Happy Friday! It IS Friday, right? I’ve been a day ahead of myself all week, so it seems like I should either step back and admit it’s only Thursday, or go with the gut and say we’re on to Saturday. Monday’s a holiday, but as hard as everyone’s been working to catch up and get ahead of the curve at the office, after the long break, I’m thinking half my coworkers will forget and show up for work, anyway. At this rate, I’ll be one of them.
Unless the sun stays. Wait, what…sun??
Huh. And now, this deep blue color… has the ocean floated into the air above us? It has been a dreary, drippy week, but it looks like the weekend will be gorgeous!
Resolve
Health and Fitness
This is what I affectionately call “The Hallway to Nowhere.” It did go somewhere, once upon a time.
I used to work in those buildings. Now, the dead-end “Hallway to Nowhere” is the place to meet colleagues who are also trying to get their 10,000 steps in during the day. Anyone who passes that turnstyle on the left, touches the window, and turns around – they’re doing laps. The hallway, also known as “The Spine” used to be a full mile around. You can still turn it into a one-mile jaunt by including a parking lot, or you can just add laps.
Cold and rainy as it’s been, though, hiking through a concrete parking garage lacks appeal. Better to hike through a warm terrarium, listening to music or podcasts on my phone.
Not that I’ve done a lot of exercising this past week, but I am right on track with the weight loss goals (a bit ahead, really).
The most helpful thing is that my husband has joined me in cooking and eating healthier, smaller portions, so I don’t feel as though I’m depriving anyone when I fix a family meal. I don’t feel as though anyone’s worrying that I’m playing the martyr – you know, cutting off a tiny bit of that monster-sized ribeye to have an appropriate four ounce serving. The deal is, if either of us still feels hungry later, we can snack.
As you can see, I’m terribly deprived. (Is it just me, or is there an awful lot of purple food here?)
That powdered stuff is All Bran Buds. I suppose you could substitute ground cardboard, but it’s the best way I know of to get enough fiber in your diet. I’m going to nickname this “Smoothie 42” – the answer to life, the universe, and everything. 1 cup 1% milk, 30 g finely ground All Bran Buds, 140 g frozen fruit, well blended. It makes about a pint, and it’s a great breakfast.
A Parliament of Owls
Isn’t he adorable? Not sure if this is Oscar or Herman. (They’re all “Oscars” and “Hermans” – always have been. As a kid, I named everything Oscar or Herman. I don’t know why.) Anyway, that’s a close-up of the first finished owl square for the blanket. Not all of the 365 squares will be owls. I may give them an actual tree. But that may be too ambitious.
All the parts are ready to assemble, for ten of them – this weekend. And do a few more plain squares, so that I won’t fell woefully behind!
The sunshine beckons, though…
Blog’s Blooming!
Just two weeks, and already I’m out of the millions and up into the top 200K…well, in the US. Over 60% of my visitors are from India; only about 20% are from the US! So thank you, again, to all of my blogging buddies in India for reading this – including my newest friend, Rummuser (Ramana). The Ultimate Blog Challenge has been a great help in reminding me of the importance of writing more regularly, if not more frequently – and of the necessity to promote and share. Special thanks to all who have commented, this week, as well. Here are the stats for Week 2:
On a Wavelength?
My friend Marian Allen and I often ride the same – or parallel – wavelengths, so this is hardly surprising, but yesterday’s bit of synchronicity struck me funny, and I have to share this with you. While I was writing about chickens and voodoo, she was writing about chicken feet – and vodun!!?
Wish we had a hallway like that. If I walk the office here, I’m disturbing someone 🙁 (some friends might say I’m always disturbing!). Funny, my daughter always named things “Steve”.
Hahaha..how old is your daughter? Yes, I’m lucky to have a hallway between buildings. On bad days, I call it the hamster wheel, but it’s a nice thing to have – especially when it’s raining and your meeting is three buildings away!
DD is 20, now at Purdue. Great blog!
Thank you! 🙂
That hallway to nowhere reminds me of the great halls in many old mansions in England. In former days, the ladies would stroll along them to take their exercise during the winter months when snow kept them indoors.
Well, now, that’s a pretty thought – and I shall think it next time I’m walking that hallway, Francene! Then again, I’m sure those ladies weren’t encouraged to “hustle their bustles,” either for the sake of exercise or getting back to work! 🙂 I suppose just carrying all those fabrics around on their bodies counted for exercise!
