Arkansas State Mascot Logo Revealed

Here are some previous ASU mascots. I'm kind of partial to Runnin' Joe.




And yes, they used to be the Goriillas although no official mascot image exists for this period.

Mystery NCAA Pick'em Players Revealed

The two unidentified Tourney Pick'em players Krix and Daisy have been identified as Mullins' pals from Denver. Meanwhile after the first day of action, it looks like Dad has steamrolled his way to an early lead.

Last Chance To Join NCAA Tourney Pool

If you're reading this, you should join our NCAA tournament pick 'em pool! See a few blog posts down for instructions and password on how to join. It's free and it'll be fun to beat you!

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Jack

Jack had a good week though unfortunately it appears he is getting sick again :( That didn't stop him from having the loudest day of his life today. That boy was squawking all day. Good thing that loony bird killing golfer (ashamed to say from GT) was not around.

Jack in St. Patty's Green - photos of his St. Patty's outfit for school will follow.

Only two albums for Jack this week but one of them takes a lot to digest. The Beatles - The Beatles... more better known as The White Album. This happens to be the only Beatles album we own.



The other disc was from Live. Their newer album Songs from Black Mountain.

NCAA Tournament Pick-em!!!!!!!

For the first time ever, the annual Tangeman NCAA Tournament pick-em contest is available to all readers of the blog! Winner will get a blog published congratulations and year long bragging rights. Here are the particulars for entering:

1. Go to yahoo.com. You'll want to sign in at this point with your yahoo account, or create one if you don't have one.
2. Next go to the "sports" section of yahoo.
3. Look on the top of the yahoo sports page (near top right at the moment) for the "Fantasy" tab.
4. Roll over the "fantasy" tab with your mouse and click on "Tourney pick'em".
5. Click on "Join a Group".
5. Pick "Join Group" (yes you do it twice).
6. At this point, you will need the group ID# and the password which is located below.
7. Make your picks.

Here's the info you'll need to join the group:
You created a group called Tangeman. Your group ID# is 90407 and your password is: jakethesnake

If you have any more questions about how to join, comment to this post and I'll help you. Good luck, (you'll need it).
FYI: Erin won last year's competition.

Sausage Gravy from a Can

Mullins has a tradition cooking an elaborate breakfast on Saturday mornings. One of the things he enjoys during these morning feasts is Cambell's Country Style Sausage Gravy from a can. I've always been a biscuits and gravy fan, but had never realized this kind of gravy came in a can or "tin" as the Brits say. I was intrigued. It took me awhile to track the stuff down at the grocery store, but I finally did.

After cooking up some Grands biscuits, I microwaved the gravy and put some on. What can I say? Tasty! It pretty much looks and tastes the way sausage gravy is supposed to taste. The sausage bits themselves made me a bit nervous, but seemed to be just fine. I recommend this product. It's a solid home version of a fancy diner breakfast. It's not the most healthy breakfast in the world, but that has never really been the biscuit and gravy strong suit anyway.

Spicy Sweet Doritos

Yet another new flavor of Doritos has hit store shelves. It's the new spicy sweet chili flavor. Frankly, it's too sweet. The flavor is almost maple syrup like at first with a rather spicy finish. If you ask me, sugary sweet flavor has no business on a Dorito.

Stock Idea Needed

I need a $14 stock or a $28 stock with a yield of 3% or more. Prefer NYSE listing and prefer a company I have heard of. No drugs, finance, or media. Please post your ideas as comments. Thanks.

Jack's Latest

We took Jack on a neighborhood hike this past week-end. He enjoyed wearing his "sun" hat.



Another first for Jack - he had his first scale measurement that topped 16 pounds and we adjusted his jumperoo setting up a notch.

Music wise he grooved to three discs this week.

Sinead O'Connor - Theology (her new one)



Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited


And finally he got a bit more intense with The Jesus and Mary Chain - Live in Concert

Robert is a UAB Tennis Star

Thanks to Will for bringing the following images to my attention. It seems there is a Robert look alike playing tennis at UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham).


