Kid'n'Play

It was my birthday on Monday.  It was filled with love and joy, and relatives leaving me music-filled birthday greetings.  It was extraordinary.  (And, thank you all for putting smiles on my face!)

Juggles followed through as a great fiance and charmed me with dinner at Paesano's, including a delicious bottle of wine.  And he got me some fantastic gifts:

1. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, a book by Scott McCloud.  This was a fantastic gift since Juggles is a comic guy and, though I've tried, I'd rather read a novel.  I don't get how to read things with pictures, apparently.
2. A Fitbit Ultra: http://www.fitbit.com, which "tracks your everyday steps, stairs climbed, calories burned, and more, motivating you throughout the day."

This post is actually inspired by the Fitbit, so I'm going to get on with it....

The Fitbit is really cool.  I wear it on my person and it acts as a pedometer to record the number of steps I take, miles I walk, and stairs climbed.  It tells me the calories I've burned.  I can log my food intake to compare caloric intake vs. burn.  It tracks my sleep cycles and tells me how many times I wake up every night, giving me a score of sleep efficiency.  It tracks workouts to tell me the pace I'm walking/running and the minute-by-minute caloric and step detail.  It does a lot of cool things.

I've never before tracked calories.  It's a weird feeling.  I don't really care about what I eat because I've never struggled with my weight, so it's bizarre writing down what I'm eating and having a note, "Today you can still eat 600 more calories,"  or "You've consumed X mg of sodium."  It definitely makes me realize WHAT I'm eating though.

I've known for a long time that my diet isn't the best.  It's better than all Ramen and Mac&Cheese, as I consumed during undergrad, but I'm far from consuming many meals of fruits and veggies as I did growing up.  For instance, yesterday I went out to dinner and had beer cheese soup and margarita pizza.  Winning combination of a lot of dairy, fat, and carbs.  But, it sure did taste good.

Today, so far, I have consumed only 735 calories, but am already at almost 1300 mg of sodium! 

Here are some alarming facts about sodium brought to you by our lovely CDC:

• Americans eat on average about 3,300 mg of sodium a day.  
• About 90% of Americans eat more sodium than is recommended for a healthy diet. 
• Reducing the sodium Americans eat by 1,200 mg per day on average could save up to $20 billion a year in medical costs

from http://www.cdc.gov/Features/VitalSigns/Sodium/

Source: http://www.cdc.gov

Sodium is a slow killer. The sodium balance of the human body is regulated by our precious kidneys.  There's a delicate balance created by the kidney, because kidneys help to control blood volume and pressure, and regulate electrolytes.  So, as you can imagine, excess sodium over long periods of time can lead to chronic kidney disease and hypertension.  These just end up being expensive for the health care consumer, as they require lots of drugs, etc.



Above is a schematic of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, in case you're curious about how hormonal regulation fits in with this whole cascade of substances to regulate blood pressure and volume.  You can read more about it on your own.  I'd prefer to direct you toward humorous kitty-chemistry pictures instead, now. 

Source: http://icanhascheezburger.com/

If you could hide inside me, maybe for awhile, and I won't tell no one your name.

Over the last few months, I've slowly started to come to the realization that I'm going to have to make a decision on whether or not to change my last name when I get married.  This is a very strange thing for me, as I identify with being a "Lazarus."  It's a great last name, really.  And there aren't too many of us.  I've been a Lazarus for a few decades now and not being a Lazarus might make me feel a little less me-ish.

That being said, my mom kept her maiden name when she got married.  People have asked me if that was ever strange for me growing up, but I never thought so.  My mom is a strong, independent woman who loves my father very much, but was also well-established in her career when she tied the knot.  For her, getting married wasn't a fanciful, big ordeal.  It was just the next stage in her relationship with my father and neither of them equated that stage as one that was necessary for my mother to trade-in her identity that she'd worked for so long to develop to become a "Mrs."  No.  She belongs to no one but herself.  But she chooses to give her life and love to my dad, without that sense of "property" or whatever that goes along with a last name change. As a child, I never even realized that people might look at me as if I were the child of an unwed mother or divorced parents or anything like that, though, looking back, I'm sure people could have.  And, quite frankly, even if I were the child of divorced or unwed parents, whose business is that?  Right.  People's only business is that my parents provided me with love and attention, which they, of course, showered me with.

