The Tipping Point

One of the really cool things about having kids is giving them new experiences. Like the first time they taste ice cream, their first time trick or treating, or the first time they visit the zoo and see an alien-like animal like a giraffe or camel. I love this. I live for this.


As your kids get older, the new experiences get more physically strenuous. Spending a whole day at the zoo (“Can I have a piggy-back ride?), driving 10 hours to Colorado (“Are we there yet?”), or hiking a hiking trail (“You mean we have to hike BACK?”).

One of the fun things I did recently with Alex was a local midnight bike ride. First off, I was proud of him for staying up so late. Shit, the ride didn’t even START until midnight. It was 6 miles of bike riding on basically neighborhood streets. His goal was ‘to not stop’ and to his credit, he didn’t. But his pace was carmelized-sugar slooooooow. It was seriously hard to ride slow enough to not lose him. Granted, his 20” wheel bike is not helping matters.

Youngest son Chris is a ball of energy…until he’s not. He’s quite like me: run, Run, RUN…drop. We did a whopping 1-mile Fun Run at the Zoo. Super-fun place to run, by the way. He pushed his way to the starting line and freaking SPRINTED the first 100 yards of the run. Then stopped. “Let’s walk, Mom”. So much for pacing yourself.

So, back to the title of this post… the tipping point. The tipping point for this Mom is when my kids can keep up with me. And shit, anyone who knows me knows I’m no rock star athlete. But I do like to challenge myself and I do get frustrated when I’m ready to go balls-out….and I have to slow down and wait for a short person.

I believe (fear?) that a tipping point is coming soon. Alex is truly becoming a very good athlete, especially swimming and running. Very soon we might be at the point where he can keep up with me. Or is it “ I can keep up with him”? Either way, I’m excited about this point. But I’m also a bit fearful. Because soon after (too soon after, I’m sure), there will come a time when I can’t keep up with him. That will make me proud. And sad. And (gulp) old.

Watching Fall TV Shows Without Cable

Since we ditched our cable TV over the summer, we avoided what I call the "Watercooler Issue".
Some TV shows have gained a definite social aspect and are likely to be discussed amongst friends and co-workers soon after they air. You know the ones - "Survivor", "American Idol", those "Real Housewives of Timbuktu" shows.

But if you haven't watched the show that night or at least the next night, you either hear all the spoilers or you just can't join the conversation.

This is a Big Deal for some people. I am one of them.

So with the fall TV season quickly approaching, I began to strategize. Since we have no DVR, I cannot simply record the shows I want to watch later, so I'm left with two choices:

1. Watch the show live. Gasp! So 1950's!



2. Leave it to the show's network to record the show, then watch it online later (via laptop hooked to TV with HDMI cable)

I will TRY to use option #1 when possible, but I know for a fact that I already have plans during the premiere of one of my favorite shows, "Dancing with the Stars". This is a show that will be talked about the next day. So I checked ABC's website for when the show will be available for watching online. Turns out ABC is a pretty responsive network, and has the show available online the next day. Score!

But, if you snooze, you lose. ABC takes the shows down after 4 weeks.

I wondered whether other networks had a similar timeframe for making shows available. As it turns out, they do not, and it's not always very easy to find this "timing" on their website. So, lucky you, I'm providing it to you in one place. Enjoy!

ABC
Where: http://abc.go.com/watch
When: Shows are available the day after broadcast.
How Long: Shows are available for 4 weeks after broadcast.

CBS
Where: http://www.cbs.com/video
When: Shows are available the day after broadcast.
How Long: Unknown (after the fall season starts, I'll figure this out).
Exceptions: There are some shows that are owned by other studios that have requested that they not be available online. So alas, you will not find "Two and a Half Men," "The Mentalist," "Cold Case," or "Without a Trace" online.

NBC
Where: http://www.nbc.com/video
When: The majority of our primetime shows become available for viewing online at 4 AM Central time the night of the broadcast. Wow!
How Long: Unknown - but looks like the past 3-9 episodes are available for most shows.

