hawiian burgers 10:50 PM

Since Memorial Day (or any summer holiday really) is synonymous with BBQing, Dana and I took the opportunity to try out some new burgers. We were literally the only people still in town this weekend, we spent the morning laying out by the pool and working on our tans. Took a break for church. Then came back together to BBQ.

We hung out on the deck and admired the new "lakefront" view that the recent rains had pooled in the unfinished tennis courts behind the house. We grilled burgers with some BBQ sauce, grilled fresh pineapple, the stacked the pineapple on top of the burger and added a slice of cheddar to melt on top. Delicious! These Hawaiian burgers, along with corn on the cob, chips and homemade salsa were a delicious meal. Afterward we watched the Memorial Day services broadcast from the National Mall. I may or may not have cried.

And this is the picture that will inspire my diet. Yikes.

Dropping some knowledge on y'all (I didn't know this until I wiki'd it):
Memorial Day - commemorates U.S. men and women who died while in the military service.
Veterans Day - honoring military veterans alive today.

pseudo it's-it 10:51 PM

For Memorial Day I decided to make a sweet treat. I opted for something cool and easy. Yes, easy. The cookies are pre-made dough from the store. The store made the mint chocolate chip ice cream. And the magic shell was straight from the bottle. I wanted to make a pseudo it's-it. And with the exception of chocolate chip cookies instead of the oatmeal cookies like the real ones, they were spot on. Oh, and the mint ice cream was not green. Oops. But regardless of color, they were delicious. I added the recipe here.

Just four easy steps and this too can be yours - see here.

vitamin water 10:45 AM

I really like the lemonade vitamin water zero. And it was on sale this week ... if you couldn't have guessed. My front passenger seat is a sea of bottles. I figure it's got to be better for me than soda!

marshmallow test 1:26 PM

I am pretty sure that I would fail this this test.

poppies 12:44 PM

Not the California poppy, but still beautiful.

These are planted in front of Sarah's house.

I really love this pink/orange/reddish one.

And the shadows of the stamen through the petals.
Yes, I had to google to figure out the word "stamen".

A snap dragon just for a little variety.

Thought a little flower photography was perfect to debut the wide layout. It's easy - go here.

kickin' it with carson 9:49 PM

I got to hang out with Carson and Ethan today. Carson showed me his fire outfit when I first arrived, he was very proud of it. It was then that I realized that my pushing fire-stuff on kids actually did have an influence. Scary. In the morning we played outside and looked at bugs and blew bubbles. He makes such a cute little barefoot bubble-blowing fireman.

Multiple times throughout the day Carson indulged in his favorite pastime - vacuuming. I have never seen a kid that likes to vacuum as much as he does. I hope that he keeps this love far into the future, when he's bigger and can be useful to Sarah. He reminds me of that Full House episode when Michelle decides to be a little cleaning helper like Danny.

We also played outside with chalk. He wanted me to draw something, so I drew a hopscotch to play with. Carson called it a "hop-chalk". He is so cute. Unfortunately, the camera was easier to pull out when there was one kid instead of two so I don't have any pictures of Ethan. Two kids certainly keeps your hands full.

peace 6:55 PM

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Magnet I have on my locker at work.

delicious reward 11:59 PM

photo from flickriver

I rocked my Firefighter 2 written exam tonight. 98% - only missed one. I studied hard and was stressed but ultimately it paid off. After the test we got to leave class early. I had studied through dinner and just wanted to eat and relax. I decided to give myself a delicious reward.

So I went to a Red Robin and got a Bonzai Burger. Yum. Burger + Teryaki + Grilled Pineapple = Delicious. That plus all the free refilled diet coke with a lime wedge that I could drink. It was a perfect and welcomed break.

One down, one to go - practical testing (live burns) are Sunday. Yikes!

green chips 11:59 PM

I am not going to lie, this help-the-earth marketing ploy totally worked on me. I chose Sun Chips today because I wanted to check out the new compostable packaging. Now I realize that this might have been a futile effort since I do not have a compost pile, nor do I know anyone east of the Mississippi with a compost pile, but I will adapt and overcome. I am going to mail it to my parents to stick in their compost bin. Everybody wins!

Also, have you tried to Garden Salsa flavor? It's my favorite.

berger's cookies 11:59 PM

The boys came home form the grocery store with these today. Oh boy. They taste like marshmallows and chocolate. Um, yum. They are a Baltimore home grown cookie. I must visit it next time I am up there. Or I might try a recipe that claims to be the same. The secret: equal parts cookie to frosting.

photo from website

fruit genes 11:45 AM

Apparently all of my three loyal readers (yes, I'm talking about you. Thanks for reading!) are curious about the genetics of fruit too. So I researched it more. It took me eleventeen hundred hours of sifting through agricultural research to find this highly scientific answer.

