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Terms of the Duel

New-Year's resolutions have a pronounced and infamous tendency to fall by the wayside by, say, the 1st of February. Perhaps, however, that is because they are resolved upon, adhered to, and discarded, by solitary individuals. Perhaps what's needed is some good old-fashioned competitive spirit.

The participants:

  1. Ilya Gandelman - desk jockey from 9-5:30, Monday thru Friday. Free time activities include, but are not limited to, writing, reading, watching tv/movies (very selective in this area!), eating Meredith's delicious food, playing with Gizmo, spending time with family and friends.
  2. Meredith Gandelman - also a desk jockey, from 9-6, Monday thru Friday. Free time activities include, but are not limited to, reading, watching tv/movies, cooking/baking for Ilya (and others), snuggling/playing with Gizmo and spending time with family and friends.

The resolutions:

  1. To read more books
  2. To watch less television
  3. To spend less money (by reading library books, and by making our way through unread volumes gathering dust on the shelves)
  4. To spend more quality time together with a shared interest

Therefore, the challenge proposed: who can read the most books in a year? On one side the wife, on the other the husband: who'll get the most volumes under her or his belt before 2015?

The rules:

  1. Books will be chosen independently. Any genre or subject is eligible.
  2. No second thoughts once starting a book. An uncompleted book is not counted, except of course as time lost. We shall have to choose carefully; and if a book seems to be disappointing, best to soldier on through to the end!
  3. A 300-page minimum. However, books briefer than 300 pages may be combined with others to count as one entry in the Duel.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

I blame the groundhog

Pages read today: 159 for Meredith (133 of Gathering Blue and 26 of Messenger) 77 for Ilya



He did see his shadow, right? So all the extra snow/ice causing our leaks is his fault!
The roofer came today but it didn't really do much to change the situation.  Apparently there is a 6-8 inch thick ice layer on the roof which all has to melt before the leaking will cease and desist. Unfortunately, it will take at least a couple days for all of it to melt,  In the meantime, the ice on the top of the roof is melting with the water running down but then getting stuck behind the ice at the edge of the roof so the only place for it to go is in here!  So today has not been pretty, but hopefully the melting will complete itself over the next day or two and then we can be done with all of this (it's a heat wave here in Rochester with our 40 degree weather!).


It is back to work for me tomorrow, as I definitely can't use any more time off right now.  Fingers crossed we don't come home to a big mess in here!

Some positives from the day?  I had a health scare going on but found out today that I am in the clear!  Also, Gizmo had a trip to the groomer today and he looks marvelous!  I do believe he knows how marvelous he looks, as he looks quite snooty in the bottom photo!  Also, I finished Gathering Blue, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  I will hopefully write a more thoughtful post on that later.  For now, it's off to bed for the Gandelman clan.
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