Boston...The Wheaten Terrier

This sign was posted at the exit to our neighborhood.  Boston looks like a good animal... though we aren't currently in the market for a dog.

The Rules of Fast Food Employment

While waiting recently to pick up take-out at BJ's Restaurant I noticed an employee check-in sheet forgotten on the counter.  It appears each employee needs to be "checked-in" via visual inspection but presumably a manager...

Here's what the sheet said:

___Promise Card

___Perfect Uniform Standards

___Hair restraint, Shaved

___No Cell Phone

___No Gum

___Knowledge of Duties

___Knowledge of Meal Period Rotation

___Service Execution Focus:  Delivering Perfect Food & Beverages

___Hopsitality Focus:  Commitment

___Safety Topic:  Burn Prevention

___Sanitation Focus

___Server check in with host


Clearly something like this isn't in place at McDonalds.  We had breakfast there recently at the El Dorado Hills location and encountered an employee sleeping on the table shortly before her shift began!

Tigger the Tiger!

Jack went to a friend's house today and came home dressed as Tigger!

Er, jump? Tiggers don't jump, they bounce.

Jack's Trip to the Zoo

We celebrated "Jack Day" as part of his birthday and both too the day off to spend time doing things he'd enjoy.  That meant the zoo and Funderland.   Jack wasn't exactly 100% but managed to finesse his was through the day just fine.  We all had fun!

From thee customary do it yourself booth at the entrance.

If you look closely you'll be able to spot Snoopy and the Red Baron flying by!



a few more snaps of the animals to follow.

Football Season Nearly Here...

And Georgia Tech has an awesome home slate this year.  Home games include:

Kansas

Viriginia Tech

Clemson

Georgia

along with North Carolina and Maryland and Western Carolina...

Pretty awesome slate.  They are likely to need all the help they can get as the team is still quite young and will include a new quarterback.

The Birthday Report: Part 2

We ended up doing a fair amount of decorating for the "shark" party.

Guests were greated with a danger sign at the door coupled with a hidden music box playing the Jaws theme over and over.

Stepping through the front door led to more serious things.  Two mean looking blow-up sharks looked down on all who entered.

And of course there was a shark cake!

And some fancy balloons - including a dolphin, the nose of which is just visible in the picture.

All in all, it was great fun.

The Birthday Report: Part 1

Jack and Grandpa prepare for the big day by spelling "CAKE" on his word puzzle.  Jack doesn't really need much help, as a four year old, with such trivial puzzles any more.

"Let's do the birthday cake one!"

More pre-birthday festivities...reading the Seuss Birthday story... which, like all Dr. Seuss books, is surprisingly long.

Elle got in on the Grandpa action too.

Preparing for a Birthday... Shark Style!

Last time we did a a pinata at Jack's birthday it was a #FAIL.  I hung it with twine and it broke after the first hit.  That won't be the case this year.  I spent more on the attachment hardware than I did on the Pinata and will include some hardware close-ups later.  This should give you and idea though.

Birthday preparations are well underway!

The Shark Pinata!

Picture for Football Logo

The Cutest Baby on The Block? No Question!

Elle is the cutest baby on the block by a long shot!  It's fun to watch her interact with more and more things every day.  Her favorite, of course, is still her brother.  She immediately starts beaming as soon as he comes over and plays with her.

They are great together and Steph and I love watching the interaction.

Getting Ready for Dad's Visit Next Week! Margie Style

Limes - Check
Orange Liqueur- Check
Good Tequila - Check

 

What in The World?

Like Father, Like Son

Jack got his first dose of pizza making (aside from lessons at home) this week-end and put together a pretty good pie all in all. I know first-hand that pizza making offers rapid advancement beyond minimum wage with a nickel an hour raise available after only three months of work! When I cooked pie professionally back in the day at Pizza Inn I made $3.35/hour...never did achieve the nickel raise...but did develop some supplemental busboy skills.

One of the Best Dinners Ever!

Only Steph knows the details....chicken, tomatoes, lemon, basil, linguine to be sure.

