A Spectrum

George Lucas pays homage to "The Lord of the Rings" in "Return of the Jedi." Endor, the planet whose moon the ewoks live on, is actually the Elvish (Quenya) word for Middle Earth. Very Cool.

Well, I havn't heard back from my pointless interview yet. But I did just land an interview with the City of Dekalb. Yea!

So I have been watching these production diaries on King Kong (note link on right side of blog). They are just little snipits of how the movie is being made while they are filming. (Actually, they are done filming now and are in post production.) Anyway, I was watching the latest one today and Peter Jackson was answering fan questions. (Hm, I wish I could come up with a good question he could answer online.) Towards the end, he talks about how they are just editing the movie right now, fairly boring stuff. Then you see Peter lying on the editing room couch with Danny Devito editing his movie. I love the random stuff they come up with. What is Danny Devito doing in New Zealand? I wish I was in New Zealand.

So I make Tom read my blog this morning. Don't tell him anything except that I wrote a blog about him. Ya, he doesn't remember ANY of it happening. He just laughs. Crazy.

Also, I am beginning to think that Trisha is the only one that reads this. She's the only one that comments. Post comments people, please. You could at least say hi. :(

Sleepwalking freaks me out. Rightly so, my husband is notorious for it. Example: Moments ago (it's 11:19 p.m. now) I hear Tom walking down the hall from the bedroom toward the office where I am located. So I turn around and see his head and shoulders appear in the open doorway like he's peeking in ("Bizzare, I've never seen him act like that"). I don't really remember the first things he said because it was hard to understand him and I thought he was a fully concious adult who would make sense when speaking to me. However, once I caught on, I realized he was talking to me like he was asking me a question that I should know the answer to and getting frustrated that I didn't. The words I remember are, "out of a spout," "you know, cars," and "a novel." Perhaps my husband is writing the great american novel subconciously while he sleeps, the title "Car Wash" comes to mind. Anyway, I asked him if he's awake, "Yeess," he says and convince him to return to bed. After blowing his nose (a weird thing to do while you're sleeping), he lays down and goes back to sleep. I hope this affliction isn't hereditary. I won't get any sleep ever wrangling my family up each night. Geesh.

I had an interview this morning with the City of Elgin. Let me tell you the City of Elgin doesn't quite have it's act together. They started my interview late, asked me very few questions, and informed me at the interview that the focus of the job has shifted not to include GIS. Why in the world did you ask me for an interview? They must really be desperate since I have no community planning experience whatsoever. I still don't think I will get it. Man, I want a GIS internship. I have other possibilities with the City of DeKalb and NIU. Be praying please! I really want an internship!

I have titles now and dates. What excitement. (Titles and dates not provided or held by me but through a subsidiary also known as Trisha helped me.)

In one word, Amazing. Star Wars : Revenge of the Sith is awesome. I love it. It would be perfect if they would only cut out that stupid scene on the balcony. Had to have a stupid cheesy moment, didn't ya? Anyway, I won't tell you how many times I have seen it so far; however, Tom has seen it twice and my friend Trisha had to see it too. (Yes, I know my life is slightly pathetic right now.) Anyway, the midnight showing was great. I am a little peeved that the Dekalb and Sycamore theaters decided to have one AFTER I asked them both if they were or not. Whatever, the theater in Rockford was far superior, stadium seating, eight midnight showings, AND ballgame type concessions. Yes, they milked the concession for all they were worth. "Jedi's drink too," they yelled as they walked up and down the aisles. We arrived 1 hr and 45 mins early for our show and ended up near the back anyway cause the theater was already over 2/3 full. Someone had even brought their laptop and was watching Episode II while they were waiting, Smart Cookie. At least I brought cards. Anyway, the midnight showing was the best cause those people were true fans and got all the jokes and connections and stuff. At the other showings, I was like come one people, R2D2 just burnt those droids, LAUGH!!! Anyway, Tom's comment to me was, "well now we don't have any more movies to look forward to" Does he know me at all?!?, Harry Potter, Bewitched, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, King Kong, Madagascar, Xmen 3, Spiderman 3, Shrek 3, (geesh what's with the 3's), Wallace and Gromit, War of the Worlds, (hmm I need to make some more money), Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Curious George, The Brothers Grimm, The Da Vinci Code (ooo, I still need read the book before I see that one), Ice Age 2,...........

May 19, 2005


Dear Employer,

Please excuse Lauren Lee from work on Thursday, May 19. She is not feeling well. Lauren is at home in bed for the entire day, nursing what appears to be a serious hamster attack. Lauren's illness is in no way, shape or form related to the premiere of the final installment of the greatest story ever, which, coincidentally, premieres on the same date.

While I cannot confirm nor deny that Lauren has called my company, Geek Squad, asking to be set up with wireless access "in case of a space opera-related sick day" know that if you do receive an e-mail from your prized employee today, it is most likely because She was wise enough to plan ahead in the event of illness.

But as I mentioned before, Lauren is at home, safely in bed, but reachable (in dire emergencies) by e-mail or cell.

