Did I say six? I meant nine.

      Nine weeks, not six weeks. I don't know why we ever thought we could commit to six week check-ins for our goals. We're all busy MacStewarts. We've got lives to live. I'm pretty excited that I'm beating you all on this one though.

• Make this apartment feel like home: I have found the perfect chair, and I may be on the verge of saving the money for said perfect chair. Picture updates when all my dreams come true. In the mean time, I have begun to hang living room wall art, which I think is the people relationship equivalent to getting engaged to my apartment.


• Love my job: My CEO is the funniest, littlest man in the world, except for the fact that he's actually not little at all. But I'm still enjoying working for him, late nights and all.


• Go someplace I've never been in the US: The dates are confirmed in August and I will be going to Charleston, SC, and I am in charge of planning our day trip to Savannah, GA. Go ahead: be jealous. Better yet: meet us there!


• Write every day: I had a dry spell exacerbated by poor internet service and hectic work demands, but I am climbing back into the saddle.


• Blog once a week: I'm still really sucking at this.


• Write more letters: I'm faring better than I did at my last check-in, but still doing rather poorly with my correspondence. I'd like to borrow one hour from one work day once a week and dedicate it to writing letters and notes, and I am going to try to do that. No one should work 12 hours every day of the week anyway.


• Be a better friend, especially by communicating more through telephone and email: There was recently an uptick in this category that I was inordinately proud of.


• Be a better friend to the planet by being energy and waste conscious: I realized that I only fill one trash bag (like a normal kitchen size one) about ever month and a half, although I recycle with twice as much frequency. I think this is a good measurement of habit full adopted. I'm still turning off lights except for rooms in which I'm using them, showering briefing, using air conditioning sparingly, and using my canvas bag at the grocery store. The young girls at my neighborhood market are now fully accustomed to it and actually help me fill it at check-out. Love them.


• *Expletive, expletive* update my *expletive* iPod: I got some good updating in, but I couldn't say I have the finish line in sight yet.


• Read more books: I am a book-reading machine! And I'm so shameless about it. I would say everyone in this city right now probably knows that I'm reading "Team of Rivals" because it's all I ever talk about. It's an amazing (and amazingly long) book, and I hope to be done in the next two weeks so I can move on to my next challenge. I also loved "Thunderstruck" in case anyone's looking for a good read. It's nonfiction by the same author (Erik Larson) who wrote "Devil in the white City". You can learn all about Marconi and the wireless telegraph, and then you will be as educated as Elinor who took a social studies test on this last year.


• Spend more time outside: Check, check, check. Also importantly, I am so good about wearing sunscreen. One day I'm going to be a great mom!

      And there you have it. I still suck at a couple of these that are really important to me, but in terms of the good habits that I've started, I'm definitely pleased to see that some have stuck for good. Now if I can just get the other ones to dig their heels into me...