I still don't understand how this could happen...

Mrs. BigKat was at the computer this morning. It was a little cold so she was tapping her feet up and down on the floor.

BUM-BUM-BUM-BUM-BUM-BUM-BUM-BUM...

Now what would you say in that situation? I bet you would say exactly the same thing that I said:

Her feet: BUM-BUM-BUM-BUM-BUM-BUM-BUM-BUM-BUM-BUM-BUM-BUM-BUM-BUM-BUM-BUM

Me: FLASH!!! A-aaaaaahhhh!!!

Savior of the universe!!!

And it would be funny, right? WRONG! Mrs. BigKat had NO IDEA what I was talking about! SHE HAD NEVER HEARD OF FLASH GORDON!

I still don't know what to say about this...

Here's the song in case you spent your childhood in a hole in the ground like my wife apparently did:

Underwear

The kids usually take their baths/showers in the evening. Which means that this is when LilKat2 changes his underwear. Well, it seemed as if LilKat2 was running out of clean underwear more quickly than he should. We found out that the reason for this was that he was changing his underwear right when he woke up in addition to after his shower. Mrs. BigKat told him that since he took a shower in the evening, he didn't have to change his underwear again in the morning. That way, he wouldn't run out of clean underwear so quickly in his underwear drawer.

Unfortunately, I think he took this underwear conservation concept a little to far. The other day, he says 'Mom, guess what...I think I've worn this same underwear for FOUR DAYS!'

I hope he at least turned it inside out after day 2...

Darrel

A couple of weeks ago, my cat Darrel died. He was 13 years old. We have a bunch of cats at our house and Darrel was my favorite.

Here's why:

• He was the most dog-like cat I know. When I would go out, he would wait at the front door for me to come home. Mrs. BigKat said that he really missed me when I left. When I went on business trips, it would drive him crazy.

• He was smart, but he used his brains for evil. If he was a person, I think he would've been Lex Luthor. Okay, maybe he wasn't really evil, but he did like to do funny things just to bother people.

Here's an example: A long while ago, I had a roommate, Lisa. When she left for school/work in the morning, she would close the door to her room. Sometimes, Darrel would quickly run in and hide in before she had a chance to shut the door. Then she'd have to spend the next 10 minutes searching for him. One time, she was running really late and didn't have time to catch Darrel. She asked me if I could go in there and find him for her, so I said sure. Right after she drove away, I looked over and saw Darrel slowly walking out of her room. I think he just loved getting a reaction out of her. But she left and the game was over, so he went to go find something else to do.

• He loved to get into places where he wasn't supposed to go. Okay, maybe this wasn't always good, but it made for some funny memories. Here's a picture of when Darrel got into one of the cupboards. Mrs. BigKat was cleaning out the kitchen. She left one cupboards open that was pretty high up. Darrel saw his chance so he got in (I'm not exactly sure how he did it. He must've got onto the stove and then took a superleap into the cupboard. I guess he just wanted to know what was in there). It kind of surprised her.

Here's a picture of Darrel when he got on top of the refrigerator. Again, I'm not sure how he got up there. One time, Mrs. BigKat and I were sleeping and we heard this huge CRASH downstairs. Now some people might think that maybe there's a robber, or that maybe the noise came from outside. But Mrs. BigKat and I both thought the same thing...Darrel...

It turns out we were right. He had gotten on top of the refrigerator and knocked off this huge glass bowl.

• He loved being on top of my head. When I met him at the animal shelter, the first thing he did was climb on my head. He loved being up there. I used to wear a hooded sweatshirt when I worked at home. When he was little, he would go inside the hood behind my back and lie down in there while I worked. Or sometimes, he would just go on the top of my chair. When he got larger, he couldn't really fit on the top of my head very well, so he would often just try to climb up me and sit on my neck or back.

• He had very soft fur. I mean really soft. It's much different than any of our other cats. I think one of the reasons I enjoyed petting him so much was because of how neat his fur felt.