One more thing. Beginning at 12:03 a.m., Lauren Lee will be unreachable for about two hours, thirteen minutes and eleven seconds. She will be feeling really bad at this time.




Move along,
Robert Stephens
Geek Squad - Chief Inspector

Today is it. Star Wars Episode III! Well technically tomorrow, but I won't sleep till I see i, 12:03 a.m. showing. This is my weird tradition. I've seen all three at midnight the day they came out.

I went to walmart today and browsed in the Star Wars toy section and two guys came up the aisle and were real excited and bought a voice changer mask and a lightsaber.

I quipped, "Midnight showing."
"Yea, but that's not why we bought them, they're cool too."

Geesh, man you don't have to justify yourself to me, look where I'm at. I must say it was very tempting to purchase something, but I think those attending with me would refuse to acknowledge my presence if I did (especially Tom). So I limited myself to Twizzler's that I can hopefully sneak in. I'm sure you will hear about my experience soon.

As I was walking through Super Wal-mart's parking lot today, I saw a "well-used" vehicle sporting a bumper sticker that read "Lutefisk Lover." Now, that sentiment is funny in and of itself. However, I am 1/4 Swedish, I have had the unfortunate pleasure of tasting lutefisk and let me tell you it is the most disgusting thing imanginable. I am not the biggest fan of fish to begin with, but when I was forced to try it they assured me that the sauce made with it when combined with the lutefisk, made it good. I think the sauce was actually worse than the fish. Here's my advice for the day: please spare yourself the torture and never try lutefisk.

I can't wait for the new Harry Potter film. This one is my favorite book. If you can't tell by now, I like movies. Quite a lot actually, check out the teaser trailer.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Weird Tradtion #3

Calling these sundae cones, "Kini Ice Cream Cones" (pronounced "kee-nee).

Weird Tradition #3 

Weird Tradition #2

My mom risks flogging if she does not make the egg, sausage, cheese, and half mushroom casserole for Christmas morning. Only half the casserole can have mushrooms because my brother doesn't like them.

Weird Tradition #1

Whenever my brother and I watch any of the Star Wars movies, the volume must be turned all the way up from the point of the THX sound until after the prologue and the spaceship flies by.

Check out the teaser trailer for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It's kind of hidden.

Step 1. Click on the wardrobe to go through it.
Step 2. Move your mouse over the Lion's head and click "The Movie"
Step 3. Click on the "Production Room"
Step 4. Click on the TV or "Videos"

Now that I have included these elaborate directions, I predict no one will go watch it. ;)

Teaser Trailer

After watching Star Wars Episode II with my friend Trisha this weekend (because she hadn't seen it yet), I was getting ready to leave to go home. I was picking up my coat off of her couch and noticed a rather large insect in her couch cushions.

"Trisha, you have a really large bug in your couch."
Jokingly she replies, "Does it look like the bugs that try to kill Amidala?"
"Um, kind of."

Obviously, it wasn't quite like those, but ironically similar. It was about 3 inches long, rather large for a bug I would say. And it was long and skinny and had about 60 long legs all around it's body. Suffice it to say that Trisha more than freaked out, rightfully so, since it was hanging out in her couch cushions and commented that she thought I was joking about what it looked like. Good Times.

Tom and I went and saw "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" this weekend. Not knowing anything about the movie other that it was probably going to be a little bit bizarre, I rather enjoyed the craziness. Tom on the otherhand was more than a little confused (but I must say, he did laugh a awful lot for claiming to not like it very much;) Anyway, if any of you are planning on seeing it, I would suggest checking out these clips from the movie so you know what you're in for. Plus the "Internet Trailer" (also from this website) is really good and only in a tangent kind of way deals with the movie. Check it out.

Hitchhicker Movie

Check out this teaser trailer for King Kong that a fan made. Still not sure about it but it's Pete Jackson so... And if anyone can tell me what the music at the end of the trailer is from, I will love you. I can't think of it. ARGH! Check out the trailer this guy made for a potential "The Hobbit" movie. Kind of interesting.

King Kong Teaser

Well, as you can see I have been laxing on the trivia because no one really played. But perhaps I have found a better outlet for my trivia craziness. I have set up my own trivia tournament and I would like you all to join too! This time you will also playing against me cause I don't have to make up the questions (you probably like that)! Right now I have it set on movie trivia, so all the questions are from movies. But I will probably change the theme periodically. Each day there will be a different quiz. It's based on time and correct answers. (makes it harder to look up answers! Haha!) Anyway someone better play pretty soon cause it says I am the smartest person of the day. :) Anyway, the link to get to my tournament will always be on the right hand side of my blog under "My trivia tournament." And you set up a one time account and password and you can always get back in with that. Happy Triviaing!

Crazy, a Star Wars TV show. I don't know about that.

