Keepin' It Clean with David Sedaris

So Saturday night we went with Valencia and Rob to see David Sedaris. What a funny little man he is! Read from his books mostly and didn't disappoint. He did, however, go on and on - perhaps just a little too long - about what a dirty and gross place China is to visit. Seems people there just spit, blow snot, and openly shit everywhere, making it tough to traverse the landscape. Even babies don't wear diapers; they just wear pants with a slit in the back, so that they are free to dump wherever. (Kind of puts an end to the cloth vs. disposable debate) He went on in great detail about this and commented that it is so extreme that he can't believe that anyone who has visited China neglects to lead with this detail when describing their visit.

I learned they make a refrigerator with a Sabbath Mode Switch

Did yall know they make a refrigerator with a switch  that cuts off on the sabbath? Well this was  news to me. We snagged an icebox at Lowe's  because our old one died. The new one  has this special switch. I wonder if they  have any thing for atheists? A Shabbat mode refrigerator includes, at a minimum, the ability to disable all lights or other electrical activity from occurring when the refrigerator door is opened. Some Shabbat mode refrigerators include a timer for the compressor so that opening the door, which will normally indirectly cause the compressor to turn on as the temperature rises, will have absolutely no effect on any electrical operation of the appliance.

Gamification: The next big thing?

March 27, 2011
Say you're zooming down the highway, when you spot one of those speed-limit enforcement cameras from the corner of your eye. You hit the brakes, but not before the camera's flash catches you breaking the law. A speeding ticket is surely on its way to your mailbox.

iStockphoto.com
A car passes a warning sign for speed cameras. Now, imagine that same camera also snaps a photo of your car when you are driving at orunder the speed limit. For your safe driving, you are entered into a lottery to win a portion of the money from fines paid by speeders.That idea was tested in Sweden with great success. It's an example of "gamification," considered the next wave of social engagement and Internet technology.
Gamification "is the process of using game thinking and game mechanics to engage users and solve problems," says Gabe Zichermann, co-author of the book Game-Based Marketingand chairman of the Gamification Summit.He tells Weekend Edition Sunday host Liane Hansen that the speed-camera lottery in Sweden turns the whole idea of fines and penalties on its head, in a way that only "game people" think of. Instead of being structured around punishment and negativity, he says, the speed-camera lottery is "all about positive reinforcement." If you drive the speed limit, or under it, you may win some money.

"And that positive incentive to create better behavior," he says, "is a core tenet of games.

what do yall think?

so polvo asked me if I wanted to do a little cornhole toss............

I ran into polvo at the beach the other day..he was talking about a game I have never heard of.......called cornhole toss........he invited me to play...being from the south, I was a little reluctant to commit to participating in a game called cornhole toss .....I'm jest saying....... Anyway, polvo showed me the set up:

you toss bean bags and try to get them to fall into a hole on a board...similar to horseshoes with out the stakes or the horse shoes...........so we begin to play....i assume polvo has played this game since the 2nd grade as he seems to know the rules and talks a mean game..........

needless to say...after a few practice tosses....i shellacked polvo 3 - 2 and he hung his head and cried in shame:

this really is a fun game...and would probably be even more fun with a couple of tasty beverages........if you are interested check out the site: customecorntoss.com

How hot is it?

Much like me, you are probably wondering: How hot is it inside Earth?

Earth’s core temperature is estimated to be around 5,000 to 7,000 degrees Celsius. That’s about as hot as the surface of the sun, but vastly cooler than the sun’s interior.

French Fried Onion Chicken

I fixed this French Fried Onion chicken dish the other night. I heard about it from a woman at work. This chicken is better to me than bread crumb,corn-flake,or panko chicken.... all of which I really like and have fixed many times. I say try it, you will like it!!


Ingredients:
2 cups (4 oz.) FRENCH'S® Original French Fried Onions
2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
4 (5 oz.) boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 egg, beaten

Directions:
Place French Fried Onions and flour into plastic bag. Lightly crush with hands or with rolling pin. Transfer to pie plate or waxed paper.
Dip chicken into egg; then coat with onion crumbs, pressing firmly to adhere. Place chicken on baking sheet.
Bake at 400°F for 20 min. or until no longer pink in center.

keepin it simple in Colorado Springs

I learnt that UCCS makes it very clear how to flush toilets. The flush instructions include detailed instructions spelled out as how to flush these high tech water saver toilets. They take it down to the lowest common denominator.....way past just explaining the very technical flush functions "up liquid waste - down solid waste". They include the "#1 and #2" identifiers for users from south of the Mason Dixon line!

Eggstractor!

You guys are laughing at me for shopping at the ARC!....well after this find last week.. ,,,,,,.WHO IS LAUGHING NOW????????

this stuff is great!

if you are in a hurry and don't have time to mess around with real fresh garlic.....this is the ticket. It is easy to use and tastes great. P-lou's oldest daughter's husband's brother-in-law bought this for us!

