Friday, February 29, 2008

We are having...

way too much fun with the facial recognition software!
Thanks Kevin and Danica for the idea.

I'm glad that Abby looks like a 14 year old girl (Dakota Fanning) and I look like a 61 year old man (Tommy Lee Jones)! Oh well. At least I didn't get any girls on mine!! Sorry Kevin! I always thought you were kind of pretty though!

Abby's celebrity look-a-likes

Jeff's celebrity look-a-likes

http://www.myheritage.com/collage

Saturday, February 23, 2008

I've been Tagged

Weeks ago I was tagged by my beloved twin Kristie. I am just now getting to it. Here are 6 things that people don't know about me. However, I talk so much that I'm pretty sure that there are not that many things that people don't know about me, but I'll give it a shot. Hope you enjoy.

1. My pet peeves are when I get passed on the right in a non-existent lane when I am already going about 7-10 mph over the speed limit (this has only happened to me in Buffalo); when the dishes have piled up and Jeff doesn't have a cereal bowl to eat his breakfast in, so rather than washing one and being a part of the solution, he grabs a mixing bowl and a serving spoon to eat his cereal in...then leaves the bowl on the mountain of dishes for me to wash; and last, but most certainly not least, when I go outside after precipitation has occured (pick your poison: rain, sleet , snow, "wintry" mix, etc) and the bottom of my jeans get wet. I then go inside only to take my shoes off and get my socks wet from my jeans! I change into dry-bottomed pants and let the others dry only to find that they have dried with a delightful little salt ring where the water used to be. I now have to wash two pairs of pants. Arghh.

2. My favorite show is One Tree Hill. You can laugh and gawk all you want, because I am not ashamed. Jeff also enjoys it...he may be ashamed. If I were Lucas, I would choose B. Davis to P. Sawyer. No questions asked. Those of you who don't OTH-it, I apologize. Though, I know there are many of you closet CW T.V. show fans and you know what I am referring to. This is a common debate between Jeff and I. I would also love to see all you Ravens fans come out of the wood work and help me out here.

3. I love to decorate and am fascinated by old houses and architecture. It may not be evident in my humble abode given our current economic status, but I truly do love to decorate. I am just as likely, if not more, to pick a home and garden magazine to read over an "Us Weekly" or magazine of that nature. I find it incredibly enticing and while I don't know if I am any good, I really enjoy learning about it.

4. I am deathly afraid of praying in public. This is crazy, but I would rather speak in church than pray. At least when I speak I can prepare what I am going to say! I usually have to pray before my prayer about what i should pray about and that I won't say something stupid. I must give an example. When I was in YW, I was asked to give the closing prayer to a stake youth fireside. In that prayer I was told to make sure to bless the refreshments. At the close of the fireside, palms sweating, mouth dry, mouth dry, I stepped up to the pulpit. The prayer started out well, but upon saying,"Please bless the refreshments that they wi--" I can't bless that they will nourish our bodies, or give us nutrients that we need! They are refreshments. They don't have nutritional value! I finished the sentence with,"that they will taste good." Immediately the congregation fizzled with muffled chuckles. I started blushing and quickly ended the prayer. I was mortified, but able to laugh it off by explaining my train of thought to people when they commented on my prayer. I have since learned that when blessing refreshments during a prayer to say,"Please bless the refreshments," and then just STOP TALKING.

5. I'm pregnant.

6. Just kidding. I'm really really not. But I gotcha didn't I?


Hope you enjoyed!


P.S. I tag Jeff (actually Jeff tagged himself), Krista, Lauren, Stacey M, Laura, Alesha, and...Kashann who I know said would not do it if she was tagged, but I know all of my fellow Buffalonians would die to hear 6 things from your life that we didn't already know. Kashann, I won't be offended you really don't want to do it, but I thought you were worth a shot! Love ya!

A great article...and some fun

I've told a few of you about this article, and now I'm finally posting it. It was published in the City Journal, and written by Edward Glaeser, a Harvard economist. (Wow. That ought to be enough links to keep you busy for a while!). His analysis definitely slants to the right, but it is, nonetheless, a very well written article describing the rise and fall of Buffalo. The problems he discusses are not only unique to Buffalo, but many of the old cities built around the "rust belt." Buffalo, I think, just happens to be an extreme case. If anyone reads it, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. Is he right?


