Day 20: Terrible Tuesday

 

This picture will continue to be the header of my blog until I'm able to establish some better habits. I originally wrote "good habits" but I'm trying to stay away from negativity - so things are not "bad" vs "good". How about good vs better for positivity ! I think this daily reminder is helping as I've been able to start getting things done!

It was 7 degrees when I got up today .. and so much for my heat cable. The hot water in the kitchen was frozen. I'm going to have to figure out a solution for the foundation in that area once winter is over. I emptied out the cabinet and put my small electric heater in there. By noon it was 30 degrees and sunny outside and the water was unfrozen It might have been unfrozen sooner but I was on the phone from 10-12 and wasn't able to check the status. I left the heater plugged in but turned off when I reloaded the cabinet and going forward I will leave the heater on low when it gets extremely cold. Friday night it's going down to 12 so I will put it on when I go to bed, just as a precaution. It's plugged in to a GFI so it should be safe enough. I may dig around in there over the weekend and see if I can slip an insulation sleeve on the hot water line and snake it down below the floor. I'll have to go and buy it first. I may go to Home Depot as there's some shelving I'd like to buy for the organizer on my desk too. It's in 2 pieces and there is no base. I'd like to attach it to a base so it's more stable and I won't have things falling behind the desk. I'd like to get access to the area under the kitchen sink from the basement, but that is going to involve digging in the dirt of the crawlspace under the kitchen. I might just tackle that job when the weather is warmer and I'm on vacation! It will be a dirty job but if I can get in there I can put a sleeve on all the exposed water lines that go to the kitchen sink and maybe put some insulation against the foundation. This is the only place I have trouble with the pipes freezing. There is a terrible draft under the cabinets and the floor is ice cold, so I know there's a lot of cold air getting in. I feel better now that I have a plan, but there is still a lot of work to be done if I want to fix this problem once and for all.

Breakfast was 180 calorie waffles with sugar free syrup and an 80 calorie yogurt. I didn't have my morning snack. Lunch was a 220 calorie pepperoni pizza melt and a chef salad. Afternoon snack was 80 calorie cottage cheese and 90 calorie cookies. Dinner was 260 calorie roasted turkey and broccoli. Evening snack was a 140 calorie chocolate cupcake with whipped cream.

I had the Wegmans multi-grain waffles this morning and while they were good, they weren't as good as the Nutrisystem waffles. They are a good deal when you look at the price. Six waffles is $3.29 so that's about $1.30 per meal. Definitely cheaper than Nutrisystem, but the Nutrisystem waffles have more protein and they're light & fluffy. I also forgot to mention that I've gone back to buying the Wegmans brand cottage cheese. I had tried Walmart's Great Value brand because it was a dollar cheaper for a 3 pound tub, but it's been out of stock a lot lately and I had to try a couple other more expensive brands. I didn't like any of them, so I will pay the extra dollar for Wegmans. I like theirs because it's small curd and just has a great flavor and texture. I tried Daisy and Hood and didn't like either of them. Walmart's was just ok. I also bought a package of the Alyssa's cookies I used to buy. I had stopped buying them because it's $6.49 for 8 cookies, which is four 90 calorie servings. I thought eating the canned fruit would save a lot of money, but that is not the case. Four cans of peaches is $5.92 and 4 cans of mandarin oranges is $5.36, so I'm not saving much and the fruit has a lot of artificial sweeteners because they're "no sugar added". If I average the fruit cost, it's $1.41 per serving, while the cookies are $1.62 per serving. I'm good with paying an extra 21 cents! My plan is cookies 4 days per week and fruit 3 days per week. Easy enough to switch off each day. I had the cookies today and really enjoyed them! I may also go back to buying fresh broccoli as I'm not happy with the quality of the frozen I get at Walmart and Wegmans doesn't sell the frozen stuff in microwaveable bags. At least with the fresh I can trim off excess stems or bad spots.

I didn't bother putting the trash out today since it was so cold and I knew the driveway would be icy. My garbage bag isn't full anyways.

Work is still very slow but I had a few things to work on today, so the day flew by. I don't have much to do tomorrow so I'm hoping some new projects come along.

I didn't get on the treadmill today. I had a last minute mandatory conference call at noon and from 10 am to 12 pm I was on a call with my boss and a colleague working on adjustments. I was dressed and had a shake made but the water issue just threw my mood off for the whole morning. I'm also kind of sore today. I think sitting on this couch all day is the problem, so tomorrow I'm going to start sitting in my office, at least part of the day. I needed to spend time tidying it up so I made good use of the evening. I was also finally able to find the software I needed to install so that I can work using my new laptop. I tried a couple times before and couldn't find the exact item I needed to install. I finally figured it out tonight and was able to install it and connect. I plan to keep using my old laptop but I wanted to have it "ready to go" on my new one, in case the old one dies unexpectedly. I can't upgrade the old laptop to Windows 11 because the hardware doesn't meet the minimum requirements so it's stuck at Windows 10, which will reach end of support in October 2025. I do have my work issued laptop but the screen is tiny. Regardless, I now have 2 backup options. I also threw a load of laundry in, so the day wasn't a total loss. I forgot all about the laundry while scrolling through Facebook videos, so it was 10 pm before I put the laundry in the dryer. 

My gigantic Nutrisystem order shipped today so I'll be stuffing all that in the freezer tomorrow. I'm a little nervous about having enough space, but I always seem to find a way to get it all in there. I only have a couple of boxed meals left in the freezer and I only bought 12 boxed items. Over the next few weeks I'm going to work on eating all the "old" stuff before I did into the new items. Nothing is expired right now and I want to keep it that way!