Recent Study from UCLA

I stole this from Nicole…

A study conducted by UCLA’s Department of Psychiatry has revealed that the kind of face a woman finds attractive on a man can differ depending on where she is in her menstrual cycle.

For example: If she is ovulating, she is attracted to men with rugged and masculine features. However, if she is menstruating, or menopausal, she tends to be more attracted to a man with duct tape over his mouth
and a spear lodged in his chest while he is on fire.

No further studies are planned at this time.

I Just Want To Be On The River

Last summer, when Lafe, Mike and I started working with the youth group at our church, we wanted to start off with a bang.  We wanted to take the kids on a canoe trip on the Wisconsin River.  Nothing huge.  Just one day.  It ended up not working out, and we had a great Fall Fest instead.  But ever since then, I’ve been excited to take the kids out there.  It wasn’t supposed to be a difficult activity to plan.  We need 2 vans, a couple of adults, and a cooler for lunches.  That’s it.  Oh, was I wrong.

The easy decision was which section of the river to paddle.  I’ve done a couple of sections of the river, but the best part, hands down, is around Sauk City.  This is the prime area of the river for eagles and other wildlife, and has towering bluffs on both sides of the river.  My brother and I wanted to be sure we paddled a section of the river by Ferry Bluff, so we could hike the trail to the top, and have our devotional at this great lookout point.  We had to wait a while before making a reservation because of all the flooding in that area.  We didn’t want to go whitewater canoeing and we would prefer a couple of sandbars to play on, plus you know, there’s the whole death factor involved in flooded rivers.  The water levels came down, so we reserved 5 canoes (we had a pretty small group going).  This past Monday, I was wondering how long the hike was to the top and if my crocs would be ok.  So I did what any ocd freak would do – google it.  That’s when I found THE PROBLEM. 

For years, I had heard rumors of a “naturalist” beach on the Wisconsin River.  Some people said it existed, some said it didn’t.  Most said they had never seen it.  After calling the owner of the canoe livery, I discovered that the location of the VERY REAL beach is within eye shot of the livery.  Yeah, THAT’S what you want to see with a bunch of teens.  That was where it started to spiral out of control.  We had to find a new livery, get them to call me back, ask them where their take-out point was, how many miles it was from the beach and if it was visible.  Then, I had to email my pastor every step of the way, reassure him that the beach isn’t in eyeshot of the bluff where our new route ends, reassure parents that the river wasn’t flooded, reassure “contributors of opinion” that we knew we needed bug spray, sunscreen and water, AND try to get a hold of 2 guys that work 2^nd and 3^rd shift and make sure they were ok with the new plan before we confirmed anything.  It was ok.  We worked it out and everybody calmed down.

My heart rate had almost returned to normal, when a new email popped up at work.  Someone wanted to bring a guest.  ARGGHHH!  I knew the story behind the extra person, and I knew that this was going to be a great ministry opportunity, but I still had to work through the logistics.  Can we bring a 6^th grader that will be in youth group in 6 weeks anyway?  Can we bring a kayak for the odd person?  Can we rent a kayak out there?  Oh, they want the sponsors to be IN the canoes.  Ok.  We need to find another person.  Who can we find within 3 days that is willing to get up at 6 in the morning and spend their ENTIRE day on a mosquito infested river with teenagers.  It took a couple more emails and frantic phone calls, but I got it done.

There have been a couple of emails since then, but they were just questions that I already had the answers to.  I’m done with problems.  I’m done with floods.  I’m done with naked people.  I just want to skip every minute between right now, and 9:30 tomorrow morning when we launch our canoes.

Please, please pray for no surprises tomorrow.  I might cry.

It’s all about balance.

