Goal Cloud

I thought it might be interesting to make a word cloud of my goals list. And it was!!!

Goal 45 - Weigh ≤130

Weigh-In!

I must be doing something right! Today I weighed 142.2, down from 146 last week. I've been very good about my exercise goal, so no doubt that helps, but I can't believe I paid no attention to food whatsoever--I remember having a Snickers at work on Friday, because I was severely disappointed with my lunch, and on Saturday having some of the greasiest Quiche Lorraine I've ever eaten.

Usually when I first start exercising my weight goes up--I think maybe because of muscle soreness or something, or maybe even a little muscle building. It must be the intervals!

Goal 54 - Visit the Dentist

Arrggghhh!! I buckled down and researched dentists today, and ended up with a dental appointment next week. One week from today!

I must explain: I have severe dentalphobia. One afternoon in the gym when I was eight I broke one of my front teeth on account of a girl I never liked very much barreling into me during a game of Flying Dutchman and knocking me down. What ensued during the following twelve hours was right out of your worst nightmare. And back then, dental science was not nearly as advanced as it is today. I know they knew about gas back then--they called it "laughing gas"--nobody thought about using it on me, probably because I was a very stoic youngster who had a mortal dread of making a scene. (I internalize everything.) I ended up (after what seemed like hours of drilling without benefit of anesthetic if I remember right) with an ugly metal cap on my front tooth, which some of my peers thought was way cool (though even "cool" was a word they didn't yet know in that definition). And then eventually with a more real-looking temporary crown that stayed on through my teens. Never will I forget that night at the dentist.

Anyway, I cannot now undergo even a routine cleaning without being gassed into oblivion.

It takes me a long time to "break in" a dentist. I had a really nice one in KY--I even got to the point where I could have a cleaning without gas, but then I moved to NYC. Then I almost had another one broken in, but he moved away, probably because of me. I had a habit of spouting copious tears while under treatment, and he found it a bit unnerving.

It's been way too long, so today I called around, and the first dentist I chose I made sure to ask about the gas, and they said "No way." What's up with that? I asked the receptionist if there was some reason for this, and she said I'd have to talk to the dentist, so I said, "Well, I'll get back to you." I found another dentist on the second call who had no problem with the nitrous, so I have an appointment in SEVEN DAYS! If it weren't for my Goals List I would never have called. And without the support of all you blog people I would probably chicken out. But I am going to be staunch about this. Don't want dentures! Vanity trumps dentalphobia.

Goal Management

So I finally got two goals in the green.

It occurred to me to wonder how I'm going to keep track of my progress. Let's see: 101 into 1001 is....um....(lower math always makes me nervous)...9.91. That means I have to accomplish a goal every nine or ten days, on average. (Is that right?)

Anyway, I was finding the spreadsheet I used to set up my goals very unwieldy when trying to sort out categories and progress, so I ended up constructing another database for it instead. I love building databases! Now I can pull up reports and stuff.

I've been at this 29 days, and I have 2 goals finished, with one due to mature in two days and another in five days. That's...um....:-P....four goals in 33 days. Let's see, four into 33, carry the two, add the square root of 33, that's one every eight days. So not bad!!!!

I need to add an automatic calculation to my database. Strange how I can do expressions and operators and calculations in Access just fine, but I have a real hard time just doing long division with pencil and paper. I tell myself it's just because I don't practice.

And I really need to replace that stupid piece of clip art with something of my own, don't I?

2 Down, 99 To Go!

Goal 23 - Clean out underneath kitchen sink











Before and After

Well, this took all of about twenty minutes!!! Max. Including taking the "After" picture. I was amazed. I know it doesn't look that much different, but I did throw out a bunch of stuff. Not as much as the bathroom vanity, but I guess I don't collect as many cleaning supplies as I do extraneous cosmetics.

For some reason we had a lot of insecticide that we have never needed, so I pitched it. I also found a roll of white curly gift wrap ribbon. ?? And a lot of crud. It's now clean, organized, and I can see what's there. We had about five scrubby sponges still wrapped in cellophane (well excuse me, they don't make cellophane any more) plastic wrap--and we keep buying new ones!

1 Down, 100 To Go!!!

Goal Number 22 is FINISHED. I stupidly didn't take a "before" picture, but here is the after picture. Hey, I didn't say it would look good!

You know, undersink areas are just grody. But that's what vanity doors are for.

I need to get some nice basket/bin thingies. And I need to stop saving all the bottles of Dramatically Different Moisturizing Lotion that come in the free gifts. You wouldn't believe how many I threw out. In fact I threw out two medium garbage bags of stuff altogether.

I am also amazed at how many slings we owned. I threw out a couple, but there are plenty left. Which is probably stupid since they're going to give me a bunch more here pretty soon. There are two containers under the sink (pushed toward the back left) that are full of first aid items. I guess this goes to show how accident prone I am.

I should make it clear that accomplishing this goal also means that I will maintain this area and not let it get to where I have to make it another goal to clean it out. I hereby commit to that.

Suing the pants off the City

This is me in the office of the
City's attorney. For some odd reason the plastic flowers in the vase were additionally adorned with several rubber bands draped artistically. Too bad they don't show up in the picture.

Yesterday ScottieDog and I had to go give a deposition to the attorney for the City about my accident. It was a little weird.

Yes, I know, the country is going to the dogs because of too much litigation. Spare me. When I was a property owner, I sweated bullets over the (miniscule) cracks in my sidewalk and wondered if I should fix them. And paid for liability insurance too, even though nobody ever tripped. (The reason the City is liable as well as the property owner is that there was a street tree involved. I believe it was a young gingko.)

I have lost so much money because of this accident! And will lose a lot more. Not to mention my right hand being all messed up. You can kind of see in the photo that it's not right.

During the deposition, the most important question seemed to be, "Did you see the crack in the sidewalk before you tripped?" WTF kind of question is that? If I had seen the crack, wouldn't I have stepped over it? And if I didn't see it, would I remember NOT seeing it? I couldn't answer that one at all. ScottieDog said during the preparation with my lawyer, "Just say you didn't see it." But, being a stickler for accuracy, I just came out with, "I don't recollect seeing it." Which just about covers it, I guess. And calling it a "crack," well, it was more of a complex obstruction.

My lawyer said to expect much longer and more detailed depositions coming up. So what, I say. I know what happened. I tell myself, "Just stick to the facts, ma'am."