CW
Where: http://www.cwtv.com/cw-video
When: Shows are available 3 days after broadcast.
How Long: Unknown - but looks like the past 5-6 episodes are available for most shows.

Fox
Where: http://www.fox.com/full-episodes
When: Fox has decided to get in bed with DISH Network (and "more TV Providers coming soon"!). For DISH Network subscribers ONLY, shows are available the day after broadcast. For the rest of us schmucks, they are available a whopping 8 days after broadcast! Epic FAIL, Fox. Give us non-cable folks another option, even if it's fee-based.
How Long: Unknown - but looks like the past 3-8 episodes are available, depending on the shows.

So, other than Fox, the networks have made it fairly easy to keep up with your favorite shows without cable and without DVR.

Now bring on the fall shows!

Look Ma - No Cable!

I’m not sure where the initial idea came from. I must have seen our recent cable bill and thought about how little TV we actually watch and realized “Holy Shit! We are spending $84 a month for stuff we could watch on network TV for free!”

Then I came to my senses and realized that in order to do this, we would need to be home at a specific time, in order to sit in front of a TV and watch something LIVE…and this is something that we are just not programmed to do anymore. Damn you DVR! You’ve spoiled us all!

But the idea persisted. And I did some research. And the rest, as they say, is history.

The Original Vision
I originally had this vision of a computer hooked to our TV in the living room, serving up streaming audio and video from the Internet. Two problems with this strategy:
1. Audio
2. Video

Audio - When you plug your computer into your TV, the sound still comes out of the computer. Computers are not known for their spectacular sound quality. Some nice speakers could be bought to help out, but then the living room is filling up with all sorts of equipment clutter.

Video - When you plug your computer into your TV, the TV acts like a great big monitor. Monitors don’t do HDMI quality video. We have an HDMI TV - we want to see an HDMI picture.

Luckily, connecting the TV with the computer with an HDMI cable solves both these problems. If (and it’s a big “if”) your computer has a spot to plug in an HDMI cable. If your computer is older than a few years old, it probably does not.

Tangent note: Do NOT buy an expensive HDMI cable...please! This one (HDMI Cable 2M (6 Feet))is just dandy and it's two bucks. DO be mindful of the length of the cord - make sure it's long enough.

Fortunately, we DO have a laptop that has an HDMI cable jack. Unfortunately, my protective husband did not want his precious laptop in the jungle-that-is-our-living-room, alone and unprotected. Sigh.

So more research was required.

What about "live" TV?
I knew we could get "re-runs" of our favorite shows online, but I was also curious about live TV. We do live in Kansas, known for its springtime Tornado Fest. It might be nice to get some up-to-date weather information, as needed, from local TV. My good friend Google told me that a digital antenna ($15) would allow us to watch digital channels "over the air" without any cable requirements. Since the investment was low, I decided this would be a good first step.

We got the digital antenna from Amazon for $15 (the fancily named Axis DVB-T9001 Omni-Directional Digital Indoor Antenna), plugged it into the TV and clicked around until we found the ‘search for over the air channels’ (or something like that). It found 22 channels. We don’t watch these a lot, but they will come in handy for Chiefs games and for weather advisory stuff. Or if you’re one of those folks that still watches the news on TV.

What we discovered out of this experiment is that we pretty much hate live TV. The commercials every 5 minutes, waiting for shows to be on, the lack of “anything on right now”. Ugh. We needed a streaming service to give us more content.

Yet more research was required.

Streaming Services
The Big Daddy is Netflix. We’ve all heard of Netflix. I was skeptical about it though, having heard that the streaming content did not keep up with the disc-in-the-mail content. I also heard rumblings about HuluPlus, which is more TV-show oriented than Netflix.
But wait! I was getting ahead of myself. How to get the Netflix goodness to my TV?

I knew that our Nintendo Wii console had the capability to deliver streaming content to a TV, especially if that content is Netflix. But our Wii lives in the kid’s playroom and we just didn’t want to bring that romping, stomping good time frenzy up to our living room.

After more research, I uncovered some alternatives to connecting a full-blown computer to the TV to get these streaming services. There are several devices that can do this: Roku, Boxee, AppleTV, and the previously-mentioned Wii, as well as the Playstation console.

Roku and Boxee have very similar features, but very different prices. Roku ranges from $59 - $99 and Boxee is $199. After reading the raving reviews of Roku and its other features, I decided to buy it. We got the middle version – XD for $79 - that provides 1080p HD quality video.

So how does it work? Well, you plug the Roku device (which is about as big as a ham sandwich) into your TV directly, with an HDMI cable. It finds your Internet connection, via the wireless network in your house, and connects your TV to the Internet.

To wrap your mind around how this works, think about it this way. Basically, the Internet is your DVR. And it's recording EVERYTHING, not just what you tell it to. The Roku is your cable box, allowing you to access all the pre-recorded goodness. One difference: the Roku does not actually perform stereotypical DVR functions – it has no memory for saving shows. You don't have to tell it to record anything. So we’ve had to adjust our thinking somewhat, from: What do we want to set the DVR to watch? to: What do we want to watch? (then check whether any of the Internet services have the show we are wanting).

Definitely a change in thinking, but I have to confess we’ve watched more TV than we have in a long time. We‘ve found several new shows that we really like ("Billy the Exterminator" - Who knew about this show?). We never would have found some of these shows in the chaos that is the cable channel guide! It’s actually a fun process…”What about xyz show? Where can we find that?”, “Hey, look at this show – I've never heard of it before!”, etc.


The Internet streaming services that we are testing out (1st month is free for both) are Netflix and HuluPlus. Netflix is more movie-centric, with some cable shows; HuluPlus has more TV shows. HuluPlus has whole seasons of shows available. Both are $7.99/month each if we decide to keep them.

Oh and the “other features” I mentioned above regarding the Roku box. The Roku is not limited to Netflix and HuluPlus. It has a Channel Store – that frankly, we haven’t scratched the surface of – that has dozens of other channels with different content. Some examples are:

• Pandora (this replaces all those lame cable music stations)


• FoxNews


• CHOW (all the cooking shows you ever wanted)


• Crackle (older movies - "Lethal Weapon", anyone?)

Oh and all the channels I listed above are FREE. Cool, huh?

Now let’s stop and do some quick math:
Roku box $79 + Netflix $7.99 + HuluPlus $7.99 = about $96. One month of our cable-TV bill was $84. Big savings…especially since the only ongoing monthly expense is the 2 services, which total $16/month.

What about DVR capability?
The strangest thing so far is the lack of the DVR. We were big set-the-DVR-at-watch-it-later folks. But if you get the right set of other services, they do all that for you, you just need to remember to go watch. You have to ditch the DVR Mindset. Damn near everything is out there “in the cloud”, you just have to find it.

What if I can't find it?
Yes, there are shows that you just won't find on any streaming service. If you can’t find it – I’m talking to you “True Blood”! – your other choices are:
1. Wait for the season to be over and buy the whole damn season on DVD
2. Watch it on a computer (with or without HDMI capability)

Okay, now you’re saying “Hold on! Our point here is to save money! If I’m out buying seasons of all my favorite shows on DVD, that will break the bank.” And it might, if you aren’t careful. Check your streaming services first, then check online, then check the library. Yes, I said the LIBRARY...don't be a caveman. We have rented whole seasons of “Dexter” and “Weeds” from the library. For free. Nothing. Nada. You can’t lollygag around, though, you have to watch the entire season in the 3 weeks you have the DVDs checked out, but trust me, it’s doable.

If you do need to buy a season, buy it, watch it, then re-sell it on http://www.half.com/. I resold a season of Dexter for several dollars MORE than what I bought it for. Score!

What next?
Our next challenge will be the Fall TV shows premiering. If we want to watch one or more of these, how will we? There's the live option, but I'm guessing with the nicer weather, we won't want to rush inside to watch a possibly-lame TV show. So stay tuned on how we cope!

And post comments with any questions or experiences you have. I'd love to hear them both!

Adventures in Body Fat Measurement

Tim Ferriss has spurred me into action yet again with his new book, "The Four Hour Body". It's a quite interesting read, with chapters on a "slow carb" diet, how to sleep better, how to gain muscle mass, etc.

His first advice was to get an accurate measurement of your body fat, so you will know what's working (and what's not) in the future. Scales and body weight are pretty meaningless, as most of us have figured out by now. But body fat does not lie - specifically your body fat percentage, as in "how much of my body is wiggly and jiggly" versus "how much is rock hard muscle goodness". The trick is accurately measuring this.


One device that can give you an accurate measure of your jiggly-ness is the BodPod.

Despite the unfortunate name, the BodPod is a rather cool device. The device knows how much mass its chamber consists of. Then it measures the air displacement that occurs when your body is put into the chamber of the device. The difference is how much mass you take up. Calculations are made from this to determine your body composition. This photo shows you the idea (and goodness no, this is not me in the photo! I wouldn't be caught dead in a yellow swimsuit!)


And yes, after seeing how much fun this lady was having in the photo, I had to try this! Notice her sporty swimcap?


It was easy to find a place to do this, and for $35, not financially taxing either.


I was told not to eat nor exercise for 2 hours before my Pod appointment. "Coffee?" I asked. "Um, no, better not" was the response. Ugh.


So this morning, with empty belly and swimsuit in hand, I ventured to the BodPod.

Not surprisingly, when I mentioned "The Four Hour Body", the technician laughed. She said that their traffic had increased at least 10 extra people per month because of the book.



The first step was to change into swimsuit, swimcap, and get my weight. Yes, weight is important here because it's the denominator in the body fat percentage equation. FAT / TOTAL-WEIGHT = body fat percentage (for those of you science geeks reading).



I jumped into the $26,000 Pod. The door closed. There were to be three 40-second measurements. If for whatever reason I was uncomforable, there was a large "Cancel Test" button right in front that would eject me into space open the Pod bay door, Hal.

It was a fast, comfortable experience (aside from the initially cold plastic seat - Brrr).

There were whirring and clicking noises. I'm somewhat claustrophic, but the giant window made that a non-issue.


In no time, we were done, and the results were in. I had a report of my wiggly, jiggly and my rock hard muscley-ness. I had a legend to compare myself with "normal".

For those of you curious, I ended up "Moderately Lean" - just missing "Lean" by a pan of brownies.

Ridiculous Things

Every once in a while, I come across a situation where, when you stop and think about it, you realize just how ridiculous it is.

Case in point:
I called to order a pizza to pick up tonight. Mr. Goofy is out of town and pizza presented itself to be the dinner of choice for discriminating appetites.

When I called, the friendly pizza lady asked me what kind of pizza I wanted (of course) and asked my name. So far, so good. Then they asked for my phone number. I willingly gave it, but after hanging up, could not help but wonder WHY. WHY do you need my phone number? Are you going to call back and confirm my order? (I've never had anyplace every do this...EVER.) Is it in case I'm just playing a trick and don't really plan on picking up the pizza? Or I would forgot my delicious hot-out-of-the-oven pizza pie? If so, are you REALLY going to call me back? What would you say?! Hey come pick up your pizza that we made two hours ago that you obviously forgot about...DUMBASS?

REALLY?

I've worked at a pizza place (two, in fact). I've NEVER called anyone back that didn't pick up their pizza. You actually HOPE that someone doesn't pick up a pizza. You just keep for a while, then one of the employees takes it home, reheats it and has a yummy midnight snack.

