For the past few days, the weather has been absolutely beautiful. By the middle of last week, temperatures were climbing up to the 50s. By Friday, it was about 65 degrees, sunny, and clear. Although everyone was getting comfortable with the weather and going outside with light jackets or no jackets at all, the forecasters on the news kept warming us that things would change suddenly Sunday night and Monday morning. They weren't kidding!
Sunday was a pretty nice day. The temperature was about 45 degrees, but it was sunny and clear. I watched news that evening, and the forecasters were still warning that things were going to get bad. When I woke up this morning and looked out the window, the sidewalks looked wet, but it seemed like it was raining and not snowing. After taking my shower and making my breakfast, I turned on the morning news and they said that the temperature was about 25 degrees, but that temperatures would continue to drop significantly throughout the day.
I was ready to go at my usual time around 7:30, and as I stepped out of my apartment building, I almost wiped out and ate the sidewalk. The rain, or "freezing rain" as the news called it, had already left a layer of ice on the sidewalk. The parking lot was also extremely icy, and one of my really nice neighbors, who was walking outside at the same time with me, was nervously watching me as I penguin waddled across the parking lot. I'm sure he was afraid that I would go down.
When I safely made it to my car, I found a layer of ice covering my car and I had to really jerk on my door just to get it open. So, I started up my car, turned on all the window defrosters, and started to try to chip the ice from my windows. And I'm not exaggerating. There wasn't frost on my windows; it was ice, really thick ice. To make things worse, it was hard for me to brace myself and get some force behind the ice scraping, because the parking lot was so slippery. Every time I tried to scrap really hard, my feet would start to slide out from under me.
After chipping away for about 25 or 30 minutes, I was finally got to the point where I could start to drive away. Judging by the conditions of the sidewalk and parking lot, I assumed that the roads would also be slick, and I was right. The roads were extremely icy, and I clenched the steering wheel, and took it slow all the way to work. Fortunately everyone behind me and in front of me were also taking it slow. By the time I got to work, it started to snow and temperatures really started to drop. A lot of people who actually made it into the office took some work and went home early. I left the office at about 2:00 and was glad I did.
Right now it is about 3 degrees with a wind chill of -12. They say that the temperatures tonight will drop to -6 to -11 and the wind chill could be about -20. The local school districts are already closing the schools tomorrow, and our office is officially closed, too. Even though we had only about 4 inches of snow today, people are more worried about the frigid temperatures and extremely icy conditions. I'm really glad that I won't have to drive to work tomorrow!
Monday, January 31, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Cooking Adventures - Homestyle Potatoes
If I had to pick a favorite meal of the day, I think I would choose breakfast. I absolutely love breakfast and could eat it at any time of the day. I've often had breakfast in the evening after shopping, or even really late at night after an extended happy hour. I often have breakfast for dinner, and that's what I had tonight.
My original breakfast-for-dinner meal arose out of bad planning. It was on a day when I didn't take chicken (or pork or turkey or something) out of the freezer to thaw out. I also didn't have anything in the pantry that looked exciting, and I just wasn't in the mood for pasta. I wanted some kind of protein in my meal and when I saw the eggs in my fridge, I thought, why not? I made some toast, scrambled eggs, and hash browns. The hash browns were frozen hash browns that I just had to heat up, and they were great, but I thought that I could easily make my own that were fresher and cheaper. So one day I did that, and I've done that several times, and that's what I made tonight. Here is my recipe for my simple and easy Homestyle Potatoes. It makes about 2 large servings. And I don't know why they're called "Homestyle"...
Ingredients:
4 medium potatoes. I use the red, new potatoes (or whatever they're called)
1/2 onion, diced
olive oil
butter
salt
pepper
paprika
Directions:
1. Give the potatoes a good scrubbing, then cut into small cubes. If you use the red, new potatoes, you don't need to peel them.