It has been my pleasure getting to know you Holly. Thank you for the special mention.
My new year regime was forced on me towards the end of the last year, actually just the last three days and I am feeling better. Since yesterday I have been allowed to take some physiotherapy and that should relieve me of a major discomfort in the next few days.
Twenty fifteen looks good from here.
That’s good to hear, Rummuser. How’s your shoulder? I’m still waiting to hear how a painful shoulder led to a diagnosis of diabetes! Or was it unrelated – just the shoulder drove you to the doctor? (That’s how it’d probably go, with me! Of course, one doctor’s basically telling me the pain in my neck and shoulder was age related just makes me determined to avoid the man. I bit my tongue; first time I saw him, I questioned whether he was old enough to be doing spine surgery. Last time, I didn’t wonder THAT.)
Good grief, I think I would try working from home option, that is one enormous building. Can you imagine the rent and heating costs? I like your own segment, cute. 😉 Good luck with the dieting you have more willpower than I. 😉
Heating costs? In HOUSTON? In a building full of servers and PCs? Just turn off the A/C. (It rarely gets below 30F here, you know. I doubt the ambient heat would have time to dissipate and cause us all to freeze to death.) LOL I hate to think of the air conditioning costs, though, especially in the summer time. Working from home isn’t really an option. But while I’d eat better and get my work done equally well, I’d probably move less – if I’m being completely honest with myself about it. See today’s post, too. I don’t think it’s about “willpower,” per se. It may sometimes be about fooling yourself into making good choices. Or being fully cognizant that you’re not always making choices that are in line with what you say your values are.
Hi Holly! I love the crocheted owls, but I’m a lazy cuss and tend to just do easy Granny squares or my one favorite afghan pattern, choosing different combinations of color each time.
I’m need to ramp up my blogging frequency and also do some pre-scheduling for April/May when I’m recovering from knee replacement surgery. You’re setting a great example for the rest of us.
Hahahaha…the basic owl square isn’t hard, but finishing it has proved, once again, that I am not a seamstress and can’t even sew a button onto something properly. It’s fun to try, but it took me longer to sew twenty buttons onto the eyes than it did to make an owl square or two to start with!
Yes, you need to blog more – and come over here and bop me on the nose when you do. There are blogs, like yours, that I love to read – but have fallen out of the habit and have to be led with breadcrumbs to find my way back. Please don’t be shy about sharing! (And use the CommentLuv options down there when you comment – I’m always happy to give backlinks to the good stuff!)
Wow, that was a Skyrocket Jahangiri :), how did you do that? Hope you give some tips to us :).
How did I do what, edward?
I mean this: “Just two weeks, and already I’m out of the millions and up into the top 200K…well, in the US. Over 60% of my visitors are from India; only about 20% are from the US! So thank you, “…
Oh!! I did write a post years ago on how to do it.
Basically:
1) Make sure you have the Alexa toolbar and/or widget installed in your browswer and on your site. Encourage visitors to do the same (or write regularly on technical/blogging topics to bring in webmasters and bloggers who are likely to have it installed – since Alexa only counts visits from those who do).
2) Write regularly. Frequent updates are good, but ironically, you can see a dip in the numbers when you first start doing this.
3) Get quality backlinks if possible. I link to my blog from my Amazon Author page. Reddit’s good. Make sure you have it in every social media profile. About.me is a good place, too. Don’t worry too much about chasing backlinks, though – you don’t want to look spammy, and many sites are nofollow or otherwise aren’t helping, so no need to be a jerk about it. 🙂
Mainly, I went from dead to read. 🙂 I do that, from time to time. I must like the challenge of reviving a blog and pulling it back out of obscurity.
Oh Wow, cool!,now I know. Thankyou soo much these tips Jahangiri :), sorry, I didn’t noticed that you posted tips for us, but im still thankful for sharing that for me :).
Have a fun day Jahangiri :).
Edward
I’m sorry – I should have been clearer. That was several blogs ago, and you’d have to dig through Google to find it, if it’s even still out there anywhere. I just meant that I’d done a thorough study and experiment on it (back in 2009, I think) and those were the tips that I remembered. I’m not attacking it with any particular strategy this time – I’d have to say that “regular updates” is the number one tip. Fresh content gets ’em every time. 🙂