Smiking

As I was riding my bike home from bar prep lecture today, I saw one of my fellow students light up a cigarette, and then hop on his bike and ride off; he was smiking (smoking and biking). At first, I thought about how contradictory it was to smoke and bike at the same time, as any health benefit gained by biking would be offset by smoking. But then I thought about it some more and realized that I didn't quite have enough information to determine whether smiking has a net benefit or a net loss or whether the benefits and harms equal each other out exactly. So, I was hoping that you could help me out with some of your thoughts on this very important matter (It seems that studying 12 hours a day for the NY bar exam has made my brain do loopy things, like fixating on solving pointless problems - I'll be all better in August after the bar is over!).

Here is what I have come up with so far:

Individual benefits of biking:

-Good for your lungs
-Good exercise
-Sunshine

Individual harms of biking:

-You might get run over by a car

Public benefits of biking:

-Less auto pollution
-Fewer cars on the road - less traffic and fewer car accidents

Public harms of biking:

-When bikers bike in the middle of the road, it is annoying to try to pass them

Private benefits of smoking:

-You look really cool to some people
-They help you get rid of excess money

Private harms of smoking:

-Cancer?

Public harms of smoking:

-Secondhand smoke

So, here are some of my thoughts on the matter. Did I miss anything? Here are some examples of smikers:

This is what I meant about looking cool

Even Leo is a smiker!

Smiking: A worlwide phenomenon!

Another Year Come and Gone

For my birthday this year we spent the weekend with some friends at a cabin in Thousands Islands. The cabin sat right on the Saint Lawrence river. We had a great time hanging out, canoeing, and fishing. Sadly Ben had to spend most of the weekend studying.

Looks like I won the fishing competition...but whose counting.

20 Weeks

Lawrence of Arabia

Ben's dad (Lawrence of Arabia) stayed with us last weekend for a few nights before heading back to Abu Dhaubi. It was so much fun to have him stay with us. We got to hear more about the experiences that they are having on the other side of the world. When it was time for him to go I think both Ben and I wanted to hide in his suitcase and go back with him.



The night before he left we went on this beautiful hiking along Lake Ontario.
We couldn't of asked for better weather...it was beautiful.

2 Year Anniversary

Ben and I were thrilled to celebrate our two year anniversary last week, even though it kinda snuck up on us. So much so that the night before we didn't even have any plans for how to celebrate. On a whim we called around to a few bed and breakfasts to see if anyone would offer us a last minute screaming deal.....and of course someone did! We ended up staying in an adorable town on Skaneatles Lake in and even more adorable bed and breakfast.

Standing out front.

We dinned in that night. Way more fun than eating out!

Too bad it was about 90 degress outside...way too hot for a cozy fire.

Cool old boat on the lake.

Enjoying the sun runs on the lake.

Happy 1st Sorta Mothers Day!

Check out the breakfast (in bed) Ben made for me on my first sorta mothers day! I've been trying to teach Ben about the importance of presentation when preparing and serving food. Looks like those comments paid off.