Feb 14 2009

Setting Goals for the Future

Category: Uncategorized — podrey @ 2:59 pm

A few weeks ago, i was reading an article at Get Rich Slowly that stressed the importance of setting goals.  The point was, if you don’t set specific goals, how can you accomplish anything?  How will you stretch yourself if you don’t have something to push yourself towards?

There is some evidence to suggest that written goals, in particular, will make you more likely to reach them.  I decided to try and write down 100 goals for my life.  After all, there are lots of things i want to do!  It was harder than i thought.  I wrote and wrote and had a huge page full of goals, big and small.  But when i first counted them up i still only had 47.  Eventually though, i was able to come up with more than 100 goals.  Some are really important, and some are not, but they are all things i’d like to do at some point.  Some of them i could do today if i decided to, and some will a lifelong pursuit.

I showed my initial list to Lance, and his first question was, “Why aren’t you doing more to make these things happen?”  Good question.  From now on, i’m going to make an effort to live a more conscious, directed life.  I recently came across an opportunity to take a CPR and First Aid class in the evenings after work, and i’m going to take it.  That will be one item i can cross off of this list, and hopefully more will soon follow.  I’m going to update the list as i go.

Here they are – my 100+ Goals.

I would challenge anyone to complete this same exercise – make a list of the things you want to do, and then start taking conscious action to accomplish them.

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Feb 11 2009

A Trip to the Ladies Room

Category: Uncategorized — podrey @ 8:00 am

Women are funny.

There is a bizarre unspoken Etiquette of the Bathroom at my workplace: if more than one person is in the bathroom, anonymity is maintained.

Woman A goes into a stall.  Woman B comes in a few moments later.  Whomever finishes first, say Woman A, will flush and exit the stall to wash her hands.  Woman B will not emerge until she hears the Woman A exit the bathroom.

As it happens, yesterday i was Woman B and entered the bathroom second.  But i finished first.  As i was washing my hands, i noticed Woman A’s feet were both turned to the side instead of facing forward.  My interpretation of this is that she was standing there, waiting for me to exit, before she flushed and came out herself.

Maintaining anonymity.

Of course, not everyone is like this.  There are folks who try to learn everyone’s shoes, and will then speak to you from the stall.  Personally i prefer to follow a strict no-talking-while-peeing rule.  If you are in a stall, or if i am, i don’t want to talk.  We can talk at the sink or outside the bathroom, but please, let me pee in peace.

It’s a strange place, the bathroom.

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Feb 09 2009

29th Annual Run for the Roses

Category: Uncategorized — podrey @ 5:15 pm

For the first of six more weeks of winter, it sure was warm out there yesterday.  I competed in the 29th Annual Run for the Roses.  This race takes place around Valentines’ Day each year.  At the end of the race, all female finishers are given roses.  I think it’s a really nice touch.

It was an absolutely beautiful day.

Mile 1 – I started off fast, probably too fast as my later miles were way slow.  There was a squad of army guys from Fort Bragg in our midst.  They were wearing their army fatigues and carrying full packs, including bedrolls.  What an interesting training exercise.  They started at the back of the bunch.  I was in the 3rd quartile of runners.  The army guys passed me at about the half mile mark.  My first mile felt good, and it WAS good.  The sun was shining, it felt like a warm spring day, and while it was a bit warm and i was getting hot, the wind was oh-so-gentle and very cool.  9:38

Mile 2 – At the beginning of mile 2 i began to feel a burning in my right leg, from top to bottom.  I thought at the time that my legs were finally warming up, and that it would pass.  Figuring it would go away (it never did), i just kept running.

Halfway through this mile i looked ahead and saw a big hill.  The army guys were walking up it, and i thought, sweet, i can catch them.  Because wouldn’t it be cool to say i beat some army guys?  When it was my turn to climb the hill, i tried to run all the way up it in order to gain time, but had to take a 30 second break midway.  I justified it to myself by saying that the army guys took a break, so why can’t i?  Nevermind that they are carrying 40+ pounds of gear on their backs…

When i saw my split for mile 2 i was surprised.  11:07.  I didn’t feel like i’d been that slow.  I had only walked the one time.  My right leg was still burning, though, maybe that was affecting me?  And it was downright hot at this point.  Although when the wind blew it was nice and cool.

