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Author: Brad (Page 2 of 1221)

Intolerable Ingredient

I went to church early yesterday so I could get some things ready before church started. I needed a little pick-me-up, so I stopped at 7-11 to get a chocolate milk. It was Fairlife brand, which always tastes a little funny, but that was all they had, so I got it anyway.

I was subbing for confirmation class, but my mouth felt weird, so right before it started I got a cup of coffee. It didn’t help. My mouth still was weird. All through church there was a weird metallic taste in my mouth.

Then I realized what had happened. I missed the fact that the label said 50% less sugar, which meant artificial sweetener. I looked on the ingredient list. Sure enough:

Sucralose. Ugh. The weird aftertaste was in my mouth all day long. It was still there when I went to bed even. Yuck.

Metals Must Match

In my hallway bathroom, the knobs on the cabinets were all different – three different cabinets, three different knobs. And none of the knobs were oil-rubbed bronze, which is what the shower hardware is. Yikes! I can’t have brushed nickel with oil-rubbed bronze. In my bathrooms, metals must match.

Yesterday, I replaced the knobs. Here are the before and after shots:

The screw for the knob was too long for the wall cabinet. I went to Lowe’s and got a replacement, but I didn’t get it on until late at night, so I didn’t take a final “after” picture of that…

Resting and Reconnecting

The eighth graders didn’t have to go to school yesterday, and I am so glad. I slept as late as I could, then went out to the couch and continued to rest.

I got caught up with school emails, unpacked my luggage, and cleaned my garage a little, because I’m going to do video-call training with my old trainer. Yay! I really need the exercise. I had an organizational meeting with her yesterday. We’ll start for real on Monday.

I’ve been trying to get some equipment. At first I got kettle-bells from a sporting goods store. I saw some for sale at Ross, and they were so much cheaper I took the sporting-goods-store ones back.

Today will be another rest day. And maybe an errand day.

DC Trip Day 6

We started the day yesterday by stopping at a souvenir store. The people inside were kind to us mobbing their store. It was early, so we were the only ones there. They gave us 10% off! Cool!

Our main stop for the morning was the 9/11 memorial museum. It was quite well done, and great for the kids to learn more about, but I didn’t like walking through it. It was difficult.

The museum is deep underground, down where the building was anchored into the ground.

They talked a little about the construction of the building.

But it was mostly about the events of 9/11. It was a little dim in there. I had some trouble reading the placards. Here’s the metal cross from the rescue site. I recognized it, so I took a picture:

These tissue dispensers were scattered around. I could understand why. It was an emotional place:

The old footprints of the two buildings are inverted fountains now. We looked at them, but only briefly, because it had started to rain:

After that, we got back on the bus and headed to the airport. It was a difficult check-in, because we had to pay for checked baggage, and there was a problem with the computer, and when we went through security, they didn’t just have the kids go through the metal-detector, they went through the scanner, and a bunch of them did it wrong and had to be searched, and one girl was crying because she got searched extra-thoroughly and felt weird and scared about the person’s hands all over her. Stupid government.

Our flight went well (and fast it seemed) and we were back in California again. What a crazy fun trip. I’m glad we don’t have school today. I will be sleeping as late as I possibly can.

DC Trip Day 5

Yesterday started with a beautiful sunrise. I had time to appreciate it because our meeting time was only normal-early and not early-early.

Our first stop was the One World Trade Center. I’d never been to it, so I was excited to go. The elevator ride to the top was a little disorienting because the walls were all screens, and there was a lot of visual stuff going on. I ended up looking at the floor. Heh. But the view at the top was amazing:

We drove around a lot and had a tour guide narrate. It was really interesting. I didn’t take any pictures though.

Our next stop was Central Park. It’s early spring in New York, so the crocuses and forsythias were blooming. So beautiful! We also stopped to admire some man-made sights, like this cool fountain:

After that, we got on the Staten Island ferry. We just rode there and back, so we could see New York from the water. It was cool. We also passed by the Statue of Liberty.

We ended the evening with New York pizza:

And a Broadway show. We saw “Wicked”. It was a fun day 🙂

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