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Oh, dear. Hi, everyone! My visit count today multiplied by five. I guess I’m going to have to NOT watch what I say even more. 😉

I knew today would be a busy day, and it was; it’s not over yet. It started off with a great breakfast and visiting with people I’ve not seen in a while (mea culpa there). Then…

• I glopped unsweetened applesauce onto a parchment sheet and set it to dehydrating… eight hours later, my own fruit rollup/fruit leather peeled very nicely off the paper, and was sampled, rolled up, and bagged. Very tasty! And very easy and inexpensive! I will definitely be making a lot more of that – I only used one tray, but I have six or seven.
• I paid off more medical bills. Story of our lives.
• With the web-work project mostly done, I got a few hours in on the genealogy project. Progress is good, should be able to complete before April.
• NOT weather for walking, misty, then drizzling, then raining, now damp and cool. Gives my knee a bit of a break.
• Probably will end up moving boxi out to the garage tonight though. I remember when my room had a floor. I’d like to see it again.
• Visited Wells Fargo – but for the forgetting of a debit card, I’d have a second, “trip-only” checking account set up right now. I’ll have to go back to do that Monday.
• And finally, /finally/ remembered to contact the Eucharistic Adoration coordinator to let her know she’d need to find a replacement for me; I meant to do that a week ago. My memory is like Swiss cheese. Or Havarti. Havarti has tinier holes.
• I was going to swing by Just Good Meats to pick up twenty million brats for an office cookout, but since the place is right on the way to a geocaching event I mean to go to on Monday, I’ll do it then. I can have my Pi and brat, too!

Oh, yeah, and someone online called me a moon god worshipper, which totally made my night. I’m still chuckling over that one. 🙂

Until tomorrow, ciao!

Double milestone today! 30 days out, and 2 weeks until my last day at work.

I celebrated by… cleaning the bathroom? Well, okay. And filling 18 baggies with oatmeal, sliced almonds, dried apples, dried cranberries, and spices, getting in a political debate online, semi-finishing up the website that was a wedding gift to an old friend, and a shot of double-chocolate vodka. So much yet to do. This weekend will be busy.

Happy birthday, Pat!

Genealogy work this weekend, packing, purchase and testing of gear. I need to make some phone calls to cancel long-standing obligations. I need to buy brats for an office cookout, look into getting a trip account like I discussed yesterday, pay off the rest of the medical bills. Walk (didn’t today, my knee was complaining. A close friend recommended something for that, I may need to look into it.) Try to get more food dehydrating. I still want to buy some Mongolian Grill food and see how it dehydrates. Next weekend, I may do another shakedown camping trip, it should be less muddy this time!

I still need to organize my gear, and see how everything fits in the backpack – still carrying those barbell weights. And get the bounce box ready. And mailed out.

Yes, you could say I’m keeping busy. I can’t wait to be on the trail.

Ciao!

A tired night tonight. I walked some; I packed up more of the closet. The bookcases are all but empty. There are things I meant to do today, but forgot; there are things I did today and meant to record, but I forgot what they were. I’m detecting issues with my brain’s RAM. Some web work.

One box, many boxi. I have boxi that need to be moved to the garage. I really should do that. I have a feeling this will be another jam-packed weekend coming up.

Oh, right, that was it. An appt. for a full physical is set for Monday. I’ll use the opportunity to figure out how to refill prescriptions along the trail, along with other things. This is chalked up as one of the “I don’t like it, but I’ll do it” type of things…

Ciao and good night!

Hey, if anyone knows my pet’s name, please let me know… I can’t register for automatic bill pay on the electricity bill without that vital information. Two clues: A) I don’t have a pet. and B) It’s not Rumplestiltskin.

In other news though, two boxes of books have been packed and taped, there are still piles of books lurking on my bed, and I was able to sign up for some of the automatic bill pays, so that is good. Also, I have a blueberry beer.

I am still toying with the idea of opening a second checking account at another bank with many branches along the trail corridor, and deposit the money I’ve allocated solely for the hike. That way, it’ll be a lot easier to keep track of how much I’ve spent, adjust accordingly, and know if I’m about to run out of funds. (The last I intend to avoid.) I probably will do that, I just have to decide which bank.

There is so much I have to pack and transfer over yet. I have to finish cleaning out the closet and get the stuff over to Goodwill.

Beer’s gone… signing off.
Ciao!

Well, March 8, a fond greeting! Exactly one month until train-boarding time!

