2013 In Review

Went to several friends weddings.

Completed my second Tough Mudder with my mom.

I got to play in bouncy castles with two Green Bay Packers.

Went deer hunting with my dad.

Completed 2 more semesters of Grad School with a current GPA of 3.62.

Worked on editing and writing my books. 

It was a pretty decent year. 

Here's to 2014!

Pre-Christmas Productivity! (2 recipes!)

I made Russian Tea Balls (cookies)! My grandma always had these on the cookie tray for Christmas and when she passed in 2010, I decided I would keep that tradition alive since it was one of my dads favorite cookies.

Russian Tea Ball Recipe:
1 cup butter softened, 1/2 cup powder sugar, 1t vanilla extract blend that together. Add 2 1/4 cups flour and 1/4t salt and blend. Stir in 3/4 cups chopped walnuts (the finer, the better). Form into 1" round balls and place on baking sheet. Bake at 400* F for 10 minutes. Roll in powder sugar right away. Once cool, roll in powder sugar again. Enjoy!

After cookies (and a round of dishes) we brought in the train set and set it up.

After lunch I made a Chocolate Cheesecake (my first ever cheesecake that I made solo)

Recipe: 1 cup chocolate wafer crumbs, 1/2 cup finely chopped toasted hazelnuts, 1/3 cup melted butter, 3 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese softened, 1 cup sugar, 12 squares (1 ounce each) bittersweet baking chocolate (melted and cooled), 3 eggs (lightly beaten), 1 cup sour cream, 1 1/2 t vanilla extract, 1/2 t almond extract, dash salt
Glaze: 4 squares (1 ounce each) bittersweet baking chocolate, 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream, 1 t vanilla extract
Combine chocolate wafer crumbs, hazelnuts and butter, press into the bottom of an ungreased 9-inch springform pan.
In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, and sugar until smooth. Add chocolate (If you don't have 12 ounces of bittersweet baking chocolate like I found out, you can use unsweetened baking chocolate and add 1/4 cup sugar for every 4 ounces unsweetened and it will turn out the same). Add eggs; beat on low until just combined. Add sour cream, extracts and salt; beat just until blended. pour over crust. place pan on baking sheet.
Bake at 350* for 60-65 minutes or until the center is almost set. Cool pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully run a knife around the edge of pan to loosen; cool 1 hour longer. Refrigerate for 3 hours.
For glaze, in heavy saucepan or microwave, melt chocolate with cream, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla. Remove sides of springform pan. Spread gaze over top. Refrigerate overnight. Garnish with whipped cream and hazelnuts.

Instead of chocolate wafer crumbs, I killed these guys...I mean used these.

Fresh from the oven:

The finished product! (really rich and you will need a glass of milk to go with it)

Dear Gym Asshole

Yeah, that's right, I'm talking to you, the dude in the red sweatshirt today.

Background: I was at they gym doing squats with the barbell and looking at the mirror to make sure I go down all the way each time. During one of my first few sets, an asshole decides to use a barbell right in front of me (minded other barbells that weren't in front of me were open) and stays there doing squats of his own, really poorly might I add. Not only was he in front of me when he was doing his squats, but he did really annoying grunts and wasn't even lifting that much to justify grunting. 

The moral of the story is, don't be an asshole at the gym. It's simple. When someone is using the mirror and you have other options on where to stand, stand elsewhere! 

Breaking Stereotypes

Thursday I went to the gym and invited my friend, Mike, to come workout with me if he wanted, not expecting to see him but to see some lame excuse via text so I plugged in my iPod and got to work. Well, normally at the gym I do around a half hour of weights (and I'm not talking 5 pound weights) and then either bike or row. On my last weight machine of the day, I got up to wipe it off and see Mike behind me. Apparently I look very intimidating when I workout and scared him slightly. We went upstairs where the track and other cardio equipment is and I start rowing and he ran around. At the end of our cardio, I ask him if he wanted to do any weights to which he declined. 

Well the stereotype that I am leading to is weight lifting and the gym. On any given day at the gym, the majority of the people in the weight room are guys. Today there were only 3 other girls besides myself (most lifting the 5 pound weights I mentioned earlier). Also, on any given day at the gym, girls usually outnumber guys on cardio equipment. So I'm here to tell you that it is ok for girls to lift weights and it's ok for guys to go for a run or something cardio along with weights. 

