30 Days: Day 5

Day 5: A picture of somewhere you've been

Ha. This one is funny because I have more or less been here. This is a picture of Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland. My dad and my brother, Andrew, and I were there and we drove up to Giant's Causeway, which we knew was a scenic place but not sure what it was exactly. We drove up to the northern coast and parked in the empty Giant's Causeway parking lot, got out and looked around some. Not too impressive but certainly pretty countryside, we thought. Then we got back into the car and drove back to Belfast. Only later did we learn that we were supposed to walk down to the coast to see the real sight, these giant basaltic hex columns that were formed by volcanoes 50 million years ago. Bummer. It certainly wasn't clearly marked with any signage. Anyways, Andrew and I laugh about it now, so it's a good memory.

Somewhere that I can definitely say I have been is Frary Peak on Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake. My family went on a hike there in May 2002 and I enjoyed it a lot. Also, this is when I discovered that frozen hard grapes are great during a hot summer hike. Yumm.

30 Days: Day 4

Day 4: A habit that you wish you didn’t have

I think I am finally starting to feel the effects of sitting in weird positions all day. I'm always sitting with one leg tucked under me, or cross-legged, or all scrunched up in my chair some way or another. Lately I've felt it in my knee and had more problems with my feet falling asleep so I have tried to do better, but I spend so much time in my chair and the habit is so deeply ingrained. I tried sitting on an exercise ball, thinking I wouldn't be able to sit with my legs curled up, but Nooooo, it is definitely possible.

My next trick to try to break the habit will be to put on bulky shoes in the morning that would be uncomfortable to sit on or have tucked up with me on the chair and then not take them off all day. Unfortunately that would involve changing out of my pajamas first. And wearing bulky shoes all day.

30 Days: Day 3

Day 3: A picture of you and your friends

I need to take more pictures - this is from last January. I wish it was a more inclusive picture! :)

30 Days: Day 2

Day 2: The meaning behind your blog name

Well The Stratford News is pretty self-explanatory but supona could maybe use a little explanation. I was just trying to think of some word play with our last name and couldn't come up with anything decent. The only word association I could think of was Stratford-Upon-Avon, which works into the pronounceable word supona if you do just the initials of the Stratford and Avon part. It doesn't really make any sense since we really have nothing to do with Stratford-Upon-Avon, but my mom said it helped her remember our blog address, so whatever works.

We have been to Stratford-Upon-Avon, though. It is quaint.

30 Days: Day 1

Day 1: Recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself

Here goes. No guarantee on the "interesting" part of "interesting facts".

1. I recently (re)learned to crochet and yesterday I made a crochet catnip mouse for Toby. It's hard to tell yet whether he really likes it or not, but the mouse is already looking scruffy.
2. I love to cook and have improved significantly since I got married (thankfully). Some evidence of my former bad cooking skills were some of the questions I called to ask my mom about, like, "Do you add all that grease to the pan before you add the bacon?" or "How do you make a baked potato?"
3. Something that bothers me a lot is when the sheets on the bed are not in sync with the covers. If the sheet sticks out or is pulled in farther than the covers, I cannot get into that bed without fixing it.
4. I have never been to a funeral or viewing or anything like it. Lucky me.
5. I saw some amazing pictures yesterday of a new place on my list of places that I would love to visit, Scotland's Hebrides. The pictures in January 2010's National Geographic were gorgeous!
6. I love rice krispy treats now, but I wasn't a huge fan of them as a kid. Other things that fit that category: asparagus, omelets, steak, dark chocolate, nuts.
7. I can sing the words to Row, Row, Row Your Boat offset from the tune by basically any number of notes.
8. Games of a certain type that Jeran loves that I do not enjoy and generally refuse to play: Capture the Flag, paintball, laser tag, Fugitive, etc. You get the picture.
9. My fingers can bend back just over 90 degrees to my hand. I was shocked years ago to learn that not everyone can do that.
10. I have a dream job: work my own hours, flexible schedule and time off, good pay, great company, interesting work.
11. (Wow, 15 is a lot!) One of my favorite breakfasts is pumpkin pie. However, if I had to choose a non-dessert for breakfast, I would choose cinnamon coffee cake. Oh wait. Cake dang it! I guess I choose Cracklin' Oat Bran cereal, which has enough brown sugar that it should be a dessert and is too expensive to justify ever buying, but oh well.
12. My favorite color is green, but not to wear.
13. I think about weird things sometimes, like "Where did the first gust of wind ever come from?" and "If flamingos get pink from eating crustaceans and algae, why don't many other animals change color, and why don't they market stuff that does that to people ('Drink this every day and turn yourself purple!')?"
14. I have been working on thinking, "But what if..." less. One unexpected area I notice this helping is when I pack for a trip, I take less unnecessary stuff. "What if" really can be a trap!
15. My color personality is white - VERY white, with a little blue and yellow filling in the extra nooks and crannies. Jeran's is red and I have noticed over the years that my whiteness and his redness have rubbed off on each other a little bit, with me being a bit more assertive and he being a bit more calm.

30 Days of Blogging

My friend Lisa did this 30 Days thing on her blog where you have a question for each day in a month and I really enjoyed reading it so I decided to do it during this happy month of December. Hopefully this will make up for my pathetic blogging during the last few months. I'm working on the first one right now...

Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving day, we got to go visit a brand new baby at the hospital. Our dear friends just became new parents to a darling baby girl. She has lots of pretty dark hair and big round cheeks.

Coincidentally, on the same day, Jeran and I also got a new nephew (up to 3 now!).

For Thanksgiving, Jeran's boss invited us to dinner with his family. It was fun and there was good food. Jeran used to work for his boss's nephew, who was there visiting so we got to see him and his family also.

I'm thankful for family, friends, pets, home, food, jobs, technology, books and so much more. Happy Thanksgiving!