A Little 101 in 1001 Progress

Way back when we put together a 101 in 1001 house list.  We made some progress, did nothing for months and then recently made a nice dent on the list.

1. New Couch April 2013

We needed a new couch because the old one was hurting Micah’s back and my hips.  We ended up getting this from the Kasala Outlet (which we love and need to stay away from).  We got a killer deal and the couch comes with a 5 year guarantee.  Of course, when we put in the couch we realized we needed to rethink storage in the room.  That’s a post for another time.

13. Install peep hole for backdoor March 2013

Why did it take us so long to do this?  It took Micah 15 minutes to install a peep hole in a metal door.

33. Hire gardener for “neighbors” yard May 2013

The neighbors (my sister) actually did this.  We are having her gardener build us another retaining wall.  I hear it will be done by Wednesday.  I can’t wait to see it.

42. Create salad box planter for deck (Moved to Alley Door), May 2013

We were going to do this for the deck but then decided front (alley side) door needed something.  It was a great idea.  We love the way it looks.  This may be the bulk of our summer veggie garden.  We planted 2 kinds of chard, 3 types of lettuce and some radishes.  I took this picture last week and Micah says it’s already almost doubled in size.

48. Organize pantry, February 2013

I didn’t take the best picture because you can’t see the lazy susan but that thing is amazing.  I put all the bottles on it.  Now I can access any bottle easily (without taking everything out) and I have more room for containers.  I want at least one more lazy susan for the vitamins in the bathroom.

Here is the before:

And the after:

96. Finish Earthquake kit, February 2013

This took a long time too.  I want to do a post on this when I get home and can take pictures. 

The next few items I want to tackle are:

55. Finish toilet area in master bath

68. Create organizations system for all upstairs closets -  I already started on this.

88. Shampoo area rugs annually (x3)

How are you doing on your 101 in 1001 list?

Back to Blogging–Brain Dump

Wow, it’s been 5 months since we ( I ) blogged anything.  Honestly, it’s been a crazy year that has run me ragged.  I mentioned in a previous post that I joined a few new projects at work.  They have kicked my ass.  I am learning so much and am genuinely interested in them but catching up has taken a lot of energy.  Both project existed before I joined.  At times I have doubted my decision to join these new projects – new disease area, new funding mechanisms, new team members with different styles than I am used to – but on the whole, I am glad I joined and didn’t bail when I things got tough.  Already, I have learned new skills and the year isn’t even halfway over yet.  My role on the malaria project I continue to work on has changed so much in the last 6 months.  I went from administrative backstopping, staffing and personnel to actually contributing technical content.  It sounds small but in my non-profit world, that’s huge jump.  I am really excited about the opportunities but also worried about the new responsibilities.  Actually being in charge of something is different than being a contributor. 

On top of all that, I was asked to join a year long training/mentoring program in an area I have been dabbling in (monitoring and evaluation) for the last year.  At first I mainly did it because the team leader on my two new projects really pushed it on me.  I was interested but could have held out until next year.  Now I am finding it so useful and actually enjoying it.  Shhh, that’s a secret.  If he finds out, he will never let me live it down.  And strangely, I am enjoying and really learning from the mentor relationship.  I feel really lucky to have two people at work really vested and interested in my growth and career.  That said, all these new opportunities, along with the travel, has had me running to play catch up since the beginning of the year.

I was looking through our/my goals for 2013 and thought give a progress report on how it’s going. 

US:

1. Snowshoe, snowshoe, hike, hike – Um yeah, we tried.  We went snowshoeing once and hiking about 3 times.  I honestly have been on the road 7 weeks already (not including personal trips) and am on my 3rd day of a 5-6 weeks trip.  We do have plans to get in as many hikes as we can before August.

2. Save, Save, Save – Again, we haven’t sat down to sort out his 401K.  I think that needs to be a priority when I get home.

3. Eat at the table – HA! Actually, this is my fault.  The table has been covered in articles I need to read for months. 

4. More Family Time – Well, we did get down to ABQ to see the nephews and we have been spending a lot of time with my sister and brother-in-law.  Micah’s parents will be back in the area this summer and I bet we see a lot of them too.

