A Couple of Days Until the End of the Year...An Update

Actually there isn't a lot to update but I wanted to drop in and say "hi".  Here's what's up:

• I told you last time that I was going to do the Whole 30 Challenge in January.  Towards that end, we went to the store today and made a haul of meat, fruit, and vegetables.  Hubby seems very supportive--he kept asking what other things we could get for me to eat during the upcoming week--but he doesn't want to join me in the challenge because he would miss his rice too much. BUT he said that if he could see a real difference over the month that I am doing the challenge, he would do it the following month which is probably the most inspiring thing I have heard from him (and an excellent motivator for me since I want him to be as healthy as possible).  Needless to say, I'm psyched!  Plus I keep reading these stories and want to be one of them eventually!
• My friends are moving to Las Vegas!  They are driving down from Seattle and should be here this evening.  Actually they had lived in Las Vegas before and liked it here so when my friend's husband got laid off, they sold everything in their small apartment and hit the road for Vegas.  Yeah!  Plus they are interested in starting some sort of business here and so am I so I think we will be able to do some collaboration that will benefit all of us!
• Speaking of the Whole 30 Challenge, I picked up my Baskin Robbins Blast today (believe it or not, they always have it waiting for me as soon as I walk into the place--I am there about every other day!) and told the owner that he probably wouldn't see me for at least a month because I am trying a diet challenge and he said they always notice a steep drop in customers around the beginning of the year for the same reason.  Originally I had changed to Baskin Robbins because I loved the Starbucks frappuccino and was having one every day but the price (over $5 at the Strip Starbucks) and the daily dose of caffeine, wasn't good for me.  So I found a Baskin Robbins close by the library I go to on an almost daily basis, found that the Blast which is similar to the Frappuccino was less than $4, and made it a habit to stop by every other day or every two days instead of daily.  Either way, this is an expensive and quite unhealthful habit so I hope with the Whole 30 challenge I won't see an ice creamy/caffeine-e drink for the next month or more!
• I may be getting a nice consulting gig.  During my money challenge back in November I told you about a friend who wanted me to do some work for her but I talked her out of it (and me out of the money) because I didn't think it was something they needed to do.  Anyway, she called me today and said her organization is moving forward with an even bigger project and she wants to fly down here to talk to me about it.  I would be doing some consulting work for her from afar and making more with this project than I would have with the last project.  I'm loving karma about now.
• Speaking of the money challenge, the funds continue to trickle in from things that I did that month (a common thing for freelance writers who don't get paid until their stuff is published).  Here is my most recently published article.
• I have a bunch of stuff to do tomorrow, the last day of the year, namely clean our place thoroughly (an old Jewish tradition, even though I am not Jewish), get the food prepped for the first week of my Whole 30 Challenge, and put some cash in my wallet (this is a Filipino tradition which states that if you start the year with money in your wallet you will increase it over the year but if you don't have any money in your wallet at the beginning of the year you will not have any over the course of the year either.  I'm not superstitious but still...makes sense to me.  Then tomorrow night we will venture onto the Strip (with hundreds of thousands of other people) to ring in the New Year.
• I am still not sure what I want to do on New Year's Day.  I like to do something interesting (previously I did a Volksmarch on New Year's Eve in Seattle, a "Run for the Heroes" 10k race in Gig Harbor on New Year's Day, and the Polar Bear Plunge in Olalla but it doesn't look like they have anything interesting to do here in Las Vegas on New Year's Day.  Maybe they anticipate most people to be hung over and sleeping after partying it up on New Year's Eve??).  So I may just try to walk the Strip or something.

I think that's about all.  Hope your New Year's Eve is festive and your New Year is lucrative!