MetaChat - Up and at em! A motivational thread

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27 February 2010

Up and at em! A motivational thread →[More:]

Yesterday sucked. I have a lot I want/need to do and got nothing done, despite it being a day off. I like Making Progress; it helps maintain good mental health, and is a pick-me-up* when I'm not feeling so great. I was down all day, and it sucked.

Today I'm determined to make different.
Join me in Being Productive!

*pun recognized but not intentional

On my list:
1) Go birding with my friend Maria
2) Get seedlings started.
•Get folding table out of trunk and set up near the sunny window
•Buy potting soil for seedlings.
•Choose seeds for garden.
•Try to figure out how to rig my grow lights
•Haul the bone and blood meal out from the shed
3) Clean kitchen, including dishes, sweeping, wiping down counters and stovetop, etc.
4) Fold and put away laundry
5) Sweep rest of house
6) Vacuum the den
7) Haul the wood back out to the yard from the den where I was keeping it in case of power loss.
8) Put away sweaters residing on top of my dresser.

How about y'all? What do you need to Get Done?

post by: Stewriffic at: 08:12 | 21 comments

1. Get brisket on for an early dinner this evening - a friend is coming for dinner.
2. Vacuum.
3. Mop floors.
4. Dust.
5. Tidy up.
6. Shower.
7. Prep veg for dinner and fruit for dessert (cinnamon roast pineapple and plums)
8. Tomorrow I have to pack away all my stuff in the living room, kitchen and bathroom in readiness for the builders starting work on Monday. Gah.
9. Watch my team win the League Cup Final.
10. Put plastic undersheet on my bed in case Lucy gets upset during the building work, like she did in the summer, and wees on my bed again.

posted by essexjan 27 February | 08:27

~~3) Clean kitchen, including dishes, sweeping, wiping down counters and stovetop, etc.~~

I'll still need to put the dishes away once the dishwasher is through, but I also managed to wash out the trash can, which had a stinky episode last week.

Jan, your fruit dish sounds fabulous.

posted by Stewriffic 27 February | 09:04

Fifteen thank-you notes. I have addresses for all but one!

we're very thankful. And I'll be even more thankful if I have enough stamps.

posted by pinky.p 27 February | 09:41

It's really easy, stewie.

Peel and core and wedge a big pineapple, and cut it into 1½" chunks. Put it in a roasting dish. Add some plums, halved with stones out, drizzle with honey, maple syrup or brown sugar and cinnamon, and roast in a medium oven for about 20 minutes.

Best served warm, not hot, with crème fraîche or Greek yoghurt, with the syrupy, cinnamonny juices spooned over.

This also works great with peaches, arranged cut side up and packed tight together in a roasting dish.

posted by essexjan 27 February | 09:43

I've been waylaid by trying to actually map out the garden plan. I'm dorking out entirely with graph paper and all.

posted by Stewriffic 27 February | 09:53

My #1 priority is to bill 9 hours today at the office. Getting moving so I can get to work is being hampered by a massive headache that I woke up with this morning.

posted by amro 27 February | 10:15

I have to get to the gym today. That's about it. Bobby McFerrin in concert tonight!

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 27 February | 10:18

All of my stuff is just piddling little things that aren't exactly important, but are more just irritating.

1. Measure my window so I can see how much I need to save in order to replace the blinds.
2. Do my weekly work on Survombie and for my poems. (3 insert pages and 3 spreadsheet entries.)
3. Do drills from Killer Ziller and run through Zill Speak solo.
4. Tidy my box of computer stuff.
5. Sort through clothes in dresser.
6. Get info together for archives self-study things.
7. Research more options of stuff available at public library.
8. Post for week 8 on InfoProf discussion board.
9. Make plans and get directions for those two artsy fartsy things that looked interesting.
10. Get embodiment stuff ready for February posts.

There's more, but that's a good round number to start with. Plus, I know that I have a tendency to get sidetracked by making lists.

posted by sperose 27 February | 10:35

Stewriffic, I am planning a vegetable garden with my upstairs neighbors. I'm very excited about it - we are going to start our seedlings in a few weeks. And we (well, they) are mapping out the plan on graph paper, too.

posted by amro 27 February | 10:47

Picked up 3 months worth of whippet droppings in the backyard yesterday. Today I'll wash ~100 lbs. of clothes.

posted by Joe Beese 27 February | 10:55

amro, yeah, I had to figure out what all I will a) have room for, b) choose to plant and c) need to start now. Turns out I should have been thinking of this before, because it's already time to get beets, peas, etc. into the ground. Oy!

