I guess most of you know what IKEA is? The self-assembly Swedish style furniture, in Europe wide-known and ubiquitous chain? And I know they don’t make bikes. However….
My husband bought me a bike. One just like this one. It arrived in a nice box:

And with the know-how knowledge of my husband, when I came back from work, the bike was ready to ride. What a disappointment for me! I am getting bike for assembly, and don’t even get to see the assembling process? Luckily, the frame was not exactly for my height, so I needed to get a new frame. This time, instructed step by step, I disassembled the bike with my own hands into pieces, and when the new frame arrived, mostly assembled it myself. The final result:

I guess most fun was from using the torque wrench :).

Technorati Tags: IKEA, self-assembly, bike

The logic of America still fascinates me. Yeah, I know this is money driven country, but..
What I am talking about now, is the magazine subscription. For example, I enjoy reading National Geographic, leaving alone the fact that their photos and photographers are considered the best. The easiest way not to worry about not missing next issue is of course to subscribe to it. That’s what I do. First year, it was OK- I used the piece of paper in the magazine I bought, got special price, was happy. Next year, I got the renewal suggestion for … 30$. Guess what? If instead of renewing I would buy a new subscription, my price would be what? Whole 19$. I was enraged and e-mailed them about it. I succeeded in getting the price of 19$. This year, situation is less ridiculous, but still… My offer? 19$, doesn’t sound bad at all. But, if I decide to buy a new one, this time is 15$. So I am being punished for being loyal? Doesn’t make sense to me at all.
I am not even mentioning the fact, that the minute I click and buy a new subscription, their Customer Service will send me a subscription renewal offer. For another year. Already. Rigth away, in case I forgot I just did it. And then for another year. I think I am getting up to 6 offers per year. If I react to all of them, I would quickly have a subscription till the end of my life!
Anyway, I am renewing 3 months in advance only. What a waste of money for sending out this notices. My money, I should add.

Technorati Tags: magazine subscription, National Geographic, subscription renewal

The Daylight Saving Time since last weekend is the only sign of spring coming so far. And maybe Easter next weekend. There is still snow on lawn and driveway. OK, maybe the spring will arrive eventually, so we decided to do some spring cleaning yesterday. Our walk-in-closet went first. Hmmmmm… Last time we went through our clothing three years ago, when we packed stuff to move to US. Since then we were just buying more hangers. No wonder, we managed to prepare two large bags of unused (one year rule ) pants, tops, sweaters. I will drive by Goodwill tomorrow after work. We have more space in our closet, and about 50 spare hangers. And I feel psychologically lighter, stuff off, burden off.

Technorati Tags: Goodwill

Do you have winter depression some time? Well, I guess I do, although I really enjoy winter more than any other season. And even if in Iowa is 163 sunny days a year, on average, which is probably 10 times more than in Poland. Still, not enough light and here you are- you need a change. You just need to do something.
Doing shopping in rather infamous but convenient retailer yesterday, I found there… fresh, cut tulips. So pink and spring reminding, I couldn’t resist. Now they stand on the table in our living room, matching beautifully spring (or summer, I never was good in telling seasons fruit) panna cotta with raspberries. Mniam…

It is so simple, and I discovered how to make it just few weeks ago. Here is my healthy modification of original recipe I found in All you (February 2007):
Sprinkle the packet of gelatin over one cup of low-fat buttermilk and let it stand for 5 min. Meantime, in a sauce pan over medium heat, dissolve 2/3 cup of Splenda (or sugar) in 1 1/2 cups of fat-free half-and-half. When mixture begin to bubble at edges, add gelatin with buttermilk, and mix to dissolve gelatin. Add one more cup of buttermilk. Distribute between desired number of bowls (it is supposed to be 6 servings, but we make 3 out of it ) and put in fridge overnight (at least 6 hours). Serve with fruit or jam.

Technorati Tags: panna cotta, recipe

It is no mystery to people who know me even a little bit, that I can read everything in the form of book, phone book included, if I am desperate, but I definitely prefer mystery books. If I read one book of an author I like, I will check out from the library every single other book by same author, as long as supplies last. Sometimes, in chronological order, but it doesn’t make any sense if I started from the latest ;). It makes me instantly open my New York guide book or Google, whatever results in better photos, and read more.
Last fascination- Linda Fairstein. And, believe me, these are not ordinary mystery books. I am reading a lot of comments about her works, none mentioning what I am finding the most fascinating about them. From “Bad blood” describing Saint Hogs, through Smallpox Hospital on Roosevelt Island in “The Deadhouse”, and Edgar Allan Poe’s short episode in New York in “Entombed”, Cloisters in “Bone vault “- I am learning incredible stories, places and historical anecdotes.
I wonder, as the histories are not necessary part of the book stories, why all this interesting material get into the books? Is author doing the research with the story in mind, or she finds the “pearls” by accident and research out of her own curiosity?

Anyway, I am finishing off “The Deadhouse” tonight, already wondering what I am going to learn from “Death dance”.

Technorati Tags: Linda Fairstein, Roosevelt Island, Edgar Allan Poe

I just came back home from a month long trip to Canada. I was working on some scientific project at University of British Columbia, visiting in all the remaining time. As Canadians don’t work as hard as Americans, I was left with not only weekends off, but also substantial parts of the afternoon (with longest days during a year in June). The city is beautifully located, with ocean and beaches on the East, and mountains North.

