I appreciate the encouragement, and I realize that I should clarify and say that I'll get to this on Saturday.  I have enough to do at work right now, so please harrass me on Saturday.  :) 

I need opinions on auto insurance.

Geico

vs.

Progressive

vs.

Liberty Mutual

The premiums are pretty much the same, so if anyone has an experience with any of these, I would appreciate your feedback!  Thanks!

http://icanhascheezburger.com/store/#magnets

Free shipping until June 30th! :)

I am an awful, awful debater.  It's the same reason I wasn't a good history teacher.  Things really interest me, but the facts fly out of my head almost as fast as I can think about them.  I'll read an article and think, "That's a good point!" or "I really agree with that and am going to adopt that point of view!" but if someone actually questions me about why I'm doing something or challenges me to defend my beliefs, I'm like, "Duh.....I read an article about it and....uh...it just sounded like a good idea...."  I usually just say something like, "It's good for the environment," and hope that no one presses me for details.  I thought about starting to keep a small notebook of facts that support my arguments and keeping it in my purse, so I could whip it out anytime I get into one of these discussions.  

So, one thing I really appreciate is bloggers that condense articles down to the important bullet points, because then I have less to crowd my head when I'm trying to remember facts and form arguments.  One aspect of being more environmentally ethical I've been thinking about for awhile is reducing my meat consumption.  I haven't set a goal for this or anything, but it's something I've been trying to keep in mind when I'm selecting menus to prepare.  I don't see myself becoming a full-fledged vegetarian, mostly because I like a lot of different meats, and I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with eating it.  I do believe that Americans probably eat far more meat than we need to, and that much meat production is highly unethical, but this is only enough to make me consider the quantity of meat I eat, and where I get it from.  Then, today, one of the blogs I subscribe to, No Impact Man (my hero), condensed down a New York Times article into bullets, and provided more compelling and fact-based reasons to cut back on meat consumption:


I'm going to jot these down in my notebook (maybe) and memorize them.  And try to come up with tasty meals that don't use meat, or at least use less meat.  I can see the look of terror in Kevin's eyes already, as he reads this.  Liz, I'm sure you have some good ideas.  I'm going to have to get over TVP grossing me out.

Ok, this is not a real complaint, just a little bit of annoyance.

So, last year one of my New Year's resolutions (back to those) was to "live more ethically" which is a horribly broad goal, but it kind of worked out because I ended up just kind of going a direction that resonated with me, which happened to be environmental.  I really feel we have an obligation to take care of the Earth, and that it's important to be conscious of the impact our actions have, and take steps to decrease our impact when we can.  I know I'm just taking baby steps, but some things I started doing last year were using reusable bags at the grocery store, buying more locally grown and/or organic food, planting more in my garden and composting.  My greatest assault on the environment is my 50-mile round-trip commute to work, but I haven't found a solution for that quite yet (public transportation to Columbia? Doesn't really happen.  Don't get me started on this.).

My primary focus for this year is being a more responsible consumer.  And by "consumer," I mean both "one who consumes" and "one who buys things."  The things I am trying to do to this end are:
BUT ANYWAY.  I wanted to express a craigslist annoyance, which is:

To the people on craigslist who want to sell there items "TODAY" - Give me a break.  Your stuff is not that special.  I've had items up on craigslist for months and haven't sold a damn thing yet.  I'm ready to give like, $200 in stuff away just to get it out of my apartment.  So, plan ahead.  Don't just decide your thing must "PICKED UP TODAY."  Especially if you want people to give you money for it.  Get over it.

So, I was reading jms3382001's post about living consciously, and was inspired.  I've been feeling in a rut for years, and part of my rut is believing that I don't know WHAT I want to do.  After reading the article Jeff posted, I do question whether I *really* don't know, or if I *do* know, but I'm afraid to to *do* it, so I subconciously convince my self that I "don't know."  I'm planning on thinking about this some more, but in the past few days, when I have moments of quiet in the car or walking to a meeting across campus, I ask myself, "No, really, what would you do if you weren't afraid?" 

As at least a few of you know, I have a not-quite-real/not-quite-pseudo dream of opening up a coffee shop one day.  There are a lot of fears around this, but I think the one that freezes me the most (maybe) is, "What if I find out I really *don't* want to do it?"  

