Screen Porch 01/29

Another big day of progress!

The steps are taking shape and there are shingles and.. umm, stuff on the edge of the roof overhang.

Screen Porch 01/28

It's starting to take shape!

Deck rails, some stuff up "top", some more framing. Woohoo, a porch!

Happy Birthday Mike!

Another year, another birthday!

Also, it's his one-year anniversary of starting his job at Lenovo.

So happy birthday to Mike! We're eating dinner at home tonight and going out on Saturday.

Screen Porch 01/27

Today was rainy so not as much happened. Or maybe it did and I just don't realize it.

Some more substantial footers were put in place, as well as a bit of framing. It looks a bit more secure now, which is nice. Before, it seemed like it was being held up by toothpicks so this is good.

Screen Porch 01/26

Today was a HUGE day of progress on the porch!

Footer holes and framing were inspected (passed apparently), concrete was poured, the floor went down in the screened area, and the deck extension was framed and largely floored.

I'm not sure what's next but it seems a lot of progress was made today. Yay!

9 in '09 - Week #4

Let's see how I did last week.

Plans:

• diet plan = eh, I could've done better
• 3 workouts - I did 3 days of WiiFit plus some heavy cardio cleaning
• 64 oz water a day - yes
• pickup house - yes
  
• 12 magazines - I recycled 29
• read 100 pages of book - yes

Other than the eating not being perfect, I did pretty good.

This week:

• 4 workouts
• 64 oz water a day
• diet = do my best but Mike's bday is this week
• pickup house
• finish magazines
• finish book
• keep planning ahead and blogging regularly

Busy busy week ahead though more for Mike than for me. He has something going on every single night. His birthday is Wednesday so I will be preparing dinner at home that night. Thursday is the hockey game. Saturday we'll go out for his birthday.

Rent

Yesterday, we went to our second show at the Durham Performing Arts Center. Because I really want to see Wicked when it comes to town, the best way to guarantee tickets was to buy a "Broadway Series" pass. Rent was our first show.

Mike saw Rent in London over ten years ago and we both watched the movie when it came out. It was interesting for me to see the difference in how it translated to stage. A very different experience for sure.

Yet, it was an awesome experience. We were fortunate to catch this tour, which includes the original Mark (Anthony Rapp) and Roger (Adam Pascal). Also, the actress in the role of Mimi (I believe it was Karmine Alers) was amazing. In the movie version, I remember being fascinated by Maureen (played by Idina Menzel) but here I didn't connect with Maureen and Joanne nearly as well.

We've seen a fair number of musicals but we both agreed that this is one of the top performances we've ever seen. It was a great evening and if the other shows in our package are even half as good, we'll be in for a real treat.

"I'm looking for baggage that goes with mine." -Mimi, Rent

Screen Porch Commences

After a long, drawn out process (thanks to zoning issues and City gov't), we're finally started on our screen porch/deck project! We started this back in early November and hope to be done in about a month. And now, I can share a few pictures. In fact, I plan to post pictures almost daily. Prepare to be bored.

I'm going to give a little background first. When we moved into this house, there was a 12x12 deck out back. We soon discovered mosquitoes made it next to impossible for us to enjoy that deck as often as we would like. Thus began the "someday, if we don't move first" dream of building a screened porch.

That day finally came last fall. What we're doing is lifting the existing deck several inches, adding a roof, and screening it in. A door will open to the side to a new deck, approximately 12x8 (running the long way across the house), which will become the new home of our grill. The plans look great and we're very excited!

But then we ran into the zoning issue and had to apply to the City for a variance. It was granted with no issue but it's a long process so that didn't happen until the 12th. When we finalized plans yesterday, our project manager estimated another 3 weeks, depending on weather and inspections.

And now I'll catch you up with pictures:

Day 1 (1/14/09): Demolition of old porch, removal of siding, footer holes dug, base of porch being reassembled and raised.

---

1/15/09: framing of sides and roof begins.

---

1/20/09: Hard to see here, in part because of the bizarre snow, but the roof has been covered now in plywood (I guess, I don't know anything) and felt or paper or something put on top of it.

---

Due to weather and some other issues, there was no work Mon - Thurs of this week.

---

1/23/09: Another layer of something has been put on the roof to prepare for shingles.

We're expecting inspections on Monday, then concrete will be poured, another inspection, then major progress.

Snow Day!

When does the Raleigh area have the greatest chance of a winter weather event? Back home in NY/PA, that answer would've been something along the lines of "November through February". Here in Raleigh, the answer is "January 18-20". Yes, we are far more specific here in the South.
In 2000, just before Mike and I moved to NC, the area was hit with a massive snowstorm on Jan 22nd, dropping over 18 inches of snow and knocking out power for days.

