Hulu.com

Just testing a new video service that I got access to through work... Hmmm... too bad you can do full screen on their main site just not on the embed page. Thanks for putting up with my testing :)

30 Rock:



Firefly Episode 1:

Christmas with Abraham

All Fun and Games

The last game day was a success for two reasons...Quelf and Rockband...ok, three...our friends...

Pam hiding in her make-shift tent...

Brian, having to keep his arm around the player to his left, keeps an eye on Sava...



Katherine decyfering Scott's assisted drawing...

Everyone else trying to decyfer Scott's assisted drawing...

A tree?

I kind of like the tree this way.

Thanksgiving with Abraham

NEW BABY!!!!! ...soon

At 16 days overdue Angela's water broke at 2 AM this morning. We shall be new a Uncle and Aunt soon!! We'll keep you posted.

2008 Presidential Candidate Calculator

With so many candidates running for president and the media's treatment like the race has been on for a year now I (Melissa) have been left wondering who I really agree with. Attributed to my hippie nature I generally vote Democrat. However, I really wasn't sure who fit my views since the race has been more about who can trash the other candidate than what their vision for America is. So when Aunt Judie sent me the link below I thought this should be interesting.

http://www.vajoe.com/candidate_calculator.html


Appearantly, I really am a Democrat when you look at the results. The list is split in half. The top half of the matches are all Democrat and the bottom are all Republican. However, I was quite surprised that Dennis Kucinich was my closest match. Who the heck is he?! I mean I know the name, but know nothing about him...until now. I guess we agree 77.55% of the time. That is pretty neat. Also who is Mike Gravel? No, really I've never heard of him.

I guess I also have to hope that Fred Thompson doesn't get into office or I will only be happy with one quarter of what he does.




My full results:

Your Top Match
Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich (D) 77.55% match You are number 1,380,341 to use the Candidate Calculator.

Your Other Top Matches

Former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel (D) - 76.53%
Delaware Senator Joseph Biden (D) - 69.39%
Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd (D) - 69.39%

Middle of the Pack

New York Senator Hillary Clinton (D) - 61.22%
Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards (D) - 61.22%
Illinois Senator Barack Obama (D) - 58.16%
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (D) - 57.14%
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) - 52.04%
Arizona Senator John McCain (R) - 51.02%
Texas Representative Ron Paul (R) - 51.02%
Businessman John Cox (R) - 43.88%
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee (R) - 39.80%
Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney (R) - 29.59%

Bottom of the Barrel

Kansas Senator Sam Brownback (R) - 26.53%
Colorado Representative Tom Tancredo (R) - 26.53%
California Representative Duncan Hunter (R) - 24.49%
Former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson (R) - 22.45%









Ben here, here's my results... I don't care I'm still voting Obama :)

Your Top Match
Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich (D) 88.89% match You are number 1,492,379 to use the Candidate Calculator.

bookmark this page:
::

Your Other Top Matches

Former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel (D) - 79.86%
New York Senator Hillary Clinton (D) - 59.72%
Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards (D) - 56.94%

Middle of the Pack

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (D) - 56.94%
Illinois Senator Barack Obama (D) - 55.56%
Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd (D) - 54.17%
Delaware Senator Joseph Biden (D) - 51.39%
Texas Representative Ron Paul (R) - 45.83%
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) - 36.11%
Arizona Senator John McCain (R) - 33.33%
Businessman John Cox (R) - 29.17%
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee (R) - 28.47%
Colorado Representative Tom Tancredo (R) - 22.92%

Bottom of the Barrel

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney (R) - 14.58%
Kansas Senator Sam Brownback (R) - 12.50%
California Representative Duncan Hunter (R) - 11.11%
Former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson (R) - 11.11%

Halloween Hangman

The perfect web game to avoid doing homework with...

http://dedge. com/flash/ hangman/hangman. swf?a=300

Pictures from Michigan

A Blessing or A Curse?

For Ben's birthday I bought him photography classes. He was very excited and now I don't know what his face looks like without a camera stuck in it. The photo quality in our library has certainly increased tremendously. However, I can't seem to take him anywhere without that camera. A few of my favorites are below.

