This and That

It's time for a randomly bullet-ed post!

• There's a kid on the robotics team who eats his pizza by first submerging it in his glass of Pepsi to fully saturate the crust with Pepsi, and then he eats it.  I'm not an expert on teenage boys, but I think that's a little eccentric, even for one of them.  It wasn't a one-time occurrence either.  I've seen him do it at least three times.
• I was eating one of those mini boxes of raisins the other day, and I noticed the list of ingredients on the box:  raisins.  Hmmm......do raisins count as a base ingredient, or should they really say that the base ingredient is dehydrated grapes?
• The same guy that asked me some Bible questions last week also asked me to give audible thanks for the food when a group of us ate at Texas Corral the other night (I think he was serious).  This totally caught me off guard, and all I could say was that I had already given thanks to myself (and God).  So he gave up and gave thanks.  That's the first time that has ever happened to me.
• Seen on a robotics kid's T-shirt today:  "There are 10 kinds of people in the world.  Those that understand binary, and those who don't."  Engineer in training I'd say.  His dad is a software engineer turned manager, which might explain a few things.
• Above 55 degrees on the last day of January - now that's crazy in a good way.

That's all the fodder for now folks.

Won't You Meet Me In.....

Montana.....because that's where the annual snowboard/ski trip was this year.  Sorry Snacky Cakes, the airline ticket prices made this one look more attractive.  The trip involved the usual suspects:  Jax, Orange Blossom, and Share Bear.  Share Bear is still a good nickname, but I'm trying to decide if it should be replaced by Shax.  Here's the executive summary (not necessarily in order of importance):

1. You think us young, single people must really whoop it up when we all go on a trip?  Think again.  Our days mostly consisted of awaking, eating breakfast, going to the slope, eating supper, and going to bed at a decent time.  Maybe that means we're not so young after all.....
2. On a chair lift at Big Sky we met a lady who was 70 years young and is staying at her condo there for two months skiing every day until her husband arrives from Minnesota and they go to their condo in Florida.  You meet all kinds of interesting people on the lift.
3. Big Sky for a day.  It was snowing to beat the band almost the whole time we were there.  This reduced the visibility some, but it made for some awesome snowboarding and skiing.
4. Bridger Bowl for three days.  We went despite the bumper sticker we saw at Big Sky that said "No One Cares You Ski Bridger."  The snow was different every day, and there were an "infinite number of unmarked hazards" because they were slightly short on snow, but it was still a good ride.  They had some powder at least one day.
5. Car pool discount at Bridger Bowl for one day:  $15 lift tickets.  We spent our savings from that day on the $84 lift ticket at Big Sky.
6. We cut things too close for comfort in terms of the gasoline in the car.  The problem with rental cars is you're not familiar with how far the car can go on a tank, and the low gas indicators aren't in the same spot as in the vehicle you normally drive.  Plus I just got distracted.  There were about 3 exits with "No Services" before we found one that had a gas station, just in the nick of time.
7. Saw Udo and Damaris again - that was fun because on two other trips in the past (when I went skiing with Ananias) they were our ski trip hosts.
8. Saw my MT relatives on Sunday (went to meeting with them), and they graciously fed us lunch that day.  J&E, George, Cami, Lance, and Emily.  It's always good to see extended family.
9. We explored the places to eat in downtown Bozeman.  Some of them were not cheap.  Ted's Montana Grill:  delicious.  Looie's Down Under:  not as much.  Service was slow, and the food was only so-so.  Even though they promised we wouldn't be, we were slightly disappointed.  The leftovers from Looie's did make for some great veal sandwiches on the ski slope.
10. It wasn't slope-side like last year, but the condo this year was really nice.  Separate bedrooms for all, a gas fireplace, nice kitchen (with an approved brand of appliances), laundry facilities (with an unapproved brand of appliances), and more.
11. New game for the trip:  Quiddler
12. Memorable hazard:  Driving with a super messy windshield on a mountain pass because the windshield washer fluid had frozen up overnight.
13. Best executive decision:  Paying $10 per day to upgrade the rental car from a midsize sedan to a Toyota Highlander.
14. Famous catch phrase from the trip:  "Just because there's space doesn't mean you have to fill it."
15. Fellowship.

That's really about all I have on this trip.  You've already seen a couple pictures from my previous posts, but here's a couple more to round things out.

Big Sky Claims.

Jax, Share Bear, and Mel at Bridger Bowl.  Not pictured:  Orange Blossom.

