Another Scooter Contest

I've entered another (yes another) scooter contest. You may remember that contest last year that I entered and was robbed by some puny little kid that won the dang scooter. My therapist keeps telling me to put that in the past. We'll see.

Well it's that time of year again and this time I put my Labor Day efforts into a scooter video on VespaUsa.com. Please, please, please check it out and vote 5 out of 5 for me! Here's the link to the Vespa site. You'll have to register on the site to vote. They compressed the final video so the font is a little grainy, but there you go.

Here are the official judging criteria from the website:
Judging Criteria: The contest Judges will, among others, use the following judging criteria ("Judging Criteria") to evaluate each Video, to determine the grand prize, second and third place winners and runners-up as follows:

1. Ability to address key Vespanomics principles (as noted on the contest site) (25%)
1. Saving money on gas
2. Lowering carbon dioxide emissions
3. Decreasing traffic congestion
4. Being fashionable, yet classic
2. Originality (25%)
3. Creativity (25%)
4. Ratings by the Contest Site Viewers (25%)


Enjoy!

And send it to all your friends, relatives, enemies, and complete strangers!

Pavarotti

I found out this morning that Luciano Pavarotti died today. He was 71. I watched this video of him singing Nessun Dorma and it is amazing. What a voice God gave him. If you read about his life you will notice that he has some issues, which is typical of artists by the way, but you can't mistake the powerful voice in there. Strangely enough, my mom sent me an e-mail this morning letting me know the preacher James Kennedy also passed away. Can you imagine Pavarotti singing and James Kennedy preaching in heaven together? It made me smile.

Chariots of Fire - Scooter Version

So this weekend my new experiment arrived in the mail: "Tail Devils". These are for skateboarders to attach to the tail of their skateboard and create massive sparks when they do tricks and grinds. Well I had something better in mind. Last night I screwed the tail devils onto my tennis shoes (one to each foot). Unfortunately they broke off easily after grinding my feet for only a few seconds. So after a trip to Walgreens for industrial strength glue, I was able to securely attach the sparking widgets for good.

Check out the videos of my success below:

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!