• He would do things to drive me crazy. Here's one of my favorite Darrel stories. When he was little, I used to get into work really early. I'd get in at around 4am, which meant that I had to get up around 3am. I tried to get to sleep as early as I could, but it wasn't always easy. You see, Darrel had this thing where he wanted to stick his nose up into my nose and ears. Now, he didn't do this all the time, only when I wanted to sleep! So I had to try and sleep with my covers pulled over my head and tucked under my body. But Darrel would still try and shove himself himself under the covers so that he could get at my face. If I accidentally had the covers too close to my face, he would just try and bite my nose through the covers. Eventually, I'd have to stick my head out so that I could breathe and he would immediately go attack my face. This would go on for hours, with me pleading with him to leave me alone, and him happily purring away. One time, I got smart and brought a squirt gun with me to bed. It worked for a little while. I'd squirt him and he would run away. But then he got smart. Once, he let me squirt him and just stood there and took it. I squirted and squirted until I ran out of water. When I had no more water, he continued with trying to stick his nose in my ear.

• He was a big huge cat (I think 16 pounds at his heaviest) and acted like a tough cat. But he never hurt anyone. In fact, you could totally manhandle him and he would never fight back. Our children have grabbed him and picked him up in all sorts of undignified ways, and he never once got angry at them. Sometimes if I grabbed him for too long, he would start huffing and puffing at me (something I've never seen any other cat do), but I always thought it was cute so it would make me grab him for longer. I think he was just pretending to be angry, but was really happy with all the attention. Here's a picture of him with a baseball cap on his head. He probably wasn't very happy with the hat on his head, but he let me do stuff like that to him and wouldn't complain (too much).

• We loved being around each other. With our other cats (and probably cats in general), it seems like they come to get petted when they feel like it, and then walk away when they're done. Darrel liked being with me pretty much all the time. He'd hang out with me all day while I worked. He would sometimes sit at my feet (recently, he had a new trick where he'd lie down behind my office chair. It was sneaky because it would trap me in my desk. I couldn't stand up without moving my chair. He knew I couldn't move it backwards because I would smash him. But when I'd try to nudge him out of the way, he'd just lie there, ignoring me). When I'd come home tired from basketball and collapse on the floor, he'd rush over and lie down with me (and try to stick his nose in my armpits, which I didn't like so much). The night he died, was was sleeping in my work chair. He never did that. I'm guessing that he knew he was going to die and laid down in a place where I sit most of the time. Maybe he went there because he knew I would find him. Or maybe he just wanted to be in a place that he associated with me. It makes me happy to think that he was thinking about me during his last moments.

I miss Darrel. I told Mrs. BigKat that I don't want any more pets after our cats all die. But if I saw a cat that was exactly like Darrel, I'm pretty sure I would buy him again. The other cats seem like they are trying to make things easier for me. A couple of them have suddenly turned a little Darrel-like. Alice has recently been waiting around for me when I leave the house and will often follow me around when I'm at home. Bill has been sitting at my feet while I work, and today wanted to sit on my lap just like Darrel used to do (it wasn't the same though because Bill kept wanting to bite my fingers when my hands would get near him. Plus he farted a bunch and made it stink).

I'm not sure what happens to animals when they die. There's not really anything mentioned about it in the Bible that I've read. If I had to take an honest guess, I would say that God made animals different than he made people, so there's probably not a cat heaven like some people would like to think. But who know. Either way, I feel blessed to have been able to spend 13 years with the best cat the world has ever known, my friend Darrel.

Deal of the Century!

I was on slickdeals.net last night and saw a great deal on basketball shorts. They were on sale for $6 each. Plus there was a 10% coupon and a free shipping coupon as well! I ended up buying 15 pairs of shorts and 2 shirts for $95! That's like $5.50 per item!

I was going to toss some stuff out of the shopping cart, but Mrs. BigKat made me buy everything. I don't buy clothes very often (some of my clothes are at least 10 years old. According to Mrs. BigKat, that's too long), so for some reason, it was important to her that I get a big pile of new clothes.

The really nice thing about basketball shorts is that because I work at home, they serve as my work clothes as well my basketball clothes. Plus they're made with stretchy waists so I can get really fat and still fit into them. Now I should be set for clothes until at least 2020.

