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Home > Archive: April, 2008

Archive for April, 2008

Good mail day :)

April 26th, 2008 at 09:40 pm

About six weeks ago I got a bee under my bonnet to finally *do* something with my retirement funds from when I taught in the public school system.

A few years ago I received a notice that my money had stopped earning interest. For some reason, they stop giving interest on your money after 5 years. I really was going to do something with it, but just never got around to it.

So, anyway, about six weeks ago I sent in the form to say I wanted my money. They then sent me another form to fill out showing where that money was going to go to (my company's 401k plan.) I got that filled out - had our representative sign it, and mailed it.

Today I got the check in the mail! So, on Monday I'll get all the paperwork together and mail it off with the check. Then fairly soon afterwards, my 401k will jump by about $1300 -- effectively doubling it. Smile

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Now I can only hope that in April 2009, when my Traditional cd IRA at BOFA comes due, that I'll have this same bee under my bonnet to move it somewhere to actually MAKE money for me!

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In other news . . this week I took two sick days. One of my own volition, and the other after being told to go home (after the president heard me coughing.)

I have the strongest feeling that I am going to have to skip the 5k on May 3rd. Unless the cough/upper resp congestion goes away REALLY fast . . .

Never thought that I'd be one saying that I miss going to the gym.

Oh well - I still have another 5k I'm signed up for in July. I wonder if I can get a refund of my registration fee for the May 3rd one??

Elevators

April 23rd, 2008 at 01:33 am

I saw this interesting story today on msn.com about a man who'd been trapped in an elevator for 41 hours!

Text is Trapped! and Link is http://gawker.com/379384/trapped-in-an-elevator-for-two-days-the-video
Trapped!

The video itself is pretty interesting, but what is even more interesting (to me at least) is the
Text is New Yorker and Link is http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/04/21/080421fa_fact_paumgarten?currentPage=all
New Yorker article. The article talks about the psychology of elevators and about the history of them, along with giving a lot more details on the man who'd been trapped for 41 hours.

I found it just fascinating and thought y'all might too.

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It seems as though I'm sick again. I was really hoping to not have to have another doctor copay or meds copay this month . . but it looks likely that I'll have both. A few weeks ago I was dxd with an ear infection and a sinus infection and given antibiotics. I thought I was on the mend, so started back on my exercise program once I finished the antibiotics.

Sunday I started coughing. Monday after work when my PT Eric heard me cough, he bluntly told me that he didn't want me to do cardio for at least a couple days. Today, even with dosing myself with Dayquill, I sounded like a wounded Seal (according to one of my coworkers.)

So, I'm off to the doctor tomorrow morning.

I just hope that I'll be over whatever this is in time for the 5k on May 3rd. I may have to walk most of it even if I am, seeing as though most of April has been a loss as far as training goes.

Oh yeah - the budget? It's in sad, sad shape right now. Groceries is out of the roof -- and after tomorrow, medical will be out there as well.

And theres still 9 days of April to go.

The Price of Ignoring Reminders

April 17th, 2008 at 02:35 am

I am a library donor. Not of my free will, unfortunately, but due to the copious amounts of books that I tend to keep checked out ( at least 10 -15+ at any given time), when I forget to renew my books, it is a costly mistake.

So after the last time where I had to part with $15, I set upon a fool proof way of never paying late fees again. Yep - foolproof.

I set up a reminder with yahoo calendar to perpetually remind me to renew my library books every Friday. I have it also set at work in my Outlook. So every Thursday night I get my first reminder email. Then several times on Friday I get a reminder popup at work.

Foolproof, right?

Apparantaly not.

This past Friday, despite all the reminders to check my library books return time, I didn't do it. Yesterday I went into my account to look for a book, and realized quickly that I was going to need to make a trip to the library.

So, today after work (and my workout) I stopped by to find out what the damage was. $30.50 UGH! Thankfully they take credit cards, so I was able to earn some points (plus I only had maybe $2 cash on me.)

An expensive lesson reminding me to NOT ignore my reminders!

Cost of Laziness & My first outside run

April 7th, 2008 at 02:12 am

Last weekend I made a crockpot of pinto beans. Unfortunately, I never got around to putting it into serving size portions to freeze. So, today I had to throw out 2lbs (less one serving I ate during the week) of pinto beans. That was enough beans for 33 work lunches -- gone. Frown

Fortunately, I do have several cans of refried beans in my pantry. So, instead of running to the grocery store (which I'm trying to stay out of until Friday) I will use one of those.

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I just returned from my first outside trial run. Wow! Running outside is WAY different from running on a treadmill. I'm not sure exactly what distance I accomplished in my 40 minutes - thanks to the nifty little sportwatch/pedometer NOT working, but I have a feeling it wasn't much to speak of. I reverted back to what I did when I first started training on the treadmill - run for a minute, feel like I'm dying, then walk for a minute. Repeat and rinse.

Hopefully next Sunday's run will go better. I am planning on returning the sportwatch and taking my personal trainer up on his offer of a free pedometer.

