* You are viewing the archive for December, 2008
Trying out Ask Sunday, an outsourcing service
Earlier this year I read the Four Hour Work Week. Then I read the article “Diary of a Self-Help Dropout” and heard The Moth’s recording of A.J. Jacobs talking about outsourcing. (As an aside, check out The Moth–it’s a really neat recorded storytelling group!)
Today I signed up for Ask Sunday, the outsourcing service mentioned in the above article. They are a concierge service that does small things for you, and they are cheap because people in other countries are doing most of the work for you.
You get a week with 4 free requests, and thereafter you … Continue Reading
Exercise so far
Last Monday and Wednesday I went running, for 3.1 miles each; Tuesday I went swimming. Yesterday I went running, for 4 miles–I was pushing my pace a little so I had to walk part ways.
I’ve been reading the manual for my Garmin Forerunner 305. This watch is ridiculous! It has a compass and a map feature. It can tell you how long it will be before you get to a “map point” such as a water stop.
I downloaded a free GPS map of North Carolina from CloudMade, a community-driven GIS mapping project. This allows me to use … Continue Reading
Went swimming
I went swimming at the Gateway YWCA today, for about 30 minutes. I got there at around 10 AM, and it looked like a swim meet had just ended. I’m glad I missed it–I wish I knew how to tell when the pool’s going to be in use, so I can consciously avoid meets.
It’s been a while since I went swimming–I could tell my heart rate went way up although I wasn’t doing much exercise. It’s going to take a while to build up again to consistent swimming without breaks.
The YWCA is going to be closed … Continue Reading
Ran today
I haven’t been exercising for a little while. Like, for a couple of months. I was going to run a half-marathon in early December, but after I ran my first 10 miler I got sick for a couple of days and pretty much just quit running.
Today I was walking around work all day in my running outfit (today was “PG PJ day” at work, which I fear will be a once-in-a-lifetime event) and driving home early from work, with it being in the mid-60s, I realized today would be a great day to start running again.
So, I ran 3.1 miles … Continue Reading
Amazon’s Subscribe and Save Program
A couple of weeks ago I learned about Amazon’s Subscribe and Save Program. You order items in bulk through Amazon, and tell them that you want them every one, two, three, or six months. In turn they give you a 15% discount and free shipping. Also you don’t have to worry about buying these items at the store.
We just signed up for it; here’s what we’ve ordered:
- Paper Towels (30 rolls each 6 months)
- Laundry detergent (6 bottles each 6 months)
- Dishwasher powder (8 boxes each 6 months)
- Clif Bar variety pack (24 bars each 3 months)
- Cinnamon Harvest … Continue Reading
The Power of Shims
I am not a very “handy” person–I don’t tend to fix things around the house.
A couple of months ago a carpenter built some bookshelves for us, and along the way he gave us a couple of shims to help straighten out our china cabinet. This is when I learned that shims are awesome.
Shims, in case you don’t know, are tiny flat wooden doorstops. 
 They are little pieces of wood that you can put in odd places to fix things. They are like the duct tape of wood.
So far we have used shims for three sorts of things:
- Leveling out furniture … Continue Reading