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By kilax, March 15, 2016 12:26 pm

I didn’t bother getting a 2016 desktop calendar in December or January since it would’ve just been another thing to pack up during the move. But I missed having a page-a-day calendar. So moving weekend (February 7), I saw this one on sale at Menards for hella cheap and picked it up!

My mom was in town, and we went through each page until we got to the current date. Steven showed up for the end of that reading session, and we all discussed which quotes we liked enough to remember or actually think about (and which were horrible and made no sense to us). And I saved my favorites*:

Click to see larger

Since we had so much fun reading through them together (and, to be annoying), I now take a picture of the calendar each day and text it to them. Ha!

Sometimes we discuss them, but so far, there haven’t been a ton of memorable ones.

It wasn’t until today that I actually found another quote worth saving:

It’s no surprise to me that the quotes I like the most are about being passionate, enthusiastic, and making your own happiness! I hope there are some other good ones in there. As cheesy as it is, I look forward to texting them the photo each morning! I will have to find something good for next year. Muah ha ha.

*Which I can now recycle since I have a photo of them, here

Another page-a-day calendar story – years ago, I bought my dad’s mom the Bad Cats page-a-day calendar. She loved it so much I got it for her the next year, and the year after that. And so on. She likes to save the funniest pages and take to the vet to show them** (then apparently the vet keeps them and passes them on to someone else until they’ve made their rounds – fun!).

Anyway, we switch which family we see on Christmas each year, and see the other family in January. The first time we did that, and I saw her in January, she was worried I didn’t get her the calendar and went out and bought one on her own! Ha! I did have one for her and gifted it to my dad, instead. This year, I let her know I would definitely get it for her, and mailed it in advance to get there mid December. She has her page-a-day calendar routine, too!

**She does this with the animal cards I send her, too.

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By kilax, March 12, 2016 6:52 am

For the past three nights, Data has had a late night date with his new friend, and I finally got a picture of them together:

They decided to bring the party outside our bedroom window last night – that raccoon was VERY close to us, ha!

As long as that raccoon stays out of our attic and doesn’t destroy anything… he is welcome to visit. But that he’s hanging out on the second floor balcony has me a bit suspicious.

Sorry for all the odd reflections – flash was the only way to capture him!

It’s funny that Data doesn’t have the same reaction to the raccoon as he does to Denali or the deer. He growls at them (and hisses at Denali and tries to swat him/her), but he sings his excited “bird” song to this raccoon and chases it around like they’re playing. I wonder how many more late night dates they’ll have.

Data seems to be settling in to the new house quite well! He’s been eating like normal and using his litter box regularly since we moved in. He’s found all the sunny spots to lay,

and since I took him outside for the first time this week, he’s been crying to go out every day. I see lots of walks in our future.

He does seem to be spending A LOT of time sleeping in the bedroom… and I wondered if he was depressed or something. Then I remembered he’s a cat. And that the bedroom is a safe spot during all the construction on the house! He hasn’t hidden under the bed in a long time, so that’s good!

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By kilax, March 10, 2016 6:27 am

• YAY! The first floor bathroom work will begin at our house today! Work includes: swapping the location of the toilet and vanity (and doing associated plumbing, flooring, lighting, electrical, etc. work) and installing the new bathtub and shower surround. YAY! YAY YAY YAY! YAY!

Bathroom “before” picture

• Did anyone else watch the final episode of Downton Abbey? It was nice how they tied everything up but… eh. I wasn’t in to it much the last few seasons. After they killed off Matthew I just didn’t love it as much. The first few seasons were my favorites.
• Remember when I talked about that article that said we think of our future self as separate from our current self and that is why we sign up for stuff we don’t want to do? I didn’t mention that I didn’t feel like that was applicable to me – I almost always say no to everything. Ha. But… I did see the research mentioned in another article about anger (pdf here), and interestingly, they mentioned how sometimes we make bad eating choices now because we aren’t thinking about how future us would be affected by it, and… yeah. That is totally me!
• Here’s an article I do agree with – “The worst kind of boss is not the one who’s always a jerk” (pdf here). Basically, it says that people would rather have a boss who is predictable – if they are going to be a jerk, be that way all the time. No Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Not your best friend one day and throwing you under the bus the next. Have you worked with people like this? I sure have (not my current boss!). And that is why I agree with the article – I’d rather just know what to expect than have it be a guessing game each day (or as my coworkers and I would say “whichever way the wind is blowing today…”).
• Are you getting sick of me talking about our mailbox? I was just so excited to see mail in it on Monday! Not driving to the post office is saving me so much time!!!! Woo hoo!

