Holloway's Pumpkin Bread
My mom got this recipe from our next door neighbor when I was a kid, and has been making it as long as I can remember. When I made it Adrian insisted I reduce the oil content, and if you don't reduce it too much, and substitute applesauce (or more pumpkin) for what you do eliminate, then it's still pretty good.
Dry Ingredients:
3c flour
2t baking soda
1 1/2t salt
1t nutmeg
1t cinnamon
Wet Ingredients:
4 eggs
1c oil
3c sugar
1c pumpkin cooked & mashed
Combine and sift dry ingredients. Beat wet ingredients well. Add dry ingredients alternately with 2/3c water, into pumpkin mixture; blend. Bake 350° 1 hour. Pour into 3 greased 1 coffee tins or 3 loaf pans.
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
I found this recipe on the internet, and made it for a cookie exchange. These are quite good :)
1c canned pumpkin (I use cooked & mashed "fresh" pumpkin)
1c white sugar
1/2c vegetable oil
1 egg
2c all-purpose flour
2t baking powder
2t ground cinnamon
1/2t salt
1t baking soda
1t milk
1T vanilla extract
2c semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 chopped walnuts
Combine pumpkin, sugar, oil, and egg. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder,
...I'll finish this blog later. Adrian is threatening to throw away my compost.(resumed)
...ground cinnamon, and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well. Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts. Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350°F for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly brown and firm.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Best of StrongBad Emails
I first found out about StrongBad/Homestarrunner.com when I was a physics major, and all the other physics majors seemed to be into it. The infamous "Trogdor "was quite popular in our little group - still, I avoided it and didn't actually watch it until I met Adrian (he was into it too). Then, I found out that Rachel and Tommy already knew about it, and after that there was no hope for any of us! Anyway, I finally went back and made a list of some of my favorites:
dragon
car
different town
lackey
morning routine
privileges
impression
the bet
big white face
stupid stuff
date
dangeresque 3
suntan
cheatday
pom pom
crying
origins
secret recipes
dragon
car
different town
lackey
morning routine
privileges
impression
the bet
big white face
stupid stuff
date
dangeresque 3
suntan
cheatday
pom pom
crying
origins
secret recipes
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Balderdash!
Balderdash is one of my favorite games of all time! It all started when I was about eight years old. We were at my grandparent's house for a holiday (I don't remember which one), and some of the extended family was there too. They brought Balderdash, and I was allowed to join in. For those who have never played, this is how it works: there is a deck of cards, each of which contains a handful of outlandish words that no one has ever heard of! Often, they cannot even be found in dictionaries. Anyway, to play a standard game, you need at least three players (but the more the merrier!). Each turn, one person gets to be the dasher, and takes a card from the deck, and reads a word to the other players. Each person has a slip of paper upon which they write the word, and a definition that they make up - except the dasher, who writes the real definition. Then, all papers are turned into the dasher, and he reads them, and everybody votes on which they think is the correct definition. Based on who votes for yours, how often you can guess the correct definition, and how often people guess the right definition when you are the dasher, you earn points and move your piece along the board.
My first turn as dasher, I pulled a card with the word "ratoon." To this day, I don't remember the real definition, but that first round I didn't quite understand the game. Instead of writing the real definition, I made one up: "a rotten raccoon." So, that round there was no real definition. Such was my induction into the world of Balderdash.
Despite that first blunder, I quickly became proficient at the game, and was quite often the winner in family games thereafter. I think I am best remembered for my definition of flississ: A certain monastic order that lives on the edge of cliffs and makes cotton candy. I was probably about 10 or 12 when I wrote that definition, and my Dad (among others), didn't realize that I knew the word monastic, thus I garnered myself several votes. Later in that same game, I think I earned even more votes by using the word "baobab" (which I learned from The Little Prince). Someone else defined flississ as: "One of Flipper's long-lost cousins." Some of my favorite real definitions would have to be:
omphaloskepsis - contemplating one's navel
somnambulence - sleepwalking (For some reason, I always get this confused with sonoluminescence, which was once thought to be a promising field for fusion research. Now, the word I always think of for either of these concepts is somnoluminescence, which would amount to glowing in one's sleep.)
