Aug 06, Picks O the Month

Music Picks
When I Look in Your Eyes, Diana Krall

This was a good introduction for us into Jazz. Our favorite track on this CD is right below. We appreciated the romantic-slow-dance quality to it. Other tracks we especially liked on this CD were "Let's Face the Music and Dance," another slow song, and "The Best Thing for You," a light, humorous, quick-paced song.


Diana Krall (samples)
"When I Look in Your Eyes" Track 1
"Let's Face the Music and Dance" Track 2
"The Best Thing for You" Track 3

Book Picks
Brian's Pick
Eldest by Christopher Poalini

The reading level of this book is comparable to the Harry Potter books or The Chronicles of Narnia. The pacing of these series of books is actually quite nice. A movie is being made on the first book of this series that will be released in December 15, 2006. Although the book should have all the material for the making of a good movie, I am leery of the budget put into the movie and worries that it might be cheesy like most fantasy movies Pre-LOTR.

Karri's Pick
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

We have not seen the movie but this book was wonderful. This book was a Newbery Honor Medal winner in 1998. Spoiler - Although this has some Cinderella references, the depth of the main character in the story far surpasses the original fairy tale. One of the reasons Karri really liked Ella's character is that she is not a damsel in distress like most women in fairy tales are portrayed. Sure she has help along the way but she is not utterly hopeless like Snow White or Sleeping Beauty. Maybe we will check out the movie now to see if it did the book justice.

TV/Movie Picks
Brian's Pick
Justice League - Animated Series Season 2

This was one of the few of the cartoons if not the first to be made specifically for widescreen. The content of this show is great and it is sad to see it relegated to just a cartoon by some people. "A Better World" is a great example of the topic, "does absolute power corrupt?" This episode also happens to be Logan's favorite just because there are 2 Supermans, 2 Batmans, etc. The Justice league hadn't seen much airtime when it was on TV because it was shown on Cartoon Network on a random schedule a not on WB every weekday like the Batman and Superman series were. Also any reruns they ran almost seemed to be exclusively 1st season; which is too bad because although there were decent plots the 1st season could of used more character development. Thank goodness for TV series to DVD transfers.


Justice League Theme Song

Karri's Pick
Naruto

Ninjas with mystical abilities doing Wu Xia like stuff, jumping from trees and channeling chi or chakra to blow stuff up. What’s not to love? Of course there is drama too via love triangles and character flashbacks which make this a very enjoyable show. The only gripe Karri has is that sometimes they do too many recaps of previous episodes as filler material and she wishes they would just get on with the story. Of course, there is also the fact that it is an ongoing series so they always like to leave each episode in a cliffhanger, which is also annoying. -Brian

Birthday Girl and the Baby

Yesterday was Karri's birthday. For her birthday, I made her an ice cream cake. The cake was a very simple chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream between 2 layers and then covered in home-made whipped cream, it would of turned out better if I had frozen the cake layers first, oh well. Later that night, Karen and Jon took care of babysitting Logan while we went out to Todai inside the Aladdin Casino. Although we would love to show you pictures of what we ate, we are still not that accustomed having a camera with us everywhere we go and we already ate most of the cake too. :P Needless to say we pigged out on sushi, udon, and other yummy asian fare.

Other than celebrating Karri's birthday we also wanted to celebrate good news with everyone. Karri is pregnant again and she will be due around March 16th. We initially have withheld this information from most people just because we wanted to be sure and we have been trying for 2 years. Don't worry Karri did not eat the raw sushi when we went to Todai. :P

As for this blog, we have been updating links and items so that you can actually click on the picture of most books and go read excepts archived in Google Book or listen to some streaming music samples of songs we like. Clicking on other pictures and links will take you to other websites or to Wikipedia for more information on the subject. Broadband connection is recomended for the streaming audio and even then you might have to wait a second while it loads up. This blog is optimized for PC users with Windows Media Player. Unfortunately I could not get the media to work right for Apple computers without messing up the site for PC users. - Brian

Being Bookish and the Experiment in Music

When we graduated from college we avoided books for a year. Then when Logan was born we took another hiatus from books. Finally deciding that we had let our minds atrophy enough we have once again become avid readers since moving to Vegas.

