Rotundus.com

1. Getting sick
2. Having your car break down over 160km from home and about 75km from the nearest repair facility (160km being the maximum towing distance offered by CAA Plus - which brings you to a town about 20km west of Calgary - thanks Shawn!)

Well, I had both happen to me this weekend. According to the folks at the repair shop it'll be at least Wednesday before they'll be able to even look at the car.

Anyways... I need to walk off to buy groceries. A lot of people would find that really annoying without a car, but I walk to the grocery store about 70% of the time anyways. It's about a 10-15 minute walk.

If you think that the idea of a morning person or an evening person is nonsense, then postgraduate student Martin Sale and his colleagues from the University of Adelaide have news for you.

They have found that the time of day influences your brain’s ability to learn—and the human brain learns more effectively in the evening. (From ScienceDaily)

Most of us don't brew coffee this way, but I uncovered some info on a cold-brewing process which an MSNBC reviewer described as working really, really well.

The basic idea is that you produce a concentrated coffee with the cold-brew technique and then add hot water to heat it up and dilute the concentrated stuff into something drinkable. Apparently the concentrate will stay good for a couple of weeks in the fridge.

I figure that it can't be worse than instant coffee and the brewing process apparently results in much less acidity than by standard brewing methods. Seems worth a shot - has anyone tried it?

(I've discovered instructions for Cold Brewed Coffee on the Cheap detailing a simpler brewer you can construct at little to no cost. I may give this a shot in the next few days.)