Bagel Wednesday! We had to try the new coffee shop as they had my favorite bagels there from Uncommon Grounds in Saratoga. Problem is, the shop is only a little over a mile from our house. So, we just got on the bikes and wound around town to put some miles on. What a gorgeous morning, too! We got around to the shop and they are having a grand opening with free coffee. Triple dip score!!!
So far, they only have plain cream cheese, which is okay by me, but John likes flavored. Check out that nice bagel and the presentation!
2 bagels with cream cheese and 2 coffees only $3 plus tax. How awesome is that?? The owner used to work at Uncommon Grounds, so he gets a good deal on coffee and baked goods from them, which he passes on apparently.
We biked around for a while and back home. 10.5 miles today at a 13.4 mile per hour pace. Not too shabby! 😀
Cute thing – I got home and was in the kitchen taking my vitamins when I heard “Brrrritttt”. Those of you with cats know exactly what I mean. I looked around and saw this:
She has never gotten up there that I can remember, so I don’t know what was up with that LOL Jody – I thought of you when I took this picture!
I did a little work before showering to get some of it caught up. It still has been sooooo busy and I didn’t want files to fall too far behind their turn around time (I am such a good worker – totally worth that raise!).
I thought I would talk a little bit about working at home and how it is to keep a schedule and all that. For those that don’t know – I work at home as a transcriptionist. I don’t know if there is a more sedentary job than that. Really. All I do is listen, type, and edit. My environment has to be very quiet, too – so no music or distractions like that.
A lot of people think of how great it is to work at home, but they do not realize that you have to have a very distinct personality to do so. You actually have to be more disciplined than if you go into an office. The old company I worked for had a specific time window for me to work in on certain days, but my current one has no set schedule. I can work any hours and any days to meet the commitments for them. There is no one sitting there and telling me to get to work or to get to the gym or even mow the lawn. It’s all on me.
I have found that I need to have as set a schedule as possible in order to be the most productive. I normally wake up pretty early, which is something I am trying to work on with Operation Sleep this month. I do like to do my workouts first thing in the morning to get them done, plus it is just a nice way to start the day. Although with biking season, I tend to do that more in the evening with John during the week. Strength training is always done in the morning to avoid the afternoon preeners at the gym. Exercise is nonnegotiable for me. Like Nike says – Just Do It. No excuses.
I start my work day no later than 10 am, most times a little earlier. I make sure that I work straight through. When I stop typing, I stop earning money, so I won’t open my google reader until lunch break or the evenings. Although I occasionally get Fridayitis and goof around a little.
Segue…
Let’s take a lunch break, shall we? Our porch is shaded until mid afternoon, so it was still nice to sit outside and eat lunch.
Yes, the plate was precariously balanced.
Speaking of food and working at home, this can be quite tough. My house is filled with foods I like to eat because… well, I live here. It is very easy to get up and go to the pantry and get a snack. Calories add up whether they are dates, nuts, cheese, chocolate, crackers, blueberries – any ‘healthy’ treat. It all seems innocent until you have eaten 5 snacks during the day because you can. And it is very easy to make snacks if I want. All the ingredients are in the pantry to bake anything, really. Slow day at work? How about cookies?? Although I am pretty good about that. I do have to have some things kept up high that start to get my snack engine revving, which helps a fair degree, but I can always pull over a chair if I really want something. I think keeping an eating/snacking schedule is just as hard at home as it is in an office, if not more so!
So yes, there are some great benefits to working at home, but it isn’t always easy.
Speaking of snacks – I received a bag of these from FoodBuzz for the Tastemaker program. I love Fig Newtons and these are like crunchy newtons.
Very interesting. They have the Newton taste, but are thin and crispy.
Note that 2 are pictured, but I ended up eating 6 of them!! That’s 2 servings. Addictive little buggers. Guess these need to go up high…
We hit a high in the mid 90s today. Hot!! Funny how 6 months ago we were at minus 27 degrees and today 90 degrees. Now that is a wide range of temps.
Our house stayed a cool 79 degrees with no AC on with our new windows. Yes indeedy – worth the $$$ putting those in.
I did want a cool dinner, though. I had the forethought to put some oats into vanilla greek yogurt and let those soak for a couple hours. Then when dinner rolled around, I added some chopped strawberries and cinnamon!
Looks like a mess, but cool and refreshing. Kind of a pseudo muesli (does anyone else find that name kind of icky?)
I do have to do a little more work tonight as it was a tough slog with some of the doctors today, but otherwise a relaxing evening at home – and staying out of the Fruit Thins!