Souls

In a discussion with some guys at work today, we happened to talk about how there was a guy who once experimented to try to measure the weight of a soul.  That guy's hypothesis was that the soul actually did have mass.  I don't know why exactly I think this, but I would hypothesize that the soul does not have mass, although I'm not sure I have any verses or other reasons to think that.  Dad, maybe you'd want to install a special bed in the Good Sam's dying room to measure if their weight changes by a couple grams when people die?  The tricky part would be defining exactly when the soul leaves the body.  While I don't know about the weight of a soul, I do know its worth:  priceless.  And that's way more important than its weight.

Redemption

Well, I'm gonna do it.  I'm giving old Amtrak a chance to redeem themselves.  For you long-time readers, you may remember my last experience with them was not the best.  If they fail again, then I'm going to like, totally, like, take my business to that other passenger train company......like......ummm.....wait.....they don't have any competition.  Except for Herman of course, and he's not happy about being left behind.

Other than that, not too much is happening except sending kind thoughts towards my cousins who are mourning the death of their dad.  While not completely unexpected, it was still kind of sudden if that makes any sense.  If you've gotta go, you might as well do it quickly I guess.

Three Generations

Since I've been on such a shoe buying spree, I also bought some new tennis shoes last weekend.  The new pair of those did have laces because no self-respecting pair of sneakers has anything but laces.  This means that I now have three generations of exercise shoes in the house.  At the far left are my outside use / going to be doing something where they might get ruined shoes.  The center pair just got demoted to my occasional outside / sometimes inside pair, and of course the far right ones are my inside only pair.  Well, at least for maybe the next month or so until I get lazy and don't feel like carrying them into the Y to change shoes there and just put them on at home.

You may also notice that they all look very similar.  Yes, I like blue, and I like the Asics brand even more.  It's called customer loyalty, folks.  I tend to be that way about all my shoes.  When I find a brand that fits just right, I stick with them.

This and That

Is your computer in need of a cleaning?  Try this.....

I always have the same thought when I eat Runts.  First I start out wondering why they make a fruit-shaped candy that's a heart instead of a fruit, and I wonder what hearts are supposed to taste like.  If I'm on my game, then I usually realize that the "hearts" are supposed to be strawberries.  I think.

Cast your vote on this serious issue....

I've decided how I might describe Facebook:  a social minefield.  I don't know this person real well, but I know who they are....but I'm not sure if I know them well enough to approve their friend request.....but I don't know them well enough to know if they'll be offended if I reject or ignore their friend request....I'm not sure if I want them to know lots of details about my life.....what if one of my friends from work posts something that might offend my grandma when they're both my friends (because my friends at work do sometimes like to go with the shock factor)....it's all very stressful.  :-)

More Than I Can Chew?

Wow, I must say I feel a bit overwhelmed and surprised.  When I joined FB yesterday, I invited less than 10 people to be my friend thinking maybe I could keep a low profile.  Not even close.  Within a couple hours I probably had ten new friend requests, and when I checked earlier today that number had risen to a total of maybe 25.  What surprised me even more than that was who the "first responders" were to my joining.  It was just a whole mix of people.  Now I guess I better go review all those people and decide if I want to approve their friend requests.

Peer Pressure and Blackmail

That's what was used to get me to join the whole social networking scene again.  My friends at work play dirty.  They send their social inviations through Facebook and said there were lots of pictures of me that they had posted.  That got me curious enough to join again.  We'll see how it goes.  Don't worry faithful readers, I don't plan to totally abandon this site for the old FB.  And that's not the reason I haven't posted much the last couple days.  I just haven't had any inspired observations is all.  Unlike last week when I was, like, posting every day.  Later peeps.  Stay out of jail.

One Piece Short of a Puzzle

Megs and BIL-Dan, I finished the puzzle last weekend to the best of my ability anyway.  You can rest easy now.  Unless Sully ate that missing piece.

Is there a new ettiquette nowadays on answering the phone with the large proliferation of Caller ID?  In my opinion, back when only a few people had caller ID it was a bit creepy if somebody answered the phone by saying "Hello, Whatsherbucket".  It almost felt like they were spying on you and knew you were going to call them.  Actually, until about two months ago my phone at work was an older model where I couldn't see who was calling, so I had to gamble every time I answered the phone.  It was hard to screen out the vendor reps' phone calls.  Now that almost everybody  has Caller ID and everybody knows that, is it not creepy anymore to answer the phone and state the person's name before they talk or identify themselves?  It's getting to the point now where I feel almost foolish telling somebody who it is that's calling because I know they probably already know.  Unless there are extenuating circumstances of course like I'm not calling from my phone or I'm making some kind of cold call or it's a stalking call.  Oh wait, no, I don't identify myself on my stalking calls.  Then it's not stalking anymore.

