When I opened up the front cover of the book, I saw something I realized I hadn’t seen in quite a long time, the due-date log.

The little flap of paper glued into the front of all library books, upon which the librarian would stamp or sometimes write in the due date when the book was loaned.  It brought back memories of being the first or second person to check out a book when I was a kid and being excited that I was able to get and read it so quickly.  Or just as memorable as being the last due-date on a page of the due dates, with sometimes 2 or 3 completely filled sheets underneath, and realizing how much joy this book has brought to dozens of people since the library started loaning it.  It could also tell you something about the previous borrowers, such as how well they cared for the book.  If I was the 3rd or 4th person to check it out and it was already damaged, I could tell at least one of those people had little respect for books, and likewise if the book was still in decent shape after a dozen or more uses, the previous readers were very respectful of the library and its books.

Technology in libraries has improved a lot.  It is wonderful being able to log into the library’s catalog with the click of the mouse at home or work if I want to find a particular book.  I can reserve it without driving in, even if it is at another library in the area rather than my own.  This is both convenient for me, and friendlier to the environment as I don’t waste gas to find out it isn’t there.  I get an e-mail from the library when any requested books are available too, and it doesn’t take more of the librarian’s valuable time to manually send a letter or call to inform me.  Inside the library it is faster to find something since the card catalogs have been replaced with computers, and you can search on far more terms than just title or author.

While overall I think the library experience has been vastly improved by the introduction of electronic recordkeeping, I’ll still hold a special place in my memory for the beloved due date reminder stamp.  This is one aspect of the library I am truly sorry my children will never know.

Max 10 hours per week of TV – Made it. Even though I was sick and watched quite a bit of extra TV, it was all non-trackable according to my goal.

• Knight Rider (0 hr) -Forgot to set this to record on the new satellite receiver.
• Battlestar Galactica (1 hr) – Caught up on a few episodes, still have a way to go.
• Biggest Loser (2 hrs) – One of the Idaho girls got sent home, I was hoping they’d stick around longer.
• Dirty Jobs (0 hr) – Didn’t air last week.
• Grey’s Anatomy (0 hr) – Didn’t air last week.
• ER (1 hr) – Watched a few episodes to try to get caught up.
• 24 (1 hr) – Watched the rest of the 2-hour episode we started last week, then one more. We’re missing an episode so I’ll have to see if I can get it on Fox’s website.
• Solitary 3.0 (1 hrs) – #7 was the winner much to my surprise, I thought #4 would take it.
• Non-tracked viewing: A bunch of educational shows, and a few movies Hi-Def is simply amazing on nature related shows…

At least 2 books per month -February’s goal met, now working on March.

• New Moon by Stephenie Meyer – Finished!
• Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer – Finished! Took less than a week!
• Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer – About 1/4 of the way in already.

Minimum 3 blog postings per week – I wrote 2 entries but haven’t published them yet. I did just finish up and publish a page I had written over the last week though.

100 lbs (2 lbs/week) – These last couple of weeks have been so busy and so stressful I haven’t been paying as close attention as I should to my diet. I also missed going to the gym most of last week, and have not been getting up early enough to go this week. I’ve been getting to bed slightly later than I intend (the dangers of reading a good book!) which has made me pretty tired in the mornings.

Budget – I’m happy with where we’re at this week.

Max 10 hours per week of TV – Made it.

• Knight Rider (1 hr) – I’m liking how they’re changing the show, I think there are many more places they can take the show now.
• Battlestar Galactica (1 hr) – Falling further behind in watching.
• Biggest Loser (2 hrs) – I can’t believe the records some of the contestents are breaking.  Only 9 weeks into the season and several of them have already hit some major milestones.
• Dirty Jobs (1 hr) – Normally I hate recap episodes, but when Dirty Jobs runs them, they show more of the behind the scenes information that makes it worthwhile.
• Grey’s Anatomy (0 hr) – Didn’t air last week.
• ER (1 hr) – Didn’t watch this.
• 24 (1 hr) – Starting to get caught up. We’ve watched  the first 2 hour episode, and half of the 2nd 2 hour episode.
• Solitary 3.0 (1 hrs) -Down to the final 3.
• Non-tracked viewing: Other than some evening news, I’ve watched a few episodes of The Dave Ramsey Show and a couple of episodes in the background of Cops-type shows while working on other things.

At least 2 books per month -February’s goal met, now working on March.

• Twilight by Stephenie Myers – Finished!
• The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom: Practical and Spiritual Steps So You Can Stop Worrying by Suze Orman -Finished!
• New Moon by Stephenie Meyer – About 2/3 of the way through this one already.  I don’t think I’m going to have a problem with this goal.  Now I just need to decide on a non-fiction book to read this month.

