Look what I made!

Here's the result of my first attempt at frozen yogurt using the ice cream maker I got for Christmas. Guess the flavor? It's blueberry. It's not bad, but I think it could have used more sugar (but then, that would defeat the purpose of low-fat yogurt, eh?).

Kitties love wii

I couldn't resist posting these kitties who look like our Fred. I found these guys on the website, wiikityy.com, where their owners post photos of their wii-loving cats.

I'd Better Pick Up the Pace!

According to a recently published Italian study involving over a million people, drinking in moderation can extend your life, while over-imbibing may shorten it.

I think I can speak for all of us when I say "DUH!" to the second part, but the surprising part to me was that, in Italy, drinking in moderation means four(!) drinks(!) per day(!):

According to the data, drinking a moderate amount of alcohol — up to four drinks per day in men and two drinks per day in women — reduces the risk of death from any cause by roughly 18 percent, the team reports in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Can you imagine if during your next physical, when the Dr. asks you how much you drink, you thought about it for a sec, and said, "oh I drink in moderation, Doctor, never more than 28 drinks per week." They'd med-evac you straight to rehab, and probably start an IV with lactated ringers, like Rampart was always telling Roy & John to do on Emergency!

The bad news? Here you go. Check out the calorie counts on these drinks:
Long Island Iced Tea (780 calories)
Margarita (740 calories)
Big Mac (not an actual cocktail) (704 calories)
Pina Colada (644 calories)
White Russian (425 calories)
Mai Tai (350 calories)
Champagne Cocktail (250 calories)
Fog Cutter (225 calories)
Gin/Vodka & Tonic (200 calories)
Mojito (160 calories)
Cosmopolitan (150 calories)

The good news? A Makers Mark Manhattan has around 135 calories. And Makers on the rocks is just 69 calories per ounce.

So don't be afraid to enjoy Makers up to 4 times daily! doesn't that look good?

Why does it always rain on me?

What is with the weather in Seattle? We broke records with nearly 16 inches of rain in the month of November, and we've had about 6 inches this month when the norm is about 5 inches. It's depressing to know that we have months ahead of us before it'll get nice again. While it's been raining here in Seattle, snow is getting dumped on the passes and further east. I just hope we'll get a break soon, and have some sunny days even if it's cold out.

Jim and I braved the heavy rains last night to do our annual after-Christmas-50%-off calendar shopping at the mall. We, then, realized that we somehow avoided the malls for the entire Christmas shopping season. Online shopping rules!

Merry Christmas to all

It's 9:30 Christmas morning. Jim and I were awakened by Ryan and Emily at 7:55am. They were told by their mom and dad that they couldn't open presents till 8am. It took less than an hour to finish unwrapping all the presents under the tree. Emily could hardly contain herself; I think she enjoyed ripping off the wrapping the most. Thanks to all for alll the great presents; I'm going to be busy making ice cream, trying out new sandwiches, and rocking out to my new cds and music dvds. :)

We'll be hitting the road later today, making it back to Seattle to feed Fred, and spend some quality time with him before the day ends.

Be afraid, be very afraid

The Martels from San Anselmo, CA just forwarded us photos from their trip this past summer. They did a rafting trip in Idaho, and lived to tell us about it. Luke and Will look like they're enjoying the raft trip more than Reed who's sitting between Julie and Jack.

Bart Simpson Picks this week's NFL winners

FoxSports has had a different Simpsons character pick the winners every week this season and have finally gotten around to Bart for week 16 (of 17):

"Yo, Bart Simpson here with my NFL picks for Week 16. I guess they didn't trust me the first 15 weeks 'cause they were afraid I'd say something like, 'Green Bay sucks! If those Cheeseheads wanna stick their heads in something yellow, why don't they try my butt?' Just kidding, I love Green Bay."

The Czech War on Santa

from my new favorite magazine: The Week

War on Santa
Prague
"The Czech Republic has launched an ad campaign to discourage businesses from putting up Christmas ads that feature Santa Claus. "This stupid, fat guy with the red outfit is taking over our television ads, and we say it's enough," ad agency head Martin Charvat told the London Independent. In the Czech tradition, on Christmas Eve, instead of Santa, it's the baby Jesus who flies magically into the house and leaves presents in children's stockings. Czechs do have a St. Nicolas figure, but he comes by earlier. Each year on Dec. 6, men dress up as St. Nick or the devil and walk around town in pairs asking children to sing or recite. Good kids get candy from St. Nick, while bad ones get whacked with the devil's stick."

I like the reward/punishment aspect of their Christmas tradition--maybe we should start that system here as well. I don't remember seeing any official "Devil's Whacking Stick" for sale among the marionettes and nesting dolls when we were in Prague. Sounds like a marketing opportunity for the nouveau capitalists over there.

Speaking of nesting dolls - they sell them painted every way you can imagine over there--soccer, basketball, football, baseball players, simpsons, shrek, Disney characters, South Park, etc, etc:I regret not buying the one with David "Big Papi" Ortiz on it for my dad for Christmas. Sorry dad--maybe if he wins MVP next year I'll find one for you.

NERD ALERT!

