| Honey |
[Jan. 6th, 2010|08:57 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | accomplished | ] |
I recently discovered a local honey farm in American Canyon! http://www.marshallshoney.com/
I stopped by and picked up a gallon for $88. Poured it into a container while I waited. Talk about fresh. I got the blackberry stuff, which is actually from bees further north (and tastes amazing). the local stuff collected from the vallejo area has a hint of fennel, which I'm not big on.
Time to dig out the 'ol brewgearz (And Jenny's famous apple-mead recipe) and git to the mead making! |
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| A New Year |
[Dec. 31st, 2009|04:03 pm] |
This last year has been quite a journey. It tested every inch of my will and being to not tear asunder, but now that I am here I wonder how it could have happened any differently.
With any year-end wrap up, you take note to highlights that happened throughout the year. Well, in reflection of what I wanted out of this last year via my year-end post last year post, I pretty much accomplished everything:
 - New Life: I helped to bring a new life into this wary world. She is thriving, to say the least!
- New Adventures: Though they aren't anything like randomly discovering a new territory of land, I did find a new territory of my tolerance. Parenthood is full of surprises which leads up to the next...
- New Experiences: Everything that has happened to me has been an experience that is new in one form or another. From pregnancy to birthing. I know that this last year is probably annoying to read for some of those because, as any television plot, pregnancy is always boring. :P
- New Job: Though, not a job which pays monetarily, being a mother has definitely been a job in-of-itself. Only since the birth of my daughter have I seriously contemplated the idea of being a stay-at-home-mom. I am looking at telecommuting gigs, or part-time work, but until I HAVE to go back to work, I plan to stay happily at home with my daughter. So many times, I have heard of mothers who have not been able to enjoy being with their child and that they wish they had more time to stay at home and be with them, and I am living that right now. I am so glad I enjoy her so much, but... really, it was never an issue of wondering if I would or wouldn't.
And as much as I have accomplished, I know that there is so much more that I could be doing to be better. I will never be satisfied with myself until I am on top of the world. For now, I will settle for just being Ami's world, as she is my life.
For 2010 (twenty-ten, ya'heard!), there are vague, obscure things I want and there are more tangible things I would want. I want to go to a zoo/museum/arboretum/historical site with my daughter/family. I want to really enjoy being a happy, healthy family. I want to express my creativity and love for the arts through various means and include my daughter in it. I want to be the best wife and mother I can be.
I want to be the definition of confident and exuberant!
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| State of the Me :: 12-09 |
[Dec. 31st, 2009|02:13 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | home | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | pensive and lazy | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Muse :: United States of Eurasia (+Collateral Damage) | ] |
This one's quite a tl;dr.
I spent $39 last month at Jack-in-box, all Chicken Teriyaki Bowls (minus the teriyaki). This is the only fast food I had last month. This month, I spent $39 at Jack-in-box. Again, the only fast food I had this month. And again, all Chicken Teriyaki Bowls.
I'm not too happy that I spent $40 on fast food, though with no teriyaki, it isn't bad for you either. I've been very strict with what fast food I can eat, and financially, it soft of pays off. Also, days that I don't eat the chicken bowl, I spend just as much on a Safeway salad (just barely better for you, mainly because of lower carbs, which I don't care much about anyways).
I spent $110 more at the grocery store and $40 less at restaurants. Overall, I exceeded my food budget by $135. I had planned on spending $90 less at restaurants, but with all the birthday's and celebration this month, kinda hard to avoid. Had I held fast to that original budget plan for restaurants, I would have spent $85 over. Still bad, but not as bad.
Generic food places that are not specifically fast food, but not grocery, are those such as Togo's, Jamba Juice, and the Bagel shop I go to. Not drive-through types, but not really sit down restaurants, and usually healthier than fast food by quite a margin. I spent around $40 dollars, down by $20 from last month. Not bad, considering that most likely shifted into groceries.
Shifting the savings from generic food to grocery means that $90 of that $110 overage in grocery is a result of increased consumption. I'll need to reduce that $90 overage to $0 in order to more efficiently spend my money on groceries.
With my liver enzymes down to the normal level, I've started to consume more alcohol. On average it seems to be 1-3 beers about every other day. I'd say an average of 4-9 beers a week. A recent study I read showed that in order for you to be considered a heavy drinker, and begin to lose the benefits of alcohol consumption and an increased health risk, you'd need to consume about 70-80 a week. 9 times more than what I'm drinking. And I've been drinking too much in my opinion. I believe that before I stopped I usually drank 2-4 beers a week. My goal is to be back to 2-4 beers a week, usually that is all on one or two days, the weekends.
This is why the result of my increased liver enzymes were due to fast food. 1-3 beers a week does not do much to your liver. The stress relief from intoxication allows you blow off steam. Keeping the habits moderate keeps you from hurting your self, and also allows your brain time to relax and be sane.
I still have not been cooking as much as I did before the injury. I need to fix that problem. Actually, both those problems. My knee is still retarded.
The final push for the CCNA had me with less gym and development time. Now that it is over, I have filled the time with WoW and the next cert I will be getting. Once I hit 80, I'll be playing less.
Mental well being has started to pick up. Now that the major winter holidays are up, I'm not as crazy as I was the past few months. Still crazy, just not as bad. CCNA, and my liver's health have definitely given me some positives this year.
With the CCNA, and my budgeting, my overall financial health is improving and will only get better. The economic condition had finally managed to reach me in the form of increased credit card rate, but that's about it. Most of my financial health issues have been a direct result of my idiocy over the past two years. This has begun to change. With a conservative estimate, two years out I will be floating in no immediate debt aside from student loans. |
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