Minimum 3 blog postings per week – I had 2 posts this week, and honestly it felt good just writing a couple of posts as I wanted to rather than feeling pressured into making a 3rd one.  I still don’t want to drop this goal, but I haven’t decided how to re-write it to meet the spirit of my goal in the first place.

100 lbs (2 lbs/week) – Up 2.3 direct, also up 2 on the averaged trend. These last couple of weeks have been so busy and so stressful I haven’t been paying as close attention as I should to my diet.  I also missed going to the gym most of last week, and have not been getting up early enough to go this week.  I’ve been getting to bed slightly later than I intend (the dangers of reading a good book!) which has made me pretty tired in the mornings.

Budget – I’m happy with where we’re at this week.

Max 10 hours per week of TV – Made it.

• Knight Rider (1 hr) – Didn’t watch yet.
• Battlestar Galactica (1 hr) – Falling further behind in watching.
• Biggest Loser (2 hrs)  -Go Green, well now Black!
• Dirty Jobs (1 hr) -  Haven’t watched yet
• Grey’s Anatomy (1 hr) – Got caught up on this one, it was another combined episode with Private Practice below.  It was actually a pretty good storyline.
• Private Practice (1 hr) – See above…
• ER (1 hr) – Didn’t watch this either.  I think I saw the Finale is this week, so I can reclaim this hour.
• 24 (1 hr) – We’re kind of holding off until we get our new TV to watch this now, but it will be nice to watch several at once.
• Solitary 3.0 (1 hrs) – The solitary confinement is starting to make a couple of them crack I think.
• Non-tracked viewing: Other than some evening news, I’ve watched a few episodes of The Dave Ramsey Show and I’ve watched some shows on the Science channel.  I also watched Obama’s speech last night too.

At least 2 books per month -January’s goal met, on track for February.

• Twilight by Stephenie Meyer- Finished.  This was surprisingly good for being a book targeted more towards late teens/early adult.  I finished it Monday night, though I didn’t plan to.  I planned to read for about an hour, but when that hour came and went, I ended up reading another hour and completed the book.  There was that point of no return where it got really good and I couldn’t put it down since I was “almost done” anyway.  Will be starting the second book in the series as soon as I finish “9 Steps”.
• The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom: Practical and Spiritual Steps So You Can Stop Worrying by Suze Orman – Couple dozen more pages and this is done.

Minimum 3 blog postings per week – I wrote 2 posts but did not get them polished up and published.  I’m considering modifying this goal, not because I’m having trouble meeting the goal, but because I don’t think the goal is meeting the intent.  I’ve been thinking “I need to hurry up and get this out” or “I need to find something to write about” when I’d rather be thinking “This would be something great to write about” or “I’m going to hold off a couple days on posting this to make sure it is polished.”  I don’t know how I am going to change it yet, but I don’t want to eliminate it altogether.

100 lbs (2 lbs/week) – Up 4 pounds this week, Yikes!  I was not careful over my birthday weekend but I did not go overboard either. 0.09 pounds down on the averaged trend. At this point I have to assume it is water weight, so next week’s weigh-in should be great.  Even though I may not have hit my weekly goal I have to remember I’m still down 10 lbs from the start of the year, which is still progress towards this goal, and there is plenty of time.

Budget – Our tax refund did not arrive yet and it was supposed to be here last Friday.  This changed our planned budget but it is not going to break us.

Max 10 hours per week of TV – Made it.

• Knight Rider (1 hr) – Didn’t watch yet.
• Battlestar Galactica (1 hr) – Falling further behind in watching.
• Biggest Loser (2 hrs) -Go Green!
• Dirty Jobs (1 hr) – This week’s episode did in fact have Mike visiting Boise, ID!  I had to work late last night so I’ll be watching this one tonight.
• Grey’s Anatomy (1 hr) – Haven’t watched it yet.
• Private Practice (1 hr) – Tied in with Grey’s Anatomy episode from above, so need to see it to get the entire story.
• ER (1 hr) – Didn’t watch this either.
• 24 (1 hr) – Still lagging here.  The first 2 episoded were 2 hours each, and it has been hard to find time for us to both watch it together  If we can make it pas the initial hurdle I think we’ll be able to get caught up rather quickly.
• Solitary 3.0 (1 hrs) – The solitary confinement is starting to make a couple of them crack I think.
• Non-tracked viewing: Other than some evening news, I’ve watched a few episodes of The Dave Ramsey Show and I’ve watched some shows on the Science channel.

At least 2 books per month -January’s goal met, on track for February.

• Twilight -about 1/3 through it now.  This one is a fast read.
• The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom: Practical and Spiritual Steps So You Can Stop Worrying by Suze Orman -Almost done.

