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Archive for May, 2012

555 reckoning

May 31st, 2012 at 04:50 am

The reckoning of 5-5-5.

1 liter of water most days: eh. About half of the days I did, including coffee, soup, tea, water, big salads. The other half, not really.

8 hr sleep most days: yes. I've been going to bed at about 10:45 and if I don't have much sugar that day the hot flash isn't bad enough for me to wake up.

Eat at least 5 colors every day: qualified yes. At least one meal is a salad with usually three colors, along with the daily avocado and either tan, pink, yellow/white for the protein that makes 5. There has been a day or two where its been white and tan. Today I had a slice of cake at a party...I can not count bright blue or pink as colors.

5 new exercises: nope. 2 at most.

5 times where I've exercised without the trainer: nope. Just 2. I have integrating a noon walk after eating at my desk.

All told, though, I'm back down to 164.4. I was up as "high" as 168.

Frugal superpowers

May 28th, 2012 at 05:36 am

Thursday night, I swapped the cords from our non-working DVD player to to the one I bought last week at the neighborhood yard sale. The player and the remote work!

Friday I joked that I had a frugal superpower. Along with being able to pick grocery store produce ... and I used that this weekend by picking out and buying the best 3 pound clamshell of strawberries. Our own strawberries in the strawberry pot are flowering and just setting fruit, as is one of our blueberry plants.

Got the idea for sister's birthday gift in August from a photo she sent me with my birthday gift... turns out that the farmette finally now has a mailbox. And that got me thinking; the classic first mosaic project for some is a house number plate. I know we have no house number plate at the farmette, so a mosaicked one will be her birthday gift.

lots of stuff to report (long)

May 21st, 2012 at 03:44 am

So lets see...

Thursday I checked out a free talk by a fine art mosaic artist at a little rent space. I'll be filing that spot away for next winter - you can go and grout there. It turns out that Seattle is a small hotbed of mosaickers, so I'm going to tap into that.

Friday we put down the deposit for the space in Buenos Aires. At least according to the pictures, it looks sweet. Its a high-end four bedroom, four bath house with other amenities. The cost per person per day for our group is about $49. The only issue is that the place is fairly far away from the center of downtown, the history, and the sites, but it is close to the subway. Right now we have the airline tix, the living quarters...now to think about what we will do for 14 days. I say to give the guys an argentine grilling class.

Saturday was a double hit: the Greenwood Yard Sale and ticket to the Rat City Rollergirls. A co worker skated with them but is now retiring, so we all wanted to see her skate one last time. I had a fair amount of luck at the yard sales - DJ friend and wife are expecting, so I got 4 baby outfits for $10. I went a bit pricey because 3 of the outfits were new (one of them still had the tags), and all looked cute, clean, and were of different ages. I also got 2 sets of outdoor glasses for $2, a grout float for .20, a chisel for .10, and a DVD player for $2. Normally I wouldn't take the chance, but our DVD player is acting up, and the player I got was tidy and the remote was clean and tidy also...so it looked like a good gamble. If its not, well, 2 DVD players will be donated. Most of what saved me money was taking a picture of interesting things, rather than actually buying them.

Best thing I saw was a complete 3 inch telescope


Funniest thing I saw was this from the tool sale


Best blast from the past were these TV tubes in a bucket. It so reminded me of when the TV repairman made house calls, came in with his case full of these tubes all lined up.


The Rollergirls game was tremendous fun for $12. Not quite sure whether it was 'real', but then again, all sports are performance. There was a lot of humor if you looked at the skate names, skate numbers, referees.

We saved a bit by knowing the right bus line. Sneakily, we parked about 1.5 mi from our house, took the direct bus from there, then took the bus back to the car. Unfortunately for my diet, the arena food was expensive and not in keeping with 555 principles. Smile. I got a chance to see what the sports setting of my camera did.

Coworker, conferring:


What the action generally looked like. The skatenames were a hoot...stuff like 357 Semi-Automatic, Ann R. Kissed (say it out loud). 30 in this picture was Shovey Chase. One of the referees was called Hanging Chad.


Glad that the referee was secure in his, um... referee-ness. This was the second game, so the skaters were different.


And Sunday, we had two hits in the death bet. The leader is still ahead Big Grin, but the rest of the pack has now spread out.

the repair cafe

May 15th, 2012 at 07:46 am

I read

Text is about repair cafes and Link is http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/world/europe/amsterdam-tries-to-change-culture-with-repair-cafes.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all
about repair cafes in the New York Times last week. A space, a group of people who are willing to take a whack at fixing things, other people that bring non-working stuff, along with coffee, tea, and cookies. Intriguing idea, I wonder if we can start something like this in our neighborhood. We have a lot of coffee shops that run trivia nights, craft nights, and other events.

