Cropometer is ready to go

Provided I don't get stuck in a meeting like I did today. Long story, no time. Will be out of town this weekend to see my new nephew. Still need to pack, but I'll have to do it in the morning. Hide "The Watchmen."

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The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

It's Only Tuesday

Oodles of homework and I forgot to pack any of it. *headdesk*
EDIT: I lied. I forgot that I had packed it and just now found it.

The doors on the new outside cabinet don't shut if I try to use the built-in lock. Good thing the padlock works. I moved some stuff into it, but need to move a shelf and it was too dark at 5:30am to do that. I need to find out what's wrong with the light on that side of the porch and fix the door. Hopefully, I did something wrong with the hinges.

Chad's other eye maybe operated on in two weeks. And yes, Virginia, the government can cut off your disability while stitches are still in your eye.

Going to get massaged today, need to take care of bills, need to start on editting as well as homework. And cook the groceries I bought. Yeah, right.

And how do you measuring editing progress?

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The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Weekend Outlook

Okay pedometer at track: doesn't work right with athletic clothes and falls off shoes. Weekend: one day spent at home building, cleaning, moving, etc. Solution: bring the pedometer home to track steps on crazy cleaning day.

In other news: school money came in and just about everybody is happy about that. Reminder to check on Bell South and MasterCard. Bought stuff for the redecorating project. Had a flat tire yesterday. Got Microsoft Office 2003 installed. Still having issues with email accounts on Outlook though. Finished the query letter for the crapometer. Trying to catch up on homework now.

Redecorating: There's always a cascade effect. I need to move a chair from the bedroom to the living room. To make room for the chair, I need to move an end table to the kitchen. To make room in the kitch, I need to move all the power tools to the back porch. So yesterday after flat tire fun was finished, I spent the afternoon putting together the storage unit for the power tools and other outside items. As it was, I finished the padlock clasp installation this morning. So I may start loading it tonight after class, depending on how I feel. I still have a lot of other chores to get done. Weird, sluggish morning for me, but I got to work on time.

Crapometer: My suck letter is up at riterly. Go ahead and go over it. I still need a title for Zy's Novel, and have to get the two together for the 750-word entry. Must be ready by noon Friday. No pressue.

Homework: Reading Ong. Nah, he didn't get any less dry in almost 10 years. This summation from Chapter One bugs me for some unknown reason:

"Human beings in primary oral cultures, those untouched by writing in any form, learn a great deal and possess and practice great wisdom, but they do not 'study.' They learn by apprenticeship ... not by study in the strict sense." (Ong Orality and Literacy 9)

I'm guessing memorization by storytellers doesn't count as 'studying' but I got an itch to create a fictional culture to prove it wrong. I don't know where I would use said fictional culture , but that's inspiration for you.

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The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Today's Nifties

The goal has been surpassed!

Happy birthday, Ray!

Now back to trying to kill passive voice. Die! It must DIE!

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The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Getting Into a Routine

I haven't measured yet but since I have to do my monthly totals in two days, I figured it could wait. Plus I crawled into bed at 8:30pm last night.

History of the Book is the Monday night class. Examining the forms, how reading changes the brain, moving over to digital, how is it all put together. I had pity and told the professor I'm interested in hypertext fiction constructs, since nearly every other person in the class wanted graphic novels and comics. Still the projects look interesting.

However traffic has not gotten better in a year. And it won't get better if cops pull stupid stunts like parking a cruiser on the shoulder of the Interstate with lights on so the rubberneckers slow down to 10 mph to see what's going on. I'm waiting to see how Thursday's commute goes, but I'm seriously considering changing my working hours. Have no idea how well that will go over.

Submitting to the 3rd Irregular Crapometer! I'm thinking Zy's Novel. It has been neglected and to be fair agents deal in novels. Plus I think it has a stronger opening than any of the short stories I'm working on currently. (I'm really very sorry, Zy's Novel. I know it's totally my fault that your deadline is on a course to crash and burn as we speak.) I'll get stuff I have done up at Writerly soon. The problem is Writerly doesn't like the format those files are in right now.

Second problem: I need a title STAT! Something catchy, something that fits, something funny.

The Saucer Case Files: Exploding Head - no
The Price of Darkness - maybe but it could be confused with "Prince"
The Sacrifice of Revenge - maybe could use "cost" or "expense"
The Saucer Case Files: Retaliation - maybe

Funny just doesn't seem to be happening. Give me a vote or suggest one of your own.

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The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Um, brain don't you know I have class tonight?

No seriously, glancing over the edits I have gotten back, and the brain starts spitting stuff out as evidence here, here, and here. Both good and bad. Good, not taking critiques personally. Bad, I have to go to class tonight--no time to work on edits! I can count edits as part of my monthly total, right? I'm saying yes now regardless.

