We were recently introduced to skype. I had heard of it before, but never used it. As a going away present, we received a webcam in order to skype with our families on a regular basis. I have to say, I really kinda love it. Other than a few glitches with our camera, skyping is truly delightful! I often skype with my sister and my almost 2-year old niece. It's really fun! I think I see them more now through skype than I did when we were at home. I also occasionally skype with my sister-in-law and my nephew although my nephew has a hard time standing still within the frame. So a lot of the conversation is yelling at him to move back in front of the camera. :) Evan also skypes with his whole family every Sunday - it's convenient because they are all together in one place. It's really almost like we are at home and that's so awesome!
One of my biggest worries was that I would miss so much of my niece and nephew growing up, but now with skype, it's like I'm not missing anything. Thank goodness, because they really light up my life and I'm so thankful that modern technology makes it so easy for me to connect with them. If you have skype, look me up so I can add you to my contacts and we too can chat like I'm not several states away!!
Monday, December 21, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
CoooOOOoookies!
Admittedly, I am not a good cookie baker. My cookies always end up burnt, misshapen, and not too great tasting. Usually, I can follow a recipe and it turns out pretty good, but cookies and me just don't mix. However, I always feel like baking this time of year and since I have nothing else to do, we decided to bake some cookies this afternoon. We chose two recipes: Chocolate Chip and Thumbprint Cookies. I was just gonna do the thumbprint cookies, but Evan wanted some chocolate chip. I am convinced that the one recipe for chocolate chip cookies that I have is flawed because each time I've tried to make it, the cookies were melted, flat, burnt pieces of crap. So Evan was put in charge of finding a new recipe.
After 2 trips to the grocery store - I forgot baking soda the first time - we were ready to bake. I started with the thumbprint cookies because the dough needed to chill for an hour. My mom makes these thumbprint cookies every year, so I decided I needed to try them myself.
Next up, I baked the thmubprint cookies and Evan filled them with apricot and boysenberry jam. Usually, these cookies are made with nuts, but since Evan is allergic, I only made 6 with nuts for me. Toss in some "Colbert Christmas Special" and "A Muppet Family Christmas" playing on DVD in the background and it was quite the merry time. And now, we have 2 plates full of cookies that the 2 of us have to eat!! I could be nice and fix some plates for our neighbors, but that would require actually talking to them, and doesn't sound like something I'd do. :)
After 2 trips to the grocery store - I forgot baking soda the first time - we were ready to bake. I started with the thumbprint cookies because the dough needed to chill for an hour. My mom makes these thumbprint cookies every year, so I decided I needed to try them myself.
While the thumprint dough was chilling we whipped up the chocolate chip cookies. Evan was in charge while I supervised. And being, well being Evan, he decided that he wanted to add some marshmallows to the chocolate chip dough. I convinced him to only put marshmallows in the last few because I thought the marshmallows would just melt and mess up the cookies. Well, his recipe was successful! Not only did all the cookies turn out (minus a few with burnt bottoms) the ones with the marshmallows were pretty tasty!
Next up, I baked the thmubprint cookies and Evan filled them with apricot and boysenberry jam. Usually, these cookies are made with nuts, but since Evan is allergic, I only made 6 with nuts for me. Toss in some "Colbert Christmas Special" and "A Muppet Family Christmas" playing on DVD in the background and it was quite the merry time. And now, we have 2 plates full of cookies that the 2 of us have to eat!! I could be nice and fix some plates for our neighbors, but that would require actually talking to them, and doesn't sound like something I'd do. :) 
Saturday, December 5, 2009
The Jay Leno Show
So living in California, more specifically, in Burbank, definitely has its perks. One of those perks is that we basically live next door to all the major tv and movie studios. This allows us to go see tapings of shows like The Jay Leno Show. Tickets are free, you just need to reserve in advance and show up on time.