Just Past Winter Solstice Holiday

I never summarized my "few days past winter solstice" vacation/holiday.  I didn't actually go anywhere, so I think that means a summary list is not required.  All of the family but Ananias drove out to my house.  They came Thursday evening and started trickling out the door Saturday afternoon with the last ones leaving on Monday morning.  We played some games, ate, visited, puzzled, etc.  I put my brother to work for a few hours.  All in all, it was some good family time.  I've never taken the actual survey, but I think probably my primary language of love is quality time.  Anyway, I digress.  I have a few pictures, but none of them are that great.  I'll post a select few, and that will have to do.  Here are some other random thoughts from the long weekend when they were here.

Who knew nine people could eat so much food?  Good thing I had some help with making the food while everybody was here.  It felt like every time we made a meal that I was making enough food that would last me for two weeks.  I'm not sure how only two heaping grocery carts was enough to last our family two or three weeks back when I was a teenager

Gingerbread houses look cool and are fun, but did they really eat them after they made them back in the old days?  It seems like they would have felt obligated to eat them back then, but I can't imagine they tasted very good.  How did gingerbread houses ever become a "holiday activity" in the first place?

I can appreciate some "acts of service" language of love stuff too.  It's nice to come home after a day away from the house to find that before your guests left they shoveled the driveway for you.  It's also nice to have a handy brother who can install doors and investigate roof leaks for you.  More on that at a later date.  This was also when my birthday present from my brother and his family was delivered.  Finally, here are the pics.

Ready for the smorgasbord.  I pulled out all the stops for the family: fancy tablecloth, my best plastic card table, and my fanciest water pitcher.  I also messed up and accidentally bought the low sodium black olives. Whoops.  Not cool, Mel.  Not cool.

That one gingerbread man didn't run fast enough to stay ahead of Sully.  He also sampled the corner of the gingerbread house before any of the rest of us.

View from 25 feet.  Awesome, isn't it?

Epitome

This is my birthday present from my brother and his family.  They said something about it reminding them of me.  I'm not sure why...I only have one gray hair, and I'm also a female.

So far the start of a new decade has been fine.  I got a couple cards, someone made me a birthday cake, and I got sung to twice.  Plus I got chocolate as a present from one person.  Not bad, not bad at all.

Starting the 100 list?

I figure this should be easy for me seeing how I'm not all that wordy even though it may be difficult to tell that from how much I post on this blog.  We'll see.


Here are the Rules:
Use only one word to answer the questions. 

1. Where is your cell phone? counter
2. Your hair? disheveled
3. Your mother? courageous
4. Your father? humorous
5. Your favorite food? potatoes (maybe - this one is very difficult to pinpoint)
6. Your dream last night? none
7. Your favorite drink? juice
8. Your dream/goal? happiness
9. What room are you in? office
10. Your hobby? exercise
11. Your fear? criticism
12. Where do you want to be in six years? unknown
13. Where were you last night? school
14. Something that you aren't? old (at least for a few more hours)
15. Muffins? chocolate
16. Wish list item? vacation
17. Where did you grow up? prairie

18. Last thing you did? ate
19. What are you wearing? clothes

20. Your T.V.? nonexistent

21. Your pets? nonexistent

22. Friends? nonexist.....oh, I mean....precious

23. Your life? nontraditional
24. Your mood? happy
25. Missing someone? no
26. Vehicle? Herman

27. Something you're not wearing? pants
28. Your favorite store? grocery
29. Your favorite color? blue
30. When was the last time you laughed? today

31. Last time you cried? unsure
32. Your best friend?(s)  special (ed!) :-)
33. One place that I could go over and over? Y (and I do)
34. One person who emails you regularly? spammer
35. Favorite place to eat? parents'

I think that counts toward my list of 100, don't you?  I'm 1/3 done!  Here's my last word for you:  Tag!  :-)

Lots of Randomness

First, a couple of worthy links.  A friend told me about this cool music site where you can type in an artist or a song, and then the website will play songs with similar musical characteristics.  Then, there is also a great song that Mow sent me a link to after my first Christmas song post.
Pandora
Mow's Christmas recommendation

In other good news, I had an e-mail in my inbox at work this morning saying that the legal department wanted to interview me about a possible patent filing.  This is by no means a guarantee of a patent, but it's kind of exciting anyway just to think of the possibility.  So, this got me to thinking about how I would say my life is going well right now.  Promotion a couple months ago, now this possible patent thing, a great Christmas and New Years, no broken bones snowboarding, etc.  Sometimes when things are like this it makes me wonder what's up ahead - will there be some really hard times in the future that will be just as hard as these days are good?  Is there something coming down the road that will completely shake up my world?  I'm reminded of something I heard two Sunday mornings ago:  "We need to build in times of peace."  I guess for now I will enjoy the goodness and be very thankful while I can be.  I better get to that building while I can.

