Wordless Wednesday: Sunset and Steven Edition

Apparently

After Thanksgiving one forgets to continue NaBloPoMo.  Oops!

Happy Thanksgiving!

What does one do after turkey and pie?*  Watch the Muppets movie of course.  Best Thanksgiving Ever!!


**I didn't actually eat turkey or pie (well, I made three pies--but we left before pie time) but it was still an awesome Thanksgiving!!

Pre-Thanksgiving

Here's a link to Kelli's blog about our pre-thanksgiving dinner last night.  So good!
http://factophile.blogspot.com/

Today

I've been sick again (I know) so I missed blogging yesterday.  I went to the Doctor's office this afternoon so I should be feeling better in a few days (antibiotics!  Yeah!).  In the meantime, it's been awesome to have a roommate cook for me.  

Chris and Kelli

While at Harper's Ferry, we decided to take "Family Portraits." Here's Chris and Kelli together.

Vegans

I didn't realize until this fall that vegans won't eat honey.  It makes sense, but I just never thought about it.

Lifestyle Bloggers:

Interesting article about how many lifestyle bloggers are LDS.
http://www.good.is/post/sister-bloggers/?mid=52

Too bad the dog isn't a bird dog.

I don't watch television,  so you all may have seen this commercial, but I found it really cute.  My fave part?  The poster in the goose's office.

Wordless: Bear Lake Area Edition

PSA: Wild Flag

Have you ever found a new band and want to tell everyone how awesome they are?  Well, this is Wild Flag, a chick "supergroup" that has an awesome debut album of the same name.  Tell your friends, tell the children that this band is great.

(Lentil) Sloppy Joes!

I mentioned to my sister in law that I had a decent lentil sloppy joes recipe so she asked for it.  I then realized I took pictures of the recipe way back this Spring with the intention of blogging it.  So here it is.  It's really quite good and don't let the amount of ingredients intimidate, the recipe comes together in a flash!  Easy enough for a weekday dinner!  These are so good, my dad would love them (he has a thing against lentils).

Sloppy Lentil Joes

Adopted from JamieOliver.com and tastyeasyhealthygreen.com

•                    1 cup French lentils

•                    1 tablespoon olive oil

•                    1 small onion, peeled and diced

•                    1-2 medium carrots, peeled and diced

•                    ¾ cup tomato puree

•                    2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

•                    1½ tablespoons light brown sugar

•                    ½ tablespoon honey

•                    2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

•                    ½ teaspoon spicy chili powder

•                    ½ teaspoon smoked paprika

•                    Salt and pepper to taste

•                    Whole wheat tortillas/wraps

•                    Lettuce or baby spinach for garnish

Place lentils into a medium-sized pot.  Fill pot with water and stir in a good pinch of salt.  Cook the lentils for about 15-20 minutes or until they are cooked through.  Drain remaining water from the pot and set aside.

Heat oil in a medium-sized skillet.  Add onions and cook until they just turn translucent.  Add carrots cook until they are tender crisp. Add the cooked lentils to the skillet and then stir in the tomato puree, vinegar, brown sugar, honey, mustard, chili powder, and smoked paprika.  Add salt and pepper to taste and cook until the sauce has thickened up a bit.

http://tastyeasyhealthygreen.com/?p=1453

A Thought

I've been reading "Dimensions of Faith: a Mormon Studies Reader" for a little while.  The book is a collection of papers on Mormonism or "Mormon Studies."  Some are written by participating LDS members, while others are written by non-members or less active.  Most of the authors have a phd, but not all.  One is even written by a friend of mine (which is how I came to own a copy of the book).  Anyway, so far I've found the essays very enlightening, but I especially love the forward.  Let me share with you the last paragraph which is a view I share with the editor on Mormonism:

"I think that religion especially, instead of being treated with solemnity and deference, ought to be thought out and understood so that we're not unduly influenced by proselytizers or lack confidence in our position in the world and so that we understand other people's beliefs." Stephen C. Taysom

I also quite like the back jacket summary of the book:

"Believing is one thing, deciding what to believe is harding for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that what is known and what is known is a moving target.  The world changes daily as new revelations burst onto the scene in religion, science, social studies and the humanities............Where new ideas impinge on faith, it is up to us to interpret and manage these views.  Rather than tremble in the face of change we can look confidently at the empirical world through the twin lenses of religious heritage and a grounding in secular learning."
 

Today

Late this morning, Chris, Kelli and I headed to Harper's Ferry so Chris could go to W. Virginia.  More pictures to follow.

Foo Fighters Friday

Kelli's "Instagram" of the concert Friday night.

