I'll Drink To That

So I have only heard this song a couple of times, and it is SO stuck in my head! So, Happy Sunday and here it is for your head.
So, like she says: Cheers to the Freakin' Weekend, I'll Drink to That!!

Now, for another episode of Kim Inspired Grab a Beer and Look What I Did Last Week!  I took a little road trip. It's very important to have plenty to eat and drink when you are in the car. (ps I use old cottage cheese containers as Tupperware. Classy, I know)

 This store had a bit of everything. Need a wedding dress? No? How about a Snuggie?

This guy has the right idea.

I went out for Fondue. I love cheese! 

Yum, yum, yum.

 

You may have noticed that I have a tiny pony fetish. It can't be helped. Look how cute they are!Is it just me, or are there a lot of tiny ponies in MO? I don't remember there being this many at home.

OH! There they are, my Tupperware! They even come with labels. Notice the one on the left. Be good or I will put you in there too!

I went Thrift Store Shopping! Yay. And they had everything but the kitchen sink. 

Oh wait, there it is!

 Instead of the sink, I bought all three sweaters, a pair of jeans, some books and three long sleeved shirts and a jacket.I didn't pack for cooler weather apparently. Obviously I didn't have enough books before.

Stephany, if you are reading this: I lied. I do go shopping more than once a year. Sorry.

In total (3 sweaters, 1 jacket, 1 pair of jeans, 3 long sleeves and a "few" books) = $25.

 

 

On 9.11, my uncle and my cousin, who are Firefighters, were in the pregame ceremony at AT&T park in San Francisco. They are my heros. Plus they are Giant's fans. 

(Did you read THIS POST? The Uncle below was the one that took me to my first game!)

(I did not take this photo. I am not sure where it came from. I think it's a freeze frame from a TV station)

The Fair is in town! Below is my running trail, plus, if you look closely, in the background is the fairgrounds (and my favorite ride!) I can't wait to eat some fried butter! (<-- seriously, click on this if you want to have a heart attack).

Just kidding. But I think a funnel cake may be necessary for my pre-race carb loading. Right?
 

 I sent some books to someone. I was trying to recycle an envelope and all I had was scotch tape, so this is what it ended up as. My Mom would scorn me. Don't I know how to properly wrap a package? Don't I have a few dollars to spend on proper tape? 

Apparently not. 

Sorry Ma.

We had a huge storm which darkened the sky and sent the rabbits scurrying. This photo was taken around 4 o'clock. It looks like 7 o'clock, right? The good thing is that it was about 95 that day and the next day, it was in the 60s! Sweet!

 And then I rode off into the sunset on my trusty steed.

How was your week? Have you ever eaten deep fried butter? (or been to see the butter cow at the Iowa State Fair?)Do you like Thrift Store Shopping? Or Rihanna?

The Meek Shall Inherit The Earth

I was going to take a Day Off today, but when The Lightning and The Lightning Bug picked me for their writer of the week, of course I had to join in with their Dare to Share link up! In case you don't know about it, each Saturday, Katie picks a topic for the weekend. You write on the topic, post it and link up HERE. It's one of my favorite link ups, since I frequently blog in "laundry list" form. It gets me out of my laziness comfort zone and encourages me to write about topics I may not explore otherwise.

This week's topic is: Fight For Your Right: write about something that involves standing up for something you believe in. You can stand up for a cause, support your opinion, or just rant about something that makes you mad.

I have a lot of opinions about a lot of things, but generally I do not voice them. I do not fight for as many rights as I should be fighting for. I would rather seethe with anger under my skin than say anything. Actually, I wouldn’t rather seethe, not really. I would like to know how to effectively stand up for what I want, to voice my opinion without getting unnecessarily angry. 

My boyfriend and his family are very vocal. If they have something to say, they say it, and in my mind, sometimes it’s a little much. To them, this is the way they are, honest, sometimes brutally so. To me, it is scary. This is not to say that he or his family are wrong in the way they express their anger and opinions, they just do it differently from my family, which probably has a lot of un-spoken issues, just waiting to explode. 

This makes for an interesting relationship. There are many instances where he is yelling at me to, “tell him what I want” and I am silently staring him down with the evil eye and my mouth drawn tight in a line and my hands clenched in my lap. He thinks I am thinking what an A-hole he is, while really I am thinking of all the things I could have said or should be saying. I am crafting a discussion in my head, as if it were an essay. First I will say X and then, he will say Y. If he says Z, I will say W. But he will probably say V instead. 