2. Put the potatoes into a pot and fill with water so that the water covers the potatoes by about 2 inches.
3. Set on medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Let potatoes boil for about 10-15 minutes. You'll know the potatoes are ready when you can pierce them with a knife. Drain the potatoes and set aside.
4. Put a large skillet or saute pan on medium heat with a splash of olive oil and maybe a tablespoon of butter. Add the onions and saute for about 5 minutes.
5. Add the potatoes to the pan and toss with the onions. Add salt, pepper, and paprika and continue to toss. If the pan seems too dry, you can add a bit more olive oil or butter. Go for the olive oil if you want it to be a bit healthier, but butter is always good, too.
6. Let the potatoes sit for a while in the pan until they get golden brown and crispy, and then you can toss them around again to brown the other sides of the potatoes. You can always turn the heat down if you think it's cooking too fast. Once the potatoes are all browned and cooked to your liking, they are ready to eat.
Additional Notes:
As you cook this, there is a chance that the onions will overcook slightly and become black. As long as the onions aren't completely burned to a crisp, it's OK. It gives the onion a different flavor and I personally like it. But if you're worried about completely burning your onions, you can always set them aside in a small bowl after you saute them. Then you can cook your potatoes as directed, and then add the onions back to the potatoes for the last 5 minutes or so.
If you're in the mood for something different, try this with sweet potatoes. Peel the sweet potatoes, cut them in small cubes, and cook according to the directions above. The process is the same; you're just using a different potato. And the sweet potatoes have the added benefit of being super healthy and loaded with lots of good vitamins.
Sorry I didn't take a picture of the final product. I basically started eating immediately after it was ready...
My original breakfast-for-dinner meal arose out of bad planning. It was on a day when I didn't take chicken (or pork or turkey or something) out of the freezer to thaw out. I also didn't have anything in the pantry that looked exciting, and I just wasn't in the mood for pasta. I wanted some kind of protein in my meal and when I saw the eggs in my fridge, I thought, why not? I made some toast, scrambled eggs, and hash browns. The hash browns were frozen hash browns that I just had to heat up, and they were great, but I thought that I could easily make my own that were fresher and cheaper. So one day I did that, and I've done that several times, and that's what I made tonight. Here is my recipe for my simple and easy Homestyle Potatoes. It makes about 2 large servings. And I don't know why they're called "Homestyle"...
Ingredients:
4 medium potatoes. I use the red, new potatoes (or whatever they're called)
1/2 onion, diced
olive oil
butter
salt
pepper
paprika
Directions:
1. Give the potatoes a good scrubbing, then cut into small cubes. If you use the red, new potatoes, you don't need to peel them.
2. Put the potatoes into a pot and fill with water so that the water covers the potatoes by about 2 inches.
3. Set on medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Let potatoes boil for about 10-15 minutes. You'll know the potatoes are ready when you can pierce them with a knife. Drain the potatoes and set aside.
4. Put a large skillet or saute pan on medium heat with a splash of olive oil and maybe a tablespoon of butter. Add the onions and saute for about 5 minutes.
5. Add the potatoes to the pan and toss with the onions. Add salt, pepper, and paprika and continue to toss. If the pan seems too dry, you can add a bit more olive oil or butter. Go for the olive oil if you want it to be a bit healthier, but butter is always good, too.
6. Let the potatoes sit for a while in the pan until they get golden brown and crispy, and then you can toss them around again to brown the other sides of the potatoes. You can always turn the heat down if you think it's cooking too fast. Once the potatoes are all browned and cooked to your liking, they are ready to eat.
Additional Notes:
As you cook this, there is a chance that the onions will overcook slightly and become black. As long as the onions aren't completely burned to a crisp, it's OK. It gives the onion a different flavor and I personally like it. But if you're worried about completely burning your onions, you can always set them aside in a small bowl after you saute them. Then you can cook your potatoes as directed, and then add the onions back to the potatoes for the last 5 minutes or so.
