18. catch up my thumbnails

this may not be big news to anyone else ... but i'm so stinkin' excited ...

MY THUMBNAILS ARE CAUGHT UP!

no, no ... not the thumbnails on my actual thumbs. although those thumbnails are doing just fine. my photo thumbnails. as of 20 seconds ago, there is now a miniature copy of every photo i've ever taken on my digital camera.

every. photo.

don't care? well, check this out - i found a fantastic recipe for thai chicken pasta tonight. chicken & veggies in this amazing peanutbutter/chili sauce. oh yeah. good stuff. of course, i also shut down my laptop before printing out the recipe. so yeah, there's a good chance i'll never be able to make it again. :)

update: the great 28

alright, it's been six months since my birthday. let's see how i've done ...

1. visit 3 places i've never been before. mel & dan's new house. jennie rae's restuarant. texas. hey - that's 100%! go me!

2. lose 40 pounds. alright, not so good here. i'm currently 1 pound above where i started, which wouldn't sound so bad except that's about 15 pounds above where i was three months ago. bah. i did join weight watchers this week, though, and i know that will help. once i'm back in the habit of being AWARE of what i'm eating, things will be better. and knowing i'm going to be watching that makes me want to get back out & exercise again. so i just might go walking tomorrow morning. if it's not raining. :) that's -2.5%

3. have a booth at a local craft fair. i'm starting to kick into feverish creativity mode. i tacked another vacation day onto my "crafting weekend" next month. so now i've got a solid 5 days to create some popcorn fest goodness. and i wasn't planning to sell calendars at the booth, but now i think i might. people seemed to like them - yay! come see us on setpember 8! i'll give that a 49% (there's math involved if anyone wants it explained).

4. take 2000 photos. i'm at 1303. that's 65%, not bad.

5. eat a gallon of mustard in one week. i haven't scheduled this yet.

6. enter 3 items in the county fair. i'm actually entering nine items. five photos, a single glass bead, jewelry made from glass beads, jewelry made from pop caps (recycled category) and my coconut jalapeno lime cookies. i'm actually working on printing the photos between typing on this post. 50% - the intention was accomplished, but i haven't actually turned them in yet.

7. finish 3 quilts. one done. i will quilt more after the popcorn festival. 33%

8. take an art class. nothing scheduled, yet. 0%

9. be able to play Christmas Rhapsody on the piano by Christmas. yeah, i should sit down & start working on this. 0%

10. be able to play a song on my accordian. again, i should start working on this. 0%

11. bake something new once a month. february - triple-chocolate peanut butter cookies & jalapeno lime coconut sugar cookies. march - nothing. april - lemon coconut oatmeal cookies. may - okay, it's wasn't new, but i made another flourless chocolate cake & it was really yummy. june - nothing. july - nothing. but august should have luau brownies. :) 33%

12. update my portfolio. haven't touched it, but i have been good about brining pieces home to add to it. 25%, just for effort.


13. make my halloween costume. i have some ideas. but you'll have to wait & see. 0%

14. cook dinner once a month. in january i made green pork burritos with cilantro rice & black beans. february was baked macaroni & cheese (patti labelle's recipe). march was pretzel chicken & homemade potato chips for girls night. april was baked chicaken parmasan. may was garlic pasta with chicken & veggies for mother's day. june - i don't remember. july - i don't think so. august, however, should have some yummy stuff. 33%

15. redesign my online portfolio. again, haven't touched it. 0%

16. hang out with old friends. check! not as in "accomplished, so i don't have to do it anymore", but as in "being accomplished on a regular basis ... and i LOVE it!" i missed my 10-year reunion, but i got to see a few folks at an after party, if you will. and i just got an e-mail from kevin this week ... so yeah, i'm pretty pleased right now. 100%

17. learn to use my screen printing supplies. i may set aside a weekend to do this. 0%

18. catch up my thumbnails. i have paper & ink now. once i'm done with all my printing for the fair & the popcorn festival, i'll get these caught up. right now i'm only 13 months behind. 30% for having the supplies.