Playing with the Pack

So I was working out at the gym in the morning like usual and after an hour work out (which felt amazing) I see in the big open area, where people are usually playing basketball, bouncy castle things being set up. So me being a curious Sonja goes in to check it out. I ask some dude with a clip board (because dudes with clip boards usually know what's going on) what it was all about. He told me that it was the Military Experience for the week long Veteran's Day celebration and was starting at 12 people could play in the bouncy castles, try on actual military gear and do a pull up challenge. Just as I was about to leave (because it wasn't 12 yet) he tells me "And then a couple of Packers are going to be here from 1-4 playing in them and meeting people and taking pictures if people want." 

I go home to eat something, cause I worked out pretty hard and was hungry and then head back to the gym around 2. A friend and I did a bouncy castle obstacle that was timed to see which team was the fastest (we weren't even close, but it was still fun). Then we got to go in the ball wrecker bouncy castle and swing a big ball around trying to knock each other off of podiums and finally there was a knock out bouncy castle. 

So I got to play with Ryan Taylor (left) and Marshall Newhouse (right) of the Green Bay Packers and got my picture taken with them.

One Week

No, not the song by Barenaked Ladies. But one week until NaNoWriMo (nanowrimo.org). In one week, or 7 days, or 168 hours or 10,080 minutes, thousands of people will be hyped up on coffee or tea, getting less sleep than they should, having no social lives (if they ever had one to begin with), and hoping that their imaginary friends will take them on a journey worth writing 50,000 words about.

Thankfully I have friends and family that I can ask random questions, where other people would judge my sanity. I have a notebook and word document that I can write in at any spare second of the day. I have my daily word count posted beside my desk. But most importantly, I have an idea. And if I may say, it is brilliant. I already have a strong outline from the help of one of my oldest friends, Ashley, and cannot wait to begin.

Whether you are ready or not, here it comes. And in the words of the Doctor:

"GERONIMO!!!"

Evaluate Your Life

Today is evaluate your life day. This day could be scary for some, but how else can you make sure that you are on the right track. My life right now boils down to several things: friends/family, writing/editing, school, training, and work (changing in order from day to day and hour to hour).

First of all, my family and friends are important to me. Once a week I like to drop my Oma an email telling her about anything exciting that happened or just how my week was. I grew up living next to my Oma and Opa and as a kid would always run next door after school and these little emails are still my way of running next door to them after school. Another one is my best friend, Laura. Although we haven't lived close to each other for several years, we still text and email about problems and our days and happy moments and have the occasional phone call that lasts at least an hour.

Second thing in my life is my writing and editing. I'm currently editing another book to be published with the help of friends and family, after having read it over several times myself. I'm also working on and planning another book that I'm going to write for this years NaNoWriMo. I love writing. It gives me a chance to be different people and to not be interrupted.

School is of course a big part of my life right now as I'm in grad school. To those that are currently in grad school or have been in grad school, you know what I'm talking about. Also with school I'm the Criminal Justice Student Association President where I get to talk to federal agents (yes, I have some awesome contacts in federal agencies) and arrange speakers and tours for the members.

Training is another big part of my life. I would say working out, but training sounds better for one, and training means that there is a goal that you want to accomplish at the end. For me, I'm training for my third Tough Mudder in 323 days.

Finally work. Last week I was promoted of sorts to House Management Supervisor. Basically meaning I get to do a little more work. 

All in all, I love my life even with all of my weird medical stuff that has been going on this year. Yes, sometimes it's a bit stressful and challenging, but if it's not challenging, is it really worth it?
So, evaluate your life today. If you find that you don't like a specific thing, then ask yourself why and don't be afraid to make some changes for the better. 

Traditions

Lots of people have different traditions, relating to their culture, holidays they celebrate and way of life. One of my traditions is playing pool. Last winter, one of my best friends, Mike, and I were walking along as the snow flakes were falling on our faces. We were talking about our days and things that were on our minds that we wouldn't normally share with others. We came to a bar and the sign said that they had free pool on Mondays. We went in to warm up a bit and played some, then took a cold walk back. 
Little did we know, that was the start of one of our traditions. 
Almost every Monday night since, we walk down to the same bar, the bar tenders and bouncers all know us now, and we play pool for several hours. We watch sports and car races and just unwind from the day. Normally we walk along the beach on our way home, watching the waves crash over the dark sand while we talk about anything and everything. 
Because of this tradition, Mondays never seem as bad as some people perceive them to be. Thanks Mike for our tradition. 