So when I finally squeak out my answer from my clenched lips, which of course NEVER comes out the way that it was playing in my head, I never really feel as satisfied as I thought I would. It usually comes out gruffer, more hurt or angrier than I really am. Why can’t I just say what I mean, and say what I want, and say it nicely? Why can’t I stand up for myself without making it a big deal? I don’t know. Maybe it would work better if my relationship were letter based, like in the olden days. 

“My love, I have missed you so much. Perhaps when we finally see each other, we can go to that brunch place I have wanted to try. Love, your sweetheart forever. “

Did those people fight over nothing when they finally met up for brunch?

I am learning, however. Learning that it is better to just say what you want, what YOU need. This may not avoid an argument, but at least all bets will be on the table and you can go from there. You have to SAY what you want to even come close to working to get it. It’s like winning the lottery; you are never going to win if you don’t play. 

As Mick Jagger said, “You can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need.” 

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Also on a totally unrelated note, I have a race tomorrow and here is the weather forecast. Bummer. So please everyone, cross your fingers for clarity (and lower humidity) between 7:30 and 9:30 tomorrow morning! Thanks! 

Do You Yasso?

Have you ever carried around something that you didn't ever use? Are you an expert packer? Do you love to travel? If you can say yes to any of these, hop on over to Women Rockin' The Road, where I have a post up about Things That I Could've Done Without!

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Where I Run These Days

And now for our regularly scheduled program: Jill's Fitness Friday link up.

My friend Lisa joined a running club recently and although she had her doubts beforehand, she loves it now! She has talked a lot about the fact that they are running less, but longer and stronger and each run has a focus. She has told me some of the details of her training runs and I have taken some of her group's ideas and run with them (he.he.he.)

The other night she mentioned that she had just finished doing Yassos and they had really kicked her butt. I wasn't sure what language she was speaking but asked her to elaborate. She explained them as this.

Take what your goal marathon pace is. For example, mine would be 4 hours flat, since I am attempting to run the half marathon in 2 hours flat. Now, run 800s meters (half a mile) at your goal time, but in minutes. For example, my goal is 4 hours. I have to run the 800 meters in 4 minutes. In case you are having trouble with the calculations like I did at first, that is an 8 minute mile. So I asked her, "and then what?" She said then you have a 400 M (.25 mile) "shag", which is a recovery period, where you run a slow jog. She suggested a 10 minute mile. I looked online and it says to run it in the same amount of time you ran the 800 meter, which for me would have been a 16 minute pace, which is a walk.

You are supposed to start at 4 intervals and work your way up. Her group did 8!! I decided to try it, and the next day, started with 4 of them. First I did a 1.5 mile warm up. Then I did 4 repeats and a 1.5 mile cool down. I did not run at a 16 minute pace during the recovery; I just ran at what felt comfortable.

Let me tell you, these things are magic! I have been doing intervals once every two weeks and hating them, although they DO usually get me about a 9 minute mile (which is my goal pace for a 2 hour half). They are strange because even though you run fast, then walk, then run fast etc, you still end up with a good combined pace. However, the Yasso beat my puny little intervals to shreds.

Don't get me wrong. These were hard. An 8 minute pace for me...is hard! But not impossible. My normal pace is about an 8:45 or 9 (for 6 miles). So my total was 6 miles and my average pace was about 8:25, which is 20 seconds per mile faster than normal! This week I decided to make sure it was not a fluke, so I did 5 of them this time. I ended up running 6 miles at an 8:10 pace. I was tired afterwards, but not completely dead, although I did almost lose my lunch around mile 3. But I recovered.

So, my question to you is this: For my half on Sunday, should I do this, or a variation of this, the whole time? Or maybe just part of the time? Have you tried doing intervals during a long race? If so, at what point during the race -- the beginning, middle or end?

I feel like I may not be sure of what I am doing, since the farthest I have gone on a Yasso day is 6 miles. Will it last for 13 or will I hit the wall somewhere in the middle? What do you think?

Have you tried to Yasso? 

PS EEEKKK... If you've popped out of Reader, note the "1 day and some odd hours left" until the Half!

Go over here

for more Friday hoppers!