19. read 3 new books. 1 - bob greene's total body makeover. 2- the aquariums of pyongyang.

20. eat breakfast at lynn's paradise cafe. twice! 200%!

21. finish bob greene's total body make over. i didn't finish. but i bet if i paired this up with my weight watchers, i'd see some results. 0%

22. take a trip by myself. nothing planned - and i've TRIED to plan. 0%

23. finish the plastic purse. no work done. but thanks for the brown bags, julie! 0%

24. files my taxes early. DONE! 100%

25. work on a scrapbook. nothing started. 0%

26. send Christmas cards. no pressure for them to be handmade, but i want to send out cards. 0%

27. homemade Christmas presents. this is just a space filler, really. i know i'll make the Christmas presents. i even have a little bit of an idea of what they'll all be. but there's nothing wrong with setting a goal i KNOW i'll achieve, right? :) 0%

28. secret. can i change this part way through the year? the original plan was soundly rejected. so either i don't accomplish this one, or i come up with something else. we'll see. 0%

my math puts me at 27.9% that's not so hot for halfway through the year. but two of those goals ARE Christmas oriented ... i've got time. :)

update: the great 28

this update doesn't cover any huge amount of success. everything's been fairly stagnant, but i figured i should post it anyhow. this past month has been consumed by work, and that doesn't always leave time for the things on the list. when work stresses me out i don't accomplish much of anything at home. i find myself watching a lot of tv, simply because i want to zone out & forget the day. i'll spend a lot of time on weekends sleeping & surfing the net ... only to realize on sunday night how much i could have accomplished if i'd tried. but that's okay. sometimes i need a few weeks to do that. it's good for me, so long as it ends & i start being productive again. :)

1. visit 3 places i've never been before. mel & dan's new house. jennie rae's restuarant.

2. lose 40 pounds. i was down 14 punds at my last weigh in - with a lot of yo-yo-ing during the last month. i'm hoping the bike riding will help me get excited about exercising again.

3. havbe a booth at a local craft fair. we've been officially accepted for the popcorn festival. come see us on setpember 8!

4. take 2000 photos.

5. eat a gallon of mustard in one week. i haven't scheduled this yet.

6. enter 3 items in the county fair. i need to figure this out in the next week or two.

7. finish 3 quilts. i'm spending mucho time quilting this weekend. yay for long weekends!

8. take an art class. nothing scheduled, yet.

9. be able to play Christmas Rhapsody on the piano by Christmas. yeah, i should sit down & start working on this.

10. be able to play a song on my accordian. again, i should start working on this.

11. bake something new once a month. february - triple-chocolate peanut butter cookies & jalapeno lime coconut sugar cookies. march - nothing. april - lemon coconut oatmeal cookies. may - okay, it's wasn't new, but i made another flourless chocolate cake & it was really yummy.

12. update my portfolio. haven't touched it, but i have been good about brining pieces home to add to it.

13. make my halloween costume. i have some ideas. but you'll have to wait & see.

14. cook dinner once a month. in january i made green pork burritos with cilantro rice & black beans. february was baked macaroni & cheese (patti labelle's recipe). march was pretzel chicken & homemade potato chips for girls night. april was baked chicaken parmasan. may was garlic pasta with chicken & veggies for mother's day.

15. redesign my online portfolio. again, haven't touched it.

16. hang out with old friends. check! not as in "accomplished, so i don't have to do it anymore", but as in "being accomplished on a regular basis ... and i LOVE it!" i should be seeing marisa next month. and seeing erin in july. dave - we should figure something out.

17. learn to use my screen printing supplies. i may set aside a weekend to do this.

18. catch up my thumbnails. i need more paper.

19. read 3 new books. 1 - bob greene's total body makeover.

20. eat breakfast at lynn's paradise cafe. twice!

21. finish bob greene's total body make over. i may jump back into this. just to have a clear set of goals.

22. take a trip by myself. nothing planned.

23. finish the plastic purse. no work done. but thanks for the brown bags, julie!

