Nutribullet Blasts!

In my epic quest for healthy living and marathon training, I requested a NutriBullet 900 for Christmas. I hadn't even tried green smoothies yet, but had watched the Documentary Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, and was convinced I needed more greens. Obviously, I'm not fat, sick, or nearly dead. In fact, I'm quite healthy, but you can always be more healthy, especially when you've aged beyond the proverbial 'hill'.
My nephew, Jacob, was visiting over New Years, so he introduced me to the produce section at the local grocery store. What interesting things lurk there! Collard greens, kale, brussels sprouts. The next morning, I threw more roughage into the blender than anyone had ever seen. The blending is actually called 'an extraction', which is both beneficial and frightening. You could put tree limbs in this machine and 45 seconds later, drink them.

 If you add protein powder and what they dub 'super foods' (almonds, chia seeds), it's called a Nutri-blast. I treated the whole family to this first Blast and Laina promptly got sick. She blames the Blast, but it was just bad timing, I believe.
After a few weeks of blasting, I realized the missing element is a cup cover. The purpose being to make it easier to carry the cup to work and also to cover the color of said Blast. FYI, if you add blueberries to greens, be assured your Blast will be as brown as poo.
 

Fabric by Jeni Baker, Color Me Retro. That's Sew Now!
Original Design. FYI, that orange cord is from a shopping
bag, validating my compulsion to recycle every bit of useful
material (especially cords in fantastic colors like orange.
Thanks, Eddie Bauer)

Other goofy things from that weekend: Made up game using iPhones. Take a picture of a funny face, your partner gets to view it for 5 seconds, and gets 30 seconds to imitate the original face. Then use PicStitch to view side by side. Hilarious!

The Man, The Myth, The Legend.



*This post contains no news about quilting or even sewing in general, but when ones father turns 85 years old a blog posting is in order.

 

The man is Orland Niemeier. The myth is just that - a myth. In his own words 'what myth?', we celebrate years of hard work, adversity, ingenuity, and physical fitness. The legend is just beginning.

 

On October 21st, 1930, in the dry, dusty, prairieland of North Dakota a young babe was born in the back corner room of a two-story squared farmhouse. And in that same farmhouse, albeit remodeled several times over, that same babe sat in the opposite corner room in his favorite recliner listening to his offspring describe what would become known as The Farm Olympics. Many surprising guests were on hand - a sister from Florida, escorted by her son, four-fifths of dad's children, and several grandchildren and one grand daughter-in-law.

 

The Challenge was comprised of many of Dad's routine activities, some of which men half his age don't partake in. The list is shown here with legal counsel, Julie, giving her approval. Note that two of the events had to be removed from the roster as they were too risky for ordinary folk (Ditch Burning and Rodent Blasting). And so our version of Are You as Fit as an 85 Year Old was birthed.

 

1. Grain Bin Vertical Scramble

2. Boulder Grapple

3. Nailed It

4. Mower Circumnavigation

5. Farmer Calisthenics

6. Bicycle Sprint to Mailbox

Sis Julie flew in from Virginia Beach, Virginia.

 Below are action shots that I snatched from Gary's Picasa account. The poor quality in no way reflects on his photography skills.

Dad bringing the mail in!

Dad at the top of the bin

Edie and Mom doing jumping jacks

Laina mows

Stella tagging Troy

Troy getting a hernia

Back: Rodney, Annette, ClaraMae, Troy, Kim, Maren, Lee, Orland, Carol, Gary
Front row: Laina, Stella, Ava, Julie, Edie

Every great challenge demands a T-shirt and Dad's was designed by Francis Raval, a friend from my work. Francis' other works can be viewed on Instagram under his name.

 

We have four years to prep for Mom's 85th on 7/4/2019, which I already have plans for. Can you guess the theme?