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Nicci Book Reviews, Nonfiction

Free yourself by counting pennies? Book review Your Money or Your Life

Readers of all income levels have used this to free themselves:

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Do you want to track every penny? Sounds awful, but look at it this way:

“A Spiritual Discipline
Religions, ancient and modern, as well as the personal growth workshops of the human potential movement all have techniques for training the mind to be here now, “in the moment.” These practices take many forms and include such techniques as watching the breath as it goes in and out; repeating a phrase over and over in order to focus the wandering mind; concentrating on an object…To this list we add another discipline designed to sharpen awareness—one that is indispensable to the financial program and perhaps more easily accepted by our grounded, materialistic Western mentality than some of the more ‘esoteric’ practices. Instead of watching your breath, you watch your money. This practice is simple:

Keep track of every cent that comes into or goes out of your life.”

Learn how to equate time, money and life energy.

“A shift will take place in the realm of values as your handling of money increasingly comes into alignment with what really matters to you.”

  • Make choices, not sacrifices
  • Choose simple pleasures
  • Work for money, maximize, save, and finally, “cross over”
  • Escape the hidden costs of working
  • Be a better friend, neighbor, family member, citizen

Quick link to Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Your-Money-Life-Transforming-Relationship/dp/0143115766/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y

Nicci Travel

From alpaca and insects to textile arts: Peru

Quechan weavers travel from villages to demo amazing, traditional textile art:

Weavers 5

Weavers 8

The village master weaver is respected and very important:

Weavers 6

She has 72 intricate patterns memorized.

Weavers 2 Weavers 3

Sonesta Posadas del Inca in the Urubamba Valley (otherwise known as the Sacred Valley), offers beautiful, ranch-style rooms with dark wooden doors, dressers and closets that contrast appealingly with adobe walls. Throw rugs warm terracotta tile floors and the renovated bathroom offers a deep, luxurious tub and fresh air from a sash window. The Peruvian staple of corn finds honor on the grounds:

Sonesta Posadas del Inca

And, yes, they serve coca tea in the lobby all the time and at the breakfast buffet.

Snow-scented air blows down from the Andes:

Weavers 1

Yarns come from alpaca like these cuties (plus one llama):

Alpaca 1

Alpaca 2

Alpaca 3

Red comes from bugs visible on Urubamba cacti. Cochineal, a kind of aphid, are black on the outside. Covering the prickly pear cacti, they appear white like fungus. Ground up, they are deep red.

wools

To this red, add varying amounts of lemon salt to produce bright red, light red, reddish purple, or carrot orange.

To make purple, add… urine. Guide says must be the child’s urine, before puberty… and start of pisco drinking. (Joke)

How did they invent these dyes in the first place?

Date: June 2012

Tour: Trafalgar (via sister company Grand European Tours), Highly recommend

Guide: Angel Cardenos, very highly recommended

Nicci Uncategorized

Cider donuts and Utopia: Vermont

Rainy September days:

Rainy September day

Farmers market:

Farmers Market

Foliage reports on the local news:

Foliage report on TV

Making homemade pizza and comparing techniques (chives from the garden):

Days 12 - 15 cooking pizza

Winning pizza:

Days 12 - 15 winning pizza

An apple orchard where you can pick your own apples:

Apple orchard

Or have cider donuts hot and fresh (they melt in your mouth, have 2):

Cider donuts

And drive through a quaint covered bridge:

Covered bridge

Nicci Food, New York, Travel

28 (food) reasons to love Manhattan

Trip dates: 9/15 – 10/13/12

Pushkin Brasserie (near Museum of Modern Art),

D

Add to Pushkin Brasserie ambiance this and a spiked cappuccino and you’ll recover from exhausting museum going:

paul-pain-au-chocolat-450

Share these from Crumbs Bake Shop:

4_cu_blackbottom_cheesecake (1)
Blackbottom cheesecake cupcake

(upper west side, 97th/Columbus.)

cup_Grasshopper
Grasshopper (mint chocolate chip) to die for

“Wine-dark in a shallow lemon sea, pelted with capers, the curl of octopus ($16) looked messy and primeval, as if just plucked from the deep. It is the dish that a Greek restaurant lives or dies by, simple yet exacting. Tenderness should be victory enough. But the octopus at Boukiés had gone a step beyond, the flesh undoing itself, achieving a texture, at its core, close to nectar.” Ligaya Mishan, New York Times 9/21/12

Looked scary, tasted heavenly:

Day 6 GV Boukies 2
Boukies (pronounced Boo KAY is) in Greenwich Village

For less money and a different though not lesser pleasure, a hot pretzel in Central Park:   Day4 Hot Pretzel

Do you love cheese? There’s a name for that.

Day 6 GV Turophilia
Cheese shop in Greenwich Village

Day 6 GV Cheese store

A choice of Schmears (upper west side, Broadway):Day 7 Shmear 2 Day 7 Shmear 3 Day 7 Shmear 4

Oyster bar in Grand Central Station:

Day 18 116 QQ

Spinach and kasha knishes from Yonah Shimmel’s Knishery on East Houston Street (lower east side):

Day 19 002 AA Day 19 005

Pastrami and corned beef sandwiches at Katz’s Deli (near Yonah’s, lower east side):

Day 19 009

Tiny cupcake:

Day 19 013 H
Sugary Sweet Sunshine Bakery

Cappuccino in Tribeca:

Day 19 024

Comfort food at The Eatery after a show (The Phantom of the Opera).