24. files my taxes early. DONE!

25. work on a scrapbook. nothing started.

26. send Christmas cards. no pressure for them to be handmade, but i want to send out cards.

27. homemade Christmas presents. this is just a space filler, really. i know i'll make the Christmas presents. i even have a little bit of an idea of what they'll all be. but there's nothing wrong with setting a goal i KNOW i'll achieve, right? :)

28. secret. this one is fabulously exciting, but i can't tell you about it. yet.

update: the great 28

three months into the goals ...

1. visit 3 places i've never been before. mel & dan's new house. jennie rae's restuarant.

2. lose 40 pounds. i was down 14 punds at my last weigh in. i should weigh in tomorrow morning, but i don't expect it to be good. the past week hasn't been healthy. i've been going into work early & staying a little later than usual. stress levels are high & i eat when i get stressed. plus it's making it so i can't go out walking in the mornings. so that's disappointing & i eat when i get disappointed. it's really not that hard to see how i ended up overweight to begin with. :) but next week should be better. it will simply have to be. i'm setting my mind to it right now. besides, if i keep this up for the next 9 months, i'll be down 56 pounds for the year. do you know how stinkin' happy that would make me?

3. havbe a booth at a local craft fair. we're sending in our application for the popcorn festival tomorrow. we have to or we'll have to pay an extra $35.

4. take 2000 photos. i'm at 1146. that's 57% to goal! my weekend in louisville helped. :)

5. eat a gallon of mustard in one week. i haven't scheduled this yet.

6. enter 3 items in the county fair. i need to decide what to enter. i'm thinking a piece of jewelry. a quilt. and maybe a cookie? or a cake?

7. finish 3 quilts. i need to get into gear on quilt number 2.

8. take an art class. nothing scheduled, yet.

9. be able to play Christmas Rhapsody on the piano by Christmas. yeah, i should sit down & start working on this.

10. be able to play a song on my accordian. again, i should start working on this.

11. bake something new once a month. february - triple-chocolate peanut butter cookies & jalapeno lime coconut sugar cookies. march - nothing. april - lemon coconut oatmeal cookies.

12. update my portfolio. haven't touched it, but i have been good about brining pieces home to add to it.

13. make my halloween costume. i have some ideas. but you'll have to wait & see.

14. cook dinner once a month. in january i made green pork burritos with cilantro rice & black beans. february was baked macaroni & cheese (patti labelle's recipe). march was pretzel chicken & homemade potato chips for girls night. april hasn't happened yet. this weekend, hopefully.

15. redesign my online portfolio. again, haven't touched it.

16. hang out with old friends. bunco's been good. hopefully dave & i will get something scheduled soon. marlana & i have plans with marisa for june. andi hung out with dan & malissa again recently ... malissa's old, she's gonna be 30 this year. :)

17. learn to use my screen printing supplies. i may set aside a weekend to do this.

18. catch up my thumbnails. i need more paper.

19. read 3 new books. 1 - bob greene's total body makeover.

20. eat breakfast at lynn's paradise cafe. twice!

21. finish bob greene's total body make over. i'm not following it anymore. i made it through week 9 or 10 with the cardio. and then it just felt like a lot. i mean, i don't want to be working out an hour a day 6 days a week. so now i'm focused on 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week.

22. take a trip by myself. nothing planned.

23. finish the plastic purse. no work done. but thanks for the brown bags, julie!

24. files my taxes early. DONE!

25. work on a scrapbook. nothing started.

26. send Christmas cards. no pressure for them to be handmade, but i want to send out cards.

27. homemade Christmas presents. this is just a space filler, really. i know i'll make the Christmas presents. i even have a little bit of an idea of what they'll all be. but there's nothing wrong with setting a goal i KNOW i'll achieve, right? :)

28. secret. this one is fabulously exciting, but i can't tell you about it. yet.

