Blog Post Overload

Yes it's been a little while since I've posted.

However, you can get your dose of blog post overload over at Jessica's blog.

She did a great job of covering everything we've been up to.

The Best Sandwich, EVER!

The sandwich to which I am referring is the cold turkey sandwich. However, this isn't your typical cold turkey sandwich, it is THE cold turkey sandwich. The sandwich of all sandwiches.

Ordinarily one enjoys this sandwich immediately after Thanksgiving. As many of your know, we spent our Thanksgiving in Southern Utah so we didn't get to enjoy homemade Thanksgiving dinner.

Well we had a gift certificate and come coupons for a turkey and we picked one up after Thanksgiving. Since it was going to be free I got us as much turkey as I could for free and we ended up with a 21.5 lb turkey! We cooked it up right nice on Sunday and had a small Thanksgiving dinner.

The best part happened Monday for lunch, the cold turkey sandwich. I look forward to this sandwich all year long. Everyone has their own way of making the sandwich and I have to say all those ways are wrong.

There is only one way to make the cold turkey sandwich, Miracle Whip (trust me, it's essential), lots of cranberry jelly, and ample amounts of turkey.

So far I've enjoyed three cold turkey sandwiches and there are many more to enjoy. If you don't believe me that it is the best sandwich I'll make you one.

This is 100

Wow, phenomenal isn't it? This is post #100 for me on my blog. I thought there'd be more fanfare. You probably thought there'd be something more exciting. Well...Are you ready for this?

I bet if you squint hard enough fireworks will shoot out of your computer.

Did it work?

UPDATE: Apparently this post is boring and it sucks. Jessica started reading it and didn't finish. She said "I got bored". Hmmmmmm...

Green Christmas Ideas

As wonderful as this time of year is and how great Christmas is, it must be the most wasteful holiday of the year. Everyone is exchanging gifts (more products produced for this time of year) that are no doubt boxed up and wrapped, sometimes shipped, sometimes delivered in person. All of these things equal waste.

This has been on my mind as I have been preparing for the holidays. I have been contemplating what I can do and what I can help others do to reduce our impact during this time of year. I recently found an article in a Wild Oats magazine that I picked up last time I was there, and I wanted to share some of the ideas:

-Conventional wrapping paper (especially extra-glossy & metallic papers) can't be recycled a lot of the time. Use newspaper, paper grocery bags, or even canvas bags as wrapping instead. Many of these alternative wrappings can be colored or decorated to look festive. (This will also save you some cash. How much do spend on the wrapping that is just going to get ripped apart and discarded?)
-The first idea often doesn't feel very "holiday". If you feel you must use festive wrapping paper reuse papers, ribbons, gift bags, boxes, etc whenever you can. When buying new paper avoid metallic and extra-glossy paper, and buy recycled paper whenever possible.
-Instead of shipping packages (especially heavy packages) purchase gift cards or something local for the recipient.
-Avoid products with excess packaging or better yet give a homemade gift or a baked gift in a reusable tin or container.

Implementing some, or all, of these ideas isn't hard and every little bit helps. I am far from perfect as I have purchased gifts this year online and am having them shipped to our house. All it takes is everyone doing at least a little. I am, however, wrapping all of our gifts in newspaper and other papers, bags, and boxes we have saved from previous occasions.

What are other ideas that some of you have for reducing our impact during this time of year?

Here I sit, still at work

The office is completely dead, yet I'm still here, what can you do though? Hopefully leaving soon. Sometimes things take longer than expected and it's unfortunate that it has happened on a Friday.

It has been nuking all day so that should make for an interesting drive home. Tonight Jessica got a babysitter for us so we can go climbing at the gym together. After that we'll be cleaning the house and getting stuff ready for Penelope's birthday party tomorrow.

The new snow will be extremely beneficial for skiing at Alta! This is going to perhaps be the best first birthday ever (who else got to go skiing on their first birthday?)

Christmas Came Early

Well sort of...The stuff I won from the Backcountry.com Adventure Contest finally arrived. The crazy/best part is it all arrived on the same day!

I scored a new ski helmet, goggles, and sunglasses from Smith (although the sunglasses weren't in the box). I've had the same ski helmet for about five years now. It is a super old design, have practically no ventilation, and it made me look awfully funny. The goggles are super rad. They are the new I/O. The goggles feature a design that is truly interchangeable. I am very excited to get out and give the new headwear a whirl.

I also got some nice "casual" shoes from Montrail. They are super comfy and it will be nice to have a pair of shoes to wear that aren't either Chacos or trail running shoes. Although I still prefer Chacos to anything.