mouse "Home Theater" Plan

Dear Friends and Family,

Remember when I wrote a couple of weeks ago about replacing our TiVO? Well, in the process we swapped out the TV in the living room for a smaller TV we had in the basement because the outputs on the TiVO are not compatible with the inputs on the TV and I wasn't willing to buy a new TV to make this all work. Well, Mr. mouse found an $8 cable that theoretically will enable us to connect the TV we had with the TiVO we bought.

Now seems like a good time to make Mr. mouse get rid of a lot of stuff in the living room. Let's start with the DVD player. It's over 10 years old. We never use it. And, when we try to use it, it doesn't recognize the DVD half the time and won't play. Inevitably we end up hooking up a portable DVD player for the 1-2 times a year we need a DVD player. I'm all for getting rid of it.

The wooden ledge. We bought it a long time ago when people still had cathode ray tube monitors hooked up to their desktops. It too is over 10 years old. I'm not sure if it really serves a purpose. It does raise the TV 2-3 inches and the TV does not need to be raised 2-3 inches. So, I think we should find another home for it somewhere else.

Ideally, I'd like something really simple on the credenza:

1. the TV
2. the tuner
3. the TiVO
4. the center channel speaker
5. the right speaker
6. the left speaker
7. a telephone
8. a power strip

Looking at the list, that doesn't sound simple at all. Still, it'd be a giant improvement over what we have now.

I'd like to empty out a drawer in the credenza and put all of the miscellaneous stuff in there, like:

1. the remote controls
2. the portable DVD player
3. the four DVDs we own
4. Mr. mouse's list of channel guides

And, then I need to find a new home for some random decorations we have hanging around the TV for no good reason.

No time like the present.


Cheers!
mouse

Paper Purge

Dear Friends and Family,

Yesterday and Monday I did something only an OCD person would enjoy. I spent my days going through old papers and purging all of the things we really don't need. I'm nowhere near close to done. I've only tackled a half dozen files out of a credenza that holds close to a hundred files. But, still, it's progress and it felt so good.

Depending upon my day today, I may go through more papers today. I've even begun thinking ahead to what papers I could shift into the credenza once I free up space because, of course, we have papers everywhere. But, for now, I won't go there. I'll focus simply on going through what's in the credenza. Then, I can begin to tackle the paper that's elsewhere. Because, if I started with the papers lying around the house first, I wouldn't have anywhere to put the papers I wanted to keep. I would have gone to the credenza and it would have been full.


Cheers!
mouse

Weekly Weigh In

Dear Friends and Family,

this week's weight loss: 1.8 pounds
total weight loss: 1.8 pounds

It's Tuesday. And since I'm back on Weight Watchers it's weigh-in day. After a week of measuring and drinking my water and feeling blah, I lost two pounds.

It's hard to not get discouraged by the road ahead. And, there's moments when it's just not fun. But, I had an interesting thought in the shower the other day. The beginning is the hardest part. There's a lot of change, your body remembers being able to eat at will, and there's a long road ahead. Once you get into the journey, say 13 weeks or so since I think of everything in fiscal months, it's a lot easier. You have a routine, your body has been beaten into submission, you've made progress, and you have confidence.

So, even if the pain of the last week hardly seems worth it for a two pound loss, I need to keep it in perspective. It was totally worth it if the end goal is my goal weight.


Cheers!
mouse

04.26.15: Spring Has Sprung

Dear Friends and Family,

It's Monday morning. P is eating her breakfast of apples and yogurt. Mr. mouse is getting ready to shower. And, I am counting down the time until I can have my coffee. It's a typical morning in the mouse household. I've got 35 minutes to go which means I had my probiotics 10 minutes ago.

We had a good weekend this weekend. Saturday morning, we took care of all of our children. Yes, I know we only have one child. But, there are times when others need our parenting help. I would have liked to have gone out to brunch again, but I was still full from dinner the night before and the weather was gray, cold and raining. So, we had breakfast at home and it was just as good. We took P to see a play on Saturday with one of her close friends. Afterwards, we came home and the girls played while the parents decided to try and guess the first grade classrooms. Yep. That's what we do for fun. We try and guess classrooms for the fall. It's fun to speculate.

Sunday, I came downstairs at 6 o'clock to begin my day. Five minutes later I received a text from a friend who had just come into town. I picked him up from the train station. We went to church together and then came home. Mr. mouse cooked pancakes and sausages for everyone. I had fruit and almonds. Then, because the weather was nice, we went to see a baseball game. It was freezing in the shade, but once we moved to the sunny side of the stadium, it was warm and balmy and we had fun sitting and enjoying the game.

