Kombucha

 Have you tried it?

I am in the midst of a love/hate relationship with it right now. It's essentially a fermented Chinese tea, that I have been hearing more and more about. It contains probiotics, enzymes, polyphenols and organic acids that are supposed to promote health, well-being and balance in your body.

Their are a ton of different varieties and brands out there, but right now I have been trying different flavors in GT's Kombucha brand. A few things to note if you've never tried it but are thinking about it:

1. There is stuff floating in your drink. It looks gross, but it's actually the live culture that all of the healthy ingredients from the drink came from. I've found that if you don't think about it, you don't even realize when you've swallowed it.
2. The flavors I have tried so far have all been carbonated. Perhaps this is not really a surprise to anyone, but it was to me.
3. It has a slight smell and taste of vinegar. Nothing that strong, but it's definitely noticeable. I tend to like the flavors that have some juice in them to balance out that taste.
4. So far my favorite flavors have been the Gingerberry above and Strawberry Serenity.

I'm not sold on the health benefits yet, but I do think that it acts as a bit of an appetite suppressor and it keeps me from overdosing on caffeine from afternoon lattes :)


POST EDIT: One more thing to note. On each bottle, there is a little blurb that says, "DO NOT SHAKE". They mean it. I accidentally did this morning and I still can't open the bottle yet without Kombucha spilling everywhere!

The view from my front step when I woke up this morning...

Sure it's not the best mountain view money can buy but it's still so pretty. Also, note the moon! I think that means that I was up early, which for me is quite a feat!

Happy Friday!

Back at it

This weekend I got back into running again. It's the first time I've run since the end of 2010 and it felt really good to test out my new running gear from Christmas, which I'll cover off on in another post. I did a quick run with Charlie on Saturday, which was rough. But my run with him today was the best because Dan came along! We had never run together before and it was fun. I'm not sure that Dan would characterize it the same way, but with a regular running habit, I think he might.

My training plan for the half marathon kicks off the week of 1/31 and it has me running 11 miles the first week. Since I have not been running any, it's time to get my butt in gear.

2011 - 315 N. Goals

Last week I posted a list recapping all of the projects we were able to complete at the house in 2010. Here's a look at all of the things I'm hoping we can accomplish in 2011.

1. Paint our fence... (I referred to it's current state in this post, and it has not changed much since)
2. Hire a tree trimmer to take care of some tree branches outside of our expertise
3. Hire an electrician to remove some old knob & tube wiring that's still in our attic
4. Have insulation added to the attic roof
5. Remove wallpaper from the 2nd bedroom and paint
6. Have the remaining carpet removed downstairs and refinish all of the wood floors
7. Paint trim in dining room
8. Touch up paint in our bedroom and the sunroom
9. Paint wall under the stairs
10. Have front porch steps fixed and apply stone veneer
11. Remove rotting wood under front porch and replace with lattice
12. Install shelves in the downstairs linen closet
13. Pick out new paint colors for house exterior and paint
14. Have quote done for kitchen renovation in 2012

It's a lot, so even if we just get half of this list done I'll be happy. With a house as old as ours, I'm surprised I could keep this list to only 14 items!

Public Service Request

Dear News 1st 5,

I find the promo spot that you have been running for the past few months that announces that you now read obituaries during your morning newscasts weird and disturbing.

I know you may be lacking in the ratings, but really, obits? That's what you think is going to get people to tune in? I can understand that you want people to know about new station offerings, but seriously... obituaries month after month. It's just strange now.

I've already banned the local news (don't worry, all local stations, not just yours) from our home to avoid awkward newscasts and surprisingly frequent technical difficulties. Don't bring the awfulness into the commercial break too.

Seriously.

Stop.

Much appreciated,
A local promo spot viewer

The World in 4 Minutes

So, I'm kind of a nerd when it comes to charts, graphs and statistics. This video shows a pretty interesting visual representation of wealth and life expectancy progression throughout the world from the early 1800s to present. I thought it was cool so I'm sharing.

Ode to 2010

Thought I would do one more 2010 recap in photos to capture the year in one post (last 2010 post, I promise). It was really a fun year all together and seeing all of these photos in one place, reminds me that I should really blog more throughout the year to capture all of these events.