The Green Sheet

More Snow Day Fun

2011-02-04T19:46:00.001-06:00

Fun on the Snow Day

2011-02-04T19:44:00.000-06:00

A Few Pictures from Our Year in Review - Part 1

2011-02-02T09:52:00.003-06:00

Chillin' in the Bathtub (2/10)

Tormenting Shooter (3/10) Fun at the Park (3/10) - Ryder loves the swings
Happy to see Dad after a business trip (3/10)

Chris and Dria at Seredipity 3 in NYC (4/10)

A Trip to Central Park on Easter 2010

Ryder enjoys a good teeth brushing (5/10)

A Year (and some odd months) in Review

2011-01-10T19:47:00.003-06:00

So I guess it's time to resurrect the blog...after a mere year and so odd months, not much has happened. Ok, yes it has. As Ryder is probably standing in his bed right now talking away, "Dada! Zzzzew, zeeeew (airplane flying)!, and the occasional thump of him flopping down, it's really hard to realize how much time has passed since, what was it, October 19, 2009?

Last time I checked in, my little sis turned 21. Meanwhile, she is off in Italy on a school excursion, ready to graduate in May. Oh my! Last time I blogged, we were experiencing Ryder's frost and now we're on to some of his seconds.

My little guy dresses up as funny little horse for Halloween. This year, he was wandering around as a little dog.

Ryder's first Christmas was filled with his efforts to eat the paper and Mon and Dad's effort to get him to enjoy the toys, namely books, he got. This year, he could've cared less about the paper, but once everything was unwrapped (mostly by Mom and Dad), he was quick at work to play with one thing after the next...See and Say, Bubbles (aka Elmo) See and Say, Little People Farm, Rocking Trike, a Monkey in the Box, and so many books and car paraphenalia! How much stuff can one kid enjoy...or use for that matter? (That little "no sleeper" is still talking away... "car, car" followed by "vrrrr, vrrrr"! This little boy is so busy even when he should be sleeping.)

Last April brought a quick trip to NYC for Chris and I. Ryder split his time between Papa and Nana K's and Gramma and Grandpa S's. What fun he had (and so did we...and Tessie and Shooter too! Shooter even helped himself to a pound of Grandpa S's cheese right off the counter. Silly dog!). Tessie and Shooter both celebrated birthdays in May and April, respectively. We had some old dogs - Tessie was seven and Shooter turned eight. They also seemed to be turning white overnight. Old dogs.

May brought the confirmation that I could officially make my move back to the classroom where I would join my childhood friend, Amanda, teaching fifth grade. Chris continued working hard at both his new(er) sales job as well as at his MBA program at MU. His studies at MU prepped him for a trip to Belgium in June. In the meantime, Ryder and I packed our suitcase and headed off to Florida with Nana, Papa, and Emily. Ryder did well on his first plane ride, but thank goodness, we three other people to hand him around to. On the way home, I was going it alone in Business class, thank goodness for the extra room. Having a little guy just wanting to walk made for a long flight home. We were happy to see Chris at the gate waiting for us.

Ryder celebrated his first 4th of July, loving the flags! It was hard to believe his birthday was around the corner - we almost had ourselves a walking one year old! Unbelievable!

We had a small birthday celebration, but enjoyable nonetheless. Ryder definitely enjoyed his birthday cupcake. Mmmm, chocolate frosting. In the blink of an eye, the cake was gone. He continues to be good little eater. We made the move to "real food" quite quickly and easily. Weaning him off a bottle not difficult either. Besides getting sick of a food after awhile, as anyone would, this kid has no problem eating or trying new foods. Tomatoes and mashed potatoes are really the only thing on the "yuck" list. Otherwise, black beans, any meat, blueberries, CHEESE, noodles, strawberries, eggs, craCKERS, are always in demand for "more, more" with his sign language. Don't worry, he'll let you know when he's ALL Done, with a swish of his arm and knocking food off the tray if you don't get it away fast enough.

More to come about months 12+... and pictures too!

Busy October

2009-10-19T15:53:00.000-05:00

We've had a few busy weekends this month...

We celebrated Little E's 21st Birthday! My little sister is all grown up now. Hope you had a good day, Emily!

We celebrated Ryder's Baptism. He is lucky to have two great godparents, Chris' cousin, Jordan and my sister, Emily. We decided he had the godparents with most collective tattoos in church. Lucky kid, both have offered to take him to get a tattoo when he's old enough. We couldn't ask for anything more!

This past weekend, we celebrated the wedding of our friends, Kerry and Eric. After 9 1/2 years of dating, they finally got hitched! Congratulations to the happy couple!

*Note the beautiful and tasty cake by Sweetness by Alice.

There may be a video surfacing somewhere in cyberspace of Chris and I cuttin' up the dance floor and rockin' out to Ice, Ice Baby. Needless to say, we had an awesome time!

Uncle Sonny

2009-09-17T18:02:00.002-05:00

I don't have an Uncle Sonny, but the person at The Arugula Files does and he looks awesome. I was browsing the internet for a recipe for Eggplant Parm and came across Uncle Sonny's. I'm going to give the recipe a try, but more importantly, you should check out the recipe because pictures are included and I found the comments following the post entertaining.

2009-09-04T17:39:00.003-05:00

My little guy had his pictures taken by a great Madison area photographer, Casey Bower, just shy of his two week birthday. He was a super fussy little boy that day, but Casey did a great job of capturing some great shots. There is a quick overview of the shoot on her blog, the whole gallery will be available next week.

Get the sneak peek here!

A funny story about the social networking aspect of the internet and these pictures... my mom called me today at the end of the school day and said, "The pictures are so cute!"
I responded, "The pictures on my blog or facebook?"
She said, "No, from Casey Bower!"
I had no idea what she was talking about. Turns out, Gina and Kelly's mom, who works with my mom, commented on how cute the pictures were. Again, my mom thought she was talking about the blog pics or the facebook pics, but no, the Casey Bower photos. Ah... how did she know?

Kelly.

That girl is internet amazing.

Just some cute pictures...

2009-09-02T19:53:00.000-05:00

Look at that big green monkey.

Bath Time!

2009-09-02T19:49:00.001-05:00

Ryder likes the warm water in the bath...he's soooo big already!

Dad gives a good bath.

Meeting the Grandparents for the 1st Time

2009-09-02T19:46:00.002-05:00

Baby's Here!

2009-08-08T08:30:00.004-05:00

Wow, it's been quite a whirlwind in the last 19 hours!

Yesterday, I went to my doctor's appointment shortly before 1pm and after my examine, she asked if I had my stuff for the hospital in the car. Whoa! Talk about a surprise. I was already dilated 5cm - ah, that's half way there. So, needless to say, Chris and I went home to top off the suitcase, spend some childless time with the pups, and get some odds and ends in the house in order.

The doctor checked in around 4:30pm to see if we were ready to go. I had been having some consistent back pain about every 7 minutes, so she thought it would be beneficial to head to the hospital and I definitely wouldn't make it until Monday without having our little guy! So, we took our last childless picture and headed out to the hospital. Oh look, even the dogs are looking at the camera. Boy, are they in for a surprise when we get home tomorrow!Everything seemed so anti-climactic on our drive to the hospital. There was no rush in the middle of the night or water breaking in a gush in the house, just getting in the car and taking our time during the 10 minute drive to the hospital.

When we got to the hospital, they were ready for us and I changed into the ever-beautiful hospital gown and got a quick check over. There were moms-to-be in obvious pain walking the halls. I felt like I should've had my running shoes on as we began our walk around the hospital floor as my pain from contractions was nothing but a 1 on and scale of 1 to 10. After one lap, the nurse suggested we head back into the room and the resident on call was going to break my water to hopefully get things moving along. Well, that was something else, no need to expand on the details here. Ask me and I'll tell you about it. From there, the contractions did start to increase in frequency and strength. We were looking at about a 4 on a scale of 1 to 10. The exercise ball was my new friend. After that, things started to progress on the pain scale with the addition of pitocin to my hospital cocktail. Things got a little tougher to stick out. By 10:30ish, I was looking for that epidural. My dilation hadn't really changed much, but the contractions were rough. I did the best I could but when the nurse said it would only get worse, more drugs sounded like the best option in the comfort department. Life WAS much more bearable once that hit my system.

Between 11pm and 12:30am, things moved quickly from 6cm to 10cm. This little guy was ready to make his appearance in the world! After about 35 minutes of pushing, we met Ryder Thomas. A healthy little boy weighing in at 7lbs 9oz and measuring 20.5inches. I was lucky this little guy was riding low for the tail end of my pregnancy, evidently, that made the time I had to push much, much less than a normal first-time mom with an epidural. When I think back to hearing the nurse say the average is between 1 and 3 hours, I couldn't even imagine. I guess I was pretty lucky.

Chris was a great support during the whole process and when things quieted down about 4am, we couldn't believe everything that happened and we ended up with this cute little boy that's ours! Amazing. I'm so excited to see our little guy grow and change in the days, months, and years ahead!!

State Fair visit and Apple Pie Revelation

2009-08-07T15:00:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, I made the annual pilgrimage to State Fair with my mom and we were joined by my Grandma. We had a limited time for our visit, so it was an abbreviated version of the State Fair. We started at the south end of the park - first stop: Cream Puffs. Since we went first thing in the morning, there was a very, very short line. One tasty treat down, several more to go. Then, we headed to the Journal/Sentinel building to see the winning photographs and I renewed our Sunday subscription. I scored $15 in gift cards with our subscription (read: $15 worth of diapers). Then, it was on to the Horticulture Building. We saw all of the State Fair textile and food submissions. Kudos to my friend Barb for her chocolate raspberry cheesecake submission. While she was the Waukesha Co. Fair winner for this cheesecake, this one yielded a white ribbon (I couldn't read what place that equated). We saw some beautiful flowers and some amazing vegetable submissions.