11. bake something new once a month

we used lemon zest in something a few weeks ago, but had an extra lemon left over. so i told myself i HAD to use it before it went bad. usually when we have left over lemons or limes they sit in the fridge until they mold. we like lemons & limes ... we just forget about them. so today i made lemon coconut oatmeal cookies. it was a recipes i mostly found online - i swapped the granulated sugar from brown sugar and added toasted coconut. they are quite tasty. the lemon is subtle, but taste-able. they spread a lot in the oven, which was a little disappointing. i mean, they taste great. but i was hoping for a thicker, more substantial cookie. i wonder if using cold butter would have helped. i generally always use cold butter, regardless of what the recipe calls for (mrs. fields says that's her secret to great cookies), but this time i let it get to room temp as suggessted. that may have helped them spread. but they are yummy. nice & chewy. mmmm.

i'm cleaning unused files off my ftp server. so if you come across a broken link or missing photo, let me know. and give me an opinion - should i keep this basic layout (which doesn't look the same if you're using a pc & ie) or change it? i want to come up with a layout that i just keep forever. this one seems okay since i can swap out the banner on top easily when i get bored without changing the entire page. and i like the links on the right ... but some people might see those on the bottom, and i don't like that. it's just a blogger template i modified, but yeah. what do you think?

update: the great 28

two months into the goals. how am i doing?

1. visit 3 places i've never been before. i visited mel & dan's new house a few weeks ago. yay me!

2. lose 40 pounds. i was down 9.5 pounds at my last weigh in. hey! i never told you guys what came in the fed ex box! i ordered myself an ipod in celebration of hitting the 50 pound mark. they offer free engraving, so the back says "fifty3 and counting". again, yay me! :)

3. havbe a booth at a local craft fair. we might do a booth in july at the crown point jazz festival. we will definitely do one at the popcorn fest. we just need to sign up ... and make all the goodies. :)

4. take 2000 photos. i'm at 581. that's 29% to goal!

5. eat a gallon of mustard in one week. i haven't scheduled this yet.

6. enter 3 items in the county fair. i got my entry form in the mail this week. i can't enter anything until june 11 (that's what the fair office opens), but i want to have everything decided & ready to go for that day.

7. finish 3 quilts. i've got one done already. and i'm about halfway done with the squares for a second one.

8. take an art class. nothing scheduled, yet.

9. be able to play Christmas Rhapsody on the piano by Christmas. yeah, i should sit down & start working on this.

10. be able to play a song on my accordian. again, i should start working on this.

11. bake something new once a month. my march baking will be this thursday evening for friday's game night. i don't know what i'm going to make though ... and suggestions? laure sent me a recipe for black-pepper cookies that i think sound really good.

12. update my portfolio. haven't touched it, but i have been good about brining pieces home to add to it.

13. make my halloween costume. i have some ideas. but you'll have to wait & see.

14. cook dinner once a month. in january i made green pork burritos with cilantro rice & black beans. february was baked macaroni & cheese (patti labelle's recipe). march was pretzel chicken & homemade potato chips for girls night.

15. redesign my online portfolio. again, haven't touched it.

16. hang out with old friends. yay for bunco! i still need to send a card to marisa. but i have gotten in touch with dave recently (hi, dave!) and i talked to nick today, too. yay!

17. learn to use my screen printing supplies. i may set aside a weekend to do this.

18. catch up my thumbnails. i bought ink for my printer this weekend, so i should start printing those out ... now.

19. read 3 new books. i did a thorough skimming of bob greene's total body make over, does that count?

20. eat breakfast at lynn's paradise cafe. yumm-o! ya'll missed some great crunchcakes a few weeks ago. :)

21. finish bob greene's total body make over. i've kinda dropped the strength training part of the program, but i'm still doing well with the cardio & the core exercises. i'm on week 9 right now, and habits are forming pretty strong. however, the exciting news is how it affected my metabolism. consistent exercise should boost your resting metabolism - bob greene says so. well, i went in for my yearly med check right before my birthday. my doctor raised my synthroid (if you didn't know, i had a tumor when i was 17. they hacked out the left side of my thyroid, so now i take meds every day to replace the thyroid juice, which regulates metabolism.) from 200mcg to 250mcg, which ticked me off because i don't like taking the meds to begin with ... and i really didn't like it being raised. but if it needed it, whatever. so a week later, i started the make over. and 6 weeks after that i went back to have my meds rechecked - and she lowered it to 175mcg! less than it was at my yearly check up! yay! so i go back in another 6 weeks to check it again, but that made me really happy. nothing like a little natural medication from exercise. :)

