Monday AMV

Today's cartoon is Full Metal Alchemist. I hope everyone's having a great New Year's Eve!

I'm off to sleep, so I can actually make it to midnight tonight.

Fashion Math

Short skirt + Tall Boots = Cold knees.

French Bread: The Complete Saga

Now that I've had some sleep, let me retell the story of my attempt to make French Bread.

I've been wanting to try my new breadmaker, so Saturday afternoon I went to the grocery store and got all the stuff. I decided to try the French Bread recipe. It was 5 when I started, but since I didn't have to leave until 8 I figured I had plenty of time.

I mixed it up, and set the cycle. An hour passed. I started getting worried. So I got out the instruction manual and looked up what those numbers on the display actually meant.

Nuts. 3 hours might be cutting it close. It took that long just to knead and rise and then knead again, and I didn't want it baking while no one was home. By 8:00 it still had a half hour to rise before the baking cycle. I stopped the machine and unplugged it, and hoped it wouldn't rise too much by the time I got home again.

I got home from the movie, and while the dough was, er substantially larger than when I left, it was still all in the bread machine. I punched it back down and tried to find a pan to bake it in. We don't have any bread pans, so I tossed that sucker in an 8X8 brownie pan (This required more punching. Good thing I took that self defense class) and put it in the oven. This was about 11:30.

After an hour I took it out, got a spatula and that sucker popped right out of the pan and landed on the counter with an incredible CRACK. If you want to know what it sounded like, grab a brick, hold it over your head, and then let it drop on the counter top.

"Oh no!" I thought to myself, "this sucker is hard as a rock."

"See what the inside is like" my roomie, we'll call her Nita, suggested.

I found the biggest knife we had. I attempted to cut a slice, but this only annoyed the bread. I started sawing furiously, then I started chopping, then a samurai swing. Finally, by pushing down on the knife with both hands and most of my body weight, I managed to get a piece.

The inside was soft, fluffy, and delicious.

I've invented the lobster of breadstuffs.

I ate my piece like a corn on the cob. I held the crust in my hands and gnawed the bread off it. Nita was a little braver and actually attempted to eat the crust. We had to turn the volume up on the tv. Chewing that stuff made the most incredible racket.

So for my next attempt, I'll go for regular bread, and make sure I have plenty of time to leave it in the machine from start to finish.

We were also a wee bit late to church today.

Oh man...

It's the last week of 9:00 church, and I'm guessing we're going to be late tomorrow. I mean, now that I've baked the bread I have to stay up and have some!

I've been smelling it for the last hour.

Movies, Bread, and Mission Impossible

Because I get a little random when I'm tired.

I went and saw National Treasure 2 tonight. It was a very fun movie. After watching it, I think Mount Vernon should build a secret passageway, complete with creepy spywebs, leading from the stables out to the GW parkway.

Or the parking lot. Whichever.

Dude. Mission Impossible is on!! Yeah for cable running old old reruns. I forgot Peter Graves was Mr. Phelps. "Your mission Jim..."

Anyway, sorry, NT2 also features the Library of Congress. The Library is my favorite building in the city, so I was happy that others get to see how beautiful it is. It's not really the first thing you think about touring when you come to DC.

I'm baking bread. Because, what else are you going to do at 12 on a Sat night?

Actually, I really wanted to try my new bread maker, so I started a loaf at 5. I didn't have to leave for the theater until 8, and I thought three hours would be plenty of time.

Laugh at my naivete. When I left, it still had 45 minutes to raise before the hour baking period started. Since I didn't want to leave it while I was at the theater, I stopped the machine. I checked it first thing when I got home. Luckily, it hadn't raised too much (I was picturing something out of I Love Lucy. An enormous dough monster devouring my kitchen or something) so I punched it down and put it in the oven. I had to guess at temp and time though, so this should be interesting.

