Saturday, December 6, 2008
Friday, December 5, 2008
Personal chef
I like it when Risha comes to visit...she makes stuff, like these yum yummy cranberry and raspberry (from our yard) muffins with a crumble on top.
Here they are before baking:
And after!
I use silicone baking cups - less waste than the paper ones since they're reusable - and it's so easy to pop the muffin out of the silicone. Plus the cups are ok for the dishwasher.
Here they are before baking:
And after!
I use silicone baking cups - less waste than the paper ones since they're reusable - and it's so easy to pop the muffin out of the silicone. Plus the cups are ok for the dishwasher.
3 Cool Things - 12/5/08
Free fonts - at dafont.com. It seems like a weird thing to pay for fonts when you get so many gratis on your computer, but there are graphic designers who do nothing but create cool new fonts and really, they should be compensated for their time and creativity. However, the fonts at dafont are TOTALLY FREE and easy to download. They just need to be put into the Fonts folder in your C: drive.
Holiday gift tags in Word format. Easy to add your own text.
Holiday gift tags in Word format. Easy to add your own text.
Pop quiz
Quick, how much do you remember from Civics class? I remember nothing since technically I never took a program called Civics. All of that info was rolled into different social studies classes throughout junior high and high school. Regardless, I retained enough to score 81.8% on this Civics Quiz. Woo hoo! Yay for the Anchorage School District.
What's interesting is the results of the test:
"Seventy-one percent of Americans fail the test, with an overall average score of 49%.
Liberals score 49%; conservatives score 48%. Republicans score 52%; Democrats score 45%.
Fewer than half of all Americans can name all three branches of government, a minimal requirement for understanding America’s constitutional system."
This page is also eye-opening:
"Of the 2,508 People surveyed, 164 say they have held an elected government office at least once in their life. Their average score on the civic literacy test is 44%, compared to 49% for those who have not held an elected office. Officeholders are less likely than other respondents to correctly answer 29 of the 33 test questions."
That doesn't inspire much faith in our elected politicians, but there's nothing new there I guess.
What's interesting is the results of the test:
"Seventy-one percent of Americans fail the test, with an overall average score of 49%.
Liberals score 49%; conservatives score 48%. Republicans score 52%; Democrats score 45%.
Fewer than half of all Americans can name all three branches of government, a minimal requirement for understanding America’s constitutional system."
This page is also eye-opening:
"Of the 2,508 People surveyed, 164 say they have held an elected government office at least once in their life. Their average score on the civic literacy test is 44%, compared to 49% for those who have not held an elected office. Officeholders are less likely than other respondents to correctly answer 29 of the 33 test questions."
That doesn't inspire much faith in our elected politicians, but there's nothing new there I guess.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Help the economy...shop
Not too much going on here -- the weather is warmer, thank goodness, and my sister is town until the 15th. Santa Claus is coming to my workplace on Saturday so I've been tapped to serve as the photography elf. It's pretty funny to see the different reactions children have to Santa -- some will run up to him and say "do you remember me?" and others will totally FREAK OUT. These kids are happy and smiling as they walk through the door, and then the level of their meltdown is directly proportional to how close they are to Santa. Poor kiddos. :-)
As a holiday offering, I wanted to share a site that comes in handy for finding good deals: The Bargainist. It's painful for me to pay full price on anything, so I also check these sites for coupon codes: Current Codes, Coupon Mountain, and Slickdeals. Happy shopping!
As a holiday offering, I wanted to share a site that comes in handy for finding good deals: The Bargainist. It's painful for me to pay full price on anything, so I also check these sites for coupon codes: Current Codes, Coupon Mountain, and Slickdeals. Happy shopping!
Monday, December 1, 2008
Lip smackin' good
Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We sure did - good food and some quality time for me and D. Our pets sure did eat well...Drift says yum!
Wow, I wasn't expecting to see 3 degrees as the temperature this morning...
Wow, I wasn't expecting to see 3 degrees as the temperature this morning...
More snow
Ask and ye shall receive - my wish was snow and I got it! Here we are at the beginning of this past weekend:
You can still see our little birdhouse cabin...
Someone needs to shovel out that birdhouse!
You can still see our little birdhouse cabin...
And here we are at the end of the weekend:
Someone needs to shovel out that birdhouse!
Looks like we received about a foot of snow. I ran some errands on Sunday afternoon and made it all over town just fine, thanks to my all-wheel drive. Then go figure, I got stuck...in the driveway. D had to dig me out when he came out to shovel.
New toy
Living in Alaska affords so many unique opportunities, including outdoor pursuits, but eventually you start to hear the siren call for more "toys." It's starts with the small stuff -- ski or snowboard gear, outdoor clothing -- then jumps to the big boy toys -- boats, atv's, snowmachines, rv's. Well, we're living the Alaskan dream here with D's brand new snowmachine...it's gorgeous and fast!
This past Friday D loaded up the truck and we drove a couple hours up to Willow for some lake and trail riding. What a rush! I'm very, very tempted to get my own sled now...
Saw a couple dog sled teams during the day -- trail etiquette dictates that snowmachines pull over so the teams can pass. I thought maybe the dogs would get spooked by the loud engines but they didn't seem to notice.
Lots of other riders out -- this photo is from the little parking lot near Crystal Lake.
Rolly Creek Trail
Even out in the wilderness we couldn't get away from advertising! This flyer was nailed into a tree...
D spotted these two moose off the trail. We watched them for a while and I considered posting the video here that I took, but it was so boring -- they just stood looking around for about 3 minutes before walking into the trees.
The little speck in the middle of the trees is a plane we saw throughout the day. It landed right next to us as we sped across a lake - that was exciting.
This past Friday D loaded up the truck and we drove a couple hours up to Willow for some lake and trail riding. What a rush! I'm very, very tempted to get my own sled now...
Saw a couple dog sled teams during the day -- trail etiquette dictates that snowmachines pull over so the teams can pass. I thought maybe the dogs would get spooked by the loud engines but they didn't seem to notice. Lots of other riders out -- this photo is from the little parking lot near Crystal Lake.
Rolly Creek Trail
Even out in the wilderness we couldn't get away from advertising! This flyer was nailed into a tree... Yummy hot chocolate during one of our breaks.
D spotted these two moose off the trail. We watched them for a while and I considered posting the video here that I took, but it was so boring -- they just stood looking around for about 3 minutes before walking into the trees.
The little speck in the middle of the trees is a plane we saw throughout the day. It landed right next to us as we sped across a lake - that was exciting.
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