Ok, at least tonight and a few times.

As you know, I am a vegetarian, a veg head and when I became a vegetarian, I didn’t like a lot of vegetable. Yeah, that makes sense.

I liked the basics, salad stuff, you know lettuce, carrots, celery, broccoli, yeah, that might be it, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned that I like a lot more veggies. You name it, I may have tried it and probably enjoy it. There are still some veggies that are not going to happen, well not now, maybe later.

One of the vegetables I had always thought were kind if grody were brussel sprouts. When I sold home decor, someone had decorated with them and I thought, that’s the only thing that should be done with brussel sprouts!

About a year ago I was at a party and someone had brought seasoned, grilled sprouts and they were delicious! After that, I started eating brussel sprouts, seasoning and then frying on the stove top, just in olive oil, not deep fried, don’t know how that would be, although a lot of things taste better deep fried, right?

There have been a few times over the last year that I’ve cooked sprouts and really liked them and others, not so much. Tonight, I cooked a bag of seasoned sprouts in the microwave, one of those cook in the bags veggies and they tasted off, bitter, nothing made them taste good and they smelled funky and doesn’t smell have a lot to do with it?

If you have a suggestion on a good way to cook them, please let me know.

Ok, so I am on a brussel sprout break right now, I’ll keep you posted if things change.

Kids up through kindergarten age don’t know how lucky they are!

Babies and toddlers take naps, preschool, kindergarten, they take naps, some are forced, but they take naps. We drive our kids around to get them to fall asleep, we push them in their strollers on a walk around the neighborhood hoping they’ll fall asleep. Once they fall asleep, we leave them in the car seat, the stroller, wherever they are, that’s where they sleep, we check on them and get them when they wake up.

As we get older, we fight sleeping, taking naps, we are kicking and screaming, well, toddlers fight it, but as we grow up, we begin to appreciate the value of a nap. We call them different things…cat naps, cats have the right idea, power naps, that would be for the corporate set. When you’re tired, a quick 20-30 minutes can do a world of good.

I totally value a nap! Especially a good one, when it’s bad or not restful, you feel like crud the rest of the day, not good, but when you have a good one, oh man…aahhhh… Imagine the prefect setting, for you, of course. For me, one of the best is in the fall, windows open, there’s a slight breeze and you’re on the sofa with a light blanket, sun shining; maybe you’re in the mountains in a cabin, the sunroom, maybe the bedroom, but on top of the covers with a light blanket covering at least your feet, sigh. I remember the first time I came to Colorado for a friends wedding and I was at the hotel, on this big comfy bed, window was open and I laid down and was out like a light, never felt better!

The best thing is to wake up on your own, just stretch out and open your eyes and you’re smiling. Wouldn’t you agree?

The worst…when the phone rings or someone wakes you suddenly, are you not in the worst mood for the rest of the day? Or a good chunk of it? Guess what happened to me today…I was feeling a little sleepy, so I decided to rest my head for a moment and just as I began to doze off, the phone rings, it’s a recruiter, great! something worth waking up for…until he told me the rate on the job, I got up for that? That was the end of my lie down, bummer, oh well, there’s always tomorrow, right?

Have you, those that are searching/have searched, found that searching for a job can feel like a full time job?

When you’re looking for a job while you have a job, you try to find pockets here and there where you can search during the day, maybe you don’t have internet at home or you work from home and you search after hours, but still need to respond to emails when you can, sometimes take a call from a recruiter during the day.

It can be exhausting, especially if you’re not happy, so you’re being drained at work and then you have to look for postings online, used to be in the paper, well, you could still look in the paper, but the most popular way today is online. And it’s exhausting!

I was doing that during my last full time job, shhh, don’t tell. I would search on my personal laptop when I would take breaks talk to recruiters when they would call and after I moved to Colorado, since I kept my east coast hours, I was able to do a lot after 3pm MT, I would ask recruiters to call me after 3.

When you don’t have a job, you spend all day or at least a good part of it searching job boards, applying for jobs, answering emails from recruiters. Then you wait to hear back from them, send emails or call to follow up, is there any progress, are there any updates with the job/project/contract.

