From an article by Newsweek - Dance!

"Take up the tango.
Staying active and learning new skills can help prevent dementia. In a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that people who ballroom-dance, an activity that provides a lot of intellectual stimulation (keeping in rhythm, memorizing steps, not mashing your partners' toes), have a lower risk of dementia."

View Article here:
New Years Resolutions

Dance Again

My 8 weeks of crazy class schedule are over! Maybe I'll get to go to dance classes again!
Belly Dancing, Tango - oh, the opportunities :)

Freezing in here!

This time I am not just cold - I can actually see my breath.

My furnace went out last night and right now the thermostat is reading lower than 40, which is the lowest reading that it will show.

My furnance guy has half of my furnace right now - he said - "Wow, this motor probably hasn't been replaced since this furnance was installed!" I have a very old furnace - it's 25 years old.
There is this fan attached to the motor that is supposed to spin freely and it wasn't spinning at all.

Sometimes house ownership has it's inconveniences and costs!! My theory is - if you have to have the part, they can charge more for it because you HAVE to have it - they know that if I didn't fix the furnance, I'd be camping out elsewhere for the winter!

CooCoo keeping warm:



Update:
Repairman came back - the furnace is now producing heat and it is above 50 degrees in my house!

Mostly Good News

Good News:
Perfect Score on 2 complicated programs that I submitted last week
Final Day of Semester
Figured out problem with my computer was the power supply (I hope) - looks good so far
Looks like I've got all my data - even though I had to reinstall - thank goodness for the flexibilty of our newer operating systems and my partitioning self - who knew I would actually care (mp3s & my programs folks) - I could go on into a story but maybe you can imagine
Got the movie "Superstar" back from my brother so I can watch it over Christmas break - shhhhhh
Almost have him convinced that I'd really like a wireless router for Christmas :) - (sha right) and I now have some ideas for him
Getting my speakers working after a bit of tweaking
Listening to awesome music that I bought while in Toronto earlier this year
Almost sleep time

Bad news:
Forgetting most of Ch11 including the Huffman tree structure - a 14 point question on the final - grrr who knew - probability is not for me - that's for you!


Oh, my machine isn't rebooting? *smiles*

2 more weeks until Christmas

Hi Guys,
Can you believe that there are only 2 more work weeks until Christmas?

Including today that is only 10 more days of work until the Christmas weekend. Crazy - seems like we just finished Halloween - time has been going by so fast...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Guys!

Send me some awesome dip recipes! Please - Christmas oriented might be cool, or something with real chicken in it!
I'll post the dip recipe we use, regardless. It's for a party this Friday.

Now back to madness..thanks :)
Cheerio!

Hard to ignore...

Saddam's trial is hard to ignore. His face has been on the front page of MSN every day lately.

Yesterday, I took a few minutes to read the news about his trial. One thing stood out to me from what I've read collectively is that Saddam argues continually that he is being judged by American rules. This must be a hard thing for the jury to consider when reviewing the evidence.
In other countries, especially the underdeveloped, they have very different cultures, ideas, rules, and values. Some things that are shocking to us may be part of life in other country.
For this reason I can understand what Saddam must be thinking. He is probably thinking that he did what was required to stay powerful and in control in his country - to ultimately keep his country from falling apart. He put fear into the people, so they would act as he wanted.
Even so, I believe that the horror of some of the acts that Saddam and his followers have committed go beyond culture. The pain that he has caused to the people who he chose to dominate can never be taken back - especially, to the children. Why hurt the helpless?
Now that we have him here, I can't think as to what the next step should be. Guess we'll find out his fate soon enough.

Hot Tea

It was 66 in class tonight, freezing - I swear I was literally thawing out when I got home. I made some Thai soup & tea though - Yummy.

Wish

I wish that my cell phone would accept meeting invitations! :)
Now, that, would be cool. Hmmmm, I wonder if a text message sent to my phone can be saved as a reminder.

More toothy METAL and more snow!