We should probably think about filling up soon.

Gratitude Photojournal 2012, Week #4

Things I'm thankful for this week:

1. Fellowship.  Supremely sweet.  I'm not doing too good at the "photo" part of this gratitude journal.  I didn't get a picture of Udo and Damaris (which is what I really wanted to show), so this one of my traveling companions (who were part of the fellowship) will have to do.

2.  Family.  I cheated and used an old picture because I didn't get a good picture of the family members I saw this past week.  The picture below does not include all the family either, but it's what I had.

3. Word and Spirit.  They help me know what to say when I get "challenge" questions.

Muffin Experiment: Phase 3

January 13th has come and gone, and you know what that means.....the start of another muffin experiment!  This year I took a slightly different tactic.  The last two years we've been experimenting with store/bakery bought muffins, and we've been wondering if it would matter if we used a homemade muffins.  This year I made muffins for Friday the 13th - they were pumpkin chocolate chunk (I was going to do chocolate chip but didn't have any, so I improvised with some leftover Hershey's s'more bars).  I did use canned pumpkin, so it's possible there is still a slight preservative factor in the homemade muffins.  Next year maybe I'll have to make banana muffins or something.

So anyway, the muffin is officially on test and to date has not started to mold.  I skipped the flipper door confinement treatment and just put it on the dedicated muffin shelf right away.  I know that's a deviation in the test process, but I don't think it will matter too much.  See below for a picture.  The one on top is the newest muffin on test.  The one on the left is two years old, and the one on the right is just under a year old because of the muffin test fiasco last year.  We've also started a betting pool on when the homemade muffin will mold.  Winner gets bragging rights.

Serious muffin testing in progress.

Gratitude Photojournal 2012, Week #3

Things I'm thankful for this week:


1.  Fresh Snow.  The better to snowboard on, my dear.

2.  Friends.  Because life is better with them.

3.  Health.  When compared to a lot of other things like breaking your leg on the ski hill or having a degenerative condition, the common cold really isn't all that bad.

Speaking of being thankful, here's a good commentary on what happens when you are UNthankful.

Knitting Knowledge Kneaded

The gratitude photojournal from the past week will be a couple days late.  Here's something to tide you over.

I have a sweater that I really like.  It has sentimental value because I bought it as a souvenir when I visited Ireland.  On top of that, it has a lot of features that I really like.  First off, it's blue.  In fact, two different shades of blue - navy and more of a royal blue.  It has a "T-shirt under the sweater" look all in one sweater.  In general I kind of like that look, but I don't always execute it because sometimes the underneath shirt gets bunched up underneath and it's hard to get the "feel" right when you have two shirts on.  It also has some very nice subtle piping stripes around the neck, down the sides, and at the pseudo sweater sleeve ends.  Finally, at the bottom it ends with kind of a curly thing on the sleeves, which is an interesting look.  So, all around, it's a good sweater.  It says "me".  There's just one problem.  It has a few holes.  They're mostly on the sleeve.  Not gigantic, but kind of noticeable.

I have several questions related to this:

1. Is it possible to repair this sweater?
2. If I wear the sweater with holes in it, will people notice?
3. If you've seen me wear it in the last year or two, have you noticed the holes?
4. If people notice, will they think less of me?
5. Should I throw this sweater away?
6. Where can I find a similar sweater to purchase a replacement (if needed)?
7. Is there somewhere I could commission someone to make an exact replica?

Thank you in advance for your expertise.

New Boots

As promised, here are the details on the new boots.  Per Eva's comment, I tried a different background so that it would be easier to see the details on the shoes.  The official color is black, but with the brown stitching sometimes they look dark brown to me.

Boots with my new boots.  No, I'm not kicking him.

Detailed view.

According to my fashion consultants, boots are all the rage and allow you to wear knee-length skirts in the winter while still keeping your legs warm.  So far I have found this to be true.

Gratitude Photojournal 2012, Week #2

Things I'm thankful for this week:

1.  Leftovers.  They allowed me to eat four healthful suppers in a row without much work on my part after a busy day of work and stuff and things.  Showcased here is my first attempt at curry chicken with rice noodles.

2.  (Mostly) leisurely Saturday morning.  I awoke without my alarm at 8:30 AM after 8 hours of sleep.  This was followed by a lovely breakfast of pancakes and eggs with juice and hot tea while reading my bible.  After that, it was on to robotics.  That's the best kind of Saturday where it's not too rushed, but you don't get bogged down in laziness because there are things to look forward to later in the day. 