The weirdest thing happened on my walk with the pack tonight… I walked somewhere between 2.5 and 3 miles, but the weird part was how much I was enjoying it after the second mile. My legs didn’t feel tired at all. 🙂 I was seriously tempted to try another mile loop around, but I didn’t want to push it too much. Yet. But… it made me smile.

And then home, to enjoy some delicious gumbo we picked up yesterday. I’m not a Southerner. I can be forgiven for initially mistaking okra for jalapenos. They LOOKED jalapenoish!

I finally sent back the two pairs of boots I won’t be using, and faxed out the forms I needed to get out. A major load off the mind. Also, paid some bills. More packing boxes will appear tomorrow, courtesy of a friend, and I will finish emptying the bookcases.

I’m still smiling. It was a good day after work.

Ciao!

Tonight was one of those… “what the heck am I doing” nights. I am still feeling extremely fat and bloated from the spaghetti feed yesterday, my blood sugar is going all over the place, high, then low, than high, and on cue a burst of guilt over taking off to go do my own thing and leaving Dad behind. My brother managed to talk me out of that one though. I’m getting behind on exercise/training though, so that’s one more thing to beat myself up over. I’m tired of beating myself up. I don’t think I’ll bother this time. I’ll just restart where I left off tomorrow. The wind’s rising out there; could be a storm coming. No walking tonight.

More trail related thingies… some of the packed boxes have made it out to the garage I am renting, and more will follow tomorrow. All things machine revolted against me today at work, and the fax machine was incredibly determined to eat my five page student loan deferral fax in one big gulp; I had to extract it from the thing’s jaws – TWICE. Also some dried cranberries entered the house roughly two hours after the boxes left. I believe they originated with some guy called “Trader Joe”; they will go well to mix into oatmeal packets.

Meant to get some webwork done tonight, but you know, there was this Trader Joe guy, and a trip to a fish market for something out of the ordinary, and I got Boggled a lot, and then the evening was gone… And I still feel fat and bloated! Argh!

Sometimes it feels like, though I’m trying to keep my eye on the ball, there are too many balls and not enough eyes. I need to reorganize and regroup.

Ciao!

66 out of 100. That’s… 2/3! Minus an endless repeating fraction. Kinda like this blog, endlessly repeating. But 2/3. 🙂

I ate way too much spaghetti today, but since it is only once a year, I can forgive myself. Some medical bills paid, some number crunching, just to doublecheck. I still need to do some paperwork tonight, and laundry.

It was a good day though. Been a while since I got out for a long drive.

Back to the usual run of things tomorrow.

Not a lot to say tonight, except to report a very deep tiredness. Tomorrow, I will sleep in, go to Mass, eat a lot of spaghetti, and go watch the cranes flying out on the Platte River near sunset.

I will not walk (much).
I will not do webwork.
I will not pack any boxes.

I will pay bills, do paperwork, do laundry, but that is about it. Sunday was designated a rest day a long time ago, and, by golly, I am going to REST.

Well, as much as I can.
Ciao!

ATSioneva has returned, drooping and repentant, having been wickedly seduced by a piece of (fallen-)angel food cake with cherries for dessert. This (fallen-)angel food cake led to an alarmingly high spike in blood sugar, which in turn led to a loooong walk without the pack for once.

It was a great night for walking, and it felt so freeing to be unladen for a change, I ended up out there for an hour, and somewhere between 3.5 and 4 miles. I would have kept going longer, but I had laundry to throw into the dryer, and I was starting to get damp and chilly under the windbreaker. I saw the stars!

My bed… my bed is buried in books again. One box done today, but not finished yet. Talk about seducing, angel food cake has NOTHING on a good book…

And sitting in my email now are the forms I need to fill out for my official out-processing on April 1. This weekend will be paperwork and medical-bill pay weekend.
And spaghetti in Goehner, NE, on Sunday. Yearly tradition.

Ciao!

The secret to packing book boxes?

1. Obtain boxes.
2. Empty the bookcase by dumping all the books on your bed, thus ensuring you will never get to sleep until the task is done.
3. Begin packing books.
4. Resume packing books, after you look up from the much-loved book you haven’t read in ages, and realize you just used up 30 minutes.
5. Repeat step 3 & 4.
6. Repeat step 3 & 4.
7. Seal the top of the box with tape.
8. Pull up another box and start again at step 3.

In other news, a somewhat chillyish 2.25 – 2.5 mile walk with the dad and the pack. This time, it was teh shoulders who were complaining after getting home.

Now, nearly time to crack open a beer, start live streaming the debate, and kibitz about it in the Catholic Tea Party group.

Ciao!