Et cetera

Cakes - small bouts of creativity

Cakes – small bouts of creativity

I am not much of a cook – I readily admit that. But I’ve recently started to experiment a bit. Those who know me well will not be surprised to learn that these experiments are all in the dessert category.

Bovine wanna-bes

Bovine wanna-bes

On Friday, July 11, Chick-Fil-A held its annual “Cow Appreciation Day,” in which it rewards people who dress like cows with a free meal. Too bad our car exploded.

The great van odyssey

The great van odyssey

We’re not just a two-car family now. We’re a nerdy two-car family now.

We all scream for ice cream

We all scream for ice cream

I’ve never lived anywhere where the neighborhood ice cream truck was as persistent as the one we have here. Every time we hear those clanging chords, we announce “There’s that noisy truck again. It plays loud music, doesn’t it?” […]

The haircut

The haircut

After growing it out for about a year and a half, I finally got the haircut. […]

We've got a brand new look

We’ve got a brand new look

It’s time to change the way you think about the “family blog.”

A rant about our local grocery store

Background:  We have a really nice local grocery store.  The prices are pretty good in general (and when I’m shopping sales they can be really good), the store is clean and well-organized, and they even double coupons that are 50 cents or less.  As I like to use coupons, this is a big plus to […]

A little downtime

Those of you who tried to come here sometime in the last 24 hours were probably greeted by a lovely text message indicating an error connecting to the database that (just coincidentally) forms the backbone of this Web site.  I only noticed it myself when I tried to access the site at around 11:00pm (it’s […]

Blockbuster loses a customer

Out west (in Utah, at least) a little upstart rental company called redbox is giving Blockbuster a run for its money. The concept is simple: set up DVD “rental stations” similar to vending machines outside of popular locations like McDonald’s restaurants and Smith’s grocery stores. Charge folks 99 cents per rental per night, with the rental automatically converted to a sale after 25 days. Stock the machines with tons of new releases (since those tend to fly off the shelves most quickly), toss out a free rental code or two every so often, and voila! Instant phenomenon.

I remember when redbox began its test market trial run in the Salt Lake/Utah County area a few years back. It didn’t take long for word-of-mouth to spread about this neat little vending machine outside the Mickey-D’s that let you watch movies for a buck a night. Soon the lines to get at this machine stretched far into the parking lot, and it was regularly out-of-stock of the most popular releases. What to do about that? Why, add another kiosk, of course! And so the “redbox craze” spread like wildfire up and down the Wasatch Front, such that when we left Provo back in August you could find one (or multiple) redbox kiosks at nearly every McDonald’s restaurant and Smith’s store around. And both of those businesses are pretty popular all by themselves.

More after the break . . .

Wandering in the political wilderness

With Mitt Romney now officially out of the presidential race, the quest for a viable alternative candidate (in the eyes of this conservative-minded voter) looks pretty bleak.   McCain’s alright, I guess, and I’m gradually warming up to the idea of him as President.  I’m really getting a bad taste in my mouth from the party […]