Macy's Parade 1939

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and is enjoying their weekend. Rob and I did go to Target at midnight, but we were in and out in about 35 minutes, so certainly not die hard Black Friday shoppers. We went home afterwards and went to bed.

If you watched the Macy's parade this year, here's a video of the parade from 1939 for comparison. No silly lip syncing artists, but you can tell where the inspiration for a lot of what they do now has come from.

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade - New York, 1939 from standard on Vimeo.

(there is no audio on the video)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, it’s Thanksgiving week, and I’ve started to see lists pop up online of everything that you’re thankful for. It’s a wonderful tradition, so I thought I’d do a list of my own. Of course I’m thankful for the traditional things: A great husband, a warm home and a roof over my head, a loving family, and an adorable dog, good friends, indoor plumbing etc… But in this list, I want to focus on some of the less common things that people really should be giving thanks for. After all, it's the little things in life that make the difference.

What I’m thankful for:

10) Staplers and paperclips. I’m a teacher, and these workhorses of the office often get overlooked. I even did a post just about paperclips. That’s how thankful I am.

9) Cheese. Though I’m certain cheese was probably invented on accident, boy am I thankful that someone let their milk spoil.

8) Digital Cooking thermometers. Never having to wonder if your burger is done. Priceless.

7) Breathright Strips. My husband is probably more thankful for these than I am.

6) Nonstick aluminum foil. This stuff is magic. Not even burnt cheese sticks to it.

5) Wireless Internet. We live in the future. I can check my email at McDonalds. I can use my laptop without cords. Woo!

4) Chocolate. No explanation necessary.

3) Board Games. No electricity or computer required. Just good clean fun.

2) 64 oz bottles of Gold Peak Unsweetened Iced Tea available at the grocery store. It’s like getting an expensive glass from a fancy restaurant every day.

1) Spandex in Jeans. Jeans were comfortable and casual before, but now whenever I wear a pair of old jeans without a little spandex in them, I’m reminded of just how much more comfortable they are now.

Have a great Turkey Day everyone! And be thankful!

Grandma's 90th!

Yep, that's right...Grandma Esther turned 90 earlier this year and now it's Grandma Anetta's turn. The family got together to celebrate at 10 Mile Lake in Minnesota (near Fergus Falls) a couple of weekends ago. On Saturday the whole family wore Twins shirts to have our photo taken, and that evening we all ate dinner at the steak house at the resort. Games were played, lots of food was eaten, and good times were had by all. :)

My aunt Julie, Grandma Anetta, Tenley, and my Cousin Janee got together for a 4 generations photo. And below is a photo of Kris and Marie hanging out in the cabin.

You can find the rest of my photos from the weekend here.

Having a Bad Day?

Nothing a little Captain Picard can't fix. :)

End of Summer Recap

Well it's October, and I'm dreadfully behind on blogging...so even though it's chilly and the leaves are mostly turned, I'm going to blog about stuff that happened in August to catch up a bit and to remind us of warmer times.

In August we finally got our yard fenced in. We were on a waiting list for much of the summer...but it's been so nice to let Molly out without having to tie her up. She loves running all over and greeting the neighbor dogs and kids as they walk by. There was a bit of a fiasco the first day they were installing the fence posts though. They hit a gas line next to our neighbor's house. The lead of the fence crew excitedly told me that they would have to evacuate the neighborhood. So I stood outside with Molly on leash in case we would have to leave in a hurry. We waited for about 40 minutes until the gas company arrived (the police and fire departments were there within 10 minutes) and then were told we could go back in the house. It delayed our fence being installed by a couple of days, but nothing blew up.

More photos of our newly fenced yard (and our neighbor dogs) can be found here.

About a week later, we went to Farm Bureau's annual State Farm Day. Rob and I really enjoy getting the chance to go to the Iowa State Fair for free....but we always make up for our free admission by spending too much money on food. We may have to savor this year's experience as Rob's company was sold off from Farm Bureau to an out of state company, so they may not have State Fair day next year.

Rob thoroughly enjoyed his smoked turkey leg as usual. The rest of our photos from the 2011 Iowa State Fair can be found here.

And to end off the summer recap...a photo of our dog Molly. You can find more of her here.

Fall updates to come...during fall hopefully :).

Fun With Science

Want to know how that works...this next video explains the laws at work.

Des Moines to Sioux Falls

We went up to Sioux Falls this last weekend to visit family and friends. It was a busy weekend of running around, but we had a nice time. We got to eat out at some great local restaurants: Grill 26 and Krav'n. We also ate at The Original Pancake House which is not local, but we don't have any in Iowa, so it was a really good weekend for food :).

On the way there and back home, we drove past the flooding that's occurring along the Missouri River. It really seems like it's been flooding there all summer--since the end of June. The river finally crested about 2 weeks ago, but the water is still very high. Parts of the interstate are still tunneled off with flood barriers and I-29 just North of Omaha is still closed completely. The photo above is from Sioux City, Iowa. The rest of my photos (taken from the car) can be found here.

