Many irons in the fire

Oh my goodness!  I can't believe how much time has passed since I last posted here.  2013 has found me with many irons in the fire.  Here's just a shortlist of my activities:

 1.   Taking up painting again, through a weekly three-hour painting class with Bill Porteous.  I went out and purchased a kit of acrylic paints and I am having a great time.  My newest discovery is the art of Helen Frankenthaler.  I'm looking deeply into a number of abstract artists and working on my own approach to working with colour in an abstract way.

2.   Trying to get back into shape after our trip to Italy.  Somehow I lost some ground with eating habits and exercise last fall.  January is the time to rectify this.  I have daily exercises and a weekly class and I'm working with a personal trainer for a few sessions.  Can't let this one slide.

3. Patching and painting the ceilings after having some electrical work done.  We have a newly located lamp over the dining room table and we moved some other lights around.  Won't those niches beside the fireplace be a great place to display my abstract paintings when they're done?

4.  Learning French the Pimsleur way.  We've decided that our next big trip will be to France and Spain.  Harry has the Spanish so it's up to me to revive my high school French.  A friend has lent me 16 cds that take you through the basics by listening and speaking.  It's very different from the high school learning, which was all reading and writing.  Not sure when we're going but it might be towards the end of this year.

5.  Preparing our house and our dogs for house sitters in February.  We've been invited to the wedding of a young Mexican man that was a student of both Harry's and mine.  Jose is marrying his sweetheart in San Juan del Rio, a small city near Queretaro, and we will be there.  We're flying down February 7th for a few days and then we'll head to Acapulco, a place we've never been to, for a week of R&R in the sun.

6.  Organizing the house and beginning a process of serious elimination.  We have way too much stuff and some of it has to go.  Each day I add to piles of stuff that will be donated or thrown away.

7.  Restoring our Circles within Circles website, which was attacked by a bad, bad virus last week.  This involves many hours of reposting and editing.  

8.  Organizing nearly 15,000 photographs by subject and location.  And deleting many that are just cluttering up my hard drive.  Gradually I'm developing an approach using iPhoto that will, I hope, allow me to find what I want when I want it.

These are the major activities in addition to the ongoing commitment of walking dogs, keeping the house and kitchen together.  Plus my reading group, my Mah Jong group, the online Scrabble, and our busy social life.

Is it any wonder I can't find time to blog?