Airplanes

Here's a little rant.  You've been warned.

I remember one of my first plane rides as a child, not to brag, but I was really well behaved.  I probably talked too much, but I stayed in my seat and didn't fidget, I think Stacey was on the plane ride too, and I don't remember her acting up either.

So a family of 4 was on my flight home from Abq tonight.  Mental note - Monday nights from Abq to Oak are PACKED with non business travelers.  So what started out as an early arrival turned into a delayed flight.  First, Southwest overbooked the flight and no one realized this until everyone was on the plane.....so 3 lonely soles wandered the aisles to no avail.  They eventually got 1 of the guys and 2 of the passengers to take the flight out tomorrow (but all they are getting is a $200 SW voucher.....not worth it).

Since the plane was packed I got to sit by a little girl and her mom (brother sat in front of sister and dad sat somewhere off to the right).  Now, I enjoy kids.  I adore my neighbors and frequent my friends' blogs about their kids.  I like to babysit....blah blah blah.  Basically, I'm not one of those people who instantly groans when they have to sit by kids on an airplane.  But let's be honest, I'm going to get annoyed if:

1.  Your daughter stares at me for 65-75% of the flight.  And not a cute stare, she never smiled and even when I looked at her, she just kept staring.  Creepy.

2.  Your daughter kicks me as she's taking a nap.  Kicks me with her bare feet.  And you (mom) see this going on and say, "I hope that's alright."  It's not alright, but I can deal better than the average person.

3.  You ask me to switch places with your son - sitting in the middle seat in front of your daughter.  I politely say "I'd really rather not" and at least you let it go.  But really?  You already made a man move so you and your daughter could sit together.  I'm sorry, I'm not giving up my window seat for a middle, in front of you daughter, who proceeded to use the back of the seat as her own private punching bag (when she wasn't staring at me).

Here's the thing. She complained about how she doesn't like the Southwest seating policy.  Last time I checked, you can control which airline you fly on.  I bet southwest was the cheapest choice - which is why you get stuck sitting in random places throughout the plane.  Here are your choices - ride another airline, or compulsively click the "check-in online" button until you get an A pass.  It's not mean, it's just the truth.

The weekend

I was going to post a little bit about the science bowl, but Nick did a nice job recapping the event.

So Nick and I watched a little bit of the Oscars.  I don't think I've ever seen ALL of the films in a category before....that is, before tonight.  Animated feature: Bolt, Wall-E, Kung Fu Panda and Sound Editing: The Dark Night, Ironman, Wanted, Slumdog Millionaire and Wall-E.  Who would have thought.  Sound editing.  

Best Blogs of 2009

Time magazine just posted the best blogs of 2009.  Personally, I think the title should be best blogs of 2008 - what happens if an awesome, life changing blog starts in July.  I imagine it will be a best blog of 2010....but I digress.

Here are a few that piqued my interest.  For those of you that want more politically stimulating blogs, check out the time.com website.  I chose non-political blogs.

Bad Astronomy

Science stuff

Freakonomics

By the guy that brought you the book

Lifehacker

Simplify your life

Zenhabits

De-clutter your mind/life and live more happily.....clearly stemming from my hippie valentines day

TI-83, how I've missed you

The TI-83 and I go WAY back.  It all started back in Integrated 2, first year of high school.  It served me well until the day I lost it.  On the bus.  The day of my Integrated 3 math midterm.  It was a terrible feeling, my trusty calculator gone.  I was going to have to do the quadratic formula on my own.  I had to borrow a dreaded TI-82 from the teacher.  Embarrassing.  I never did find that TI-83 and had to buy another.  Needless to say, I put my Anne Geddes address labels all over that thing.

It took me through the rest of high school, college and graduate school.  I swear I only replaced the batteries a handful of times.  When folks upgraded to the TI-83 Plus, I said "No Thank You."  To the TI-89, "I don't need your indefinite integral solver!"  TI now makes the TI-Nspire....interestingly enough, the prices are still about the same.  I know, because I had to have work buy me one (~$100).