Old and Tired

Like my socks, that's what both my brown and black pair of shoes were.  It broke my heart to do it, but I decided that they needed to be retired from regular use.  I know you all think I probably bought lace-up pairs just like my old ones, but the store didn't have any of that type in my size, so horror of horrors I had to branch out a little bit in the footwear department.  No laces on the new black and new brown shoes.

I know I could have gone online and ordered some shoes with laces, but I'm very particular about shoes.  They have to fit just right, and I don't want to have to do all the trying on of shoes via mail order.

Just ignore the dirty kitchen floor in the pictures with the Sully hair.  It hasn't recovered yet from the Christmas company traffic.

Black shoes

Age:  5+ years
Use:  Heavy - worn 3-5 times a week their whole lives.
Replaced by:  Dansko shoes without reverse.
Travel:  All over the U.S. and to Mexico.
















Brown shoes
Age:  Just under 2 years old
Use:  Heavy - worn 3-5 times a week their entire lives.
Replaced by:  Born loafer type shoe
Travel:  All over the U.S. and to Mexico, Canada, and China.

Snowboarding Nirvana

Here's the short and sweet vacation summary: Drove to the cheesy state, met Sharin' there at the airport, and then we flew to MT where we were met at the airport by Ananias. During the course of the next six days we also saw/met a whole bunch of cool people (including relatives). We went snowboarding three days and did a lot of soaking in hot water and saunas after the strenuous exercise. Those are the boring details.

What you're really looking for is my summary list of "favorites" from the experience, not necessarily in order of importance.

1. Got to see a "blue moon" rising on the starboard side of the airplane while at the same time seeing the sun setting on the port side. We also saw a sun dog while driving to the slope one day.
2. You know someone is a hard core tea drinker when they carry their own tea bags with them in their carry-on and then order hot water at a restaurant so they can brew some tea with aforementioned tea bags.
3. As I've mentioned before, God is no man's debtor, and that was reinforced again on this trip with all the excellent hospitality we had from everybody.
4. Until young Sharin' pointed it out, I didn't realize that most ladies with that name are approximately sixty years old (young Sharin' is not 60, btw).
   
5. We hit what I like to call the trifecta of ski slopes in the Bozeman, MT area. Moonlight Basin, Big Sky, and Bridger Bowl.
6. Snow conditions at Bridger Bowl: AWESOME!!!!! Can you say powder hound?
7. Went to the top of Lone Mountain at Big Sky, and Sharin' likened it to being on the moon. I tended to agree.
8. At my uncle's household, they eat what he likes to call the Real McCoy (Smart Balance), but some of us other people like to eat that fake margarine because it tastes better.
9. We were rebellious and went to Big Sky in our snow outfits that were NOT from the 2009-2010 season. I know, terribly uncouth.
10. Fellowship with others who enjoy talking about spiritual things. While I was there I did realize it was special, but it was reinforced just how special when I got back to work and returned to the usual grind.
11. Seeing an 80+ year old braving the new frontiers of iPods and Skype.
12. Having an acquaintance/friend move solidly into the friend category.  It's always good to have more friends.
    

I suppose it's not a complete trip summary without a couple pictures, so here you go.

Ananias, MelBMarvis, Sharin'

Lewis and Clark were quite advanced for their time - one of them even wore goggles.

Shredding the slope in the powder.

The Boiling River in Yellowstone National Park.

Finland

I bet there were a few of you not in the loop who were afraid my New Years resolution was to blog a whole lot less, huh? Well, no such luck for you. I'm still very alive and blogging. The issue was my vacation was so exciting that I couldn't take much time to give a shout out to all you homies.

So, it's a new year. I can't remember what I resolved to do last year and feel too lazy to check, so I'll focus on this year. I really don't feel like making many resolutions this year. The last couple of years I've had an exercise goal, but I've reached the point on that where I've established a fairly good exercise habit, so there isn't much to resolve there. Maybe this year I'll make a conscious effort to reach out more to other people rather than hanging back and hoping others will reach out first. That's a bad habit I have sometimes. Or, maybe I should really work on polishing up my Spanish this year just for fun/to learn a new skill. I don't know.....I'll see what happens.

I got back last night, and I don't think I've ever had a Thursday feel so much like a Monday in my life before. I'll probably do my vacation summary post tomorrow. For now, here's a link to a song about Finland that I was trying to sing for Ananias while I was on vacation.


P.S. You won't want to miss the vacation summary -there was someone with me that I've never gone on vacation with before. ;-)

Tidiness

The great thing about December 31st is what a tidy day it is. All the radio stations have such nice summaries like top 50 hits of the year, top 50 news stories of the year, etc. It appeals to my penchant for bullet points and my love for a good, concise summary. The only thing I sometimes struggle with is doing reflecting on my own life and personal development. I get kind of bored with analyzing myself.