1. Start the day with an early morning energizing walk. 2. Sleep under the stars. 3. Turn your cell phone off on the evenings and weekends. 4. Find water and sit by it. (It’s that simple.) 5. Dine outside at the local eatery. 6. Walk barefoot in the grass. 7. Send a card or write a letter to a friend (not an email). 8. Go for ice cream after dinner. 9. Invite your colleagues to an impromptu lunch in the grass. 10. Go fishing. …
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Playing Hooky and Five Day Weekends
So Kim and I played hooky the other day. That was fun. (And no fear of a pink slip from the principal!) Did I have other stuff that "needed" to be done? You betcha. But guess what -- two days later and all of that stuff that "needed" to get done, got done. Plus, giving our brains some time off to "wander" led us to a handful of very good ideas that will benefit our business. And the best part of it all was that we got to enjoy an obscenely beautiful day by the lake. …
Playing Hooky With My Hubby
This morning I went for my morning walk and it was one of those perfect days. The temperature was in the 70's, the sky was clear, and the birds were chirping. I think it might have been the smell of fresh lilac bushes on my route that put me over the edge. I had this overwhelming urge to play hooky and enjoy the beautiful weather with my favorite guy. WI gets a bad rap for being cold in the winter, but there is no place I'd rather be in the spring. When we did the Escape Plan last year Jason and I especially enjoyed Challenge #40- Sick Of It Day. Being the last day of the 40-day journey, …
Being Productive (and mean)
My husband recently challenged me to answer the question, “what is the secret to being productive?” This meme was started by Ben Yoskovitz. Jason shared his childlike secrets to productivity. My answer: discipline (aka being mean). Do I have Adultitis? You be the judge. When I taught Kindergarten I had to be mean sometimes. I'm sure parents can relate. It was hard at first, but then I just got used to it. ;) …
Don’t Walk Around the Puddles
If you have one of those anti-bacterial hand gels in your possession, think again. Jason and I have been out and about enjoying spring. The grass is quite green in Madison, which tells you it's been raining a fair share. Spring brings puddles. Puddles bring fun. And wet shoes and socks, which is why at some point in our lives we start walking around them instead of jumping directly into them. What if I told you that getting messy and dirty is actually good for your mental and physical health? …
Simply Amazing
I tried to avoid using such a cheesy title for this post, but gosh darnit, that's the only way I can describe the work of Jeffrey David Montanye. He has combined his photography experience and love for mazes to create intriguing puzzles from photographs. I'm not sure if the guy is a big kid, a veritable genius, or a dude with some serious OCD issues (maybe a little of column A, B, and C). Every maze is made up of hundreds or even thousands of a certain item. Here's the crazy part: the mazes are taken apart immediately after they are built and photographed. You just have to see them for …
Moms are Good Sports
Let's face it...kids like to tease their moms. It doesn't matter if the "kid" is forty-five years old, the parent-child relationship welcomes some razzing and joking. Sometimes it's how we show affection. When Jason and I were newly dating Jason nicknamed my mom the "curler lady" because she would often have curlers in her hair when he came over. To this day it's still a playful joke between them. Kids razz their moms for their choices in hairstyles, clothing, and even driving habits. I'm sure it has something to do with the 20-40 year generational gap. Thank goodness Moms (in general) have …
A Poopy April Fool’s Day
My good friend Eliz Greene (you may remember her from this interview) taught me that when you get stressed out, a chemical builds up in your heart. When that chemical -- cortisol, to be exact -- gets too built-up, it actually attacks the blood vessels in your heart. Ouch. Considering just how stressed-out most people are these days, it's no surprise that heart disease is the biggest killer of both men and women. And Eliz knows something about all this heart stuff. She had a heart attack at the age of 35 when she was pregnant with twins. Double ouch. Eliz also knows something about …
Promoting Fun and Hot Air Balloons
Vince McMahon. Sam Walton. P.T. Barnum. These three men have something in common, and that connection is the very reason I have been inspired by them. They are all great promoters. But even more than that, their style of promotion always contained within it a spirit of childlike fun. I grew up watching pro wrestling. (My favorites? Bret "The Hitman" Hart, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, and Randy "Macho Man" Savage.) Vince McMahon, the owner of the WWF (now known as the WWE), has always impressed me with his promotional abilities. It's unfortunate that he tends to get some of his ideas straight …
Teach Yourself a Magic Trick
Looking for something fun to do this weekend, or something just to kill time before the proverbial prehistoric bird's tail is pulled, signaling the merciful end of another workday (a la The Flintstones)? Why not try your hand at learning a magic trick or two? Check out this collection of 10 tutorial videos (is there a better application of online video than using it to reveal magic tricks?) assembled by the Everything Interesting (And More) blog, including this one which shows you how to throw a card into a deck and have it instantly change into a different card: …