Special Message for Mullins

Stone Temple Pilots

Erin's brother Adam scored us 5th row tickets to see STP in Lincoln Tuesday night. The band reformed this year after lead singer Scott Weiland split with Velvet Revolver, a group made up of former member of Guns 'N Roses. The Pilots were very polished and put on a great show. The Meat Puppets opened. Here are a few snaps Adam took of the show.

Jack Fights off the Pea Costume

Jack demanded a better halloween costume this year. Recall the low-end pea costume his Mom got him last year. This year we decided the baby bear will be a bear. But first we needed to get a few plain pumpkin shots.



Here's one in his bear costume. The costume is obviously pretty warm so we're hoping it cools down a bit before halloween. It is was ~85 this week-end and the poor kid was sweating in his costume.



Another round of snaps this week-end after halloween.

Flame On!!!

We got our gas fireplace going for the first time tonight. As you can see, the new fake ceramic logs have that "just chain sawed" look. At this point, Yuki is terrified of the fake burning pile. I suspect he'll warm up to it as Winter sets in.

Shanghai Surprise! The Speedy Maglev

I recently went to Shanghai on a business trip and discovered the speedy Maglev Train. The world's first magnetic levitation train. The train can go over 300 miles per hour. On our trip it reached 431km/hour with equates to 268mph. We were blowing by cars and buildings.



Here's the camera video during the speed ascension.

The Iowa State Road Trips

We ended up heading to Ames, Iowa two times in three weeks to watch both the Huskers and the Jayhawks knock off the lowly
Cyclones.

We watched both games from a similar spot on the "hill" in Jack Trice Stadium. Because of that, I got an almost identical shot of each team moments before they rolled up another seven on the unsuspecting bottom feeders of the Big 12!

Invasion of the Quackers

Lately a lot of ducks have been hanging out on the small lake behind our house. My pal Mullins has accused me of me of being obsessed with the ducks in a way similar to Tony Soprano. I don't think things have gone that far, but I have been wondering how a particular baby ducky is going to survive the oncoming Winter. How old does a duck have to be before it can fly South?

The Great Pumpkin!

We went to a pumpkin patch this week-end and Jack quickly began his search for the Great Pumpkin..a la Linus from Charlie Brown...

Would baby find his pumpkin?



Watch the montage to find out.

Jack has about 17 years to go...

until he matriculates at Georgia Tech...here's hoping "the ratio" continues to improve for the little guy!

Little Debbie Cinnamon French Toast Sweet Rolls

Little Debbie recently launched a new attack in the snack cake war with their new Cinnamon French Toast Sweet Rolls.  It's an intriguing new flavor for sure, but are these things any good?  Sadly, no.  Turns out it's just a bad honey bun with an overly pungent, artificial maple flavor.    

Recommendation:  Avoid

Great Adsense Ad

In response to Bill's recent Hersheys is selling out quality post Google originally tried to sell us Hershey bars! Then they got it right and started touting the competition!!!

http://www.marshealthyliving.com/chocolate.jsp I'm going to show my support by seeking out Mars' products.

Mars Commits to Pure, Authentic Chocolate
We're a family-owned company, and one of a handful of companies still making our own chocolate. So we have the freedom to make these types of decisions and commit to creating only the pure, authentic chocolate that our consumers have come to expect. Chocolate that contains 100% cocoa butter. It tastes better and that's what our consumers have come to expect and told us they want.
At Mars US, we take our chocolate as seriously as our consumers do. The U.S. chocolate standards permit only cocoa butter and milk fat as fat sources in real milk chocolate. However, some people want to broaden the U.S. chocolate standard to permit replacing some of the cocoa butter with vegetable oil. That's a change that our consumers oppose, and so do we.

The Tile Story

When we moved into the new place the previous owners left us a box of tile. Glass tiles to be exact that they had purchased to install in the kitchen but never got around to doing. We didn't think much of it when we were moving in but finally checked the tile out and really liked it. Last week, when Rick and Barb came to visit, we pulled the trigger on the installation.



