Emily Bloss

Yesterday, we made the trip over to visit Frewsburg Gramma & Marv over in New Smyrna Beach. We had a great time! Shortly after we arrived, we sat down to a delicious ham dinner, and then we went to the beach for a while. The water was warm enough to go swimming, but we didn’t… they have no showers at the place we go, and there’s no way I’m making the three hour trip home all sticky with salt. Anyways, we picked up quite a few coquina shells with holes in them, which I’ll use to make another bracelet. I gave the first one I made to Gramma. Hopefully it holds up! As always, we all chatted non-stop, catching up on the goings-on in our lives and the rest of the family. And Steve announced his engagement to Kathy and showed off his ring. Sweet!

And, I got to cross another item off the 101 Things list… I finished and printed the instructions for Gramma on how to make a seashell necklace. Here’s a picture of the first coquina shell bracelet (click for a larger view). I just love this bracelet… it makes a nice soothing sound when the shells move around.

Today I’m going with Trav to the gym and I thought I would try some interval training:

Interval Training article from Sixwise.com

I’ve been trying to overcome my resistance to exercise, but it’s tough when you don’t like to get sweaty! We’ll see how it goes. Anybody out there have tips on how to get and stay motivated to exercise?

Darn it! I was gonna post on the 101st day but I forgot. I’m amazed it’s already been over one hundred days since I started working on completing my 101 Things in 1001 days list. It seems like I need to get more done but when I look at the list, a lot of the items won’t be done until the 1001 days are done, so I’ll be marking a bunch off at the end. So even though I’m 10% done with the time, I’m not 10% done with the items (only 6 are finished so far), and that’s OK. As long as I keep marking things off, that is.

Thanks to everybody who’s helped me along thus far. I would say names but I’m afraid I would neglect to mention someone and I don’t want to make anybody feel bad!! So if you’ve touched my life in any way within the past 102 days, thank you.

I can’t remember how I got to this web site, but I love this solution for cleaning up oil spills:

Hair and mushrooms create a recipe for cleaning up oily beaches from San Francisco Chronicle

I would like to donate our hair to that. I wonder if they can use cat hair? Or feathers? I found a big pile of them under our twin oak tree… I think it was a mockingbird and I keep wondering what ate it - fox, armadillo, cat? Sadie has been chasing things in the yard at night lately, and one of the turtle holes seems to be the home of something not a turtle. I wonder what’s living there?

Whatever it is, I hope it likes to eat rats. We caught a Norway rat the other day… it looked like a teenager so I wasn’t sure if it was male or female. Plus there’s another one to catch, we heard it scratching under the house yesterday. Trav set a good trap for it, which I need to check! I’ll let you know of any interesting results.

Our friend Wendy is well-known in the careers industry, and we’re very lucky to know her. Recently she was asked to write a resume for each of the presidential candidates, so people can have a good example of what a powerful resume should look like. Very cool that she was selected to do this… way to go, Wendy! Here’s a link to the article:

What a Powerful Resume Should Look Like (from TheLadders.com)

Maybe McCain will use her resume to find his next job!! We can only hope.

Today Trav & I went to the library to vote. There was a bit of a line when we got there, so there was plenty of time to get IDs out and everything. The guy in line behind us was a motormouth but I think it helped pass the time a little quicker. We were in line for maybe 15 minutes I guess. Check in was quick - they just swipe your drivers license, verify your name and address and send you to get your ballot, which you bubble in like a test and then feed into the machine. I like the system, I think it will work very well. I sincerely hope it does as I’m working at the polls on Tuesday! As of today, the state of Florida already has a 20% turnout at the polls. Cool, eh?

Every morning I look at the news while I eat breakfast, and today I came across a very interesting article with a bunch of little tidbits - just the kind I like!

Things We Know Now, from Tampa Bay Online

I especially like #12 - elephant caller ID. Neat! Trav liked the idea of eating onions to help keep your brain clean. Which items do YOU find interesting?

Today, bloggers around the world are writing about the problem of poverty. Here are some of my favorite ways to help people attain a better standard of living:

• Kiva is an organization which provides micro-loans to people in developing countries. You go on the site, pick a project you like, and donate money to help finance the loan. Then, when the loan is repaid, you can roll over your money into another project. Very cool and a great way to give people a hand up instead of a handout.
• Free Rice is a fun way to learn new words and help hungry people at the same time. For every word you get right, they donate 20 grains of rice through the UN World Food Program.
• Care2 Click to Donate is a simple way to help not only needy kids, but animals and the environment, too.

I’ve been going through a mountain of email in the past few days, and I unearthed this really cool video sent by my friend Jane. Thanks, Jane!

Pilobolus on Conan

I could watch this stuff all day! But I better get back to cleaning out my email. Only 213 messages to go!

You can tell you’ve had a good night when your face hurts from smiling for so long!! The show was fantastic - everybody had a great time.

The show features songs written by Leiber & Stoller, two guys who wrote a lot of stuff in the 50s. I knew some of them, like Young Blood and Charlie Brown, and also heard a few that I liked very much, such as Some Cats Know and Spanish Harlem. They were able to inject humor into some of the songs like Poison Ivy (all itchy and scratching) and Charlie Brown (he’s a clown!).

Here we are waiting for dinner to start (click for larger version). They have the tables go up to the buffet in shifts, so there’s not a line when you’re getting food. That was nice. The food was fine - standard buffet fare. And cheesecake for dessert! Mmmm one of my favorites.

I would like to go see the holiday show there - it’s quite entertaining and a wonderful way to spend an evening with people I love.