Next stop, the Expo!! I was in search of a new set of Ginsu knives, but alas, I couldn't find them. We picked up our annual lottery tickets. Both my mom and I "contributed" five dollars each to the state lottery fund without a return. Oh well. It was funny walking through the Expo because in each aisle, I could identify one of the products we did have... Cham Wow, Salsa Maker, Glass Cleaner, Stove Top Grill. Argh, where were the Ginsus??

We were there so early, the corn was just beginning to roast. We couldn't partake in that.

At this point, we had about an hour and 15 minutes left at the fair, so we headed to the Wisconsin Products Building. Mmm...more tasty treats. Mom and Grandma headed to the Wisconsin Potato Growers booth. Cheese, butter, sour cream, and chives, please! I headed to the Apple Growers stand. Caramel Apple Sundae, hold the sprinkles, please. In the past, the WI State Fair Coupon Book rocked. This year, not so much. No apple coupon, no milk coupon. What's going on? We did score 3 potatoes for $10. Not sure if this was more of a deal than in the past.

30 minutes remaining... off to see some animals. The cows were being herded into the coliseum for some judging. They were so nice and clean. How cute. On to the horses... we saw the clydesdales and boy, are their feet big! They were getting reading for some judging later in the day in the washing area.

Times up! Our ride was waiting. It was beautiful weather and the morning couldn't have been more perfect - a little more time to peruse the fairgrounds. I was looking forward to the Deep Fried PB&J on a stick from the Machine Shed, so someone have one for me. And if you see the Ginsus, all I need are the steak knives.

So, I know you're wondering about my apple pie revelation. I love fall and love making and eating apple pie. My grandma has a fantastic recipe! But, I've always drooled over apple pie bars and haven't found a recipe that suffices (if you have one, please share!). You know, the bars with the layers of firm crust, apple pie filling, a top crust, and a nice layer of icing on the top. You can find these at the Apple Grower's booth. Mmm. I ran across this recipe from Smitten Kitchen for Sour Cherry Slab Pie. I think I could substitute Grandma's Apple Pie filling in this recipe. I can't wait for apple season!

Peanut Butter Blondies

2009-08-07T10:49:00.003-05:00

I made the recipe for Peanut Butter Blondies listed below and I have to say, they turned out picture perfect, with the taste to match. I took them to a meeting at school yesterday and they got the stamp of approval there as well. I used chocolate chips instead of PB chips, as the blogger did as well. Yum-my!

The end of $1 DVD rentals?

2009-08-07T10:45:00.002-05:00

Redbox may be facing some new restrictions with Fox new releases. Could this be the end of $1 new releases?

Here's a good site for Redbox codes, so your rentals are free!

Tastespotting Wednesday

2009-08-05T09:14:00.004-05:00

A few favorites from my perusal of Tastespotting...

Peanut Butter Blondies

German Pancakes in Muffin Tins - easy enough for breakfast

Gin and Tonic popscicles?? I was thinking something more like a Mojito popscicle!

Quite possibly the best lemonade...

2009-08-04T17:26:00.003-05:00

Oberweis Dairy Lemonade

Lots of books to read

2009-08-03T19:49:00.003-05:00

So, with all this time on my hands lately, laundry is done, the kitchen is clean, and books are getting read! I've finished two books in the last week and they were pretty good reads.

The Omnivore's Dilemma
by Michael Pollan

This is one that I've been trying to muddle my way through for over a year. I couldn't figure out why it was difficult to read, but I came to the conclusion that it was sort of like reading a textbook. Needless to say, I finally had some time to get into it and it turned out to be a good book. I'm not one for too much fiction, so this was an informational book about a man's quest to follow the path of food products. Namely, the burger he ate at McDonald's; the presence of corn in the majority of the American diet; a meal as hunters and gathers would have once prepared. When my wonderful friends, Amanda, Gina, and Christy, asked what I was reading on our most recent girls' weekend and I told them I was reading about the reproduction of corn, they somehow thought this was amusing. This book had some interesting information on the boom of organics and how they really compare to conventionally grown produce and meat. In addition, it also addressed the slow food movement, which I didn't know much about, and eating locally versus organically. I have to say that I walked away from the book with more alligence to local growers than organics. Being "certified" organic is an arduous process and one that small growers can's feasibly achieve. If you're looking to be more ecologically friendly in your food choices, does it make sense to buy organic that's from Mexico, or a local grower that didn't use any pesticides? I'd go local. Sometimes, I think you're paying for the label organic, when in all truth, organic is the way things used be... why is it so much more expensive now?

The other book I finished was a quick read...

Julie and Julia
by Julie Powell

This name may ring a bell, the movie is coming out in theaters on Thursday. This book chronicled a 30 year old New Yorker's culinary journey through Julia Child's cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1. The author decided to document her journey through a blog and eventually hit it big with a book deal. She is very brash in her retelling of the events surrounding her cooking and life experiences, and was quite funny. We'll see how the movie measures up. But, the book was a good one. Thanks to my mom for passing along a "happy" read. :)

How far can you take Facebook?

2009-07-29T13:47:00.003-05:00

Since I don't have much to do around here lately, I've been geeking more and more on Facebook. I've even updated my status. Something I've only done once or twice. So, I'm wondering how far can you take it to friend people in Facebook. We have a college friend who lives in Colorado. He's got some connections in the cycling world (i.e. Lance Armstrong - probably the most well-known to the non-cycling world). Needless to say, can I send a friend request to Lance? How about all those other prolific cyclists? Are they on Facebook to be found by fans?

When I clicked on Lance's profile, which was private, a friend of his that showed publicly was Tom Cruise. I know this to be fact. Can I friend TomKat?

Is there Facebook etiquette when it comes to friending people?

Pizza Man

2009-07-29T12:22:00.002-05:00

This weekend we ventured over to the east side of Milwaukee to try and catch the Air Show and then the "Great" Downer's Avenue Bike Race. We had time to kill between the two, so we headed to Pizza Man for some pizza. This is a staple of eastside dining, evidently, but we'd never been there. They were also written up in the recent edition of Wine Spectator. So, we thought we'd check it out.

Boy, if we would've known this place was here, this would be THE pizza destination for us... totally worth the drive. I am usually a fan of the thicker crust, even deep dish and Chris is more about the thin crust. We ordered a pizza with the thin crust (house specialty) with spinach, fresh mozzerella and tomatoes. This thin crust was unlike any thin crust I've had before. It was flaky, crispy, and it held up under the sauce and did not get soggy. Even the leftovers were not super soggy. They had some interesting options on the menu, including cream cheese as a topping. Maybe we'll get that adventurous next time. The salads were nothing to write home about and there was no dessert menu. But, keep in mind, this little corner establishment was written up in Wine Spectator. The "August" wine list was a binder of over 500 hundred wines. Some choices had a two glass minimum due to the cost of the bottle. The most expensive glass of wine - single glass - was $65.

I can't wait to go back for another tasty pizza. Mmmmm!

Just in case you're wondering...

2009-07-28T16:46:00.001-05:00

he's not here yet. I'm anxious too.

I miss card catalogs in the library.

2009-07-23T15:24:00.001-05:00

100 Things Your Kids May Never Know About... granted, I'm not sure of a few of these things myself, but it's still a pretty good list.

Deal!!

2009-07-23T11:08:00.003-05:00

Every once in awhile, I'll check out the deals on Brad's Deals. I know some of my fellow bloggers are diligent followers, I unfortunately, am not. But, today when I checked it out, I noticed a link to Restaurant.com where you could get 80% off your order. What? 80%... yes, 80%!! It didn't really register until I actually found a restaurant I wanted to purchase the certificates from. I'm not going to divulge the exact purchase I made because it's for an upcoming gift... but, let's just say I got $100 worth of gift certificates for $8. How does that equal 80% you ask? Well, they reduce the original purchase price of the GCs to begin with... and then apply the discount to that. DEAL!

If you're interested in scoring your own deal, the promo code is "NAPKIN".

La Merenda

2009-07-22T12:02:00.002-05:00

Last week, we met up with Kerry and Eric for dinner downtown. We had a lovely time having appetizers on their deck overlooking Lake Michigan, the Menomonee River, and downtown Milwaukee (if you careened your neck just right) - what a view. It was a lovely evening to sit outside and enjoy good company. Whenever we get together on their side of town, we always get to try try new places for dinner since that's not our usual dining location. Kerry's so good at picking out different spots!

This time, we dined at La Merenda. They advertise themselves as a Bar and International Tapas Restaurant. (I think the last time we went out with them, we had Japanese tapas at Nankusa.) The menu was really interestings, as it really was international! We had some tasty salads from Thailand and Italy, preceeded by the traditional Wisconsin Cheese Plate (yum). The salads were followed by some tostones (fried plantains), risotto with shrimp, scallops and crab, kalamata olives, and Indonesian sauteed shrimp (a little too spicy for me). We didn't quite have room for the polenta, which I was looking forward too, but dessert sounded too good to miss! I don't remember what it was called, but basically, it was warm, carmelized, sauteed bananas with a drizzle of chocolate sauce tucked inside a spring roll wrap with a side of vanilla ice cream. Oh yum. There were 4 little rolls, perfect for us to split!

In addition to the delicious food, the atmosphere was pretty cool as well. We couldn't really tell what the building used to be, but it is located in an area that was formerly semi-industrial. It was a one story building with cinderblock walls that had been painted orange. Lots of fun international decor on the walls. Each dining table and chair was different (I love when restaurants do that) - a very ecclectic atmosphere!

