Maphead, Gingerbread, Homestead

Friday, 07 December 2012

 So, on a whim, I grabbed Ken Jenning’s book Maphead off the shelf at the local library. Actually, I grabbed the CD version, and I’m now listening to it during my commute. In case you don’t know – or don’t remember – Jennings scored a record-setting winning-streak on the TV show Jeopardy! about a decade back.

Here’s a funny thing: Only two disks into the book, and already he has mentioned the similarity between Wisconsin’s borders and Tanzania’s borders and Al Franken’s party trick of drawing the United States freehand – two quirks I’ve mentioned here before.

Unfortunately, the book makes several dubious claims of a really dumb nature; not the kind of thing I’d expect from a guy who lived on Jeopardy! for six months. I was trying to keep them all in my head to write about them here, but now I can only recall two.

First: He claims that the media likes to find subjects that do really dumb things (like, “9 out of 10 Americans can’t find the Pacific Ocean on a world map”). He says they do this to make the average viewer/listener feel better about themselves. But he says this right after talking about how hyped his appearance on Jeopardy! was. So…that seems to be the opposite of the point he’s trying to make. Hearing that some guy managed to beat contestant after contestant on the most brainy TV game show in existence didn’t exaclty make me feel smarter.

Second: He cites National Geographic’s sagging sales on the fact that people can see exitic photos anywhere nowadays. He then claims that the prior monopoly they had on showing bare-breasted women isn’t even a big deal now thanks to Sports Illustrated’s “Swimsuit Issues”. Um…for one thing, for eight years I worked for company’s that subscribed to Sports Illustrated, and I never saw any bare breasts in any swimsuit issue. For another thing, maybe the internet is a bigger cause for all magazine and newspapers’ sagging sales, regardless of exitic photos or scantily clad natives. 

There’s more, but, as I said, I can’t recall them right now. I plan to keep listening to the book as it’s an enjoyable enough ready, and I don’t have anything else on CD right now. But if you’re asking me, you can probably skip this one.

Saturday, 08 December 2012

This morning, Owen and I made our eighth trip to Lowe’s for their Build & Grow workshop. Today, the construction job featured a gingerbread house. A couple of Owen’s friends joined us, too, and then we went out for lunch. We had a good time, even though three young boys make for a crazy visit to Panera.

The wooden gingerbread house (oxymoron?) is now on our mantle, as part of our holiday decorations.

Here it is…

Here’s a better angle…

And here’s Owen holding the roof open. Because, well, the roof opens, and I thought you’d like to see that…

Owen now has eight patches on his apron, from attending and building eight different toys: A castle, a dinosaur, a chalkboard, a racecar, an ice cream truck, a fire engine, a prop plane, and now this gingerbread house. He told me he plans to return for more in 2013.

Sunday, 09 December 2012

Snow! Finally!

Well, there’s been a couple sprinkles here and there, but today we woke up to buckets of snow dropping out of the sky. The overwhelming piles of snow rendered us stuck at the old homestead all day today, which was just fine with me. I went outside with the kids around lunchtime to shovel, but after only four hours, my work was already buried again.

Unable to figure out the snow emergency brochure supplied by the city, I figured it was best to just get both cars off the road. So I cleared out space in the garage for my wife’s car, and then slid my car into the driveway right behind hers. Owen and I had quite a task on our hands getting the snow off the car. The snow was falling so fast, that, even after clearing off the car, I still had to have the windshield wipers on during my short trek around the corner into the driveway.

I also slapped another coat of paint onto the downstairs bathroom’s ceiling and walls.

The last big thing I took care of today was brewing beer to have it ready in time for xmas (no, it won’t be ready to drink by then, but it will be ready to give out). Thanks to all the snow and cold, I got to chill the wort using my favorite method…