25 random things about Tyson (as described by Tyson):
[Click Here - Facebook]
25 random things about Sara (as described by Sara):
[Click Here - Facebook]
Enjoy! And be sure to tag both me and Sara when you fill out all of your random stuff.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Letter to Children: When I Was a Kid
Dear Children,
When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were when they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning ... uphill BOTH ways
Yadda, yadda, yadda ...
And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no freaking way I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!
But now that... I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today.
You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a freaking Utopia!
And I hate to say it but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!
I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the cursed library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!
There was no email! We had to actually write somebody a letter with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!
There were no MP3's or Napsters! You wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself! Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ'd usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up!
We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it!
And we didn't have fancy Caller ID Boxes either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!
We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!
When you went to the movie theater there no such thing as stadium seating! All the seats were the same height! If a tall guy or some old broad with a hat sat in front of you and you couldn't see, you were just screwed!
Sure, we had cable television, but back then that was only like 15 channels and there was no on screen menu and no remote control! You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your butt and walk over to the TV to change the channel and there was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little punks!
And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove or go build a freaking fire. Imagine that! If we wanted popcorn, we had to use that stupid Jiffy Pop thing and shake it over the stove forever like an idiot.
That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled. You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980!
Regards,
The over 30 Crowd
[Edited slightly for profanity]
When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were when they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning ... uphill BOTH ways
Yadda, yadda, yadda ...
And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no freaking way I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!
But now that... I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today.
You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a freaking Utopia!
And I hate to say it but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!
I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the cursed library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!
There was no email! We had to actually write somebody a letter with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!
There were no MP3's or Napsters! You wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself! Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ'd usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up!
We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it!
And we didn't have fancy Caller ID Boxes either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!
We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!
When you went to the movie theater there no such thing as stadium seating! All the seats were the same height! If a tall guy or some old broad with a hat sat in front of you and you couldn't see, you were just screwed!
Sure, we had cable television, but back then that was only like 15 channels and there was no on screen menu and no remote control! You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your butt and walk over to the TV to change the channel and there was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little punks!
And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove or go build a freaking fire. Imagine that! If we wanted popcorn, we had to use that stupid Jiffy Pop thing and shake it over the stove forever like an idiot.
That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled. You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980!
Regards,
The over 30 Crowd
[Edited slightly for profanity]
Monday, January 26, 2009
Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day
Happy Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day. That is right. Bubble Wrap has its own appreciation day. Who knew? Here is the skinny:
As part of the festivities, make sure you check out the 1001 uses for Bubble Wrap at http://www.bubblewrapfun.com. Good stuff. My favorite tip so far? "Paint a small sheet of Bubble Wrap with red rouge and dab on your face to simulate measles or chicken pox. It's a foolproof way to get out of work or school." Excellent.
By "pop"ular demand, Chase’s Calendar of Events has designated the last Monday of January as Bubble Wrap® Appreciation Day. Since its invention in 1960, Bubble Wrap® brand cushioning material has been used by - and entertained - people of all ages.[Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day @ SealedAir.com]
As part of the festivities, make sure you check out the 1001 uses for Bubble Wrap at http://www.bubblewrapfun.com. Good stuff. My favorite tip so far? "Paint a small sheet of Bubble Wrap with red rouge and dab on your face to simulate measles or chicken pox. It's a foolproof way to get out of work or school." Excellent.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Cool Inauguration Stuff from NPR:
Check out this widget. NPR meets Twitter and live updates. It looks like NPR is simply feeding the #inaug09 tag. Note that neither Sara nor I are responsible for any of the comments of the twitterers featured in the following feed. And, obviously, we're good lawyers. Enjoy:
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
What Love Is (According to Kids)...
Sara forwarded me the following. I have no idea whether any of the quotes are actually true but they certainly made me laugh (and smile). Here are some of my favorites; the answers are all in response to the question of "What is love?":
'Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.'
* Karl - age 5
'Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.'
* Chrissy - age 6
'Love is what makes you smile when you're tired.'
* Terri - age 4
'Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.'
* Bobby - age 7
'Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.'
* Noelle - age 7
'Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.'
* Tommy - age 6
'I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.'
* Lauren - age 4
'Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.'
* Karl - age 5
'Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.'
* Chrissy - age 6
'Love is what makes you smile when you're tired.'
* Terri - age 4
'Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.'
* Bobby - age 7
'Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.'
* Noelle - age 7
'Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.'
* Tommy - age 6
'I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.'
* Lauren - age 4
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
The Year in Review -- 2008
This is probably the best (and by best, I mean most entertaining) recap of 2008 that I have come across. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do:
And once again, Happy New Year!
And once again, Happy New Year!