lexiphane - one who uses long words to impress others (guilty as charged)
At some point, Beyond Balderdash came along, and added several new categories to the game, in addition to words. These categories included dates (what happend on this day in history?), acronyms (what does this stand for?), names (what is this person known for?), and movies (what is the plot of this movie?). Movies are hilarious. My best plots have been:
My first turn as dasher, I pulled a card with the word "ratoon." To this day, I don't remember the real definition, but that first round I didn't quite understand the game. Instead of writing the real definition, I made one up: "a rotten raccoon." So, that round there was no real definition. Such was my induction into the world of Balderdash.
Despite that first blunder, I quickly became proficient at the game, and was quite often the winner in family games thereafter. I think I am best remembered for my definition of flississ: A certain monastic order that lives on the edge of cliffs and makes cotton candy. I was probably about 10 or 12 when I wrote that definition, and my Dad (among others), didn't realize that I knew the word monastic, thus I garnered myself several votes. Later in that same game, I think I earned even more votes by using the word "baobab" (which I learned from The Little Prince). Someone else defined flississ as: "One of Flipper's long-lost cousins." Some of my favorite real definitions would have to be:
omphaloskepsis - contemplating one's navel
somnambulence - sleepwalking (For some reason, I always get this confused with sonoluminescence, which was once thought to be a promising field for fusion research. Now, the word I always think of for either of these concepts is somnoluminescence, which would amount to glowing in one's sleep.)
lexiphane - one who uses long words to impress others (guilty as charged)
At some point, Beyond Balderdash came along, and added several new categories to the game, in addition to words. These categories included dates (what happend on this day in history?), acronyms (what does this stand for?), names (what is this person known for?), and movies (what is the plot of this movie?). Movies are hilarious. My best plots have been:
The Nut Farm (actually, I think this may have been a combination plot co-written by Rachel) - The management of an insane asylum have trouble when the inmates start running away to the chestnut orchard next door, climbing the trees, and refusing to come down.
Life is Cheap but Toilet Paper is Expensive - A small town restaurant owner becomes involved in a mafia plot. Eventually, he is double-crossed and murdered by the mafia, and the body is temporarily disguised as a mummy in a school play.
My favorite actual movie (which I have not seen) is Wild Women of Wongo, which Balderdash describes as: A group of ugly cave men living with a group of beautiful cave women meet a group of beautiful cave men living with a group of ugly cave women.
Of course, in years of playing Balderdash, there are other stories than just the definitions. For instance, Rachel and I once played Balderdash with some family friends, Jason and Justin. In this particular game, Rachel was quite behind, as usual (she was just too phlegmatic to get really competitive about it). Jason was the dasher, and when the definitions were read, one said "I have no idea what this word means. Please vote for me anyway." I felt a terrible pang of guilt for always letting Rachel lose so much. I imagined how I would feel if I always lost. So, I suddenly burst out, "Oh! Poor Rachel! Should I vote for her? OK, Rachel, I'll give you a sympathy vote." ...and proceeded to give her a big hug. I'd pay quite alot of money to see the expressions that were going on behind my back as I did that. As it turned out, Justin wrote that definition - so I was the only one who didn't know that. Jason knew because he was the dasher, Rachel knew because she didn't write it, and now neither had I, obviously. And, of course, Justin knew because he did write it.
Adrian's first game of Balderdash is also very memorable. Apparently, beef is not very common or popular in Europe, at least not in Romania. However, my mom grew up on a farm that raised both wheat and cattle, so beef has always been a staple of our diet. So, when Adrian came to our house for dinner one night and my mom made beef ribs, Adrian got to taste them for the first time and pretty much fell in love (maybe that's why he wanted to marry me so bad?). When we played Balderdash with him, he didn't really take the game seriously, and just wrote every definition about beef ribs. I was a bit miffed with him for this, because I REALLY like Balderdash, and he wasn't even trying *pout*. Last time we played Balderdash, he finally did take it seriously - and won! Not bad for a non-native English speaker!
