Curse of the Girl Scouts

Why, in the name of all that is holy, do we use our kids as pushers for some of the worst food a person can eat? Cases in point I have encountered this week - girl scout cookies and band fundraiser candy bars. We give young kids the most unnutritious food that exists and then encourage them to go out and get people to eat as much of it as they can. The rewards come from selling the most crap food. We could be more honest and just have them sell cigarettes....

What kind of message does this junk food fundraiser business send? The way you get what you want is by irresponsibly pushing unhealthy food on friends and strangers? I have yet to meet an adult woman who is thrilled by girl scout cookie season. We HATE girl scout cookie season. Sure, the cookies are good, but we know we will be taunted by cookies at every turn, that coworkers will bring boxes in to "share", that cute 8-year old freckled girls will chase us on street corners with boxes of thin mints....that even the strongest will power will eventually be overwhelmed in one way or another by the ever present pressure to eat. I haven't bought a box of cookies at the store in quite some time, and have no problem with that will power, but the girl scout cookies get me every time.

And speaking of the "sharing" of cookies, I have a message for you sharers - if the cookies and candy bars are not good for *your* health, WHY would you give them to me? Do you really hate me that much? Instead of packing the pounds on yourself, you want to pack them on me so you'll look thinner by comparison??? No one person or group of people needs 10 boxes of girl scout cookies. No one needs a king size crunch bar with 350 empty calories.

This food is killing each and every one of us, thin and fat. Let's throw it away...in the trash, where it belongs. YOU are not a garbage disposal, and your body deserves better. Tell organizations to sell something besides junk food if they must sell something - how about premium fruit baskets? How about wrapping paper or car washes or toys or ANYTHING but the junk? Or, how about we give donations to worthy causes? Less junk, more tax deductions! :)

I'm not saying there is no role for personal accountability, but come ON! You would not expect a drug addict to get clean in a crack house.

Sing along with me, "I'd like to teach groups to fundraise without junk..... in perfect harmony!"

Evil, Thy game is Curling

I didn't pay much attention to most of the Olympics this year. But being a true northern Minnesota girl, I *had* to watch at least one game played by the Bemidji Curling team.

So I flip on the tele and watch a match against Canada. So far, so good, eh? Well just watching Curling was not amusement enough. I decided I would make a little game for me called: See if you can figure out how Curling is scored. Sounds simple, right?

Yeeeeeeeeah. So I watch a couple rounds or matches or dohickases (whatever they call them!). I figure out there are like 10 rounds in each game. Each round is pretty much the same...people throw rocks, someone yells which makes some other guys sweep the ice in front of the rocks, and sometimes rocks get hit. There is a target at the other end of the ice with an outer ring and an inner ring. After 2 rounds I'm feeling pretty bright and thinking I've managed to figure out the scoring. Go me!
My theory: you get one point for each rock in the outer ring and two points for each rock in the inner ring. Who ever has the most points wins the rounds and gets a point on the scoreboard.

This theory holds up for 4 rounds. In round 5, everyone has rocks inside the rings, but NOONE gets a point! WTF!!! I surmise that if everyone has an equal number of rocks in the rings/point total, the round is a wash and no points are awarded. Whew. I'm once again feeling pretty smart about the whole "I figured out a whole game's scoring system" deal.

Round 6. More rocks in the rings, but now Canada got two points. TWO POINTS??? You cannot get TWO POINTS according to my scoring system damn it! ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Round 7, no points awarded. Round 8, 1 point to Canada. Round 9, 1 point to the US. Round 10, 1 point for Canada.

In the end I was no closer to figuring out the damn scoring system, but I was closer to finishing a bottle of wine. I have since discovered that curling was invented in Scotland. Does Scotland even have ice?? And who invents a GAME that involves sweeping!

Blah. I'm done with curling.

Ode to my Valentine

I normally don't gush about my "super man", but today I'm gonna because he really deserves it. :) So if mushy stuff makes you squeamish you can stop reading now...

I married the most amazing guy.
I'm at home today, working around the house and looking at the flowers he gave me for Valenine's Day. I was doing some organizing in the den and came across old diaries I wrote in the first couple of years we were dating and cards we've sent each other over the years. I can honestly say I look at those and realize: I love him even more now than I did then. That's saying a lot because I sure fawned all over him back then! And I know that every day he does something that makes me love him all that much more. A cute little smile, a hug and 'I love you' at just the right time, working on a house project together, going shopping at Menards together, cooking dinner (or not cooking lately - I'm on a big ol' diet!), buying flowers or a gift...every day. That's pretty amazing for me to think about. He warms my heart (and my feet!) and nourishes my soul.

I love you baby!

Say what now?

Fron CNN: "Rep. John Boehner, a Republican from Ohio, was chosen to become the new House majority leader Thursday..."

Please, please, PLEASE tell me that man's last name is not pronounced the way I think its pronounced. I cannot spend my mornings snickering every time NPR wants to discuss the House majority leader.

The devil's tool

So at the gym last night I get the bright idea that I'm going to mix things up and use the cross-trainer machine. After 20 minutes on that thing I was pretty sure I was either dead or near death. Evil, evil machine.