Like Father, Like Son

Want to know how brave LilKat2 is? Today, he had to have an Ear The Cow. Which is kind of crazy to me. I had never even heard of this insane procedure before. Now, our family has had 2 in 2 months.

Recently, it has seemed like LilKat2 has been ignoring us sometimes. We talk to him and it just seems like he's not listening to us at all. He's actually gotten in trouble for it a couple of times. Well, it turns out he really isn't listening. Because one of his ears was all clogged up. I noticed that when we were praying together, he would start praying while LilKat1 was praying. That clued me in that something was wrong with his ears. So last night, I gave him a little hearing test. I had him close his eyes while I made little sounds around his ears. His job was to wave his right hand if the sound was on his right and wave his left hand if the sound was on his left.

He failed miserably (and yes, afterwards, I felt really bad for scolding him for not listening to me).

So today, he went in to the doctor's and got his ears checked out. The doctor saw that one was clogged (so clogged in fact, that for the first few shots of the Ear The Cow, no water actually went into his ear). And he bravely sat there while they squirted water into his head. The nurse was very impressed! She said that most kids try to run away and hide in the corner. Not my son! He just sat there with his eyes closed until they were done (which is pretty much what I did too).

More Lemonade

Hey, remember this? Well, guess what! Pretty much the exact same thing happened again today. Except this time, instead of $25, I got $100!

And once again, I went right out and ordered another pile of boardgames (not for me though! They're gifts! I'm serious! Ok, a couple are for me. And one expansion. But the rest are for other people! Really, I'm not being boardgame-greedy! Well, maybe a little. Just a tiny bit boardgame-greedy. But I just got a free $100! What do you expect?).

Roots

This picture made me laugh. I'm guessing that the game came out before the miniseries.

Ear Lavage

I had an Ear Lavage today. Sounds interesting right? It's pronounced 'la-VAJ', like it's very fancy and French. It sounds like 'la vache' (which I think means 'the cow' if I remember my French from high school. So I guess I came very close to having an Ear The Cow).

Well, if you've never had one, let me tell you, it is not very fancy. It's actually very gross and weird. This was done at the doctor's office. The doctor said I had too much gunk in my ears. So she had a lady come in to give me an Ear The Cow. The lady gave me a plastic tub to hold under my ear. Then she took a squirt bottle with a special attachment and unloaded about a gallon of water into my ear.

It kind of sounded like this:

SQWSSSSSSHHHH-SQWSSSSSSSHHHHH-SQWSSSSSSSHHHHH-SQWSSSSSSSSHHHHHH

except for like a hundred squirts and not just 4. And it feels like someone is jabbing you inside of your head in an area that was never meant to be jabbed. Then when she stops squirting, it sounds like your ear is full of bubbles.

Every once in a while, she took a break to empty the tub of water/ear goo. And if I was lucky she'd say 'Hey! A nice big chunk came out that time!' Then she'd look inside my ear to see if it was clean yet. If it wasn't, she'd go back to trying to shoot water into my brain.

Anyhow, my ears are now free from gunk. Which I guess it's good. I just hope they stay un-gunky so I don't need another Ear The Cow. I really didn't enjoy it.

Dreams

Have you ever had that dream about falling down? You know the one I'm talking about?

The one where you trip and fall down and scrape up your hands on the asphalt. And the scrapes get all dirty and end up with yucky things inside of them. Like bug eggs.

And then the bug eggs hatch under your skin. And when you look at your palms, you can see creepy bugs crawling around inside the skin of your hands.

And so you scratch at them, and your skin bursts open and a bunch of those roly-poly potato bugs start crawling out of your hands. You know the dream I'm talking about?

I had that dream last night. Twice. I didn't sleep very well.

GPS

I need this:

Round-abound...hehe

According to this slickdeal, you can get a TomTom GPS for $89. Too bad we already have a Garmin or I would've bought one for sure.

16 again

It's my birthday today. Which means that my driver's license is expiring. I got the reminder a while ago, but forgot to renew it. I was planning on going to the DMV today to take care of it, but then I realized that the DMV here is closed on Mondays. That means that I will have to wait until tomorrow.

