Five Good Things

1.) In conjunction with my four-day-weekend project, I am going on vacation at the end of the week.

2.) Because I am a grown up, there was no reason for me not to have a dinner entirely of cheese…so I did.  Osteoporosis prevention, etc.

3.) On Sunday, I went to one of my favorite brunch places in tundra.  I gobbled up their pork belly, poached eggs, polenta, and an english muffin with a lovely bellini.  I love me the brunch.

4.) Gas where I work is twenty cents cheaper PER GALLON than the gas where I live.

5.) It’s less than six months until I move away from the tundra!

Winter Survival Tip #3

One of my best winter survival tricks for tundra living is quite simple: leave.  Get out.  Go somewhere, preferably warm and sunny, but at the very least somewhere else.  Winter is a great time for visits of obligation; it’s a better time for fun vacations, but sometimes a body needs to work within certain restrictions.  A required family trip to your mismatched Nader’s Raider aunt and “Romney is too liberal” bellowing uncle might not be the most pleasant experience, but if they live in Florida, it is a lot more pleasant if you can couple the visit to them with one to some sunshine and temperatures above freezing.  Ideally you can take a week or weekend for fun – cheer on your team at a spring training baseball game, watch the whales migrate in Cabo, surf in Hawaii – but sometimes it is necessary to be a bit practical.  Vitamin D is a practical need; if only I could get my insurance to let me apply airfare to my deductible.

Besides the benefit of a break from snow and ice, taking a break from the tundra also gives you something to look forward to…regardless of the weather here, I will not have to scrape ice off my car to go to work next Monday – I won’t be near my car and I’m not going to work!  Win.  It’s a mental, physical, and emotional break and it is necessary.

So!  Tundra.  You are on notice.  If you are not significantly warmer and sunnier, preferably with longer days, by Thursday  I AM LEAVING.  One of us has to make a change; I accept that it will likely be me.

 

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

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.)

Five Good Things

1.) The reason for my silence is that I was on vacation.  VACATION WAS GREAT!

2.) I finally, finally, finally saw a real football game played live.  It was super fun and ultra great. 

3.) I’m getting a new winter coat.   I am totally going to upgrade the warmth factor.  I also might attempt to buy a jacket that is not blue.  (I accidentally keep buying blue outerwear.)

4.) Improv tomorrow night!  I am already ready to laugh.

5.) I did not gain ten million pounds over Thanksgiving and vacation, despite eating a lot of junk.  I probably gained more like two.

Effective ICE Contacts

My family bought our first cell phone – “for the family” – in the early 1990s.   It was roughly the size of our smaller cat; the battery alone outweighs my current phone.  And actually using that original cell phone?  Emergencies only!  Quick emergencies only!  Quite the opposite of my current life, in which my phone is where I check and send emails and text messages, find recipes online while at the grocery store, ask “The Goog” pressing questions, get directions, play games, study for the GRE, and yes, make the occasional call.  Despite all of its fancy tricks, emergency calls remain its most basic and most important function. 

 

I’m going to try not to get overly dramatic, but the most important thing your cell phone can do is aid you in an emergency.  Whether it’s a life-saving call to 911 or a call to a contact during a rough situation or medical info stored in notes; your cell phone can help big time.  If you do not already have an ICE (In Case of Emergency) contact stored in your phone, do it.  Do it now. 

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.

Five Good Things

1.) I have a Diet Coke habit.  I like the DC in the afternoon, usually while the kidlets nap.  To support my habit, I bring a DC with me to work pretty much every day.  My current employers noticed and started stocking DC for me.   I recently switched to bike commuting and while a can of soda is neither large nor heavy, it’s really nice to have one less thing to pack and carry in the mornings.

2.) I leave for Thanksgiving vacation tomorrow!  It is going to be fantastic.

3.) A little over a week ago, I started selling things I don’t want ebay.  Today I broke $100 in sales!

4.) I found – and bought – a fantastic Christmas gift for my stepmom.  This  is my third BIG WIN Christmas gift purchase of the season.  I often end up with safety gifts for my stepmom, so it’s especially nice that I found something unique for her this year.

5.) I don’t have to work at all this week!  (Hence why I get to leave for vacation Tuesday morning, ha.)

Big Day, Lights and Sirens

I’ll post more on this later, but by 9:30 this morning, I’d had my first rides in both an ambulance and a police cruiser.  (I’m totally fine.)  The distances of both rides are best measured in blocks.  Since 9:30am, I have not ridden in any emergency vehicles.  Unless I meet a studly firefighter, I’m hoping to keep up this trend.

Hot Chocolate

Yum.  I a convert of making my own hot chocolate.  My friend SB recently blogged about how “it’s basically as easy/quick, yet much tastier” to make one’s own hot chocolate.  I’ll agree with her on the second point, but not the first.  However, while it is significantly more involved and time consuming to make cocoa from scratch, it’s still super easy and super fast…and super worth it.

As per my usual, I didn’t actually measure anything.  Thus, I can’t comment on her exact recipe.  I CAN (and will!) say that it is a great guide.  I really liked the kick from the cinnamon; it was NOT too much.   Try it.  You’ll love us both.  Recipe is here . 

This would probably work well in a crockpot, for a larger group or thirsty/cold friends.  I would probably melt the chocolate in a saucepan, for faster results.  It would require an extra pan, but I think that is worth it to avoid melting chocolate in a crock.

Warning: This is super rich and makes Swiss Miss look/taste/smell like dirty water.

Warning #2: NO RUM FOR KIDS.