That is a pretty amazing likeness. The player's actual name is Dan Cornei from Ontario, Canada. Let's remember that name, because if he goes pro and gets famous, we can rent Robert out as a Cornei impersonator for children's parties.

I finally got my new AARP membership card

I had to work on it a little with my pocket knife but it came out OK.

Looking for a Snack to Enjoy with your Simulated Root Beer Float?

By request, I reviewed an interesting and generally poor snack this week-end that would match well with the beverage reviewed earlier. Introducing the Burger King Ketchup & Fries flavored chips!



The chips have the texture of Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal but instead of the sugary cinnamon powder they've got a ketchup flavored powder. In smelling the chips there is a definite similarity to the Burger King fry.



We ate several of the chips but couldn't finish the bag. Steph enjoyed the "fries" more than I and rated them an 8/10. I rate the things a 3/10 and Ranger gives them a thumbs up with a 10/10.

A&W Float is Horrible

Sometimes ideas look good on paper, but suffer in execution. A&W Float in a bottle shall be the new poster child for this notion. Homemade root beer floats are a great, simple to make treat when made with actual root beer and a good quality vanilla ice cream. It seems the combination isn't so easy to simulate in a single bottle.

The packaging claims that you can pour this stuff into a glass for a foamy float experience, or enjoy straight from the bottle. I poured it into a glass and got a milky, tan, gross looking liquid and almost no foam. And then I took a drink.


The flavor is the real killer here. Imagine a world where neither real root beer nor vanilla ice cream exist, so instead of the real thing, a scientist was forced to simulate their flavor with chemicals. Imagine then, that along with his chemical mix, the scientist added skim milk, propylene glycol alginate, and nitrous oxide (for supposed creation of foam). Imagine all of this and you begin to have an idea of how A&W Float tastes.



A&W Float, in no uncertain terms, is horrid. Despite containing more sugar than a normal sugared soft drink, it manages to have a chemical flavor worse than the cheapest generic diet soda. It looks bad, it tastes bad, and it has earned the honor of being the worst beverage this blogger has ever reviewed. AVOID!!!!

Worst New Beverage EVER

I tried a new interesting beverage tonight and it is so bad it is almost undrinkable. Horrific! What is this mystery beverage that everyone should avoid? Find out this weekend on this blog!

Pepsi Raw

Looks like Pepsi is launching a new offensive in the cola war.


Pepsi Raw, available now in the UK, is said to be all natural, slightly less carbonated, and less fattening.

Best of all: no high fructose corn syrup! HFCS has been plaguing sodas for decades. It’s time American soda makers stop using this cheap, highly available, and terribly unhealthy sugar source.

The new drink claims to have 90 calories and have the following ingredients:

Apple extract
Plain caramel colouring
Coffee leaf
Tantaric acid from grapes
Gum arabic from acacia trees
Cane sugar
Sparkling water

I can't wait to try it out.

Green Peeps

There is only so much innovation you can bring to a marshmallow, and yet the Just Born Candy Company somehow continues to make changes to the Peep. Their latest update is a new stop on the color wheel. Introducing the grass green Peep. Tastes like every other Peep, only green.

Jack's Feet and Latest Listenings

Jack continues to revel in the discovery of his feet. He grabs them at any opportunity which presents itself.



His lullaby music over the past week or so consisted of only three albums - all good.

First he grooved to one of the finest from Fleetwood Mac - Rumours


He then got a little jazzy with Miles Davis - Kind of Blue


Finally - he went a bit more modern with The National - Boxer

The Best Christmas Gift Ever

My favorite gift this past Christmas was a Sephora 'Scent Sampler' that Erin picked out for me. It was a kit with 10 different fragrance samples, and a gift certificate for a full-size bottle of my choice.