5. Go to more shows – Um, yeah.  We tried but there is this long story about how we missed a concert because of a bad VRBO experience.  One day I will share.  I doubt we get to any shows before fall.

Verdict? Not great.  Luckily, the year isn’t over yet.

Me:

1. Unsubscribe – I have been really good at this.  Yes, I am proud of myself.

2. Power Down – I was really doing well with this until I return from my last trip around Easter.  I am hoping I pull it together on this trip and get back to powering down an hour before bed. 

3. Organizing myself online – I have started cleaning up my Pinterest boards.  One of my goals this trip is to go through my Fitness board and maybe subdivide it.  I want a board that is just exercises that can be done on the road.  By that I mean no weights, no machines and no balance ball.  I also want to delete the ones that don’t help or I will never do.  Stay tuned for that.  Also, I am still loving iAnnotate.  I brought 20 articles to read and didn’t print a single one out. 

4. Homemade – I haven’t done this yet.  Micah’s birthday is coming up and I will start there.  I have some ideas.

5. A pin a month – I have done this and more!  I’ll try to post on some of my pinning successes.

6. Swim, Swim, Swim – I wish.  I got really sick at the end of my last trip and am only starting to get over it.  I am hoping I can hop back into the pool when I am back. 

7. Vitamins and water – I have been doing really well on this.  Better at the vitamins than water unless I am on the road.  I will admit, that being sick has a lot to do with taking my vitamins regularly.

8. Learning a little Amharic – I looked for resources at the library before I left but didn’t find anything.  I am hoping I can find some resources in Addis

9. Read 24 books – I’ve read 5 this year and am currently halfway through my 6th.  I also have 3 paperbacks I want to get through during this trip.  I’m a little behind but I bet I catch up by the time I get home.

10. Visit 3 new places – I did go to Bahir Dar in Ethiopia earlier this year.  I didn’t see much beyond the training center, but I should be headed back there in the next few weeks.  I may also go to Uganda this trip.  That will be new.  We have Peru on the books for sure. 

Verdict? Not too bad.  I definitely need to work on a few items but I don’t think I am too far behind.

Have you been able to stick to your resolutions or goals for 2013?

I hope to work on a couple posts this weekend which means a week of regular posts starting Monday.  Have a wondering weekend everyone!

2013

Well, it’s a new year and with that comes some new goals. Micah and I haven’t spent too much time talking about goals for 2013 as I left for Ethiopia two days after we got back from Santa Barbara. Yes, Izzy is mad at me about this. We came up with a few that I think are a good.

1. Snowshoe, snowshoe, hike, hike – we are going to Peru in August (!!) and need to get ourselves ready for all the hiking we are going to do particularly the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. I don’t think hiking will be our problem, it’s going to be hiking at such a high altitude that will get us, particularly me since I have asthma. We are aiming to go snowshoeing at least twice a month until all the snow melts and then hike in the spring and early summer.

2. Save, Save, Save – Micah’s new school hooked him up with a great retirement plan and now we need to take advantage of it. We are sorting out the best way to save for the future and take advantage of the flexible spending money they gave him.  We have had so many changes in our take home pay and need to adjust our budget.

3. Eat at the table – This was on last year’s list but once fall hit, we stopped eating dinner at our gorgeous table. I don’t like it and we are going to break that bad habit. We did decide Micah doesn’t have to eat at the table when I’m away. He says it’s super depressing.

4. More Family Time – We don’t see Micah’s family enough and we never really spend a ton of quality time with my whole family outside of the occasional meal or DIY project. We are going to see Micah’s nephews this month and his parents will be moving back to the area in the summer (we think). We hope that we will see the boys again sometime in the summer or early fall and we know we will definitely see everyone at Christmas. We are also hoping that we can do a long weekend with my family at a cabin this winter. Momager and the neighbor (my sister) seem excited for it. If that works well (ie we don’t all kill each other), it’s likely we’ll try to do something similar in the summer.

5. Go to more shows – We went to some really great shows last year. Beirut was definitely my favorite though I did really enjoy The Bad Plus. I hope we get to go to more shows and at smaller venues.

That’s pretty much it. Of course there are house projects we want to get done, but don’t we always have house projects we want to get done?

I have a few goals for myself this year that I hope will become life long habits.