 

3. Fresh snow and sunshine.  It's hard to beat this combination in the winter.  The snow makes it all white and bright, and the sunshine after the storm helps to lift your spirits.  See those icicles?  Those are the ones the gutter people want to help me with.  I kinda like the icicles. :-)

Xmas Time

This post is long overdue.  I can barely remember what happened.  There was some snow and bright lights I think.....maybe some food.....I'm talking about Christmas.  I had a couple days off from work, so I went over to Widdle Brudda's house.  The 'rents and Muggles and BIL-Dan with the nephew-dog arrived too.  We did the usual stuff I guess.  More details are below in form of the classic list.

1. What do we want?  Ham!  Yep, we ate a lot of that.
2. Played Chutes & Ladders and Monopoly Deal.  It's interesting to observe the difference in personality between my nieces when we play games.
3. Grandpa bought a kite at the hobby store on Monday, so we took that out for a spin.  There are two exciting moments in flying a kite:  getting it off the ground, and letting the string out all the way to the end.  The wind wasn't quite strong enough to do the second part.  Bummer.
4. Somebody rigged up the dog leash to Niece #3's favorite stuffed animal, so she took Lenny for a walk/drag around the house.  She's game to take the real-life dog around the house if somebody hooks the dog up to the leash too.
5. We went to one of those special meeting thingies.  That was good.
6. Ananias couldn't join us, so we had to Skype with her.  She was being crafty in WY.
7. Heard one of my nieces playing in the corner by herself singing Hymn #77 "I Hear Him Call" by heart (at least part of it).  That can sure warm your heart.
8. Sometimes it's nice not to be the parent when a child pukes in her bed without even being aware she was sick.  I'm sure it's awful nice to have some kids too.  Be content with what you have.
9. You'll never guess what we had for breakfast a couple days......bacon, of course.  With pancakes.
10. I think I keep forgetting to mention this on my other cheesy state posts.  But, the road construction at the I-94 and I-894 interchange is nearly done!  No more detours and super slow speed limits hopefully.  You even get to go in a short tunnel now instead of over the sharp-turn bridge.  Woo-hoo!

I was very sporadic in taking pictures, so this is all I have for pictures that are of much interest or ripe for a witty caption.

Ready to frost some cookies, or about to preg-check a cow with BIL-Dan?  You decide....

On Skype with Ananias.

Story time with Aunt Muggles.

Let me help you clean up that mess!

Mentoring Learning

In my reading of mentor training material, I found a couple interesting tidbits.

"Professionals possess special knowledge and are trusted by society to use that knowledge responsibly."  This is talking about engineers and other technical professionals mostly, but this did give me a thought.  You know how some professional sports players say they shouldn't be held to a higher standard or be thought of as a role model?  Well, according to the above definition, that's not true.  Whether you're an engineer or a professional athlete, by virtue of being a professional, you are held to a higher standard.  If you don't like being a role model, then choose a different career.

Another section I found very interesting was on learning styles:

Visual

• Learns by watching and demonstrations
• Has vivid imagination and visualizes in detail
• Needs description to help conquer goal
• Person is generally quiet by nature

Auditory

• Learns easily by instruction from others
• Finds that visualizations are hard to interpret
• Details are less important
• Enjoys talking and hearing others talk

Kinesthetic

• Thrives on hands-on, direct involvement
• Remembers what was done, not what was said or seen
• May speak with gestures and stand close to the speaker during conversations

What I found so fascinating about this is that based on your learning style, they can generalize things about your personality and mannerisms.  I guess I never really thought that your learning style really affected your personality, or vice versa.

Any guesses on which learning style I am?  Or, do you want to share what kind you are?  I've never been officially diagnosed, but based on the description I'm pretty sure I know what type I am.

Gratitude Photojournal 2012, Week #1

Things I'm thankful for this week:
1.  My garage.  Until I had to park outside last weekend (and forgot my car outside last night), I had forgotten how nice it is to jump in the car and go without scraping ice and snow off the windows.

2.  A working throat.  There's a guy at work who had a tumor in his neck that was nearly inoperable, and  it was making it so he could barely speak, eat, or drink.  He had surgery to take it out, and they had to rebuild part of his esophagus with muscles from his arm and leg.  He didn't get to drink anything for a month.  Water would never taste so good after that long of a drought.