Oh no!

2009-07-16T19:05:00.001-05:00

According to the Washington Post, one of my favorite types of shoes may be long gone. Could it be true? Could Crocs be a thing of the past? A victim of the recession? I don't think my 7 pairs would agree. So sad. Oh, make that 8.

Read the article here.

The list is mounting

2009-07-14T19:30:00.003-05:00

So when you're pregnant, there is this list of things you can't eat, drink, do, etc. I'm glad that with less than 4 weeks to go, the end of this list is in sight. I won't be buying tickets to Great America anytime soon, but I am looking forward to more than a sip of iced tea (decaf is just not the same), some good brie, and eventually, a nice glass of wine. You'd think all the ice cream I've been eating makes up for this? Surprisingly, no.

Tasty tacos

2009-07-14T19:13:00.003-05:00

Lately, we've dined at our fair share of taco joints. No, not Taco Bell or Taco John's... I don't even know where the closest of either of those would be. We were in Madison last week and stopped at Tex Tubb's Taco Palace. We dined at the east location and had some tasty grub! I had a veggie taco, which basically consisted of a bunch of deep friend vegetables with cabbage slaw and sour cream. Tas-ty! I added a fried avocado taco to my plate as well. It all ended up being a little too much fry for me, but it was a new spin on tacos and tasty at that!

Yesterday, I crashed Chris' work lunch to dine at Haute Taco in Brookfield on Capitol Drive. This is a pretty unassuming place in an upscale strip mall, but it too is double tasty. I had a pan-fried tilapia taco, which is by far the best fish taco I've had, along with a blackened halibut and black bean tostada, which was a special of the day. The tostada was marginal. Chris had a scallop taco, which he deemed out of this world. They also had mushroom and asparagus tacos and quesadillas, in addition to a plethora of burritos and interesting meat fixin's. Also, this was by far the best lemonade I've had in awhile!

Both places definitely worth checking out if you're looking for something better than your average taco. Yum.

Baby's Room, sans furniture

2009-07-10T11:29:00.002-05:00

Baby Chic

2009-07-10T10:38:00.002-05:00

I was excited to open my anniversary gift from Chris. Now I'm part of the Baby Chic crowd (according to the web site, at least).

Check it out...

Happy Anniversary!

2009-07-10T10:13:00.003-05:00

Chris and I celebrated our 7th anniversary on Monday. What do they say about the 7 year itch? I'm not quite sure.

We went to Chicago for the day. Our main destination was the Museum of Science and Industry to see the Harry Potter Exhibition. It was an addition exhibit so tickets were extra. Going into the day, I was excited to see all the Harry Potter memorabilia from the movies, but also a little skeptical. I had gone to see the Titanic Exhibit at the Milwaukee Public Museum earlier this year with a group from school and was sorely disappointed, especially by taking a group of kids. While I realize any artifacts from the Titantic needed to be retrieved from the bottom of the ocean, I thought there would be a lot more things to look at. Instead, there was a lot of information you had to read. I was really hoping the Harry Potter exhibit would be different with more stuff to look at and not as much to read.

We didn't really remember where the museum was, since it had been over 15 years since either of us had been there, but you'd think it was part of the "Museum Campus" in Chicago. Well, it wasn't. It was another 5 miles south, actually right across from the University of Chicago campus. We found it with plenty of time to spare. We had a little while to wander through the museum before our visit to the exhibit. When 12:30 rolled around, we got in line for our 12:45 tickets. Oh, so exciting!! Interestingly, everyone involved with the exhibit spoke with an English accent. Coincidence? I think not.

I'm happy to report that the exhibit far exceeded my expectations! It included so many props and costumes from the movies, including wands, dress robes, The Monster Book of Monsters, Hagrid's Hut, more wands, Cornish pixies, fat-bellied Mandrakes, and sooo much more. Pictures weren't allowed in the exhibit, but they did have the flying car on display in the lobby, so that's the only pic I have from the day.

While the exhibit was great, I would recommend purchasing tickets for the evening only exhibition if you don't have much interest in visiting the actual musuem. They've extended the hours of the museum just for the exhibit, so you can buy tickets just for that and not have to fork over the extra cash to pay museum admission if you go during the day. Parking is $16 too, just in case you're interested. If you are remotely a Harry Potter fan, you definitely have to check it out!

Baby Shower Celebration

2009-07-08T11:27:00.001-05:00

We had a lovely baby shower held by my mom and sister two weekends ago. Thanks to my dad's cousin, Geralyn, for the photos!

I really don't sit around and watch tv all day. I promise.

2009-07-03T10:57:00.001-05:00

I just find this commercial annoying.

Awww...

2009-06-29T22:46:00.000-05:00

I pretty much love this commercial and pretty much love my dogs.

No Excuses

2009-06-20T07:42:00.001-05:00

I saw this commerical a long time ago, and meant to post. Good motivation, but also a UWW alum!

Wednesday is Tastespotting Day

2009-06-17T18:59:00.003-05:00

For some reason, I usually end up on the Tastespotting web site on Wednesdays. I know I've mentioned the web site before, but really, if you like food and haven't checked it out in a while, it's worth a revisit. There are always interesting pictures of food to look at and they link up to blogs that tell a little story or give the recipes. Lately, I've found some tasty things and DON'T have the recipe linked to it. Grrr...

I do notice that I really enjoy the photos with the white backgrouds, pretty much sans background, not just white. I noticed this too when I was checking out my talented friend Aly's website, Sweetness by Alice. She's a professional pastry chef. Tasty stuff, that Aly makes.

Well, anyway, here are some pics from Tastespotting that caught my eye...

32 weeks and counting...

2009-06-15T10:05:00.002-05:00

finally...

2009-06-15T09:53:00.006-05:00

some pictures to share with you...in backwards order.

Happy 31, Chris!
Tessie celebrated her 6th birthday, but Shooter liked the frosting on his nose better than in his mouth.

Happy B-Day Tessie!

Short weekend in Chicago to celebrate the in-law's 40th wedding anniversary. Also got to see little E.

Easter Dogs

2009-05-05T19:36:00.004-05:00

Happy Belated Birthday, Shooter!

2009-05-05T19:28:00.003-05:00

Shooter celebrated his seventh birthday on April 17. What an exciting Friday night we had! We found out that although Shooter was not a big fan of treats, he does like cake and frosting!

We celebrated the big guy's birthday with a trip to Oconomowoc to The Doggy Bag, pet bakery. The treats there are just wonderful, they are even people worthy! We drove past our old house and grabbed dinner from one of our favorite Mexican joints... Fiesta Cancun. After dinner, we celebrated with cake and treats for the pups and cake and ice cream for the people. Shooter did actually enjoy some of the treats we picked up!

Big Time

2009-04-25T16:22:00.004-05:00

Well, my little sister has hit the big time. Last night was the opening of Lil' E's first show. Unfortunately, we weren't able to attend due to early morning commitments today. Check it out!
I'm so proud of her. :) A shout out to my mom for the pics to share.

Twilight saga

2009-04-17T19:56:00.003-05:00

I haven't been too motivated to read since I've been pregnant. Kind of odd. Anyways, I did decide to see what all the buzz about Twilight was. I read the first book over winter break. It was the strangest reading experience I'd had. I was so engrossed in the book, sort of like Harry Potter, but I just couldn't let it go. I thought about it when I wasn't reading it, I dreamt about it, weird stuff. When I finished the book, I thought I would just end it there. My sister gave me all the books to read, but I decided to be done. I didn't know if I could live with three more books that consumed my life.

Well, then the movie came out. I had to see that when it was on DVD. So, to the top of my Netflix list it went. I watched it, and of course, it didn't do the book justice, as usual, but it was decent. And, the last scene, which I will not give away, left me wondering about the rest of the series. With spring break here and not too much planned, I picked up the second book. Now, halfway into the third book, I'm hoping to finish the last book before going back to school on Monday.

Belly Pics for Y'All

2009-04-15T12:37:00.004-05:00

I had the pleasure of catching up with my dear friends, Christy and Amanda this past weekend. Always with camera in hand, Amanda clicked some quick shots to share.

Just at the end of 22 weeks...

Help from Moms

2009-04-10T11:52:00.003-05:00

I'm about to undertake the task of registering for Baby in the next week. I'm looking for the Top 5 Things You Couldn't Live Without as a new mom. Help please!

Thanks in advance. :)

Someone wanted to see pictures...

2009-03-24T17:54:00.003-05:00

We went to Vegas a while back. I didn't take too many pictures. I wish I was a more diligent picture-taker. Those of you looking for a belly shot, this is what you're getting... for now. I was 16 weeks here. When I came back from this trip, people commented on how pregnant I was looking.

Irish Soda Bread

2009-03-18T20:14:00.003-05:00

St. Paddy's Day is a good holiday. People dress in green, you can pretend you're Irish even when you're not, you can have a Shamrock Shake or a Shamrock cookie from Sentry. I always liked to imagine that I really did like Irish Soda Bread, but the truth is... true Irish Soda Bread is just gross. It tastes like baking soda. Hmmm, I wonder why. I like the brown bread you find in Ireland. In fact, I've never found anywhere else that measures up to Irish brown bread. But, I have now found two Irish Soda Bread recipes that I L-O-V-E, love!

My dad happened across a recipes from Sendik's Market. This one has dried cherries in it, extra yum! This was my only request (at this point) for Easter Brunch.

Check out the recipe!

Another new favorite Irish Soda Bread recipe comes from Kate, a gal I work with. Last year she brought in loaves upon loaves on St. Pat's Day. I was secretly hoping she'd bring some in this year and she did NOT disappoint. Heaven at the lunch table! I think she brought in 4 loaves and there was but a 1/2 a loaf left by the end of the day - and she doesn't get there until 10am!