Star Wars TV Story

Tom was relating this story to me the other day. His school has a small cafeteria where you can buy nachos with a little cup of cheese. So Tom sometimes asks his friends to just buy him the little cup of cheese for 50 cents if they're going up to get something. Then he proceeds to just eat the little cup of cheese and his friend make fun of him for it. I told him they had a good point cause that is a little weird. Then he tried to justify himself by saying, "What, it's just like hard cheese except liquided" "Liquided", right Tom, your friends shouldn't make fun of you at all. ;)

My parents came up this past weekend. We went shopping, saw movies, went to church, and sat through about 7 minutes of a very cold spring football game. However, we also went and saw my other Tom, Mr. Skilling, speak on campus. Well we were sort of early since we didn't stay very long at the football game so we went over to Davis Hall and I showed them around my lab where I work. Well Tom happened to be in Davis before his talk so mom and dad got to meet him and shake his hand and of course dad talked to him about farming and old weather proverbs, things like that. So we listened to most of his talk but had to leave early to meet Tom (that is my husband Tom)in St. Charles after he got off work. So last night I got home from bible study around 9:15 and Husband Tom was on the computer and going through old files so I decided to watch tv for a bit and I noticed it was close to 9:30 so I thought I would watch my other Tom's evening forecast. I don't usually watch nighttime news. I am more of a morning news person so I forget to watch Tom's forecast a lot. Anyway, he's going through his little schpiel and then he mentions how came to NIU for a talk. I thought that was cool. And then he proceeds to say how he was able to talk to this farmer who said that their crops were about two weeks ahead. Tom quoted my dad. Hee hee. Unfortunately dad missed it but my mom saw it so she got a real kick out of it. Crazy.

I think if I go to cornerstone this year, it will be my ninth time! Crazy. Unfortunatly I missed last year because I was working and there was really only one band I wanted to see anyway. But this year there are so many good bands!!!! I wish I could go the whole time but I don't think that is possible. However, I am excited that the band I missed last year, Switchfoot, is going to be there on Sat. night, the one night I think I will be able to go. YEAH! Relient K is that night too. Score.
Cornerstone

Unfortunatly, there back. I saw one of those stupid commercials for Fanta soft drinks today. I hate those commercials. It makes me never want to purchase their product, ever. Do they honestly think that annoying us with their horrible song and idiotic fanta girls, that any sane person would want to buy their product? Not only do they annoy me on tv, but they have the audacity to play those commercails before movies where you can't escape them. Grrr.

Yay, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe has a website now. The intro is really neat. Although it took me a moment to realize that the stupid spinning doorknob I was watching was the "loading" bar/timer thing. Anyway...
The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe

My brother and I love Star Wars Legos and have probably wasted more money than I want to admit to. But now they have a Star Wars Lego video game! You can download a demo version from their webside. How fun!

Star Wars Lego Video Game

I recived the most bizarre thing in the mail today. Tom's school progress report. Geesh, I'm not the boy's mother!

Ok I am such a nerd but this is totally cute!!!

My Baby boy's attire

Would anyone like to buy me this T-shirt? ;)

Shirt

I went to a teacher store today with my friend Trisha. I must say I go to teacher stores far too often for not being a teacher or even a parent. :) Anyway, they had a Wisconsin Passport there. Of course the first thing I thought was "hm.. it does make sense that you need a passport to go to Wisconsin." Pretty lame I know. Anyway, the whole point of the thing was listing facts about Wisconsin, state bird, where the capital is, population, the lyrics to "On Wisconsin," that sort of thing. Hence, I learned that the state fossil is the trylobite. Why in the world does a state need a state fossil?? Anyway, I thought it was weird that they had one of the these for wisconsin but not for illinois. However, as I explored further I found one for Illinois with a display of workbooks on Illinois history that sort of thing. So I learned that we also have a state fossil, I don't remember what it was, that Chicago has a city flag, the smallest incorporated town is Time, pop. 27... etc. However our list of facts took a turn for the bizarre. They mentioned that there was a town in Illinois named Sandwich (wow) and that the town of Metropolis claims to be the home of superman, yeah, yeah, yeah (Side Note: They didn't even mention that there is a big statue of him in town, but they did say that the town newpaper is called the Daily Planet, how awesome is that? :) I mean I can kind of understand some silly facts like that. But this next one takes the cake. The had listed that in 1990 someone in the Springfield area spotted someone that looked like Elvis ordering a hamburger and fries. WHAT kind of fact is that? As trisha would say, "Crackheads!!!!"

Check out this guy's sidewalk chalk art. It's very cool.


Sidewalk Chalk Art

It's been a while since I posted anything because it has been a crazy week. I had a presentation yesterday and a rough draft of a big paper today. I just finished the paper and sent it off to my professor, yay! I must say that it is no fun when your professor decides two days before a rough draft is due that you should change your statistical analysis. Let's just say that last night was the first time I saw 4 a.m. (besides sleepy trips to the bathroom) in a very long time!!!!! Ya, you'd think with meeting with him over two weeks ago and hashing out what analysis to use I would have been ok but no. Two days ago, I ask what I thought was a relatively simple question and that was my doom. Grr...