2:12 ISO and Shutter Speed

Hello everyone and welcome to Week Two of the 12 week photo course, which focuses on ISO and Shutter Speed.  Hopefully you have joined in this week. If not, it's not too late. You can find the assignment for  Week Two HERE. Also, if you want to catch up, the pdf for Week One is here and you can still link up for the assignment over at Twenty-Six To Life. <---- click there to get to the week one link up!  Click HERE to go to her site for this week's link up!

This week the question was: When should I use a faster shutter speed?

I often shoot in Shutter Priority (the little S) Mode, since it allows me to manipulate the light by changing the shutter speed and ISO. However, I always need extra tips and it was nice to go through step by step instead of just playing around with it when I am trying to take important photos! 

Our assignment was to put an object (I used a glass) in the sink under running water and try changing your shutter speed (and consequently your ISO) in order to see what happens. Here is what I ended up with. Excuse the quality, or lack of it.

For the first photo, I used a slow shutter, which gives the water a silky effect. However, the light was hard to control. If I upped the ISO, it was too bright, but as you can see, this one is not really light enough.

The second. Better light, not so silky water. You can start to see the bubbles, which means the higher shutter speed is stopping the motion a little.

Here we have a faster shutter speed, which means you have to put the ISO up even more or else you don't get enough light in that little bit of time. Notice the bubbles are more pronounced.

In this last one, you can see the individual water drops. However, the shutter speed is so fast, barely any light is getting in, so I had to bump the ISO WAY up, which causes the photo to be grainy.

After we were done playing in the sink, the assignment was to use your manual setting and your light meter to find a good light balance, becuase as you can see from the (bad) photos above, the light is the most important element. 

Below, once again, is Papa P. He will probably be a regular feature. He holds nice and still. (click over to Kate's site and see who HER regular feature is!)

After doing the assignment, I experimented indoors and out to find a good balance of light. 

Inside: Slow shutter, high ISO

Outside: Fast shutter / low ISO

So, what I have decided is that I need more practice, especially with moving objects, as the shutter speed will change a lot when the movement changes a lot.

Have you experimented with different shutter speeds? 

Have you used the manual setting on your camera?

Join us next week for Week Three: The Color of Light

Re-Re-Re-Read Me!

One of the bloggers I follow, Hula Seventy, did a list project and one of her lists really inspired me. What books can you read over and over? My list is below.

1. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith (one of my all time favorites)
A little girl who loves to read, growing up in Brooklyn with an alcoholic father who spends all the money for food on booze and a hardworking mother who puts up with it, she somehow rises above. Plus she reads all the books in the library, one by one. My hero.

2. The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
Although it switches back and forth a little, I was still able to follow the story of a little girl who finds a naked time traveler in her father's field. Enough said. 

3. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (I've still never seen the play -- it's on my Life To-Do List)
France. The Revolution. A man goes to jail for stealing a loaf of bread and some candlesticks. He turns out to not be a bad guy after all.

4. Capitan Correlli's Mandolin - Louis de Berniers
Greece. WWII. A native Greek girl from a small island meets a rouge Italian during the Italian occupation. . Plus this book has my name in it. See if you can find it.

5. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
Goblins, Hobbits, Dragons, Greed, Courage, Friendship and more. You know what this book is about.  (I can't wait to see what Jackson does with the movie)

6. Anne Frank, The Diary of A Young Girl - Anne Frank
The Netherlands. WWII. The diary of a young Jewish girl hidden from the Germans during the Nazi occupation.

7. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
This book is about so many sisters and much silliness, but you love them and by the end you will wish they were part of your family.

8. To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
A book about a young girl living in the south talks about race and inequality but in a way that is not offensive. She also addresses courage and understanding.

9. The Stolen Child - Keith Donohue
A child gets stolen by hobgoblins and learns to adapt to his new family. In his place, a fake child is left with his original family. Years later, their paths intersect again.

10. Wicked - Gregory McGuire
The Wizard of Oz, but instead of from Dorothy's perspective, you see things through the eyes of the Wicked Witch of the West. In the end, you hate Dorthy and her little dog and are friends with the witch. I love how he twisted the classic version into something different. 

You can find these and more on my favorites shelf on Goodreads! Also check out my Bookshelf Page to see where I stand in this years Bookmark Break Challenge!

What books can you read over and over? What is your absolute most favorite book of all time?

(PS I actually wrote 80% of this post about a year ago. Do you ever start an idea, save it as a draft and then come back to it later?)

