From A:
It's blueberry season!
Need I say more?
19 hours ago
Monday, June 28, 2010
Sunday, June 27, 2010
How To...
From A:
In this installment of J + A "How To...", J teaches us how to spray a hornet's nest when you live on the 3rd floor.
Step 1 - Remove the window screen.
In this installment of J + A "How To...", J teaches us how to spray a hornet's nest when you live on the 3rd floor.
Step 1 - Remove the window screen.
Step 2 - Lean out the window.
Step 3 - Spray cautiously, awaiting a potential retaliation of nest occupants.
Good thing I married an engineer.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Quackers
From A:
Yesterday, J sent me this picture from his phone and it was too cute not to post. These little guys hang out around the Reitz Union (student union) on campus:
Yesterday, J sent me this picture from his phone and it was too cute not to post. These little guys hang out around the Reitz Union (student union) on campus:
J speculates this is a "bromance" since he frequently sees these same two male ducks walking around together.
Update - J saw his feathery friends again today. This time outside Taco Bell at the Reitz Union. They must have been looking for quackers to eat for lunch:
Update - J saw his feathery friends again today. This time outside Taco Bell at the Reitz Union. They must have been looking for quackers to eat for lunch:
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Beef: It's What's for Dinner
From A:
1.7 pounds of stew beef
Plus broth, cream of mushroom soup, and 9 hours in the slow cooker
Equals tender, juicy goodness served over egg noodles (with a ton of leftovers).
1.7 pounds of stew beef
Plus broth, cream of mushroom soup, and 9 hours in the slow cooker
Equals tender, juicy goodness served over egg noodles (with a ton of leftovers).
On a less carnivorous topic, I have to show off the lilies J got me for our anniversary (a little late since he waited until we were back in town to enjoy them)
And two more of the flowers have bloomed since I took the picture this morning!
Dad's Day
Happy Father's Day to the hardworking Dads of J + A.
We love you both very much and hope you have a relaxing, enjoyable day. You deserve it!
Saturday, June 19, 2010
What's For Dinner? Mexican Edition
From A:
This week's dinners were mostly Mexican themed, with the exception of waffles last night. We had delicious Canadian syrup on our waffles thanks to D & C who brought some back for us when they went on vacation earlier this summer. Thanks again!
Our meals consisted of burritos:
- ground turkey with taco seasoning
- black beans
- spinach
- shredded cheese
- diced tomatoes
- taco sauce
- flour tortillas
And taco salad, which included all of the burrito ingredients minus the tortillas, plus salad dressing, and with more spinach:
This week's dinners were mostly Mexican themed, with the exception of waffles last night. We had delicious Canadian syrup on our waffles thanks to D & C who brought some back for us when they went on vacation earlier this summer. Thanks again!
Our meals consisted of burritos:
- ground turkey with taco seasoning
- black beans
- spinach
- shredded cheese
- diced tomatoes
- taco sauce
- flour tortillas
And taco salad, which included all of the burrito ingredients minus the tortillas, plus salad dressing, and with more spinach:
(photo courtesy of the "food" scene selection on our awesome new camera - cool, huh?)
