This post picks up where we last left off, but peters toward incomplete at the end of it. I think the whole 'bloggging about the fitness thing' isn't necessarily working.

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I know we walked on Monday, but apparently I forgot to note how long it was and I've completely forgotten the route.

1.2 km.- Tuesday - Thoka, as always, totally annoying without Neil on the walk

2.7 km - Wednesday, I was feeling energetic and we went early in the evening, the weather was so fantastic.

1.9 km - Thursday, good walking for the humans, but Thoka was crazed and I had to hand him off mid-walk for the sake of my blood pressure.

1.2 km - Friday, both of us were incredibly tired. End of a long week and I actually brought work home. Thoka appears to agree, being asleep now.

Hmmmm.... seem to have lost the weekend. I think we both skipped saturday, and then on sunday, Neil skipped out on the flimsy excuse that giving a lecture and helping students make beads all day long was exhausting. I stayed home and entertained the dog all day, which is pretty exhausting in a way too but Thoka and I went for a walk in the evening too. I was afraid of losing my own habit. But we just did 1.2 km.

Have no idea what happened on monday, but on Tuesday, Thoka and I went to our first puppy obedience class. It is.... I don't know yet. I'm of mixed mind.

Wednesday night, Thoka and I walked 2.3 km. Neil joined us for the last 1.2 km. :)

Thursday - haven't the foggiest.

Friday - haven't the foggiest.

Saturday - Bogenschutzenfest! Thoka came with us - so many new smells, so many new people to con into believing that he's cute and adorable and needs to be petted.

Sunday - I stayed home and made pumpkin pie, and green tomato salsa. And did a lot of laundry. Thoka and Neil went to the Wareham Forge for the day to play with smelting like things.

Monday - Down to the parentals for turkey dinner! Brought the dog but had to leave him outside all day because my Dad is both allergic and asthmatic. It was a nice day, we could be outside much of the day with him.

Tuesday - Home sick, but had to take Thoka out for a walk before his hyperactivity killed me. 2.1 km. Puppy obedience class tonight - I don't know how I'm going to make it through that. I'm not at my best, and I'm ready to kill the damned dog after spending all day fending off his.... energetic.... approach to life.

Puppy obedience class that night was pure hell. He was such a frigging pain in the butt and I was so afraid of him peeing or pooping in the class (he did) that I couldn't focus at all on what the instructor was saying. I held it together til I was picking up Neil after his night class, and then bawled all the way home.  Spent the next two days avoiding the dog altogether.

Note to self: don't spend the whole day at home alone with the creature-from-hell just yet.

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Okay now... a whole other week has gone by and I like the doggie again. There has been walking. I have neglected to keep track of it.

My sinuses have been somewhat unhappy for ....say... the last 8 weeks. Is it the month we spent in Newfoundland clearing our systems of Ontario's pollution? Is it an allergy to the dog? (I didn't have that much of a problem with Leif.) Is it the change of seasons? The furnace coming on? A cold?

Karen

still more fitness and doggie - with flowers

1.2 km - Thursday

3.0 km - Friday - doggie was psycho, weather was fantastic

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No walk on saturday. We went to Oakridge Acres Fall Farm Day, and spent a ton in the store. Thoka went along for the car ride, but it was too busy there to let him out.

In the afternoon, we had friends over to build a bead furnace and they brought Bella. Bella exhausted Thoka, and vice versa.




Neil found building a bead furnace to be physically challenging, and Karen's only excuse is pretty marginal in that her sinuses are trying to kill her.

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We did a ton of housecleaning today.

2.5 km tonight. Thoka was relatively well behaved. Or I was channeling Ceasar Millan. Can't figure out which.

Karen

Thoka helping out in the garden, more exercise

This is our first weekend with Thoka when we first discovered his 'talent' in the garden. Took a bit to convert the file. It's a bit grainy, but still funny.

Here you go...


