Top 10 Videos

In homage to "Top 10 lists," countdowns, all thing's New Year's--we're bringing you our favorite top 10 videos (in no particular order and not just from 2010).


Like dogs? You'll like this video!


We still think you are awesome!


Stella's Day (from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo)


They caught the bad guy (at least it says so on You Tube)!


This video was taken in 2006, about the time we moved.


Beautiful video.


"God  Bless America! Hey!"


We're not Quakers, but it's a catchy tune.


Do you like apple pie? If you like this check out We're All Connected.


They're dancing on treadmills?!? If you like Mouse Trap check out: This Too Shall Pass

Happy New Year!

Season's Greetings from NAO

The Digital Nativity Story

Happy Holidays

Watercolor painted by Em, December 2010.

Dog Boots

Eric forwarded a hilarious (LOL, tears streaming down my face--I seriously haven't laughed that hard in a long time!) blog post about dogs. He asked me to share it.

Dogs Don't Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving

"Packing all of your belongings into a U-Haul and then transporting them across several states is nearly as stressful and futile as trying to run away from lava in swim fins." Read the post

In related news, this is how Squirrely reacted to dog boots. 

(This video was taken in 2006, about the time we moved in.)

Suz

Happy Halloween

• Google: Haunting Halloween Search Trends
• National Geographic: Costumes... Styles a Century Ago
• National Geographic: Halloween 2010
• NASA: Spooky Space Sounds

Happy Halloween!

Harvest: Grapes

There is one thing in our yard that Squirrelly-the-omnivore doesn't eat: grapes. Eric and Emily have been making grape juice.

Mmmm!

Utah State Fair 2010: The Results Are In

Emily and I drove down to the Utah State Fair on Thursday. We battled afternoon rush-hour traffic, sang along with Elvis and John Denver all to get to the State Fairgrounds in time for the Photography Q&A (which turned out not to be a lecture). Our photos mentioned earlier didn't receive any recognition, but Emily's art sure did! Her charcoal drawing "Seriously?" received an Honorable Mention in the Fine Arts Young Amateur category! Yay, Em! (Her drawing is of the woman in sunglasses with the white ribbon.)

The rain clouds were gathering all afternoon, and it was sprinkling when we got to the Fair. After we walked the Photography and Fine Arts Exhibits we made a dash for the funnel cake stand.

There's always cool stuff to check out at the Fair. Like this work in progress, butter sculpture. Are you going to the Fair this year?

<3 Suz

Epic Mickey

Epic Mickey is the game Avalanche has been helping Junction Point with.

Utah State Fair

Eric and Emily went to the Utah State Fairgrounds to drop off our photos (and Em's charcoal sketch) to the competitions. Here's a preview of what they took.

Row 1: Eric's photos "Bees" and "Wrigley Field"
Row 2: Emily's photos "Where the Streets Have No Names" and "It's a Beautiful Day"
Row 3: Suzanne's photos "Hiking Buddy" and "Midnight Sunflower"

We've heard that Mike might be submitting one of his wooden boxes so we'll be looking for that when we go this year. Here's last year's visit.

<3 Suz

Poem About Loving Oneself

Enjoy. Love, Suz

Happy 4th of July (Almost)

Thanks Everybody!

Surgery, done. Recovery underway. Thanks for the support everybody!

Suz

Art in Downtown SLC

Eric and I were kicking around to doctor appointments yesterday and went downtown for lunch. We spotted new building art that was really cool (I think we were at 200 East and 300 South).

The not-so-new sculpture was across the street, kiddie-corner.

Suz

Toy Story 3!

It's here! See? Eric's got a copy of Toy Story 3. If you want more details, plus Eric's favorite cookie recipe and some Toy Story 3 links click here (to visit the family cooking blog). Big congrats are in order to all of the talented people at DIMG (Avalanche) and Pixar! Woot!

Suz

"Tut-tut, it looks like rain."

I checked the weather-it's not supposed to rain until tomorrow. Really?!?

The big clouds are rolling in from the south. I hope the weather is interesting (in a good way) where you are too.

Day Trip: Golden Spike

We took a day trip to see the Golden Spike National Historic Site where the railroads first met (creating the first transcontinental railroad in North America). It was cloudy and rained on and off, and it was cold. Definitely sweatshirt weather. Clouds cloaked the mountains (still snow-capped). The "blustery day" included a few tumble weeds blowing across the freeway. We wanted to share the cool things we saw with you.

At the visitors center, besides the museum, lecture, movie and gift shop, they held a reenactment of the completion of the track which was pretty cool to see, but then we do live in a "pretty great" state!

Em asked for this day trip destination after learning about it in school.

Since it was a big drive we decided to see whatever we could that was in the "neighborhood" while we were in the area. We took a 4-wheel drive trip out to the very northern edges of the Great Salt Lake to see, and hike down to, the Spiral Jetty.

Squirrelly loved "the beach!"

During the drive we passed horses (and colts) and free-range cows (and calfs). When we were leaving the jetty Eric spotted these Pelicans.

Em and Squirrell were asleep before we got to the rocket display at ATK.

For dinner we stopped first at the legendary Maddox restaurant, but nobody wanted to wait an hour to be seated so we went next door to the drive-in. Then it was time for the big drive home.

We hope you are having a fun summer too!