And no, the tomatoes are not from our beloved tomato plant. It is growing tomatoes, though! We have one big one (about 2" diameter) and two very small ones just starting to grow. Here's what the big one looks like:
If it doesn't turn red sometime soon, I think we're going to be making some fried green tomato! (a very small portion)
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Jekyll Island (from A's Perspective)
From A:
I know that J also has a Jekyll Island post planned, so here's my version of the trip. Hopefully it will sound like we were on the same trip together, because we really were! Here's photo evidence to prove it:
In my opinion, Jekyll Island is the way an island should be. Only about 30% of the island has been built on, and even when buildings have been constructed, the beach areas have remained as intact as possible. Take our hotel, for example. The hotel was on the beach, but not right on it. The buffer of natural vegetation on the beach dunes is still there (we saw some deer in the buffer one night - the first time I've seen deer on a beach), and the hotel built a long boardwalk for access to the water:
So we couldn't see the ocean from our balcony, but we could hear it... which was a wonderful thing to wake up to, and made for some beautiful natural scenery:
Of course, the island hasn't been protected from overbuilding just because people like it that way. It's owned by Georgia and run by its state park system, which bought the area for $675,000 following World War II. By then, Florida had become the new fashionable vacation spot for America's wealthiest families. The families who had previously vacationed on Jekyll Island included those of such familiar names as J.P. Morgan, William Rockefeller, Vincent Astor, Joseph Pulitzer, William K. Vanderbilt. The families were part of the Jekyll Island Club, which is still open as a hotel... an incredibly beautiful one (and one where people still play croquet on the front lawn - really!):
Many of the families also built their own cottages surrounding the club area. We were able to tour a couple of the cottages, which have been fully restored and furnished:
I know that J also has a Jekyll Island post planned, so here's my version of the trip. Hopefully it will sound like we were on the same trip together, because we really were! Here's photo evidence to prove it:
In my opinion, Jekyll Island is the way an island should be. Only about 30% of the island has been built on, and even when buildings have been constructed, the beach areas have remained as intact as possible. Take our hotel, for example. The hotel was on the beach, but not right on it. The buffer of natural vegetation on the beach dunes is still there (we saw some deer in the buffer one night - the first time I've seen deer on a beach), and the hotel built a long boardwalk for access to the water:
So we couldn't see the ocean from our balcony, but we could hear it... which was a wonderful thing to wake up to, and made for some beautiful natural scenery:
Of course, the island hasn't been protected from overbuilding just because people like it that way. It's owned by Georgia and run by its state park system, which bought the area for $675,000 following World War II. By then, Florida had become the new fashionable vacation spot for America's wealthiest families. The families who had previously vacationed on Jekyll Island included those of such familiar names as J.P. Morgan, William Rockefeller, Vincent Astor, Joseph Pulitzer, William K. Vanderbilt. The families were part of the Jekyll Island Club, which is still open as a hotel... an incredibly beautiful one (and one where people still play croquet on the front lawn - really!):
Many of the families also built their own cottages surrounding the club area. We were able to tour a couple of the cottages, which have been fully restored and furnished:
So back to the beach. Being the pale people we are, we went to the beach in the evenings as the sun was going down. There were a few people on the beach near our hotel's boardwalk, but it was never very crowded:
The rest of the island wasn't overcrowded either. We always found parking wherever we wanted to go, we saw familiar faces around the island, and there really wasn't much traffic on the roads. Talk about a relaxing vacation! We even found some "good eats" on the island. I know J will include details in his blog post which should be sometime soon!
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Anniversary Cake
From J:
As A and I will be traveling tomorrow on our actual anniversary and we don't want to have year-old cake for breakfast, we went ahead and ate a piece of the top tonight.
Here it is! Wrapped with care approximately 364 days ago. In a J+A first, here's some video of the action:
That was the first video we took with our new camera. Not too shabby! I mistakenly shot the original in 720p, giving an absolutely enormous file size (235mb for a little over a minute). But I digress. Yes, we were surprised to see that the flowers were still on the cake! And were still blue!
Time to slice...
Plate...
And eat!
The taste was...okay. It still tasted like cake, but had a bit of a freezer taste and the frosting was pretty hard. We were satisfied with one bite each. One year down! Tough to believe...
As A and I will be traveling tomorrow on our actual anniversary and we don't want to have year-old cake for breakfast, we went ahead and ate a piece of the top tonight.
Here it is! Wrapped with care approximately 364 days ago. In a J+A first, here's some video of the action:
That was the first video we took with our new camera. Not too shabby! I mistakenly shot the original in 720p, giving an absolutely enormous file size (235mb for a little over a minute). But I digress. Yes, we were surprised to see that the flowers were still on the cake! And were still blue!
Time to slice...
Plate...
And eat!
The taste was...okay. It still tasted like cake, but had a bit of a freezer taste and the frosting was pretty hard. We were satisfied with one bite each. One year down! Tough to believe...