And, now it's Monday and we're all in weekday mindset. There's school and work and things to be done. Plus, it dawned on me on Saturday that P turns six in two weeks. We need to order her birthday presents. A six year old. How is it possible we'll have a six year old in the house?


Cheers!
mouse

mouse journal reboot

Dear Friends and Family,

It's been close to a month since I wrote. So, I'll cover the basics of what's been going on, why I haven't written and where I am now.

The Good

The good is actually the amazing. We took a week long trip to Australia during P's spring break. It could not have been better. Actually, if I were going to be really picky there was a two hour stretch in Melbourne that could have been better. But, overall, this will be one of those trips we remember for a long time. But, I'll save the actual details of the trip until another day.

The Bad and The Ugly

It was really tough getting back in gear when we got home. It was rainy and cloudy and just plain old yucky for a week. If that wasn't bad enough, the house was a mess from unpacking. And, my technology all decided to go on the fritz at the same time. I decided to tackle the cable first because it was just ridiculous. Service was intermittent at best and when we had it at all it was a trickle. After multiple phone calls, multiple reboots, multiple service calls, and an email to the CEO, we were able to get back on line. And, we haven't had an outage in over a week. Woo hoo!

Then, our TiVO went. Now, this is not a big deal to me. But, apparently it was eating mr. mouse up to not have TiVO. Why? I don't know since he never watched TV in the first place. But, we got a new box and spent an evening installing it. I will say I like it because it is smaller and less cluttered than our old box. And, we were able to disconnect the Wii while we were in there so I am happier with the smaller footprint.

Then, my computer started to go. Granted my computer should have started to go a couple of years ago. You know your computer is old when Microsoft stops supporting your OS. Yes, it was that old. And, the final straw that broke the camel's back was the power connection. It had gotten old and sensitive so I was losing work when the cord got jolted and I was getting worried because it was having a tougher and tougher time each time in turning back on. So, we ordered a new computer.

In the mean time, my NAS seemed like it too was dying. It kept losing its connection to the home network when I was moving files from my computer to it to ensure I didn't lose any data. We weren't sure if it was the NAS, the router, the computer or some combination of the three that was causing the problem. Well, moving five files at a time over multiple reboots of the system, we were able to move all of the data.

Then, my new computer showed up. And, I spent the better part of a week tweaking it before it felt like home.

Now...

Now, the cable is good, the TiVO is good, the computer is good. The NAS is okay, but still not quite right. And, I'm slowly learning to type on the new keyboard which is a little more spread out than my old keyboard. Wow. That's an action packed three weeks right there. But, wait, there's more.

I also decided to go back on an eating plan. I'm not calling it a diet because that's a four letter word in our household. But, I have been journaling my food and tracking my weight. I feel healthier, but I know I've got a long road ahead of me. I'm okay with that. I'll admit it can be a time sink because I need to plan my food, cook, and then eat instead of just grabbing whatever looks appealing from the fridge. But, I am committed. I can do this.

And, last but not least, my work. I'll be honest. Outside of the basic turning on the lights and sweeping the front door, I haven't done anything since I've gotten back from Australia. I feel guilty about it. But, I've also begun to live with the guilt. Perhaps, now that I'm back up and running I'll feel like I have the time to work on work again.

Each week has been better than the one before it. That first cloudy, dark, rainy week when everything went on the fritz and I was trying to tackle a new eating plan and work felt like the worst week in a long time. I'm optimistic about next week.

I should also write about old work. I know. It's been over a year. But, actually, this time last year was when the last bit of ugliness with old work went down. At the time, I was so angry and so bitter and feeling so betrayed. But, I have finally turned a corner. I realize now that I should have left in August of 2013. But, I didn't. The money was too good and I felt like I was cornered into saying yes. But truth be told, I was willing to play the game because I wanted the money. Once we started down the part-time path, I'm not sure how long I would have let it go. Part of me says July, but part of me is not sure. I might have been willing to stay for longer. So, while it sucked when it happened. I'm glad we parted ways last spring. I've learned to live without the paycheck and I'm a much happier person for it. So, I've finally closed that chapter as well. I no longer care which means I need to rethink the artwork in my living room.


Cheers!
mouse

PS: font on the computer still too big, sigh