I bring up the TI-83, because I just pulled it out today.  Had to replace the batteries, but that was expected.  Actually, I had borrowed 2 of its batteries for an iPod speaker.....so the TI wasn't running on all cylinders if you get my drift.  I put in 2 new batteries and the TI-83 helped me do my taxes.  I did them by hand, not Turbo Tax help.  Well, I compared my answer with turbo tax and they were the same.  Go me.  I no longer need the awesome computing powers of the TI-83 while at home, but I'm so glad it's here to help me do my taxes.  I love math, and my TI-83.  

This weekend I successfully used both sides of my brain.  As evidenced by this post and the previous post.  Over and out.

Red velvet cupcakes and other Valentine's day adventures

Happy Valentines Day!

Nick and I went to yoga this morning.  It was his idea, I didn't make him go.

Then we went to the farmer's market and got kettle corn.  Everyone else got healthy fruits and vegetables, we got sugar coated butter corn.

I decided to make red velvet cupcakes.  There seems to be a lot of hype surrounding these cupcakes and I wanted to see what made them so special.  Here's the thing, they aren't that special.  They are pretty much like a normal cupcake,  but with a tbs of cocoa powder and a TON of red food coloring.  I think people are fooled by the red color.  I really do.  They are good, don't get me wrong.  But I don't think people would like them nearly as much if they weren't red.  I'm just saying.

Nick also made me a wonderful dinner.  Chicken tetrazzini and caprese salad.  It was delicious.  He also got me some flowers.  Good kid.

I was Martha Stewart this weekend.  I made sugar cookies colored like candy hearts.  Then I stamped them with the word LUV.  So cute.  

Creamy substances at the airport

So I went through airport security with a small container of spinach artichoke dip.  I wanted a snack on the plane and it sounded delicious.  It didn't seem like a liquid, more like a solid, but I put the container in my liquids bag to be safe.  Well, I got screened.  Here is how the conversations went:

TSA: M'am does this contain cream cheese.

Me: No.

TSA: What's in it?

Me: dip

TSA: So it's creamy?

Me: A little?

TSA: Well you can't take it on the plane if it's creamy.

Me: Well there is some spinach and artichoke in it as well.

TSA:  Hmm, well I can take a look, but if it's creamy, you can't take it on.

Me: That's fine. Take a look.

TSA: Oh, well that's fine, there is enough other stuff in there.  You can take it.

So that was by far the weirdest conversation I've ever had going through security.  But the questions remain....aren't toothpaste and lotion considered "creamy" and aren't they allowed on the plane?  What's the deal?  

Tahoe 2009

Nick and I went to Tahoe this weekend for a ski weekend with the Lopers. We started off Saturday by ourselves at Sierra at Tahoe. The weather was AWESOME! And it was a good day for me to get warmed up and ready for the Loper boys - they ski on the hard ones.
























We met up with everyone at the south lake Tahoe place and proceeded to have dinner at Mo's Bar or something like that. Now don't let the name fool you, Mo's served up your typical bar food along with some Asian inspired dishes - Tandori chicken, curry and some ginger stir fry. Weird. But good (from what I hear). I had a cheeseburger.


Day 2 (day 1 for Chris and Steve) was spent at Kirkwood. Another beautiful California day! And it was also a day for testing our skiing limits - or at least I tested my skiing limits. Word to the wise - if you ski with Chris, be prepared to go ANYWHERE! But I conquered some pretty huge stuff (including THE WALL) and didn't break a bone!

That evening was spent watching superbowl commercials, eating Thai, watching The Office, and Uno with Larry's rules. Ask me sometime about Larry's rules, they are fantastic. Speaking of Larry, we skied Larry's Lip. It was a little treacherous.

Day 3 was spent at Heavenly. After a gondola ride and some "skating" we were off. Oh, BTW, skating at 10,000 ft will wind you for sure. It was a relatively "Tame" mountain compared to Kirkwood, but I needed an easy day. The views were great and we had a fun time watching Chris do some tricks. Watch the video for a recap.

My first video. It might give you a little motion sickness....skiing while videoing is tough.

Costco Muffins Update

But first, a shoutout to Katie Musar, she still reads my blog (Thanks Katie!)!  She also asked a very good question, "What type of muffins did we choose?"  Well, we got maple/apple and bran.  Yeah yeah, I know, bran is lame.  But I was trying to be healthy.  The maple/apple were delicious.