One of my New Year's resolutions this year is to work to figure out what I want the next step in my life to be.  Do I want to continue down the path that I'm on, or switch to something else?  If switch, to what?  I realize that we're only two weeks into the year, but I know myself, and I know we'll soon be two months, seven months (and my 30th birthday), then two weeks from the end of the year, and I'll be like, "Darn!  I didn't get to that figuring-my-life-out business."  And I understand that it's not realistic or even desired to plan my whole life out.  I'm a big proponent of riding the waves of life where they take you, rolling with the punches, whatever - I just feel like I've been bobbing along for awhile and trying to convince myself that I was "going with the flow," but I'm really just staying in one place, and I'd like to at least take control of my boat.  Was that an overused metaphor, or what?

But anyway, I know I have an issue with putting things off, and I was thinking about how I was ever able to be successful thus far in life.  I was thinking about school, and what a good little student I was, and I had a brainstorm - what if I created a syllabus for myself for the year?  It would be like, "Tracie's Self-Discovery 101" with assignments and deadlines and everything - and I could tie rewards or consequences to completing/not completing.  I might take some time to work on that over the weekend.

Anyway, when I started this post, I meant it to be a little funny and ironic, but then all that other stuff kind of just came out - so, what I was starting to say was that, after reading the Steve Palina article Jeff posted, I started thinking about the possiblity of this coffee shop, and was curious about Mr. Palina, so I visited his website, which seems to have good exercises and resources, and I plan to look into it more closely later.  However, before I browsed away from the page, this article caught my eye:

HOW TO GIVE UP COFFEE

Well, shoot.  Maybe Mr. Palina won't be able to help me so much, after all.  ;-)

I was just thinking it was funny that the eigth pain of Christmas in the "Twelve Pains of Christmas" song has a kid screaming about wanting Transformers, since, from what I can tell, the song came out the first time around Transformers were popular.  Everything old is new again! 

I'm sure you've heard of this group - the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas, whose religion revolves around "God hates fags and caused the war in Iraq because there are so many fags and if you're son/daughter is a soldier who dies in Iraq (regardless of his/her sexual orientation), it is God's punishment for all the fags."  Brilliant! So sensible and logical!  And what wonderful poster children for Christianity, you know, the religion that worships the man who preached things like, "Love your neighbor as you love yourself."  When I think about them, I am at first enraged, but then the absurdity of their message just makes them irrelevant.  Except when I think about the funerals that they protest at, and then I get enraged again, because isn't the family going through enough, burying their loved one?

Anyway, one of my favorite blogs puts the clan in its place:

http://fourfour.typepad.com/fourfour/2007/12/the-hate-that-h.html

Enjoy!

And if you have some extra time on your hands, you can see that God not only hates fags, he also hates figs:

http://www.godhatesfigs.com/ (make sure you click on the yellow sign to enter the site - it's not entirely intuitive)

Put down that Newton, sinner!

So, in the past year I've discovered Greek yogurt.  If you haven't had it, it pretty much tastes like yogurt, but much creamier and thicker.   A lot of people stir honey in it with fruit, nuts, granola, etc.  I fell in love with just sugar and blackberries.  The problem with Greek yogurt is that it is PRICEY.  Like, four times as much as regular old yogurt.  This summer at Trader Joes, though, they had a store brand NON-FAT Greek yogurt that was perfectly affordable, and DELICIOUS!   I could've eaten my blackberries and sugar mixed in it all summer.

Now, as you may know, the problem with TRADER JOE'S is that they often discontinue products at the drop of a hat.  I understand they're being responsive to the consumer and it's an efficient business practice for them, but when you find a food that think you could spend the rest of your life eating that is available EXCLUSIVELY at Trader Joe's and then it's NOT anymore - it can make you want to trade in on Trader Joe.  And I was devastated when that happened to my 0% fat cheap Greek yogurt.  The first time, since they still had the 2%, I thought maybe they were just out.  But they continued being out.  And there was no lable for 0% yogurt.  And I went to three Trader Joe's.  At different times.  I thought Greek yogurt would go back to being a gourmet treat for when I could scrape up enough pennies to get Fage from Whole Foods.

