Dear The Weather,

We regret to inform you that there is a mistake in your Page-A-Day calendar.  The entry for November 19 was accidentally duplicated and inserted in your calendar in place today's entry for April 19.  Here is a copy of the the correct page if you'd like to print it for your use.

So your agenda items should include this

and this.

Instead of this

That's snow on the roof.

 and this.

More snow

We regret any inconvenience this error may have caused.  We are still the leader in calendars, planners, and stationery for natural phenomenon, and we hope you will continue to use our Page-a-Day calendars in the future. 

Thank you,

The Management

11 in 101

First off, good luck to MM and everyone running Boston today.  Hope you have beautiful weather and a great run!

Thinking about everything that has to happen in the next two weeks before I leave for a conference in Ft. Lauderdale is intimidating.  It seems almost impossible that in 30 days I will have prepared for and gone to the conference, come back, finished up projects, and be on vacation.  I know it will all get done, but wow.  So, riffing off of an idea from Sarah, riffing off the 101 in 1001 meme, I present 11 things that will get done or I want to do in the next 101 days*:

1. Finish my poster, analyses for a co-worker's poster, and analyses for my boss's talk, fly to Ft. Lauderdale for a week and participate in a conference
2. Attempt a 120lb (bodyweight) bench press
3. Go on vacation and visit family and friends in TN and NC
4. Celebrate my 5th wedding anniversary

I like this picture of us despite the fact that it has a random
arm in it and that I'm officially as pale as my dress.  

5. Finish analyses for two papers

6. Do a 150lb deadlift

7. Do a tripod headstand

8. Finish reading the Bible and create a guide to the Old Testament for my church small group
9. Invite at least one of two couples who live in our apartment complex to have dinner
10. Attempt a 30-day blogging challenge
11. Learn to play a pop song on the piano

Now it is time to inhale some applesauce, bundle up, and head to the gym.  What will you accomplish in the next 101 days?  Work goals?  Personal goals?  Fabulous vacations?  Feats of speed and/or strength? 

* By July 28, 2011

Bird watching

Last Thursday while I was getting some software updated on my computer, I looked outside and noticed two swans were swimming in ponds out by the marching band/ ultimate Frisbee field.  We get birds- including cool stuff like swans and cranes but mostly just nasty geese- passing through on their way north for the summer.  So I grabbed Kerri and another coworker and we braved the weather to check out the swans.

They were so beautiful and didn't seem to be bothered by people watching them.  I took about 10 pictures.  

Kerri brought her binoculars to get a closer look.

Although you can't tell from the pictures, the feathers were incredibly detailed.

Even though it was windy and gross outside, the swans just swam around the ponds peacefully... impervious to us... to the guy chasing geese off the flag football field with a net... not even moving their heads at all...

Because- as we realized after 5 full minutes of oohing and ahhing- they were fake.  Those incredibly detailed feathers?  I guess you can do a lot with plastic these days.  The groundskeepers must have put then in the ponds to scare away other birds.  I'm guessing it will work because they sure fooled us.     

Leaving nature alone, Friday night Daniel and I went over to check out the opening of the new UW Union South.

It's pretty fancy.  There's a bowling alley, a rock climbing wall, a movie theater, food court type restaurants, a bar/grill, concert space, and offices and meeting rooms.  Daniel is happy that he will be able to cut through it to get from the computer science building to the engineering building during the winter.

It was pretty packed, but we were able to catch a free showing of The Social Network.  Although I was obviously not a computer science major at Harvard, the movie did take me back to my undergrad days in the early 2000s.  The whole idea of spending a Friday evening watching a movie at the student union was reminiscent of Gator Nights.  I thought the movie was pretty good, but I did have a hard time watching any part with Justin Timberlake in it and not thinking "Hey! That's Justin Timberlake!  Wow!  Justin Timberlake is in this movie!"  Daniel didn't like the message it gave that good and innovative computer science is all about hacking and binge drinking and twizzlers.  But he did say they got the parts about Mt. Dew and Asian girls right.  He also plans to start writing all the solutions to problems he's working on on the window.

  

Skipping ahead to today...
It's 9:30am on Sunday, and I have the whole day ahead with no obligations.  Normally we'd be going to church now, but Daniel went in to work on a paper he's submitting to a conference on Thursday, and we've already heard the sermon so I decided to stay home.

On the agenda:

• Update the blog 
• Apply to a summer fruit/veg and a meat CSA - I've done the research.  Now I just have to get the printer to work
• Go through our "in box" and deal with mail, etc.
• 1 hour Dave Farmar yoga podcast
• Practice the piano
• Figure out what I'm going to bake for our church group meeting tomorrow night
• Walk to the store (I have the car, but it's beautiful out!) to get ingredients
• Update our budget
• Get lunch stuff ready for the week

If there's time:

• Work on my afghan while watching a movie/ Pushing Daisies?
• Do some vacation research?

Hope everyone in NC is doing alright after the crazy storms yesterday.  Get out there and enjoy some nature! 