• Data woke us up making strange noises at 4:00 am today. He found another friend! Not a mouse, but there was a raccoon (or something raccoon sized) hanging out around the house. We saw it walk across the porch then off in to the woods. EARLY AM EXCITEMENT!!! (It was hard to wake up my cat alarm showed up a an hour or so later.)
• We set all the bird feeders up this week! And far from the house – so hopefully we can watch, but not invite any of those critters in. I have a feeling I am going to be seeing a lot of squirrels and other non-bird creatures eating out of these. Maybe that is what attracted the coon!

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 89

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By kilax, March 9, 2016 7:30 am

Every once in awhile, I buy my breakfast and lunch when working downtown, instead of bringing it. Laziness, not wanting to schlep it all, not being able to prepare it at work, lunch dates, chlorinating the well and not wanting to wash the dishes when you get home (that’s today, ha) are all reasons.

And every once in a while, I think “gawd, I’m paying how much for xyz?!”

Like, $3.45 for this oatmeal, when I pay $2.00 for 20ish servings at home. That bugs me, a bit. But not enough to not get it, obviously. And I do appreciate being able to buy oatmeal at all!

It’s funny that that bothers me, but many other costs don’t.

An expensive Starbucks drink? It’s a treat! And I can’t make it taste like that at home!

The expensive vegan restaurant across the street from my office? Again – it’s a treat and I am definitely not able to bring in a lunch like that to eat.

But a regular meal out? Sometimes I do think “Steven could have made this better at a fraction of the cost.”

Or when I have to stop at a big box grocery store (for convenience) that isn’t ALDI? “Why is everything so EXPENSIVE?!?!” Ha.

We all pick and choose what we’re willing to pay for convenience, right?!

I’ve been thinking about this frequently, because we’ve been much more mindful with our finances (not that we were horrible before, but you know) since starting to save for buying the house. Less frivolous purchases, less eating out, and so on. And… it feels good. I’d rather save money for the big things. But still get my Starbucks. Ha.

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By kilax, March 7, 2016 6:21 am

Wow, today marks three years that I have been teaching strength classes at Essential Fitness (Efit) – my first class was the first Monday of March in 2013!

The coolest thing about being a fitness instructor is seeing your students grow stronger – in their strength AND in their confidence in what they can do.

The second coolest thing about being a fitness instructor is getting paid to do something you LOVE!

And I am really lucky that I get to do it at a place with a great boss and coworkers (and students!) that feel like family.

A little history – I met Brian, my boss, at a local running club event in early 2011. He’d had his business for awhile and came to do a strength training clinic and talk to us about the benefits of strength training for runners.

There was talk of starting a strength class for the club that year if we found enough people, and a place to do it. We did! In a friend’s basement! Ha! I started taking the group class in March of 2011. The class was in that friend’s basement until his wife told us to find a new place because we were smelling it up too much (buah ha ha). So we used a park district building for awhile, and I started doing one-on-one sessions with Brian, too. Eventually, over the summer of 2011, Brian had a studio built on to his garage at his house, and it opened in October 2011! Classes have been there, since!

In January 2013, Brian asked if I wanted to be an instructor. We worked together for a month and a half before I taught my first class*. I actually taught the Monday night class, and still took the Wednesday night class, and did a few one-on-one sessions with Brian for awhile after becoming an instructor, but I cut back on that all after several months. Now I teach the Monday night class, the Friday am class and weekend classes. I’ve had a few one-on-one clients that I see at the studio, too (none currently).

