Ben's Birthday

Tomorrow is Ben's 29th birthday. Tonight we went out to a restaurant that I chose. It's called Lydia's and I saw Lydia a few times on PBS making pasta and found out she had a restaurant here in Kansas City. I thought it would be good... and we weren't disappointed.

Here's a picture of us. You can't tell, but we are in a garden and not trapped in a well.





Here's what I had. They came around with three different kinds of pasta. Fettuccine, Ravioli, and Penne. A lot of it came home with us.. just too much food!










Ben and dessert. It is a frozen chocolate mousse. Delicious.












Ben and his choice... gnocchi.













This year I told him he could choose his own present and he did. This helmet. He was getting ready to send a package to Beki in this picture.

Welcome to Therapy. My name is "Nutbar" and I will be your Guide.

This is the latest craze sweeping the Yoga industry. I don't know whether to laugh or buy myself a gun.

Lunar Eclipse

Today Ben and I got up at 5:15 to look at the lunar eclipse. Lunar eclipses are very special to us because we had our first kiss while watching a lunar eclipse and surprisingly we got married on a day that had a lunar eclipse. Here's what it looks like... beautiful.

This is not a political post ... honest.

Take Me Out To The Ballgame

Today Ben and I went to the batting cages. Ben wanted to try this in his pursuit of a hobby and also because in Britain they don't have this stuff.

In this first picture you can see the ball flying toward Ben. The fast pitch machine was deadly!
















Here's the biggest dork in the universe. :)





















Handsome and smart.












The lovely bubble heads.

Amphibian Grins

Morris Snake

This is a snake that was on a tree at my mom's house. The neat thing is that you can see he had a little breakfast not too long ago! We think it's a chicken snake. Thankfully my parents don't have chickens anymore!

Human Tetris Game

More crazy Japanese gameshow mayhem - you'll have to see this to believe it. I'm sure they'd have to increase the size of those holes by about 200% if this gameshow was to ever make it in the US!

Tokyo Wave Pool Insanity

Can you spell "W-e-d-g-i-e"?

Cooking in August

For those of you that like Indian food or mildly spicy foods... this is a recipe for you. I got this out of a book from the library called "Pennsylvania Dutch Cooking- A Mennonite Community Cookbook". Since when do Mennonite people cook Indian food? I don't know. It was fantastic! Sorry... no pictures taken.

Rice and Curry

1 pound hamburger (I used two)
2 T fat (I used margarine)
2 large onions, diced
1 1/2 tsp curry powder
2 C strained tomatoes (I used canned died tomatoes with green chilies)
4 medium-sized potatoes, diced
1 1/2 C rice, uncooked
6 cups water (1 1/2 C for meat mixture, 4 1/2 for rice)
2 tsp salt

Brown hamburger and onions in the fat. You might want to drain off a bit of the grease if it is quite a bit. I did not drain it because I used very lean beef. Add tomatoes, diced potatoes, curry and salt. Add 1 1/2 C boiling water and cook slowly until potatoes are soft. Cook rice in salt water and drain. Serve curry mixture with the rice. This is good also with chicken instead of beef. Serves 6-8.

Julia Sweeney

You may remember this lady on Saturday Night Live. I thought this video was funny.

Nightclub for Bill Gates fans

This is in Sarajevo.

Watermelons

Someone has way too much time on their hands.

The Real Group- fantastic!

Love them!

Mormon Spooky Video

Ok... so Friday two Mormon men came to the house. I let them in because it was so hot outside and offered them some water. What followed was a big long discussion about why we can not accept the claims of Joseph Smith. Tonight I was watching youtube videos about Mormons and this one made Ben and I raise an eyebrow. The music in the background truly sets an atmosphere.

Missouri and family

The more I live in Missouri, the more I realize that it is a big state!

For all you scholars out there, here are some facts about Missouri that you might not know. (I certainly didn't)

The Missouri State Song is called "Missouri Waltz" and here is an excerpt from the lyrics:

Hush-a-bye, ma baby, slumber time is comin' soon;
Rest yo' head upon my breast, while mommy hums a tune;
The sandman is callin', where shadows are fallin',
While the soft breezes sigh as in days long gone by.

