Give Me Five

I woke up early this morning, couldn't get back to sleep, and now have a little time to waste-- er, spare. ;o) So how about a meme?

This week's Give Me Five theme is "Give me five ways to fit exercise into your life."

The gist seems to be particularly "little things" or even "tricks" that we can do-- so "park further out in the parking lot and walk" or "take the stairs" vs. "run five miles a day". Because let's be honest. That last one's just not going to happen. (I hate running long distances. Sprinting, ok, but I'm not really a marathon-running type girl.)

1. If you have pets, young kids, or pets/kids you can "borrow" for half an hour or so, take them out in the yard-- or to the nearest park-- and play with them. Maybe their energy will inspire you to keep moving just a little bit longer.
   
2. If you sit at a desk all day, try putting something you need on a fairly regular basis (wastebasket, telephone, filing cabinet, etc.) further away from you so that you have to get up and move a little when you need it. (Of course, the boss might not like this idea if it keeps you from answering the phone promptly. (g))
3. If you enjoy watching TV, try doing some exercise during your favorite program(s) every week. Run on a treadmill, jog in place, lift small weights, etc.
   
4. Here's another one for us TV addicts. ;o) Make it a "rule" that whenever a commercial comes on, you have to do some little exercise or series of exercises. Maybe decide that you "have" to get up and clean the room until the commercials end.
   
5. Grow a lawn-- or a flower garden-- or a vegetable garden. Keeping it mown, weeded, and otherwise maintained provides weekly exercise-- especially if you're more diligent than I am. (g) Of course, if time is already an issue, this may not be such a great idea. In that case, and alternative #5 might be putting on some music with a good beat and "speed-cleaning" when you do daily chores. Can you beat your previous record of sweeping the floor in 3 minutes flat? ;o)
   

Unfortunately, I have a feeling that these little things may not be quite enough of a cardiac workout to take the place of the regular aerobic exercise we're all supposed to be doing. (Well, unless you run with the dog or kids. . . or if you work up a good sweat biking or jogging in front of the TV set. ) However, even little things like adding a few extra steps between the computer and the telephone add up and help.

Well, it's time to go get the day started! :o)

Our Fourth

We spent our Fourth of July afternoon at my parents' house.

Carrie and Victor had driven down for a visit, Mom and Dad had prepared a tasty meal of grilled burgers and sausage dogs-- with homemade Butterfinger ice cream for dessert! We watched a little of some old home videos (converted to digital), gave Carrie her birthday gifts (the actual day was a week or so ago), played a couple of card games ("Seven" and "Crazy Eights"), watched Kolby and Mandy demonstrate their ability to "wait" (not take treats placed on their feet until they get the signal that it's ok)-- and just generally visited.

Afterward, most of us drove into town to watch the fireworks display. (Donald took some photos of the fireworks. I may upload some of those, later. As of now, they're still sitting in the camera, and I'm too lazy/sleepy to deal with them, yet.)

It was a very pleasant way to spend the holiday-- and we didn't even have thunderstorms! (Lately, thunder has been a daily occurrence, so the quiet was a nice change of pace.)

And now there's a whole weekend left still left to enjoy! :o)

This just in. . .

I'm now getting all my blog fodder from talk radio. ;o)

Ok, not really-- but here's something I heard on the radio today. . .

From The Onion-- Entertainment Scientists Warn Miley Cyrus Will Be Depleted by 2013.

Don't say we didn't warn you. ;o)

How offensive is that doggie in the window?

Edited to fix a few errors. I get sloppy when I'm angry. (g)

Listening to talk radio while cleaning the kitchen. Heard Boortz talking about a story from the Daily Mail.

Here's the gist:

Somewhere in Scotland, the police sent out postcards advertising the force's new telephone number for non-emergency calls. To make it a little more eye-catching than a boring block of text, they added a cute picture of a puppy and a police officer's hat. Now, some Muslims are complaining about the cards.