22. take a trip by myself. this was originally going to be the drive from portland to san francisco. now i'm looking to not spend that kind of money, so it will probably be something much smaller. but all i need is a great airfare to fort meyers & i'll totally spend a weekend in sanibel.

23. finish the plastic purse. so you know those polybags we deliver your paper in when it's snowy & rainy out? we use a lot of blue ones, sometimes they're clear. anyway, i'm taking those bags & cutting them into 1" rings (approximately. i'm not measuring it at all.) and then looping those rings together & crocheting them into a puse. i'm only using the blue ones, at least for now. i may put a brown stripe in the middle with some wilco bags if i can find brown ones. so if you get your paper in a blue polybag & want to help me reach my goal, save 'em for me. :)

24. files my taxes early. DONE!

25. work on a scrapbook. i may finish the san francisco book i started, honestly, at least 7 years ago. or i may work on one for the california road trip last summer. i'm not a big scrapbooker ... but i like the freedom to design with my photos. some of those california photos should be seen larger than 4"x6" in a photo album.

26. send Christmas cards. no pressure for them to be handmade, but i want to send out cards.

27. homemade Christmas presents. this is just a space filler, really. i know i'll make the Christmas presents. i even have a little bit of an idea of what they'll all be. but there's nothing wrong with setting a goal i KNOW i'll achieve, right? :)

28. secret. this one is fabulously exciting, but i can't tell you about it. yet.

20. eat breakfast at lynn's

if you've never eaten at lynn's paradise cafe, i highly recommend you do so. it's a quirky li'l place with excellent food. you want to try the crunchcakes - well, unless you're allergic to nuts, sorry april - they're fabulous. yummy pancakes with lynn's home made granola mixed in & on top. yumm-o. i had them add blueberries to mine.

1. visit 3 places i've never been before

ladies' night

tonight's (last night's, i suppose) ladies' night was another unphotographed success. we have such a good time together. a special thank you to those of you who aren't as crazy about "friends" as the rest of us are and agreed to let us play the 'scene it friends' game anyway - twice. i actually think my addiction to this should could be unhealthy ... but i like it so much i just don't care. :)

ladies' night also helped me accomplish making dinner for the month of march. we had pretzel-crusted chicken and homemade potato chips (white & sweet). yumm-o. i love pretzel-coated chicken. it's so crispy & crunchy & salty. mmmm. the potato chips were questionable. the sweet potatos fried up fairly well, but the white potatos fried inconsistently. some were nice & crispy. others were sad and soggy. our fryer doesn't go as high in temperature as was recommended for the white potatoes, so that could be part of the problem. but i wonder if i was also putting too many in at once & they were sticking together. i'm trying some fresh ones tomorrow for lunch, so i'll see what i can do to fix it.

i did make a successful dip or two for the chips though. a nice thick ranch & a kicky jalapeno/parmesan. and holly had the chocolate fountain going, so that was marvelous. are you ready for the list of things we dipped? we had strawberries, oranges, marshmallows, gummy bears, caramels, twinkies, rice krispie treats, chocolate chip cookies, pretzels, bananas ... we were on chocolate-dipped overload.

we also played the dvd version of 'clue' - which was a first for all of us. it took a while for us to get the hang of it, but it was fun. even if holly & i (we played teams) totally missed that we were supposed to be guessing what item was stolen from the victim - not what item was the weapon.

