Unintended consequences

Spring Cleaning + Red Wine = Stained Carpet

I'm a big "J"

I have become rather enthralled with Google Calendar lately.

I discovered it amid growing anxiety about having a full weekend schedule through June, with significant work and personal travel as the culprits. It's so bad that I'm having to take half-vacation days from work to do things such as get a haircut.

Google Calendar lets me color-code my personal and work events. Not only can I track my own events, I can track the phases of the moon, and significant U.S. holidays such as Flag Day. Even better, Silly Misanthrope has made his own calendar and allowed me access (and vice versa), so we can more easily find free time for common pursuits.

Yes, I'm a big "J" on the Myers-Briggs.

Now, if only I could export the calendar to my PDA. Or access it from my web-enabled phone. Alas, no.

Made my day ...

(Disclaimer: I promise not to make posts such as this one a habit.)

I was feeling particularly frumpy today.

I'm badly in need of a haircut (and the color's all dull), I got dressed in a hurry and not particularly well (my shirt was wrinkled and my socks did not coordinate with my outfit at all), and my complexion has certainly seen better days.

Yet when I saw Silly Misanthrope, one of the first things he said was: "You look pretty today."

Backpacking wrap-up #2

After a three month absence, I'm back to the gym.

Rather than do cardio every day, I've decided that a more manageable approach is to alternate cardio days (40 minutes on the elliptical) with strength-training days (40 minutes of large and isolated muscle groups followed by a brisk mile-long walk).

Mostly this newfound ambition for the gym is due to last weekend's backpacking trip with Silly Misanthrope and assorted others. We went to Iowa, just north of Dubuque. The trip started with a killer incline. I nearly turned around and went back to sleep in the car, but Silly Misanthrope encouraged me and he was right — I could do it and it did get better.

We were treated to some lingering spring snow, some very fun hiking, some beautiful weather and some nice scenery. But I also realized that Silly M. is much more fit and has a lot more endurance than I do, and if I want to keep up on backpacking weekends I need to get back to a regular weekday workout.

Other highlights of the trip included drying socks over the fire, sleeping in a three-sided shelter in 20-degree weather and waking up too hot because my new sleeping bag works really well, and "breakfast in bed." (Silly Misanthrope's idea of "breakfast in bed" is making coffee and oatmeal in his sleeping bag. But I'm not complaining, because he made "breakfast in bed" for me, too.)

The trip concluded with a lunch stop in McGregor, Iowa, where we got some decent Mexican food (who knew?) which included a ridiculously huge burrito for Silly Misanthrope.

We also visited the Prairie du Chein Cabela's. Having been at the Richfield Cabela's the weekend previous, we just wanted to stop in to take a peek. The most significant difference? While the stuffed wildlife (trophies, formerly sentient beings killed for sport, whatever you want to call them) at the Richfield store minds their own business, the Prairie du Chien stuffed wildlife was much more violent.

Polka party!

Friday night, Silly Misanthrope and I made the trip to Milwaukee to celebrate Amy's 30th birthday.

What a party! Amy had wisely selected Lakefront Brewery as the place to gather. Despite getting lost on the way, we arrived early and were able to sample some of the microbrew before the 7:00 tour.

The tour started with two 8-ounce glasses of beer, which on top of the pint I'd had at the bar made me quite tipsy. I was able to pay attention for the first half of the tour, but by the halfway point I'm pretty sure I was just being silly with Meckhead and Silly Misanthrope. I seem to remember some withering glances from Meckhead's husband, but I might have imagined those.

The rest of the tour is a blur — something about a bunghole, an environmentalist and a glove on a bottle of beer. I'm pretty sure Silly Misanthrope was laughing at my state of inebriation. Actually, I'm not sure he's witnessed me drunk before.

There was the opportunity for more beer at the end of the tour, something I did not take advantage of. But everyone else did, and shortly thereafter we were able to go upstairs for the fish fry and polka.

Silly Misanthrope, despite being an avowed non-dancer and polka virgin, danced with me. And Amy. And Meckhead. And some random drunken pretty woman who stuffed a dollar-bill down his shirt and demanded he polka with her. (I would have liked to have seen it, although I was in the bathroom at the time.)

So, cheers to Amy for a fabulous 30th!