Independence and all that Jazz....

Sorry about the delay on this one...our internet has been intermittent and it was a miracle I was able to even upload these photos to flickr. Thankfully a tech was out today. He couldn't figure out what was causing our problems so he just replaced everything (new line to the box, new splitters, new modem). The internet seems to be working much better. I hope it stays that way. We had a pretty quiet 4th at home. Rob hasn't been able to take extended vacation yet this summer because of some back up issues at work--so we stayed home for the 4th and had a nice relaxing weekend. On Independence Day we went to see the new Transformers movie (which was better than the 2nd but not as good as the 1st) and went to see the Fireworks display in Urbandale (as Johnston doesn't have one). They moved the display this year to a different park--which was very handy because they posted a detailed map of where people were allowed and where parking was and exactly where the fireworks were going to be shot off from....which made things really easy. We left a bit early to avoid the parking hassle. Rob read a book and we took a break to play a couple of rounds of Fluxx. The fireworks show went a full half hour and was packed with large fireworks which lit up the sky directly over our heads. We were so close that our car was littered with cardboard debris. We'll definitely go back next year if we're in town.

Tree Clean Up

Over the long weekend the weather finally got a bit cooler and we had time to finish cleaning up the part of our tree that fell. Rob tried out our new electric chainsaw. It worked like a charm. It made quick work of the thickest part of the tree. The small branches were the time consuming mess. Now we get to start working on the part of the tree that's still standing. Pictures as we go will be posted here.

Storm Damage

Shortly after we moved into our house last summer, we had lots of rain and some strong storms. One of those storms played musical chairs with the trash cans and split off a large section of our willow tree. A few weeks later, another storm took another big branch. We thought the tree was doomed and we started doing research on the cost of tree removal and went back and forth about buying a chain saw etc.... Well the tree seemed to be doing ok; it survived the rest of the summer and came back all green in the spring. We thought we would just need to trim some branches to balance it out and call it good. Cue Sunday night and a storm with strong winds. Our trash cans got blown over again (but not rearranged throughout the neighborhood this time), and our tree lost another big chunk. There is just one lonely little section left. So, we bought a chain saw. Pictures of that will come later (the forecast for the next two days is 95 with heat indexes around 105...so the the chopping up part is on hold).

So, take a moment of silence for our tree. We hardly had a chance to get to know you whole. Rest in Pieces.

Camping!

For Rob's 29th (for reals, not his second or third...his FIRST 29th birthday) we went camping out at Saylorville Lake with Kris and Marie. The weather was about as good as it gets...it rained lightly a little the first evening we were there, but it stopped in time to light a fire, and it stayed dry and in the 70s the rest of the weekend.

The weekend passed by quickly. We walked to the Saylorville Marina, visited the dam, grilled lots, and played a couple card games. The photo below is of Molly trying to find a cool spot after our walk on Saturday afternoon. It was a beautiful weekend, but the sun was warm--so warm that all of us got a bit burnt. I missed putting sun screen on my neck all together. :( You can find the rest of my photos of our weekend here.

The Bridges of Madison County

My mother and sister came down for a visit last week, so we decided to go check out the covered bridges in Madison County Iowa (yep, the ones from the book and movie). It's about a 25 minute drive to Winterset, IA where we posed at the birthplace of John Wayne and explored their neat city park. After lunch at a local diner, we went to the rest of the covered bridges. It was a beautiful day and a fun little day trip.

I posted pictures which you can find here:
Bridges of Madison County Set

Saylorville

We decided to get out of the house this weekend by driving out to the Dam at Saylorville and checking out some of the campgrounds around the lake. Of course it was cold and windy and a bit drizzly, so it wasn't quite the spring day that we'd all hope for on the weekend, but we hadn't really been out to the lake aside from driving past it and we had no other pressing plans...so on we went :).

We were both surprised by the intensity of the water flowing from the dam out into the Des Moines River. So I took a video:



I posted a few pictures of the dam on my Flickr Page.

The area below the dam has been turned into a campground. After our drive around that campground, we proceeded to check out the other two Army Corp of Engineer parks on Saylorville (there's a 4th, but it doesn't open for another week). There were lots of campers bundled up in sweatshirts....some huddled next to fires wearing stocking caps. I was happy that I was just out for a drive instead of actually camping this weekend. Brr. But we'll be back ;).

Mystery Trees

In our front yard we have three trees alongside our driveway. When we moved in to the house they had dark brown--almost black--leaves. They were pretty and got a little redder before dropping their leaves in the fall. To my surprise, as they sprouted leaves this spring, they came in bright green, and soon after, pretty white cones of flowers began blooming. So now I'm really curious...what kind of trees are these? The previous owners of our house were adventurous with plant purchases to say the least (there are odd plants all over the yard--so this may become a regular installment on my blog :)), so I don't even know where to begin.