Minimum 3 blog postings per week – Only one post this week, but there’s been a lot going on.  Its kind of a catch-22 in that when I have a lot going on, it makes things I can blog about, but it consequently takes time I could use to write the blog entries.  I could sacrifice some more TV time, but I’m already down to watching a few specific shows and outside of educational programming I never just watch something to be watching something anymore.  I have to have some form of passive entertainment.

100 lbs (2 lbs/week) – Down 6.3 pounds direct weight this week!  1.87 pounds down on the averaged trend. I’m tracking ever so slightly above my goal, literally by 66 calories per day.  I need to be a little more diligent about getting up in the morning so I can squeeze in an extra 15 minutes at the gym, and/or I need to try to cut about a hundred calories per day average from my diet.  That is such a small number but it really adds up over the long term.

Budget – Back to using cash.  It’s too easy to let it slip and overspend when using plastic, even when its just a debit card.

Max 10 hours per week of TV – Back under the limit this week.

• Double Shot at Love (0 hrs) -This did not air this week.  I checked the DVR schedule and it shows the final 3 going to Vegas next week, so apparently they took a week off.
• Knight Rider (1 hr) – Yes, Deanna Russo is still very watchable.  Friday’s episode had quite the twist to it that I wasn’t expecting.  I won’t say any more as I don’t want to give a spoiler at this point.
• Battlestar Galactica (1 hr) Now that  Stargate Atlantis is over, this is now on.  I was looking forward to dropping a show off the list, but I can’t resist watching the final season of this show too.  The story has come too far to miss out on how it ends.
• Biggest Loser (2 hrs) – Still watching this for inspiration.  It amazes me how the Silver Team just doesn’t get it.  Joelle  complains at every opportunity and was giddy about the opportunity to go home, even though it was due to their over-eating (WAY over eating) at a temptation.  Her partner Carla has some serious control issues and needs a good slap in the face.  I was disappointed to see they got to stay in the game even though they were up for elimination.  I think everyone else decided that they probably won’t make it eventually, so keeping them in longer and eliminating tougher opponents is to their advantage at this point in the game.
• Dirty Jobs (1 hr) – I learned how they plug old mine shafts in California using polyurethane foam on last week’s episode.  Interesting stuff.
• Grey’s Anatomy (1 hr) – I think they may finally be bringing Izzy’s fling with her dead husband’s ghost to an end.  That has been a particularly annoying plot line more suited for some daytime soap.
• ER (1 hr) – Almost done then I get to mark this one off my list.
• 24 (1 hr) – Back to one hour now that its kicked off.  I still haven’t watched the 4 hours from last week, but the way this show works it is almost better to save up a few episodes and watch several of them all at once.
• Non-tracked viewing: Other than some evening news, I actually haven’t watched anything extra this week.

At least 2 books per month – On track.

• Otherland: River of Blue Fire by Tad Williams – 2 chapters left.  There are two more books in this series, but the wife is bugging me to read the Twilight series.  She’s on the 3rd book and it is driving her nuts not being able to talk to me about it yet.  I’m always up for a good vampire book.
• The Real America by Glenn Beck – About half way through it, but I should be done with it this weekend.  Next up is a Suze Orman book.  I figured after my post talking about how she seems to be a hypocrite on her TV show, I would also be one as well if I don’t read her books to make a more informed decision.

Minimum 3 blog postings per week – Met.

100 lbs (2 lbs/week) – Only down 0.2 poulds direct weight this week, 0.1 pounds down on the averaged trend.  Even though my loss this week is lackluster, I’m still on target for my 100 pound goal.  If you plot a line from my starting weight on the 1st of the year to my goal weight on Dec 31 I am under that line.  THe body will plateau, and several factors can change a weight by several pounds, including sodium intake, the types of food eaten the prior day, and even mood over the past few days.  I’m going with the sodium and food theory since I’ve been in a great mood over the last couple of weeks.

Budget – We’re doing great this week.  We were under budget on our food, and we budgeted some spending money for each of us.  We had a small windfall too which helped fund our savings, as well as a little extra spending money.  This helped take the edge off immensely and allowed us to get a few things we’ve been wanting.  These small purchases every now and then seem to help remove the motonony of living as tight as we have been.

I read the entire book during lunch with time to spare, so it took less than an hour to read. At first I thought this was a bad thing that devalued the book in my mind, but the more I thought about it my view changed. The shortness and simplicity is what drives the message home and makes it available to a broader audience.  If it was a long and drawn out book, most people would probably drop it after the first chapter or two.

The premise of the book is that there are a couple of ways of thinking about a problem.  The incorrect way is to be a victim.  “Why can’t the corporate office give us better sales materials?”  This question makes the asker believe they are a victim.  A better question would be to ask “What can I do to make the best use of the materials provided?”  This question empowers the asker and doesn’t pass the blame off to another person.

If you’re interested in reading a book that may challenge the way you think, check QBQ! out.