Down 50 lbs!!

I’m officially down 50.5 lbs today! It’s been a long year and three months that I’ve been working at this and I feel like I’m finally getting to where I want to be. I have another 46 to go to achieve my long term goal of being under 200 for the rest of my life. It seems like a monumental task to pretty much do what I’ve already done once over again… but that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

I’m really excited about this :) I told myself that I’m going to celebrate 50 by eating something bad for me haha. I have wanted a bacon cheeseburger from a nice restaurant for over a year now and I’m doing that this weekend!

This is a celebration weekend for me, as I’m also picking up my new Jeep Wrangler tomorrow! I bought it online without seeing a photo of it haha. It’s a 2019, so they’re pretty much all the same...I assume. I’m excited to take the doors off and the top down in the spring and explore new towns.

Long Weekend

I have three days off this weekend, so I planned a bunch of fun things to do… but then my car died…. for the 5th time since the summer!! I put it in the shop again this morning and decided it’s time to buy a new car..

So I was home all day today, which is fine as I have a lot of work to do. I finished and stained the window boxes… just have to mount them to the house now! I got a couple of lucky turtles on my long walk to the hippie store down the street... got a glass teapot I ordered online and tried it out. It’s all glass, but you can brew loose leaf tea in it :) annnd the biggest news of the day…. my first seedling of the new year has sprouted!

Window Boxes

I left work early today because of the storm… so I picked up a power sander (I’ll use it when I need to paint the house too) and began work on the window planters. They’re pretty simple and they’re coming along well. I’d much prefer to do this in the garage, but it’s freezing cold outside. I’ll just have a bit of cleanup to do after. This is tonight’s progress:

Birthday Weekend

Yesterday was my birthday and I had a family party at my parent’s house in Dracut. It was nice to see everyone especially my niece and nephew! I went out Friday night too…hit up a bunch of antique shops Saturday while driving around mostly aimlessly through small towns and got an antique popcorn popper. I spent some time with Bob and his 1 year old Drew, ran around a lot in 24 hours… so today I planned to just be home all day and relax…that’s what I’m doing for the rest of the day!! I woke up at 6AM, went to the gym, went on a 2 hour hike and I’m home now. The wood stove’s going, the incense is burning, just sat down to begin Netflix, cooking and listening to music, and chugging seltzers!! :)

I got a nice new old fashioned couch for the living room which was handmade in England. I have some photos of me here next to it and you can see how very small it is lol. I was not expecting that when it showed up, but I still love it! The living room is still really out of sorts though... I could use some help with figuring out what should go where and what furniture I need etc. I lost my curtain rods somehow, I have chairs and tables and lamps, but none of them seem to go together, they’re sort of strewn all over the place... I did decide to get rid of the TV downstairs which I think was a great decision because I want this to be a sort of reading and sitting room eventually with built in shelves for books that I will read some day!

I’m starting a fun project. I’m going to make planter boxes out of wood for the window sills. I’m starting planting for the garden indoors too. I planted asparagus, broccoli, strawberries, and some other things for the spring. I’m excited to see everything sprout.

I found a huge armoire that’s still at the antique store and is calling my name…. i’m thinking about getting it for the bedroom. Let me know if you like it? Would it be too big? I feel like it’s the type of armoire you can climb in to and end up at Hogwarts…

Lastly, my Mom sent me this photo today. It’s me at 15 months… she said she loves it because she sees me back then looking out the window wanting to start my adventures! :)

New Things

I realized lately that I’ve been spending most of my time on the house… and I really love it… but I’m also excited to do new things away from the house this year. I’m going to join some groups and meetings, meet new people, see new places, travel, etc. I plan to take scuba diving lessons this year at some point and found a place that certifies you to dive in the great barrier reef solo, which is now a new plan of mine for 5 years down the road. At the moment, I’m just seeing what’s out there and trying to decide what to put my time into. I’m interested to do something with unique social, environmental, political, or nature related aspects that’s not too expensive. I’m looking into possibly volunteering somewhere like the Sierra Club, Environmental League of MA, Massachusetts Climate Action Network, etc. I definitely want to do a few things from meetup.com too. The only problem is that I might only have time to do a couple of these, so I want to choose ones that I’m really very excited about.

Anyway…I went out with friends last night and today I’m heading to a Super Bowl party in Lowell. I remember watching the game with friends in West Chester and they all were rooting against the Patriots! I wished I was back home and today I will be! I’m cooking chili for the game and it takes at least 8 hours, so in the meantime just cleaning more and watching some Netflix, burning incense and drinking seltzer lol as usual :) I fell behind on chores the last few weeks, so I’m catching up and enjoying the day. 

If you want a really amazing chili recipe this is it. I have been to many chili festivals and tried probably 500 different ones and this is my favorite. Only one change you need to make to the recipe… you must use smoked sausage… preferably smoked chorizo from the deli at hannaford. I also add a bit of Cumin. Everything else in this recipe is perfect… but if you don’t like spice…don’t use the crushed red pepper and you’ll be good:

Freezing Colllld

It’s freeezing cold here tonight. It’s going to be -1 and I had a pipe freeze last week! Luckily I was able to thaw it with no issue… but every time it gets below 5 or so, I need to do a few extra things around the house to keep them from freezing. It’s an old drafty place, so you can be warm in one spot and cold in another. I’m cranking the heat and letting the shower drip… so it should be fine. The wind is really howling outside… but it’s very peaceful still and warm inside... it feels really secluded when it’s this nasty out there.

I took all of my Christmas candles…or winter candles I guess because I run them to February lol out of all of the windows. I don’t like taking them down…but it will be nice to put them up next year. Also, the neighbors probably just think I’m lazy :)

At the moment…I’m burning incense, drinking seltzer, and watching Netflix… three of my favorite things to do at home to relax.

Hi

I’ve had difficulty sleeping the last 2 nights. There’s a lot on my mind, so I have just been continuing to try to focus on fitness and I’m doing well which tires me out…So…hoping to get some rest tonight.

I bought two more window plants for the house, some Giant Sequoia seeds and I also got a little forest’s worth of small fruit trees… they’re very inexpensive when they are young, but in the long run could be producing like 15 types of fruit! I got pears, plums, hardy oranges, almonds, grapes, kumkwats, pomegranate, apricot, gooseberry, goji berry, etc. I’ll post more in the spring when I plant them.

I also won’t use pesticides on the trees… so I’m counting on an all natural pesticide made of things like cinnamon oil, vegetable oil, etc. lol… so hopefully at least I get some fruit and the bugs don’t just love cinnamon and vegetable oil haha.

My Favorite Spot in Boston and Composting Plastics

This is my favorite spot in Boston. It’s the center of the Mass Ave Bridge. I used to spend a lot of time here looking out at the view :)

I had dinner at Clover in Boston... I had a plastic fork, a plastic cup, a plastic Tupperware with a plastic cover. I looked for a trash container and I couldn’t find one… so I thought maybe they just want you to leave your trash with them or on the table…. then I saw this sign “Everything we hand to you is compostable”. So I realized that the plastic I just used was not plastic… it was made out of corn! Having plastic made out of corn instead of plastic is amazing!!! I did some research into it and it’s already at a point where when bought in bulk a cup only costs like 2 pennies.

I went through my budget and was afraid of what I would find, but it turns out that I’m in a better position than I thought. That took a big weight off of my shoulders. One of my many New Year’s resolutions was to be more financially responsible, so I started. I’ve been buying less expensive foods and I’m cooking meals weeks ahead and freezing them with things like rice, egg, vegetables, potatoes, tofu, etc. Whole, healthy foods. This weekend I cooked a ton while listening to Alexa…some NPR, Taking Back Sunday, and Taj Mahal.

I gave myself a haircut for the first time today. It turned out alright...not greeeat haha, but I figure I’ll cut it myself here and there to save a little... I’ll get better at it. I explored the Bearsden Forest Conservation Area near Athol. It was pretty nice, but I didn’t get too deep into the woods. I stopped by to see my cousins and the kids, went to a few antique stores and got some small things for the house. Hope you’re doing well.

Happy New Year!

This past year, I had many awesome and positive experiences, but there were some very difficult ones as well. I learned a lot about myself and what I want in my life. I have new goals now to meet new friends, to be a better listener, and to work on some other things that I want to change about myself. I struggled my way back from spine surgery and found the motivation to begin exercising and eating better and I’ve lost 40 pounds so far! 56 to go. I’m also a lot stronger than I used to be. I learned that I’m really very excited to start a family and have kids someday when the time is right. I bought a house, worked on it a lot, took trips, went on hikes, got out into nature and explored new places.

I have a feeling 2019 is going to be an awesome year! I have a trip to Germany planned and I’m going to try to get back to Austria too. I plan to save a bit and take a vacation to another country as well if I can afford it. I’m pretty much done having to buy things for the house for now as I have everything that I need.