In the interest of being healthy and all that jazz, I bought a bike on Friday.  This may not sound like a big deal, but I haven’t owned a bike since I was in high school, and I think I’ve only ridden a bike once since then.  My gear-gurus (Lafe & Jonathan), had recommended a lower end Trek last summer, so I went to my supposedly magical local bike shop to find a bike.  I found a bike that I absolutely fell in love with, and of course, it wasn’t the lower end Trek.  I researched like crazy for a few days – online reviews, articles, comparisons and called around to some other bike shops – none of which sell Trek at lower than full retail.  I tried one other bike shop that I hadn’t called yet – Emery’s in Menomonee Falls.  I lucked out and had the owner helping me on the floor.  We found the bike I loved, he told me that the other bike shop fitted be wrong, and got me on the right size bike, AND he cut a deal on the price!  I picked up the newly built bike Friday night, and got right up to West Bend to try it out on the Eisenbahn Trail (very sweet rails to trails bike trail).  We did about 5 miles on Friday, and another 5 on Saturday.  My poor sit bones gave way before my legs did, but we’ll get there…

So here’s where balance comes into play.  After riding on Saturday, I had to pick up some groceries.  I was doing really well, picking healthy foods – whole grains, lean meats, fruit, veggies and yogurt and decided to get one treat for the week.  I love, love, love the Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches, so I was looking in that freezer when I saw (WAAAAAHH! {that’s the noise you hear when the gates of heaven open}) Mexican ice cream bars.  If you’ve never had a mexican ice cream bar, the best place to go is the south side of Milwaukee and look for a street vendor.  I don’t even know how to explain them.  The fruit bars are more juice-based than cream-based, so they’re super refreshing.  They mix flavors, too – a few summers ago I had a mango-chili pepper bar.  The bars I found in the store are pretty close to authentic – I bought a coconut bar that’s really creamy, but the street vendors actually use some coconut milk in the ice cream.  Lafe got a box of cucumber-chili pepper bars that he loves.  I had one bar and buried the rest of the box in the back of the freezer – I’m going to ride another 15 before I have another one.

Rottweilers are good dogs…

…when they have good owners.  This story from jsonline.com today made me smile:

TUESDAY, June 3, 2008, 10:44 a.m.
By Nick Halter

Teen fleeing Rottweiler fractures skull

A 17-year-old boy fractured his skull Monday night after he ran into a tree while fleeing a Rottweiler that broke its chain.

Milwaukee Police said the dog, which had been chained to a tree in the 4200 block of N. 40th St., broke loose after the teen began running away from the dog. With the dog in pursuit, police said, the boy ran into a tree, fell to the ground and hit his head, fracturing his skull.

The boy suffered bleeding in his brain, police said, and was in stable condition this morning at a hospital.

The dog never attacked the victim, and in fact licked him while he was down, police said.

The dog’s owner received a citation because the dog was not kept behind a fence, police said.

I love this!

My linguistics professor in college stressed that language is always changing.  Nouns can become verbs – our language rules allow it, even if it drives grammar freaks crazy.  In fact, as of the 2006 publishing of the Oxford English Dictionary, “google” is a verb.  So there.

Helping Out Some Friends

Since I have no use for a big house in Oak Creek and have forever sworn off roommates, I’m trying to help out a couple of friends.  You never know who might know someone who knows someone who knows someone that is looking for a house or an apartment.

Nicole – needs a roommate pretty quickly.  Her current roommate is having visa (not the credit card type) issues and won’t be there past the end of the month.  It’s a super cute apartment on the east side and has great character – radiators, old windows & hardwood floor.  And, it’s pretty good sized for an east side apartment.  Here’s her ad:

$450 Christian, Female Roommate wanted-East Side (Farwell & Brady)

---

Reply to: hous-679021367@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-05-13, 11:55AM CDTI am looking for a roommate to move in to my 2 bedroom apartment on or after June 1st. I could even wait into July for the right person.
Your share of the rent is $450 and includes:
-All utilities
-Basic cable
-High speed internet
-Dishwasher
-Air Conditioning (window)

I am a 26 year old Christian female, I work two jobs and I am not home often.
The apartment is very spacious and has beautiful hard wood floors. It is furnished, except for your bedroom (we can negotiate getting rid of my older/donated furnishings if you have newer/nicer stuff you would like to bring with you when you move in). There is a laundry room in the building and the building has a secure main entrance with door intercom/buzzer. Parking is not included but street parking is available, there are also options to rent parking spaces in off-street lots or underground heated parking structures (right across the street, that’s what I do).

