Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Our Little Taxpayer

Carrie turned sixteen in June. She still doesn’t drive (which is a whole ‘nother story for another time), and we basically let her slide for most of the summer. She had herself a glorious summer of sitting on her booty, getting up at half past late in the afternoon and then IM-ing with her friends until the wee hours of the morning. And occasionally demanding to be taken to the movies. Or dropped of to play D&D with her friends.

Nice work if you can get it.

Anyway, once school started, we grew some brains cells and decided to “crack down” and force her to get a job. Plus she’s saving her shekels so she can go to Japan for a semester on a Study Abroad type thing. She searched high and low and then walked into the Domino’s Pizza place and they hired her on the spot. She started on Saturday and I can’t wait until she gets her first paycheck. If it’s enough, she’s going to take the whole fam (including all 16 of our offspring!) out to dinner. I did that after I got my first paycheck. (The McDs on Highway 49 South in Richmond, MS, thank you very much.)

Look at her, isn’t she just adorable?! It’s the oversized and off-center hat that really makes it, I think.

And of course Ellis has to insert herself whenever the camera comes out.

So if you live on the East side of Salt Lake, close to Foothill Village, and you order a pizza with a lot of meat on it, or the Buffalo wings, or some other meat crammed monstrosity, don’t be surprised if the person who takes your order tries to talk you out of it, offers to send you info on PETA, and says, “I hear the Veggie-lovers is EXCELLENT tonight.”

Welcome to the real world, Carrie. Soon you’ll get to complain about taxes and the damn government taking all your money. “Who the hell is this FICA guy and why is he taking all my money?!”

Jon scribbled this mess on 09/26/06 at 12:03 AM, best we can tell it fits in the category of Photos Regular Post. This many folks had something to say about that, The permanent home of this entry is here: Link

Monday, September 25, 2006

Site Update

Welcome to the New Look™ of this place.

If you don’t like it: I don’t care. (You aren’t the first.)

If you think the fonts are weird looking: I don’t care. (It’s the web, kids, not like I have a whole RANGE of type styles to choose from.)

If you wish I hadn’t changed anything: I don’t care. (I hated the old look, OK? It was essentially a standard template. It was icky.)

If you wish that your favorite TV show hadn’t been cancelled: I don’t care. (And I was sad as well when they cancelled Melrose Place.)

If you think it’s too minimalistic: I don’t care. (It loads fast, is light weight, mostly standards compliant and uses white space fairly effectively.)

If you think the new logo is facile and boring and stupid: I don’t care. (And since when did my Mom start using the word “facile?")

If you want me to go away and never waste any more electrons on this site: Caring? Not so much. (But you’d think my own family would be more supportive.)

(OK, none of that is true! Please let me know what you think!)

(And please love me!)

(I care! I really do!)

(Have a nice day.)

(and please come back soon!)

(I love you, too!)

(I know I don’t say it enough, but you know that I care deeply about you, right? *You* are my favorite reader! All the others meant *nothing* to me! I swear!)

That’s it… I’m changing it back. Or hiring someone.

Jon scribbled this mess on 09/25/06 at 10:02 PM, best we can tell it fits in the category of Regular Post Rants. This many folks had something to say about that, The permanent home of this entry is here: Link

Give Us This Day, Our Daily Bread

For various reasons, we’ve been making our bread of late. Reha usually does this on the weekend, but this weekend she had both a brief and a small article to write, so the bread making duties fell to me.

No big deal. I can bake, right? It’s just following the recipe and I can do that?

Well, it turns out that though bread is a bit trickier to make than Toll House chocolate chip cookies, it’s not *that* hard. I think what makes bread tricky to make and kind of intimidating is that whole thing about yeast and letting the dough rise. But that’s just chemistry and everyone knows that chemistry is easy, right? You just have to get the temperature warm enough so the yeast bacteria begins to “eat” the glucose in the sugar and give off CO2 and cause the bread to enlarge (rise). The chemical reaction only takes place within a certain temperature band. You just have to get the temperature and sugar quantities correct. Simple, no?

Anyway, I made three loaves of tasty bread (and pretty too, oh my, look at how pretty they are!).

And just to show off, I made some butterscotch chip cookies and a batch of chocolate chip cookies as well.

And I made Crystal-Lite, but that was really easy. No skill involved, just dump the powder and fill up the jug.

OK, the funny part of this is how proud I was of my mad baking skills. I did my whole prancing and dancing around the kitchen whilst parading my loaves above my head. “Look, I have made bread! The stuff of Life! Bow before me, for I am the bringer of Life!”

And then Reha pointed out that she does that sort of thing all the time and no one is giving her medals and she’s not exploding in a fit of self-congratulation.

“But, look! I made bread!” I said somewhat plaintively and bringing it down from where I had lofted it over my head. “And cookies. I made cookies, too.”

Pause while she looks at me and my bread.

“It’s the stuff of Life,” I added lamely.

“It’s very lovely bread, Jon.”

I feel a little un-appreciated now. Is this how it feels to be a housewife?

Jon scribbled this mess on 09/25/06 at 10:18 AM, best we can tell it fits in the category of Photos Regular Post. This many folks had something to say about that, The permanent home of this entry is here: Link

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Ben Folds == Awesome

I think I still have a hetero-crush on Ben Folds, even after all these years.

Jon scribbled this mess on 09/23/06 at 01:06 AM, best we can tell it fits in the category of Regular Post. This many folks had something to say about that, The permanent home of this entry is here: Link

Friday, September 22, 2006

Amazon Delivers!

We ordered a blond, blue-eyed, potty-trained three year old from Amazon and look what UPS delievered the other day.

If only she’d come with her own wardrobe…

Jon scribbled this mess on 09/22/06 at 12:21 PM, best we can tell it fits in the category of Photos Regular Post. This many folks had something to say about that, The permanent home of this entry is here: Link

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