1. Unsubscribe – I get SO much junk mail, it’s crazy. I swear that for every 20 emails I get, only one or two are of interest to me. I decided that each day I would unsubscribe to a few listservs. So far, so good. I’ve been doing it for 10 days and the number of new emails I get has been cut in half. It’s great.

2. Power Down – I am on too many devices during the day – iphone, ipad, laptop, tv, etc. I decided that every night I would power down one hour before bed. No checking my phone or ipad and no e-books or Pinterest. TV is OK, for now. It means I have to have a real book at my bedside which has been nice. I will make the exception for the occasional work related things like a late night Skype call (Ethiopia is 11 hours ahead and late night can be more convenient) or working on a document that has a tight deadline.

3. Organizing myself online – Strange that I would put this after powering down but oh well. I cleaned out the bookmarks I have on my laptop and pinned all the recipes and ideas to Pinterest, and added all the blogs and sites in My Favorites to Flipbook. Eventually I’d like to move all the recipes I really like to a virtual cookbook and meal planning site. I also started using Dropbox for more than just work. I’ve installed iAnnotate on my iPad which was a lifesaver on this trip. I read through a 80 page lit review on the flight here without having to carry a single piece of paper. I can make handwritten notes and highlight on PDFs. iAnnotate has no idea how many trees it’s saving.

4. Homemade – I want to try to make at least ½ the gifts we give this year. I like the idea of food gifts which has been a big hit in the past. We’ve gifted homemade ginger vodka, beer, smoked salmon, bacon, parmesan, biscotti, lime curd and lemoncello. I have hopes of making (to gift and consume) our own pancetta, bitters, ginger beer (non alcoholic), new cheeses, crackers, jarred pestos, spice rubs, caramels, vanilla extract, and maybe even sausage. Micah got the Kitchenaid mixer grinder attachment for Christmas, so I know he’ll be busy and we’ll be eating well. There are also some more traditional crafting projects I’d like to make.

5. A pin a month – At least. I pin a lot of things on Pinterest and I think I actually do a good job of tackling some of the recipes on my boards. I want to clean up my boards and also attempt at least one pin a month. It could be reading a book from my Books to Read board or trying out one of the exercise routines that looks doable. It also means deleting the pins that are unsuccessful or that I will never, ever attempt. If you are interested in following me, you can by going to www.pinterest.com/forty20four I warn you, I go pin crazy when I am on the road (which is a lot)

6. Swim, Swim, Swim – I’ve been swimming for the last few months and love it. I have some personal goals like cutting down my strokes per lap, getting faster and cleaning up my stoke in general. The Neighbor (my sister) got me some new swimming accessories for Christmas which I am excited to use. I think the key to this goal will be increasing the strength training I do outside of the pool.

7. Vitamins and water – Not vitamin water. For some reason I can’t get myself to take vitamins regularly and I only drink enough water when I travel. Micah is really, really good about always taking his vitamins and drinking more water than any human being, ever. I am going to try and follow his lead.

8. Learning a little Amharic – I know, learn a language is like saying my resolution is to lose weight. For the most part, I think most of my malaria project related travel will just be to Ethiopia. I am excited about that. I really like my team here and like the country. I used to know a handful of words but I forgot them. I will be spending time in some of the regions this year and I think a few key phrases in Amharic would be smart. Let’s be clear, I am not crazy enough to think I will learn the alphabet, I just want to be able to say a few key phrases like, ‘I don’t speak Amharic’ or ‘No, I am not Ethiopian,’ or ‘yes, I am sure I wasn’t adopted from Ethiopia.’ Key phrases.

9. Read 24 books – This is always on my list and I always get to tick it off.

10. Visit 3 new places – Same as above, this one is also a gimme. We already have Peru booked. It’s likely I will get to go to Uganda and/or Bangladesh this year with my new projects. Micah and I are also hoping for a trip to the Methow Valley to go snowshoeing with Izzy. I’ve never spent much time in that part of the state and am looking forward to it.

That’s a lot but I think they are all doable.  What are some of your goals for this year?