It’s amazing how exhausting it can be to search the net when you really don’t have anything else to do, haven’t you found that to be true as well? You’re on the net and all of a sudden, it’s three hours later and you’re not sure what you were doing, but you’re exhausted!

Is there a rule or tally board somewhere that says “You may sleep in” “You may not”.

Apparently my cats are privy to this determination and I was not informed, they are just in charge. As some of you may know. I don’t sleep, well, I can’t say at all, I sleep 4-5 hours a night, sometimes more if I’m lucky, just sometimes can’t sleep. Then there are the nights I am forcing myself to sleep at 4 or 5am, if I don’t need the sleep, I just don’t.

When I was a kid, I used to love to sleep, not sure what happened well, I do, but I’m not sharing. I’ve always been able to survive on a little sleep and then when I need to catch up, I do. I might take a nap, you know I’m really tired if I take a nap, but sometimes a nap is a wonderful thing, kindergartners really know what they’re doing. Other times, I might sleep in on Saturday until 11 or later, I’ve been known to sleep until noon or one, heaven!

For the longest time, I have been getting up about 6am or earlier, for work or a scheduled run, that includes weekends. For some reason, if I don’t have to get up on a Saturday or Sunday morning, I might get to sleep until 8 or 9, ooh, hold yourself back. I have found that a lot of the reason I am up so early on the weekend or maybe a weekday I don’t have to work…mewing, meowing and scratching at my bedroom door. What?!?

When I got Jymy, I let her sleep in bed with me, big mistake, she never quiets down, she walks over the bed and doesn’t stay in one place, this is all my fault and nothing has changed in over ten years. So now when it’s time for bed, “Ok Jymy Peanut, it’s time for bed” or “night nights” (who knows why that one works) and they leave the room to go and do what cats do, sleep, chase each other, their tails, whatever it is they do and the door gets closed.

It is rare that they, I should say Jymy , will bother me in the middle of the night, but it does happen, but for some reason anywhere between 6 and 9am, she thinks it’s time to meow and scratch and mew at the bedroom door, wth? I am sleeping, I would like to stay sleeping, but that is not to be the case and when I open the door and walk out of the bedroom to see what the problem is…NOTHING! There’s no fire, Peanut is fine, Timmy did not fall down the well…what is the problem? She then runs around and lays down for a belly rub, what?

Are there kitty Valium or sleeping pills? Nothing harmful, just something to let me sleep past 9 on a Saturday or Sunday? There will be loving, cuddling and belly rubs when I wake up. Please…Wish me luck tomorrow!

Hi friends, it’s been a while since I’ve updated you on my physical therapy.

It’s changed a big, some things are the same, then we added new. Is say new, like I have anything to do with it!

So…we started with heat, massage and electrodes using a Tens Unit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcutaneous_electrical_nerve_stimulation.
I can tell you, there isn’t as much “wow” and “oh my!” When the massage is happening!

Then we added traction, laying there getting my neck pulled and released, pulled and released, so now we have heat, massage, electrodes and traction. Then we added a foam roller, now I have one at home, I really need to use it more, I also have a portable Tens Unit, that feels good when I use it.

Then we added ultrasound, so we have heat, ultrasound, massage, more heat, electrodes and traction (those two were in tandem, multitasking).

We have since discarded traction as I have a short neck, apparently, and kept sliding out of it. So…now we have heat, ultrasound, massage, electrodes and heat again (together), for twenty minutes (lions and tigers and bears, oh my!). Today we added resistance bands, (lat pulls and rows, standing and sitting) and doorway push ups, sort of.

And in answer to your unasked question, some days are better than others, I do know that when it am getting my neck and shoulders massaged, it does a number on my arm, then it goes away, I doubt it’s psychological just for being there! I don’t wear the braces anymore and I think that helped a lot.

Another update in a few weeks.

Are you on Linked In? (Or is it in Linked In?)

Do you get random connection requests? There have been time I must admit, I accidentally have sent a connection request, what I can’t understand is why the person accepted, if they don’t know me. Is it to have as many connections as possible, like friends on Facebook?

