DJ Earworm

Gross name for a DJ, but I just ran across this guy's mash-ups and I LOVE them!! He takes the top 25 pop songs of the year and makes them into a new song and video by piecing them together in an awesome way. Matt and I sat down and watched all of them - from 2007 - 2010 and so far I think this one is the best:

2009 Mix

(Although the 2010 mix features Justin Beiber, which makes it pretty darn sweet as well :))

Enjoy!

A Case of the "Maybes"

Sometimes I get nervous that politeness is a dying art.

This makes me sad.

But sometimes I am guilty of this myself. So what to do? I am going to make a focused effort to flex my polite muscle on a more regular basis, and (maybe not so politely) force others to do the same :)

Issue #1: A lot of people our age seem to have a bad case of the "Maybes." Now, I have nothing against people saying maybe. Let's say I walk up to you and ask if you want to go grab dinner on Friday. You say, "Maybe, let me check with my husband and make sure we don't have anything else going on that day." Awesome. Totally acceptable. Figure it out and let me know.

The problem is not schedule checking. It's people giving a half-commitment so they can wait and see if something better comes along. "Yeah, maybe I'll come to your birthday dinner," but then you get invited to a movie and feel like doing that instead. Maybes leave people either counting on you or wondering if you are going to flake, and they add stress to what is usually already a stressful situation. If I'm planning a party or a trip, I need to know how many people are going to be there so I can PLAN. How much food to buy, how many people to make a reservation for, important stuff like that. Your maybe throws off everything for me.

Gah! I am guilty of this myself! I've maybe-ed many an event where I decide at the last minute... that I'm too TIRED to go!! I can't believe how rude I feel just admitting that. I lead people on and then bail on them to watch Law & Order SVU marathons!! Bad form. Which is why I am going to try my hardest to change.

From now on, if I am invited to something and I'm not sure if I want to go, I am going to force myself to decide. So the other people involved can plan accordingly, and so I don't feel tempted to bail out at the last minute (because I never really said that I was going, right? And I am tired...) No more of that. Polite initiative #1. Starts today - watch out.

Jack-o-lanterns

Before moving in with Pamela I had pretty much given up on carving pumpkins or decorating for Halloween.  I remember doing them with my family growing up, but after moving out there was no one to initiate the festivities.  If anyone was unaware, Pamela is Mrs. Festive.  So I guess that makes me Mr. Festive.  For the past couple years we have decorated our house for Halloween which included carving pumpkins.  I'm not talking about cutting out a quick jagged face so we have something to put outside of our house.  If I'm going to carve a pumpkin, I'm going to put some effort into it.  Plus, if I'm going to spend $5 on food that I'm not going to eat, I want to at least have some fun with it.  My dremel has become my favorite pumpkin carving tool and has helped me make some interesting designs.  Below is the pumpkin we made this year and also our Jack-o-lanterns from '09 and '08.

Dog Beach

This video captures a majority of our time spent last weekend.  If it were up to Jordan I think we would have spent the entire weekend at the beach playing fetch.  Unfortunately for her we had to take breaks to eat and visit my dad.  But aside from that most of our time over the weekend was spent throwing the ball for Jordan.  It must be the cold water and cooler weather that allow her to keep going and going.

 

I'm glad we were able to bring Jordan with us on this vacation.  We usually have to leave that poor puppy behind when we travel somewhere but this was a treat for us and her to be able to go on a trip together.  Plus it was a break for Kim who usually has to watch Jordan when we are out of town. 

Overseeding Part 3

Here we are, just two weeks after putting down the seed and the lawn is back to green.  We didn't even do fertilizer or a topper and the grass still came in nicely.  All you have to do is make sure you give them enough water and those little seeds just want to grow.  I do think the seed spreader was a good investment this year.  Last year it came in a little patchy at first due to the hand spreading.  In a few days it should be long enough to give it the first mow and then Pamela and Jordan will have a nice green lawn to play in all winter long.

Let's Be Amish Friends

About a month ago, my good friend Brittany gave me a starter bag of and a recipe for something called Amish Friendship Bread. The legend behind the bread is that only the Amish know what to put in the starter, and then the bags must continue rotating around like a chain letter. You break it, no more bread. However, a quick Google search reveals that you can, in fact, make yourself a starter. Hooray technology! But, boy, do they make you work for this stuff! I was skeptical when I saw that it takes 10 days of fermenting, mashing the bag and adding ingredients before you could bake the bread. But Britt assured me that it was well worth the effort so I gave it a try.

It was pretty fun to watch the bag bubble and expand as the ingredients fermented on the counter. Some days we had to let the air out multiple times - it was out of control! On the 6th day, you add some flour, sugar and milk. Then on the 10th day, it's bake time! You add more ingredients, separate out starter bags for some friends, and make 2 loaves for yourself. And it did not disappoint! It actually tastes more like a cake than a bread - and we all know how I feel about cake :) We devoured one of the loaves - breakfast, snacks and dessert - and gave the other to a friend. I would have kept one of the starter bags for ourselves, but the next day we left for our Cabo trip. I'm debating starting up a new one - so let me know if you are interested in some delicious Amish goodness!

Overseeding Part 2

It's been 8 days since I put the seed down in the yard and finally the new grass is starting to sprout.  Pamela makes fun of me during this first week of the overseeding because I get so impatient.  I just want immediate results from my hard work.  In a perfect world the grass would start growing the day after I put it down.

Even though I'm done waiting to see if the seeds sprout I still have about another week of waiting ahead of me to see if it grows in evenly.  Last year it came in a little patchy at first, but we're hoping to do better this year since we bought and used an actual seed spreader instead of doing it by hand.