Message Received

source

Communicating is sometimes hard for me. I don't always like to talk on the phone; I am not very good at expressing myself vocally; I prefer to write things in a letter or a journal or on a post it note. When I was young, my mother used to yell at me and I would just glare at her wordlessly. I am not good with words. If there is a "wrong thing" to say, I may accidentally say it. I take that back, I will probably say it. So I sometimes keep quiet instead.

When I went to college, I received my very first email address from CSU, Sacramento. I had no idea what to do with it. The only people I knew with email addresses were the other students in my classes, and I could just talk to them. Why would I go all the way to the computer lab to email someone that lived right next door to me in the dorms? However, I did go over there to sometimes play solitaire on the computer between classes. Other than that, I didn’t see what all the fuss was about, maybe because there was no fuss.

The first time I went abroad, I lived and worked in France for three months. Every couple of weeks, I would buy a phone card and go and stand on the street at a pay phone and call my parents to let them know that I was okay, where I had been and what I was doing. I sent post cards and letters and beer labels home to my friends. I wrote in my journal and kept a box of scrapbook worthy items (mostly beer labels). There were internet cafes, but they were mostly full of people smoking and drinking coffee in front of empty computer stations. I did have an email address, but I still did not know a lot of people who had emails themselves, nor was using email as a means of communication yet a habit.

I am learning to communicate. I am still not very good at doing it vocally. However, through the means of email, I have learned to ask questions and to ask for help; I have asked people out on lunch dates that I may not have asked before; I have learned things about people that I would not have asked them about. I have made friends that I probably would not have made if I had to pick up the phone and talk to them, not only around the world, but even on a smaller scale such as around the office at work.

Both the internet and I have come very far since the 90s. I did not have that first email address until I was 18. I didn’t really use it until I was 22. And then that was ALL I used the internet for. I didn’t even own my own computer until I was 26. I didn’t need it! I went to the computer lab to study and to write papers and to do research on the internet. Now I use it to find knowledge and different worlds and great people.

The communication lines are now open.

I always wonder if I would be different if I had been a child in a world full of Internet. Would I know more or less? Would I be more outgoing or less? Would I still hand-write Thank You cards or not?

This post is part of the Write on Edge RemembeRED prompt. Today's assignment was:

Many of us remember life before the internet. We wrote letters instead of emails, used encyclopedias instead of Google, and went to parties that weren’t of the Twitter variety. For this week’s prompt, we want you to recall those early memories of being online. Tell us how it impacted your life and what it meant for you. Write about your experience in 600 words or less.



Now tell me -- do YOU remember the days before the internet? When did you get your first email address? When did you actually start to use the internet regularly?

Wine & Love (3)

I decided to do Nora's Wine and Love today, since Thursdays are now dedicated to 12 Weeks to Better Photos posts! And I like Nora's Wine and Love, so I thought I would do it today and link up with her when she posts later in the week. I hope she doesn't mind! You know how this works, you list what made you whine, or makes you need to have a glass of wine (or is just plain bad) this week and what you love this week! You can link up with Nora on Thursdays!

WINE:

- They are trying to get our work wrapped up soon. This may mean that in the next month, I will be (a) jobless or (b) moving somewhere else. Which is not always bad, but it makes it REALLY hard to make plans with other people, you know the ones who have a "normal" life and a "normal" job. (also see: love list)

- I slacked on my workout schedule last week. I was tired, and I went to visit a friend and it was a short week at work so I just put it to the bottom of the to do list.

- Because of this, I ran a very slow pace on my run on Sunday. I just wasn't as motivated / energetic / into it as I am sometimes. Which is strange, because my run on Thursday night was really good. Running is weird.

- This week at work is really busy!

- I still don't feel ready for the half marathon on Sunday.

LOVE:

- As I said above, I may be moving. This could be good. Right now I am two hours from any airport, which means that I am at least 6 - 8 hours away from my friends and family. Soooo, if we move, I may be (a) closer to an airport or (b) closer overall (driving distance) to some of my friends and family. Which would be awesome.

- I got to see a good friend last weekend. Girl time was much needed and much enjoyed. Isn't it nice to be around someone that just knows YOU? It is.

- I am going to also see my Dad this weekend! I am excited about that. He is going to come to cheer me on for the Half Marathon on Sunday. It is also the District Fair that day, and although he may not go on the zipper with me (my favorite ride!) he will hold my purse while I spin around madly!