The problem is, I won't be able to drive myself because my license will be expired. I thought that maybe Mrs. BigKat could drive me, but then we'd have to take the kids with us which would be a hassle. So I called my mom. She said that she was available and could drive me there.

Yes, tomorrow, my mom is driving me to the DMV to get my driver's license.

This makes me giggle.

In my Sunday School class, I've been making movies to help illustrate our lessons. Over the past few weeks, we've been studying Acts. Acts is great because it talks about God's AMAZING, UNSTOPPABLE power. God had a plan to have the Good News about His Son Jesus spread all over the place and nothing could stop it!

Here are a couple of movies that we've watched that help illustrate what we've been learning. I use LilKat1's legos to make the movies. This first video talks about God's amazing power to change lives.

This second video talks about how nothing can stop the power of God.

These videos have been working out great in class. The kids love them, and they help reinforce the lessons that we've been learning about God and the Bible.

Bullitt

We watched Bullitt last night. Here's the famous car chase scene. Who would've guessed that San Fransisco had so many green VW bugs? When the first bug came up (around 3:20 on the youtube clip), I pointed it out to Mrs. BigKat. The next 3 made her laugh.

Something's not right...

This is an actual cake purchased by an actual friend of mine. I don't know what else to say...

The Bento Lady

Each week, Mrs. BigKat and I go out on a Date Night while my mom watches the kids. We normally go to this local Bento place. The food is simple, tasty, and inexpensive. Mrs. BigKat gets the pot sticker platter, I get the teriyaki beef or spicy pork (and every once in a while, the yakisoba), we get 2 orders of egg rolls, and 2 drinks (large for me, small for Mrs. BigKat). And the total is always $13.70. We've gotten to the point where the owner (who I call the Bento Lady) starts writing down our order right as we walk in the door.

A few weeks ago, instead of going to the Bento place like usual, we decided to go to the taco place down the street instead. It was a nice change of pace, so we went there again the following week. Well, when we went back to the Bento place, we wondered if the Bento lady had noticed that we had been gone.

Yeah...she noticed.

As we walked up to place our order, she started grilling us:

Bento Lady: So...haven't seen you guys in a while...

Us: Oh uh...yeah...we haven't been here for a couple of weeks.

Bento Lady: Oh...I see...I guess you haven't been able to get a babysitter then...

Us: Oh no, we have a baby sitter! We just...ummm...uh...can I get the terikayi beef?

Even her husband, Bento Guy acted different towards us. When he brought us our egg rolls, it wasn't "Here's your egg rolls! Enjoy!" or anything like that. Instead he just kind of flippantly tossed the plate onto our table without looking at us as he walked by. I told Mrs. BigKat "We cheated on the Bento Lady. I feel like Tiger Woods."

That was last week. This week, when we went to Date Night, the Bento Lady was still hassling me. I ordered the Hot and Spicy chicken. She looks at me and says "Are you sure you want that? Are you ok with spicy food?"

Wait a second...she's asking ME if I'm ok with spicy food? I was appalled! The guy who puts Frank's Red Hot on everything? The guy who only enjoys chili if it makes him sweat? Yes I'm OK with spicy food! I love spicy food! And to show her, I was going to eat all the spicy food on my plate in record time!

Only I didn't...

Now, normally, I eat all the food on my plate when we go out. The portions at the Bento place are a nice size for me. But it just so happened that I wasn't particularly hungry that day. I don't remember if I had a late snack or had a lot to drink before we left or what. But for some reason, I just wasn't that hungry. I only ate about half of my Hot and Spicy chicken.

Well, the Bento lady sees that I didn't finish my meal. She walks over to our table and says 'Oh! Was it too spicy for you? We can make it less spicy next time!'

GAAAAHHH!!! That sneaky Bento Lady! On the outside it appears like she's this sweet old lady who's concerned about one of her customer. But we both know that what she's really doing is calling me a spicy food wimp to my face! TO MY FACE!

After she left our table, she went into the back and told Bento guy what she said about me. They both laughed at me and high fived each other. Ok, maybe I made up that last part, but I wouldn't be surprised if it really happened.