Thoka Video


Walking on tuesday night was just 1.2 km, but Thoka was much better behaved tonight.

Had lots of sushi for lunch today - went with friends. :)

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It's wednesday and I'm looking back.... it's only been a week since I started this walking everyday and tracking it thing? It feels so much longer.

Well, I guess that's why I'm tracking it.

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Tomorrow, Thoka will have been with us for 3 weeks. That makes him 11 weeks old. He's gained 4 pounds (I have never managed to convert to metric in measuring my weight), and 3 inches in height. He's gonna be a big doggie.

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Vandy asked me if my camera was broken. Apparently I'm not posting enough pictures of the doggie recently. I will endeavor to correct that oversight. :)

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Did 40 flights of stairs today. Up and down.

Where 'flight' is defined as 'all in one direction, two flights per floor'. 10 floors, twice up and twice down. Took about 15 minutes. Definite increase in heart rate.

Was able to report to facilities that the air quality on 5, 6, and 7 is seriously diminished. Turns out they knew already but still.... I should get a gold star for attentiveness or something. It's not an everyday occurence.

Both the attentiveness and the air quality problem, that is. :)

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Aren't you glad I don't have a Twitter account? At least this is one long post of seriously disjointed thoughts posted all at once and not millions of discontinuous thoughts throughout the day.

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1.9 km tonight.

Karen

Monday walking

Got an awesome letter from UW's food services, explaining which guidelines they use to calculate the sodium content in their meals. References and all!

We just disagree a little about the guidelines that should be used. But that they did some research and returned my letter is amazing. One so rarely expects that kind of service in bureaucratic institutions.

The long and short of it is that they are working from the old standard guideline based on an upper average of 2390mg per day, instead of the more current 1500mg per day. The Government of Canada has set new standards, and says it's working with food producers on a voluntary compliance basis to bring sodium levels down across the board by 2016.

Well.... good luck with that voluntary compliance thingy.

If I was in charge of the world, I'd make compliance mandatory. Better yet, I'd wave my magic wand and....

Anyhoo.... walked around Ring Road at work again today. The short version this time, cutting off one corner of it.The total was 2.4 km.

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Tonight's walk with Thoka was just 1.7 km. He was psychotic, and we were both tired and wanting to get back to a new line-up of tv shows.

Castle returns from it's summer hiatus tonight! House was.... amusing.

Sunday walk

2.5 km today. But it seemed longer. We were working on correcting and controlling Thoka such that he will walk calmly in a way that doesn't entangle our feet.

He's a problem.

Remember those digging skills I mentioned last weekend? He demonstrated then again this weekend. Right in the middle of one of my more finished gardens. With rather fierce determination. Ample correction has been applied.

We think there might be mice in garden. He means well.

Fitness again, and Thoka

Short walk Thursday night, just 1.1 km.

It was just me again, and the weather was lousy. That is, I was the only human. Thoka the pup was along for the ride as well. He's a real pain when Neil is not on the walk with us. Thoka wanders all over and seems to prefer 'sideways' and 'backwards' to 'straight ahead'.  Yeah, I know, I'm never gonna end up in a sideways pocket of the universe this way.

But I'm really looking forward to puppy obedience classes in October so I can get some training in dominance behaviours.

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2.5 km on friday night. Pretty much the longest route we can do in this small town, without repeating some part of the loop. Neil was with us tonight and Thoka was much happier.

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1.01 km on saturday, but we did some work in the backyard, and to be fair, it was quasi-raining. Neil had his usual weather luck in that it opened up into a much heavier rain just as we arrived back at our own front door.
Thoka was all tuckered out after the time out working in the backyard -  His persistence in digging is ... quite remarkable.

I'm finding that I'm feeling better after a walk. I still resent the time it takes, know that this small town will bore the crap out of me soon enough, and I won't be quite so eager in the oncoming Canadian cold weather...... but I like the feeling of the lungs getting some sort of workout.