I get random requests all the time, sometimes it’s from a recruiter, before they even contact me or a recruiter that works with the one I have been working with, some I don’t even know why they’re contacting me, just because I am a software trainer and trained in this field, doesn’t necessarily mean I want to connect with you, isn’t Linked In for professional connections? Then if we connect, do something…

If you’re a recruiter and reach out then try to recruit me, what are you waiting for?

I have had people that I worked with as a client, maybe I trained them or was their project manager, that i get, but some random person from that company I didn’t work with, huh?

I also wonder what people are thinking by the profile pics they add, pictures with your spouse and kids? I don’t think so, that’s for Facebook, not a networking site for professionals. Or why would you not have a picture there at all? It helps when someone can recognize your face, if they can’t remember your name.

Maybe I’m just skeptical, but…I’ve been contacted by recruiters who have found me there and I know a lot of people who have gotten jobs from someone seeing their profile, resume, skills and job history on Linked In.

I update on a regular basis, so recruiters, here I am, you who! If we worked together, went to school together, actually know each other as friends, maybe we met through someone, please send me a request, I’d love to accept, see what you’re up to and help you if I can.

But if you don’t know me, please don’t send me a request just because you’re bored. (I’m sorry if that was harsh)

Hulu or Netflix…that is the question. Whether it’s nobler in the mind to suffer…through commercials.

Sorry, couldn’t resist. I do love me some Shakespeare, oh boy that was awful!

Do you remember when Netflix first premiered? (1997, a lifetime ago!) You could get DVDs delivered to your door, two at a time! Sometimes it was more convenient than going to Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, any number of places. But, you had to wait for the movie to arrive, sometimes it took weeks and then you couldn’t get the new movie until they received the old one back, but their hook…no late fees, big plus! Things have changed, you can still get movies delivered and now, you can watch instantly, (streaming).

Netflix was a good deal when it first came out, you paid per movie, then you could pay a monthly fee for the streaming and having movies delivered. Then the stink, they were going to charge $7.99 for streaming AND $7.99 for shipping movies, just as before, huge blowup, who’s going to do both? They lost a lot of customers at that point. I was ok with the $7.99 for streaming, but not paying the additional for DVDs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix

Then came Hulu, a way to watch TV and movies, hmmm…similar to Netflix? A little. The difference is that Hulu will have TV show episodes on sometimes the same night after the show has aired, maybe a few days or a week later, Netflix may not have the episode for a month or longer.

Now, the hook with Hulu is that you don’t have to have an account to watch the basics, Netflix you do, you can get a month free, but that’s it, Hulu, you can watch anytime. Now, their bigger hook is that if you want to watch past seasons and some specific shows, you need to have an account, $7.99 for a premium account is not so bad.

Let me tell you…when I didn’t have cable for all those years, Hulu and Netflix got me through! I could watch old movies and TV shows and I was happy, no channel surfing, but I got by. I do have to say that some of the movies on Hulu I don’t get some really old, some really odd, not saying Netflix doesn’t have the same thing, but Hulu’s selection is really odd, well to me anyway and if you know me, you know that’s saying something!

Here is my one BIG, HUGE issue with Hulu…WHY OH WHY ARE THERE COMMERCIALS?!? This is with a paid account, why do I have to watch commercials? I could watch regular TV if I wanted to watch commercials! Sometimes, if you’re watching on your PC, it gives you an option to watch one commercial in the beginning and the rest of the show, sometimes the entire time you’re watching, no commercials, but that is very rare! And I watch on my iPad, phone, even the wii, still have commercials! Argh!

Explain why I am paying premium and still have to watch commercials.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulu

(Shh…I got a Hulu account to watch something specific, I would love it if I could remember and a friend of mine has a Netflix account, we swapped account info and we have the best of both worlds, shh don’t tell!)

I do have to say that one of the things i love about these services/apps is that I have found some shows that I may never have been exposed to otherwise and I love to find a show (I think I’ve told you this before) and watch every episode from the beginning so I don’t have to wait week to week, that’s a plus. (I don’t always like to wait, go figure!)

So, the question remains…Hulu or Netflix…luckily, I don’t have to choose!