Tell Time By Dessert

Holiday traditions often involve food. Tastes on our tongues serve as a mnemonic device. Memories form in our mouths before our minds, and then we are transported to holidays of past. 

This year, as in years past (see my December 2011 post), I baked a cheesecake and a chocolate roll. This year, as in years past, I was ocularly addicted to the look of yellow yolks blending with black chocolate, and opaque whites whipped until stiff.

With the right light and wetness, all food can achieve the perfect holiday glisten. Having an annual baking tradition is just as much a blur as the blending of eggs. It's hard to discern yolk from chocolate after a while, and all the years of desserts blur together in one rich mouthful. 

My Grandmother's chocolate roll brings back memories of a long drive on roads that are no longer called "country," cousins in velvet, coyotes, beef and cream, my first Christmas with Craig, the first Christmas I prepared duck, and the desire to make meringue mushrooms and always falling short.

My Step-dad's mom's cheesecake, a recent addition to the Holiday roster, reminds me of a New York I've never visited, Tom's stories of Germany, walking through a snowstorm on Christmas Eve to hunt down cream cheese with Jeremy, my last Christmas with Matilda, the word "mouthfeel," and family.

Here was the dessert table this Christmas Eve: Chocolate roll (top), Cheesecake (left), and Dave's famous berry pie with a crust that would make your grandmother wonder butter! And when we look back at photos, if it weren't for this blog, would I think it was the Christmas of 2012, or of 2005?

How do the holidays land on your tongue?

~ Trilety

Random

There is so much going on with Two Birds lately that our heads are swirling with information. Meetings and advice and requirements and waivers. We're doing a great job, but it is a lot to take in. 

So this time I would like to write about nothing in relation to the bakery. Just for a break, right? Maybe something I learned recently... or something that I like. Something that brings me joy.

Have I talked about how much I love Saturday morning radio? Most people who know me have heard me say how much I enjoy working Saturday mornings. This is because I am able to listen to radio the whole time I work, and on Saturday mornings I listen to NPR. At 9am is Car Talk, at 10am is Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, and at 11am is This American Life. That is a stellar lineup! Time goes by so quickly when I'm learning about cars, listening to interviews, and snickering at bantering hosts.

Car Talk has been around for as long as I can remember. My mom used to listen to it in the car when I was small, and she would tell me how much she liked the show. At the time I had little use or appreciation for it, but now I love it. Those guys, Ray and Tommy, are so silly and familiar. What is more entertaining than their quips and puns is that they are constantly laughing at themselves. Two distinct laughs, I can tell them apart. Sadly and also happily, they retired in October 2012. However, NPR is still airing previous recordings at the regular day and time. Although they are gone, they are not really gone, and I am glad.

Four or five years ago I started listening to Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, not to be confused with What Do You Know (which I used to do since they both start with "W"). In my opinion, the former is hilarious and the latter is not so hilarious, but that depends on your humor I think. On Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, Peter Sagal is the host, Carl Kasell is the judge/scorekeeper, and there is a rotating panel of contestants as well as one celebrity guest a week, who answer Sagal's questions about the prior week's news stories, big and small. They are all snarky and silly. Most if not all are comedians. Now that you know that, can't you just imagine the hilarity?! Huh. This paragraph really doesn't convey how fun the show is, but I think if you listen, you will be entertained!

This American Life consists of essays, some fiction, some non-fiction, from people all over the US. Whosever idea it was is brilliant. Stories range from suspenseful, to scary, to heartwarming, to odd. They are all interesting and lovely. 

Even if you don't work Saturday mornings, you can still listen to these shows at home. Yes you can! Or you can listen to podcasts of them. 

So, you might thing that this whole post has been a major plug but that's okay; it wasn't meant to be. It's just a little bit about me :)

Meg

How Many Bathrooms?

Before we were granted a waiver for the grease interceptor that Megan wrote about in her last post, we had to attend a meeting of the Omaha Plumbing Board to ask for another waiver. 