Had a sleepy brainwave last night. Cleaning house, long-distance relationship blues, let me look at the new Feng Shui book. Yes, book is right and I've been wanting to redecorate bedroom. That'll be the nice thing for the house with school money. Crash and sleep.

Look at it again this morning. (Since I wasn't home at all yesterday, not too much on my chore list needing to be done.) Find my Bagua Map of the house and the bedroom. (Also counted up how many garment bags I will probably need to store garb, but that's a different project.) Examine Bagua Map of house and bedroom, already aware of the big issues in the bedroom. *POW* My kitchen is in the Love and Marriage portion of the total house. My blue and grey and white kitchen when Love and Marriage needs reds and other warm colors to be stimulated. *Palmface* Well, I need new dishtowels and maybe a curtain and maybe a nice red cannister set, or violet-red to blend better. I can pick those up pretty reasonable when I get the bedroom stuff.

It will be nice when I can start over from scratch when I do the full remodel of the whole house. Until then, I have to peicemeal and keep the house functional.

And this peice of good news brought to you by Laurie R. King.

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The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Ding dong!

Ding, dong, the rusted hunk of junk is dead! Ding, dong, the rested hunk of junk is dead!

Didn't accomplish much on the writing font today other than finding out I had uploaded the wrong draft of a story to Writerly and that the Resource Guide is too big in it's current format. :p

Now bath time.

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The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

I'm glad I'm not the only one with schedule issues

NOTICE: The Surgeon General has declared that creating schedules can be detrimental to your health and sanity, and that schedule dependence has been linked with weight gain, weight loss, hirsutism, hair loss, nervousness, nausea, vomiting, auditory hallucinations, angina, GERD, hypertension, hypotension, insanity, and death. Pregnant women, women who might become pregnant, persons with preexisting liver or kidney or heart conditions, and people with eyelids should avoid scheduling. If you experience side effects from scheduling, stop immediately and consult your doctor.

DISCLAIMER #1: This schedule is subject to Life, which happens while one is making other plans.

DISCLAIMER #2: (Marine Adage) No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy.

DISCLAIMER #3: (Yiddish Adage) Men plan, God laughs.

DISCLAIMER #4: (Nursing Instructor Adage) CYA

from Holly Lisle's blog: Pocket Full of Words

It's a small comfort.

So I'm in need of validation. To be upfront and honest, I like having a place to vent and a place where people can catch up with me and what I'm doing, but I'm starting to feel like I'm talking to myself. Which I'm perfectly happy doing, but I miss the comments that would spark a dialogue. So what is it, am I not coming up with fascinating topics? Too narcassitic? You've all switched the MySpace and I should stop resisting? (NO, NOT ANOTHER THING TO UPDATE ON THE WEB!)

Time to pout about something else. Resource Guide is due in October. Plans are currently on track with the writing, but I want at least another pair of eyes to go over it before finalizing and handing out to a bunch of teachers. (Mez, you may be my only hope on this score.) Chad is a good editor--when you stand over him with a baseball bat to make him actually read the document he's paying to have written. He blames that on ADD. Little hard for me to do the baseball bat thing with him in Lafayette. So in fitting with the "take as much work off of Chad who will try to do everything" theme for this year's management, I asked for an editor. No, we can't confuse people by looking for an editor at Cast Call this Sunday, which means I don't get to hire an editor until September leaving them less than a month to proof a 104-page document (at least that's what last year's was).

But I'm just being sleepy and cranky when I accuse him of wanting my project to fail when he calls after I've gone to bed last night and ignoring the email all afternoon. Okay, so he did have a doctor's appointment. *Sigh* I think I'm going to email Wade for a second opinion, since my boyfriend seems to be suffering from "my girlfriend must be in irrational PMS-Liberal Arts mode so her ideas have no merit" train of thought.

I also better get started on what I want to say to those teachers. Since he will throw me up in front of them with no preperation.

Hope this didn't bore anyone too badly.

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The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

It's nice to be right

I followed the JonBenet Ramsey case (who didn't?), heck I even bought newspaper back when they had the grand jury looking into it. I followed the evidence. I try not to give into the sick fascination that seems to grip society at times, but this is allowable. After all, I want to write mysteries, I enjoy reading about true crime, and this case will probably go into history much like the Baby Lindbergh kidnapping--unsolvable and hotly debated for the end of time.

But I never thought the parents were guilty. And was sad and relieved when a judge finally said "enough, an intruder killing the child is the most likely conclusion from the evidence." Sad because the public didn't care about the evidence. They were guilty.

