THUNDERSNOW

So, yesterday we had a blizzard. Which I guess is understandable, it being January and all.

Wait what's that you say? It's mid-April?

Oh.

Never mind.


April fools...?

Anyway...I actually drove into the office yesterday, which may have been a questionable decision. I got up at 5:30 like normal, did a 30 minute Darren Rhodes Yogaglo, showered, and looked out the window. 

At that point I carefully weighed my hatred of driving in the snow against my hatred of having to dial in remotely to 8 hours worth of meetings - and the latter won out. So I threw my meals and snacks together and was miraculously out the door by 6:45.

As I was getting ready to merge onto the highway, I saw what looked like a flicker of light in the sky...almost like...lightning?  Nope, couldn't be because there's no way snow and lightning can happen at the same time.

Incorrect. They can, and did. We had a legit snow thunderstorm...or as the kids are calling it, THUNDERNSNOW which sounds incredibly bad-ass. I can only assume that THUNDERSNOW was the result of precipitation which normally would have been rain, but turned to snow/sleet because it's so cold and the clouds were like SCREW YOU COLD, IT IS APRIL FUCKING 11TH AND WE ARE BRINGING SOME THUNDER AND LIGHTHING ALL UP IN THIS BITCH.

That is my scientific assessment, anyway.

It took me an hour and 15 minutes to get to work, and I accidentally hung up on everyone during a conference call I was hosting. This morning, it is also snowing. Delightful.

So...what else has been going on (besides blizzards in April).  Last weekend several of my grad-school girlfriends and I drove out to our friend Emilie's cabin for the weekend. It's a yearly tradition, but I wasn't able to make it last year because I was in California - but the year before that it was also snowing, and we grilled outside in our boots and winter coats.

This year also doubled as my friend Jill's baby shower! We spent the weekend cooking, eating the food we'd just cooked, reading, and drinking champagne (well except for Jill obviously). And since it was too gloomy and rainy for outdoor activities (although Kim and I did squeeze in a three mile run), we spent most of the evening snuggled up in the basement watching The OC Season 1. Ahhh memories.

Last night, my dad swung by to drop off our Twins tickets for today and then took us out to dinner at The Barbary Fig! This is one of my favorite local restaurants and I was super excited when they listed Lamb Shank as one of their off-the-menu specials!  I LOVE lamb shank but it's not served that often, so whenever it appears I have to sieze the moment.

SHANK. With lentiles, prunes and spiced rice. Yummm...

What else?

Last week we went to Sigur Ros!!! I've been in love with their music for years, but had never seen them live - it was so worth it. Definitely one of my top favorite shows I've ever been to. Unfortuantely, my phone died so I don't have any photos of the concert buuuuuut I do have this fascinating photo of our tickets. Yes.



Also, Sidney has been making great strides on his path to becoming a wise yogi.

Absorbing the wisdom of the Gita through osmosis

TBD if we are actually going to the Twins game tonight, since it is still snowing/sleeting. Plus, Julianna is in town for a surprise visit! So I'd say it's 90% looking like we will stay in with some pizzas and watch the game on TV...

Truth is Stranger than Fiction

Phew! It has been a whirlwind around here lately. Here's a quick play-by-play of what we've been up to at chez MacKenzie:

Wednesday: After work, we had a 2 hour rehearsal with orchestra for the coming weekend's festivities

Thursday
After work run, more choir shenanigans, and my parents stopped by with my sister after they picked her up from the airport!

Friday
I did 60 minutes of yoga after work, and then had a lovely choir performance involving this and this - I feel so lucky to be part of such a fabulous music program :)  Afterwards we went out with my parents and sister for a drink and some carrot cake.

Saturday
For some reason I decided to go to a 90-minute hot yoga class for the first time in forever, which completely kicked my ass around the block. I'm still feeling it three days later. I think I have also discovered a pattern with me and bikram-style classes. I go to class. I subsequently want to die, and my memory of wanting to die prevents me from returning. Over time, however, the memory of the death-feeling fades, I forget how hard it was and suddenly bikram sounds like a great idea again! I go to class, and the cycle repeats itself. If the pattern holds, I'll be back in the saddle in about, um, 9 months.

On Saturday night I went with Ben, Julianna, and my friend Tessa to La Cucaracha for Mexican deliciousness. Unfortunately, they were out of my favorite, the Tacos de Carnitas :(  Fortunately, the burrito I got instead was amazing, as was my margarita!  After dinner we partook in the annual Easter tradition of watching a truly terrible movie. Past selections include MegaShark vs. Giant Octopus and Killer Klowns from Outer Space.  This year's masterpiece was Iron Sky and it was indeed wonderfully terrible - although unlike some bad movies, this one was clearly not intended to be taken seriously. If you're looking for campy sci-fi ridiculousness I highly recommend.

Sunday
Easter! Ben and I joined my fam for a wonderful and huuuuge brunch buffet. After singing two Easter services on only a mini-cupcake I was famished and promptly downed multiple servings of asiago hash browns, smoked salmon, eggs benedict, fruits, cheese and crackers...etc. Washed down with a cookie and a brownie :)  For the record, my dad's dessert plate included red jello, key lime pie, and...bacon. I have no idea.

This week at work has been just bananas. My colleague and I have a massive looming deadline on Friday, plus I was pulled into a two-hour session tomorrow that I may or may not have to present at (??) and all of my days are pretty much booked solid with meetings. It's glorious.

Yesterday I actually worked part of the afternoon from home just so I could get more done - at work, people can stop by my desk, call me, etc. But at home I can just camp out on the couch, turn on the TV for some background noise, and pound out whatever I need to get done.  I wrapped up the working around 6, zipped over to my Monday night yoga class and did a billion headstands. Well, at least it felt like a billion...but I'm pretty sure it was double digits. We practiced piking up and down in both sirsasana 1 and sirsasana 2, both with and without a block between our feet. We also worked on piking down with the block, setting the block 'gently' on the ground, and piking back up. Gently is a relative term.

Today was also nuts, but after I came home and went for my run, I was treated to a lovely homemade soup courtesy of my wonderful husband :)  He cooked up a batch of Heidi Swanson's Coconut Red Lentil Soup - mmmm.  I love dishes that have little bursts of flavor, and with this soup you occasionally come across a little crunch of ginger or a sweet, plump raisin...it's like a fun surprise.

Speaking of raisins, have you heard that the US Government is basically running a raisin cartel?  Yes. Thanks to an extremely outdated law from the 1940's, an organization called the Raisin Administrative Committee - consisting of government officials, farmers, and one "sole member of the raisin-eating public" (seriously, you cannot make this stuff up) gets to deicide how much product a raisin farmer can release into the market. The illustrious Raisin Committee then siphons off the rest and either gives them away or sells them for export. The committee is supposed to return any profits to the farmers...but not until the raisin committee has covered their own costs, so there are often no profits to return.

This can't be constitutional right??

In 2003, the RAC (as I've decided to call them...because everything's better with acronyms) took 47% of all crops - almost half!!! So ridiculous. And raisin prices are higher in the US, so it's likely that by artificially constraining supply (allegedly to maintain an "orderly" market), we're actually driving up the cost to consumers.

I just...why?? And why raisins??

Please ruminate upon this mystery with me.

Anyways, after a quick run, our evening evolved like so:

I also have an importan announcement.

Upon returning home today and changing into my running gear, I discovered that I had most likely gone through the entire workday wearing only one earring.

WHY DOES NOBODY TELL ME THESE THINGS.

The end.