Best Food Gifts

All of this gift giving in the air made me think about some of the best food gifts that I've received.

Gevalia coffee + coffee maker

I went to visit my friend Martene in Newark about nine years ago and she is not a coffee drinker which made the fresh Gevalia coffee even more special.

Half a Pomegranate

One of my aunts, unbeknown to me, still had a pomegranate post-season last year and I was going on and on about pomegranates and she came out of the kitchen with it. I was so happy when she shared with me.

Homemade Yogurt with 1% Milk

The person who made it for me does not like 1% milk.

Harry and David Pear

Several years ago, a coworker received a fruit basket and shared a pear. To this day, that was the most delicious pear that I've ever tasted.

Tomatoes

One of my coworkers left a handful of tiny tomatoes on my desk and they were delicious.

Vosges Barcelona and Woolloomooloo Bars

A friend included them in a care package when I needed some, well, extra care.

Amish Honey & Green Tea


I think this person, prone to ultra-hospitality, felt bad because I was not eating anything and finally found something that I would ingest.

Mint

On a regular basis, I would come to work and have mint from three rotating benefactors. I even got starter plants which I, sadly, couldn't get beyond the starting point.

Honorable Mention

Uncle Pop's Barley Wheat Sticks


This food gift was an office one. One of my colleagues said that they reminded him of Sugar Smacks. I like them. They're airy and not too sweet. I'm gonna have to find out where I can get the barley sticks because they've grown on me.

I love this article on wikiHow about How to Give Gifts Unconditionally.

Thought for Today

"What delights me most about the holiday season is that people are more open to giving and sharing. And actively thinking about how to spread more joy." —Oprah

I Tried

I developed pre-rocking climbing jitters. I even had a sty before I headed out -- something that I rarely get. You would think that my stage fright would have subsided by now but it hasn't -- not completely anyway.

I couldn't repeat the feat of climbing the 5.8 Face Plant route that I climbed last week. I tried and I tried but I couldn't make it to the top. Take after take left me drained and every other route after that was onerous.

While I was belaying, this woman helping with the introductory rock class pointed out my technique to one of the youngsters. Who would have thunk it? At one point in time, I thought that I would never get belaying down. I used to keep a death grip on the rope but I'm so relaxed now. Relaxing was key to learning how to float and it seems like relaxation works in a number of venues. Of course...

There are not a whole lot of videos out there with tips on how to rock climb but here's a decent one and although it leans toward bouldering, there are still some useful tips and random facts for beginners.



I'm going to start doing some exercises specifically to help me with rock climbing. This Wikihow article, How to Improve at Indoor Rock Climbing, has some good suggestions which I plan on implementing soon, especially the push-ups which I've gotten away from doing.

Arms: Improve your grip by doing exercises that will strengthen the arms and wrist/forearm region. Use a squeeze ball regularly to strengthen the wrist and hand region; lift small weights frontwards and sideways to improve overall arm strength. Try static hangs on a bar to increase your capacity to do static hangs while climbing. Better to discover on the low bar than a high wall that you can't do this!

Upper body: Pull-ups are brilliant for increasing upper body strength. Even a mere 10 a day done regularly will make an enormous difference to your strength capacity.

Keep your bum into the wall as you climb, doing so will assist your body in going up. Because your bum, or the gluteus maximus are the largest muscles in your body. Which means they weigh a lot and will pull your body downward as you climb.

Maintain three points of contact as you climb. This means that you can have one limb off the wall, so you can rest it. (i.e. Two hands one foot or two feet one hand.)