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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