And really, in this day and age of Caller ID - do you REALLY even need to ask my phone number? Can't you see it on your phone display and jot it down? Wouldn't this be a better use of everyone's time?

Goofy Runs (Really!)

I never thought I'd type that. That. Up there in the title. "Goofy Runs". THAT!!!

You see, I'm NOT a runner. Running to me has always been BORING. Well, okay, if you are running from first base to second base, or across the soccer field to shoot and SCORE, yah, that's kinda cool. You have a purpose. But running down the street, just 'cause...well. Bo-ring. Yawn. Not for me.

But...opinions have this nasty way of changing sometimes.

Especially when you have friends that talk you into doing a 5K. Well, not just ANY 5K. The Komen Race for the Cure. The Rock Concert of 5Ks (IMHO).

There was MUSIC every half-mile...live bands, fer crying out loud! And snacks after.

Hell, no one ever told me about the SNACKS. I like snacks, especially delicious, sugary ones. :-)

And...

I thought I would walk most the way....I didn't.
I thought I would be sore and tired after...I wasn't.
I thought I would do this and not want to ever do it again...I was wrong!

In fact, I did another damn 5K the following weekend. And I had to stop myself from signing up for one the weekend after that! I'm signed up for one next weekend.

I am officially addicted. Not really addicted to running. I'm not dying to get into the gym to run the treadmill, and I'm not dying to pound the pavement around my block.

It's the RACES that get me. The MASSES of people, all running to the same finish line. All in a HURRY. All sweating, but SMILING. The COMPETITION and SPIRIT of it all. THIS is what gets me up at the buttcrack of dawn to go do something that I viciously hated just a few short weeks ago.

Well, okay and the SNACKS don't hurt either.

RA Sushi - Unsolicited Website Critique

No, you didn't ask, but here's a website review I felt compelled to write about "RA Sushi", a sushi restaurant chain that appears to be located out of Scottsdale, AZ. that is opening up a new location in Kansas City.

I tripped across this website when I read that RA Sushi was opening up a location in Kansas City. I have just returned from a vacation in Lake Tahoe, where the sushi is served up like McDonald's cheeseburgers. I had eaten my share of delish sushi from Tahoe, so I was ready to commit to sushi more in my wonderful home town of Kansas City.

Problem is: Not too many sushi places here do a Happy Hour. We absolutely LIVED on sushi happy hours in Tahoe. Same delish sushi. Half-price. What's not to love?

Anyway...I found the website for "RA Sushi" - http://www.rasushi.com/ and pulled it up to take a look. And I looked. And I looked...and I couldn't find anything to click except for "Get a RA Gift Certificate".

Really, it's obvious what they want you to do on the site...buy gift certificates. That, or join their email list.

I wanted neither.

I wanted restaurant locations! Menu! What about a happy hour? I couldn't find this anywhere. Even when the cursor turned to a pointy-finger, I clicked and nothing came up.

The background music is very soothing, but where's the beef?! Er...sushi?!

I was cursing the web designer under my breath when....I saw it. Wrapped subtlely around the RA Sushi logo, THERE were the links I was looking for.

Yes! They had an happy hour. Yes! The menu was online.

But...

When I clicked on the menu, there was no option to PRINT. What?!

Memo to restaurants: PEOPLE WANT TO PRINT YOUR MENUS! It's awfully cute and visually-appealing to put your menu in a scrolling Flash area, but I CAN'T PRINT THIS!

Nor can I copy and paste this in an email to my sushi-loving friends.

Nor can I post this on my food blog.

Nor can I tweet about this on Twitter.

Really, RA, you are shooting yourself in the foot. It's all very pretty and cute, but inevitably UNUSABLE.

I really hope your sushi is better than your website.

Canine Assault and Battery

Once you have kids in your home, pets take backseat. It's unfortunate, but it just happens. But I had an experience yesterday that brought our beloved dog Murphy firmly back to the front seat.