Commercial Recap
From A:
It's over! I have officially finished shooting my scene for the "We are the Boys" commercial. While talking with the producer today, it seems that the commercial I was in will be broadcast during the 2011 football season, whereas the "Do the Chomp" commercial (that I wasn't in) is for the 2010 season. That gives me plenty of time to sign autographs prior to the debut.
But don't despair. It seems that once the commercial is complete, I'll be getting a link via email to see the finished product. Look for the link on our blog later this year!
So now for the description of my experience. When I arrived for the shoot I was immediately sent to hair and makeup. Although I had already applied what I consider to be "heavy" makeup, I hadn't gotten anywhere close what they would ultimately apply. Once the makeup lady was done, my face definitely had quite a matte finish:
Next was wardrobe. Although I brought scrubs to wear (as instructed), the producer made a last-minute change and decided I would wear an orange Gator polo instead. It was really cute and just my size, so I was fine with the change. My scene consisted of a resident (in scrubs), a doctor (in a white coat), me (in my polo), a lady from transplant (in a blouse), and a secretary (in a suit).
Our location was the "monumental staircase" in the lobby of the new hospital, and our line of the song was the very last, "For F-L-O-R-I-D-A," although we sang the entire song for all of the takes just in case they need it to fill in with during editing. We did about 5 takes with a wide angle and about 5 more with a close angle, then shot a few with variations in motion, and a couple of "Go Gators!" cheers.
The coolest part of the experience to me was the makeup lady who would run up to us between takes to blot off any sweat and apply more powder so we didn't have shiny faces. I've always wanted to have that done!
The entire film crew and cast members got t-shirts, too:
It's over! I have officially finished shooting my scene for the "We are the Boys" commercial. While talking with the producer today, it seems that the commercial I was in will be broadcast during the 2011 football season, whereas the "Do the Chomp" commercial (that I wasn't in) is for the 2010 season. That gives me plenty of time to sign autographs prior to the debut.
But don't despair. It seems that once the commercial is complete, I'll be getting a link via email to see the finished product. Look for the link on our blog later this year!
So now for the description of my experience. When I arrived for the shoot I was immediately sent to hair and makeup. Although I had already applied what I consider to be "heavy" makeup, I hadn't gotten anywhere close what they would ultimately apply. Once the makeup lady was done, my face definitely had quite a matte finish:
Next was wardrobe. Although I brought scrubs to wear (as instructed), the producer made a last-minute change and decided I would wear an orange Gator polo instead. It was really cute and just my size, so I was fine with the change. My scene consisted of a resident (in scrubs), a doctor (in a white coat), me (in my polo), a lady from transplant (in a blouse), and a secretary (in a suit).
Our location was the "monumental staircase" in the lobby of the new hospital, and our line of the song was the very last, "For F-L-O-R-I-D-A," although we sang the entire song for all of the takes just in case they need it to fill in with during editing. We did about 5 takes with a wide angle and about 5 more with a close angle, then shot a few with variations in motion, and a couple of "Go Gators!" cheers.
The coolest part of the experience to me was the makeup lady who would run up to us between takes to blot off any sweat and apply more powder so we didn't have shiny faces. I've always wanted to have that done!
The entire film crew and cast members got t-shirts, too:
Commercial and Anniversary
From A:
J and I have a couple of exciting days ahead.
This afternoon I'll be filming a scene from a new commercial that will debut this fall. It's one of two commercials being filmed in Gainesville this week, and both commercials are (of course) Gator themed. I auditioned for the commercials about a month ago and am really excited to be cast in one (for the record, nobody was cast in both).
I'll be in the commercial which uses the song "We are the Boys." True Gator fans know this song by memory since everyone sings it after the 3rd quarter of each football game.
The other commercial uses the song "Do the Chomp" and has choreographed dance moves. Luckily, since I'm not part of this commercial, I wasn't required to attempt or execute the dance moves.
If you want to see and hear more, you can listen to the songs and view the dance moves here.
