Random Lunacy

I realized the other day (after having several people comment here and on Facebook) that I hadn't actually mentioned that rackham got a new job! ( For those who don't remember, he was laid off back in mid-September... )

Because he's been leaving so much earlier than he did with his old job, this last week he's been going to bed rather insanely early (okay, 10pm, which seems insanely early to me... and is quite a switch for him after all the late nights during his "time off"). And, strangely, my sleep schedule changed almost immediately... from going to bed around midnight to going to bed around 2am (I think it's because he's going to bed early enough that it's not triggering the "Oh yeah, it's late!" in my brain and I keep doing what I'm doing until I realize it's after 2:00). OTOH, I feel like I'm getting a lot more done than I have for the past few months (in part because Rackham has been great about helping out around the house... so things I usually do were getting done by him). So, we're still adjusting to the new normal, but it seems to be working out pretty well!

( On Friday, we stopped over by our old house... )

I'm feeling really happy that I didn't make the photo-a-day thing into one of my goals for the year. As you may have noticed, I didn't post any over the past few days... and that's because I haven't really had anything that seemed interesting enough. So, rather than just one more photo of the cats, I figured I'd just hold off until I did have something worth posting.

Crossposted from my Livejournal.

Spongecake. I think. It's very tasty, but the texture isn't as smooth as a regular cake. I don't think it would work very well with frosting, but suspect it would be fantastic with a glaze of some sort (lemon or pineapple, in particular) or perhaps just with some berries on it or both.

( Method to my mixture. )

( And here's the finished product. )

Final verdict: I would definitely make this one again!

Crossposted from my Livejournal.

Back around Thanksgiving, rackham and I picked up new phones... and they happened to each come with a Fitbit Flex. I slapped mine on my right wrist (where I usually wear a watch), dithered over which setting to use when it came to handedness and finally settled on "dominant" (since they're both dominant, so it shouldn't matter which hand it's on) and proceeded to go walking everywhere with Rackham, who was getting almost twice the step count I was (even though I have a shorter stride). ( Having worn pedometers in the past, I knew mine wasn't right. )

So, that was one bit of helpful surprise info... but I also started using the other function on the Fitbit: the sleep tracker. Wow. I probably like that more than I do the step counter! I've found that it generally takes me less than ten minutes to fall asleep after I put it into sleep mode (sometimes as little as five minutes, which completely shocked me). Also, I definitely do my best with about six and a half hours of sleep... and when I'm home, I wake up a lot less than I thought I did.

The other rather cool thing is that I was already using Runtastic on my phone to monitor my walking and hiking, then a month or so ago started using MyFitnessPal to monitor food and overall exercise... and all three (MyFitnessPal, Runtastic and Fitbit) will interface with each other! It makes things so easy to track! I find I'm doing more and enjoying it all a whole lot more, too.

( I've also found that it's not terribly difficult to reach 10,000 steps. )

Crossposted from my Livejournal.

I figured I hadn't posted a photo of the Trail in awhile, so it was about time I did! In actuality, I was originally thinking of driving down to Snoqualmie to get a photo of Snoqualmie Falls, but that didn't quite work out. We've been getting record rainfall around here lately and all the rivers are running quite high, meaning the Falls are pretty spectacular right now... I ran into a bit of a snag though, in that most of the roads between here and there were closed due to flooding today! (And I'm really not kidding, I could have gotten there, but only by going around the long way. There were at least three closures along the direct route that I know of.)

( So, instead I drove over to the Sammamish River Valley and went for a nice long walk along the trail there. )

Crossposted from my Livejournal.

