Fun Fact: Natural Alarm Clock

Internet,

Have you ever tried to help yourself get up and out of bed in the morning by fine-tuning your body's own natural alarm clock?  I have.  Lately it's been my goal to drink just the right amount of water at bedtime to cause me to actually have to get up right when my alarm clock goes off…not too early…not too late.  It's a very fine line and, at this point, not an exact science.  

xoxo,

Minny LinnEy

Fun Fact: Fruit Flies

Internet,

Even though it's colder than Mars in Minnesota these days, fruit flies can live throughout the winter as long as they're indoors.  Who knew they're not just a summer thing?

xoxo,

Minny LinnEy

Fun Fact: Bearnaise Sauce

Internet, 

I made a fascinating discovery: if you accidentally microwave a small container of bearnaise sauce (the glorious adopted child of Hollandaise sauce), you make a little mini-souffle.  

Word to the wise: don't accidentally microwave the small container of deliciousness with your leftover meal.  

xoxo,

Minny LinnEy

Merry Christmas!

Internet,

I know I have been woefully absent on this forum in recent months, but I still want to wish you and the whole world a very merry Christmas!  

For this year's carol, I chose one from a whole suite.  Who doesn't love Benjamin Britten's Ceremony of Carols, which was written in 1942 as Britten crossed the Atlantic during WWII?  (For more of the music sung beautifully by the Westminster Cathedral Choir and an interesting description of the suite's history, go here.)  But probably one of the most famous and beloved (if not THE most famous and beloved) out of that suite is This Little Babe.  It's challenging to sing (and play) and it's quickly over, but it packs a great punch both in lyrics and sound.  Here are the words, which were written by Robert Southwell in the 1500s:  

This little Babe so few days old,
Is come to rifle Satan's fold;
All hell doth at his presence quake,
Though he himself for cold do shake;
For in this weak unarmèd wise
The gates of hell he will surprise.

With tears he fights and wins the field,
His naked breast stands for a shield;
His battering shot are babish cries,
His arrows looks of weeping eyes,
His martial ensigns Cold and Need,
And feeble Flesh his warrior's steed.

His camp is pitchèd in a stall,
His bulwark but a broken wall;
The crib his trench, haystalks his stakes;
Of shepherds he his muster makes;
And thus, as sure his foe to wound,
The angels' trumps alarum sound.

My soul, with Christ join thou in fight;
Stick to the tents that he hath pight.
Within his crib is surest ward:
This little Babe will be thy guard.
If thou wilt foil thy foes with joy,
Then flit not from this heavenly Boy. 

A lot of people expected the Savior to come in on a great horse with his armies and defeat the enemy then and there, but instead, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…and he started out as a baby, just like the rest of us.  The way God works is not the way we would naturally do things:

"Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.  Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."  Philippians 2:3-11 (ESV)

And how God has written history and our salvation plan is a cause for rejoicing.  Merry Christmas!  

The Boys in the Boat

Pssst.  Hey, you!  Yeah, I'm talking to you.  Go read this book - it's wonderful and I highly recommend it to all people, rowers and non-rowers alike.

Blazing Birthday!

Dear Internet,

People who were born in July have the best birthdays.  I should know.*  If you're born at the beginning of the month, the whole U.S. of A. celebrates it with fireworks because the entire country was born in July, and how cool is that?**  

Well, apparently not to be outdone by having a birthday later in the month, I also got my own fireworks show when my hair dryer got into the act yesterday morning.  Literally!  It started shooting sparks and some went down my, uh, décolletage, which made for an entertaining morning, let me tell you!  And a blistering birthday week began!  Suffice it to say there is no permanent damage (or even very much temporary damage), but holy hot!***  What a way to fully awaken on a Monday.  

Thankfully, there hasn't been too much else blazing so far, but in my normal fashion, birthday celebrations continue for a week or two, so they're not all done yet.****

xoxo,

Minny LinnEy

*I do know.  So there.  

