American as Apple Pie

We had a lot of photos from Easter so I have broken them up into two videos.

Did you know that apples are not native to North America? I didn't but I recently saw a PBS (public broadcasting station) special on New England Native Americans during the time period the first English settlers where settling the area in the 1630s. Anyway the Pilgrims brought apples, and used to eat apple pies for breakfast. I totally agree that Apple Pie is a breakfast meal not just a desert. Of course their pies didn't have nearly as much sugar as a modern apple pie.



As many of you know I had a very tough time finding the supplies needed to die eggs last year while we lived in London. Apparently that is not a tradition they observe. I called around to several grocery stores and not one had white chicken eggs. I did find duck eggs which were a little larger then chicken eggs and more money but they did the trick. I don't recall how we came about the kit to die the eggs. I think Katie had it shipped over. The stupid things we do for kids.

Rocket Man

Morgan and I made a 2 liter soda bottle launcher powered by compressed air. We didn't do anything special to the bottle like fix a nose cone on it or anything. I figure that is a another project for another weekend. Plus we only had one bottle and I didn't want her to accidentally put a hole in the bottle and ruin the experiment.

Oh and we found out that if you fill the bottle with 1/3 water it goes much higher or further depending on your perspective. It seemed like adding more didn't do much for you and at some point the performance degraded. I suggest if you make one of these that you do not aim it straight up as the water then rains down on you.

Next time I'll aim at the street in hopes of hitting a car. We shot the rocket many more times then you will see in the movie but Morgan's filming skills still need some practice.

If you look to the right I added a new feature called "Followers". I'm not exactly sure what it does, but its nice to know people are watching my videos. I also added a RSS feature as well. Hopefully these new tools will help notify you when I have added a video.

Egg-tas-tick

I've been spending this cold winter doing a lot of inside home improvement projects. Painting, fixing walls, a little electrical that type of thing. This weekend however, I decided Morgan and I would do some experiments. Good quality educational time together. I don't know if she actually got anything out of it but she enjoyed it. We made contraptions to hold an egg and keep it safe while being dropped from a high point on the highschool bleachers surrounding the football field. Football is an important sport at my old highschool. Let me correct that American Football is important. I don't even know if they have a soccer team(football to everyone else).

Wha??? You call that a snow storm??? Rubbish!

London gets a few inches of snow and the whole place shuts down. Pathetic the whole lot of you. Man I wish I was there so I could see it. I imagine I would have been the only one to show up to work not thinking it was a major event. Then I'd wonder where everyone was. Of course I still wouldn't of logged into the phones. I'll never forget what Jodie (UK co-worker) said to me when I had less then a month to go. You do know how to log in to the phones - don't you? My response "I'm supposed to log in?" Oh well I wasn't about to start then. I'm not much for the phones. Ah memories

Xmas 08

Here it is...what you've been waiting for. Another real video. For Christmas I received a camcorder so I can start doing different types of videos. Pretty snazzy!

It was a year ago now that we arrived in London on Jan 1st 2008. I had to work the very next day. What a disaster. I was so jet lagged and my clients were not in the mood to give any slack. I think my successors learned from my lesson and they have given themselves time to adjust.

The person who is there now was shocked to find that London is basically closed on Sundays. Most of the stores are only open for a few hours in the middle of the day. Its most annoying, but its one of those things you get so used to that we planned around it. I never thought to warn her. Opps.

There are many things I miss from London. I miss being able to hop on the tube or bus and get around. I miss not having to shovel snow, and not having to drive 30minutes to get to a store. We can't find fish and chips that taste anything like that greasy chip shop on bethnal green run by the Asian couple. Lets not forget about the Indian take away. You just can't find that here in the sticks. Most of all I miss having stuff to do. There was always something going on and something to see.

One thing I no longer miss is the BBC. We signed up for Direct TV and one of the channels is BBC America. I get to see my favorite show Top Gear. Joy!

The Ice Storm of '08

Okay, I'm sorry I haven't posted in some time. The holidays and winter weather have kept me away. A few weeks ago we had a freak ice storm that sent us back to the stone age. Here is a poem describing the incident. I can not take credit for it but I thought funny.


Twas two weeks before Christmas and all through the town
it rained and it froze and the trees all fell down.
The wires that were strung on utility poles
snapped like a twig and the houses all froze.

We got our selves nestled all snug in our bed
while visions of warmer days danced in our head,
and me in my thermals and Pa in his cap
stayed huddled together for a bone chilling nap.

The moon on the ice made a crystalline glow
and we thought to ourselves, just how long can this go?
When what to our wondering eyes did appear
but our son with some coffee and donuts and cheer.

We could see our white breath in the darkness above
and deep under the covers I searched for my love.
His feet, they were frozen and so was his head ---
made me think to myself that he just might be dead.

The days passed so slowly, we must be insane
as we waited and wondered and called out by name
"On Thursday, on Friday, on Saturday (shit!)
on Sunday, on Monday, on Tuesday (please quit!)
on Wednesday, and Thursday and Friday (oh dread!)
the kerosene fumes must have gone to our head.

To add to the pleasure of winter's delight
two snowstorms came by - 18 inches of white.
The snowing and blowing made things bad to worse
and we prayed to the heavens our pipes wouldn't burst.

Pa’s eyes now were sunken, his expression --- not merry,
his cheeks had a pallor, his nose like a cherry.
The odd little smile on his face wasn't fun
and he often was mumbling "go get my gun".

Then a rap on the door, and the fireman said,
"Are you sick, are you sane, and is anyone dead?
There's a shelter, there's warmth, you can come if you're able,
we have showers and kindness and food on the table" ---
and we looked at each other and thought --- "what the heck?"
yeah ... eleven days later you FINALLY check!

On night number twelve we heard the faint roar
of a convoy of trucks and we ran to the door.
To the top of the poles, to the stretch of the cable ---
please bring us your power just as fast as you' re able!

They spoke not a word, but went straight to their work
and the power came on with a hum and a jerk.
They heard us exclaim, as they drove out of sight ---
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!
WE HAVE HEAT! WE HAVE LIGHT!

Pumpkin Assassination

Every year the problem of how to dispose of ones jack o lantern stumps thousands. I would like to offer this video as a suggestion.