making it up as i go along
This evening, I made the mistake of spray painting some Alotid and AOL tins in our sunroom. I know it sounds like a bad idea to begin with, but I opened all the windows and turned on the fan. But no. That stuff means business.
Two hours later and that stuff is only now gone. Blech. On the plus side, I've got perfectly silver tins, no junky logos on 'em.
I've had a good day today. I'm feeling much better and I've gotten tons accomplished. I like days like that. 
Students in England will no longer “fail” national standardized tests under new guidelines issued by the government, reports the Lincolnshire Echo. They will instead get an “N” grade for “nearly.”
People who grade tests have also been instructed to stop marking math questions as right or wrong, but instead use the terms “creditworthy” or “not creditworthy.”
The new guidelines come from the government's Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. They cover English, math and science exams taken by 7-, 11- and 14-year-olds in all state schools and some private schools.
Matt’s Rant
The grade of N (nearly) blows my mind. What if you get 4% correct. Do we call that nearly? Should you go home with the impression that you nearly passed if you failed to get a single question right.
I think the moron who came up with this plan mush have received an nearly in vocabulary. Maybe he got a nearly in math. That would explain why they will now mark math questions creditworthy or not creditworthy. You know, for all the partial credit you can get for 5+4=8, or does it equal 10. Is that creditworthy or is that nearly?
All summer we had the best weekends ever. It didn’t matter if it rained or stormed during the week, it was always beautiful on the weekend. 
Now I have to admit, we didn’t always take advantage of these weekends. I think we even started to take them for granted. Now it’s fall and the weekends are cold, overcast and rainy. 
I just hope for one more nice weekend, doesn’t even have to be warm, so I we can one last bit of outdoor fun before the WI winters drive us deep indoors. 
Matt and I have had a very lazy weekend thus far. It's pretty cold out and so we've been staying close to home. I've been very crafty lately. Matt thinks I'm insane.
We did run a bunch of errands this morning though and we tried out a new restaurant for dinner. Sadly, it wasn't that great. It's called the Sushi Box and they had OK sushi. Their crunchy shrimp rolls weren't crunchy enough, but they were really well priced. We decided we'd probably go back for the sushi, but not for their entrees. They were very bland. The other highlight was that I got to try a Japanese beverage called Yogloo. It looked like strawberry flavored skim milk, but it tasted a lot better. They had other flavors too including mango.
Then Matt and I had a nice time watching some TV. Parenthood is such a funny movie!
OK. Bedtime. 
I don't do much in the ways of boozing and smoking. But I do have my guilty little pleasures. Most of them relate to the “boob tube.”
I don't really watch TV very often, but I like having the noise on and I listen to it fairly frequently. It helps to keep my mind flowing while I work. I actually work faster while I listen to TV. Especially if I'm programming.
So all this TV-listening is where my guilty pleasures arise from. Murder, She Wrote is undeniably more suited to the 60+ set, but I love watching it. In fact, it's what I watch while I work out. I remember watching it with my family on Sundays many years ago. Perhaps that's why I like it still.
Another guilty show that I might explain away as merely channel surfing, should someone walk in is 7th Heaven. It's sappy. It irritates me and I watch it anyhow. A little insult/poke fun track runs in my mind while I watch it. That goes double when I watch another guilty pleasure, the tween TV on The-N. Degrassi, the next generation and other tween junk. The acting is attrocious, but it amuses me. 
My last guilty pleasure would be any made-for-TV movie about European royals. They're so fascinating and scandalous. I might even consider myself a minor Royal Watcher. This, of course, started with His Royal Hotness, Prince William. But really, I find all the royals fascinating. 
Well, now my secrets are out. I guess I'll survive.
I can't believe it. I missed the season premiere of Gilmore Girls! As it's one of the only shows I watch regularly, I've been looking forward to it. But I forgot to tape it when we left to go have drinks with friends, and we didn't get home 'til late. 
Boo! Hiss!
Oh well. It's not that bad. I'll nab it of Kazaa in a week. Speaking of which, I noticed they're putting Smallville on DVD. What's up with that??? Gilmore Girls has been on longer! I want it on DVD. I don't know how the industry can bitch about people downloading TV shows when they won't even put them on DVD for us to buy like good little consumers. Seriously. You can't have it both ways!!
Wow. I'm so tired. Good night. 
I have nothing much to report. It's been raining off and on … something that Madison really needed which has put a bit of a damper (pun intended) on our outdoor activities, but rain is nice indeed to watch from the windows.
We've been doing some “rainy day” craft projects. I've got a large stock of found-objects and it's high time some of them get used up. As a tribute to some of these pursuits, I'm in the midst of making a crafts page for the site. But it's not quite done yet.
We went and saw Bend it Like Beckham at the (cheap) theatre yesterday. That movie is so fun and bright. It was well worth the $4 we paid to see it.
I miss you, Grandpa.
from: Paula Kafer
Ingredients
Bread
3 cups sifted flour
1 ½ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp baking powder
2 – 2.5 tsp poppy seeds
2 ¼ cups sugar
3 eggs
1 1/8 vegetable oil
1 ½ cups milk
1 tbsp vanilla
1 tbsp butter flavoring
Icing
¼ cup orange juice
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
butter flavoring to taste
Directions
Line two loaf pans with wax paper and grease sides. Preheat oven to 350. Sift dry ingredients together. Add the rest of the ingredients and beat together for 2 minutes.
Pour mixture evenly into prepared loaf pans. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes to 1 hour. While the bread is baking, mix together to the icing ingredients until they are a smooth consistency. Let the bread cool slightly and then ice it.
from: meals.com
Ingredients
1 2/3 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, ground
1/3 cup oil
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup Libby’s100% Pure Pumpkin
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup walnuts, chopped
2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
Directions
Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg, in a medium bowl; set aside.
In a large bowl cream sugar, oil and vanilla. Beat in eggs until creamy. Stir in pumpkin until mixed. Fold in flour; alternating with water beating just until smooth. Do not over beat. Fold in chopped walnuts then pour the batter into prepared loaf pan. Bake in 350 degree oven for 45 to 50 minutes. Cool, then remove from pan.
Glaze; in a small bowl blend together powdered sugar and lemon juice. Drizzle over warmed pumpkin bread and slice.
Miss Wisconsin didn't win. But Matt and I had a great time watching the show. The commentary by the “color commentators” was awful (and therefore hilarious) and so was the hosting. Nearly all of the girls sang for their “talent” but we had some good fun suggesting what their talents should really be, especially for Miss Wisconsin (cow milking, cheese making).
Ahh… if only all TV were that entertaining. 