Mile 3 – At the start of mile 3 i could still see the army guys.  I resolved not to lose them.  We were faced with an even worse hill that the army guys walked up – i followed suit.  This was the worst one yet, and while i tried to limit myself to 30 seconds, i had to walk a second time before i got to the top.

I almost caught the army guys at the end – there was a nice big downhill in the last half mile.  But i pumped up the speed a little too early, and didn’t have a lot left for the last bit.  Final 1.1 miles was 12:39.

My total time here was 33:24.  I have to say, i’m a little disappointed in these results.  But when i think back on the race, i know i wasn’t pushing myself as hard as i could have.  During last month’s race, I took a few walk breaks and still got a stellar time.  While not walking up hills is something i need to work on, that’s not my problem.  If i want a great race, i need to really push myself.

I have 5 weeks to get ready for the Run for the Oaks in March.  OK self, i have a personal goal now to beat my Run for Young time.  Can i do it with 5 weeks of training?

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Feb 08 2009

Dear Middlemarch

Category: Uncategorized — podrey @ 12:07 pm

I gave it my best shot, i really did.  But you are simply too big of a book.  I made it about 15% of the way into you before i had to give up.  It took me a month to get that far.  Usually i devour books, but while i was reading you, Middlemarch, i no longer loved reading.  I couldn’t force myself to read.  I would find something else to do in order to avoid further delve into Elliot’s world.

And so, as a new month begins, i just have to give up.  There are other books to read, other worlds to explore.  There are books i look forward to reading instead of avoiding.  I gave it a good faith effort, i promise.  But Middlemarch, you were just over my head.

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Feb 05 2009

Triple Coupons

Category: Uncategorized — podrey @ 5:23 pm

Have you ever been at the grocery store and noticed that there will be holes on the shelves here and there?  One particular item will be completely gone, while nothing around it is noticeably diminished?

Apparently there is a whole sub-culture of deal-savvy shoppers out there who combine the VIC or MVP deals of the week with existing coupons, and the result is that some items are completely FREE.  So next time you notice that hole on the shelf, you’ll know what happened.

I have a friend at work, we’ll call her Coupon Gal Pal, who has recently introduced me to this world.  I’ve learned that Harris Teeter and Lowe’s Food always double (most) manufacturer coupons below $1.  So if you see a coupon for $.75, it’s really a coupon for $1.50.

Today (Thursday) through Sunday, Harris Teeter is having Triple Coupons, so each coupon is now tripled in value.  Combined with the weekly deals, there are a lot of items that are literally being given away.  For the past week, I’ve been looking forward to experiencing my first coupon blitz.

First things first – i needed to accumulate some coupons.  Coupon Gal Pal is the Keeper of the Coupons for a small group of coupon swappers, so she loaded me up with newspaper inserts to go through.  Every day she brought in a new bag of coupons for me to peruse, and i clipped my heart away.

Next is organizing the coupons.  I have a 3-ring binder that has a bunch of baseball card inserts to store the coupons.  That way they are easy to spot, and they are sorted by category.

Next is creating the shopping list.  This is a combination of planning your menu for the week and looking at the weekly deals to see what you should buy.  As it turns out, for this week’s Triple Coupon bananza, i only have a few coupons that will result in free stuff.  But i have quite a few $.75 coupons, which triples to $2.25 off of any item, so i’m excited.

The one thing i do not have for this, my inaurgural coupon trip, is a price book.  A price book is just a list of good or normal prices for items you usually buy.  This lets you know whether you’re getting a good deal or not once you add the coupon.  I’ll create my price book over time, but basically today i was going in blind, not knowing whether some of the coupons i had were worth using or not.

I went at lunchtime and was able to score on most of the items i was looking for.  I purchased $70 worth of groceries before the VIC card savings.  The VIC discount took it down to $63.  My out of pocket expense was $29, a 54% savings (off of the VIC price).  Wow!  Items i got free: colgate toothpaste, powerade, palmolive dish soap, lipton flavored rice, and lipton soup mix.  See a complete list at the bottom of this post.  For comparison, Coupon Gal Pal went to the grocery store at 6:30 am this morning to stock up, and she got $85 worth of groceries for $15, an 82% savings.  (And she was slightly disappointed b/c she prefers to save 90%+ during triples.)