When I started teaching classes, A LOT of people asked me if I was going to quit my day job and have teaching be my full time gig. My answer then was no, and it’s still no, now. The amount I teach now is perfect for keeping me passionate about it, and that’s where I want to stay! We’ll see what the future brings!

*I became ACE certified in July 2013. I definitely needed Brian’s teaching and the class experience to understand what I was learning and pass the exam. Then I wonder how people get that experience without already having their certification… it just makes me feel grateful I have such a great boss who was willing to take me under his wing and teach me!

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By kilax, March 3, 2016 5:39 am

• Yay! My snister and her husband booked flights to come out here in late April! I am stoked to see them and show them the house! And have my snister give me her interior design advice (I only pretend to be an interior designer – that is actually what my snis went to school for). Counting down the days!
• My snis is in Arizona for work (schweet) and gets to go to TWO Royals Spring Training games (SCHWEEEET!!!). I hope Steven and I get to go to some Royals games this year – we’re ready!

Our jerseys were Christmas presents from Steven’s dad!

• My bathtub is here!!! Isn’t it beautiful? Ha ha. I am not sure when it’s going to be installed/when the bathroom renovation will happen. Our contractor is still pending permit approval. I hope SOOOOOON! I miss my epsom salt soaks!

• We had our fire place inspected and chimney cleaned out on Tuesday. It’s looking good, um, minus the fact that we don’t have a chimney cap? Oops? That would explain why the starter is a bit rusty. And why there was an empty bird nest inside. We’ll get a cap and all the equipment so we can use it next season. I am looking forward to that! I bet Data will LOVE it!

• Add this to the list of things we didn’t realize was missing from our house – a mailbox. Another OOPS. We put our mail on hold the Tuesday after moving in but it was too late – the post office had already rejected a card my snister sent to welcome us to the new house. Sad. Luckily, it went back to her (and she resent to us). Steven and I tried to install a mailbox on one of the warmer weather days and it did not go well. Now is not the time of year to install a mailbox on your own. It just isn’t. We hired someone to put one in and it should be installed soon. I am excited to stop making trips every other day to the post office to get my mail (and I’d love to stop getting all that fake “URGENT MORTGAGE INFORMATION” mail – don’t even get me started on how much it all pisses me off).

ALL SO URGENT AND IMPORTANT! You know, insurance offers, offers to sell me a copy of the deed to my house…

• Apparently Data didn’t know moving to Zion included country cat duties… we had a mouse get to some of our food and Data did NOTHING about it! So disappointed. Ha ha.

Lazy city cat!

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 88

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By kilax, March 2, 2016 5:53 am

When I told a friend I was moving close to the Pleasant Prairie Power Plant, he said “That’s where my kids think clouds come from.”

How cute! I can totally see that:

Sometimes you can’t tell where the factory starts and the clouds begin!

I’ve been affectionately calling it the “cloud factory” since, and told my parents about it when they helped us move. They thought the story was adorable. Now I send them text updates on cloud production status:

Ha ha.

But since I’m an adult and have to live in reality (booooo) I decided to actually look up what is being burned there, to create all that steam.

Coal! And lots of it! 13,000 tons a day (according to a potentially outdated wikipedia page)! Maybe that’s what’s on all those trains.

I was curious, so I got a few more stats from the Wisconsin Energy Corporation’s (WEC) 2014 (the most recent available on their site) Corporate Responsibility Report:

