
4. Tag 7 people and link to them.
5. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.


1 - A friend of mine once recommended the Robert Parker Spenser series to me. After reading the first one I spent the next 2 weeks reading the rest of the series. It had to be over 20 books at that point.

2- I have an aversion to anything with peanuts, not an allergy just a very strong hatred to the point of illness at times.

3- I got my first job in the same bookstore my Grandmother would take me to shop when I was little.

4- I once had a serious obsession about Montgomery Clift. I have seen just about every film he was every in and visited the building where he lived in Manhattan.

5- Maribel and I have been friends since we were 11 years old and our 6th grade teacher seated us next to each other.

edited later - Gina busted me I've said this before so as punishment here is a truly embarrassing fact about me: I had a huge collection of unicorn statues well into my teens (ok well into adulthood I just wasn't proud of it by that point, lol).

6- My Dad got me hooked on soap operas when I was obscenely young. He worked nights so we watched One Life to Live, General Hospital and Edge of Night.

7- My first two cats both had to be put to sleep the same day. They were both 19 years old.

You know how I roll on memes. If you want it consider yourself tagged.

I know, I know you all want cruise shots but I've been inundated with work this week and we had a hellish trip back to NYC on Monday so I'm still a bit fried. I promise I'll give you some cruise love next week.

Here's a preview. I am a serious Chai junky. I was starting to go into withdrawal but look what I found in Nassau on Sunday:



ahh joy...