Plus, I grew up in a great and comfortable city where we didn't call parents "Mister and Missus."  Everyone went by first names.  There were JoAnne and Rich, Sylvia and Franklin, Lynn and Tom.   Last names were never a part of our naming conventions, so it was never a deal having a mom with a different last name.

Being an academic brings all sorts of other considerations to the forefront of this issue.  I'm not highly reputable or anything, but I'm a co-author on a handful of papers now and it would be a shame to disassociate those with myself by changing my last name.  I like the research that I did as a master's student.  It's very different from what I do now, but it's something that I would consider turning to as a career path, so being associated with those PIs may be great for my future career!

However, I know that it would be J's preference if I were to become a Zagel, though I know he won't push me either direction and, really, just wants me to be happy.  When we had first discussed the idea of marriage, I told him I'm not sure I'd change my last name, but our kids could surely have his last name.

Of course, there are a lot of other options.  I could change my last name officially, but still publish under my maiden name.  I could keep my maiden name as part of my name -- maybe as a middle name.  I could hyphenate (but I won't, because that's a lot of Z's for one last name!).  

Of course, there are pros and cons for all options.  All-in-all, I'm glad I have a fiance who isn't egotistical enough to feel that I should take his last name for whatever reason, and is placing that decision in my hands.

And, for fun, good music:

We are the 1980s / we are the Detroit lights

One thing that I learned after moving to Michigan is that techno is a product of Detroit.  Pretty effing neat.  I feel I should link to the Detroit Electronic Music Festival (DEMF) at this point in time.  Further, here's a UK tribute to techno with a metion of Detroit.

 

Sing song blue

As I was belting out the song "Poison" in the shower today, I realized that I should make a playlist of all the songs that are in my head when I wake up...  mostly because they are awesome (and random...)

Let's track this week so far: 

Monday:



Tuesday:



Wednesday:




You're welcome.

Should I just keep chasing pavements, even if it leads nowhere?

I'm quickly forgetting what it's like to have a life of any sort this semester.  On top the usual -- dissertation research, coursework, helping with grants, and the occasional lab project for another professor -- I'm now a graduate student instructor for an intro epid course with 200 students in it.  My weekdays seem to average about 12 hrs of work.  And my weekends are getting up there too.  I'm constantly exhausted and, somehow, constantly feel like I'm getting nothing done.

This weekend, I at least got the chance to run some errands in the middle of uploading and proofing lectures, working practice problems, and grading a gazillion homeworks.  I worked all day yesterday and a good chunk of today.  And, yahoo, I'm just right back in the mix of everything bright and early tomorrow morning.

This semester has made me realize more and more that I don't think I ever want to be a faculty member, as I think they might get less sleep than me.  Maybe... 




p.s.  My dog is crazy.  He just had a growling war with the couch while he was underneath it.

Recessive genes

I somehow managed to never know my blood type until now, at 31 years old.  I was at the doctor earlier this week and she suggested I get blood typed in case I want to reproduce at some point in time.  Of course, most Americans (85%) are Rh positive, so it shouldn't be a big deal.  But, in the case that I'm Rh negative and decide to have kids and Juggles is Rh positive, we could all implode with horrible cases of autoimmune stuff-n-things (or something) if we don't find out beforehand.  

Turns out I'm A- blood type.

This means I'm Rh negative, along with a small percentage of the U.S. population.

And Juggles is A+, meaning he's a typical Rh positive American.

