I needed to do _something_ while I was at work....

The other day at work I was looking up at my webcam trying to decide if I could do something more productive with it (since I use it like twice a year). I decided I could share my window with anybody in the world and create yet another useless webcam..... If you get bored and want to see what Logan looks like right now, check it out. It has some refresh issues. It needs help, but it works (kind-of).

After putting one hardly used item to work, I thought I would expand on my experiences. There is a weather station that sits on the desk of the guy next to me. It has a USB output hanging out. I wondered what I could do, so I played. This is the result.

Enjoy your piece of Logan. Just be glad you aren't here freezing with me.....

Sledding Party

Here are the pictures I took when we all went sledding.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ashleyallen15/SleddingParty

What does it take to cancel church?

Not much in North Carolina. When it started snowing about 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon I asked Ryan if he thought they'd cancel church. When it stopped snowing about 6 p.m. , we were sure they wouldn't. When the phone rang at 9 p.m., they did.So, what do you do with yourself on a Sunday with no church? (Other than feel guilty about how glad you are that you don't have to wake the kids up, force them to eat, wrestle the kids into church clothes, coax and cajole them into sitting still or at least being quiet during church, wrestle them out of church clothes, force them to eat, and herd them to bed.)

At our house we eat waffles, have a Sunbeam lesson, take a drive, and eat roast beef and roasted potatoes.

Is Ryan Hot?

I just learned that my education paper with Frank Caliendo is the #1 "hottest" article at EER.

http://top25.sciencedirect.com/?journal_id=02727757

Ryan

Visit

We had a great time visiting. Thanks to everyone for coming up to mom's to see us. Ian says that he is ready to get on the airplane and go back to grandma's. I'm not quite ready for that yet.

If someone downloads the photos from mom's camera, I'd sure like a copy of the ones that we took while we were out there.

Waste your day.....

Somebody sent this picture to me today...... I thought everybody else might enjoy finding bands. The Comments will have the answers, so don't look there unless you want spoilers......

Identify as many bands as you can in this picture.
(click for high resolution version)

For Matt and maybe Ryan

So a friend of mine turned me on to a randomly weird online comic. Click here for the link... by the way the guy in a black hat is what i would be like with out a conscience.

popcorn cookies

Popcorn Cookies

There is a girl in my ward who is a health NUT. Don’t get me wrong I think she is great but she is all about eating healthy and exercising a lot. Well a little while ago we had an Enrichment were everyone was supposed to bring a treat to share. She brought popcorn cookies. They were excellent. But the best part was they were extremely healthy, chuck full of popcorn, wheat germ and other dry fruit. Now I love cookies and with this new eating healthy thing I am on a quest to find a healthy cookie that tastes good.

Unfortunately when I made them they were not as good. I do think they have potential though. I am going to call Jen and ask her what I did wrong. I also think I am going to use less butter and maybe add some apple sauce.

Power Packed Popcorn Cookies

From: www.popcorn.org

---

¼ cup whole wheat or all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup toasted wheat germ
½ cup oatmeal
½ cup flaked coconut
3 cups popped popcorn
1 cup raisins, dried cranberries or other dried fruit, chopped
½ cup sunflower seeds or chopped nuts, optional

• Preheat oven to 350º F. Lightly spray baking sheets with cooking spray and set aside. In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, soda and salt; set aside.
• Cream butter and sugar together and add egg and vanilla; mix well. Stir in flour mixture and wheat germ and oatmeal until well blended. Add coconut, popcorn, raisins and sunflower seeds, if desired, and mix until well blended.
• Drop by rounded teaspoons onto baking sheet, allowing 2 inches between cookies to allow for spreading. Bake 7-8 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Allow cookies to cool on pan 5 minutes before removing to racks to cool completely.

Yield: 4 dozen cookies

How to recognize my car

Chuck Norris for President......wait a second

Did you know that Chuck Norris is campaigning with presidential candidate Mike Huckabee? The rest of the candidates might as well go home. How can you compete with Chuck Norris. With that kind of endorsement everyone will have to vote for Mike Huckabee. I hear they are calling it the "Chuckabee" campaign

"Savory Pancakes" or if you really love you husband "Porkchops"

I made my second healthy recipe today. Sadly this is one that I also really really like and my family is a little hesitant about. Okay so Noah said “I HATE THAT!!!” and Matt asked “Now how am I supposed to eat this?”

Crystal actually recommended this recipe to me a while ago and I think it is a keeper. My family will get used to it I am sure. So why do I like it so much. Well it is really easy and fast. And I think it tastes great. I eat it with sour cream to dip in and it reminds me of potato logs from Car Quick. Mmmmmmmmm potato logs! Anyway we had them with turkey sausage.

Okay so I have to admit before I give you the recipe that I warped it. I have pancake mix that is already made up all you have to do is add water and I used that. I just made it up like normal and added the vegetables. Today I used Zucchini that I had frozen from my garden and sweet potatoes. I also used onions instead of scallions. Who ever has scallions? Not me. I am not even totally sure my grocery store sells them. Anyway here is the recipe I hope that you enjoy it. But if you end up not making it you can always tell your husband you were going to make it but you made pork chops instead and he will love you all the more.