Please reply to this ad if interested, we can talk more and I’d be happy to answer more questions.
Location: Farwell & Brady

Shannon – needs someone to buy her house in Oak Creek.  Her husband worked for an airline that just closed and his new job is out of state.  I have to tell you, if I was married with kids, I would jump on this house.  They’ve only lived there for about 4 years, but Chris was constantly updating something.  They have a fun backyard with a huge deck, pool, play center & horseshoe pits.  Plus, it’s fenced in so the dogs can run around.  They’re including all the indoor and outdoor appliances – they won’t need the snowblower in Phoenix!  Take a look at the listing here.

Vacation, Part One

I suppose at some point I should blog about my vacation, but so much happened in 5 days, it’s hard knowing where to start.  I was planning on going to Pensacola by myself, visiting my cousin and her husband on the weekend, then spend 2 days by myself on the beach before I came back to reality.  About a week after I bought my ticket, I decided to take my brother with me, which ended up being a good thing. 

 

Day 1: The first day, we left for the airport at 3:30 in the morning in the middle of a thunderstorm.  By the time we got our luggage out to the car, everything was soaked.  We got to the airport and made it to Pensacola by 1:00 in the afternoon.  Our rental was this strange little Pontiac G5 in BRIGHT yellow.  It was alright – definitely not a car I’d buy, but ok for a few days.  We got to the hotel, threw our stuff on the beds, met up with our cousin and headed straight for the beach.  When we got to Pensacola Beach, Kim asked if we wanted to go to the main beach, or a quieter beach down the road.  We opted for quieter, so we drove down the road to the Fort Pickens Gate beach.  The main beach is surrounded by little shops and restaurants, but this beach had a quiet little pavilion area, new bathrooms and was in front of a few condo buildings.  We only saw a few other people there, so we decided we’d stick with this beach for the weekend.  By 7:30, the sun was low enough that it was starting to get chilly, so we went back to the hotel to hang out by the pool.

 

Day 2:  The weather forecast worked out better to go on our fishing charter on this day, than as previously scheduled for a few days later.  We had to pick up our fishing licenses and meet the boat at 8:30 in Gulf Breeze.  We were running a little bit late, so we drove through McDonalds for a sausage biscuit.  Big Mistake.  We got to Gulf Breeze, found the bait shop to get our licenses, found the boat slip where we were meeting them and headed out to sea.  I haven’t been on a big boat in a while, but it was a blast to stand up, hold on to something and feel the wind and water.  We made one quick stop to pick up live bait from a boat a few miles off shore, then headed to our first destination.  Captain John knew that Lafe’s dream fish was a cobia, but he said they hadn’t really been coming in yet and it might be another week or two before cobia heated up.  Everyone agreed that the best way to find a cobia is to not look for them.  At our first stop, we let down a cigar minnow and after a few tries, I had a bite!  Captain John said the waves were 1-1 ½ feet, but I was still sort of leaning on the back of the cabin for support while I reeled this thing in.  Lafe said that these fish feel like you’re reeling in a bowling ball – they don’t fight out, they fight down.  I was bringing up a fish from 100 feet down that did NOT want to come up.  About halfway through reeling, I started to feel a little bit sick and was completely caught off guard by it.  I finished bringing him up (18” Red Snapper), handed it off to Allen, the deckhand, and pulled my backpack out to take a Dramamine.  Captain John said that if I didn’t already take it, it wouldn’t do me any good, but I took it anyway, thinking it couldn’t hurt.  I wasn’t really sure that I was seasick, anyway.  I mean, I kayak and sometimes the water moves fast underneath you and you get a little “whoa” feeling, but that’s fun.  I’ve kayaked in 18” chop before and giggled the whole time because it was so fun.  For Pete’s sake, I went on Batman at Great America 8 times in a row, never waiting in line more than 2 minutes, and I didn’t feel sick.  I thought I’d tested the limits on motion sickness, but apparently not.  Three minutes later, I was over the side of the boat, chumming the water.  Since we mostly fished around shipwrecks or sunken barges, there were a few other boats around us most of the day.  I had a little bit of privacy, thanks to huge sunglasses and a hat, but they all saw me hurl and a few lucky ones saw my breakfast.  I sat back down, had some water and another Dramamine, since I fed the first one to the fishes.  After a few minutes, I felt better and looked up at the boat closest to us.  I wish, I wish, I wish I had my camera.  The looks on those guys’ faces were hysterical!  It was a completely sympathetic expression, like what Dorothy must have seen when she woke up at the end of Wizard of Oz, but they all had a hint of “is she going to do it again?”  I smiled and waved, and tried catching another fish.  Basically, my entire day was spent either sitting down and enjoying the ride, standing up and feeling nauseous, or bent over the side of the boat expelling the most vile things from the pits of my stomach.  It was cool, though and I would do it again in a heartbeat, but next time, I’ll take a Dramamine the night before.  And, Lafe did end up catching his cobia, but I’ll let him tell that story. 