**The only trump is if you're born on December 25th, because who wouldn't want to share a birthday with Jesus?!  Except then you share a birthday with Jesus, and everyone probably ignores you on your big day and you're named Noel or Noël.  (Or Andrea.  I actually do have a friend born on Christmas Day.)  

***I know that I've spontaneously combusted once before, but this is getting ridiculous.

****Birthdays are really just an excuse to get together with family and friends and eat a lot and talk even more.

p.s. Kentwig: happy birthday to my fellow July-born friend.  

'Murica Weekend

Dear Internet (and Kent), 

This is Independence Day weekend, and today I managed to do many American things to continue the celebration: I got together with a group of friends, went hiking in a Minnesota state park along the river bluffs of the Mississippi, ate American food (a grilled cheese sandwich/hamburger - I've definitely developed a taste for this combo), indulged in an American tradition (DQ blizzard - the blizzard of the month is a lemon meringue pie version, and though it sounded like it could go either way, it turned out to be pretty good), and listened to Cher and country music on the drive back to the cities.  

And amidst all of this hiking, I'm reading this book this weekend:

Suffice it to say, I'm glad I merely went hiking on the river bluffs on one 90 degree day because this woman's tale of hiking in hot deserts and snow (and so far nothing in between) for months make me not want to wander too far away from civilization for long periods of time.  

This woman.  Seriously.  It's been an interesting book so far - not exactly what I expected.  (Not sure what I expected, but a lot of it hasn't exactly been this...)  Some of it seems reasonable (her toenails turn black and fall off, which for a lot of hikers is normal especially if their boots are too small...an obsession with beverages - such as Snapple - when it's hot and you're exerting yourself) and some of it just feels completely out of left field (well, you'll have to read the book...but I'm not even sure that I'm recommending the book...her mother's death wasn't shocking, but the part where she has to put down her mother's horse is kind of surprisingly graphic.  Oh, and then there's the part about cheating on her husband.  And then when the obsession with Snapple seems to grow to infinite proportions...And the part where she starts taking heroin...that was definitely unexpected, and not really what I thought the book was going to be about...and then when Snapple becomes her new "drug" of choice on the trail, can't say that I was expecting that part).  

And now as I get ready to go to sleep, I'm at the part where she wakes up one night with an army of frogs tramping across her body.  I'm going to have nightmares...  

Though come to think of it, I've never hiked in the desert, I've never hiked in the snow like she did, I have never lost any toenails (thank you very much, the people at REI were very helpful when I bought my first real pair when I went hiking in the Alps...and come to think of it, in 1995, I probably shopped at the same REI location that she did, which is really weird to think about), and I've never had frogs crawl across me (that I know of...but I've had all sorts of other creepy crawly bugs and insects decide I made a nice pathway to where they wanted to go, or even a nice snack for them, which definitely happened during today's hike).  

But then since all of the residents of the Twin Cities are still illegally shooting off fireworks (really good ones, too!  Yay, USA!), I'm sure I'll be awakened shortly by some booming and banging outside my window to put me out of my weird desert/frog/toenails-falling-off nightmare misery, albeit possibly only temporarily.  

And this post is just for you, Kent.  Enjoy!  (See?  If you complain overly much about my lack of writing anything lately because I'm too busy out enjoying summer, well, this is what you'll get!)  =)  

~Minny LinnEy


***7.7.2013 Update:

I finished reading the book.  To be honest, I found most of it rather depressing, probably because my own faith is what anchors me in life and the author never seems to find anything to anchor her in life and the whole thing just floats by her.  Also, the most shocking thing I read in the book was what she did with her mother's cremated remains.  (Sorry, but you'll have to read the book if you're dying to know because I'm not going to say it here.)  Anyway, I find it impressive that she hiked as much of the trail as she did (and also foolhardy the way she went about it so blindly for the vast majority of it), and happy that she made it through.  But her whole method of grieving and philosophy of how to live a life  and lack of faith in general are so far removed from my own life and way of thinking, I had a hard time with the book though it's a very easy read.  There you have it: my two cents.  Read it if you wish.

p.s. For any of my old fellow homeschoolers out there, I was pretty surprised to see a mention of "Basic Life Principles" in chapter 14, as she was describing a couple of people she came across on the trail.  Extremely random.  

