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Art-O-Mat


We were down on State Street a couple of weeks ago and we went into this funky shop that had the typical sort of stuff you see in places like Uncommon Goods. The shop was fairly average, but upstairs, there was an Art-O-Mat. I'd read about them on the net, so I jumped at the chance to try 'em out. Basically, they convert an old cigarette machine and use it to dispense art for the masses. A pretty cool idea. We got two pieces … one was a piece of jewelry (a bug cast in resin) and the other was another cast of resin (also with a bug inside). It kinda sucked that we got two similar things, but they were neat anyhow.

There's a list on their website of the machines that they have. But I notice the one on State Street isn't listed, so you may run across one somewhere else. Pretty interesting idea!

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Confirmed!

Well they've confirmed the title of the sixth Harry Potter book. JK Rowling put it up as an easter egg on her website for her fans to find and they did. It took me forever to locate it, but it's really cool. Anyhow, the title will be Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. JK has also told everyone that neither Harry nor Voldemort is the Half Blood prince … sooooo … wonder who it'll be. Come out soon, book, come out soon!

Here's how to find the title on jkrowling.com (dont' read if you wanna find it yourself!): Continue reading “Confirmed!”

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Joe Schmo 2

I wasn't going to watch TV regularly this summer, but Matt has proved to be a bad influence on me. He is hooked on Joe Schmo 2. This year they've picked 2 schmos to dupe into believing they're on a reality series. The guy is totally believing it, but the girl, Ingrid, is totally suspicious. And with good right. They keep doing some really dumb things, but I think that's sort of the point. Get in her face and do unbelievable thigns and see if she believes them.

The show would probably not be nearly so funny if they didn't totally make fun of themselves. They have the girl, Ingrid, up on the screen. And she's doing her “thoughts” bit. and they have “Ingrid, thinks it's all real” on the screen below her. And as they go through the interviews and flash back to stuff that's happening in the house, they go from “Ingrid, thinks it's all real” to “Ingrid, thinks 50% of it's real” to “Ingrid, thinks 25% of it's real” to “Ingrid, we're screwed!” Hehehhe. They also are doing the “coming up later” things and they said, “And later, the most shocking elimination ceremony yet! And this time we really mean it!” Of course they were lying. They jerked us around and we're not going to see who gets eliminated until next week. They're thinking about elminating Ingrid because she's suspicious.

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All About Summerfest


I like this picture becaus it's sort of the essence of Summerfest: all sorts of different people coming together to listen to music and drink beer. If you've never been to Summerfest, it's hard to imagine just what it's like. I wasn't expecting anything too big, but Summerfest is HUGE. The stages aren't temporary either … they're permanent. In fact, the whole festival grounds seemed to be permanent structures, sort of like an amusement park. There were rides as well and tons of food stalls. Every genre of food (practically) was represented, including the WI favorite, beer-battered cheese curds. Corporate America was also well-represented. They pitched tents and let the masses try out their new stuff. Matt and I got our pictures taken with cool props (and then promptly printed) at the HP tent. We got to try out the new N-Gage (that video game cellphone thingy) and watched a very very drunk dude do Karaoke at the SoBe tent (I think he got a bottle of SoBe for his trouble). Of course, seeing that there was beer-aplenty, there were tons of the funny drunk folk. Matt wore his Pacman t'shirt and attracted lots of attention … drunk girls and guys were very into the t'shirt. Hilarious.

Of course, the music is the real draw. There are about a dozen stages (all of varying sizes and layouts) scattered throughout the grounds … with live music or other acts ALL day. We looked through their lineup and Matt and I could have easily seen a band every single day that we like… just a few that were playing THIS weekend (this thing goes on for 2 weeks): Guster, Sister Hazel, Matt Nathanson, Fountains of Wayne, Kenney Chesney (with Uncle Kracker! haha), Leann Rimes, Boo Radley, Kid Rock (not that I care, per se), Ben Folds and Live. We got to see Matt Nathanson, Sister Hazel and a few other bands as we walked through the grounds. And we got to sit out by Lake Michigan and eat some truly greasy food.

I highly recommend this festival!!

