Things I’m Thankful For

Posted on November 23, 2019 by Nicole Radziwill Leave a comment

Although there are many aspects of my life that I’m thankful for (e.g. my cat, the people around me, the amazing R community and the software they build), this post is going to be focused on THINGS I am thankful for. These things definitely improve my quality of life.

I don’t usually venture outside the bounds of management, quality, or data science, but I’m on “vacation” (ie, not working for a week) and my chemical exposure model has an Object of Type Closure is Not Subsettable error (which means I need to let it sit for a while) so want to share with you things in my life that spark joy. And… Happy (American) Thanksgiving!

#1 My Brita Water Filter

I drink a lot of water… and a lot of coffee. And I’m really sensitive to the way the water tastes, especially after an incident years ago where the water in my house had black mold (no one else could taste it, but I swore there was something with the water — they started believing me when I broke out in hives from drinking it.) When the Brita entered my life, my quality of life changed drastically.

We make coffee with Brita water… we give the cat Brita water. We even got a 2nd Brita so we wouldn’t have to wait if the water in the first Brita ran out. I love these things.

#2 My Behmor Coffee Machine

Initially, I was skeptical about this coffee machine. It looked like it didn’t hold enough cups, and for goodness sake, I don’t need my coffee maker to be hooked up to the internet. Turns out I do. Every time I wake up, the coffee is already made for me, and there’s a cool app where you can customize the temperature of the water and other factors. It is the nerd’s ultimate coffee machine. I have no idea why it’s got weak reviews on Amazon.

I like this so much, we bought a second one that’s sitting in the closet — waiting for the moment that the first one breaks.

#3 New Mexico Pinon Coffee

I always thought I’d live in New Mexico… I did work there for a while (if you count traveling to your office’s other site) and I do have a graduate certificate in management from the U of NM. But who needs to live there when you get to taste pinon in your coffee every morning! That’s right. We usually mix 40% pinon to 60% french roast.

#4 My Smart Mattress Cover

I’ve had pretty serious thyroid problems since I was a kid, and every so often, it gets out of control. The past several months, it’s been really bad. In addition to being super sluggish with dry skin, it also makes you cold which means (for me, at least) that it’s hard to fall asleep at night. But not when you have the smart mattress cover! A few minutes before I go to bed, I pick up my phone, connect to my mattress, and turn on the heat timer… which roasts me for up to 8 hours and then shuts off. I love this so much that I miss it when I’m away from home on travel. I have never missed being away from home while traveling, so this is a Big Deal.

I am not a huge fan of this company’s mattresses, but their mattress cover is A+. The app also comes with a sleep monitor, but I swear, they’ve got new software developers tweaking their algorithm on a daily basis. We don’t trust the sleep score any more, and the sleep app UI is so infuriating (and changes so often) that we’ve stopped using it. But it doesn’t matter because… the heater is blissful. Did I mention that the heater works separately for each side of the bed? So you can roast while your partner… doesn’t have to.

There’s another fringe benefit… you can always tell when someone else has been sleeping in your bed because your phone will alert you. And it will also tell you exactly what minutes your side of the bed was being occupied. I’m sure some people would like to have this kind of information.

#5 South Dakota Fry Bread

When I lived in South Dakota, I was introduced to fry bread via Indian tacos. Today, when I fry this up, I’m immediately taken to a part of my life that was simpler and more carefree. The fry bread might taste good just because it evokes these emotions in me, but who knows… it might work for you too. And you don’t even need to do the taco part! Just fry up the bread, eat it, and be transported to… South Dakota.