- Put the money that I was using to pay off debt into savings for a down payment on some sort of house, townhouse, or condo. Still saving!
- Learn about real estate and home buying through the Utah State Extension classes. I made it through the first few chapters, ran aground on the “choosing a realtor” unit (there was an icky video) and then gave up. But I need to learn about earnest money and closing costs.
- Stop buying non-essentials (ready-made clothes, really expensive fabric, shoes, magazines, etc.) for three months (months TBD) I made it a month, and now I’m limiting personal spending to $100 or less a month–so far, so good.
- Buy that Eames desk chair. I’ll use the money I’ll be saving from not buying any non-essentials. I’ve actually found a different desk chair and have plans to get a whole new desk set-up involving an IKEA desk top, filing cabinets, and decoupage. I’ll let you know how it goes.
- Buy that damn garbage can already. Um…
- Buy a living room chair–armless, small-ish, but comfy. This will help with seating to accomplish #22. Done!
- Sew new pillow covers for the living room. Done!
- Buy a vacuum. Done! (How did I live so long without one?!)
- Refresh my yoga skills and then…
- Start doing yoga once or twice a week. Mostly done. I finally started going to beginning yoga in June and I’ve mostly kept it up.
- Get recycling at the apartment. I haven’t had it for three years and I’m tired of feeling guilty every time I throw away some junk mail. Not done. Sorry, Earth.
- Similarly, bring in some actual flatware for the breakroom at work to cut down on waste. Also not done. But I feel guilty every time I throw away a plastic fork.
- November-March, walk or ride to work at least twice a month. April-September, up it to at least four times a month. Summer is going pretty well.
- Eat at one new restaurant a month–any meal, but it has to be somewhere I haven’t been before. I’ve been doing ok with this, if you count Sampan takeout in June as a restaurant experience. (And I do.)
- Eat at Red Iguana. Why is this so hard? I’ve been trying for two years now!
- Go to Bonneville Speed Week. It’s in August. Or in October. They need a better website.
- Go to a roller derby game. Planned for this Saturday, so I say it’s green!
- Stop biting my fingernails (I mean it this year). Things were bad, then I got a manicure, then I did some home manicures, and then crazy a week at work did me in again. I think I can keep up the manicures at home.
- Wear more colors of lipstick than “pink” and “darker pink.” Um…
- Find a perfume I want to wear regularly. Done!
- Stock and maintain a home bar and keep it stocked. No drinking it up and not replacing it. I still haven’t done this–for some reason it seems SO decadent to go spend $150 on booze all at once.
- Have more people over to the apartment–not huge parties, but a few people for dinner, or drinks before a restaurant, etc. I was being really social (for me) at the beginning of the year but no one has been over all spring. I’d better plan something.
- Learn more about wine. Does a wine class in January count?
- Learn and retain the difference between whisk(e)y, bourbon, and scotch. “Retain” is the key word here…
- Learn and retain the difference between brandy and cognac. Cognac is more expensive? Does that count?
- Get my eyes checked again, update my prescription, and start wearing glasses in front of the computer. Not yet.
- Find a dermatologist to look at a couple of moles, if only so I can stop worrying about skin cancer. Ha, I’ve been too busy sunbathing to look up a doctor…
- Learn how to can fruits, veggies, or jam. Done! Oh, the feeling of accomplishment–and power. What can I can next?
- Get a better camera. Every time I get a blurry or overly dark shot (which is ALL the time with the Target closeout toy camera I use), I mean to really do the research and just buy one. Not yet, though…
- Go to Moab and/or Zion. Planned for the fall, hooray!
We Know How To Have A Good Time Around Here
Yes, just another exciting Tuesday evening sorting yarn and vacuuming the yarn basket:
(That vacuum is Thing #8, by the way. I’d better do another quarterly report soon!)
Tuesday Project Roundup: Roman-American
I was ready for something easy after that involved sailor skirt and all the seam finishing, so what could be easier than making two big rectangles into a skirt? I think hemming all 85″ around the bottom took about as long as the rest of the sewing combined.
This is a patternless project that my mom first turned me on to, but you can find a tutorial here if you don’t have a mom who grew up in the 50s.
Every time I wear a full skirt I have to think of Roman Holiday, which has the best blouse-skirt-sandals look for summer, ever (in Rome or not).
Yay, America!
Here is a poem I’ve always liked. I hope everyone’s pets weren’t scared by the fireworks last night. (Toby wasn’t too worried: People coming in the house are much scarier than noises outside the house.)
