Barstools

Funny barstools. No disrespect intended, just thought it was funny.

Things I find funny

These are some pictures that I thought were worthy of sharing. Number one, you know you drink way to much wine if you can make a Christmas tree out of the bottles. Number two... sometimes I feel like holidays just are one after another! By the way... today is both my mother-in-law's birthday and also my brothers birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! This upcoming week we are going to have Thanksgiving and also we are going to go to our first Barmitzvah! (look for the pictures in posts to come)

For Beki

Well... one of my loyal readers, Beki, has requested an update. Although life feels pretty regular, I thought of something to talk about. Being a music teacher and rehearsing Christmas music all the time makes you get Christmas fever early. So... Ben and I have been Christmas shopping for our families online and have been signing away our riches at the door to the UPS man. Tonight we went to CVS and got some wrapping paper and tape. I started wrapping some presents and we "put up our Christmas tree"... which means we plugged in our tree that is always there strung with lights. I know it's sort of redneck (how did we ever get that name?), but I like the ease of just plugging in our Christmas tree every year and then just simply unplugging it and waiting. Anyway... I made Ben take a shot with our Christmas tree and wrapped presents. He is doing his famous "Razamataz" pose. In fact, when I showed him the picture after taking it he said, "Razamataz"... whatever that is! Isn't he the cutest? See the boxes in the background? Those are my presents that have been delivered, but I'm not allowed to look in there. Last year I went by the grocery stores and got free Christmas tree branches just to get the smell in the house. Maybe I'll do that again this year and just live with my own version of the Christmas tree.

Random Feats of Destruction

What happens to a hard drive when it dies? I hear people asking me this question all the time... actually I don't, but just bear with me for storytelling effect here.


At my company, when hard drives die and go to that big motherboard in the sky, we beat them until they cry like a dachsund eating a hot dog.... just to make sure that the data is completely irrecoverable.

FYI: The goggles are for my protection, not just to show off my studly good looks.



















The problem with this technique is that hard drives can be tough little blighters. We had to bash them with a small sledgehammer for several minutes before they opened up. Then we salvaged the super-powerful neodynium magnets for our fridge and made sure the shiny drive platters had a few final dents in for good measure.

Here's the finished product: Two irreversibly damaged hard drive platters. You can also see the needle from one of the drives. Incredible engineering!

In case you haven't seen enough pictures of Ben-cho Libre yet...

Nacho Libre costume plus scooter equals fun! On my way home from work that day I even had a guy in a van shouting out calling me superman. Ahhhhh, good times!

Our Anniversary

It is our three year wedding anniversary today. It has been a wonderful three years for us. Because of our responsibilties on Wednesday nights at church, we went out last night. First of all, Ben got me a present of garnet earrings. I had a pair of garnet earrings that Ben bought for me in St. Thomas when we were on a cruise. I was very sad that somehow I lost one of those earrings. They were sentimental to me. So, these were meant to replace those that I lost one of. What a wonderful guy right? He also took me to the Red Fish Grill out on Matheson Hammocks. I'd never been to the restaurant, but the food was excellent and then we took a walk around the little lagoon they have there. From there you can see the Miami skyline and you are surrounded by water... very nice. It was the place where Ben and I had our first kiss too, so it was really nice. I was overwhelmed with the thought that he put into the whole thing. I love Benny!

Beethoven

Tonight I have a concert at Florida International University. I went there for my master's degree in voice. We are singing Ludwig van Beethoven's (1770-1827) 9th symphony. It's official name is "Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Opus 125", but most of you know it for the "Ode to Joy" tune. When I decided to sing it with this choir, I had no idea what I was getting into really. I've never sung this particular piece. Of course I've heard "joyful, joyful we adore thee", but this is 10 times more difficult. By the end of it, the sopranos feel like squeaking chiwawas! This piece is very popular, so popular that in 2003 someone bought an original manuscript of it for 3.3 million dollars! What is truly remarkable is that Beethoven composed it when he was completely deaf.

Here are some interesting Beethoven facts:

His father was an alcoholic and his first music teacher. His father would often come home after a night of drinking and drag Beethoven out of bed for him to play piano for him. His mom died when Beethoven was 18. Tragic!

Beethoven started to go deaf when we was 28. I've heard some theories that he was going deaf because of his father's abuse.

