Weight loss YTD = a bust. Starting weight: 146. Pounds lost year-to-date: 0.

I've been making a concerted effort to exercise more, and recorded nearly 11 hours of walking and snow shoveling this month. Most of my walking is done during my lunch break, which is just a half hour. Obviously not enough.

I finally had my first performance review at the new job. She had nothing bad to say. Afterwards, I just wanted to confirm that I wouldn't be eligible for a pay raise since I've only been perm 6.5 months. So I sent her a quick email, expecting her to confirm that and to my surprise she said no, I would be eligible for a merit pay increase but then she quickly said don't expect too much, they are usually pretty small.

I am used to negotiating pay with my direct manager, but apparently the way it works here is that managers are notified in February of the total pool of money they have, and then I'm guessing they have discretion as to how they want to divvy it up. I won't actually see the pay raise until March (which I don't think is very fair to employees). Because I wasn't expecting anything, I'd be thrilled to get 2%, which i think is about what I can expect.

I'm pretty happy with my new Roku, although there is a lot more TV that you have to pay for than free TV. I'm already paying $8 for Netflix and don't really want to shell out more, but it can be confusing looking at different channels that treat customers so differently. Some, for instance, offer maybe 4 or 5 episodes of a program free, but then once you're "hooked," you have to pay to watch further episodes. CBS News appears to be totally free, both to watch the news and also the various news programs like 48 hours, 60 minutes and so on. So that's a big plus for me. PBS also offers a fair amount of free stuff that I can see, although right now they're offering the current episode of Downton Abbey free, but since I never saw this series, I want to start at Season 1 but can't find it on that channel.

I have yet to find American Idol available anywhere, for pay or for free. And I don't seem able to watch truly local news coming from any of the big CT stations, just NY and Boston.

Despite all that, I've already decided to get a 2nd LED TV with a Roku stick which you can just plug in the back of the TV. I ordered a highly rated 28" Samsung which will become my new bedroom TV. My current bedroom TV has just a 20" diameter, so it will be a step up for me with a bigger screen. The TV that's in the bedroom now I will move down into my kitchen, so I can watch CBS News as I make my dinner, like I used to do a long time ago. There's a little nook in between the upper and lower cabinets where it just fits with a half inch to spare, but I will have to find another place for the microwave and my cookbooks.

In addition to Netflix, CBS News and a few other things you probably never heard of (Breaking Boston and Dickering Down Under), I've been watching a lot of the home shopping channels. I see HSN, my preferred channel, now has a 2nd channel.

Today I'm expecting a delivery from them of some cute little booties (hopefully should fit with a wide size) and a nifty handheld steam cleaner you can use to clean all around the house. I hope it will help me keep a cleaner house as housekeeping has never been something I've really kept up on, though I would love a cleaner home.

I updated my net worth in my profile on the side; although my investments didn't grow much, my home value did, according to Zillow, so I am inching along on the way to a cool $1 million.