T-shirt Scarf

I had some old t-shirts that had sentimental value that were not going to last much longer at their current rate of use.  I wanted some way to preserve them but still be able to wear them.  I've seen t-shirt quilts before, but I didn't have enough that I thought "went together" to make a quilt.  Awhile ago, I was thumbing through an Uncommon Goods catalog, and I saw this t-shirt scarf, and thought it would be the perfect solution.  If only I were good at sewing...  I mean, I could probably throw something together if I wasn't worried about doing "do-overs", but I didn't want to wreck my stuff in the name of a Sunday afternoon experiment.

So I turned to Etsy to see if anyone made them.  After some poking around, I found Laura's shop: Banoonoos.  She pre-makes scarves to sell but indicated that she'd do custom orders.  After some discussion, I sent my shirts, and very soon after, I had a new scarf (for only $15 plus the cost of shipping).

The shirts are all from our days in Albuquerque: three running shirts (one of which was made of tech material), a snowshoe race shirt, and a shirt from a trip I took with our church.  Laura did a beautiful job preserving the logos on the front.  I really manhandled it putting it on to take the picture, and all the stitching felt sturdy.  It's also thick and warm enough to be useful.

You can still see almost all of the print when its on.  If I were going to wear it "for real" I'd pair it with jeans and a plain colored long sleeved shirt.

I have no financial incentive to write this review.  I did think it was a neat idea that some of you might be interested in, and I am truly happy with it and wanted to give Laura some free advertising.

And with that, I'm going to go deadlift 145lbs.  What a great way to start a Wednesday.  

Guess who did a pull-up this morning?!?

Me!!!!!!  I've been trying to do one for about forever.  Even last night when Daniel and I were walking, I made an attempt at the pull-up bars and was able to pull myself up until my chin reached the bar, but I had to give a kick to get my chin up and over it.  This morning, I walked into the gym and decided to give it another go as a warm-up.  That's when the magic happened.  I jumped up and grabbed the bar (and then let myself back down so my arms were fully extended- we're all about good form around here) and *did a pull-up*.  I was so shocked that I did another one just to be sure.  I think the main difference between this morning and yesterday afternoon is that the bar at the gym is thinner than the bar outside, so it's easier for me to get a good grip.  Regardless, it still counts!  I actually did a few more throughout my workout just to make sure I wasn't hallucinating, and yep, I can do a pull-up.

Now with 80% less funk

Good funk:



Bad funk:

Nasty.

Ewwwwww... this is what happens when you and everyone who comes to visit you takes off their snow boots in the same place for six months.  It feels pointless to clean it when ever day brings another layer of sludge, but fortunately, maybe, possibly we are beyond all that for awhile, so it was time for scrub-a-thon 2011.

The lineoleum is old so it doesn't *look* that much cleaner, but I guarantee you, it is.

Whew.

 I'd say I was doing spring cleaning, but it really feels more like summer.  It was beautiful yesterday, but the weather is about to go all Wizard of Oz on us this afternoon.

Eeek.

Our indoor/outdoor thermometer is confused:

Indoors: 76.4 (that'll be fun for sleeping tonight); outdoors: who knows?
What is this "warm weather" you speak of?

I wish I could say I spent the day outside, working on my tan, but it's already windy and thundery.  So instead I played Miss Domestic (Servant) and cleaned (see above) and cooked lasagna for our neighbors who just had a baby

Cheese-a-licious

While I'm on a roll, I'll share my #1 (and only) cleaning tip with you:  Denture cleaner will clean anything.  Well, I haven't taught it how to vacuum, but every week we soak our dish drier and my water bottle in hot water with a few Target brand denture cleaner tablets, and it clears up all the hard water and general gunk that builds up.  

So fresh and so clean, clean.

Now it's time for straight chillin'.  And hoping we don't get hit by a tornado.  And finding the fan for the bedroom.  Please deposit any lazy cleaning tips you have in the comments section.

Signs of Spring

Is it here?  Could spring really *finally* be here?  Let's consult the checklist.

• Has it snowed in the last week?  Yes, BUT if all goes well for the next four hours, the answer will be NO!!

All gone!

• Have you gone outside without a jacket?  No, but I've gone outside with only a single jacket rather than having to wear multiple sub-jackets.  And... we are forecast for highs in the 70's!!!!!!! this weekend.
• Is the current temperature below freezing?  NO!  It's 40 degrees before 6am.  Heat wave!
• Are there signs of animal life?  YES!  The birds are singing.  The raccoons are coming out of hibernation in the storm drains.  The geese are stopping traffic.  

They live there.  Too creepy.

Not my picture.  I wasn't fast enough to get
a picture of a goose stopping traffic both ways on my
way home from work. 

• Have you considered not wearing wool socks?  Not quite yet, but I'm getting a pedicure this afternoon (and a hair cut) so there is the possibility of me not wearing socks.
• Is the heater off yet?  Ha!  Not until May.
• Are there flowers blooming?  Um... there are green things poking out of the ground.  I think that's what a plant is... It's been so long.
• Have you opened a window?  YES!  Now I can enjoy a cool evening breeze and keep the smoke alarm from going off while I burn dinner.

Raise your hand if you're glad it's not winter any more.  Put your hand down, and get out there and enjoy it.  Any other signs of spring you're glad to see?  It's been a long week (but productive) week at work, and I'm excited to start the weekend a little early this afternoon.  YAY for warm weather.