Of course, both my my parents are Rh positive.  So, lucky me and my recessive genes!  Now I'll have to get injections of fuzzmonkeys in order to stop the implosion of autoimmune stuff-n-things if/when I have babies.

Haley Bonar - Candy Machine Gun

First off, if you haven't fallen in love with Midwestern girl, Haley Bonar, you need to change that instantly.  She's adorable and creative and sweet.  Every time she performs, she manages to reach out and touch everyone in the crowd, as if she's secretly pulling you each aside and sharing a moment, an inside joke.


Secondly,  I love this song despite the fact that it's a little sad in its connotation.  There's a sense of hopelessness, of neediness with a simultaneous acceptance of how it is.

We began where we began
Same old story with a different plan
Same old woman meets the same old man
And they knock each other out

It rained so hard as we drove across the state
You laughed at first but then your chemistry was strange
The light in your eyes fell away like loose change
And I tried to figure out who you were at all
Who you were at all

Oh, you were at all
Something of a garden, something of a martyr
I'm helpless in your hands
Oh yeah, my candy machine gun,
Lemonade-flavored poison
Don't turn away from me

Of all seven daughters he loved the youngest
Her long brown hair felt no shame in his caress
Don't be suspicious of my love it was no accident
He told her without name

I've become so defined by you I can't tell up from down
The nature of your beauty pulls my bones into the ground
I smile though I ache as though the wind has stole my crown
And it makes me laugh like Cain did

And you weren't at all
No, you weren't at all

Oh, you weren't at all
Something of a garden, something of a martyr
I'm so helpless in your hands
Oh yeah, my candy machine gun
Lemonade-flavored poison
Don't turn away from me

Go  buy her latest album, Golder, right away and support independent artists!

When little plungey earned his keep

I love going to the hardware store.  The smell of all the plastic and metal and grease delights my nose and reminds me of my days as a young girl when my dad used to take me up to Mark Enderlein's hardware store on East Lake Street in Minneapolis whenever he needed a little piece for a little fix-it project.  There was always crazy stuff there, whether it was getting a few feet of rope to use as a jump rope, or checking out all the different colors and sizes that chains came in and wondering what people did with all of those things.  Oh yeah, and tools and stuff. 

Juggles and I went to the hardware store the other day.  We got a drain snake and some rubber washer-things for our hose pipe outside to keep it from dripping.  Then we passed the plungers.  Silly, yes, but I saw this little tiny plunger and just HAD to have it.  J thought I was being silly, but I managed to convince him that we should buy it, just in case.  It took a few minutes of debate over said $2.50 item, but, I mean, how can you not take that tiny rubber plunger home with you?  It's no bigger than our small cat! 

So we took it home.  And, let me tell you, the baby plunger is adapting well to our place.  He's already unclogged both the bathtub AND cleared the bathroom sink (which hasn't drained well the entire time we'ved lived here).

Little plungey has earned his keep.  We've given him a home in our bathroom where he does his finest work.

Also exciting, someone apparently has my credit card number and has been trying to spend hundreds of dollars in Illinois at Home Depot and some grocery stores. It's peace of mind to know that Visa has their fraud prevention services looking out for me so everything is DECLINED!  Yikes.

We just wanna make the world dance / forget about the price tag

The summer has been a whirlwind, as has been the last few years. So many great things happened in the last few months.

In June, we played at Gender Blender in lovely Fergus, ON and, despite having a more random group of teammates than we usually do, we had even more of a blast than usual. We camped in the rain, set up a live version of the popular smartphone game Angry Birds, enjoyed some flip cup and did crazy things all weekend. It was exhaustingly fun.

This year, Juggles and I started a mixed club ultimate team called Sidecar! which was very well-received by the community. We had 70-some people try out for our team, making decisions for 20-some roster spots very difficult. After we whittled the team down, we had a fairly successful season, taking 5th at Mars, 2nd at Motown Throwdown, 12th at CHC, and losing our regionals spot to Overhaul in a game we finished 15-11. The season had its ups and downs, but, all-in-all, I am so glad to have gotten to make friends with such a diverse set of people -- from U of M players to Detroiters, to other talented people we found lurking within our local league. It's been so fun to get to know everyone.

