Cool Idea

Todd and I have really been recycling like crazy this year, and it is amazing how much we have reduced the amount of crap in the trash. I get absolutely giddy when I fill up my composting bin and take it out and dump it on the pile. I know. Glamorous and exciting life I lead here.

It is also amazing how annoyed i am starting to get with packaging that can't be recycled. The packaging on Christmas morning was just disgusting. Can't someone figure out a way to recycle that thin plastic glass-like window stuff in toy boxes? What about the detestable dark gray or black rectangle doodads that protect the cardboard from the very annoying plastic-coated doodadders that tie dolls and toys into the cardboard boxes? The inventor of those two items should be shot, just on principle. Kids toys should rattle around in their boxes like they did when I was a kid! No one should need a damn sledgehammer and crowbar to open a monster truck or a Dora.

Anyway, I thought my friend Dan's wife came up with a great idea: Homemade, reusable fabric gift bags. Not that I would in any way be capable of making one of these bags, but for those crafty types out there (Nikki?), thought you might be interested.

Also, if i used one, my dead grandma Palmer would rise right up out of her grave, walk all the way here from Savannah, and whack me over the head with her purse, just for thinking of robbing my children of the joy of ripping open some gift paper at Christmas.

This is Your Chance

Okay, so since i have started running, a number of people who don't run have asked me about how I got started, how hard it is, and a few have even expressed interest in trying it. More often, though, people seem interested, but when i tell them "you could totally do this!" they say,
"No, i could never run 13 miles, or 6 miles, or 3 miles." Some of them say they could never run a mile.

I understand this. For me, running is 10 percent actual effort, and about 30 percent sticking to a training plan, and 60 percent mental. The mental part consists of coaxing myself off the couch, and saying, "Okay, I just have to do three miles. I know I can at least WALK three miles, so i might as well do that. That counts." And that is, seriously, how I get myself out there. And sometimes, I surprise myself, and it is really easy, and I run the whole distance. Other times, it is not easy, and I walk parts, but i always finish the distance. And even when I walk part of it, I never regret getting out there and doing it.

People ask me how i ever got started. I started the way all people i know started. I started small. I started with a Couch-to-5K plan. Those are plans specifically for people who have been sitting on their ass watching too much The Hills, or playing nothing but World of Warcraft for two years straight, while drinking cases of beer, or drinking a bottle of wine a night. I know that's what they were doing, because that's what I was doing, too. And I still finished a half-marathon on Thanksgiving day. But i started small, and if you are looking to do something similar, you can too.

What am i getting at? This.

My friend Steph is a great runner. She is modest and will deny this, but she is fast and also a triathlete. Even athletes get injuries, though, and she is back at square one after an injury. She is starting a 5k plan at the very beginning; She is in the baby steps, walking stages. And she is trying to sign up recruits to do her plan with her.

She and Natalie, at The Negative Split, were my inspiration for getting into running. And if you really want to do it, you could follow along with Steph. She has 12 people doing the plan with her, and they come from all different levels. She has injured runners, beginners, and folks who used to run but haven't for years. They are all joining her in the plan.

You don't have to run with them, although i am sure they would love to have you. You could follow along with the plan and check in with her weekely. Steph is positive, inspiring, and a great coach. You could do worse than having her for a trainer.

If you are thinking about starting running, shoot her an email. I bet you would never regret it. This is your chance.

Update: Not sure what is up with Nat's site. . .

Best Christmas Ever!

Okay, not ever. It wasn't as good as the Christmas I got the real Xavier Roberts doll, or the Barbie Dream House, or the Breyer Horse Stable. But it was the best one as an adult since a few years ago when I got Frye harness boots and my Ipod Nano.

Replacement Ipod for the one i killed and Rock Band! Woot! And if Santa brings it, it doesn't cost anything!

Is it bad that I keep wanting to push my son down and rip the controller out of his hands?

Lost Arts

I have always been fascinated by the way that people lived, survived, ate, and lived in the past. Maybe it was too much Little House, but i have always been amazed at the things that people knew how to do. Baking, and sewing, candlemaking, fire banking, farming and building things with their hands.. . these have always been things that interested me in a way. I often think of how far removed I have become from those skills in just two generations. My grandparents did not have tvs, cars, electricity and running water when they were small. They had no heat or air conditioning. No malls, target, or Walmart. They had the rolling store. They had Grandma's Singer sewing machine. They had lathes and planes and saws and mills and plows. They had mules, horses, and wagons. They had chickens and eggs and pigs. They knew how to wring a neck and kill a pig. They made hoecake. They had gardens, and wells. They canned. They made their own clothes.

All of this is becoming lost to us. Sure, I can remember my grandparents talking about these things, but talking and doing are not the same thing. So, sometimes, I like to try and learn little skills such as the ones they knew.

No, I didn't kill a pig. I made Grandma Palmer's banana pudding.

This may not seem like a lot. But i didn't even know that the stuff in the pudding is actually custard. Until i made the custard, I did not even know what was in custard. That fluff on the top is meringue? Huh. I had no idea that was just egg and sugar. I made that bitch and it looks damn good, too. Haven't tasted it yet, but i don't know how it could go wrong with ingredients like that.

Not sure why i wanted to make the pudding, except that it makes me think of my grandma Palmer, and i have been thinking about my grandmas a lot lately, and my mom, too. I don't think that growing up as a tomboy and a daddy's girl I ever realized just how hard my mother and grandmas worked to put meals on the table, or to make holidays as wonderful as they were. And I never heard a complaint from them.

Rollie and Tiller will not such peaceful memories of their own mother at Christmas time.

Fucking custard and meringue, sugar cookies that look like blobs, and fudge that won't set up . . .

Tiller's Christmas Pageant

Unless you are a grandparent, Aunt, Uncle, or someone else with a deep attachment to the girl, you can just stop reading now. The pageant went off without a hitch, so there are no tantrums, crying jags, meltdowns or otherwise entertaining portions of the video. Just a bunch of little kids shaking bells and singing.

Just posting it for Todd and the family, since none of them could make it. (Yes, I am feeling a little guilty about Tiller getting the second-child treatment.) Video for your viewing enjoyment: