I needed a name for some software (don't tune out yet) and I wanted something that invoked the idea of migration. I googled migratory birds. And I fell down the wikihole checking out this magnificent bastard:

Check it out: the arctic tern migrates from the north pole to the south pole and back every year.

It does this for 30 years.

You ain't no wanderer, you ain't no travelin' man, just hang it up, the arctic tern has it all over you in the meandering department.

Ok, my progress:  I skipped day 4. Well, I didn't so much skip it as I was TOO DAMN BUSY, and I ate too much. I have one of these thinking jobs that consumes me, then meetings which I try to be on time for. And usually I'm a driving force in a meeting, so can't really plank in the middle. Not complaining, it's what I do. Plus I had a dentist appointment, and it snowed. So added cleaning off the car to my rushed day (I admit it, I drove to the dentist with snow blowing off the roof - but I did get the windows scraped so I'm calling that a win.)  After getting my teeth thoroughly cleaned, I got lunch: BBQ sandwich with coleslaw AND broccoli salad. And after eating all that, I was too stuffed to plank.

Back to work, to meeting prep and meetings, which ran all the way to 5:35PM. At which point I was running late for my 5:45 non-work meeting across town.  At least the car was no longer snow covered.

5:45 I meet up with a friend to brainstorm on Art. I had an O'douls and we sketched. We go camping at a regional burn Playa Del Fuego twice a year, and they want more Art (so they claim). Burner Art is not fine art. It's go off and build something interesting or engaging or whimsical or burning, and we'll call it art.

ASIDE: I read a lot about kids since now I have one. This struck me, and I repeat it often: Ask a room of 5 year olds "Who's an artist, a singer, a dancer?" and they pretty much all raise their hands. Ask a room of high-school seniors, and almost none will claim to be one.  What's with that? We can again all be those things; we just need to embrace the bravery of our inner child.

So two Art ideas later (An evolution on the hanging ball cube I made last fall - now to include lighting, more balls and goodness gracious adequate balls of fire. and 2. A lighted PDF marquee sign), we went out to a local pub for half-price burgers and 2 more O'douls.  Home at 9:30, I was WAY TO STUFFED to plank.

What I decided is I would repeat day 3. So I did so 30 seconds in the morning when I woke. And I did day 4 just this morning, again 30 seconds.  Neither was that hard, nor easy. Doable. I explained to my kid what a plank was shortly thereafter, detouring through "walk-the-plank" pirate talk to explain what a plank was. And she said, "I can do that!"  Then she laid flat on the floor, pretending to be a board. "This is easy!", she said.

Instead of working this morning, I'm writing up art grant proposals and creating this OPW post.

Per request from Jenny Hill (who I can't link to, since we aren't friends), here is the 30 day plank challenge.  It's simple: just do a plank for a certain (increasing) amount of seconds.  Here's the site with the details:

Today I went to the gym immediately after dropping V off at the train. I think this is going to be a good way to build a new habit.  I did 51 minutes on the elliptical, but was unable to use my telekinetic powers to make the televisions explode. I'll keep trying. 

Yesterday one of my cousins asked my other cousins and me to join her on a 25-mile charity bike ride for ALS this spring. It looks like fun, the ride ends at a barbecue in Wildwood (so it's sort of a "bike to the beach" thing), and it'd be a good training goal. I said sure. Now I'm trying to figure out if I have any idea what I'm doing, and wondering how exactly one trains for a 25-mile bike ride. Do I bike for three hours a day until 25 miles becomes No Big Whoop? Do I bike for an hour a day until I can easily bike 25 miles in an hour?  Is there a couch-to-25-miles cycling program? 

Yeah, there's an app for that, but the developer support website, couchtobike.com, comes up with a blank page. also, there are no reviews.  an app's not the same as an explanation. 

still, might be fun, though. 

I blame Thomas Boutell, for posting a plank exercise challenge on that other social site. Here I will log my progress (until it stops) in unneeded detail. And pretend you all read it and care, so I will stay motivated.

Day 1 20 second plank was easy peasy. I did it Saturday early evening to break up the tedium of playing "Frozen" with the kid. Apparently my ability for imaginative doll play has atrophied. I'm always assigned the role of Christoph. Occasionally I also get to be the villain Hans, who is now reformed and sells noodles. We never do anything interesting. There is some running away from people (I.e., other dolls) that we don't know. And occasional getting stuck on mountains or coffee mugs. But the kid's familiars always rescue themselves. 