11. bake something new once a month

jalapeno, lime, coconut sugar cookies. yumm-o.

i took my trusty sugar cookie recipe and modified it using lime juice instead of milk/vanilla and adding some coconut, lime zest and a jalapeno. they were too soft to roll out & cut, although i could have refrigerated them to do it, but they came out beautifully in little scoops. they kinda look like herbed mashed potatos. but they taste like sugar cookies with jalapeno, lime and coconut. the coconut's very subtle - i think i may toast it first next time.

the jalapeno taste becomes more prominent the older the cookies get. as in, i made them sunday & the taste is more prominent today - not as in i've had them sitting around for three weeks.

i wonder how they'd be with one side dipped in dark chocolate. i do like chocolate & jalapeno together.

that makes two baking adventures for february. my march weekends are pretty busy, so i'll have several get-togethers for which to make something new.

21. total body makeover

a couple of questions were asked about bob greene's total body make over. so i started a long rambly comment about the program ... and decided to just turn it into a post instead. lucky you. :)

bob greene actually has several books out there. his most recent is his BestLife Diet - oprah's official diet. i'm not doing that. i don't really know what it entails, though i'm sure his eating rules are similar to what he suggest in the total body make over.

i borrowed bob greene's total body make over book from the library. so if i can return it on time, it won't cost me anything. which is the best price ever and totally worth the money. :) it's a 12-week accelerated program of exercise and nutrition for maximum results in minimum time (the cover of the book says so).

i really think it's a good program. i mean, at the end of week 4 i was down 8-10 pounds and my weight hasn't been yo-yo-ing like it was before i started. when i wrote the end of 27 post, i was down 48 pounds for the year. by the next week my weight had gone up 8-10 pounds, varying by as much as 4 pounds every day. that's frustrating. so the 48 pounds i lost was the lowest number i'd seen on the scale, and i didn't see it again until the beginning of week 4 on the program. and it's stayed stable for the past week. which is kinda impressive since i didn't do the program with any discipline during that week. so there you go - pro #1 for the program, it got me down 8-10 pounds & stabilized my weight. that's a good thing for me. pro #2 for the program, it changed the way my body metabolizes food enough that a week of willy-nilly exercise didn't completely throw me off track. i'm not advocating willy-nilly exercise (what would bob greene think of that?), but it happens. and it's nice i didn't blow the whole thing by doing it.

it does take a lot of dedication. i mean, you're doing cardio exercise 6 days a week. i do mine in the morning before i shower for work (i should be doing it right now, but i decided to check my e-mail first & now i'm posting. see what i mean about discipline?). and sometimes, i do NOT want to get up to do it. but it's been worth it. even without the weight loss, it really does give me more energy during the day (pro #3). and i just feel good for getting up & doing the workout (pro #4). and the point of the intense workout regimine is too boost your body's metabolism. not just because of today's workout, but because working out on this schedule will boost your regular resting metabolism. so your body burns more calories throughout the day because you exercised today, and yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that, etc. plus the strength training builds muscle, which burns more calories than fat, so you've got that working for you, too (pro #5).

and his "eating rules" are really simple (pro #6). cut out emotional eating - eat when you're hungry, not when you're stressed (that's hard for me. i eat when i get stressed. or bored. or excited. yeah, i'm a big emotional eater.) stop eating 2-3 hours before you go to bed (i stop 2 hours right now, but i want to step that back to 2.5 soon). drink your 8 glasses of water a day. limit alcohol consumption (he wants you to completely not drink during the 12 weeks, and limit it after that). and eat a nourishing breakfast.

so there you go. i totally recommend checking this book out from your local library. then you can either keep renewing it until the 12 weeks are up - or photocopy the pages you need to keep for the program. he has three levels of work outs to start with & you're choosing your own cardio exercise. i walk in my house to this dvd called walk away the pounds with leslie sansone. she has a lot of videos out, and they're all a little different. the ones i work out with use small hand weights during part of the walk, which is good for my upper arms. she also has some that use an elastic band. and ... well ... she has several sets out & i don't know all the differences. i saw one set that included a cario kickboxing dvd. that sounded fun. but yeah, i'm walking at home right now. once it gets warmer i want to head outside & walk around the track again. plus i want to try a walking/running routine. maybe train for a half marathon or something. wouldn't that be impressive?

the great 28

since my birthday was a month ago, i figure i should post my list of goals for this year.