Are any of you out there familiar with this tree?

In the spring it looks like this:
And it looks like this in late summer/early fall:

The leaves were dark when we moved in to the house in June (but last year's spring came a bit earlier than this year's).

*Update* My current guess is that these are ornamental plum trees.

Grandma Esther Turns 90!

(Grandma at her birthday party with her nursing school buddy Eris--Photo taken by Kris)

Over Easter weekend my Mom's family all got together in the twin cities and celebrated my Grandma's 90th Birthday. We had a great time chatting with out of state relatives that we don't get to see nearly often enough.

My brother took some really nice pictures from the weekend which can be found here.

The pretty lousy ones that I took that weekend can be found here.

...nearing the end

Next week is the last week of regular classes at DMACC and the week after that is finals week. I have their last essays to grade and then their final portfolios to grade before I'm done with the semester. I feel a lot like the girl in the comic.

...I just spent the last 20 minutes dinking around looking for a comic to post....so clearly...I should be grading papers.

Molly's Tricks

Here's a little video I took while working with Molly on some of her basic tricks. I had given her the "down" command as I started recording. It's hard to run the camera and shake her paw and give her treats at the same time, but you get the idea :).

She also knows how to roll over, turn in circles (but only going one direction--she has a hard time switching), jump up, beg, and stay. Her fetch is hit and miss. She doesn't like to give the ball back.

Spring has Sprung

Downtown Des Moines recorded a high of 90 degrees yesterday. It was not a record high. Today was a much more seasonable 65 degrees. On Saturday they are forecasting a rain/snow mix. Even with the crazy yo-yo Iowa weather we're having, it is feeling much more spring-like. Daffodils are blooming, the trees are sprouting leaves, and our Lilies are starting to come back up. Spring is the best time of year in Iowa. Here's to more 70 degree days (but the 90s can wait until July)!

A Geeky Teaching Moment

A few weeks ago I had a special moment as a teacher. A moment when the stars aligned and created an instance of great geek-i-tude. I'll try to recreate it for you. But, like all amazing moments, it loses some of its brilliance in its retelling.

I'll set the scene. It happened during my Comp II class. We were discussing fallacies of reasoning. My lessons on reasoning are my favorite part of the semester in Comp II. There are always a few students who seem to really understand (or "grok" if you prefer) and relate to these lessons. At any rate, we had already gone over the basics and I was on to providing more elaborate examples.

And so it began.

Me: "Did anyone see last night's episode of the Big Bang Theory?" [two-thirds of the class raised their hands] Well on last night's episode...

Student in the Front Row: WAIT! I haven't seen it yet!

Me: Don't worry, this won't ruin it. ...In last night's episode, Sheldon used the Appeal to Tradition fallacy when he insisted that they eat supper at Sheldon and Leonard's apartment instead of at Raj's apartment because they "always eat supper at their apartment on Thursday nights." [Some nods and smiles of recognition spread across the class.]

Student #1: Hey, didn't they mention post hoc ergo propter hoc in an episode of the Big Bang Theory?

Student #2: I remember that. It was on the one where they all got back from Antarctica.

Student #3: The one where they all came back with beards?

Student #1: Except Sheldon, he just had a goatee.

Student #2: Yeah! He looked like evil Spock!

Student in the Front Row: Khaaaan!

I smiled and told them they were all awesome. A good half of the class had no idea what they were talking about, but it didn't matter. For that moment, I felt like I was in the company of a great group of geeks.

Continuing the Quest

As I blogged months ago, back when I wasn't completely delinquent about blogging, Rob and I have been trying to visit the best locally owned restaurants in Des Moines. We've now been to 27 of the top 100 Restaurants in Central Iowa. So now that I have the Ipod with the camera, I've been taking pictures of our conquests. The photo above is from our trip to Mojos in Johnston. We also recently visited Fire Creek Grill. Both restaurants served delicious food and had friendly service. We'll definitely go back. One of our current favorites from the list is Skips. Skips has one of the best cheeseburgers I've ever eaten...and their fries are good to :).

Spring Restaurant Photos

Dog Pictures

For Valentine's Day Rob gave me a new ipod touch with a camera built in. Which means I take a lot of silly little pictures for no good reason...but it's been fun. :) Usually the cutest thing in my general vicinity is our dog...so I take lots of pictures of her. Some of the better shots I've posted in a set on Flickr.

Eurogaming?

Some of you may know that I like board games (which is a bit of an understatement really). But most think that means I play a lot of Monopoly. Some of the names for the types of boardgames I play are Eurogames (because they are mostly imported from Europe), Hobby Games (because they are bought at hobby type stores), or Designer Games (because they have the name of the game's designer on the box). Some folks have heard of Settlers of Catan or Ticket to Ride...but if you haven't, here's a nice little feature about these "new" board games that will hopefully make it all clear.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7361550n