On September 12, 2012, Megan, Barbi and I (and our team of professionals from Bahr Vermeer Haecker and Alvine Engineering) walked into a conference room on the third floor of the City/County Building prepared to request a waiver to allow a unisex bathroom. Upon entering the room, it occurred to me that this was where all the men in Omaha congregate. Five rows of men wearing heavy denim and Carhart, and suddenly I remembered the men of my past career. . . . as an environmental consultant! Oftentimes we would stand on sites in the center of construction and talk to the men who would be making the intangible tangible. I've always found this type of man comforting, quite like the teddy bear you can't give up.

Section 49-631 of the Omaha Plumbing Code details the requirements that must be in place for an ADA compliant unisex bathroom to be installed, rather than two ADA compliant restrooms. The space taken up for two large bathrooms would've reduced the space needed for our kitchen, and it's a tight fit to begin with. The part of the code that our situation did not satisfy, and thus would've disallowed us from having a unisex bathroom, was this:

Unisex bathrooms shall not be installed in the following facilities. . . . (4) Where food or drinks are prepared or served except in a business where the customer is served food and/or drink only from a drive up window and there are four or fewer employees and the gross area of the building is 600 square feet or less.

While we will have fewer than four people working on the premises, we will be serving food and our area is about 900 sq ft (greater than the allowable 600 sq ft). 

Similar to deciding to remove the bacon-maple muffin from the menu, we decided to remove the limited seating (four stools) we had originally planned for the bakery. This was an easy decision as the space didn't allow for much seating to begin with, and we plan on being a drop-in, rather than eat-in, bakery. 

Megan, Brian Hadfield (Alvine Engineering) and myself were summoned to sit at the table with the 7 folks representing the Board, and explain our case. Within less than 10 minutes, we'd explained our situation, answered questions, been ribbed about not bringing cupcakes, and were granted a waiver that allowed us to have one bathroom instead of two. Here are the Minutes of the Plumbing Board from that day. And, here's Omaha's Plumbing Code. It's a dense read and you can find great ingredients for poetry, like the word roughing-in for instance!

We hope you come and visit us and use our unisex bathroom; it will have a urinal!!

Thanksgiving was a couple of days ago, and here's a photo of my vegan pumpkin pies just before they went in the oven! Happy Holidays!

~ Trilety

Grease Trap vs Bacon-Maple Muffin

Grease Interceptors, aka grease traps (this next blurb is taken from Wikipedia):

are plumbing devices designed to intercept most greases and solids before they enter a wastewater disposal system. Common wastewater contains small amounts of oils which enter intoseptic tanks and treatment facilities to form a floating scum layer. This scum layer is very slowly digested and broken down by microorganisms in the anaerobic digestion process. However, very large amounts of oil from food production in kitchens and restaurants can overwhelm the septic tank or treatment facility, causing a release of untreated sewage into the environment. Also, high viscosity fats and cooking greases such as lardsolidify when cooled, and can combine with other disposed solids to form blockages in drain pipes.

Grease traps have been used since the Victorian days, although Nathaniel Whiting obtained the first patent for a modern day grease trap in the late 1800s. They are used to reduce the amount of fats, oils and greases (FOGs) that enter the main sewers. Effectively they are boxes within the drain run that flows between the sinks in a kitchen to the sewer system. They only have kitchen waste water flowing through them and are not served by any other drainage system such as toilets. They can be made from a number of different materials; e.g. stainless steel, plastics, concrete & cast iron. They range from 35 litre capacity to 45,000 litres and above capacity. They can be located above ground, below ground, inside the kitchen or outside the building.

