Cherry Lemon Smoothie

Every now and then I make a smoothie that I'm proud of. Today was one of those days. I'm going to start recording these so that I can recreate them.

Ingredients:

• Dark Sweet Pitted Cherries (Frozen bag by Townsend Farms)
• Three quarters of a lemon (because that was what was left after using the other quarter for fish at lunchtime)
• One Fuji apple
• One navel orange peeled
• A cup of Acai Berry juice
• A cup of water
• One mango pitted and skinned
• Small cube of ginger
• Quarter teaspoon spirulina powder

Mix at high speed in Vitamix or other turbo blender for around a minute.

Please Do Not Lock The Door

I was recently lucky enough to be inside a restroom which had this sign on the back of the door. It was in a patient's room in a hospital. So why if they don't want you to lock the door do they put a lock on the door?

Did you have to pick your nose?

I glanced in the review mirror and saw my daughter's hair all over the place and thought it would make a good video. The wife, being the dab hand she is at amazing videos shot her. On reviewing it I discover there's a nose pick in there.

My strategy to keep boys away from her is to post lots of these types of videos and point her suitors at them and then when I feel she's old enough to start dating (maybe 25?) I'll take them down.

Note the foot on the back of my chair. In the background are some Palo Verdes, Mesquites, and a few Saguaro Cacti.

The Awesome Puddle Jumper

We were on vacation in Rocky Point and saw this kid wearing a Puddle Jumper and we were so impressed we went out and got one for our kid. The cool thing about it is that it's a pair of arm bands (with flotation foam not air) and they are physically attached to a flotation band that goes around the chest so it keeps the kid's face up and out of the water. We go ours from Target (I think) but most people who have seen our kid with one have got theirs from Amazon: Puddle Jumper at Amazon.

The Monkey and the Expert

I've just spent the day skiing with Fat Charlie. On our first real run (i.e. not traversing to get to the far side of the mountain) we discovered a freestyle course that had been marked out on Ray's Ridge (Purgatory) but hadn't been skied enough to create large bumps so we tried to ski it a few times trying to create those bumps.

My friends often tell me that I ski like a monkey. Fat Charlie (aka Jim) was kind enough not to make that comment. Here is how the monkey skis the freestyle course:

And here is the expert doing the upper section of the same course:

And if you're still reading then here is a shot of Jim doing that same section but caught from the bottom of the run looking up:

The second fastest car on the road

If I'm exceeding the speed limit I like to have another car pass me every now and then. This is the decoy car and the one that the police will pull over instead of me.

This morning it actually worked. On the way to work heading east on Greenway from Tatum the car next to me pulled away at about 2 MPH faster than I did and I watched with relief as the police car behind me changed lanes and pulled him over instead.

Truth in Comedy

Just finished reading Truth in Comedy by Charna Halpern, Del Close and Kim "Howard" Johnson while at the same time taking an eight week improv class from The Torch Theatre. The two of them complemented each other perfectly.

Here are my take-aways from the book:

• Don't tell jokes, just be honest, there's nothing funnier than the truth.
• Take the scene seriously.
• Always agree, this is the only rule that cannot be broken. i.e. Yes, and... Accept and build
• Don't try and force connections, they'll happen naturally.
• There are no bad ideas.
• There are no mistakes
• Make your fellow players look good.
• Respect choices made by others.
• Don't ask questions, instead, make assumptions.
• Listen for the whole idea and remember what has been said. Don't try and think ahead when someone is speaking, instead listen carefully to them. i.e. avoid preconceived notions.
• Follow the unexpected twist. i.e. pick up the exciting/different/unusual/active part of what's been given to you and go down that path.
• Avoid exposition, the audience can invent their own past to a scene.
• Be specific and avoid generalities. Don't be the Vague Man.
• Welcome silences, allow this as time for thought.
• Reflect the other person's ideas.
• Find your purpose in each game and be it.

My biggest problem is asking too many questions. I always want to ask a question to the other players which puts them on the spot to come up with an answer. This is what I'm currently working on to improve.

Food poisoning in Mexico

As you can probably guess from the title I recently got food poisoning while on vacation in Mexico. However, it was not from food sourced in Mexico. My wife cooked this amazing chicken curry early in the morning before we left for Mexico. That evening at Rocky Point we had the curry and then a couple of hours later my stomach started evacuating the food in both directions.

Stomach: "This is not a drill, GET OUT, GET OUT!"

My wife, the angel that she is, insisted on calling the resort doctor. Turns out they didn't have a doctor but they said that they would send a paramedic. Within a few minutes we had three paramedics in the condo taking my blood pressure and temperature. They were ecstatic to hear that the food came from Phoenix and not Mexico and doled out anti-nausea and electrolytes. They were extremely nice and attentive and great to see such highly competent personnel arrive in such a short period of time. Viva Mexico!