ALAS!  Trader Joe's has heard the cry of the people (or something), because last night I purchased TWO CONTAINERS of CHEAP NONFAT GREEK YOGURT!  OOMPAH (or whatever Greeks say to celebrate)!   I bought two so they would know that their product WOULD be purchased, and I might send them an email, as well.

And the piece de resistance.  Since it's no longer blackberry season, I had to figure out something new to put in my yogurt.  I bought some pecans, and decided maybe I would just try honey.  At home, though, I found that I had some pumpkin butter, and figured "what the heck?"

My new favorite food?  About 3/4 cup of nonfat greek yogurt with two teaspons of pumpkin butter stirred in with a sprinkiing of chopped toasted pecans.  It tastes like pumpkin cheesecake, but with a fraction of the fat and calories!  A random experiment comes out DELICIOUS!

So, about a month ago, Kevin and I headed out to Minneapolis for Angie's (a college friend) joining ceremony.  At first, I couldn't stop grinning when people talked because of the charming northern-Midwest-whatever accent.  You know I'm talking about, dontcha?

Anyway, we went out for a couple extra days to take a look around...I think we could've used an extra day, but oh well.  We made a bargain - a day of outdoorsy stuff for a day at Mall of America.

As for Mall of America, when I looked at it, I have to say that I was not impressed.  To me, it doesn't really *look* that big.  It felt a lot bigger after we had spent about four hours walking around it, stopping in hardly any stores (really), and still not quite finishing.  Unfortunately, we waited until the afternoon to try to ride one of the in-mall roller coasters, but by this time the amusement park was way crowded, so we skipped it. I do need to say that I fell in love with P.B. Loco.   I just had some European Cafe Mocha PB on chocolate animal cookies, and YUMMM!!!!  But anyway, 


The next day, we drove to Interstate State Park on the Minnesota/Wisconsin border.  I have to say, after our escapades in Alaska and Utah, I expected it to be much more isolated, but it's apparently a pretty big attraction.  Lots of boulders to climb on and glacial "potholes" to gape at.

On the third day, we fulfilled the purpose of the trip and attended Angie and Sam's joining ceremony.  We first had brunch with Jen and her now fiance Joel, which was really cool.  It was nice to catch up!  We then headed to the ceremony, which was outdoors in a very lovely location; however, the weather was extremely NOT lovely.  Overcast and maybe a high in the 40s?  Not so pleasant.  The officiant said some very lovely things; however, I would have preferred the abridged version.  We're sitting there, shivering, and I just wanted to say, "Listen, what you're saying is very nice; however, I was wondering if you could either tell them later, or maybe give it to them a letter?"  Aside from the weather, though, it was a real nice and interesting ceremony - very meaningful.


Angie and Sam's friends were super-nice (one couple even lives in Baltimore, now), and it was really great to hang out and catch up with Angie and Jen.  We're so far flung to the wind now, you know?  It made me think that we all should really make a bigger effort to hang out now and then.  

A funny story to close.  One of the reception host's dogs joined us in the sitting room, and one of the guys says, "Watch this," and produces a pretty convincing "Meow!"   Puppy was REALLY convinced, because he continued to look for the "cat" in the room for probably another 20 minutes.

Meow!  "Where's the cat?"



I know a few people on my friend's list might be interested in the rest of the photos, here.

I think I may go have some more European Cafe Mocha peanut butter....
 

 So, we're here in California, and I thought all sorts of clever things to write earlier, but now they've flown out of my mind.  We're on Day 2, and things are going well.  Both days dawned foggy and overcast, but have cleared up beautifully.  

I did want to mention that this my first time out on the West Coast.  It's interesting, before we came out here, I was seriously thinking of California as being like another country where they speak English; like, visiting California was similar to visiting England or Ireland or something, but without the accents.  Based on the things you read and see on TV, it seems so different from the Mid-Atlantic.  I guess it's not as different as I'd envisioned, so far.  More to come as more observations are made.

We visited something like five wineries yesterday, and ended up in Sonoma in the evening for some wandering and dinner.   We ate at the Swiss Hotel, which was fantastic!  Butternut squash ravioli, yum!  