Well, it makes a lot of sense for food establishments that cook up a lot of grease. However, that is not us. The only product that would produce grease is our Two Strips and a Short Stack Muffin (bacon and maple). Even then, the grease from the cooked bacon is poured into the trash, not into drains. (I had been told that this is the best way to discard the grease from cooking meat and now I have a very thorough explanation as to why!) Anyway, the bacon-maple muffin is our only product that produced grease. So we asked ourselves if spending thousands upon thousands of dollars to install a grease intercepter was worth keeping the sweet and savory muffin on our menu. It would be a massive project that would involve ripping up an already existing patio, amongst other logistical challenges because of the location of the sewer system.

We know how much our customers and loved ones have enjoyed the bacon-maple muffin, and perhaps we will find some way to put it back on our menu in the future (options include purchasing pre-cooked bacon or using a vegan bacon substitute). But for now, we will be putting that recipe on the shelf. It was a bittersweet decision and we hope you'll understand. We feel confident that the remaining muffins and cookies that we will offer will more than make up for the absence of our Two Strips and a Short Stack muffin.

Call it progress, evolution, or just plain practicality! We are learning constantly through this process.

~Meg

Metric of Life

Being approved for a loan requires a solid loan application, detailed business plan, successful financial projections, tax returns, and, as we recently found out, life insurance! Well, it's not required by the bank, but lenders look kindly on being given assurance that they will be paid back even if the lendee expires before the loan does.

Adam Musfeldt, a friend of Megan's from high school, helped us through the process of securing life insurance. Beyond paperwork and choosing the right policy, a physical exam and blood work was required for the policies to be issued.

Megan and I took the physical together, so now there are no secrets between these two birds! Though, we did use separate bathrooms to produce our urine samples.

The exam included a lengthy questionnaire about our health histories, as well as health metrics and blood work.

Megan and I sat side by side as we were mosquitoed by a skilled phlebotomist. My veins are hard to find, and Megan's easily collapse; they give up giving blood. Basically, these two birds are difficult blood draws!

Here's a peek into our metrics:

Megan is 5' 7" in height.

I am 5' 2" in height. (We're making sure to have a step stool in the bakery for the days that Megan and I work different hours)

Megan is a slim 140 pounds. (clothes on)

I'm a healthy 129 pounds. (clothes on)

Now for blood pressure.

Our blood pressure was measured three times in a row. Being curious about data, I decided to meditate during my last reading, and it was measured as lower than the first two. Anecdotal, but interesting nonetheless. While my readings weren't high, you'll see that Megan's blood is not a harbor of stress, rather it's pumped like slow, tranquil waves.

Megan's blood pressure readings were: 85/56, 90/56, 86/6

My blood pressure readings were: 100/66, 102/64, 92/66

We were granted life insurance! Now we're just waiting to hear back from the bank. . . but that's content for another post.

~ Trilety

Uta Halee Auction

Since beginning our bakery-owner research, we have been told by a few restaurant owners that auctions are great places to get deals on kitchen equipment and utensils, as long as we went into them knowing what actually was a deal!

Our auction opportunity came this past August. Omaha's Uta Halee Home for Girls, which had opened in 1950, closed down in December of last year. Located in Ponca Hills, it was a group home that offered psychiatric help for teens with emotional and behavioral problems. The campus is in such a beautiful and serene place, surrounded by woods and nature. It seems like the location alone would help in the healing process of the mind.

Well, so, our opportunity came when friend of ours saw on craigslist.com that Uta Halee was having a liquidation auction on August 29th. Online we found that all of the items up for auction were listed, photographed and described on a central website called proxybid.com. Holy wow, there was a lot to look at! Rooms upon rooms of office furniture, vans, lounge chairs, exercise equipment, and a golf cart. We were more interested in their commercial kitchen equipment. We saw a 20-quart mixer, two convection ovens, a gas range, a three-basin sink, over one hundred sheet pans and muffin tins, and many many units of industrial wire shelving. There were also a lot of bins full of random utensils that we could have used. Overwhelmed by the selection, we made a list of the items we wanted to bid on, and the prices of those items both new and used. We were prepared to get some deals! Oh yes we were!

