Friday, October 31, 2008

It's The Flu!

Well, not really. Although I do have a cold or something that I think has been a long time coming. I've had a sore throat off and on for three or four weeks... one day it'll hurt, the next couple of days it won't, rinse and repeat - until this past Wednesday. I went to work at my second job, and about 3 hours in my throat started to hurt and the coughs started. By the end of the day I was pretty wiped out. Thursday, I felt okay, but still had some cold symptoms.

I thought I'd share some "well known but often neglected" tips for flu prevention, from the October 28, 2008 Emergency Management Higher Education Program Report:

Wash your hands with soap and warm water
frequently and thoroughly.


Get a flu shot.

Practice social distancing. Don't move in
toward someone who is coughing or sneezing; politely take a step back.


Practice proper sneezing and coughing
etiquette. Don't cough or sneeze into your hand and then use your hand to use a
pen at the bank or open a door or refrigerator. Sneeze and cough into your
elbow.


I'm not so sure about the Flu Shot thing, but definitely: cough and sneeze into your elbow pit. Ever since our kids were very young, whenever they'd sneeze or cough, we'd yell "elbow pit ELBOW PIT!" to remind them to direct the nasties there.



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Monday, October 27, 2008

Straight No Chaser

Here's a fun video/song:



Rubi, my darling bride, works with a guy who's son is (or was) in this group.

Here's another fun song they did:



My kids get a big kick out of these - and apparently they have a new Christmas album coming out tomorrow.


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Thursday, October 23, 2008

Vote!

Voting for the Podcast Awards is now open.
 
Go vote! (Especially for The Signal in the Movies/Films category!)
 
 


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Feed me!

Found this food meme at KRADical's LJ.

What's the last thing you ate? Chopped chicken and cheese in a tortilla shell.

What's your favorite cheese? That white queso they serve at Los Bravos (local Mexican restaurant) that melts easily to dip chips into.

What's your favorite fish? That faux fish at LJS!

What's your favorite fruit? bananas

When, if ever, did you start liking olives? I think I liked green olives when I was very young, but no more.

When, if ever, did you start liking beer? Never have, probably never will.

When, if ever, did you start liking shellfish? Not really a sea food person (more of a see-food person!). I first tried lobster and crab when I was in high school. I didn't *not* like it - just kinda indifferent.

What was the best thing your parent/s used to make? Dude! Moms homemade cinammon rolls!

What's the native specialty of your home town? Turoni's Pizza! (wait, does that count?)

What's your comfort food? Sweets - namely cake and cinammon rolls.

What's your favorite type of chocolate? Milk Chocolate.

How do you like your steak? Until very recently, it was very well done. I'd tell the waitress basically bring me a charcoal briquette. But lately I've been leaning towards a more medium well.

How do you like your burger? With cheese. lettuce and tomato.

How do you like your eggs? Scrambled, over-well, or made into an omelete.

How do you like your potatoes? French Fried, German Fried, American Fried, Baked, Soup, skins, chips...

How do you take your coffee? I don't.

How do you take your tea? Only Rubi's sweet tea will do. No one else's compares.

What's your favorite mug? I don't have one.

What's your cookie of choice? My mother-in-law's snickerdoodles.

What's your ideal breakfast? Well, I usually don't eat breakfast. But my ideal breakfast is a huge buffet.

What's your ideal sandwich? Ever heard of a Fat Darrell?! Hah, I kid! Let's see: probably hoagie or sub-style, with ham, roast beef, turkey, pepperoni, salami, bacon, american cheese, swiss cheese, cheddar cheese, colbyjack cheese, lettuce, tomato...

What's your ideal pizza (topping and base)? Turoni's Pepperoni and chicken with tomato sauce on a cracker-style crust. Though I'm finding changing out the tomato sauce for a light ranch sauce is sometimes fun.

What's your ideal pie (sweet or savory)? Is Cheesecake pie? If so, then cheesecake. Otherwise, chocolate pie.

What's your ideal salad? Romaine and iceberg lettuce. That is all.

What food do you always like to have in the fridge? egss

What food do you always like to have in the freezer? Chicken breasts.

What food do you always like to have in the cupboard? Bread.

What spices can you not live without? Salt and pepper?

What sauces can you not live without? Rubi's been making a really good tomato sauce for lasagna lately.

Where do you buy most of your food? Walmart. (shuttup, I know I know...)


Sheesh... this is a freakin' long meme!



How often do you go food shopping? Every two weeks on payday to stock up, and then probably about twice a week in-between to get things we forgot or ran out of right after going shopping.

What's the most you've spent on a single food item? Too much?

What's the most expensive piece of kitchen equipment you own? Rubi! She's priceless!

What's the last piece of equipment you bought for your kitchen? I think Rubi bought some small stuff from Pampered Chef.

What piece of kitchen equipment could you not live without? The fridge?

How many times a week/month do you cook from raw ingredients? Not often.

What's the last thing you cooked from raw ingredients? Cupcakes/muffins a couple of days ago. I made a dozen vanilla cake muffins, and there was enough batter for another dozen, so I added some brown sugar and cinammon to the batter and made a dozen cinammon muffins.. Yum!

