3.14 Confession

3.14 Pi, not misquoting John.

Due to this song by Hard ‘N Phirm…

I totally know pi out to forty-six digits beyond the decimal point.  If you know me, you should ask me some time.  I’ll unintentionally recite it with robotic intonation.

I Chopped Off a Foot…Twelve Inches of Hair

Image from Pantene's Website

I keep waiting to feel sad, but it’s just not happening.  My friends who’ve already done this warned me that I’d be sad.  I’ll cry, they cautioned, it will take awhile to get used to the change.  The latter part is true for sure, but not in a negative way.  I’m chronically squeezing out too much shampoo and then too much conditioner.  As someone raised as a Lutheran Scot in the Midwest, I definitely feel guilty about that waste, but not sad.

A week and a one-half ago, I cut off twelve inches of hair which I donated to the Pantene Beautiful Lengths Program.  This program’s mission is to provide wigs to women who lose their hair due to cancer treatments.  (I considered donating to Locks of Love, which makes wigs for children.  However, most LoL recipients suffer from alopecia and cancer is a more personal cause for me and my family.  I looked into both organizations and both are solid causes.)  The last time my hair was this short, I still had baby teeth and Mr. Reagan was clamoring for Mr. Gorbachev to “tear down that wall.”  It’s clearly been awhile.  I did maintain enough length that my hair is roughly at my shoulders and I can pull it back into a perky (short) little ponytail.  Still, it feels kind of crazy.  I reach back to touch it all the time, to make sure it’s there, but it’s also not all there.

No Smoking, Yes Chestbumping

On Friday night, I spent a spontaneous and spirited moment as a public-service announcement.  I left a bar (with my friend – “Safety is no accident!”) and there were two guys smoking outside of it, with their non-smoking friend.  Being me, I probably said hello and must have made some comment about smoking or something or maybe Friend did, because one guy spiked his cigarette into the remnants snow.*  The other guy said, “Well, I haven’t had a cigarette in five weeks.”  To which Friend said, “Well why start now?”  But!  I promptly quipped, “George Bush wants you to smoke.”  Well!  He threw it right down and smiled.  So, I cheered him “YEAH!” and we immediately knew we had to chestbump for that.  Then I chestbumped his buddy who previously threw down his smoke.  And then I chestbumped the guy who doesn’t smoke, because hey, non-smoker!  The last guy told me he was going to go all in for our bump.  I embraced it, committing my total mass as well, and did not vomit all over him.  And then we had a happy walk home.

The End.

*Littering is a secondary issue

Big Flats Beer: A Review of a $.04/oz Beer

Big Flats Beer in a Festive Coozy...MADE WITH LOVE!

When my friend Suzy read an article about Walgreens adding a store brand beer, she knew two things: she would be trying it and she would be alerting me, so we would try it together.  My friend Suzy is clearly brilliant – working towards her Ph.D. at a top institution, obviously. 

We are (usually) lucky to live in an area where alcohol is easily and readily available to people of legal drinking age.  Seriously, The Target sells The Spirits, so a person could hypothetically add a couple of handles of Smirnoff and a few suitcases of Bud Light to a Club Wed registry.  Thus, our local Walgreens is one of the many licensed to sell beer, including Big Flats.  At a pre-tax price of $2.99, we licensed ourselves to buy.  Actually, that is an untruth.  Suzy and another friend, Pete-ah bought the beer; I brought brownies I made from a box and craft supplies.  Crafting is a panacea of sorts, so it seemed like a good idea to have at the ready since we were a bit skeptical about chain-pharmacy beer.

A Good Day

I started my new job today.  Love it.

I went to a free beer class, with generous amounts of free beer and free cheese tonight.  Love it.

Today was a good day.

Sock Contest: A Trick

clearly he has some nordic heritage

I like clean, although I like the state of clean a lot more than I like the activity of cleaning.  Last Saturday, I invited some friends over for a potluck dinner (more on that another day, probably with pictures).  Unfortunately for me, it’s the time of year of snow and slush and salt and sand; all of which are pretty much hell on my floors.   Just as guests often bring wine or treats, their shoes often bring the quadruple floor assault.  Fortunately for me, my friends are considerate and I am tricky-smart. 