The Vestivities

Our dear friend Scott turned 30 about a week ago and, again, Ben did a great job taking pictures.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/langbenj/sets/72157602085980527/

Angela and Jonathan's Baby Shower

A few weeks ago Aunt Marge, Aunt Kathie, Aunt Grace, Grandma Trudi and I hosted a baby shower for Angela. Ben did a great job taking pictures.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/langbenj/sets/72157602075148512/

Cosmic Train Wreck! Neat!

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/08/070822-dark-matter.html

Some birthday party photos

We survived the thunderstorm

Well both Ben, the kitties, and I are fine after Thursday nights severe weather. A few blocks away the strong winds broke a grocery store's windows and all over town there was high standing water all day Friday. Some nearby towns still didn't have working stop lights the next day. Driving around on Friday I could see the reminants of 1' and 2' diameter trees lieing on the side of the road or

New TV

Been watching some of the new shows that will be premiering this fall over the last few weeks. Figured I'd put my thoughts up on the site on some of the better ones. Watching pilots can be an interesting thing, if you really love a show it's going to be months until the next episode which can be painful to put it lightly. Last season I watched the pilot of traveler which completely blew me away. Then they didn't show the next episode until May. That was a hard one. (of course I haven't watched any of the other episodes of it that I've got on the DVR)

After last season I thought that my TV watching would go down dramatically seeing as a lot of shows that I loved finished. No more Gilmore Girls, no more Studio 60 ect... well it looks like there's going to be some replacements in my schedule. I keep trying to get out but they keep pulling me back in. :)

Pushing Daisies

My Fish are Just Lazy

Man my fish just swim around in circles and eat pellets.

Chore Wars

Do you ever get into those "discussions" with your family members about who has done what around the house and who feels they have been working overtime on the chores while the other has just put off taking out the garbage for too long? Well now you can settle these disputes with Chore Wars. It's a nice little role playing game where you are rewarded points and other things for completing household tasks or any tasks you choose to create. Ben and I have joined the Clang clan and began checking off our completed chores for the last week. I am Ms. Sparkles and he is Elkton. Since I am busy with homework today I think Ben will far surpass my current Level 2 Cleric with 320 experience points (and a DSW certificate treasure).

http://www.chorewars.com/index.php

The children sensed his weakness once Kirsten mummified him...

Bug Cakelets for Johnny and Kirsten's Birthday

Johnny & Kirsten's Birthday Party

Johnny and Mitch rocking out on Guitar Hero.

Papa seems to be enjoying himself.

Lighting candles on each bug cakelet.

So did they plan their hair to match?

Grandma and Kirsten

iPhone

06/29/2007 - Well I'm in line for the iPhone. About 70 people in front of me and about 20 behind. We've been told that we shouldn't have a problem getting one so that's great. It's actually a nice day to wait out. Got a nice chair and wireless. Unfortunatly only about a 10% battery charge.

So you wanna talk to a live person ay?

Have you ever sat on hold or tried to navigate a complicated phone system when all you want to do is get a person. I've been through some systems that are so complicated and the option I need isn't there that I get kicked out. Well here is a website that lists the customer service number, offers a cheat code to get a live person, and gives you the opportunity to grade the company on their service.

http://gethuman.com/

Let us know if you try it.

Interesting article on how illegal immigration came to be...

http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/web/20070507-chinese-exclusion-act-california-chester-a-arthur-immigration-san-francisco-earthquake-of-1906-paper-sons.shtml

I bet I know this kid's father, friend, or relative...

While driving home tonight I was listening to NPR. Not an unusual situation. On "The World" they featured a kid from Novosibirsk, Russia that creates 80's-ish pop electronica songs. Also not an unusual topic for NPR. The crazy part is that a LARGE majority of our Russians at work are physicists or summer kids (kids of the physicists at work) from Novosibirsk. This kid's father is a physicists at one of the local universities in Novosibirsk. I bet someone I know knows this kid personally or at least his father.

