A Bite

My mind is BLOWN! Did you know that it's Brussels Sprout, and not Brussel Sprout????

I'd also like to take this time to remind people that it's Sherbet, not Sherbert. Just a personal pet peeve of mine. I wonder if someone out there has a personal pet peeve about brussels sprouts being incorrectly called brussel sprouts.

Okay, let's be honest... I really wanted to talk about sherbet because I randomly found this outrageously rockin' album cover on google image search today.

Lightning Crashes

Now that we own a house, I don't enjoy thunderstorms nearly as much as I used to. Now I worry about trees falling on the house, lightning strikes, hail hitting the roof, and lots of other miscellaneous damage.

We haven't been to the grocery store in over a month now, thanks to our FarmFresh deliveries. Dave is in Portland, Oregon for RailsConf until Sunday, so my dinners have been consisting of random things I've found in the cupboards and refrigerator. Tonight I had cheerios, a grapefruit, and a couple of cookies. Yesterday I had couscous, a frozen waffle, and some strawberries.

I miss him.

I had the most delicious lunch ever today at the City Market. It was chicken salad on top of ... salad salad, with fruit salad on the side. Very salad-y. It was EXACTLY what I was craving. I saved about 1/3 of it to eat as part of my dinner, but ended up eating it as soon as I got back to the office. I'm so pathetic.

This was a pretty self-deprecating post, but I'm still getting over this cold/flu thing and there's no one here to hear me whine. wahhhhhhh

Hey! There's a tornado warning!

Eat My Shortz

I've been doing zillions of crossword puzzles lately, and I think I'm getting pretty good at it. It helps that the clues are repeated pretty often. Everyone at work was excited to tell me that Will Shortz (the NY Times crossword puzzle editor) was to give the commencement speech at IU this year. I guess that's cool, but I wasn't about to drive an hour to hear a guy talk about puzzles.

Uncle Randy and Aunt Julie were generous to invite us to their condo in Pennsylvania for Memorial Day weekend, so that's where we're headed early tomorrow morning! We'll be headed out of Indy just as thousands of people are headed in to see the big race on Sunday. One of these days we'll go.

Last night we went to Abyssiana, the Ethiopian restaurant on 38th St. It was a rough start, with 10 people all trying to figure out what we wanted to eat and share, but it was a lot of fun. The food was really good, and it was perfect "group" experience. After we were sated, the chef came out to ask us how we liked the food; he was so short and cute.

My employer just began a health-care incentive plan thing, where if you are in good health, they compensate you with money. I started telling my coworkers what a great idea I thought this plan was.... really excited about it. So we were all discussing this, and I said how I think people who were overweight should have to pay higher health care premiums because of all the extra health care costs they impose on the greater population. If they have a glandular problem, then that's something else... but if they just didn't exercise and didn't eat correctly, then it's a preventable problem. Someone counter argued the strong correlation between lower-income people and obesity, and how they would unfairly have to pay higher health care premiums than higher-income workers. He was right. How will the behavior change if there is no punishment? I use the word "punishment" not because I'm a jerk, but because there's a Boy George song playing on the radio and my vocabulary area of my brain is blurred right now. If someone gets 10 speeding tickets, their car insurance premiums are increased, and there is an incentive to save money by driving the speed limit. If someone is overweight, should their health insurance premiums be increased? I would think that a shorter life span and the various other weight-related ailments should be enough incentive to not let yourself become overweight, but I think it's obvious that it's not. If anything, people are motivated to lose weight mostly because of aesthetic reasons. Hey, I just remembered about those Whirlpool employees who were riled up because their health care plan imposed higher premiums for smokers. Same issue.

I took a self-defense class today at work and now feel confident that I can successfully knee an attacker in the groin, if needed. I've always wondered how I would fare in a fight, and while I am able to knee people in the groin, that's about the extent of my abilities. Thanks to some mega-padding, I got to try my self-defense skills on a guy, and I didn't perform too well. Is that very Mennonite-ish of me?

Oh, by the way... I brought $160 with me to Vegas and came back with $210. THANK YOU, WHEEL.

Potential Study #2

Say that my work building collapses. Would I have a better chance of survival if I were on the top floor, or the bottom floor?

I need to buy one of those "Worst Case Scenario" books.

Beware the Wheel...

Samantha and Patrick came to visit us yesterday, as Dave agreed to take them to the airport early (VERY early!) this morning. It's always great hanging out with them, even if Patrick kicked everyone's butts at TriBond. They also brought their cat Zoë, who was about to embark on her first plane trip. It was nice having a cat in the house again.

We donated some of Sprinkles' toys and beds (she had 3....), along with some blankets and towels, to the Humane Society a couple of weeks ago. We looked at the available cats and dogs, but none caught my eye.

Wednesday, I leave for Las Vegas, where I'll be until Friday night. Y'know... work-related things, of course.

Now, if you remember, Dave and I traveled to Las Vegas for Rachael & Chuy's wedding last August, and I ended up winning a couple hundred dollars, thanks to this bad boy:



Behold its beauty and wonder.

It is the Wheel of Fortune slot machine, and it is capable of both making your dreams come true and emptying your bank accounts.

Everyone knows that one of my life goals is to be on the Wheel of Fortune game show. Somehow, I think this is as close as I will ever get.

Seriously, though - the wheel actually spins!!!!! And there is fake applause sound!!!! And there are little animated Pats and Vannas!

I can't wait.

Oh yeah - and I hope we get a lot of work done.

Rest in Peace

Sprinkles passed away this morning. Her heart stopped beating after coming out from anesthesia for a routine dental cleaning. We miss her so much already.