Head down, working...working...and yeah...

Work for work's sake and to pay the bills, continues to be, well, work.

Job Basket fun and frolic has slowed down a bit. I've been picking out jobs that are taking more than one or two sessions to complete, and between Work Work, the kid, crafting, and life, well, those sessions are down to one or two a day.

Crafting continues at a frenzied pace and panic has set in as deadlines loom...

Bank issues with new cards being sent out and old ones being cancelled adds to the chaos.

Now having to change all my stuff, well, that just pisses me off.

Good stuff:

Spencer got a great grade report! We have our first family/teacher conference some time this week if only we can all agree on a time. (Not my fault, I blame the Ex. See AmpuT? You're not alone.)

Honey is coming to visit for the Xmas/New Year/His B-day Holidays. You can't tell, but I'm very excited. He'll be here 3 weeks. PANIC!

I can now officially enjoy my new glasses. Both pairs. I have this awesome tricked out pair for computer/reading work that I wear at (where else) the computer while I'm working. Most. Awesome. Things. Ever. Now I can officially say, I have my distance glasses as well. Got them, couldn't see shit, had to get tested again, got them updated and picked them up today. They work and I can see!!! Just taken me over a month to say, "I can see again". Sigh.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The official countdown has started: Honey says it's 29 days. I'll take his word for it as I'm too freaked out and panicked to count.

Speaking of panic...The Job Basket still looks full! Need to get moving a bit faster and get going on completing more jobs!!!

Another Jaw-sie night

Last night's Basket Job - the shredding - is going to have to be continued tonight.

I had quite a bit to shred (really should keep up with it better), and the poor shredder started to get a bit warm, so I shut it off after a bit to let it rest and cool down. Not much left, so I will continue that Basket Job tonight.

If I feel up to it, I will pull out another Job Paper from the Basket. Most likely not though as Spencer and I are working on our special project tonight.

Oh, and the tray is not and never will "be". That little project failed in an epic way. Sigh.

The whole point was to take bits and pieces I got on the cheap and make a cool tray.

All I got out of it was some more stuff for the trash dumpster (not going to spend any more money on it) and a wee hole through the tip of my finger.

Don't ask.

PS. The finger is fine, just a bit sore.

DunDun...DunDun...DunDunDunDun...

...in case you can't tell, that the music from JAWS, the movie.

Tonight's Basket Job is to shred stuff. And that means I get to play with our resident shredder, Jaws. Heh Heh.

But first, it's dinner, then after shredding, out comes the power drill!!! Yay tools!!!

And now for something completely different. Found this quiz over at Cherry Extract, and since we are having pizza for dinner...well, I couldn't resist. Think I will do what she did and list out the questions and my answers...


How many slices of pizza do you normally eat? 2
What kind of crust do you prefer? Pan
What kind of sauce do you prefer? Red Sauce
What kind of cheese do you prefer? Extra Mozzarella
What vegetable topping do you like the best? Mushrooms
What meat topping do you like the best? Sausage

What Your Pizza Reveals

People may tell you that you have a small appetite... but you aren't under eating. You just aren't a pig. You consider pizza to be bread... very good bread. You fit in best in the Midwest part of the US. You like food that's traditional and well crafted. You aren't impressed with "gourmet" foods. You are generous, outgoing, and considerate with your choices. You are cultured and intellectual. You should consider traveling to Vienna. The stereotype that best fits you is guy or girl next door. Hey, there's nothing wrong with being average.

What Does Your Pizza Say About You?

Heh Heh, this is pretty good. I was born and raised in Chicago, home of the best deep dish pizza ever.

And guess what kind of pizza is almost ready to come out of the oven... thick crust (quasi pan) sausage and extra cheese pizza. MMMMM...sure does smell goooooooooooooooooood!!!!

Still working hard...

...not just hardly working...as the saying sometimes goes...

Tonight I drew "go thru 2 boxes under Spencer's bed".

Yes (hanging head in shame), I even stashed some storage boxes under my kid's bed.

Took me a lot longer than just 15 minutes...to tell the truth, I didn't even set the timer. I forgot. But, as all I was doing was sitting in front of the TV watching PBS and then Biggest Loser (this season is so pissing me off I don't think I'll watch it again until the finale), I had nothing to do but "work".

So I pull out two small boxes (as there are only smaller boxes under his bed) - the first box was quick, a bunch of stuff shoved in a box to "clean" for company, and the second took a lot longer, a box of photos. I looked at some, but finally had to cover it up and put it aside as "going thru photos and organizing them" is a humongous job for a future Job Basket. And what do I find in the first box, but 5 rolls of packing tape and my drawer handles!!! Among lots of other cool things. I've just been looking for that damn packing tape for, oh, 6 months now!!!! And you all know that since I discovered the cabinet door, I've been looking for the drawer pulls.

They are still cool, and I can't wait to put them on the door tomorrow night. I did all the measuring and have the doors marked for the holes I'll be drilling. Unlike my neighbors, I managed to restrain myself from making obnoxious noises past 9pm tonight - even tho, OMG, it was killing me.