Juggles also spent a week in the Bahamas with his brother in July, while I played at Chicago Sandblast, then took a short course on statistical methods in genetic epidemiology. That sounds pretty lame, I know, but I'm a geek enough to appreciate this sort of things because it helps me think about my work a little differently.

Later in July, my friend Harrison happened to make a quick run through Detroit for a conference, so we got together and went to our first Tigers game. It was so great to catch up with him. He's someone I've known since the tender age of 11 or so, have always kept in touch with, and he's just turned out ... so awesomely! I'm glad we've stayed friends over the years, despite random distances between us and such.

This summer, also, a number of my close friends got married. Unfortunately, I couldn't make it back to Minnesota to celebrate with most of them (Adro and Carley, Da, Michelle) because it's an expensive plane ticket, but I am so thrilled for all of them. I did make it home for my best friend Lindsay's wedding in August -- probably a good thing since I was her maid of honor. And, honored I was! It was a tiring weekend, for sure, but filled with smiles and festivities. Juggles came along for the ride and did a great job helping me stay organized while I was running around Duluth. While we were in MN, I also got to introduce him to the Minnesota State Fair to eat a lot of fried foods, Sweet Martha's Cookies, and check out some mighty fine pigs and cows. Unfortunately, we didn't have a whole lot of time to see friends, but we did get some good eating in, at the very least, and a really great hike in Cherokee Park. Now the autumn has come. The last few days have been rainy, but our dahlias are still in full bloom keeping in a nice fiery view of summer sunshine


It's time to focus on things aside from just sports and friends, I suppose, but at least I'm afforded the luxury to take a break from my work on occasion and catch some frisbees on the beach. This fall has exciting things to offer -- papers to publish and women's ultimate to coach at Eastern Michigan. Now it's time to get it started!

I'm not a girly-girl. I don't do my nails or paint my face every day. It's not that I'm not a "marriage" girl. I'm just not a "wedding" girl. I like weddings. They're pretty. The flowers and the traditions (most of which are lost now-a-days anyway) and all of that stuff. When it comes down to my own wedding day, I just am not spending more than we spent on the down-payment of our house for a dress and a party. Not my style. I don't want everyone looking at me anyway so seriously. That's so awkward. (For me at least... I'm not judging you if you do it differently. I know I'm not normal.)

This being said, I want to point out that I have a folder in my bookmarks called "My Wedding." Yes, this is the folder where one would search for most girls' fairy princess dresses and wedding cake styles or whatever.

Not me. There's one website in that folder. Just one. It's titled Can a Jell-O Shot Be Classy?. The answer, my friends, is yes. And you can look at their photos to see just how classy they can be. Because, my friends, what's a party without some jello shots?


Cucumber-lime margarita shots tied with cucumber ribbons


That is all I wanted to share. Oh, secondly, Beck's Midnight Vultures album is phenom.

Cake Batter Rice Krispie Treats

Growing up, my mom trained me to become a choco-holic. Not that I will complain at all about my deep love for brownies, cakes, and other tasty treats, but I always went to the neighbors' houses to get simple desserts like rice krispie treats. Never in my life had I made them before yesterday when I embarked on a mission to fill Naomi's left-behind brownie pan with a tasty treat so I could finally return her cookware.



Cake Batter Rice Krispie Treats.

Ingredients:

• 3 Tbsp. butter
• 1 (10 oz.) bag of mini-marshmallows
• 1/4 cup yellow cake mix
• 6 cups crispy rice cereal
• 1 (1.75 oz.) container of sprinkles

Method:

1. Melt butter in a large saucepan over low heat and add marshmallows.
2. Stir until they begin to melt, adding in cake mix one spoonful at a time so its combined.
3. Stir in cereal so it is completely coated with marshmallow mixture.
4. Sprinkle in half of the sprinkles and mix.
5. Press into a baking dish (any size will do) and top with remaining sprinkles. Let sit for about 30 minutes before cutting.