One of the classes I have to take for my graduate program is a lecture series where people come in from other universities/places to talk about their research. They are usually fairly interesting. The best one so far was probably this past friday. Mostly because he was funny and included in his slide show a picture of a road sign warning people of things that could fall off a cliff onto their car, rocks and a cow. :) His name was Elwynn Taylor and he is an agricultural meteorologist from Iowa State University. Besides his humorous stuff he talked about the changing climate, climate cycles, and soybean rust movement. So here's my little prediction from what I learned: Looking at the precipitation cycle over the past few hundreds of years, we are entering a six year period where according to history we should see two serious corn belt droughts. So there's a 1 in 3 chance of seeing a drought over the next 6 years. And if your worried about soybean rust reaching us in Illinois. Watch for it appearing in Texas. A low level jet can up from Texas to the midwest, so if it's in Texas the disease will travel with the jet and end up wherever the jet terminates. I am just impressed that I took something away from his talk.

Elwynn Taylor's Weather and Crop Comments

Our computer decided to blow up on Wednesday. Well, it decided to not recognize any program except Internet Explorer. Stupid Corrupt Windows. Anyway, it's fixed now, no papers lost, no student's grades lost. And there are only four icons cluttering my desktop, yeah!

SEVEN WAYS TO SAVE THE PLANET

Earth Day is coming up in April, that time of year when we all ask ourselves, What's the least I can do? Are there ways that I can save the planet without putting in any real effort or time? Here are a few ways to help save the planet:

1. Wash your hands sparingly. Washing many times a day wastes gallons of water, and your hands are never as dirty as you think.
2. Turn off your watch when you're not checking the time.
3. Stop bread waste. Place condiments on both sides of the bread and use just one slice. This saves on oven-baking time and is perfect for today's low-carb lifestyle.
4. Create your own ecologically friendly products. For example, toothpaste: My recipe includes mint gum, peanut butter, and mayonnaise. The consistency and color is perfect, and your teeth stay clean without those tubes clogging up the landfill.
5. When throwing away books, be sure to break the spines first. Unbroken books can lodge in the throats of bears and cougars.
6. Don't walk -- run! Running saves time, propelling you to incredible sales and discounts faster.
7. Wear socks with sandals. My personal favorite. A socks/sandals combo says to others, "I don't care about how I look, I care about our natural environment." You will also save money on expensive habits like having a social life. Spend it on shrubs and flowers instead.
Let's all save the world... together!

(from Marlar in the Morning)

My uncle got a new golden retriever puppy. He's not sure about the name, perhaps Chief perhaps George. So Chief George sounds good to me. I got to play with him this past weekend. I want a puppy!

George loves the camera 

I love puppies! 

Chief George 

Find your Jedi Name. Mine was Leela Muabi of the planet Ortho. ;)

This looks so funny. I can't wait!

Bewitched Trailer

Woohoo, nickel size hail. Well, not really woohoo but it was fun to watch.

More Easter Weekend musings...

It never fails. When you get my parent's generation or older together, the conversation inevitably moves toward just talking about people. Who they were married to, who their children were, when they died, what they did, where they lived, and so forth... Of course to my generation, this is the most boring topic in the world. So naturally at easter dinner with my parents, grandparents, and aunt and uncle, where else would the conversation go? The conversation however became slightly more interesting when they started talking about someone named Norton who married a Lorton. Well, you can guess what that sounded like. Not only that but my aunt and uncle were at a funeral I think when they saw an older gentlemen and couldn't remember if his wife was dead or not. My uncle told my aunt to just go up and ask him how his wife was doing. Thank goodness my aunt did not stoop to that level in order to obtain that piece of information.

One of my professor's in the hall today said "Are you going to chase?" And I thought I misheard him, so replied "What?" He repeated the same thing and so did I because I was clueless as to what he was trying to ask me. So finally he said, "You know, all the severe weather, are you going to go out?" OOOHHHH! My reply was "I wish" I am so out of the loop I didn't know what he was talking about. Plus I dont' have time to do that really and Tom would kill me if I did. ;) But I am excited about the prospect of severe weather. Maybe I will get lucky and it will come straight to me!!!

Today, I finally got to do something that I've been wanting to do all semester. I took my lab class outside!!! It was so nice out. We just kind of plunked ourselves down on the grass and they worked on their lab and I helped when they had questions. I think they enjoyed being out of the tower of terror. I am an awesome teacher. Well, sort of...

While out at my grandparents Easter sunday, the big excitement among the guys was that grandpa had gotten a new lawnmower. My grandpa lives on a lake and has a very large lot to mow, plus he mows neighbors lots too. So it's a fairly nice size lawnmower, they guys were making comments about the size, etc. and the fact that it has a cupholder. This feature was very exciting to them. So of course my husband Tom and my cousin Sam had to go check it out. It was in the garage just off the house. The proceeded to start it up and fill the house with carbon monoxide. But that's beside the point. We were all lathargic anyway from the meal so who notices carbon monoxide right. Anyway, they were reving the engine and so on, kind of funny coming from a lawnmower. When they finally turned it off, everything was immediately quiet and we hear my cousin yell "The cup holder works great!!!" :) Silly boys.

I ran into my weather dynamics professor the other day who I usually don't talk to. The two classes I took with her were the hardest ever. Anyway, she said she had found an old final of mine and wondered if I wanted it. I was kind of taken aback so I said ok. It was kind of bizzare because it was from 2002 and she only gave me the answers I wrote not the questions. But I was amazed that I was ever able to take those tests and I did really well on this test! My professor said I should frame it. ;) It was a nice confidence booster moment. Something to counter act all my stupid moments you have been reading about. ;) How in the world did I make it to adulthood?