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Fab Weekend

We had an absolutely fab weekend (as the title indicates). We saw Simon and Garfunkel on Friday night, which was … amazing They're truly musicians and they put on a great show. Tons of different instruments and musicians. I don't think Paul Simon played the same guitar twice … they played all of our faves … and it was just amazing. I sat in awe of their genius the entire time. They had cool photo/video montages too … one at the beginning of the concert, featuring their history/friendship and one right before they did Mrs. Robinson, featuring scenes from The Graduate. Superb!! Catch them if you can.

Saturday we went to the Milwaukee Public Museum and caught their Egypt exhibit. We're both big into antiquities/anthropology, so it was neat to see it. Unfortunately, they concentrated mostly on their spiritual life, which was of lesser interest to us, but it was still a neat exhibit.

Then in the evening, we headed to Summerfest … more about that later.

We brought the puppy with us and she got to stay in the hotel room quite a bit (we figured it was prolly better than a kennel, esp. since she sleeps all day…) but she didn't like the idea too much. She freaked when it was time for us to leave her behind and even when we came back, she had a hard time settling down. I know she's glad to be home.

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All About Summer Meme

I don't have the time or creativity to write anything original today, so it's another meme for you unfortunate folks.

1. Strawberries or blueberries? Strawberries!!!
2. Harry Potter 3 or Spiderman 2:
Harry Potter
3. Hamburgers or hot dogs? hamburgers
4. Boating or hiking? Hiking!
5. Suntan lotion or sunblock? Sunblock… I'm very fair.
6. Outback Jack or Joe Schmo 2 ? both sound kinda good, but i've only seen JS2.
7. Beach Boys or Jimmy Buffett? Beach Boys!!
8. Grow your own produce or buy from supermarket/greengrocer/farm stand? I'd like to have a garden someday, but for now, I buy it from the grocery store or farmer's market.
9. Drive with car windows/top down, or with air-conditioning on? A/C … my hair gets all nasty if the windows are down.
10. Go away for vacation, or stay at home? Vacation.

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Crafting

In my normal course of surfing around I happened to visit Ready Made. They have a really cool project up right now, the slide lamp. I don't even have a 35-mm camera anymore, but I'm going to have to scare one up and take a couple of rolls of slide film and try this out. Too cool. I really like Ready Made. It would be the perfect magazine if they'd forget about writing so many articles and focus on the craft projects. I usually don't enjoy the articles very much.

I haven't done much crafting lately. I've been busy with other stuff and I kinda go in cycles with everything. I wanted to make a necklace like this one that I bought at Target ('cept in a different color) but I couldn't find the proper parts. Maybe I'll look through the online beading sources. But really, I don't want to gather anymore stuff. We've got to move and the less stuff we've got to move, the better.

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Plans


I was surfing around when I came across the Tour De France website. I don't watch it, but my dad is into it and so it's a kind of peripheral interest of mine. So I took a look at the site and they had a really cool graphic feel. And I wanted a desktop wallpaper for my computer, but they didn't have one. So I nabbed the image off their site and used it to trace up a desktop. What a nerdy little thing to do with my time, no?

Download it: 1600×1200 | 1024×768 | 800×600 Continue reading “Plans”

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Sick!

I've been sick! I still am (kinda). I had a really bad day of allergies which somehow morphed into a cold?! Or at least that's how it seemed. It haas been an annoying illness, because I don't feel that bad. I'm great to lounge around the house and do light housework and even run out and see a movie or get groceries, but I don't want to stay out for long and I can't do anything very physical. It's annoying. I'd rather be very sick and not be able to do anything than feel pretty good and not be able to do some stuff (stuff I wanna do, I might add).

So despite being sick, we had a pretty nice weekend. We went to see Around the World in 80 Days, which I would recommend waiting to see until it hits video or your local cheap theatre. We watched countless hours of Babylon 5. As much as I hate Blockbuster I am loving Netflix. Their service has been incredibly quick and easy to use. If they only rented video games!

We also tried our first QueerEye recipe which was very easy and a big success. Basically, we just pan fried some salmon and put some blackberry sauce (very easy to make)over it. We served it with some rice and shredded zucchini. Yum!