With that said, I'm a sucker for 80's electronica. Some of my favorite all time bands include Depeche Mode and New Order. This kid's music was an instant hit with me. Check out his MySpace page.

http://myspace.com/romanrevutsky

Next

Ok this one is a bit easier for me to write about. I went to see this movie just to kill some time before Spiderman 3. I really hadn't heard much about the film with the exception of seeing a relatively bad 33% on rotten tomatoes and one commercial. But it was playing and it was that or sitting in Starbucks.

I'm actually really glad that I decided on this over tasty drinks. The movie is about a man who can see two minutes into his own future. Once he looks ahead he can decide to change it. Where it gets tricky is that he can then wait a split second and look ahead again and see if that change was a wise move and change it again. He can keep doing it until he gets what he's trying to do right. The movie revolves around a girl (Jessica Biehl) who he sees months before he actually meets her. He proceeds to wait in the same dinner every day at the same time that was on his watch until he meets her. She's both a love interest and a catalyst for the plot (and she's not hard on the eyes :). There also is an FBI agent played by Julianne Moore who is trying to track him down because terrorists have smuggled a nuke into Los Angeles and they need to track it down before it goes off. Because of the FBI's interest in him the terrorists want to kill him just in case he can do what they think he can. He doesn't want to be found by either because if he helps the FBI he'll be a slave to them forever. If the terrorists find him...well he'd be dead and that's not good.

The real interesting aspect of the movie is where he uses his powers to plan out how to get out of situations he gets into. He can see where bullets are coming from so he can dodge them. He can search an entire building in a blink by viewing each potential outcome of walking down each hallway. It's really a nice trick and I would love to see it expanded on.

Unfortunately there are some weaknesses in the script most particularly in the ending. It's certainly not a bad ending but it's kind of a cliffhanger for a sequel which probably won't happen (The movie has only made 10 million so far). The critics really didn't like it, of course they didn't like his last movie National Treasure either and I really liked that one. I don't know I'd recommend it for viewing in the theater but it's definitely one to see on DVD.

3 stars (out of 5)

Spiderman 3

This was an odd one for me. I am a registered geek who loves all of the things that make up this movie however I found myself underwhelmed by it. It seemed that the film tried to hard to be everything to everyone. Trying to shoehorn in 3 villains that could easily each carry a movie can really backfire. Look at how Batman and Robin worked out. And these are three of the more interesting Spiderman villains. From what they had set up in the first two films they were obligated to do the Goblin Jr. storyline. It was expected. And sandman is a natural choice for a movie watching public that loves their special effects. Plus it doesn't hurt that he had a decent story. And the alien suit/venom storyline is one of the better arcs in the comic books. Although the way that it ended up Venom, one of Spiderman's most iconic foes, is almost a footnote to the story. However I really liked the narrative arc that they constructed to tie them all together. The characters have no real connection in the actual comics but here they have a very clear link between them. It was an artful piece of writing.

The black suit should have been one of the most impressive parts of the film. It should have made Spiderman stronger, faster and much more vicious. But the film series has already tried to portray him as incredibly strong and fast so the benefit of the suit really wasn't clear. Also a small nitpick but the suit should grow on and off of him not be a simple piece of clothing that can be tossed in a box. The way it was handled with Venom is much closer to the actual feel of the suit. Also he had to have known what the suit was since he took the sample to Doctor Conners. You'd think he wouldn't act so surprised later on. The suit's effect on his personality was quite amusing though. I liked how they combed his hair slightly differently and suddenly he was evil-emo Peter. Funny.

I think my biggest problem with the movie came from the Mary Jane/Peter storyline. It was incredibly goofy at times and included so many twists and turns that really didn't make allot of sense at times. Especially the entire break up storyline and the love triangle. It just didn't seem to work with the characters as they have been established. Peter being entranced by his fame really didn't work for me either. It seemed like a regression to the time before Uncle Ben died where his fame was all that mattered to him. It felt like a betrayal of the character. Every time that the movie would switch to their story it lost a bit more momentum.

