Break is Here...Woohoo!

The end of Friday could not come soon enough this week.   My students were anxious and I tried to not seem too eager for next week's break Thanksgiving holiday.   I still have plenty of work to do while at home so I stay sane the week after T-Day.   A lot of major projects need to be assessed in the upcoming weeks so I'm trying to get the "other" stuff taken care of (grading less-major assignments, prepping final exams,  etc.)   Sadly I have to go into work on Tuesday for a little bit. 

I started using a new piece of technology this week to hopefully help with the weight loss process.   It's called ActiveLink.   It's an acceleromter that helps to assess physical activity.   (Looks like a pedometer but lights up.)  It evaluates all dimensions of movement and intensity of movement too.  You can wear it on  four places on the body:  the waistline, in your pocket, in your bra, or on a necklace.   I've been wearing it on my waistline and I'm considering switching to my bra soon.   Works well for jeans....however the contraption comes off easy with my dress pants and athletic wear.  I'm hoping it's survived the number of times it was dropped in the last couple days.   It about took a swim in a toilet today but that tragedy was averted thanks to physics. 

I'm wearing it for a week for a baseline assessment.  After this week, it will start presenting weekly challenges to me.   The accelerometer will light up throughout the day showing my progress.   When all green lights turn on eventually and flash, it means I've met my daily goal.   The leader had a good way of explaining it as many of the Weight Watchers participants were skeptical.    The leader says we all do some amount of activity each day.   She told us to visualize filling a bucket with all the activity.   The acceleromter helps measure what a person needs to do to make the bucket overflow and lead to consistent weight loss.  Anyway, Jon was cool and bought it for me (I was going to save money and buy one in December).   I'm very interested to see what goals are set for me. 

Gavin and I finally made it to the public library and got cards.  It's considerably smaller than the library in Ames.   Neither Gavin and I could find the books we wanted and I randomly found books by Garrison Keillor so I decided to dive in and try one.  I'm currently reading A Christmas Blizzard,  It's very short and has been an easy read.  Mr. Keillor has a somewhat eccentric style of writing.   Not sure what I'll read after that. 

My taxi duties are needed now so I'll have to write another blog later this weekend.