Did you ever have one of those days where you get locked out of your bedroom? (Do I even need to tell you that this also happened?)

However, I will go into more detail. Somehow when we closed the door behind us it was locked, I thought when you opened a locked door from the inside it stayed unlocked, apparantly not. Anyway, this was at like 10 p.m. and the door needed a key it looked like. I tried a knife, i tried our apt. key and even our mail key ;), a screwdriver and vairous other tools were tried by tom and tom's brother, Eric. Being a firefighter, Eric was like "Ah, let me just take it out." Hmm, tempting, but no. Thank goodness Eric was home at the time because both Tom's cell phone and my cell phone were in the bedroom. So we call our apt. complex's emergency number to request someone to unlock it. Tom talked to the lady on the phone but I could hear the conversation. The lady was like, "They didn't issue you a key?" (Would I be talking to you if they did??) and then she said, "well is this an emergency, do you need someone now?" (No lady, Tom and I will just sleep in the living room and go to work/school the next day in our pajamas! Here's your sign... sorry tom's got me watching blue collar comedy tour) Anyway, we finally got a maintenece guy to come and after trying about 32 different keys, he opened the door. YEAH!

Do you ever have one of those days where you open the door of your car to drive somewhere, put one foot in, and realize there isn't a steering wheel in front of you because you opened the back door? (once again this actually happened)

I love pixar's short films that they show before their feature films! You can watch them all on their website. Check it out!

Pixar Shorts

Yay, a Wallace and Gromit movie! Mmm...Cheese.

Wallace and Gromit

Thoughts about Southern Indiana:
-It's more hilly than I thought.
-Houses are either brand new or falling apart.
-The roads were most likely laid out by drunken men, they have no pattern whatsoever.
-Every road must have at least three different names.
-Spencer, IN has gas 10 cents cheaper than everywhere else.
-There are yellow road signs that annouce the presence of a church. (No! I thought that large building with a steeple and stain glass was the local bar.)
-Hoosiers either drive 10 mph over the speed limit or 20 mph under.
-Don't even try to figure out what time it is, eastern, central, an hour early, the same time, don't move their clocks forward or backward, my head hurts...

Do you ever have one of those days where you try to unlock your front door by pushing the automatic unlock button on your car keys? (How sad is it that this happened?)

Two more days 'til break....SCORE!... maybe during break I will have time to write something.

Got some free time on your hands?

How long can you hold it? HoldTheButton.com

Take my Quiz on QuizYourFriends.com!

Take my Quiz on QuizYourFriends.com!

I love evil plans. We are meeting my friend and her husband for dinner tomorrow night, only hmmmm.... We don't show up. She wonders why? She tells her husband that I am always on time. Maybe she will call me. Oh wait, she doesn't have my number with her. Guess they'll have to go home and see if I called and cancelled. They pull up to their dark apartment. Nothing seems unusual. Her husband goes in first. SURPRISE! It's a party for his birthday. I love evil plans. (Disclaimer: Evil plan is not in fact intended for evil purposes.)

Today (2-23-05) was Tell a funny story about your kid day. I don't know why and obviously I don't have a kid but it made me think of stories from my childhood. So I will relate one of those to you. I can't remember anything funny about myself when I was really little at the moment. I know I frequently unrolled the toilet paper and took out all the cans from our bottom cupboards, etc. My parents have about 72 pictures to prove this. Most of my funny stories revolve around my brother. Remember the banana sticker thing. Anyway, one day myself, my brother, my cousin Sam, and my friend Stacey Cummings were outside playing and my dad had a wagon of corn out in the barn lot. These were always fun to play in because you would sink in like in a ball pit and could bury yourself in it. (Hey, I grew up in the middle of nowhere without cable tv, what else were we supposed to do? ;) So we are playing around, burying each other, when my brother starts to scream. Somehow, the silly boy inadvertently lodged a kernel of corn in his ear!!! His ear!!! My dad had to flush it out with water and we probably got in trouble because we probably weren't supposed to be playing in there in the first place, whoops.

Alternate quiz answers:

1. Harrison Ford (Star Wars to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade)
2. Liv Tyler (Armegeddon or Jersey Girl to Lord of the Rings)
Bruce Willis (Armegeddon to North)
3. Crispin Glover (Back to the Future to Charlie's Angels)

Oh, and I thought of another one for my exampe: Julia Roberts (Hook to Steel Magnolias)

Sorry it took me so long to put these up, but my internet was out of commission for a while. Very frustrating. I can't remember the last time I have been so angry, like really angry. Let's just say some poor comcast guy got an earful, long story. Anyway.....