"But they hired a lawyer, they weren't grieving because they jumped on TV the second they could, forcing that baby to do the kiddy pagents, etc."

Bullshit.

After how they got treated I think I'm going to hire a lawyer too if I'm innocent but the cops come asking questions.

They wanted to find the killer of their child and everybody grieves differently.

And regardless of what you may personally think or feel about child pagents, they happen. Patsy had been a beauty queen. She was dying from cancer. JonBenet wanted to be a beauty queen too. Patsy wanted to share that with her daughter. And if you don't think a 4 to 6 year old can make up their minds about something like that, you haven't been around very many 4 to 6-year-olds. Patsy said if it hadn't been for the cancer, they probably would have waited until JonBenet was a teenager.

Oh but Patsy was Satan incarnate that killed her baby according to the tabloids. We obviously can't believe anything she says.

Well, it's nice to be right.

In more personal news, I finished my edits for "Let Us Give Thanks." I should have them all inputed in tonight, since the gym is closed for staff training, and emailed off by tomorrow. After having read over it in total, it holds together better than I thought it would. But it's still not a mystery.

Chad and I agreed to separate the activities of the Resource Guide into a Workbook and now have an outline for that. So I have plenty to work on until October as well as editing the rest of the Resource Guide.

I'm also reading "The Zen of Creativity: Cultivating Your Artistic Life" by John Daido Loori. While not considering becoming a Buddhist, I do believe it has some options to help me. Especially when I get that freefall despair over my writing career.

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The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Finished "Let Us Give Thanks"

It's been hanging over my head and nagging me. I hate having too many started projects and it was the first one to wrap up quickly. And I kept to the plans that I followed in my mind to to culmination....

Yeah, I'm fretting that it doesn't work. I know it's not my strongest writing in the Wars Are Won series, but that's not where my dissatisifaction stems from. I'm worried that my attempt with mystery derailed with my villian. The story didn't up being a mystery, instead more of suspense thriller. Well so did "Domestic Bliss," so I guess traditional mysteries with the Biker Mice just don't want to work. I'm worried I made Charley too weepy. And I think I need to scrap the whole thing and start over.

Not completely start over, there are scenes I like and think work. It's just when I add them together, I think the total is blah. But I'm not going to do anything until letting the beta readers have a go at it.

Now time to go concentrate on Canterbury Murder Mystery.

Oh and anybody who's reading. We're trying to advertise via Google Bomb and improve our Google rankings for the Acadiana Medieval Faire. If you could please put the following code up on your blog, LiveJournal, MySpace, DeviantArt accounts, it would help in a big way.

There is a <A HREF="http://www.acadianafaire.org/">new renaissance festival in Louisiana</A>! Check out the <A HREF="http://www.acadianafaire.org/">Acadiana Medieval Faire</A> at: <A HREF="http://www.acadianafaire.org/"> http://www.acadianafaire.org/</A>

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The BookWorm

MONTHLY GOAL with original and fanfic counts

Progress Bar from Writertopia

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

15 Minutes Weekend Spurts

I'm not one to let religious bias get in the way of a good idea. Emilie Barnes's mission is to make Christian housewives more organized because what time do you have for God and your family if your constantly working on housework? Lots of quoting from Proverbs throughout her books, but that's one of the books of the Bible I don't have issues with.

So add "everything else in my life" to "spirituality," and I need all the organizing
help I can get. What first concerned me was the emphasis on "housewife" using this
system. It's not for feminist reasons; I'm juggled housework, paying job, writing
career, school, and AMF career. I don't spend much time at my house to tidy it.

Her system as far as chores go is to break the chores into time periods: daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, biannual, and annual chores. Where you see the difference is the monthly, you have all week to clean the fridge. Quarterly may end up being done all in one day, but you don't have to worry about them until the next quarter. No more doing the whole house at once. If you miss a chore in the weekly rotation, you don't do it again until that day rolls around next week.

She recommends notecards to flip through and shuffle, but I've been having success with just a check list. And moving chore time to the morning has been fantastic. I'm not driving sleepy, everything is usually done when I get home so I don't feel guilty for the computer time. I do need to make some tweaks to the checklist, like breaking things like yardworkd into proper seasons. Otherwise, O can't say enough good things about how this system has gotten me on track.