If I can coax the recipe out of her, it will be mine... muhhhahhh haahhhhaaa.

The Reader

2009-03-12T18:37:00.004-05:00

We used a long held gift card to the Landmark Theatres this weekend. We headed down to the east side for a showing of the The Reader at the Oriental Theatre. I don't think I've been to the Oriental for years. If you're in MKE and looking for a neat little movie theatre, it's worth checking out. Lots of history and charm. Not the biggest screen or stadium seating, but a great little gem.
I thought we should see a cultured movie as long as we were going to an unusual theatre. Kate Winslet, playing Hannah, won an Oscar for her performance in this film. To be truthful, I didn't really know the whole premise of the movie, only that Winslet and the young man, named Michael, had an affair and later, she turns out to be a former SS guard during WWII. Well, I saw a little, make that, a lot more of the actual Kate Winslet and her little affair than I cared too. The second half of the movie provided much more clothing and more of a story.

Michael grows up to be a lawyer. During his law school years, he attended a trial of female SS guards who were being prosecuted by the German government in the sixties. This was historical news to me. Michael soon discovers Hannah has a secret that proves she should be innocent at the close of her trial, but she refuses to reveal the secret. Instead, she is convicted, at age 44, of twentysome years in prison. Michael is unable to bring himself to reveal her secret either and off to prison she goes. Eventually, his conscience catches up with him and he begins to communicate with her while she sits in prison.

I won't ruin the ending, nor will I reveal her secret. It would ruin the movie. Once this one heads to DVD, I would suggest checking it out.

2009-03-12T18:35:00.002-05:00

Gripe 1: What is this new Facebook set up? I don't think I like it.

Gripe 2: I hate it when you can just feel "sick" coming on. Sore throat sneaking in... sneezes showing up... a little bit of a chill... nose slowly dripping. I thought one of the side effects of taking all these vitamins is a healthier me?! ugh.

c is for cookie.

2009-03-10T20:49:00.001-05:00

I have to give a shout out to Monnie. I ran across this uber-good cookie site on her blog. Double yum if anyone wants to bake and send me some. I keep throwing out this offer, but no one's taking me up on this.

Pink or Blue? How about brown...

2009-03-10T19:55:00.004-05:00

I like brown. It's neutral. I have a lot of brown in my wardrobe. It can go with pink, it can go with blue. So, there you have it, it's gender neutral. I bought something brown for the little one last week. I can't believe I bought it... again, making all of this baby stuff real... as if my rounding belly isn't enough. (Yes, I will post a picture soon.) It was a little winter snow suit thing. Not that vinyl type, but a cute little furry brown outfit with footies, mitties and a little hood. The best part? It's got little monkey ears and a monkey face on the hood, oh and turn it around, there's a tail. How cute is that! Size wise, this might be a perfect Halloween costume. I thought, if there's a little girl on the way, I can just add a little pink bow to the "hair" at the top of the hood. Either way, it's a keeper.

We made the trip to the doctor yesterday. It was the day for the "big" ultrasound. Why did I schedule the appointment for three o'clock in the afternoon? I thought it would be the slowest day possible. I thought about taking the whole afternoon off thinking that might speed things along, but then I thought otherwise, it would be even longer than sitting in school all afternoon. So, I pushed the envelope and didn't leave school until 2:45, almost late for my appointment. It was true to form that when you have some monumental baby something, everyone's got a story for you. In the 8 hours leading up to my appointment, I heard about 4 different babies that were identified as the wrong gender. In the two days leading up to the appointment, I had two people ask me if I was having twins. I'm not that big... really!

After we had the opportunity to see the kidneys of our little one, and then the jaw bone, 4 chambers of the heart, parts of the brain, little nose and mouth, arms, and legs (and boy, were they moving), Chris wondered if we could get a little soccer ball in there yet. Umm, no. I don't need anything else in there, thank you very much. We finally got to see the little boy parts. :) Yup, a little boy is on the way. I had a feeling that's what he was.

I have to say that the best reaction I got was from my Grandma Kelly. She literally squealed in delight. She had three daughters and only two granddaughters, so no little boys to be found. She was extremely thrilled to have a little boy on the way. She even had her eye on a little dump truck for the little guy, but waited to hear the news to buy anything. She told me she's going back tomorrow to get it. How cute.

The Best Valentine's Day Present Ever

2009-02-19T17:38:00.002-06:00

I'm sure everyone says this, but truly, I received the best Valentine's Day present, EVER. You're all going to be jealous, I know. You just have to know, don't you?

It was a Snuggie.

Score.

oh, yum!

2009-02-19T17:11:00.002-06:00

Yet another peanut butter and chocolate combination that makes my mouth water. Another tasty addition to this almost perfect duo? Banana!

Check it out... Banana Cream Peanut Butter Pie

Any kind soul want to make this one and send me a sampler? Yum. I might even use chocolate grahams for the crust. Double yum.

thump, thump... thump, thump

2009-02-19T17:04:00.002-06:00

I went to the doctor today for the monthly check-up and it was the first time I heard the heartbeat. Wow, that was pretty cool. Usually, moms-t0-be would have heard the heartbeat at the 10 week appointment, but this little bugger was begin stubborn and moving around like you wouldn't believe, so we saw the little beating wonder via ultrasound (kinda lucky, actually). So anyways, something's alive and kicking (and beating) in my belly and I heard it firsthand today. In three weeks, we'll be going back for the "big" ultrasound... and, yes, we're going to find out if it's boy or girl. as far as names, you'll have to live with "boy" or "girl" until august.

2009-02-01T18:25:00.001-06:00

190 days and counting... yes, you read correctly. We're joining the new cool club, we're having a baby!

2009-01-15T15:00:00.002-06:00

On this most wonderful cold day - only wonderful because it brought with it a day off school - I should tell you about our dog, Shooter. He is a funny dog. He is really a 10 pound dog trapped in the body of an 85 pounder. Yes, he's a large one, but he insists on being a lap dog. In fact, he's laying on my lap at the moment. You may think that isn't so strange. The strange part comes into play when he decides to climb ALL the way on the lap. You read that correctly, he will climb all the way onto your lap if you let him. Silly dog.

The Tale Of Despereaux

2009-01-04T09:50:00.001-06:00

The Tale of Despereaux

2009-01-04T09:33:00.003-06:00

In the midst of holiday parties yesterday, we had few hours to spare between Muskego and Kenosha and decided going home wasn't the best use of time, so we headed out to see a movie. I had been wanting to see The Tale of Despereaux because it is one of my favorite middle reader books. It's a quick read, a fun story, brings a few tears, and of course, has a happy ending. As with many books made into movies, I'm a little skeptical. How can you really recreate a beautiful story? I've seen a couple good movie adaptions (most recently, The Secret Life of Bees and The Kite Runner). I'm sad to report, this movie missed the boat. If you haven't read the book, it was a nice children's movie, but I probably wouldn't have gone to see it in the theater.

If you're interested in checking out the movie, it is a story about a very small and unusual mouse named Despereaux Tilling. Despereaux is does not cower and in fact, likes cats. How unusual for a mouse! He is banished from Mouseworld for not escaping into the castle of Door to read in the library. How dare he! At the same time, an unusual rat named Roscurio, who does not like garbage or tormenting humans, gets left behind his ship only to live in Ratworld, a very undesireable place. And yet another story line, the Princess and King of Door are very sad after the Queen died an untimely death while seeing a rat (Roscurio) in her annual bowl of soup. A lot going on, right?

Needless to say, Despereaux and Roscurio join forces to save the Princess and eventually the whole Kingdom. It did have a happy ending, but missed some key elements of the book which I truly enjoyed.

2009-01-04T09:26:00.002-06:00

I'm back to blogging to let you know... you should check your bacon.

Patrick Cudahy recalls bacon bit products - 3500 pounds of it!

the hills gossip

2008-11-24T21:14:00.003-06:00

omg, it is quite the night on one of my fav, the hills. word on the street, heidi and spencer got married in cabo. whoa. justin bobby and lc hooked up? i think not. i can't believe audrina is even believing any of this. seriously who would you believe, lauren or the guy with two first names?

did you know?

2008-11-22T09:02:00.004-06:00

My school recently added blackle.com as a suggested search engine. After trying it out and getting frustrated with my search results (only after realizing I pressed the wrong button when starting my web search), I couldn't figure out why this site was so much better. It was an off-shoot of Google, so why didn't I just use Google. Well, come to find out, the treehugger in me would be quite pleased behind the idea of Blackle. Check it out...

“An all white web page uses about 74 watts to display, while an all black page uses only 59 watts.” Google, which has a white background and gets about “200 million queries a day” could reduce global energy use by 750 Megawatt-hours a year by simply changing the color of its homepage to black. (For more detailed calculations and assumptions check out the original post here.)
In response to this post a black version of Google emerged called Blackle.com. According to Blackle’s homepage at publication time, 4,408.917 Watt hours have been saved by. The site encourages users to “make a difference today [by] … Blackling "energy saving tips" or visit[ing] treehugger.com a great blog dedicated to environmental awareness.” Nice ideas. But how does the search measure up? Very well indeed. "

(after you figure out which option to select, duh.)

Source: Black Google Saves Energy, http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/05/black_google_sa.php

2008-11-22T09:02:00.001-06:00

fun with gadgets. see below.

2008-11-22T09:00:00.001-06:00

good 'ole salem will never be the same again

2008-11-21T20:25:00.002-06:00

Now, don't deny it, you all were hooked on a daytime soap opera at one time. Maybe it was General Hospital, maybe it was Days, remember Santa Barbara. Oh, and we can't forget Passions. That was a good one.