What's Your Quirk?

Everyone I know has a weird little quirk when it comes to working out. Some stare themselves down in the mirror, some look really pissed off while lifting, while others go in pairs or groups to the gym and everyone stands around one person while that person is lifting.

My quirk you ask? Well I have several. 

I always do 100 reps on each machine I use. I typically always do 4 sets of 25 and take a water break after my 3rd set. Sometimes I'll do more, but 100 is my minimum. 

When I'm not feeling the workout, I usually dedicate it to someone who is in the military and that pushes me harder. 

My final quirk, is music. When I'm lifting, I can't stand listening to my iPod just because the cord gets in the way, but when I do cardio, I will sing along to all of the songs...sometimes out loud.

Whatever your workout quirk is, don't worry about it, just keep lifting!

Tough Mudder #2

So we get up to EAA in Oshkosk and it starts sprinkling a little, I check my phone and see a very colorful storm coming so we park and it's thundering and lightning for a while. Obviously my mom and I decided to stay in the car and wait it out cause it was moving pretty fast. Once the lightning went away and it was just sprinkling we go out and on the way to the registration, we see a big puddle. Knowing that we are going to be soaking wet during the course, we jump in it. The little kid (maybe 5 years old) behind us decided to follow our lead and jumped in the puddle too which I found funny but at least the parents were cool about it...I mean you don't go to Tough Mudder (even just as a spectator) and expect to leave all clean and dry, that just doesn't happen.

After registration we go over to the starting line where we first have to climb a wall that was 7 to 10 feet tall (depending on where in the wall you are standing) to get to the starting line. That's right, there's an obstacle before the event even begins! But no biggie, at the other side of the wall we hear an awesome pep talk and someone sings the national anthem. Only problem with that was, it was still raining. Half way through the national anthem, the power goes out and all of the mudders pick up right where it left off. Which was unbelievable and so powerful. A cannon is fired and then we were off. 

Under the trees we went until we came to the "Kiss of Mud" where we crawled on our stomachs through mud under barbed wire. We get to the other end, stand up, and I notice that my arms are already scraped up pretty badly. Well, I'm already hurt, might as well get something out of it, so we keep going. 

The next fun obstacle that we came to (minded I'm not going to explain every obstacle, you'll have to do it if you want to know what they all are like) was the "Electric Eel". This is where we are crawling once again on our stomachs through water while live wires are hanging down on top of you. I'll repeat: LIVE WIRES! They don't hurt much, just a gentle reminder that you are alive, unless if you were me. I was going along in my lane getting the occasional zap until the guy next to me decided he wanted to be in my lane too. Well isn't that nice of him. While he was moving over (uninvited mind you) I was constantly being zapped on my ass! This quickly motivated me to encourage him to keep moving. But I got out just fine. 

The next obstacle I'll tell you about was called "Hold Your Wood." An easy task really. You simply pick up a piece of wood and carry it in a circle. No problem. Only thing, the wood wasn't little sticks. They were chunks of wood. The smallest was even too big to put in a city fire pit. Well, I hoisted one up on my shoulder and was off. Don't forget, the whole path is covered in shoe sucking mud from the rain making it extra tricky to maneuver. I get to the end, toss my wood and found out that the medical person there had to send 3 people home within the last 30 minutes because of pinched fingers and wood dropping on toes and feet. Thankfully I was unaware of this information before I did this obstacle.

I was really looking forward to "Firewalker" again because last year there were two long zig zagging rows (at least 15 meters long if not longer) of wood and straw and hay that were on fire that smoked like crazy. Well, it was nothing like that this year. Instead there were two lines of wood that were on fire that we had to hop over (one could easily walk over it) and then there was this pool (as close to a pool as you could get when it comes to Tough Mudder) where we jumped in and swam to the other side and used a cargo net to climb up. As I was almost up the cargo net, a hand appears in front of me, I grab it and a guy nearly lifts me right out of the water. That is what Tough Mudder is all about. Not the obstacles, not the distance, but the camaraderie.

I was also looking forward to the next obstacle as I loved it last year, the "Arctic Enema." This one is pretty straight forward. You climb up a small ramp, jump into water, go under a board so your head is completely submerged and then climb another small ramp to get out. Easy peasy. Oh wait, forgot one little thing. The water is freezing! They dump ice in the water and add some liquid so the water will remain really freaking cold! Oh well, it was a nice short break from the heat.