Way down in Missouri where I heard this melody,
When I was a little child on my mommy's knee;
The old folks were hummin', their banjos were strummin'
So sweet and low.

and yes, there is a reason that you don't know the song.

The Missouri state bird- bluebird (by the way, it's also NY's state

bird as well)

The Missouri state flower is the Hawthorn.









The Missouri state tree is the flowering dogwood.

This weekend we went up to St. Joseph, MO for a surprise birthday party. This is Ben with his Grandpa looking like they are having a good time.












We went to church with Ben's Aunt and Uncle, and then we drove through the town of Gower. I thought Gower's town hall deserved a picture. It's the smallest town hall I think I've ever seen. Of course, today I saw a whole family of turkeys on the side of the road and I didn't have the dexterity to take a picture that fast!

My Niece and Nephew

These two are my sister's kids. I think everyone needs to see how cute my niece and nephew are!
















Chloe Anna's beautiful smile.
























Clay's beautiful smile. Look at those teeth!

It Hatched

The last time I was out at Ben's grandparent's place Grandpa brought a cocoon inside the house. You see, Grandma is into cocoons of butterflies and moths (not literally people). She enjoys identifying them and also just watching them. We decided this cocoon was a moth and Grandpa placed the cocoon in a potted plant indoors.


Tonight we went over to visit with them and Grandma and I were having a great conversation when I heard a really loud fluttering noise. I asked her if she heard it and she said, "oh, it's just a bug outside." Just about that time we see this huge thing come flying out and bumping into the walls. I squeal and run down the hall. This next move was really bright on my part... I turned on the bathroom light. So guess where the moth flew? Right toward me! It looked like a bat coming toward me. Terrifying!


This is the end result... the cocoon that the moth came out of, and the moth that came out. Eventually I will put a picture of it with its wings expanded so you can see how pretty and how BIG this thing was. In the meantime, we're waiting for it to die sealed inside one of Grandma's tupperware bowls. (sorry for all the sensitive out there)

Audition and Parkville Day Trip

Well... today I had an audition for the Kansas City Chorale, a professional choir in the area. It has been a long time since I had an audition and since I only found out yesterday that my audition was today, I was nervous. I think it went well... and we'll see what happens. I met the conductor shown in the picture in the front. He was very funny and kind. His name is Charles Bruffy.





After my audition we went to explore Parkville, Missouri. It's just north of Kansas City. This dude is Colonel George S. Park, founder of Park college. This town was originally called English Landing, but was renamed Parkville later on. Does he look happy to you?
















This is part of Park College. Can you imagine putting a roof on this building?
This is a tiny picture of what downtown Parkville looks like. There are lots of antique stores and neat restaurants. We enjoyed walking around! It also has a walking path that goes along the Missouri river, but we didn't have enough time to do it all in one day. Plus... it was hot. Anyway... we had a great day.

When you're very bored .... in an Asian prison somewhere

What else is there to do but make your own Thriller video? This made me laugh out loud!

Obama for fun

I thought this was funny. If you watch it more than once it is very catchy.

Screaming Beans, by Simon Panrucker

We got a huge kick out of this. You can find the original screaming beans flash here. Just keep clicking on the screamin beans and make sure your speakers are turned on!

100 postings and rabbits

That's right everyone... this is my 100th posting on this blog. So bring out the festive dancers!!! This is how everyone looks in Missouri. (just kidding)












I took some pictures of some neighborhood rabbits this morning. They are so beautiful, I never get tired of looking at them. See how close I got up to it?



















If you look closely at this photo you will notice another rabbit off to the left. There are tons of them!

Jamesport Day Trip

Today my mother-in-law Pam, her friend Chris (a lady) and I went on a day trip. I had heard about this town before I moved to Missouri and was interested in seeing what was there. The town is called Jamesport and it has the largest settlement of Amish people in Missouri. According to my reading, there are about 150 Amish families that live in this town.
