Well, the world in Salem, the birthplace of the feuding Bradys and DiMeras, that's right, home of Days of our Lives, will never be the same again. John Black and Marlena have been given the ax. I can't believe it. After all they've gone through, Marlena was possessed by the devil, John lost his memory, he was thought he was Roman Brady for years! Sheesh, I can't believe they'll be gone soon. I guess I won't be able to tune in after 3 years and still know what's going on, if THEY'RE gone.

support the locals

2008-11-17T17:16:00.003-06:00

My sister has made the jump into selling her wares. She's got some fancy scarves. Maybe they'd make a good Christmas present for someone you know. As a side note, she also make dog scarves. Tessie and Shoots can't wait to see what Lil' E is going to make them for Christmas!! Check out her etsy site.

2008-11-10T21:07:00.003-06:00

Lots of fun was had this weekend with a mini-reunion of DS girls. Thanks to Gina for the snapshot of our evening. It was our lunch table of fun and then some. A shout out to Amanda for planning the evening of fun!

History in the making...

2008-11-05T17:31:00.004-06:00

Many of my friends have already addressed how monumental this election was, and I concur. While I have been surrounded by many Obama supporters, I do work with quite a few McCain supporters. While I felt educated to certain degree during this election process, enough to make an educated vote, I did find fundamental differences I have with Republican supporters. And yes, I do know that's why there are two parties. Maybe this was the first presidential election I felt a vested interest in. What do the McCain supporters think now? Similarly, how would the Obama supporters have felt if McCain had won?

Something I hadn't thought about in the past, but definitely worth a thought now.

What is that???

2008-10-28T19:35:00.003-05:00

Kitty Litter Cake!

A Little Day Trip

2008-10-21T19:35:00.003-05:00

This weekend we had some little adventures. My friend Kerry gave us a mystery coupon for Fratello's Waterfront Restaurant in downtown Milwaukee. You couldn't open it until the bill arrived and had the option to have 20, 30, 40, 50, or 100% off the bill.

The restaurant was right on the river, hence "waterfront restaurant," and would be so nice to sit on the deck during the summer.

The food was quite tasty. I had the veggie wrap with house chips (yum!), Chris had the crab stuffed walleye, his dad had jumbalaya, and his mom had 4 cheese ravioli with pesto, alfredo, and marinara on top - very pretty looking. I think everyone was satisfied with their food. My wrap tasty very similar to the pita veggie wrap from Water Street Brewery, only this one was in a "fratbread" instead of a pita. I think I preferred the pita. Chris' dinner had the perfect portion of everything. Of course it looked small when it arrived at the table, but turned out to be just the right portion. We ended dessert with some yummy cupcakes. I had the turtle and Chris had the Peanut Butter Cup. Both were delish! I totally love super sugary frosting and fit the bill perfectly. Chris opted for ice cream on the side and I wish I would've too, it cut the sugar just enough.

When the bill came and we opend the envelope, we were lucky enough to get 30% off the entrees - Kerry only got 20 when she used hers! Not 100%, but not the bottom rung discount!

On Sunday, we headed out to Devil's Lake with our friends, Joe and Tracy. They are super hikers and campers, so we had our work cut out for us for the day! We started our hike by bouldering up the side of the hill with the rocks. Pretty fun! We hadn't been out there in years. I only dropped my Nalgene bottle down a deep crevice once. Good thing Chris could reach it! Then, we hiked along the paved/rock trail through the woods (what's the all about). Then ended up going in circles and ended up going back down the rock to the railroad trail... the entire length of the lake. When we got to the end, we wished the car was there, not where we started. Walking on railroad rocks is rough on the ankles. Then we hiked back along the lakeshore on the other side of the lake. It was a beautiful day minus the 30 mile/hour winds.

We stopped for lunch on Madison's east side on our way back. Upon returning, I quickly met Kerry and we were off to a 1154 Lill Studio Purse Party! I love these bags. :) Thanks to a birthday gift from Christy, I was able to splurge a bit on a bag, aptly named the "Drea." How appropriate (kind of). It'll be here in 3 weeks - yahoo! If you haven't seen the website, check it out. Even if you don't want to buy a purse, you can still design your own on the website... too fun!

This is the style I chose, but different fabrics - fun greens. I can't wait to get it!

Tell me what you think about this one...

2008-10-15T20:23:00.000-05:00

A doughnut or two (or three)...

2008-10-15T19:54:00.002-05:00

I feel like I've blogged about doughnuts before, but they truly deserve multiple postings. Chris has posed the question to me (more than once), what is the best doughnut? I'm afraid I can't answer this question with one simple doughnut answer. In fact, I believe there are more than one category of doughnuts:

1. Cake Doughnuts

I have to say the chocolate cake doughnut with icing ties with plain cake with chocolate icing tie for first place.

2. Yeast Doughnuts

This would be the Krispy Kreme category. I don't care for the KKs. In fact, I feel like I'm eating a pile of sugar covered fat when eating these. If Peanut Persians fit in this category, I'm all over those. They take the "cake" as my favorite doughnut. Yum! Oh wait... Long Johns fit here too! Mmmm.

3. Fruit-related Doughnuts

Can you say apple fritters?

4. Miscellaneous

Crullers fit here. Tasty. Not too much icing needed, though.

Check out Joy the Baker's new sport: Doughnut Hunting!

How cute is this?

2008-10-11T13:32:00.001-05:00

Weatherman proposes to news anchorwoman...

IM WI 08

2008-09-24T20:39:00.005-05:00

The calm before the storm of Ironman Wisconsin 2008.

A victorious finish with a time of 11:50:51 on a day

where the weather could not have been more perfect.

Congratulations, IronChris!

For more pics, check out my Shutterfly albums.

Dasher Memories

2008-09-23T17:14:00.003-05:00

So, I got tagged by Amanda..... and now, I must oblige..... no worries, really. I really don't have anything else to do right now!

1. Did you date someone from your high school: Um, no. But, I did find an MUHS boy to waste 2 years of my high school life on.
2. What kind of car did you drive? Grandpa's blue Celebrity wagon. Sweet!
3. What is your most embarrassing moment in high school? I'm sure someone can remember an embarassing moment of mine... Gina, Christy, Amanda?
4. Were you a party animal? Definitely not.
5. Were you considered a flirt? I wish.
6. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir?I can't carry a tune, with my voice or on an instrument. I played the keyboard when I was 10.
7. Were you a nerd? Definitely. But seriously, I think someone deemed us the "normal" crowd.
8. Were you on any varsity teams? See #6, only apply to sports. Reading was my sport.
9. Did you get suspended/expelled? Nope, 1 demerit in my whole high school career, and that was given back by good 'ole Mrs. Patrick.
10. Can you still sing the fight song? Did we even have one?
11. Who were your favorite teachers? Isa, Isabella, Agostinelli! Sra. Tobin and Mrs. Buehner
12. Where did you sit during lunch?: The east side of the cafeteria (I just had to use my geography skills to figure that one out) about 2/3 of the way towards the gym. The end of the table closest to the windows.
13. School Mascot?:Penny the Penguin ...although we were called the Dashers
14. Did you go to homecoming and with who? Hmm... no one Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior years (I think) and then with the MUHS boyfriend senior year. Again, I don't really remember.
15. If you could go back and do it again, would you? I guess so. I would've ditched the boyfriend sooner and probably had a lot more fun!
16. What do you remember most about graduation? Wearing a white dress with gloves. No other school got to do that. That was one cool DS tradition!
17. Where did you go senior skip day? Again, my memory escapes me.
18. Have you gained weight since then?: I would like to duplicate Stef's answer. Not at all and I still look 16!
19. Who was your prom date? Joe
20. Are you planning on going to your 10 year reunion? I couldn't make it, we were out of town. But, think I'll attend the 15.
21. Looking back, what advice would you give yourself? Relax, have fun and don't worry about having a boyfriend. They're not all they're cracked up to be in HS.

And I now tag Katie, Kelly and Annie.

Lars and the Real Girl

2008-09-21T20:56:00.003-05:00

I heard about this movie on a morning radio show and it got good reviews, so when browsing through Netflix, I added this one to the list. Lars and the Real Girl stars Ryan Gosling as Lars, a single guy who finds love with an "anatomically correct doll" named Bianca (she's from Brazil). He lives in the garage of his childhood house, in which his brother and pregnant sister-in-law live. The family and eventually, the whole town, grow to accept Bianca and the relationship Lars has with her - which is an innocent boyfriend/girlfriend relationship, well as much as one can have with a life-sized doll. They are so accepted that Bianca is elected to the school board and volunteers in the local schools and hospitals.

It did turn out to be a cute movie. As the priest says at the end of the movie, Bianca taught the town more than they could have ever imagined.

how clever is this?

2008-09-20T18:41:00.002-05:00

At first, I thought this was the real thing... something I could find on the grocery store shelf, but no! Check out the yogurt cupcake:

whoa.

2008-09-16T18:03:00.005-05:00

I think I've found the most wonderful sweet there ever was (maybe). Check this out...

The puppy chow cupcake. Why is this so wonderful you ask? Chocolate cupcake batter with peanut butter cupcake batter on top, topped with puppy chow. Ahhh. These are on the to-do list in the kitchen.

Moo... Yum!

2008-09-04T19:30:00.004-05:00

Haven't you always wondered where to find cupcake sprinkles in the shape of mini-cows? Thanks to Joy the Baker, she's found the place: Surfas Restaurant Supply in LA. Looks like an eye-oogling, cook's paradise! In addition, after perusing the website, I found The English Pudding Co.'s Sticky Toffee Sauce. According to a certain store owner in Door Co., this stuff will change your world! I don't know if I'd go that far, but it sure is good on Digestives or Hob Nobs.