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Sauteed Salmon with Blackberry Sauce

from: All Recipes.Com

Ingredients
¼ cup butter, softened
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1 egg yolk
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix

Directions
Cream everything but the cake mix together. Then add that in slowly. The batter will get really thick.

Chill it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. While they're chilling, heat the oven to 375. Grease some cookie sheets. When they're chilled, drop some dough in rounded teaspoons onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake 'em for 8 to 10 minutes at 375.

Nutritional Info (1 cookie(
97 calories; fat 5.3 g; cholesterol 16 mg; carbs 11.4 g; fiber .2 g; protein 1.2 g

from: 113

Ingredients
a few zucchini, or yellow squash
butter
salt
seasonings of your choice (lemon juice, seasoning salt, lemon pepper, whatever)

Directions
Grate up your zucchinis/squash using whatever means you deem necessary. We use our mandolin, which makes this go every so fast. A salad shooter, food processor or box grater would probably work well too though. Put your shreds in a colinder and salt them lightly. Leave them in the colinder for at least 10 minutes. They'll leak, so don't just leave them on your counter. After 10 min is up, squeeze the excess moisture out of them. Put a little pat of butter in a frying pan. You don't need much. I use less than a tablespoon for a TON of squash. Saute them until they're tender, but not squishy. Season them as desired … or just leave them alone. They're great either way.

from: 99

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 cup butter
1 1/4 cups low-fat buttermilk
1 large egg
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
1 cup blueberries
Cooking spray
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Directions
Preheat oven to 400°. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 5 ingredients (flour through nutmeg) in a medium bowl; cut in butter with a pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture resembles coarse meal.

Combine buttermilk, egg, and rind; stir well with a whisk. Add to flour mixture; stir just until moist. Gently fold in blueberries. Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes or until the muffins spring back when lightly touched. Remove muffins from pans immediately, and place on a wire rack to cool.

Combine lemon juice and powdered sugar in a small bowl. Drizzle glaze evenly over cooled muffins.

Nutritional Info (1 muffin(
CALORIES 187 (23% from fat); FAT 4.8g (sat 2.7g, mono 1.4g, poly 0.3g); PROTEIN 3.7g; CARB 32.6g; FIBER 1g; CHOL 30mg; IRON 1.1mg; SODIUM 264mg; CALC 59mg;

from: Jess

Ingredients
2/3 cup (5 ounces) 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large egg whites
1 large egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk
2 chopped fresh strawberries

Directions
Heat oven to 350°. Combine cream cheese and butter in a large bowl. Beat with a mixer at high speed until well blended. Add sugar; beat until fluffy. Add vanilla, egg whites, and egg; beat well.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture and buttermilk to cream cheese mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Gently fold in raspberries and walnuts.

Place 24 foil cup liners in muffin cups. Spoon batter evenly into liners. Bake at 350° 25 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from pans; cool on a wire rack.

Nutritional Info (1 muffin(
CALORIES 142 (32% from fat); FAT 4.7g (sat 2.4g, mono 1.3g, poly 0.7g); PROTEIN 2.7g; CARB 22.6g; FIBER 1.1g; CHOL 19mg; IRON 0.7mg; SODIUM 138mg; CALC 31mg;

from: QueerEye

Ingredients
For the salmon:
1 salmon steak
Salt and pepper
1 tblsp olive oil

For the sauce:
4 oz Pinot Noir
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Pint of blackberries
Zest of one lemon

Directions
Pat salmon dry between paper towels. Sprinkle light with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil over moderately high heat in a non-stick skillet until hot but not smoking and sauté salmon, skin side down, for about 3 minutes. Reduce heat to moderate and cook salmon 4 minutes more. Flip salmon and cook the other side in the same manner (note, however, that it may take a minute or two less to cook the other side thoroughly).

Heat the Pinot Noir and sugar in a small pan. When it comes to a simmer, add the blackberries and lemon zest. Continue to cook until it breaks down slightly but the blackberries keep their form.

Serve the salmon topped with the sauce, or serve the sauce on the side.