I have the before photo all ready to go with the after I'll be taking tomorrow.

Speaking of photos, I had to get online to check out an email Spencer sent, and while I was on here, decided to post and to work on uploading all the photos from my laptop to my online photo album. It's going to take a while, but I figure I can set a few folders to upload during the day while I'm working and before you know it, they'll all be 'safe'. I can't tell you how many photos I've lost from work laptops. Since I don't have my own personal computer and I'm very bad at backing up my personal files anyway, I've been through some painful photo losing times. Sigh. But, I've finally decided to get this done. Long overdue, but worth every second of watching the progress tick off 1% complete at a time.

Now we're talkin'...

...or should I say working...

I'm finally getting some 'tougher' jobs out of the basket.

Last night I worked on one of our storage closests.

Tonight I get to tackle some boxes from the storage unit that are in the living area. Specifically two boxes. And I've freed up enough space in that storage closet to add in anything from those boxes that needs to stay. Can't wait!

Can't believe I'm typing that...about to go and check if I have a fever or something.

Now you see why I need to make another set of Jobs for the Basket once this set is done. Everything that I'm putting back into the closests will need a permanent home. And those permanent homes are yet to be determined.

Yeah, this is gonna take some time.

Holiday and Pay It Forward crafting continues...

Now what did I do with that thermometer...

Rules posted to the side over there --->

OK, I figured out how to get them all listed over to the right there. I've switched a few things around and changed the "additional rules" to "things to remember".

Think it's time to go pick out a Job. I'm bored, I'm hungry, and I haven't done one yet today. And I REALLY REALLY REALLY want to find those damn drawer handles so I can make my tray. Argh!

Rolling with my Basket...

...I'm on a roll.

First, there was the Job on Friday night.

Then on Saturday, I was busy most all day and tired by the time I got home.

So I eat dinner and decide, OK, Rule #1: Must pick a Job every day.

So I picked one, and did it in about 5 minutes. OK, so it seems like I've got the opposite problem from making jobs so hard it takes me a few times to complete them. Argh...

So I pick another since I was already up and doing something and I hadn't felt that I had worked hard enough.

Seems I got "in the mood" cos I picked a total of 5 Jobs last night. Yes folks FIVE. Took me all of 30 minutes to complete them all. I KNOW there are jobs in there that take more effort than what I've put in so far. I tried to get a good mix of hard and easy...seems like I'm picking all the easy ones out right away though...

Anyway, one of the things I did was go shopping with Antonella, where I managed to pick up a few containers to help with the organizing. BOTH containers were used last night. One to organize all of our new xBox stuff. It was the original reason why I bought the container thing in the first place and the first job I drew? Organize the xBox stuff. Now that it's organized and we've got places for everything xBox-y, Spencer should be able to keep things in order instead of all over the living room floor.

One would hope.

The second was a good size canvas zip-up style "box". What I've done with that is taken out all the clothes in my closet that don't fit right now, folded them up all nice-like and put them in there and then put the whole lot on top of the set of drawers in my closet. Not only have I actually done part of one of my 'future' jobs, but I've also made it possible to actually SEE what I've got to wear. I have lots of clothes of all sizes, which can get very confusing to somone who is having some weight struggles.

How can you tell what you can actually wear if you can't see it? What a waste of time to dig thru it all and keep saying, doesn't fit, doesn't fit, doesn't fit, etc. It's also very, very depressing. Sigh.

So, in the interest of sanity, and curiousity to know just how bad the clothing situation is, I got the canvas box thing. Sigh.

Folded up some very nice clothes. 32 pieces total. A lot of it was bought about a year ago for my first trip over to England to visit Honey. Never ended up in any of it cos I bloated out and gained a bunch of weight right before I went. Almost all of it still had the tags on...and most of it was on Clearance too...(major SCORE)... But damn if I won't have one ROCKIN' wardrobe when I finally do fit into it all. All sorts of coordinating pieces that will really look nice. Someday.

And, I have figured out that I actually do have quite a bit that I can still wear as I'm on this latest losing weight journey - it was just buried in the midst of all the stuff I can't wear - yet.

Anywho, in doing the last Job last night, I discovered a few cool things.

First, a cabinet door I got at the IKEA scratch n' dent area for $1 - a long time ago. It had a really cool, balanced look to it and I remember seeing something somewhere that someone had made a tray out of a cabinet door by adding a few drawer handles. I know I found some really awesome handles at the hardware store on sale a few weeks after that, but can't find them. Sigh. I will tho, and when I do, I'll be sure and show you guys.

Second, I have to go back and update the rules. Need to add two more:

If you get the muchies and it's not time to eat, pick a Job.

-and-

If you get bored, pick a Job.

Think I'm going to try and figure out how to add "The Basket Rules" to the side of the blog. If you don't see anything over there, you know I wasn't successful.

This Job Basket seems to be having an effect on quite a few aspects of my life.

And that's just fine with me.

Jumping into the Basket...

...did my first "job" last night. Took all of 10 minutes. YAY!

