Goal + Action = Reality

[TopNotch]

Yesterday I made broccoli soup for dinner but when it came to blending it, my sticker blender decided to die. So I went out today to get a new one. As I was going out, I decided to go by the Other House and get more stuff, as well as give the Lad his hug. Unfortunately, they had just gone fishing when I arrived - according to eldest, they'd left about 5 minutes before I came. Oh well. It was a lovely day. got more stuff, more books. Going to have to rationalise them again as there were more books left than I thought and I don't have that much room. Some hard decisions are going to have to be made - but when I think that I haven't looked at most of these (non-fiction) books for simply ages, it shouldn't be that hard a decision. Should it? Anyway, gotta be done.

Calf Raises Challenge Day 13
Physio exercises
Dumbbell rows - 2 x 20es
Push-ups x 40

I've decided that I'm going to buy a television tomorrow. So excited!

 

[TopNotch]

No progress today in tidying up the crates filled the Pink Room (it's no longer pink, but it used to be and I've got to call it something!) because this morning I set off and bought myself a television and some fruit. Came home and set up the teev. Then went to connect the new DVD player - but few things come with cables now and any I would have had access to are at the Other House, so I put my shoes back on and headed out. Got the necessary cables and the salesman mentioned sound bars - which I had briefly thought about. Anyway, he wanted to sell me one so I let him drop the price from $399 to $299. He said they had 4 in stock so how many did I want? I told him at that price, about 2/3! So the price dropped to $275 which I thought was good enough. But when I got home full of satisfaction, I noticed an apple on the floor and suddenly remembered that I'd left my fruit on the kitchen floor in a shopping bag. Creed had scoffed pretty much the entirety of the 1kg box of blueberries and about 5 1/2 small apples. Thank goodness he doesn't have opposable thumbs - the raspberries were safe! As was the remaining 1.4kg (of 2kg) of apples. I should have remembered. Creed encouraged me to remember this episode by emptying his stomach on the carpet... I'll remember.
Attached the cables, set up the sound bar, checked everything was working and then played some music from my phone through the bar. Lovely. Pity I didn't feel like watching anything.

Calf Raises Challenge Day 14
Physio exercises
Push-ups x 40

Feeling a little... cranky? My eldest told me yesterday that #2 talks about me with affection and there appears to be ... resentment? that the children actually still like me. Why can't adults be - well, adult?

 

[PetiteSheWolf]

Hugs for the relationship issues, and hope Creed is better (and argh, those vomiting pets!!! Good thing they are so loveable elsewise!)

 

[MadamMeow]

For Creed! Hopefully he's feeling better already.

 

[TopNotch]

Ah, Creed. He's fine now. There are several odd-looking blueberry piles out in the garden though... Dogs don't chew.

Productive day. Well, apart from the first hour or so when I kept trying to do something that wasn't working, trying numerous ways to get it to work, and then finally discovered that what I had been trying to do was actually impossible anyway. Part of me was miffed that I had wasted so much time and effort but the rest of me was pleased that it wasn't my failure! Put more books on the book shelves and removed quite a few to get rid of. Win/win. Then I moved things around on the countertops of my little kitchen and it looks much better. A rush of blood to the head even had me sorting through a couple of crates of odds and sods until it was time for dinner. The beasts eat at 6 so that's around when I eat too.

Watched something this evening for the first time in about a year, but just sitting there, staring at the screen, was a bit boring so I picked up the dumbbells that were lying around and did some stuff.

Dumbbell bicep curls 2 x 40
Dumbbell shoulder press 3 x 30 (but my left shoulder twinge toward the end of the last set so I might give them a miss for a while)
Banded pull-aparts 3 x 10
Calf Raises Challenge Day 15
Physio exercises
Push-ups x 40 - I do these in sets of 20, and Footsy decided to settle down on my back just as I was going down for the second set. When she finally hopped off, those last 4 were a total breeze! Amazing what effect adding only an extra 4.5kg can have.

 

[TopNotch]

Another trip to the Other House. The chickens always seems to pleased to see me, clustering around my feet, trying to trip me. I know that only want the mixed seeds I throw for them, but still. It's nice. I collected 17 eggs from the hen house. The oldest hen often goes broody and sits on the eggs and nobody else is brave enough to move her but I just pick her up and move her away and she doesn't fuss.
More books and stuff, including photo albums. I've decided to get rid of my of my old photos. I don't need pictures of people I used to know when I was 15 and haven't seen since. That will free up a lot of space!
And when I came home... Creed is always overjoyed to see me, whether I've been out for one hour or four (though when I wake up in the morning he can barely contain his joy and he sleeps in the same room, so go figure). But he again had that slightly guilty look. I love that about dogs - they know when they've done something they probably shouldn't have done. Cats don't give a damn. It took me a little while and then I realised that he'd grabbed the plastic bag that held the last handful of wild bird seed. There were bits of seed leftover in his bed - with Footsy lying in the middle of it with a nothing-to-do-with-me attitude. Honestly - bird seed?

Calf Raises Challenge Day 16
Physio exercises
Push-ups x 40

Didn't watch anything tonight. Instead [drum-roll, please] I finally got to do some writing work. The problem with having no furniture and so the cat has to sleep on my lap if she doesn't feel like sharing with Creed, means that when I have my laptop on my lap (isn't that where it's supposed to be?) there's no room for the cat. Well, okay, not much, and part of her has to be lying on the mousepad and my wrists, and the things a cat has to put up with!

Even so, got just over 1000 words written. Unfortunately, they're for book 5 and I ought to be working on book 4... Still, it's been a while since I've written and there's been a lot percolating over the last few months. The issue with NaNoWriMo has me wondering if I'll just do it by myself in November but still stick to the 50,000 word goal. I'd better get the Pink room organised so I've got somewhere to work. I've got two weeks.

 

[TopNotch]

Tired today. Creed wouldn't settle last night - full moon? - kept getting up and occasionally barking, so I kicked him out and closed the bedroom door. He's not as bad as he used to be, only whined a little but as it was now after 2am, I managed to get to sleep through that. Slept in as a result, getting up at 9! asked the beasties if it was Thursday or Friday. I was pretty sure it was Thursday but it could have been Friday. Finally plumped for Thursday and was gratified to discover I was right. Ah, when there's nothing in your days to let you know which they are!

Plonked the exercise bike in front of the new teev today and cycled away through an episode. 40 minutes, which is the longest I've cycled for ages - well, given the bike left me sometime in June... Anyway, still kept up a decent speed and 'covered' just under 19km. Felt good - definitely do it again. I've got loads of episodes of many seasons of multiple shows.

Just for giggles today I went onto a few calorie calculators to see how many I ought to be consuming. Entering the exact same metrics, the values ranged up to about 150 calories difference, depending on which of the four sites I looked at. That's a fair discrepancy. And as I work in kilojoules, that looks even more at over 600kj! Anyway, what I was working with seemed accurate enough so I'll just keep doing what I'm doing.

Calf Raises Challenge Day 16
Physio exercises
First Thing Push-ups Day 7. I'd previously wanted to do this challenge but couldn't do them first thing for various reasons. Those reasons no longer exist, and as I'm doing my push-ups first thing, I decided I may as well do this challenge. For any day under 40, I'll just continue to do my usual 40, but for every day over 40, I'll do the stipulated number. I've been doing them regularly now for just a week, and today was the only day that stipulated exactly 40, so a good day to 'start'.