The Perfect Snack
Potato. Cheddar. Beer. All natural ingredients. What more do you need?
Go here to find out where you can get your own bag of Kettle Cheddar Beer chips.
Category: Fun
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Archive for » February, 2008 «
Eternal Rest…
grant unto her, O Lord. And may Your perpetual light shine upon her.
A friend of ours passed away this week and her funeral was today. Her name was Sherri Davis. She was a beautiful witness of faith and hope. And every time you spoke to her, the love of God and our Blessed Mother couldn’t help but shine through. She died after a long battle with cancer leaving 4 children and her husband behind. Her two older children were perhaps a few years younger than Adam and I. Her two younger children are still in school. As Christians we should rejoice that she is in the loving arms of Our Lord and Lady. But you can’t help but feel sorrow for losing such a beloved woman especially when you see her 14 year old daughter overcome with grief.
I met Sherri about 6 years ago when I attended Christ Renews His Parish at our church. She was on the team giving the retreat. It seems like yesterday she and her family were at our wedding and house blessing. Thanks to the Davis family, we have the lovely statue of St. Francis in our back yard.
The last time we saw her was the day of Gianna’s baptism. Her family was going to confession as we were getting ready for Gianna’s baptism. I remember that the faces of her husband and children were worn. But hers was so full of life even in the midst of her suffering. She was so happy and pleased to do God’s will…to offer up all her suffering for her friends and family. Grace radiated through her and her prayers for others. And not thinking of herself at all, she gave us a gift of the song of the Little Flower that had been recorded at St. Teresa’s parish school. She would always say that every time she thought of St. Therese, she would think of our family and our little Therese.
Our Therese drew a picture for her the other week when we found out she was in ICU. It was of Sherri and Jesus walking under a rainbow. I certainly think that Sherri is there right now.
Please pray for her family.
Category: Friends
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The Toilets have Arrived
Since this turned out to be such a popular topic, I thought I’d follow up on the story. I faxed in the application on Tuesday, February 5 and received my voucher before the weekend. I was instructed to pick up the toilets out at Ferguson Enterprises.
Ferguson’s gave me everything I needed for installation: wax ring, flange bolts, and a seat. A new flange will cost you if yours needs to be replaced.
The first thing I have to say that I like about the Niagara is that it’s ready to go right out of the box with the exception of mounting the tank on the bowl. With that being said they’ve even made that easier with a flat bowl-to-tank gasket.
If you’ve ever had to install a tank on a bowl with one of those rounded rubber gaskets you know the frustration I’m talking about: the balancing act of constantly readjusting the tank until it’s level and squared with the wall. This here just sits flat on the bowl.
As I mentioned before, the Niagara uses a “flapperless” design that dumps a bucket of water into the tank. Something you have to get comfortable with is flushing the handle all the way down in a quick motion to get the full effect.
And now here’s something I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for:
Whoo wee, wasn’t that something!? So you can see it performs quite well under a liquid simulation. One thing you may have noticed is that the valve continues to “hiss” after the bucket is filled. This is due once again to Fluidmaster’s lousy craftsmanship. I have never been pleased with their normal replacement fill valves. They never seem to shut off completely no matter how low you set the float. Fortunately for the Niagara it does stop after a few minutes, but I’ll hold this complaint against it – I wish they’d gone with another vendor besides Fluidmaster.
While I could look for a recipe to create the soybean paste used for the Maximum Performance (MaP™) testing procedures for my own solids simulation, I’m just going to leave you with the results already given: it rates at 500 grams per flush. I believe this is quite acceptable considering 250 grams is the minimum requirement to pass the test. If you’re the type of person who needs to experience a powerful, full-on gravitational force then you’re not going to be happy with the Niagara. I would describe it as more of a “washing” than a “suction”.
Finally, I’ll leave you with this little marketing piece. Have you ever felt this good about a toilet?
Category: Budgeting
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40 Days for Life
The 40 Days for Life campaign is well underway this Lent. It is a wonderful opportunity offer your prayers and fasting for an end to abortion. The campaign asks participants (and anyone can participate) to fast and offer holy hours, masses, rosaries for an end to the crime that has killed over 40 million children in the U.S. since Roe V. Wade legalized abortion.
Additionally in Austin, people can participate in the prayer vigils at a local abortion facility which take place every Saturday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. during Lent. What a blessed opportunity to join Christ on the road to Calvary.
I realize that praying at abortion clinics is out of the comfort zone of many people. It is so easy to pray and worship Christ in all His glory at Mass, and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. The disciples who were with Jesus during his public ministry would probably agree. They too found comfort being with him when things were going well. But where were they in his agony in the garden? His own apostles failed to keep watch; they fell asleep. Where were they are on the road to Calvary? What comfort it must of brought to our Lord when his mother met him on that road or when Veronica wiped his face at a time when his closest friend abandoned him.
Now imagine what comfort it brings our Lord when we can be His light in the calvary of these abortion clinics; when we show these mothers who are in despair during a difficult situation that we care, that we support them, that they and their children are in our prayers. We do not judge them, but we pray for their conversion and repentance.
Matthew 5:15-16, says, “Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.”
Let your light shine for life this Lent. We’re planning on making one of the March vigils and would love for you to join us!
Category: Faith
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“Flash”back
I thought I’d go back and pull a few of my old school Flash projects to share with you all.