Saturday Morning Cartoons

Well,it's still sort of morning. I'm still in pjs, so it counts. One of my favorite youtube cartoons is the Abridged Yu-gi-oh series created by Little Koriboh. Here's a compilation (because it's the end of the year. We need lists! and clips! and compilations!) of some of the best abridged yu-gi-oh moments.

What is...

The most unique thing you've ever received for Christmas?

Me, a summons for jury duty.

And that my dear friends, is why you should always check your mail on Christmas Eve. No matter how late it gets delivered.

Happy Hogswatch!

I wish you all a merry Christmas and happy holidays!

I hope you're all enjoying your vacation. If you get some free time, I found some fun clips for you to enjoy from the movie version of Terry Pratchett's Hogfather.

Death explains the true meaning of stockings:



I love how they did Susan's hair. Here's a clip of Susan using some of her family gifts on a boogey man:



And since it's Monday, here's the requisite fan made music video:

ooohhhhh!!

A Hellboy movie directed by the guy who did Pan's Labyrinth? I sense extra creepy critters ahead.

Friday Fun

Here's a great little website with fun to fill out forms, for facilitating communications.

Bureau of Communications.

They're pretty fun, although I'm more excited for the forms of the future. I think the "Declaration of Romantic Intent" will be hilarious.

I'm still not sold on the Joker

But I'm excited for this:



I miss soprano Joker though. I admit, Mark Hamill's Joker has the definitive voice/laugh for me.

Bowling Night

**Language in this post has been kid tested, Nanette approved.**

If I ever start a band, I'm going to call it, "Bowling While Caffeinated."

In a truly brilliant moment, a rolled a ball that headed straight for the gutter. Luckily, it hit a pin that was stuck in the gutter, bounced back out, and knocked down a bunch of pins.

It was awesome.

In another moment of brilliance, I bowled a three way split. Three pins, each with a big space between them. The girl next to me said, "I have never seen anything like that. How did you do that?"

I said, "I don't know. I didn't think it was possible." I looked back to my team captain, who looked as dumbfounded as I felt and he said, "Just pick one."

So I did.

Avatar Awesomeness

I've always been a Zuko fan. Here he is, psyching himself up to join the avatar.



So what happens when two of my favorite Avatar characters meet for the first time?

Monday AMV

The Sasuke retrieval arc had some great fights. Here's an AMV about Kimimaro (Bone ninja) vs. Naruto (orange jumpsuit), Lee (green suit) and Gaara (sand ninja.)

People still watch this show?

I gave up sometime after Anna Lucia showed up. I can't say exactly when, because I'm not about anything that happens on this ridiculous show.

Colonial Williamsburg

Where even the restroom signs are cute.

And the baker makes fresh pigeon pie for the holiday feast.
I'm a squab!

And those delicious looking chocolate cookies may actually be fried pigs feet in disguise.
Why, these aren't cookies at all!

Where the Pipe and Fife band is adorable,


And the Royal Governor doesn't realize that it's waaaay too cold to revolt. He yelled at us for doing it anyway though. Virginians! Virginians! To Arms!!

Don't take after those crazy Bostonians, you hear?!

Friday Fun

This best part of this video? Watching the singing tour guide trying to jam Big Bird into to her teeny tiny Japanese car.



It's awesome.

Via TV in Japan.

Bowling Report

I have been assigned a handicap of 81. My handicap is larger than my actual average score.

Last night I developed our team strategy/cheer. "Hit More Pins!" It's relevant to so many of life's little bowling related problems.

Despite my winning strategy, Team Air Strike got hit hard in the first round. This led to much razzing from the winning team. Our Team Captain turned towards us, bowling fervor in his eyes, and with a gruff yet emotional voice said, "This is the round where we kick ass."

"Oh good" said the bowler 2, "because I've been holding myself back all night." Bowler 2 likes to bowl gutters on both sides of the lane, just in case one starts feeling lonely. This bowling philosophy is almost as impressive as my Sniper Bowling.

But I digress.