posted by Stewriffic 27 February | 10:57

well heck, I might as well update. Everything addressed, stamped, and return-labelled!

now I'm resting my hand.

posted by pinky.p 27 February | 11:00

I've got a 7 hour shift today.

posted by The Whelk 27 February | 11:03

Not necessarily in this order:

1. exchange R's broken phone at Verizon
2. book U-Haul for next weekend
3. laundry (me)
4. clean kitchen (him)
5. walk dogs
6. unpack boxes in my office
7. grocery shopping

EXCITING STUFF!!!

posted by desjardins 27 February | 12:35

Yay update:

1. Looks like blinds will be about $40, which is doable in a month or so. My brother has said that he will install them for me, which is awesome.
2. Still feeling brain dead on all writing fronts. Quite irritating. (The whole point of making me do something on them every week is so I don't push them out of my mind like I do with other things.)
3. Damn near perfect on KZ drills, yay. Still struggling with middle of Zill Speak solo, but that just takes practice and I've been ignoring that solo for a while.
5. I need to buy more bras and jeans and shorts. Crap.
6. Info has been collected, but I need to look into getting the textbooks and seeing about finding the journals in the stacks at work.
7. Placed 2 books on hold (since I've finished 2 of the last checked out batch) and have a list of things to check out as I go along.

4, 8, 9, and 10 are getting postponed since my back hurts so I'm going to get into bed, paint my toenails, and watch the end of S2 of The Wire (again).

And as an added bonus, I stood my ground while on the phone with my mother and her whining about wanting me to go out to lunch with her or visit her or basically act like her bestest friend because she doesn't have any. I already had plans to go over there tomorrow to deliver recycled article paper to pops, but I have the feeling that she's going to try and get me to stay there for dinner, which isn't going to happen.

posted by sperose 27 February | 14:30

Okay, my do! do! do! list:

- make bread
- prep quiche for tomorrow's brunch, also prep coffee cake; then I can just toss everything together in the morning and bake it
- tidy living room
- clean bathroom
- go to the market for milk, juice, potatoes, oh, and something for dinner

It's not that much, but I woke this morning and felt so lousy that I canceled all my afternoon and evening plans. After a four-hour nap, I feel quite a bit better but I'm not going to push it.

posted by Elsa 27 February | 14:41

~~1) Go birding with my friend Maria~~
Didn't see anything too amazing other than a Winter Wren.

2) Get seedlings started.
•Get folding table out of trunk and set up near the sunny window
I'm putting this part off until tomorrow I think.

•Buy potting soil for seedlings.
•Choose seeds for garden.
•Try to figure out how to rig my grow lights
Done

•Haul the bone and blood meal out from the shed
Duh, I don't need to do this yet. That's just for planting.

However, if possible I need to get peas, beets and other spring crops in. Not today though. I think I'm done.

posted by Stewriffic 27 February | 14:49

8: Done, even though I keep feeling bad for being all super excitable over the stuff I'm learning.

9: Art thingy #2 didn't look so interesting after really looking into it, but #1 looks awesome and so I've put the date of the actual panel and discussion about it on my calendar, which is on a Friday and is a good day for me.

10: Just need a few more entries to finish out the month, glue in the dayplanner page, take pictures, and compose the posts, woo!

4: Will just have to wait until tomorrow. Oh well.

posted by sperose 27 February | 22:30

Well, I got a start this morning on the seedlings, but I've decided to give up. First, windy conditions sent the seedling trays flying all over the neighborhood, and I spent way too long chasing them.

Then, a long fluorescent bulb fell from a decent height (2 ft?) and shattered, spewing phosphor residue all over, scratching my wood floor, and sending glass shards as far as 12 feet away. I've spent the last 30 minutes attempting to clean it up, with a face mask and rubber gloves on.

I cried twice before 10:30 a.m., so I will now lie down and read some Louisa May Alcott.

posted by Stewriffic 28 February | 11:11

And I did... nothing.

Our friend had to cancel brunch; it's amazing how thrilled I was over this. I spent the day mostly laying on the sofa, moaning softly and indulgently over my really very minor illness. Also sleeping, also eating oatmeal. (Not simultaneously.)

So now I have a messy apartment, an unscrubbed bathtub, and I'll have to buy bread. I can live with that.

posted by Elsa 28 February | 12:02

I cried twice before 10:30 a.m., so I will now lie down and read some Louisa May Alcott.

This seems a very sound remedy. Also: awwwww, whuffles!

posted by Elsa 28 February | 12:05

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