... to go back in to the living room. I got yet ANOTHER device for the man-tainment center. This brings the total gadget count (not including accessories) to 5, each with corresponding remotes. I declared defeat against the onslaught of IR devices and bough a universal remote. You can see where this is going, can't you? FOUR HOURS (including time to hook up the new toy, WIIII!!!!) This isn't even one of the scary remotes where you're entering codes and hoping all the keys map correctly. This one came with a USB cable, software, and a fairly simple trouble shooting process. It should have been a piece of cake! But no, apparently getting it to switch between "AV" input and "Component1" input correctly every time is damn near impossible. It's as done as I'm getting it. Five remotes consolidated down to two (the wii is bluetooth, can't be controlled by this remote). Now, to get rid of all the packaging debris in my living room =) Anybody need twist ties?

WTF?!

Where did December go? Seriously, 18 days is just a blip on the radar when that's the only time you get to spend with your Hubby for 15 months. And now he's gone. Sniffle.

I have a few stories but sadly, almost no pictures. I can, however, show you this amusing before and after shot of my apartment and his all too short stay.

My "Entertainment Center" Before: Busted dvd player that didn't really play any more (bought right around when DVDs were the new hotness and everyone was all "ZOMG DVDS!!1!!1"). 18 inch tv (I think, I guess I could measure it) that I got for my dorm in college 7.5 years ago.



(If you can see this, try clicking here.)

My "Entertainment Center" After: Xbox 360 Pro (the big one). 32 inch LCD tv. Speakers (that's the woofer hanging out on the right side, there). Rock Band and Guitar Hero (and various other games that I probably won't play).




Men are so awesome =D


Cake ball turkeys. You read that right. They're turkeys made from cake and chocolate and lots and lots of free time.

I always think these kinds of things can be made easily and quickly. Not so much. Steps involve:
  1. Bake cake.
  2. Cool cake overnight.
  3. Mix crumbled cake with can of frosting.
  4. Form in to small balls, takes about an hour (I used store mix red velvet cake, with red 40... my hands are still red!).
  5. Freeze cake balls so they don't fall apart.
  6. Make chocolate base, add balls to bases.
  7. Freeze.
  8. Dip tops in chocolate.
  9. Freeze.
  10. Make turkey parts (not so hard unless the squeeze bottles keep clogging. And you can only make 8 parts at a time. And you have to freeze between batches.)
  11. Put turkey parts on balls.
I would say all told, these damn things took 8 hours and I only made 16 of them in to turkeys. The rest are just "cupcakes". They're cute, though, right?

Some of them turned out a little funky because I put the heads on backwards....
And a view from the inside (they're as tasty as they look, I promise!)




I WON!!

Like you're surprised. My pumpkin is awesome. I am now the proud owner of an iPod shuffle.

I decided, after much deliberation, to enter a pumpkin carving contest at work. Of course, not just any pumpkin will win. I need a spiffy pumpkin. A snazzy pumpkin. A geeky pumpkin. A pumpkin like this:


That's right, a cylon. (Picture and schematics courtesy of the Evil Mad Scientist)

Can you get any geekier than sci-fi and LEDs? I don't think so.


Look at this circuit. How long do you think that took? If you guessed 9 hours (including messing up once =), you'd be right! Nine hours to build one silly circuit. With no soldering. And schematics given to me. Nine hours. Let's not even talk about how much it cost!



Next came the actual pumpkin. I won't bore you with a long narrative of the next 6 hours of pumpkin construction but suffice it to say "shaving" a pumpkin is hard work.





And finally, after all is said and done, a working cylon pumpkin! In case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm awesome.

Catzilla


Kitchen Crime
Lily


http://www.bigworldphoto.com/

I'll admit it, I'm a Google fangirl. And I'm kind of tired of Xanga, too. So here I am, officially switching to Blogger. To start us off, NEW GLASSES!! (They're purple and silver, the picture isn't too good on color.)


That's right, I'm looking at the camera and smiling! No emo here.

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