February In Numbers

Clockwise from upper left: (1) Trying to get back to learning Spanish; (2) Valentine's Day candy; (3) When your computer breaks, it's time to do sewing projects; (4) Some of the sailing books I read; (5) Taking apart my laptop; and (6) Shopping for canned meat.

It's time for our usual monthly recap by the numbers. February was a month of moderation and frustration. After many parties and overindulging over the past several months, I decided to declare last month to be >>Febfast<<. No, I didn't fast. Don't be silly. I can't go more than four hours without something to eat. But what I did do was try to cut out red meat, booze, junk food, and sugary treats.

I succeeded on all fronts except the sugary treats. But, on the plus side, I only ate sugary treats that other people gave me - like cookies from my friend Jane and candy from my mom. Although, now that I think about it, I guess I ate red meat (in the form of corned beef) at our canned meat cook-off. But I didn't buy any or cook any myself. I also ate Spam, but who knows what's in that. Is it red meat or something else? Maybe it's best not to ask.

The frustration part came in, not because I was watching my diet, but because my computer died on me. I've learned that I can't live without my computer. Sad, but true.

So, enough with all of those words, here's the usual random nonsense recap by the numbers:

• 9 - Number of days I was without a working computer. First President's Day interfered with delivery of the replacement part. Then it turns out that Dell goofed up with the service code on my laptop and the part I ordered wasn't compatible. Add in ordering another part and time for delivery and it was a long nine days.

• $39.95 - How much a replacement heatsink/fan cost (including postage).

• 2 - How many screws I had leftover after reassembling my laptop. I'm gonna assume they aren't important.

• 14 - How many books I read as part of my Goodreads challenge. 4 sci-fi/fantasy, 3 mysteries, 2 thrillers, 1 general fiction, 3 sailing-related books, and 1 non-fiction. 

•  85F/30C - What the real feel temp has been like lately in Indiantown. Had to plug the A/C back in. Occasionally I text my sister and tell her I'm wearing shorts and flip-flops. For some reason, she doesn't find it amusing. 

• $4.59 - How much a 6" veggie delight costs at Subway. I haven't had Subway in years. Not too bad calorie-wise and totally fit into Febfast. I met up with some cruising friends (MJ Sailing) for lunch when they came back to Florida to pick up a new headsail. So nice to see them, especially as I wasn't sure if our paths would ever cross again. Such is the way of the nomadic life.

• 4 - How many posts I've written in advance for this year's Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Is anyone else taking part?

• 5 - How many new characters I've created for the next installment of the Mollie McGhie sailing mystery series. At least one of them is going to die. I feel rather evil deciding who isn't going to make it to the end of the book.

• 1 - How many parts I've had to replace on my Sailrite sewing machine - the retaining ring cap spring. It's a sacrificial part, so no biggie to replace and luckily I had a spare already. {Duwan - this is why you were having trouble using my machine. We should have replaced it when you were here.}

• 3 - How many nectarines I threw away. I felt so bad about wasting food, but they were really gross. So disappointing to buy fruit that looks wonderful, but tastes awful.

• 2 - How many eggs I used in my salmon cakes for the Spamageddon canned meat cook-off.

In case you missed them, here are some of our favorite blog posts from last month:

Spamageddon | Canned Meat Cook-Off at Indiantown Marina
Saturday Spotlight | Sailing Book Reviews
Cooking without a Fridge: A Week on Our Boat in New Zealand 

How did last month go for you? What are you looking forward to this month?

Thanks for stopping by our blog - we love it when people come visit! We're also on Facebook - we'd love for you to pop by and say hi!