In 2005, less than one inch of snow on Jan 19th caused such gridlock that we made the national news.

And now, in 2009, we received 7+ inches of snow here yesterday, January 20th.

The storm started as rain Monday night then turned to snow overnight. By the time I woke up Tuesday morning, work had been called off (mine was canceled, Mike was able to work from home) and we had about 3 inches of snow on the ground. It continued to fall steadily all morning and into the afternoon, stopping off around 7-8 inches.

Since we don't get snow here very often, it tends to paralyze the entire area, which is fine by me. It was great to just appreciate the beauty of the snow without having to go out on the roads. Plus, it meant we could watch the Inauguration events.

This morning I had a two-hour delay because water in the roads had refrozen overnight. The main highways were clear when I came in around 10am and only the secondaries and bridges/ramps seemed to be an issue.

By tomorrow, temperatures will rise enough that our snow will be completely gone. But I'm glad we at least managed a real snow this year.

All pictures are from yesterday's storm.

9 in '09 - Week #3

Let's see how I did last week.

Plans:

• diet plan = keep grains to a minimum, focus on fruits/veggies - I'd say 75% success on this
• 3 workouts - I only did two workouts but a total of over 90 minutes (60 Wed, 36 Sat on WiiFit)
• 64 oz water a day - yes, 80 oz on Wednesday
• pickup house, deep clean 1 room - not so much
  
• 10 magazines - only two
• read 1 hr per day - nope
• catch-up a blog project - nope

Wow, what a failure of a week though it was pretty busy.

This week:

• 3 workouts
• 64 oz water a day
• diet = minimum grains, eat lots of fruits/veggies/soup
• pickup house
• 12 magazines
• read 100 pages of book
  

Saturday is busy but the rest of the week should be uneventful. I'm home today (MLK) and have a lot I want to accomplish. There's a slight possibility of snow tonight that could be enough to put me home tomorrow as well so that would be a good thing for my task list.

9 in '09 - Week #2

Let's see how I did last week.

Plans:

• follow the diet plan I've set - yes, lost 7.4 lbs
  
• 3 workouts - 2 days of frantic house cleaning, 33 min WiiFit Sat, 10 min WiiFit Sun
  
• 6 glasses of water per day during week, 4 on weekend - 64oz (8 glasses) every day
  
• clean entire house to "presentable level", starting downstairs - yes
  
• 10 magazines - 11 but then 5 more were added to the pile
  
• help with email and blog tasks requested by Mike - sorta
  
• 11 hours of reading this week - big fail, only read 3.5 due to migraines
  
• blog topic planning/pre-writing - I did some planning, no pre-writing
  

In all, I'd say a good week. I had 3 days of migraines that made reading tough but I still accomplished a lot.

This week:

• diet plan = keep grains to a minimum, focus on fruits/veggies
• 3 workouts
• 64 oz water a day
• pickup house, deep clean 1 room
  
• 10 magazines
• read 1 hr per day
• catch-up a blog project
  

Meeting Tues night, hockey Thurs night. Dr appt Thurs during the day for some test results.

A light week, overall, but with two evenings tied up that will cut down on available time. I also don't work from home this week so that will take away some time.

Happy Gotcha Day!

Everyone's favorite stripey cat is celebrating his Gotcha Day today. Ripley joined our household on January 11, 2005.This year, he spent some time sick and I was worried about him for awhile. He's doing just fine now though.

He spends most of his days looking out the back window and smashing his tail back and forth at squirrels. He and Tasha still aren't great pals though we have caught them sleeping on the bed at the same time once or twice. He also loves to sleep on our Slankets.

We're hoping that in the next few months we'll have a screened porch for kitties to hang out on. They get so excited about open windows, I can only imagine what a three-sided "window" is going to be like for them.

Migraines

I don't have much to say except to put it on record that I had a migraine for 3 days this week. It started Tuesday, left Wednesday afternoon, reappeared Thursday afternoon and finally left last night.

Boring. Zzzzzzzzzz...

A Few Of My Favorite Things

I don't post many items of a political nature here (deliberately) but this clip has some of my favorite things. Anderson Cooper, Jon Stewart, Obama, puppies. How could I not?

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Road to the Doghouse - Puppedential Debate

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

9 in '09 - Week #1

Back to weekly accountability posts since I failed so horribly last year at achieving my goals. Each Monday I will take a look back at what was accomplished the previous week and also look ahead to plan out the upcoming week.

