benjerin.com Blog

This week’s assignment.

1. If you suffer from or have a family history of any chronic conditions or diseases, consult your family physician for dietary counseling.
2. Although every individual is unique in his or her dietary needs, here are some ideas to help: Eat fewer foods with refined grains and sugars; reduce your intake of fatty foods; and eat smaller portions.  Eat more dark green vegetables, legumes, fruits, whole grains, low-fat milk products, and lean meats.  Eat slowly so that you will feel full before you’ve overeaten.  Don’t reward yourself or children with food.  Develop a routine and eat a similar times each day.  Drink plenty of water.  Limit snacking.
3. Eat to live; don’t live to eat.

My attempt at the assignment:

1. My family has a history of high cholesterol and diabetes.  I’ve shared this information with my doctors.  The only thing they seem concerned about right now is my cholesterol.  It’s been borderline since I was 18. 
2. The areas I need to work on: Eat more fruits and vegetables.  Eat slowly.
3. Hmm..okay.  I’ll try.

Monday, Christy and I did our first 8 mile walk, training for the In Their Shoes Breast Cancer Walk.  It was hot, and we were sweaty, but it felt good to get 8 miles under our belt.

Tuesday, I finally had a chance to get together with my old college roommate (and high school friend) Laurel for dinner.  We’ve seen each other around a few times since college, but never really hung out.  It was great to finally catch up with her, and to eat some yummy Thai food.  I hope we get to hang out again some time soon, because I feel like we still have so much catching up to do.  I also learned that I really enjoy hot sake!

Wednesday, Christy and I completed another 8 mile training walk.  It was a significantly cooler day than Monday and the 8 miles already felt a little easier that the Monday walk.

Thursday, Daniel and Karen invited us over for the first tasting of “Karen’s Spice Beer,” a homebrew that the two had created together.  It was delicious!  I can’t get over how flavorful and light the beer was.  I want more!

Friday, Bill and Susan came into town for a weekend visit.  They arrived just in time to listed to the first presidential debate with us on the radio.  After the debate, we visited for quite a while, but Bill and I had to retire somewhat early because…

Saturday, Bill and I participated in an 8 mile group training walk for In Their Shoes.  Every Saturday a group of several others that are signed up for the November walk get together for a training walk.  The walk started at 7:30 am, so it was nice and cool.  The woman coordinating the group walk even had door prizes for everyone that showed up.  It was surprisingly fun.  I hope I get to attend more group training walks.  Also on Saturday morning, Benjy went to the doctor for another staph infection!  This time it is in his elbow, and fortunately he got to the doctor well before the elbow could get as bad as the knee.  Now he is on two antibiotics!  Yikes!  We spent most of the day just lounging around the house while visiting with Benjy’s parents.  Saturday evening, we went to the Terrapin Brewery.  Daniel had asked a bunch of his friends to hang out with him for a brewery tour and beer tasting, in celebration of his birthday.  We had a lot of fun, and tasty beer!  We were having so much fun in fact, that the brewery was basically pushing us out the door trying to close.  Our little group then went for dinner at a sports bar because Benjy and his parents were interested in catching the Virginia Tech football game.  After a long day and a belly full of beer and sports bar food, I was ready to call it quits, and crashed on the couch while Benjy continued visiting with his parents.  I woke up a few hours later to everyone (even Bill!) still up and chatting away.  I think all of us were up at least until 2:30 am.

So we all slept in this morning.  Spent even more time just visiting around the house.  After Bill and Susan left, I worked on a few house chores before caving in to a nap.  Otherwise, this evening has been pretty uneventful.  I hope to be a little more productive before this weekend comes to an end, but it was a very satisfying weekend!  Too bad it is over already.

Today’s Assignment:

1. Develop a family communication plan by selecting a person outside your local area for everyone to call in case of an emergency.
2. Ensure every member of your family knows the phone number and has coins or a prepaid phone card for calling the emergency contact.  Cell phones often get jammed due to high call volume during disasters.
3. Designate a primary and secondary meeting location.
4. Create an emergency supply kit with a 3-day supply of basic items such as: fresh water, food, first aid, towelettes, garbage bags, a flashlight with extra batteries, local maps, a whistle, dust masks, tools, a can opener, and cash.  Check and rotate supplies every 6 months.

My attempt at the assignment:

1. The only phone numbers Benjy and I can remember (besides our cell phone number and each others cell phone number) would be our parents’ phone numbers.  Problem is that I can only remember my parents’ number and Benjy can only remember his parents’ phone number.  So hopefully, our parents can contact each other to help us communicate in the case of an emergency.
2. If our cell phones don’t work, and we can’t find coins, we are just going to have to call collect.  Sorry mom and dad, but it is an emergency for crying out loud!
3. Primary – our house.  Secondary – South Milledge Sports Complex.
4. I’ll add some emergency kit supplies to the grocery list for this week.  I have doubts about my ability to consistently remember to rotate the supplies every 6 months.