 

When we got back to shore, we headed back down to the Fort Pickens Gate beach.  After Hurricane Ivan came through in 2004, they rebuilt this park with gorgeous pavilions, permanent grills and really nice Cambria-type quartz picnic tables.  We had arranged for Kim & Michael to bring grilling & picnic stuff and we would bring the fish for dinner.  Lafe and I pulled into the parking lot and quickly realized we were not in Kansas anymore.  Both parking lots were packed with very nice, customized cars (spinners, stereo equipment, custom paint) and there were people EVERYWHERE.  Our windows were partially open, so we heard comments like, “They done took a wroooong turn” and “Look!  White people!”  Yeaaaaahhhh.  We found a parking space toward the end of the lot and claimed a table and grill while we waited for Kim & Michael to show up.  Within the next hour, the other families with enough common sense had left, but we decided to stay.  Nobody was bothering us, and we needed a grill to use.  There were police floating around, so we knew they were at least keeping an eye on the group.  While we were all eating, we saw a guy in the parking lot by us playing with a tazer.  That, combined with the crowds that were now walking down the road for this party, convinced us that after we were done eating, we would just leave.  But they weren’t going to end our AWESOME dinner.  A few minutes after the tazer appeared, we noticed 4 or 5 girls on the boardwalk near us smoking pot.  They just barely got going on their joint, when squad cars started tearing down the road.  I think there were 3 in the first batch.  You should have seen those girls scatter!  Anyway, the upshoot of the whole thing is 14 squad cars, 2 cops on 4 wheelers, a Sheriff’s helicopter buzzing the crowd, and yes…tear gas.  The one other family that was there was scurrying on to their car when the dad came by us to say that the cops were about to gas the rest of the crowd, so we might want to move.  Everyone jumped up to put everything away, but just as they were finishing, I saw all the cops run up a sand dune (upwind).  I “mildly suggested” that we all very quickly move our booties up the boardwalk, since there was no way we were going to get back to the car before the gas did.  We didn’t get the camera out in time to get pictures of the gas spraying, but this picture is right afterwards.  The pictures and video on the newspapers’ site were taken by the other family that warned us.  Some of the partiers were giving Mathew a hard time about taking pictures, but were fine when he told them he was “documenting police brutality”.

