This year - Something Different

This gem was taken in 2000. As you can tell, all my girls were up on the latest fashion trends. I believe this was the Land-Scuba look, it's too bad you can't see the shoes. They were flipper shaped and bright yellow.

Wait a minute . . . . that was a different picture

Actually, I think this was taken at DisneyQuest at the Pirates of the Caribbean "ride". We had a great time. It was December and the place was decorated to the 9s for Christmas. There were a lot of people there but it was worth it because of all the decorations and special events.

In fact, we (as a family) have decided to return to Disney this holiday season instead of the traditional (read over the top) gift deluge. We are going to DisneyWorld in Florida and staying at the Caribbean Beach Resort. We stayed there many years ago and had a great time.

We interrupt this blog post for an important weather update . . . it's snowing . . . real snow . . . in Houston as I am typing this message.

OK - so we are really getting into the Christmas spirit now. We will let you know how this alternate Christmas celebration goes over.

It's That Time of the Year !

That's right, contracts almost up, time to get a new cell phones. Since Linda and I are almost the same person, of course we need the same phone. Also, if I figure out all the bells and whistles, I can flatten out the learning curve for my better half.

This time we went with one of those new-fangled touch screen phones, you know, like an iPhone but different. We were pretty happy with our old Samsungs so we will give the next generation a try.

Katie has a Blackjack II and Sarah has a Blackberry Curve, full blown smart phones. They seem to like them, they have a full keyboard which is nice. But they require a $30 a month data plan EACH. Ours just have that "virtual" keypad but I think it will be better than the standard number pad for sending texts, and it only needs a "lite" data plan ($15 each). I don't know if we will keep that plan or not.

Tell me, do you use your phone for anything other than phone calls and texts?

Creativity

I love to be amazed by other people's creativity. These artists, Tim Nobel and Sue Webster, do some really creative stuff, and one of their mediums is . . . trash

A Tribute to John Williams

Katie showed me this on YouTube and it thought it worth sharing. This guy borrowed the song from another group and used his own face to play each part. The real group that wrote and performed the song is Moosebutter. Surfing - you just never know what you might find. It's probably worth the 4:10 to hear a different take on some of John Williams greatest movie scores.



If you like this you might like Moosebutter's song "Harry Potter"

70s at there best

The list are in. We had our groovy gathering last night and submitted our lists for scrutiny and admiration. Here are some of the highlights;

Songs that epitomize the 70s:

Knock 3 times - Tony Orlando and Dawn - Stuart and Janice

Stayin Alive - Bee Gees - Thom

I will Survive - Gloria Gaynor - Bob

Smoke on the Water - Deep Purple - Linda and Katie

Car Wash - Debbie (on her big list)

#1 Favorite song of the 70s

Play that Funky Music White Boy - Wild Cherry - Linda and Katie

Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen - Thom

Brother Louie - The Stories - Bob

I Want You Back - The Jackson 5 - Stuart and Janice

Hot Child in the City - Nick Gilder - Debbie (on her list at home)

. . . and oh so much more.

I only have electronic copies of some of the lists. As I get more I will post them.

Thom's List

Linda and Katie's list

Bob's List

Stuart and Jannis's List

Bread

Not the 70s group, or the colloquialism for money, I am talking the real thing - gluten goodness. In case you missed it (I did) there was a earth shaking moment in the baking world about 2 years ago (Nov 8, 2006). The NY Times published a "no kneed" bread recipe from a guy named Jim Lahey. This thing was bigger than bread before it was sliced. I was alerted to this fact a couple of weekends ago when I read in the Sunday paper about an improvement to this recipe. I was intrigued, I looked up the original and I was flabbergasted at the number of hits you get when you google "no kneed bread" go ahead - try it.

Sooo, I had to bake it, and I did. It was the best I ever made. It was very simple, it just took time and a dutch oven with a lid (I used my Le Crueset). I highly recommend you give it a try.

Side note: I cracked the plastic handle on the top of my dutch oven in the oven and my wife went to get me a new one. The lady at the Le Crueset store knew just what had happened and pointed to a new mental handle and said "they started making those just because of that recipe" Bon Apatite

Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery

Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising


3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting

¼ teaspoon instant yeast

1¼ teaspoons salt

Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. 
   In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.


2. 
   Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.


3. 
   Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.