Savory Pancakes
--Recipe from Familyfun.com

1/2 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 egg

1/4 cup milk

1 cup grated carrots

1 cup grated zucchini

2 small scallions, diced

Vegetable oil

Sour cream and salsa (optional)

Easy to make and customize, these tasty treats are perfect any time of day. Kids love these roll-ups because they're tasty, and parents love them because they're nutritious.

Step 1
In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, and pepper.

Step 2
In a separate bowl, whisk the egg and milk, then stir in the carrots, zucchini, and scallions. Add the wet ingredients to the dry mixture and combine thoroughly.

Step 3
Place a large skillet over medium heat and add 1 tablespoon of oil. When the oil is hot, spoon the batter into the pan, about 1/3 cup per pancake, and cook the pancakes for 2 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Add more oil to the pan as needed.

Step 4
Remove the pancakes from the pan. Once they're cool enough to touch, roll them up and use a toothpick to secure each one if needed.

Step 5
Serve the pancakes warm with a side of sour cream and salsa, if desired. Makes 5 rolls.

Pita Bread and New Year's Resolutions

A little while ago Ryan posted his New Year’s resolutions and challenged us to post ours. One of ours (did I say ours I really meant to say mine, I just include Matt to be polite) is to eat healthier. Consequently this month I have tried some new recipes and thought you might be interested in them.

The first one is for Pita Bread. Now I have heard from several people that pita bread is easy but I have never tried it before. This recipe was pretty straightforward. I must admit that I cheated and dumped everything in the bread maker and put it on the dough cycle. It worked great. But I am sure that if you follow the directions and do it in a mixer then it will be equally successful. One warning the dough is pretty thick so be gentle with you mixer. This turned out GREAT I was very surprised. It even has pockets in the middle. One thing I would recommend is to use parchment or Pam (I was sadly out of both and they stuck a little bit). We had these with Falafel, which I thought was awesome but the family was not so sure about. I added to much parsley to it and it turned the inside green, I thought it was kind of like eating Martians but the family did not appreciate my humor.

Pita Bread

Recipe from Familyfun.com


Think of all the things you can use this for: hummus, paninis, wraps, quesadillas, and the list goes on and on.

1 tbsp. active dry yeast 2 cups warm water 1 tbsp. honey 2 tsp. salt 6 cups flour

Step 1
Dissolve the yeast in the water and stir in the honey. Add the salt and then the flour, 1 cup at a time. Stir until you can't mix the dough anymore. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured countertop. Knead for 10 minutes, or until the dough is elastic.

Step 2
Place the dough in a buttered bowl, turn to coat all sides, and cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap. Let the dough rise until it is doubled in size, about 2 hours. Punch it down and roll into 10 balls. Let the balls rest for 15 minutes, then shape them into 7 inch rounds.

Step 3
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees and bake the rounds on a cookie sheet set on the lowest rack in the oven for 10 to 12 minutes. This pita will be thicker than the ones you find at the grocery store. Wrap them in a cloth napkin until ready to serve. Makes 10 rounds.

A Merry Christmas

Well, I'm a little slow, but I thought that I'd share a few of our pictures from Christmas.

Ian with the apron I made him.

Molly loves her present!

Ian with "Optimash Prime"--thanks to Daniel and Ashley

Memphis wondering if Ian's new car game is edible.

The Rotary Lives!

For Matt, Brent and any other car guys:









The picture above is of the new "16x" rotary. It displaces 1.6 liters rather than the 1.3 in the rx-8. Power and torque are up by 20%, while fuel and oil consumption are down. The engine uses direct injection.


Mazda has rededicated itself to producing great rotary powered street and race cars. See links below:

http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/27/mazda-furai-breaks-cover/

http://www.autoblog.com/2007/05/30/celebrate-40-years-of-rotary-power-with-mazda/

http://www.autoblog.com/2007/10/27/mazda-debuts-new-gen-rotary-in-taiki-show-car/

http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/10/spy-shots-2010-mazda-rx-8/

New Year's Resolutions

I am not normally one for New Year's resolutions, but here is my list. Share your own if ya got 'em.

Ryan's Lame New Year's resolutions (in no particular order.)

1. Avoid allowing the Ducks or Jazz to get my hopes up.
2. Lose a few pounds. In the immortal words of Cameron Jensen: "I guess I'll have to exercise more, 'cause I don't see me eatin' less."
3. Read more, read better. (Suggestions anyone?)
4. A couple of academic articles in top field journals.
5. Blog more.
6. More frequent temple attendance.
7. Keep driving record clean. (That's right people! I have not had a ticket for (almost) three years.!)
   

Memphis the Lab Rat Part II

Memphis the Lab Rat! Get it? HARHARHARHAR!











The NCSU Vet school decided that Memphis had enough seizures during the 4-week evaluation period to continue with the study. The rest of the study is divided into 2 8-week periods, with a 2 week "washout" period between them. In one (randomly selected) period she will get the drug, in another she will get a placebo. I guess the experiment is triple blind, since the researcher, pet owner, and pet do not know which period is which. Memphis never knows what is going on anyway...

Memphis is currently 2 weeks into the first 8 week period. Updates to follow.

The best part of the study so far was the comical survey I had to fill out. The questions were of the "strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, strongly disagree" variety. The questions were similar to: "I believe that my pet is aware of my moods." and " I am in touch with my pet's feelings."