I gave it a yeoman's effort. I spent all day indoors today, and the thermometer didn't budge more than 2 degrees from my a.m. reading of 20.

One of my 08 goals is at least 30 minutes of daily exercise, usually through walking this time of year.

So fighting lethargy, i began layering my clothes for a walk. The long underwear and sweat pants. 3 layers of sweatshirts and turtlenecks. Mittens, a coat, hat and hood plus scarf. The abominable, adorable snow-woman is ready for a walk.

It was the dry, brittle kind of cold that makes it hard to breathe. I waddled down my street, swaddled as i was in 5" of cotton and polyester. I made it to the end, then turned back toward my house. A grand total of: 7 minutes of walking. Yippeeeeee.

What else i accomplished today:

* Made a rice/apple/raisin salad for weekday lunches, & boiled some eggs for egg salad sandwich.

(I am determined to continue eating healthy despite loss of time....when i had an even longer commute to a stressful job in 1999, i rationalized eating lunch out every single day by saying i'd earned it and was making good money. Problem was, i put on weight, and i see now my weight has crept up to within 4 pounds of my heaviest weight ever, which was 139. It may not sound like a lot to you, but i'm petite and not that tall, so that's too much for me. When i was dating T., i was down to a low of 119 and i have to admit i looked and felt GREAT. However, it was very hard to attain that weight and i would be happy to remain at 125, a weight i stayed at for many years.)

* Read parts of the Sunday paper and Money magazine

* Wasted time online...not here, of course!

* Topped off the sunflower seed in the bird feeders, refreshed the birdbath water (the one with a water heater) and put out 2 more suet cakes. Birds are ravenous today. Chickadees careening into juncos who are sparring with white throated sparrows and titmice zooming in to steal a seed whenever they can. The house wrens, which aren't seed eaters, were out eating the suet (rendered fat) which to them tastes like big, fat, yum-o-licious BUGS. And it gives them the energy they need to make it thru these nights without freezing to their roosts.

* Logged my bird count entries online for Ornithology Lab

* Contemplated darning a hole in a very good sock i bought 14 years ago in preparation for a trip to Alaska. They're very warm and i think it's worth doing. Did i do it? Uh, no.

* Clipped kitty's toenails. 2 of them. She doth protest.

* "Tidied up"

* Long talk with mom

I saw with relief that my $18K 401k rollover has arrived and is now parked in my money market fund. I'll be moving $4K of it tomorrow into small cap stock funds to take advantage of bargain basement prices. I should have been able to do this online, but inexplicably, one of the 2 funds i wanted to move the $ to wasn't listed there as it should've been.

My dad called Friday night to see how the new job's been going. We had a good talk. Apparently his SO hadn't passed on my email comments about the job i'd sent her a week ago in response to a phone message she left me telling me she's a grandmother now for the 2nd time. (She was very excited.) She's visiting her daughter and son in law where they live in Britian for 3 weeks in February.

Since i have President's Day off, i'm contemplating another trip down to keep my dad company while she's away. It would save me driving time to leave straight from work on Friday night, but i imagine the traffic would be hell. I don't know.