4. 
   At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

Wake up to thee Oat-Man, can't afford ya

One of our potential list developers was unsure of the release date of one of their favorite songs “Wake up to thee Oat-Man, can't afford ya” although I consider myself quite knowledgeable in the music of the 70s I did not recognize this tune (although that is not a prerequisite for inclusions on any of the lists). I was curious and asked for more information. I was then supplied with the lyrics as best as they could be recalled. Perhaps you know the artist and release date?

On the dock, there's a highway, cool whip in my hair
One smell I could eat dust, rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance, I saw she moon light
My head grew heavy and my sack rolled in
I had to stop for the night
Dead fish in the doorway;
I heard the mission bell
And I was thinking to myself,
’this could be heaven or this could be hell’
Then she lit up a Ken doll and she showed me the way
There were horses down the corridor,
I thought I heard them say...

Welcome to the hotel California
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
Renting a room at the Hotel California
Any time you're here, you can buy me beer.

Her mind is definitely-twisted, she got the Mercedes bends
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, that she calls fins
How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat.
Some days to remember, some days to forget

So I called up the captain,
’please bring me my wife
He said, ’we haven’t had that spilled in here since nineteen sixty nine’
And still those voices are calling from far away,
We threw-up in the middle of the night
Just to hear them say...

Welcome to the hotel California
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
They livin’ it up at the hotel California
What a nice surprise when you're out of ice

Mirrors are deceiving,
The pink champagne on ice
And she said ’we are all just prisoners here, of our own device’
And in the bastards chambers,
They gathered for the feast
The stab it with their silly knives,
But they just can't kill the feet

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
'Relax', said the nice man,
'We are, go back to your seat.
You can checkout any time you like,
But you can never pee!

The List - 1970 - 1979

Back by popular demand, another music challenge. Pull out your Walkman and sharpen your pencil, we are working on a new list.

50 top songs of the 70s

10 most important or influential songs of the 70s
10 songs that scream “this is the 70s!” or epitomize the 70s musically
10 songs that are better now than they were in the 70s (the original is preferred but remakes are OK)
Your 20 favorite 70s songs

Bonus Picks:
What year had the best music in the 70s?
What was the best album of the 70s?

The Rules
o A song can only appear in one of the lists above with the exception of your 20 favorite songs (the ones in that list could overlap with the first 3 10 song compilations)
o The song had to be released between Jan 01, 1970 and Dec 31, 1979
o The songs can be from ANY genre
o We are ranking SONGS from the 70s not artists
o Each list should be in order (“they are all good how can I pick” will bring you mockery and shame)

The proposed deadline is November 1st when we will all meet to discus the anticipated errors in judgment and lack of musical taste. If you can’t be here in person you can email us the list. I can post them on the site.

PS not everyone looked like the groovy brother above. Stuart for example was still working on his groove in the 70s

More Refrigerator News

The good news: we got a new refrigerator and it looks great in our kitchen. The bad news: our double oven died in the same surge that killed our refrigerator. The good news: when we get a new oven it will match our shinny stainless steal fridge. The bad news: it will cost MORE than the fridge.



So we are now shopping for a oven/microwave combo unit that will fit in our wall. We got the fridge from The Great Indoors which is really Sears and it was a good experience. However it was delivered by Taco Libre and his henchmen.



Imagine if you will, a 14 yr old in desperate need of his Ridlen and one of those Mexican wrestlers who wear those masks, smoosh them together and device into four equal pieces, give them a truck and a furniture dolly and you'll have Taco Libre and his henchmen.



They came flying down our street, overshot the house, one jumped out and the rear lift gate started to rise before the tuck had come to a complete stop. The truck-leaper came to the front door clipboard in hand and announced he "had a refrigerator as was to leave it in the carton, where is the old one?" After overcoming the language barrier and straightening out the first two points, I turned to see 2 Tasmanian Devils ripping and tearing everything and anything attached to the terrified appliance. Edwardo Sissorhands. The third devil was standing in the truck, although I did not see it, I suspect he plucked the cardboard encased cooler and through it down to his com padres on the street.



Meanwhile, our dear old Amana was being manhandled into the street and onto the truck. We got Amana practically the same time we got Katie. As they skirted the mounting debris that was the new fridge's packing material, one of the drawers few out and bounced across the tarmac. It was being lifted into the truck by the lift-gate when the bottom section got crushed between the gate and the back of the truck. They had to lower the gate to get it out. I could watch no more.