Prune camillas: winthin one month after finish blooming
Prune crepe myrtles: January
Prune oak: January
Plant trees: January - March
Prune gardenias: after finish flowering May or June
Prune hydgreneas: as soon as the flowers fade

Barnes's second suggestion is to work like mad at a task for 15 minutes then break.
This weekend was a big test for that: Saturday was spent between my office and the
Resource Guide, Sunday between the back porch and Resource Guide. Granted, I was typing what had already been composed; I don't know how well this method will work when I'm having to think about the words more. But I finished my monthly goal for the Resource Guide in roughly five and half hours of writing time, down to one box of papers and one box of supplies in the office, and only have the shelves next to the washing machine to do on the back porch. Oh and getting rid of the rusted out hunk of junk that was a gas refrigerator 40 years ago, but that has to wait for help. (FYI, not my fault it's still there. I've been trying to get rid of it for six years, but my father is stupidly sentimental about it and his mother is delusional that it still works.)

With a few bumps, the new schedule appears to be working out just as I need. Now we just have to see how it survives classes.

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The BookWorm

2007 AMF Resource Guide Started with 27,709 words

Progress Bar from Writertopia

New words for 2007 AMF Resource Guide

Progress Bar from Writertopia

Monthly goal for 2007 AMF Resource Guide

Progress Bar from Writertopia

WEEKLY GOAL

Progress Bar from Writertopia

MONTHLY GOAL

Progress Bar from Writertopia

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Yeah, but he's so hard to have a stable relationship with.

Talia, strike out. Selina, okay just who is her baby's daddy? I wouldn't want to be strike three.

You scored as Batman. You would marry BATMAN! You like a guy who has more than one facet to his character. Just don't let him know you're after his money, or he will speak with his fist! Batman 86% Superman 71% Captain Marvel 68% Green Lantern 61% Green Arrow 50% Aquaman 46% The Flash 46% What Justice League Member (Male) Would You Marry? created with QuizFarm.com

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The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Back on the Track Day 15

I missed Sunday as a day of exercise, but after cleaning most of the back porch, I was in no condition to go. Even though I was watching my fluids, I still managed to wash out my electrolytes. I always try to over-do it. But the pay off looks good. Now I'm paranoid that I'll come home to find my new clear space commondeered for storage space by someone else.

Got my first day of crosstraining done back on Day 12. And I bought new earphones for when I ride the bike I can also watch TV. I just hope I can keep up with the weekend workouts. With classes starting next week, they're important for me meeting my goals.

Weekly Stats
Weight: 198 lbs/89.81 kg
Height: 61.5 in/156.21 cm
Waist: 107.8 cm
Abdomen: 121 cm
Hips: 112.1 cm
Knee: 41.9 cm
Neck: 37.5 cm
Shoulders: 118.2 cm
Chest: 118.4 cm
Thigh: 63.3 cm
Calf: 42.4 cm
Ankle: 23.8 cm
Arm: 30.3 cm
Forearm: 26 cm
Wrist: 15.5 cm
BMI: 36.81

And shin pain finally started now that I'm up to 25 minutes. Two more stretched to do to counteract that pain. But I think I've been calculating my time wrong. I've been counting 5 minutes warm up in with the workout time and I don't think I should count it that way. Especially since I don't see any noticable improvement anywhere. *Sigh*

Course the other issue is in the AC-controlled gym, I'm not sweating alot. Which is the point because outside I'd get heatstroke, but since I'm only sweating a little I don't feel I'm working out as hard as I need to. Especially when the damned-in-shape runners go out with a shirt soaking. I'm trying hard not to push myself extra hard and hurt myself, but I wanna be skinny again!

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The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Saturday night totals

I do have other posts to put up, written in notebooks that I can't remember where they are right this second. And also need to prove that I have been a good girl and working.

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The BookWorm

Monthly goal for 2007 AMF Resource Guide (in new words)

Progress Bar from Writertopia

WEEKLY GOAL

Progress Bar from Writertopia

MONTHLY GOAL

Progress Bar from Writertopia

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Fees Time of Year Again

I didn't get here early enough. I meant to, but got to the point where I could dust and vacuum my office. Down to two boxes of papers and a crate full of bulky office supplies to deal with. Wash the windows and I'm through with the quarterly chores.

I have to stand in line every year to make sure to get my parking permit and this year check on direct deposit for my refund. Combine it with renting and buying textbooks, and I should be done until classes start on August 21st. Anyways time off work is not a bad thing.

So what else is going on? Dad and I got the ceiling fan rehung Tuesday night. I'm
almost done with the major cleaning project. Chad's supposed to come stay one weekend but not this one and he's running out of weekends.

The governor and national Senators are fussing about looking into a plan to turn I-10 and I-12 into toll roads. Actually, I'm for it--IF they're going to set up a bus system from Hammond to Baton Rouge or a commuter train. Since they won't, I guess it gets a no vote from me.

8:45am done with fees part onto books. Things to remember for next year: If nothing
funny with financial aid, go straight to parking decals. Remember ID and car registration.

8:50 am - nothing to rent this year, so I have to buy books.

