Friday, June 1, 2007

On losing and gaining things...

Today is check-in day #1 of the 10:4 challenge and I am very pleased to announce that I have lost 6.4 pounds in the first month of the challenge! That puts me over the half way point in just the first month. My official wait is 189.4 and this is the first time I've weighed under 190 since Hurricane Katrina (funny how that's now a measure of time in New Orleans). I really have to thank Carl for this challenge. I know that I'm doing the work, but I honestly wouldn't have done it if it weren't for Carl...so thanks man! Feels good :)

So that's the losing things....Now on to hopefully gaining things....I applied to 7 jobs yesterday...Hopefully something comes out of at least one of them. I got a call back already from one of them, but we've been playing phone tag all day so I haven't actually talked to the lady yet. It's for a Clinical Psyc Associate position...whatever that means. Today will be spent scanning the classifieds yet again and circling and highlighting and faxing and emailing. Also have to go to the bank.

I also gained a few more things last night. Seven to be exact. Yes, you guessed it....I bought more books. Bookcloseouts.com really is an evil website. Come on! 7 books for $30! How can you not buy! Here's what I bought:

1. Widdershins by Charles deLint
2. Open and Shut by David Rosenfelt (recommended by Bookfool, I believe)
3. Enchanted Night by Stephen Millhauser
4. Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest (recommended by Quixotical)
5. The Green Man ed. by Terri Windling & Charles Vess (collection of short stories)
6. Whispers by Dean Koontz
7. Flights (collection of short stories by Gaiman, Card, deLint, Wolfe, etc.)

Bookporn coming your way as soon as I get them in the mail Quix ;)

Carl has a great new discussion topic on his section of the PoppetPlanet forums, The Machine. It's a discussion on what Poppets mean to you. Check it out. There's sure to be some great conversation going on over there.

In the meantime, enjoy your weekend everyone!

17 comments:

Carl V. Anderson said...

You're gonna loooove Widdershins!

Best wishes on finding gainful, and satisfying, employment soon!

And congrats on the weight loss. If you reach your goal early maybe you can lose some pounds for the rest of us! ;)

Anonymous said...

Gratz on your weightloss! I'm really motivated about mine at the moment...I didn't mention it in my post but I'm down 8 pounds...! Ahem!

Good luck on the job front - lots of good wishes coming your way from the UK. :)

Yay book porn! I look forward to it. I have to pick up a copy of Widdershins...soon. Hope you like Four and Twenty Blackbirds, I thought it was great.

Will be joining in the Poppet discussion soon!

chrisa511 said...

Carl, I'm really looking forward to Widdershins after your review. Sounds better than I had even hoped for!

Employment is looking a little better down here than it did before. More jobs are starting to pop up in the classifieds. Always a good sign.

And I'm FAR from my goal weight, but the 10 pounds would be a really nice start ;)

Quix, Thanks! Damn! That's awesome! 8 pounds...Congrats!

Thanks for the good wishes. I can use some of you and your boyfriend's good luck when it comes to jobs ;)

I can't believe that I continue to support your filthy porn addiction :p tsk tsk...lol...looking forward to Four and Twenty Blackbirds. Sounds great!

Ana S. said...

7 books for $30 is indeed irresistible! And so many of those are books I want! You'd better read them soon and share your thoughts :P

Good look with the jobs. And congratulations on doing so well on the challenge!

chrisa511 said...

Thanks Nymeth. Yeah, sometimes I wish I would've never found bookcloseouts.com. Those $30 book spending sprees start to add up pretty quickly :p They actually came out to like $35 dollars but I had a coupon code for $5 off, so let me know if you ever order from them. I'll pass it on to ya! Great site!

DesLily said...

LOL.. no comment!... *snickering*

chrisa511 said...

Hey...you're getting as bad as me Deslily...haha

Bookfool said...

Oh, yes, I highly recommended Open and Shut - you'll love it.

Bookcloseouts is definitely evil and wonderful at the same time. :)

Congrats on the weight loss and enjoy those books!

chrisa511 said...

I thought it was you Bookfool! Good, I'm sure I'll enjoy it! I think it was also you who told me about the coupon code website...big help there too ;) I shall def. enjoy my books :)

Robin said...

Wow! Congratulations on the weight loss, especially since that included vacation time and we all know how hard it is to lose weight on a vacation. And good luck on the job hunting! However, I'm not even going to go to that evil bookcloseouts.com link...I'm not, I'm not, I'm not...

chrisa511 said...

mwuhahahah...I said the same thing Robin...now I can't stay away from the evil website :)

Stephanie said...

Congrats on the loss!! And good luck with the job. I've spent the last 2 weeks applying for different jobs at my company. I've got to get something new, or I'm going to go crazy.

I've been wanting to read Widdershins every since I read The Little Country. Nice haul, you book buying machine!!

And I got to get me one of those little pink poppets. That's totally me!

chrisa511 said...

Steph, she still has some Little Pink's left. Go get one! I'm looking forward to The Little Country. I have that one too.

Good luck with the jobs. Change can be nice!

Bookfool said...

Yep, I gave you the coupon link. That probably will get you into even more trouble. I forgot to say good luck on the job hunt.

And, I'm laughing at Robin. I'm not going to Bookcloseout, either!! Not me. No way. Of course, it's partly because I used to go there regularly . . . .

chrisa511 said...

Yeah, I should probably just delete it out of my favorites...unfortunately, I discovered the wishlist to which emails you when a book you want becomes available :/

Carl V. Anderson said...

Speaking of Widdershins, have you seen this (it regards the main character in Widdershins):

http://endicottstudio.typepad.com/endicott_redux/2007/06/charles_de_lint.html

chrisa511 said...

Oh yeah, Carl..I've been following Subterranean's production of that one for awhile and saw Endicott's article on that one the other day. Haven't ordered it yet, but it sounds great and I LOVE the cover!