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...

Jack's Easter Egg Hunt

You Don't Have Any Teeth Sister!

I'll Be Back (Not)

The Schwarzenegger era has ended in California. So too ends the era of the governator souvenir t-shirt. I've seen these shirts in the SMF gift shops for years. Something tells me this will be my last sighting.

Jack's Cupcake

Easter Mail From Granny

Kodak The Beagle: 11/1/96 - 4/20/11

We had to put Kodak to rest today bringing the beagle era in the Tangeman household to a sad close.   Kodak, aka Champion Sierra Skyline Two Island, was a great dog just like his pal Ranger.

Known for pulling down pies from the counter and doing about anything for food, Kodak was a loyal pup and a great companion through the years.

The pup had a unique ability to always be in the way.

Goodbye to a good dog...

Erin on Oprah Part 2

I wrote on this blog a few months ago that Erin and her Mom got the chance to go see an Oprah show in Chicago. On the new Oprah Network OWN, there is a show that documents the making of individual episodes of the Oprah show in it's final season. The making of episode for the show Erin and her Mom attended recently aired. On it, there was a decent shot of the audience showing Erin and her Mom. There is a picture of this below. Erin's Mom is the blue shirt to the right of Erin. My apologies for not having HD TV, otherwise the image would be clearer.

One Single Life

I heard about an interesting iPhone/iPad game called "One Single Life". The game is simple and involves your character running and jumping from one rooftop to another. If you mess up the jump, you fall off the building and die. The catch is, you get only one life. Not only is the game over when you die, you can never play the game again. You're dead forever. I played the game and died on my third jump.

Yuki Takes A Walk