• The plant generated 6,231 GWh of electricity in 2014 (the Oak Creek Site generated 11,148!).
• The plant emitted 7,120 1,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions (CO2) in 2014.
• A chilled ammonia pilot project is (was?) used to reduce CO2 emissions as it escapes the flue gas (this pilot began in 2008… I think it’s still going on?).
• I’ll just have to quote this one: “Pleasant Prairie Power Plant (PPPP) and Oak Creek Power Plant (OCPP) units 5-8 have been retrofitted with selective catalytic reduction systems for NOx emissions removal and wet flue-gas desulfurization units (scrubbers) for SO2 emissions removal. These projects, along with additional measures taken at other facilities, have resulted in more than an 80 percent reduction in SO2 and NOx emissions combined when compared to 2000 emissions.”
• Now it gets interesting! Falcons were living at their power plants, so in 1991, they released “15 captive-bred peregrine falcon chicks in support of the Wisconsin Peregrine Falcon Recovery program” at the Pleasant Prairie location. Since then, they’ve installed nesting boxes on power plant chimneys (I am interpreting this to mean across multiple locations), and 200 falcons (20% of the population in Wisconsin) have been born at them!

• WEC provides its combustion products, including from the Pleasant Prairie landfill location, for use in building materials and used 102% of its systemwide products in 2014. They’re also re-burning combustion products at the Pleasant Prairie location (meaning less coal needs to be purchased).

Don’t worry – this isn’t some sneaky sponsored post – I am just interested in learning what is going on where I live, and like sharing what I learn, here!

And the other good thing about the plant? I see it every time I leave my house for a run and it lets me know how challenging the wind will be that day. If the steam is going out horizontal from the chimney? That’s a bad sign. I want to see this (straight up!):

Ha!

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By kilax, March 1, 2016 6:23 am

Awhile ago, a vegetarian asked me “what do you do for cheese?” (I’m vegan and don’t eat cheese.)

I didn’t know what they meant. I tried to ask – “Do you mean cheese substitutes? Or what I eat instead of cheese to get calcium? Or how to make vegan cheese?”

Oh no. They didn’t want to discuss it at all. They just wanted to preach to me about how they stopped eating cheese and how much better they feel and how you don’t need cheese* and so on and so on.

Data says “Don’t even try giving me one of those BS pieces without cheese.”

Um, yes. You are preaching to the choir. I feel great on a vegan diet. You don’t have to convince me… I’ve eaten this way for many years.

But it was ANNOYING. Annoying enough, that I actually said to this person “the vegan diet doesn’t work for everyone – some people, like you and me, feel great on it – but not everyone does.” (I strongly believe that about the vegan diet.)

Dude. SHUT. UP.

Ha ha.

It’s pretty bad when you are preaching to someone who more or less eats the same way as you**, or does anything the same as you, and they want you to shut it.

There is NOT a thin line between being passionate about something, and preaching about it, if you pay attention to your audience. It is not difficult to NOT go too far when you are talking to someone about something you care about. DON’T preach it. Discuss it.

(And in that occasion where someone is telling you something they are passionate about and not preaching it… but you don’t really GAF? Be nice. Ask questions. Don’t judge them because they have different interests than you.)

I don’t have the personality type to push my interests and way of living on other people, but we can all think of people who are like this. And wonder, why do they care so much how I live my life?! It’s not that they care that much – they just want more people to be like them.

Odd. So odd.

And yes, I see the hypocrisy in my preachy post about not preaching!!!!! I guess I do have the personality type to say how I think people should behave! Ha ha!

*You don’t have to comment with how you couldn’t live without cheese – I know many people feel this way, ha ha. It’s never been something I care for, so it’s not a big deal for me.
**I won’t say “believes the same as you” since they said “I am not doing this for the animals,” which is why I do it. 

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By kilax, February 27, 2016 7:08 am

Since we plan on living in Zion for a very, very long time, I’m interested in learning the town’s history! So I picked up* the Zion Images of America book (there’s over 7,000 Images of America books – maybe they have one for your town?!).

The Zion Historical Society contributed a lot of the photos and information for the book, and it mentioned they have even more at their building – the Shiloh House – where founder Dr. John Alexander Dowie lived. I’m excited to visit the Shiloh House at some point with Steven. The photos and town history will be interesting, but the house looks really neat, too!

I’ve only read a few pages of the book so far, but it mentioned that Dowie completely planned out the town layout before “the first spade broke ground” in the early 1900s. The town streets are on a easy to follow cardinal grid. I’d been wondering about the street names, and read on the Zion Historical Society page that the east to west streets are named in alphabetical order after places and people from the bible (the north to south streets are numerical). Avenues and boulevards also have biblical names, except two that are named for Scotland – Dowie’s birthplace.

