APRIL FOOLS!!

Seriously I'll have posted soon.

2012

Happy 2012 everyone!

Well here we are in a brand new year. I wonder what this year will bring not only for those close to me, but also the world at large. We watched Sagan's Cosmos over the holidays and it's funny to see how worried people were about nuclear annihilation during the Cold War. I'm not usually a political person, but it was a very thought-provoking series and much is still very valid today... Will this be the year when ALL the wars cease? What about the nuclear weapons? The Cold War is over, but the threat is still there. No one can be absolutely sure that one of those nations experimenting or stockpiling them won't "press the button" one day. Or maybe will pollution be the cause of our demise? Will this be the year that the human race wakes up and smells the coffee, or will we continue to do nothing because "we are all just 1 person and 1 person can't make a difference"?

I'm still on the physical fitness kick. I kind of got derailed over the holidays, but I did my best not to go berserk with the eating. I'm thinking of taking a pole dancing class. There are no belly dance classes and yoga doesn't fit into my schedule.

I'm also still doing my knitting or crocheting. I've also thrown in some sewing. My next big project is to make my daughter a cape. I found an "easy" pattern. Hopefully soon I'll get my act together and make it. :D I might even do some writing. I found a great book to encourage young people to write and I'm thinking about writing a lesson plan around it. Thus, I'll need to try it out too.

Maybe I'll even post on here more frequently. Only time will tell.

NaNo 2011

Well we're days away from NaNoWriMo 2011 and, as usual, I have not created an outline. I keep saying (to myself) that I'll endeavour to make one for the next NaNo. Well who am I kidding? I think I'm rebelling against all the times I had to produce outlines for high school and university English classes. I hated doing them then and I still do.
I do have an idea for my novel, but for the most part I'll be writing-by-the-seat-of-my-pants as I have done every year. Simon read my an interesting article from a Mac mag about the upcoming NaNo and how to succeed at it. One suggestion was to blog your novel as you went along. It sounds like an intriguing idea and maybe feedback from my "followers" would be a motivator when things look grim. Maybe in the coming days you'll see a link on here to my NaNoBlog.

Will I make my 50k? Will I finish my novel? Will I blog it? Stay tuned.

The Crafting Itch

I seem to suffer from this affliction quite often. I think it's because it's on my I-can't-do-it-so-I-really-want-to-do-it list. The biggest "mistake" i made was subscribing to Burda Style magazine. For those who don't know what it is, it's a fashion magazine full of sewing patterns for the clothes in the issue. Needless to say I have found a zillion things I want to make.

My latest itch is to make an Advent calendar. I have toyed with this idea over a few years. Now I have found the perfect design on Skip to My Lou's site. Here it is:

I need to find some long twigs to arrange in a vase so the birds have branches from which to hang. I'm also 3/4 of the way through my Dr. Who scarf I'm knitting. It's my first knitting project and it's coming along slowly. I only get the evenings to knit (while Simon reads to me). When it's finished I'll post a pic. After that I'm planning on crocheting a hat or knitting a scarf and hat for Miranda out of a royal purple yarn I have on order.

So many projects so little time and I can't choose.

Fitness Log in the Works

Two weeks ago I went to VI Fitness in Victoria with the great idea of signing up with a friend.  We got the tour and the free pass and it sounded good.  I was tempted to join, but after sleeping on it I couldn't justify the 3h (2h of travel and 1h of working out) 3 times a week.  Even though they had child care (at a reasonable price) I would feel guilty losing that much time with him, so I opted not to join. Instead we bought a treadmill.  Part of the free pass was getting a fitness test and a session with a personal trainer.  Well, that was one of the worst days of my life!  I'm very overweight (172 pounds at the weigh-in) and swimming in too much body fat (42%).  I have to lose half my body fat and at least 20 pounds.  I still think something was off because I had recently just bought some clothes at a smaller size.  How could I be heavier and still take a smaller size?!  Anyway on the advice of the personal trainer I'm taking some steps to promote weight/fat loss: ingesting more water (via water, fruit, veg), reducing sugar/salt intake, and doing 45 minutes of hard cardio (reaching my target heart rate) 3 times a week.

I've decided to make public my weekly successes or failures as a way of keeping me honest. I'll log my weekly weight/body fat/water levels. The Activity Log will look pretty scant since I'm just starting to keep track today.

Camp WriMo

Well the folks at NaNoWriMo have decided to run a summer "camp" for keener WriMos out there. I know I usually get the urge to write mid-year and I have had to wait until November. I guess I was not alone and enough people asked about a summer WriMo that they had to put one together. So they did. Camp WriMo opened on July 1st and will run for a July and an August session. Both Simon and I have signed up and have started writing. Though, I have to admit that Summer writing is not as easy as Fall writing.  With the reasonably good weather and various holidays we have been out and about more with family events.  I am already 4599 words behind where I should be to make the 50k by the 31st. Unlike  the November writing I am not as concerned about finishing.  If I do I do, if not then I may have a start for the "real" WriMo later on.