If you're in the mood for something different, try this with sweet potatoes. Peel the sweet potatoes, cut them in small cubes, and cook according to the directions above. The process is the same; you're just using a different potato. And the sweet potatoes have the added benefit of being super healthy and loaded with lots of good vitamins.
Sorry I didn't take a picture of the final product. I basically started eating immediately after it was ready...
Work-from-Home Day
Today I took advantage of one of our benefits: a work-from-home day. Basically this means that we can work from home one day, every other week. Even though the "policy" has been in place for about a year, I've only taken advantage of it a few times. I'm usually just too busy and most of the time I need to be in the office to do the things I need to do. But we've recently set things up so that we can log into our work network from our home computers. All I have to do is log in to a site, then I can power up my work computer from my home computer and I have access to everything I have access to if I were at work. This makes things much more convenient for us and it makes it easier to work from home.
I was planning this work-from-home day all week, and by a fortunate coincidence it happened to happen the day after we had our horrible snow storm. When it was all added up, we probably got only about 5 or 6 inches of snow. But when the snow first started to fall, it melted quickly on the roads because the roads were still relatively warm from the last few days. But then the temperature dropped quickly, and the roads suddenly iced over and then the snow started to fall harder. That's why we had so much chaos last night. I was lucky that I chose to work from home today, because the roads were still slick and icy in some places this morning. I was fortunate to spare myself that horrible drive into work.
The weather all day was bright and sunny and the skies were bright blue. The temperature got up to the mid-30s, and according to most of the weather and traffic reports, the snow and ice was starting to melt from the roads. So the drive into work tomorrow morning shouldn't be that bad, hopefully.
And, because I worked from home, I was able to focus and get a lot accomplished without too many distractions. And, because my home is a quiet and peaceful place, I was able to work in a very relaxed, low-stress manner. I actually feel pretty rested, almost as if I'm coming off of a weekend. Now I just have to go back to work for one more day, and I can start on the real weekend.
Current mood: relaxed and stuffed from dinner
Current music: iTunes on shuffle—Lisa Gerrard "The Valley of the Moon"
Current drink: root beer
I was planning this work-from-home day all week, and by a fortunate coincidence it happened to happen the day after we had our horrible snow storm. When it was all added up, we probably got only about 5 or 6 inches of snow. But when the snow first started to fall, it melted quickly on the roads because the roads were still relatively warm from the last few days. But then the temperature dropped quickly, and the roads suddenly iced over and then the snow started to fall harder. That's why we had so much chaos last night. I was lucky that I chose to work from home today, because the roads were still slick and icy in some places this morning. I was fortunate to spare myself that horrible drive into work.
The weather all day was bright and sunny and the skies were bright blue. The temperature got up to the mid-30s, and according to most of the weather and traffic reports, the snow and ice was starting to melt from the roads. So the drive into work tomorrow morning shouldn't be that bad, hopefully.
And, because I worked from home, I was able to focus and get a lot accomplished without too many distractions. And, because my home is a quiet and peaceful place, I was able to work in a very relaxed, low-stress manner. I actually feel pretty rested, almost as if I'm coming off of a weekend. Now I just have to go back to work for one more day, and I can start on the real weekend.
Current mood: relaxed and stuffed from dinner
Current music: iTunes on shuffle—Lisa Gerrard "The Valley of the Moon"
Current drink: root beer
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Winter. . .Again. . .
The weather over the past few days has been beautiful. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, I was even able to open some of my windows to let in some fresh air. For today, the forecast was that it would start to snow after 3:00 and that we would get about 1-3 inches by the end of the evening. The snow started to fall at about 1:00, and it was falling fast and hard. It was also extremely windy, so the snow was falling sideways or swirling around. Everyone in the office watched the snow falling and it was a pleasant distraction, but no one really took it that seriously. By 4:00 we all started to realize how bad it really was, so most of us packed up our things and decided to go home. I walked out of the office and it seemed like there were already 3 inches on the ground. My car was covered with snow and I tried to brush it all off, but the snow was still falling and it was falling faster than I could clean off my car. It was pretty much pointless.