It’s fascinating that the town was completely planned out from the get go – it shows Dowie really had grand intentions to build his religious utopia (according to Wikipidea, Zion is named for Mount Zion, in Israel). But was he successful…?  The town was founded in 1901 and bankrupt several years later! And it sounds like it had a lot of political turmoil (what town doesn’t?!). Time to read more!

*Oops, since this is a blog, I have to tell you this means I bought this with my own money off of Amazon.

Based on the articles showing up in my Feedly, the Oscars must be this weekend! We had a fun Oscars party two years ago, missed them last year to watch Downton Abbey, and this year… we don’t even have an antenna to watch them! Ha! We’ve been without cable/antenna since we moved on December 5th to the rental! I’ll have to watch clips of the highlights, later.

We did see two of the films nominated for Best Picture – Mad Max: Fury Road, and The Martian. Honestly… Mad Max was my favorite film of the year. Until I saw Star Wars, of course. It was so unique and engaging. And thoroughly entertaining. I’d love to see it win! No idea where it stands compared to the others, though. I’d like to see the rest of the nominees at some point. We’ll have to rent them on Redbox! We suspended our Netflix disk subscription (still use streaming) shortly after the December move because we didn’t take the time to sit down and watch our disks like we used to.

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By kilax, February 25, 2016 6:25 am

• Relationship dynamics are extremely interesting to me, and something I read on quite a bit. Especially the maintenance of relationships, and knowing when to let one go. Anyway! I love when gems like this – “Disposable Friendships in a Mobile World” (pdf here) – show up in my Feedly. Basically, it’s about a study that was done to see if people who move more often also dispose of relationships more often (since they are more likely to dispose of physical items, too). Conclusion: it’s not so much that moving causes you to abandon relationships, but that it pushes you to evaluate them (like many things in life do!). I strongly believe people should constantly be analyzing if they are getting what they need out of their relationships. This, but all the time – “moving also requires making choices about which relationships are ‘worth’ maintaining and which are not, which ties could be replaced and which ties should be maintained.”
• That silly bruise took a week to heal! And didn’t feel too great. Eek! I haven’t had any accidents since then but I do feel like my hands aren’t functioning well – I’ve been having a hard time getting things to open this week (jars, bags, etc). Weird. Work with me, body, not against me!

• My mom’s mom is more on trend than me. When I talked to her last, she told me her girlfriend got her in to doing one of those adult coloring books. Say what? My snister sent me one in the fall, but I haven’t taken time to color much of it. I should do that instead of play with my phone when we watch (parts of) movies (then get up and do house stuff). I should get back to knitting, too! I know where all my knitting stuff is!

• When we got to our house on close day we found out the driveway and yard were a sheet of ice. Eek! We’ve had an odd winter of sporadic warm temps and freeze/thaw cycles. Pair that with all the shade in our yard and you get LOTS of ice! Steven and my dad got an ice scraper on move-in weekend and it’s been SOOOOO useful for getting ice off our driveway, sidewalk and off our patio (and then there was that time we tried to use it during mailbox install but that’s a story for another day…). What a useful and fun tool! I spent a lot of last Friday getting the last chunks of ice off our patio and my deltoids were feeling it!

Putting Dad to work!

This picture doesn’t do it justice – the patio was covered in a snow/ice mix!

This is what I got it down to after a bit of work. Then I broke this in to big chunks and picked up some to toss…

… and did a little curling with the others. Ha!

All clear!

• One more article to end the post! “Why You Keep Signing Your Future Self Up for Stuff You Don’t Actually Want to Do” (pdf here) explains how you think of your future self separate from your present self – which is why you might think you’ll have more time to do things, or an interest in something you don’t now. Interesting stuff. Their advice? If you wouldn’t want to do it now, don’t say you’ll do it in the (near) future.

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 87