We were taking our evening walk, and were almost back home, when we saw that two neighborhood dogs had gotten out (again) and were running free. They ran up to us to say "Hi". The Rottweiler came up to nicely and I remember thinking, "I'll just grab his collar and walk him back home."

Then looked over and saw my dog on the ground with the other dog's jaws wrapped around the scruff of her neck, shaking her back and forth. Murphy started yelping. My Mama Bear instinct kicked in and I dropped to my knees and started trying to pry them apart. I remember thinking, "Okay, this is exactly what you are NOT supposed to do when two dogs are fighting," especially because I was literally grabbing this dog's mouth and trying to pry it off Murphy!*

But Murph was in trouble and this lab was unrelenting. I popped the lab on the snout a few times. I grabbed his collar and tried to pull him off Murphy. His collar came over his head and in the process, made him release his hold. Then he decided he was done, because he popped up and ran away. Murphy got up slowly and gingerly walked down the sidewalk, giving a few yelps as she walked. I didn't want to run her home, for fear she was really hurt and running would make it worse, so I tried to calmly walk down the street.

I had this neighbor dog's collar still in my hand and didn't want it there, so we walked towards our neighbor's house. At that point, I realized then that my hand was bleeding. Somewhere in the middle of the tussle, I had gotten bitten. Wonderful. My neighbor was out in front of his house and I bluntly told him that one of his dogs had attacked my dog and bitten me. He reacted like it had happened before but was apologetic.

I brought Murphy in and checked her up and down. She had a lot of dog spit on her left shoulder, but no blood that I could see. I called the vet at and a kind staffer told me to keep an eye on her for strange behavior, lethargy or vomiting, but unless we saw that, just pamper her.

Later that evening, I decided to go wipe her face and mouth down, because it had gotten dirty during the tussle. I hadn't done this immediately because she was very freaked out and didn't want to be touched. Um yeah, I was too. I used my hands to put some pressure on her shoulders and neck to see if she was sore. Then I saw it....a red blossom of blood on her neck, closer to her chest than where I had seen the dog chomped down on her. Damn! She had gotten bitten. I investigated further and actually found a puncture hole. I grabbed my hubbie and we simultaneously soothed, disinfected and antibiotic'ed the wound. We had to cut quite a bit of fur away to see what we were doing.

I think she got about four biscuits during the course of the night. We all felt sorry for her and for dogs, food = comfort. She took them willingly, which (per the vet staffer) was a good sign.

I'm leaning towards taking her the vet today, just to get some reassurance that she doesn't need a stitch or two.

It's unfortunate that it takes a traumatic event like this for us to re-focus our attention on our family pet of 10+ years. If you have a family pet, give them a special hug and some attention today, and be glad that they had a boring day.

* Later that night, my husband reminded me what you are supposed to do: Get behind one of the dogs and pull them away by the tail. This was the last thing that would have come to my mind.

UPDATE 7/12/09: We ended up taking Murph to the Emergency Clinic on Saturday. Not because we thought she had an emergency, but because our vet and the two other vets close by were booked solid! $200 later, Murph has a shaved neck (very odd-looking on a husky), a disinfected bite wound, and 3 prescriptions (antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and pain killers). She has to have food with each of her prescriptions, so she is very happy about having all the snacks. And we are sure that she's okay, and that's well worth the cost.

Goofy Visits the Cable Store

So I call up my buddies at Time Warner Cable to figure out how much blood I will need to shed in order for my new HDTV to actually get an HD signal. Surprise of surprises...it's FREE! I didn't think anything from the cable company was free! Not even their silly version of the TV Guide is free ($2.75 a month...ouch!)

All I need to do is disconnect my cable converter box, take it into the Time Warner store and exchange it for an HDTV converter box.

So I did. And this is what happened...