Indiana "Barber" Jones

Internet,

Am I the only person in the world who, when listening to the Barber violin concerto, immediately wants to listen to the theme from Indiana Jones?  Or just does it in my brain (start with one, end up in the other)?  I see "Weird, Crossover Medley" written all over this:

Barber Violin Concerto (about a minute or two of it)

segueing to this:

Indy

Just sayin': you could start with one and go to the other midstream for the finish and see just how many people would notice.  I bet a lot would not.  Unless they know their classical music and violin concertos or are Indiana Jones movie and theme music purists.

And now you know you really want to listen to the entire thing, don't you?!  Here ya go, from the top:  

Indiana Jones 

And now after listening to Indy's theme, I really want to go watch the movie (or three...just the originals...not that dumb looking last one that no one ever saw) or become an archaeologist or something.  Or maybe just squish the theme together with a classical piece of music or something, and see if anyone else notices.  

xoxo, 

Minny LinnEy

The End Is Nigh

Internet, 

I could say so many things about the end of the Legislative Session this year.  But since I have just arrived home at 9:30 in the morning after working 41 out of the previous 48 hours (the last 26 straight), I'll be brief so I can go get an hour of sleep (I hope?!  My body is so messed up right now) and a shower and change of clothes before returning for who knows how long.  

1.  It is not healthy to work this much.  

2.  A female senator asked me about an hour ago, "No offense, but were you wearing those clothes yesterday?"  I did not take offense, because a) we probably all look and smell alike, and b) I'm pretty sure she asked because she legitimately could not remember.  

3.  I stupidly forgot.  I forgot to pack my end-of-session survival kit.  I haven't had to deal with this for a couple of years, and usually it doesn't start so many days before the end of session.  Normally, the all nighters begin to happen the last weekend, not the Tuesday before the last weekend.  This does not bode well for my next week.  But at least I remembered my last-week-of-session #1 Rule: wear pants and flats.  

4.  The worst I've ever done with this job is two back-to-back all-nighters.  I hope to not repeat that performance of 2010 or beat that record.  Ugh.  

5.  It is not healthy to work this much.  

That is all...for now.  

xoxoxo,

Linear

Square in the middle

Dear Internet, 

The most humorous phrase I've read in the last five minutes is the following:  "Hotel managers square in the middle."  I didn't realize people were squares (at least not in the context in which it was used - it was used in the context of the managers being put in a hard spot between fighting owner and client).  

The author (or editor) probably meant "squarely in the middle," which would make the people not squares (or maybe it's square-shaped waists?), but rather firmly and centeredly put in the middle of the something.  Now I can't get the mental picture of square-shaped people (or maybe it's boring people?) out of my head.  I think this must be some sort of person-spongebob cross breed.  This has taken what I was reading in a whole different direction, far away from what the author surely intended...

xoxo,

Minny LinnEy

Mayday! Abandon Minnesota.

Good grief.  Over the course of one week, we have gone from snow, to my neighbor running his air conditioner for two days straight, and now back to snow.

Mayday!  Mayday!  Mayday!

It might be time to abandon ship.  (What, with all of the tax increases passed by the DFL this week, there's probably more than one reason to want to leave Minny.)

Oh, it's "May Day," you tell me, Internet?  Well, la di da.  I'm going with "mayday."

~Minny LinnEy

(Also, Happy Anniversary to my parents!  Of your 43 years of marriage, I pity you because you've had to deal with me for most of them.  Hahaha!  I'm sure you threw out more than one "mayday" to God while I was growing up...)

(Also: Happy Birthday to my childhood friend Rebekah, who will always be older than me!)  

Malted Everything

Internet, 

Is it too late to make a New Year's resolution?  'Cause I finally thought of one: figure out how to make malted milk chocolate brownies.  Brownies are delightful, but they'd be So. Much. Better. malted.  Yes?  Yes.  

xoxo,

Minny LinnEy