Now, a word as to Balderdash strategies. The aim of the game is really just to have fun, and to that end the best strategy is always to write and to choose the funniest definitions possible. However, if you can't think of anything funny, or just want to win, there are a couple of things to try. There are methods that are more-or-less cheating, and I won't discuss those here, but I usually have two strategies to avoid writer's block. The first strategy is to try to take what the parts of the words sound like, and create a definition from that. The other is to think of something as totally random as possible, and not even try to relate it to the word. As for guessing the real definitions, I've had the advantage of playing the game so many years with the same people, who I have also known for years, and I find it fairly easy to pick out who wrote which definitions. I've also gotten a fairly good grasp of the grammatical style of the game writers, so it's fairly easy to pick out the right vs. the wrong definitions. I think this is how I managed to win for so many years. At one point, I was dumb enough to explain my tactic to the rest of my family, and at that point my Dad started imitating everybody else's style! He's actually quite good at it, and I can't remember ever having won a single game since he started doing that :P
Anyway, that's a little bit about Balderdash, and why I consider it my favorite game, If you've never played it, you should!
Life is Cheap but Toilet Paper is Expensive - A small town restaurant owner becomes involved in a mafia plot. Eventually, he is double-crossed and murdered by the mafia, and the body is temporarily disguised as a mummy in a school play.
My favorite actual movie (which I have not seen) is Wild Women of Wongo, which Balderdash describes as: A group of ugly cave men living with a group of beautiful cave women meet a group of beautiful cave men living with a group of ugly cave women.
Of course, in years of playing Balderdash, there are other stories than just the definitions. For instance, Rachel and I once played Balderdash with some family friends, Jason and Justin. In this particular game, Rachel was quite behind, as usual (she was just too phlegmatic to get really competitive about it). Jason was the dasher, and when the definitions were read, one said "I have no idea what this word means. Please vote for me anyway." I felt a terrible pang of guilt for always letting Rachel lose so much. I imagined how I would feel if I always lost. So, I suddenly burst out, "Oh! Poor Rachel! Should I vote for her? OK, Rachel, I'll give you a sympathy vote." ...and proceeded to give her a big hug. I'd pay quite alot of money to see the expressions that were going on behind my back as I did that. As it turned out, Justin wrote that definition - so I was the only one who didn't know that. Jason knew because he was the dasher, Rachel knew because she didn't write it, and now neither had I, obviously. And, of course, Justin knew because he did write it.
Adrian's first game of Balderdash is also very memorable. Apparently, beef is not very common or popular in Europe, at least not in Romania. However, my mom grew up on a farm that raised both wheat and cattle, so beef has always been a staple of our diet. So, when Adrian came to our house for dinner one night and my mom made beef ribs, Adrian got to taste them for the first time and pretty much fell in love (maybe that's why he wanted to marry me so bad?). When we played Balderdash with him, he didn't really take the game seriously, and just wrote every definition about beef ribs. I was a bit miffed with him for this, because I REALLY like Balderdash, and he wasn't even trying *pout*. Last time we played Balderdash, he finally did take it seriously - and won! Not bad for a non-native English speaker!
Now, a word as to Balderdash strategies. The aim of the game is really just to have fun, and to that end the best strategy is always to write and to choose the funniest definitions possible. However, if you can't think of anything funny, or just want to win, there are a couple of things to try. There are methods that are more-or-less cheating, and I won't discuss those here, but I usually have two strategies to avoid writer's block. The first strategy is to try to take what the parts of the words sound like, and create a definition from that. The other is to think of something as totally random as possible, and not even try to relate it to the word. As for guessing the real definitions, I've had the advantage of playing the game so many years with the same people, who I have also known for years, and I find it fairly easy to pick out who wrote which definitions. I've also gotten a fairly good grasp of the grammatical style of the game writers, so it's fairly easy to pick out the right vs. the wrong definitions. I think this is how I managed to win for so many years. At one point, I was dumb enough to explain my tactic to the rest of my family, and at that point my Dad started imitating everybody else's style! He's actually quite good at it, and I can't remember ever having won a single game since he started doing that :P
Anyway, that's a little bit about Balderdash, and why I consider it my favorite game, If you've never played it, you should!
