required posting

I had full intentions of keeping up with my blog roll (nerdy, nerdy pun right there) from last week, but unfortunately time has slipped away from me. Work has been really insane this week, with my boss being on her second week of vacation, and I am exhausted at the end of each day. Luckily I had after work dinner plans with my dear friend George tonight, so I made sure to bust out on time and try to leave the day behind me as best that I could.

So what I have been up to with them there goals I laid out last week? Well, let's see:

Limit eating out to 1 lunch and 1 night per week, 1 night OR brunch per weekend -- this is one of the greatest areas where my spending starts spiraling. I'm determined to remedy that.

In the past week I've only gone out to eat once, tonight. I went to Phan's Garden at 19th & National for Vietnamese food. It was my first time trying that cuisine and it was delish! I had Pho Ga, which is basically thinly sliced chicken in broth with rice noodles and then you layer on peppers, bean sprouts and cilantro. It was mighty tasty, and the decor in the place was wild. The only negative was my fortune which said "You will soon find a new line of work." That sucks, because I certainly love my job. I hope it just referred to my boss returning and me going back to my daily duties.

Limit buying cocktails to 1 per weeknight, 3 per weekend night -- another spending death trap. I think this is a reasonable goal. Cocktails does mean beer and wine as well. And note that it basically refers to going out and buying them. If I have a couple glasses of wine at home I don't think there's any harm there.

I actually don't know the last time I hit up the bars. My drinking seems to have been confined to purely social occasions. Of course, once I can relax again next week I may finally crack open that vino.

Create viable eat local plan -- I'm starting with my October plan to do one meal a day. We'll see where it goes from there.

I'll admit, I've swayed off my October plan, mainly because I can't invest the time right now into tracking down grain options, nor the money into truly organic dairy. I am committed to using local produce in everything that I make (sorry pineapple and bananas) and that's going great. I had a fabulous meal of sauteed delicata squash and red onion over harvest grains that lasted days. I made a tomato sauce again. I made a fabulous salad for the debate party I attended Tuesday, which was a huge hit. That actually had all Wisconsin-grown ingredients except the walnuts and dressing (which was homemade however). Even with my mac & cheese dinner last night after the worst day ever, I steamed some local broccoli and it truly did make me feel better. Another thing I did with this goal in the past week was blanch and store my corn for winter. That was a cool accomplishment. I also nailed down my CSA committment for next year -- thanks Becky, planned a local Apple Picking outing for Saturday, and hit up the farmer's market last week and plan to early Saturday morning. I realized you can't jump headfirst into something like the Eat Local Challenge, but you can take baby steps and hope for a better 2009.

Post a blog (minimum) three days per week -- you'll be hearing a lot more from me

Clearly I've sucked at this. But I think if I do this tomorrow and Saturday I'll cover my arse for this week. Phew.

Obama campaign activity at least once per week through the election -- this is going to be tricky but I have to find/make the time. If a week goes by where I can't make it in, I'm going to make myself donate $5.

Realizing that watching the debates wasn't going to cut it, I stopped into the Obama office on Monday night and did data entry after work. I had a great time and met an amazing woman who had been personally encouraged by Desmond Tutu to move back to the US and work on the campaign. I overheard that last part, but how could I not be impressed?

Read three books per month -- a reasonable goal and motivation to pay off my library fees

Found out my fees weren't that terrible (gotta love the library!) and checked out a few books last week. Currently reading The Kite Runner at long last. Only about halfway through, but loving it so far and have cried about 17 times.

Attend one film at UWM Union Theatre a month -- they're free so this should be easy

Since I believe the Fleet Foxes concert is sold out, I am considering going to the Milwaukee Premier of My Blueberry Nights tomorrow, but it's at 9, I may be too sleepy.

There you have it. Yes, I do realize there's a lot of outstanding goals. But, I'm only human.