Answers 2-18-05:
1. Sarajevo
2. Heart and Souls
3. Deposition
Bonus: Surface Tension

Where I grew up we have this local potato chip, Kitchen Cooked. When I was young, I never much thought of it, but now it is one of my favorites. A couple weeks ago I was in my local Super Walmart and I saw them being sold. They have never been sold here before and I was very excited and bought a bunch to share with my small group bible study. Well. I was munching on some of their cheese puffs the other day and noticed they have a website. You can order Kitchen Cooked online now AND they have sweatshirts and stuff. It seriously takes very little to amuse me. I will have to let my aunt and uncle out in North Dakota know because they take like 2 boxes full home everytime they're back. ;)

Kitchen Cooked is online! Check it out:
http://www.kitchencooked.net

"Your tongue lives in a wet place, sometimes it may slip."
-Pastor Steve Best on James 3

Tom fell asleep on the couch wednesday night while we were watching Lost. So I stopped the tape so we could watch it later, and told him to go to bed. He didn't listen, he just fell asleep again. I went on watching tv for a while, played my video game for a while, and told him three more times when he tossed around to go to bed. Finally, when I decided to go to bed, I kind of pushed him awake and took the blanket he had over him off. He grumbled and got up. So I follow him into the bedroom where he proceeds to start putting on his long underwear. This confuses me slightly, so I ask, "Are you cold? Why are you putting those on?" To which he replied in a 'why don't you know why I am putting these on' kind of way, "I have to go outside sometime, don't I!" ya, he was still totally asleep... So I am like "Tom, why don't you take those off and lay down.? He glares at me for a long time with his long underwear only half on, so I repeat it two more times and finally he decides that this is ok and takes them off and goes into the bathroom. This was so bizarre, I have heard him talk in his sleep before but never anything like this. Of course, he doesn't remember any of this and feels really bad for being mean to me. ;)

I think I will make Friday my quiz day. It seems to work out. Hmm, I will have to change the name to random 3 question quiz of the week. Sorry, I know this week's is kind of hard, so here's an alternate type quiz.

Can you link these two actors through another actor that has appeared in movies with them? (This is not fool proof, I am just going on my knowledge so feel free to prove me wrong)

Example: Robin Williams to Olympia Dukakis
Answer: Sally Field (Mrs. Doubtfire to Steel Magnolias)

1. (Easy) Carrie Fisher to Sean Connery

2. (Medium) Ben Affleck to Elijah Wood (Two possible answers, Can you get both?)

3. (Hard) Michael J. Fox to Lucy Liu

2-18-05 Random 3 question quiz of the day:
1. What city was Arch Duke Ferdinand assissinated in to start WWI?
2. What movie stars Rober Downey, Jr., Elizabeth Shue, Kyra Sydwick (sp?), Charles Grodin, Alfre Woodard, and B.B. King?
3. What is the phase change from water vapor to ice called?(Like liquid to water vapor is evaporation, water vapor to liquid is condensation)
Bonus: What property of water can allow you to in a glass float a penny on it's surface?

Answers 2-11-05:
1. aurora borealis
2. Jules Verne
3. Dick Clark and Donny Osmond
Bonus: Will Ferrell (Besides Curious George, he will be seen in "Bewitched" as Darrin and in "The Producers" with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick)

2-11-05 Random 3 question quiz:

1. What's the real name of the Nothern Lights?

2. Who wrote 20,000 Legues Under the Sea?

3. What two people have hosted the game show pyramid ($25,000 pryamid)?

Bonus: Who portrayed Jeopardy host Alex Trebek frequently on Saturday Night Live?

( Side note: The answer is going to be the voice of "The man with the yellow hat" in the upcoming animated Curious George movie)

I was in Doc Brown's class the other day and we were talking about the usual sort of things that you talk about in a graduate class, geographical statistics, Arnold Schwartzenegger, how the picture of the F-statistic curve looks like the "whale" that ate Jonah. And as you can see I should be completely enraptured by the aforementioned topics, but alas I was instead intrigued by the back of my colored pencil box and I noticed something. I have had these colored pencils for about 3 or 4 years dating back to my days of drawing weather maps, red for temperature, green for dewpoint, etc. For some bizarre reason Crayola felt the need to include on the back of the box the name of each colored pencil next to a sample of each color. Not only that, the sample color next to the label "black" is very obviously not black. It's a dark green color. I have had this confirmed by no less that three other people who were all as flummoxed as I. It also just so happens that as I was sitting here, I noticed that we own another box of crayola colored pencils which I can only assume once were employed by Tom as the box has about 3 feet of scotch tape wrapped around it for some unknown reason. His box has the correct color displayed and according to the copyright date his box is three years older than mine. (Side note: Also during the span of three years they must have had a block in their creative department as the exact same "Fun Drawing Idea" of a swimming dragon is displayed on both.) So apparently somewhere between 1997 and 2000 the colored pencil division at Crayola began mistaking dark green for black. Maybe it's because in 1997 they were made in Italy and in 2000 they were made in Brazil. I think this suspicion holds greater truth that I think. My box also says that it contains no tropical rain forest wood. Now maybe my geography is a little off but I don't think Italy has tropical rain forest wood but isn't Brazil all tropical rain forest wood???