- I found this great deal online for a 8 x 11 photo book (10 dollars for a 35 dollar value!) I think there are a couple more days to buy it if you want it!

- The weather! Love, love, love! I hope it stays this way for a while and doesn't descend right into winter.

- Yes, work is busy, but it means I am feeling productive!

- The next few weeks should be crazy busy, what with busy work, busy weekends and trying to fit in training and fun, it will zoom by!

- I went to the thrift store and bought a bunch of great books for 50 cents each! I am excited to read them....whenever I find the time!! (see above comment, category: fun) I may also need a new suitcase just for my books! It's a disease, this book buying business, but it sure makes me happy!

Notice many of my wines are also loves? I guess there IS a silver lining to every cloud! 

Do you have anything exciting or stressful going on this week? 
Make sure you go to Nora's page to link up!

A Horse is A Horse, Of Course of Course

This post is brought to you by Budweiser. 

Not because it is my favorite beer, but because I went to the Brewery the other day! 

Did you know that Anheiser Busch makes hundreds of beers? Including these:

•Bass Ale

•Boddingtons

•Beck's

•Hoegaarden

•Leffe

•Stella Artois

And this, which is funny, because my friend Lisa was JUST talking about Clamato and I was like, "what the heck is that?" and she told me. Once she told me, I realized my grandma basically drinks THIS DRINK below! Now it's pre-canned for her! Cheers Grandma!

I got to meet the big horse. 

My to do list, courtesy of Jimmy's Johns. 

I found a new running path.

I burned 912 calories.

Then I went for brunch. 

And ate 1200 calories. 

Que sera, sera.

I have been volunteering at the local library. 

Which gives me a chance to brush up on my reading. 

I didn't know they still had these!

I made a nice summer salad. 

Gotta get it while the getting's good! 

In Missouri, the corn has been picked. 

Bye bye corn!

I found a new local hangout. 

In case you can't read the sign, this is the local bar.

When looking for more tiny ponies, I found these instead! 

I heart looking for strange animals in Missouri. 

(PS I swear I saw a camel. Maybe I am hallucinating) 

To all the brave heros of 9.11, I salute you! 

How was your week? What are you doing this weekend? 

Mental Anguish

"Methinks that the moment my legs began to move, my thoughts began to flow." - Henry David Thoreau 

See that little counter over on my left sidebar? Oh, you are reading this in Reader? Okay, well I will read it to you. What it says is, "8 days (and some odd hours) until the City of Roses Half Marathon".

Yes, 8 days.

I am not ready. Physically, I am fine. It is my mental capacities that are lacking. Although I KNOW I can do it, I am still nervous/scared/doubting myself.

Why? I don't know. I have done it before and it really doesn't matter if (a) I run really slow, (b) I have to walk or (c) I don't finish at all.

But I am my worst critic and am hardest on myself and I want to do well, even though I keep telling myself that it doesn't matter what happens. If I were you and you were me, I would tell you that you are going to do fine and to just have fun with it and that it Doesn't Matter! But I am me and even though I try to tell myself the same thing, I am feeling a little strange.

This always happens to me before a big race. It's like stage fright. Like cold feet. Like speaking in front of a bunch of people even though you KNOW you are prepared and you know the material. It's self doubt for NO reason.

Usually it is gone after the first mile.

However, until that first mile is under my belt (in 8 days and some odd hours), I will wonder: did I eat enough today / last night / yesterday / last week? Did I train enough this week / for the last 12 weeks? Did I train too much? Am I strong enough? Is my alarm going to go off on time? Do I really need to pee or am I just nervous?

And then, the first mile will go by and I will do what I know how to do. I will do what I have done before. I will do what I have been doing for the last 12 weeks (and years before that). I will run. I will enjoy myself. I will be reminded that those nerves are just a part of being excited.

I will be reminded that races are my FAVORITE part of running.

Have you ever run a race? If so, did you like it? Did you get nervous beforehand? Do you have any upcoming races? 

This post is linked up with Jill at: 

Argentina Rocks!

This is Argentina. 

Today , you can join me over at Women Rockin' The Road, where I am talking about being a vegetarian in Argentina, one of the beef capitals of the world.  

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Also, I have a winner to announce for the Back to The Books Giveaway Hop.

Drum roll please....

And the winner is....