My New Year’s resolution is to keep doing what I’ve already been doing with diet and exercise, but in addition... I wrote out a list of goals to continue living in the moment at the same time as working on other goals. Wish me luck! Good luck with your plans for 2019 too and happy new year :)

Christmas

I never put up Christmas lights before. I wanted to put a little more time into it, but we had so much snow that I got a late start. Next year I’ll try to do them before Thanksgiving so that I can take my time. Just having the candles on is nice and old fashioned too, so most nights I just do that.

There’s a few pictures here from my company’s Christmas Dinner. All of the people in my company are in that photo so you can see how many of us there are :)

This weekend, I’m finishing up shopping for gifts. I have a Christmas party with some friends tomorrow, then heading into Boston after. Christmas Eve is at my parent’s and Christmas at my cousin Julia’s. I’m excited for this long weekend and to see the family!

A Hike in Crawford Notch

I climbed a small mountain near Mt. Washington today. It was -2 degrees at the bottom of the mountain! I’m still learning what I can and cannot do since I’m just getting back into hiking. I was able to do this hike with basically no pain the entire time and I had a pack filled with water and food, etc. I think I’m about ready to climb Mt. Manadnock again. Oh, and I met an interesting bird on the peak!

Weekend Adventure

I decided to head up to the mountains and stay in a hostel this weekend to do some mountain climbing on snow and ice. The gps took me off the highway at the Newfound Lake exit and then backroads all the way towards Mount Washington. I’m in North Conway, which is a nice town!! It has everything you’d want for a vacation or an outdoor adventure. I’m sure I’ve been here before, but I can’t remember when... I must have been very young.

Anyway, I’m staying at a hostel called the Bunkhouse and I got here a little late so most people are sleeping, but one guy Reuben was up preparing for ice climbing waterfalls tomorrow. It looks like a lot of fun.

This place is both a hostel and a mountain adventure company with a small store. They bring people on excursions I think. I thought it was two different places but it’s all in one and you can see all their equipment and shirts and bottles and stuff they have for sale. They must be very trusting people to have strangers staying here every night and leaving their equipment out. I think outdoors people are typically very honest.

Tomorrow, I’m going to ask the guides to recommend a climb that I can do in the 2,000-2,500 foot elevation gain range. I don’t know if that gets me to the top of one of these hills but we will find out. My back is feeling great right now so I’m real excited for tomorrow!!!

Late night update: Rueben went to sleep a half hour ago to have a full day of ice climbing, but i’m only hiking maybe 4 hours... so I’m just gonna sleep in and enjoy the night. I turned all the lights off and I’m watching Netflix by myself in this strange cabin lol I’m having a good time and have the place to myself. It’s completely different from European hostels. Over there, every hostel I stayed at had like 50 people minimum... this place has 16 at most and tonight just a few. There’s no chance in Europe that I’d have my own living room right now watching Netflix haha. This place is unique. I want to check out a few more hostels up here this winter.

More Good News!

Good news is my back is a little stiff just because I haven’t climbed in a while, but no serious pain after mountain climbing!! :) So I’m a mountain climber again... finally... The long term goal is to climb Mt. Kanjavec in Slovenia to the peak… but for now I’m already planning my next trip this weekend.

This is the neighbor’s house that used to be the barn for my house that I mentioned in my last post:

Hiking on Ice

So… I post on here often, but only once in a while am I as excited as I am to post today…or as nervous. A year and a half ago on 4th of July I climbed Mount Manadnock. I made it to the top… which was probably not the best decision lol but I was excited and it was important to me. Little did I know, that was what finally did me in as far as my back went. I woke up the next morning and couldn’t walk…eventually leading to an ambulance ride and surgery 6 months later.

Well, my back has been doing really well lately. I can lift 60 lb dumbells at the gym with only minor pain the next day…so I decided to try mountain climbing again this weekend (once again probably not the best decision, but it’s one of my passions so I needed to try)…. I decided to climb Mount Manadnock again… then the reasonable side of myself decided that I definitely should start smaller and work my way up. So I just climbed Mount Wachusett instead. It’s 20 minutes from my house in the opposite direction from Boston, but you can still see the Boston skyline and western Mass from the top. It’s 2,000 something feet at the peak.

It’s about a 45 minute climb to the peak for a normal human being, so I thought it would take me an hour and a half. My back was acting up a bit before I even started, so I was thinking it would take me longer or i’d have to turn around…. it hurt for the entire climb, but it only took me the 45 minutes that it takes everyone else. At the top I couldn’t help but think about Manadnock… how I felt the same way….a little tired but no pain. This time I wasn’t too tired though. I was thinking by the time I get down will I need spine surgery again? But on the way down.. my back actually got better and better and better and better and later in the day I had no pain at all. I still have no pain and if anything it feels much better than before the climb. The nervousness is however… will it be ok tomorrow?