2012 and a Letter From Izzy

I know, it’s 2013 already but we didn’t really have time to reflect on 2012.  2012 was a big year for us.  Micah left a school he had been teaching at for 5 years for a school in the city.  No more hour long commutes!  His new school is pretty awesome and I am not saying that because I went there.  They treat him and the other teachers so well.  It’s amazing what a change of venue/employer can do for your teaching. 

I also went through some career change. Last year was really busy and bumpy for me.  I took on some new responsibilities, spent a lot of time on the road and eventually got to place I wasn’t so sure I liked.  Right when I was starting come apart a bit, a couple great opportunities fell into my lap.  I am so grateful.  Latter half of December was stressful but it was a good stress as I was learning so much.

We FINALLY got the barn door installed in our TV room.  I’m pretty sure we have been planning/talking about it for over a year.  We had the pleasure of hosting lots of guests, of both the human and canine variety, which we really enjoyed.  We took some great trips in including one to Maui and a New England road trip we have yet to really blog about.

We had some great times in 2012 and some very low points but I things are on definitely on the up and up as a whole.  we hope all of you have a wonderful year.  For those of you who didn’t not receive Izzy’s annual Christmas letter, here it is: 

Dear human friends and family,

Guess who? Yes, it’s your favorite beagle/basenji 4-legged lady. Another year has passed and there are still one too many cats living next door. Despite the cats, my humans and I have had a good year. I went on my first beach adventure and I loved it. I ran free on the beach with the wind in my ears and sand in my paws. There was also an incident involving a bird-bath filled with pancakes, but we don’t talk about that anymore. Despite that, I think I am definitely more a beach dog than a rainy city dog. Now, if my humans would just win Powerball then we could buy a private island to live on.

My humans had a big year. Man-human, Micah, got a new job and is really enjoying it. He’s at a new school in the city. The school is very different from his old one. He’s no longer faced with questions like “Can I turn my paper in late? My driver left it in the other Bentley?” and “No, I’m not wearing shoes, my nanny put them somewhere and I can’t find them.” Luckily, man-human still gets the opportunity to mold young minds with thrilling lesson plans about: The Etruscans, Ancient Hebrew Kings, The Stamp Act, and perennial-favorite Comma Splices and Ellipses.

Lady-human, Catherine, has been very busy. She’s been all over the place this year and has managed to have survived four months on the road without me. I know, I didn’t think that was possible either. She seems to be in very high spirits about work next year. She is splitting her time with a couple of new, non-malaria projects. It’s all she’s been talking about for the last few weeks. The new projects will mean less time on the road, but trips to new countries. I say it’s a win-win for us both. She’s also taken up cheese making. I am really excited about the parmesan wheel aging in the fridge. I have developed a parmesan scrap habit thanks to lady-human’s dad (aka dadtractor). He’s the best at sneaking me forbidden treats.

As usual, the humans are still working on the house. They haven’t made a ton of progress this year and that’s fine by me. I am not a fan of saws, hammers or being restricted access to certain areas of the house because of wet paint. They have given up on their little veggie garden because the pesky cats next door have taken it as their own.

On behalf of both my humans, we’d like to wish you Happy Holidays. Please remember that all peanut butter or beef related gifts can be addressed to Izzy or left in the dog bowl in the kitchen.

Lots of love and doggy kisses,

Izzy

Close the Door

A long, LONG time ago we talked about how we really wanted to install a barn door in our TV room. We spend a lot of time in the room and love it but it was hard to keep the space warm because of the open floor plan.  After a lot of talk, research and trial and error, we (Micah and Dadtractor) finally got it made and installed. 

I wish we could give a proper tutorial but honestly I didn’t participate in the assembly.  I painted and sanded but got out of the way when it came to the heavy lifting and assembly.  Micah said that installing the track was pretty easy.  The door assembly was simple once they reinforced the heavy door.  The hardest part was moving the finished door and hanging it.

The isn’t the most finished door but we feel like it does the job, looks good and was a deal compared to what we were quoted.

In total we spent about $200 for a 8’x5’, 250lb custom made door.  The costs are as follows:

1. Barn door tracks and hardware: $60.
2. Wood: $100
3. Paint: $25
4. Misc. Supplies: $10 

We still need to buy and install handles but that will come soon.  The door has created a few storage issues in our TV room but we think we can solve that pretty easily. 

One big project down, so many more to go.