1. visit 3 places i've never been before. thanks to a great article in the paper this weekend, i think the kokomo opalescent glass factory may be one of those places. i LOVE watching people work with hot glass.

2. lose 40 pounds. this number makes me nervous, but i did it last year & didn't even start trying until june. so i think i can do it.

3. havbe a booth at a local craft fair. april, becca, kathy and i are actually planning two booths. one at the jazz fest in crown point and one at the popcorn festival in valpo.

4. take 2000 photos. this puts me at about 33% more than last year. it equals out to about 166 photos per month. so far i'm at 137, and i usually take less photos during the winter. so that's not bad at all.

5. eat a gallon of mustard in one week. hey, they can't all be serious! i mean, i'm seriously going to try & do it. but yeah, not every goal can attempt to change the world. :)

6. enter 3 items in the county fair. i entered two last year - a quilt (which didn't place & i'm a little bitter) and one of my record bowls (which got a second).

7. finish 3 quilts. i've got one done already. and i'm about halfway done with the squares for a second one.

8. take an art class. i took 2 last year, and they were a lot of fun. i'm stepping it back a little this year because they can be expensive, and i'm also trying to save some money.

9. be able to play Christmas Rhapsody on the piano by Christmas. this song (which i got from joanie and she could always play FABULOUSLY) has always eluded me. so this year i'm going to focus on it starting in march ... and by december i'd better be able to play it. well.

10. be able to play a song on my accordian. i've got an accordian, i should be able to play it. i'm thinking Amazing Grace or Oh Little Town of Bethlehem.

11. bake something new once a month. february was my triple-chocolate peanut butter cookies. and i'm planning the jalapeno coconut lime cookies for this afternoon, too.

12. update my portfolio. it hasn't been touched in close to 2 years. it needs to be updated with some of the stuff i've been doing. my move to marketing has provided me with some good stuff - showing a whole campaign for the paper. besides, if they dilly dally about much longer in replacing folks, well, yeah ... i should just update my portfolio.

13. make my halloween costume. i have some ideas. but you'll have to wait & see.

14. cook dinner once a month. in january i made green pork burritos with cilantro rice & black beans. they were yummy. :) i need to make something in the next few days for february though.

15. redesign my online portfolio. this, obviously, goes along with number 12. once my physical portfolio is revamped i'll carry that over into the virtual one, too.

16. hang out with old friends. this is being accomplished voraciously. i actually crave hanging out with you guys. and i'm so excited for us to start playing bunco once a month! and erin, to come see your house is a fabulous excuse to come see you. i'm so pumped about that. and i'm sending a note to marisa this week, hoping to hang with her soon, too.

17. learn to use my screen printing supplies. i want to make t-shirts! and a kern zip-up. that thing rocked!

18. catch up my thumbnails. no, no, not the ones on my hands. since i switched to digital i've been printing out thumbnail contact sheets of my photos & keeping them in a three-ring binder for easy reference. i'm way behind right now. and got put further behind because the paper i used to print out about 6 months worth of photos turned out to be crap. it printed beautifully, but after a few months the ink got all muddy so now i have to reprint them. i currently have the pages ready to print through august of 2006 - i just need to go buy ink. and i should add that i'm hoping to keep the thumbnails updated, too.

19. read 3 new books. hopefully the first book with be The Aquariums of Pyongyang, because i started it at Thanksgiving & really need to finish it. i'll have to start over, but still i should finish it. and then i need to do the same thing with Catch 22. a really good book that for some reason i just can't finish.

20. eat breakfast at lynn's paradise cafe. this may be accomplished in a couple of weeks. i'm spending the weekend of march 10 in louisville with mel & dan. i miss them so much.

