Goal #11

Goal #11: the car.

I need a new car.  Everyone who knows me knows this.  I don't know what I'm going to figure out this week, but something.

Recap of goal #10: if you are reading this, and if you have been a loyal blog reader since last Sunday, you know that I failed miserably at my goal this week of being a good blogger.

But wait!  There is good news!  I spent a few hours yesterday writing, editing pictures, eating M&Ms and drinking coffee, and writing some more, so there are blog posts planned for this week!  Your withdrawal symptoms will hereby cease.

Human Rights

There are certain things that most people can agree are human rights.  I will throw out life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as examples.  (I didn't come up with those myself.  I think somebody famous did.)  The UN has a Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which lots of folks could probably get on board with.  The UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights describes human rights as follows:

"Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status. We are all equally entitled to our human rights without discrimination. These rights are all interrelated, interdependent and indivisible."

I do not believe that the right to experiment with scent is a human right.

This clip is from an NPR story on a new trend in LA: scents.  There's a bar where people just come in and sniff and buy rare perfumes, and a lab where they can make their own.  The first voice you hear is the reporter.  The second is the gal who runs said lab.



When did it happen that whatever it is that you want to do became a human right?  That whatever you think is important became a human right?  That thing might be worthwhile or important, but that doesn't make it a human right.

The right to experiment with scent is a human right?  Really?  Truly ridiculous.

Breckenridge

My whirlwind February (yes, last month) began with a shorter-than-planned trip to Breckenridge.  But it was fun nonetheless!

Headed for the mountains!

 

I arrived on Friday after catching the early flight to Denver.  We headed off to pick up some skis and hit the slopes for the afternoon -- no sense in wasting time!  When we sat down for dinner, I discovered what the wonderful smell was that had been permeating the house all day: red beans and rice for dinner.  It was delicious and extremely filling, and it put us all directly to sleep.

In the couple of years since Peak 6 was opened for skiing, somehow I have never made it over there.  We remedied that by heading straight there on Saturday morning.  We didn't quite get what we bargained for:

It was just a wee bit foggy.

We had a slow start on Sunday, lazing around a bit before heading out to ski the late morning and early afternoon.  Some of that lazing included a trip into town for coffee and pastries, and to see the ice sculptures.  Some of my favorites:

Don Quixote

Gepetto

This is the front and back of the one we all agreed should have one, but it didn't.  (The one that did win was so weird and abstract and boring that I didn't even take a picture of it.)

The slopes were WAY more crowded than normal for Super Bowl Sunday (maybe due to the gorgeous sunshine), but it did lighten up eventually.  We skied as long as we could before we had to set off for our Super Bowl party with G and M.  I have never been to a party where there was so much food per capita, and everything was delicious!  Meats and cheese from all the land, little skewer caprese salads, fruit, veggies and dip, chips and cheese sauce, little puff-pastry-wrapped hot dogs -- and those are just the appetizers!  There were also kobe burgers and chili mac for dinner, brownies and ice cream for dessert!  When I think back about it, I am still amazed at how much I was able to consume, regardless of how many hours I spread it over.  It was incredible!

Because no trip anywhere is complete without some shopping, we managed to squeeze that in at the tail end.  We drove down to Denver on Monday and did some directed wandering around the home goods shops in Cherry Creek: Room and Board, Arhaus, and HW Home.

Dad drove me to the airport a bit early for two reasons: to avoid traffic and so I could try to squeeze in a GOES interview.  The process of getting in to get my interview was so tortured and unfortunate (yes, we pay these people's salaries) that I won't even recount it.  But eventually it happened, I passed the test, and I headed home.

What I Read -- The Amateurs

I read The Amateurs in its entirety when I was on vacation.  (It's short, don't get excited.)  That's why you didn't hear about it when I started.  I was on a boat trip, so I decided to read a book about boats.  Sail boats, rowing shells, po-tay-toe, po-tah-toe.

This was a story I didn't know.  David Halberstam is, believe it or not, an author I have never read.  It would have been easy to make this a boring story.  Several of his chapters start out by telling you how they'll end!  But that doesn't take away from the suspense as he takes you through a race, stroke by stroke.  (Full disclosure: I am probably more interested in this than most because of my many years of rowing.)

Beyond that, he is gifted with description of character.  Each of the rowers you meet - and it's more than just the four in the subtitle - is memorable.  Each one is a character in his own right.

Bottom line: would it be wrong to steal the Newsweek quote from the cover?  Not if I cite it, right?

Trains and Bikes

I love trains.  They're so cool.  They're powerful and efficient and great settings for stories, both true and fictional.  Some of my favorite moments biking along the Mississippi are times when there is a train running alongside us.  The whistles, the chugga-chugga, the squealing on the tracks.

Yesterday, T and I were riding home on the Riverfront Trail.  There was a train parked in the rail yard just to the west of the trail, and it was getting ready to leave.  As the locomotive lurched forward against the weight of the loaded coal cars, the weirdly electric sound of the couplings tightening echoed down the yard.  It was like a shock ran the length of the train.  Ever so slowly, the wheels began to turn.  Then, faster.

If you haven't heard it, I recommend finding yourself a rail yard.  Then race the train on your bike.

Goal #10

Goal #10: blog.

Can blogging be a goal on my blog?  How very meta.  But seriously, I owe y'all a few serious posts, but as time goes on they become less serious of necessity, because I forget things that I wanted to say.  Sometimes I forget whole movies that I saw and they never get blogged about at all.  So it needs to happen.

Recap of goal #9:  I'm so close to being caught up through this week that I'm going to count it as a win!

St. Louis Architecture

Forest Park gazebo in the snow

What I Watched -- The Art of the Steal

I think it was C who pointed me in the direction of The Art of the Steal.  However, this particular version of The Art of the Steal was not the one that I intended to watch when I requested it from the library.

I was hoping for the 2010 documentary.  Instead, I got the
2013 crime comedy.  But since I had it, I figured I might as well watch it.

It's a classic ensemble crime film -- lots of characters, each with their own personality quirks.  Everyone is double-crossing everyone else.  Somewhere in there, they steal some art.  The big game is whether you can figure out who's who before the movie's over.

Bottom line: moderately amusing, but that's all.  Certain not the serious art film I was expecting.

What I'm Reading Now -- Truman

I'm going to see David McCullough speak in just under a month.  That is about one one-millionth of the time I need to read Truman, probably his most famous and possibly his best book, but I figured I'd at least give it a go before the lecture.  So far I'm on page 21.

There are 992 pages of prose.

It started on page 15.

Goal #9

Goal #9: get caught up on my class.

I'm taking a Coursera class at the present time . . . or at least I'm supposed to be.  I'm a bit behind in the syllabus right now, so this week I'll spend a couple of evenings getting up to speed.  And then try to stay there!

Recap of goal #8: so many emails deleted, and man does it feel good!  I went from about 20 pages of old emails to a page and a half.  I can probably get rid of a few more emails too, I just need to do something with the links contained therein.