There is a kitchen supply store in Milwaukee, Fein Bros., but I don't think it looks this fabulous. They didn't carry food products, just kitchen wares.

Fall Season

2008-09-03T19:49:00.003-05:00

During the dog walk this morning, it really started to feel like fall out there. Along with the fall season comes the fall season of TV! I thought it would never come after the writer's strike and a summer full of reruns. So, we're just getting into the fall season...

Prison Break
There was a 2 hour season opener and I missed the first hour of the show, but felt like I missed a whole season! I'm looking forward to the online broadcast to catch up. If you've ever seen any episodes (SPOILER ALERT!), you'll be happy to know that Dr. Sara Tancready was not decapitated, she is alive and well and now, her captor has been kidnapped. Michael and Linc are still on the run, and have collected a few more Fox River Penitentary "friends" along the way. I'm still amazed that Michael and Linc have been able to keep their haircuts so short. Amazing.

90210
I couldn't believe anyone could think they could recreate such a fantastic show such as Beverly Hills, 90210... but the CW has given it a try. I was thoroughly disappointed. I expected a few more connections to the old show, but my expectations fell short. Kelly has made a comeback as West Beverly's school counselor. Halfway through the two hour show, Brenda shows up to meet Kelly at "The Pit" - where Nat is still the proprietor. The Peach Pit is no longer the diner we fondly remember, in fact, it is now a cafe/coffee bar where all the West Beverly students hang out. Brenda is an actress in town to perform in a play, so she should be around for a few episodes. There is some mystery surrounding Kelly's life - she has a 4 year old son named Sammy and Brenda is acting mighty strange at the mention of the son. Could it be the love child of Brandon and Kelly? Dylan and Kelly? I hope we find out. As for the teen characters in the show, no one can match Kelly, Dylan, Steve, Donna, Brandon, Brenda, and David.

My new favorite show... BONES! I love the chemistry between Agent Seely Booth (David Boreanaz) and Dr. Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel). There are some great quips between the two. And, who doesn't love a forensic mystery with quirky characters!

We checked out Raising the Bar on TNT the other night after Prison Break. It's a Steven Bochco production, of NYPD fame - which I was a huge fan of. Some familiar faces graced the screen: Gloria Ruebens from ER, Mark-Paul Gosselaar from Saved by the Bell, and Jane Kaczmarek from Malcolm in the Middle. I was expecting a hard law drama, but I felt like they tried too hard to be funny. I'll skip this one too.

Looking forward the new season of The Office and the final season of ER (tears) coming up in a few weeks!

To all the food lovers out there...

2008-08-30T10:58:00.004-05:00

I happened across these two websites.

Joy the Baker

Thanks to my little sis for pointing this one out. She has a great way with words, wonderful pics and excellent recipes. Don't let "Baker" fool you, she's got more than just bakery recipes.

Tastespotting

The photos on this page just make my mouth water. But, what I like most is the fact that the photos link to a variety of foodie blogs out there. Much to my dismay, not all food photos link to the recipes, in fact, the tasty "Apple Crumble" photo leads to no recipes whatsoever. :(

Olympic Events Turn Athlete to Couch Potato

2008-08-14T16:49:00.003-05:00

Isn't it funny how the Olympics glorify the world's greatest athletes but turn the rest of us into couch potatoes? I'm guilty... I love watching the Olympics and watch it most minutes I'm home, even making me stay up past my bedtime AND it seems like coverage goes later and later each night!

We've watched everything from swimming to sand volleyball to equestrian (which is held in Hong Kong) to basketball. Each event, amazing feats of athleticism. Question, does equestrian qualify as an Olympic event? The horses are doing the work... just a thought.

In other Olympic related news, I found this fun blog on Yahoo! Sports - Fourth Place Medal. I think it's worth checking out. Funny posts include "Olympic Mysteries"... ever wonder were Cullen was when his team won the swimming relay? Check it out here.

More specifically, I think John Belushi was on to this sort of Olympic training. Cutting edge if you ask me.

Movie Trivia

2008-08-09T14:41:00.002-05:00

Help me out here... last time I did this, I didn't have much success, so hopefully this will be different!

I'm trying to figure out a movie where during the end credits there are black and white pictures shown. I remember some people walking in a park. There is Rufus Wainwright song playing. He is singing in French.

It's most likely a romantic comedy. I saw it recently (last 6 months) on dvd, not that old of a release.

Help.

Vacation revisited

2008-08-09T10:24:00.003-05:00

I figured since we've been home from vacation for almost 2 weeks, it's time to reminisce.

We headed out to Lake Placid, NY (the town, not the actual lake) for Chris' Ironman competition. We opted to drive since we had an Outback full of stuff. It was my brillant idea to take the Subaru, since it has better gas mileage than the Element. I also thought it would be a more comfortable ride. Turns out the gas mileage was better - an average of approx. 28 mpg, but I think riding in any car for 18 hours is not very comfortable, so that was a toss up.

We left on a Tuesday evening and decided to drive straight through. I-90, here we come! I drove from our late evening departure time until about 11:30pm. Feeling sand in one's eyes I believe is a clue to relinquish one's driving duties. Chris took over until about 5am, where we stopped in extreme Western NY in a McDonald's parking lot to doze. We hit the road again around 7am. It was quite exciting to depart I-90, thinking "Wow, not too far to go!" Let me tell you, the journey through the rest of New York on 2 lane highway roads was not that quick! A lesson learned, if it's close to lunch time, but you're not really hungry, stop and get something to go to eat later, you never know if you'll find anything when you are really, really hungry. We should know this after 10 years of road tripping, but it never fails, we end up with hungry headaches and stomach aches because we did not heed our own advice.

Upon arriving in tourist central in the Adirondacks, we did find somewhere to eat. It was like a beacon on the highway. We had arrived... Tail O'The Pup!

It looked a church festival on the side of the road. Giant white tents with red picnic tables filled the roadside lot. I had a salad (mediocre) and clam chowder (pretty decent). Chris had a fried fish sandwich (pretty good) and we shared sweet potato fries (super yum!). It was a great introduction to the Adirondacks.

From there, we headed the last 8 miles into the town of Lake Placid, home of the 1932 and 1980 Olympics - remember the Miracle on Ice? That magic happened here. It's true, I saw the rink. Lake Placid is basically a town of 5,000 with a 2 lane downtown filled to gills with restaurants and gift shops toting "Original Adironack" wares, woodsy sort of stuff. With IM in town, the town swelled to twice the size. People were everywhere, traffic was horrible. So, we visited downtown for meals at odd times to beat the rush, and explored the shops at dusk early in the week to avoid the weekend madness. The downtown is set right on Mirror Lake, a non-motorized lake which was absolutely calm and beautiful.

We stayed about 2 miles from downtown at a Courtyard by Marriott. They do have a trolley service from one end of town to the other, so we were able to hop on at our hotel to visit the town and not deal with the hassle of parking, which was limited. Our hotel was also convenient in the fact that the IM bike and run course went right past the front door, so during the downpour of the day, I didn't have to stand in the rain all day (see previous post). Yeah for me - only had to contend with 3 changes of clothes that day.

After exploring downtown Lake Placid, that really only left the Olympic sites to check out. On our way out to drive the bike course, which was super duper hilly, we stopped at the Olympic Ski Jumps, just outside of town. It was pretty cool. They have a practice jump set up that can be used in the summer. We saw kids climbing the stairs, skiing down a wet ramp and landing in a pool. Evidently, the impact in the pool is far greater than landing on snow, so I guess that provides some overpreparation! The jumps are still used for competition throughout the winter. We rode the gondola to the top of the hill, then took the elevator to the top of the jump. It was quite a spectacular view! Then, the gondola ride down.

We continued onto the bike course, by car, and it proved to go up and up and up with only a few downhills. Chris vows not to return to this course, doing it once was enough! There were some three-tiered climbs, just when you think you are to the top, you got a few more tiers of climbing to go! No thanks.

Besides the rain, race day went off without a hitch. Up and adam by 4am, out the door at 5. I drove Chris to the transition area and then took the car back. As of 6am, the roads would be cosed until midnight. So, I headed back by foot to the start. The transition area was set up on the Olympic Speedskating Oval, pretty cool. I staked out my spot for the swim start and waited. Soon, the rain drops fell. The cannon sounded and the rain kept falling. The rain fell until mid-run, where it let up for 2 hours, but started again and continued into the night.

Chris finished in a personal best at 12hours 25 minutes. He knocked out the swim in 1:01 and was able to kick it in the run, something that was always a challenge in the past. So, something worked this time around! He was not dead to the world or craving an IV upon finishing, like last year. In fact, he was up until past midnight, watching the finishers on the computer - talking to me while I was trying to sleep!

IM Lake Placid sold out on site on Monday. Usually, there are spots available on-line. This was a first in IM history. I'm happy to say, we won't be going back next year. Tick Lake Placid off the Ironman list.

I'm going to take advantage of the lovely weather now. So more about the second leg of our trip in New England later. Pictures to come.

Hmmm...

2008-08-08T16:23:00.000-05:00

Another Matthew McConaughey mystery

Look what I saw at school today

2008-07-31T13:17:00.000-05:00

2008-07-29T13:24:00.000-05:00

Tessie in the box

Ironman Word of the Day = RAIN

2008-07-20T08:24:00.002-05:00

Life in Lake Placid had just been beautiful since we arrived on Wednesday afternoon. We had a slight downpour on Friday morning when Chris was out for a swim and I was out kayaking along on Mirror Lake. But, besides that little outburst, the skies remained relatively clear and rain free for the rest of the trip... until this morning. Peeking out the window at 4am showed the forecast for the morning - cloudy skies with the sun no where in sight.