The other exciting news is that tomorrow is our one year anniversary! We'll finally get the chance to break out our year-old frozen top layer of wedding cake and give it a try. Although my parents talked our cake baker into telling them what flavor the top layer is, J and I have no idea. However, after a year in the freezer, we're not entirely convinced that we'll even be able to tell what flavor it actually is. But we'll certainly try! Pictures and taste test impressions to come on a future post.
As a reminder, here's what the cake looked like prior to a year in our freezer:
J and I have a couple of exciting days ahead.
This afternoon I'll be filming a scene from a new commercial that will debut this fall. It's one of two commercials being filmed in Gainesville this week, and both commercials are (of course) Gator themed. I auditioned for the commercials about a month ago and am really excited to be cast in one (for the record, nobody was cast in both).
I'll be in the commercial which uses the song "We are the Boys." True Gator fans know this song by memory since everyone sings it after the 3rd quarter of each football game.
The other commercial uses the song "Do the Chomp" and has choreographed dance moves. Luckily, since I'm not part of this commercial, I wasn't required to attempt or execute the dance moves.
If you want to see and hear more, you can listen to the songs and view the dance moves here.
The other exciting news is that tomorrow is our one year anniversary! We'll finally get the chance to break out our year-old frozen top layer of wedding cake and give it a try. Although my parents talked our cake baker into telling them what flavor the top layer is, J and I have no idea. However, after a year in the freezer, we're not entirely convinced that we'll even be able to tell what flavor it actually is. But we'll certainly try! Pictures and taste test impressions to come on a future post.
As a reminder, here's what the cake looked like prior to a year in our freezer:
Saturday, June 5, 2010
A world without cable...
From J:
A and I have finally had it with Cox increasing our cable rates every couple of months. Inspired by our recent visit to C and D, we're ditching cable and going with internet TV. Our new media setup (note that I had all of this on hand, making the process really painless):
1) An LCD TV with computer audio (1/8" jack) and video (VGA) inputs.
2) A's old laptop. I took off a bunch of old software, turned off most of the startup programs, and installed Google Chrome (it uses less processor power than Firefox or Internet Explorer). The end result is a serviceable media laptop that can run flash and other internet video smoothly.
3) One 6' male-to-male audio cable and one 6' VGA monitor cable.
4) One wireless mouse, for use as a remote control.
5) One high speed internet connection with which to view Hulu, CastTV, espn3, and Clicker. Clicker is a nice aggregator for all of the episodes of different shows on different websites (like TBS, Hulu, NBC, etc.), Hulu is superb, if a bit limited in its offerings, and CastTV has a big selection of shows across all stations, even Discovery and HBO. The offerings are a bit spotty, but it always has the latest episodes of popular shows like Deadliest Catch and Breaking Bad.
In the living room, I set up an antenna with our other TV so we can get our local stations (except NBC...what's the deal, WNBW?). As it turns out, the new digital broadcast quality is very nice, and looks identical to the cable signal. Football season, here we come.
As I am a notorious flipper, the biggest change will be moving away from mindless channel changing and picking something to watch. And agreeing on watching that, since channel changing is much less convenient with the internet. But that adjustment won't be too tough. Anyway, A and I are pretty pumped to stick it to the cable company. As of Monday, we're going cable-less. Updates to follow.
A and I have finally had it with Cox increasing our cable rates every couple of months. Inspired by our recent visit to C and D, we're ditching cable and going with internet TV. Our new media setup (note that I had all of this on hand, making the process really painless):
1) An LCD TV with computer audio (1/8" jack) and video (VGA) inputs.
2) A's old laptop. I took off a bunch of old software, turned off most of the startup programs, and installed Google Chrome (it uses less processor power than Firefox or Internet Explorer). The end result is a serviceable media laptop that can run flash and other internet video smoothly.
3) One 6' male-to-male audio cable and one 6' VGA monitor cable.
4) One wireless mouse, for use as a remote control.
