I am dead DED tired right now, but while on the first night of visiting the in-laws, I came across the Conan O’Brian inspired web site hornymanatee.com, which includes this work of fan art. Since we’re actually in Florida right now, this seemed like a perfectly appropriate way to begin posting about our trip. I am sure more will soon follow. In the mean-time, enjoy the hornymanatee site and read this boing-boing article about how the site came to be.
I hate kids who are more coordinated than me…
Christmas Greetings/Sexually Explicit Cards/Christmas Letters/ Pepper Nuts
I was talking with my friend Mary T. today and she mentioned that I must be pretty busy with that pesky teaching/job thing because I haven’t been posting here much lately. You’re darn tootin’ I’ve been busy! You can read about some of it at the official blog and also at EMUtalk.org, which is the community blog that I started this year because of the faculty strike. But the short version is this has probably been one of the busiest semesters in my academic life, simultaneously and at different times horrible and wonderful.
Actually, the whole year– official and unofficial– has been like that for us around here.
Anyway, to get to some things in the order they appear in the subject line here:
- Sure, have a Merry Christmas; or a Happy Holiday. Or a Happy Festivus. Whatever. Just don’t war against Christmas, okay?
- About the, um, “suggestive” Christmas greeting: I got this card in a store in Ann Arbor the other day; it probably requires at least a line or two of explanation for non-locals. Among many other fine things, Ypsilanti is home to the Ypsilanti Water Tower, which has been voted as the most phallic building in the world. So really, this photo was just inevitable. I like the text on the back of this postcard, all of which is true to local legend: “The Ypsilanti Water, also known as the Ypsi Dick, was erected in 1889. It is located next to Eastern Michigan University. Legend says the Ypsi Dick will fall when a virgin graduates from the school.”
- I thought about writing a blog version of one of those Christmas letters that are so popular this time of year– you know, the notes that you get from people you barely know once a year that report on things that happen in these peoples’ lives. I enjoy the ones I get from my relatives and one of my friends, Bruce, writes a pretty entertaining one. But other than that….Besides, why write one of those letters when I can just point to the archives? Ah, what a year it’s been. Beer, eating out (this restaurant review gets hit a fair amount), Coldplay, Not Coldplay, Florida, the big 4-0 birthday week, Omaha, stupid dog, Holland, Monkey Chow, Annette’s messed up knee, A new mayor in Ypsi, Chicago, near-death golf experiences, Florence and Mittenwald (of course, that trip!), Will’s birthday, Barbie Poo, Dan Bern, dead TVs, Kathi Griffin, Darth Vader Jr., White and Nerdy, Thanksgiving in Iowa, and the best gallon of milk ever. That about sums up my year.
Finally, I just wanted to mention that I cooked up a batch of Grandma Krause’s famous “pepper nuts,” an annual Christmas cookie of sorts for the Krauses. I’ve written about this a couple of times in the recent past; here’s the recipe I followed this time. But because I have described these in the past described them as looking like dog food and/or little nut-like pellets, I thought I’d include a picture:
They are tasty though….
The best damn gallon of milk ever
I came across this via my friend Chris, who sent it around in an email. I have no idea how he got it. In any event, apparently it’s possible to buy Tuscan Milk from the gourmet food section of amazon.com. Now, while we’re kind of picky about our milk around here (I avoid milk products with bovine growth hormone), It’s never even occurred to me to mail-order milk.
It seems like a lot of people commenting on amazon.com about Tuscan Milk feel pretty much the same way, and, as a result, there are many over-the-top funny reviews here on this amazon.com page for the milk. I agree with my friend Chris; the second one is especially funny.
After doing a Google search on this, I realize that this Tuscan Milk thing has sort of spun out of control. See, for example:
Ah, that crazy internets….
Thanksgiving blogging, part 2: the pictures
I already posted about the first part of this year’s Thanksgiving gala; here are some pictures and more about the second part:
- Friday for lunch was with Troy and Lisa at Rudy’s Tacos in Waterloo, which was great because it was a groovy place in a sort of weird industrial part of town that I had never heard of before.
- After that, we made a run to Cedar Falls for a stop at Soho Sushi and Deli. This was mainly Troy’s idea, but we were all interested in seeing what this combo looked like. Well, it was quite the busy place, but it looked to us that everyone there was taking advantage of the “deli” part of things, and the sushi bar looked pretty lame. After that walk-through, we went across the street to Cup of Joe coffee.
- Because this is a year in which the Krause kids spend Christmas with the in-laws, we did some gift exchange and present opening on the Friday after T-Day. The theme for gifts for the kids was books, which was good. For the adults, we had a “white elephant” style gift exchange, something I’m too lazy to explain but which only involved good gifts (not some sort of “re-gifting” and/or junk around the house). I was a skeptic, but it turned out to be kind of fun.