I have simplified it down to two identifying genes for those who are not genetafruitologists like myself. You're welcome. Lets say that the banana and apple each have one dominate and one recessive gene. When they [insert birds and bees speech here] then there are one of four options that their offspring may come out as.

1. If both dominate genes are passed on (++) the offspring will split the difference.
2. If the banana's dominate gene and the apple's recessive gene are passed on (+-) the offspring will resemble the banana but will still carry some characteristics of the apple.
3. If the banana's recessive gene and the apple's dominate gene are passed on (-+) the offspring will resemble the apple but will still carry some characteristics of the banana. This is what we saw with my fruit.
   
4. If both recessive genes are passed on (--) the offspring will be grapes.

Thank you April for the suggestion of a diagram.

I am still unsure of how taste factors in. I will work on that and get back to you.

love birds 10:35 AM

David said he was struggling with drawing love birds on the computer for his wedding invitation. The ones I had seen in his draft invitation were just little blue chubby guys, so I made these. I think they are adorable.

Quickly, I remembered why I left graphic design as David said that it wasn't what they were looking for. I made new ones from a sketch he had, but won't post those here incase he uses them for the invite. I just wanted to post these because I love them and I wanted to share the fun thing I made. :)

This is the million dollar degree at work right here people.

capcakes 7:54 PM

Get it - capcake? Like a graduation cap? I am hilarious. The other roommate graduates tomorrow. So I decided to make her a graduation treat. I think they turned out really cute. And they were super easy to make!

The top is a square chocolate (Hershey's Extra Dark Chocolate in this case) inverted onto a dark chocolate mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cup and stuck together with melted chocolate. Let it cool. Stick a tassel on. Drop it on a cupcake. And viola! Simple and super cute!

Also, the good part about still being a little baked out is that I did not sample these nearly as much as I usually do. With the exception of the dark chocolate Reese's. I love dark chocolate mini Reese's.

blood drive 11:59 PM

Today we had our first Blood Drive at the firehouse. While it was supposed to be a union sponsored event, I received zero help. Zero union members volunteered to help, zero co-workers showed up to donate. So it was not really a union Blood Drive; it was my Blood Drive. Regardless, I worked really hard on this event and it turned out well!

A friend from the hospital and one from neighboring firehouse met up with me early for lunch. And they helped me make signs. And they donated blood with me! They made the day tolerable. The boys on my shift rotated in (they weren't able to commit to volunteering because they were working the day of the drive) as they were able to between calls. It was nice to have their support too. In the end we had 22 units of blood donated, 10 of which were new donors. So my hard work at promoting the event brought in 10 people who have never donated in the past. Yay!!!

This kid was super cute. I took him out to see the fire engines, he was SO excited.

mom 11:56 PM

You are so beautiful to me.
I love you with all of my heart.
Love, Cam

melted snow cone 11:59 PM

I tried this place called Firehouse Subs today. The food was pretty good, but the beverages... heavenly. They have a Cherry Lime-Aid. I guess I didn't read the "add squeezed lime" tagline so when I took my first swig of this sweet concoction I was hit with a whimsical wave of cherry. It literally tastes like a melted cherry snow cone. It is delicious! I never did make it to the adding lime part...

magic locker 11:59 PM

Wismer left. He was my favorite Paramedic. He was not from the sticks, he saw the world normally like me. He also had one of the best locker spots in the bay. Right up front, right next to the Medic Unit. I called dibs on it.

As Wismer was leaving he told me to stick my name on it fast before someone else took it. I did but I got harassed for sliding in there before his seat had even cooled. So I put a tribute in there. It helped a little.

Wismer also told me that this was the magic locker, that everyone who occupied it was able to move on and get a job at a different department when they tried to move on. While I don't want that now, it'll be good juju to have on my side in the future.

fruit of their loins 11:59 PM

My drink leaked on the fruit in my bag today. I had a red apple and the banana in there. I rinsed them off and stuck them in this basket to dry. When I came in after vehicle check out (at work) an additional piece of fruit had magically appeared. Did my apple and banana get busy while we were out of the room? Will their green apple offspring taste like a banana? These are my questions. Also, while I respect their compromise on color, wouldn't an orange have been more appropriate offspring?