Day 2: Mid morning Sunday. Again playing Frozen. This time the 20 second plank was hard. Whine, ouch hard. Hurts! Snivel whine. . . But I did it! 

Day 3: oh no! Now planks are 30 seconds! I avoided it all day. But eventually, after work, after making her a cardboard sword, missing her since she's at her Papa's tonight, I got down by the dollhouse to plank. And 30 seconds wasn't that bad. Easier than day 2, not as easy as day 1. Cool.

I wonder what the future holds.

Today I showed Ted the wonders of iMovie. 

All editing is his work. I'm very proud of him. Actually, all I did was to write his dialogue and show him how to find public-domain movie clips online. He did the rest. 

I married into a family that takes Christmas very seriously. So December is a time when a lot of things have to happen - baking, cooking, buying presents, going to see Santa so we have a picture to put on the Christmas cards which by the way need to go out no later than December 20, and so on. It's very hectic. Once upon a time, I could just get by on less sleep, but these days that's less of a solution for me. In part, I'm sure, that's because I've stopped drinking caffeine because now I get fewer migraines, but mostly I just get tired more easily.

So in an attempt to get things done, I stopped going down to the gym at 3am to run. I figured I needed every scrap of sleep I could get, so as soon as each night's tasks were done, I'd just crash and wake up (generally a bit too late.) This totally backfired. In the final three weeks of the year, I didn't run at all. And apparently, when I'm not running, I need to sleep even more. Previously, I'd become accustomed to sleeping 5-6 hours a night and feeling fine, but in the crap end of December, I slept 8-9 hours a night, and was still tired when I woke up. So basically, not taking time to run meant I had less time available to get stuff done.

• I resolve to learn Mig welding. And then make a Goodness Gracious Adequate Ball of Fire.
• I resolve to get that room in DC, starting in Feburary.
• I resolve to clean up the lingering paperwork with the ex to make our split official. 
• I resolve to remodel the downstairs powder room.

Stretch goal : Murphy bed in guest room

Stretch goal 2: have more stretch goals 

I like to imagine that I have the power to recast the gun control debate to proscribe any argument that depends on the fact that we've made it too easy for evil people to get guns. Yes, maybe it will be painful when we enter that period when "only criminals have guns," but the current policy is just not working, and every day we continue to make guns freely available makes any other solution a little bit harder.

What bothers me most, though, is that no one really has the "right to bear arms" promised by the Bill of Rights anymore. One of the most powerful weapons used in the War of 1812, the privateer America, was not owned by the United States military. Now, I can't even buy a brand new machine gun, let alone an F-16 or a nuclear warhead. To the extent that the second amendment is founded in a need for our civilians to be an effective militia, it has completely failed.

Today was a rough day. Battery at <10%. ​

Vince gave me half a pint of Ben & Jerry's Chubby Hubby ice cream, and said, "You can finish this." 

Much like handing a kilo of heroin to Kurt Cobain. 

I felt guilty for making it disappear almost immediately. SCHHHLOOP! Gone.

Then I saw this: 

Hungry Girl Summer Freeze DIY Ice Cream Treats! 

Hungry Girl is some apologist for the processed-food industry. She has a blog that's supposed to offer lower-calorie versions of snacks and restaurant meals that people supposedly crave. They're lower in calories, sure, and lower in Weight Watchers points, okay, but they usually depend heavily on Cool Whip and/or mayonaise as ingredients. 

One 8-oz. container Cool Whip Free, thawed 
3 pieces Twizzlers Strawberry Twists, finely chopped
1 tbsp. mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tbsp. chopped peanuts
14 Quaker Buttered Popcorn Rice Cakes (1 package)

Basically, this fits right in with what people were eating in Interstellar. It's mostly high fructose corn syrup, various hydrogenated oils, gums, and sodium caseinate. 

To make the filling, transfer Cool Whip to a medium-large bowl. Add chopped Twizzlers, chocolate chips, and chopped peanuts. Gently stir.
Set out 7 rice cakes, and evenly spoon filling over them, about a heaping 1/4 cup each.
Lightly place another rice cake over each filling-topped cake to form a sandwich, for a total of seven sandwiches.
Place in the freezer until filling is firm, at least 1 1/2 hours. (Use a few plates or a baking sheet, so the sandwiches are not stacked.) Eat up!

Yum-mo!  A mere 32 grams of carbohydrates per serving, and only 4 Weight Watchers Power Plus Points!

I no longer feel guilty for eating half a pint of Ben & Jerry's. I read the recipe to Vince, and it was so gross that reading it made me laugh until tears came out of my eyes.