-
and people say homeschooling is bad for socialization!
Archive for March, 2007
28
Mar
07
links for 2007-03-29
27
Mar
07
God help us
Today will be 100% caffeine free…
26
Mar
07
On the right track
Maybe it’s just the fact that there’s much more daylight but I really feel tons better and more motivated. Of course it helps to be following through on just about all of my projects (well, except for my immigration one – I need to make a couple more calls, get our pics taken and sent the whole package out to the lawyer – perhaps by the end of next month – along with taxes for that matter).
Anyway, a few weeks after asking how people get more hours in their day, I seem to have figured it out – or at least that’s what it feels like. The new routine that is pretty well settled in now is to get up at 5:30 and lounge about, get ready and have breakfast, leaving at somewhere between 7:00-7:30. I get home from work about 6:30 now and sign up for time in the gym at which point I go upstairs and get dinner started (Sage does prep so it is really easy) and have a snack before heading back down for a workout of an hour or so.
I’ve also really begun to watch what I eat very carefully. For the past couple weeks or so I have been almost 100% vegan. At the same time I have just about totally weaned myself from coffee. Today I was down to the equivalent of 3/8 of a cup (mixed with an alternative beverage) – tomorrow I think I’m close enough to give a 100% caffeine free day a go. This has helped tons with my state of mind and also my appetite – drinking 6-8 cups of coffee/day was making me ravenous all the time and mentally scattered so this has been a big help. Between the diet and exercise I have lost over 5 lbs in a couple weeks while not being hungry at all.
On a related note, I found my bike yesterday – a shop had a used “no name” frame with totally new brakes, wheels and drivetrain for about $150 – I picked it up, and a lock and helmet and headed home taking not too much longer on the bike than it would take by transit. I’d have gone out again tonight but I realize I need to get a bell – apparently in Toronto you can be fined $110 for not having one. That would be too silly to explain and so I’ll grab one at Canadian Tire and put it on before I go out tomorrow night (it’s going to be 18 degrees – perfect biking weather!)
On an unrelated note – Sage and I have been working hard at cutting down on the dining out and to that end have actually, for the first time in our lives (sad, huh?), started meal planning. Yes, we went out a couple times last week but believe it or not that’s a clear improvement from before.
So I’m feeling pretty good – it’s nice to feel on top of things for a change. Of course work promises to get busy really soon so there may be other challenges…
25
Mar
07
links for 2007-03-26
-
Every few months I post a link to this movie and every few months it gets taken down because of copyright issues. This copy appears to have been posted by the filmmaker, though so it should be around for a while. Highly recommended.
-
Fantastic documentary showing the difference in reporting of the lead-up and early days of the Iraq war between eastern and western media. Posted before but all previous links have died.
-
When a young lawyer from Toronto decides to become an Imam, he decides to move west to the prairies to pursue his true calling. Fun and interesting sitcom – more episodes available online
17
Mar
07
links for 2007-03-18
-
Fantastic recipe and really easy!
14
Mar
07
Baby steps
Making progress slowly but surely with a slightly different arrangement to my day. The past two days I’ve been waking up early and leaving for work by 6:30 which gets me to work by 8:00. Then I work all day but because I got in a bit early I can leave by 4:00-4:30 which gets me home in time for an hour at the gym. If Sage cooks a bit or does prep then there is more than enough time.
Meanwhile, my diet has improved greatly. I’m back on the “eat whatever I like as long as it is low fat” diet that helped me lose almost 20 lbs a year ago. It’s helping me with my resolution to try as much as possible to be vegan again as I was in the best of shape when I was eating no animal products. So far so good on that front.
And the key to all of this has been cutting down significantly on coffee. A week ago I was having 2 cups before leaving for work, another 14-20 ounces on the way, another strong cup at about 10:00, another in the afternoon and often a sixth cup on the way home. This set me on an energy roller coaster and sent my appetite through the roof. I’m still having two cups in the morning but my next cup is in the late afternoon. Soon I’ll start cutting down on that as well. I’ve also stopped drinking the home-roasted coffee. That was good but higher in caffeine than the Tim Horton’s canned coffee I was drinking. Between going to the gym and cutting down on coffee I feel tons better and actually have more energy.
Of course if I don’t go to sleep soon I will not have so much energy in the morning…
12
Mar
07
links for 2007-03-13
12
Mar
07
Overscheduled…and a question
First off, the quick part: the question. Anyone have good suggestions as to what I should look for in a bike? I’m hoping to get something that’ll be a semi-daily ride for 10-15 km trips to start. Ideally I could carry a few things – groceries, etc, when my stamina improves. 90% of the riding will be on decent paths, most paved, with some on-road travel. If you’re from Toronto, any ideas where I should look for a bike? As someone who knows nothing I’m a prime candidate to be ripped off, I figure.
