Solar Power

I run on solar power. I spend spring and summer storing up Vitamin D and fresh air, hoping to reserve enough to survive Missouri winters, yet every February I find my stores depleted. The grey skies feel looming, the cold has set into my bones, and the harsh winds have cracked my skin. Ugh!

It seems God knows when I need a respite - that's when 50 degree days come around.

Miss Sumatra and I take our standard walk around the neighborhood, sniffing the air and observing the neighbors. My internal solar panels recharge and I have just enough to make it through the inevitable return to winter.

Daylight Savings Time arrives in 12 days - I've never looked forward to it more.

Adoption Day

Two years ago today I adopted Miss Sumatra Mandheling - and have since turned into quite the mushy pet owner. I waited until I was well settled in my home before adding a pup, and I knew the perfect girl would come along at the right time. Miss Sumatra certainly fits that bill. From the get go she fit quite easily into my home and has added much, much joy to my life. She's helped me put into action many lessons - perhaps the art of resting is the most important of those! She loves going for walks, exploring our garden, and is highly protective of her space. Hmm - I guess owners and their pups really do mirror one another!

Oh, and in case you miss you're curious - Sumatra Mandheling is my favorite blend at my local coffee shop (Benettis). Below are a few of my fav photos - here's to many more years with my unique little pup!

Keeping an eye on the neighborhood

Why do I have to keep posing? I need to explore...

Birdwatching

Howdy, cuz

A pile of leaves makes me happy

The Manhattan Project

I was quite excited to see The Manhattan Project appear as a Netflix instant watch selection. It was definitely one of my favorite movies growing up - yeah, I was an odd kid. The central character is a high school student - a genius that decides to check out his mom's new boyfriend by breaking into his facility. When he discovers they are secretly making plutonium, he steals some and builds a nuclear bomb for the local science fair.

Seriously.

His goal isn't to blow anything or anyone up - its simply to expose what the company is really doing. Having a girlfriend (a young Cynthia Nixon) that is a budding reporter with a lawyer for a father certainly helps. Naturally he gets in over his head, not realizing the power of the chemical he's stolen.John Lithgow is wonderful as the mom's boyfriend that runs the facility. He genuinely cares about Paul and wants to ease things to a peaceful resolution. There's even a young Robert Sean Leonard as a high school student.

I love this movie because it takes a honest look at how things can be hidden in plain sight, and the responsibility of citizens to know what is happening around them. I may not be a huge conspiracy theorist, but I do believe that there are things like this that happen every day in our cities/country/world that we are completely unaware of. This movie asks viewers to consider what they would do, how far they would go, if such a facility were to be built in their backyard. Still just as engrossing for me today as it was twenty years ago.

Cloak and Dagger

As a member of Gen-X, I lived through the age where computers and video games became part of daily life - and our homes. In true form, movies in the early 1980's explored the pros and cons of our technological age. Cloak and Dagger, starring Dabney Coleman and Henry Thomas was one such movie.

Henry Thomas is a young boy whose mother recently died; his imaginary friend is Jack Black - a video game super spy. As he plays spygames around San Antonio with his neighbor he witnesses a murder and receives a video game cartridge with government secrets from the victim.

Sure its a fairly cheesy movie (it was the early 1980s remember), but it does explore some intriguing ideas. Spies using electronics to smuggle secrets isn't a new idea, nor is hiding secrets in plain sight. Its fun to consider what I would do if the fantasy life provided by a video game became real. Could I really handle the hiding, seeking, exploring with the same level of aplomb?

Short, super cheesy - but a fun blast into the past. Just seeing these two kids travel all over the city (sans adults) is a great way to remember when times were simpler.

Budgets - the bane of my existence

I like the idea of budget - its fun to play with spreadsheets - but a budget feels like I can't really enjoy my life. One of my goals for 2011 is to be debt free by the end of the year, however, which means I not only need to work on a usable/practical budget I have to actually stick with it.

When I began the number crunching last night I was surprised to see I hadn't made nearly as much progress as I'd thought in 2010. When it comes to money I'm the queen of denial - denial of reality that is. I'll happily borrow from my savings to go see a movie, try a new recipe with fantastic ingredients, purchase some item I've wanted for ages that now happens to be on sale - you get the drift.

This go-around I approached my budget a bit differently. After estimating my annual income I worked up an annual budget - which I then broke down into monthly allotments by paycheck. I even went so far as to think through the grocery and household items I purchase each month (and with which paycheck) to make sure I had accurate estimates.

The key for me will be two-fold. 1 - Religiously track how much I spend on what item. 2 - Use the coupons I clip and put the saved money into savings/debt repayment immediately. Even if its puny little amounts. This should help deter my tendency to spend the "saved" money on free items.

So I've got it all worked out if I stick with what I'll be debt-free by November. Which is much later than I'd thought (I had May in my head), but just seeing that its doable gives me hope. This is one monster I've been battling for quite a while and I'm confident that I'll see victory in 2011.