To-Do or Not To-Do?

I'm the type of person who has the attention span of a gnat. This doesn't mean that I can't focus on one thing for a long period of time. It's more like my mind is so crammed full of things to think about that I can jump from topic to topic to topic so quickly that a lot of the time my thoughts appear completely random and disjointed. I tell you that it is not usually the case, and when I need to connect the dots for an unsuspecting listener, I can do so rather quickly. It rarely makes sense to anyone one else but me, but I'm okay with that. It must just be how I'm wired.

I love to-do lists. I like knowing exactly everything I need to get done. Plus, I figure it's a good way to get out on paper all of the jumbled thoughts I just described above. My lists are quite detailed at times, from making my grocery list based on the aisles in the store to even listing my tasks in the order they need to get done. You may think "duh, who doesn't?" but let me explain. Yes, it makes sense to put things in chronological order. However, I often go beyond that and list out the order I need to do things just to get to actual items on my list. Confused? Say I need to schedule an appointment to have the cable guy fix my satellite dish. The beginning of my list would look a little like this:

-Look up DirecTV phone number
-Call DirecTV to make appt.
-Write appointment on calendar

It is a little ridiculous. I think spend more time making the list than actually doing the task! That implies that I always accomplish what I've set out to do because I made a list :) Yeah, not so much. I have good intentions, I swear. I've been plagued with procrastination since childhood. I would be told to clean my room and I'd end up spending hours reminiscing as I looked through every item in my closet. Some things never change.

I've considered giving up the To-Do list, but doubt that I can survive without it. Even if nothing ever gets done, I believe it's therapeutic.

I guess I should just be happy that I feel quite satisfactory when I cross off a day on my calendar, like I've accomplished something for the day.

Yeah, I'll take that.

General thievery--and a list!

I saw this post on some random blog I came across while reading a different blog. I thought it was interesting and kind of fun. So I stole it. I'm not even going to reference it.

I have put the things on the list that pertain to me in bold.

Bought everyone in the bar a drink
Swam with wild dolphin
Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
Been inside a Pyramid
Held a tarantula
Taken a candle lit bath
Said I love you and meant it
Hugged a Tree
Bungee jumped
Visited Paris
Watched a lightening storm at sea
Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
Seen the Northern Lights
Gone to a huge sports game
Walked the stairs to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa
Grown and eaten your own vegetables
Touched an iceberg
Slept under the stars
Changed a baby’s diaper
Taken a drip in a hot air balloon
Watched a meteor shower
Gotten drunk on champagne
Given more than you can afford to charity
Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
Had a food fight
Bet on a winning horse
Asked out a stranger
Had a snowball fight
Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
Held a lamb
Seen a total eclipse
Ridden a roller coaster
Hit a home run
Danced like a fool, not caring who watched
Adopted an accent for an entire day
Actually felt happy about your life, even for a moment
Had two hard drives for your computer
Visited all 50 states
Taken care of someone who was too drunk
Had amazing Friends
Danced with a Stranger in a foreign country
Watched wild whales
Stolen a sign
Hitchhiked in Europe
Taken a road-trip
Gone rock climbing
Midnight walk on the beach
Gone sky diving
Visited Ireland
Been heartbroken longer than you were in love
In a restaurant sat at a stranger’s table and ate with them
Visited Japan
Milked a cow
Alphabetized your CDs
Pretended to be a superhero
Sung karaoke
Lounged around in bed all day
Posed nude in front of strangers
Gone scuba diving
Kissed in the rain
Played in the mud
Played in the rain
Gone to a drive-in theater
Visited the Great Wall of China
Started a business
Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
Toured ancient sites
Taken a martial arts class
Played a computer game for more than 6 hours straight
Gotten married
Been in a movie
Crashed a party
Gotten divorced
Gone without food for 5 days
Made cookies from scratch
Won first prize in a costume contest
Ridden a gondola in Venice
Gotten a tattoo
Rafted the Snake River
Been on television news program as an “expert”
Got flowers for no reason
Performed on a stage
Been to Las Vegas
Recorded Music
Eaten shark
Had a one-night stand
Gone to Thailand
Bought a house
Been in a combat zone
Buried one/both of your parents
Been on a cruise ship
Spoken more than one language fluently
Performed in Rocky Horror
Raised children
Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
Picked up and moved to another city
Walked on the Golden Gate Bridge
Sang loudly in the car and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
Had plastic surgery
Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have
Wrote articles for a large publication
Lost over 100 lbs
Held someone while they were having a flashback
Piloted an airplane
Petted a stingray
Broken someone’s heart
Helped an animal give birth
Won money on a TV game show
Broken a bone
Gone on an African safari
Had a body part below the neck pierced
Fired a rifle, shotgun or pistol
Eaten mushrooms gathered in the wild
Ridden a horse
Had major surgery
Had a snake as a pet
Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
Slept for more than 30 hours over 48 consecutive hours
Visited more foreign countries than US States
Visited all 7 continents
Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
Eaten Kangaroo meat
Eaten sushi
Had your picture in the paper
Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
Gone back to school
Parasailed
Petted a cockroach
Eaten fried green tomatoes
Read the Iliad
Selected one important author who you missed school to read
Killed and prepared an animal for eating
Skipped all of your school reunions
Communicated with someone without sharing a common language
Been elected to public office
Written your own computer language
Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
Build your own PC from parts
Had to put someone you love in hospice care
Sold your own artwork to someone that didn’t know it was yours
Had a booth in a street fair
Dyed your hair
Been a DJ
Shaved your head
Caused a car accident
Saved someone’s life