As I walk in the door, I notice a large gathering of customers, each clutching a different species of cable box in their hot little hands. I also notice a very-large-print sign on the door declaring that they are out of HD converter boxes and they won't have more until next week.

I ignore the sign. I take a number. I wait. I realize how heavy a cable converter box is.

Finally, my number is called.

Me: Hi! (smile and pause) I'm HOPING that you all have an HD converter box for me. (smile again, sweetly)

Time Warner Cable Girl: Um...that IS an HD converter box you have there. (points to the metal box in my hands)

Me: Um...NO! It's not.

TWCG: Yep. It is.

Me: No, it's not!! (what are you...stupid?) We've had this box for a year and a half! (No, I'm not sure what my logic was here, either)

TWCG: See the HDTV logo on the front. (points) You've already got one! (now she smiles sweetly)

Me: (stammering now) Well...why aren't we getting HDTV then!?!? (Huh? HUH??)

Me (answering my own question): Wait...Oh...yeah...we didn't get an HDMI cable yet...that's probably why. (starting to eat a nice-sized portion of crow now)

TWCG: Yes, you will need an HDMI cable. Just plug that in and....blah, blah, blah......

Me: (nodding, not listening to instructions because I'm feeling stupid now that I unplugged my HDTV box to go exchange it for another HDTV box...duh)

TWCG: Well, that was easy! Have a good day!

As I turn to leave, I notice that other folks in the cable waiting room are eyeing my HDTV box hungrily and realize that I have something that they cannot get until next week. I hug my HDTV box (!!) tightly, run to my car and speed off.

Ready for Christmas?

Christmas trees decorated and lit...

Presents wrapped and under tree...

Santa Treasure Hunt gifts hidden and clues scattered throughout house...

Gobs of cookies baked (ginger snaps, spritz, nut butter balls and good ole chocolate chips)...

Stereo loaded with a wide mix of Christmas tunes...

Fridge packed with groceries procured from a noon-hour-fight-the-hungry-crowds grocery store trip...

Chinese menu at the ready (for dinner, of course)...

Bottle of Chardonnay chilling in the fridge...

Christmas may now begin...

Lil Goofy's Literature Hour

Lil Goofy reads some selected passages from his favorite novel "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?"


(can you tell we read him this book EVERY night?)

Mmmmm....Banana Cake

This weekend was filled with sugar. Filled! I had some bananas getting that lovely brown color that usually means I will be making Average Jane's Banana Bread soon, but instead I discovered a Banana Cake recipe. My sugar tooth was calling, so I tried it. Wowee! It's fabulous. And fairly easy, for a cake. Okay, you cheat and use a cake mix, but I'm not holding that against this delicious cake. Also, I'm a big cream cheese icing fan. I believe you could put cream cheese icing on a shoe and it would taste great. But it's much better on this great cake!



Banana Sour Cream Cake

1 pkg. (2-layer size) yellow cake mix
3 eggs
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3)
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup oil
1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 pkg. (16 oz.) powered sugar (about 4 cups)
1 cup walnut pieces, finely chopped


Heat oven to 350 degrees. Beat cake mix, eggs, bananas, sour cream and oil with mixer on low until moistened. Beat on medium 2 minutes. Pour into greased and floured 13x9 pan. Bake for 35 minutes or until toothpick in cake centered comes out clean. Cool cake completely in pan.


Beat cream cheese and butter with mixer on medium until blended. Gradually add sugar, beating well after each addition.


Remove cake from pan. Carefully cut cake crosswise in half using serrated knife.


Place 1 cake half, top-side down, on plate; spread top with frosting. Top with remaining cake half, top-side up. Frost top and sides.


Press nuts onto sides. Sprinkle a few on top if you're feeling sassy. Refrigerate leftovers.


Oh yeah...After making this on Friday, Goofy Junior and I went to a Cinnamon Roll class on Sunday and brought home two pans of cinnamon rolls.

We had to take turns peeling each other off the ceiling. Yowza!