So after announcing our impending victory, our Captain bowled and knocked a single pin off the back left corner.

The opposing team let out a raucous cheer. One turned to me and said, "Yeah, you're showing us. That was impressive!" In response, I developed our Team Zen Bowling Mantra.

I looked her right in the eye and said, "Bowling Kick-assery begins with the fall of a single pin."

In defense of my cuss word, Kick-buttery sounds like a flaky pastry.

Anyway, our Captain went for his second roll, and got a spare.
Gutter girl got a strike.
I rolled a spare
and our fourth rolled a strike.

There was silence on the other team. "Wow" said teasing opposition girl, "I didn't realize you guys were serious."

It was pretty cool. I rolled my highest bowling score ever: 132, and all four of us managed to break 100 that round. We still lost, but only by 7 points.

Of course, the third round we flopped. Who can bowl three games in a row? Chucking a 9 lbs ball around gets tiring.

Whoa!!

I found a real live Paper Master! Seriously, this guy is a frigging genius.



Found via Ace of Spades.

Monday AMV

I really wanted to post a Day of the Black Sun AMV, but I couldn't find one that I liked.

But during that Avatar special, we finally learned what happened to Suki, who's alive (yeah!) but imprisoned and being tortured by Azula (oh Noes!)

So here's to our favorite Kyoshi warrior.



Also, the water tribe has the coolest armor in the Avatar world.

I go A-Waissaling

We had enrichment tonight, sort of an enormous book club to discuss Majorie Hinckley's book "Letters."

Anyway, they had a big crockpot full of waissal, which I really like. Waissel is that drink where my Dad would take a pot; toss in a bunch of OJ, a bunch of apple juice, a bunch of floaty spicy things (cinnamon sticks, these wierd little black balls, strange twigs, suspicious specks which I think are from nutmeg, etc.) and cook it on the stove.

I love it. Although getting to the liquid without scooping up all the floaties can be a neat trick. Sort of like a reverse bobbing for apples.

Anyway, the crockpot had hardly any floaties, so I ladle myself a glass, and then I couldn't remember where I grabbed the ladle from. Was it on the side? Was it in the wassail? The crockpot looked deep, so I was afraid that if I stuck it back in, the ladle would slide all the way down to the bottom of the pot. So I tried to sort of lie it across the top of the crockpot, but that wasn't working either. So I tried the side, and then I looked around the table to see if there was like some sort of ladle plate, and then I tried to leave it in the wiassel, but angled so the hook would catch the lid of the crockpot. (didn't work) I was attempting to lay it diagonally across the pot when a girl at the bread plate said "Excuse me, are you talking to the wassal?"

And that's when I realized that I had been narrating my every attempt at ladle placement. I looked at her, mouth open as I made this realization. Then I recovered, stared back down at the wassel and said. "Yes. Yes I am. I'm hoping it will tell me where the ladle goes."
I looked back at her. She had this look on her face like she was torn between laughing or backing away slowly. So I said, "I'm sorry. I'm really tired." and then she laughed.

It was a little embarressing though.

Friday Fun--Early

Ninjas perform the Algorithm march. The guy on first shows you how to do it, while singing the song/instructions. The ninjas come on after him.

I found this because it was labeled "Ninja Dance."



Here's another Ninja Dance:



Enjoy!

Heroes Season Finale Blogged LIVE!

Well, I'm writing this as I'm watching it anyway.

Mohinder's nose band aid is adorable. I wish it were SpongeBob though.

Maya just realized that Sylar is evil. Well, no duh Maya. It's about time you realized how dumb you are.

Hey, Molly is awake.

Mohinder...you just... ugh. You moron.

Yeah!! Momma Petrelli! I love complex bad guys.

"One bullet. Right through the head. It's the only way." I love Momma Petrelli!! She gives me chills.

Nate and Boring Cop better hurry up.

Hiro is so cool.

Oh Noes!! Hiro got zapped.