Speaking of bread...
So I must confess that I am not very good friends with yeast. Any yeast-based recipe always seems to come out awful when I'm left unsupervised. I have seriously helped out on a number of good breads and even cinnamon rolls, but as soon as I try to make them myself, disaster strikes! In my defense, I'd like to say that I can do pretty well with sweet breads and any other non-yeast-based product, anything out of my bread maker, and the freezer rolls. Well, all was a disaster until my super nice visiting teacher / friend Kristine gave me an awesome recipe. Seriously, she gave me a loaf of super yummy bread a couple of times, and then gave me the recipe - never showed me what to do or anything. And magically, I can make it, and it includes yeast, and it is completely YUMMY. Tyson helps out a lot, and sometimes even makes it himself (I'll admit I think he has more of a knack than I do for making the recipe, but I'm just happy that at the end of the day, I end up with some yummy bread).
I've had a couple requests for the recipe so here it is:
Mix 3 c. flour, 6 T. sugar, 2 t. salt, 1/4 c. yeast.
Heat 2 c. milk, 1 c. water, 1 stick margarine in microwave. (I usually use a big measuring cup to add milk then water and plop the margarine in and nuke it)
Gradually add liquids to flour mixture and mix 2 min at medium speed. Add 1 c. flour and mix quickly for 2 min. Then add 3+ more cups flour. Knead for 5 min. and let rise in greased bowl 15 min. Shape into 2 loaves. Let rise 15 min. Bake at 375 for 20 min.
Super fast, super easy. We've also made rolls of various forms, mini-loaves, and bread bowls for use with soup. If Tyson is in charge, he usually pulls them out a tad early as he likes it a little doughy in the middle.
Enjoy! And never fear yeast again!
I've had a couple requests for the recipe so here it is:
Mix 3 c. flour, 6 T. sugar, 2 t. salt, 1/4 c. yeast.
Heat 2 c. milk, 1 c. water, 1 stick margarine in microwave. (I usually use a big measuring cup to add milk then water and plop the margarine in and nuke it)
Gradually add liquids to flour mixture and mix 2 min at medium speed. Add 1 c. flour and mix quickly for 2 min. Then add 3+ more cups flour. Knead for 5 min. and let rise in greased bowl 15 min. Shape into 2 loaves. Let rise 15 min. Bake at 375 for 20 min.
Super fast, super easy. We've also made rolls of various forms, mini-loaves, and bread bowls for use with soup. If Tyson is in charge, he usually pulls them out a tad early as he likes it a little doughy in the middle.
Enjoy! And never fear yeast again!
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Amish Friendship Bread...
So, have you heard of Amish Friendship Bread? It certainly isn't novel; Google lists about 76,300 sites that have references to "Amish", "Friendship", and "Bread". Even Wikipedia is up to speed on this "recent" phenomenon:
So what is the big deal you ask? Let me tell you. The big deal is that Amish Friendship Bread is WAY good. We've been making it for several weeks (we got our starter from Sara's brother Nick and his wife Jyllian) and we've also been sharing it with relatives and neighbors. Everyone seems to like it. And then, come to find out, there are all sorts of extra "options" that you can mix in. My Mom sent me a bunch of recipe "tweaks" earlier today and I've posted them as a Google Doc so everyone can access them: Amish Friendship Bread Variations.
Interested? Intrigued? Want in on the fun? Let me or Sara know and maybe you will be lucky enough to get a starter from us in one of the next batches. Oh, and Happy New Year everyone!
Amish Friendship Bread is a type of bread or cake made from a sourdough starter that is often shared in a manner similar to a chain letter. The starter is a substitute for baking yeast and can be used to make many kinds of yeast-based breads, shared with friends, or frozen for future use. The sweet, cake-like Amish Cinnamon Bread is a common bread that is made from this starter; it is a simple, stirred quickbread that includes a substantial amount of sugar and vegetable oil, with a mild cinnamon flavor. It has characteristics of both pound cake and coffee cake.
So what is the big deal you ask? Let me tell you. The big deal is that Amish Friendship Bread is WAY good. We've been making it for several weeks (we got our starter from Sara's brother Nick and his wife Jyllian) and we've also been sharing it with relatives and neighbors. Everyone seems to like it. And then, come to find out, there are all sorts of extra "options" that you can mix in. My Mom sent me a bunch of recipe "tweaks" earlier today and I've posted them as a Google Doc so everyone can access them: Amish Friendship Bread Variations.
Interested? Intrigued? Want in on the fun? Let me or Sara know and maybe you will be lucky enough to get a starter from us in one of the next batches. Oh, and Happy New Year everyone!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)