Our new refrigerator now stripped naked was hurling towards the front door shouldered by 2 ADD Mexican wrestlers, wide side first. My wife shouted "Stop!" The word bounced off them like so many insults from the crowd. Linda through herself in front of the wedged refrigerator and explained that if they turned it 90 degrees it would fit. After much arm waving and adding of vowels to the end of words the fridge was through the door and slammed into the space where we hoped it would fit.



Once in it's native habitat it was obvious the appliance still had some vestiges of it's previous bondage. Taco and his men had to be pulled away with assurances that we would finish the defilement ourselves. Linda gave them waters and they were off. I think the whole event took less than 2 minutes. We were out of breath and emotionally spent.

Now we cool

I am writing this from my usual computer desk in my living room. We have exited the powerless zone. One day after the stunning omission of repair work to our little transformer we have been made whole. CalientePhobia is on the retreat.

Unfortunately all is not perfect in suburbia. As we began to power up our electronic infrastructure we discovered that our trusty refrigerator of 18 years gave up the ghost during the Ike ordeal. Let us bow our heads and raise our glass . . . ahh Amana, I knew her well . . .

So we are moving on. I see a bright gleaming french door cooler in our future. What it lacks in cubic feet an shear brawn it makes up for with an extra door, a svelte physic an styling from this century.

We still have a pile of branches in our front yard and a battalion of trash bags lining the driveway but we are well on our way to Normalville

Journeying through both space and time

Meet Bob and Linda; typical suburbanites trying to navigate the challenges of two kids in college, an ever expanding waistline and a dog with a taste for balcony. We find them pedaling back from a pizza buffet dinner, the first meal in 4 days that wasn't some forgotten frozen meat cooked on a grill or eaten out of a soggy cooler. Unbenounced to them, as they wind past the fallen trees and stacks of garbage bags they are about to enter . . . . the powerless zone



Their conversation revolved around the promise electricity returning to their suburban home. There were whispers from neighbors about electric company trucks stalking the streets, even predictions of an AC filled evening. It was too much to hope for. Just today, neighbors across the street who previously had their power restored had it disappear mysteriously while making beanieweenie. Their whole street was sliding into another dark night.



Just then they saw it, the electric glow that could only come from a television. The street was quiet, there were no droning generator sounds. They pedaled on. Over there! Two sconces burned on either side of a front door. They pedaled faster. There were signs of light and free flowing electrons everywhere, both sides of the street!



They finally came to their own block. The usual gaggle of neighbors chatting in the twilight were no where to be found. They were in their houses cooking and showering. They could taste the anticipation and the pizza burps from all the pedaling. Their next door neighbors and the ones across the street - both houses lit up like Christmas morning! They stopped in front of their own well manicured domicile with mouths agape. Every house up and down the street was basking in alternating current except theirs. The windows were black as coal, no AC unit puring beside the house, no prospect of seeing the Gilmore Girls tonight.



They reluctantly picked up their flashlights and sloughed off to the bathroom to get ready for another night on the living room floor wondering if they would every break free from . . . the powerless zone

Working our way back

Today (Tuesday) Linda and I went back to work since Thursday. We still don't have any power and we are out of ice. We cleaned up the house/yard/pool as best we could. Having water is great. We checked on friends around the neighborhood and all were doing well considering the circumstances.

Here is a picture of one of our less fortunate neighbors about a block away. We are pretty sure we had a tornado come through the subdivision. The roots of this tree are 4-10 feet off the ground.

Houston as a community has been great, lots of people helping other people, just spontaneous kindness. People have taken responsibility for their neighbors and strangers that need help.

Electricity, gas and ice are the top concerns in our area (in that order). I think the lack of access to enchiladas and quarter pounders are really taking their toll both physically and mentally.

Still here

We are all OK and our house did not sustain any significant damage. We may have some roof damage but no leaks as far as we know.

We have lost power (and Internet) for miles around but we are not alone over 2 million people are right there with us.

Our neighborhood had some bad tree-house collisions. A house on the street directly behind us was destroyed by a tree in their driveway. This picture was from 2 streets away. It's sad but i don't think anyone was hurt.

will update when I can.