That was about it. Now it’s just the mad dash to Christmas and beyond.
McDavid
I’ve been working on putting together a movie on our vacation to Italy and Germany lately, which has included downloading some pictures from the internet of “David” (I couldn’t take any pictures of my own when we went to see it). Anyway, perhaps that’s why I find this so funny. Or maybe it just is kinda funny. I found this via boing-boing, which was mentioning this PhotoShop contest for combining famous art pieces with advertisements.
Thanksgiving blogging, part 1
Thanksgiving is actually one of my favorite holidays, largely because it revolves around one of my favorite activities, which is eating. Oh yeah– there’s some family stuff, too. Anyway, in no particular order, the T-Day holiday so far:
- This year, we went to Iowa to see my side of the family. At Christmas, we’ll make the trek down to Florida. We drive to Iowa, but after about 10 hours in the car, caught in traffic etc., we started to wonder how much would it cost to fly.
- We stopped on the way at Panera, in part because we were thinking that it was a healthy option. Well, according to Dottie’s Weight Watcher page, not so much. It’s still tasty, though.
- Yesterday involved the running of a variety of errands– car washing, picking up pies, buying a University of Northern Iowa sweatshirt. Two things that eternally fascinate me about visiting my hometown: first, Cedar Falls strikes me as so much more “liveable” of a place than it was when I was a kid, mainly because so many more things are so easily available here than it used to be. For example, good coffee, good books, the New York Times, decent restaurants, good shopping options, organic vegetables, good cable, etc. Call it progress; call it the state of advanced capitalism.
Second, I inevitably get lost when I come back to my hometown because a few years after I moved away (I actually haven’t lived here full-time since I was about 19, and I am pretty sure that I passed the point where I have lived more outside of Iowa than in Iowa a few years ago), they did a major road reconstruction project, totally changing the traffic patterns and right way to go. It took me more than an hour to pick up the pies.
- Lots of play with the kids on the playground, lots of play in the backyard, card playing, eating and drinking, etc., etc. I was going to upload some pictures, but I left the cable for that at home, so it will have to wait until we get back.
- Other than that, pretty boring stuff. Good dinner, but no green bean casserole, which is, of course, wrong. My father grilled the turkey, and at no point did anyone think about deep-fat frying it. The neighbors across the street did, but nothing bad happened.
- Other than that, a lot of the last couple of days has involved me catching up on email and determining the schedule for my online teaching in the winter term. Really exciting stuff.
But I will leave you with this amusing item about bunnies cooking turkeys:
I want one of these…
… but I don’t think my comparatively modest golf fund will allow for it. I speak of the Segway x2 Golf. From that web site:
The Segway® Personal Transporter (PT) x2 Golf is fun, easy to maneuver, and much smaller than a standard golf car. Special low-pressure tires barely disturb the turf and provide a smooth ride over a variety of terrain. Based upon the Segway x2, it features new LeanSteer technology, a wireless InfoKey controller, long-lasting Saphion® lithium-ion batteries….
Note to self: dispose of pumpkins before it’s too late
Halloweening 2006
I was thinking this morning, when I was taking some of these pictures of Will as Darth, what a series of costumes that he has gone through over the years. It seems like just yesterday when Will was dressed as Blue and I had to go through all sorts of rig-a-ma-roll to get a shirt to look like Steve. A couple of years ago, Will was a knight. A few years before that, I think, he was a gladiator.
And this year, Darth.
I guess I like to see that as a sign of progress and maturity. But maybe that’s just me.
Anyway, Halloween also included a “Halloween parade” and various parties at Will’s school that Annette attended. My favorite picture from that is this one with Will (in the mask) giving a friend, also dressed as Darth Vader, the bunny ears. Just the sort of thing that any evil villain should do.
Halloween festivities actually began around here a couple of weeks ago during Will’s and my annual adventure to the pumpkin patch and our carving session last night. I was pretty pleased with the results, and, as this picture shows, we only had some modest squirrel damage, unlike some previous years:
Of course, the real point of Halloween– and this is why it is fundamentally a children’s holiday– is the candy and the trick or treating. I’ve written in previous years about my humbug-ness about some of the trick and/or treating that happens around here, and I won’t relive that now. All I will say for the time-being is that mild weather brought what I have to think is a record number of T&T commuters. We were out of candy by 7:00pm.
Will and his friend Gage certainly made a good haul. After they got done, they came back and began the process of sorting and then trading candy:
This activity had the chance of turning into an all-night affair, so Annette and Gage’s mother broke it up pretty quick.
And then it was time for Darth to go off to bed, snuggling with his plastic light saber and his doggie.