Just Stuff

Women’s World Cup Soccer

3 Comments

Meridian, Idaho

Both of our kids are in Vancouver, Canada to watch the gold medal match in Women’s World Cup Soccer today: USA vs Japan.

They have been planning to go for years and are so excited to watch the USA team compete for the gold!

Oddly, they are sitting in the same numbered seats, one row apart from one another even though their tickets were bought at different times. 🙂

What’s interesting to me is that they watch the game in totally different ways…

Melissa has been playing soccer in a women’s league for many years. She didn’t play soccer in high school, but she’s a fan and player now.

Richie didn’t start watching soccer until about six years ago. He watches not only for the athletic competition, but he’s intrigued by how countries’ different cultures come through on their different playing styles and coaching strategies.

Rich and I have started watching the games because of our kids’ interest in it. Slowly, ever so slowly, we are starting to understand it.

But tonight we won’t be able to text them to ask what something means because I’m sure they won’t respond during the match. 🙂

Go USWNT! (United States Women’s National Team)

PS Here’s a short video about true ‘soccer moms’ — players on the team who are actually moms!

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Just Stuff

Blue Moon = Insomnia Times Two

4 Comments

Meridian, Idaho

Crud. I can’t sleep and am writing this post just after midnight.

Insomnia, for me, often visits during and just after the full moon.

The July full moon situation is rather unique this year.

From space.com:

Wednesday, July 1, 10:20 p.m. EDT. The Full Moon of July is known as the “Hay Moon,” “Buck Moon,” or “Thunder Moon.” It rises around sunset and sets around sunrise; this is the only night in the month when the moon is in the sky all night long. The rest of the month, the moon spends at least some time in the daytime sky. This is the first of two Full Moons this month.

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A blue moon is an additional full moon that appears in one of two situations:

  • the third of four full moons in a season or
  • a second full moon in a month of the common calendar.

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I didn’t realize that each month’s full moon has a name. From the Farmer’s Almanac:

The Full Buck Moon – July is normally the month when the new antlers of buck deer push out of their foreheads in coatings of velvety fur. It was also often called the Full Thunder Moon, for the reason that thunderstorms are most frequent during this time. Another name for this month’s Moon was the Full Hay Moon.

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It’s amazing what one can find out during a bout of insomnia.

And yippee skippee for me! I get two find lots of things because of this month’s two full moons… 🙂

PS Stayed up a bit later and found this amazing photo of the International Space Station passing between the earth and the moon taken in Australia. Wow!

Read the story of the photo at http://deography.com/.

Cerebrations

Like a Girl

4 Comments

Meridian, Idaho

The advertising campaign “Always #Likeagirl: Turning an Insight Into a Confidence Moment.” recently won the Public Relations Grand Prix prize at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

Watching this really struck me. Too often I’m quiet when my pickleball male partners criticize another male with a comment about ‘playing like a girl’ and the comment is intended to be the ultimate insult to another male.

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I won’t be quiet any longer…

From now on I’m going to say, “Well, ain’t that a compliment! I know some AMAZING female players!”

And I’ll say it to both the male making the comment and the male recipient of the ‘compliment’.

Thanks to my sister Carol for posting this on Facebook yesterday. 🙂 Watching it helped me find my voice…

Cerebrations, People Are Good

Agree to Disagree

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Meridian, Idaho

I read an article this morning about a donor who wanted to give $100,000 to the Girl Scouts of Western Washing organization with a stipulation that none of the money be used to support transgender girls.

(Read the article from Mashable.com)

The Girl Scouts declined the donation when they realized that they would have to exclude some girls, but the organization ended up still raising $100,000 and then some after a subsequent fundraising campaign went viral.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - MAY 02: Girl Scouts attend the Girl Scouts of the USA and National Park Service Host a Girl Scout Bridging Ceremony at the Golden Gate Bridge on May 2, 2015 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Steve Jennings/Getty Images for Girl Scouts of the USA)
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – MAY 02: Girl Scouts attend the Girl Scouts of the USA and National Park Service Host a Girl Scout Bridging Ceremony at the Golden Gate Bridge on May 2, 2015 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Steve Jennings/Getty Images for Girl Scouts of the USA)

People are good.

Good for the donor who offered the money, and good for him/her for honoring his/her principles.

And good for the Girl Scouts organization for honoring their principles.

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We don’t all have to agree… And we can’t all agree…

It would be a boring world if we did. 🙂

Be we can choose to be civil and agree to disagree with each of us working towards meeting our own goals.

latd

 

People, Wow!

Natural Art

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Meridian, Idaho

I’m missing living in the mountains. I miss the natural beauty that provides art everywhere…

Until we can go for a drive in the mountains, or better yet, go camping, I’ll get my natural art fix from Andy Goldsworthy.

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Andy Goldsworthy (born 26 July 1956) is a British sculptor, photographer and environmentalist producing site-specific sculpture and land art situated in natural and urban settings. He lives and works in Scotland. (Wikipedia)ag-5

I somehow stumbled across his on Netflix and watched the amazing documentary Rivers and Tides. Fascinating man and fascinating work.

