Irene has her pedometer

Irene has her pedometer and is stepping lots. Are the other fitness challengers equiped?

There is still plenty of time to join Irene, Jenny, Jennifer, Beth, Molly and myself if the GBDK Fitness Challenge. TT, Abby, Sally's S, are you in? It doesn't have to be a step program (although I think the pedometers are great for lots of reasons, the biggest of which is that it makes exercise an everyday activity, not a went to the gym or not thing). The only requirement is that you set a goal (number of steps, number of times you swim or do yoga, whatever) and keep track of of it.

Here are some places selling pedometers: Bodytronics, PedometersUSA where we can supposedly buy them for less than $1 (if we buy what, 10,000?), Amazon (I have the accusplit eagle 120xl and like it), Rite Aid has them as a free rebate gift this month, REI has them, I bet Target, Wallmart, etc. have them. If you need me to buy one for you, (indebtedness can be a surprisingly effective motivator), let me know soon. (In the state employee program, they gave them to us, but we had to return them if we didn't turn in our final results paperwork, it really made me pay closer attention.)

Butternut Blonde is a Cow Breed

As I was looking for some images of butternut blondes to accompany the post below, I learned that BB is an unusual Canadian cow breed, or at least the name of the farm where they raise blondes.

Confessions of a Shopping-Happy Butternut Blonde

Okay, I have two confessions to make.
1) There are times I really like to shop. One day last went to the hardware store, dollar store, drug store and natural food store and bought things like deck cleaner, stain, dish soap, shampoo, (and make-up! I so love buying make-up) and quinoa and absolutely loved it. I just really like standing there trying to figure out of the more expensive waterproofing is really worth it. I dislike clothes shopping most of the time, but had another great day this week driving into Charleston, dropping off the recycling, hitting 7 vegetable vendors at the Farmer's Market and pricing fans and back-to-school items at Target. I had to take myself away from the "storage solution" section.
2) I care about my hair color label. My hair continues to darken as I age. This is normal for blondes except white-blonde tow-heads. Sometime in my twenties, I remember reading an essay about blondes in their thirties and how they are all fake and meet with both scorn and envy from people like the author who was a blonde in her twenties but no more. I thought at the time "that won't happen to me", but then, I was a natural blonde in her twenties.
Anyway, I like the color of my hair. I've always liked the color of my hair, including the times when it was a sun-bleached light blonde and the times, like most of high school, when I thought that I could only fairly refer to it as "blondish". I like the color of Jennifer's hair, which is just a touch darker than mine, and I will be proud to have that color next. I am not about dye my hair. But I want to be considered blonde. The actual word is most of the hang-up.

This is weird to me because usually I am a realist. I will buy a piece of clothing that fits well even if it is the larger size, and I've certainly never purchased anything because of vanity sizing. Sizes are just numbers, as are most labels. But I really want to cling to "blonde". Maybe it's because I don't fit in with a four hair color universe (while definitely not black or red, my hair is really not brown or even light brown.) So for now I am calling myself "butternut blonde". I have no idea what butternut blonde is, but they make a shampoo for it so there must be lots of us.

Sorry if I've disappointed you, Sally's Sister.

Electric Boogie

Usually I don't think very much about cars. As long as I have one that gets me from here to there, I'm content.

Until now.

I've fallen in lust... too bad 'he' is way out of my league.

http://www.teslamotors.com/styling/body.php

Some say it's mystic
It's electric
(Boogie woogie, woogie)
You can't resist it
It's electric
(Boogie woogie, woogie)
You can't do without it
It's electric
(Boogie woogie, woogie)

Speaking of books

Since we're talking books (and because I'm so frusturated with my paper right now I don't think I'm going to get much more done today...) I had a question for those in the group that read Inkheart (Jennifer recommended during knitting so I know at least one other person in the group has read it). Did anyone read the second book of the series, Inkspell? Did you like it? Although I enjoyed Inkheart quite a bit, I did not like Inkspell very much and I was wondering if anyone else felt this way or if I was in the minority. I will still read the final book whenever it comes out to see how she ties things up, but I'm not exactly looking forward to it, if you know what I mean.

Also, I find that I really enjoy young adult/teen/children's literature for relaxing reading. Does anyone have anything good to recommend?

Harry Potter Discussion

Harry Potter fans, it is time to "geek out" and discuss the book.

In order not to be a spoiler, the discussion should take place in the comments. If you have not read the book, read the comments at your own risk.

So - What did you think? Where you happy with the ending? Did the book leave you wanting more Harry Potter? What was the most surprising part of the story for you?

More megafauna

I am back from New Mexico and have moved to Independence. We are slowly getting things unpacked and organized.

In the meantime, I wanted to share some of the vertebrate megafauna (or evidence of) I saw in New Mexico.

Hungry Lizard

Rattlesnake - I put my backpack fairly close to this guy, but he did not rattle. Luckily I saw him and was able (with the help of a long stick) to retrieve my bag.

Hummingbirds - I stayed at the Licthy Center (which is run by the Nature Conservancy) and there were about a dozen hummingbirds that visited the feeder. They provided early morning entertainment.

We were doing our work along the Gila River in SW New Mexico. At one of the campgrounds in the Gila National Forest was closed because some guy was bit in the butt by a bear while he was sleeping in his tent. Several miles away, we saw evidence of bears at one of our sampling sites.

A family of turkeys.

Racoon Tracks in the mud

And my favorite - the Gila Monster