Goals Check-in: August

Here's my end-of-the-month wrap-up regarding my 2013 goals:


Self-Care
I redeemed a Groupon for a massage (took forever to book an appointment, so I've been looking forward to it for a while).

Weekends! Those days when you don't do anything in particular! I rediscovered them.

Instituted a Family Meeting (because I had more than a couple big things to discuss at once, and because lesbians are supposed to like processing, right?). It was good! We'll do it again next month.


Minimize
2 garbage bags of trash (aside from our usual household output)

1 box/bag to Out of the Closet

We made a big decision (more on that later) that means we'll now be consciously using up and not replacing most household supplies.


Spend Time and Money Wisely
I recruited my wife in the effort to put our computers to bed at a reasonable time -- that encourages both of us to get more sleep.

Notable transactions:

• cut the monthly grocery budget in half, and still managed to stock up
• FREE: a foldable bookshelf that matches the ones I have from college
• took my wife out for sushi

Keep Learning
This collection of 40 Maps that Explain the World is at times mind-boggling, but very informative!

Apparently the term "love apple" -- which I had only associated with tomatoes -- sometimes means something very different.

If your slow cooker runs hot (boiling even on low) and foods get done more quickly than convenient, try setting it to cook on "Warm". I'm going to try it this way next time; otherwise I'm limited to slow cooking on weekends when I'm home, or when my love can come home at lunchtime to switch it on.

The Spanish word for "otter" is "nutria"... which causes some confusion with the semi-aquatic rodent also known as a nutria! So you can also call it a coypu.

Selected things I Googled: apple season california, craig toomey scamper, cockettes "other people's grandchildren", cell phone photo information, get bacjk twerk, grey's anatomy autistic heart surgeon, how to make gravy in a slow cooker, i have a boyfriend fridge, imaginary-geraldo, nagging nitpicking jim, oakland library storytime training, playing the heavy, single mother pregnant army regulations, that is MAHOGANY, when can a baby drink from a cup, yer killin me smalls


Try New Things
I signed up for HowAboutWe? for couples and found some neat local date ideas in a wide price range. 

I made pound cake for the first time, and learned that creaming butter and sugar by hand (I broke the mixer scraping down cookie dough) is darn hard! The texture suffered a bit because of that. I also learned that eggs take a while to get to room temperature, and your batter is likely to curdle if they're too cold.

Nothing new accomplished on my 101 List, but several goals are in sight!


Track Accomplishments
January
February
March

April
May
June
July