And as I gaze at my napping puppy..... I know that "a tired puppy is a good puppy".

Day 2: fitness reporting

I'm just arbitarily gonna call it Day 2 of fitness reporting. This isn't by way of promising that I'll blog every day like the esteemed Grondzilla, but I need to track the fitness thing somehow.

For breakfast, I had the Tim Hortons' breakfast sandwich - bacon and egg on an english muffin. Their nutrional information calculator kindly informs me that the sodium content is 710mg, with 3g of sugar. Yes, sugar is bad now too. :(

http://www.timhortons.com/ca/en/menu/nutrition-calculator.html

I had sushi for lunch - while not the exact version of what I had, a similiar package is nutritionally calculated at 860mg of sodium and 12g of sugar.

I then walked around the campus Ring Road (sort of, I elongated it in places). This really neat newly discovered gadget calculates my walk at approximately 3.13 km.

gmap-pedometer.com

Highlights from that walk were the skinny little size 0 passing me when I'm at my briskest pace! and noticing that Concrete Blonde makes really good walking music.

Supper tonight was two very fresh pieces of corn on the cob and we won't even talk about the butter and salt that is necessary to it's enjoyment, and a homemade mini pizza (bruscetta and cheese on a pita).

And tonight's walk with Neil and Thoka was approximately 1.9 km.

I hear that if you can get through the first 14 days of any new habit, it's supposed to have a better chance of sticking. Wish me luck, send me kudos!

Tonight's walk

Thoka was very scared of everything without Neil's dominant presence on the walk tonight. I nearly had to drag him around for most of the walk. Of course, we did try a new route and there were people, and other dogs, and people cutting their lawn.

It's hard to get Google to tell me exactly what the mileage is but I figure it's approximately 2.2 kilometres.

I really need to just stop looking at this stuff

I'm eating lunch and congratulating myself on choosing a healthier alternative this time.

UW food services has a nutritional information database on much of what it serves on campus. I had the California Chicken Pita.

http://www.foodservices.uwaterloo.ca/nutrition/itemsearch.php?id=1989

It looks good, if you're only reading the percentage column. When you actually look at the milligrams, and do the math, and are aware of the Government of Canada guidelines on sodium consumption....

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/82-003-x/2006004/article/sodium/4148995-eng.htm

One really has to wonder in what weird Universe the University of Waterloo is calculating 640mg to be 23% of 1500 mg.  I wrote them of course. UW is famous for it's math faculty and all.

Thoka, exercise, changes to Blogger and my Blog

Thoka and I weeded the comfrey bed, of the comfrey, today. He helped by terrifying me with his digging skills. I think I am going to be using the NO word loudly and frequently when I'm trying to plant in the spring.



Blogger has made changes to the editor, and (also in the range of terrifying) --- I like it!

Also in the way of news - I've been worried about my health for a few years now. Long and short of it is that the Doc says I need to lose weight. More specifically, I need to exercise. I'm not good with that.

I mean, I'm not good at it. I make a lot of excuses. Anyhoo..... new puppy. New leaf to turn over?

Thoka is definitely a purebred mutt, but there's a lot of Australian Cattle Dog in him. This breed needs a lot of exercise.

I need to keep a fitness and nutrition journal. And frankly, the easiest way for me to do that is to blog about it. So.... dear readers, I'll be posting more often, but you may find the content more boring.

Today I walked approximately 3.8 km. And well.... ate 96% percent of my daily recommended intake of sodium at lunch alone. I looked up the nutritional info after I ate the sandwich.

I'll try to do a picture a week, just to keep it entertaining.

Oh, and by the by, I went to the Kitchener Knitters' Fair on saturday and tried out a few spinning wheels. I'm circling around to making a decision. Soon.

Thoka

Yes, we're back from Newfoundland and starting to get unpacked. The weaving is back up on the loom and surprisingly, I'm still willing to work on it.