However, after about a week, I started to get more and more frustrated. I was living in Point Grey Guest House, very nice and reasonably close to University. To save time, I decided to take a bus to University and back. The buses run rather often, about every 10 min during rush hour, and they connect all the important parts of town. So what, if you never know when the bus comes? There is no schedule whatsoever, at least not the one the bus drivers are sticking to. Locals claim that it is safe in town, but every second house is protected by private security company, almost all cars have steering-wheel locks, and there are those notes on all parkings not to leave anything inside the car. Not only valuables, nothing. Talking about the houses. They live there in 1 to few million dollars worth huge houses, beautiful, with views and colorful gardens, but hardly any of them has a garage. It results in cars parking on both sides of the regular width streets. You can hardly drive between them in the evening. Canadians claim they want to attract tourists to Vancouver and the region. I think they are doing well to scare them off. The parking prices are outrages, not only in town. You have to pay to park also in every single provincial park. Then, you go to museum or such, and ticket prices can be as high as 30 CAD. Also attractions like Capilano Suspension Bridge cost like 30 CAD, although just a little bit West there is Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge, FREE and equally beautiful. You are still not convinced it is expensive? Well, wait till they charge you for attraction brochure or map- 2 CAD. I am leaving alone the fact, that it may be hard to schedule any outside sightseeing, because it is raining there all the time. If you are lucky, and it is not raining 24 h, don’t worry. It will, anytime now.

We moved into the house as it was, almost 8 months ago. I guess when the days started to get longer and there was more sun, the urge to finally renovate become hard to ignore. We decided to paint.

My friend suggested (through e-mail unfortunately, she is in Germany now) that the way it is done you invite friends, start a grill and tell them they need to ear their food. Problem is, all our friends around think we are at least insane to paint our own house….

Anyway, it isn’t what I wanted to write about. So I was looking through back issues of my favorite woman magazine “All you” (the only magazine I think there is actually something to read) for some color ideas. OK, so I learned that you can choose tonal scheme (paint in few shades of same color), harmonious scheme (colors next to each other on color wheel) or contrasting scheme (colors opposite on color wheel). Definitely the contrasting scheme was the one I was looking for. Just… not green and pink. I don’t now why, but there were many examples how to make your house/living room/bedroom/any room green, green with yellow, or green with pink. If I wanted blue, I had to figure it out myself.

Opposite to blue is orange, in case you are too lazy to look at color wheel and check. And if you think it had to look awful, check yourself.

A trip to Walmart and a few finishing touches (just look at the serendipitous wall plates) and the room turned into something new. I love the way my husband turned the dirty white/manila or whatever into plates perfectly matching the room. Especially that the trip to the neighborhood home improvement stores make us realize, that all the choices we have are white, black, gold and our “favorite”….

When last August I wrote about my cholesterol problems, I thought bad things about my doctor and even worse about the idea of not eating meat. I guess after my semi-annual visit with him, which happened more like 8 month after previous, I feel actually satisfied. My bad cholesterol went down from 170 to 110, and my weight went down as well, 20 pounds less. And I owe everything my home-made diet.

Few simple rules:

1) no red meat- turkey and chicken are fine, as long as you take off skin, and from time to time pork. No beef. No problem- you can buy turkey ground meat for meatballs, turkey hamburgers, turkey breakfast sausage and bratwurst, and probably bunch of other stuff I haven’t discovered yet.

2) no fat or low fat, whatever available as such. Milk, yogurt, even pretzels ;).

3) only 1 serving of everything. This was the toughest, I think. Really, try once put in your bowl a serving of cereal…

Well, of course, you have to exercise as well. Especially that after few month of nicely loosing weight, one day it stopped. I needed something more. Old treadmill our friends didn’t need any more came in handy. As much as I hate this device, I use it for about 30 min each day. 7 days a week. Sometimes 6 days a week…. No excuses. I watch TV or read a book or magazine, so it is less boring than I thought. And is working!

OK, so it is Super Bowl today. I guess, as most Americans, I am going to some party. Now, the party starts at 5:00 pm. What time should I be there? Today the answer is simple - 5 min before the game starts, so I have time to get my Margarita and find a sit. However, what is the rule? I know from experience with Halloween party, that showing up at the time the party starts results at best in finding your host still unpacking shopping or in his underwear, trying to figure out appropriate outfit. In Poland, when party starts at 5 p.m. you show up not later than 5:05 p.m., otherwise everybody is angry with you for eating re-heated main dish… Many people I asked around here were unable to provide me with any rule of thumb, so I come up with any good idea I could think of. Now I am leaving home at the given time.

A few weeks ago we finally decided to get a cat. It was a though decision. In previous life, somewhere on the other side of “Big Water” we used to have a dog. Now he is staying with my father-in-low and last time we saw them, they seemed to be rather happy together. But it makes you feel, what kind of long relationship you can offer. Anyway, we decided the cat is easier to take care everyday (no walking :), litter box don’t require you to go outside regardless how many degree below zero it is (doesn’t matter if Celsius or Fahrenheit) and how heavily is raining. And supposedly it is easier to take cat to the plane.

We made the decision and went to Animal Shelter in town. Well, imagine. The place was closed on Friday after Thanksgiving. We were determined and we went back the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We walked through cages with cats, looked at all of them, picked the one we liked and returned to reception area. There, we got a long form to fill out, not only our personal data and pet history, but also test of our knowledge of cat/dog care taking. We were against our pet to be future parent, we found approval in shelter stuff, but we put that we will let it outside from time to time. Wrong. We got the lecture explaining why it is not a good idea. The form filled, we were send home for 24 hours to rethink our decision and call the shelter back, while they will process our request and let us know, if we can get the animal. Of course, before any animal is released to the family, each member of the family needs to come to the shelter, look at animal and agree to that. No surprises or presents! Hmmm. With so much trouble I guess I would expect them to call me after a week or two to follow up. Maybe we would ask some questions about car of cat or something?

Technorati Tags: cat, Animal Shelter, pet