This amuses me

Little to say today, but this is amusing!



Oh, and for more giggles (and maybe a shutter) check out these commericals:
http://www.angelsoft.com/bathroommoments/clips.html

Oh, and TGIF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What does your birthday mean?

I too sleepy to work or type anything interesting, so you get this today -

For me (I agree with some, but definately not all!):

Your Birthdate: December 26

You lucked out the the skills to succeed in almost any arena. Put you in almost any business or classroom, and you'll rise to the top. You're driven and intense, but you also know when to kick back and cooperate. Your ability to adapt to almost any situation is part of what's going to make you a success. Your strength: Your attention to detail Your weakness: You can be a little too proud of your successes Your power color: Turquoise Your power symbol: Arrow pointing up Your power month: August

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

For Paul (I'm thinking he was born on the wrong day.... not so sure about this desciption!):

Your Birthdate: August 6

You tend to be a the rock in relationships - people depend on you. Thoughtful and caring, you often put others needs first. You aren't content to help those you know... you want to give to the world. An idealist, you strive for positive change and dream about how much better things could be. Your strength: Your intuition Your weakness: You put yourself last Your power color: Rose Your power symbol: Cloud Your power month: June

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Monday morning warning signs

You know you need a second cup of coffee when you reply to yourself in an email. Especially when you jump with joy at the impressive speed that you think you get a response only to find out it is your own. Ha!

The weekend was productive and even fun :) I need to drink some liquid gold (coffee) before I type any more. For all I know, I could be commenting on my own blog. It's possible, I'm just not that awake yet this morning.

2 Quick things

First, I just realized that I've been on blogger for 2 years. I started my first blog here just after the New Year in 2004. Wow, time really flies and I am impressed that I've kept it going for so long without too many long periods of silence. I think that was a resolution for me a few years back. Yay for keeping a New Year's resolution!

Second, you've got to enter the HGTV's Dream Home Giveaway! You can tour the $2+ million dollar home near Lake Lure, NC, here:


And then don't forget to enter here!

Skype is awesome !

http://www.skype.com

I bet you are thinking, "what is skype?" Skype is a free Voip (voice over internet protocol) solution, use requires the ability to record and playback audio and webcams for live feeds.

Justin introduced it to me a little while back so we could talk FOR FREE (yes from NC to Japan FOR FREE!). It's an easy little download and all you need is a mircrophone and for even more fun, a webcam. It's totally free, totally static free, clearer than landline telephone calls and FUN!

Can we say unseasonal weather?

Ok, I am not complaining about the unseasonal warm we've had this month. I've loved the sunny, 60 degree days as much as the next warmblooded southerner, but it's beginning to just feel odd. Not to mention the dozens of thunderstorms (and no 10-day snow!). Here's the latest "active advisory from the NWS:"

From Weather Underground:

The cold front associated with the low pressure system will cross
central North Carolina late tonight. A band of showers and
possibly a thunderstorm or two will occur ahead of the front.
Where the heavier showers and storms occur... wind gusts up to 50
mph may occur. These type of winds will be capable of Downing tree
limbs.

While the winds aloft favor the possibility for severe
thunderstorms... it appears that the airmass will lack the
needed instability to trigger and sustain severe thunderstorms.
However... if the air over central North Carolina is able to become
even slightly unstable... then scattered severe thunderstorms would
become a better possibility. Damaging straight line winds up to 70
mph and isolated tornadoes would be the primary severe weather
threats."

At least the ski slopes in WNC have snow - at Hawksnest this morning:

See more cool webcams of the slopes here.

Recent Culinary Adventures

Paul picked out an awesome Christmas/birthday gift for me [us]. For this instance, I was fine with it being a “combined” gift for both, especially since it was MULTIPLE pieces that combined, weigh nearly as much as me (ok, not really, but it seems that way).

The most awesome culinary gift thus far – a set of “Le Creuset” cookware (even cooler than our kitchen knives). After watching hours and hours of Food TV – with the likes of Alton Brown, Rachel Ray, Tyler Florence, and now Emeril (just got into him), he knew we needed to “kick it up a notch” in our cookware.

He got me a 9 piece set – 9, really heavy pieces of cookware! From the biggest, a 16 quart stockpot to the 'smallest', a really cool Candle Warming Trivet, I could not believe my eyes. So cool! This is their most popular item, the "Round French Oven," (in case you don't know what Le Creuset is and didn't take the time to read all about it on the website above, here's a quick run down)



On New Year’s Eve, we knew we wanted to stay home and have a quiet evening. It was time to break out the cookware. Paul really wanted to try out beef stew (Emeril’s recipe here) , so we stocked up on the ingredients and got ready to cook. It took long enough to cut up all the veggies, season and sauté the beef to finally get to this:

Closed pot on stove


Looking good....


It took a few tastings by Paul



Stirrings by me



And we can’t forget the cornbread, the sidekick to beef stew…


And finally time to eat!


Needless to say it was wonderful, a little peppery, but wonderful! We loved the new Le Cruset cookware – it cooked like a DREAM.

And for tonight, I was put in charge of making roast (although its like summer outside...). Roast in the crock-pot, to sit and simmer for 10 hours. YUM. Since it looked so good this morning; with its red potatoes, carrots, celery, onion and spices, I had to take a picture.

Trip to the GA Aquarium and birthday

The Georgia Aquarium opened on November 23rd as the World’s Largest Aquarium. With 8 million gallons of fresh and marine water, and more than 100,000 animals representing 500 species from around the globe, we knew it was going to be a great experience.


Mom and Dad just before we entered the line to enter

We went on Tues, December 27th along with at least 10-15,000 other people! It was PACKED. It is a really neat place, but my vote for the best aquarium in the Southeast is for Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga.

The GA Aquarium has a few unique features that make it stand out from the rest (and apparently draw HUGE crowds). First, they are the largest in the world. And second, they have a 2 whale sharks (not whales at all, just really HUGE sharks). They are cool. Ralph and Norman, as they are called, are fairly young and will one day be about 40 feet long and weigh 15 tons. They thankfully aren't interested in eating any of the fish in their HGUE tank.



A neat feature is a tunnel through this huge tank. Between the huge schools of fish, sting and mana rays and all kinds of sharks, it's a good thing they have a moving sidewalk of sorts to keep the crowds moving. Here's a picture of a guitar shark - an odd mix of a ray & shark


I always love watching the jellies - it was too crazy to stand and watch for more than a few seconds, but I was able to get a decent picture of a sea nettle. Beautiful creatures - but so dangerous!




And here are 2 more pictures from dinner at "On Main" in Old Towne Conyers (about 45-to an hour from my parents house). It was worth the long drive, squished in the backseat of the civic with mom and mema.

Taking pictures of food is fun... my dinner was...

Macadamia Crusted Tuna - Seared with pineapple-papaya compote over wasabi mashed potatoes and sugar snap peas. It was DIVINE! I also had a great wine, a Mark West Pinot Noir. It was delicious.


And finally a picture of my only girl cousin[Miranda], my grandmother and me before dinner.