I know I can simply ask people to remove their shoes at the door.  Unfortunately, that is kind of boring and not fun, two adjectives I strive not to have associated with myself.   While I doubt no-shoes-at-my-house is news to any of my buddies, I still like to warn them ahead of time as some of my friends are fancy and coordinated and do things like think about what shoes they ought to wear with an outfit –a nd then actually remember to wear them.  Enter the sock contest.

Eleven in ’11 – Sports and “Sports”

It’s important to have goals in life.  I think having goals – and working towards them – can be more important than the details of what the actual goals are.  Last April, I decided I needed a goal.  I also needed more fun in my life.  I married the two and created a FUN GOAL for myself, which I christened “Brewery Tourery, Ten in ’10″ as it involved going on ten tours of beer breweries before 2010 ended.  It was tight, but I made it.  Several of my friends went on brewery tours as well; some even joined me more than once.  I’ve been asked by a few people what my goal is going to be for this year.  I’m still a fan of increasing the fun in my life, so 2011′s quest needs to be supportive of that. 

In 2011, I am going to watch eleven sports/competitions of some physical/athletic nature and then either play or try some aspect of the skill or sport – possibly adapted for practicality or increased fun.  For example, I could go to the roller derby and then roller skating (ala my seventh birthday party) or to a basketball game and then hit a court at the local park with some friends.  Each sport only counts once, but I am counting any level – i.e. for baseball I could go to a Little League game or an MLB game.

First event is next week!  (Starting in April was a poor choice, particularly when I experienced lapses in time and/or motivation.)

2011: Sexy Prime

Happy New Year!  I’m a fan of prime numbers and it turns out that 2011 is a prime number AND the current calendar year.   Not only that, but 2011 is a sexy prime, which is a prime number that differs from another prime number by six – in this case, 2011 and 2017.

Crock Pot Bread Pudding, Recipe and Ramble

These are leftovers, because I forgot to snap a picture during the original eating

The following is part recipe and part confession.  The recipe part is super easy and yields delicious bread pudding.  The confession aspect is more complicated…see, it turns out I am a total nana.  Technically, I’m only nana-like, but if I started a promiscuous line or lived back in, say, Tudor England, I’m technically old enough to be an actual nana.  Like, the sort of nana with grandchildren – the real sort.  In actuality, I have two houseplants (one dead) and neither child nor grandchild.  Scattered throughout this process were moments akin to what a grandmother might do, for which I (cringingly) awarded myself “nana points.”

I’m not exactly sure what compelled me to make bread pudding, but the need was strong.  I’m not even a huge fan of bread pudding and I lack any emotional attachment to it.  Growing up, we rarely had it as my mother classified it as soggy, old bread.  That is a true statement, except you then cook – or crock – the soggy, old bread.  Conveniently, I had a little over one-third of a baguette left over from earlier in the week.  Completely stale, bread pudding or bread crumbs were probably the only practical purposes for it.  If you are keeping track, that’s two nana points: one for bread pudding and one for salvaging old bread.

Inflight WiFi

I’m flying Delta, a mistake for other reasons, who is offering free in-flight wifi through the holidays.  So far I’ve used it to:

1.) Search flights to family destination Christmas (woo!)…not on Delta

2.) Check the arrival status of my flight and email a text to the friend who is picking me up, telling her my delay has increased while inair.

3.) Play on facebook, gchat, and email.

4.) Take and post a picture of my ridiculous amounts of legroom (emergency exit row + almost a legal midget in Canada) on facebook.

5.) Blog.

Basically, what I would do at home.   I find the whole concept of in-flight wifi kind of ridiculous.  I mean, none of those things were at all pressing.  I remember the days when flights were spent with parents just threatening to beat their children with the books they were not reading, if they didn’t quiet down.