Iris from MN

Steve shared some Iris Rhizomes (roots) with us a while back--like a couple of years ago. He sent them to us in a cardboard box all the way from Minnesota. I planted them, unsure that they would be okay, some of them looked pretty dried out, but they're doing great! Thanks Steve!

Robotic Pancreas

Wired Magazine: Robotic Pancreas: One Man’s Quest to Put Millions of Diabetics on Autopilot


"Brewer was shocked by the antiquated approach. “I had this logbook,” he says. “I’m testing Sean every few hours, and I’m thinking, this is crying out for automation. A computer should do this and would do it better. Why didn’t this exist, with all that we can do?”

Saturday: Spring's Here!

These are from a walk around the garden this morning.

Then Janel and I went to IFA (Intermountain Farmers Association) to look for seeds to plant in our gardens. They had the cutest ducklings!

Then we stopped by the Sweet Tooth Fairy.

  

Office Picnic

There are lots of busy programmers, artists, testers, and yep, IT guys, at Eric's work preparing a very cool game for summer release. Which game are they working on?

Toy Story 3 - watch the trailer or read the press release for more about the game.

Last night Eric was working late so we met up for an "office" picnic. Since it's spring (tell that to the snow) and it's almost Easter we had egg salad sandwiches. Check out the size of those radishes. They're  almost as big as the sandwich!

How are you celebrating spring? Happy Easter!

Suz

PS - Thanks for the cool picnic basket Jennifer! We use it alot!

Happy Spring!

Hen's and Chicks on the first day of April.

Bike Commuting

Lights? Check. Bike lock? Check. Route? Check! I'm all geeked out, and I either need a rain slicker, or the snow to stop so I can start commuting to work on my bike. I have some prep work, but I'm getting there. If you like to ride your bike check out: http://www.peopleforbikes.org/

I've read that "we" do a lot of running around within a two mile radius of our home. We could be on our bikes instead of in our cars. You should see some of the cool commuter bikes they've got out now.

Here's a cool video about hard-core winter bike commuters in Chicago and another about "the Wiggle" bike lane in San Francisco that takes riders between hills.

Suz

Live Mario (LOL)

Nat Geo: Bus2Antartica

This is an excerpt from a "Tweet" thread that I follow on Twitter: Bus2Antartica. I had to share it because it made me LOL (literally). Poor Nat Geo traveller! At least he made it to the other side! "Andrew Evans is traveling 10,000 miles, from DC to Antarctica, by bus for National Geographic Traveler." Tonight he crossed the "Strait of Magellan" as his following excerpts describe... (reads from the bottom of this post to the top)




2nd miracle tonight: we arrived on the other side. Those passengers not wiping tears from eyes are applauding. Hugging strangers, laughing.about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck







Travel inspires extreme sentiments. Right now I'm feeling a fear I've never known before: the fear of drowning on a bus. No joke.about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck







I promise never ever to complain about waiting in the Lincoln Tunnel. Or Washington DC bridge traffic. Just let us get to the other side.about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck







Staring out into the dark. Arched splashes--dozens of them. Dolphins! Guiding our ship to the other side hopefully. I am frozen w/ fear.about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck







Pitch black, sitting on heavily-rocking bus on heavily-rocking boat. Saltwater waves crash onto bus window. I prefer haunted houses to this.about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck







Miracle. LOL. No kidding, ferry arrives--after 9 hours, we're going anyway! Bus drives onto rocking boat. OK, I'm a little bit terrified.about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck







Asking all Twitter followers to hope/pray/wish/do anti-wind dance 2 enable ferry crossing ASAP. Otherwise, tweets will become less cheerful.about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck






I've now been traveling--or NOT traveling--for 13 hours. Still determined to make it to Ushuaia by bus. Come high water or hell. As it did.about 3 hours ago from TweetDeck







I haven't eaten in nearly 9 hours. No food since all was confiscated at Chilean border. Nothing around here & yet we may be here all night.about 3 hours ago from TweetDeck







No ferry yet, but 1 car tries to cut ahead. 200 cars start honking horns in protest--like Cairo in the wind. Yes, we are just primates.about 3 hours ago from TweetDeck

Want to read more about this trip? http://ow.ly/16esD


PhotoShop Action

I'm learning new PhotoShop skills thanks to Ree Drummond. Santa brought me her cookbook: The Pioneer Woman Cooks. On her website, I've been finding photo tips. For example the following leaf was just minding it's manners on a winter morning in the backyard.

I applied some of the free Pioneer Woman Action Sets 1 & 2 that I downloaded from Ree's site and...

That's one edgy leaf, friend. Looks like it could go on the cover of a grunge album - or maybe it just captured that the backyard path will take you to fAiRyLaND. Once there you will need to watch your step. If the stories are to be believed, don't eat the food or you'll have to stay there forever. To quote my favorite cartoon: "Forever's a long time!" - Chowder.

- Suz

You are Awesome!

Watch this (at least the first few minutes) And have I told you? You, YOU are Awesome!

Quaker Dance Party

Cute video of a group of Quakers grooving out and following their bliss. It made me smile. :) Suz

100 Games Cupcake Game

You need a break right? How about playing the "100 Games Cupcake Game?" Remember Joust?

(Photo source: http://www.steelheadstudio.com/100cupcakes/)