Skipping ahead, we come to the "Cage Crawl." I found this rather relaxing. One simply goes in the water floating on your back and use a cage that is inches from your face to move along. The water isn't deep and with your ears submerged in the water, it was rather pleasant. Well, unless if you were the dude in front of me. I guess I was a bit faster at cage crawling than he was and ended up in his lap basically. Never know, he might have found that relaxing too!

After the "Funky Monkey" which is basically a monkey bar on steroids, we come to the pull up challenge. If all of the mudders between the two days reached a total of (I believe) 3,000 pull ups, then they would donate and extra amount to some charity (which unfortunately I can't remember but I wanna say to Wounded Warrior which is what Tough Mudder supports). I get to the bar and give it a shot. Remember, this is after 11 miles and over 20 obstacles by this time. I grab on and unfortunately I can't even do one at this point. I hope they reached the goal even though I wasn't able to help.

The last obstacle is called "ElectroShock Therapy" where like the "Electric Eel" before, live wires are hanging down. Only difference is that you have to run (or walk) through them and over stacks of hay to get to the other side. I don't know why the chicken crossed the road, but I can tell you that ever mudder crosses the "ElectroShock Therapy" to get their hard earned headband and that cup of cold beer!

It was a fun 11.87 miles and the scrapes, cuts and bruises are slowly healing. My mom and I already have our third and forth Tough Mudders planned out and I can hardly wait!

Simply Delicious Bread

So I'm kind of obsessed with bread. I love it.

I made my first loaf of bread with my Oma, while my Opa, the son of a baker, was working outside in the yard and in his garden. By the time the bread was finally in the oven, my Oma and I were covered in flour and smiles all around. I think this is part of the reason I love bread so much, because no matter what kind of bread I am making, I always think back to my Oma's kitchen, working around the island with her, playing cards and working on her puzzle while it rose and baked.

Today it's a bit chillier than the past few days so I decided to make some bread. Upon looking in the freezer for yeast, I discovered that I had none. No yeast. What was I going to do?! Well I turned to my Pinterest board full of bread recipes (http://pinterest.com/bauerno2/bread-recipes/) and found a Yeastless Chile Cheese Bread (http://www.azestybite.com/hatch-chile-cheese-bread/). The picture looked good so I decided why not give it a try. Only problem was that I didn't have all of the ingredients, so I adapted.
Here's what I did:

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
heaping 1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/3 cup buttermilk (which you can make using milk and lemon juice)
Whatever shredded cheese you have laying around the house. (The original recipe called for 1/2 cup colby jack shredded cheese, but I had cheddar)
Green chile peppers chopped (I used about 2 ounces from a can that I drained and rinsed)
2 Tbsp butter, melted

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375F.
Combine flour, baking powder, chili powder and salt. add the sugar and slowly stir in the butter milk. Add the cheese and green chile peppers. Spray a bread loaf pan with cooking spray and pour in the dough. Top with melted butter.
Cook for 45 minutes to an hour (if the pan is about a foot long, bake for 45 minutes, if it's shorter than that, bake for 50 minutes). The bread crust should be golden brown in color.

For lunch once the bread was out of the oven and cooling, my sister and I made soft boiled eggs and mashed up an avocado with some salt and pepper. We spread the avocado on the bread (which is hard to cut when warm but the smell was driving us nuts so we couldn't wait) and put the egg on top. It was delicious.
"Best bread I've ever had!" said my sister, Christina.

Enjoy!

This Day Was Made For Me!

How I had not known about this day before truly puzzles me. Today is Book Lovers Day. 

Have you ever became so engrossed with a book that you lie in your bed at night, the light on, and reading. Your hands and arms slowly falling asleep, forcing you to alternate hands that hold it up. You finish a chapter and look ahead, seeing that there are only 15 pages in the next chapter and think to yourself, "sure, I can read just one more chapter before falling asleep." Suddenly, you wake up with the book lying on your face, your nose acting as the book mark. The light shinning as your eyes suddenly dilate, trying to adjust. You fell asleep with your book again. Hopefully that doesn't happen too often to that many of you, but it has happened more times than I am willing to admit to myself.  

You can learn so much through reading (probably why my professors always assign us so much reading homework). 

