Someone on Twitter just asked about 3 goals for next year (the hashtag is #3goals, if you want to chime in there), and it got me thinking. My first answer was "Writing, promoting and FINALLY learning to podcast." But then I changed it.

My goals for next year are simple:

1. Write
2. Rediscover myself, my family and my relationship with my goddess
3. Slowing down

I do want to podcast. I'm working on promoting. But those aren't the important things.

I'm going to rediscover writing letters. To my sibs, my niece and my grandparents. There's something wonderful about getting a real letter in the mail - I want the Pumpkin to know that joy. And to be able to look back years from now and know me.

What about you guys? What are your goals for next year?

Today's is Friday, and I thought for Fridays, I'd do something a wee bit different. One thing that was a firm tradition in our household growing up, and that was that we HAD to sit down, as a family (okay, Mom and the girls usually, although Glenn didn't complain TOO much) and watch The Nutcracker with Baryshnikov and Kirkland, first on PBS, then on our VHS player. So for the Fridays in December, I'm going to share some of my favorite scenes from this lovely, lovely ballet. (And yes, I would watch Baryshnikov tie his shoelaces. Or wake across a street. The man can MOVE.)

Today is the pas de deux from the beginning of the ballet, right after Clara kills the Mouse King.




*sigh* I'll be in my bunk.

I love the Muppets. I love THIS version of the 12 Days of Christmas (badump-bump-bump!) I am very, very bummed that I cannot find a copy of John Denver and the Muppets Christmas special on DVD - I'm off to look again once I give you day 3 of my Advent Calendar.

For caitlindancer and my other sister (who is LJ-less), who adore Miss Piggy.

I am home (yay for 1st Saturday of the week!) and going to do the following:

1. Make a really yummy breakfast/dinner for me/argus7hills (eggnog french toast. With apple cinnamon sausage. And maybe something with the mashed potatoes scratch that, they aren't good anymore.)

2. Watch "Holiday Inn," "White Christmas" and/or "High Society" (depends on which ones I can find and am in the mood for)

3. Clean up the living room/dining room

4. Put up the Christmas tree and stockings!

5. Wrap the few gifts I have already

Then it's off to the studio to work on more Christmas presents.

So, I slept through the gym this morning (and argus7hills' alarm, and my alarm) and woke up feeling amazing at 9 am. Late, but oh well - apparently I needed the sleep. :) Called beard5 and apologized profusely (I slept through his call to me at 7:30 am, wondering where the heck I was, too), then made breakfast and headed out to work.

I'm tracking my eating again, and amazed at just how much tea I drink. Not that it's a bad thing, since the only tea I sweeten is chai, and only when I drink it with soymilk (if I'm just doing the Bigelow Vanilla Chai bags, I drink it black). But just a few short weeks ago, the seven cups of tea I'm drinking now - was Mt. Dew. *shudder* No wonder I wasn't losing any weight!

Caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror just now in the ladies room, and was shocked. I can actually SEE where I'm firming up. My spare tire is shrinking, slowly (hey, 120 crunches 3x a week will do that!) and my arms aren't QUITE as bat-like. I might be able to do this after all.

In another note (sorry, I'm flighty this morning), apparently drinking 5 cups of black or green tea a day will help protect you from cancer. So here's to cancer prevention.

Today's carol is two of my favorite singers, Bing Crosby and David Bowie. I love the way they intertwine their voices.




If you'd like to suggest a carol too, by all means do. I've got a list, but it's always subject to change!

There are two things I adore, and it's no secret: December, and Christmas music. I listen to carols all year long - they're my favorite music to write to. I think it's because out of all the holidays in the year, my father was always home for at least part of Christmas, and that's not easy when you're in the Navy. Christmas, for my family, has never been about presents or money - it's been about family, and the time to spend together.