3.  Mentors and volunteers in high school.  Besides my parents being the ultimate mentors (plus Uncle Walt teaching me about mechanical farm stuff), I'm thankful for those who could see past the shyness and awkwardness and encouraged me to join FBLA and go to leadership training.  I'm thankful for those who graciously donated their valuable time to be coaches for our Odyssey of the Mind teams.  Thanks Deron, Larry, Char, Neil, and Sarah for your commitment and dedication.  I'm going to try to pay it forward this year by helping to mentor a FIRST robotics team.  The kick-off was yesterday!  I think it will be a very busy six weeks.  (FIRST = For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology)

New Year, New Stuff

This is out of order since I haven't posted the Christmas happenings yet, but who cares?  I got this post done, so I'm posting it.

For New Years I went and hung out with some friends that you're probably familiar with by now.  If you aren't familiar, then you aren't much of a follower of this blog.  I went back over to the cheesy state and hung out with Jax, Bex, and Jenx.  Here are the highlights:

1. Besides eating snacks, we spent a lot of time playing games.  Like a lot a lot.  We played Rage, Monopoly Deal, Qwirkle, Settlers of Catan, Scrabble, and Split.  We played some of them more than once.  Everybody won at least one or two of the games, so there wasn't too much pouting and crying.
2. In fact, there was very little crying.  We spent a lot of time laughing.  Let's just say that I like these friends because they laugh at my odd jokes and physical humor, which only eggs me on.  And sometimes they just laugh at me.  That's OK - I'm happy to be of comic relief service.
3. You may not know this, but I'm kind of a singer.  I'm not professional by any means because I don't really sing in public.  But when I'm amongst friends and family, I can't keep from singing along to whatever music is playing.  If there's no music coming from the speakers, then I sing along with the music in my head.  So anyway, I was singing a certain song for a bit that earned me the nickname "Meline Dion".  Hopefully that one doesn't stick too hard.
4. After SM meeting on Sunday, I was accused of being a social butterfly, which is definitely a new label for me.  This is the same friend who said I was a better conversationalist than her.  She must see a different side of me than I see when I look in the mirror.  Maybe she's seeing my back side.  :-P
5.  Saturday was jam-packed with stuff.  I'm not sure I'll have a enough bullets/numbers to contain it all.  I did purchase some new socks.  So far the only hole in those pairs is the one where your leg sticks out.
6. We made a stop by REI, one of my most favorite places to shop.  I only bought a couple pairs of Smart Wool socks, but I came really close to buying a new pair of hiking boots.  Like I said before, shoe maven.  And, I spent a lot of time drooling on all the outdoor gear.
7. Next stop:  Penzey's, the makers of spices.  That sure was a place to do some sniffing.  I tried to sniff every sample spice jar in the place, but I wasn't quite able to before my olfactory nerves burned out.  I asked the people there how you're supposed to cleanse your nose pallet, but they didn't know.  Also of interest was the "rodeo" smelling spice.  You think that's animal manure, dirt, popcorn, and cotton candy you smell at the rodeo?  Think again.....the bratwurst seasoning smelled exactly like rodeo.  Just some food for thought.....
8. Cubanitas.  Guess what kind of food they served?  We ordered (and ate) a wide variety of plantains, somewhat by accident.  It's a long story that I won't get into here.
9. Harlem Globetrotters - I had never seen them before.  It's a good show.  A little basketball, many dunks and tricks, and a lot of comedy.
10. Ice skating in downtown MKE.  The rink wasn't real big and the number of people was very large, but I still enjoyed taking some circles on the ice for more than half an hour.  I really enjoy ice skating, and I don't think I had been for a couple years.  It was good to strap the ol' skates on again.  Speaking of that, a long time ago when I moved out, I "permanently borrowed" my dad's ice skates (with his permission).  They're still the ones I use.  I was thinking yesterday that ironically I could more easily share shoes with my dad than my mom.
11. I ate poffertjes for the first time.  They are excellent with fresh fruit.  I didn't try them with the traditional powdered sugar.
12. I learned I have a monotone phone voice.  No wonder all those people at work fall asleep in my FMEA phone teleconferences!
13. Special meeting.  Like usual, it was special.  We heard a lot about being prepared for things God might ask us to do.
14. I went all out and ordered the filet mignon at Emily's.  Very delicious.
15. Speaking of food, we had delicious egg souffle with bacon for breakfast!

All that's left are the pictures.  One for each of us.

I call it "the joy of ice skating".

Jax demonstrates that she is literally a cheese head.

Jenx cheesing in the cheesy state.