Coupon Gal Pal tells me that i should have a goal to always save at least 50% on my groceries.  I think it is still going to take me awhile to get up to that kind of consistent savings, and i have to decide if this is worth my time and energy.  I mean, it takes time to clip coupons and it takes energy get organized enough to know what the right deals are.  Not to mention, you have to get up early in order to get the best deals, and i am not an early riser.

However, i’m pretty sure that with very little effort, i will never have to pay for toothpaste again.

Here’s the complete list of what i got today, listing the normal price and what i paid for it today.  Everything on the list will be consumed, although it’s certainly not a complete grocery list for a week.  I’m told it takes some time to accumulate enough coupons to effectively reduce your grocery bill for good.  For example, i buy a lot of ground beef and milk, but i haven’t seen any coupons for those items yet.  Maybe that stuff is such a staple that they don’t often give coupons?  I’m not sure, i’m just a newbie at this.  Anyway, it’s been fun learning about it.

  • Betty Crocker Muffins normally $2.99, got it for $1.79
  • Duncan Hines Brownies normally $2.05, got it for $1.00
  • Bisquick normally $3.17, got it for $1.37
  • Palmolive Dish Soap normally $3.98, got it for FREE
  • Dole Pineapple Chunks normally $1.85, got it for $.68
  • Lipton Soup Mix normally 1.79, got it for FREE
  • Lipton Rice normally $1.55, got it for FREE
  • Hellmann’s mayo normally $3.99, got it for $2.19
  • Powerade 32oz normally $1.49, got it for FREE
  • Crisco Canola Oil normally $3.79, got it for $1.54
  • Gatorade Powder normally $4.09, got it for $3.09
  • Colgate toothpaste normally $3.35, got it for FREE
  • ACT mouthwash normally $4.99, got it for $2.29
  • Special K waffles normally $3.49, got it for $1.24
  • Pillsbury Mozzerella Bites normally $4.49, got it for $2.24
  • Totino Pizza Rolls normally $4.49, got it for $3.79
  • Pillsbury Crescent rolls normally $2.39, got it for $1.34

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Feb 02 2009

WWJD?

Category: Uncategorized — podrey @ 3:15 pm

This story can be read firsthand on pastor Thomas Steagald’s blog,  His daughter is a waitress at a Chili’s restaurant, and witnessed the following incident when working on a recent Sunday night.

A group of six church-goers came in last night after their evening services and sat down, not in her area but in another server’s. When the girl came to greet them and take their drink order, one of them said, “We want to tell you up front that we will not be tipping you tonight because…”

Are you ready?

“…we do not believe in people working on Sunday.”

The girl was taken full-aback, stammered out something that sounded like “I wouldn’t have to work on Sunday if so many church people didn’t come in,” or some such. She was furious. So was the manager of the restaurant whom she summoned to deal with them. I think he should have tossed the people out on their…uh…Bibles. To his credit, and demonstrating something like agape all around, he did say to them, “Well, we don’t believe in making our people work for nothing, so I will be serving you tonight.” And he did.

In this scenario, whose actions best exhibit What Would Jesus Do?

Ironically, it is not the church-goers.  It is the selfless manager who did not try to use reason to change their minds, nor did he kick them out.  He did what i imagine Jesus would have done.  All i can say is, that manager has more forbearance than i.

Now, these church-goers are not representative of all church-goers.  But i have a few questions for these particular church-goers, or any others who share their attitudes.

  1. Why are you patronizing a restaurant on a Sunday in the first place?  If you do not believe people should work on Sundays, then you should also not create work for others by going out to eat.
  2. What about your pastor?  Wasn’t he working at the church service you just attended?  He gets paid to preach, so isn’t that “work”?  Do you refuse to tithe on Sundays?
  3. If you got food poisoning that night, or had a medical emergency, would you go to the hospital and accept treatment?  Would you pay your bill if the work was done on a Sunday?  Would you be judgmental of a doctor who saved your life on a Sunday?

Frankly, i suspect this particular group was just being extremely cheap, and using their beliefs to justify it, daring anyone to question them, ready to wave the “freedom of religion” flag if anyone did so.  This kind of thing appalls me.  Yes, you have freedom of religion, but you still have the responsibility to be a decent human being.

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