More to come and some photos later....

So, I am moved to write today.  For no particular reason. As I've mentioned before, I'll get great ideas for things to write about, like, in the shower or the car, then don't and instead browse for what  past America's Next Top Models are doing now.  

It seems pretty pointless for me to try to finish the Salt Lake City description.  Five months later!  I like the idea of doing the travel photo-blog thing, but it always takes more time than I think or I lose interest or something, but I do like to have it.  I'll have to try to do better for our next trip, which is to.....

Napa/Sonoma Valley, California!

Kevin had a Southwest credit he needed to use before the end of November, and he's REALLY wanted to go, and the only time we can go is....

NEXT WEEK!

So, although I was strangely resistant at first (could we stop running around just for a moment, please!), I'm pretty excited now.  Wine country is apparently very beautiful, and the wineries are really interesting.  I'm really looking forward to seeing some marine wildlife and hiking around Big Basin Redwoods State Park.  For one night, we're going to stay in a platform tent at an eco-resort!  I'm hoping this trip will be a good balance between seeing and doing cool stuff and RELAXING!  Kevin and I have a tendency to try to cram too much into our vacations.  I made a list of things that look interesting to me, but only starred a few of them - now it's up to Kevin to plan it!  His planning method is very typical of him.  He's found a Google Map application that allows him to plot different types of attractions on it, so I think he's plotting everything on my list, and then is going to see what looks most feasible.  Isn't that hilarious?

Speaking of travel and pictures, I did put a few new albums from this summer (Outer Banks and Sarah and Bryan's Wedding) on my MySpace.  More to come!

I wanted to wish a good day to all of my teaching friends who went back to school today, but I know you all've been there for hours already and won't see this until later, so I hope you HAD a good day!

And good luck, Linda, on your first day at your new job!

It's my first day of school, too, but since Orientation was LAST week, I am actually less stressed than I've been in weeks!

Maybe I'll post more later....In the meantime, please enjoy what I believe to be the cutest video ever created: 


Puppy Whistle - More amazing video clips are a click away

So, right after I said I was going to post Utah pictures, they turned up our filtering software at work.  I can get to sites like LiveJournal and MEETin only after clicking a button that says something like "Continue to this site for work purposes;" however, photo storage sites, such as PhotoBucket are not accessible at all.  And I've just been too busy this week to do it at home, which, I know! I should have done in the first place.  Maybe I'll be able to get to it while I'm on vacation with Kevin and his family in the Outer Banks this week?  Or maybe not! :-)

So, I figured I should stop dragging my heels about posting Utah pictures, since I'll be going to the beach in another week, and will be sure to have pictures, then.  This might get a little long, so I think I'll split it into two posts.


The actual trip and photos to come!  Soon! Really!

I just cross-posted my last post to my MySpace blog, and I noticed that my profile indicates an age that would suggest  that my birthday has already passed, but it is NOT until Sunday!  I am not that age yet!

So, I got home pretty late last night.  I went to work out after work, then went to Old Navy and Kohls to get some stuff for our upcoming beach trip, and stopped to pick up some dinner (grocery store sushi) from Safeway.  I headed out of Ellicott City around 9PM, putting me back in Hampden around 9:45 PM.  As I drove down Falls Road, I noticed that the street lights were out, then that the traffic light at 37th was out.  I didn't think much of it, but the light at Roland was also out.  Then, when I went to turn down my alley to park, I noticed a tree branch hanging from an electric line.  There happened to be a BGE worker standing right there, and he said it was ok for me to drive down.  I was like, "What in the world is going on?"  I figured by now that my power would be out, as well, and I called Paul, who lives about two blocks down, if HIS power was out, too.  It was, and he said it had been since around 2 or 3PM.  My poor hot kitty!

