January 2010 Accountability and Weigh in
Items in Bold are things I've worked on this month:
1. Finish renovations to attic : We are within a week of getting the renovations done. Still to finish: Tiling/painting bathroom, isntalling sink/vanity, toilet, tub faucets, painting closet (scheduled for today), painting moldings and trim, choosing and installing a lighting fixture in new dormer, installing pendant light over stairway, installing lighting in bathroom, designing/purchasing/installing closet system in walk-in closet. Once the bathroom is done, and the trim is painted, we can move the bed upstairs. My plan is to be up there before 2/19, so my daughter can have her birthday sleepover in our old, and empty bedroom.
2. Move up into the attic
3. Relocate home office to attic space
4. Renovate home office
5. Move into new home office
6. Ressurect Elizabeth Mansfield Web site
7. Learn SEO writing techniques
8. Live within the budget we devised
9. Exercize 1 hour every day: starting by taking 2 hours of classroom yoga/week.
10. Learn to make slow brine pickles
11. Put studio back together
12. Unpack books that have been in storage the past 3 years
13. Reclaim garage for my car.
14. Make gardening plan in the winter
15. Write up "Hours in the Garden" pattern and post/sell
16. Expand quilt web site to include portrait quilts
17. Help R with his marketing and get him back to work - designed and printed rack cards and started to identify where these need to be distributed.
18. Learn one new coding language this year (PHP, CSS, Actionscript)
19. Get better at Flash
20. Write and Record at least 1 new song - listened to all my old "works in progress" and idea recordings and have picked 4 that are ripe for finishing.
21. Make at least 1 applique quilt
22. Make at least 1 baby quilt
23. Make at least 1 pieced show quilt. - top is finished and I am thinking about how to quilt it.
24. Make at least 1 wall hanging for the new attic space.
25. Finish reupholstering living room couch
26. Scan old family slides and photographs
Additionally, I've been promoting my Etsy store, and I decided last week to help out with the Ubuntu Manual project, because someone on the project posted a request for help on a tech writer forum that I read.
It all feels just a little bit manic and scattered, but I tend to behave this way around Imbolc/Groundhog Day. Maybe I'm getting excited over the days getting noticably longer already? I don't feel bipolar, and while I do have my mood swings, I don't think they are to the degree that diagnosed and medicated people experience (certainly not to the extent of my college roommate). And the Ubuntu manual project seems to need someone with a little experience working on it - from looking at who was at the online meeting yesterday, there are only a handful or women (out of scores of men), and everyone seems to be either right out of school or at the least, under 30. I'm trying to impart the wisdom gained by 20+ years as a tech writer without throwing my weight around, and the project leaders have been appreciative of my input. But I can see this becoming a big time suck if I let it. I have to decide WHY I'm doing this - maybe I can use this to establish myself as a named author (because it would sure be nice to have my name on a "real" book, from a real publisher like O'Reilly or Peachpit or something like that). I also now have people who I can possibly get my clients to hire when they need translation services - there are a lot of translators on the project, that's for sure.
It also seems it's time to resurrect my zombie music career. To that end, I finally implemented the new design for the band home page, started a music blog and my co-writer has been expressing extreme interest in collaborations again. I still have to update the interior pages, and finally get going with that digital download/micropayment site that someone turned me on to a couple of years ago. Because I think I only have 5 more copies of Goddess Mandala and then it's sold out completely.
Hey, at least it keeps me from playing Bejeweled for hours...
Other things I've done this month
made 6 quilted bags
designed A's birthday invitations
took A shopping for her party dress
visited "banquet halls" and selected one for the party, and scheduled the party
released a 260-page book at work
finished a half-dozen technical drawings
painted the main attic space and stairwell
done my volunteer stuff with the PTA
went to see a Broadway show
This is harder going this time. I doubt that it will get easier, but I'm hoping as I get more active that I will continue to consistently lose weight. I notice that on the days where I can successfully resist a dessert item after dinner, I am under the trend the next day. However, it's hard to have willpower when there is so much other insanity going on.