I began my drive home and assumed that the roads wouldn't be that bad. I assumed that the roads would still be warm from the past few days and that they would be relatively free of ice and slush. I was so wrong! The roads were incredibly slick. Part of my drive home is on a quiet, two-lane road past some farmlands. When it snows, most people take it slow, but the traffic still moves. Today, traffic was bumper to bumper and we moved at 5 mph or less. I was somewhat grateful we were going so slowly, because the road was all ice, slush, and snow. On a few turns and a hill, I felt my car slide and the tires spin a bit, but fortunately we were going so slowly that it was easy to recover from.
After a long drive of clenching my steering wheel until my knuckles probably turned white and holding my breath the entire time until my face turned blue, I finally made it home. It took me a little over 30 minutes to get home, when usually it takes me only about 10 minutes. I was one of the lucky ones, too. Some of my co-workers had a much worse drive. One co-worker who was simply driving across town, had an hour commute. Other co-workers were on the road for two or three hours. It's just horrible out there today.
I began my drive home and assumed that the roads wouldn't be that bad. I assumed that the roads would still be warm from the past few days and that they would be relatively free of ice and slush. I was so wrong! The roads were incredibly slick. Part of my drive home is on a quiet, two-lane road past some farmlands. When it snows, most people take it slow, but the traffic still moves. Today, traffic was bumper to bumper and we moved at 5 mph or less. I was somewhat grateful we were going so slowly, because the road was all ice, slush, and snow. On a few turns and a hill, I felt my car slide and the tires spin a bit, but fortunately we were going so slowly that it was easy to recover from.
After a long drive of clenching my steering wheel until my knuckles probably turned white and holding my breath the entire time until my face turned blue, I finally made it home. It took me a little over 30 minutes to get home, when usually it takes me only about 10 minutes. I was one of the lucky ones, too. Some of my co-workers had a much worse drive. One co-worker who was simply driving across town, had an hour commute. Other co-workers were on the road for two or three hours. It's just horrible out there today.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Holiday
As I mentioned in my previous post, today is a holiday and I've been taking advantage of the extra day off. I woke up at about 8:30 and eventually rolled out of bed at 9:00. Because I'm usually awake by 6:00 on workdays, I absolutely love my opportunities to sleep in. I took a long, hot shower—as opposed to my usual quick, hot shower—then made French Toast for breakfast. I lounged around for most of the morning, and wasted time on the internet while listening to the news. Eventually, I decided to be a little productive, so I did the dishes and a few loads of laundry. Now I have the rest of the afternoon to be lazy again. I love days like this!
The weather has been absolutely beautiful today. The skies are blue and the sun is shining. It's still a bit chilly at around 55 degrees, but it's warmer than it has been these past few weeks. I've actually been able to turn off my heater and open a few windows to let in some fresh air for a change.
The weather has been absolutely beautiful today. The skies are blue and the sun is shining. It's still a bit chilly at around 55 degrees, but it's warmer than it has been these past few weeks. I've actually been able to turn off my heater and open a few windows to let in some fresh air for a change.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Long Weekend
After a very busy week at work, I'm grateful to have a long weekend. We have Monday off for the Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday, and I think I really need an extra day of rest. I slept in a little bit today, but then ran all my errands and did my grocery shopping earlier this afternoon. So now I can spend the rest of the weekend relaxing, being lazy, and watching football. Yay!
Monday, January 10, 2011
Winter
We've had a remarkably mild fall and winter this season. Although we received a lot of snow up in the mountains, we haven't received much snow down in the cities. In fact, the news once reported that this has been one of the driest falls/winters on record. Although we might have had a dusting of snow, we didn't get any significant snow until the week between Christmas and New Years. Things warmed up quickly after that, and the snow melted within a few days.
