An Octopus Can Tiptoe?

This little octopus is using a coconut shell as shelter/protection - a "tool" which is pretty amazing. Still to watch the little dude tiptoe, it's one coordinated octopi.

A Very Nice Day for a Little Dog

Stella's Day from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.

Day 1: Sit. Good Dog!

Meet Maisy. She's a Labrador Retriever that had been at the SL Animal Shelter since November. Yesterday she was neutered/spayed and then around 5:30 she came home with Emily and me in the bug. (My car seemed so small.) Things we've learned about her. She loves to chew (guess that's the puppy in her, she's 11 months). She likes her new kong chew toy. She may be potty trained. She can get on the Squirrels last nerve and she's awfully sweet and very strong.

This is Maisy in the "big" bed. I think we'll be looking for a bigger bed soon, looks like she's about to grow out of it!

Suz

Remember bad idea jeans?

The commercial from Saturday Night Live? It stuck and anything that was a bad idea got a "bad idea jeans" comment. I thought it would be a great idea to put the Ellen special Effects CD into my computer. You know, there's the Christmas Lights... now the cozy fire. I was in the ofc and was looking out the window, when I turned back to the computer it was like "Ahhh! Fire!" I've now sized the crackling fire to be about the size of a recipe card. Less realistic.

Suz

"Good Dog"

Photo source: Salt Lake County Animal Services

We made friends with a really nice Labrador Retriever today. She has major energy! She's not quite a year old yet. I think she's smiling in the picture.

"Oh Christmas tree..."

Merry Christmas

"Tis the season that makes us feel like we're living in a snow globe... Fa, la, la, la, la, la..." We hope the season brings you much happiness, holiday cheer, and many festive Christmas lights!

Love,

Eric, Suz, & Emily

("Hot Cocoa," fridge art, by Suzanne, 2009 - it's literally on the fridge)

The Muppets are back...

Another Cool Video

4 Hands One Guitar

For Thanksgiving dinner we are going to Taco Town!

The "China" Anniversary

A couple of months ago I gave Eric some ramekins for our anniversary. It was the "china" anniversary. So since he didn't want to go to China, something breakable was the answer. So 20 years = ramekins. I know I promised to keep the cooking on the other blog (where Em just baked a Pineapple Upside Down Cake), so I'll keep it short. I'm learning to use the ramekins. I learned to bake eggs from Julia Child the other day on PBS and I found that I was able to make mini-pear crisps from memory. Kind of cool serving up "single" servings for the fam in these totally adorable little cooking dishes!

Suz

Sleep, it's a good thing.

I'm bored....

Disney's Halloween Spectacular

More Disney Photos from Oct 23-24.

Oct 23-24 Disneyland Highlights

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh near Pooh's Thotful Spot...
Disney's ToonTown!
Emily getting a drink from a friend.
Disney's California Adventure - remodel. Wonderful World of Color coming in 2010!
Time for a little tea party with the Mad Hatter!

A Glorious Dawn

Eric shared this cool Carl Sagan remix with me.

"Happy Winds-day" tomorrow. (To quote a certain bear.)

Cookbook Bites

I've moved all of my cooking and recipe posts to their own blog "Cookbook Bites." I'm including recipes from the web, packages, cookbooks, et al. Just thought I'd let you know in case you want recipes that have been through a "test kitchen" so to speak. :)

Suz

In the News...

Eric on a conference call with his dad, mom, Julie,

and Traudy, after receiving the DNA test results.

Arnie and Traudy are in the news:

• Wood Tv 8: Brother, sister reunited after 70 years (video)
• Muskegon News: Brother and sister reunited after more than 70 years apart (article)

I'll add links as they come in. Thanks Jennifer for getting the word out! Very cool!

Update October 14, 2009: More links in the news...

• Salt Lake Tribune: At Age 75, Kearns man finds sister in Michigan
• Genealogy Blog: Man Finds he has a Sister at age 75
• Chicago Tribune: Sibling Seperated for 7 Decades Reunite in Mich.
• MLive.com: After 75 Years, Woman Discovers Family She Didn't Know She Had
• Genealogy Gem News: It's Never to Late to Find Someone or be Found

The Utah State Fair

Today we went to the Utah State Fair. Here are some of the memorable things we saw...

How's this rabbit going to get to the Palace of Easter Eggs?

Ah, lemonade.

Some of the creative art was so lifelike it was actually kind of creepy.

Cows.

Tribbles.

Butter Sculpture.

Wow. Really?

Wish you were here!