I almost doubled the recipe on the website above because I wanted to taste-test them since I had never before made rice krispie treats.
My tips are as follows:

1. Use lots of cake batter. I used an entire cup for a double batch. It's very sweet, but very tasty.
2. When doubling the recipe, don't add in double the rice krispies. There's not enough marshmallows to go over them. I used about 8-9 cups of cereal instead of 12.
3. Add a little extra butter. Everyone loves butter.
4. Use lots and lots of sprinkles. Sprinkles = happiness.

A farewell to arms

A tip for the day: look at the world with optimism and don't whine -- not only to keep your own spirits high, but so you post on your social sites your happy thoughts instead of your crappy thoughts. When you're dead and gone and the internet lives on and on, I think I'd like to be remembered as a pleasant, humorous individual, at least.

It's strange, really. Social sites. And death. I mean, the mix of the two of them. I say this as I wait for funeral arrangements to be posted by Nick Gidmark on his brother Ben's Facebook page. You see, my childhood friend, Ben -- the one who was so proud whenever his snake shed its skin, whom we made fun of for having a "secret kissing spot" behind the bushes of his house when he was a kid -- he died of a heart attack on Monday night, at home, alone. Some friends were waiting on him and were concerned when he didn't show. It's sad. He was a year older than myself.

Ben is one of those guys who had a way with people. He embroidered spirits together with sparkles. He never let anyone get too far away and, when he remembered that he had let you wander too far, he immediately reminded you that he was there and that he cared, and he'd pull your thread closer and weave you back into his fabric. I moved away from his neighborhood when I was still just a kid and didn't really talk to him for years. I'd hear stories of him because he hung out with a number of my friends, but I didn't see him again. Then there was Facebook and we'd send emails or write on each others' walls every so often just to catch up. We always said we'd get a beer sometime when I was home for a visit. And now his Facebook is a page of memories, a wall of graffiti, a quilt of stories of how he touched every single one of the 400 e-friends he has. And that's why you should always keep positive -- so the memory of you that's etched into this world wide web can be written down in history as silly or sweet instead of cold or querulous.

His last FB post was, "Today started off with Mega Shark Vs. Giant Octopus. All is well and nothing can be ill." And, really, I can't think of a better way to be e-membered. Or is it "iMembered?" I guess it depends if you are Mac or PC.

It's a strange day for me. I've been reminiscent of my childhood for the last 12 hours since I found out about it all because that's where my memories of Ben are woven. I want to think, "Oh, life is so precious," but I've never really thought that. My thoughts have always really bordered on how short and sweet life is. Because life just is... It's like a jar -- some people were handed huge jars and fill them with ugly things, or things that have little density, like soot-covered moth balls, I guess; some people just get small jars which they maybe chose to fill with richness and pack full with to the brim with things they cherish, things they love. We don't know how big of a jar we were dealt until we reach the top and overflow to the heavens. (That was maybe a silly analogy.) But, life just is until it's not. So, why not love until you can't? Why not share, build community, create moments that will far outlast your physical being? Why not?

". . . and throughout the career that will certainly and consistently remind you that we live in a world of too many pieces and not enough glue, I challenge you to be the arms that hold, to be the voice that soothes, and to be that contagious smile. . . " Ben Gidmark

With that, I'll leave you with a video of Ben's commencement address from which the previous quote was drawn, as it inspires and touches.

Me: How'd you know what I was going to say?
Juggles: 'Cuz I can read you like an RSS feed.

Nice work.

gr8ness

"You don't become great by trying to be great. You become great by wanting to do something, and then doing it so hard that you become great in the process."