Night Night

As I was putting Jack to bed last night I was surprised to hear him say for the first time "Night Night" I say that time him a lot but this time he said it to me!

Here are a couple of recent good snaps of him. This one features one of his new wrenches. He also will smile when you ask him to - but it isn't a very natural look and is quite posed. I'll try and get picture of his fake smile up sometime...

Here's one of him looking quite carefree - there's actually a soccer ball up in the air!

When dogs dream

This is courtesy of Rob & D'Nena Moore.

http://www.wimp.com/dognightmare/

March Photo Montage

Mission to Marzipan

Ben & Jerry's has released a new flavor called, "Mission to Marzipan". It's a sweet cream ice cream with almond cookies and a marzipan swirl. Erin picked this up when I was in Las Vegas and found it to be weird tasting and basically inedible. I agree that it isn't the best B&J's flavor out there, but didn't have much problem eating the stuff.

We actually had to research marzipan to figure out what it was. Strangely, after reading about it, we're still not sure what it is. Here's the best description we could find:
"Marzipan is a confection consisting primarily of sugar and almond meal. It derives its characteristic flavor from bitter almonds, which constitute 4% to 6% of the total almond content by weight. Some marzipan is also flavored with rosewater."

Mission to Marzipan hits your tongue with a strongly flavored almond extract bite that rings a little weird. Maybe this is how marzipan always tastes. Who knows? At any rate, I'd say this flavor is for marzipan fans only, assuming marzipan fans exist.

Thingamajig Reviewed

I discovered a new candy bar from Hershey's in Walgreens recently. The Thingamajig. Yes, that's right, it seems the Hershey's people have officially run out names for new products.

The first thing I looked at on the Thingamajig's packaging was the ingredients list to determine whether the chocolate bar contained any chocolate. Turns out it does. There is coco butter on the ingredients list and the description clearly says "made with chocolate" instead of chocolate-like, chocolate-flavored, or chocolatey coating.

The bottom layer of Thingamajig is chocolate (flavored) crisped rice. The upper 1/3 is a sweet peanut butter (flavored) filling, kind of like the interior of a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. These two layers are then covered in chocolate. Erin and I both liked the bar pretty well. Thingamajig is way better than the Whatchamacallit, a similar "fake chocolate" offering from Hershey's.

Engagement Gift!

We received a mysterious gift in the mail last week. Turns out it was an engagement gift from Robert, Steph, and Jack.

We opened it up to discover the fancy Cuisinart waffle maker and the Fiestaware butter dish we had put on our registry.
Sunday morning waffles have never been better! Thanks guys!

Pizza

Paul Tangeman, Bill Tangeman, and Robert Tangeman have all been making scratch pizzas of late. This is Richard Tangeman's latest. It is not fully scratch but is made from Wal-Mart brand crust mix and bottled sauce, plus peperroni and lots of mozzarella cheese.

2009 NCAA Pick'em!

http://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/t1/register/joinprivategroup_assign_team?GID=170209&P=gobuckygo

Linke above should get you there and includes the password (which is gobuckygo) embedded. Make your picks and check'em twice.

Here's the info in case it is needed.

Group ID #170209

Crazy T's Pick'em Emporium

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

from the CA Tangeman clan including...


Ranger and Kodak


Stephanie and Robert


and baby Jack! shown here enjoying the first Peep of his young life!

Goosey Goosey Gander

Milder Nebraska temperatures seem to have put the visiting geese and ducks in a good mood. This weekend the friendly fowl made it up into our yard in their search for seed and food.

I was reminded of the classic nursery rhyme "Goosey Goosey Gander", which you can now read.

Goosey Goosey Gander,
Whither shall I wander?
Upstairs and downstairs
And in my Lady's chamber.
There I met an old man
Who wouldn't say his prayers,
So I took him by his left leg
And threw him down the stairs.
The stairs went "crack"
He broke his back
And all the little ducks went "quack, quack, quack"

The Antique Waffler

I made Jack waffles this morning - a Sunday morning tradition of sorts but instead of using the standard Villaware Classic Waffler..



I elected to pull out the old Tangeman Family 4-grid waffle iron - circa the 60's or 70's. I hadn't used this one in a while and don't think my last experience went that well with it.



I sprayed some Crisco onto it and wiped it down to condition it a bit and poured the batter in. The first waffle wasn't good - it stuck and was undercooked - not even dog-worthy. The second, third and fourth waffles, however were great! The antique waffle iron is back in the game!



It makes a thinner, crisper waffle than you get out of many of today's irons which tend to be more of the belgian style.

Jake-the-snake and some friends

I have posted recently on the dog, so here he is with our friends Carol and Lyra.

Happy Pi Day!

Nobody knows who 5Lab is... but Pi day we can do!

Animal Kingdom!

Yesterday - as we were putting the finishing on getting Jack ready for school I looked out the front window and saw a coyote crossing the street right in front of our house. He took interest in the neighbors lower yard area where a small warren of rabbits reside. I opened the door to scare the coyote away.

Next - as Jack is apt to occasionally do - just as we were heading out to the garage he made a few grunting sounds and we needed to drop our bags and head upstairs for a fresh diaper. I looked out the window to spy 2 ducks settling in by the new lounge chairs around our pool. I snapped a poor picture (heavily zoomed without a tripod).



After Jack's "oil change" we went out to the car - I first went to grab the papers and spotted a rabbit sitting in our front yard chawing away at some grass.

Finally, our animal adventure concluded as we saw two turkeys in the lot across from our house - we hadn't seen turkeys since back in the fall. So there you have it... 4 different wild animals in ~5 minutes.

On a related note, Steph and I have taught Jack to howl like a wolf.

5Lab Says:

A Puzzling Baby Video

Setting the Stage
A few weeks ago we got Jack a new toy. A wooden puzzle box with 12 holes in it cut out in a variety of shapes. Coupled with the box are 12 colored blocks - each of which match one of the box holes. Here's what it looks like:



He quickly took to the puzzle and has gotten better and better at it. There are several pieces which are quite challenging including a parallelogram and a somewhat random quadrilateral. It is fun to watch him study the pieces a bit before trying to put them in. It has also been fun to see which pieces are hardest and easiest for him....the results weren't intuitive but, after thinking about it, are not surprising... watch and see.

Who Watches the Watchmen?

I saw Watchmen yesterday, and for me, it is one of the best super hero flicks ever made. The fact that I had previously read the graphic novel and was familiar with the story no doubt increased my enjoyment of the film, and I'd definitely recommend reading it first (or watching the motion comic on the iTunes store). That being said, the two people I saw Watchmen with had never read the story and they both enjoyed it as well.

Jack and Daddy

Some friends of ours snapped this good shot a few weeks back at a birthday party.



Jack has managed to piece together a few 2 word sentences. Here are some of his first in approximate order of him uttering them:

Don't pee! - This was definitely his first
Bye-bye Doggie
Bye-bye Daddy
Uh-oh Buddy
No more