So this year, I thought it would be fun to do a Christmas Music Advent Calendar here on my LJ. When I was growing up, we had an enormous Advent Calendar - it was a house, and each day, Santa moved room to room until he got to the tree. I adored it. I don't have an advent calendar this year - I haven't found one I liked yet. So I'll make my own.

Today's carol is from a group I just discovered this year, although apparently they've been around since 2004. Straight No Chaser is an a capella group that is too much fun to watch. So, without further ado, here is the Christmas Can-Can.

This is my absolute favorite zucchini bread recipe ever. It's from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I use whole wheat flour)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 egg, beaten
1 cup sugar
1 cup finely shredded, unpeeled zucchini
1/4 cup cooking oil (I use unsweetened applesauce instead. Makes it supermoist)
1/2 cup nuts, optional

Oven preheated to 350 degrees F.

Mix everything together and put into a greased baking dish. Bake for 50-55 minutes.

You can also do either 1/2 apple, 1/2 zucchini, or all apple. Yummy!

Tomorrow is going to be insane at work, so I'm trying to get into a zen sort of space in my head (I'm on the phones, because it will be insane). So today I'm going to do a bunch of homey stuff, and make sure I pack a really good lunch/dinner for myself and for argus7hills.

Good news today - after a horrible eating day yesterday (I know my nutritionist was having fits and couldn't figure out why, because all I had was sour-cream and onion chips, cookies, chex mix and one small turkey sandwich to eat, and OJ and vodka to drink), I stepped on the scale with trepidation. I didn't think I overate during Thanksgiving, but I didn't deprive myself either. Last Sunday, I weighed in at 282.5 lbs. Stepped on the scale today, peeked down...


282.0 lbs.

I LOST .5 lbs!!!! *happy dance*

So today is all about eating normally (well, as normally as turkey soup is for breakfast. With roasted broccoli on top. Mmmm, was SOOOO good), rehydrating and getting ready for tomorrow.

To-Do:
- Fold Laundry and put away
- Email edits to my last few authors
- Start cleaning office
- Write

That's it. Dinner is leftovers - we have SO much leftover food! I love it.

Oh, and I might put up the Christmas tree tonight. And turn on the lights outside.

Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!

Metaphorically speaking, of course.

Today, I'm at work. *sniff* However, it's Jeans Day! (Yay!) And I'm not on the phones! (Double Yay!) So not too bad, although I'd much rather be spending it with my family baking cookies.

This weekend is going to be a quiet one. I'm going to finally get those 4 stories back to my writers, and I'm contemplating cleaning my office a bit. And writing. I really want to write. Sunday, I'm going to the studio to work on Christmas presents.

AND THAT'S IT.

(Okay, probably some WoW too, but that really doesn't count.)

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and I'm looking forward to the holidays. For those who are waiting for my address, I'll be replying to those this weekend - I don't have access to personal email at work.

All Merchant Registrations and Waiting List notifications have been sent out, as of 1 am this morning.

Yay!

Now all I have to do is sit down with the map and figure out where everyone is going to actually set up. :P

(PS - if there is anyone who still wants to try for the waiting list, I will definitely accept an email at birka_merchant_steward@yahoo.com with the number of tables, the number of spaces and whether or not they want electricity, but be warned - I have several merchants who are already on that list, and honestly, I'm not sure I'll be able to even find room for them. :( Not an answer I like to give, but I'm being honest.)

That means I can sleep and write this weekend. Yay!

Oh, and I have to plug this. Get over to Podiobooks.com and do a search for Nathan Lowell. Start at Quarter Share and seriously, listen. SERIOUSLY. These are awesome books. How can you NOT like a main character named Ishmael Horatio Wong??? Ish is awesome.