Today I realized that I have hit the threshold for scheduling. I cannot do another thing and am actually overscheduled to some extent. Either that or maybe my stamina is just not up to what it should be. It started by trying to figure out how to fit in a workout every few days (my weight is back even a little above where it was last year at this time), and ended in the conclusion that there really is nowhere in my current schedule to fit one in without really impacting my quality of life. So far I wake up about 5:30, hang out online with Brenda, Rebekkah, Sage, and sometimes (when she’s up late), Syne on skype for a half an hour or so before getting ready for work and heading out. I get a bit of leisure time on the 60-90 minute commute to work, then work until about 5:30 or so (sometimes as late as 6:30, sometimes as early as 4:30) then study my French on the trip home which usually brings me in the door about 7:00-7:30 depending on what I need to do on the way. After that, I make dinner (often Sage does prep), then by about 8:00-8:30 we have dinner. By about 10:00 I am off to bed. So I’m in the process now of looking for ways to get a bit of time back. We’re simultaneously pursuing hiring a personal chef for a few meals/week (we did this in Albuquerque and it was a great help and not as expensive as you’d think), and though I feel strangely guilty about it, possibly having Sage cook a few meals every week. Any time management tips you folks would care to share? I think I’ve got a mental block. About all I come up with are to get a car (we could probably afford one but I really don’t want one. That’d give me an extra 30-60 minutes/day. I’ve also considered moving when our lease is up to somewhere closer to my two major Toronto-area clients which would shave off as much as 1.5-2 hours/day but would decrease our quality of life requiring a move to North York – not technically a suburb (we could be on the subway line) but in a characterless part of the city affected by sprawl.
Anyway – sometimes I hear what others I work with are able to fit in (nighttime trips to the gym, making dinner, hobbies, kids afterschool activities), and feel like they must have a different clock that has more hours on it than mine.
Thanks for listening to my whining. I realize the most likely issue is that I have the March blahs and will feel much better when June comes along.
11
Mar
07
What I’ve been up to
Sorry to let this blog fall by the wayside. It seems I am so busy lately that I haven’t time to write about it. Okay – that’s not entirely true, I’ve posted a couple entries over in my blog en français but rather than invite ridicule I’ll only pass the url on upon request – I’m still very much a beginner there.
Work has been picking up slowly but surely and as it is all local work the good news is that I get to be home every night. The bad news is that soon I expect I’ll have to be pulling some long hours to get everything done that I need to do. The busier my work gets in Toronto the less likely it is that I’ll have to travel.
On the other hand, if I do have to travel, and my travel takes me to Quebec, I may be slightly more prepared. I am still not quite ready for conversation (I might be calling on you soon, though, Paxye) but my comprehension is increasing and though the dictionary is still my best friend, I am even reading some French homeschooling blogs. It’s making me impatient to learn more, though. I am able to muddle through a little of the discussions on socialization that’s going on. I definitely have my share of strong opinons on the matter and would love to contribute. So for the time being I’ll have to be content with lurking with one hand firmly holding my dictionary.
Today before my French class my family and I went over to Nathan Phillips Square for a rally in support of Canada’s signing back on to Kyoto. There were some very strong words there and everyone who spoke seemed to think an election was coming soon. Listening to Jack Layton speak was particularly inspiring – I know lots of people don’t like him but I really appreciate his vision for the future. The whole experience was so inspiring that I’ve resolved to look into buying a bicycle this spring. There are enough off-road bicycle trails here that I should be able to get to most places without having to deal with cars or at least without traveling on busy streets to get there. Sure we don’t even drive a car now but it would be better for me and for the environment to ride a bike if I can.
Outside of that my routines have changed quite a bit. My podcast listening has decreased significantly – I may have only 5-6 podcast subscriptions now where I used to have 30-40. In direct proportion to that there is an increase in reading – I’m really hooked on Neil Gaiman at the moment. So now unless I’m really tired, my commute is spent either reading or studying my French.
Lastly, my mood has improved dramatically thanks to the changing of the clocks combined with the almost simultaneous arrival of warmer weather. I am, as always, looking forward to warm summer days.
The cats are now reminding me that it is far past the time for their wet food. Hope y’all are well.
06
Mar
07
Nomades Bizarres
Okay – so to practice my (at the moment very limited and very bad) French, I’m in the process of setting up a blog (members only) that I’ll be posting to in French. I know of at least one person who reads this who also speaks French (I’ll send you an email with info but it is still a few days off) but if there are any others please feel free to contact me at using the username toddtyrtle at the domain gmail dot com.
Also – for the reading side of things – are there any French homeschooling, parenting, or otherwise interesting blogs you’d recommend? I tried a bit of searching a bit but was not having much luck.
Recent Comments