Kelli, Chris and I attended the Foo Fighters Concert at the Verizon Center tonight.  Two opening bands and the Foo still played for almost 3 hours.

Random Updates

Kelli's brother Chris came to visit and attend the Foo Fighters concert with us tomorrow night.  Today is his birthday which is kind of fun.

A couple of days ago a package came to the house for Kelli.  She opened it up and there were two giraffe t-shirts from Threadless. (Yes Nicole, Anna would be super jealous of these t-shirts.)  This morning Chris apologized for not getting one for me too.  I told him he didn't need to, but I thought that was very sweet he thought of me.

Yes, Chris got a beanie for his birthday.  It fits him too!

Chris's beanie.  

So, Sunday I had a tough asthma day.  I knew I wasn't going to sleep without taking something, so I took an ambien.  About 11 or so I half woke up, realized I wasn't wearing a watch and ordered 3 off Amazon.  I realized Monday morning what I had done and tried to cancel the watches.  Then when they came, I mangled the packaging so I can't send them back.  I've never done anything like this while taking a sleep-aid (I sometimes have to take something when I'm sick or I don't sleep) but at least I have decent taste when I'm mostly awake--and I definitely could've spent more on watches I don't really need.

Monday, I was out to lunch with a co-worker at Subway.  I ordered a tuna sandwich which I got about 3/4 full before I had the nastiest taste of fish in my mouth and immediately wanted to gag, puke, had cold chills and a slight headache.  I didn't tell Subway that they had rotten tuna fish because all I wanted to do was get out of there fast.  Luckily, I felt better after several hours but I'm still not craving a tuna fish sandwich.

I'm amazed that there's people out there trying to defend Joe Paterno.

Anyway, Happy Veterans Day tomorrow!

Wordless: Gettysburg Summer 2011 Edition

Pat Collins does it again

Take a second to check out this video.  The 

incident in question happened in the 

"outer suburbs" 

of the Washington DC Metro Area.

Heaven...

Last week, I was headed to lunch with a co-worker when we walked by the "Wicked Waffles" cafe.  This waffle shop serves sandwiches with waffles as the bread.  Needless to say, I grabbed a menu and now I can't stop thinking about eating one of their sandwiches.  I'm afraid when I actually go there, the sandwiches won't live up to the hype in my head. 

FNL

I've been feeling under the weather this weekend so I've been trying to lay low and try to convince my lungs that they can breathe without giving me grief.  A pair of lame lungs has given me the opportunity to finally finish the last season of the show Friday Night Lights.  Just as good as the rest of the show.  I wish we could've had more than 5 seasons of the show, but hey-at least we got five seasons of Tim Riggins.

Beanies and more Beanies

If I had to sum up the projects I've made this year in one word, it would be hats.  Once I figured out how to knit in the round, I kept making hats.  I realized a couple of months ago that I need to do something with all the hats I've made, but haven't decided to give them to a local non-profit or just put them in a box.  Right now they are in a box along with several others I've since made. These were made while I was in Ecuador in May.    

Barrel Roll!

I'm taking a "freebie" today for NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month).  I realized a couple of days ago that the sinus infection I picked up a couple of weeks ago has now morphed into bronchitis which is why I'm feeling fatigued and have been wheezy off and on. I'm getting better, but I have many ideas for posts that I've neglected to write this past year that hopefully I'll get up on here.  At the least, I'll hopefully get to archiving some of the projects I've made this weekend.  
Meanwhile, I leave you the following thoughts about yesterday:

Just try it.  I dare you, if you haven't yet!

One More from the Del Ray Halloween Parade

Yoda doesn't have his/her ears on quite right, but.....these two were still pretty cute.

Wordless Wednesday: Del Ray Halloween Parade 2011 Edition

Kelli (best friend), a friend of ours and I attended Del Ray's annual Halloween Parade on Sunday.  The parade starts a little more than 1/3 of a mile from our house and although the parade has a small town feel, an estimated 8k people and dogs participated.  Very fun!
Oh, that "Just Hatched" entry above?  The entry, complete with a zonked out "baby chick" won one of the categories. c

Halloween

Although my earliest memories of Halloween are somewhat trumautic---unsuccessfully trying to ward off my dad from my candy and then the tragic separation of the candy*, I still love the holiday.  I love the whimsy of Halloween, the legends, the history, the costumes.  I kind of see it as I see the internet.  Sure, like the internet, there's a seedy side to both, but that doesn't mean that both can't be great.





*My candy and I were reunited each year but the "good chocolate" was always gone .  This might be why I like candy over chocolate. For the most part, my dad left the candy alone.