9:40 am - done with buying books and other supplies. Time to go to work.

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The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Canterbury Murder Mystery

"Everybody has something to hide." Hardly an original line, but it has its uses when trying to figure out behaviors for characters in a mystery. And my roundabout way of saying, I need to work on this project.

I've been doing pretty good with my totals for the month so far, but school hasn't started yet. And so far it has only been on the Resource Guide. Chad put the teachers' workshop in October, and while I agree with his reasons for doing do, I wish he had told me in May. Oh well, me and my unreal exprectations. Revising the Food and Cooking section is going well, and Chad's supposed to get back with me with other suggestions for additions (unless he tunes out my daily reminders as nagging). I know we need more activities because that's what got left out of last year's due to time constraints. Hmm, maybe a separate workbook? I don't know if it will be this year, but eventually I would like to see us publish a book version for sale. The hold back on that is copyright permissions, which I don't have time to research right now. And my non-fiction voice, I'm not thrilled with it yet. Nother note, edit the Food and Cooking section heavily to find said non-fiction voice.

Overdid carbs yesterday by supper, but also figured out why I didn't feel so hot most of the mornings--a combination of not enough water and not enough electrolytes. So more water while at work and a Propel while working out. Felt much better physically today after trying that yesterday. I messed up my days though; yesterday was supposed to be a crosstraining day, so I have to move that to today. Also trying to find a running shoe store so I can get fitted properly with shoes. Toes are the problem now. They feel cramped not mater what I do.

The closest Fleet Feet (a store recommended in the Walking Forum) is in Houston, so I guess when I go to see Atticus over Labor Day, I'm going shoe buying too. And I don't want to hear anything about how I'm wasting money when my feet hurt.

So what am I planning to do for crosstraining since I still need aerobic activity everyday? First warmup with two laps and stretch, the upper body weightlifting routine. I have some ab ball exercises but I'm not doing those in public until after I practice them at home. And finish up with 15 minutes on a stationary bike.

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The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Links I thought I'd share

Help a pro writer in need. And if you don't have cash, spread the word.

Fly nekkid as way to stop the terrorists.

A comic's take on the afterlife for one of the 72 promised virigins.

And that's all folks. Time for me to type.

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The BookWorm

What I woke up to this morning

I was woken around 2:30am, but when I saw what the time was, I rolled over and went back to sleep. So at 4am when I went to turn off the living room alarm clock, this what I saw.



I'll post the rest of the pictures and my commentary later.

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Back on the Track Day 9

Well, missing Saturday's workout had the bonus of getting the days lined up again. So now I'm on 20 minutes of walking plus 5 minutes on stretching. I think crosstraining on rest days starts this week too, but I didn't bring the binder with me to double check.

Walking to a time goal is much easier. And I'm always pleasantly surprised by how much I have walked. On Day 8, the first day of the 20 minutes, I walked 1.25 miles. Day 9, 1.13 miles. It fluctuates because the track's policy is to alternate
lane usage on different days.

Weekly Stats
Weight: 195 lbs/88.45 kg
Height: 61.5 in/156.21 cm
Waist: 109 cm
Abdomen: 120.5 cm
Hips: 115 cm
Knee: 41.6 cm
Neck: 37.5 cm
Shoulders: 122.4 cm
Chest: 116.7 cm
Thigh: 65.1 cm
Calf: 43.2 cm
Ankle: 23.1 cm
Arm: 29.9 cm
Forearm: 26.4 cm
Wrist: 15.6 cm
BMI: 36.25

I'll admit when I'm stumped. I don't understand when I am shrinking--albeit slowly--the gut which needs to go bye-bye is gaining centimeters! Maybe it will show a difference in the opposite direction once I start upper body crosstraining. Or maybe what fat cells haven't been consumed are gathering there to make a final stand.

Not disheartened, but confused. And very tired of getting pinched by the waistbands of my pants.

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The BookWorm

OW! OW! OW! Otherwise known as Chaucerian Cooking Part 2

10:27am - chicken is finally done and I found another needed kitchen item: platters! I sure can't serve a formal holiday meal out of my house. I substituted a square cake pan.



Bread in pan; it would look better on a platter. *Sigh*



Finished at 10:45am! Lessons: need platters and need to learn how to present food attractively. Also don't cook as long because chicken is coming off the bones.

Tastes like chicken that needs salt to me even though the broth is green. Still need to experiment with the full bone and pay better attention to the cooktime.

I have nearly an hour before the pork broth is done, so I better start on the other meats for Mortreaux.

Mortreaux: I'm cheating a bit. I have no intentions of grinding meat with my mortar and pestle. What I expect to do is make friends with a butcher and get the bones, ground up chicken and pork from him! I cheated and made friends with the blender for this go-round.