Chiquita Curry

Pat contributed incredible withheld culinary knowledge tonight to our Curry Beef over Rice meal. She insisted that adding the robust, sweet taste of a banana to the concoction would infuse a "sweet-and-sour" twist to the traditional dish. (Let's just say that Vic likes it...but he's had more wine than the rest of us tonight...) I'll admit it, I added the banana, but only due to pier pressure from Vic after Pat's off the wall banana addition idea...but I'm warming up to the results :)

Not a Joke! These are real!

OK, so I've been coaching 8-12 year olds at Winter Park in freestyle skiing for the past 11 weeks. Gotta say, one of the best parts is learning crazy miscellaneous information from them such as the Narwhal! I honestly didn't think that my athlete was serious about a unicorn of the sea but it actually exists, and now it is a life goal to see one in the wild.

you gotta itch?

I learnt that if you rub this stuff on your ankle that has been itching for 2 weeks it will make the spot quit itching.

Auto correct...

http://damnyouautocorrect.com has got to be one of the funniest

websites out there...we peruse it weekly for fun.

"I laughed, I cried, it became a part of me"

side note: scroll to the bottom to see pages and pages of these.

WTF?

So I "learnt" how fast one's copay for an "eye exam" could go from $10 to $80+. If you request an "eye exam", and they find something (say a scratch, etc,) then it's $10 for the "eye exam". HOWEVER, if you call up and say you feel like you have a scratch or something else that then becomes a "Medical (Patient) Complaint" - which then turns the "eye exam" into a "specialist / doctor visit" which then falls under your medical health plan, under the "Specialist" upcharge category.

To review:
1. Go in for an eye exam and THEY find a scratch - $10.
2. Say you "think you may have a scratch" - go in, and and they confirm it - $80

Of course (as they later told me) the increase fee wasn't just "fluff" this also included a "Treatment plan" which was "continue wearing sunglasses" and "use eye drops"

Wing Cooker

I got an email from Chef's Catalog showing this item a week or two back. I eased down to their retail store and bought it. Made some chicken wings for superbowl. they were ok but nothing to write home about. I used it in the oven....can't wait for it to get warmer to try it out on the grill.

Someone Please Post....

Would someone please write a new post so that I do not have to look at Polvo's bloody toes whenever this blog comes up?! I would post but I have not learned anything new today.

Confessions of a midnight runner

So, it twas around 2am early New Years morning when a friend and I decided that it was a "reasonably decent" idea (under the conditions) to "run" home instead of driving, or waiting for a cab. Given our impaired math skills at the time, coupled with a hefty-bar-tabs-worth of "liquid courage" - we concluded that it "couldn't be more than a mile to the house". In addition, and since we both grew up watching MacGyver - the fact that we didn't have adequate foot apparel didn't stop us. So after removing our shoes and socks, and running what turned out to be three (3) miles home - the bloody toes just added to the legend.

Well... if once was stupid, then 2 times is simply moronic? To that end, we went out with some friends this past weekend and since the bartender recognized that the service was slow he decided to make up for it in the form of free drinks that were extremely "TALL" i.e. basically a beer mug full of spirits and only a splash of whatever to cut the burn a little. So, like most other "bad ideas" it all started because no one was willing to just say "No"

So, once the clock hit around 12:30 AM we started off on our run - and after 7 miles (each mile a bit slower than the last) we finally made it home (shoes on this time).

What's even more interesting, is that I learnt that I'm not alone and in fact there are clubs coined as "drinkers with a running problem" and it's called "hashing"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_House_Harriers

So, now you know!

Dad's post (see below) is NO joke! Ya know they are searus when those Floridians drive with these signs posted on their 4x4's!

Floriduh goes Hog Wild!

Like roaches aren’t enough…..
So today I learned on the TODAY show that FloriDUH has a huge problem with wild, feral boars, running through properties, tearing up lawns, looking for acorns.
I now know that is totally what we saw in the water at Jill’s office. It was not a mer-pig (mermaid pig) as I first thought, but a real wild boar!
The Today show had a lot of fun contrasting this nuisance with more lovable pigs, clips of Babe and Arnold on Green Acres, for example. They made a joke about getting rid of these pesky wild boars...when pigs fly.
The location filmed was Cypress Point, FL, but I would guess that Gulfport also has its share of pigs. I'm just sayin'....

learnt in my "office"

I learnt that if you are using the restroom, sitting down, and the toilet is one of those "sensor-flush" toilets, and the wall in front of it (essentially the door to the stall) is "gray" (and that is where the sensor is pointing) and you happen to be wearing a non-descript "gray" fleece pull-over that the censor may mistake you for not being there at all and / or thinking that you've essentially blended into the walls - it will subsequently flush over and over and over (and OVER AND OVER!) - Now, while the little splashes of water that accompany the "swirl" of the toilet-typhoon-flushing may be refreshing to an uncle of mine in GP - it really distracts from the calm escape that I had hoped it would be.