Yesterday we got our first significant snowfall. It was snowing when I woke up at about 9:00, and it continued to fall for most of the morning and early afternoon. There was a break in the snow for a few hours, but then it started to pick up again at around 4:00. I was looking out my windows and by dinnertime there were about 3 or 4 inches of snow piled on my patio fence. The snow then started to fall faster and heavier, and reports on the news said that it would continue to snow for most of the morning.
I woke up and it looked like there were about 6 inches of snow on my patio fence, but while watching the morning news they were reporting that Boulder got about 10 inches of snow. With that amount of snow, I thought that the schools would surely be closed for the day. You probably wonder why a person without kids cares about school closures. Well, our office closure is often based on school closures. When the schools are closed, it's a good bet that our office will be closed. There is an odd logic behind it, but I won't get into that. Anyway, in spite of the amount of snow we had, the schools were not closed, therefore our office was open.
I was all dressed and ready to go, so I left at more or less my usual time. When I got to the parking lot, I was happy to see that it was, for the most part, plowed. There were still huge amounts of snow between, behind, and in front of the cars, but at least most of the lot was cleared. There was, however, a huge amount of snow on top of my car. It definitely looked like 10 inches. It took me a while to brush all the snow off, and, yes, I obsessively brush all the snow off my car. And then it took me a while to scrape the ice/frost from the windows. Once my car was cleared off, I was ready for the white-knuckled drive into the office.
I was expecting a horrible drive into the office, but thankfully it wasn't as bad as I anticipated. The roads looked like they had been plowed, but there was still some snow and slush on top of whatever was cleared during the evening. Although it was still a bit slick, there was still enough snow to cover the ice that might have been underneath. I think that extra snow might have made things a bit better and might have given a bit more traction, if that makes any sense. I still drove cautiously and carefully, naturally, even when an impatient, big jerk in an SUV tried to pressure me to drive faster, and fortunately I made it into the office safely.
When driving home this evening, the roads seemed much more clear. You were actually driving on the road and not on snow and slush. The only danger with this, though, is that when the temperature drops tonight—and it will drop—things will start to ice over, and that's when things get really dangerous. But, I'm hoping, fingers crossed and knock on wood, that the drive tomorrow morning will be an easy one.
Yesterday we got our first significant snowfall. It was snowing when I woke up at about 9:00, and it continued to fall for most of the morning and early afternoon. There was a break in the snow for a few hours, but then it started to pick up again at around 4:00. I was looking out my windows and by dinnertime there were about 3 or 4 inches of snow piled on my patio fence. The snow then started to fall faster and heavier, and reports on the news said that it would continue to snow for most of the morning.
I woke up and it looked like there were about 6 inches of snow on my patio fence, but while watching the morning news they were reporting that Boulder got about 10 inches of snow. With that amount of snow, I thought that the schools would surely be closed for the day. You probably wonder why a person without kids cares about school closures. Well, our office closure is often based on school closures. When the schools are closed, it's a good bet that our office will be closed. There is an odd logic behind it, but I won't get into that. Anyway, in spite of the amount of snow we had, the schools were not closed, therefore our office was open.
I was all dressed and ready to go, so I left at more or less my usual time. When I got to the parking lot, I was happy to see that it was, for the most part, plowed. There were still huge amounts of snow between, behind, and in front of the cars, but at least most of the lot was cleared. There was, however, a huge amount of snow on top of my car. It definitely looked like 10 inches. It took me a while to brush all the snow off, and, yes, I obsessively brush all the snow off my car. And then it took me a while to scrape the ice/frost from the windows. Once my car was cleared off, I was ready for the white-knuckled drive into the office.
