4th it up, baby

I'm eating a big slimy pile of beet greens. Freshly steamed they might have been yummy, but overnighting in Tupperware is not advised. I nearly spit out the first bite several times, then remembered how good they are for you and piled a bunch of salt on the rest.

Hmm. They're a bit.. gritty.. too.

Well it's Patriotic Holiday Weekend, and my bags are packed. In splitting up the provisions for transport up to the cabin, my car was designated as the Boozemobile. (It seems that although my brother has a spacious Tahoe, there was some question of inventory control in his car). If anyone's curious, 1 Mini trunk = 15 bottles of hard liquor.

Oops. I'm slacking off on greens consumption. There we go... a big slimy bite.

I went to my first reunion of any kind this week — a grad school get-together. My enthusiasm for reunions declines from grad school to college, plummeting at high school, which I doubt I will ever attend, then picks up again at the thought of an elementary school or Kindergarten reunion (as I've heard they have in Japan). How sweet would a Kindergarten reunion be? Maybe we could make gingerbread houses again. I have fond memories of applying the frosting to my tongue instead of the graham cracker roof.

Well, time to hit the road. I have audiobook Goodnight, Nobody by Jennifer Weiner to pass the time, and surely, a well deserved stop at the Dairy Queen.

Island time

Like most people, I resist labels. I recoil at being called shy. I bristle when called a leader. I even dislike being called a vegetarian.

Yet one adjective that I fully own up to is restlessness. It is an everpresent companion, the force that makes me fidget, fret, and pursue mischief.

So when I started feeling shackled by routine and enslaved by mundane chores, I knew that I needed to get out of town.

Husband and I hastily asked our bosses for Friday off, threw our camping gear into the car, and set off for Madeline Island. There I rediscovered the unbelievable iciness of Lake Superior. The joy of lying on warm sand. The release of giving in to rain and becoming completely soaked. The coziness of falling asleep to the sound of rain, safe and dry in the tent.

How refreshing it is to simply gaze upon an unfamiliar horizon.

And being away for even two days makes coming home a novelty, piles of laundry and to-do lists and all. And as cozy as a tent is, it has nothing on a real bed.

Steamy

There's some nights when there is nothing else to do but take a hot bath. Nevermind that it's in the low eighties outside. Nevermind that I bathed this morning. Sometimes you just need to gather all your favorite bath toys (Lush's Mask of Magnaminty, Body Shop's Spa Wisdom, Origin's True Grit) and hop in the tub.
It helps when Husband comes home mid-bath and immediately serves you a drink (a vodka tonic with pineapple juice, or a Kealakehe, as we've come to call it, for lack of a real name).
This will have to do until we build our wood-fired sauna. And accompanying icy plunge pool.
One day, I may have to move to the country.

Inquiry

Although I think I pretty much worked the nose cast thing to the hilt, I received a request for additional info from someone who's never seen in nose cast in real life, and I felt a personal responsibility to oblige.

How does it affix to your nose?
How does it, indeed. By some miracle of sticky-doublesided-adhesiveness, most likely developed by 3M. It does not, as my Maine-dwelling friend inquired, adhere to the nose via an elastic band that goes around the head. The horror of that is too much to contemplate... so much so that I certainly would have passed out post-breakage.

So you couldn't wash your nose for one week? Gross!
Yes--this was the grossness that contributed to the other half of my post-breakage tears. But amazingly the nose was quite normal, making me theorize that exposure to polluted air is somehow related to oil production. Or maybe it's more 3M miracle.

What was your favorite part about wearing the mask?
Having every interaction go like this:
OtherPerson: Oh! Your nose!
StolenBike: Yeah. Softball injury. Makes face.
OtherPerson: Yeah, I broke my nose once... [insert gruesome story].
StolenBike: Really, you'd never know. It looks great now. Lies.
OR
OtherPerson: Yeah, once when I was playing softball, I took a hard one right in the [insert body part].
StolenBike: Turns green.

Why tacohead

Tacohead is what happens when I'm lying on my side chatting away in bed and Husband takes my pillow and pulls the ends toward him, wrapping my head in pillow, and yells triumpantly, "Tacohead!"

Provisions

My desk is shockingly well stocked with dried fruit. Bananas (both chipped and whole), strawberries, apricots, blueberries, cherries, raisins, pineapple... I'm ready for a hike at a moment's notice! I also have one of those many-tooled knives. But no matches. On my impromptu camping trip, I'll have to invite BizFerret so he can bring his lighter.

Other things in my desk drawer that reveal myself as a very odd girl: Stuffed panda, ACT, booze chocolates (Malibu and Cuervo), a two-sided handled mirror, a box of PG Tips, morning glory seeds, and a rubber snake.

Grab bag

SHH
Feeling displeased with my deodorant, I did an experiment and swiped some of Husband's today. Result? I smell manly. That's really it. It must not be Ph balanced for a woman. But my hair smells minty clean, thanks to Origins mint shampoo and conditioner.

THE BEST OF

Choose Your Own Adventure books are back! I loved how you couldn't really outsmart them... even if you took the sensible path the murderer/sandstorm/abominable snowman eventually got you. Just like real life. Wired has a fun little article on the series done in CYOA style.

Also on Wired: a research lab devoted entirely to cream cheese. Shockingly, it's located in Wisconsin.

Feeling quizzy? Find our your secret sleep position and what it means about you.

BOOKSHELF
My currently reading list is a little sad: egg cookbooks and fix-it guides. So I'll share a list of my all-time favorite authors! They are: Junichiro Tanizaki, Margaret Atwood, Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, Haruki Murakami, and Kazuo Ishiguro.

HOBBY LOBBY

New venture--orienteering! Want to try with me? I'm ordering maps for nearby city park.