So, after I got my tooth filled the other day it was all painful and kind of sharp so I went back to the dentist - TWICE. I had my teeth drilled TWICE... (this was not stolen from Art Brut, no accusations - I was really drilled 3 times, just 2 times when I was numb!)
Anyway, so I was having a discussion just now about metal spoons. Now that I have more metal in my mouth it is possible that a magnetized spoon will have more effect on my teeth, should I find one. Right? I was asked where one might find one of these magnetized spoons, and I imagine you could find one in your kitchen drawer.

Has anyone ever been affected by an a magnetized spoon?

Looks like tomorrow might be a good day for snowshoeing if this weather keeps up.

Attn Outdoor Enthusiasts

There is lots of stuff coming up at Beaver Lake in December & January including some moonlight snowshoe walks... I wonder if it will be nice enough this weekend to go out for a walk there.
I haven't checked the other sites yet, but I know I will definetely be getting out snowshoeing & skiing soon! (snow is coming)

Ernie's Ears

I think that Ernie might have an ear infection! He keeps scratching his left ear and shaking his head. :(
When he was really small I had to put these drops in his ears and he would shake his head spraying medication everywhere!
Ack, I hope he gets better so we don't have to go through that again...

Tis the season to be busy

A lot has been happening lately...

Coworker Moving On
This week the reality set in - three weeks ago one of the people whom I've worked with very closely every day decided to persue another career opportunity. I know he will do a great service at his new job and I'm glad to have had the opportunity to work with him. He took the time to go through everything he could with us before he left and we had a happy hour and lunch dedicated to the cause. I wish him the best of luck and share his excitement in his new opportunity.

Thanksgiving Holiday
This year I had thanksgiving dinner at my father's house. I had to stay close to home because I was on call, so it was much easier that way - and in a way it was better because I wasn't going crazy trying to organize everything and make everyone happy. This is the first time that I remember that I have spent the holiday with my father. Of course, he made way too much food for the cause (how many loaves of bread can I actually eat - base your scale on this - we had 5 pies for 4 adults) but all in all it turned out to be really nice.
My brother also came by, and, therefore, we were all able to be some of the first to play the XBox 360. The game we played was "Perfect Dark" and it was pretty cool because you could either play against the computer (several men shooting at you) or just against someone who was in the same room with you. We were laughing so hard because the controller on the left that moves you around - if also pressed while in the moment will cause the character in the game to crouch and move around almost spider like. Very hilarious. I can see how these games can get addicting - they require a lot of skill. There were a couple times when my brother was right behind me pointing his gun at me and I didn't even know he was there. I was getting pretty good at the end - I can use ALL of the weapons *smile*.
We watched "BeWitched" that night also - a movie that I think is worth seeing once. The story is about a woman who tries to become "normal" - I can't tell you much more here because I might ruin it for you, but it is also a little about love! Awww... It's a good family movie.

Christmas Shopping / Tree Lighting / Ice Skating
I had to go Christmas shopping on black Friday - of course - it was adventurous! Actually, it wasn't as packed as I had imagined, of course, I didn't go at 5am either. After shopping, Blazer and I planned on going to the Tree lighting but with organizing everyone ended up missing the actual plugging in of the lights. I'm sure there will be other lights turning on this month though, so we'll catch some of those :) - We ended up going Ice Skating downtown, which was such a blast. They played Christmas music and we skated around the rink - avoiding the occassional stumbling child. This one girl was actually stumbling in front of me and I was going to hit her, so I swooped her up into my arms and was able to break her fall. Going skating really made my night / weekend.

Today - Drilling
I went to the dentist today and they drilled my teeth. You should ask me about the story sometime, b/c I certainly have one, but am too worn out to post about it right at this minute! Burning tooth enamel, spraying water, bits of metal, sharp objects ... ummm, ok, maybe you've heard enough.

Also, on another note, I've been working on C++ code every minute I get lately. I'll be finishing up my projects over the weekend, for sure.

That's it for now - I'll try to post more often!