This week:

• follow the diet plan I've set (skipping the specifics here)
• 3 workouts, low intensity but do something
• 6 glasses of water per day during week, 4 on weekend
• clean entire house to "presentable level", starting downstairs
• January's clutter focus is magazines, 10 total this week (current total = 4 of about 60)
• help with email and blog tasks requested by Mike
• read 1 hr/day plus make up for 4 days missed = 11 hours of reading this week
• decide on topics for my other blog for the entire week, start pre-blogging those

That should keep me busy but still be obtainable. We don't have too many interruptions in the evenings this week (a hockey game one night) and no plans currently for the weekend.

I'm actually looking forward to getting this started and making progress. It's well beyond time for things to get "back to normal" and on a routine.

Slumdog Millionaire

Mike and I watch a fair amount of movies. I wouldn't go so far as to say "a lot", mostly because I always intend to watch more and we don't.

However, it's rare that one stands out as truly great, especially to the point that I feel inspired to blog about it. But yesterday we saw Slumdog Millionaire and I want to encourage everyone to go see this beautiful movie.I originally discounted this film based on the name. Slumdog Millionaire just didn't sound like something I'd be interested in. Then I heard it was about the Hindi version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire". No thanks! But yesterday, Mike really wanted to go to a movie and nothing looked good. I had heard this one received great reviews so I took a second look at the summary and we decided to check it out. I'm so glad we did!

The movie is about Jamal, a young man who grew up in the slums of Mumbai. Though uninterested in the cash prize, he appears on the Hindi version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire". At the end of taping for the day, he has successfully answered all of his questions, leaving only the final question for the ultimate prize. Overnight, he is taken into police custody and accused of cheating. How could this poor man know all of these answers? Jamal explains how he knew each individual answer by telling the story of his life. Each answer was tied to a major event he experienced.

I'm not generally impressed with child actors and this movie had a lot of them as his story was retold. Really, it's the story not only of Jamal but also of his brother and an orphan girl, Latika. Three different sets of actors portray these characters at various points and the two younger sets were absolutely amazing. I've never seen such fabulous acting by any young child, let alone six of them.

The movie was sad, funny, horrifying, and heart-warming. Even though much of it takes place in impoverished areas, the cinematography is bright and beautiful. It's been nominated for "Best Picture" and definitely deserves the honor. A lot of people haven't seen the film though as it's not playing in most of the major theatres. Of probably 12 major theatres we checked locally, it was only appearing in one (plus the independent "arty" theatre).

Do yourself a favor and see this movie. If it's not playing locally, make a note to rent it when it hits DVD. We'll be adding this one to our collection as soon as it's available.

For trailers, photos, and more information, check out the official site. Or don't - because we hadn't seen any trailers and knew very little about it going in (no more than you've read in this post) and it was a great way to experience this film.

Life is not the way it's supposed to be. It's the way it is. The way you cope with it is what makes the difference. -Virginia Satir

Resolutions - 9 for '09

Welcome to 2009! And welcome to the annual Resolutions post. /p>

First, I'll just say that I failed miserably on just about every resolution I made last year except for the blogging more often, which I didn't do here.

Enough of that, let's go forward. My pal Chix (who introduced me to the awesomeness of the Slanket) said I should do "9 for '09" so here goes!

1. Private so I'm not sharing except to say that it's the reason I failed at a lot of last year's goals. Progress has been made and will continue.


2. Reach goal weight. I realize this is here every year but a new medication this past year has really made a mess for me.


3. Drink daily water. 6 glasses per day by the end of January, 8 glasses per day by the end of March.


4. Complete a 5k (running). Another repeat goal. THIS will be the year. If Mike can run a marathon, I can run a 5k.


5. Keep the house cleaner. Not that it's bad but I need to figure out an actual routine to do this regularly.


6. Clear clutter. This involves reducing and reorganizing, etc. I'm starting immediately with my magazine piles.


7. Support Mike. This includes some new endeavors, his running, and his hectic schedule due to work. It's the very least I can do for all the support he offers me.


8. Read one book per month. Another repeat. This shouldn't be so hard. I love to read. I have time to read. I have books to read. So each month I'm going to post the book title and then a review when I'm done.


9. Blogging/writing projects. I spent most of 2008 with no desire to write but I have one project that's been developing nicely since last Fall. I'm feeling very into it now so I'm going to keep it up. I'm also working on another small blog project that was supposed to launch today but I'll be content with back-dating a few posts in a week. Also, I plan to blog more frequently here.

I'm also returning to the weekly NYR update posts. I need to hold myself accountable - I really think that's part of where I went wrong last year. Almost nobody reads this blog anyways so I'm not too worried about boring people. For anyone that is reading (thanks!), feel free to skip the Monday NYR posts and I'll try to make up for it with more regular other posts.

2009 is going to be awesome, I've already decided. There are some exciting things on the horizon!