Day 11: More Snow !

 

Here we go ! It's a new year. Time to get back on track with diet and exercise. The goal is 100 pounds by 12-31-25. Can I do it ? Well, I won't know unless I try. My original Day 11 blog can be found here. Day 11 should have been a work day but the plumbers were coming so I took a vacation day. Doug also did a temporary repair on the siding to cut down the cold air coming in and causing my pipes in the kitchen to freeze. That was all removed when I had the vinyl siding done in 2023 and I've continued to have problems. Hopefully the insulation I added and keeping the cabinets open on cold nights will keep that from happening again. I've also learned you shouldn't turn on the tap if you're worried about freezing, as the pipe can freeze instantly just because you ran the water. That happened to me once, but the freezing I had recently wasn't that. Sunday night we're going to see single digit lows, so I'll have to be sure to leave the cabinets open under the sink and hope for the best ! 

Breakfast was 180 calorie Eggo waffles with sugar free syrup. I didn't have my yogurt, morning snack or afternoon snack. Lunch was a pizza. Calories unknown. Dinner was a 240 calorie enchilada with salsa and low fat sour cream. Evening snack was a 140 calorie lemon zest cake with whipped cream. I also ate the last 4 cookies. That is 640 calories.

I was awake shortly after 8 today. It was snowing heavily and there were no stray cats. I put out dry food, fed Minnie and hopped on the couch to watch YouTube and play Cookie Jam. There was a storm chaser live in the Buffalo area chasing the lake effect, so I had that on.

Michelle has paid off her phone and is going to move to Mint Mobile because I had to increase her payment to $60 a month. I think I'm going to pay my phone off and do the same. I have to pay nearly $600 but I will save more than that in just a year ! I can pay $180 to get Mint for an entire year with 5G of high speed data, as opposed to paying about $90 a month ($1080/year) to ATT for unlimited high speed data. Most of my data use is on wifi, so I'm paying for something I don't need. As of today I've only used 389M of data in January. I rarely exceed 2G of data, let alone 5G ! The only "advantage" to staying with ATT is you get your phone "free". Well, you're not getting anything for free as the cost of that phone is built into their plans. Plus, I have zero loyalty to them now. I paid my phone off just now (11:43 am) and once I can unlock it (probably tomorrow) I'll sign up for Mint. It was a $583.29 bite on my bank account but I'll save a ton of money in the long run ! I am excited ! My only concern was an ETF but the website seems to indicate when you have an installment plan there is no ETF, so we should be good !

Even if it wasn't snowing I wouldn't be going anywhere, but I still hate to see this heavy snow. I may not have to be out there but plenty of other people do. Schools are closed, so at least the children are not at risk. I didn't put my trash out as I only have 1 bag and it's one less for the guys that have to be out there to deal with. I do feel isolated but I think I would feel the same way if it wasn't snowing ! It's nearly 11 am and snow is coming down in buckets. I would like to get some things done around the house today but I'm not feeling motivated. I'm going to force myself off the couch after lunch anyway. I want to vacuum, wash the dishes and clear off the kitchen and dining room tables. This is NOT a big ask ! I am also going to throw in a load of laundry and take a shower today. Also not a big ask ! I'll tell you one thing: as soon as Spring/Summer arrives I am getting my ass out of the house ! There are many parks and trails you can walk and I'm going to get out there and start using them ! The good news is we're not supposed to get much snow tomorrow, so I'm hoping I can go to rock & roll bingo ! 

Because of the extra lunch calories I'm having for a couple days, I've been skipping my morning and afternoon snack. I'm sure that contributes to evening snacking. Today I'm going to do the same BUT if I'm hungry in the evening I will have a yogurt and not default to a bunch of cashews. I still have 4 cookies left and the plan is to have 2 today and 2 tomorrow. Then they'll be gone. I had also bought a package of mini chocolate chip cookies that you bake yourself. I like these because I can better control the portion and I love fresh baked cookies. I also bought a gallon of milk so that I can make tapioca pudding. Probably not the smartest decision, but it's a current craving and better than gorging on ice cream or candy. Yeah, that's justification but I'm trying.

It's noon now but I'm not starving, so I'm going to hold off on lunch until I feel hungry. Of course, as I type that my stomach gave a little grumble. I'm going to try and wait until 1 pm to eat.

Next month's credit card bill will be a whopper because of the phone payoff's, but that's a one time thing. I actually subsidized Michelle's phone bill for a long time because I was making good money and it didn't matter. I'm glad I had to boost her payment to $60 a month (it was $35) as it forced both of us to make other choices and get out from under this ridiculous bill. I'm going from paying $80 a month to paying less than $20. About $26 of my monthly bill was the phone installments and it seems they were charging me $6 a month for the "Next Up" upgrade program. For a fair comparison I'll have to take the payoff amount on the phone plus the monthly bill and bump it up against my Mint bill. Regardless, it's a significant savings and I'm glad Michelle will now be on her own plan/bill with Mike. That makes sense and she doesn't have to worry about getting the money to me. She uses a lot more non-wifi data, so she'll have to be careful with that. I use very little non-wifi data so I'll never hit the 5G threshold unless my internet is out for a long time. Going forward we'll have to buy new phones outright, but I know Samsung has trade-in offers and will often drop prices when a new device is released. I will remind myself again that I wasn't really getting the phone for "free" from ATT. You pay for it because their plan prices are so much higher. I cannot wait to hit the "unlock" button on the ATT website and then place my order with Mint !

This afternoon I finally got the vacuum cleaner out and vacuumed most of the living room and dining room. I will go around it again another day but I got the worst of everything off the carpet. I have some stains to work on from Minnie barfing on the carpet, so I may do that tomorrow. It looks like the snow will be done here by very early tomorrow morning BUT there is a winter weather advisory for Onondaga county until Thursday morning ! That could put a damper on rock & roll bingo tomorrow .. we'll see ! After I vacuumed I decided to move the furniture into it's winter position. I can now sit on the couch so comfortably and use my computer, watch tv, play Cookie Jam and have Minnie on my lap. I don't think she is happy with the new arrangement but I think she'll settle into it. Nobody likes change ! We'll see if she is snoozing on the couch when I get up tomorrow morning ! The sat with me for a while but now she's pouting on the chair in the corner. The winter position moves the couch away from the heat register on the driveway side of the living room. I feel like it allows more heat into the room, instead of trapping it all behind the couch. The biggest advantage today is that I am so much more comfortable ! It took me a while to figure out the configure all my "stuff" but I think I have a setup that works.

It's almost 9 pm and I checked to see if by chance I could unlock my phone, but I couldn't. I should be able to tomorrow as it was an overnight for Michelle's phone. I submitted the payment Sunday night and was able to unlock hers yesterday. Since I paid mine off today I should be able to unlock it tomorrow. As soon as it's unlocked I'll sign up for service with Mint.

I didn't get anything else accomplished today. I'm going to throw in some laundry when I get up tomorrow. I just looked outside and as of 9:06 pm it's snowing again ! I think the worst part of the storm is over. Doug plowed late this afternoon after the heavy stuff stopped. I'll probably go out in the morning and clean up in front of the garage. It's 11:55 now and still snowing. I guess we'll have a few more inches when I get up tomorrow. Seems like a good time to go to bed !