Category: Uncategorized

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s facial expressions KILLED me in this!

Happy Summer Solstice!  Today is the longest day of the year in terms of daylight hours.   From now until December 21st, the days will get progressively shorter.  I know – I’m a buzzkill.  So let’s think about happier things shall we?

All around the world, from ancient times right up to today, the summer solstice has been celebrated by almost every culture.  In ancient Greece, the solstice was used to mark the opening of the Olympic games.  And the ancient Romans celebrated Vestailia in the days just prior to the solstice to honor the godess Vesta.  During this celebration, married women would go to temple and leave offerings to the godess while asking for blessings for their families.

Here in the U.S., native American tribes also had festivities to honor the solstice featuring ceremonial sun dances.  And like the pagans who may have built Stonehenge to mark the solstice, the Plains Indians built Wyoming’s Bighorn Medicine Wheel that aligns with the day’s sunrise and sunset.

Want to know more about the solstice?  Check out these resources:

• Wikipedia
• Vox – 6 Things to Know about the Summer Solstice
• Big Horn Medicine Wheel

So enjoy the daylight and raise a glass in celebration of the solstice!

I just read this article about sleep positions (Daily Mail) and apparently I’m killing myself because I sleep either curled up or on my stomach.  Who knew?  So I did some checking by Googling “sleep positions.”  Want to know more about how you sleep?  Check out these sites:

• WebMD – I thought they seemed more trustworthy than the Daily Mail?
• Men’s Health – Hmmm…..  Some contradictions here!
• Better Sleep Council – who better to ask than mattress manufacturers?

All these sites have a lot of info in common – but after reading all of these, I think the best position to sleep in is the one that makes you most comfortable.  Seems reasonable right?  Now let’s take a nap!

Let me know your favorite sleep position in the comments!

There are few things I like better in the summer than hanging at the pool with a good book.  Or hanging out on my deck with a good book.  Or going to the beach with a good book.  You get the picture right?

Right now I’m on a biography kick.  I finished “Alexander Hamilton” by Ron Chernow and started the Jon Meacham book “Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power.”  And for fun, I just read “Mariana” by Susanna Kersley – I did not see the ending coming on that one.

But I’m starting to look around for my next great summer book.  I found these lists to help me choose:

• Amazon’s Summer Fiction Recommendations
• Real Simple Magazine – 31 Great Summer Books
• Book Bub – Summer Reading Challenge

And hey – if you don’t know about bookbub.com you should check it out.  You tell them what kind of books you like and they send you a daily email offering low cost/no cost books you might enjoy.

Tell me what’s on your summer reading list in the comments!

I love astronauts.  How could I not having grown up in Wapakoneta, Ohio – home of Neil Armstrong?  At the grand age of 6 years old, I was among the guests at his parents’ house for his welcome home from the moon party.  So I have always had a vested interest in space travel.

35 years ago today, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space, taking off with the crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger.   And fun fact – she is also the youngest American astronaut making her first of two flights at the age of 32.   Her second flight, also aboard the Challenger, happened in 1984.  She was in training for her third flight on Challenger when it exploded in 1986.

Ride was one of 8,000 people who answered an ad in the Stanford student newspaper asking for applicants for the space program and was selected by NASA in 1978.  Her training in physics lead to her inclusion in the team that developed the robotic arm used  to deploy and maneuver the payloads by the Shuttle.  And her expertise on the Shuttle program lead to her role on the panel that investigated the Challenger disaster.

Point of interest – Sally Ride was actually the third woman in space.  She was preceded by two Russian cosmonauts named Valentina Tereshkova who flew in 1963 and Svetlana Savitskaya who flew in 1982.

Want to know more about Sally?  Check out these resources:

• NASA Bio
• Biography.com – Sally Ride
• Wikipedia – Sally Ride

 

I was just at Target, but I didn’t see any of these people…

Happy Flag Day!  According to History.com, the first Flag Day was celebrated in the U.S. on June 14, 1877 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the Stars and Stripes – although other sources pinpoint other events in other years in the mid to late 1800’s as the origin of Flag Day.  However, an act of Congress in 1949 created Flag Day as an official U.S. holiday.

The full history of Flag Day can be found on usflag.org.

Your community may not host a celebration given that we just had Memorial Day and the 4th of July is just around the corner – but you can still hang out your flag and celebrate the red, white and blue today!

Do you have a Fitbit or Apple Watch that has made you obsessive about the number of steps you walk a day?  Do you find yourself working for those 10,000 steps?  Well hold on a minute – I may blow your mind.

According to an article I just read in Inc. magazine – which I will grant you is not a leading health authority but bear with me – it isn’t necessarily the number of steps you take in a day that will help you maintain or improve your health.  It’s apparently the pace you keep while taking the steps.

According to researchers from Sydney University, people who walk at a pace of around 3.5mph have a 24% lower chance of dying of heart disease or stroke.  That pace should leave you slightly out of breath and a bit sweaty but it might be worth it to you!

Want more tips about walking as exercise?  Click here!

So let’s pick up the pace and get walking!

I spent some time with my family last weekend so you know I had fun with the kids.  Wish I would have watched this before my trip so we could have done some of these!  It’s a long video – but if you have kids, it’s worth watching to the end.  Who knew you could fix Barbie’s crazy hair with some fabric softener?

When I was in school, I learned that Charles Lindbergh flew the first successful trans-Atlantic flight in 1927.  But as I played around on Google looking for a famous first topic today I found out that I had been taught a lie!

In reality, two British pilots name John Alcock and Arthur Brown made the first successful trans-Atlantic flight – and they did it in 1919 flying from Newfoundland to Ireland.  Sure Charles flew solo and had a longer trip since he flew from New York City to Paris but he really wasn’t first.  Alcock and Brown were celebrated in Great Britain but their feat didn’t get much notice outside the U.K.   At least they received a $10,000 prize and were knighted for their feat – but Lindbergh seems to have gotten more of the glory.

Funny how what we are taught and what real facts can be isn’t it?