So, if you recall, back in the first week of January, I made three goals to accomplish by the end of the month. They were:

1. Darn my sweater and replace the two buttons that have fallen off.
2. Take a bag of donations to the charity bookshop and one to Goodwill.
3. Invite someone to visit.

I’m pleased to report that two of those things got accomplished. I took bags to Goodwill and to the charity bookshop and am working on getting the next round started. I also invited people over to help me get the Christmas tree out of the apartment, although that was not really the relaxing event I had intended when I wrote that as a goal. We’ve had several people over in subsequent weeks to visit Rudi, so I’m checking that off, too. Unfortunately, my darning class turned out to be at the exact same time as Rudi’s surgery, so it got skipped and I haven’t yet sewn the buttons back onto the cardigan.

And in February, while my goals did not make it onto the blog, they were something in the range of: 1) make it so Rudi can get around the apartment safely when he gets home (check); 2) stop crying and snapping at people all the time achieve better stress management (middling success, with significant improvement toward the end of the month); and 3) have a fun birthday (“fun” would probably not be the adjective I’d choose, but it turned out better than it might have otherwise, given Rudi was back in the hospital with a significant complication at the time, thanks to my parents and my brother).

Moving forward, it’s time to set some goals for March.

They are:

1. Regain access to the window. My way of clearing a path for Rudi was to shift everything in the way to the periphery of the apartment, which means that I have two feet of stuff between my window and where you can stand. Since we live below ground, the window sill is at my waist and the window is outdented from the wall, and I need as much leverage as possible to get it open. Late March tends to be pleasant during the day, so I know I’ll want that window open, which means that the stuff that’s in the way has to get put away/donated in order to get to it.
2. Exercise at least twice a week. Once a week is not a problem during volleyball season, but we end the winter league this month and don’t start the spring leagues until April, so I need to make sure I don’t slack off in the intervening weeks. And, frankly, I fell off the regular exercise bandwagon as the weather got cold, so volleyball has been it. Maybe I will figure out a way to bring my bike back from the office (where it’s been since Rudi’s mobility became a priority, since it normally lives in the apartment itself). Or I could use one of the indoor pools around town. Or take a yoga class. Or just walk…
3. Make it past the first round of Sock Madness. Last year, I failed to make it through the initial pair in time, due to life intervening. I’d like to think life and I have reached a consensus for now, so I’m hoping to make it out of the knit-in round and finish my first pair of socks for 2014.

How about you? How are your goals/resolutions going?

The last time I made a to-do list for the weekend, it all went to hell, but let’s have faith that won’t happen this time.

Here’s what’s on tap:

1. Take car for inspection
2. Print out new car insurance card.
3. Go to a yoga class or get a massage or a pedicure. Or, y’know, two or even all three.
4. Do a load of laundry.
5. Have a dinner date with Rudi at the rehab facility.
6. Renew or return a book to the Arlington library.
7. Remove items from the yellow shelves that are not books.
8. Fill out the home dimension request sheet from the hospital.
9. Make a list of what’s going into my swap box next week.
10. Find clothes to wear to a funeral on Monday.
11. Read a book.
12. Repair rocking chair.
13. Wind yarn for next project.
14. Get computer hooked up to tv functioning or find Wii remote or figure out why the radio in the bedroom has stopped producing music (but not alarm noises).
15. Bring the cooler in from the hallway and put things from the kitchen into it.

About those plans I wrote about yesterday? Feel free to chuck the whole post in the bin.

Rudi had a skiing accident and his injuries require surgery.

He’ll be fine in a few months and his head was in a good place last night (perhaps not surprising with all the pain meds he was on). And all things considered, the severity of his injuries could have been so much worse. In fact, he keeps surprising people who think he should be much more broken than he is.

Here’s what I hope the weekend holds for me:

• Do laundry. I’m into the second-tier underwear and mostly out of long-sleeve shirts.
• Vacuum.
• Look for a picture for my mom.
• Read.
• Go to the library.
• Sew the missing buttons back onto my sweater.
• Attend darning class on Sunday afternoon in Old Town.
• Knit three swatches prior to darning class on Sunday afternoon.
• Have lunch or tea with a friend.
• Go to a yoga class.
• Write thank you notes for Christmas presents.
• Attend a football-watching party. (Sadly this means trivia at the bookstore isn’t possible, since they conflict.)
• Send emails to the two people in my neck of the woods who offer ukulele lessons to get more information.
• Write.
• Figure out and compose my top-ten list of books read last year.
• Bind off the socks I gave Rudi for Russian Christmas. (Nothing says love like a present with needles sticking out of it.)
• Write blog posts for the two books I’ve finished thus far this year. (My blog goals for 2014 are to update my theme (at least what lies beneath it) and to get back in the habit of writing book reports.)
• Repaint my nails.
• Consider taking down the Christmas tree Sunday evening.
• See if we can tweak the antenna to get PBS back prior to Sherlock start.
• Glue my rocking chair.

How about you? What’s on your weekend to-do list?

Carole’s Ten on Tuesday topic today is 10 Favorite Moments from 2013:

1. Rudi’s and my camping trip in October in New Hampshire
2. John & Nicole’s wedding
3. Throwing Rudi a surprise 40th birthday party
4. Spending a sunny October afternoon in upstate New York with Eri and Eric
5. Concerts outdoors at the Yards nearly every Friday during the summer
6. Treating BW and her students to dinner the night before the inauguration
7. Grey Kitten quitting his job to work on his novel
8. Meeting Eliot Schrefer, Rainbow Rowell, and Elizabeth Wein at book signings
9. Signing up for Amanda’s Write Now class led to many moments with pen and paper (albeit still not as much time as I’d like to get to)
10. My two day-trips to the beach

The problem with this kind of list is that once you start, it’s really hard to stop. My grandmother’s and my dad’s successful surgeries should be on the list, as should emailed Valentine’s Day cards from Karen’s kids. Sunrise on the summer solstice, exploring coffeehouses with Rudi, and the art-all-night party also are missing above, as are half a dozen other happy moments that spring to mind. And I guess that’s all one can really hope for from a life, right?

I was on my own for most of the weekend which meant I:

• Slept in
• Cuddled with cats
• Took clothing donations to Goodwill
• Picked up an eagerly anticipated sequel at the Arlington Library
• Walked through the park
• Threw snowballs at ever narrower targets
• Broke the car door handle when clearing the car of ice (20-year-old plastic does not have a lot of pliability)
• Drove on a couple slick Virginia roads
• Remembered I am a New Englander and know how to do that
• Didn’t turn the tv on
• Checked out a new bakery nearby
• Completed two books (book reports next weekend!)
• Rushed through the farmers market (see top item)
• Went to the grocery store
• Bought wood glue to fix my rocking chair
• Paid bills
• Wrote
• Talked to my family
• Admired my Christmas tree
• Got caught up on the draft reading I’ve been doing
• Finished the bag of tea my friend brought back from Africa several years ago

(Check out all those action verbs. If this were my resume, I bet you’d be impressed.)

How about you? How did you spend your weekend?