Beethoven didn't get along well with others. He never married, although he wanted to. Marriage was a complicated issue back then it seems. He had very unusual behavior such as wearing dirty clothes, but washing all the time too. AHH!

Wouldn't You Know

After Ben had put so much time and effort into making his own Nacho Libre mask, we went to Best Buy today and noticed that if you buy the DVD, you get a free mask. So... we got the DVD. Can you tell the difference between the homemade one and the store bought one? I think my Benny did a good job with the homemade one myself.

Costume Party

Tonight we went to a costume party that my friend Leah and I put together. We had great food and a good time. I went as King Tut, and Ben went as Nacho Libre. I told my students today that I was going as King Tut and they said "really? He's a boy" Then I told them that once for Halloween I dressed as Abraham Lincoln-- now THAT'S a stretch! I was so proud of Ben because he made his costume himself. At first the mask he wore was really long and stuck up on top and I told him he looked like a KKK member. We had a good laugh about that and then cut it to fit better. My friend Leah went as Miss Alaska- very cute. Good times!

Frogger Scooter Contest

Do you remember that old Atari game called "Frogger"? You had to get a little green frog across a busy road without getting squished by mean 18-wheelers? Well 2 weeks ago I entered the 25th Anniversary Frogger contest to win a free scooter, and now I'm in the finals!!! Unfortunately, I'm currently in 3rd place and I reckon I need another 400 votes or so to crush the other competitors.

So please vote for me! Just go to the URL below, click on the photo for "Benjamin, Miami Florida", click "Next" and then "Submit"! It's that easy!
http://www.frogger25.com/showfrogger/

Halloween

My mom sent me this photo. Somebody in the south is getting very creative with their scarecrows. I really like fall time. Here in Miami it is still 90 degrees during the day and no changing leaves, so I get a little fall sick. I always enjoyed October and the leaves and going trick or treating. The town I grew up in was small and so when I would knock on people's houses they would give me things like homemade cupcakes and popcorn balls. It wasn't like it is now when everyone thinks there are razor blades in everything. Why on earth would anyone do that? My friend Leah and I are having a costume party. I've decided that I'm going to go as King Tut. I tried convincing Ben to go as Cleopatra, but he wasn't very receptive. He is determined to be Nacho Libre. (if you haven't seen the movie.. you need to. It's hillarious) So, wherever you are, if you walk outside and see leaves changing and feel a chill on your skin, think of me because I am fall sick.

Email to Hershey's: Cacao Reserve 65% extra dark chocolate with cacao nibs

This week I discovered the Cacao Reserve bar by Hershey's. Without a doubt this was the most fantastic chocolate bar I've tasted in a very long time. I loved it so much I even wrote this email to Hershey's about my experience:

Dear Hershey's,

I just wanted to congratulate you on the perfection of an incredible
bar of chocolate. I have just experienced my first Cacao Reserve bar
purchased from my local publix supermarket. This was the first time
I've seen the Cacao Reserve bar and I thought I'd try it. The one
thing that sealed the deal for me though was the cacao nibs in the
"Extra Dark Chocolate with Cacao Nibs" bar. About 3 months ago I did
some research on chocolate on the Internet because of a party I went
to that had a chocolate fondue fountain. Several people on the
internet were raving about the chocolate purist afficionado's
affection for cacao nibs. I was disappointed that I couldn't find any
Cacao nibs in any Publix, Winn Dixie or CVS pharmacy. Finally here
they are! And I have to say that I was not disappointed at all. The
rich chocolatey taste blew me away as I had hoped. This is finally a
chocolate bar to rival the european brands I've been buying like Lindt
and Perugina.

Thank you for another life-enriching experiencing.

Sincerely,

Ben

You can find out more about these wonderful chocolate bars on the Hershey's website: http://www.hersheys.com/cacaoreserve/

Habitat for Humanity

I volunteered to help Habitat for Humanity today. Somehow I overlooked the small but cricitally important detail that I would have to wake up at 6am this morning to meet our group at church at 6:30. After arriving bleary eyed on my scooter we set off to the building site in Liberty city (one of the roughest areas of Miami, Florida).

In case you don't know - Habitat for humanity is a Christian charity that builds houses for low-income people. With the sky-rocketing house prices in the Miami area in the last few years, it has become virtually impossible to find affordable housing which has made their work all the more important. They sell the houses to qualifying families at little or no profit (also subsidized with government grants).

