Read more novels
So far this year I've read The Girl who Played with Fire (of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy), Catching Fire (of the Hunger Games trilogy), and Sleeping Naked is Green. I've already started The Girl who kicked the Hornets Nest and am in line to read Mocking Jay to finish up my trilogies. My Aunt and I have done some book trading, so I also have three or four novels from her to read.
Learn (and practice) to cook well
I made my mom's 'speckle' meat loaf, so called because there are lots and lots of carrots in it. While it was a step in the right direction, I haven't done much else!
Learn to speak Dutch
I am now on lesson 30, the last one, of Pimsleur's Dutch. I`ve learned how to say `I love the Netherlands`(Ik hou van Nederland), and I want to stay in the Netherlands (Ik wil blijven in Nederland), neither of which my family will be too happy to hear, I suspect! I also learned `Nee, het is te duur`, which means No, it`s too expensive, an important thing to know in Dutch according to R
Get rid of the junk in my bedroom and the garage
I went through two boxes in my garage, and labelled them as garage sale. My parents are planning on having one in the spring, so I thought i might partake. Anything that doesn't get sold will go to a reuse store or on freecycle. Nothing I own is nice enough to put on consignment!
Simplify my wardrobe
Rather than reducing my wardrobe in January, I added... But I added thoughtfully and with purpose. I bought two v-neck sweaters whose arms go to my elbows (just like I like them), one black and one purple, and one light blue button down shirt with the same type of arms. If it had been cheaper, I would have bought the light purple one as well. I also got some new underwear to replace some old stuff that needs to be replaced. February will be for eliminating the parts of my wardrobe that I don`t need.
Finally get my Professional Engineer designation
Work has been chaotic, which is why I've been a delinquent here, and a delinquent with my PEO application.
Pay off my debt
About a year ago I started tracking my spending with Mint. It's a pretty easy to use system, and there are cool graphs, like the following:
As you can see, my net income has been in the positive for the past 4 months! Which means, slowly but surely my debt is being paid off. When it gets closer, I`ll share the page of the net worth. It`s too depressing to share at the moment. The giant dip into the red was from when I went to Peru. A trip very much worth it!
Run 10 miles
Seeing as I'm already signed up to do one third (10km) of the Around the Bay Race as part of Team Spatula Runners, I might as well add it to my love list! I've been trying to run 3 times a week, and it hasn't been terrible. I'm going to have to start increasing my distances soon, seeing as the race is in March.
I also signed up to do the Tough Mudder with my Wipeout Canada family in August. I didn't quite realize what I was getting myself into when I signed up, but needless to say I will have to get my butt in gear to prepare for it. 10 miles?! Yes I can!
Track the waste that I produce each week/month
In January, I generated 702 g of landfill and 1,202 g of recycling.Weight wise, that's about as much as a 2L bottle of pop. Volume wise, it's probably much bigger.
Now I've got a target. There's still lots to do, but I've made a lot of changes to help facilitate that. And you're going to hear all about them, whether you want to or not!
On a related note, I share garbage bins with my roommate and our upstairs neighbours. It drives me bonkers that they seem to fill up 2 'medium' sized bins, while we only use a small kitchen catcher in a two week period. I'm half tempted to label them as 'upper' and 'lower' to see if anything changes, though it's probably too passive aggressive. Maybe I'll suggest to my landlord that he replace one of the 'medium' bins with a 'small' bin for us!
