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...