I like to be organized... in certain areas of my life.  I like things to have a place.  And, in my opinion, the place for emails is NOT stacked up and lost in an overflowing inbox.  The place for emails is in a folder, or in the trash bin.  I love, love, LOVE when my inbox is cleaned out and everything fits into one screen.  See below.


Don't make fun. 

Now, this doesn't mean that I delete emails.  In fact, I'm an email hoarder.  Once I've read and dealt with a message, I put it in a folder.. or a subfolder.. or a subsubfolder.  But they're out of the inbox, and that's all that matters.

Every once in a while, when open my inbox and get a little panic attack, I have to clean it up.  Which I did this morning.  Resulting in the picture you see above.

And then I'm very very happy.

I tend to be easily entertained.  That's why this series of "Things That Make Me Happy" posts exists.  And nothing is more entertaining or exciting to me than seeing a palindrome on the odometer in my car.

I'll wait for you to stop laughing... at me.

I'm not sure when my love of odometric palindromes started (yes, I know odometric isn't a word, but I like the way it sounds), but it's been a good 60,000 miles I'd say. 

I wait patiently for the odometer to tick through mile after mile until it gets to a palindrome, and then I take a picture.  And then I send that picture to Betsy.  And I get a message back that says "PALINDROME!!!", because she finds them as entertaining as I do.

It's good to have friends who appreciate your quirks.

The problem is, when you have over 150,000 miles on your car, palindromes start to become few and far between...


Don't judge me. 

Have you ever had these before?  Stacy's Pita Chips of the cinnamon sugar variety.  They are maybe the most delicious snack food ever.  And they are pita chips, so they must be healthy, right?  Ha.

They just happen to carry these little gems in the hospital cafeteria.  Lucky for me, they come in small, portion controlled bags.  Unlucky for me, I can get 17 bags of them if I dang well please.  Now I haven't done that yet, but there were certainly days when I considered it.

Lets start with the pita chip.  It's crunchy, thick in some places, but thin and chip like in others.  It has just a HINT of saltiness.  And then there's the cinnamon sugar.  It's cinnamony and sugary.  Nothing else to say about it.

When you were a kid, did you ever take leftover bits of pie crust, roll them out on a cookie sheet, spread butter on top, and sprinkle it with cinnamon sugar and bake it?  No?  Well you should have.  Because then you would have an idea how delicious cinnamon sugar pita chips are. 

They hit the sweet and salty/crunchy cravings in one package.  They are genius.  You should go buy some. 

And they make me very very happy.

I was sitting in the residents lounge, snacking on some easy mac (like, 7 minutes ago), and it reminded me of a commercial.  I love this commercial.  Mostly because it actually could be me and any one of a number of friends.  It makes me laugh.  I hope it makes you laugh too. 


Please enjoy.  I'm going to watch it a few more times before my three pending admissions arrive and all my happiness melts away.

Peace out,
Kari

I have a long standing love affair with the Toyota 4Runner.  I'm not sure when it first started, but sometime back in high school I fell in love with them.  For no particular reason.  I try to convince myself that I don't need such a big SUV (when I get a new car, in like 100,000 miles when my Camry dies).  But then I see a shiny sparkly dark metallic grey 4Runner driving down the road, and I decide that I would promise to ride my bike more places to make up for driving an SUV.  Really, I promise!

I don't like the new model though.  It's too big.  And boxy.  I like the '96-'00 model, and the '01- '09 or so.  Then again, I also said when the '01 model came out that I didn't like it... and then it grew on me.  So we'll see what I think in 5 years...

To prove how deep my 4Runner love goes, I need to show you something.  When Sarah and I drove around the country, we played a game, called the 4Runner game.  It's very easy.  If you see a 4Runner, you yell, "4Runner!", and you get a point.  Slowly this morphed into just a tally of how many we could spot.  And by tally, I mean we really kept a tally.  In our notebook titled, "Random Journey Fun".  I recently discovered this notebook while packing, and thought I should show you all the first page...

There are few things quite as satisfying as emptying out an entire pen.  Rarely does this actually happen.  More commonly, I lose a pen before I even have a chance to get through the whole thing.

But for the last two weeks, we've been in lecture all day... without our computers.  And while I'm listening to lecture (yes, I promise I actually am listening), I have to do something else.  Normally, I play minesweeper.  But since we weren't allowed to have computers open, instead I doodled.  And 8 hours of doodling for 5 straight days will burn out any pen.  Including this one:


I got this pen with my information packet when I was interviewing in Portland, OR.  They got bonus points for giving me a sweet pen.  Over the past couple weeks, I used this pen as my exclusive doodling pen.  And then, it does.  It completely ran out of ink.  I even disassembled it to make sure it wasn't just clogged!  Sure 'nough, it was empty.  Dry.  SUCCESS!!!