Goofy Goes to "Fork & Screen"

I was invited to a 'sneak peek' of AMC Theatres' new in-theatre dining concept, Fork & Screen, last night, and it is SPECTACULAR.

I'm also giving away coupons for free admission and more!

Read all about it here:
KC Word of Mouth

Brotherly Love

Awwwww...it warms my heart to see both of my boyz together - happily sharing the computer.

NOT!

The Great Escape

Lil Goofy shows us how he gets out of his room after naptime.

Notice the "Aw, shucks" attitude after the escape.




NOTE: No toddlers were harmed during the filming of this video.

New Presidential Candidate!

Check this out. She will certainly get my vote!

http://www.tsgnet.com/pres.php?id=357563&altf=Hppgz&altl=Hjsm

Lil G is a Boogie Machine

Not only does he dance in the car....

he also dances on the coffee table*...



but he's not so crazy about Pink...



*seriously, if a song comes on that he thinks is "danceable", he climbs up onto the coffee table and starts dancing. Yes, we have our own little Coyote Ugly dancer in training. I think I saw a tip jar there yesterday!

Woobie!

So Lil G needed a "woobie"...otherwise known as a "lovie" or an "attachment object". Right about the time our pediatrician mentioned it, he latched onto one.

A small white stuffed dog. (Yes, that's Baby Tad mocking the stuffed dog!)

Great, right?

Er...not so fast there, Dr. Spock.

Problem was...this was Goofy Junior's little white stuffed dog. And not just ANY little white stuffed dogs..this was Mischa. The little white stuffed dog that we gave him right before we traveled to Russia for the first of three trips. The dog that I told him to hug when he missed us. The dog that I told him we could TELL when he hugged and would send him hugs back...yes, all the way across the world. Yes, I have a pretty wild imagination.

So when Lil G latched onto Mischa, Goofy Junior was pretty horrified. He tried to switch Mischa with the Big White Chicken (sitting in Baby Tad's lap in the pic above).

Lil G was not fooled. He wanted Mischa.

We tried to reason with Goofy Junior. He has 8,342 other stuffed creatures...couldn't he let Lil G "borrow" Mischa...just for a while?

Finally he relented. Whew!

What's ironic about this whole story is that of all the stuffed creatures we have, this one we got for FREE. From our bank, for crying out loud!

In the end, it all worked out well...and there was peace in the Goofy household. Aaaaaaaaaah.

Olympic Beach Volleyball Swimsuit too Small?

No!

I am sick of hearing complaints about the Olympic beach volleyball women's "tiny" swimsuits.

Anyone who has ever actually, oh I dunno, PLAYED beach volleyball understands the reason.

The details...
- Loose swimsuit = chaffing + jiggling of the sisters upstairs
- More-coverage swimsuit = hot (it's fricking hard to MOVE in sand...hello?)
- One-piece swimsuit = restricted movement

In short, anything other than a skin-tight, small, two-piece suit will result in a distraction to the athlete. I'm sure some athletes would play naked if there wasn't a risk of sand in their girlie-bits. Been there. Owie!

Olympics!

I really like the Olympics. They are so inspirational. The fact that someone has a dream and is so completely FOCUSED to spend so much time training for that dream just gets me.

I never cry at movies (nor a lot in real life), but when Michael Phelps took the podium to get his gold medal, I had a tear in my eye. He's 23 and this is his THIRD Olympics - he's been swimming since he was 11. His mom got him into swimming to "burn off his extra energy".

It's just so cool.

Dara Torres is racing right now. She is one year younger than me (she's 41) - the oldest swimmer to compete in the Olympics, ever. Have you seen her? Goodness...she's got the body of a 25 year old! It's all about focus and training. Oh, and she has a two-year-old little girl, did I mention that? She FINDS the time for her dreams. How cool is that?!?!

US just took silver, with Torres swimming the last leg - possibly breaking a record with her leg of the race.

What an inspiration!