Thanksgiving Tradition

Every year we eat at my Grandma's house for Thanksgiving. Every year there are leftovers. Every year the leftovers are brought home in Cool Whip containers. My grandma has a never-ending supply of empty Cool Whip containers. I have no idea where they come from. A 90yr old woman can not possibly eat this much Cool Whip.

We have empty Cool Whip containers that are completely faded due to multiple washings. When I left Georgia I was going to pack up an empty Cool Whip container. It had gone with me from Thor to Ames to Minneapolis to Atlanta.

I recently used a Cool Whip container to hold leftover homemade chili. It had a piece of masking tape on the lid that read "Chili '04". Apparently my mom had used the same container 2 years earlier for the same purpose.

I think Kraft should make a commercial about how Cool Whip brings families together. I think Cool Whip rocks.

Rappers are Role Models

Over Thanksgiving my nephew was asked me if I had an iPod, and then proceeded to ask if I happened to have any 50 Cent, Chris Brown, Chamillionaire, and others on it. I was shocked -- I consider myself fairly in-the-know when it comes to music, and I've hardly heard of Chamillionaire. How did an eight year old know about him then?

I guess it's the phenomenon known as the internet. Oh yeah, and MTV. It's too bad that MTV has become the Us Weekly of television. I still remember the first time I saw Thriller on MTV. Man, was I in awe (and a little scared too). Whatever happened to those days?

The Wish Tree Project

I feel like I'm fairly mature for my age, but around Christmas time I can't help but remember how extremely exciting this time of the year was for me when I was younger.

My workplace is a member of The Wish Tree Project -- a program that helps less-fortunate kids get Christmas presents -- and has already setup a few "wish" trees around the building. I'm not sure if I was supposed to, but I poked around one of the trees until I found a card for a boy that asked for something I would have enjoyed as a kid as well. Not only does it make the task of shopping much easier, but it's actually makes the whole process exciting.


The card I drew was for Devontae, and he would like some Transformers. I don't blame him -- I used to think Optimus Prime was such a cool dude. However, nothing was cooler than Blaster. My cousin had Blaster, and man was I jealous. Maybe one day I will be so lucky. But until then, I'll hopefully pass on some of that excitement to Devontae.

Programmers Love Flickr Too

You can spell anything from Flickr.

Can you say Product Placement?

NBC's The Office is my favorite show on TV. Tonight's episode was excellent, but it also contained possibly the most blatant product placement of all time.

One scene had Kevin Malone (played by Brian Baumgartner) shredding office documents with this shredder shown at the left. He talked about how great it was, and proceeded to shred papers, a CD, and one of his own credit cards.

Then they cut to a commercial. And surprise, surprise, it was a Staples commercial for the exact same shredder. Wow. Go marketing. What's even more, when I went to Staples.com to get a picture of the shredder, I came upon this page titled "Staples MailMate shredder and The Office". I bet they sell a million of these.

I like music too, but not that much

Cities 97, a Minneapolis radio station, releases a Sampler CD each year of unique, typically acoustic sets from their in-house Studio C. I was introduced to Cities 97 and their sampler CDs from a friend years ago when I worked out in Estes Park, CO, and have been listening to them ever since.

The CDs come in limited supply, and are only sold at area Targets. This year marks the 18th Sampler, and with it, 18 years of increased insanity. One guy camped out in front of Target for two days in anticipation. It's November. It's Minnesota. It's a CD. You can copy them.

The CDs have also apparently turned into some sort of tradeable futures commodity. Last night, before the CDs were even released, people were selling them on eBay -- informing potential buyers not to worry, and guaranteeing that their "suppliers" would follow through.

I was planning on standing outside of my local Target around 7 this morning, but slept in too late. Now I'm counting on Robbie's attempted purchase. I'll even chip in 10 cents for the blank CD.

Happy Late Birthday to My Blog

I just realized that it has been over a year (and 187 posts later) since I started writing this blog. Wow, does time fly. If you've been with me the whole time, then you will remember my first post, in all of its glory.

A big thanks to all of my faithful readers and random visitors. I appreciate the comments. Perhaps now I should update the look and feel...any suggestions?

I like orange, but not that much

I went to the gym tonight, and I saw a guy next to me that was fake-baked to the maximum. But not only was he fake-baked, he was orange.

To top it off, he was wearing a very bold orange shirt. So it got me thinking how orange his skin really was. You know how a color will look much paler when placed next to its bolder counterpart? And he was still orange. Carrot orange.

Fun Weekend

Addie's birthday and Lauren's visit made for a fun weekend. The highlight was seeing Hot Chip and Jamie Lidell at 1st Avenue. Personally, I thought Hot Chip stole the show. You can't go wrong with 5 keyboards/synthesizers and a lot of British energy.

But don't get me wrong, Jamie Lidell was fun too. He would beat-box, record it, loop it, and sing on top of it, all with a lot of soul. He has been described as, "a 21st century reincarnation of Little Richard".

Love and Marriage

I just read an interesting article from The New York Times regarding the current state of marriage in America. It's worth a read, but if you can't spare the 5 minutes, here is a brief recap of quotes:

In the past 20 years, there has been "a marked decline in the number of people with whom they discussed meaningful matters. People reported fewer close relationships with co-workers, extended family members, neighbors, and friends."

"As Americans lose the wider face-to-face ties that build social trust, they become more dependent on romantic relationships for intimacy and deep communication, and more vulnerable to isolation if a relationship breaks down. In some cases we even cause the breakdown by loading the relationship with too many expectations."

"...we should raise our expectations for, and commitment to, other relationships...we can strengthen our marriages the most by not expecting them to be our sole refuge from the pressures of the modern work force."

From Hot to Cold

Last night I went for a run outside wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Tonight it is supposed to snow. That sucks.

Do you know what really grinds my gears?

...Stores that start playing Christmas music the day after Halloween. What ever happened to waiting till Thanksgiving?

What grinds your gears?

Weisman and Walkman

Went to the Weisman with Brad and his friend and fellow blogger Laura to check out the Red Bull Art of the Can exhibit. There were Red Bull shoes, a tree, and a replica of the Winged Victory of Samothrace, amongst others. I also took my first picture with my new phone. I have to admit that I'm pleasantly surprised.

Happy Halloween!