About 100 volunteers from different churches around Miami showed up to help. We were able to meet the future owners of the homes and lunch was even provided!

I was on "insulation" all day, meaning that we were stuffing sheets of fiber glass ceiling insulation foam into the attic space of the house we were working on. It was pretty grueling being covered in dust, sweat and fiberglass but we were surrounded by encouragement and friends... and knowing that the home is going to someone that deserves it even made the itching on my arms tolerable!

Random Things

Two things happened to me yesterday that I thought were pretty note worthy. I stay and watch kids at my school sometimes in after care for some extra money. Well, yesterday I stayed and was watching the kids on the playground after school. I was sitting on a bench under a large tree that shades the area. I was fixing my hair and had my arms above my head and then I felt something drop on my stomach. It was a chewed up mango seed. I looked up in the tree and saw a squirrel looking down at me. I thought I would encourage that squirrel to move to another branch, so I started throwing sticks at the branch to scare him to move. I thought it was an accident with the mango seed. Boy was I wrong. After I couldn't get it to move I just said forget it and went back to sit on the bench under the tree. Then, after a few minutes I felt water on me and I said to the girls "is it raining?" and they told me it wasn't. That's right, it urinated on me. Never in my life has a squirrel done that to me. I guess it felt threatened. The lady in charge of after care kept telling me that it was like a rat going on me or something and that squirrels carry all types of disease. She let me go home early. Needless to say, I took a shower.
Then, later in the evening I went to the grocery store. There was a lady outside collecting donations for missing children. I normally do not donate to these people, but I particularly care for the cause, so I donated. She told me that she had something for me on the way out. On the way out she gave me a flyer and I asked her a few questions. I asked her "so, are you with an organization?" and she replied, "I AM an organization". I thought... hum... a little odd. Then, I told her that I really care about children being safe and that I watch America's Most Wanted often. She said "oh, that John Walsh is an idiot". I was like... WHAT? For anyone who knows me, you know I like John Walsh. She claims that she met him and offered him her hand (handshake.. not marriage) and he looked her up and down and did a 360. I'm not sure what to believe. Random... but I thought amusing.

Life

I had to share these photographs. I was absolutely amazed at these photos. They are taken by a man named Lennart Nilsson. He is a Swedish man that is being compared to DaVinci. He is part artist and part scientist. He is 84 years old. He just put out a new book of photographs called "Life". He is known for his use of macro photography. Taking tiny little pictures. I have no idea how he gets these photos, but I think they are amazing! Some of these photos that I'm showing are as early as 11-15 weeks. To think we all started out this way is mind boggling to me.

Beautiful Florida

We went to Pinecrest gardens yesterday which is where the old Parrot Jungle theme park used to be before they moved over to Watson Island near South Beach. Parrot jungle donated the property to the Village of Pinecrest and now you can walk through the beautiful grounds for free. There's even a small "splash & play" water park for the yung 'uns!

They have all kinds of wild and wonderful tropical plants. Wispy desert plants that look like they're from a Dr Seuss book. Giant palms that are about50 feet tall. A petting zoo where you can catch worms from pot-bellied pigs. And a butterfly garden where I think all of the butterflies have been eaten by the local iguana population. (Not sure if iguana's are carnivorous so don't quote me on that one. Butterflies kind of look plant-like though so you never know.)


We even found one of the old parrot cages that was unlocked with some strange monkey species inside!

The guy at the petting zoo said the little billy goats were always hungry. The pot-bellied pig felt like it's back was made from a doormat.

Cooking in Autumn

I do not claim to be the best cook ever, but I'd like it if one day my grandchildren could believe I am. I got a recipe from my good friend Leah for gingerbread. This is a special recipe because Laura Ingalls Wilder used it. (authoress of the Little House on the Prarie books) So I decided I'd make it. As I was taking it out of the oven I realized that I had left out one of the very important ingredients... molasses. So, the gingerbread was a big dry. I took a picture for your viewing pleasure. It's the DRY looking one. I gave it to the people at church. They seemed very happy with it. Then today I thought I'd try it again. Ben thought I was crazy, but I had to know what it was supposed to be like. This time I remembered the molasses and it is much better. I took a picture of it for you to look at the difference. It's the browner one. Since I know all of you are inspired now, I will give you the recipe. Don't forget the molasses!