The time to show up was 2:45 and we left our apartment at 2pm - NBC is less than a mile from our house. Well, NBC sits on the intersection of Alameda and Olive which is a stupid, crooked, little intersection. Olive runs diagonally through Alameda so it's a little confusing. Anyway, we found where we were supposed to line up and there was already a TON of people there. Basically, if you wanna be one of the folks who go up and shake hands with Jay at the beginning of the show, you better be there waaaay early. Anyway, now that we knew where we were going, we had to find parking. I am still astonished at the complete lack of parking in LA. You would think that a city that is so reliant on auto transportation would have places to park. UGH! Anyway, we parked in a parking garage under an adjacent building (that cost $12.50, by the way!). And then we had to walk all the way around NBC studios to get to the line-up area.
We got to the place to line up around 2:35. Now, on the tickets it says that seating is "first come, first served and that a ticket doesn't necessarily mean you will get a seat." There were already 2 sections of the line that went in to the holding area next to the studio so we were a little worried that we wouldn't get in. But finally, we made it to the holding area - where we waited...and waited...and waited. The show doesn't start taping until 4pm and we were seated at about 3:50. We were seated in the far stage right corner (near where the musical guests perform). Not the best seats in the world, but hey, they were free. The guests for the show were Morgan Freeman (AWESOME!), Maxwell (who?), a segment of "Jaywalking" and then comedian Daniel Thune (Hilarious!) at the end.
It was hard to actually watch Jay and not watch the tv monitors right above our heads. Most of the time Jay was blocked by camera equipment or the guy sitting right next to me that was leaning over way too far. What was interesting is that while the show was on commercial or there was something playing on the monitors, like the Jaywalking pre-taped stuff, Jay would just kinda wander around, chat with crew and then quickly go over his next cue cards 10 seconds before the cameras came back to him.
I had no idea who the musical guest was, and I guess his song was ok, but I was mesmerized by his suave moves - that boy could dance. And then it was done and we were all ushered out. It was fun, and it's nice to have a free (except the parking) thing to do in California. I'd really like to go to the Ellen show someday, but she seems to be a pretty hot ticket and books up fast. Anyway, there you have it, our Jay Leno experience.
The time to show up was 2:45 and we left our apartment at 2pm - NBC is less than a mile from our house. Well, NBC sits on the intersection of Alameda and Olive which is a stupid, crooked, little intersection. Olive runs diagonally through Alameda so it's a little confusing. Anyway, we found where we were supposed to line up and there was already a TON of people there. Basically, if you wanna be one of the folks who go up and shake hands with Jay at the beginning of the show, you better be there waaaay early. Anyway, now that we knew where we were going, we had to find parking. I am still astonished at the complete lack of parking in LA. You would think that a city that is so reliant on auto transportation would have places to park. UGH! Anyway, we parked in a parking garage under an adjacent building (that cost $12.50, by the way!). And then we had to walk all the way around NBC studios to get to the line-up area.
We got to the place to line up around 2:35. Now, on the tickets it says that seating is "first come, first served and that a ticket doesn't necessarily mean you will get a seat." There were already 2 sections of the line that went in to the holding area next to the studio so we were a little worried that we wouldn't get in. But finally, we made it to the holding area - where we waited...and waited...and waited. The show doesn't start taping until 4pm and we were seated at about 3:50. We were seated in the far stage right corner (near where the musical guests perform). Not the best seats in the world, but hey, they were free. The guests for the show were Morgan Freeman (AWESOME!), Maxwell (who?), a segment of "Jaywalking" and then comedian Daniel Thune (Hilarious!) at the end.
It was hard to actually watch Jay and not watch the tv monitors right above our heads. Most of the time Jay was blocked by camera equipment or the guy sitting right next to me that was leaning over way too far. What was interesting is that while the show was on commercial or there was something playing on the monitors, like the Jaywalking pre-taped stuff, Jay would just kinda wander around, chat with crew and then quickly go over his next cue cards 10 seconds before the cameras came back to him.
I had no idea who the musical guest was, and I guess his song was ok, but I was mesmerized by his suave moves - that boy could dance. And then it was done and we were all ushered out. It was fun, and it's nice to have a free (except the parking) thing to do in California. I'd really like to go to the Ellen show someday, but she seems to be a pretty hot ticket and books up fast. Anyway, there you have it, our Jay Leno experience.
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