Stuff that happened yesterday...

It appears you are stuck with me posting in lists...

1.  Still haven't read Beanie's first comic narrative.  It's only 7 pages and I've read a page and a half so far.  *dun*dun*dun*  Will he forgive me??? Be scarred for life? Stay tuned.

2.  Shmoo has more jackets, hoodies and coats than the next 3 people you know.  Not kidding. Take one guess what his first "tip" purchase was?  A leather jacket! He's killing me.  I told him I'm going to start charging rent, that way I'll get a leather coat. 

3.  I went to the doctor's.  It appears I'll be trekking to Scripps to get my little bit of skin cancer removed. Apparently the nose is problematic. In my case the where seems to be more significant than the what.  I'm fine.  A little freaked (cuz it's gross) about the upcoming procedure, but not scared.  Does that make sense?

4.  I ate Cocoa Puffs for dinner.

5.  At Shmoo's insistence GG & I watched the trailer for THE WOLFMAN.  Wow!  Check it out. I was reluctant too, but it looks kind of interesting. Any thoughts?

6.  I received two cards in the mail.  I arrived home from work after 7 PM to find two cards addressed to me from my sisters.  Nothing at all to do with my nose, just lovely thoughts from my seesters.  Very nice.  Very welcome.  Love you M and N!

7.  Commiserated with GG over the fact we not only need new tires for his car, but also rims to the tune of $900.  The money goes out of the savings waaaay faster than it goes in.  Rims ordered.  Pockets empty.  Blerg!

8.  Finished BOUND BY YOUR TOUCH by Meredith Duran.  Why'd I wait so long?

Making a List and Checking it Twice

...Gonna find out who's naughty or nice. Yeah, I got no where to go with that I just had to finish the line. Now that I'm taking a deep breath with the first wedding under my belt, I feel sorta liberated. I feel better able to concentrate on other things like packing and planning for RWA for instance.

I'm so glad I'm off today. It's my 4th of July holiday. I've got a bunch of stuff to do since we'll be out at the park working for the community 4th of July festivities tomorrow. The fire department I work for is very involved with the town. We have a booth every year and stuff for the kids, etc.

Fun WILL be had by all as we cook in the sun and wait for sundown and the fireworks extravaganza.

1. Finish business card design for a certain special somebody.

2. Grocery shop so we don't starve for the next week.

3. Order some prescriptions for vacations (GG & Shmoo are going on a trip too)

4.

5. Dry cleaners

6. Finish June Reading List post for blog.

7. Catch up blog hopping.

8. Finish ceremony book for niece's wedding.

9. Write and mail birthday cards for two of the Stairsteps.

10.

11. Go to movie with GG because I promised him I would.

What can I say, it's a full day.

You know things are better when...

...I'm making lists. I actually made this one last weekend when I wanted to get caught up and back in the swing of things. Looking it over last night I felt pretty good about my progress because I've gotten several items crossed off the list already.

Do some blog hopping. (I had over 1000 posts to go through. I skimmed some; deleted some and read and commented on some. I'm down to about 240 now.)

Check out the e-book sites to see what I've missed the last about 4 months. (You guys got any e-book recs?)

Review 'drafts' in blog list. Delete and update.

Update 2008 spreadsheet. Add October, November and December reads.

Do reading lists for blog for October, November and December 2008.

Set up 2009 spreadsheet.

Write a post and sum up my reading year.

Update my TBB list.

Update my search list.

Dream about logging all my tbr books.

Dream about logging all the books I own.

Email SoCal bloggers about potential get together.

Update

Books read the past two weeks: ONE

Parties attended the past week: FOUR

Christmas decorations up: 75%...lots of lights but no ornaments on the tree

Google Reader posts unread: 259

Christmas packages to mail by end of week: THREE

Christmas cards completed: NONE

Christmas shopping completed: 75%

Mental health: Suprisingly cheerful despite lengthy 'To Do' list

Light at end of tunnel: Dim, but at least I see some

Got List?

Do you make lists? I may have mentioned a time or two that I make lists. I make lists on my posts. I can get organized and focus when I have lots to do as long as I have my trusty list.