Monday, December 8, 2008
Supreme Court Shirks it's Duties
...note, I'm not being an Obama hater here. I guess I am being a bad loser, given that Ron Paul lost to both McCain and Obama (in a way). Anyway, even if I were an Obama supporter, it would've been nice to have all these rumors put to rest. I find it very suspicious that nobody is willing to even do that.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Las Vegas
Yes. We did go to Vegas. My parents were gone to Mississippi this Thanksgiving, and Adrian's parents, being Romanian, aren't too traditional about Thanksgiving. Last Thanksgiving, they went to Vegas and brought back some cool pictures, and ever since Adrian has wanted to go. This Thanksgiving, we both had some time off work, we hadn't had a real vacation yet this year, and gas was cheap, and there was nothing keeping us here.... so we took off!
We drove. Let me rephrase that. Adrian drove. I slept alot, and sang alot. First we went to the Arches National Park in Utah. The arches were supposedly formed by gradual erosion of different sediments at different rates. So, a long time ago, Utah was probably more-or-less flat, or at least a simple series of rectangularish ridges. A longer time ago, all kinds of different rocks and materials piled up to make this landscape. Then, time, wind and water slowly eroded the landscape. Some materials eroded faster than others. Where there were pockets of weaker material underneath stronger material, arches were formed. In some cases, you have huge boulders balanced on top of skinny spires. It's kinda cool. It almost looks intentional, like modern artwork or something. Or maybe like a Martian surface. We spent our first night at a motel there in Moab, and spent about 4 hours hiking the first day, and about 4 hours hiking the 2nd day. I brought my coat because I get cold pretty easily, but most of the time I was comfortable in a T-shirt. That's was a change from November in Colorado.
When we left Moab for Vegas, there was a long stretch of highway that said "No Services for 100 miles," so you had to make sure you had gas, went to the bathroom, etc, first. It's really amazing to think that there are such large spaces in modern America that are truly desolate. Not only were there no services, but there was hardly any vegetation. Just red cliffs. What's even more amazing, is that about a century and half ago, pioneers crossed this region with much more primitive equipment, supplies, etc than what we have today. I'm suddenly envisioning A Study in Scarlet. Anyway, we got into Vegas late Sunday night, checked into our hotel, ate Mongolian Beef at a Thai restaurant, and went to bed.
Now, for those of you who are curious, there is more to Vegas than gambling and girls. Namely, the hotels. Our hotel was the Riviera - right on the strip. I later found out it was one of the first hotels built in Vegas. Anyway, it was only $30/night (and we had a flat panel TV in our room, and they gave us free Bath & Body Works soap/shampoo/lotion - coconut and lime scented, mmm), which was another reason we chose to go to Vegas. The main casinos are in the hotels, and that is how they made enough money to become the wonders that they are. Most of them are themed, and have the equivalent of a small shopping mall inside of them, in addition to hundreds (thousands?) of rooms, and always a buffet. Some have special attractions as well. Ours had a Russian ice skating show, but since the tickets ran $90 a head, we decided to pass. We were also interested in Blue Man Group, which turned out to be $80-$150 per person. I think Cirque du Soleil was also having some shows, but I never saw any prices. We did consider going to a Magic show with big cats (only $20/person), but we ran out of time. MGM had a few resident lions, and I think they had a free show with them, but we got there too early. A couple of the hotels had cheap(er) shows with dolphins and sharks, but we didn't see any of those. We did see a few free shows with synchronized fountains and music at the Bellagio Hotel. They have these shows every half hour, and we heard/saw Lady Luck by Frank Sinatra, a duet with Sarah Brightman and Adrea Boccelli (I think it was I Hate You Then I Love You, and also there was Time to Say Goodbye), and one that I didn't recognize which Adrian got on film.