The auction was a great experience; it was really fun! I got to hold the little fan with our registered bid number on it while Trilety helped me to keep track of which items we were bidding on and when to stop bidding. I think I can understand why people like to do that and how it could be addictive. I got a cool rush each time I raised my little fan in the air.

As it turned out, we were outbid on all but one item, which was a microwave. But as we had looked up new and used prices for all of this equipment prior to the auction, we knew that we were not only being outbid, but that people were severely overbidding on a lot of things. Trilety and I found ourselves giving each other looks of bewilderment as the bidding ended on each item, well over what we had priced out a few days earlier.

In the end, we walked out with a really great experience as well as a pretty great microwave. Perhaps we will have more auctions in our future. I hope so!

New Logo

We have a slightly altered logo!

Megan first designed our logo a couple of years ago; it's a blend of an image and a wordmark/logotype. The image of the owl and the peacock have not changed, but the font of the text is improved.

We are currently working with someone to develop/design our website (another post will be devoted to that process!). He provided us with a link to over 500 fonts that we could choose from for the headings and content text for our website. After hours of perusing cleverly named fonts, such as "Architect's Daughter," we decided on a couple, but also realized that they clashed a bit with the font of our logo. Can we call Megan's handwriting a font? Sure!

As an aside, the documentary titled Helvetica has some interesting tidbits about font and typeface, but overall it is a surprisingly dull documentary about an intriguing subject.

See below for our original logo:

and now our altered logo!

There may be a bit of tweaking left, but this new flourish of casual font, rather than the blocky font, is what we will use from this point forward. 

Logos, like brands and businesses and people, undergo growth and change. We're not the only ones to change our logo. See this great post/article about the evolution of the Starbucks logo with commentary from one of the logo designers. It seems as the company grew, the siren became more demure.  Maybe in a few years, our birds will finally be wearing underwear!

What's your favorite logo?

~ Trilety

Recommendation: NBDC

One of the items on our checklist as we started out on our small bakery business idea was to create a business plan. Seems easy enough, right? Right. Well... ... not really. We knew that businesses often create business plans, but we didn't really know why or how to to do it.

A business plan is not completely necessary. That is, it isn't illegal to start and run a business without one. But in our case, it has come in very handy as far as organizing our thoughts. Also, the fact that we need to get a loan to cover our start-up expenses means that we need to have something to present a bank with outside of the fact that we just really want to own our own bakery because we think it will be fun. They want numbers (of course they do!) They want to know that they will get their money back. It's an investment for them as well.

Looking online at the Small Business Administration website gave us a good start to understanding what a business plan entails. It describes the business plan and its purpose and it outlines what needs to be included. Even with this universal resource, eventually we came to realize that we needed some guidance. There are parts of the business plan that we were able to do on our own, and that made us think deeper about who we wanted to be as a business. We initially created a market analysis, company description and a product line, as well as our business philosophy. However, we got stumped on financial projections. Neither of us are accountants. What the heck is a break even analysis?! We asked our accountant who gave some good insight but as far as coming up with all of the actual numbers (projected fixed expenses, opening expenses, marketing expenses, costs of goods, projected production numbers, and on and on) we were at a loss and to be honest, we were completely overwhelmed with this task.

A friend of Trilety's, as well as my mom, suggested we talk to someone at the Nebraska Business Development Center. Located in Mammel Hall (College of Business Administration) on UNO's south campus, the NBDC and its staff have been our business plan saviors! We first registered online and then set up an appointment with a business counselor who helped us reorganize and complete our business plan. We had most of the writing done already but needed major help with our financial projections (as mentioned before). Its been about eight months and we have completed a solid business plan. Wow it feels fantastic! Fantastic!!!!