“American Names,” by Stephen Vincent Benet
I have fallen in love with American names,
The sharp names that never get fat,
The snakeskin-titles of mining-claims,
The plumed war-bonnet of Medicine Hat,
Tucson and Deadwood and Lost Mule Flat.
Seine and Piave are silver spoons,
But the spoonbowl-metal is thin and worn,
There are English counties like hunting-tunes
Played on the keys of a postboy’s horn,
But I will remember where I was born.
I will remember Carquinez Straits,
Little French Lick and Lundy’s Lane,
The Yankee ships and the Yankee dates
And the bullet-towns of Calamity Jane.
I will remember Skunktown Plain.
Rue des Martyrs and Bleeding-Heart-Yard,
Senlis, Pisa, and Blindman’s Oast,
It is a magic ghost you guard
But I am sick for a newer ghost,
Harrisburg, Spartanburg, Painted Post.
Henry and John were never so
And Henry and John were always right?
Granted, but when it was time to go
And the tea and the laurels had stood all night,
Did they never watch for Nantucket Light?
I shall not rest quiet in Montparnasse.
I shall not lie easy at Winchelsea.
You may bury my body in Sussex grass,
You may bury my tongue at Champmedy.
I shall not be there. I shall rise and pass.
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee.
Friday Unrelated Information
1. Oh look, it’s another three-day weekend. Hooray!
2. Today is the 30th anniversary of the movie Airplane, which is right up there with The Blues Brothers in my favorites. Take this quiz–“Don’t Call Me Shirley: An Airplane Quiz” to see how much of the movie you’ve memorized.
3. My sad little Walt Whitman poem got cut off yesterday, which is also sad, but I’ve fixed it.
A Poem For When You Are Being Hard On Yourself
Perhaps you think you should know more about real estate, or how to turn off your pilot light after all this time. Maybe you’ve decided to sell your violin, despite your youthful hopes and dreams. Regardless, it will be OK. Walt knows how it is:
“O Me! O Life!” by Walt Whitman
O ME! O life! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the
foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I,
and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the
struggle ever renew’d,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see
around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me
intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring-What good amid these, O me,
O life?
Answer.
That you are here-that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.
Thing #28: Learn How To Can
Thing #28 on the list of 30 Things always seemed like it was going to be hard, but making jam is easy!
These were the berries from the u-pick farm. This is probably a year’s supply of jam for a single person.
As Laurie Colwin says in the excellent chapter “Jam Anxiety” (in More Home Cooking):
…I felt contentedly thrilled with myself, as if I had pulled off a wonderful trick. People feel this way when they make bread or have babies, and although they are perfectly entitled to feel this way, in fact, nature does most of the work. Jam making is, actually, a snap…
Tuesday Project Roundup: Skirt Ahoy
Here are some pictures of the sailor skirt from last week–sorry, no action shots; the sun is so far north that the bedroom (where the full-length mirror is) doesn’t get any morning light.
It was hard enough to figure out how to assemble this, let alone make a lining for it, so I got all fancy on the seam finishes again. This front panel unbuttons to reveal a zipper and a pocket:
So the inside had a lot of seams to bind:
Ditto for the (flattering!) curvy panels on the back:
And inside:
(Obviously, I was getting bored working with plain navy so I had to add some color somewhere.)
I’m just pleased that this fits well, because there were a lot of steps to get through before I could even try it on to check the fit. Whew!
Yay for Three-Day Weekends!
I really enjoyed that extra day off I took this weekend. Friday I ended up going to Antelope Island to see the lake (still stinky) and then stopping at a u-pick farm with my parents for some strawberries.
I think u-pick farms are the way to go: All the fun of a farm with none of the upkeep! It was nice to be out in the strawberry fields in the sun–until someone got “Strawberry Fields Forever” in my head. So now it can be in yours:
This video is kind of what Monday mornings look like to me anyway. More coffee!
Friday Unrelated Information
1. I’m late posting today because I have a day off (!) and Toby let me sleep in until 9:00 (!!).
2. I actually went to an open house this week, despite not really being at the point where I would be ready to make an offer. It just looked like a perfect house, in my price range and location, so I thought, “Maybe the universe is giving it to me–I’d better go look!” But no. After seeing the un-remodeled basement, I decided the universe was actually telling me not to buy a 100-year-old house.
3. I’ve tried all these things! (From here.)