Looking at this list makes me think that while there are many things I would love to do at some point in my life (and plenty I could care less about), I have already done some exciting things in my life. It's so easy to get caught up and bogged down by the day-to-day that I often forget how great my life truly is.

"I have come so that they may have LIFE and have it to the FULL!" John 10:10b (emphasis and exclamation point mine)

Fruit Fly Eliminator

Since I mentioned fruit flies in my last post, I thought I'd share a great way to get rid of them. I know it's beginning to be really cool in most areas, but here in SoCal bugs never seem to really die.

Like most of my "ideas," I found this remedy online somewhere. Like most of my "ideas," I can never properly credit them.

Here's what I do to rid my kitchen of those annoying creatures:

I put a half an ounce or so of balsamic vinegar in a Pyrex custard dish, or any short, tiny bowl. I then cover it with plastic wrap and poke just a couple of really small holes in the top. The bugs are attracted to the acidity (I guess) and end up either drowning or being trapped inside the bowl and eventually dying in there. It's a win-win, really.

-->Don't make the holes too big or it'll be easy for them to get out. <--

I usually put it near the fruit bowl on the table or away from where I'm working in the kitchen. It works fairly quickly, too!

P.S. I've tried other acidic liquids (red wine, apple cider vinegar, etc.) and nothing has worked nearly as well as balsamic vinegar (or worked at all, really).

Something Smells Good in Here

I love to cook, but I especially love to bake. Except cookies. For some unknown reason, I cannot make good chocolate chip cookies to save my life. The dough tastes great (which is the real reason I make cookies) and the cookies usually taste fine, but somehow they always turn out really messed up. If being graded, I'd get an F on presentation.

Anyway, I get super excited when I find a recipe that is not only easy to follow but actually turns out well. I have not had much luck in this area lately. Let's just say that me and Rachel Ray's Everyday magazine aren't on speaking terms. I tried two recipes out of the latest issue, a soup and a pasta, and both tasted like onion. The pasta wasn't even the least bit edible. Since then, I've been been hesitant to try new recipes I've come across.