So, today I have a new hobby...Hiking mountains on the ice and packed snow in the winter. If you’ve never done it before, it’s absolutely amazing. It’s like one of those peaceful moments you have out in the snow where everything is silent, but it happens over and over as you find new parts of the woods. It’s very difficult to explain, but you just have to get out there. All you need is “microspikes” and a real pair of winter hiking boots (Mine are by Merrell and all of theirs would work) and you’ll be good to go. Walking on ice is simple with them.

Anyway, after the hike I thought I’d be laid up for the rest of the day… I was going to need to rest and ice and take ibuprofen… but I ended up cleaning the whole house, shopping, putting up half the Christmas lights, carrying wood for the stove, and cooking an awesome dinner. My back feels better right now than it has in 2 years. The only question I have is how will it feel tomorrow, but I think it will be fine.

Also, today I happened to bump into the neighbor Bob… I mentioned how my water was turning things blue and I fixed the problem. He told me he had the same problem and his wife Gloria has been washing her hair with bottled water for years! So I was able to help them with contacting my water purification person. He invited me in to his house and it is amazing! They both seem like very kind, honest, and happy people.

Their house is an old converted barn and it’s soo nice inside. They have one of those 1800’s stoves to cook on and there’s a sitting area on a loft where the hay used to be stored. Anyway, as we got to talking he explained to me that his house used to be the barn that belonged to my house! lol When Samuel Poole built my house in 1740… he built a barn as well. And the barn was converted into my neighbor’s house. He told me how when they converted it, where we were standing was where the cows came in. They did such a nice job with the place.

This has been a busy 24 hours...Friday night before everything I talked about, I went through my clothes and since i’m down a few sizes everything I own is too loose… and I went through my old skinny clothes too, but a lot of them are just old. So, I ended up with 6 trash bags full of clothes for Salvation Army. My bedroom is mostly clean from clutter…finally. Also, I made beef Jerky for the first time and brewed some more kombucha lol.

Here’s some pictures from today and Friday night. I’ll post one of the house that used to be my houses barn tomorrow:

A New Bed and a Trip to Germany

I had a really good day today... Productive day at work… Just got in from the gym and it’s been snowing all day again!

So…I needed a new bed and my Aunt Mary spent a lot of time researching them. I decided to just go with her research... It’s a Stearns and Foster and it’s soo comfortable! It has 1800 springs for support with a plush soft pillow top and it’s like sleeping on a comfortable hotel bed every night. She stopped by and gave me a new pair of sheets too. Thank you Mary and Tom!

Work has been busy. I just started a new project. I’m writing a paper which I’m presenting on a stage for 250 people next year for the 18th European Space Mechanisms and Tribology Symposium. It’s run by ESA which is Europe’s version of NASA. The symposium is in Munich, Germany and the last day of the conference, is a Friday during Octoberfest! So I’ll be in Germany for Octoberfest next year. Here’s a link to the conference and some pictures:

http://www.esmats.eu/munich/

Oh, they also have a fancy dinner to get to know other customers, suppliers, etc. and the funny thing is, I actually went to the same restaurant/beer garden on my trip to Europe a couple years ago. I didn’t take pictures of it…but I found some online for you to see. The place is awesome:

Down 40 lbs!!

I had a long weekend and I’m glad it’s a new week. This morning I decided on my way to work that it’s fitness week this week. I’m challenging myself to eat perfectly and exercise every day to get myself back on track! I have so much motivation right now. I’m down another 5 lbs…so 40 lbs down now total! I’ll post my new picture soon.

Here’s some photos from the first snow :) You can see the newly fixed chimenys…Also… why is that plant trying to leave its pot? haha Where is it going?

Getting Ready For Winter

I had a wood burning stove installed and it’s awesome!!! I love it. The fireplace is done too, but I think i’ll probably just use that here and there when I feel like hanging out by a fire. The stove can keep the house warm instead of oil and I’ll run it a lot more for heat.

When I step outside of my house right now it smells like a campfire :) I can remember that smell from when I was a kid and it reminds me of Christmas and the cold part of fall.

Westminster Cracker Festival

I went to an oyster cracker festival today. They had a chili and chowder competition that we joined in on and I’m stuffed! Seafood chowder with a full lobster claw, shrimp, scallops, and clams was the big winner. I haven’t been this full in like 2 months. I also was able to pick up a sweet little plant from one of the vendors and handmade soap ...........of course :)

After the festival, I hiked on my own through to woods for a bit. I really love the fall… the trails were completely covered with leaves in most places.

Thank you

Thank you all for making the fall cookout awesome!