Reading can transfer you anywhere. To another time, another place, or another land that has never been visited before. 

Reading brings people together. Sharing a common interest or reading a the same book that a stranger read is a great way to relate to someone. You can relate books to anything. In fact, while typing this, my sister, Christina, sat beside me reading a paper I wrote for school in which I mention Edgar Allen Poe's Murder at the Rue Morgue. We talked about our favorite Poe books and poem.

So what do I want you to do? Go and grab the book your reading or pick up a new one, make yourself a drink, find a cozy chair, the shade under a tree or along the pool and read. 

If you fall asleep while reading, don't worry about it...it happens to the best of us. 

Best Friends

Yesterday I got some news from my chiropractor that I wasn't thrilled about. Nothing Earth shattering, but still not thrilled. On top of that, he said that I shouldn't workout until I get a clean bill of health from my regular doctor. Well this upset me even more. I love going to the gym and sweating like crazy for an hour or so. Pushing myself harder on the weights than I did the previous week. Nothing felt so good.

So yesterday I was in a blah mood from that news. My best friend Laura called and we talked for a little bit. She distracted me with what was going on in her life, but I was still feeling blah. I went to class as usual and maintained my blah feeling, taking notes and trying to focus, but it just wasn't happening.

Once class was out at 8pm, my other best friend Mike came over and we walked to the beach thinking we'd just walk around and talk about our days. Well he took everything out of his pockets and laid it carefully on his flip flops and started walking into the water. I took off my flip flops and walked in (keeping my cell phone on me so he couldn't drag me in or splash). Sure enough, he flopped in the water. After a while he finally convinced me to wrestle with him in the water (taking out my phone just in case) and all of the troubles of my day disappeared when he dropped me in. I lost miserably, but had a fun time. Soon after we left soaking wet and walked back home. Flip flops squeaking as we walked and the warm breeze drying us off.

Thanks Mike for making me smile on my blah day.

Happy Second Birthday!

People only have one birthday...well, that's the rule. But when there's a rule, there is always someone who it doesn't apply to. That person would be my Opa (grandpa). He has two birthdays. His real birthday is on April 17th. This was the day that he was born way back in 1927 (yeah, he's 86 years old and still rocking it). Today is his second birthday. Back in 1975 he had open heart surgery. The doctors gave him two years to live. It's been 38 years and he has outlived several of his doctors. 

My Opa is awesome. He gardens, he picks weeds, cuts the grass, still paints things around the house (and if you stand still, he'll paint you too), he goes on walks and goes swimming at the gym. 

This man has nine lives it seems. He's been shot in war, was a prisoner of war, and survived a firework factory fire...just to name a few.

So today I raise a glass to you Opa, Happy Birthday Opa and here's to many more!

Get Your Geek On!

Today is Geek Pride Day, so naturally, I'm getting my geek on! Geek is defined as either an unfashionable or socially inept person (yawn), or a person with an eccentric devotion to a particular interest (a.k.a. me). Only problem is, there are so many types of geeky interests! 
There are Superhero geeks, Trekkies, Star Wars geeks, Harry Potter geeks, Whovians and more! How can a girl decide which geek side to get on when she loves more than one!

Today, I choose to honor my inner reader geek. I love reading. Give me a book for a present and I'll love it. But this wasn't always the case. I used to hate reading, and I mean HATE reading. I dreaded everything about it. I was never in a high English class, I was a slow reader (still am), and I dreaded reading out loud (still do actually). 

Until this one person came along who has given me the gift of loving to read. That person is my 9th grade English teacher, Mrs. Vlasis. 

I remember that one time early in the school year, she assigned us to read a book of our choosing and write something up or do something assignment like that. We went on a 'field trip' to the school's library. I wandered about aimlessly, not liking anything, as everything was a book. Then I found the Stephen King section and something about one of his books called to me. I'm not sure if I just liked the name of the book, the color choices or what, but I ended up checking that book out. For the first time ever, I couldn't put the book down! Something that was a new concept to me. I loved reading that book and now love reading lots of books.

Thank you Mrs. Vlasis for showing me how great a gift reading is. Today, I get my geek on for you. 

Live Long and 42 On!