It's an "Aunt"

Earlier this summer Eric's mom and dad received a call from a woman who lived near Chicago, Ilinois. She explained that she thought she might be Eric's dad's sister. After much research, DNA tests, calls back and forth, the data is in! Eric is the proud nephew of a new aunt! Aunt Traudy, welcome to the family!

Suz

Priceless

New brakes on the Honda: $382
Best shakes in town: $13
New tires: $448
Awesome stopping ability: Priceless

Eric was called into work this afternoon, and I went with him. We were leaving his office, heading South on West Temple when a guy ran a red light, heading east on 6th South. He hit the Land Rover (on the left), and the white truck (on the right) and ended up completely turned around (facing West on the one way street - having done a 180.) We avoided being "in" the accident by about 6" giving us front row seats. The red car did a bang up job hitting the cars next to us, but completely missed us.

Eric's A/C & Heater have been broken for over a year. This was finally fixed on Friday - when he also had his brakes replaced. He bought new tires today. At first I thought we'd been hit, but it wasn't our car's bumper that was in front of us, but the Land Rover's. We were thankfully in a little safe bubble and were extremely grateful to be able to drive away.

Land Rover, Us (White Honda), Red Honda, White Truck

More Summer Flowers

The hollyhocks are blooming by the garage.

{ P.S. Sunflower Update: the rest of the sunflowers are starting to open. }

{ P.P.S. The crepes turned out greasy - sigh. Better Homes & Gardens has a good recipe I'll stick to. No offense Julia, Simone, and Louisette! }

Crepes Fines Sucrees, pg. 649

The new Julie & Julia movie is delightful! Wouldn't it have been fun to have known Julia Child? I cracked open my copy of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" (the copy that I found at the DI a couple of years ago.) I didn't know it was a cookbook "I" could really cook from. If I had only read the foreword! "This is a book for the servantless American cook who can be unconcerned on occasion with budgets, waistlines, time schedules... or anything else which might interfere with the enjoyment of producing something wonderful to eat." A frivolous, but fun invitation to step into the world of cooking. I don't think you can ever really escape the day-to-day worries of paychecks, how those jeans are fitting, and what time it is; however, maybe you can go into a kind of a "zen" head space while cooking.

So I took a step beyond thumbing through the cookbook. I made the batter for Crepes Fines Sucrees (light batter for crepes Suzette). It has to sit for at least 2 hours or overnight. They'll be ready to make tomorrow.

Bon Appetit!

Sunflower

From the tallest sunflower in the backyard "I can almost touch the sky! I'm only a few feet from the top of the roof! I'm taller than everyone who lives here!" We'll be asking her to reach things off the top shelf for us.

Hope your day is "sunny!"

July 29, 1994: Videogame Makers Propose Ratings Board to Congress

This day in tech from Wired. This is a good article on how the video game rating system came about, here's the link http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/07/dayintech_0729/. I was working at Sculptured Software during this time and we were working on the Super NES version of Mortal Kombat for Acclaim.

Back to School Goes Green

Got kids who are going back to school? There are a few ideas for how to go back to school "green" and healthy on the TweenCraft blog. I love the recycled Kool-Aid pencil bags!

Suz

Breakfast for Dinner

So... I don't just cook, but the blog makes it look like I do. It's so fun! Last night I cooked which was a good thing. Less take-out, you know? We had breakfast for dinner. Pancakes from scratch with Raspberry filling and frozen yogurt bringing keywords like "antioxidants," "fat free," and "yogurt" to the mix. ;)

Good for ya, right? Nudge, nudge. Plus I was "using up" the frozen yogurt... thrifty too.
Everybody had extremely happy taste buds. Except poor Eric wasn't home, so he missed out. There's batter and leftover raspberries in the fridge for breakfast.

No Bake Goodness

It isn't about the s'mores baby. You won't find any creamy pistachio J-ello desserts in my fridge, or fruit salad with cool-whip. So what's the point to the Jet-Puff seen below? It's all about the Krispies.

I mean Gershwin knew what he was talking about "summertime and the livin' is easy..." There are bigger fish to fry than baking a.k.a. heating up the kitchen. Like watching Myth Busters, or Monster Quest, doing Yoga... well yeah, there's still gardening, laundry, and chores... but this is a SUMMERTIME post, so it's about whee... the good summer vibes. I'll be sure to pass the feel good message along to the chore list.

Suz

Three Cheers for the Red, White & Blue...

We hope your Fourth of July brought your yearly recommended dosage of watermelon and fireworks! The History channel offered us patriotic goodness and I don't think I've ever seen such a big firework finale as on the PBS coverage of the fireworks in DC. Wow! We had a BBQ and Em invited her friend Kiani to join us. Here are the highlights of the "driveway" fireworks. How was your 4th?


Suz