And for those of you not interested in the article, here are some pictures. One is Max and one is Perry. Do you think they look alike? I tried to put them in black and white and have you guess who was who, but I couldn't figure out how to do it. If they weren't in blue and pink, could you tell the difference?

Forget Prozac...Become a Republican!!

I read this on Greg Mankiw's blog. It was originally from washingtonpost.com :

A 2006 Pew Research poll found that 45 percent of Republicans describe themselves as "very happy," compared with only 30 percent of Democrats (and 29 percent of independents). This is a sizable gap and a remarkably consistent one, too. Republicans have been happier than Democrats every year since the General Social Survey, conducted biannually by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, began asking about happiness in 1972.

You know, now that I think about it, I have seemed a bit more depressed since I registered as an independent!

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Music!

Abby and I just had a great time making our music playlist!! Take a look and tell us which one is your favorite.

Abby's favorite: MMMBop by Hanson.
Jeff'f Favorite: Don't Stop Me Now by Queen.

--Buffalo Soldiers--It's our theme song, so we had to use it!
--The Chris Daughtry (Hemorrhage) and Taylor Hicks (Takin' it to the Streets) songs were two of our favorite performances on American Idol. I am, unashamedly, a big fan of American Idol (minus last year) and we both agree that season 5 was probably the best there will ever be.
We also found this cover of Georgia on my Mind (by Taylor Hicks) that we really liked. I really enjoyed listening to Taylor Hicks, but hated his first album. I don't know if the producers were just trying to make him sound a little more mainstream or what, but I thought it was a huge disappointment. I think he sounds a lot better singing soul music and the blues, and that is why I liked this cover.
--The Ray Charles song is obviously a cover of Johnny Cash's famous song. I found this on youtube a while ago and loved it. The video was really great because it had Johnny Cash introducing Ray Charles. As a former piano player, I have a tremendous amount of respect for anyone that can play that well. It's a great remake.
--Abby and I are both big Queen fans, so that is why we have the most Queen tracks. Whenever we go on a road trip, we're always rocking out to queen (and so is Max as he yells "LOUDER!" from the back seat). When I was younger I thought they were cool (probably because of the famous Wayne's World scene), but as I listen to them now I can't help but notice what great musicians they were!
--We couldn't find our favorite song from the Walk the Line soundtrack (It ain't me, Babe--another road trip best) so we added Jackson instead. We like trying to sing the simple harmonies together!
--The Led Zeppelin song is a classic. I have liked it for a long time, and Abby fell in love once she saw it on the One Tree Hill season 3 finale! I read somewhere that Led Zeppelin has only licensed the use of their songs for two TV shows: The Sopranos and One Tree Hill. Not too shabby, OTH!
--Abby loves Hairspray, and I have to admit that I liked it quite a bit. These are two songs that we especially liked from the movie.
--The final three songs are just songs that we were starting to remember from Jr. High/High School. We were going to add a lot more, but ran out of time. Maybe we'll add some 90's classics a little later.

Friday, February 8, 2008

This one's for Steve

This is a little late, but what an exciting finish to the Super Bowl!! I was so glad to see the Pats lose! The Giants had an amazing defensive game plan, and it was nice to see their defensive coordinator get rewarded with a new contract.

My favorite quote of the night was a text message I received from Dave Sunderland when I asked him who he was rooting for:

"The Giants, man! A world where Eli Manning can be the Super Bowl MVP is a world that I want to live in!" Note: he made the statement early in the 4th quarter!

I'm picking the Chargers (of course) to win it all next year. What an amazing playoff run they made, especially when you consider all of their injuries! They are easily the most talented team in football, and now they have had the time to work things out with the new coaches. Watch out.


Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Perry's Fashion Show

Okay, so I finally learned how to get the pictures from my camera to the computer, so after much adieu here are the pictures of Perry all dressed up as promised to the Grannies. Thank you again Gwamma Charlotte for the DARLING box of bows you made for her...many of which will be featured in this post. And thank you again too, Gwamma Meesha (Nicea), for the also DARLING clothes you've sent us. It is way too much fun to dress up a little girl! It's better than Barbie!! This will probably be a pretty boring post for anybody else, so feel free to bypass it...













I just love her cheeks! She weighs about twelve pounds already but is only about 21 inches long! She has the shortest little legs! It is so funny! Anyway, I think this is my favorite little outfit. Gramma Char made the bow and gave her the boots. Gramma Meesha provided the cute top and leggings.













MORE TO COME LATER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!