Bucket List

Most people my age that I know don't have a bucket list. Why would you? You have the rest of your life to take on new adventures, to see the world, to discover yourself. But how do you know if you are accomplishing what you want to do. That is why I have a bucket list. 
I have roughly 90 things on my bucket list and have already crossed off some of them.
I've earned my Gold Award through Girl Scouts, I was part of a flash mob, I donated my hair, I published a book, went to a Packer game with my dad, did the Polar Bear Plunge, Dirty Girl, Half Marathon and Tough Mudder with my mom, and I graduated from college...but I still have lots to go. 

Some of places I want to visit include Alaska, Ireland, Italy, the Arlington National Cemetery to see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and to throw a dart at a map and travel to where ever it lands. 
I want to go hunting with my dad, to continue to give my mom flowers for no reason except that I love her. I want to send a message in a bottle, and to make someone  who is less fortunate have a fantastic Christmas. I want to ride across the country on a Harley and write about my journey and the people I meet. 
Currently, I'm learning Morse Code and am working on getting my Masters. 

If you don't have a bucket list, things fall through the cracks. How will you know what you want to do with your life if you don't stop to think about it every once in a while. 

You're only given one life, but one life is all you need. 


To see my full list: http://pinterest.com/bauerno2/bucket-list/

Double Standards

I hate double standards. 
One of my professors, let's call her Dr. Smith, is the queen of double standards in my life currently. When we, the students, have something due for her class, she will not hear any excuse from us if it's late, and pretty much just throw it out, not grading it. 
Well, yesterday she said she would have our book report grades up. (I'm in grad school, doing a book report? Yeah, didn't make much sense to me either). Anyway, all of yesterday came and went and the grades are still not up. The seven students in Dr. Smith's class all have a combination of other classes, jobs, families, internships, and God-forbid ~ a life; yet any excuse doesn't matter to her. Why should she get extra time to grade our book reports (when it's her job) but she won't give us any extra time (not that I needed it, it's just the principle of the thing). 

Fantastic

Yesterday was simply a fantastic day. I woke up in the morning and the sun was shinning. Something it hasn't done for a week plus in Wisconsin as it was raining and snowing (yes, this is April). I finished my book report, nothing extremely exciting or challenging, just productive. Then Mike came over and we went for a ride on his bike to a pancake house and ate some really fluffy pancakes. I had class which ended early and then attempted to visit an old professor of mine that wrote a wonderful letter of recommendation for me to get into grad school. Sadly his class was still in session (I'll have to try again next week) so I went home to read over my book report again to catch any mistakes (finding very few). Mike and I walked to our bar around 9. As we walked in the door, the bartender waved at us as we are regulars and he knows us. We played pool (exceptionally well) against two other guys and watched car shows on one of the TVs for about three hours before finally heading home for the night.
It was a simple, yet fantastic day. 

150

150. A simple enough number. Divisible by 3 to make three even stacks of 50. A good round number. Not scary at all. Unless...they are days.

Do you know what you are going to be doing in 150 days from today? I bet over half of you don't even know what day that is. Well I'll help ya out. It is going to be September 7th, 2013. It'll be a Saturday. Now most of you are thinking, school has begun again and it's the first weekend off for the semester. Sleeping in, then hanging out with friends during the day and maybe hitting a few bars at night to watch some bands play and catch up with old friends, or hanging out with the family. It doesn't sound scary at all. 

Thankfully, that will not be how I will spend my Saturday, September 7th of 2013. I imagine to spend my day something like this: wake up early and get in the car with my mom to drive for an hour or two to a still unknown location. There we will eat our oatmeal as the excitement builds up within us as we duct-tape our shoes to our feet. We will hear the roar of the crowd and the music blaring getting us pumped. Then, it will be our turn. We will scale walls, crawl under barbed wire in thick mud that will pull at our shoes, go swimming (not the leisurely kind with noodles and other floating toys), run through a thick white smoke from a straw fire where we can barely see the ground beneath our feet, go swimming in what feels to be water from the arctic with ice cubes covering the surface, climb cargo nets, jump over and crawl under logs of wood, and make our way through a mile of mud that eats shoes for breakfast, all to end with getting shocked all over the body by 10,000 volts. 

In 150 days, I will be doing the Tough Mudder. What will you be doing?

 






http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuxQgOgVEG0

Happy 3.14 Day!

