The Tax Man Cometh.

O mercy, I had a fright last night. I was working through our taxes, and the return kept popping up showing us owing $12,490.  I was freaking out…where are we going to find another twelve grand on top of the already ridiculous amount of taxes we have already paid?  I mean, tuition payments for next year are due two months, college payments a few months after that.  So I told Mr. Pea the bad news and then we went to bed with him reassuring me it would be okay.  I had nightmares about getting tossed in jail because of taxes.  I woke up several times during the night mulling over my math.  Our income and other deductions were really close to last year’s and I already made prepayments on estimated taxes, so we shouldn’t be that far off.  First thing this morning, I open up Turbo Tax and check my input .  Um…I had Mr. Pea’s 401K contributions categorized as taxable income. Yeah.  Pretty stupid mistake.  I toggled the correct switch and BAM!! All is well.  We only owe roughly one week’s worth of groceries.  Whew!

The Ready for Summer challenge continues!

So how did it go with last weeks mini goals?  Pretty good!  I actually remembered what the goals were this week.

1. Weight loss – 0.1 pound loss.  A measly tenth of a pound.  That’s less than my shoes weigh!
2. NSV – Eight Hours of Sleep minimum every night.  Closer this week, but I’m still lagging behind on getting adequate rest.
3. Exercise –   Rocking!! DirtBike, The Architect and I joined up with our Mayor on her weekly Tour of Fort Worth ride.  And guess what??  I got to meet Roxie Stone!!  She is just as gracious in person as she is on her blog! And Inez?  Oh drool…such a beautiful set of wheels.  We biked eighteen miles on Wednesday evening.  Add to that my foray to the Botanic Garden, CrossFit on Thursday and another eight mile ride on Friday…I got my exercise this week for sure.

   

4. Nutrition – Eat more Veggies, and cut back a little more on the processed carbs that are trying to sneak back in. – Oh sadness.  I succumbed to WHITE BREAD!!  Really, and it was quite delicious.  😉  I did eat four servings of veggies every day, though.

Ride a Bike!.  Keep the Faith.

Why was I so excited about CrossFit?? Seriously?  Our new trainer cancelled yesterday.  What’s up with that?  He bailed on his first day, last Tuesday, and yesterday was his second cancellation.  Not that I was terribly upset.  After all, my arm muscles are still screaming at me from last week’s first attempt and his wimping out left me free to go biking!!   

I hopped on the work bike and hit the trails.  Halfway to the south side, I was struck by an incredible flash of inspiration and decided to visit the Botanical Gardens.  It’s only a quick jaunt across a major arterial roadway that doesn’t have a crosswalk or a signal, right?

I love the formal rose garden. Even its present state of reconstruction, it’s absolutely  spectacular.

Next winter, I am totally going to make a butterfly shaped pansy topiary and put it on my front porch.  Really.

The day was beautiful and I ended up spending just a little too much time meandering around the gardens on my bike.  Which means I was left with ten minutes to get back to the office.  Which in turn means I had to take “The Shortcut”.

Yep.  That’s The Shortcut.  Short in terms of time and distance.  Not so short in terms of effort.  I lifted the bike over my shoulder and schlepped it right up the staircase to get to the road above so I could skedaddle back to work. I received some strange glances from passing runners, and a big thumbs up from the biker at the top who was heading down the staircase with his ride as I was climbing up. Great fun!

 Take a Shortcut.  Keep the Faith.

Yeah.  I totally have to start dating my post titles, because I copy old ones for templates and there are now enough old posts to be overwhelming instead of simply confusing.

The Ready for Summer challenge is on.  Summer?  Honestly, folks, it’s upon us here in Texas.  We had summer storms last week complete with tornadoes, and the heat isn’t too far off. Mosquitos are relishing the fact that rain has returned to our drought ravaged corner of the world, and they’re coming out of dormancy with a vengeance.  I swatted one the size of a bumble bee yesterday.  Add to all of this the fact that Christina covered the grey in my hair painted in my annual highlights, well yes, Summer is officially here. 

See?  Thanks to the magic of chemistry, that pesky grey is now cleverly disguised as shimmery gold highlights. Yes, I have naturally curly hair.  It’s annoying, especially on humid days.

So how did it go with last weeks mini goals?  Hmph.  Considering that I couldn’t even find the post with last week’s goals in my post list, well, let’s just pretend I’m redoing the previous week’s goals, okay?

1. Weight loss – One pound. Nope.  Didn’t happen.  Happily Maintained.
2. NSV – Eight Hours of Sleep minimum every night.  Sadly, this did not happen last week. There were too many late evenings involving both work and fun stuff.  
3. Exercise – Four days of cardio and two days of weight training – Ooooh….this one slipped a bit the past week.  By Tuesday morning, I was terribly sore from my biking accident, so I was a good girl and took it easy while the muscles and bruises healed. I did do a Crossfit class on Thursday, and it went well!  It was an evaluation type workout, but I was able to finish in a respectable amount of time.  Then I spent the entire Saturday at a bike trail workfest at Gateway Park. Lopped lots of privet, hauled fallen limbs and trees off the path, and did quite a bit of digging and shoveling as we repaired benchcuts along the path.
4. Nutrition – Eat more Veggies, and cut back a little more on the processed carbs that are trying to sneak back in. – Score!!! 

Don’t Lose Track of Your Goals.  Keep the Faith.