>OK, coming up with a new topic everyday is harder than I thought it would be. My family is in kalamzoo, Im “working” trying to gain some sanity in my professional life, and all i can think about is how I havent blogged yet today. at least I did my 10 pushups. So I cheated and googled “ideas for what to write about in my blog.” the strange things I found!

Well, so since it me and the doggies tonight, I thought I would put a post in honor of them (pilfered from the above mentioned google).

What kind of puppy are you? take the quiz… and if you guessed what I scored you win a prize. and you win an even bigger prize if you guess the kind of puppy that I scored when i pretended I was Scott. (I wonder if scott will score the same… LOL). OK updates tomorrow. for now, the quiz:

>would you rather it be 15 degrees and sunny or 30 degrees and grey and cloudy?

>I just read today that in the state of Michigan it is officially illegal for a woman to cut her hair without her husband’s consent. Unless Scott reads this blog… Im gonna be a criminal. I promise to post before and after shots for your entertainment. I need to write the governor.

>January 23… we went out for fish and chips last night. Honestly, I had this plan to make eggplant, tofu and chic peas. But Bee kept asking if we could have fishes and french fries. What could I do? She was such a good girl after school! I figure now that we broke our attempt to not go out to eat for all of january, its all over and now we can go out whenever we want! I guess it also broke our broccoli stream. no wonder I am feeling out of sorts today.

Today is wednesday so that means we get dessert (wed, fri and sat). I’m supposed to be working right now and instead Im dreaming about what my dessert is going to be. Coconut pudding? Chocolate icecream? donuts from krispie kreme? I just cant decide. Its all about priorities I guess.

and now. hip-hip-hurray. I ran 3 miles at PT today and my hip felt great. wooohoooo.

>I thought I’d elaborate a bit on my theory of weather forecasts.

Call me cynical, but weather reporting is all about fear. The more scared people are, the more they’ll watch the local news and the less likely they’ll be to do dangerous, scary things like, drive, walk, and go outside, all of which potentially remove them from their television. This idea was impressed on me in New York, where an inch of snow seems to send the news media into a tizzy.

In engineering, there is a concept of “factor of safety”, where, if your bridge is expected to carry 100 cars at a time, you build it so it can carry 300 cars at a time, just to be safe. That would be a factor of safety of three.

I think in meteorology school, students are taught to use a factor of scary, with a nominal value of two.

>Scott has a theory, and that is, if the weather forecast says 3-6 inches, it really means, 1-3 inches. If it says 2-3 inches, its probably a dusting. Yesterday scott was proven right yet again! We were predicted to get 3 inches of snow, and we got about 1.5 inches to be exact. It was sort of freaky. This theory can be extended too. If they say a “dusting” of snow. Be prepared for microscopic flurries. If they say, rain changing into snow, prepare for just rain. The only time he is really off on this is when it is a coastal storm and the 3-6 inches turns into the storm of the century, but even then he seems to have a hunch when this is going to be the case (think of the birthday blizzard, 2003).

So I feel compelled to lay out a few of scott’s theories, since, truth be told, when i follow them, Im actually finding myself doing pretty well.

Scott’s first theory: Always get into the lane that is merging.
Review: Scott’s second theory: run in the dark, run in the cold, but dont run in the dark and cold
Review: Scott’s third theory: Always “half” the snow predictions.

I should probably take up the first theory tomorrow since I have developed treatises on second and third here already.

>Well, koomps has been barking like a mad dog as of late, mainly at night, more specifically around 3 or 4am. Scott and I have been taking turns going down stairs to quiet her down so that she doesnt wake up the entire family! At first we thought it was the back porch light our back neighbors leave on at night, which is rather bright. Then we thought it was the snow, especially the newly fallen white snow reflecting the bright porch light. But this morning, we have a new working theory with some pretty good evidence. Sitting on our deck, paws up, facing our sliding door was a rabbit. Koomps and the rabbit were having a stare – bark down. I mean it was right up there next to the door. Im not sure if it wanted to come inside to get away from the cold and snow or if it was just teasing Koompa from the other side of the glass. Well, considering I couldnt get Koompa to quiet down, I just opened the sliding door and let her out. Let the games begin! Seriously, if koompa wasn’t a 13 year old arthritic dog, I might not have done that, but I figured the rabbit was probably pretty safe.

>Frankie works really hard. One of her favorite tasks is to open the cupboard, take out the cans and boxes of food and distribute them about the house. Then redistribute them. And on and on. Usually every few days or so we make a sweep of the house looking for odd cans and boxes so we can bring them back to the kitchen…

So Im really here to update you on our cooking adventures. Its Jan 21 and we still have not been out to eat. I believe this is a new record. Anyhow, last night i had this great idea I would make a new recipe for a coconut milk chicken curry sweet and sour kind of soup. Then we would have some oatmeal bread on the side. So the soup didnt seem too hard to make, just a little long and drawn out. Diced some onions, sautee with olive oil. Add some salt, cumin, red pepper paste. then add some diced granny smith apples and a potatoe, and sautee some more. then add water and chopped up chicken, simmer. then at the end add a can of light coconut milk and a squirt of lemon. So we got to the end and then for the life of me I could not find the coconut milk. It was one of those cans I remember Frankie moving around the house. So I looked and looked. Then scott looked and looked. Nothing. So the soup was almost done, so we couldn’t start anything new. I really didnt want to go to the store, and didnt want scott to leave either (eventhough he volunteered). and it didnt taste right with out it. So, I got this great idea I would just add some regular milk and throw in some shredded coconut to give it a coconut milk taste. All I’m going to say right now is thank god I made some broccoli on the side so that we had something decent to eat for supper. Which brings me to my next thought. We have a kids book about 100 days of school, and Scott was reading it to frankie yesterday afternoon, and started to change the story to 100 days of broccoli. You think I might get a clue.

>the girls and I just went for a walk. we took the three mile route down around the fire station and up and over the bridge. the bridge is one of those metal bridges that snags around, up and over a busy street. We got the top of the bridge just fine, but when we got to the other side to go down the whole bridge was ice covered. Im not sure why the other side wasnt as ice covered. maybe this side is in the shawdows more and gets less sun. anyhow, I just held tight to the jog stroller and got into a skiers pose and down the bridge we went. the only scary part was trying to stop at the turn around so we didnt crash too hard into the fence. the girls laughed and thought it was a blast. I dunno about that. I think we’ll do a different route tomorrow.

Today we are going to have a pre-birthday party for scott. he doesnt know it yet. the girls and I figure 40 is a big one so we need several practice events. I havent decided if we will make a pumpkin pie, a chocolate cake or bread pudding. I should try to make creme brulee, but I dont have any butane for our tourch. Last time i tried to torch it over our gas stove, lets just say it was a huge disaster.

all morning long franks keeps saying Bees OK! Bees OK!

>the dogs already ate. don’t let them fool you.

Whew. got my post in. I will try harder tomorrow.