The hardest part of the whole job was definitely cutting the tiles. Rick took to them with a Dremel and several dozen cut-off wheels. In the end, it came out looking pretty spectacular though.

On one of several trips to Home Depot/Lowes we scored Jack a new fly-swatter. He knows it simply as a swatter. It is one of his favorite toys!

The Swatter Montage!

Here's What's Wrong With America

It seems Hershey's, America's great chocolate maker, is pulling the old bait and switch on their customers by replacing much of the real chocolate in their candy bars with sweetened, chocolate flavored palm oil.  

Erin noticed the story in the news recently, and I confirmed it with a trip to Walgreens.  In the picture below, you'll notice a pre-switch bag of Kissables (on top) and a post-switch bag (on bottom).  There is one difference in the bags.  On the top right corner, you'll notice what used to say "candy coated milk chocolate" now says "chocolate candy".  Chocolate flavored candy, that is.   

 

In this second picture, you see the ingredients from the old Kissables bag.  The first ingredient is milk chocolate,  which contains cocoa butter.  

In the third picture,  you see the ingredients list from the new Kissables bag.  The first ingredient is sugar, followed by palm oil.  Yum!  

In a taste test, Erin and I found the Kissables to be very similar, but taste isn't really the point. 

Hershey's should be ashamed of themselves.  I know I won't be buying their products without a label check.  Other palm oil bars to look out for include:  Take 5, Whatchamacallit, and Mr. Goodbar.  The classic Hershey's bar is still safe....for now.  

Who's up for some fresh baked palm oil chip cookies!!!!

eh BBQ

"The Stand" Arriving in Funny Book Form

I picked up the first of the new comic book telling of Stephen King's "The Stand" which hit stores last week.  Everyone's favorite King book will span six chapters, each consisting of five comics for an eventual total of 30 funny books.  Interestingly, Erin just began reading "The Stand" in its book form a week or two ago.  

Tropical Nebraska

California, Florida, and Hawaii have always been somewhat distinct from most other states thanks to the beauty of the palm tree. The palm just won't grow in places like Nebraska and Minnesota. It seems, though, that technology is now beginning to narrow this "palm gap". I recently discovered these faux palm trees gracing an upscale shopping center near my gym. They even have lights where the coconuts would be!

The Great Zinger Investigation

In a 10/28/06 post, I mentioned spotting Zingers, traditionally a Dolly Madison snack cake, being sold under the Hostess brand name. I had assumed that Hostess had bought out Dolly Madison. Wrong. It seems that BOTH Hostess and Dolly Madison are selling Zingers.

Confronted with these two boxes side by side at the store, I was forced to buy them both for a Zinger-Off.
The Zingers look identical, but the Dolly Madison box claims their Zinger is filled with "créme" filling while the Hostess Zinger is filled with a "creamy" filling. The Zingers seemed to taste very similar although I thought the Dolly Madison filling was more grainy than the Hostess. Erin felt the Dolly Madison cake was a bit dry in comparison.

Then I took a look at ingredients. They're exactly the same (both equally unhealthy). Also they're made in the same Kansas City factory. I guess a Zinger is a Zinger, no matter what the brand name. One concrete difference though, was that the Hostess version was slightly more expensive per ounce.

Happy Nanoversary!

To celebrate being engaged for one year, Erin and I treated each other to new iPod Nanos! I went with Georgia Tech Yellow while Erin opted for Sex and the City Pink.




Between both our collections, we have Nanos from each of the four Nano generations. The black one is a first-gen 2 gig model. Then we have a red second-gen four gigger. Erin's blue third-gen (the squat generation) Nano is an 8 gig model. The two new ones also have eight.



Here Yuki displays the line-up.


Credit for inventing the Nanoversary goes to Robert & Steph as you may remember from this previous blog post.

GT Football - The Perfect Option

well, OK, if they can stop fumbling 5 times per game...

Walkin' Baby!