The dictionary defines retirement as “To withdraw from one’s occupation, business, or office; as for rest or seclusion.” My dad though, who retired last fall for the fourth time, has apparently redefined the concept of retirement to include ski trips out west, hunting up north, sailing around the leeward islands in the Caribbean, taking exercise classes, sitting on the Rotary board and taking ground school at the local airport, among several other activities. Most recently (yesterday), he competed in the Kortelopet— a 23 kilometer cross-country ski race held in conjunction with the Birkebeiner—which he decided to try for the first time at the tender age of 60. Why not? Despite numerous unanticipated hills, he finished 17 minutes ahead of his 3-hr goal time. Aside from the fact that he is making the rest of us look like slugs (except for JenO, Ironwoman/bride-to-be extraordinaire), we are very proud of him. I can still beat him in Taboo though.
Archive for February, 2006
Is ‘over-achieving retiree’ a contradiction in terms?
Sunday, February 26th, 2006
I wooted!
Friday, February 17th, 2006Truth be told, I actually wooted in December, but I’m finally getting around to mentioning it. Woot is a site that sells one item every day, usually at a good price. They also write hysterically funny blurbs about each product and have a blog, purchase stats, contests, and podcasts. Good stuff. Anyway, they start selling at midnight, and if it’s a cool product it can sell out in a couple hours—i.e. 2 a.m.—which works fine for their target demographic of geeky teen-to-30s aged men. When they put up the TR4000 Breadman Ultimate Dream Bread Machine for $69 though, their market did not bite and I was able to get one mid-morning. So far I’ve tried wheat bread, french bread, cheese & onion bread, salsa bread and pizza dough and all have worked out pretty well, except for the salsa bread which was a complete and utter disaster. It’s possible that was user error though, since I accidentally added an extra 1/2 cup of water. =\ Anyway, great machine, great site. If you’re up at midnight, check it out.
JenO’s Birthday Post
Saturday, February 11th, 2006Big hugs to JenO, who celebrated her 30th birthday yesterday. She’s currently on one of her whirlwind tours for work and celebrated her birthday night in Bucharest with partner employees of Intrax. From there it’s off to Bulgaria, Vienna, Belgrade, Prague… the list goes on.
I had given Jen and Anil personalized stamps for Christmas and they’ve decided to use them on their Save the Date cards, so for her birthday she got more stamps. Not all of them were printed, but here’s the lot of them. Oh, and one more. I went through PhotoStamps but there are a couple companies that are licensed to print them. If you have a Mac, they have software you can download for free and it works in conjunction with iPhoto to make this just about the easiest process ever, once you choose the photo. Makes for a fun gift!
I get by with a little help from my friends
Wednesday, February 8th, 20062006 started out a little on the rough side. After a few days of lamenting I called in the support crew. Heartfelt thanks go out to…
- Stace, who without hesitation booked a plane ticket to Madison to spend a long weekend, bringing with her much laughter, sunny skies and cheer. We took in a good movie, ate at the Old Fashioned with Jody and Jen (awesome Mac & Cheese!), shopped for sweaters and cute shoes, chatted over lots of coffee and made pizza which rivaled Paisans’. (And as a follow-up, she sent me flowers on V-Day.) Best. Friend. Ever.
- The college roomies – Carleen, Julie and Renee, who all showed up in black at CocoLiquot and feasted with me on way too much good food. The restaurant employs a chocolatier and the desserts were amazing to look at and even better to eat.
- Jenny, Eileen, Cindy, Nick and MFR at work for the lunches, understanding, special treats and happy hour. Even though the bar wasn’t open and the organizer forgot he had other plans that night. ; )
- Bill for the always lively conversations, invitation to Seattle, and locating Mr. Right and Mr. Right Now.
- Mark, Eric and the sucbas for fun nights at the Rath and Maharaja – after the Shahj Paneer even Lowly was satisfied!
- Kate, Jeanne and others for the good conversation and laughs over good food and vino.
- Nuka, who missed most of the lamenting phase, but gets his own bullet point for venturing to Madison and taking me to a fun party where I learned the finer points of flip cup.
- and of course my family – the parents who took me to church and out to brunch New Year’s Day and acted like they weren’t embarassed that I sobbed in public the whole time, and later invited me to eat with them, often; Jenil for the great weekend in Portland, wedding fun ahead and chocolate frogs (here they are posing with others from my collection); Jeff and Molly for the weekend in Chicago and stuffing me with all sorts of good food; and Jack for his succinct commentary about vulnerability and organized religion which, whether it was intended to or not, gave me a good laugh. And of course Dex, who watched the whole fourth season of Six Feet Under with me in one weekend and even smiled at the funny parts.
Thanks to everyone who made what could have been a dreary month much less miserable. While I’ll have to pass on some of your offers (the mafia services for instance), I humbly and happily accept others and hope someday I can return the favor!