He only uses materials found in nature.

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The documentary is a perfect watch for a hot summer’s day…

ag-3 Enjoy!ag-1

Cerebrations, Food

20 in 20

4 Comments

Meridian, Idaho

Tami, a wonderful friend (and fantastic pickleball player), told me about a ‘diet’ that she created and I thought I’d share it with you.

It’s working for Tami. She’s lost nine pounds since the first of June. And she’s eating whatever she wants but follows a few simple rules.

She calls it her 20 in 20 diet.

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The four diet rules are so simple that even I could follow it.

Here they are:

  1. Eat for no more than 20 minutes at each meal.
  2. Eat no more than one bite per minute.
  3. Focus on eating healthier foods first.
  4. Place your dessert on your plate if you’re going to include it in your meal.

That’s it. It’s that simple.

It’s not really a ‘diet’ per se, but following the rules is changing Tami’s behavior of eating fast. So this is more of a new pattern for her that will help her become healthier (and thinner). 🙂

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For example, the other night she had salad and a corn dog. She focused on the salad, and only ate two bites of the corn dog.

She still got her corn dog taste to satisfy that craving while she filled herself up more with the healthier salad.

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She found an app for her phone that counts down minutes by showing each second. She places it where she can see it and references it to know when it’s time for her next bite.

Tami even follows her plan when she goes to restaurants. She only ate a couple of bites of her apple pie while dining out, and it took her two more meals to finish that apple pie. 🙂

apple-pie

I haven’t decided if I’m going to try it yet or not, but I will be slowing down while I eat so that I overeat less.

Just Stuff

Jamming Cookie Jam

4 Comments

Meridian, Idaho

I’m addicted to an app on my phone.

It’s called Cookie Jam.

cjlogo

It’s very similar to Candy Crush Saga, but I think it’s a bit easier to play.

I play about 10 rounds total a day. Usually I run through the five maximum lives given at one time fairly easy. Then I have to wait either 20 or 30 minutes to get another life.

checkbookSo then I can move on to something more important like balancing the checkbook, answering emails, paying bills, whatever… until I have all my five maximum lives built up again before I go back to the game.

But this weekend, all Candy Jam players have been given an INFINITE number of lives! Instead of the number 5 showing how many lives I have, there’s an infinity symbol.

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That’s never happened before. Ever…

I  can keep playing and playing and playing.

But here’s the thing, I have noticed that part of the fun is anticipating playing again.

It’s not as much fun and I thought it would be to play over and over and over again.

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I’m not enjoying jamming Candy Jam as much as I thought I would.

Cerebrations

Alone Time for Introverts

4 Comments

Meridian, Idaho

I read an article almost seven years ago and part of the article still resonates with me and provided me with one of my favorite quotes.

The article, written by Ellen Tien, first appeared in O, The Oprah Magazine and was entitled She’s Happily Married, Dreaming of Divorce.

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While the article primarily addressed the author’s “Mid-Wife Crisis”, the part that stuck with me for so many years is about alone time.

Here’s the line that hit me the hardest and the quote that I love:

Our mothers feared being left alone. We crave time alone. Alone time is the new heroin.

Alone-Time

Cell phones, email, cable television news, etc. combine to instill a sense of immediacy for everything in our lives and everyone else’s lives. It feels like we all have less alone time and even less down time than we ever have had.

I crave alone time like a junkie craves his/her heroin fix. Always have, and always will.

A recent article on CNN ‘Alone Time’ is Really Good for You talked about the benefits of alone time.

The article includes these reasons:

  • Being alone will make you more creative.
  • And probably make you work harder.
  • Spending time alone can help with depression, especially in teens.
  • It helps clear your mind.
  • You get to do what you actually want to do.

And the most important one for me:

  • If you’re an introvert, alone time is key to your happiness.

downloadIt’s no secret that introverts interact differently with the world — and one of the most important things to introverts is their solo time.

“Think of each of us as having a cup of energy available. For introverts, most social interactions take a little out of that cup instead of filling it the way it does for extroverts. Most of us like it. We’re happy to give, and love to see you. When the cup is empty though, we need some time to refuel.”

Like many introverts, I can pretend I’m a ‘shy extrovert’ for short periods of time to be ‘relatively’ socially acceptable. But those periods produce a need to cocoon in our comfortable introversion and regroup.

That’s our fix and it’s as important to us as heroin is to a junkie…

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Laugh Out Loud

Angry Yoga

4 Comments

Meridian, Idaho

This video is hilarious!

It’s called Angry Yoga, and it’s less than two minutes long.

The parody is from a show called “This Hour Has 22 Minutes”, a long-running Canadian comedy series on CBC.

Thanks to my twin sister, Carol, for sending this to me. 🙂

Be sure to watch until the very end…

“Sometimes yoga doesn’t cut it. Ask your doctor about marijuana.”

And if you liked it, here’s the sequel: Angrier Yoga.