Title of Harry Potter 7 revealed

From the "No Thanks" Department

3 things:

1) Pete Rose has come out in favor of Mark McGwire's Hall of Fame bid. He goes on to mention that he deserves to be in the HoF as well.

McGwire on phone soon after hearing about this: "hi Pete Rose? This is McGwire. SHUT the **** UP!! You're not helping!!"

I bet that when Big Mac looks at the life Rose has made for himself it scares the crap out of and/or depresses the hell out of him. Probably both:

"In the Dec. 16, 2005, file photo, Pete Rose sits at a table waiting to sign autographs at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Rose said Tuesday that both he and Mark McGwire belong in the Hall of Fame. (AP Photo/Isaac Brekken/file)"

2) Daryl Strawberry has stated that "Jeter must 'embrace' A-rod". I don't think I can add anything to make that any funnier, except maybe this bit straight from the straw's mouth: "He's a sensitive guy," Strawberry said. "He's only played in Seattle and Texas. It's not New York. It's a big difference. You don't get booed in Texas. You don't get booed in Seattle when you play there."

If there's one thing Straw knows, it's when a teammate needs a hug. Check out this awkward moment with a bewigged Joe Pepitone:

3) Lastly, the Iraqi army celebrated the handover of Najaf from US Army control by eating frogs and live rabbits. I guess they didn't have as good a year as the Turkish airport workers Irene wrote about the other day. Either that or they couldn't find a camel.

Sorry but I just had to include a photo of this one too:

Baby goes through L.A. airport x-ray

The morons at the TSA x-rayed a one-month old baby! The grandmother spoke no English, and was confused about the security measures. Somehow the baby ended up on the conveyor belt to be x-rayed, and wasn't noticed till the screener saw its skeleton on the screen. The baby was taken to the hospital to check if it was okay. Duh!

Poor Poor Britney

This girl needs help! When will her friends and family stage an intervention? She looks awful, and she's developed quite a horrid taste in fashion (yes, worse than before). At least she's started wearing underwear again.

A Christmas present bound to be fun for everyone

This is an instant classic -- a SNL digital short as funny as Lazy Sunday. Yes, that's Justin Timberlake in the video. Go to NBC, http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/videos/, to check out the video.

How would you celebrate a job well done? Sacrifice a camel!

This week maintenance workers for Turkish Airlines sacrificed a camel to celebrate a job well done. They all pitched in to buy the camel, and then sacrificed it at Istanbul's Ataturk airport. The camel was seen being led into the airport grounds, and workers were later seen holding up bloody pieces of meat after the sacrifice. Who knew that one camel can provide 1,540 pounds of meat? I'm sure the members of the European Union are just rolling their eyes on this news.

Jolie-Pitt Superbaby Revolution Redux

That Shiloh is sure cute! Angelina + Brad = perfect baby!

Feel free to reread Jim's theory on the superbaby revolution here.

Smart or Stoopid

Take a simple IQ test at http://www.flashbynight.com/test/ and see how you score. You can compare your score to others that have taken the test.

Germany real winner of World Cup: report

check out this article from yahoo today

The article talks about how Germany's image improved worldwide because of hosting the World Cup and made lots of Euro$ too, as their GDP growth was 3 times higher than last year's.

But for me this makes the article worth reading:

"Germans were no longer regarded as humorless beer drinkers who ate sausages in their lederhosen trousers. Now there was an image abroad of Germany as a modern, efficient and tolerant nation full of enthusiastic soccer fans."

ummm...yeah, sure, uh-huh. There wasn't any beer drinking done by Germans during the World Cup. nope. Just the Brits. they were the ones.

No more of this:

Here's Germany's new image:

see? no lederhosen here

Wii have a problem

It was only 6 weeks ago that I first ever heard of Nintendo's Wii. Now you can't watch TV without seeing its commercials featuring 2 Japanese guys who randomly show up and introduce the game system to unsuspecting people. Apparently Wii has been selling like hotcakes, and now people have begun posting problems they've had with it. Apparently the remote controllers for Wii tends to slip out of your hands and fly across the room and cause damage to television sets and furnitures. Check out the photo of the busted screen of a 48" TV. Bummer, man!

Zombie Chickens

I haven't completely made the switch to organic cage-free chicken and eggs. After reading an article about zombie chickens, I can't continue to support massive chicken farms and egg-laying factories. Chicken farms in Sonoma County, Northern California alone dispose more than 500,000 "spent" hens (meaning they no longer produce eggs). In the past these hens were processed for soups and canned meat. Processing plants stopped accepting them because it was deemed not cost effective. So now these farmers put tens of thousands of chickens into a sealed box and fill it with carbon monoxide to kill them. Eventually they become compost. The bad thing is that some chickens don't die. Locals near these chicken farms claim that they've found "zombie" chickens wandering on their properties.

Add Sparkles to your life

If you've never seen the show, How I Met Your Mother, you're missing a pretty funny show. You can't go wrong when the show stars Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doogie Howser, and Nick from Freaks and Geeks? It's on Mondays at 8. Last week was one of the funniest ones ever! Check out the myspace page for Robin Sparkles. Her song will be stuck in your head (and that's a good thing). Don't forget to watch the video too. Canadians rock!!!