Out of Sight, Out of Mind

I was recently advised to limit my calcium supplements, even though I have osteopenia. So I am consciously trying to eat more yogurt and drink more milk...

However... I've discovered that with me, out of sight is out of mind - so every morning I pour myself a tall glass of milk and put it on the table - so I won't forget to drink it!

Sometimes it sits there all day!

Perhaps I should be putting other healthy food choices on a plate on the table as well. Maybe then I wouldn't be so tempted to head for snacks I shouldn't be eating!

How Much Do "They" Know?!

A few weeks ago, I went shopping for a few summer items...

(I wasn't really looking for clothing, but there was a 40% off everything sale, so I wandered through the store!)

A light denim dress caught my eye - denim is one of my favorite fabrics. I also bought a light, white cotton tunic to protect my arms from the summer sun.

(But summer isn't here yet so I haven't worn either garment.)

A few days later, I received two emails from the store asking, in essence, How do you like your new purchases? Would you write a product review?

Each email had a picture of an item I bought. I was shocked!

Really? Do they keep track of every item I purchase?!! How detailed is this store's knowledge about my shopping style?!!

I know I provided an email... And I'm glad they know I purchased these things - in case I want to return them... But is the new way of tracking shopper preferences - by knowing who buys every item in their store?!

Other questions come to mind, like...

1. How big is their server to store all this information?!
2. How long do they keep it?
3. Do they share this information with anyone else?
4. Do other stores track product purchases this carefully?

I've read that there is a lot of consumer "tracking" going on out there - and I appreciate reading online product reviews (which is what this store wants me to contribute)... But this amount of detail - minute tracking of every item I bought - really shocked me...

I guess my "online profile" is much bigger than I thought!

A Family Birthday

Today is my cousin's birthday. She was the first grandchild for my mother's mother. Two years older than me, she is the daughter of my mother's older sister, Lydia. Looking through my mother's photo albums, I came across these photos of her childhood days.

Here she is with her brother, who was a year younger...

And here are the three of us, sitting near a gas pump at my father's Hay Lakes, Alberta garage.

Their family was the first to move from Alberta to Kelowna. A few years later, my grandparents followed. Then my parents decided to make the move, too. So my brother and I got to know these cousins well in our growing up years.

Gary, unfortunately, passed away at the age of 17 of Hodgkin's Disease. He was a sweet, gentle young man...

Now my cousin is the mother of four girls and the grandmother of... I've lost count of how many grandchildren...! (Seven?)

Happy birthday! And may the year ahead be full of good health and joy!

Lifelong Learning...

My mother was a lifelong learner... always interested in learning new things.

At a time when personal computers were new, some teachers took early retirement rather than have to learn to use this complicated new machine. But my mother - who had retired almost two decades earlier - decided to embrace new technology...

Here is her certificate in "Windows 98" dated April 2001. She would have been 82 years old at the time.

Unfortunately for her - and for those who didn't use computers regularly - keeping up meant taking course after course. Computer systems were changing frequently.

Unlike typing, which she could do on both manual and electric typewriters, learning windows 98 only helped her for so long... In the end she gave up... But her determination to learn new things remained till the end!

House Plants - for Our Health

I love indoor plants - probably because our outdoor growing season is so short here in Canada. I particularly like plants that are easy to keep...

Recently I came across an article on "Plant Power," which talks about the psychological and physical benefits of houseplants.

It mentions a book called, How to Grow Fresh Air - about the importance of having plants in homes and offices to detoxify the air. The author recommends at least two sizable plants for every 100 square feet of indoor space.

(I wonder if I have that many...?)

The article recommends a few good detoxifying plants:

• bamboo palm
• dragon tree
• rubber plant
• Boston fern

I know I don't have any of those... But I do have a few spider plants, a philodendron (which isn't doing too well), a healthy dracaena, and several snake plants, which are hardy - and good for air purifying.

My next step is to check and see if our public library has the book, How to Grow Fresh Air, or the other book mentioned in the article - Living With Plants: A Guide to Indoor Gardening by Sophie Lee.

Then I may have to go plant shopping to acquire a few more!!

Continuing with My Mall Walking

Snow is disappearing but I have continued mall walking twice a week. I plan to continue until the weather warms up.

Terry comes along - though he sits in the food court with a cup of coffee and reads the paper...

Why do I enjoy coming here early in the morning to walk? 

The space is attractive and bright...

There are plants...

It's interesting to walk through the stores and see what they have. I don't shop a lot - but occasionally I do buy things...

How much longer do you think we'll come here? I ask Terry...

Probably for a few more weeks - and then we'll walk outdoors until the weather gets really hot... Then we might come back again so that you can walk in an air-conditioned space in the heat of summer...

Great idea!

I'm beginning to see progress. When I started, I walked around each of the three floors once. Now I circle each level twice...  totaling around 7,000 steps!

My daily walking goal these days is 15,000 steps, but I only reach it when I walk for at least half a day.

No Joke!

Yesterday morning I wakened to find fresh snow on the ground...

No joke!!

Every time it snowed in March, I wondered if THAT was our FINAL snowfall of the season...

Hopefully this one was, but then, who knows?!!

On a more cheerful note, my orchid is continuing to add flowers daily... Three blooms now, with more opening up.

I turned the orchid so that it now faces the inside of the room, like the African violet next to it.

Hopefully - soon - I'll be noticing outdoor spring flowers in bloom. But for now they're still under that mound of ice and snow.