Sounds like lots of yum, Hil!

If it makes you feel better, D and I are also doing the Great Scary Budgeting Event of 2011 today. Woo.

Solidarity, sistah!

I scooped the pans, emptied the trash, and changed my bed. And now, 15 more minutes of budget fun! Whee.

You totally rock it, Hil. Those students don't know the truckload of awesome that is backing up in their academic driveway. Beep beep, motherfuckers!

We need to do the big budgeting talk too. Oh and I second the Dave Ramsey suggestion. He has the kind of motivating personality I think you might respond to, Erin. We need get our Dave Ramsey back on too, starting with me picking up more private lessons once the store opens back up.

We have lacked our gazelle-like intensity. We have had a more bovine intensity, which has not gotten the job done.

You totally rock it, Hil. Those students don't know the truckload of awesome that is backing up in their academic driveway. Beep beep, motherfuckers!

This totally made me laugh.

Why does Goya put MSG into everything? I found real annatto to use for the yellow rice, because the cookbook said to, because the Goya Sazon stuff has MSG, but I bought a jar of Goya sofrito because I didn't feel like making my own, and that's got MSG, too.

I am still hiding from the Great Budgeting Event.

Fear NOT the budget, friends!

Lift up thine eyes to the glory that is the Spending Plan.

It's roughly the same, but focused on the practical application of resources, vs. the deprivation aspect.

Making a mind-shift may not seem helpful...or even possible...but it makes a huge difference when you think toward something, rather than fearing the pain.

I've printed off a couple of the Dave Ramsey worksheets, and brought current the balances on one checking acct, one savings, and one credit card. Next is alternate working on the worksheets with bringing current my other balances and adding my new bank accounts down here.

But first, food!

Introverts? Can I get a little reassurance that if StW doesn't want to hang, it's because he needs to recharge his batteries alone and not because he's decided I'm a PITA? As an extrovert currently in the throes of PMS, my brain is waging a highly effective campaign of self-sabotage.

smonster, as someone who's been ridiculously busy recently and hasn't had much time to himself, I can attest that yes, as much as he loves spending time with you, he may want to just chill on his own for a little while.

Introverts? Can I get a little reassurance that if StW doesn't want to hang, it's because he needs to recharge his batteries alone and not because he's decided I'm a PITA? As an extrovert currently in the throes of PMS, my brain is waging a highly effective campaign of self-sabotage.

As a pretty extreme introvert, there have been lots of times that I've just needed time for myself. Nothing to do with any of the people who wanted to hang out with me, just that, if I spent any more time with ANYONE, I was going to scream.

The research in the article on decision fatigue in the NY Times [link] seemed to apply to so many of my problems.

The more choices you make throughout the day, the harder each one becomes for your brain, and eventually it looks for shortcuts, usually in either of two very different ways. One shortcut is to become reckless: to act impulsively instead of expending the energy to first think through the consequences.... The other shortcut is the ultimate energy saver: do nothing. Instead of agonizing over decisions, avoid any choice. Ducking a decision often creates bigger problems in the long run, but for the moment, it eases the mental strain.

They also found that making a series of decisions, which are frequently in the form of what we call will power, depletes glucose in certain areas of the brain and that replenishing glucose revives the ability to make better decisions. Of course, when the brain needs glucose, it shuffles zombie-like towards sugar.

The discoveries about glucose help explain why dieting is a uniquely difficult test of self-control — and why even people with phenomenally strong willpower in the rest of their lives can have such a hard time losing weight. They start out the day with virtuous intentions, resisting croissants at breakfast and dessert at lunch, but each act of resistance further lowers their willpower. As their willpower weakens late in the day, they need to replenish it. But to resupply that energy, they need to give the body glucose. They’re trapped in a nutritional catch-22:

1. In order not to eat, a dieter needs willpower.

2. In order to have willpower, a dieter needs to eat.

Introverts? Can I get a little reassurance that if StW doesn't want to hang, it's because he needs to recharge his batteries alone and not because he's decided I'm a PITA? As an extrovert currently in the throes of PMS, my brain is waging a highly effective campaign of self-sabotage.

The first one, for sure, seriously. He does not think you are a PITA.