This time of year I have lists and lists and lists. I have a baking list. A Christmas gift list. A shopping list. A list for near home and a list for far from home places to shop. Doesn't everyone have a grocery list? I have a board in my kitchen where we can mark down stuff for Target/WalMart, Vons, or Costco. Yes, it takes three different stores to supply the GG household.

Of course I always have a running TBB list of books I'm looking for. It's separated into 'new or current releases' and UBS books.

Now with the holidays I go into full list mode. I have a form. Yes, an actual form. It's two sided and has four days on one side and four days on the other. I fold the 81/2 by 11 sheet of paper into fourths. I can list chores, shopping, etc. all by day so I can see the week. This way I can make decisions about time or rearrange stuff. It makes it so much easier for things that need to be done during the holidays. By dividing stuff up I can organize so I can do all the things that are important to me.

Recently there was an email sent out about Christmas cards requesting anyone who wanted to participate to put their mailing address in an email loop and the participants would exchange Christmas cards. I've been doing Christmas cards every year without missing for... Give me a sec, I'm calculating... 30 years. Yes, I know, that's longer than some of you have been alive. Which let me just say right now is a little freaky for me to realize. Anyway, I'm pretty sure my first year was 1978. I could get up and check my files, but then I'd be late for work. So you get my guess instead. Whew! You realize that this means I've been sending out cards for 30 years straight. Day-um!

Of course I don't stop there. I've also kept one card and the letter, if there was one, from each year. These have turned out to be valuable tools for dating stuff and events because when the kids want to know when something happened, like say a vacation, I've usually noted it in our family Christmas letter. So they've turned out to be like a mini-archive of lives.

How I got so off track from lists I'll never know. Anyway, my point is I'm in full list making mode. Thanksgiving marks the start. I'm doing some shopping, list making, celebrating my anniversary and Christmas decorating this weekend. What's on your list this weekend? What are all of you doing over the Thanksgiving holidays?

This week's list...

New week and a new list to torture myself with.

1. Write review of ARC. THIS WEEK!

2. Do buddy review of most excellent DARK DESIRES AFTER DUSK by Kresley Cole

3. Doctor appointment. Done! Done! Done!

4. Get car washed. My first repeater from last week.

5. TBR review for Keishon's challenge post due on May 21. Uh, yeah, I guess I'll be wedging this in between scrapbooking tonight.

6. Start changing online passwords. After Super Librarian's hacker invasion I think I better do a little cyber housework and get passwords changed. I've got passwords that have never been changed since I started the accounts. Yikes! Pssst...I DID already start this one, but I need to get less panicked and more systematic about it.

7. Do I even need to say it? Shmoo's scrapbook.

8. Oh print out and put together the surprise "letter" book I'm doing for Shmoo too.

9. Now that I've done grad list I need to organize and prioritize it.

So let's see...it's already Tuesday. I'm supposed to write three reviews before the end of the week which to put it mildly is a bit daunting with everything else going on. I'll just have to take that one day at a time and keep whispering under my breath, "Inch by inch life's a cinch. Yard by yard life is hard."

What you don't see on my list is reading. Okay, I never put that on my list because it is usually a given, but looking at the list I'm thinking there's not a whole lot of down time there. The merry month of May has not been a good reading month. Bummer. Major bummer.

Well, I better get crackin' on my list. So, what about you...what's on your 'TO DO' list this week? I'm absolutely certain you are having more fun than I am.

Things I should be doing, but I'm not...

1. Shmoo's scrapbook. Yeah, uh, not started yet. This weekend FOR SURE!

2. Make list of stuff "To Do" for Shmoo's graduation party

3. Purchase decorations for Shmoo's "Luau" graduation party DONE! DONE! DONE!

4. Finish Shiloh Walker's ARC of THROUGH THE VEIL and do review

5. Write column (due Thursday!) for Reader's Access

6. Get a clue of an idea for Reader's Access column

7. Reverse items 6. and 7.

8. Find a car for Shmoo before he drives us nuts

9. Find out date for Beanie's Jr. College graduation (I'm a bad mother because I don't already know this)

10. Make reservations and pay for Beanie's new student orientation at CalState school he's been accepted to. DONE! DONE! DONE!