Days 16 012 sesame seed crackers
Sesame seed crackers and champagne
Days 16 018 sweet italian sausage risotto croquettes
Sweet italian sausage risotto croquettes
Days 16 019 grilled camembert
Grilled camembert
Days 16 021 meat loaf ravioli mac and jack
Meat loaf, ravioli and “Mac and Jack” (macaroni and cheese with grilled onions on top)

Days 16 026

Elevation of a bagel:Days 16 Lisas bagel

Peruvian cuisine on the upper west side at Flor De Mayo (Broadway around 98th):

Days 20 21 085 A
Beef stew in a cilantro sauce with potatoes
Days 20 21 088 A
Roasted chicken and plaintains
Flor de Mayo
Aji Gallina Chicken with eggs on a bed of lettuce

Simple repast at The Boathouse (Central Park):Days 20 21 050 A Days 20 21 052 A Days 20 21 053 A

Nicci Book Reviews, Nonfiction, Skiing

Good for skiing… New Rules of Lifting for Women by Lou Schuler, book review

This book will take 6 months to a year to thoroughly review. Stay tuned for the results.

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What’s to love?

  1. Learn to cook better.
  2. Eat more!  (And take fish oil pills.)
    Final meal
  3. New home-fitness toys.
  4. Bigger, stronger muscles… hopefully! (Check back in 6 months.)
  5. Less cardio.

What’s not to love?

  1. More calories do not come from alcohol.
    “I suspect you don’t need me to tell you that Kahlua and cream won’t make you sleeker.”
    You can have some, though. Red wine is best. We’re talking 4 ounces here, folks. 4. Four.
    4 ounces
    Not every day. Remember all those beers you saw in the skiing-lunch photos???? Not on the plan.
    Then again:
    “You’d think that the people who drink the most would weigh the most, but studies haven’t shown a connection between weight and calories from alcohol. One study showed that the most indulgent drinkers are more active than those who drink less…”
    Interesting. BUT
    “My overall goal is to make sure one special evening doesn’t extend into two or three special evenings in a row. Inevitably, I can feel it on my waistline.”
    Oh heck, we know this already.
  2. More calories in the right ratios means more cooking.
    more cooking
  3. “More calories” doesn’t refer to chocolate-chip cookies.
  4. If you don’t like to work out, you won’t like this book. But if you do, and you’re a woman, and you’re frustrated about working really hard only to get tiny muscles and a slow metabolism, check this out. I am just beginning but a friend of a friend had fabulous results, and she didn’t even do the eating part.
  5. Getting 30% of your calories from protein is challenging (but kind of fun) and pretty much requires whey powder (not too great tasting, kind of expensive, though Costco has it. Cytosport is a pretty good deal there.)

Note: I have used myfitnesspal.com (MFP) (it’s free) for 18 months. It’s a good foundation with this program so you can eat your own stuff and track whether you are “hitting your macros” (macro nutrients, protein, fat and carbs) instead of following the menu (just use it for ideas). You’ll need to modify the default MFP settings a little to 40 percent carbs, 30 percent fat, 30 percent protein.

Link to book: http://www.amazon.com/New-Rules-Lifting-Women-Goddess/dp/1583333398

Nicci Skiing

Achilles… toe? 8th day skiing, Squaw Valley

Arrive at 11 AM, park in furthest lot from the lifts:

Getting ready... say goodbye to dog

Temps cold enough to allow snow to act as sign board:

No

Parking

First run, trees on Red Dog. Pep talk to self: It’s okay to be afraid as long as you keep your hands forward.

Tree run

Second run, Siberia. Must pause for photos.

View from Top of Siberia

Top of Siberia

Too cold! Head to Solitude. Ahhh…

Solitude

Solitude

Time for lunch! Greek salad plus tasty brown ale at Fireside Pizza:

Lunch

Back to Solitude for final runs.

Solitude to Headwall Solitude 3

Take transport lift over terrain park. Observe fun being had.

Fun was had by all

Mountain Run, what the crowded parking lot looks like on the slopes:

What the crowded parking looks like on the slopes

Achilles’ weak point was his heal. For me, it’s my toe after too many days pounding bumps:

Scrunched toe

But, no complaints. Don’t want to flunk retirement.

Nicci Food, Skiing, Travel

5 ways to flunk retirement

  1. Sit on the couch all day.
  2. Sit on Facebook all day.
  3. Go back to work.
  4. Complain about your old bones (and other body parts).
  5. Complain about frickin anything. (You’re retired. Shut up.)

This morning, bright and early (9:45), we fought our way through morning rush hour

Rush hour

to get on the Funitel at Squaw Valley

GettingCloser

and finally to work.

Work

Of course, we have to have a lunch break. All employees are entitled to that. Excellent fish and chips, stew, and beer at The Auld Dubliner in Squaw Valley:

FishnChips BeefStew