I was expecting a horrible drive into the office, but thankfully it wasn't as bad as I anticipated. The roads looked like they had been plowed, but there was still some snow and slush on top of whatever was cleared during the evening. Although it was still a bit slick, there was still enough snow to cover the ice that might have been underneath. I think that extra snow might have made things a bit better and might have given a bit more traction, if that makes any sense. I still drove cautiously and carefully, naturally, even when an impatient, big jerk in an SUV tried to pressure me to drive faster, and fortunately I made it into the office safely.
When driving home this evening, the roads seemed much more clear. You were actually driving on the road and not on snow and slush. The only danger with this, though, is that when the temperature drops tonight—and it will drop—things will start to ice over, and that's when things get really dangerous. But, I'm hoping, fingers crossed and knock on wood, that the drive tomorrow morning will be an easy one.
Monday, January 03, 2011
Resolutions
At the beginning of every year people tend to make all kinds of resolutions and hope that they can actually act on and achieve these resolutions before the end of the year. Most people, I assume, fail or fall off the wagon after a few weeks or months. So, like every other fool out there, here is my list of resolutions for the year. I tried to keep it to a minimum so as to not disappoint myself too much when we reach December.
1. Continue to work out. I was really good about working out last year. I lifted weights every other day and on the weekends I took long walks or hikes. Granted, like most people, I took a break from working out in November and December because there was just too much going on. With work, parties at work, holidays, and vacations, it is tough to stick to the routine. But now that the holidays are behind us, I plan on getting back into my routine. I also want to add yoga back to my routine. When I do yoga, I do it more to increase my flexibility and to relax before bed. I want to do this more often this year.
2. Continue eat healthy. I was also really good about this last year, so I plan on doing this again. However, I'm not going to be too hard on myself, and will absolutely let myself "cheat" when I'm eating out with friends or when I'm on vacation.
3. Continue to have fun cooking. Loyal readers might have gotten the sense that I really like to cook. I'm not sure how great I am—the food usually tastes good to me—but I like to call cooking one of my hobbies. Over the past few years, there have been several dishes that I've more or less perfected. I have a good number of dishes that I know I can always make easily, quickly, and well. This year I want to try different things. I want to expand my repertoire and try new things or new cuisines. Toward the end of last year, I experimented more with baking and I want to keep doing this.
4. Read more or brush up on my Greek and Latin. Considering my career revolves around books, it might be hard to believe that I don't read a lot in my spare time. When you spend the entire day scanning and reading things on a screen or off a page, it's sometimes hard to come home and pick up a book. By the end of the day I'm usually tired and my brain feels like a marshmallow, so sitting in front of the TV watching a show or a movie is what I have preferred to do. But I'd like to keep my brain a little more active and engaged. And, because I no longer read Greek or Latin on a regular basis, I've gotten a little rusty. So I'd like to remind my brain that I actually do know these languages and have spent a lot of time (and my family's money) learning these languages.
5. Take more time off work! Some of my lovely friends will be happy to read this one. Again, as loyal readers might now, I'm a bit of a workaholic. Toward the end of last year when I was planning my Thanksgiving and Christmas vacations, I realized that I took only three or four days off. And, sadly, a few of those days off was when I was moving. So my goal is to take more time off so that I don't get burned out at the end of the year. Even if I take a few "sick" days here and there, I'm sure it will make a difference in the long run.
That is my list of potentially achievable New Year's resolutions. We'll see how well I do...
1. Continue to work out. I was really good about working out last year. I lifted weights every other day and on the weekends I took long walks or hikes. Granted, like most people, I took a break from working out in November and December because there was just too much going on. With work, parties at work, holidays, and vacations, it is tough to stick to the routine. But now that the holidays are behind us, I plan on getting back into my routine. I also want to add yoga back to my routine. When I do yoga, I do it more to increase my flexibility and to relax before bed. I want to do this more often this year.
2. Continue eat healthy. I was also really good about this last year, so I plan on doing this again. However, I'm not going to be too hard on myself, and will absolutely let myself "cheat" when I'm eating out with friends or when I'm on vacation.
