Thanksgiving

Has it really been two weeks since an update?!?

Well, we were frantic getting the house ready for Thanksgiving and Tracey, Clay and Garrett's visit. But thanks to Jeni's hard work the house looked great and everything was in its place for their visit. We had a great visit, and Garrett is just the sweetest little 2-1/2 year old. We were missing him before their flight left Sunday.

For Thanksgiving, Jeni and Clay planned the menu for weeks ahead of time. This is what it ended up as ... yum!



We spent Friday shopping and napping and eating leftover turkey and ham and homemade rolls and other goodness (recipes, I'm sure, to come on Kitchen Sherpa). Saturday, we headed down to Edventure, our local children's museum. Garrett had a blast (and we did too). I think his favorites were the World of Work with the firetruck you could climb in and the scaled down bulldozer that you could drive around, and the water area with a pump that shot water into the air. We also liked seeing the World's Largest Rubber Band Ball (as opposed to the World's Largest Rubber Ball Band, which is what I kept saying, and bring very funny images of people bouncing balls off objects to make sounds to mind).



Garrett even had a try at photography. He got ahold of Tracey's camera and, once he learned how to look through the viewfinder, actually took some good pictures, like this one of Jeni and Tracey. I think he may have found his calling.

Our sister-in-law is a super star!

Cathy was interviewed a couple of weeks ago about being a blogging mom. During the interview, Cathy was so incredibly articulate and not mention lookin' good. Cathy - YOU ROCK! Here is a link to her interview. (Also our nephew, Evan, looks so adorable. Wait until you see his curls!)

Giant exploding comet

OK, you know Jeni married a big nerd, and sometimes I just can't help myself, but I got an email update from Space Weather about a giant comet that is larger than the sun (although light in mass so it's size will not affect gravitational pull or planet paths or anything catastrophic) but you should be able to see it in the sky, assuming you know where Mirfak, the brightest star in Perseus in on Nov 19, which I don't, but still think it will be cool to stare into the night sky and look for something really big and bright that we may never see like this again.

The email: GIANT COMET: University of Hawaii astronomers have measured the diameter of Comet 17P/Holmes: 1.4 million kilometers. This makes the exploding comet bigger than the sun and now the largest object in the solar system. Not surprisingly, the comet is visible to the naked eye; with only a backyard telescope you can watch its gigantic debris cloud expand from night to night. Nov. 19th is an especially good night to look: Comet Holmes will glide by Mirfak, the brightest star in the constellation Perseus, and appear to swallow it. Visit http://spaceweather.com for a sky map and images.

(Note: The sun remains by far the most massive object in the solar system. Comet 17P/Holmes' diaphanous atmosphere of dust and gas, which is what the astronomers measured, contains less mass than a typical asteroid. In spite of its great size, Comet Holmes is a lightweight that won't be deflecting the orbits of planets or causing any other such catastrophes.)

Flickr badge

We added a Flickr badge to the side of our blog that will rotate pictures of ours posted onto Flickr. Now that we have the new computer we're trying to take advantage of some of the features of the internet that we had to avoid with the older computer. I can't think of how many web pages that I'm seeing fully loaded now that the new computer can handle the pages, or pages I'm visiting that I avoided because they were so content heavy that they bogged down the older computer. The crazy thing now is I feel like there's just so much out there that I'm not experiencing online that I should be, so although we've been online since "online" was "on-line" I feel like some of this is new again. And that's a fun feeling.

[PS -- go look at all the new pictures we've posted on Flickr!]

Christmas Tree Cakes

I know I complain about Christmas coming earlier and earlier every year, and noted that November 4 was the first Christmas ad I saw (a Garmin GPS system ad), but if there is a bright spot among all the Christmas stuff coming earlier and earlier it is the arrival of Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes! Love those Christmas Tree Cakes ... almost as exciting as when the Cadbury Creme Eggs arrive for Easter.

Marble of Doom

We've all been in that situation where you click to launch a program and you sit, and wait ... if you're on a PC you are familiar with the hourglass, draining and spinning and refilling; Apple users get a spinning color wheel that looks like a psychedelic starlight mint. This has prompted the Marble of Doom website which allows users to mark the time they have wasted watching the "marble of doom" spin while you wait, and wait, and wait for your program to run. I guess this is what happens when a programmer is forced to wait for too long, he comes up with website ideas to mock the source of their frustration.

We clean up ok

Dean and Jeni
Originally uploaded by jenianddean

Tonight was Workshop Theatre's 40th Anniversary Gala. Even though we have only been involved with the theatre for a couple of years, we had a great time seeing the videos, pictures, playbills, and posters from the early years. The actors did an amazing job on stage, and the crew did a fantastic job putting the show and the party together. We had a wonderful evening.

Here's Branden!

Welcome sweet little Branden! We can't wait hold you, squeeze you, kiss your little face, and love on you. You have the most awesome big sister and big brother in the world. We love you!!
Congratulations Nikki, Todd, Morgan and Evan!

A Point of View....

The Family
Originally uploaded by jenianddean

....was the name of the cabin we stayed in last weekend with Dean's parents, sister, and Sue and Larry (family friends). The weather was perfect, the cabin was cute, the view was beautiful, and the football was exciting and nerve racking. Overall we had a really good weekend.

Here are two recipes that I made over the weekend.
Nutty Orange Coffee Cake - and Sue assured me it was just as good reheated later that night as it was for breakfast.
Brown Sugar and Chocolate Chip Pound Cake with Maple - Espresso Glaze - Yummy!!