So... two days ago, himself says 'want to go and look at puppies when you pick me up from work?' And....

Meet Thoka. The name is Icelandic for 'fog'.



He's 9 weeks old, 16 pounds, and a cross between a Mom that is mostly an Australian cattle dog and a Dad that might be a collie. So far, he's beyond adorable.

Look Ma, I'm weaving!

I had this apparently optimistic plan to sew the heddles in two days and weave for the next 7 days.

It took 5 days to knit the heddles and do a little more clean-up/prep work, and I was finally weaving on the 6th day. I've got a day and a half left.

But I'm weaving! I'm finally weaving!



Oh and by the by..........I got screeched in tonight. :)

I'm here, I'm really here

Now that I've been here.....



.....for a few days, and have settled in a bit....



I have to say two things -

1) I'm really really enjoying myself. If it weren't for the lack of flush toilets in the longhouse.... I could live here. I could be a Viking woman.

I'd lose the addiction to the internet eventually. It would be good.

2) And, I'm really looking forward to my day off tomorrow.

Yes, I know, a study in contradictions.

DARC does L'Anse aux Meadows - the blog

I've mostly been writing about our trip to L'Anse aux Meadows over on the blog for the Dark Ages Recreation Company - click the link here. The photography on the DARC blog, by the by, is not mine.

Short version - visitors are time consuming. I'm not as close to weaving at this point as I'd hoped. And contact lens are a pain - literally. I could try the fuzzy world of no contacts and no glasses - once I start weaving. I'm convinced a blind person could do it. But for the setup, I still need to see what I'm doing.

Oh my - I've never met so many creative ways to butcher the taste of seafood in my life. Deep frying seems to be a way of life here, unless they're pan-frying it in a squad of butter.

Karen

We have arrived in Newfoundland

Trust Neil to find us scotch. Oh right.... single malt distilled whiskey. Can't use the word 'scotch' because it's not made in Scotland. The Scots even tried to stop them from using the name 'Glen' but the Supreme Court of Canada beat them up.

Glenora is North America's only single malt distilled whiskey, and it's in Cape Breton. Neil bought 3 bottles.



We moved on to getting to Newfoundland. There was a ferry - this great maw enveloped many 18 wheeler trucks, a few cars and trailers, RVs, and many more ordinary cars.....



And then we pulled away from land.



Six hours later, we arrived on The Rock dead tired and crashed in a nearby hotel. I didn't get my first real view of Newfoundland til the morning. First impression - very much like Iceland.

Second impression - not really like Iceland. Too many trees.

We spent a night in Gros Morne, and wandered the shoreline. Found this creature - a live mussel, still secreting his 'glue' that anchors him in place to all these rocks beneath him.



Karen

Yup, we're on the road again

Haven't really felt like blogging til we got here.

Ben and Jerry's factory tour in Vermont was a bit of a bust. We don't have a scoop shop in Ontario, and we can't get all the flavours routinely in the grocery store. I had wanted to try some of the new flavours that I found on their website.

It didn't happen. They don't have all the flavours available at their on-site scoop shop - only the most popular. At their --main headquarters---. This should be the jewel in their crown. The hospitality should be superb.

Now, they did have all the flavours available - in 1 pint containers. Stupid. I'm traveling. I don't routinely carry a freezer in the car. There were four flavours that I had wanted to try. I'm not going to buy 4 pints of ice cream that I couldn't possibly finish before it melted and I'm not a fan of that much wasted money or food. Very disappointing.

But on the bright side... this morning, we left Alma, New Brunswick - home of the world's largest tides. This boat is a working vehicle - just temporarily grounded (literally) - while the tide is out.



Alma is a very peaceful town, even swarming with tourists. I think I could have enjoyed spending more time there, basking in the tidal changes, good food and a great hotel (Parkland Village Inn) and the change of weather - taking lots and lots of pictures.

