Starting tomorrow...

For May, I have some very specific goals.

1. Clear the paper clutter in my apartment
2. Add thirty minutes of daily exercise
3. Write 2K words on the novel every day
4. Initiate a Pantry Challenge for pantry, freezer, cupboards
5. Prepare my class for Oxford: lectures, readings, YouTube clips

Beyond that, I must take care of my car's bumper, initiate programs for the 2012-2013 year, dry cleaner & tailor items, finish up this year's programs and get Jack's med for flights. Odds and ends, here and there.

But getting ready for travel is uppermost, hence the exercise. Also, a ban on sugar and wheat. Apart from likker. But no more M&Ms, no more ice cream, no more frozen yogurt meals.

This Week!

I decided that with my heat-induced lethargy I had better give myself specifics for the week. So here goes, and here's what to come this week.

Monday/Review: Two plays by local theatres
Tuesday/New Frugality: My recent experiments in purging
Wednesday: Who knows?
Thursday/Clothing & the ongoing Express Checkout Experiment: My closets
Friday: If I were in Paris...
Saturday/Cooking, eating & drinking
Sunday: Who knows?

Plus, because it's summer and I'm always looking for good things to do, I think I'll have a piece everyday about one of my favorite actors in classic movies, with my suggestions for what to rent, checkout from your library, watch on streaming/regular Netflix, or, if you're lucky, see on a big screen in some revivial art house near you.

Monday: Bette Davis
Tuesday: Claudette Colbert
Wednesday: Cary Grant
Thursday: Humphrey Bogart
Friday: Fred Astaire & Gene Kelly
Saturday: Family films

Good Things that Happened Yesterday

1. Met a friend for dinner. Had great convo with her about her work and mine. Left 3/4 fries and 1/4 burger on my plate...
2. Finally heard from publisher: only prelim message, but finally! Fingers crossed.
3. Offered tickets for local show, which has gotten great reviews. Hope to see it this weekend, before it closes.
4. Found a movie gift card someone had given me, that I had forgotten all about. Score: free movies!
5. Sold something on Craigslist within a day of reposting it with better pictures.
6. Was the high bidder on eBay for something that I had been looking for, for a long time. At 25% or original price, including shipping.
7. Uploaded my pictures from DC.
8. Got great advice from two friends and myself about how to rethink upcoming classes and production events, which led to a flurry of ideas about fall's classes, assignments, lectures, and programs. Great feeling.

Wow!

Finally!

'Cause I know you've all been waiting: The Bike.

Next: covered panniers with a rear rack.

And here's the new sofa:

Forgive the mess.

Pearl

The Bike

Here it is.

Well, it would be, but I am being restrained by my computer for "administrative issues" so it won't let me download photos. It doesn't recognize me an administrator... which basically means that my computer is telling me that I am not the boss of it.

Which is true... but I digress.

The blue bike in the foreground: my exact bike.

I rode The Bike home and felt the wind flying through my hair. Whee!

OK, I have short hair cut extra short for summer heat and wore a ball cap... but still: Wheeeeeee!
Remember this post on frugality back this spring? Well, I got the front basket (detachable, too!), the bell, and even light blue color-coordinated grips.

All on monies saved from coupons, deals, EBates, and selling books on Amazon. Now I'm going to start saving for the next "big" project: a new mattress and box spring. Good times.

Whhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Pearl

Tomorrow

Tomorrow--Friday--I will pick up my NEW BIKE!
Yes. I ordered it on Tuesday, and will pick it up TOMORROW!
Can you tell I am EXCITED!
I hope I will have pictures, but my camera is refusing to intersect interrogate interact interface with the laptop, so it may not be immediately possible.

HOWEVER

it is a light blue Cruiser bike, with light blue rubber grips, a white front basket, a side mirror, a zingy bell, and, yes, the LOCK OF LOCKS so that it doesn't go walkabout.
I will be very cool, in a short-middle-aged-lady-in-a-skirt cool manner.

Pearl