Only the Warriors...

This happened in the Warriors/Blazers game last night. The Warriors ran out of guys and ended up having to put injured guys in the game so that they'd have enough players. Stefen Curry and Monta Ellis played all 48 minutes. So did 2 D-League guys. Chris Hunter (another D-League guy) started, but then got hurt early. So Devean George (remember him?) played the rest of the game.

The worst part about it is that the ended up winning! Now, instead of being tied for the 3rd worst record, they're tied for the 4th. This reduces their chances of winning the draft lottery by about 4% I think. They can't even lose properly!

Not so green

Do you like Sun Chips? Well, PrincessKat does. She asked for a bag at the store the other day, so Mrs. BigKat bought it. However, this bag was a bit different from other bags we've purchased in the past. It was LOUD! Really LOUD! Like if-you-were-getting-some-chips-out-of-the-bag-you-couldn't-hear-the-person-next-to-you-talking loud.

One time I was trying to get some chips and LilKat2 scolded me because he said he couldn't hear the video game he was playing on the computer. Another time, Mrs. BigKat had to keep repeating what she was saying to me because I couldn't hear her over the bag crinkling (ok, fine...so maybe I was crinkling the bag on purpose to annoy her).

It turns out that there's a reason that the bag is so crinkly. It's a specially designed compostable bag. Instead of throwing away the bag, you're supposed to be able to put it in your composter. Wow! Seems so environmentally friendly!

Well, the funny part is that Mrs. BigKat couldn't stand the loud crinkling. So you no what she did? She took out the chips and put them in a big plastic ziploc bag. The company spends all this time and money designing a fancy schmancy compostable bag to reduce waste, and my wife gets rid of all that work with her non-compostable plastic bag. For some reason, I really got a kick out of this.

However, she is still planning on putting the Sun Chips bag in the composter!

Child's Play

PrincessKat is now 3 years old. Know what that means? Time to get her started on BOARD GAMES!!!

Now, finding a good game for a 3 year old is not nearly as easy as for a 5 year old. But there are some good ones out there.

Let's start with her first game, Go Away Monster! Go Away Monster is an excellent first 'game'. The fact is, it's more of an activity than a game because there aren't any winners or losers. But there's taking turns, placing items on a board, some sharing, and some surprises. When PrincessKat first got this game, we must've played it 10 times that day (and the following morning too, if I remember correctly). Basically, you're taking turns pulling items out of a bag. The items are things you find in your bedroom, a bed, teddy bear, chair, and a picture. When you get one of these things, you place them onto your board in the appropriate spot. Every once in a while, instead of bedroom furniture, you pull out a monster. When you do, you say 'Go Away Monster!' and toss them into the box. That's it! That's the game! Sounds simple, right? Maybe even too simple? Well, it's actually perfect for 3 year olds who are learning to play games!

Another game that I found was Batik. This is one of a series made by Gigamic games. I really like the Gigamic games series. They all have very nice looking wooden components. Gameplay for the ones that I have played is super simple, yet interesting. I purchased Batik from another local gamer at a coffeeshop. PrincessKat was with me and we immediately started playing the game while enjoying our hot chocolate. She picked up on it right away! We probably played 6 or so games right there. Each person has a set of shapes. You drop the shapes into this vertical wall (kind of like Connect 4, but with only 1 large slot. If you drop a shape in, and any part of it is sticking out of the top, then you lose. That's it! Again, perfect for a 3 year old.

The last game I'm going to mention is Gulo Gulo. This is a highly regarded game on boardgamegeek.com by boardgaming parents. However, I was never that big of a fan of it. I originally bought it for LilKat2. We played it a few times, but he never got that into it. PrincessKat, on the other hand, LOVES this game. And the funny thing is, she can beat me at this game, even if I'm trying my hardest. This is a GREAT feature to have in a kid's game. In Gulo Gulo, you move around the board by grabbing little colored eggs out of a bowl. There's also a weighted stick in the bowl. If you can get your egg out without knocking the stick over, you can move ahead. If the stick falls, then you have to move backwards. Simple enough. But grabbing those little eggs can be hard! Especially when you have big fat grownup fingers. 3 year olds, however, have little tiny ninja fingers, perfectly made for stealing colored eggs out of a small wooden bowl. And there's a nice built in catch-up mechanism, so that even if you fall behind, you're never really that far back. Again, another great thing to have in a kids game because it means that everyone is always in the game.