From the website for Quarter Share:

"A Trader's Tale from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper : Book 1

When Ishmael Wang is orphaned by a flitter crash, he must make some hard decisions about how to survive in a Company-owned universe. With limited time and fewer options, he lands a job as the newest hand on the Solar Clipper Lois McKendrick and learns there's more to life than making coffee. Join Ish, Pip, Big Bad Bev, and the rest of the Lois McKendrick's crew as they sail the galaxy in search of profitable trade.For more information on the book and the Golden Age, see http://www.durandus.com/golden"

This is seriously crack-y awesome. Go and listen. NOW.

Pitchers and catchers report Feb. 18, 2010!!!! Only 85 days away!!!!

It's just not worth chewing through the chains.

Really. :p Despite the fact that I have Thursday off, it's a long week.

First, though, the good news!

Weight today was 282.5 lbs, which is 3 lbs lighter than last week! Yay! I'm more Twittering my progress than writing it here, but I will keep updating. (The hashtag for this is #operationhealthy, if you're interested.) My nutritionist was very happy with my progress, and I've recommitted to my workouts and my food journal.

Also, I did my full workout today and did some more running, and am happy to report that knees are not complaining! Woot! I'm seriously thinking about starting the Couch to 5k workout in January, but I'm going to check with my Personal Sadist Trainer first. Don't want to be too overenthusiastic and hurt myself.

Writing - I got about 2k written on Saturday, but I won't be picking it up again until after I've gotten all the Birka stuff done, and gotten the edits for Rum and Runestones cleaned up. I have four left that are done on paper - I just need to get a chance to enter them in and then email them out.

I need, seriously, about 10 more hours a day. :P

Also, I'm hosting Thanksgiving on Thursday, which means cleaning and cleaning and more cleaning. I'm tempted to take off a little early either today or tomorrow and make the time up on Friday, so I can get this stuff done. I plan on running low on sleep until I get caught up.

The bulk of my time will be spent finishing up Birka Merchants stuff - I need to send out the remainder of the acceptances and get the folks on the waiting list an update, and I want to have that all done by Wednesday. I'll be doing some more tonight - the more I think about it, the more cutting out of here at 7 pm and getting home by 8 sounds good. That's only 1.5 hrs to make up, and I can do that by staying 30 minutes later or coming in 30 minutes earlier the rest of the week (I work a 4-10 schedule normally, 10 am to 8:30 pm Monday through Wednesday and Friday, with Thursday off, so I work normal hours this week, but I get paid for the holiday, so I'm not complaining too much!).

So Last Rites is on the back-burner and may get picked at on Thursday, in between food or after folks leave. We'll see. If I can get all of Birka done tonight (hm, almost managed to type that without sniggering!), things free up a little bit, but not much.

Ah well. Life goes on. I'll finish the damn book at some point.

This doesn't include the 3 handwritten pages I wrote today. I'll update more later.

So basically, this is called shooting yourself in the foot so you don't walk the wrong way, right?

Man. Hope none of you in Texas wanted to really be married. :P

Edited to add: And you REALLY have to be amused to know that CBC (the Canadian Broadcasting Company) was reporting on it, which is where I first heard about it. Seriously.

Firstly, woot! Found my thumb drives after all! Will print/update NaNo forums later tonight.

1.5 handwritten pages written.

Several notes added to new journal (appropriately titled "Naughty" on the cover - so me!) regarding world-building/scene ideas.

Soldiering on.

Considering I'm writing from memory, having left my thumb drive with what I have written to date on it at home. I refuse to let that stop me. Going from memory, and I'll fix it when I type it in at home.

Doing 5-minute sprints in between work stuff. Have 1 page handwritten so far.

More updates later. Here at work until 10 pm EST.

Briefly:

- morning pages
- Update NaNo forums with Last Rites info (not that TPC is going away - it's just going on hiatus until after LR is done)
- Print out LR so far and post word count here

I have 10 days, and I'm at approximately 5k for Last Rites. I am officially switching to this as my NaNo and am determined to hit 50k by November 30th. Nuts? Maybe. Maybe not. It's only 4.5k a day. :p

I will, at the very least, make the effort.

Hoist the colors - we're going in.