the one (cent) that got away

"Find a penny, pick it up. All day long you'll have good luck."

I am that person. I have probably found over ten dollars in change in my lifetime if not more. When I find a penny, I pick it up. I often find nickels, dimes sometimes quarters and even bills. Last year, in New York City, on our mission trip I found $1.22! I found eleven cents in Nashville. And while you can joke and make fun of me all you want, this change adds up.

I have an eye for change. I can quickly distinguish between a shiny wrapper and a dirty penny. The students on the mission trip teased me and told me they were going to go around Grand Rapids dropping change and then follow me with a camera to see if I got all of it. Sometimes I do wonder if someone isn't hiding, watching me pick up all of this change.

I have stopped in the middle of crossing the street to pick up a coin. Today was different. Bill and I were taking our walk as usual. As we walked across the street, traffic was busier than normal. A bus was turning out from the street and I think a car or two were waiting to turn. In a split second I saw the penny. It was down in the cracked pavement. As the bus loomed ever closer, I fought the urge to stop and pick it up. It was too much trouble to risk getting hit by the bus who probably wouldn't understand this pedestrian stopping in the middle of the street. For a penny.

But those pennies add up. And I will look for it on our next walk.

Mmm pork

I am in the process of making our dinner for tonight. It will be "Spicy Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork".

Here it is before I put it in the oven. It's a pork shoulder (4lbs) on a yellow onion, cut into wedges. The gross looking things on top of the pork are chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. I didn't even think I'd be able to find them. But I did! Right there in the ethnic aisle.

Yes, this recipe comes from the Pioneer Woman. Given my love for pork of all kinds it is no surprise that whenever I see a pork recipe, I'll try it. That includes the two pork roast recipes I have that are virtually identical. The only difference is the sauce and what they're wrapped with (one is pancetta the other is bacon -it's still the same thing).

Ever since I found this recipe my mouth has been watering. I cannot wait to taste it (trust me, I will. I don't want ecoli or whatever you can get from eating raw meat).

To go with this pulled pork, I will be making the new favorite potato salad. Did I mention that on here?? It's amazing! And what's more important is it won't make you sick if you leave it sit out too long (thanks Katrina for teaching me something new)! What's that you ask? Katrina told me that "salads" often go bad not because of the mayo, but because of the meat (cubed ham) that usually goes into the salad! While you shouldn't leave mayo out in the hot sun, leaving this potato salad out for two hours won't make you sick either.

Which is grand, because it's divine. I will try to take more pictures of our dinner before we consume it. I cannot guarantee anything.

Taco Tuesday

We used to have "Taco Tuesday" all the time. Our friend Heather O. would come over after work, we would take a walk and then have dinner. Often it was tacos. We enjoyed that and haven't really done it since she moved (*tear*) almost two years ago!

A week ago we had Jen and Amelia over. This week we decided to invite Tricia and Colin over (Colin was a sometimes guest at the previous Taco Tuesdays) because Colin said offhandedly that he missed Taco Tuesdays. We realized that we did too! After our dinner guests last week, it was an even stronger feeling. Maybe we'll keep inviting guests over every week (but probably not because the first and third weeks of the month are my "busy" weeks we just got lucky because March has five Wednesdays and Thursdays so I got an extra week "off").

We are having tacos.

And root beer floats. Because they sounded good.

Be a tree

I wrote the following for Ash Wednesday. As I mentioned here, I saved it for another day. Today is that day because I can't think of anything else to blog about... I modified it slightly.

Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lent. As United Methodists we are encouraged to give up or do something new for the period of Lent. We're not hard core (like the Catholics), but we do it to remind ourselves of the sacrifice.

In past years I've given up coca-cola, sugar, and coffee (that was before I really started drinking it, not as much of a challenge then as it would be now). I have done Bible studies, prayed for specific time periods, done daily devotionals and more.

This year, I decided to do yoga every day. It's probably not too much of a stretch (ha!) since I already do yoga three times a week. However, since Lent started while we were in Nashville, I realized this could be a bigger challenge then I expect.

I've been thinking all winter that I could do yoga every day, yet I've only managed to do it after our walks. I have found that when I make small goals, I achieve them. I know I can do this, and having the pressure of Lent can't hurt. It may become a habit, or not. Since I started doing yoga four years ago, I have done it off and on. I typically keep at it during the winter, only to get too busy in the summer. Or there was the summer I was a counselor at camp and hurt myself. I didn't do yoga after that for a long time (although it probably would have helped).

So far I have somehow managed to do some form of yoga on the weekdays. I never specifically said whether I would do yoga on Saturdays. So far I'm one for three on Saturdays, but since I didn't specify, I won't be too hard on myself.

F1 2011 season

I'm not a huge sports fan. I like hockey (Go Red Wings!), baseball (Go Cubs!) and football (Go Lions, Colts, and... whoever else I feel like rooting for -never the Cowboys). I like soccer, but never watch it. I like the Olympics which is every two years.

The one thing we don't miss are the Formula One races, aka F1. This is more of a "European" sport [racing] than American. "We Americans" are more in love with Nascar, which frankly I don't understand at all. And yes, I did grow up in Indiana where basketball and racing are religions (separate just like Catholicism and Protestantism).

In college, my good friend Jesse (male) introduced me to F1. Who knew three years later when I met Bill that we would find a common interest in Formula 1. It's not like Indy racing or Nascar in that the circuits are complex, not just four left-hand turns many hundreds of times. F1 has lots of rules (which honestly does make it complicated especially because the Stewards can change the every year -which they do), but there have also been many advances in racing and cars in general due to the technology from F1.

I could go on about the technology, how we saw a race live in Indianapolis and watched one of the cars crash right in front of us, how it's more of a gentleman's race, or how loud it is. But we've recorded the first race of the season (Australia) and it's time to watch it.