Reading, Cleaning, Rearranging And Exercising
In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been doing a lot of reading recently. To that end, I’ve created a web page that tracks what I’m reading, what I’ve read, and what I’m about to read. If you’re curious about any of the books, click on the book link to find out more. On a related note, if you purchase any of the books that are on my list, I get a small commission.
Rachel and I have a bad habit of knocking our drinks on our carpet. Unfortunately, most of the time it’s something that stains. We’ve spilled a cup of juice on four different times on the same spot. Since we don’t care for a white and pink carpet, we purchased a carpet cleaner. We knew it wouldn’t take out all of the stains, but the carpet needed some deep cleaning anyway. After trying the machine on a small section of carpet, I was amazed (but not necessarily surprised) at the amount of dirt that came out of our “clean” carpet. We took the cleaner to my parents-in-law’s house on Saturday to clean their living room. Their carpet was a lot cleaner than ours, however I still pulled out a bunch of dirt.
We’ve been using one of the downstairs bedrooms as our dogs’ room and as a storage room. We were going to clean the carpet. But, after taking everything out of the room, we decided to just remove the carpet. Fortunately, the carpet wasn’t tacked down so it fairly easy to remove. We were surprised to find an area rug, acting as a carpet pad, hiding under the carpet. We decided to take that out as well. Underneath the carpet and rug is some black tile. It doesn’t look great, but the room should be a lot easier to clean.
With my workout plan website going down, I’ve been forced to create my own workout. I decided to do three days of aerobics (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) and two days (Tuesday and Thursday) of strength (weight) training. Rachel and I went to Dick’s Sporting Goods to pick up some equipment. It was one of the few times that I ended up getting more than I intended and spending less than I intended. For my aerobics I got a jump romp and an exercise mat. For my strength training, I got a weight bench and a set of weights. I was only going to pick up a set of dumbbells, but it was actually cheaper to get a dumbbell and barbell set. In all, I spent less than two hundred dollars.
Since the dogs’ room is now mostly empty (except for them of course), I’m using half of their room for exercises. I normally enjoy putting things together, but the weight bench had extremely poor instructions. The instruction manual consisted of four steps to assemble forty pieces. It only took me two hours to get everything put together.
Today began my first day with my new workout plan. Today was my aerobics day. I tried jumping rope, but I wasn’t very successful. I think the last time I jumped rope was probably fifteen years ago. It took me several tries before I got going. However, according to my heart monitor, it was a very good workout. I just need to keep trying. I’m sure that my coordination will improve with practice.
Tagline for today: “You tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is ‘never try’.” - Homer Simpson