Items in Bold are things I've worked on this month:
1. Finish renovations to attic : We are within a week of getting the renovations done. Still to finish: Tiling/painting bathroom, isntalling sink/vanity, toilet, tub faucets, painting closet (scheduled for today), painting moldings and trim, choosing and installing a lighting fixture in new dormer, installing pendant light over stairway, installing lighting in bathroom, designing/purchasing/installing closet system in walk-in closet. Once the bathroom is done, and the trim is painted, we can move the bed upstairs. My plan is to be up there before 2/19, so my daughter can have her birthday sleepover in our old, and empty bedroom.
2. Move up into the attic
3. Relocate home office to attic space
4. Renovate home office
5. Move into new home office
6. Ressurect Elizabeth Mansfield Web site
7. Learn SEO writing techniques
8. Live within the budget we devised
9. Exercize 1 hour every day: starting by taking 2 hours of classroom yoga/week.
10. Learn to make slow brine pickles
11. Put studio back together
12. Unpack books that have been in storage the past 3 years
13. Reclaim garage for my car.
14. Make gardening plan in the winter
15. Write up "Hours in the Garden" pattern and post/sell
16. Expand quilt web site to include portrait quilts
17. Help R with his marketing and get him back to work - designed and printed rack cards and started to identify where these need to be distributed.
18. Learn one new coding language this year (PHP, CSS, Actionscript)
19. Get better at Flash
20. Write and Record at least 1 new song - listened to all my old "works in progress" and idea recordings and have picked 4 that are ripe for finishing.
21. Make at least 1 applique quilt
22. Make at least 1 baby quilt
23. Make at least 1 pieced show quilt. - top is finished and I am thinking about how to quilt it.
24. Make at least 1 wall hanging for the new attic space.
25. Finish reupholstering living room couch
26. Scan old family slides and photographs
Additionally, I've been promoting my Etsy store, and I decided last week to help out with the Ubuntu Manual project, because someone on the project posted a request for help on a tech writer forum that I read.
It all feels just a little bit manic and scattered, but I tend to behave this way around Imbolc/Groundhog Day. Maybe I'm getting excited over the days getting noticably longer already? I don't feel bipolar, and while I do have my mood swings, I don't think they are to the degree that diagnosed and medicated people experience (certainly not to the extent of my college roommate). And the Ubuntu manual project seems to need someone with a little experience working on it - from looking at who was at the online meeting yesterday, there are only a handful or women (out of scores of men), and everyone seems to be either right out of school or at the least, under 30. I'm trying to impart the wisdom gained by 20+ years as a tech writer without throwing my weight around, and the project leaders have been appreciative of my input. But I can see this becoming a big time suck if I let it. I have to decide WHY I'm doing this - maybe I can use this to establish myself as a named author (because it would sure be nice to have my name on a "real" book, from a real publisher like O'Reilly or Peachpit or something like that). I also now have people who I can possibly get my clients to hire when they need translation services - there are a lot of translators on the project, that's for sure.
It also seems it's time to resurrect my zombie music career. To that end, I finally implemented the new design for the band home page, started a music blog and my co-writer has been expressing extreme interest in collaborations again. I still have to update the interior pages, and finally get going with that digital download/micropayment site that someone turned me on to a couple of years ago. Because I think I only have 5 more copies of Goddess Mandala and then it's sold out completely.
Hey, at least it keeps me from playing Bejeweled for hours...
Other things I've done this month
made 6 quilted bags
designed A's birthday invitations
took A shopping for her party dress
visited "banquet halls" and selected one for the party, and scheduled the party
released a 260-page book at work
finished a half-dozen technical drawings
painted the main attic space and stairwell
done my volunteer stuff with the PTA
went to see a Broadway show
This is harder going this time. I doubt that it will get easier, but I'm hoping as I get more active that I will continue to consistently lose weight. I notice that on the days where I can successfully resist a dessert item after dinner, I am under the trend the next day. However, it's hard to have willpower when there is so much other insanity going on.