Now for what I'm not looking forward to--chicken livers. Okay, it only takes 2 chicken livers to get 1/4 cup. Some critter is going to have field day with what I threw out tonight. No, Kindra doesn't eat fried livers.



Meat is ready, wash dishes while waiting on broth.



11:50am - started the pesen.



Noon - start to strain pork broth. Must find a canned version. This is too much work for 1 cup. But the pork broth is done, and I can now start on the Gode Broth.

12:15pm - Pesen ready for spices.



12:30pm - Pesen and Gode Broth done. Have to remember to do something with the pork steaks used for broth-making. Starting on the Mortreaux.



Gode Broth after meat is added.



Mortreaux after breadcrumbs and spices are added.



12:55pm - Mortreaux is finished. That's a sugar and ginger mixture on top. Now I have to start on the rest of the veggie dishes.





1:30pm - started Braised Spring Greens and grinding almonds.



1:45pm - Braised Spring Greens are done. Starting Golden Leeks and Onions.



Finished Golden Leeks and Onions. Go feed MawMaw. She liked everything. I got back at 3:05pm with one last dish to cook: Fecches.

First you have to make the almond milk to use in it. Simple receipe: 1 cup ground almonds to 2 cups boiling water. You're supposed to seep the almonds in the water first, and if you don't like the consitency, run it through a blender.

Weeeellll, I'm pretty tired by this point as you have seen. So I decided to put the ground almonds and boiling water from the teakettle into the blender and hit Blend (number 7 speed for this 7-speed blender.) The top wasn't on very tight but I was being a good blender operator and holding it down with my left hand. It didn't help.

3:15pm - Hot almond milk exploded from the top of the blender and my left hand was in the pow! zone. Luckily I still possessed enough sense to stop the blender and I was right next to the sink for cold water. But it hit the inside of my wrist and HURT.



Yeah, the towel was for take two, since I still had to finish the almond milk. That's also when I found out I messed up the steps.



But it turned out pretty good, if a little thick.

So at 3:25pm, I start the lima beans for the Fecches, wrap my wrist in an ice pack to stop the pain, and am prepared to finish cooking one handed. Sat down at the computer to nurse my wounds and catch up on email.

4:05pm - water all gone and beans burned. Gave up for the day.

Went to the gym and got my exercise in. The wrist is fine now, only still a little pink but it doesn't hurt to touch it.

I've hoped you've enjoyed this episode of cooking with Kindra.

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The BookWorm

Chaucerian Cooking Part 1

Slept in 'til 5:30am. Not that you really call it sleeping in. The cat, the bedroom alarm clock, and the living room alarm clock all have a slightly different time. Guess who starts first? Boy, is he going to be disappointed when I don't throw him out tomorrow.

Today is a good cooking day. The storming that lasted for hours and messed up my yard work plans yesterday apparantly came attached to a cold front. Not dripping humidity out of the air yet and doesn't feel over 80s yet. Which is good, because the AC is busted in the kitchen and it easily becomes the hottest room in the house even with the stove off.

So I started cooking around 7am. It's probably incredible narrsicitis of me, but I can't help documenting these crazy ideas I try to implement.

Menu

• Mortreaux


• Gode broth


• Clarree


• Chicken with the Marybones


• Braised Spring Greens


• Golden Leeks and Onions


• Pesen


• Fecches

You can see I've dug out most the pots and pans.

First: started unrelated London broil. It's been marinating for a couple of days now.
Second: figure out what to cook first. Gode broth is an ingrediant for Mortreaux, and I need to make pork broth for the Gode broth.
Third: breakfast!

Pork broth: Apparantly the Vietemese use it frequently and I found a brand name on the Net. Stores in my area do not cater to the Veitemese population yet. So making it from scratch.

7:38am - the smoke alarm goes crazy from the heat. No smoke. And it's in the office above the AC in there. *Sigh* And people wonder why I don't cook more often.

Pork broth is going to take four hours to cook. Next step after eating breakfast is to start on the next longest dish. Looks like chicken with marybones and clarree are up next.

Chicken with Marybones: "Marybones" actually means "marrow bones." This chicken is stewed with a beef shank bone split down the middle to expose all the marrow. So I go shopping yesterday. Hammond doesn't have an independent butcher anymore, and I could not get the Winn-Dixie butchers to understand that all I needed was the bone. I ended up with four peices of shank with the bones in them. My observation at the time to another customer: "I'm sure this receipe was a lot easier when you had to kill your own cow."