Mel in Boots - more on that in a separate post in the next week.  This was after climbing Mount Patty O'Furniture.

The Ridiculous

I went to lunch yesterday with some friends from work.  Our "usual" place has this lunch special where you get one of lunch specials #1-#13 for $5.49 if you buy a soft drink.  I'm a water girl, so I don't really want the soft drink.  There is only one or maybe two specials cheaper than $5.49 without the drink.  It doesn't make any sense how/why they have this special, but they do.  Yesterday I was really tricky and ordered a water and the "unnumbered" special (the Speedy Gonzalez) that is only $5.25.  When my bill came, it was for $5.49.  I very nicely remarked on this to the waiter, and he went and got me a new check.  My table mates said only I would notice.  I protested and said I only noticed because I had commented upon what I was doing to pay less than the special that day, but they didn't buy it.  When I paid my bill at the register, they shorted me one penny.  I let it slide - just this once.

Several years ago I had some special Gutter Helmet installed to keep the junk out of my gutters.  I works well, and overall I'm pretty happy with it.  But......I'm not so happy with the company that sells and installs it.  They are annoying.  Every year or so they call and want to send someone out to "see how it's doing" (and give you a big sales pitch on all these other things they sell).  You don't like those icicles that are "normal" to form on the gutter guard?  Well, they have just the thing for you to melt the ice off of it.  The people that set up the appointments are very persistent.  I've learned to be wise and tell them I've heard the spiel before and don't want to hear it again unless something has changed in the last year, but this time they suckered me by saying the inspection the guy would do is a $150 value, and it would be free.  So I relented.  The appointment wasn't until 5:30, which is when the sun sets.  You can guess it wasn't a very thorough inspection, especially since he arrived 15 minutes late.  Plus it was 50 degrees without an icicle in sight.  This time I was tricky and played innocent like I thought he was only there for the inspection.  So he had to call the main office, and I had to talk to them, etc.  I got off easy with only a small sales pitch (on UV furnace filter systems) while standing outside.  He didn't even get in the front door.  If they're going to be annoying and pressure me into a sales pitch, sometimes I can't help being a little ornery in return.  I just feel sorry for the sales guy who gets caught in the middle.

Enough of this heavy stuff.  While on my New Years trip, I saw this great idea for winter kayaking.

I'll have to try this some time.

I also thought this was interesting.  I didn't buy one, but if I did have a Christmas tree, I might go with one of these from Walgreens.

Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!

Contemplations For The Day

Well, it's back to old clothes and porridge for a little bit.  Someone at work accused me of having a somber expression today.  I suppose I maybe did.  It wasn't that I was in a bad mood.  I was just kind of tired, and trying to get back into the "serious" work groove.  Maybe I wasn't used to having so many people around at work again.  After a full weekend of lots of people time, maybe I was feeling like some hermit time was in order.  I don't really know.  It's kind of sad my joy wasn't shining through.

Speaking of sad, I overheard three guys talking at the Y today.  I would estimate them to be middle-aged.  They were talking about how after two days with their in-laws over the holidays they're ready to leave, but they stay longer and make the sacrifice for the sake of their spouse.  It's nice they care enough to make the sacrifice, but it is kind of sad that they can't enjoy their in-laws more.  I don't deal with this situation really, so maybe I'm way off base and shouldn't be making judgements.  And a crowded house probably aggravates things.  But it seems to me that you could make a bigger effort to appreciate the people who helped to make your spouse the person they are today.  I suppose having God with you (and with your in-laws) greatly helps the appreciation and tolerance.

Last year, you may or may not have known that I participated in my friend Avis's weekly photo project, where every Sunday I sent her a snapshot of my life that day.  It was kind of fun, so this year I've decided to go along with her on a gratitude photojournal excursion.  So, expect some kind of weekly post on that.  I think I'll limit my list to three every week.  That way after 52 weeks, hopefully I won't be getting too repetitive.  If you want to join her, feel free to do so.  See the link in this paragraph for more details.

Clean Slate (Almost)

Christmas and New Year posts to come soon.  But, to hold you over, here's the results of five hours of cleaning at work on Friday.  A fresh, clean desk for a fresh new year!  I forgot to take a "before" picture, but you can probably imagine what it looked like if it took me 5 hours to sort and clean a 6' x 8' space.  It was kind of similar to this - maybe not quite as messy.  I still have a small stack of post-its to sort through, and I need to clean out my e-mail inbox, so it's not *tinging* yet, but that might have to wait until 2013!