3. Continue to have fun cooking. Loyal readers might have gotten the sense that I really like to cook. I'm not sure how great I am—the food usually tastes good to me—but I like to call cooking one of my hobbies. Over the past few years, there have been several dishes that I've more or less perfected. I have a good number of dishes that I know I can always make easily, quickly, and well. This year I want to try different things. I want to expand my repertoire and try new things or new cuisines. Toward the end of last year, I experimented more with baking and I want to keep doing this.
4. Read more or brush up on my Greek and Latin. Considering my career revolves around books, it might be hard to believe that I don't read a lot in my spare time. When you spend the entire day scanning and reading things on a screen or off a page, it's sometimes hard to come home and pick up a book. By the end of the day I'm usually tired and my brain feels like a marshmallow, so sitting in front of the TV watching a show or a movie is what I have preferred to do. But I'd like to keep my brain a little more active and engaged. And, because I no longer read Greek or Latin on a regular basis, I've gotten a little rusty. So I'd like to remind my brain that I actually do know these languages and have spent a lot of time (and my family's money) learning these languages.
5. Take more time off work! Some of my lovely friends will be happy to read this one. Again, as loyal readers might now, I'm a bit of a workaholic. Toward the end of last year when I was planning my Thanksgiving and Christmas vacations, I realized that I took only three or four days off. And, sadly, a few of those days off was when I was moving. So my goal is to take more time off so that I don't get burned out at the end of the year. Even if I take a few "sick" days here and there, I'm sure it will make a difference in the long run.
That is my list of potentially achievable New Year's resolutions. We'll see how well I do...
Unfortunate Confusion
I have a cool little state meter attached to my blog so that I can track hits. I have this mostly because I'm curious about who visits and reads my blog. I have to admit most of my readers are family or a few loyal friends, but it is interesting to see the various way strangers stumble across my blog. I'm just an average person rambling about the mundane things going on in my life, so I get maybe a few hits a day on my blog. But when I checked my stats one day last month, I was surprised to see that my blog got about 30 hits in one day. That really took me by surprise, because I didn't write that often last month. There certainly wasn't a ground-breaking post or anything that could possibly shake the world that month. I noticed that most of the hits came from Turkey, of all places. I was even more puzzled. Why would a bunch of people in Turkey be searching for my blog?
I did a little bit of digging and searching, and eventually (and unfortunately) stumbled across the explanation. Apparently there is another blog out there in the world with the same title as my blog. The only difference is that the other blog is filled with smut and porn. What people were really searching for is a photo of a naked woman with the Turkish flag painted on her body. The other photos on the site weren't so "artistic," but it unfortunately explained what people were looking for. Although the hits from Turkey are far less these days, I still get a few occasionally, which is why I'm thinking about it today.
Needless to say, my blog is quite tame by comparison. I almost feel sorry for those people who were looking for risque photos on my blog and only ended up seeing photos of pasta dishes or clouds or the mountains. Oh well...
Current mood: relaxed and enjoying a final day off
Current music: iTunes on shuffle—Train "Hopeless"
Current drink: coffee
I did a little bit of digging and searching, and eventually (and unfortunately) stumbled across the explanation. Apparently there is another blog out there in the world with the same title as my blog. The only difference is that the other blog is filled with smut and porn. What people were really searching for is a photo of a naked woman with the Turkish flag painted on her body. The other photos on the site weren't so "artistic," but it unfortunately explained what people were looking for. Although the hits from Turkey are far less these days, I still get a few occasionally, which is why I'm thinking about it today.
Needless to say, my blog is quite tame by comparison. I almost feel sorry for those people who were looking for risque photos on my blog and only ended up seeing photos of pasta dishes or clouds or the mountains. Oh well...
Current mood: relaxed and enjoying a final day off
Current music: iTunes on shuffle—Train "Hopeless"
Current drink: coffee
Saturday, January 01, 2011
Happy New Year!