So I had to trim all the meat off the bones before cooking. Bless Miss Goldie, at least I didn't have to cut up a chicken. The extra beef I grilled on the George Foreman grill. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it--it's stough meat--but at least it should spoil in the fridge while I think about it.

And after I got everything in the pot, I realized I need a bigger pot for it. Shouldn't be an issue for the cooking show since I'll be working with caldrouns, but still.



Clarree is a spiced wine I won't be able to do in the cooking show since we are a no-alcohol event. But the receipe is in the Resource Guide for the teachers. *wink* It didn't take any time but now it has to sit for twenty-four hours. I may end up bottling it early tomorrow.







So now it's 9:10, and I'm taking a break while waiting on things to cook. I don't want to cook the veggier until more of the meat dishes are done.

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The BookWorm

Yesterday's totals

Zy's Novel

Progress Bar from Writertopia

New words for 2007 AMF Resource Guide

Progress Bar from Writertopia

Monthly goal for 2007 AMF Resource Guide

Progress Bar from Writertopia

WEEKLY GOAL

Progress Bar from Writertopia

MONTHLY GOAL

Progress Bar from Writertopia

My first Saturday on the new schedule

I slept in 'til 4:30am. Had most of the daily chores done by 7am when I left to go shopping. I'm convinced that is the best time to shop. The only store that was mobbed was Office Depot at 9am and they were having a get ready for back to school party for teachers. Ran into Texas, a friend from LRF there. But I finally got everything on the shopping list--except for pork liver--and was home in time for Mom to leave for work at 10.

Saw MawMaw's nurse and we think we got the insulin straightened out. They had given her the wrong kind in the pens. *Sigh* Luckily Mom caught it. So I've been back and forth between houses since. Fridge is clean and full of groceries. I found a corner of the table behind me, but I'm only working on that in 15 minute spurts. After I finish this post, I'm going to work on the Resource Guide for 15 minutes. Being nonfiction, it's easier for me to leave it if I need to. And between alternating the two, I'll have a clean office once again.

Well, I'm down to two boxes of papers to deal with and two boxes of junk and three boxes of scanning papers to deal with. I can see my desk top and tabletop, as long as I shove the cat aside. (The real reason why I clutter, to make the surface less inviting to a feline. ;) ) I still have a pile of supplies to deal with, but I think I've done enough for today.

Also forgot about gym. *headdesk* I didn't mean to do it, but I was grandmother-sitting and caught up in the 15-minutes type like mad, 15-minutes clean like mad. And now it's storming which also ruins the second Saturday chore, yard work.



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The BookWorm


Progress Bar from Writertopia

Found the dental insurance card

It was hiding in the receipts along with my MWA membership card. I don't know how it got there.

I actually got fifteen minutes to psend on the office clutter mess this morning, even though I didn't get very far. Just started sorting stuff into filing piles. I suppose some things I could have put directly into the filing cabinet, but I'm no used to making the piles as the first step. *headdesk*

Made some changes to the sidebar. I don't like having to tweak the template everytime I write more words, so I moved the writing stuff that I will update frequently to a Backpack page made public. I think I have fallen out of lonve with the zokutou word meter because you have to go to their site in order to update it. The progress bar from Writertopia is so much simpler to change. I'll be changing them out as I do updates to the word counts.

Which reminds me, I need to do some counting. I've done some work on the Resource Guide last week but I forgot to keep track of the word count. I also need to go home and work on writing tonight. The past two night have been shot by running errands.

I started working with Backpack which Mez recommended. So far I'm liking it. There's still a lot of stuff I need to add from home--like my When-I-can-afford-it shopping list--but I've got a pretty good handle on it. We might be able to handle collaboration edits via the Writeboard feature.

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The BookWorm

Back on the Track Day 6

After making it through a week of exercise, I rewarded myself with 4 pairs of walking socks from Thorlos. I'm hoping to get some new sports bras too, but that depends on the budget after food buying. I know it's only day six, but day seven is a rest day. My plan is to go, stretch, and sit in the sauna with a bottle of Propel. It's an exercise in meditation while doing a little detox. And in the sauna I can control the steam level, unlike outside.

I'm thinking I'm going to break the workout printouts from the tracking weight info, and put them in a bigger binder. I still have two more weeks to print out plus the ten week program. This way I can pass it to Chad or Mom without any embarrassing details getting mixed in.

Also need to buy: 1 pair of Thorlos, 3 new sports bras grey or white, and the smallest ab ball.