Number drawn by random.org.
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1:12 Aperture

I think I mentioned before that Kate suggested linking up for a 12 week fun photo course online. And it's FREE. Since I am a gourmet hoarder of the first kind, I jumped on this. Free classes? An excuse to play with my camera? I am in! We will be linking up every Thursday with what we have learned for the previous week. This week's post will be about Week One: Aperture.

Instead of my repeating what she has already said, you can hop over to Kate's post where she has links to PDFs for all 12 weeks of the course. Or you can look at WEEK ONE here. Whether you are a beginner or an expert, it always helps to have focus (no pun intended). I, for example, already know a little about aperture. However, it never hurts to get in some extra practice AND having an assignment makes me more likely to get out and experiment!

So here’s the question that week one wants us to answer:

Just how much of your photo do you want to be in focus?

I started by playing around a little.

This is Papa P. He has been featured here in the past. 

Notice in photo ONE, the background is blurred. This is becuase I was using a wide open aperture, or a low f/stop.  In TWO, I used a higher f/stop. You can see the background is still blurred, but you have more of the photo in focus than in number one. In THREE, I used a very high f/stop (small aperture). This makes even more of the photo become in focus. Note not only the curtains, but the carpet. In one, its blurred; in two, only the edges are blurred; in three, none is blurred.

I am not going to go into all the camera mumbo jumbo (unless you want me to, you can email me or check out week one's PDF) but basically the lower the f/stop, the less of the photo will be in focus. The higher the f/stop, the more of the photo will be in focus. In a nutshell.

Here again, we have a low f/stop in the first frame (blurred background), going higher as we move to the right (more of the photo is in focus). 

And again, low to high f/stop. 

I take a ton of photos using LOW f/stop. I love macro shots and shots with a blurred background. Many of those photos look like this: 

So my goal for myself was to take some photos using a smaller aperture (a larger f/stop). 

So here are some of the results.

It was fun but I still need more practice! 

Lessons learned?

First, I had to re-remember that the bigger the aperture, the more light that gets into the lens. So, when you are shooting with your aperture wide open, you don't need your ISO to be as high or your shutter speed to be as low. The opposite goes for the small aperture. I had to bump up my ISO and lower my shutter speed for some of them. (they call this the "exposure triangle")

Also, I still need to practice more, as I tend to "set it and forget it" like Ron Popeil. I need to be conscious of what my settings are set on and remember to change them! Ansel Adams is well known for his landscape shots, which he used a very a very small aperture for. I strive to be more like him! (He used f/64!!)

Join us for next week's link up where we will be talking about: ISO and Shutter Speed.

Have you experimented with aperture? What f/stop do you like best? If not, just as an observer, which photos are more pleasing to your eye? Blurred or not blurred background?

Fish Are Jumping and The Cotton is High

First, join us over at Women Rockin' The World, Topic: Food, where Sarah talks about Biker Food. Later this week I will talk about Being a Vegetarian in Argentina, the Beef Capital of the World. Don't forget, if you have a travel story, we want to hear it!

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And now for our regularly scheduled post. A while ago, my friend Lisa did a post about her childhood and some of the things she remembers for each season. Her first installation was Summer and she invited us to join in. I better jump on that boat before it sails! So, here are a few things, Lisa style, that I remember from...When I Was A Child.

Cousins: Every summer my cousins would come and stay with us and we would do everything together. Even though they annoyed me half the time (especially one, but I am not going to name names), it was great having them around and they were all like brothers to me (and one little sister). We would go to the beach, play board games, watch movies, throw water balloons, annoy each other and do all those other things cousins do.

The Beach: Nope, I did not live near the ocean. However, I was only steps away from the beach at the river! We used to go to the beach almost every day. We would play the white rock game, where you throw the white rock (quartz) into the water and everyone races to get to it first. Whoever gets there first gets to throw it the next time. (We also used to do that with pennies in the pool).  We would build sand castles and bury each other up to the neck in sand. We would have swimming races and contests to see who could hold their breath under water the longest. It was all so much fun!

My brother and I. Notice the beer cans? Good times!

Close Encounters of the Third Kind: Don't ask me why, but this, along with Gulliver's Travels, were our two favorite movies to watch for at least one summer, if not more. I remember being grounded becuase I threw sand at my brother and my two punishment choices were (a) no beach the next day or (b) no movie. I chose...no beach the next day! WHY!? I guess it was an instant gratification thing.(p.s. Remember when he makes the mountain out of mashed potatoes? We used to do that all the time!)