11. Lose 4 lbs in the next 8 days to meet my 20 lb weight loss goal with my work's weight loss challenge. Yes, I know that losing 16 lbs is great, but my goal was 20 lbs in 12 weeks. I can eat oatmeal and water for the next week...really I can. *gulp*

12. Read and review a book from my TBR for next week (5/21) for Keishon's challenge. I really have to work on Shmoo's scrapbook this weekend and NOT read a book don't I?

13. Wash my car. Um, maybe the car wash for this one?

14. Get my flower garden planted out front. I'm only 6 weeks behind on this one. I'd really like some flowers out there before Shmoo's grad party. Hey maybe I take this off MY list and put it on Shmoo's grad party list which is, you know, still MY list.

This is just this week's list that I have to fit in between working, walking, swimming, grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning house, and preparing the occasional meal. In other words the life of a typical Mom.

Time to roll up the sleeves and get my hands dirty.

The Countdown...

The countdown begins... I'm checking my lists for my final shopping at the grocery stores. Thankfully all the other shopping is done and gifts are wrapped. Whew! to that one. My shopping is so done that I actually 'accidentally' did clothes shopping for myself yesterday. Can you believe that? Totally spontaneous because I'd never plan something like that. I don't mind so much looking for the clothes, but I hate the trying on stuff. I'm always weighing out whether I hate making returns for stuff I didn't like worse than stopping to try stuff on in the store.

Anyway, yesterday trying stuff on in the store won out. I came away with a new raincoat (totally needed and 50% off!), 4 tops and 2 pairs of jeans. Retailers are desperate this year and the sale was unreal. Liz Claiborne jeans for $29? I HAD to buy them I tell you...HAD to.

We did a Secret Santa gift exchange yesterday at work and I got a $25 gift card to Barnes & Noble. Is that lucky or what? Seriously, I should play the lottery don't you think?

Today it's the water and soda run at Costco and all the fresh stuff at the grocery store and I should be set for my Christmas Eve soiree. Except we are still debating Christmas dinner in my household. Steak. My boys want steak. Not prime rib, ham or turkey. Steak. Am I crazy or does that seem like an odd Christmas dinner?

Gotta go to work. I'm running behind. I just wanted to drop in and say hi to everyone and hope you aren't too frazzled with holiday preparations. I hope all my friends in the east are staying warm and cozy and not having too much trouble with the snow and cold.

Hopefully I'll be posting again over the weekend if things don't get too crazy!

Hah! Another One (or Three) Bites the Dust...

What a relief that I'm slowly but surely plodding my way through that "To Do List" we all hate. You know the list of stuff you are putting off until you absolutely can't stand it any more and have to do it?

Here's part of my list:

1. Clean out the filing cabinet in our office. Update and relabel files. Make new 2007 files.

2. Tag old posts on blog.

3. Add links on blog and delete others.

4. Clean out computer, phone and online files. Reorganize, alphabetize and delete. Sift through photo files and do same.

5. Update monthly menus and shopping list and start using them again.

6. Update my 2006 book list and reorganize list and enter books for 2007.

There's more but they are all as loathesome and boring as these. For instance I need to figure out and plan when I'm taking all my drapes in for Spring cleaning. I rotate them so all the windows won't be covered in sheets at once and I won't owe the drycleaners my first born to get the drapes back.

Honestly some of these are on the list when they ordinarily wouldn't be like number 6. Usually I log and organize as I go, but when I did my project over November and December I got behind. It was only a few books, because I was busy with the project, but then I just let them start piling up. Thankfully I've emerged from my stupor and taken care of that one.

In fact of those I've listed 4. and 6. are done and I'm working on 3. which is mostly done. Cleaning up my files on my phone and computer was a major undertaking. All done now and it feels great to have gotten rid of stuff. In fact as I look at my list I've completed a couple of others like going through ye old bookshelves and culling books to take to the UBS. I had 4 bags of books to take in. I think I can rewrite my list and maybe cheer myself up even more.