"How can one magically overnight become the kind of person who cleans the house and goes to the gym every day?"

Crystal meth?

I have been cruelly conned into reading Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, which is eating my head.

I was, uh, late to work because I had to read another 20 pages.

* What should I read on my vacation?
King of Sting

* Will the tiny baby eucalyptus tree survive the winter or should I dig it up and put it in a pot, inside?
Inside!

* If I do that, will it poison the cats?
I think so

* How can one magically overnight become the kind of person who cleans the house and goes to the gym every day?
You can't... it is a lifestyle change.

RE: last point... hire a maid.

No, I've not made that lifestyle change yet either.

No one can hit the gym every single day - that's just crazy and too physically demanding! Why don't you shoot for something like 3 days a week to start? And I'm a big fan of lists for the housework. Break things down into short tasks that only take 20-30 minutes each (like cleaning one bathroom or vacuuming one or two rooms). Then tell yourself you'll do one task before you sit down to watch TV in the evening. Or use one task as a quick study break. Before you know it, you'll get all your tasks done in a given week and you'll feel super awesome! Of course, it's easier said than done, but it feels better going to bed at night knowing that you did at least 20 minutes of housework than none at all!

The View From the Seventh Layer by Kevin Brockmeier is IMO great vacation reading as it's a collection of short stories. They're very well written and full of interesting ideas too.

My only advice for going to the gym is to get involved in a class.. the group support really helped me stay active and motivated :) I recommend Cardio Kickboxing.

It depends on the plant. I think quite a few will survive just below freezing (the lowest temperature that most of Oz ever gets) but there are species that grow on mountains too.

Eucs should not be transplanted. That is, if you have planted it in one place in the ground, and it becomes established there, you should not move it. Eucs are much more sensitive to root damage than normal trees when young. If you dig it up and fail to get at least 40 - 80% of the roots (this can vary according to the time of year), then the tree is likely to die outright. Even if it survives transplanting, its vigor will be greatly reduced. "It is therefore important to ensure that they are planted where they are to grow to maturity in the first place." (- Quote from Eucalyptus Nurseries website)

Another helpful sight: http://www.angelfire.com/bc/eucalyptus/eucgrowing.html#9

Even I don't go to the gym every day. I treat the gym as a thing to look forward to a couple of days each week (this is made slightly easier by the appearance of an old crush at the gym this week!) and keep gym stuff in the car for when I happen to be driving past and have the urge to stop. If I want to go in and just do ONE thing, I do. There is no "right" way to go to the gym, so whatever sounds fun enough to you to get you there...

My mother gave me very sound housekeeping advice: 1. Tidy up after yourself each day as you go (if you come in and drop your coat on the floor and kick your shoes off, grab both and put them away on your way to bed, wipe the stove off when you use it, etc.) and then just clean floors/windows/whatever in one room once a week. 2. Collect random stuff that needs to be put in place in designated spots (ideally in cute containers, which I haven't done) on each floor of your house, so it's easy to hide or put stuff away quickly. These things are working out ok for me, in that my house is not disgusting.

Eucalyptus is toxic for cats. It's also used in cat repellant, so it may be harmful but not sexxxay.

In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson. It's kind of a travel book, but more than that, and hysterically funny to boot. All about Australia.

You should read my book, The Sellsword! Of course!

But it has no New Zealand stuff in it.

I just read The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and totally loved it.

You would probably like He, She and It by Marge Piercy. Jewish mythology and robots! Two great tastes, etc. Don't judge this based on her other (terrible) books, it's really well-written.

Have you read any MFK Fisher? The Gastronomical Me is a good vacation read. See also Julia Child's My Life in France.

Also, have you read any Jostein Gaardner? If not, that's a good captivating vacation sort of fiction.

re poisonous - yep it is:
http://www.cfainc.org/articles/plants.html

Oh, read Rebecca! ...Wait. Heh, the timing's too bad, as it actually would make a great beach read. Read whatever you want. Whatever sounds fun. It's vacation!

I don't do plants. They don't like me, or something.

Head transplant!
Wait.
This question deals too much in extremes. The answers are either (a) you just decide to do it and do it or (b) it can't possibly happen; those are the extremes and neither are really helpful. Folks before me have had lots of good ideas - you sure don't have to go every day (in fact it's important to rest especially if you are doing work with weights); you don't have to clean the whole house every time/all at once. Once you get started, if those are two things you would really like, I think you might find the results rewarding enough to give you some energy for keeping it up. Well, I dunno about house-cleaning, I'm still crap at that myself. (Except dishes. I am Miss Priss about dishes.) But exercise will eventually make you want to do it, I swear! =)

How can one magically overnight become the kind of person who cleans the house and goes to the gym every day?

Get kidnapped by an evil overlord who beats and brainwashes you into it? Actually, that would take weeks so never mind...

"How can one magically overnight become the kind of person who cleans the house and goes to the gym every day?"

You can't. That's why you gotta sneak it by your internal Intruder Alert. We hate change. Try this: "I will ____ for one minute." Then the next day do it for two minutes. Then keep doubling it and next thing you know, half an hour a day is a new habit.

We always set us up the bomb when we try to make overnight changes. I'm battling this myself so you're in good company.