Hopewell Rocks, just a little further along the road is another site that demonstrates the range and power of the tides. You can walk on the ocean floor at low tide, and just observe it from above at high tide. We were here in 2005 - this time, there were too many people.



London Wul - a wool shop I totally fell in love with 5 years ago - also a disappointment. I think it's me this time 'though. She does have a lot of stuff, just nothing I wanted. I have different tastes in fiber now. I want more than most shops can offer. I want spinning wheels in the shop to try out, fiber to spin, handmade fiber tools... I don't know really... just more.

It seems like most fiber shops are all about the Knitters. And frankly, I'm tired of it. There's more to do with fiber then knitting. Yes, yes.... blasphemy, I know. Get over it.

ancient tech, ancient enemy

This little fellow is eating all of my asiastic lilies. It's called an Asiastic Lily beetle - what an original name. I hope the lilies come back next year when I'll be prepared to kill the beetle, now that I know how.



Let's hear it for ancient technology! This little bit of wood is based on an artefact in Viking Artefacts (James Graham-Campbell, ed.). The original is just 10cm in length, but this recreation is just a little longer to fit my hand better. It's called a pin beater.



I've been weaving for a few years now, and I admit it, I'm slow. I just didn't see the purpose or usefulness of pin beaters. But since I've been using this one, I'm in awe. It's a great tool, both for weaving on the warp weighted loom and as I'm using it here to beat the tablet weaving header of my new project. Both the new pin beater, and new weaving project are part of the preparations for our trip to L'Anse aux Meadows.

DARC does L'Anse aux Meadows

Text below has been cheerfully thefted from the DARC blog, where I'm also an administrator. Darrell actually wrote the text 'though and made the webpage that is linked here.

At the request of a reader, I'll try to make a few posts about our preparations for this adventure, and I'll certainly be blogging from the road as it happens. Darrell tends to be more of a big picture guy and his posts will show up on the DARC blog, so it might be interesting to follow us both.

the Viking Age comes to LIFE
August 15 - 25, L'Anse aux Meadows NHSC

http://www.warehamforge.ca/DARC-LAM/DARC-LAM-2010.html

The Dark Ages Re-creation Company has been asked by Parks Canada to mount a major presentation at L'Anse aux Meadows NHSC. The 10 days of living history is to help mark the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the archaeological site in Vinland.

Leif, will be much missed

I will miss my friend and companion, Leif, very much.

He was my first dog, and the bestest.

Leif died on sunday. I hope he knows how much we loved him.

Tagged!

Nina tagged me with a few questions! I love getting tagged.

1- What would your perfect day consist of?

There's lots of elements to make a perfect day and they don't all need to be in one place at one time. Fudge, warmth, new experiences, sleeping in, good food, friends (or sometimes just that special one - the hubby), my garden, my pets, Iceland.

2- How would you describe yourself if you were an item of clothing?

Hmmm... have never really thought of myself this way. A big cozy blanket or tunic dress, probably.

3- What hobbies are you currently working on?

It's gardening time!

4- Walking in the woods in Wellies or Barefoot on the beach?

Depends on my mood. :) I'd be totally content in either situation.

5- Have you ever hugged or sang to a tree?

I got married under a tree, and we left the flowers at it's base when we were done. Does that count?

6. Growing your own veggies or nipping to the supermarket.

Growing my own! It's so rewarding to watch the whole cycle of birth to growth to eating. And yummy too!

7. Have you found anyone exciting in your family tree?

I've never explored my family tree.

8. Slap up meal in a posh restaurant or fish ‘n’ chips from the wrapper?

Posh restaurant, man. Hands down. Not because it's 'posh' per se... just because, generally, you really do pay for quality and fresh new experiences.

In Toronto this past weekend, we ate at Colburn Lane and Lee restaurant. These two folks are considered to be Toronto's top two chefs right now.