February 5 is National Weatherman day (who knew there was such a thing). So in honor of National Weatherman day, here is a poem by George Mindling (Weathern Bureau Office, Atlanta, GA - 1939)

Soliloquy of the Weather Man

If I should say, "It's going to snow
And folks won't need a fan,"
They'd smile and say, "He does not know;
He's just the Weather Man."

And if I'd say, "It will be fair,"
They'd still be much in doubt;
"The Weather Man," they do declare
"Knows not what he's about."
And if I'd say, "The rain will freeze
And break down all the wires and trees,"
They'd grab my neck before I ran
And choke the pesky Weather Man.

I do my best to let men see
How earnestly I work;
Right down to tenths of one degree
I never dare to shirk.
When my barometer I read
It is no simple cinch;
A fine vernier is what I need
For thousandths of an inch.
I measure rain with equal care;
I gather telegrams from far
Throughout our country everywhere,
But pay no heed to moon and star.

The drift of clouds, also their forms
Throughout all States I learn,
Positions of approaching storms,
Which way they seem to turn,
How much they have increased in size,
How fast they move along.
I wish each one could realize
Why I sometimes am wrong.

No storm comes rolling on a track
Like that of railroad trains;
And yet there is no utter lack
Of order in the course of rains.
My greatest trouble's in their speed;
Sometimes they come too late.
A rigid schedule's what they need,
A bit more steady gait.
Then I could tell just when they'll come,
How long they're going to last,
And I would not appear so dumb
As often in the past.

http://www.lib.noaa.gov/edocs/weatherpoems.html

Don't look if you haven't seen the previous blog!

1. John Wayne
2. Judy Garland
3. Kirk Douglas

Did you know that Walter Matthau's real name was Walter Mattaschanskayasky? What a mouthful! No wonder he changed it. See if you can guess who these people are better know as.
1. Marion Morrison (Easy)
2. Frances Gumm (Medium)
3. Issur Danielovitch Demsky (Hard)
Hint: They are all older actors, well the first two are both deceased.
By the way William Pratt changed his name to Boris Karloff. I don't understand that one.

Well, once again I have a class with the infamous Doc Brown (see previous blogs). At least this time he warned us that he has a tendancy to go over the designated class time. The scary thing is that there is only eight of us in the class and my tactict of hiding among the group isn't going to work. What?! I need to participate in class. Darn it. Don't you know me? I'm quiet. Guess what my contribution was today? He couldn't think of the word that described the things they show before movies. My offering: "preview" YES, I participated. Never mind it was a tangent completely off the subject of the lecture. Oh well.

Here follows Doc Brown's Bad Geography Joke of the day: "Time doesn't cause the growth of population. It's idle time that causes the growth of population."

Answers to Quiz 1-22-05 (don't cheat if you haven't read the quiz yet;)

1. 7up (Becuase it use to come in 7 oz bottles, Thank goodness they changed it)
2. The Mirage
3. A blend of Cotton and Linen
Bonus: Benjamin Franklin

Random 3 question quiz of the day 1-22-04:
1. What is the product "Lithiated Lemon" known as today?
2. What Las Vegas Hotel housed Sigfried and Roy's show?
3. Paper money isn't made out of paper. What is it made of?
Bonus: Whose face is on the $100 bill?

Answers to follow at some point probably when I get around to it.

I weep for the students in Geog 106 on Wed. from 12-2. Do you know why? I am their T.A. This Wed. I get to teach them about the vertical structure of the atmosphere and I feel as if all meteorological knowledge has escaped me. I had a meeting with my head T.A. yesterday to go over the lab, point values, and other general information. He told me that I need to explain the math concepts as well as the science. He has had students that don't know how to cross multiply and divide to solve for a variable. I looked at next week's lab and it's all trigonometry. GGRREEAATT. Oh and the best part is I am in 701. The elevator doesn't even go up to the 7th floor and on the ceiling there is a tarp catching rainfall/snowfall that leaks through. I am dead serious. The tallest bloody room in the tallest bloody tower.... Will Shrek come save me and hilarity ensue? I doubt it.

Clear

tracing fingers in the sand
holding on to hope for now
looking up to the sunlit sky
i wipe the sweat from upon my brow

greater things have brought me down
promises that have flown away
sadness clings on oh so tight
tomorrow is another day

underneath this shell i hide
you want me to open wide
eventhough I doubt so much
i know, it's clear, your by my side

reaching out past my fingertips
for something to hold tight
i know i should reach for you
that's why i'm giving up the fight

underneath this shell i hide
you want me to open wide
eventhough I doubt so much
i know, it's clear, your by my side

Are you Lost? I am.
http://i-am-lost.com/

Sorry this post is way overdue. But.... Yeah, my Huskies won a bowl game. Alas, I did not make it to San Jose, however, I had a nice dry experience at home in front of my TV with friends. Apparently, it was so rainy there that it knocked out the power for ESPN 2. So they weren't even broadcasting the game at first. And then when finally got it on the air, the game had already started. And they only had one camera angle from the top of the bleachers looking down. It looked a taped high school game. It was very bizarre. Then they lost sound and had go off the air again. Finally they got the power back and more than one camera angle. Another oddity of the game was that the announcers were horrible. They kept talking about the team's uniforms being dirty and that their laundry was going to be tough. Also, they talked about this one family who had another son in a bowl game and so they were going to have to leave that game at some point. They beat this story to death. I swear they talked about at least 35 different times during the course of the game. OH I almost forgot one announcer called us the Bulldogs at one point. My friends and I figured we could do a better job announcing this game than they. Then at one point I swore one of the announcers called the other Pam, but I was like no, no, that's too masculine of a voice. It must of been Dan or something. But no it was Pam. Probably the only female Bass in her school choir. It was freaky how deep her voice was. Now I am all for women announcers but seriously, do you need to talk about their laundry...This one's long, sorry. If any of you read this through I applaud you.