What's your favorite thing to make for yourself? I just described it.

What meats have you eaten besides cow, pig, chicken and turkey? I think I've had veal.

What's the last time you ate something that had fallen on the floor? Never! Gross! ...mumble mumble... a couple of days ago - it was a piece of popcorn.

What's the last time you ate something you'd picked in the wild? It's been awhile.

Place the following cuisines in order of preference (greatest to least): Italian, sushi, Chinese, French, Indian, Thai. Italian, Chinese. That's about it, thanks.

Place the following boozes in order of preference (greatest to least): Whiskey, tequila, vodka, brandy, gin, rum. No thanks.

Place the following flavors in order of preference (greatest to least): Garlic, ginger, basil, aniseed, lime. About that probably, except, WTH is aniseed?

Place the following fruits in order of preference (greatest to least): cherry, apple, orange, pineapple, watermelon. For me: Apple, orange... not crazy about the others.

Bread and spread: Sandwich Bread, toasted, with butter or jam, or butter and cinammon sugar.

What's your fast food restaurant of choice, and what do you usually order? Usually it turns out to be Mickey D's Cheeseburgers and fries. I guess I don't really have a favorite. I'll eat at wherever we go.

What are three of the best dining-out experiences you've had? ooh interesting and thought provoking. In no particular order:
1) When my boss at the first job I had took me and my friend out to dinner to celebrate graduating from high school. Nothing particularly great about the food, but it was a good time, and introduced me to a restaurant where I would take my dates later on.
2) Chef Mickey's character breakfast at WDW with my kids. Watching them participate in the festivities is a blast.
3) Anytime Rubi and I get to eat out as a couple, without the kiddos.

What's your choice of tipple at the end of a long day? I don't tipple.

Favorite cookbook/s? The menu at the pizza place.

Got any favorite food blogs? Nope.

What's the next thing you'll eat? Another tortilla with chicken and cheese. I think I'll add some taco sauce from Taco Bell this time (found some in the cabinet here at work).


Yeah... now I'm hungry.


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Wednesday, October 22, 2008

My taste in art

Your result for What Your Taste in Art Says About You Test...

Traditional, Vibrant, and Tasteful

11 Islamic, 6 Impressionist, 2 Ukiyo-e, -18 Cubist, -19 Abstract and 4 Renaissance!
Islamic art is developed from many sources: Roman, Early Christian, and Byzantine styles were taken over in early Islamic architecture; the architecture and decorative art of pre-Islamic Persia was of paramount significance; Central Asian styles were brought in with various nomadic incursions; and Chinese influences . Islamic art uses many geometical floral or vegetable designs in a repetitive pattern known as arabesque. It is used to symbolize the transcendent, indivisible and infinite nature of Allah.
People that like Islamic art tend to be more traditional people that appreciate keeping patterns that they learned and experienced from their past. It is not to say that they are not innovative personalities, they just do not like to let go of their roots. They like to put new ideas into details and make certain that they will work before sharing them with others. Failure is not something they like to think about because they are more interested in being successful and appreciated for their intelligence. These people can also be or like elaborate things in their life as long as they are tasteful. They tend to prefer geometric patterns and vibrant colors.

Take What Your Taste in Art Says About You Test at HelloQuizzy


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Monday, October 20, 2008

Not a Real Post

Just a meme to fill the time until someone in The Bayer Family can come up with something better to write about.  I got this from E. E. Knight's LJ.

01. What's the last TV show you saw?
Straight through? The most recent ep of Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles. Bits and pieces as I did other things around the house or fast-forwarded? The two most recent eps of Smallville.

02. What are you wearing at the moment?
Khakie work shirt over a green t-shirt, blue jeans, socks and tennis shoes.

03. Who is/was your favorite cartoon character?
ETA: I honestly can't think of one. I had some cartoons I enjoyed watching, but I can't think of a single character that was a favorite.  Maybe Bugs Bunny. 

04. What is your favorite scent?
Cake baking in the oven. Bacon frying in a pan. Rubi's hair. That un-nameable smell in the air that just says "It's autumn."

05. What is your favorite drink?
Water.

06. What do you drink the most?
Water and Soft drinks - I can't live without caffeine, but caffeinated beverages aren't my favorite.

07. What is your favorite food?
Pizza, Steak, cake, cinamon rolls, cheesecake.

08. What is your favorite Disney movie?
ETA: MCF did Favorite Classic, Modern, and CG.
My Favorite Classic Disney Movie would be Peter Pan, Modern would be The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, and CG is a toss-up between Toy Story and the Incredibles.

09. What did you want to be when you grew up?
A radio DJ and/or a SF&F writer.

10. What mythological figure are you?
Dadeattoomuch.

11. What animal do you identify with?
Koala Bear: I look soft and cuddly, but I've got a mean streak.

12.What mythological/fictional creature would you most like to be?
A sentient dragon.

13.What is your current desktop?
That I'm using now (at work)? Or at home? At home, it's an AMD 1.7ghz with a gig of RAM, a 120gb HD, and a 128mb video card.  At work I'm using a Pentium D processor (somewhere between 2.4ghz and 3.2 ghz, System Properties shows both), with 1 gig of RAM and dual displays (and it runs slower than my PC at home).

14. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?
He didn't tag me, I stole this meme from him. He's a published SF&F author of two excellent series, and sometimes posts inappropriate pics that I shouldn't be looking at.

15. What are you afraid of?
The death of family members.

16. What's your favorite item of clothing?
Well-worn in jeans and an old t-shirt.

17. What are you into right now?
Facebook, for some dumb reason. There's a AD&D application there called "Tiny Adventures" that's kinda fun.

18. What did you do today?
Woke up on time, made instant oatmeal for the kids, got Rubi and the kids off to work and school, napped, watched some TV, made cupcakes, played Guild Wars with Rubi and went to work.

19. What do you want?
For someone to give me strings-free lots and lots of money so I can pay off all my bills and such so Rubi doesn't have to work and we can live comfortably.

20. What should you be doing right now?
Paying attention to what's going on at work around me.

21. What's the meaning behind your username/name/nicknames you go by?
Most of my usernames are some variation of my real name.


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Saturday, October 11, 2008

2008 Fall Festival

Friday afternoon Rubi and I took the kiddos to the annual Fall Festival, the "second largest street fair in America."
Several block of food booths, two midways with rides and games, and Evansville's finest citizens out in all their fat glory, eating everything in sight, and often fighting amongst themselves and ending up in jail.
One of the draws of the festival, besides the endless sea of artery-clogging yummies, is new types of artery-clogging yummies (or disgustings as the case may be): such as scorpion suckers or kangaroo-meat burritos. 
We usually stay away from the really nasty sounding stuff (bug candy).  This year we gave a couple of new things a try though.  The first one was Pig Lickers - bacon dipped in chocolate.  Lizzy liked it, the rest of us thought it was nasty.  The same booth also had deep fried green beans: green beans breaded and deep fried, served with ranch sauce- those weren't too bad. Rubi liked them.
Everyone (but me) shared the deep fried cookie dough with ice cream and chocolate sauce (that's nasty!!).  They like it though.

Rubi and her sister got to ride the FREAKOUT!, which Rubi also rode later with Lizzy.  Lizzy hated it.  And the kiddos got to ride several other rides too.

All in all, we had a good time!


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Sunday, October 05, 2008

Communication

Here's a fun quote:

I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.

attributed to Robert McCloskey
What's fun about it, is Rubi and I recently heard a speaker use that quote to describe communications between wives and husbands (as in, the above quote is the way a woman feels about the way her husband hears her).

It's definitely true! We men often hear exactly what our wives say, but there's a difference between understanding the words, and understanding our wives. 

Rubi says: "We should clean out the van soon."
Kev hears: "We should clean out the van soon."
Rubi means: "You should go clean out the van now."
(This is a purely hypothetical situation, mind you.)

Rubi says: "The grass is getting tall."
Kev hears: "It's time to teach Elizabeth how to mow the lawn."
Rubi means: "Go mow the lawn."

Rubi says: "I'm getting hungry."
Kev hears: "Let's order pizza."
Rubi means: "Let's order pizza."

Oh...

Maybe sometimes we do understand.


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Saturday, October 04, 2008

Randomosity

I wonder how many people have named their new pet cat "Lol".
 
I hate politics.
 
Is "Randomosity" a word?
 
On Facebook, I've found several people I knew in elementary school that I didn't maintain contact with.
 
Sweet! I won $4 in the Powerball this past Wednesday.  I forgot to buy a ticket for tonight's drawing...
 
Rubi should make lasagna again.
 
I should blog more frequently.
 
Anyone want to give me a free laptop or two?
 
I'm glad I'm employed.
 
I really don't get Twitter.
 
 
 
 


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Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Real Life Trumps Blogging, yet again.

Crazy busy around here, but in a good way. October brings almost a full month of relative downtime before the kids schedules explode again.

Soccer season has ended for the time being - Elizabeth stepped out of the defensive zone for the first time on a regular basis in her 6-year soccer career, and loved it. She discovered how much she loves playing forward, and has got a real knack for it. She (and the entire JV team at her school) improved so much this season - it was very cool to watch them get better and better every game.
Next year will bring our first taste of travel soccer, so starting in November, she'll be keeping her skills sharp in an off-season indoor league.

Alexander and Catherine, not being as soccer mad as Elizabeth, will be playing basketball and cheering, respectively, also starting in November.

For now, I'm just enjoying a month of not dashing around the house yelling things like "I don't KNOW where your other cleat is, but hurry up and find it! We gotta go! Yes, here's your water getinthevanAUGHHHH!"

The usual chaos still applies, though. Part time job that I adore, helping with class parties, helping with homework, keeping the house up, hanging out with friends, and vegging out in front of the computer.

I'm loving the new season of Bones. They've somehow redeemed themselves in my eyes from the nightmarish ending of last season, and I didn't think they'd be able to do that. Zach made me weep for most of the latest episode. "King of the loony bin", indeed. [sob] More Bones tomorrow, yay!

Uh, what else? I dunno. I <3 Mondays, but my Kev already covered that. [blows kiss]


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