We also saw a pirate show at Treasure Island complete with a firework canon fight. There was also supposed to be a free show with a volcano at night, but that was down for construction while we were there. The main themed hotels that we saw that I remember are: Treasure Island (complete with moving, sinking, fighting ships), Paris (shaped like the Eiffel Tower), New York, New York (with a statue of Liberty, small moat with tug boat, NY skyline towers, and a roller coaster), Luxor (shaped like the Great Pyramid, with indoor and outdoor Sphinxes and lots of hieroglyphs),The Ventian (with an indoor canal and boatmen singing Italian songs, and a ceiling painted skyblue with clouds and lights that gave a realistic sky atmosphere if you didn't look straight up - Rachel, I kept thinking you could get a job being a boatwoman. If I were one of the boatwomen, I would just sing L'Italiano), Excalibur (like a fairytale castle), and others that I am sure I am forgetting.
As to gambling, we didn't win anything; for the very simple reason that you can't win if you don't play. Of course, you also cannot lose. Us both being statistics minors, we knew better. However, I was tempted to play the penny slot machines just to see if they would really work on only a penny. It was interesting that mostly, I only saw old people gambling at the slot machines - I don't know if it's always that way or only on Thanksgiving week.
Anyway, quite simply, we went to Vegas just to walk and to eat. The first day there, we probably spent at least 10 hours on our feet. The hotels are so huge, and to see all parts of them, and go back and forth a few times and get lost and cross over to the next hotel... it just takes alot of walking. The first morning we had pastries at some small coffee shop, then for lunch when to the best rated buffet (I think it was called the Carnival Buffet), and then for dinner (we weren't very hungry) we had some soup at fancy Mexican beside the canal in the Venetian (only in Vegas could you have a fancy Mexican meal in Venice). The next morning, we had chocolate filled croissants in Paris, and then went to the Round Table Buffet for lunch (Excalibur - not nearly as good at the Carnival Buffet), and then split a smoked salmon sandwich for dinner (back in Paris). That night, we went up in the Stratosphere, and Adrian took a bunch of night pictures from the observation decks. It's fairly hard to take pictures at night, because if you move even a little the lights will blur, but Adrian enjoys this challenge.
The hotels are always annoying when you first go in, because you have to run a gauntlet of about 2-6 "greeters" trying to entice you with various "free" offers. We left very early the next morning, after two days in Vegas, because Adrian heard the weather was getting bad and worried about the pass being closed and us being able to get back home. It was about a 12 hour drive. I slept most of the way, and when we got home Adrian was tired and I wasn't. The next day, we had a Romanian Thanksgiving with Adrian's parents, then got in some shopping on black Friday (which actually turned out to be white Friday here).
Oh, and last night there was a huge windstorm here, and it knocked a limb off of one of our trees.
We drove. Let me rephrase that. Adrian drove. I slept alot, and sang alot. First we went to the Arches National Park in Utah. The arches were supposedly formed by gradual erosion of different sediments at different rates. So, a long time ago, Utah was probably more-or-less flat, or at least a simple series of rectangularish ridges. A longer time ago, all kinds of different rocks and materials piled up to make this landscape. Then, time, wind and water slowly eroded the landscape. Some materials eroded faster than others. Where there were pockets of weaker material underneath stronger material, arches were formed. In some cases, you have huge boulders balanced on top of skinny spires. It's kinda cool. It almost looks intentional, like modern artwork or something. Or maybe like a Martian surface. We spent our first night at a motel there in Moab, and spent about 4 hours hiking the first day, and about 4 hours hiking the 2nd day. I brought my coat because I get cold pretty easily, but most of the time I was comfortable in a T-shirt. That's was a change from November in Colorado.
When we left Moab for Vegas, there was a long stretch of highway that said "No Services for 100 miles," so you had to make sure you had gas, went to the bathroom, etc, first. It's really amazing to think that there are such large spaces in modern America that are truly desolate. Not only were there no services, but there was hardly any vegetation. Just red cliffs. What's even more amazing, is that about a century and half ago, pioneers crossed this region with much more primitive equipment, supplies, etc than what we have today. I'm suddenly envisioning A Study in Scarlet. Anyway, we got into Vegas late Sunday night, checked into our hotel, ate Mongolian Beef at a Thai restaurant, and went to bed.