Here we are at another New Year's day. Honestly, where did the last year go? It always seems like each year passes faster than the last year. Maybe that's just a sign that I'm getting older.
I'm recently home from another wonderful vacation. I was able to do a lot of relaxing and that is my idea of the perfect way to spend a vacation. I'm not one of those people that needs to do something or go somewhere every day. I don't need to have an agenda or a to-do list. My entire working life revolves around to-do lists and deadlines and agendas, so why would I want to make my vacation anything like that? I like to be lazy and I like to relax.
I felt fully recharged after my vacation, and, on Thursday, I was ready to go back to work—as ready as one could feel to go back to work after a wonderful vacation. As I was watching the news that morning while I was eating my breakfast, the weather report looked grim. They said that it would start to snow at around noon and that the evening commute would be pretty bad. I thought that I could get several hours of work in and then leave at about 3:00 before the roads got too bad. I got to work at my usual time, around 8:00, and started to get resettled into my projects. Snow started to fall lightly a little after 8:30, but then it really started to pick up at about 9:00. The snow was falling pretty fast and hard. At around 10:00, it looked like the weather wasn't going to get better but would only get much worse, so I decided to grab some work and go back home to work from home for the rest of the day. Normally I probably wouldn't be so quick to go home, but the weather did look bad and, in all honestly, hardly anyone was in the office yesterday. Lots of people were still on vacation, so there wasn't a whole lot going on.
As I was driving home, the roads already felt really slick and slippery. One road that I passed was blocked off by two police cars, so I wondered if the road was just really icy or if there was an accident. At one point I had to blow through an intersection just as the light was about to turn red, because I didn't want to hit my breaks and skid out of control. I also wanted to get away from the huge van that was riding my bumper because he must have thought I was driving too slowly or carefully. It continued to snow all afternoon and for most of the evening. On Friday morning, I decided to keep working from home. We were only scheduled to work for a half day because of the New Year's holiday, and I didn't think it was worth it to drive on the snow and ice to work for only a half day.
Needless to say, I'm happy to have this extended vacation.
I'm recently home from another wonderful vacation. I was able to do a lot of relaxing and that is my idea of the perfect way to spend a vacation. I'm not one of those people that needs to do something or go somewhere every day. I don't need to have an agenda or a to-do list. My entire working life revolves around to-do lists and deadlines and agendas, so why would I want to make my vacation anything like that? I like to be lazy and I like to relax.
I felt fully recharged after my vacation, and, on Thursday, I was ready to go back to work—as ready as one could feel to go back to work after a wonderful vacation. As I was watching the news that morning while I was eating my breakfast, the weather report looked grim. They said that it would start to snow at around noon and that the evening commute would be pretty bad. I thought that I could get several hours of work in and then leave at about 3:00 before the roads got too bad. I got to work at my usual time, around 8:00, and started to get resettled into my projects. Snow started to fall lightly a little after 8:30, but then it really started to pick up at about 9:00. The snow was falling pretty fast and hard. At around 10:00, it looked like the weather wasn't going to get better but would only get much worse, so I decided to grab some work and go back home to work from home for the rest of the day. Normally I probably wouldn't be so quick to go home, but the weather did look bad and, in all honestly, hardly anyone was in the office yesterday. Lots of people were still on vacation, so there wasn't a whole lot going on.
As I was driving home, the roads already felt really slick and slippery. One road that I passed was blocked off by two police cars, so I wondered if the road was just really icy or if there was an accident. At one point I had to blow through an intersection just as the light was about to turn red, because I didn't want to hit my breaks and skid out of control. I also wanted to get away from the huge van that was riding my bumper because he must have thought I was driving too slowly or carefully. It continued to snow all afternoon and for most of the evening. On Friday morning, I decided to keep working from home. We were only scheduled to work for a half day because of the New Year's holiday, and I didn't think it was worth it to drive on the snow and ice to work for only a half day.
Needless to say, I'm happy to have this extended vacation.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)