I wasn't sure what to expect, but this town was pretty sleepy. I liked this sign reminding English drivers to be careful.















Along the way we saw many deer being raised in fenced areas. I asked an Amish lady about that and she said that they sell them to hunting places so that rich hunters can get their prize deer right then. It sounded a bit contrary to what the Amish are all about I thought. They are beautiful though. We also saw a red fox pup standing out near the road, but it was too quick for me to get a picture of it.






This is where we had lunch. I ordered a turkey sandwich and decided to try a different side... Schnitzel Beans. I was prepared for veal or something in some baked beans, but alas, it was sweet and sour green beans! It wasn't my style of green bean really, but I'm glad I tried it!









This is the center of town. Look at the bustling about town! You know it is a small town when they all give directions from the "4-way", meaning the only 4-way stop sign. I've come a long way baby from Miami... that's for SURE!

I ended up at the end of the day with an Amish cook book, a couple of candles, and a small loaf of banana bread. Life is good.

Strange Welcome

Ben and I are enjoying discovering what Midwestern life is all about. So far, we've noticed weather is a big deal here. Anyway... it seems much cooler than Miami and almost no mosquitoes which is nice.

All neighborhoods have certain quirks right? Well ours is no exception. When you turn onto the street near ours you see lots of signs and barricades so people will not do three point turns in their driveways. Apparently, the city just put up a concrete median thing and so people that go to McDonald's used to could have turned left... well, not any more. So instead, they do turns in the driveways of these people. I think the buckets and boards are my favorite barricade.

This is a fine sampling of the many signs.














Sometimes the signs are even a bit mocking don't you think?

Looking For a Job

Boy, has it been a while since I've looked for a job. I've had one interview with a school for a music teaching position for two times a week. We'll see what happens with that. I've also been looking at some of the big corporations down here. Lots of companies have their corporate headquarters down (or up) here. There is Russell Stover, Applebees, AMC Entertainment, Sprint, and my favorite- Hallmark. I really had no idea about how the Hallmark brand came about, so I did a little research. Oh, and I also applied for a job there... so we'll see. Before I get into that though... apparently Harry S. Truman is from here too. I didn't know much about him either besides he once was a president. I found out he was president during WWI and he is the dude that ordered the A bombs on Japan. He had a wife nicknamed Bess and a daughter that became a mystery novel writer. Anyway... on with the story of Hallmark.

In 1910 Joyce Clyde Hall (were names different then?) stepped off a train in Kansas City, Mo., with nothing but two shoe boxes of postcards under his arm. He had little money – not even enough to take a horse-drawn cab to his lodgings at the YMCA – but he had high hopes.

Hall printed some invoices and started sending packets of a hundred postcards to dealers throughout the Midwest. A few of the dealers kept the cards without paying. Some returned the unsolicited merchandise with an angry note. But about a third sent a check. Within a couple of months, the teenage businessman had cleared $200 and opened a checking account. He was in business.

Now apparently there are around 6.4 billion greeting cards sent each year in the US. Wowser! He claims the idea of wrapping paper and now things like crayola and silly putty are connected with Hallmark. I love silly putty.

Missouri Wildlife

There are so many rabbits in our neighborhood! I probably see about 5 a day. Here's one in our backyard.

This is Ben trying to feed the rabbit carrots. It hopped away. Ben swears he looks like an old lady in this picture.

At Ben's Grandparents house I see wild turkeys all the time. I tried getting a picture of several I saw today, but they run out of sight the moment they see movement. (of course, I was wearing a red t-shirt today....hum) Apparently, turkeys have eyesight like an eagle and can spot you even in a tree. Grandpa told a story today I thought was funny. He said that the other day he heard a bird that makes a sound like "whippoorwill" and the bird did that sound for a long time. Then, Grandpa started making the sound and then he looked over and some turkeys were fussing at him for continuing the noise. They gobbled at him.

Happy Independence Day everyone!