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Last night babysitting went really well. I had SO much fun with the kidlets. We made mud brownies and mud pumpkin pie. We also raked up huge piles of leaves around the backyard (but didn't jump in them because their dad had told them not to.) We also tossed a football around for a bit and played chase. Then we went inside and I was shown all the new toys and dress up outfits. Finally we had evening worship, then watched "Alvin and the Chipmunks." Both kidlets were in bed with teeth brushed by 9 p.m. Then I had the next three hours to read and relax.

I told my friend when they got home that I almost felt like I should be paying them for the privledge of getting to play with their little ones! Smile

3rd place? Not bad.

April 5th, 2008 at 11:04 pm

I found out today how I did in our church's 20 week fitness challenge. Out of the 39 remaining contenders, I placed third. The top 5 individuals were all women, which really surprised me.

I'm not sure why they did this, but they gave cash prizes to the top 3 teams, instead of just the top team. But then they gave a cash prize just to the top individual, and gave *bath sets* to the 2nd and 3rd place people. Um . . not to complain or anything, but I think I'd have preferred whatever cash they spent on the bath set . . .

I was a bit embarrassed though - two reasons. One is that as I was walking up front to accept my "prize" one of my shoes fell off! The other reason is that they had a graph/slide listing the top ten individual weight loss amounts with the names next to the amounts - showing to the whole church!!

I am dissapointed that I didn't win the $200 first place money. But I do know that I had more than one occassion of slacking off during the 20 weeks, so coming in third is still doing pretty well.

Now I'm about to jet off to my babysitting job where I'll be coming home with cash in my pocket - not $200, but still more than I'll be arriving there with. Smile

Babysitting :) & Fitness Training

April 5th, 2008 at 02:15 am

Wednesday night I called one of my best friends to tell her about the 5k race I'd signed up for. She was very excited for me, etc. Smile Then she told me that she had been about to call me!

A good friend of her and her husband had texted them saying that he was going to be in town this weekend and would like to get together with them and go out. The last time he was here was nearly 3 years ago!

The last time he was here I babysat my best friend's kids. And now, I'll be babysitting them again. Smile Yay!

I'd mentioned to her when we went to the Jim Brickman concert last month that I am looking for babysitting opportunities to help make a bit faster progress on my savings goals. She told me that she'd keep me in mind if she heard of anyone needing a babysitter. Smile

I'm looking forward to being with her kids. They are two of my favorites. I've known both of them since they were less than a week old. I babysat the oldest while my friend was in the hospital having the youngest. He was just a bit over two years old at that time. Now he is in second grade, and his sister is in pre-k!

Tomorrow morning I'll be finding out about the results of the 20 week fitness challenge. I'm kind of nervous and excited about it. It would be so awesome if I won the individual prize. Smile

I spoke with my carpool rider on Wednesday about a bit of a schedule change. I want to go in earlier on Tue and Thurs so I have enough time to run 3 miles on the treadmill. Tuesdays don't affect her because she has a doctor's appt every Tuesday and her daughter brings her to work later. She was okay with leaving 15 minutes earlier on Thursdays.

So, I'll be doing my training runs for the 5k on (treadmill) Tuesdays, Thursdays, and then either Sat or Sun (outside) will do a longer run/walk (60 minutes). Mon and Fri will probably be the recumbent bike, and Wed the elliptical. I also spoke with my personal trainer today about putting together a workout program card for Wednesday's after work - I'm going to start doing a 3rd strength workout each week on my own. So I'll be getting around 240 cardio minutes, plus 3 45 minute strength training sessions in each week.

As of today, I have less than 4 weeks to go till my first 5k! I can hardly wait!

Did I really sign up for that?!

April 2nd, 2008 at 02:27 am

Last night I did something that I never in a million years dreamed I would actually do.

I registered for a 5 k race. It's on May 3rd in the morning.

I never thought of myself as a runner, or even as a person who would be any good at running. But for some reason over the past few months I have started to look forward to my "treadmill" days.

With the end of the 20 week fitness challenge I also knew I needed something else external to keep myself challenged and focused.

So, right now I am able to do about 2.3 miles in 30 minutes. Over the next four weeks I am going to try to get that to 2.6 miles in 30 minutes. I'm also going to try to get at least two 40 minute runs in a week - to see if I can do 3 miles in 40 minutes.

I am both nervous and excited about this. I still haven't done an outside run - so that is something I MUST do before May 3rd.

My dad has already promised that he'll be there for it - he's even going to spend Friday night with me so he can do all the driving. Smile

I actually signed up for a second 5k as well that is in July.

Two registration fees - 1 $25 and 1 $15.

I'm going to need to replace my Sportbrain because it fell off my waistband into some water. Frown It really stinks because I'd only used it maybe 4 times.

I'm also considering joining the local running club. There is an annual membership fee of $20. But included in that fee is being able to run in 9 races free, plus other member get togethers throughout the year. I'm thinking that maybe this might be a way for me to both be motivated to keep up with my fitness, as well as maybe meet some new people and have something constructive to do with my time (other than sit in front of the computer or tv all the time.)