Hodge Podge ....

I sure do like having Christmas and New Year's Day on Tuesdays! It is like a great wonderful long weekend starting on Friday for me! It has been very restful and very nice. For people traveling and having holiday parties, it must also be nice. Next year, 2008, is a leap year ... so that means that Christmas and New Year's Day will be on Thursdays .... So will it be a 4-day weekend starting on Wednesday evening? That could also be cool!

I am hoping and planning to spend the holidays next year (2008) in Australia with Tom and Robbie ... staying with my sister and her family in Perth, Western Australia. That means saving apporoximately $6000 for airfare alone ... but I have several months to do that ... and once I set a goal in mind ... well ... I'll do my best. I haven't talked to Tom and Robbie about it yet ... and Tom doesn't seem to want to fly for 22 hours .... but we will deal with that as it comes.

I have been walking this week since the pool is closed ... today went a lot better than yesterday .... and I plan to try again tomorrow ... plus going to the gym to lift weights ... need to do legs tomorrow. Walking is actually kicking my butt ... but I plan to keep it up. What I really need to do is walk on the days I don't swim and lift weights. Every day needs to have some type of exercise in it. Tom wants to go back on Phase 1 of the South Beach Diet ..... BLAH! I really don't want to ... but might as well try something diet-wise since I am doing all of this exercise now. We certainly haven't been dieting over the holidays!! Oh My!! LOL .... but there is so much food left over from Christmas!

I do know that if we want to go to Australia, we will need to lose as much weight as we can ... as Derek and Lori do have issues with people who are overweight. Tom and I will always be overweight ... but we plan to be in kick-ass shape! Ha! Walking with the iPod does seem to help some ... can't wait to try it in the pool!

I need to do some educational blogging while I have this down-time .... topic reminders to me:

• Education and IQ
• The Success if my Tutoring Business
• What exactly would it take for me to go back into the classroom?
• Thoughts on how to expand my tutoring business

Marsha gave me a great book of Sudoku Puzzles .... edited by Will Shortz .... who is also the author of the New York Times crossword puzzles. I have recently started trying the NYT puzzles and I really like them. These Sudokus are also more fun than the ones in the paper ... but I am not sure why! Anyway ... I am enjoying doing them and working on getting better!

Today is Sunday .... still 2 more days of holiday this weekend ... very cool!