Friday tidbits

I haven’t felt the need to post weekly reviews. Things are going well. So here’s a random mix of tidbits. Photo of Steve’s friend fly-fishing on the American river this past weekend: One of the sites I worked on this year was for Jason DeJong’s research group at UC Davis where they “solve soil interaction […]

The 4 Hour Workweek: Wrapup

Through my other eight posts about The 4 Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss, I’ve only covered about half the book. The rest of the book talks about various topics for getting down to a “four hour workweek:” Chapter 8: Becoming comfortable with outsourcing – whether parts of projects or even as a personal assistant. Each […]

The 4 Hour Workweek: More efficient communication

One of the biggest things I’ve been learning from The 4 Hour Workweek is how to cut down on the volume of email by limiting back-and-forth situations. Here are just a few tips that I’ve come up with: Offer specific choices. Setting up an essential meeting: Instead of “what works for you,” ask “would 1 […]

Simplifying my life: Activities and Hobbies

One of the books I’ve been reading is The Simplicity Reader by Elaine St. James, chock full of applicable simplicity goodness. (It is actually three books in one volume.) One specific way this book has affected my life is in the area of activities and hobbies. Elaine talks about the human tendency to pick up […]

Catching up from the weekend…

We had a great extended holiday weekend this year, spending time with lots of friends and family to celebrate Thanksgiving. On the homefront, Steve and I rearranged our room to make a bit more room for the baby and also finally put together our free cylindrical composting “bin” that we got from the city which […]

Gratitude journal

Mike asked me for details about my gratitude journal Mine is really quite simple… so simple that I’m a little embarrassed to be turning this into a blog post! But it seems appropriate as I’ll be celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow… I have a nice leather journal (that I use for jotting down other thoughts, things I’ve […]

Frugal heating system

Our house is older, not well insulated, and has big windows. We haven’t turned on the heat yet, so it’s quite cold in the mornings and evenings. As I work, I usually have a big mug of hot tea to help warm me up. But hot tea only stays hot for a limited time, and […]

Reading: Born on a Blue Day

I read through several back issues of Pregnancy and FitPregnancy magazines that friends had given me, so that took up the bulk of my reading time this week. Finished reading: Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet – I vaguely remember flipping through a random book at Borders about synesthesia, a neurological condition where […]

Weekly Update: Internet-less

I’m taking tomorrow off for a family event so this is a short week. It’s also been a week without internet at home, so I’ve been working at coffee shops and in the office for a few hours in the late mornings and trying to do work offline at home in the early mornings and […]

Nutmeg sleeps.

Somehow I ended up with a bunch of photos of Nutmeg sleeping in my last camera download… My favorite way to find Nutmeg: with her paws curled over her face. Steve folded the blanket over Nutmeg, and she kept sleeping. We had pushed all the covers down to the foot of the bed, and Nutmeg […]