Global Cooling

Lets just call it what it really is.

Just when I was thinking of complaining about the cloudy cold whether that has captured Columbus rather prematurely, I have had a change of heart.

Instead, I would like to tell you how much I love Columbus and why I am so grateful that we live here. Its true, I don't plan on seeing the sun much between the months of November to March. (maybe this year October-March). But there are so many wonderful things about living here too.

• There are so many beautiful neighborhoods with tree-lined streets...the kind of neighborhoods that you can imagine settling down in and raising your children for 30 years.
• Metro parks everywhere (seriously, I'm amazed at how many there are for a rather urban area) that feature bike paths, lakes, rivers, gardens, etc...all free of charge.
  
• Quaint areas like German Village, Grandview and the Short North that are fun places to go window shopping or check out a new restaurant.
  
• Crazy football fans who all wear red the day before and the day of the game...no matter where they are. They bring new meaning to the term "team spirit".
  
• The people are by far the best feature. There are so many GOOD people here. People that believe in strong families and being generous with others. People who love God and do the best they can to live good and honest lives. People who have the integrity to live their convictions.

I could go on, but I think I would start basically repeating the same main points. Above all, Columbus is dear to us because of the great friends we have here. Really, the people that we are surrounded by influence us to be so much more than we could be on our own. I'm so grateful that we can spend this time of our lives in Columbus. Honestly, the idea of settling down anywhere for 30 years scares me to death and I don't know how or if we'll ever do it. But I think its safe to say that Columbus would be a good place for someone capable of such a feat (just plan on a nice, warm, tropical vacation every winter).

Love this Video

Last Sunday, Andrew and I did a fireside for the youth in our ward. We talked about the importance of families; especially the lessons we can learn from our parents that will impact the choices we make and the person we decide to become.

We showed this short video clip of President Hinckley describing a lesson he learned from his father. I love it. It is a major feel good. Enjoy.

Mom's Helper

I've been kind of a blogging fool lately. My Mom always sends me a "thanks for posting" email whenever I post something new and I thought I would just make her weekend by posting every little thing that crossed my mind (only my mother probably appreciates it :)

In all honesty though, all she really wants to see is pictures of her grandson. So Mom, here is Luke helping me with my garden today. This wasn't forced at all; he begged to go outside so he could "water" my plants. What a cutie!

If you only knew the noises I had to make to get him to smile like this. I'm sure my neighbors think I'm crazy.

If you look closely, you can see that he is making noises with his mouth so it sounds like there is water coming out. I'll try to post a video so you can hear it.

I hope he grows out of making this face eventually...otherwise he might have a hard time getting a date.

If you listen closely in the video, you can hear his "water" noise (not to be confused with my "shhhhhh" noise")

For all the Econ Geeks

One of our favorite blogs to read is Greg Mankiw's blog. He is a professor of economics at Harvard and was an adviser to President Bush. His style is very easy to digest and, dare I say, entertaining even for a novice like me. If you are interested in the health care debate at all, you might enjoy his most recent article in the NY Times. READ HERE.

Beware of Columbus Craigslist!

I have a love/hate relationship with craigslist. It just kills me how much people want for their junk. Of course, who am I to judge? I always try to tell myself that maybe some sweet soul really does want to pay $200 for that "vintage" floral couch that looks like it has been in the garage for a few years.

But tonight, I have a different gripe. Who is taking these pictures and have they ever tried to sell anything or impress anyone in their entire life?!

Exhibit A


I'll give them some credit...they aren't asking a whole lot. But what am I looking at exactly? Is there really a desk under there? Does it all come with the desk? Could they have least removed the box of tissues? If they are trying to help me picture what this desk could look like in my house, I can assure you that they have succeeded and I am horrified.

Exhibit B:


Well, at least I don't have to ask the "pet question". I'm not even sure if she is actually trying to sell the bed or the dogs. Do the dogs come with the bed? What does the bed look like exactly? I'm still not sure. I think she just really wanted to post pictures of her dogs. I'm not judging anyone who likes to sleep with their pets...but I think most sane people would understand that this is a little repulsive as a selling tactic.

Okay, I could go on (trust me), but it's probably a waste of time and I feel better after getting that off my chest.

Recipe of the Week

A couple times a month I like to try out a new recipe. Last night, we had Baked Wrapped Tilapia and it was FABULOUS. I even recommend it to people who don't usually like fish. There was no "fishy" flavor at all. Try it...you'll like it.

Recipe from Epicurious.

Ingredients:

Topping

• 1-inch cube fresh gingerroot, finely chopped or grated
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped or grated
• 2 green onions (green part only), finely chopped
• Fresh chile to taste (I didn't have this, but Andrew thinks it would have added a lot)
  
• 1 cup finely chopped cilantro
• 2 tbsp grapeseed (or safflower) oil ( I used Olive Oil)
  
• Dash of toasted sesame oil
• Dash of soy sauce
• Dash of fish sauce (I didn't have this)
  
• 4 tsp dark maple syrup

Tilapia

• 4 fillets (4 oz each) fresh tilapia (or other firm-fleshed whitefish)
• 4 large banana leaves (or unbleached parchment paper --I used parchment paper

Preheat oven to 400°F. Combine all topping ingredients in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Place a fillet on each banana leaf and divide topping evenly among them, spreading it over the top. Fold each banana leaf over to form a packet around each fillet and seal the edge of each packet with a small piece of aluminum foil, crimping it tightly. Place on a baking sheet and bake 25 to 30 minutes ( I only cooked it 20...my fillets were thin).

I also topped with some chopped pecans roasted in a little butter. yum. (and served over brown rice).