After many weeks of comparing and constrasting, I selected 'Very Irresistable' by Givenchy. I happily redeemed my certificate this weekend at Sephora. Thanks Bill and Erin!



PS - this is my second blog post ever. My first was in October of 2005, the infamous rat incident.

The Tale of Dermot's Pants

Roughly 6 months ago, the 'mot was out visiting and left behind a pair of khaki pants (or so we think). The pants were discovered some weeks later though we struggled to determine their proper owner. We both attributed the pants to Dad, who is renowned for leaving things here during his visits. We grudgingly packed the pants up and sent them to Arkansas.

Upon arrival and unpacking Dad declared the pants weren't his, saying "while they are nice pants they aren't mine - I haven't worn wool pants since the 60's!" Indeed the pants are 100% wool.



Dad sent the pants packing with Bill to Nebraska as he was planning a trip out around New Years. In the meantime, we continued to ponder on the pants true owner. After Bill brought them back to CA, the beagles seemed to have some attraction to the pants, enjoying the warmth of the wool.



After Rick declared he would never wear wool it hit Dermot that they could indeed be his pants. We're speculating at this point but that's what we've got to go on. The pants will be heading back to Michigan later this month as the most well-traveled yet unworn pants in the country.

Treasure Trove at Sears

Erin and I were at Sears picking out a new dishwasher (nice new stainless model) when I happened onto a bin of deep discount video games. I bought two that I had an interest in playing; Club House Games for under $7.00 and Pokémon Trozei for under $4.00. I had been selling some old games on Amazon and decided to see how much my new pick ups were going for. Turns out Club House Games was going for like $45.00 dollars! I sold mine immediately. The Pokémon title was going for nearly $20.00. SELL SELL SELL. I went back to Sears today and picked up some more gems. Digimon World DS cost me $6.97 and is selling for $45.00. Castlevania Portrait of Ruin cost me $4.97 and is selling for $35.00.

The moral of the story - go check your own Sears discount bin for these games and make a quick buck!

Dish Network

The dish is high-end stainless, $9.58 with tax at Wally-World. The other hardware was $4.09 with tax at Lowe's. $13.67 total. Time consumed was pretty minimal, maybe 20 minutes.

Iron Man

I haven't been this excited about a comic book movie in a long time. Check out the trailers and start counting down until May when this hits theaters.

PSA

I got one of those forwarded health scare emails about danger to pets and was about to delete it when I realized it was legit. The health scare is, don't feed raisins or grapes to your dog because they may cause acute renal failure killing the animal. I believe it is legit because it is considered true by snopes.com, an excellent website that researches the authenticity of such things. This is scary for me because I sometimes give Yuki raisins. I'll stop doing that now of course.

DON'T GIVE YOUR DOG RAISINS OR GRAPES. IT MIGHT HURT YOUR DOG.

-Thanks to Mitsuko for the tip.

Brake-Fast Dog Bowl

I stumbled onto this dog bowl at Amazon.com. The bowl's design prevents your dog from bolting their food. The obstructions make dogs slow down to eat. The bowl is also designed to slide around on the floor further slowing Fido's meal time. Yuki tends to wolf his food down way too quickly. I'd consider this bowl for him except for the fact that it costs $36.00.

Juicy Fruit Change

Everyone has chewed a piece of Juicy Fruit gum. For years the formula has been the same: yellow package, silver foil wrapper, grey stick of gum. Well, that formula has changed.

The yellow package is still the same.


The silver foil wrapper is still the same.


But the grey stick of gum has transformed into a yellow stick. It seems Wrigley's has added yellow food coloring to the mix.

No word on whether Double Mint now contains green food coloring.

Halo 3 Flaming Helmet

I was playing a little Halo 3 online when, for the first time ever, I happened into a game with a Bungie employee. Bungie is the company that makes Halo. You can tell he's an employee because of his flaming helmet, a visual perk that no one else can get.