It also included 3 musical numbers and dance productions. Not that these weren't entertaining (esp. the bar one) but they felt out of place. The movie had allot of scenes where you could tell that Sam Rami was stretching his old Evil Dead silliness genes. In another movie I would have been reveling in the silliness but in this one it made it feel uneven.

I also thought that the acting by Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst was a bit weak. There have been some murmurs that they are bored of the characters and want to move on to other rolls. I would almost welcome another actors take on the characters if they decide to continue (which they will). The supporting cast was really quite amazing. Bruce Campbell has an amazing scene and was one of the highlights of the film. Topher Grace continues to grow past his That 70s show past and into one of our better actors. And the entire Daily Bugle staff was great.

OK so after all the bad things I said about the movie I still really recommend seeing it. It was massively entertaining with really good action sequences and quite a few funny scenes. It just could have been so much more.

3 stars (out of five)

More Cap'n Crunch Than You Expected

From the May 2007 Saveur comes this great tidbit: the full name of Cap'n Crunch! His proper name is Captain Horatio Magellan Crunch. The Horatio makes him sound British, which makes sense since his outfit looks like an English Navy get up (or something Napoleon would have worn). And the Magellan gives him an air of exploration. The Crunch is straight out of Dickens. He may be Capt. H.M. Crunch aboard ship, but he'll always be Cap'n of breakfast to me.

http://www.megnut.com/2007/04/capn-crunchs-first-name-revealed

I-Dressup

Ok girls. I know we are all grown, but don't you miss dress up? I know I do and since I can't actually wear Gucci's Spring line 2007 I can at least play with it online.

I have added the link under "web games to waste time with".

Robot Dinosaurs!

Ok this is very cool. Love when things aren't just CGI.

Beef Goulash With Dumplings

I found this recipe over at Simply Recipes one of my favorite food blogs. We've eaten it many times and it's got us through many a cold day. I know it's an odd food to post on one of the first warm days of spring but I'm strange that way. I'm the type of person who craves ice cream in winter. Plus there's never a bad time for soup.

A few notes on the recipe. Don't worry about crushing the carraway seeds. It will make it taste a bit better but it's almost not worth the trouble. In addition if you can't find spicy paprika (I know I couldn't) just use regular paprika in it's place and add a pinch of a spicy pepper such as cayenne. If you don't like spicy foods just use regular paprika. And don't skimp on the dumplings. First of all it's fun to play with dough and second of all they taste amazing.

Beef Goulash With Dumplings

Goulash

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 cups onions, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp sugar
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbsp caraway seeds, toasted and ground
1 1/2 tablespoons sweet Hungarian paprika
1 teaspoon spicy Hungarian paprika
2 Tbsp minced fresh marjoram leaves
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves
1 bay leaf
3 Tbsp tomato paste
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
4 cups chicken stock
2 1/2 pounds chuck roast, cut into 2-inch cubes (remove excess fat)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Dumplings
2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
2 Tbsp melted butter

1 In a large covered sauté pan, heat the olive oil and sauté the onions and sugar until caramelized (they turn a golden brown). Add the garlic and caraway seed. Cook another minute.

2 Add the sweet and spicy paprika, marjoram, thyme and bay leaf. Sauté another minute, until fragrant.

3 Add the tomato paste. Deglaze with the vinegar and the stock and add the pieces of beef, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer. Cover and cook until very tender, about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.

4 To prepare the dumplings, sift together the cake flour, baking powder and salt. Combine with the milk and melted butter, mixing lightly. Drop batter by teaspoonfuls into the simmering stew. Cover and cook for 15 minutes. Once you have covered the pan, do not uncover while the dumplings are cooking! In order for them to be light and fluffy, they must steam. If you uncover the pan, the steam will escape and the dumplings will boil instead. After 15 minutes, test the dumplings with a toothpick. If the toothpick comes out clean, the dumplings are done.

Serves 4 to 6.

No Milk!!!

Ok, so what do you do when you want to eat peanut butter toast and there is no milk left in the house? You top off your lovely slice of peanut buttery toast with fat free Reddi-wip! Leaves your mouth free to move and talk without the use of milk. Amazing...and yummy. :)

The end is drawing near.