Talk about a feeling of accomplishment!  I owned that pen. 

I probably should get less joy out of draining a pen of all of it's ink.  But whatev.  It makes me happy.

Very very happy.

In today's installment of "Things That Make Me Happy", we're going to talk about bedroom slippers.  Specifically, MY bedroom slippers.  Because it would be strange if someone else's bedroom slippers made me extraordinarily happy...

Here are the slippers.  And I love them.  I bought these at the Nine West outlet in Boone when they were going out of business.  First of all, who doesn't love getting $50 slippers for $9.99?  And they have faux fur lining and pink suede bowties and are made of real leather.  And they are SUPER warm! 

Here's how these slippers work.  I usually take shower when I get home from the gym.  Then I get out of the shower, and put on my slippers.  I put on clothes too, but this blog post isn't about clothes.  And then, my feet stay warm.  Sometimes, I have to go out to my car.  And my feet stay warm.  Sometimes, I have to chase Wyatt because he's caught a birdie and wants to present it to me as a very sincere and yet unwanted gift.  And my feet stay warm.  Sometimes, I just sit on the couch.  And my feet stay warm.

And then, when I go to bed, I safely tuck them under my nightstand (because they'd get lost in the covers if I tried to wear them to bed...).  And when I wake up in the morning, usually to feed Wyatt whose been poking me in the face with a paw for 37 minutes, I put them on.  And my feet stay warm.

Now, slippers would seem pointless if they didn't keep your feet warm, so why is this a big deal?  Well, because I have unusually cold feet.  Well, not feet really.  Toes.  My toes are unusually cold.  Occasionally, one or two of them will turn white.  When I get back from bike rides in the cold, they are invariably ALL white.  And I can't feel them.  Even just walking around my apartment (without slippers, of course), they get super-cold. 

And these slippers prevent that unusual turn-you-toes-white coldness.  Which is excellently awesome. 

And I don't have to wash them like I would if they were socks. 

Which is okay because I only wear them when I'm clean.

And they're so toasty.

And have pink bows.

And were only $9.99!!!!

And I love them.

In 2005, I spent some time in South Africa and Lesotho (a small, landlocked country in southern Africa).  One of the things I came home with was a traditional Basotho blanket.  And I love it. 

The blankets are a common sight in Lesotho, worn in almost all occasions by most people.  They are used for bedding, clothing, and carrying children.  They bold symbolic designs and colors represent status, wealth, and trade.  They are large, made of thick wool, warm, and unique.  Mine looks like this:

When I moved into my current apartment, I had lots of things to install.  Within the first week, I hung a lot of pictures and art, a towel rack, a floating shelf, a mirror, a wine glass rack, a clothes line, and two sets of bike hooks.  To do this, I decided I needed power.

Let's be honest.  The page of "things that make me happy" was made for a post about coffee.  Because, quite simply, it makes me incredibly happy.  Coffee is probably the strongest comfort food I have.  Lucky for me, as comfort foods go, it's pretty heart healthy (as compared to, say, ice cream, macaroni and cheese, and Doritos), and relatively benign, with the exception of the whole caffeine thing. 

I like my coffee black.  Rarely do I add anything to it.  Coffee is best in it's pure form.

I drink coffee at night.  In fact, I'm drinking some right now.  The caffeine rarely keeps me up, but just having it in my hand increases my productivity exponentially.  On some nights, that still leaves my productivity pretty close to zero.  But at least I still have the coffee.

I am not addicted.  I don't like the idea of being addicted to anything.  Once every one or two weeks, I make sure to go a day without any caffeine to make sure I don't get a headache.  It's not about the caffeine!  It's about the coffee.

I want to visit Sweden.  I just read the book, "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo", which, PS, I recommend reading.  It was excellent.  But, aside from the fact that it was a good book, it takes place in Sweden, and they drink a lot of coffee.  When you visit someone, the first thing they do it put a pot of coffee on.  When you wake up, coffee goes on.  When you make dinner, coffee.  I guarantee the word "coffee" appeared in the book at least 17 times more often than "dragon" and "tattoo" combined.  I can't say with certainty that this represents Swedish culture accurately, but I'm going to assume it does.  Also, because I'm part Swedish, it just seems natural. 

I love coffee.  And just for fun, I thought I'd do a brief blog picture recap of all the places it has inconspicuously appeared before...

It's been a while since I posted about something that makes me happy.  Don't worry, it's not because things haven't been making me happy!  I'm just busy being easily entertained and forgetting to write about it.  But fear not!  In my desperate attempt to procrastinate because I have to pack, I decided to organize my desk. 

There's not much I love more than a clean desk!  It just makes me WANT to be productive!  It's not often that it actually IS clean, but when I have something I need to do, it usually ends up that way.  Either I clean it to avoid doing what I'm supposed to be doing, or it has to be clean before I can sit down and focus on work.  Those may in fact really be the same thing...