I wouldn't go back to Colburn Lane because it just wasn't worth it's pricepoint. This is high end molecular gastronomy - something I could never do for myself at home, but there's a whole experience thing, the big picture, that I expect out of a high end experience and Colburn Lane was missing a few parts. I can't complain of the tastes - that was delightful! But the portions were small, the time lag between dishes was annoying, the music was a bit loud and they had fake cheap candles on the tables instead of real tealights.


Orange in Reykjavik,was also high end molecular gastronomy but it was more fun, the portions were bigger, the waitress couldn't crack a smile for the life of her, and a mad scientist mixed up liquid nitrogen smoking meringue bombs at our table. They served their dessert on liquid nitrogen chilled rocks from the Icelandic earth. The appetizers came floating a few inches off the table attached to perfectly filled helium balloons. The restaurant is mere feet away from the dock and the fish tasted like it was caught that morning and died only seconds before cooking. And!! the drink menu wasn't confined to stiltifying perfectly suited wine choices but had wild tasty fun choices instead. I've never met a cocktail menu more alive!

Lee, on the other hand, was fantastic food, served with perfect timing fashion, and larger portions. It was however - crazy busy (which didn't intere with the service!) and the music was a bit loud.

9. Which element do you most resonate with, Earth, Wind, Fire or Water?

Depends on what I'm doing, and what mood I'm in. I'm mostly Fire and Water - all steamy and in conflict, but I've been blown away by Iceland's sheer physical earthly beauty. :)


10. Do you believe in fairies?

I haven't seen one myself, but there's just way way too many stories out there to not have some basis in truth. :)

Weekend - Shoes, peaceful setting

Bunches of interesting things this weekend. Met up with friends in the Dark Ages Recreation Company to learn how to make turnshoes. We're using modern tools, but the end product should be pretty much the same as Viking Era shoes.

This is our teacher, working on a pair of shoes for his daughter while we're all off on earlier steps in the process.



Our hosts for the weekend have beautiful garden spaces and right now, their tulips are in full bloom. Long time readers will likely realize that I have a special thing for tulips. :)

This picture seems to have turned out pretty darned well. I like the luminous sunlight and slight fuzziness around the edges of the photo.



They also have chickens. I think this is the rooster.



And horses, and cats, and a deeply peaceful farm out in the boondocks of Ontario. Sitting on the porch in the early morning ... it was so peaceful.

Our host was Grondzilla and his partner, who dislikes seeing her name in print. Grondzilla has been engaged in a commitment to blog every day for a year. I'm intrigued by the idea. I briefly considered the idea. Generally speaking, I update my Facebook status once a day anyway.

But I'd have to be crazy to consider it right now. DARC is gearing up pretty heavily for a gig at L'Anse aux Meadows in August, my boss just went on mat leave again leaving me busier at work, and there's that gardening thing. I have way too much to do these days already.

Ahh.... yes. :)

Forward Into the Past XX, and unknown flowers

The 20th anniversary Forward Into the Past has come, and gone. It was fun.

Awesome amounts of fun! And utterly exhausting.

Sadly, I was too busy to take photos.

Now, there's been a warm streak happening in Ontario and my garden is starting to grow. Again, I'm faced with I-didn't-keep-the-tag-and-I-don't-remember-what-that-is. Bad gardener girl.

So, dear readers.... help. What is this?

Mmmmmm..... seafood!

We had a lovely dinner at Solé tonight. We went because they had a special Celebration of the Sea menu and we both love seafood.

Neil had a crab cake appetizer, and the Thai Seafood Bake (little neck clams, mussels, scallops, shrimp, sticky rice croquettes and baby bok choy, steamed in a banana leaf with a spicy lemon grass and lime leaf broth). I had a crab tower appetizer, and the Baked Icelandic scampi tails (sweet potato, banana bread and pecan hash, saffron and vanilla bean cream, steamed asparagus and blueberry reduction).

For dessert, we split a lemon and poppyseed cheesecake with a raspberry coulis.

Delicious!

We're restaurant-testing, you see. We have to decide where to take Michele for dinner next friday.

Well, it's a good theory anyway.

Comment moderation

Sadly folks, I've had to enable comment moderation.

I've now had the comments section spammed a few times too many. I had hoped it was an isolated incident or two, but it's becoming more frequent. I promise for those of you who are actually writing a real comment, I'll be quick to approve them.

Karen

Spring!

Bet you're wondering where the month of February went to, right?

So much for that New Year's resolution. :)

It's just that it's so much faster and easier to update my Facebook status then it is to blog. One needs real content for a blog, or pictures.

Anyhoo.... I am otherwise a tad more organized. I have all the kid's (nieces and nephews) birthdays on a wall calendar, and I've remembered birthday cards for two of them so far. Neil and I worked out a gifting scheme based on their ages.

And I've been reading more then the goal set worth of articles or book chapters in my field so far.... but I do have incentive.

Forward Into the Past is a yearly event, on March 27th this year, at which I laughingly pretend that teaching doesn't scare the crap out of me. This year, I'm teaching a class introducing people to the warp weighted loom. I had a real fit a few weeks and called in someone more likely to teach me a thing or two. What the heck am I doing teaching if I can't figure it out myself? But I digress.

I learned a few things, and I'm in the middle of warping up yet another new project on the loom to apply said things.

Hopefully I'll know what I'm doing enough by then...

But if not, if it's an utter failure, there's another incentive to keep researching... DARC is going to L'Anse aux Meadows this year in August, and apparently I'm the weaver. Eep.

I feel.... well, a little panicked, to tell the truth. And the hubby wonders why my body is showing stress symptons in back and muscle pain, and intestinal distress. *rolling eyes*

On the bright side.... I didn't mention this one as a New Year's goal because everyone does it, and everyone fails at it, but I wanted to exercise more often this year. And so far.... while I can't yet call it an established habit, I am doing okay on this goal. Well... better then last year anyway. The jury is still debating the outcome.

Spring, here in Ontario, does seem to be making itself known. There have been warmer temperatures (although we still have snow), some bulbs in really really warm brick wall braced south facing gardens are showing (on campus of course, not at our house), I've changed out of snow boots, birds have been heard singing, ducks on campus are abounding, and the sunshine is getting lengthier. All to the good.

But this is still Canada, and I don't want to be skeptical. :)


Karen

New Year's Resolutions

I made a few. Maybe I shouldn't have, 'cause they do have a tendancy to fall away and not get followed up on.

But I would like to:

Not skip whole months blogging. re: December. Sorry folks, it was busy and I have been less than organized.

Be more organized. :) I'm thinking mostly of remembering people's birthdays and anniversaries. Facebook is so interesting, in that if you enter your birthday in your profile, it tells all your friends a few days ahead, and it's just so darned easy to go to their wall and write a quick 'happy birthday' and it makes people so happy. Why would it be that much harder to remember to send cards? I'm an aunt, I've got to step up.

And on that organization thing - making notes all year when I come up with ideas for presents for people. I do get them all year round and then I forget them when it's time for christmas shopping and then that process becomes painful.

Read just two chapters or articles in my field of research - Viking Age textiles and women's studies - per month. I'm not convinced that isn't just wimpy as a goal, but maybe I'll get inspired and want to do more. I don't want to stress the New Year's Resolution curse too much.

Last year's goal - to take pictures at least one per week and blog them - well, that didn't entirely work out. It was Neil's idea. He was hoping that I'd get comments about the the quality of the photo and work to improve my skill, but it didn't really work out that way. I didn't take one photo every week, but overall I did take more then one a week. Approximately 150 a week actually. My photography probably did improve.

What can I say? We went to Iceland this year.

This year I'd like to learn a bit more about post processing of photos in one of them fancy computer programs.

So there you have it. A few gentle goals. What are yours?