You want more? Ok I'll give you one more. Walter Wick: Can You See What I See is a game that is based on a series of books (kind of like 'I Spy' books). In the version that we play, you have a set of tiles. Each tile has a picture of an object, like a rubber duck or a thimble or a yo-yo. In the middle of the board is a set of larger tiles. Each of the larger tiles has a bunch of pictures on them (so one might have a tricycle, a yo-yo, a top, a spool, and a clothes pin). On your turn, you pick one of the tiles in front of you (say, a frog). Then you have to look at the bigger tiles in the middle. If any of those tiles has your picture (the frog) on it, you get to keep it. Each big tile you have at the end of the game counts as a point (some tiles have a special picture on them that make them worth 2 points). That's pretty much it. I thought LilKat2 would like this game because he likes his I Spy books so much. Well, it turns out that all 3 kids like this game quite a bit! And one nice thing was that I was able to pick this one up at Toys R Us (I usually have to go to online retailers to buy my games).

Anyhow, if you have a 3 year old and want to have some fun things to do together at home, these are some great choices for you.

Snake

Mrs. BigKat and I were watching Food Network the other night and saw Kenny Stabler. He was tailgating at a Raider game with Guy Fieri. Turns out Mrs. BigKat had no idea who Ken Stabler was. I was SHOCKED! She grew up in northern California and didn't know who the Snake was? Back when I was a boy, that was who we all wanted to be. It was basically Superman, Batman, Fonzi, or Ken Stabler.

Well, today, I googled Ken Stabler to see what he was up to these days (other than eating chili burgers and ribs on Food Network). I saw he had a website, so I sent him the following email:

Hey Snake!

Saw you on Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives the other day! My wife had no idea who you were. And I said 'Are you kidding me?' I told her about when I was a boy, you were they guy that all of us on the playground wanted to be. 10 or 12 boys running around yelling 'I'm Ken Stabler!', 'No, I'M Ken Stabler!'

Her excuse was that she grew up watching the niners (her family only started watching them because they found out that they had a quarterback that looked like Barry Manilow and they liked Barry Manilow).

Anyhow, just wanted to say hi!

Thanks!

BigKat

Well, he wrote back to me! The Snake wrote back to me! He even signed it 'Snake' at the end! Here's what he wrote:

BigKat

What a fun e.mail....I played with and for a great group of people and we played for all the right reasons..for each other, the city, ownership, and fans like yourself.

All the best to you and yours

Snake

I'm so happy. I feel like I'm 6 years old again. It's cool knowing that Ken Stabler is my new best friend.

Things Kids Say

I went to help out in LilKat2's Kindergarten class today. When I came in, the new music teacher was there singing songs with them. I had never met him before. The old music teacher was a very kid friendly, chipper, younger lady. The new guy was quite different. I was trying to think of a way to describe him and the best thing I can come up with is Niles Crane from Frasier, but not funny.

Anyhow, while I was in class, I heard a funny story about him. Apparently, he was singing songs with the kids when he got to a part where he started to sing in a very looooow voice. The kids thought that this was very impressive. They said to him, 'Wow, Mr. ___! You sound just like a REAL man!'

Too Many Games

This morning, I was at the computer and I logged on to boardgamegeek.com. I started looking at some gaming articles, nothing with pictures or anything, just text. Anyhow, PrincessKat saw what I was doing and must have recognized the logo on the website. She immediately ran over, jumped on my lap, and, apparently imitating me, started yelling 'I WANT THAT GAME! I WANT THAT GAME!'

That killed me! Me and Mrs. BigKat were both laughing for quite a while. But the whole time, I was thinking...Do I really act that way? Maybe I do have too many boardgames...