Feeding the Pain

Today I took Luke to get some blood drawn for a routine blood test. It was one of the most excruciating things I've ever had to witness. When they put the rubber band around his arm and I had to hold him tight to keep him from moving, he gave me a look that said, "Et tu, brute?". I felt like I had betrayed him to the phlebotomy gods.

Of course, it all ended well after lots of hugs and cheerios. Still, I felt so bad as I drove home that I stopped by McDonald's to buy him a "vanilla ice cream peace offering". I knew deep down that it didn't matter to him one bit, but it made me feel so much better. Then I wondered if maybe I was starting a bad a habit by feeding his pain with junk food. I hope, in the future, he doesn't crave McDonald's soft serve every time he gives blood.

It look him a while to realize that he could actually pick it up, but I think he got the hang of it.

4,069,954

Andrew found this website where you can look up different websites and see what they are ranked in terms of traffic.

We found out that we are ranked 4, 069, 954 ...a feat that we were most proud of.

Until I realized that I visit my own blog multiple times a day to listen to my playlist, skim friend's blogs, or just out of habit, etc. Which means, that I am probably the reason for the traffic. [hopefully it's me and not a bunch of weirdos]

Therefore, I would like to thank myself for being my own blog's most loyal visitor. I couldn't have done it without myself.

What we've been up to...

One Week.

About 500 New Freckles.

That's the best way to describe Andrew's break (I know it seems like Andrew has a lot of breaks... I guess its one of the perks of being a student into your 30's).

I can't believe I used to spend so much effort in my youth trying to get rid of my freckles. Lemon juice, retin-A ... I even thought that maybe if I tried to get a ton of freckles, they would blend into one giant freckle and I'd look tan. Ummmm, no. So I've decided to embrace them in my old age. More freckles mean more fun in the sun. Not a bad thing.

We finally made the trip up to Cedar Point. It is the perfect spot for an amusement park. It is on a little peninsula and mostly surrounded by Lake Erie on all sides. It was amazing (and note: the lines are not bad on a school day in September). Just another reason everyone should want to come visit us in Ohio and stay in our basement (I'll put chocolates on your pillow everyday :))

The week also included many trips to the park and to the Zoo.

Father and son having some "man time" while feeding the ducks.

We found some cool mullets too. Sometimes I think we're a little too close to Kentucky.

We went to the Geauga County Fair over Labor Day weekend (Geauga County is where Andrew grew up most of his life). The Nye's are some close friends and Mrs. Nye raises miniature donkeys (there are some fun stories about that if we had time). This year was the first ever donkey show at the fair and Mrs. Nye was in charge of the event. We had to go and cheer them on. The costume portion was our favorite.


I wish we had more pictures. It was hilarious. You can never have too many pictures of miniature donkeys dressed up in costume.



I introduced Luke to his closest relative in the eating department.


Luke's cousins, Ella and Christopher, were also there for the weekend and Luke was completely enamored by them. I love these pictures of Luke and Christopher enduring the boredom while the adults stood around to chat.

By the way, crazy-haired Luke appreciated all the birthday presents (yup, that's how it looks when Mom forgets to fix it after a nap)!

Here's a fun video of Luke. He thought it was pretty hilarious to play with his bottle and send his smoothie flying all over the wall and ceiling (okay, I thought it was kind of funny too...his laugh is infectious, I can't help it).

Good Day to be a Cougar !!!

Readers: Let me introduce you to some of the best college football players in the country.


Exhibit A: #41, Coleby Clawson. Along with his linebacking core (which, may I remind the audience, was without its captain) played better than any core in the country. I can't remember the name of the guy in red, all I remember is #41 and his team shalacking that red team before this play, and I remember them shalacking the same team after this play.

Exhibit B: BYU secondary. Providing the best coverage, run support, and ball stripping in all of college football. Hyperbole? I think not. Let's remember the Oklahoma scores from last year.

2008 Regular Season Oklahoma Scores:

52
57
55
35
49
35
45
58
62
65
68
61
62

This is an average of 54.2 points. Oh, and by the way, 6 of those teams were ranked. Holding that team, who lost almost no one, to 13 points represents the best defensive backfield play in the nation. Mathematically, if Oklahoma's 2008 scores were distributed normally, we would expect them to score 13 points less than 0.005% of the time. That is more than 4 standard deviations off their average!!!
(Yea, BYU can teach you a trade too!)

Exhibit C: Mackay Jacobson and the player to the left of this image who is curiously surrounded by all those red players. There are some who may still say, "oh, the cougs won because so and so was injured." Ha, I laugh in your general direction. May I remind everyone that the only All-American on our team was also absent this game, our starting RB. In this one play we demonstrated the fear our players create in even the country's best teams while at the same time demonstrating our superior coaching, better than even [gasp] Mr. Stoops himself.



Self, Great Day!
It is a great day to be a cougar. But, my friends, EVERY DAY is a great day to be a cougar. We have won 10 games a season for as long as anyone can remember. We never lose at home. We provide the NFLs best third-string quarterbacks.

Cougar fans, it is time to stop being pathetic. Stop complaining, stop booing, stop going to games dressed up in your new banana republic shirt to impress that girl from church, stop wearing colors other than blue. But, most of all, stop being pessimistic Nancies! I knew exactly 4 human beings (myself included) who thought we had a chance in this game. Four. And I assure you that since June I have spoken to hundreds and hundreds about this game. We are not 'the class of the non-BCS.' Utah can have that title, and everything that goes with it. We are one of the few elite football teams in the nation. Let's start acting, er, cheering like it.