If you are thinking about starting a small business of any kind, or are in the process, this is such a good resource. I should also mentions that they have many more services than business plan development. The Nebraska Business Development Center (NBDC) also offers business counseling services for web development, exit planning, energy efficiency, business valuation and transfer, to name a few. They also offer workshops in business development, business analysis, project management, government contracting, and government contracting.

As you may have come to realize, this post is an official recommendation. These birds give the NBDC five stars, two thumbs up, and partridge in a pear tree!


Megan

Back to Blogging

We've been quiet, busy birds as of late, but we are starting to chirp once again!

The summer of 2012 has been full of new experiences and exciting challenges. Here are just a few that we'll start to cover in upcoming blog posts:

• Working with amazing architects to design the bakery

• Finalizing our business plan and working with the Nebraska Business Development Center on financial projections

• Requesting (and receiving!) a waiver from the Plumbing Board

• Attending our first live equipment auction

• Experimenting with gluten free recipes

• Designing a website with a web designer

• Deciding on Life Insurance (we're told it comforts the loan officer)

• And so much more!

Each week, Megan and I will tell a tiny tale about one of these experiences, and we hope you come along for the listening and commenting.

Here's a picture of a Praying Mantis who was sunning him/herself on my patio the other day. I've heard they are a tough insect of a fortuitous nature.

~ Trilety

Gluten

Experimentation is one of the funnest things about baking. Okay, experimentation is one of the funnest things about anything creative. We've been doing some research into gluten sensitivities and into the world of gluten-free baking. Here is some information about gluten and its related illnesses...


Gluten:
1. The mixture of proteins, including gliadins and glutelins, found in wheat grains, which are not soluble in whiter and which give wheat dough its elastic texture.
2. Any of the prolamins found in cereal grains, especially the prolamins in wheat, rye, barley, and possibly oats, that cause digestive disorders.


Gluten Sensitivity:
Research on gluten sensitivity is still emerging and believed to affect about 10% of the general population. 
It is defined as 'one or more of a variety of immunological, symptomatic manifestations that may also be shared by celiac disease and irritable bowel syndrome. In cases where there is reactivity to gluten, yet celiac disease and sheet allergy are eliminated as possibilities, gluten sensitivity may be considered. Symptoms are usually less severe than in celiac disease. 
Symptoms may include:
-Bloating
-Abdominal discomfort
-Diarrhea 
-Headaches and migraines
-Lethargy and tiredness
-Attention-deficit disorder and hyperactivity
-Muscular disturbances
-Bone and joint pain


Celiac Desease:
This is a well defined condition, unlike gluten insensitivity. It is a lifelong autoimmune condition characterized by chronic inflammation of the intestine. Physical symptoms, like those of gluten sensitivity, range from moderate to severe, including: 
-Abdominal bloating and pain
-Diarrhea
-Vomiting
-Constipation
-Pale foul-smelling stool
-Anemia
-Fatigue
-Osteoporosis
-Infertility or miscarriage 
Celiac disease is different from gluten sensitivity in that along with the above symptoms, intestinal damage is also occurring. Intake of foods containing gluten leads to an immune response in the small intestine in which the intestinal villi flatten and there is reduced absorption of nutrient from food. This leads to nutritional deficiencies and associated long term complications such as osteoporosis. This is believed to affect about 1% of the Western world.


Yikes! So, I was really just going to talk about the gluten free baking but it seemed appropriate to identify why it's so important. Getting to the baking is a whole other post. Wait until next time...


~Meg

The Short Peanut

Are you up on your food news?

If so, then you heard last fall that Georgia, the largest producer of peanuts, experienced a peanut shortage.  Land that used to be planted in peanuts, was planted to cotton instead. Then, a dry, red summer cut a chunk out of the crop.  What resulted was a decrease in peanuts and an increase in prices. 

Peanut butter is now pricey.

In the summer of 2011, the Omaha Whole Foods store carried a 36 ounce jar of natural, no sugar added, peanut butter for $3.99.   At the beginning of 2012, the same store carried the same product but the price had increased to $5.69.  Just a couple of months later, that same amount of peanut butter now costs $5.99. 