1C brown sugar
1/2 C shortening
1C molasses
2 tsp baking soda
1C boiling water
3C all purpose flour (I used whole wheat flour)
1 tsp of ginger, cinnamon, all spice, nutmeg, ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs well beaten

Blend shortening and sugar together. Add baking soda to boiling water and mix well. Combine all dry ingredients and then add all wet stuff. Mix it up and put into 9X9 pan on 350 for 45 minutes. I used an 8X8 pan and it was fine. My mom suggested putting sliced bananas in the middle and then putting cream cheese icing on top. I didn't do that, but it sounded good to me.

Chickens

There's nothing quite like the smell of 15,000 fresh born baby chicks straight out of egg factory. This was part of my experience last Christmas in Alabama at a chicken farm. The chicken houses I saw can contain up to 25,000 chickens and the farm had 5 chicken houses for a total of 125,000 chickens. These chicks arrive in blue pallets on a schoolbus from the hatching factory. They arrive on their birthday and have never had a meal yet. When they arrive they are tossed out of the pallets onto the chicken house floor where there are water drips and food for their convenience! The chicks are not harmed in any way when they are tossed which is absolutely amazing to me. Apparently if the chick has already had it's first meal then it is more easily harmed when they land.

The chicks are all female and only take 6 weeks to grow to full-size. Then they're taken back to the factory for processing on big 18 wheeler tractor trailer trucks as big stinky not-cute-at-all chickens. There are no hormones used and because of the new bird flu regulations they have to have chickens tested for disease in every batch.

The temperature and light inside each chicken house has to be carefully regulated otherwise the chickens will die in huge numbers. While I was there one of the breakers for a chicken house blew out and the circulation fans didn't kick in. About 5,000 chickens died of heat exposure.

On the other hand if the temperature gets too cold, the chickens will bunch together and climb on top of each other to keep warm and smother themselves to death. So next time you eat chicken from the grocery market, remember how much the chicken and farmer have gone through to get to your plate!

This post was made by Ben.

A Hedge To Remember

I thought this was hillarious. DON'T try this at home.

Amish

This barn photo is really neat. The Amish raise this barn in one day without using nails. They use wooden pegs instead. I have always been fascinated by the Amish. My first experience with the Amish was when my family went to Pennsylvannia (Lancaster County) for a vacation. A few years ago I drove to Ohio (Holmes County) to visit the largest group of Old Order Amish in the United States. I rode in a buggy with an older Amish man and spoke with him about their system of health care and other things. I have read and watch documentaries about the Amish. I had a pen pal once that was Mennonite (similar to Amish). In short, I know a lot about that Amish. I think that I am interested in any group of people that chooses to live simple lives. I have an equal fascination with monks, nuns, ect. The above picture is a photograph by Bill Coleman. I own a copy of it. It is of a wedding scene in January. The Amish get married in houses and you can see in the photo the people walking to the house and their buggies outside. I think it is beautiful.
I met Bill Coleman here at the Coconut Grove art festival. I had seen his photos before and was interested in meeting him. I had bought a puzzle at Christmas time of two Amish girls holding hands and on the box was his website. When I saw he was going to be in Miami I made a point to go and see him. I asked a man in the tent if Bill Coleman was there. He said "no" and then asked me why I wanted to meet him. I told him that I really liked his photos and that I just wanted to let him know that. He didn't say anything, so I just began looking around. Then, the same guy that I had spoken to before came up and tapped my shoulder. He said "I'm Bill Coleman". It was pretty funny. I know that Amish don't like their pictures taken, but apparently Bill Coleman has some deal with a group that in exchange of tasteful pictures that he will give a portion of the proceeds to them for child health care.
You can imagine how I felt hearing about the tragedy in Pennsylvania at the Amish school. It would be tragic in any school, but I especially thought about it because I can not imagine such a thing happening in an Amish community. Let us all pray for those families.

Sunflowers

Some of the under-appreciated simple pleasures in life include wood-whittling on a front porch, watching beautiful sunsets with the person you love, romantic dinner's with wine and of course, running rampant through a Missouri sunflower field chased by runaway convict killer bumblebees.

"Killer bumblebee's!" my wife screamed. "They'll rip yer arms off before you can say antidisestablishmentarianism!"


Fortunately we weren't wearing yellow that day or we would have been voraciously eaten alive with nothing left but our hair and nails.

This post was written by Ben.

The Day After

This morning Ben just HAD to drive the scooter and he wanted to wear the shirt that matched.