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The BookWorm

Adjusting to the New Schedule

Okay, I found sheet protectors with divider labels and they are long enough to stick out. Yeah! Now I just have to get the exercise binder together. I am rather impressed with myself; I haven't needed a rest day yet. I must have muscles under all this fat. Though as you go further the time spent walking gets longer and rest days become crosstraining days. Current research is saying diabetics need 38 minutes of walking (or other aerobics) a day to see a difference in their blood chemistry. Get up to 90 minutes of walking a day, and you really see a boast--like some had to decrease their insulin intake. Okay, time to play the Lotto so I can afford to have 90 minutes a day just for exercise.

The new art rules have been added to Alt. BM Site, and not a momment too soon.

I started the new schedule today. And I actually got up at 4am! I didn't get everything finished because I was revising the chore list, but once I got it posted on the fridge, I checked a lot of items off. And I actually got up at 4am! I don't think I have any errands to run tonight, so I should be home and fed at the right time today.

There! Exercise binder divided and prettied up. But now I think I'm going to need a bigger binder for it. Or separate the workouts from the FitTogether progress tracking sheets.

I have socks on the shopping list along with a new pair of work shoes. After reading the article on walking sock, I'm thinking I should invest in a couple of pairs for the gym and free up other socks for daily wear. I need four pairs and there's a store in Hammond that has them, yeah! Okay, it's supposed to be close to the Interstate heading down 51 toward Ponchatoula--I don't remember seeing a sports store over there? Typical Mapquest, put it on the wrong side of the street. It's on the other side of the Interste in the Mall. That makes more sense. So I guess I'm going to the mall--I need vitamins there too--but after I eat!

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The BookWorm

Story of my life

Dump purse out to find all stray cards and organize them into special holder. Find everything but my dental insurance card. I have no idea how long said insurance card has been gone, but I last remember seeing it when I had to find all my insurance cards on Friday. Now the binder clip basket has over turned and found the letters that came with the card, but no, they only gave me one dental card. I got two of the eye care insurance card :p

Damnit, I'm going to need that card.

*Sigh* And now the stomach hurts, and I'm crabby cause I'm sleepy, and I yelled at everybody trying to fix the problem. I'm sorry really. Aggravation seized control of my brain. At least all, I was weilding is the keyboard bloodlust was running high too.

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The BookWorm

Better on Wednesday

Not that I managed to accomplish anything other than getting through yesterday. Well, that's not entirely true. I found the site to submit Chad's junker to for refurbishing. I have to write the submission letter today.

I have to go shopping for soft drinks and binder dividers and something to hold card in. The ones I put in the exercise binder to separate stuff don't stick out past the sheet protectors. *Sigh*

I finally got the updated Alt. BM Site rules written. Approval may take longer since Foxy's not feeling well.

Time to update the To Do List.

• Shopping


• soft drinks


• longer dividers


• card sheets for purse


• vitamins


• Clean fridge


• Cook


• Dust and Vacuum office


• Sort and file paper work in office


• Laundry


• Clean back porch


• Scan papers


• Mop kitchen


• Wash dishes


• Work on Writing To Do List


• Zy's Novel


• Submit two stories


• Edit Blue Man


• Edit Capt. Kate


• Canterbury Murder Mystery


• AMF 2007 Resource Guide


• Cooking Show script


• Let Us Give Thanks


• Contact the LaPlace author

I think it's time to reevaluate my schedule. Getting up at 4 am to write hasn't happened once since I created the first schedule back on May 3rd. So the brain really doesn't want to engage at that time in the morning. I can't really blame it, after all, I'm the one hitting the snooze button. And I hate coming home and doing chores after exercising. So what will happen if I switch the two?

Getting up at 4am shouldn't be an issue. I can set up Chad's alarm clock in the living room, now that I can go through the living room without killing myself on something set in the walkways.

I like the idea out of "Cleaning Up Clutter" for dividing chores into daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly duties. But Emilie Barnes's idea of putting them on notecards and shuffle through them doesn't work for me; possibly because of my constant use of list. Damn, now that I've had the brainwave to make lists to crossout, I wish I had packed the book. Google search hasn't given me what I really need. I started the check list and will have to add to it once I get home.

Updated the weekly schedule. I'm going to try this out for a week. Workout and writing times will probably get tweaked, but overall, I think this is doable.

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The BookWorm

Tuesday blahs

Today's just icky; nothing's going right; and everything coming out of my mouth wrong. Even though I go over it in my head and it sounds fine. Should've just stayed in bed day.

I finished the rough draft of "Let Us Give Thanks." I know, I know, supposed to let it sit and work on original fiction. I got tired of my muse beating up on me. I need to work on editing, but nobody has come forward to help with Blue Man yet. I'm waiting for the group I sent Capt. Kate's story to send it back--they might need a reminder.

I should reconnect with the LaPlace author I found at the writing conference, but today my gumption to do anything is nil.

Work through the funk. That's the only remedy I have right now.

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The BookWorm