Anyway, I hate packing.  I needed to pack.  So I cleaned my desk.

I love organization.  I don't necessarily always get there, but when I do, it's bliss.  And anyone who likes organization knows that you need certain tools to accomplish it.  These can range from fancy electronics to new shelving units to lots of hooks to, in my case, yellow legal pads. 

For whatever reason, when I make lists, they get done faster when written on a yellow legal pad.  Now, there is no randomized, double blinded study to prove this claim.  But I know if there were, it would show the same thing.  My productivity goes up when the things I need to do are displayed on lined yellow paper. 

Sometimes, I forget this.  I pretend it isn't true, and spend a fruitless few months writing things down on post-it notes, in my outlook calendar, or plain old white paper.  You'd think by this point, I'd learn.  And eventually, I wander back to my true love, the yellow legal pad.  And I am once again a productive person. 

Do you see this list?  See how many things are checked off?  Some of those things have needed to be done for MONTHS!  And then they made it to the yellow legal pad, and got done.  Magic.

PS.  This "Things That Make Me Happy" post could also be about espresso glazed walnuts, because they are life changing.  But I always write about food.  Just keep them in mind.  Life changing.

I have quite a busy day planned!  It started with a trip to Lowe's, and the farmers market, and now I'm getting ready to go to a rugby game, then heading out for a run, then going to the football game (or maybe dinner with a friend... not sure yet!)!  And it's a BEAUTIFUL (although a bit warm) fall day!

So, after going to Lowe's, I decided I needed to stock up on produce for the week.  I love going to the farmers market because there are lots of interesting people, I can get basically anything I want or need, it's all local, fresh produce, and it's cheap!  Today there was a crafts festival also, and the place was crammed!  I don't think I've ever seen it so busy.  But it was definitely to my advantage, as there were all sorts of new stands I hadn't seen before (breads, cupcakes, goat cheese, chicken, tree nuts).  I'm going to try to make it a weekly outing, at least until winter :)

Today, I got squash, zucchini, three sweet potatoes, red potatoes, a couple bunches of broccoli, a dozen eggs, a loaf of fresh bread, and a huge apple muffin for under $20! 

And then, I came home and proceeded to promptly drop my brand new light bulb from Lowe's onto the floor, where it shattered into 4500 pieces.  Whoops. 

And THEN, I made a delicious egg sandwich with my fresh loaf of bread, farm fresh eggs, and a slice of cheese I already had in my fridge.  And it was delicious. 

Some (who know the medical school/residency match process, and know that it is in full swing this time of year) may think that a blog titled "matching" might be about that.  Well, this one is not.

It's about kitchen utensils.  And how much I love them.

Now, these aren't just any kitchen utensils.  These MATCH!  And are all awesome in their own individual way.  And will someday look sweet in my big stainless steel appliance filled lots of cabinet space cool back splash accented kitchenaid mixer containing kitchen.  For now, they look good in the kitchen I have. 

Why do I love these utensils so much?  And why does it matter that they match? 

Well, I love that they are all lime green... because lime green is a cool color.  And they match because I happened to get the garlic press, and then find things that were also lime green, which I just thought was cool.  I would have bought the garlic press no matter what color it was, because it's the best garlic press ever.  It just happened to be lime green, and gave me permission to buy other things in the same bold color.  And I like bold.

Anyway, here are the utensils, that match, and make me happy... because I like gadgets, because they are for my kitchen, because they are nifty, and because they are lime green.


Okay, so here's the breakdown (from left to right).

1.  Ring vegetable peeler.  This is makes me happy for so many reasons.  You don't have to hold it.  It just slips on your finger, rests in your palm, and you peel veggies by stroking them like a cat.  Although I would recommend against using this on an actual cat.  They would definitely not appreciate that. 

2.  Basting brush.  Did you know there is a difference between a basting brush and a BBQ brush?  I didn't.  I just knew that when I made peach pie the other day, I used a paper towel to brush egg across the top, and that is just not okay.  So I bought a brush, a silicone brush with a removable dishwasher safe head, from the Le Creuset factory store (which I may have to revisit soon.....). 

3.  Spatula.  There is nothing special about this spatula, except it was also on sale (umm, plus 50% off the sale price...), and was lime green, and matched my new basting brush...  And who doesn't need another spatula? 

4.  Garlic press.  Okay, seriously, this is the coolest garlic press ever.  It's big, spring loaded, and kind of like a jack for your car... little effort, lots of force.  Garlic doesn't stand a chance!  And it's lime green.  To match everything else.  Well, actually, everything else matches it... but that's beside the point.

I seem to be on a food theme for Things That Make Me Happy.  The next one will be non-food related.  Promise.