There was a peanut shortage in 1981, and one in 1902 reported on by the New York Times, "This shortage, dealers say, will cause much higher prices before the new crop begins to arrive next Fall. The average crop of peanuts amounts to about 1,200,000 bushels, but last year's crop, now being sold, is very short. The hot weather and drought of last year rendered it so, the total holdings of to-day being estimate at about 200,000 bags, the greater part held by cleaners."

(An aside - Kenneth Goldsmith retyped an entire day's edition of the New York Times and published it as a book titled Day. The project was an experiment in uncreative writing.  If I did this, I would choose to do so with an issue of the NYT from one hundred years ago, when language was usually gouty and florid.)

We are faced with many food issues; food scarcity, food insecurity, agricultural monocultures, etc.  But sometimes it is good to take a break from the truth of reality and enjoy the truth of imagination.  How would you solve the peanut shortage if no resource, whether of magical or scientific in origin, was restricted?  Would you inflate peanuts to the size of a giant and slice off layers as needed?  Actually, that image seems terrifyingly sacrificial.  Would you export peanut plants to Mars and then devise a rocket distribution system?

I will eat a peanut butter cookie and think on this a while longer. I just happen to have made a batch for a friend, and the smell is wafting from the kitchen and begging to be made tangible in my mouth.

Here's a reminder of what our Dimples look like.  Now, if we ever want to get them in the hands of the public, I have to sign off and get back to very important bakery tasks!

 ~ Trilety

Playing with Floor Plans

Last weekend these birds took a little field trip to Elkhorn, NE. We visited the office space that, with a little love and a lot of work, we will transform into a commercial kitchen (with help). We agreed that it would serve us well to have an idea of the size, layout, and utility placement of the building before calling we began asking contractors to come out and give us estimates.

Elkhorn office layout

I scanned in a floor plan of the existing office that we created (that's the chicken scratches pictured above). We expect that it is somewhat accurate. Trilety took measurements with a yard stick and I transferred them to graph paper. In actuality, we might be an inch or two off here and there, but it helps us to get an idea of what we are working with. This is what we have to play with. It was also really great just to be in the space and feel it out. It got us so excited! "Oh, we can do this here!" and "Oh, I bet we can put that there!", were the types of things we were saying out loud (but more specific). We discussed knocking some walls down and leaving others standing. There seem to be many options, even for a small space. I am curious to see if the contractors that we contact will have their own recommendations (I expect them to actually), and I am curious what those would be.

We plan to start contacting some contractors in the next month or so, and we'll definitely keep you updated on our progress!

~Meg

Community

I mouth the word “community” in reference to Omaha a lot.  But yesterday, I was reminded of the fun that comes with that word.  As one of a large group of folks, I volunteered for the Community Clean Up Day at the Union for Contemporary Art.  From 9:30 am until late in the day, at least 50 people cleaned, primed, and painted an existing building to ready it for its new life as an arts center.

The Union is “committed to strengthening the creative culture of the greater Omaha area by providing direct support to artists and advancing the understanding of contemporary art forms through education.”

The building was full of artists, arts supporters, community activists, designers, teachers, architects, etc.  As volunteers lunched on food donated by Dante’s Pizza and La Charlotte, it appeared I was in the midst of an art opening where everyone was donning do-rags and paint splattered clothes; it was refreshing.  Meg and I brought a couple batches of cookies, which were gone by lunchtime - proof that cookies are good for breakfast! 

I was lucky to spend my Saturday working alongside some amazing folks: Peter Cales, Anne Meysenburg, Tom Miller, Thom Sibbit, Wanda Ewing, Amy Chittenden, Bart Vargas, Tim Guthrie*, Kristin Pluhacek, and Anne Trumble.  This crew of creative and generous people barely scratches the surface of everyone who came out to volunteer yesterday.  It is this spirit of enthusiasm that puts these birds at ease about starting a business in such a supportive community. * Linking to Creighton's website seems impossible this weekend, so find out about Tim from a new blurb instead!