Many people know that today (March 14th) is Pi Day. Pi has an infinite number of decimal places. The most I know is 3.14159265358979323

How many decimal places do you know? Well the band After The Burial knows 100 decimal places of pi and wrote a song for it called Pi (The Mercury God Of Infinity)...which they play live. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2ZLV-aYvB8

Less known fact about today, it is also Albert Einstein's birthday. 

My friends and I decided to celebrate pie day in the best way we knew how...by eating pie, drinking and playing cards against humanity. 

On Tuesday I baked a strawberry/raspberry/blackberry/blueberry pie:

And had a little dough extra so I made mini apple pies:

Then yesterday after class I helped my friend Mike make his first ever pie (and it's a damn good thing I was there to help because who knows what would have happened otherwise. He wanted to put apple filling in along with apples). 

So go out today and eat some pie!

One of those days

I'm just having one of those days where no matter how careful I am, something is bound to go wrong. For lunch I decided to make carrot fries (chop up carrots in 'fry' shape, drizzle with olive oil and then add some salt, paprika, cayenne, red pepper and garlic and bake for 25min at 350). Well I grabbed the paprika and thought I was going to sprinkle some in. Turns out I opened the wrong end and dumped a LOT in and had to scrap it off with my fingers.

Glad that was only paprika.

Despite all of the paprika, it was still good.

Besides my carrots, my car almost got stuck in layers of ice and dropped my phone (not broken).

Do I dare ask what is next to come in the 11 hours left of the day?

Something to Consider

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! But did you know that today, which is fitting, is also National Organ Donor Day. Yes, it is uncomfortable to think of your own death, especially if you haven't really lived yet, but it will come to all of us one day. 

I know that when I die, if I have the opportunity to save another life, would love that chance and have already signed my driver's license. So take a moment today before going out with the one you love to seriously consider signing up to donate your organs and tissues. After all, the life you save, may just be the love of your life. 

Hello, My Name Is...

Have you ever wanted to change your name up for a day? See what it would be like to go by something completely different?

Well today is your day. Today is National Get a Different Name Day. At birth, we are given a name and we go through life with that same name (well most of us do). It wasn't our choice to be called Sonja or Charles or  John or Christina, we were given that name, no questions asked. If you like your name, then that's awesome, but if you don't, today is the day to change it and see how the world looks through another's name. Be adventurous! You might just come to have a new appreciation of you name or realize that it really isn't for you.

Hi, my name is Sonja, and I'm addicted.

When most people think about being addicted to something, it's usually to drugs, or cigarettes  or caffeine. Not me. I'm addicted to pain. I'm addicted to the pain of working out.
Let me explain. Two days ago I attended my first "Core Crunch" class here at UW-Milwaukee. It was 30 minutes of hell. All I could see in my minds eye was Jillian Michaels telling me that yes it is going to be hell, but yes I am going to get through it, and yes I will be better because of it. At the end of class, I was begging the instructor for more (and got some dirty looks from the others) but got another song in because of it. Yesterday I attended "Boot Camp." It is an hour long class that worked pretty much every muscle in my body and looked like crap at the end of class. This morning I woke up and yes my muscles are sore, but that tells me that I actually did something. I earned that soreness. I didn't just sit on the couch and watched the world go by, I'm living it.  

I have 219 days to get ready, and I'll be damned if I won't be. 

Writing

I've always liked writing about something that I don't know about and then get to learn about while writing. One time writing about hockey, another about traveling to different places that I've never been to. This time, I'm writing way out of my norm. I'm writing about a couple from the engagement until the day before the wedding. I have no idea what the end is going to be, because I'm writing this with someone else. My friend, Mike, came up to me last semester some time and asked if I could write about a comedy, drama, romance screenplay. Well, I've never written a screenplay, so I'm writing it like I would write a book, so there is no worries there. But he won't tell me the ending. I don't know if these characters live or die or if a zombie apocalypse is going to break out and eat their brains right after they say I do. That's a little frustrating, but not much. 

My real issue is that I have never been engaged so I don't know what it's like and don't know what is realistic. I've been asking my friends that have been recently engaged or married to tell me stories that stick out in their minds. A great friend of mine, (wished to be know as) Anonymous Jaded Newlywed, has helped out a lot already. I have the correct order of events written down but how do I go about telling the parents that they're engaged? I want this to be realistic and plausible, but at the same time, stands out from the normal "everybody did it this way." Congratulations Mike, I think you've finally stumped me, but I won't give up, I'll just keep working at it slowly and hopefully something good comes out of it.