Goals Update: September Edition

Another month down, another check-in to see how the goals are going.

Goal Number One - Read at least 55 books: I had one new book this month, though I wanted to have finished two. I've been reading a book since April and I don't have much left, but haven't been able to get it finished. The list so far is:

Leisure Reading List (total so far 2)

1. An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, by Hank Green
2. They Called Us Enemy by George Takei

Graduate Class Reading List (total so far 40)

1. Money, Trade, and Power: The Evolution of Colonial South Carolina’s Plantation Society by Jack P. Greene
2. Red Ink: Native Americans Pick up the Pen in the Colonial Period by Drew Lopenzina
3. American Colonial History: Clashing Cultures and Faiths by Thomas S. Kidd
4. Agents and Merchants: British Colonial Policy and the Origins of the American Revolution, 1763-1775 by Jack M. Sosin
5. The Revolutionary Frontier 1763-1783 by Jack M. Sosin
6. What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America 1815-1848 by Daniel W. Howe
7. The Dawn of Innovation: The First American Industrial Revolution by Charles R. Morris
8. Beyond the Frontier: New Approaches to the Political History of the Early American Republic by Jeffrey L. Pasley
9. The Impending Crisis, 1848-1861by David M. Potter
10. Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815by Gordon S. Wood,
11. Slavery, Law, & Politics: The Dred Scott Case in Historical Perspective by Donald E. Fehrenbacher
12. Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil Warby Eric Foner
13. Northern Men with Southern Loyalties: The Democratic Party and the Sectional Crisis by Michael T. Landis
14. Half Slave & Half Free: The Roots of the Civil Warby Bruce Levine
15. Holy Warriors: The Abolitionists and Slaveryby James B. Stewart
16. Why the South Lost the Civil Warby Richard E. Beringer
17. Jefferson Davis: Confederate President by Herman Hattaway
18. Patriot Fires: Forging a New American Nationalism in the Civil War NorthMelinda Lawson
19. Lincoln’s War: The Untold Story of America’s Greatest President as Commander in Chief by Geoffrey Perret
20. A Great Civil War: A Military and Political History, 1861-1865by Russell F. Weigley
21. A Short History of Reconstruction, 1863-1877by Eric Foner
22. Reconstruction after the Civil Warby John H. Franklin,
23. Lincoln’s Plan of Reconstruction by William B. Hesseltine
24. In the Wake of Slavery: Civil War, Civil Rights, and the Reconstruction of Southern Lawby Joseph A. Ranney
25. The United States Army and Reconstruction, 1865-1877by James E. Sefton
26. The Great War and Urban Life in Germany by Roger Chickering
27. The Great War and Modern Memory by Paul Fussell
28. The Last Great War: British Society and the First World War by Adrian Gregory
29. The Silence of Memory: Armistice Day, 1919-1946 by Adrian Gregory
30. The Deluge: British Society and the First World War by Arthur Marwick
31. War, Law, and Labour: The munitions Acts, State Regulations, And the Unions 1915-1921 by Gerry Rubin
32. Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: The Great War in European Cultural History by Jay Winter
33. The Nazi Seizure of Power: The Experience of a Single German Town 1922-1945 by William Sheridan Allen
34. Nazi Germany by Jane Caplan
35. The Racial State: Germany 1933-1945 by Michael Burleigh
36. Reluctant Accomplice: A Wehrmacht Soldier’s Letters from the Eastern Front by Konrad Jarausch
37. The Hitler Myth: Image and Reality in the Third Reich by Ian Kershaw
38. Hitler’s Thirty Days to Power: January 1933 by Henry Ashby Turner Jr.
39. Model Nazi by Catherine Epstein
40. The Third Reich: A New History by Michael Burleigh

Goal Number Two - Lose 1 pound per week: After some bouncing around I've started a downward trajectory again. Not huge losses or anything, but it's slowly ticking down as of right now. l For the mini-goals, here is how it's going:

• Subgoal 1: Close my three rings every day.  I only missed 2 days this month, that means for the year I'm 78 days so far that I haven't closed all three rings. 
• Subgoal 2: Have at least two different activity style works out each week. Most days I haven't been getting in any activity, so this is a big flop again.
• Subgoal 3: Log every meal, every day, and doing the day of.  Still keeping up on this!
• Subgoal 4: Complete a 5k race. I've scheduled my first 5k and will be doing it later this month. It's a fun run at an orchard, so that'll be nice.
• Subgoal 5: Keep under my calorie goal - which means avoiding snacking. I've mostly been keeping it under, but snacking is too much, especially at the end of the day.

Goal Number Three - More Organized Social Calendar: Much of this month was in Florida, and then back to work when I got back, so the social calendar was pretty empty in August, but we'll see what we can do for September.

Goal Number Four - Landscape the backyard: So, it looked good on this one for a bit, but then it all stalled out, so I don't think the deck will be put in this year.

Goal Number Five - Be more creative: I've done nothing creatively.

Goal Number Six - Be more expressive:  I've been trying to express my opinion more, but I think this was a bad goal.

Goal Number Seven - Have Seven New Experiences:  We took Sal to Disney, which wasn't a new experience for me, but it was for her, but we did some stuff so that's six of seven!

1. Becky and I took Sal to see Daniel Tiger Live, which was a new experience for both of us. While the show and process had much to be desired, the excitement and engagement from Sal was splendid.
2. Jasmine got me tickets to see the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, they were performing music from Harry Potter and it was fantastic!
3. I completed my exams and graduated with a 4.0 with my master's degree in history!
4. Saw three new shows on broadway: Moulin Rouge, Tootsie, and To Kill A Mockingbird. I suppose that could be three new experiences, but that seems cheating (unless I don't make it to seven for the year, in which case it's not cheating, haha!)
5. Did the NBC Studio Tour - I've been wanting to do this for 20 years now.
6. New Disney Experiences - So, there were a bunch of new things, like taking Sal for the first time, doing a character meal (or two), stayed at a new resort (Art of Animation), and rode new rides. I'm only going to count it as one event instead of multiple

So that's it for August!


Picture(s) of the Day: 
Picture 136

What the frig is she doing? She's such a weirdo.