Fifteen minutes every so often I can do...spending an entire weekend starting/stopping/starting/procrastinating and ending up doing practically nothing....I don't want to do any longer.

Cherry, I've used a 10 minute timer with Spencer and his room, and it's worked wonderfully. Don't know why I haven't done this for myself sooner. Oh well, I'm doing it now, and it felt great to actually accomplish something and see IMMEDIATE results.

For this project, I've broken down various tasks. For example, going thru my closet. It's rather wide and filled to the brim, so that could be a rather daunting project. It has two upper shelves that run the length of it and then the hanging area that goes all the way across. So I've broken it down into 4 "jobs" left and right hanging areas, and left and right portion of the upper shelves. When done this way, it's not so scary to do the closet.

The reason I've finally broken down and done the Basket is because when Honey and everyone left after graduation in June, I used the last day of having the rental car to empty out my storage unit - to save money. The Chaos Annex is no more, and everything that was in there is now here and there all over my apartment - again. And I've done NOTHING since then to go through it or get rid of it, NOTHING!!!

Finally just got tired of looking at it all and decided something needed to be done. Thought for about a week over what I've done in the past that's worked. Not much, but the 10 minute timer for Spencer has worked, and I've done the 10 minute timer for chores as well. Why not make it 15 minutes and attack all the "Stuff".

Excellent.

But where do I start? Started going through my apartment doing an inventory of everything I needed to address. The list was long and depressing. There are quite a few jobs on it that I don't look forward to doing at all. I didn't want to do them first, and I knew for sure I would skip over them and leave them for last - and then they wouldn't get done. So I decided, the job choice would have to be random.

And there you have it, the Job Basket was born.

Oh, and to keep myself on track...if you guys haven't heard anything about the Job Basket in a few days, feel free to call me out. Hopefully, I'll just have forgotten to post and I won't be slacking off about doing my jobs!

Basket Case

Whatever...I was up way too early today and it's been nothing but crap all day. I had a very clever title for this last night, but it's slipped my mind. Along with just about everything else today. Sigh.

Anyway.

Welcome to the New Improved Chaos Organizing Project of Fall 2008!

You know, this blog actually started out as an "organizing" blog but it's been covering so many other things - I am a master procrastinator. heh heh

I've tried just about everything else and nothing has stuck - it's worked for a bit, but I've never stuck with it - so why not try this....

Introducing the 15-minute Job Basket!

I took some old address book refill pages from a book I'm not using any longer (hey look! I'm recycling!!!), cut them up...




Broke down everything I want to do around my apartment into 15 minute "jobs", wrote them on the little bits of paper....this does not include chores. Chores are done on a daily basis or as needed. This Job Basket is just for my organizing or clearing out of things.

Folded them up and tossed them in a basket!



Rules of the "Job Basket":

1. One job paper must be drawn every day.
2. Set a timer for 15 minutes.
3. Do the job.
4. If you get hungry and it's not time to eat, pick a job paper.
5. If you get bored, pick a job paper.
6. If the job is completed in less than 15 minutes, pat myself on the back and put my feet up for the remaining time.
7. If the job is not completed in the 15 minutes allowed, work on it again for the next 15 minute "Job Basket" time, and so on until it is. This should not happen that often though, unless I really sucked at estimating how long it's going to take me to do something.
8. Repeat the above until the "Job Basket" is empty.

Going to have to make periodic runs to the thrift store to donate all the stuff I decide I don't need, going to separate my recyclables and dispose of chemicals, batteries, and electronics, and everything else properly. OOOH...and shred documents with personal info on them.

Very IMPORTANT Rules in case I wanna try and get around the REAL rules:

1. The job written on the paper must be performed - no switching, no whining, no slacking off!
2. Don't beat myself up if I miss a day or don't finish a job.
3. If I miss a day, I'll just start over the next day.
4. If I totally drop the ball on a job, toss the paper back into the basket - it may not get done today, but it will eventually.
5. It's OK to do more than one job a day. In fact, it's totally awesome to do more than one.
6. I didn't chaos the hell out of my life in a week or two, so I can't expect to get this done in just a few days or so. Have to be realistic and give myself some time. This is very hard work, especially since I'm pretty attached to my stuff.
7. Figure out an awesome reward to give myself when it's all done. Or, maybe when I've done 10 jobs or whatever. Need to decide. I do need some new furniture...

Stay tuned to see how this all plays out. I'll try and post a weekly update on what "Basket Jobs" I've accomplished and how things are looking around here and how I'm feeling about it all. And if I'm REALLY BRAVE, I'll post before/after photos - don't hold your breath though, cos I am pretty much a chickenshit.

Oh, and when the Job Basket is finally empty...I get to fill it up again with organizing my stuff. This first round of Job Basket thingies are only getting me to the point to where I can settle in and organize everything I have left. Yeah, I know.

This is a huge undertaking for me.

This could be the most totally awesomest thing in the world...

...or just some dillusional waking whacked out dream I'm having.

At the very least, it'll keep you guys entertained...and distracted from all the gift projects I'm working on right now. I can only keep pointing out my cute little map with dots on it for so long.