Telemarketers

I enjoy having fun with telemarketers. One time, a guy called who said that my car's warranty had expired and they wanted to extend it. I told them that my name was Dennis Anderson and that I had a 1950 Ford truck. I said that I had made some modifications to it and wanted to know if that would be covered under the new warranty. He asked me what model my truck was, so I told him it was Gravedigger. He said he wasn't familiar with that model, and I said something like 'You've never heard of Gravedigger?!?! It won the Monster Jam World Championship!' I think I thought my joke was funnier that he thought it was.

Anyhow, I was on my favorite board game website, and I ran across someone describing what they say to telemarketers. It's a little mean, so I guess I shouldn't really suggest that anyone actually say this to someone. But it made me laugh (is that bad?).

*ring*
Me: Hello?
TM: We'd like to sell you blah, blah, blah (for a few seconds)
Me: Um, excuse me... excuse me.
TM: Yes?
Me: (in a low, conspiratorial voice) Look around you.
(I can usually hear a bit of movement as if they are looking to see if they've called a co-worker.)
TM: What?
Me: Is this what you wanted to be when you grew up?!

MFWL story by MFWLW

Remember My-Friend-Who-Lies (MFWL)? Well, his wife (MFWLW) has a weblog. The other day, she wrote about a funny story that, oddly enough, MFWL has never told me about. They had a baby last June, and this story is from right after the baby was born when they were leaving the hospital to go home. Here it is in her words:

I hope (My-Husband-Who-Lies) doesn't mind that I post this, but one of the ones that still brings a smile is when (MHWL) was getting the car to pick us up to go home. His sense of direction got turned around in the parking garage and he couldn't find his way back to the main entrance where we were waiting. (The baby), the person who pushed the wheelchair out, and I sat watching the poor guy drive all around trying to find where we were. The parking garage is maybe fifty feet from the main entrance. :)

I love this story. And it doesn't surprise me one bit.

Stir Crazy

I have always loved popcorn. I could probably eat popcorn every day. But I'm not a big fan of microwave popcorn. I like the convenience, but don't care for the taste so much. For a few years now, my popcorn popping method of choice looked something like this. I would get out my stainless steel bowl, add some popcorn, oil, and salt, cover the whole thing with foil, and jiggle it over the stove for 3 minutes. Simple, tasty, but kind of a pain.

For Christmas, my mom gave us a Stir Crazy

popcorn popper. I love it! Instead of me jiggling the popcorn around, there's a metal stick that does it for me. And there's no need to get out the aluminum foil or my Nomex gloves or anything else. There's even a place at the top where you put your butter.

The steam escaping from the popcorn melts the butter. The melted butter drips into the bowl and spreads evenly around all the popcorn. So you no longer have to have sections of dry popcorn and sections of wilted, butter-saturated popcorn. I believe that I will never eat popcorn in my house again that does not come out of a Stir Crazy.

Want to know another reason why the Stir Crazy is so cool? Each week, I roast coffee beans for Mrs. BigKat. My coffee roasting method is really quite similar to my old popcorn popping method. Except instead of jiggling the bowl, I stir the beans with a stick. And instead of doing it on a stove, I use a heat gun. And during the winter, instead of hanging out inside a nice warm house, I will have to sit outside freezing my bottom off for 15 minutes. Well, if the Stir Crazy can help me make popcorn, do you think it can help me roast coffee? Apparently so!

Some people have taken a Stir Crazy and combine it with a Turbo Oven (a small 'As Seen On TV', Set-It-And-Forget-It style convection oven) and made a home roasting rig out of it. The Stir Crazy stirs the beans and the Turbo Oven provides the heat (I believe that most people disconnect the Stir Crazy heating element). And from what I've seen, it seems to work pretty well! Now, I'm certainly not going to dismantle my new favorite popcorn popper, just to make coffee roasting easier. So my next job is to scour some thrift stores and see if I can find these 2 units for cheap. Then my days of sitting in out in the cold rain, huddled over warm bowl of coffee beans, while stirring like a madman will be over.

If you want to see a video of the Stir Crazy/Turbo Oven (or the SCTO to coffee geeks), you can check one out here. Notice his awesome cooling rig too. That's next on my list...