Adam, give Hiro back his sword you JERK!!!

Why does Peter believe Adam so implicitly?

Claire's going public. By using a phone book?!

Oh, poor little psychopathic Veronica. Now Elle's talking with HRG! Sweet.

I just realized that HRG is doing the ball bounce from the beginning of The Great Escape.

Holy crap, I forgot all about Nikki dying.

NOW you decide to start asking pertinent questions? Peter, you moron.

Why doesn't Mohinder just go ahead and use the wrong dosage to kill him? "Sure, here's the antidote." Stick him, he dies, everyone goes home happy.

Elle's using her Veronica Mars detective skills. She probably stops Sylar. Go Elle!! Kick BUTT!

Brainiac is screwing up traffic patterns all over New Orleans.

I'm impressed Nate could carry Boring Fat Cop all that way.

Flyboy's still around? Why? Oh man, even his dialogue is lame.

Claire's not going public. oh wait she is, just not about Flyboy.

Mr. Muggles wants you to go Public.

Daddy's home!

Ha! Maya's going to learn that bro is dead, and she's is going to flip out.

Or not. Wow, that was the most pointless story arc ever. "Maya and Alejandro drive Sylar to NY, and then he murders them. The End."

I'm always amazed that ER is still on. Oh for pity's sake!! He's going to kill you anyway Mohinder.

ohhh, HRG is crying.

If Peter kills Hiro I will hate him forever.

All my friends that helped me save the world last time are all just really confused and/or evil, so I'll just fight/kill them. Come on Peter. Use your brain.

Thank heavens Nate is here. He always was the smart one.

Now Nate is going public. I'm starting to detect a theme.

YES!! Good shooting Elle. It's about freaking time.

You saved Maya instead of Nikki? Mohinder You MORON!

Go Nikki! Club that thug.

No! Don't kill off NIKKI!!!! That poor kid. He lost both his folks to fire.

whoa... Hiro...that's way harsh. Adam is living every claustrophobe's nightmare for eternity.

So Sylar is still running amok? AARRGHH!

So Nate actually did go public. Nate. He gets things done.

Nate gets assassinated??!! But who will do all Peter's thinking?!

Crap, that's two characters that I actually like.

ooohhhh, what did Momma Petrelli mean by "Pandora's Box?"

So, Slyar's all better and now has his powers back. Thanks alot Mohinder.

Go Team Airstrike!

The amazing thing about bowling with 20 or so of your new coworkers is that you lose all desire to "Granny Roll" the more difficult shots.

I did all right. I bowled an average of 80 (most of the others broke a hundred, but everyone was really nice about it. I just now have a big handicap on my score)

I was able to introduce my team to the concept of "Sniper Bowling" which is where you use your elite bowling skills to pick off a single pin of the ten available, and the even more controversial "Reverse Bowling" where the person with the lowest score actually wins.

Reverse bowling was shot down, but they did enjoy Sniper Bowling. Especially for nasty splits.

Heroes Recap will be Delayed

Due to TNT's "The Closer" two hour special that's on tonight. Brenda Lee and Fritz plus holidays and awkward family gatherings? That is comedy gold my friends.

Thank Yew!!

I might not be able to watch it tomorrow either, as I have been drafted for the work bowling league and tomorrow is our first match.

Sure sure, laugh it up. I told them I only bowl a 60, but they said it didn't matter. If I humiliate myself, I'll be sure to write for the blog. (minor historical revisions are highly likely.)

Monday AMV

Can I just say how much I am loving the Naruto Shippuden episodes? They're intense. I especially loved this fight between Sakura (the pink haired girl) and Sasori (the evil puppet master.)



Congrats Sakura. It took over 200 episodes, but you're finally cool.

UPDATE: Man, I was trying to find a way to set this to post tomorrow. But it didn't work. Darn it.

UPDATE UPDATE: I love that Sakura's battle cry is "Hell Yeah." I'll have to adopt it for my Krav classes.