Category: Fun

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So, I hear there’s a big football game in town…

Yes, I know about the Superbowl, of course. It’s been quite the piece of news around here lately because it’s in Detroit’s own Ford Field. But I don’t feel a whole lot of involvement. Here’s why:

  • I personally don’t care much for pro football (I like the college game, to an extent). Mind you, I have nothing against professional football– if it’s on with family and/or friends, I’ll watch it– but I don’t really make it a point to watch football. I don’t really root for any teams, perhaps a result of growing up in pro-free Iowa, I don’t follow the mirad of details of the game, and I don’t really care who wins this weekend. Since the Steelers have the same colors as the Iowa Hawkeyes, more or less, I’ll go with them.
  • Annette cares even less about pro football than I do. I think that if you quizzed her on the basic rules of the game (how many “downs” are there? and how many yards does the offensive team have to gain to get a so-called “first down?”), I’m pretty sure she’d answer “I don’t know” and/or “why the hell should I care about that?!” many times. Therefore…
  • … I’m pretty sure that there will be no Superbowl activities around here. We haven’t been invited to any Superbowl festivites and I don’t expect to be at this stage. Actually, Annette is going out to dinner with something for work that night, so it will probably be just me and the boy around the house here. Will and I will probably watch the game some (I suspect Will will get bored with it though, to be honest), make some pizza, maybe play some games, etc. It’s probably just as well to be left out. Years and years ago, back when we lived in Oregon, Annette and I were invited to a Superbowl party and we were by far the worst guests. “When is a new commercial coming on?!” we whined.
  • And besides, the important game is tomorrow afternoon when Iowa and Michigan play in basketball. Go Hawks!
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What is important in America (as told by the narrative of magazines at a Wal-Mart)

I found myself in Wal-Mart this afternoon for reasons I won’t even begin to explain. I’m hopeful that no one saw me get out of my car that has bumper-sticker on it which says “Wal-Mart: Source for all of your cheap plastic crap.” Anyway, when Will and I got up to the counter, I looked over the magazine rack and I was struck enough by this to take a picture with my phone:

Jenn and Angolie

Maybe I’m just a little punchy or something, but there’s something rather striking, funny, and disturbing to me that the “news” stand at America’s leading retailer tells this story, as far as I can tell:

  • Angelina’s all-important baby is apparently a boy.
  • Right after she gives birth, I’ll bet she gets right on the tummy flattening routine.
  • Jennifer, despite her forlorn look, is coping, undoubtably because her tell-all book will be on sale soon.
  • Brad, though absent, is apparently a given.
  • Besides A & J and a flat stomach, even more sex tips and a nice garden/patio set-up are worthy desires.
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Holi-daze

When Annette, who generally mocks me for keeping a blog, says to me “jeez, when are you going to update your unofficial blog?” I guess it is time for me to post.

Sorry for the delay, but it’s been a busy and yet fun time around here, holidays-wise lately. Just to provide a few “need to know” info-bits about how we’ve been celebrating in the Krause-Wannamaker household:

  • We set up the tree mentioned in the previous post, sang a few songs, moved on with the rest of our lives.
  • Annette spent probably too much time wrestling with the lights on the tree (which didn’t work at first, somewhat to my amusement).
  • We went to see a production of Pinocchio at EMU last weekend. I was trying to find something on the web that linked to it, but with little luck. This doesn’t surprise me because it seems like a kind of badly promoted production. But it was a very entertaining show, told in the “panto” tradition (at least as it is practiced in the UK). It’s coming up this coming weekend, and I’d highly recommend it if you have a chance to see it.
  • We went to the Michigan Theater and saw It’s a Wonderful Life on the big screen. Lots of fun, and interesting for several different reasons. First off, it’s nice to see It’s a Wonderful Life “commercial free,” and Annette and I both were pretty sure that we saw things in the big screen version that we haven’t seen since the lat time we bothered to rent the movie. Second, there’s something to be said for the “big screen” aspect of it all. I could go on and on about this, but it’s just cool to see movies that were made to be watched in a movie theater in a movie theater.
  • I made my Grandma Krause’s Pepper Nuts. But that’s a different post….
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“Waiters Nauseated by Food”

I stumbled across this via a cool site for all kinds of goofy web pages called web zen, which has a weekly theme for different links. This (last?) week’s theme was food, and among the links was this one, “Waiters Nauseated by Food.” I have no idea where this bit is from, but after a little Internet Movie Database research, I found out that both Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert were on a sketch comedy show hosted by Dana Carvey back in the mid-90s.

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Things I’m Thankful For

  • I’m thankful that I’m not travelling anywhere this Thanksgiving season. Annette’s parents were in town last weekend and this is the year that Christmas is at the Krause’s, so we are staying in town. I’m especially thankful to not be travelling because the weather last night in particular was really crappy, blowing snow and ice and such. Ugly.

    • Thanksgiving 2005 weather

  • I’m thankful that Annette’s parents left before the weather turned really ugly. It was “cold” enough for them last week when it was in the 40’s.
  • I’m thankful that the Food Whole was open this morning, which allowed me to do some of the miscellaneous shopping we should have done earlier in the week.
  • Oh yeah– I’m thankful that, once again, I was not allowed to deep-fry a turkey because it turns out to be really freakin’ dangerous (video via boing-boing).

Happy T-day, everyone.

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Zoo visit and Logan’s Run




Where is everyone?

Originally uploaded by steven_d_krause.

This past weekend, Annette’s parents were in town in lieu of coming up here on Thanksgiving. We had a nice time, though one of the challenges of entertaining the parents/in-laws is finding something new for them to do after they have been here a zillion times.

Anyway, among other things, we went to the Toledo Zoo on Saturday. We arrived at just shy of 4 pm, which was a kind of odd time for this time of year. The zoo closes at 4 pm, and technically, folks have an hour to clear out. However, the zoo re-opens at 5 pm from this past weekend through Christmas for the light display, which is certainly worth the trip by itself. But Will wanted to actually see some animals at the zoo (go figure), and we didn’t want to be out too late.

Our timing turned out to be excellent. First off, we saw some cool animal activites– they were feeding the seals when we arrived, and we also so the wolves quite a bit more active and visible than they usually are. Second, we had the place almost completely to ourselves, at least until folks started showing up for the lights, which is a pretty big deal at the Toldeo Zoo every year. And it’s worth the trip, actually. It’s kind of fun walking around a dark and chilly zoo, looking at lights of animals instead of actual animals.

While we were walking around, I saw a sign that said “carousel.” You know how sometimes you have those weird juxtapositions in your head about things? There we were, walking around these monumental-like zoo buildings, more or less alone, and I thought wow, kinda like Logan’s Run. Remember that flick? I remember that movie really creeping me out, as it probably should have since it was in the theaters about 30 years ago. Anyway, remember the scenes toward the end where they are wondering around the ruins of Washington, D.C.? That’s what it was like.

Something to think about on your next trip to the zoo….