 

Volunteering with people I usually see at art openings or parties proved a good reminder about the multidimensional nature of people.  We are more than just our art or our jobs; we are our actions.  

Thanks to Brigitte McQueen for starting the Union and bringing the community together.

~ Trilety

On The Horizon

Two Birds had a very productive meeting a few days ago. Aside from the always important task of reconciling our checkbook, we have decided to take a few steps towards building our super-sweet kitchen space. I know, I know. Exciting, right?! Well, yes! Planning is usually exciting... at least for these birds. Here's what we have down so far for January and February.

1. Compiling a wish list is a very good idea, which we learned from Mark and Molly, owners of Mark's Restaurant here in Omaha. This seems like such a simple concept... well yeah, it is. But we hadn't really thought about it yet, at least not in much detail. So Trilety and I have begun a list of equipment, appliances, utensils, etc. that we believe will be necessary in our new kitchen. That basically includes everything: mixers, sinks, refrigerator, freezer, pots, pans, bowls, knives and bleach buckets. This may seem tedious by the way I've been writing, but it's actually really fun so far!

2. Measuring the existing space. As Trilety mentioned in an earlier post, we are hoping to convert an existing office space into a commercial kitchen. Measuring the space will be an essential tool for communicating with contractors and planning out the space. Will the building be able to accommodate a kitchen as it is? How much work will go into it? How much time? How much money??

3. Calling the contractors. We have not done this before. Have we mentioned that yet? Hiring contractors is new, especially to do a job like this. We have about 4 or 5 contractors on our list who are local. We basically searched the yellow pages, looked at websites, and made sure each of them was accredited by the Better Business Bureau and had a good rating. That's all we have so far. We'll have to call out each one on our list, have them come out the the existing office space/future kitchen, and hopefully tell us everything we ever wanted or needed to know. Oh! By the way, if you have any words of wisdom to offer in this process, or if you want to recommend a contractor, please feel free!

After we get a few estimates or bids, we can look further into the loan process. We'll keep you updated to our progress/adventures!

Onward!

Meg

Wish us

New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year! 

Have you made your resolutions? 

I have not. 

Last year, my resolution was to make my bed each morning.  For 31 days in a row, I crawled into a well made bed.  And the balance of the year found me untangling the covers and giving up on top sheets.

I resolved to make changes last October when I joined the Health Month game!  Developed by Buster Benson, Health Month is an online adaptation of a game he and a few friends played, from New York to Seattle, as a way to improve their healthy habits. 

If you thrive on receiving praise, or thrive on being lovingly scolded, then I recommend checking out Health Month as your New Year's resolution.

Each month you sign up for a new set of rules to live by for the next 28 to 31 days.  This month is my toughest yet, with six rules that I'm required to abide by lest I lose life points and risk a bit of embarrassment. 

If you run into me in the month of January, you can be assured that I will have followed my rules:

1. No added sugar
2. No watching television content via Netflix
3. Exercise for at least 45 minutes, three times a week
4. Do yoga for at least 45 minutes, three times a week
5. Meditate for at least 15 minutes each day
6. Practice piano or origami every day

I will report back with updates at the end of the month!  Consider it for yourself, or choose one of the resolutions below:

1. Resolve to watch backyard bird behavior and divine how said behavior relates to the activities of the government

2. Embroider your initials on each piece of underwear (this is better for men, or women who wear mens' underwear)

3. Chew each bite of food at least twenty times.  This works best for people who like to eat steak.

4. Laugh!  If you don't know how, then do a jig in the mirror while wearing a goofy hat.  If you don't laugh, at least you've had a bit of exercise.

Happy New Year!

~ Trilety