I need time to stop moving...

What is it about day's off not actually being true "day's off"? I remember when I was a kid, having a day off meant that I was running around outside playing all day long with my friends.

Now? I'm doing laundry and flushing a drain in our mudroom and, well, I am watching Doctor Who so I guess that counts as "recreation." Damn, just disproved my own thesis statement. Way to go, Kapgar.

I'm going to shut up now and recap my progress toward my New Year's Resolutions. Sound good?

It's been another mixed bag of results.

1. Meet a neighbor and remember their name beyond that one meeting
Ummm... no progress here at all.

2. Read 20 books
I finished McCullough's 1776 but haven't progressed at all on Ellis' Glamorama. Instead, I began reading Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. I've also finished Kirkland and Adlard's The Walking Dead, volumes 3 & 4. I currently only have through volume 5 in ComiXology on my iPad. I'm not sure what the heck I'm going to do when I'm done with it. I got them during a 50% off sale and now I either have to pay near full price (they're still a few bucks shy of the price of print copies) or wait for a sale that may never happen. AHHHHHH!!! The curse of bargain hunting.

3. Listen to one new band per month
This month, I delved into a band that I'll be seeing in July as part of the Pitchfork Music Festival. That band is the Cloud Nothings (yes, Eric and I decided to attend on Saturday instead of our original Sunday choice... too many great bands on Saturday to say no to it even if it means not seeing Vampire Weekend as we'd originally hoped) and their debut album Attack on Memory. Normally, eight tracks would be considered an EP, not an LP, but clocking in at 34 minutes, that's pretty equal to most full length LPs these days.

Prior to picking up Attack on Memory, I'd heard both "Wasted Days" and "Stay Useless" on Sirius/XM-U and truly enjoy them (on a related aside, I really must say I love that the U plays "Wasted Days" in its 8 minute, 54 second entirety). The rest of the album is rather good too. I still need to give it a couple more listens before I can give it a truly fleshed out review. Sorry. While I did pick up a new album this month, I haven't given it enough of a listen just yet.

I think my album next month may be Grimes' Visions. This is another one I'll be seeing at Pitchfork. Looking forward to it.

4. Finish watching through season 5 of Doctor Who
During the month of April, I finished up season 2 of Doctor Who and got through episode 1 of season 3. While I'm sad to see Rose Tyler gone, David Tennant is really making his mark on me as my favorite Doctor. I did not, however, like seeing Catherine Tate in e3s1. I don't much care for her in The Office and I don't find her to be much better in the little I've seen of her in Doctor Who.

As I type this, though, I've watched through the next two episodes of season 3 and I'm glad Tate isn't in them (yes, I know she comes back later in the series). I've also gotta say that I LOVE Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) as the Doctor's companion. She's a great intellectual equal for Tennant's Doctor. I'm looking forward to a lot more of her.

5. Learn how to make homemade pasta.
Um... nothing here, either.

6. Try one new recipe per week
While we haven't been sticking to the one-per-week prescription, we have been doing a lot of cooking rather unevenly spread out.

We got a new Cuisinart Griller and have been working on different types of panini sandwiches. As a full-on sandwich junkie, this has been heaven for me.

4/6: Grilled FlatbreadAnother thing we tried a couple different times this month was to make pizza (or what Bobby Flay calls "grilled flatbread") outside on our gas grill. This required trying a new crust that was a little firmer and wouldn't seep through the grill plates. We also tried a white pizza that turned out to be the best of the four pizzas we cooked over the course of two weekends. Grilling pizza is pretty awesome once you get the thickness of the crust and the heat of the grill figured out. This white pizza we did may just have to become a regular menu item for us. Yum-MAY!!

7. Continue my 365 days of photography challenges
Insty366 is still going strong!

8. Post monthly updates on my progress
This is the easiest thing about the whole deal. I'm just glad I didn't set a goal for number of posts per year, month, or, God forbid, week. That's one I would not be holding to at all. Yikes!

How about one last photo to close out the post?

GPS Proof

Previous Post

Under the microscope, hope against hope...

Apr 25
Hey look! Yup, it's me! It's me! And I'm actually here to give you another Snippet Wednesday on an actual Wednesday. Not Thursday. Actually, it has a lot to do with the fact that I think I received a threat...
Next Post

The max is in control...

May 2
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Captain has requested that you stow and lock your tray tables, return your seats to the full upright position, and fasten your seatbelts. We are about to enter Snippet Wednesday!!! Air-sickness bags can be found in...

Comments

You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

Marty Mankins

The day off thing for me doesn't work too well unless I'm out of town. At home, I have bigger visions for my time then my time does for me.

Cloud Nothings reminds me a lot of Nirvana. I really like the album and it's growing on me quite nicely.

I did my monthly update earlier today. It's the most consistent part of my TINTFA (other than my exercise regimin)

kapgar


Problem is that Katie didn't have the day off too so I couldn't go out of town unless I had a death wish. I'm not really there. 

Suzanne Apgar

I'll bet you have a "bigger" accomplishment than any of the above!!!

kapgar


Not that unaware of. 

Odie

'Snow Crash' got me started on Stephenson (I actually know his father), but my favorite by far is 'Reamde'.

kapgar


That's the new one, right?

The comments to this entry are closed.