Mudballs: We used to have contests to see who could make the best mudball. By best I mean, it has to be very round and smooth and when you throw it, it CAN'T BREAK. If it breaks, you did not make a very good one. There is an art to this, believe it or not. I can't tell you the secret though, or I would have to kill you.

Working: Yup, I said working. My parents used to run a summer resort, with cabins, tubes for rent, a bar, restaurant and general store. Many (MANY) hours of each summer was spent working. I didn't necessarily enjoy it at the time, but now I can look back upon those times and laugh. I remember having to be the tube renter girl. I had to sit with all the tubes and fill out paperwork and take money when people wanted one. It was near the beach. However, I could not GO to the beach, but I could hear everyone else having fun at the beach while I was stuck renting tubes. It sucked.

Reading: When I wasn't working, watching movies with my cousins or going to the beach, I was ALWAYS reading. I remember reading anything I could get my hands on. I would read my Mom's Agatha Christie books. I must have read A Tree Grows In Brooklyn (my favorite) about a million times. I love Laura Ingals Wilder and Nancy Drew and CS Lewis. I read the Sweet Valley High series and all the John Grishams and even my grandma's trashy romance novels (when I was a little older, of course).

Campfires: We used to have a campfire almost every weekend night. We would roast marshmellows and eat s'mores and roast one side of our bodies at a time (oooh my legs are burning! Turn around! Ooooh now my butt is burning!) We would go swimming at night and then go stand at the campfire to dry off and warm up.

Sleeping Outside: The best part of summer is that we used to put a mattress in the back yard and we would sleep outside in our sleeping bags under the stars. We would count shooting stars and tell ghost stories and talk about the adventures we were going to have when we grew up.

The Big City: When I got a little older, I used to go and visit my Aunt and Uncle in the Bay Area and they would take me school clothes shopping and we would go bike around San Francisco. I felt so grown up hanging out with them.

At Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco (Yes, I know my sweatshirt is awesome, but NOT as cool as Uncle's PANTS!)

Ah, childhood. Wasn't it great? What were your fondest memories of your Summers as a child?

Ten on Tuesday (18)

I hope everyone had a great long weekend! I did! I am sure I should be compiling a very interesting post about it, but this week at work is a busy one since it is actually TWO days shorter than normal. We usually work 6 days a week, including Saturday. So. In order to preserve my brain for more lucrative things, I am linking up with Chelsea at Roots and Rings for a fun ToT list! Hopefully I will be more coherent tomorrow!

1. What temperature do you keep your thermostat on during the day?
I usually keep it around 74. I get cold pretty easily. Sometimes I put it down to 72 or 73 and then turn it off for a while after the room gets chilly. 

2. What temperature do you keep your thermostat on at night?
Pretty much the same as above: 72-74 degrees. 

3. In a canister of mixed nuts, do you pick out certain varieties and leave the others?
I don't really like hazelnuts, macadamia nuts or brazil nuts as much as some of the others. I prefer gorp (or trail mix, as it is called by some), where you have mixed nuts, raisins, craisins and m&ms. I like to have a perfect mix of everything! NO CHERRY PICKING!

4. What is your favorite kind of M&M?
Almonds. But I don't really eat candy or sweets. 

5. How do you buy books? (Amazon, bookstore, new, used, electronic, etc)
Goodwill/Thrift Store or Amazon (free classics mostly) OR borrowed from the local library

6. How do you like your eggs cooked?
Fried DEAD Hard with NO runny yolk or scrambled. Scrambled is usually safer because for some reason some people don't understand what NO RUNNY YOLK means.

7. Can you whistle?
Of course. I can do a wolf whistle or a regular whistle. I can whistle blowing out or in. I can be on your team when we play Cranium and you have to whistle songs and guess what they are. 

8. What common word do you always misspell?
Because. Not because I don't know HOW to spell it but because my fingers go to fast and I end up getting "becuase" instead. 

9. Are you afraid of flying?
Haha. No, thank goodness, because I would be a Very, Very nervous individual right now. 

10. How often do you go shopping?
I go to the grocery store roughly once a week. I go clothes shopping roughly once a year. I go book shopping roughly once a month. I shop for flights and cars and hotels more than anything else!


Your turn! Answer one (or more) of these Qs in the comments or go over to Roots and Rings to link up!