5) One high speed internet connection with which to view Hulu, CastTV, espn3, and Clicker. Clicker is a nice aggregator for all of the episodes of different shows on different websites (like TBS, Hulu, NBC, etc.), Hulu is superb, if a bit limited in its offerings, and CastTV has a big selection of shows across all stations, even Discovery and HBO. The offerings are a bit spotty, but it always has the latest episodes of popular shows like Deadliest Catch and Breaking Bad.
In the living room, I set up an antenna with our other TV so we can get our local stations (except NBC...what's the deal, WNBW?). As it turns out, the new digital broadcast quality is very nice, and looks identical to the cable signal. Football season, here we come.
As I am a notorious flipper, the biggest change will be moving away from mindless channel changing and picking something to watch. And agreeing on watching that, since channel changing is much less convenient with the internet. But that adjustment won't be too tough. Anyway, A and I are pretty pumped to stick it to the cable company. As of Monday, we're going cable-less. Updates to follow.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Arachnophobia!
From J:
Today, while coming home from work, my wife had the crap scared out of her by a gigantic spider. Like a good husband, I took a picture of it. Then killed it. And took a couple of other pictures, for blog purposes.
Total diameter: ~4". Total viciousness: INCALCULABLE (to insects). To humans? Not so much. It's a huntsman spider, fairly common in Florida. The variety that we have around here grows up to about 5" in diameter. Elsewhere in the world they grow up to 12" in diameter. And probably eat puppies, or something. I entered into battle and bravely sprayed this thing with some spider spray, which caused it to freak out and run all over the place. Then calm down, and consider its next move. Would it make a run at my wife? Would it attempt to attack me, its aggressor? Would it try and steal my car to get away? It turns out that its preferred option was "stay still and get sprayed again, and die after about 10 minutes."
In retrospect, this would be a much better demonstration picture of wildlife than that lame squirrel picture I posted a week back.
Today, while coming home from work, my wife had the crap scared out of her by a gigantic spider. Like a good husband, I took a picture of it. Then killed it. And took a couple of other pictures, for blog purposes.
Total diameter: ~4". Total viciousness: INCALCULABLE (to insects). To humans? Not so much. It's a huntsman spider, fairly common in Florida. The variety that we have around here grows up to about 5" in diameter. Elsewhere in the world they grow up to 12" in diameter. And probably eat puppies, or something. I entered into battle and bravely sprayed this thing with some spider spray, which caused it to freak out and run all over the place. Then calm down, and consider its next move. Would it make a run at my wife? Would it attempt to attack me, its aggressor? Would it try and steal my car to get away? It turns out that its preferred option was "stay still and get sprayed again, and die after about 10 minutes."
In retrospect, this would be a much better demonstration picture of wildlife than that lame squirrel picture I posted a week back.
RIP, hunstman spider. You looked like you wanted to lay eggs in my brain, so I killed you. Sorry.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
The Land of Cheese
From A:
Highlights of our trip to Wisconsin, in photos:
(all photo captions by J)
Highlights of our trip to Wisconsin, in photos:
(all photo captions by J)
Bratfest! A and I were struck by the way that Wisconsin residents really attack summer, as exemplified in their willingness to 1) get sunburned while 2) listening to crappy bands and 3) eating brats. There is no equivalent to this event in Gainesville.
Not that bratfest was lame. It had the official Wiener Mobile in attendance, instantly raising its coolness.
A wearing a cheese hat. It was not made out of real cheese. Wisconsin is very proud of its cheese.
Here I am sharing a glass of chocolate Wisconsin milk with Bucky Badger, the Wisconsin mascot. Wisconsin is also very proud of its milk, as that is used to make cheese.
D, C, A, and I at the Brewers game (vs. the Mets) at Miller Park. My previous MLB experiences have been at Pro Player/Dolphin/Joe Robbie/Landshark/Sun Life Stadium in Miami, so this was a nice change. The best part was...
The Klement's Sausage race. Go, Chorizo! He's stereotypically wearing a sombrero. Chorizo was doing well until they tagged off to the little sausages (cocktail wieners, I guess) seen at the bottom of the frame. The little chorizo was very slow, and Polish sausage took the day.
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