Our biggest repair coup couldn't have happened in a repair cafe. DH replaced the belt on the washer about 5 years ago - still running well.

Today the trainer looked terrible - I was his last appointment, and I asked him to go home, I could construct a workout myself and follow it. Only 3 more additional visits to complete that 555.

money and gym updates

May 14th, 2012 at 03:18 am

Took a look at the 403B - its all knit together into one account. Now to figure out how I want to rebalance things.

Looked at my not-so little drip portfolio. Still hanging in there pretty well. I've shut off adding to two companies WEC and IP, but I'm adding to TGT. I am ashamed to say that I am following the JP Morgan trading issue with more than a little amusement.

555 doings: I've been off and on with the water. The beef soup helped last week, but this week I'm going to drink it. I'm taking two days off this week, so those days along with the weekend means that I'll get the 8 hours those days. Had a six-colored salad with my sliced turkey on Friday. Today, when I stowed my clean gym clothes in a storage locker I realized that I could put some of them on and work out for an hour, so FINALLY I met a new 555 requirement. (5 workouts at the gym without a trainer...got 1). During the little workout, I used the interval setting on the bike which I NEVER did before and used the stretching machine which I also NEVER used before (do or use 5 new exercises ... so far I have 3).

403/555

May 9th, 2012 at 03:50 am

At work, the consolidation of our two 403B accounts is proceeding - I could only get into the one account that is remaining. Supposedly all money in on account got sold last Friday. Good time: stock prices are dropping so we are buying on the dip. End of this week we should see everything in its one account glory. Then its the decision on if and how to rebalance.

So far this year, the 403B has been growing at about 4%. It was 6% a couple of weeks ago.

In the 555 doings, Sunday I missed getting the 1 liter of water, but made it the other days; missed the 8 hrs of sleep last night (got about 7 though); ate salads - green purple orange red pink and white and at night have been eating the beef veg soup - green orange yellow and a bit of red. I've been a bit slack on trying to get extra days in. Tomorrow I'm going to try spin again.

a couple more 555s

May 6th, 2012 at 05:05 am

May 3 - did manage to get the 1 liter of water by drinking the rest at bed time.

May 4 - got about 3/4 l of water, got 8 hrs sleep, ate avocado green, cucumber and lettuce green, red cabbage, orange carrot, along with a dab of yellow egg salad on a cracker. Trainer had me do a new exercise: the overhead kettlebell swing. I didn't concentrate on locking my wrists so I was dangerously tippy. After a couple of sets he had me switch to three-quarter high swings. He also had me do one-arm snatches with a 20lb dumbbell...(good practice for lifting turkeys out of grocery freezers), but those weren't new. Good day all around for the 555.

I'm about to use the last of the beef - beef shank and bones for beef soup. Plan on making a simple beef vegetable soup with at least five colors so I'll set myself up for a few days next week.

3 days of 555

May 4th, 2012 at 05:24 am

From my notes:

May 1 - drank about 3/4 l of water, so close; got 8 hrs of sleep but I woke in the middle with a night sweat; ate 4 colors - avocado green, lettuce green, carrot orange, white and red of radishes. I didn't count tan meat and that I finished up birthday cake whose frosting was a dubious color. Didn't do an extra workout and didn't learn any new exercises - that will be the case most days.

May 2 - drank 1 liter water, got 7 1/2 hrs of sleep, ate 3 colors - avocado green, bright yellow rutabaga, several red grape tomatoes

May 3 - only drank about 1/2 liter water, but the night is still semi-young. Smile. Will try to get to bed in about an hour, ate 4 colors -avocado, broccoli, red pepper, olive green.

My 555s

May 2nd, 2012 at 03:50 am

After a few days of thought, my 555s:

1. Drink 1 liter of water daily at least 5 days out of the week.
2. Get at least 8 hours of sleep at least 5 days out of the week (normally I get about 7 or so, pretty close).
3. 5 extra days in the gym this month - either a class or "on my own".
4. Eat at least 5 different colors most days.
5. Learn 5 new calisthenics this month ... I figure my trainer can help with that.

Got three colors so far today - time for the evening salad.

Five year plan will require more thought.

WTO, part 2

May 2nd, 2012 at 03:29 am

I left work early this afternoon. For me that's 4:30pm. There was a little whiff of tear gas in the air. I did manage to get out before the total transit snarl up. The protesters held the bus up for about 5 minutes before we got through. Not many people waiting until north of downtown.

TV cameras aplenty along Second Ave at noon.

DH left work - he's a seasonal temp for the IRS - early also. Matter of fact, that office shut down as soon after the first wave of window breaking happened. We were south and a bit west of the high end commercial corridor that got hit (again - those very windows were hit during WTO).

The new trick of the season was the sign used - party on the top (the sign itself), metal knob business end at the base of the stick. Protestor whacked windows with the business end of sign.