I love Get Fuzzy. It is my favorite comic strip ever. Bucky, Satchel, and Rob are the craziest characters. I actually laugh out loud sometimes. If you are a human being who enjoys laughing, go to comics.com and have it emailed to you every day. Good stuff. (p.s. if you can't see the comic, click on it)

Get Fuzzy 

Thoughts to ponder: How can the word "cleave" mean to cut in half but also mean to stick together? Or when something is "fast" it can be either stuck firmly or moving quickly? Isn't trying your best a good thing, but trying one's patience a bad thing? Hmmm.

Do you call it pop, soda, coke....? Check it out. http://www.popvssoda.com/countystats/total-county.html
(By the way: It's Pop)

My family's Christmas curse is sickness. It never fails someone is always sick on or around christmas. Two years ago, it hit everybody. I however was the unfortunate soul who spent christmas day sleeping on the couch eating ice chips. I bowed to the porcelin god if I ingested anything else. This year my mother was the curse's victim. Strep Throat. Her throat swelled and she could barely talk. Yet we managed. With her on the couch most of the weekend, we ended up playing SceneIt, seriously, about 20 times. And my brother and I were rolling on the floor with laughter every time she tried to say "Robert Redford" or any of the lines of the priest in "The Princess Bride." She sounded just like him. Alas, I don't know what to do in order to break the curse. Maybe I should call up the Red Sox and get their opinion.

Here follows two funny moments from Wednesday: 1. A Woman in a fur length fur coat, high heels, and fancy makeup shopping at an Old Navy store. 2. A Citgo Gas Station sign claiming that it is "The Pride of Geneva." Sidenote: Trisha and I spend way too much time together. ;)

Is it weird that of Santa's reindeer I am Comet? That fits so well. Spooky.

You are Lichen, also known as Comet! You're a bit
of an oddball. You've got a beautiful
taupe-silver coat with a few black spots. You
are also the speediest of Santa's reindeer, and
you astronomical knowledge makes you a great
navigator.


Which of Santa's eight reindeer are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

How fun does this look? ;) I love movies. http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/bewitched/

Everyone must try out this website. http://www.guessthename.com/ You think of a TV show or movie and then answer yes or no questions about the it and it will guess your show or movie. I thought I had chosen an obscure show like Ed and eventhough I answered quite a few questions and maybe only answered yes to like five all of a sudden, it popped up "Your show is Ed, Am I right?" And I was like WHAT?!? Lots of fun.

Do you know the way to San Jose? Well, do you know a way I can get to San Jose on Dec. 30? Anyone, Anyone, just need a plane ticket. Come on, you want to fly me to Califonia for Christmas right, so I can see my Huskies, Please....

Here it is, the worst name for a bank, ever! Old 2nd Bank. First of all, the word OLD is a complete turn off. Do you want an old bank? Personally, I want a modern bank that keeps up with technology. Second, is.... 2nd! Come on, who wants to hop on board with the 2nd bank. I want a winning bank. I want a 1st bank, not some loser 2nd bank. So, really, why would anyone open an account with the geriatric, non-winning bank? Maybe a free walker with deposit.

Mr. Tom Skilling 

I ran into someone today from the past. My other Tom. Well, if you call two years the ago "the past." I ran into Mr. WGN weather man, Tom Skilling. He was at NIU for meteorology 431 presentations. It amazes me how genuinely happy he is to see you every time you meet. He was in the hall heading to interview the students that contributed to one of the research projects he sponsored and he was like "Hey there's a familiar face," and proceeded to have a conversation with me eventhough he was busy. What a nice guy. For those of you who don't know, I had a semester internship with him my senior year and also did a research project that he sponsored in my 431 class. I could tell you lots of stories about him, maybe at a later time. One thing about is that he really liked to sing while he was working. However, he had a tendency to forget the words and make up his own. Since it is the holiday season and Tom has such an affection for Christmas carols. I will leave you with one of his oldies but goodies which he sang constantly while I was there starting in August all the way to December. "Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all those freaking bells."

The UPNess 

Pretty Snow 

Do you know the kind of snow that makes everything look really beautiful? Well, we have had two of those in the past week. One right before thanksgiving and one just yesterday. I love how the snow just sticks to the trees and is both powdery and sparkly. It makes me want to wrap up in a blanket and read a book and have hot chocolate and throw snowballs and do practically anything christmassy. Alas, I am stuck doing end of the semester projects and studying for finals. What a travesty.