Tacos Al Pastor

One of my favorite things to eat in Mexico were tacos al pastor. These were generally prepared on the sidewalk in front of restaurants. The primary ingredient in these tacos is seasoned pork that is stacked vertically into the shape of a large top and spun around a heating element. The tacos also include onions, cilantro, pineapple, fresh lime juice and hot sauce. Unfortunately, these tacos are almost never served in America, at least not anywhere I had seen. Well that has all changed. I've recently noticed that a few of the authentic Mexican stores and restaurants in Lincoln are now making these in the streets at night. I convinced my buddy Ed to come with me to one of the places tonight to sample the tacos. They were delicious! They tasted just like the ones I remember from Mexico! Here are a couple of pictures I took of tonight's street taco outing. You can see the orange colored "top" of meat at the far end of the table.

We don't need the super nanny at bedtime

Those who follow our blog know that Jack just got his "big boy bed" along with a number of rules associated with sleeping in the bed.  Rule number one is don't get out of the bed unless you need to go potty.
The other night we heard some uncharacteristic crying/wailing.  Steph went up and Jack was distressed because his weasel had fallen out of the bed and he wanted it with him... but knew he couldn't get out to get it.

Now that's a boy that follows directions :)

License PL8 Idea for Erin

Perhaps a new plate for the family truckster is in order? Modeled after this one I followed on the way home today...

Harold The Bunny...and other Tales...

Jack is at an age where he loves hearing stories - especially ones involving his family. He'll often ask for them and when we tell him a new one he wants to hear it several times in a row.

Steph added illustration to her story involving Harold the Rabbit - which Jack, of course, loved.

I was actually pretty impressed with the Harold drawing!

Other stories Jack loves include:

The Story of Turtle Creek featuring Dad and Uncle Bill
The Story of Kodak and the Cat Food
The Story of Kodak, Ranger and Mom's Blueberry Pie
The Story of the 1973 Tornado featuring Dad

Other story suggestions? Jack is all ears and loves them.

The Honey Badger

When it comes to internet sensations we are usually 3 steps behind.  Consider Rebecca Black's famous "Friday" video.   I found out about it through Bill weeks/months later.  Heck, I was even late to learning about Intel's Museum of Me on Facebook.  Same is true with the honey badger. 



Be warned the video is rated R for language but if you can get past that she's pretty funny.

Jack entertains his sis!

I'm Learning to Sit!

And I'm actually pretty good at it too.   Next up... crawling!

Maxi!

The Tale of the Tape - latest obseity ratings out

The deep south continues to lead in this category...

Cellbook.info is on the air!

Cellbook.info is a national directory inteded primarily for cell phones. It may also be used for ground phones, email addresses, and/or physical addresses. For information, go to http://www.cellbook.info/.

Hershey's Air Delight

Hershey's has injected their chocolate with air to create the air delight bar. Seems like these air whipped candies are more often seen in Europe. Not bad if you're in the mood for a little air with your chocolate.

The "Big Boy Bed" Milestone has Arrived!

The day finally arrived just a month before his 4th birthday. Jack graduated from his crib to a big boy bed. While a year or two behind several of his contemporaries Jack was quite content in his crib and never jumped out so we went with it. We figured it was about time though so we snapped up a mattress at Costco, pulled the conversion kit purchased 18 months ago out of the garage and got to work.

Here's the before picture featuring Jack's beloved weasel and dinosaur.

Jack was super excited about his big boy bed and hovered around yelping in excitement during each step. This meant he was close by to give his crib mattress a good-bye hug!

Finally - the deed was done. His new "full size" bed was ready. We felt it was surprisingly tall figured he could grow into it (an hopefully not fall out of it!)

We have been branding the "rules of the big-boy bed" into his head for weeks now and he can repeat them with ease. They are:

1. Don't get out of the big-boy bed unless you need to go to the bathroom
2. Don't go into your sister's room
3. Don't get out of the big-boy bed until your night light "sun" turns on

We'll see how it goes. After brushing his teeth tonight Jack excitingly run to his bed and pulled himself up only to find his sis waiting for him!

After giving her a kiss and hug he finally snuggled in himself.









Good night from one more "big boy" in Folsom.

Jack and Friends

enjoy whooping it up during a recent BBQ.

Doggone Loyal!

I was messing around on the front porch this morning and when I came inside, I forgot about Yuki. Twenty minutes later I realized he was missing. After a brief search inside the house, I opened the front door and saw this:



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Photo Day for Jack & Elle

Robert and Steph hired a professional photographer to get some family pictures while Erin and I were visiting this Spring. Here's a little video I made of the photo session.

Drums and Pinkberry Yogurt

I took Jack to the legendary Pinkberry yogurt last Friday night in our new mall and the sushi place opening up across the square was having a private opening party. The party featured this interesting drum team which Jack and I enjoyed as we wolfed our yogurt.