While at work in Columbia that afternoon, we had observed some dark clouds and thunder, but it didn't rain a single drop, and we had been disappointed.  Apparently, though, that was a wicked storm that blew through Baltimore, uprooting several trees in Hampden, breaking numerous branches, and ripping one person's roof off of their house.  The damage in my abode consisted of the downed branch behind my apartment, my outdoor bisto set scattered about the yard, and many of my indoor possessions being wet and blown about.  I don't have AC, and I know I should have learned my lesson about leaving my windows open during thunderstorms, and I have, really, but I honestly didn't think it was going to storm yesterday, or I WOULD have cracked the window.  So, as a result, some of my windows had puddles of waters under them, the mail on my kitchen table was soaked and strewn about the kitchen (including a book that was just delivered, grr!), and my stacked recycle bins were blown over, with all of my paper recycling also soaked and strewn about the kitchen.   I definitely also have a great appreciation for the effectiveness of my fans, as my apartment was so unbearable without them.  You thought it was hot without AC?  Ha! Compared to last night, fan cooling is a luxury.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the hood (not my photos): http://www.flickr.com/photos/mireille/

So, given the circumstances, Snuffles and I spent the night at Darra's, which was lovely.  Thank you, Darra!  This is unvelievable, though:  as Darra was getting ready this morning, and I was watching the news (about to see what Steve Fertig had to say about the weather), HER power went out!  UNBELIEVABLE!  I have to say, though, my hair doesn't actually look too bad, considering that I couldn't dry it this morning.

I did think it was funny, though, that I had no clue that this huge storm had happened.  It reminded me of the time when Liz still lived in Maryland and we were driving down to Montgomery County, listening to my Boy Bands mixed CD, and we noticed...something in the distance.  Liz said, "What is that?  It looks like a tornado!"  and I was like, "Nah, I think it's just a plume of smoke," but then everyone in front of us was slowing down and then stopping and it was really windy...we came to a stop under an overpass near Laurel as the "plume of smoke" aka "funnel cloud " blew over.  Maryland locals might remember the tornado of September 2001 that damaged several building at University of Maryland...we drove right through it, be-bopping to the Backstreet Boys, not noticing a thing.  :-)

Anyway, the day is looking up.  I called Darra's house and got her answering machine, which means her power is back on, hurray! 

My 19th-century, top floor duplex apartment does not have air conditioning.  Fortunately, my miserly parents (father) have prepared me for this by not having air conditioning in our house when I was growing up (or now, for that matter), and, frankly, my little apartment has better circulation than their big house, and is actually a little cooler, I think.  One of the worst rooms in my apartment, though, is the bathroom.  The bathroom has a window, but a few years Snuffles knocked out the screen, and I haven't gotten it fixed, yet.

That was a funny story.  I came home from work one summer day, and Snuffles was outside.  I was completely boggled.  I eventually discovered that the handmade wooden screen had busted from her sitting in the window and leaning against it, which must be how she got out.  My landlord's first-floor roof extends outside of my bathroom, so she apparently jumped onto the roof, then onto the ground.  I'm convinced she used up one of her lives, then, because there was no way for her to get from the roof to the ground other than a direct jump.  Anyway, I tell all this to say that my bathroom window doesn't have a screen, so I normally don't open it, because I'm worried she'll jump out again.

Well, it was hot and humid yesterday, so I figured there was no harm in opening the window while I took a shower, since Snuffles was outside.  And then, I figured, might as well keep it open while I dry my hair, too.  I was actually going to close the window, but thought, "No, she is still outside, I will close it before I leave."

So, you know where this is going.  I had just gotten to work when I realized that I had indeed left the window open, and that I would have a cat on hot black tar roof, who would probably jump down and maybe hurt herself or get hit by a car or get lost or in a scrap......

I left work exactly on time (which is early in our office), and rushed home.  I walked to the door calling for her, and was so relieved when she was waiting INSIDE the door when I opened it.  What a GOOD KITTY!  Staying inside all day!  There's a good baby!

Ha.

A little later, my next door neighbor came by to tell me that my cat had had an adventure.  My neighbor did, in fact, see my cat on the roof, chasing birds.  And, added a new worry to my list - possibly jumping up onto the electrical wires to catch them.  Yikes.  My neighbor tried to get her down, but in the end just threw food up to her.  

Sneaky little bitch!  (My cat, not the neighbor.)

And she's just sitting there, like, "meow???"

I guess I'm glad, though, that she decided to jump back through the window, rather than down.

BAD KITTY.

BUSTED!