 

For your enjoyment – THIS is article 1, THIS is article 2, THIS video shows them arresting the girl we have in our pictures, THIS is the dog that cleared out some of the partiers, THIS is the moron that was resisting arrest and his stupid girlfriend that thought it was a good idea to hit a cop, and THIS is a video of the tear gas.  When the camera pans to the left in the last video, you can see a gray pickup with a Barq’s Root Beer logo on it.  My car is parked right behind that truck. 

 

So that brings you to the end of the first 2 days of vacation.  Jealous?

 

Edit: Click here for my vacation pictures.  Have you ever heard of Fort Pickens?  Apparently it was an old Civil War fort, but was once used as a prison for Geronimo.  We went past it in the boat and were able to see the fort and the cannons that are still standing.  Very cool.

Letter to myself

I was flipping through radio stations the other day, and *gasp* I landed on a country station for a few songs.  One song was about writing a letter to your past self.  It made me think – If I was able to write a letter to myself at 17 or 18 or 19 years old, what would I say?  It would probably be something like this:

             On Friends:  Don’t let your friends dictate what’s “normal”.  Don’t allow ANYONE to extinguish your dreams, because the older you get, the harder it is to reignite them.  Those friends you think are so cool right now?  They’re digging themselves into a rut, and 10 years from now they’re going to be plain old white trash – harsh, I know, but true.  Learn when to stop giving a friend second chances, and don’t be afraid to go out and meet people instead of waiting for them to approach you. 

             On Roommates:  Be careful.  Make sure your name is on the lease.  When you give them money to pay a bill, make sure they pay it.  When the landlord pounds on the door because your roommate refuses to turn down the radio, hide.  Don’t buy furniture together.  Don’t cosign on anything!!  Put a lock on your door so they don’t steal your stuff while you’re gone.  Without fail, 3 weeks after you move in with someone, you’ll realize they’re insane.  Don’t try to be close friends with your roommate – keep it to a business arrangement.  You’ll save yourself the embarrassment of being caught in the car with your roommate on her “Tuesday night stalking” trips.  Really, the best advice I can give is that living by yourself is really kind of nice – and you don’t have to worry about other people using your razor.

             On Relationships:  You know that person you think you can’t live without?  You can, and you will, and it won’t be fun for a while, but you’ll survive.  Stop thinking that it’s normal to get married before you’re 25 – you’ll be shocked by how many of your friends will end up divorced because they wanted to get married at any cost.  End relationships because you don’t have common or compatible goals, or you aren’t being treated respectfully, or because you’ve become isolated in the relationship and realize that you never see your friends anymore.  Don’t ever end a relationship just because he brings up marriage and it spooks you – you’ll always wonder “what if”.  And, no matter what advice your friends give you, never ever ever play games with someone’s head or heart.  Not smart.

             On School:  Don’t give up, don’t skip classes, don’t be intimidated and listen to your advisor.  Don’t be afraid to change your major, just keep at it.  And, I know you probably won’t listen to me about this, but when your mom says it’s not a bad idea to go to Faith for a year before you go to UW, listen to her.  You’ll probably regret it later.  But, you’ll need to figure out this next part first…

             On God:  God is very real – I know you don’t “feel” it right now, but He is.  You have Christians in your life right now that make you feel like a failure as a Christian because you don’t fit the mold, and sometimes you break the rules.  Don’t allow them to be the barometer of your Christian walk – don’t allow them to discourage you to the point that you give up on God because you feel like you’ll never be perfect.  God doesn’t want perfect people – they don’t need to be saved.  God wants you, wherever you are, to seek Him first – not your church, not your school, not your desire to “fit in” with Christian friends.  Only Him.

So that’s my letter.  What would yours say?

Opening Day!!!!

Laughs for Today

If you need some giggles today, this blog is really “funny”

If you either don’t get it, or you’d still like some more giggles, check out my friend Erin’s blog.  We went to school together when we were kids, and recently reconnected.  This is another friend that’s gonna be famous someday, whenever she publishes her creative genius.

 If you STILL need more giggles…I can’t help you.