I dropped Chris off as close to transition as I could and off he went to do his pre-race stuff while I parked the car and headed back to find him in a sea of 2000 athletes and the accompanying spectators. I found myself a spot along the fenced area where the athletes head to the water to chip in and get warmed up. I spotted Chris, collected his flip-flops and water bottle and wished him a quick good luck and off he went. No rain. Then, I staked out my spot to watch the start. Ironman starts are always fantastic to watch. Imagine 2000 swimmers taking off in one mass start. Music blaring, people cheering, and the cannon goes off. There they go. Amazing to watch -unlike anything you've seen. In fact, this is my 5th Ironman swim start that I've watched (Chris' third to participate in) and I am still in awe of the sight. Unfortunately, video just doesn't do it justice, but here's a clip from last year's race.

Well, just as the start began, so did the rain. Just some sprinkles here and there. Then a little steadier and a little harder, then, there was no turning back. After the mass start, I knew to find a spot at the run out from the water into the transition. If I didn't head over immediately, I would most likely have no luck finding a spot to keep an eye out for Chris. So, there I stood, a good spot, not too crowded yet, in the rain. Then, after one hour, one minute and 26 seconds, Chris comes up the mat headed for transition. Right on schedule. Nice! The only thing he could really predict today was the swim because the rain enters new variables in the bike equation as well as the run. Very scientific.

So, I'm trying off at the hotel waiting for hour 3 on the bike to approach. I'll head out to the front of the hotel to keep my eye out for Chris whizzing by on the first loop. How nice, the course runs right in front of our hotel. Yah!

If you want to track Chris' performace today, check out this link: Track an Athlete. His number is 334. Also, if you want to have loads of fun later today, you can watch the live feed on Ironman Live to watch Chris finish (I don't think the coverage starts until later this afternoon). Hopefully, the rain will be gone by then. Chris was hoping for an under 12 hour finish, so beginning at 6pm eastern time (5pm central), tune in!

More updates later and pics when we return!

I've been tagged!

2008-06-18T21:03:00.003-05:00

I'm so excited for this first-time blogging event... here's the deal.

I was tagged by: GinaGab

Here are the New Rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you and post the rules on your blog.

2. Share 5 songs you are embarrassed to admit to others that you like and tell why.

3. Tag 7 random people at the end of post and include links to their blogs.

4. Let each person know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

I'm a typical pop music lemming. If it's on 99.1 or 94.5, I probably love it or hate it, regardless, I know most of the words. I don't download much new music, so my MP3 list is limited.

1. I Want It That Way by the Backstreet Boys - good call, Kelly! I heart The Backstreet Boys.

2. Does the entire Dirty Dancing Havana Nights Soundtrack count? Maybe the movie is more embarrassing than the songs. I don't know.

3. Bailamos by Enrique Iglesias - Spanish or English version, it doesn't matter.

4. Seize the Day from The Newsies Soundtrack (one of only many excellent songs)

5. Christmas songs that I listen to year round on my MP3 player

I am tagging: Angela (all the rest of my blog friends have already been tagged)

I love custard

2008-06-17T19:57:00.002-05:00

Ok, I love most desserts, but custard is quite tasty. If I had to pick my favorite flavor, that would be difficult, I have too many. We hadn't been to Kopp's for a cone in a while, so I was interested to see some of the new fangled flavors they have come up with. Check 'em out!

NUTS FOR DADDY
Beer Nuts, Beer Nuts, Beer Nuts, in a rich caramel malt custard with ribbons of special hardening chocolate. A Kopp's exclusive developed specially for dads!

MAPLE SYRUP AND PANCAKES
The perfect breakfast! Remember its the most important meal of the day.

KOLACZKI
Celebrate Polish Fest with this classic pastry recreated with vanilla custard filled with fruit swirls and traditional pastry pieces.

Happy Birthday to Chris!

2008-06-17T19:48:00.002-05:00

Chris entered the world of the 30s on Wednesday. We celebrated with hibachi dinner with all the folks and Lil' E. No birthday cake to be had, just birthday ice cream at Kopp's.

Doggy Birthdays

2008-06-17T19:39:00.005-05:00

I know everyone has just been dying to see pics from Shooter and Tessie's birthdays. Here you go.Shooter was the birthday dog here, but Tessie enjoyed the birthday treats more.
Birthday dog Tessie loves her treats!!

BACON IS FAMOUS!

2008-06-11T13:56:00.003-05:00

100 Year Flood

2008-06-09T20:33:00.002-05:00

As I recall, 10 years ago we had what was called "The 100 Year Flood" and here it is 10 years later, and we have ourselves another 100 Year Flood!

Last time we had these torrential rains, I got a firsthand look at the destruction when I worked on the Menonmonee River Parkway, just down the road from Hart Park in Tosa. The business I worked at flooded and I felt like I inhaled mold for weeks. Yuck. This time, we got to see downtown Waukesha. Tonight we went for dinner at Casa del Rio (yum) in downtown Waukesha, but because of all the flooding, 3 of the 4 main bridges over the Fox River were closed and traffic was rerouted. On the way home, we drove past some of the houses that were flooded and it was so sad. Peoples homes were still underwater. Rowboats and canoes were docked at the front doors so people could get out. Pretty surreal.

Kids, don't throw your suits on and jump in. Bad idea.

BookSwim

2008-06-04T20:50:00.002-05:00

The world of rental continues on. I saw an article in the Wisconsin State Journal about Netflix-style book rentals. Sort of like a library, only not free, and 200,000 titles to choose from. This particular outlet is called BookSwim. For the 3-book plan, it's $19.99/month. So, get three books, keep one book, send two back, and two more in the mail. "Free" shipping to and fro. Hmmm, the advantages over a library... no wait for the popular books you want and I'm not sure what else.

Anyone know anyone that does this?

A Day Downtown

2008-05-31T21:43:00.004-05:00

We don't travel into the "city" much, and by "city," I'm referring to Milwaukee. There are lots of tasty restaurants downtown, but it just doesn't warrant a 30 minute drive to check them out, unless it's a special occasion. Needless to say, we headed into Downtown today for a few special outings.

First, we've been meaning to check out Body Worlds 1 at the Milwaukee Public Museum. This is the last weekend it's in town and we've been meaning to go since Christmas time with my friend Kerry and her boyfriend, Eric. So, we figured we better get down there before it was gone.

It was an interesting exhibit. Each of the bodies on display was donated for the purpose of preservation through plastination, the process of injecting plastic into human muscles, bones, and organs. It was definitely a unique look at the human body. I never took anatomy, but based on my limited study of the human body in HS Biology, this blew everything out of the water. I don't know if there was anyway to really see how the systems of the human body works in a book compared to this. I think the only thing that would come close is examining a cadaver. I can easily see how this exhibit would be something people would really enjoy seeing or be totally grossed out by!

To be honest, I thought there would be more full bodies on display. There were a lot of informational posters and display cases with plastinated human organs and bones. It was interesting to see up close the muscles I've injured, the bones I've broken, and the things I've sprained over the years.

When we were in Vegas, there was an exhibit on display similar to Body Worlds called Bodies. From what I understand, the difference between the two exhibits is the acquisition of the bodies used for plastination. I read in a LV publication that the figures in the Bodies exhibit were Chinese prisoners, so not really donated for the purpose of science at the person's will. So, a little controversy there.

After perusing the exhibit, we headed out to lunch. This week happens to be Downtown Dining Week - yeah for bargain meals! Thirty restaurants participate in this yearly event. Since Kerry and Eric are seasoned downtown diners, we chose a handful of restaurants we were interested in and had them make the final decision. We ended up at Hotel Metro Bar and Cafe for a tasty three course lunch for only $10 a person! Chris and I both at a green salad and Costa Rician Tiliapia. Chris opted for the Italian Almond Cake and I had the Key Lime Pie. Both were yummy!

There were lots of delicious looking menus for this event - $10 lunches and $20 dinners, both with three courses! With a dining experience like this, I wish we did live closer!

The "Official" Start to Summer!

2008-05-26T20:48:00.003-05:00

I love 3 day weekends, especially this one, because I KNOW the count down is on until the end of the school year. Four days this week, five the next, and two and a half the following week. YAHOO! I can't wait for summer time. The last few years I have definitely been counting down until the end of the year, but for some reason, perhaps Easter being super early, the end of the year snuck up on me. Needless to say, I'm glad summer is almost here.

I don't really have any exciting plans. I'll be working at the bike shop for some spare change and teaching summer school - yoga, cooking and internet use for first and second graders, how fun is that! There is just something different about working during the summer, not as stressful. We only have one big trip planned - Lake Placid in July. Chris is slated to Ironman out there. We haven't been there before and I think we're planning on making a road trip out of it.

I'm more excited about a different summer job - tackling my summer reading list! I'm always open to book suggestions - anyone have any?

2008-05-25T20:18:00.004-05:00

Augh! I hadn't realized it's been almost a whole month since I've posted anything - oops!

We've celebrated some puppy birthdays... pictures will be posted soon. Birthday treats were enjoyed by all.

On another note, today was the end of a journey for me. I've spent the last 16 weeks training for the Madison 1/2 Marathon. Finally, the day arrived and I reached my goal of completing the race - 13.2 miles. The race itself was a pretty fun experience - the training left something to be desired. While training, people would ask who I run with, the answer: myself. Running 10 miles by yourself can prove to be a bit boring, especially since one's MP3 player battery only lasts 8 miles. Boo! So, needless to say, I didn't really know what to expect when I got to the race. I've run races before, mostly 5k races and this year, I did the Crazylegs Classic which was in 8k. Crazylegs did start people in waves because the race was so huge. The waves were sent out according to anticipated finish time. This race did not have waves, only different start times for each event - marathon, 1/2 marathon, quarter marathon and wheelchair marathon.