Bud goes Parasailing
First up is an animated short [speaker check before clicking, there's music] I did for my first interactive media course at Purdue. This course also happened to be the first one offered through the Computer Graphics program utilizing Flash, which was at version 3-4 at the time. Anyone remember tellTarget()? I was quite impressed with how well it came out, as was my professor. He included it as part of the sample collection on the CD that shipped with his book
Discover Sailing
This second piece is from the CGT416 Senior Design Project course titled Implementing Flash Technology for an Educational Web Site for Aspiring Sailors. Quite ironic that my senior project centered around Flash-based eLearning. Was “eLearning” even a coined term in 1999? And no making fun of the instructional design. I never claimed to be an instructional designer. Heck, I didn’t even know anything about sailing. I simply had an interest. It was a learning experience from many angles.
Category: Fun
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Chile Relleno
You know you’ve made something yummy when your husband calls you from work and says, “Honey, this stuffed pepper is the bomb!”
The other day I made Chile Relleno–stuff peppers– a Mexican dish. It was the first time I’d ever made it, but have had and enjoyed the ones my mom makes and others I’ve had at restaurants. I didn’t have the gumption to try it out until the other night. And on top of that, I just made it up as I went along.
Sharon’s Chile Relleno
Ingredients:
- Poblano Peppers (as many as the number of servings you are making
- 1 lb Ground beef
- 1/2 Onion (I like red onion best)
- 1-2 Garlic cloves
- Salt & Pepper
- 2 eggs (for 4 peppers)
- 1.5 cups crumbed pecans
- 2 tbs flour (rice flour can be substituted for those with a gluten intolerance/allergy)
- 1.5 to 2 cups beef stock
Roast the peppers over an open flame. When the skins are black, take them off the flame to cool. Scrape the black part off as well as you can. Cut them down one side and cut out the seeds from the center. Set aside. Crumb pecan and add 2 tbs of flour in one bowl for coating. Beat eggs in seperate bowl. Cook the ground beef with onion, garlic, salt and pepper to taste. Once cooked, stuff the peppers with the ground beef mixture. (Set aside left over beef for gravy.) Use 3-4 toothpicks to “reseal” the pepper. Dip in egg and coat with pecan mixture. Bake in over at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. With any left over beef, add beef broth and an additional 2 tbs of flour. Stir over low heat to thicken into a gravy.
Serve the chile relleno on a bed of rice with gravy on top and a side of your favorite veggies.
Category: Recipes
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Rite of Election
Yesterday, the Candidates and Catechumens from were presented to the Bishop for the Rite of Election. The Elect are those adults who are seeking to enter into the fullness of the Catholic Church through the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist.
Gianna and I accompanied our sponsoree, Lindsey, for the Rite of Election. The Bishop greets EACH Catechumen and Candidate in the Diocese and “welcomes her to the family.” It was really awesome to see so many adults choosing to come into full union with the Church.
During this Lenten season, please pray for them–and especially Lindsey.
Category: Events
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Sourdough Starter
So a friend of ours, Jackie, was kind enough to share some sourdough starter with me yesterday after my ears perked up when I heard that she makes her husband sourdough bread.
I excitedly told Adam we were going to have our favorite San Francisco meal tonight–clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl! It was a yummy hit.
So if you need starter, come pick some up! I replenished the batch for future Fridays.
Category: Family
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Lenten Events
Here are some events occurring this Lent:
- Saturday, February 9, 7-8:30 p.m., San Jose Church (2435 Oak Crest, Austin): Guadalupe Lectures by Fr. Eduardo Chavez, renowned expert on the Guadalupe apparitions and postulator of St. Juan Diego’s cause for sainthood. This is speaking tour sponsored by the Supreme Knight. It will be delivered in Spanish with simultaneous translation in English.
- Saturday, February 16, 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Holy Trinity Church in Corn Hill: To Jesus Through Mary, Day of Reflection sponsored by the Office of Pro-Life Activities of the Diocese of Austin. Registration required: $10 with lunch included; $20 with lunch and consecration books. Call 238-1756 to register.
- Saturday and Sunday, February 23 &24, Corpus Christi, Tx: Fullness of Truth Conference Speakers include Dr. Ray Guaerendi and Patrick Madrid. Their youth program includes Stephanie Wood and Jason Evert. Childcare is available.
Please post any upcoming events you’d like to share!
Category: Faith
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Free Toilets
My procrastination has paid off! The city of Austin has resurrected the Free Toilet Program. If you live in the Austin area and have a commode installed earlier than 1996, look into replacing it with a high-performance HET (high-efficiency toilet) that uses only 1.28 gallons with each flush.
We recently replaced the 5 gpf toilet in the guest bathroom with an efficient 1.6 gpf model under the normal Toilet Rebate program which only cost us $25 after the rebate. Beforehand I wasn’t entirely sure of the performance of these more efficient models – which is a common concern. I can now say with much assurance that I’m not disappointed.
That being said, the 1.6 gpf models have pretty much the same mechanics as the old models. The Niagara EcoLogic however uses a “flapperless” design. I’m not sure what’s in store should it start to fail, which I hope doesn’t happen in the near future. There aren’t too many reviews on this particular brand but HETs are becoming widely used in new homes. Regardless, it’s a free toilet. So, in our small efforts to “go green” (and save money) we’re going to take a leap of faith, put our trust in the city of Austin, and replace the remaining two “water-wasters” in our home with HETs.
Category: Budgeting
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