21. finish bob greene's total body makeover. tomorrow starts week 5 of the 12-week program. if you're not familiar - it's cardio workouts 6 times a week, core exercises [think crunches & shoulder rolls] 6 times a week and strength training 3 times a week. i've done really well with it so far. this past week was a little sketchy, but i've been a little sick so i'm blaming it on that. i did my full workout this morning though, and this afternoon i WILL do my strength training, and i'm back on track. i mean, if he thinks he can makeover my body & boost my metabolism in 12 weeks, who am i to not give him that chance? besides, my doctor just upped my thyroid meds again so if i can boost my metabolism naturally & back down on the meds ... that would make me very happy.

22. take a trip by myself. this was originally going to be the drive from portland to san francisco. now i'm looking to not spend that kind of money, so it will probably be something much smaller. but all i need is a great airfare to fort meyers & i'll totally spend a weekend in sanibel.

23. finish the plastic purse. so you know those polybags we deliver your paper in when it's snowy & rainy out? we use a lot of blue ones, sometimes they're clear. anyway, i'm taking those bags & cutting them into 1" rings (approximately. i'm not measuring it at all.) and then looping those rings together & crocheting them into a puse. i'm only using the blue ones, at least for now. i may put a brown stripe in the middle with some wilco bags if i can find brown ones. so if you get your paper in a blue polybag & want to help me reach my goal, save 'em for me. :)

24. files my taxes early. DONE! i had them in the mail the first week of february, and i've already gotten my return deposited. and spent. :) i bought myself a double-ring wire binder yesterday and supplies for putting wire binding in sketch books & calendars. it's part of my plan for the craft fairs. i'll show you the results once i get it. i'm so excited about this purchase that i can't even explain it.

25. work on a scrapbook. i may finish the san francisco book i started, honestly, at least 7 years ago. or i may work on one for the california road trip last summer. i'm not a big scrapbooker ... but i like the freedom to design with my photos. some of those california photos should be seen larger than 4"x6" in a photo album.

26. send Christmas cards. no pressure for them to be handmade, but i want to send out cards.

27. homemade Christmas presents. this is just a space filler, really. i know i'll make the Christmas presents. i even have a little bit of an idea of what they'll all be. but there's nothing wrong with setting a goal i KNOW i'll achieve, right? :)

28. secret. this one is fabulously exciting, but i can't tell you about it. yet.

triple-chocolate peanutbutter cookies

one of my goals for the year is to bake something new each month. and baking sounded good today. so i adapted a recipe on laure's site (look at the jan. 25 entry for her version) to include peanutbutter - and they were quite yummy. i've always admired laure's willingness to experiment with cookies & make her own recipes. so i decided today would be a good time to jump in & try it out myself. not that i made a lot of changes to her recipe, but enough that to make it my own. and that's good enough for me.

i started today looking for a cookie recipe that called for jalapeno peppers & lime. i made salsa this morning & have half a jalapeno and half a lime left. i really thought it'd be pretty easy to find such a cookie recipe, but i was quite wrong. i found mention of a jalapeno coconut lime sugar cookie - but no recipe. so i think later this week i'm going to pull out my trusted sugar cookie recipe & do some tweaking. i'm thinking they're gonna be pretty tasty. i'll let you know. :)

triple-chocolate peanutbutter cookies:

beat together:
3/4 c. peanutbutter
1/4 - 1/2 c. milk (i started with 1/4 & then added more at the end to moisten the dough)
1 egg
1 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
2 t. vanilla extract

mix in:
1 t. baking soda
3/4 c. cocoa powder
2 c. flour
1/2 c. dark chocolate chips
20 chopped peanutbutter m&ms (i don't measure chocolate add-ins, i just tossed 'em in 'til it looks right)

Bake at 350º for 10 minutes

the great 28

with my birthday coming up, i'm soliciting ideas for my list of goals to accomplish this year. i've got some ideas already (like learning to play at least one Christmas carol on my accordian), but i've still got a lot of goal-seeing to do ... so leave a comment with something you think i should do this year. it can be serious or silly. abstract or concrete. a book i should read. a movie i should watch. something you want to see here on the site. anything at all.

now comment with an idea!

and thank you. :)