We really didn’t do much during the week last week.  After work one day, Christy and I went shopping for fun stuff for the “In Their Shoes” breast cancer walk.  Pink shirts, pink bandanas, pink feather boas, and more assorted pink items.  It was great fun!  It took it easy the rest of the week, because I felt like I was fighting a sinus infection.  Fortunately, my symptoms improved greatly just in time for a wonderful weekend.

Friday after work, we drove to Asheville, NC to meet up with some of Benjy’s friends from Radford.  We camped by the French Broad River with Nathaniel, Jenny and Ryan.  We just hung around the campfire Friday night.  Saturday, we spent all day at the Brewgrass festival.  We met up with our friends Daniel and Karen at the festival.  There were so many beers to sample, and so little time.  I think we were sampling beer for six hours before the festival ended and we wandered into downtown Asheville in search of dinner.  We found some yummy food, and more beer, before heading back to the campsite.   Saturday night was spent around the campfire again.  After a very long day in the sun, combined with about 7 hours of beer drinking, I was struggling to stay awake, but the campfire was so wonderful.  Just before midnight, I was the first to crash, but I’m pretty sure the rest weren’t too far behind me.

This morning, we snuck in a little more time by the campfire and had a late breakfast before packing up camp.  Benjy and I returned to Athens, picked up our doggies from doggie-camp, then watched two movies. 

1. Batman Returns (we’d seen this before, just decided to buy ourselves a copy last week). 

2.  What Happens in Vegas (funny and cute)

And now that I’ve rambled on much longer than I expected, I will leave you with a photo from Brewgrass.

I have posted a video of each dunkee from NMC’s open house dunk tank for United Way.

Click here and enjoy.

A couple of weekends ago, we attended Desiree’s wedding on the beach.  It was beautiful!

Click here to see more pictures.

I’m so behind on posting pictures.  Slowly, but surely, I will upload all of our photos to flickr.  I will post on this blog to let you all know each time I get a good chunk uploaded. 

This is kind of a strange assignment, but I see absolutely no harm in it.  As the assignment says “Your eyes and action could mean the difference between a life lost and a life saved.”

The assignment:

1. Pay attention to AMBER Alert signs on the freeway or on TV.
2. Sign up to receive AMBER Alert text messaging on your cell phone.
3. Download the AMBER Alert ticker onto your computer.
4. If you see or receive an AMBER Alert signal, don’t take it lightly.  The perpetrator might be closer than you think.

My attempt at the assignment:

1. I very rarely come across AMBER Alert signs on the freeway or on TV, but I DO pay attention when I see them.
2. DONE.  Very easy…and FREE!  Wanny try?  Click here.
3. I’m very hesitant to download new things, for fear of junking up my computer.
4. I’ll be sure to keep my eyes and ears open next time I see an AMBER Alert.

Monday, Benjy and I had a romantic dinner at Red Lobster, before an evening of errand running.  I tried lobster for the first time and was honestly not very impressed.  I guess Red Lobster may not be the best place to judge lobster.  Maybe I’ll try again at some other restaurant, with fresher seafood perhaps.  Then we went to Target, to buy a wedding gift for friends.  We ended up spending a ridiculous amount of money on ourselves.  Apparently, we are both in trouble when it comes to Target.

Tuesday, I went to the gym.  We went grocery shopping.  Then we ate wine and cheese as we watched the latest episode of “Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles”.

Wednesday, I started training for the 13.1 mile breast cancer walk that Christy and I will participate in on November 8th.  We walked 5 miles around the UGA campus and the downtown area.  I was a nice area to walk in and we kept a very brisk pace.  I was pretty tired (and hungry) after only 5 miles, so I can’t imagine doing 13.1 right now.  We plan to train with at least one long walk every week.

Thursday, we finally got to see Laci and Alan’s new house.  I am so happy for them to be in the land of home-ownership.  It is a wonderful place to be.  And they have a very lovely home.  I am quite jealous of their large yard, with lots of trees and even a cute little creek running through.

On Friday, my company, NMC, celebrated it’s 20th anniversary with a catered employee luncheon.  The food was delicious and after everyone ate there was a little gathering to recognize the employees that have been with the company all 20 years.  There were also some door prizes and we all got really nice jackets to commemorate the event.  *Note:  I was seven years old when NMC opened!  Friday night, there was a nommunication at the NMC president’s house.  “Nomu” being Japanese for “to drink” and “mmunication” from the English word, communication.  You can imagine, by this name, what fun can be had.

Saturday, Christy and I ran in the Athens Run for the Dogs 5K (benefiting Canine Companions for Independence).  After the 5K, it was time to attend NMC’s Open House.  The Open House was also in celebration of the 20th anniversary.  It was a chance for all employees’ families to come see the plant.  There was also music, free food, door prizes, carnival game booths, a clown, a bounce house, giant slides, a bungee run, and a dunk tank!  I spent most of my time at the dunk tank, including some time IN the dunk tank!  I can’t believe how many people lined up to dunk me!  I guess when your job title could essentially be “professional nag” you can’t expect much less.  It was a lot of fun and all the money collected at the dunk tank will go towards our United Way campaign!  After the Open House, we barely had enough time to shower and take a very short nap before it was time to attend Rob and Katie’s wedding reception/party.  It was a very laid back event at their house.  There was a pretty impressive selection of home-brewed beer and wine and a delicious selection of BBQ food, including Brunswick stew! 