We tried getting up early this morning and were only moderately successful... but we did manage to get out the door by 8:30, which means we made it down to start doing the Gig Harbor Cache Machine by about 10:00. For those not in the know, for a Cache Machine, basically someone spends a good bit of time selecting Geocaches in a particular area (in this case, the town of Gig Harbor, WA) and setting up a route to take you around to all of them in the least amount of time. Today's route had around 90 caches, of which we found 35, I think (we got a very late start compared to most people and actually stopped for lunch). There was a fair bit of hiking involved in today's adventure (I believe I'm up to nearly 17,000 steps) and we got to see a lot of cool things. In fact, I debated posting several photos... today's caches took us to some really neat stuff, including a gigantic, incredibly intricate wood carving (done from a huge old stump) and a gorgeous old stained glass window (made in Portland in about 1910).

In the end, though, ( the Tacoma Narrows Bridge won out. )

Oh! And an addendum to my post on goals yesterday... I forgot one!

8) Design, build and install a Little Free Library in the front yard. I've been wanting to do it since we moved in, so it needs to be done this year!

Crossposted from my Livejournal.

It was 12 years ago today that I finally bit the bullet, got an invite code from reginaspina (because they were still required at the time)and posted a lame first entry. It's changed a lot here over the years, but I still consider it my online home!

Now, onto the good stuff.

( 2014 Goals: The Followup )

And now... onto my ( Goals for 2015. )

Crossposted from my Livejournal.

Earlier this year, I got the chance to pledge on Kickstarter for a movie based on the TV show Corner Gas (a series that would very likely make it into my top ten favorite shows of all time, if I were to compile such a list... and a big shoutout to thebitterguy for introducing me to it in the first place). It's currently in limited release up in Canada for about two weeks, so today we made a run across the border to go see a movie... our first time ever going to see a movie in Canada! (And a question for my Canadian friends, is it standard to not have any salt for the popcorn? We had to grab a bunch of little salt packets to add to ours.)

The other first for me? Seeing my name in the credits on the big screen! Yep... as a Kickstarter backer, I got listed in the credits! So cool!! And, btw, if you were a fan of the show you should definitely see the movie. When you see the cast, it's obvious it's been a few years, but the movie was funny and a really fun way to revisit Dog River. Can't wait to get the Blu-Ray in a few weeks, because I want to watch it again!

( Of course, we also took the opportunity to do a little shopping while we were in Canada. )

Crossposted from my Livejournal.

I ended up not getting around to posting yesterday's photo before I zonked out for the night. I'd been trying to figure out what to do for the prompt and then lucked out because ( we finally got our tree decorated yesterday! )

To see the full list for Capturing December photos, check this entry.

Crossposted from my Livejournal.

For the most part, my plan is to post new photos for each entry... but for today's photo, I'm reusing one of the ones I posted the last time I tried doing this list, mostly because I couldn't think of anything I could photograph that would be anywhere near as good.

( Photo representing my favorite holiday movie, under the cut. )

To see the full list for Capturing December photos, check this entry.

Crossposted from my Livejournal.

Okay, not *exactly* nosy, but when I'm in line at the grocery store, I almost always look over what the people in front of me and the people behind me are putting on the belt at the checkout. Often times I find products I had no idea existed by doing that.

Today, there was a woman with a toddler behind me who was buying some Daiya Cheese Blocks. I'd never seen those before, just the shredded (I don't often get Daiya cheese... since I can have the goat and sheep milk cheeses, but sometimes it's not a bad substitute to use) and asked how she liked it. Turns out the little girl can't have any dairy and LOVES being able to have blocks of cheese (and not just slices or shredded) just like everyone else in the family.

I happened to be buying a box of Earth Balance Vegan Macaroni & Cheese (because that stuff is *awesome*) and asked if they'd tried it. Turned out she'd never heard of it... and also hadn't known about Earth Balance Vegan Cheddar Squares (the store had only just started carrying them about a week ago (totally my fault... I've been bugging them for over a year about it, got fed up and bought five boxes when we were in Texas last month, so of course now they started carrying the stuff locally)).

End result: She went running off on a mad dash through the store to get macaroni & Cheese and a box of vegan cheddar squares. I predict a VERY happy little girl in the not too distant future.

Crossposted from my Livejournal