The half started at 7:25, so the alarm went off at 4:50am. Not such a pleasant time to wake up, but necessary for the proper pre-race eating and tending to the pups before we had to leave. We headed out the door by 5:40. The race started at the Capitol Square, but we had to park at the Alliant Energy Center where the finish was located and then shuttle to the start. We arrived at the Capitol at 7:15am. Rather than start in waves, they had pacesetters running with signs designated finish times and mile paces. When I first thought about how long it would take me to finish, I was hoping for 2 hours 45 minutes, then I thought I'd just like to finish in under 3. The more I thought about it, and thought about the training times on long runs, it seemed like between 2:20 and 2:30 would be more realistic if I race according to my training times. So, I found the pacesetter for 2:30 and decided to stick with throughout the race. It turns out, that was a perfect pace and I still had some gas at the end to sprint to the finish. Could I have gone a few miles more? I don't think so, in fact, I'm not even sure when the energy for that sprint came from. So, I busted through the finish line in just under 2:30... just under, as in seconds - 2:29:02!

Running with a pace group was much better than running in my own little world. Pacer Jim set the pace for the group. Evidently, they hire professional pacesetters for marathons who take a group from start to finish at the appropriate pace. When the race started, there were at least a dozen folks that stuck with the pace group consistently, but it seems that once we reached mile 8 or 9, we had lost a bunch of folks and upon reaching mile 12, there were about 5 or 6 of us left and Pacer Jim encouraged us to give it all we had left and finish strong. So, off we went! I picked up the pace for the last mile and then, finished the last quarter mile of the race down the finish chute faster than I thought I could. It was pretty exhilarating.

As early as the day started, the race was over and there was still a whole day ahead of us! I wasn't much use for the rest of today. My legs were aching, my knees were screaming and I had quite a headache. It didn't dawn on me, until about 6:30pm, to take some ibuprofen, and all of a sudden the headache was gone and some of my aching muscles were relieved. The knees, that another story.

Today was also kind of interesting in the sense that I was the athlete today, not Chris. He had to drag his butt out of bed at the crack of dawn to experience a long morning of spectating where there wasn't too much spectating to be had. It was also kind of hard for me to understand how tired and aching he may have felt after an Ironman or 1/2 Ironman, but now I had a little glimpse of how it feels.

When I started my whole running journey this year, I thought I would use this race as a gauge as to whether I would run a marathon in the fall. I think I'll mull it over this week, you know, see how the recovery goes. I feel like I put a lot of work into this goal and would hate to lose the fitness. Athletics only work for me if there is a goal somewhere along the line, so I've got to come up with something to keep me going through the summer!

A true foodie??

2008-04-29T17:33:00.001-05:00

Dictionary.com defines as foodies as "a person keenly interested in food, esp. in eating and cooking." Another definition on the page also defines a foodies as "gourmet." I don't know if I've go so far as to classify myself as a foodie in the gourmet sense, but I sure like to eat and I like to think I enjoy cooking. I'm a fan of the Food Network. The blogger on Crispy Waffle, who is definitely a foodie, posted this interesting little survey. I know sometimes "how well do you know your friends" surveys arrive in my inbox every once in awhile, but I thought this was a different sort and thought it would be fun to post. Feel free to cut and paste and add your own answers! Check out Crispy Waffle, she's got some interesting answers, especially being an ex-pat in the Netherlands with a Filipino heritage!

What were you cooking five years ago?
Five years ago was just one year into married life. I think there was a lot of take out involved, but what I did cook - stir fry, burritos, calzones and souped up frozen pizzas.

What were you cooking 10 years ago?
Ah, the beginning of college life, thank goodness for the dining hall. I think my microwave was known to whip up some shells and cheese, ramen, and microwave popcorn.

Five snacks you enjoy:
Peanut butter on just about anything
Cheese and crackers
Chips and salsa
Doritos (but I rarely eat them)
?

Five recipes you know by heart:
Eggplant Lasagna
Guacamole
A variety of enchiladas
Avocado Feasts - yum!
?

Five culinary luxuries you would indulge in if you were a millionaire:
A fancy gourmet kitchen
Extensive gourmet cooking lessons from around the world
Lots of organic and local food to fill the kitchen
Someone to clean up after I was done cooking in the fancy gourmet kitchen
?

Five foods you love to cook:
Mexican anything
Not so complicated desserts
Tasty, quick appetizers
Quick breads
New recipes that involve lots of pans!

Five things you cannot/will not eat:
Brussel sprouts
Jalapenos
Raw onions
Meat - Red meat, pork products, poultry, wild game
Anything you might find on Fear Factor

Five favourite culinary toys:
Kitchen-Aid Mixer (not the super fancy one, but this definitely makes mixing easier)
Pampered Chef Food Chopper
Rubbermaid Rounded Spatula - it grabs the cookie dough from the edge of the bowl just right!
Wooden spoons/forks/slotted spatula
Olive oil spritzer

That was awkward

2008-04-19T08:09:00.000-05:00

First of all, the word awkward is awkward in and of itself... isn't it spelled strange, you know, one of those words you stare at and it still doesn't look right? Sometimes that happens with the word "the" too, but that's beside the point. My friend Angie steered me to this funny Facebook group, Holy Shit, I'm Awkward. I had to laugh when I read the postings because I could totally relate.

I had my own "I'm Awkward" moment yesterday, you know, that kind of thing where you think everybody's looking at you but they're really not. I had a bag packed to go running. The weather has been kind of iffy the last few days and I wasn't sure if I'd have to go to the health club or if I'd be able to run outside. So, on Thursday, I was able to run outside and I took the socks out of my workout bag and wore them, everything else stayed in the bag. Then the next day, I was sure it was going to rain afterschool, so I thought, "Good, my bag is already packed." Then, I'm driving to school and I realize, I don't have any running socks. I only had to run 2 miles, so it wouldn't be that long and I could just forgo the socks. I also thought, I'll be inside and it won't matter. Then I thought again, wait, the last time I didn't wear socks I had THE WORST blisters, so I better just wear my work socks. How cute, khaki socks with little pastel circles. Not a problem, I'll be on the track and no one will notice. Then, it wasn't raining after school, so I couldn't pass up running outside. Since I packed for inside, I also didn't have long sleeves, so I had to wear the fleece I wore during the day which didn't really fit over my workout shirt, didn't match my shorts, AND I still had those stupid khaki socks. There were quite a few people on the Lake Country Trail and I KNOW they were all looking at my socks and the fleece that didn't match anything or fit quite right. How awkward or akward... however it's spelled.

Internet Friends

2008-04-15T18:20:00.001-05:00

I think that reading blogs is like watching reality tv, you get a sneak peek into someone else's life at your convenience. Some blogs I read, and on a more regular basis, I have no clue who these people are, but I find their lives pretty interesting. More often than not, I find these blogs linked to my "real" friends' blogs.

Crispy Waffle is written by a gal from my high school who was a quite a few years old, but she lives with her American family in The Netherlands and she's a foodie - that's what I find most interesting.

15 Minute Lunch - found this one courtesy of Amanda, who has joined the world of blogging herself. This guy must have a background in Improv, some pretty funny everyday stuff.

PostSecret - This site really deserves a post by itself. From the site, "PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard." Some of the postcards make me laugh hilariously and some of them make me cry. I'm glad this forum is available for people to reveal their secrets anonymously. They do face-to-face presentations and there's one coming up at MU at the end of the month.

Digital Natives

2008-04-09T18:31:00.000-05:00

So, in the world of education, this is a new buzz word, but very applicable. We saw this video at a staff meeting the other day, and it proves to be very true. Students today, from kindergarten through high school and college are so digitially programmed. Technology surrounds them and they multitask using all things tech...IMing, gaming, downloading, uploading, texting, blogging, etc.

I have to say that even after watching this video, it made me feel somewhat out of the techno-loop. But after watching this, and listening to other "veteran" teachers who have been in the game for 30+ years, comment on how they can't believe kids can do all this at once and why don't they just read a book, I feel a little more in the loop.

Eco News for You

2008-04-09T18:20:00.000-05:00

In my energy class this spring, some asked about the phasing out of incandescent light bulbs (aka regular light bulbs). I wasn't too sure about that. Turns out, it is not a fallacy. Check this out...

According to the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, all bulbs must be 25-30% more energy efficient than they are now by 2012-2014. By 2020, they must be 70% more efficient. This does not necessarily mean they are getting rid of incandescent bulbs, rather big companies are working to make them more efficient, while keeping the style. Keep your eyes peeled. New bulbs may be on the horizon.

Another piece of news... very elementary, but educational. Thank you, United Nations Environmental Programme.

New Family Member

2008-04-04T20:40:00.000-05:00

It was bound to happen. We're adding a new family member!

His name is Shooter, it's another greyhound. There has been a large influx of greyhounds into the rescue groups because of poor track conditions. Shooter has been sitting at the Waukesha Humane Society (HAWS) since October and he needs a home. In addition to his adoption video (which you can see on the link above), he also appeared on The Morning Blend, a local morning talk show, a few months back. What a superstar, but now he's ours.

He leaves for his foster home tomorrow and will join us for good the following Sunday.

Tessie and Shooter have met, and they seem to get along fine. As a side note, the two are distant cousins. You can check out greyhound pedigree here. Pretty cool link if you have a greyhound!