Yep, on Monday I return to work. Six weeks off is a long time to sit around the house. Some days I was content and busy with games, movies, or other computer related projects. Some days I was bored out of my skull and moping around. I have to thank Ben, my parents, Brandi, and Angie for taking time out to visit me and getting me out of the house. You realize how important these little outings and interactions can be when you aren't able to drive. I'm not sure I am looking forward to the bombardment waiting for me at the office. At least I can say that my World of Warcraft character, Medeaa, has leveled from 30 to 36 and her jewel crafting skills went from 180 to 265. Soon Medeaa will be capable of making jewelry suitable to help the level 60s in our guild to pay them back for all the help they have given me along the way.

Working on Vacation

Why is it I feel so strange about the fact that this site http://vocationvacations.com/ has so much appeal to me. I like the idea of working somewhere on vacation. The point of vacation is supposed to be getting away from work. I think it's the idea I could work in a kitchen (or the chocolate store in Chicago which I think we've been to... that has appeal) and see what it's really like without having to actually go through line cook hell for years. Plus who can pass up a chance to be a sword maker.

What is paraskavedekatriaphobia?

A clue? It is something the English, German, Polish, and Portuguese-speaking cultures around the globe have in common. It is also similar to something in Greece and Spain, but there it occurs on a Tuesday.

Do you know what it is?

(Click on the "Comments" link below this article to leave your answer.)

Ugh...Car Repairs

So my car has been shuttering off and on lately. If you have ever driven a manual transmission and taken your foot a little too much off the clutch and not given it enough gas you know what I mean. Yet, the little bug made it to Michigan and back for Easter without any complaints. That's over 800 miles!

Well yesterday I had had it with the car vibrating my brain and scheduled an appointment at the Volkswagen dealership for today. Of course, the car was not shuttering when I drove it into their service garage and had to swear it really does do it. At least the Check Engine light was still on to back me up.

The first call...$770...with a highly recommended fuel injector cleaning for an additional $150. Apparently, the spark plugs and coil are now in a single unit rather than separate like they used to be in older cars- a very expensive unit. My wires were arcing, my engine was misfiring, and I was clogging my engine with fuel. Who knew?

The second call..."oh, ma'am your extended warranty covers only the coil, but there is a $100 deductible". Now...$350 (plus the $150 cleaning).

Just another 110,000 miles to go until we reach the 200k goal! Let's see if we can't keep her running. :)

She's a poet?

Many of you may not know that I have been writing poetry since freshman year of high school. Admittedly, I mainly wrote when I was sad or angry. So I suppose, thankfully, I have not written anything in the last three years. My English teacher was the first to show interest in my poetry and encouraged me to write more. That got me started, but mainly I would only share my poems with my paternal grandmother, Grammy. She was my kindred soul since she also wrote poetry and was in general an artist. I would spend my angst years of high school in the wee hours of the night hiding under a blanket with a flashlight writing poetry in my room. Since as I said much of it was created when I was sad or angry it is pretty raw and most likely will not be shared on this blog.

I will share the most recent one written on December 11, 2003 when Ben and I had only been dating a little over 2 months. I was feeling miserable with this nasty cold and trying to sleep as best one can in that sniffly, stuffy, painful state. Faintly I heard this knocking and Ben's voice trying to wake me up. I stumbled to the door in a disheveled mess. My glazed eyes where met with Ben's big grin and a warm dish of spaghetti and meatballs. What could be better?

Hush

My waves roar and crash,
My winds ripe through the dark,
     Churning sea and air alike.
This storm rages,
     Though confined to my cerebral walls.
My body feels withered and ill.

Then a whisper drifts past.
     A wave tries to tumble me further,
          But your voice follows.

A hush comes over my soul,
     And the sea rocks itself to sleep…

          The sky brightens,

               and I am aglow.

I marvel at your power with a smile.

How does my beacon reside within you? My serenity.

-M.LynnC.

When it is snowing in Spring...