Ready to take a Ike

As those with electricity know, there is a hurricane aiming at Houston. This time it looks like it's not going to change it's mind at the last minute. Most people have been getting ready to deal with it for days now. HP had closed their offices today and most of the businesses have also closed.

There has been a steady stream of cars heading north and west to Dallas and San Antonio. We chose to hang here in our NW suburb at least for now. Our greatest fear is known as CalientePhobia or the fear of losing air conditioning. We are going to get a lot of wind and we have a lot of trees this = power line seeking projectiles. Sure the trees will smash some windows and cave in some roofs. Cars will surely be crushed but when we hear that electric pop and the AC and TV become just a memory the hairs on the back of our neck stand up then quickly get pasted down with sweat.

With highs in the 90s and lows in the 80s and the humidity somewhere around 200% (the hurricane forces twice as much water into each air molecule than it will hold) you can begin to understand the horror.

We are hoping for the best, we look OK now. I will post an update as long as the electricity and Internet hold out.

How to make your mother cry

This looks like a pretty innocuous shot right? How could this make a mother cry?

.

Well . . . . . every since the kids started going to school, on the first day of school we would take their picture. They would be all dressed up in their age appropriate garb. We would have them stand in front of the TV in the living room and we would take several shots. The TV was like a yardstick, you could watch them grow. Even when they were way too cool teenagers we insisted we get the FDOS picture. We have a whole collection.

.

This morning was the first day of college for Katie. She had an 8:00 class. She got up, got her stuff together and rousted her roommate from bed and handed her her camera. Her dorm mate didn't understand, "why can't I just take your picture from in bed?" "Because we take the picture standing in front of the TV, that's the way we do it" Katie replied.

.

She got her picture and she sent it to her mom.

The Incredible Tree-Climbing Goats of Morocco

And now a word from the WebEcoist

So many times I try to tell people something interesting and they just don't believe me, well this time I have pictures. There is no way someone can doubt me now.

There is even a video for all you naaaay sayers

How much do you want to know?

First there were smoke signals, then there were letters, followed by email, IM's, then blogs now . . . . tweets. That's right - tweets.

There is a new time waster on the net and it's name is Twitter. This is a "service" where you, to quote this site " Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?"

So you basically broadcast little IM sized messages to everyone who has signed up to get them. These little messages are no longer than 140 characters long and are called . . . you guessed it - tweets.

I haven't twittered to tweeted, I can't even seem to manage to post a story a week on my blog but I just thought you might like to know.

To gig or not to gig

That is the question our latest political commentator must answer every week. What am I talking about? Not what, who. Our very own Sarah Hope has been recruited to write political commentary for a new Aggie journal/blog called AggieWire.

It hasn't launched yet but they have assembled their staff and are putting together their inaugural issue. The really cool thing is that they sought Sarah out. They had read some of her posts on various web properties like FaceBook and liked them so much they went to her and asked her to join the team. Pretty impressive huh?

By the way, for those of you not from these parts, one of the Aggie calls is "gig'em Aggies" it's like "go Irish" or "roll tide". Gig or to gig is from the Latin gigorous which means to poke with a sharp stick. Used in a sentence one might say "Gee Paw, we was just gig'en frogs"

Will your candidate be poked with a sharp stick? Gig'em Sarah

They have a different word for everything!

In the immortal words of Steve Martin, "the French, they have a different word for everything!" Well Katie and some of her friends in the French Club went to find out in person. A group of about 16 people embarked on a tour through Paris, Normandy and several small towns in between.

There were square trees, long dinners, famous landmarks and people who tucked their chin into ther neck and said "haww haww hawwww" to keep them busy for 9 days. During that time Katie took over 800 pictures and videos (I was so proud) which you will be forced to watch now. OK maybe it's just some of the good ones.

It happens to all of us

That's right, I am talking about birthdays. I think you can tell a lot about what phase of life someone is in based on their birthday celebration. When the kids are little they have nary a clue of what's going on, then it's all about the presents, then somewhere around when they hit double digit ages it's the center of attention AND the gifts.

I have an old friend who just had a birthday (this past Saturday), he stops by this site regularly, you have probably read his posts. He too is moving into the next phase, many of you will recognize it. We shouldn't be too quick to judge for all of us sooner or later we all will be donning the rubber pants and ordering the mashed carrots.

Happy Birthday Stu