Wed Nov 15: Successful Walking - I mentioned on Wednesday that I was planning to walk while doing laundry, and I'm happy to report that this worked nicely. A loop around the shopping center where my favorite laundramat is located takes just under 10 minutes to complete. The wash cycle is 20 min, so that's a 20-min 2-loop walk. The dryer cycle is 30 min, so a final three walks around the center, and I've managed to squeeze 50 minutes of exercise into my already tight schedule. I think I'll do that every week. I've made an appointment with myself to walk on Friday evenings before the sun completely sets, so that's 2x/week on the schedule. I was thinking of making Monday "work with weights" day, but I think I'll just see if I can do a month with 3x/week walking minimum, before I try to get too ambitious. Start from zero, climb to one and two before I try to hit ten, hmm?

Thu Nov 16: Languages and Up Late - I'm having a hard time remembering everything from yesterday, because what I remember most strongly is that I went to bed WAY too late. Work was work, and then I was in the studio around 8 or 9. The guys are still working out the kinks in the microphones, headphones, and the recording equipment. But this time we actually got to play for a bit, rather than just spend the entire time switching connections and running into snags to solve.

Afterwards I swung past Marcos' apartment to pick up my embroidery that I left in his car this weekend. Unfortunately, once I got home slightly after midnight, I got a call from him that I *still* forgot it in his apartment. (What? We got distracted looking at photos and websites online. So, I sorta accidentally forgot the bag when I picked up to leave. *blush*) So tonight I still have to get the embroidery, which means I just added something new to my schedule today. *sigh*

Oh, now I remember part of yesterday--I've been having fun over meals learning to read the Hebrew alphabet. Over breakfast I finally got the last of the consonants into my head, although I'm certain I'll be reviewing them and practicing them over the next several weeks until I'm really comfortable with them. I've been trying to understand how the calligraphy works, how to read block print, and how to write in cursive script. Caterina gave me a wonderful printout with nearly a dozen fonts, and I have a book, a workbook, and an online tutorial--all of which have slight differences in them. But the variety and differences are merely helping me see both the variations and core strokes of the letters, which is really helpful. The calligraphy facinates me, and I'm thinking that someday I want to try my hand with a brush, to see if I can get that characteristic look to the letters.

And at dinner I started reviewing the vowel points (when they happen to be used), although linguistically I'm intrigued about why there seem to be some sets of symbols for the same sounds.

And as I start getting back into walking regularly, I'm fairly certain I'll start listening to my Mandarin Chinese language learning lessons that I subscribe to (for free) on my iPod. I miss listening to Chinese, and it keeps me busy while I'm walking. I'm not certain if I'll ever get back to learning to read and write Mandarin, since that takes some *serious* time commitment, but learning to understand and speak it again in my spare time still appeals to me.

I'm a complete language junkie. *big grin*

So I finally got home from band around midnight-thirty, and for some reason I just kept working on my computer and balancing my checkbook. I watched several tv shows in the background, and got all caught up again. But around 3 am I realized I had to stop and go to sleep.

Fri Nov 17: Attempts to Focus - So I'm remarkably sleep-deprived this morning, and am trying desperately to focus and get work done. I still have to feed the kitties over at Mer & Geoff's (they're getting married this weekend! mazel tov!), go to the Planning meeting for the Barony (for any details about Yule and the Bardic competition I'm in charge of running, and to pick up the embroidery bag from Marcos), then come home and pack for a weekend of events. And sometime I need to figure out my family and friends schedule for Thanksgiving. Is next weekend really Thanksgiving already? Where did this year go?

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Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: Kris and Jill: These next six months are going to be so amazingly fun!

Exercise: Wed - Walking 50 min; plans for walking today

Weight Loss: Fri - 17.6 lbs lost, so far to-date (down -1.4 from Wed)