Corn Shuckin'

Corn season is nearly upon us. Here's a video to get the season rolling. Also, our first video edited on iMovie (with help from Uncle Bill).

A Great Frosting

I went to buy us all cupcakes the other day and the cupcake place had just closed. Not to be deterred, I figured I'd make us some cupcakes.   I had a box cake mix but not frosting so...

I went to allrecipes.com and started modifying...

Ingredients
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon natural salt
2 cups confectioners' sugar

Directions
1. Melt chocolate and the butter together. Let cool and blend in the sour cream, vanilla, and salt. Gradually add the confectioner's sugar until the frosting is of spreading consistency, beat well.

One of the keys is the salt... resist the temptation to use regular salt.  The larger crystals are one of the keys.  

Coconut Twix

We saw the new Coconut Twix in a Chicago drugstore and gave it a shot. It's like a regular Twix, but with coconut flavored caramel. It has a decent coconut flavor, but ultimately we felt that the "limited edition" stamp was well placed.




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The California Zephyr

Here is a picture of the Lincoln, NE launching station for the California Zephyr, direct to Sacramento, CA!

Stop Action Frenzy: Finishing Dinner and a Margarita

This one is pretty rogue when compared with Terl but you've got to start somewhere!

Terlfest 2011 Videos!

Mullins and I each created a Terl movie using iMovie '11. Each vision began with the same stop-motion footage of my new Lego Space Needle, Terl from the Scientology movie Battlefield Earth, and Taruk Makto, the big dragon thing from the movie Avatar.

Armatron

I saw a working Armatron at a garage sale priced at four dollars. I have fond memories of Armatron from my childhood. It was the coolest robot arm I ever owned. I didn't buy this one, but did take some pics.

Yuki in an iMovie Featurette

Michigan Pride!

The way I understand the story, Newsweek published a list of the top 10 "dying cities" in America. Grand Rapids Michigan was number 10 on the list. In response to being called a dying city, the people of Grand Rapids came together to create the following video. The video is a mind-blowing feat of planning and community unity. The video itself is a great example of a "long take", which is a continuous shot with no editing. It makes you want to visit Grand Rapids. Enjoy!

Bluebarb Pie

We got a shipment of fruit and vegetables today that included three sticks of rhubarb.   Not enough for a pie but Steph stumbled upon a Bluebarb Pie recipe on Allrecipes.com and since we had a fresh quarter of blueberries we were in the game!

Steph and Jack whipped up the pie this afternoon and we'll have it for dessert tonight!

The Moscow Mule

Mullins and I enjoyed a Moscow Mule tonight. This is a stop motion video of me making one of the mules.

Crossing The Mormon Bridge

I recently crossed Omaha's Mormon Bridge. I remember this bridge seemed like a big deal when we were kids, I guess because it meant we were close to granny and grandpa's house.

Microwave Musings

We had a minor issue with our microwave the other day (it wasn't opening!) which was quickly resolved.  Of more interest were my discussions with the microwave repair guy.

Gone are the days when the Microwave was considered a "luxury" appliance though Mom's old GE microwave just wouldn't give up the ghost.   There are only three principle microwave manufacturers left today I learned:  Sharp, Samsung and Panasonic.   What you say?   There are dozens of fancy brands, etc...  They can almost all be traced back to one of the three - and their innards are pretty much the same.  

Sharp builds for:  Wolf and Dacor... among others

Samsung builds for:  GE... among others

Pansasonic builds for:  Bosch and Thermador...among others

So if you go to Sears and get their best microwave for perhaps $250... you could spend ~$1000+ for the same microwave with a different door design and brand designation.

The repair guy said he generally preferred the Sharp built microwaves for what it is worth...



Life on the Cloud

Getting my first use out of Amazon's Cloud Player...after losing music purchased from Apple over the years and having to rebuild playlists everytime I get a new computer there could be a future here...  

Elle Introduced to Garbage Trucks

Yuki Says Relax

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Blog on Track for ~3500 Page Loads Per Quarter in 2011

Happy Mother's Day!

To all Moms who read this blog!  Which means 2 1/2 or 3!   Jack and Elle, of course, think they have the best Mom in the world and their Dad agrees.

Steph and Elle (April 2011)

Steph and Jack (April 2011)

Osama's Last Facebook Post

I saw this on Facebook of course...