What's your favorite kitchen utensil? 

Be happy,
Kari

Last night, I was innocently sitting on my couch watching Real Housewives of New Jersey (don't judge me), when I was struck, out of the blue, with a craving for an apple festival.  It wasn't just a craving for an apple dumpling, or fresh apple cider, or warm chicken soup.  It was for the entire festival.  The smell of fall, fresh apples, corn husks, and cool air.  Sitting in the grass watching kids try to eat candy apples, and browsing the craft stands and going on hay rides, or walking a corn maze. 

I think it's because I am SOOOO ready for fall.  I love fall, for many of the same reasons I love apple festivals.  Cool weather, sweatshirts, hot coffee, changing leaves, football, apple pie.  Ohh, I can't wait for it. 

I'm not sure why apple festivals make me so happy outside all the stuff you can get at them.  Fall, in reality, signifies the coming of cold, death, hibernation, stillness.  It's a warning, for the squirrels to collect nuts, for the bears to build up some blubber, for southerners to stockpile bread and milk (oh, wait, that doesn't happen until the snow is coming...).  But apple festivals make me feel like everything is perfect.  I get all warm and tingly inside just thinking about it. 

And, if on the way home, we happen to stop and get a pumpkin spice latte, someone might have to remind me I'm not in heaven.

Based on the overwhelming response to facebook status update (the source of all worldly truths), it has become clear to me that I am not the only one who thinks that breakfast for dinner should be at least a weekly occurrence. 

I was reading CNN while at the hospital today, and read about the nation wide egg crisis that seems to be going on.  There are bacteria in our eggs, and it's making people sick!  They are recommending that to prevent this, you cook them.  I find this somewhat less than national-crisis level news, given that every restaurant menu contains, at the bottom of at least one page, the disclaimer, "Consuming raw or undercooked meat, seafood or egg products can increase your risk of foodborne illness."  Anyway, I stray from the topic.  So I was reading this story about eggs and thought to myself, "self, I think I should have eggs for dinner!  Maybe over easy would be tasty...."  It just so happens that I have many an ingredient perfect for an egg scramble.  Yum.

I still have lots of fresh veggies that my mom brought from her barn garden (as I like to call it, some day I'll explain why), and I know I'm starting to push my luck with the shelf life of some of them... So I decided to use up some home grown green pepper and tomato, throw in some onion (from the store), a little roast beef (for some protein and a little saltiness), in addition to the necessary eggs and cheese.   Add to the side a piece of whole wheat toast with some good ole PA dutch made strawberry jam, and a glass of OJ, and it's the perfect breakfast for dinner!  Unfortunately, it's not the perfect picture of it... because I use my phone because it takes about 7 steps out of the "getting the picture onto the computer" process.  Anyway, here's the end result... minus a bite of toast!

So Happy Things is supposed to be about things that make me happy disproportional to their role in my life...  So maybe this one doesn't fit.  Because ice cream is extremely important in my life.  But I thought that I could make an exception, because maybe ice cream shouldn't be as important as it is...


My Jeni's Ice Cream arrived a couple weeks or so ago, in it's Styrofoam lined, dry ice packed box (on a 97 degree day, no less).  I put it in my freezer right away and have only broken into the Salty Caramel so far (you must understand how rich this ice cream is, and how slowly I tend to eat it... because it's pricey and not good for my heart).  I'm still not entirely sure how they fit the flavours that they do into this ice cream.  It has so much flavour that I really feel it's necessary to add the "u" to flavour, because 6 letters wouldn't do the word justice.  I'll report on each flavor as I dive into it.  There are still 5 I haven't touched.  That's a lot of happiness left to experience.

What's your favorite flavor of ice cream (or other summer treat)?

In today's installment of Things That Make Me Happy (ie things that make me disproportionately happy when compared to their role in my life), I will talk about The Likelihood List.

How many of you have taken statistics in your life... and thought "there is no way this will ever be applicable in my life... ever"  Well, you are wrong.  You will need to bust out your college-level statistics skills to understand this post.  Call it likelihood ratios made less scientific and applied to real life.

Have you ever wondered what someone means when they say something is "likely", or "more likely than not".  What kind of percentages are we talking here?  Well, have no fear.  Betsy and I had the SAME question one night when out for dinner.

Let me set the stage.  We were sitting at a booth in Ruby Tuesdays.  We'd both ordered turkey burgers... but they were out of turkey burgers, which was tragic.  So we got something else.  Unimportant.  As we were sitting, waiting for our non-turkey burger dinner to arrive, one of us said something involving the phrase "more likely than not" (or something along those lines).  Which sparked a very in depth conversation about what that really meant.  So, we did what any two normal people would do in the same situation... we made a list... on a napkin... and then took a picture with our phones.  Here's the masterpiece: