Monthly Archives: January 2014

Our Snow Day in Raleigh #boom

Coco and Merri Beth enjoy the snow

Coco and Merri Beth enjoy the snow

The snow started to fall at our house around 7:00 pm on January 28. Wake Counties schools were closed on Tuesday and eventually decided to close on Wednesday. I usually work from home on Wednesdays, so I enjoyed the extra company. But there was a fresh two to three inches of snow to go play in! Continue reading

Life After Our 10 Day Reboot

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Cherry Berry Apple Cinnamon Bake

We made it! Merri Beth and I completed our 10-day reboot with Joe the Juicer. It was a great experience, we tried lots of new, fresh foods, and we were pretty disciplined the entire time. We minimized substitutions and stuck to the plan as close as possible.

We spent a lot of time in the kitchen. The prep work going into getting all the fruits and vegetables ready for meals was lot of work. But our bodies are worth it. And I really enjoyed a lot of the soups, even though I’m not a big soup person. The soups we had were fresh, nutrient-packed, and delicious. Continue reading

Are You Ready to Become a Citizen CIO?

Photo Credits: @snajmi

Photo Credits: @snajmi

Are citizen CIOs a threat to local governments or a blessing in disguise? With government IT departments producing more open data and participation from community interest groups and citizens on the rise, we’re beginning to see the start of a new movement within open government: telling our government which technologies to deploy. Citizens are identifying—and some are creating themselves—the next wave of applications and resources for their municipalities, such as a crowdsourced answering platform for city services, an open data catalog, and a civic infrastructure adoption website for fire hydrants and storm drains. With this, the role of the citizen CIO is beginning to emerge. Continue reading

10-day Reboot Update: Day 7

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Purple passion juice: grapes, blueberries, mint. Sporty Spice juice: beets, carrots, celery, lemon, oranges, basil.

We are over the hump and heading steady to the finish line of our 10-day reboot. I’m loving the juice and food hybrid approach to eating healthier. I’m glad we didn’t start with a three day, juice-only cleanse. Day three was the hardest for Merri Beth. Day five was tough for me because it was all smoothies, juices, and soup. I said screw it, I’m having a salad too. Continue reading

We are rebooting with Joe and our new juicer

juicer_01Merri Beth and I have been transitioning to a more healthy diet since September 2013. Not a diet in the temporary sense, but a diet as in our default way of eating. I got really sick on Labor Day weekend with strep throat and I was desperate for anything to help me out. In my searching, I discovered a documentary called Hungry for Change. I watched in on Netflix and was immediately motivated. My biggest take-away: we eat too much processed food and way too much sugar. But how can we change? Continue reading