Today, we finally got to sleep in and relax a little.  We watched the movie “300“.  We both agreed that it was a pretty movie with a very interesting story, but a little over the top at times.  This afternoon, Christy and I ran in another 5K, raising money for the Clarke Middle School Bike Ride to Savannah.  It was a very hot day, and a very hilly course, but I still placed 3rd in my age group.  I really benefit sometimes from the fact that very few females show up in the 25-29 age group.  After the 5K, I ran a few errands, came home to eat and shower, and crashed on the couch for a couple of hours.  Meanwhile, Benjy was being a wonderful husband and tending to all sorts of house chores.  Then, Benjy and I watched another movie, “Guarding Tess“.  It wasn’t quite what either of us expected, but it was cute!

I hope you enjoyed another week in the life of Benjerin!  I’m not sure if most of this stuff interests anyone, but I really enjoy using this blog as a personal journal of sorts, so I can look back years from now and remember all the fun we were having.

Today’s assignment:

1. Turn off your TV today.
2. Designate certain TV-free times throughout the week to reduce viewing hours.
3. Remove TVs from bedrooms, kitchen, etc.
4. Make a list of activities to do besides watching TV – activities like reading, biking, swimming, walking, gardening, or socializing with friends.  Then start doing them.
5. Avoid using TV as a reward – this only increases its power.
6. Be more selective about programming and choose history, travel, cooking, home repair/design, and other educational themes.

During my last “Every Monday Matters” post, I established that I waste too much time watching TV.  Now that I’ve had a week to think about it, I realize that I really use the TV more as background.  Sometimes I turn it on when I’m doing chores around the house.  Mostly, the TV is on every night while I play on the internet and then fall asleep on the couch.  Since I feel like the internet is more time-consuming for me, I will use the assignment for both TV and internet.

My attempt at the assignment:

1. I did not turn the TV on while I did chores after work today.  I’ll try to continue this all week.
2. I will keep the TV off and stay off of the internet until at least 7:00 pm every week night.
3. We have a television in our bedroom, but we only use it on the extremely rare occasion that we want to watch a movie in bed.
4. Instead of watching TV or playing on the internet I’d rather: read (catch up on my magazine subscriptions), go for a run, do house chores, write letters, scrapbook.
5. I don’t use TV or internet as a reward.
6. Since we don’t receive any type of broadcasted television, we are already pretty darn selective about what we watch.  I’ll try to be more selective about my time on the internet by setting a timer for only 1 hour a night.

Last Tuesday, Benjy missed work because he was in so much pain for two reasons: (1) from a swollen and infected knee that developed while he was in Texas and (2) from a much-needed root canal.  The dentist was unable to see him on Tuesday, but Benjy did make it to the doctor for his knee.  The doctor drained Benjy’s knee, took a sample of the fluids and prescribed him some antibiotics and pain medicine.  The doctor would call a couple of days later to tell us that Benjy had an antibiotic resistant staph infection.  Yikes!

Wednesday morning, poor Benjy had to spend 3 hours in the dentist chair for a root canal.  He had intended to go back to work after the dentist, but spent the rest of the day throwing up instead.  Why his body decided to be so cruel to him, we don’t know.  While Benjy was curled up and pitiful, I was having over 12 inches of hair chopped off for Locks of Love. I am so in love with my shorter hair!  After my haircut and checking in on Benjy, I went downtown to see a friend’s band play at the 40 Watt.  It was spoken word set to bass guitar and drums and it was cool! 

Thursday, Benjy was feeling ten times better (thank goodness!) and was able to return to work.  Thursday afternoon, I attended an orientation meeting for a breast cancer walk that I plan to participate in (more details soon).  Then Thursday night we joined several friends at Cali N Titos to celebrate our friend Emily’s birthday.

Friday after work we rushed to get on the road to Charleston, SC.  Our friends Desiree and Chris had plans to get married on the Isle of Palms and we were in a hurry to beat Tropical Storm Hanna.  The poor couple had been stressing out all week worried that they might have to cancel their wedding because of a hurricane.  Desiree and Chris had reserved a beach house for all the guests to stay at and we arrived shortly before 11 pm right as Hanna was bringing REALLY heavy rains.  The rain was the extent of our tropical storm excitement, fortunately, and we had a wonderful time visiting with the other wedding guests Friday night. 

Saturday we woke up to beautiful weather!  Around noon, the couple, twenty guests, five dogs and one cat made their way to the beach for the ceremony.  A lawyer was present to do some “official” marriage paperwork, then a buddhist monk conducted the actual ceremony.  The couple read their own vows at the end and I really enjoyed the opportunity to hear their love for one another in their own words.  Everyone headed back to the beach house for a burrito buffet, then we all spent several hours bumming on the beach.  Saturday evening was spent bumming around the beach house.  It was a wonderful weekend and a great way to celebrate a wedding!

We drove back from Charleston today, picked up the doggies from the kennel and now we are getting ready to watch “The Bucket List”.