You may well wonder why they objected. Could there be some subtle anti-Islamic message hidden in the text? Some forbidden numeric combination (their equivalent of the dreaded triple "6") in the telephone number? No. The problem was the adorable little puppy! Apparently, they consider dogs to be "unclean".

I must've missed that one, somehow. I mean, I knew "The Three Little Pigs" was out. I'd heard that if you drew a cartoon of their prophet, you were toast. Oh, and supposedly a riot in Bangladesh started because the Thom McAn shoe logo resembles the word "Allah". Nike's logo also drew criticism, for the same reason. So no shoes from Nike or Thom McAn, either.

But puppies?!

I'm sorry if it sounds intolerant (Excuse me while I gag over the word!), but I must think less of any religion that belittles dogs, some of mankind's finest allies here on earth. The faithfulness and selflessness that dogs so often exhibit must be pleasing to God. I'm sure of it.

I'm sick of this type of garbage. Look, people-- just take a pair of scissors and cut away the part with the dog, if it's that troubling to you. Or paste a lovely shot of a camel over the puppy. If you're going to live in a Western society, where dogs are generally valued (if not outright loved), you're going to have to learn to live with little annoyances of this kind.

I imagine that most people realize this and wouldn't think of causing a fuss over something so trivial. But those who haven't yet come to terms with the fact that Western culture is not the same as Islamic culture-- and that we don't have to tip-toe around things like photos of nasty little puppy dogs-- those people need to just SHUT UP and get over it.

Oh, I'm sorry. Was that offensive?

Here's a little "present" for you. . .

. . . Molly says "BOO!"

If you find this kind of story interesting, check out this blog.

I saw it on the news. . .

I saw it on the news this morning, so I figured the big story must've finally broken. ;o) I'm talking about the weird new milk jugs we've been getting from our local Sam's Club, of course.

(You may have forgotten, but I've written about the new milk jug design before. See, I'm weeks ahead of the New York Times!)

I have a feeling the story is available elsewhere, but this article in the NYT was the first place I found it online, thanks to good old Google.

The article makes it clear that we aren't the only ones to have had trouble with the jug design, but it also suggests that if you "tilt and pour"-- pivoting the jug on the tabletop-- you won't spill. Maybe we just aren't careful enough, but we still (sometimes) get those annoying tiny dribbles. If memory serves, it's easier to pour without spilling once the jug isn't quite so full. . . Anyway, if it weren't for the savings, I'd gladly continue buying milk in the good old-fashioned jugs. They just work better. But so long as the weirdo jugs are cheaper, that's what we'll be buying. And if this article is correct, the odd-ball jugs may become more and more difficult to avoid, even if you're willing to pay more for the old design.

At least the article (and the news story I saw on TV) explains why some companies have made this change. The new jugs stack more efficiently (without using milk crates, which have to be washed), so that fewer shipments are required. Fewer shipments saves money-- fuel, time, etc.

Donald suggested that they should switch to the Swedish milk carton, which is also rectangular (and therefore easily stackable), but which folds out to form more of a spout and is easier to pour. (If I'm not mistaken-- and I may be-- this type of carton is also called a "Tetra Brik".)

I think I have photos of them in my Flickr photostream. . . Yes, here they are!

Here's a basic carton, opened:

And here's the carton of "fil" in action:

I countered that because the Swedish carton is so small (1 liter instead of the gallon jugs we're used to), they'd either have to make the cartons larger (probably impractical for handling) or people'd have to buy more of them at a time-- which would equal more packaging, less savings.

He reminded me that milk cartons are (mostly) cardboard.

Hm. I imagine the cartons would have less of an environmental impact than plastic jugs, but I don't know if 3 or 4 1-liter cardboard cartons would weigh less than the jugs, so the shipping would still be less efficient. . . The jugs also have the benefit of a screw-on lid, which (I guess) makes the milk stay fresh longer. . .

Anyway, I doubt we're headed the way of cartons, here in the US. Not quite yet, anyway. We'll simply continue to make do with the "JUST TILT & POUR" jug.