Now, for those of you who are curious, there is more to Vegas than gambling and girls. Namely, the hotels. Our hotel was the Riviera - right on the strip. I later found out it was one of the first hotels built in Vegas. Anyway, it was only $30/night (and we had a flat panel TV in our room, and they gave us free Bath & Body Works soap/shampoo/lotion - coconut and lime scented, mmm), which was another reason we chose to go to Vegas. The main casinos are in the hotels, and that is how they made enough money to become the wonders that they are. Most of them are themed, and have the equivalent of a small shopping mall inside of them, in addition to hundreds (thousands?) of rooms, and always a buffet. Some have special attractions as well. Ours had a Russian ice skating show, but since the tickets ran $90 a head, we decided to pass. We were also interested in Blue Man Group, which turned out to be $80-$150 per person. I think Cirque du Soleil was also having some shows, but I never saw any prices. We did consider going to a Magic show with big cats (only $20/person), but we ran out of time. MGM had a few resident lions, and I think they had a free show with them, but we got there too early. A couple of the hotels had cheap(er) shows with dolphins and sharks, but we didn't see any of those. We did see a few free shows with synchronized fountains and music at the Bellagio Hotel. They have these shows every half hour, and we heard/saw Lady Luck by Frank Sinatra, a duet with Sarah Brightman and Adrea Boccelli (I think it was I Hate You Then I Love You, and also there was Time to Say Goodbye), and one that I didn't recognize which Adrian got on film.
We also saw a pirate show at Treasure Island complete with a firework canon fight. There was also supposed to be a free show with a volcano at night, but that was down for construction while we were there. The main themed hotels that we saw that I remember are: Treasure Island (complete with moving, sinking, fighting ships), Paris (shaped like the Eiffel Tower), New York, New York (with a statue of Liberty, small moat with tug boat, NY skyline towers, and a roller coaster), Luxor (shaped like the Great Pyramid, with indoor and outdoor Sphinxes and lots of hieroglyphs),The Ventian (with an indoor canal and boatmen singing Italian songs, and a ceiling painted skyblue with clouds and lights that gave a realistic sky atmosphere if you didn't look straight up - Rachel, I kept thinking you could get a job being a boatwoman. If I were one of the boatwomen, I would just sing L'Italiano), Excalibur (like a fairytale castle), and others that I am sure I am forgetting.
As to gambling, we didn't win anything; for the very simple reason that you can't win if you don't play. Of course, you also cannot lose. Us both being statistics minors, we knew better. However, I was tempted to play the penny slot machines just to see if they would really work on only a penny. It was interesting that mostly, I only saw old people gambling at the slot machines - I don't know if it's always that way or only on Thanksgiving week.
Anyway, quite simply, we went to Vegas just to walk and to eat. The first day there, we probably spent at least 10 hours on our feet. The hotels are so huge, and to see all parts of them, and go back and forth a few times and get lost and cross over to the next hotel... it just takes alot of walking. The first morning we had pastries at some small coffee shop, then for lunch when to the best rated buffet (I think it was called the Carnival Buffet), and then for dinner (we weren't very hungry) we had some soup at fancy Mexican beside the canal in the Venetian (only in Vegas could you have a fancy Mexican meal in Venice). The next morning, we had chocolate filled croissants in Paris, and then went to the Round Table Buffet for lunch (Excalibur - not nearly as good at the Carnival Buffet), and then split a smoked salmon sandwich for dinner (back in Paris). That night, we went up in the Stratosphere, and Adrian took a bunch of night pictures from the observation decks. It's fairly hard to take pictures at night, because if you move even a little the lights will blur, but Adrian enjoys this challenge.
The hotels are always annoying when you first go in, because you have to run a gauntlet of about 2-6 "greeters" trying to entice you with various "free" offers. We left very early the next morning, after two days in Vegas, because Adrian heard the weather was getting bad and worried about the pass being closed and us being able to get back home. It was about a 12 hour drive. I slept most of the way, and when we got home Adrian was tired and I wasn't. The next day, we had a Romanian Thanksgiving with Adrian's parents, then got in some shopping on black Friday (which actually turned out to be white Friday here).
Oh, and last night there was a huge windstorm here, and it knocked a limb off of one of our trees.
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