What things do we sleep with?

This question was posed on Will Ya or Won't Ya. I thought I would post a picture of our #2 with some of his bed mates.

You will note:

3 books

1 stuff elephant

1 firechief hat

1 doll aka Baby Bob

1 pillow

2 blankets not actually on child

various other things likely underneath child but unobservable

Three Cheers for CASIO

I like to applaud companies for good service just as well as I like to slander companies for bad service. Well here is one on the plus side for CASIO. We bought a camera from them nearly 2 yrs ago. It is a EX-Z750 we have loved it. It is small has a huge screen and battery life is terrific. So my wife was taking pictures and dropped it on the carpeted floor with the lens out (it has an automatic lens) and it wouldn't go back in. So I got online to see if it was going to cost more to fix it then to buy a new one and it looked like it fell in the range between 30-110$ to fix. I decided that that we reasonable as we could get an estimate prior to having it fixed. It wasn't under warranty as it had been two years but I threw in a copy of the original receipt when I sent it to Dover, NJ on 1/19/07. So a couple days later I get an email saying they had received it. So far so good. A couple days later they say it is fixed and we owe.......0$. I was not sure if they thought it was somehow under warranty as I had put the receipt in or if I was the millioneth person to have dropped a camera and had to have the lens assembly replaced or some camera repair lineman knew that we could use 100$ to buy food instead of camera repairs. Whatever it was, I am glad to have our little camera back and in working order. The impressive part is that this all took place in 11 days with half of that time taken up in shipping. Oh and they also upgraded the firmware (I am not sure what this did to make it better but I am happy none the less. There is my endorsement for CASIO.

Musicovery

My wife just sent me a link for this website:

Musicovery

It is kind of interesting.

I like how I don't post for a week and then do 5 posts in one day.

Obviously I am avoiding something else I should be doing. But what is it?

Blackmail Pictures

The first picture is pretty girly (notice the pink princess shoes). The second looks kind of like a Sumo ballerina.

MORE RECIPES

I have been posting some of our favorite recipes to Thyme in the Kitchen. My main motive is to have an alternate place to find these recipes when I can't find them in the recipe folder. I can't tell you how many times I have lost my recipe for Granola. Anyway, I have posted one for Marion's Granola and the famous Chocolate Idiot cake.

Little critters

We went out of a little bike ride today. It was a bright sunny day with no wind and it was good to be out in the fresh air. We ran down to the university as my wife had left something in her office. It is about 20 mins. We saw lots of geese, ducks, fishermen but no fish. I keep thinking I need to get a license and get out on the river. I really need some new waders but them are not in the current budget. I suppose I could try again to see if I can fin the hole or holes in the old ones. My wife likes it when I put on the waders and get in the bathtub to try to figure it out.
So on the way home the peanut gallery in the back got quieter and eventually silent. When I pulled in and opened the hatch here is what I found.

Dry Spell

It has been a bit of a dry spell since the last posting. Unfortunately, we weren't on vacation. We weren't turning over a new leaf and spending our time exercising and getting in shape. We haven't been working on remodeling our house. The one excuse I can come up with is that we broke our digital camera. I dug out the old one so thatreally isn't a good excuse.
Last weekend we did go to a BSU Basketball game. They managed to dig themselves into a hole at the beginning of the game that they couldn't quite crawl out of by the end of the game. I think that I am bad luck for the basketball team. I just listened to the last 2 mins of their game at Utah State. They were up by 9 pts with 2 mins left and they managed to lose. They did not score the last 2 mins. They missed 5 freethrows. The other team scoreed 10 pts. Pathetic. Well, I guess on the other hand I am good luck for the football team given their dramatic win which I am sure would not have been possible except that I watched the game and told them what to do. I guess we will find out Sat night as we are going to their home game against Hawaii.

*WARNING* SOAPBOX

Having played high school basketball I can't understand how any basketball player can't make at least 70% of their freethrows. BSU has lost 5 or 6 games this yr by 4 points or less. If they made their freethrows closer to 70% they would probably have won more of those games. I used to shoot freethrows every night until I made 8/10 or I kept shooting. If you have down the fundamentals it is basically all in the head. Focus, focus, focus. So I just heard they had 47% for the game at the line. Interesting since they shot 59% from the 3 pt line. Hmmmm. Look, I don't even think that the excuse of a hostile environment should make a difference. If you spend time shooting lots of freethrows you should be in your own little world on the freethrow line and put them in even if there are 10,000 people yelling at you. I just have the feeling that the BSU players will be shooting more freethrows this week or at least they should.

Skiing again after a 8 yr hiatus

I haven't been skiing since we left Reno except for Nordic skiing which we tried for the first time in MI. I found Nordic skiing to be fun but lots of work as well. When our company was here for New Years we decided we should go skiing. We have a local ski resort Bogus Basin and I didn't have too high of expectations as it is only 40 mins away and it would be too good if it was nice. I came away very impressed. It is an interesting resort as it is a nonprofit and caters to the local community. The also did an interesting thing a few years ago by slashing their season passes to less the 200$ and their profit more then doubled. It has 2600 acres, 1800 vertical drop, 60+ runs, and a couple of high speed quads. It looks like a great place to teach or relearn how to ski. They also have a deal where you can get 4 lessons, equipment renter, and a season pass for some ridiculous low price.

So the day of skiing was great. The sun was out. It was cold enough to keep the snow good but not too cold to freeze you to death. I didn't fall and injure myself and I felt like my ski legs were returning after 3-4 runs. I am still a little sore after the fact but am excited that we have such a nice resort so close and as reasonable as skiing can be. It is a fun source of exercise. I am envisioning in a few years going up with the kids for a midweek morning or afternoon of skiing and getting chores done with the rest of our day. it will also be a fun place to take our out of town company. for the none skiers they have a sledding hill and for the non skiers/non sledders I didn't check out all of the lodges but I bet there is a place to put up your feet by the fire and look out the windows at all of the skiers/boarders.

My wife has made the comment that she thinks that she can be as bad of a snowboarder as she is a bad skier so she wants to make the switch as she has not skied in 10 years. So maybe we will all try to learn together. By next year all the kids might be potty trained and ready for lessons. I sounds like lots of fun.

This clip actually has all of the most exciting plays from the last few minutes of the game

Last few minutes of fiesta bowl

I'd Sooner be a Bronco.......

WAY TO GO BSU

A lot of people have commented that this was one of the best football games they have ever seen and they are not BSU fans. We had a great football party with lots of blue and orange. The food was great as was the game. It seemed in the last 10 minutes that every improbability happened both good and bad. After the last minute interception it seemed like time to pack up and Byran went home (personally I credit him for the win). The rest of us stayed but marginally hopeful they could pull it off. I found the highlight clips and posted here for thos ethat missed it.

Highlights

All in all a great year and much better to be a BSU football supporter this year then an EMU football supporter like last year.