Karri tends to like fantasy or fictional books geared towards young adults. The Harry Potter series, "The Chronicles of Narnia," "Ella Enchanted," and "Eragon" are just a few of the books she has read lately. The next book she is looking forward to is more of a classic, "The Count of Monte Cristo." I have always loved science-fiction and fantasy books. I also enjoys non-fiction books dealing with social behavior and history, go figure. My recent reads are "Eragon," and "The Tipping Point." "The Tipping Point," is a non-fiction book that I thoroughly enjoyed, it should be an interesting read for those who are in marketing or anyone interested in social studies or psychology. I am planning on reading Ella Enchanted after I finishes up on "A Journey to the Center of the Earth.” We are both currently enjoying "Eldest" and sneak it away from each other when the other is not looking. Logan now wants to type on this blog too. After asking him what books he likes he has decidedly answered anything with Thomas the Train, Batman, or Superman. If there are any books that you enjoy or recommend post it. :)

While at the local library I noticed that they actually have quite a collection of music that can be checked out two weeks at a time. We have been checking out five CDs every time we go and most of the time what we pick is random. We thought since we love all types of food it would not be a bad idea to broaden our horizons a bit when in regards to music. To our surprise we found out we actually like Jazz. Not the instrumental or scat improv-like Jazz but the CD by Diana Krall was a good introduction for us. We always pictured Jazz as the kind of music from some band off the streets of New Orleans with just way to much brass or just the classic lounge act. The music we heard definitely has changed our perceptions about Jazz.

Karri really enjoys the slower Jazz songs as some are really romantic. I have gotten so excited that I've done some research and the next Jazz CD we are trying to get our hands on is Sophie Milman. Another song I found that I like recently is Dancin' in the Moonlight by Toploader. It has been a great experience getting music that we would otherwise not listen too. There is no feeling of wasting money or being forced to enjoy something just because we bought it. We would be interested to know what everyone else enjoys listening to no matter how mainstream it is or how eclectic. - Brian


Sophie Milman (samples)
"I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby" Track 1
"La Vie En Rose" Track 2


"Dancin' in the Moonlight" by Toploader (sample)

You only need two tools: WD-40 and Duct Tape

If it doesn't move and should, use the WD-40. If it shouldn't move and does, use the duct tape. Recently I got an email extolling the many virtues of WD-40. The virtues included anything from a chemical lure for fishing to cleaning windows. Well I was interested in one item it mentioned which was cleaning grease. Our kitchen cupboards above the gas range have not been cleaned since we moved into our house 3 years ago. We admit it is nasty. Conventional cleaners do ok for the surface of the cupboards but the top where no one sees and where the grease settles was next to impossible to remove.

So I thought, what the hey maybe I would give it a try. We already had a can so we didn't really have any more expense to do this little experiment, all that was needed was some elbow grease. I sprayed some on and rubbed it a little. At first it didn't seem to do anything, but the grease came off easily as the WD-40 worked its way in; it was really amazing. I had even tried scraping that stuff off with a brillo pad and some orange degreaser but they did not even make a dent before. We are surprised the WD-40 people don't just change the smell of the stuff and market it as a kitchen cleaner for grease. Heck if they ever came out with orange-scented WD-40 I would buy that for the garage as well, since we can't stand the regular smell. We would only recommend this course of action for the most dire of circumstances. Even after airing out our house it still smelled like a car shop until I went over the area again with some good smelling cleaning stuff and after Karri lit a few candles.

If any of you out there know of any remedies for getting water spots out of windows please post, I would like to know. - Brian

Private Pictures Posted on Flickr

We have not permanently decided what pictures to allow as public vs. private. We really wanted some pictures to be just for friends and family and not any random person that comes across the pictures. Too many stalker/predator stories to freak any parent out there. Most of the pictures we have tagged as private until we figure out which one we would not mind anyone looking at.

Anyways just go to the flickr link to the right. The public items should be seen immediately. For a view of more private photos you need to sign in. If you have a yahoo account, this will be much easier. After signing in, email us your screen name so I can give you access as a private contact. If you end up posting pictures you can add us to your contacts by clicking on the profile link under the Water Tribe name. In the next page there is an Add Water Tribe as a contact link. Click that and then select the privileges you want to give us. This is pretty painless, if you already have a yahoo account. - Brian

Get this party started

Well after considering and then procrastinating we have finally decided to post a blog. After surfing around and looking at various blog sites, this one seemed the most straightforward for just blogging and the most pleasing to the eye. Give us some time and we will have some goodies up. :) - Brian