Possible Resolutions for 2011

Resolutions that would be cool to have accomplished:
* Find a place for everything; put everything in its place.
* Pay off the house.
* Remodel the house so I can have covered parking, a dedicated laundry room, a dishwasher, and more closet space.
* Write a book.
* Run the Capitol 10K. (Either run/jog the whole thing or finish it less than 70 minutes.)
* Get to the weight, resting pulse rate, and blood pressure I had in my 20s and 30s.
* Start making my own bread.

Vaguely related resolutions with a high chance for success:
* Clean the living room.
* Prepay part of the mortgage.
* Get the house inspected.
* Write in my blog.
* Keep jogging once a week while Robin's out fixing houses.
* Maintain the resting pulse rate and the diastolic part of my blood pressure I had in my 20s and 30s.
* Visit a bakery.

Edited to add:

Self-help blog entries of the day

I have one for dealing with annoying behavior in others and one for dealing with annoying behavior in yourself.

The Alot Is Better Than You At Everything at Hyperbole and a Half - how to deal with bad grammar. "If I come across a person who seems to completely ignore the existence of apostrophes and capital letters and types things like "im an eagle and im typing with my talons, so dont make fun of me cuz this is hard," I like to imagine that they actually are an eagle typing with their talons. It would be a hassle if you had to hop in the air and use your feet to karate-chop two keys simultaneously every time you wanted to use the shift key to make a capital letter.'

Her strategy could help you with many kinds of annoying behavior in others. For example, when someone is swerving all over the road, completely oblivious to having almost hit you, it's probably because they just discovered there's a bee in the car.

How to Control Your Temper at Violent Acres - it's a more serious post, but then it's a more serious problem--this is for when you want to change yourself into a different kind of person. "If you haven’t practiced these sorts of things beforehand, in the heat of the moment you will be sorely lacking in any kind of muscle memory. Therefore, all of your wry smiles will inadvertently turn into angry grimaces. ... You're absolutely right. You are acting and you are not being true to yourself. But 'yourself' is a fucking asshole, remember? Why would you want to be true to that particular 'self?'"

Her strategies could be applied to many things you actually do that you wish you didn't do (rather than the usual wishing you did stuff that you don't get around to doing).

Bakery Run

One thing I really like about Belgium, Switzerland, and the Netherlands is the bakeries. In Belgium and the Netherlands, we breakfasted at bakeries most days. In Switzerland, we joined our friends in using them to help with their resolution to eat chocolate daily.

Well, we may be ignorant brutes here, but we do have bakeries. I decided to let myself go to one, even though I am not on vacation. (Actually, I am taking a vacation day, but I do have access to my kitchen and do not need a bakery.)

Yesterday I searched for bakeries in Austin. I found that Yelp let me search by region. In my part of town, they showed two bakeries. One was Mrs. Johnson's, a well-reviewed donut place open at night. The other was a cinnamon roll place near the mall which apparently has other pastries and sandwiches as well.

So then I looked at the part of town where I work. They showed two places there, too. One is Tiff's Treats, which has pretty much nothing but cookies. The other is Texas French Bread, home of the fabulous Hyde Park Fudge Cake (though recent reviews say this is no longer as good as it once was).

Today I decided to go to my current favorite bakery, the Upper Crust. So sad, it's closed the entire time I'm off work. There are workmen inside doing stuff. It may be new and improved next time I'm there.

So then I decided to stop by Quackenbush's. Unfortunately, this turns out not to be the kind of bakery that makes me think, "oh, yum, how do I choose between all these fabulous things?" Instead, it's the kind of bakery that makes me think, 'oh, I can make that myself, and it would probably be just as good, it would almost certainly be healthier, and it would most definitely be cheaper." So I went to the cute grocery store across the street where I also bought nothing. I thought of going to La Dolce Vita, the fabulous Italian gelato place next door, but just wasn't in the mood.

So I went to a place sort of in my neighborhood to which I was introduced recently. They didn't have any bread, but they did have yummy things I never make myself and so I got three donuts. I also got two sausage jalapeno rolls for Robin. Mission accomplished.

(Yes, yes, I'm an ignorant brute myself and so I feel satisfied with the donuts even though they really shouldn't compare to dark chocolate croissants, for example.)

**

Getting out of my car, I slammed my knee into some part of the car so hard that I actually went light-headed. How could my car attack me like that? What did I do wrong? And how can I keep from ever doing that again?

I limped into the house, put a wet washcloth on the area and elevated my leg. But not before pouring a large glass of milk to go with my donuts.

Milk and donuts are now gone (yum!). Knee feels much too good to be broken or anything, and the only evidence of the attack is a tiny pink dot.

Overall, a very fine day.