I apparently had bananas on my counter too long, as a new swarm of fruit flies threatened to overtake my kitchen, so I decided to toss the overripe fruit in the fridge until I decided what to do with them. Since fall has arrived, I've been in comfort food-mode and ended up making banana bread. I needed a recipe so I called my mom, who spent the next 30 minutes (while still on the phone) going through a pile of scrap pieces of paper with random recipes scrawled on them. I gave up. I turned to the Internet and was delighted at what I found.

Below is the recipe I used to make one of the most decadent banana breads I've ever had. I found it on Food Network's website. I had everything on hand and it was really simple to put together. I'm not a big nut-in-my-food person, but I did sprinkle some sliced almonds on top of the batter that ended up adding a nice, finishing flavor. But as it happened, they all ended up in the middle of the loaf, looking like a nut mohawk.

BTW--This bread smelled AWESOME as it was baking!!





BANANA BREAD

Cook Time: 60-70 minutes Yield: 1 Loaf

Ingredients
1 cup granulated sugar
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs
3 ripe bananas
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.

Cream the sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

In a small bowl, mash the bananas with a fork. Mix in the milk and cinnamon. In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Add the banana mixture to the creamed mixture and stir until combined. Add dry ingredients, mixing just until flour disappears.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Set aside to cool on a rack for 15 minutes. Remove bread from pan, invert onto rack and cool completely before slicing.

So Good They Suck

This past Saturday proved to be the most disastrous showing in sports history. Yes, I said it.

Good thing I'm not the betting type. Although, $130 for a ticket wasn't exactly a sound investment. It's a good thing I love baseball games or it would have been a complete waste.

At the entrance gate they passed out Dodgers towels to wave in the air. We used them as napkins. However, by the 9th inning I was about ready to wave my towel in support of the team who actually showed up ready to play. But because I was decked out in a Cubs t-shirt and jersey, I refrained.

At least the Dodger Dogs were good!

(In all fairness, I would naturally root for the Dodgers had they not been playing the Cubs. I would like to see them go the distance this year, if possible. That is, if there are no goats in their history.)

Fall Has Arrived

I love this time of year. The weather is crisp, the trees are turning all sorts of beautiful colors and the air just smells good. It is one of my favorite times of year.

Too bad I rarely get to enjoy any of those things anymore!

Now fall consists of the temperature often reaching the 80s and 90s, brown, dry vegetation waiting to be consumed by wildfires, and air that you can, well, see.

Okay, so it's not really that bad. Can't complain about wearing tank tops and flip-flops all year. But I do miss the falls in the Midwest. For many people I know, it signals that it is finally time to break out the sweaters and head outside for some pick-up football games. That is, when no one is crowded around the game showing on TV.

However, I know that fall is really and truly here when I find myself getting caught up in the most magical time of year. That's right: Baseball playoffs. After 162 regular season games, it's time for 8 teams to fight to the death for bragging rights for the next year. Hopefully this year will provide us with a World Series worthy of our patience during the entire season. In some of our cases, we've been patient for the last century. It's time.

It's all so exciting--I can hardly contain myself! Go Cubs Go!!!!!

Oh Dear...

I was briefly looking over my pathetic little excuse for a blog and realized something that I think I’ve always known about myself but willfully ignored. My writing “voice” and my speaking voice sound nothing alike! Or do they? I hope not. I fear that when I write I may sound a bit, um, pretentious. Okay, maybe a lot. But I swear I don’t mean to sound that way!!! I really and truly believe that what comes out on paper is what was naturally flowing in my mind. I honestly can’t help it, without doing some serious editing afterwards. Maybe there is some great divide between my think-and-speak section of my brain and the think-and-write part. (Whether I think before I speak is a whole different topic, and if put to a vote, I’m sure it’d be a resounding ‘no’.) Then again, I am pretty certain that on occasion I end up speaking in the same manner in which I write, much to the chagrin of those having to listen. Do I sound like an idiot? And how often? I have been told that I can be confusing. Was that just a nicer way of telling me to shut up, no one understands, and please sound like a normal person?

I am very disconcerted by all of this. I mean, discombobulated. I mean— Oh dear...

I give up.