My favorite month

It is National Popcorn month. I love popcorn. But you probably already knew that about me. I eat it for dinner when Bill is working. Like I did last night! My favorite way to eat it is air popped, with butter and Kraft's popcorn cheese topping. It combines two of my most favorite foods; cheese and popcorn. I prefer air popped over any other kind. I have some Amish popcorn that is a variety of kernels. I like them. Those are best with butter and salt, so that you can taste the different flavors of the corn itself. The best corn to pop (in my opinion) is the Boyscout popcorn. It pops the biggest, fluffiest kernels then any other popcorn I have ever tried. It's either a white or yellow kernel popping corn. I wonder if Alton Brown has ever done a "Good Eats" episode on popcorn. I know there's a "Secret Life of..." popcorn episode.

Other random facts:
I have eaten an entire bowl by tossing each kernel into the air and catching it in my mouth.

I can stand five feet away and throw popcorn into a recipients mouth (depending on how well they do, I rarely miss)

For more information, visit these links...
http://www.popcorn.org/index.cfm

http://www.wyandotpopcornmus.com/

especially if you like popcorn like I do!!!

Thanks to Orville Redenbacher for selling this tasty treat!

Some day I will make it to the Valparaiso Popcorn Festival! (I know, I'm from Indiana and I love popcorn, and I've never been to the biggest popcorn festival known to popcorn connoisseurs.)

http://www.popcornfest.org/popcorn.html

So here's to my favorite snack food, popcorn! Pop away!

300!

Yes, it's true. Today is the 300th day that I have been 29. That means only 65 days until my 30th birthday.

Today is:
Leif Erickson Day
World Post Day

I spent the morning in the post office with Sami. We sent out over fifty care packages to the college students and military from our church! There was only one window open, we felt pretty bad for the long line of people behind us. We apologized profusely!!!

I searched for television shows that have aired 300 episodes (knowing that the Simpson's were one of them). All I got besides the Simpson's (aired Feb. 2, 2003) was The Stephen Colbert Report (aired August 17th, 2007). Apparently 300 episodes is a very high achievement. And no one celebrates or brags about it...

If you could do one thing on your birthday, what would you do? (seriously, I am asking because I want the feedback)

Here's food for thought...

I am not sure how it happened but I am somehow on the e-mail list for WebMD. I've thought about unsubscribing, but decided against it because I've read several interesting articles. The following came in the newsletter that I received this morning. It was too good to pass up.

Random Knowledge: Twinkies!

WebMD Feature from "Esquire" Magazine

By Anya Yurchyshyn

Twinkies are as amazingly good as they are disgusting. But do you know why?

Twinkies are as amazingly good as they are disgusting. But do you know why? We've picked a few facts from Twinkie, Deconstructed (Hudson Street Press, $24), by Steven Ettlinger.

Phosphorus, part of a key Twinkie ingredient, was discovered in 1669 by German alchemist Hennig Brand when he boiled down the urine he collected from local nuns.

Other Twinkie ingredients include the rocks trona and limestone.

Twinkies made per year: 500,000,000.

Twinkie cream gets its slippery sheen from cotton cellulose, which serves the same purpose in rocket fuel.

Despite popular lore, Twinkies will not survive a nuclear war any better than you will — their average shelf life is 25 days.

President Clinton put a Twinkie in a time capsule.

NEEDTOBREATHE

This is NEEDTOBREATHE. Heather O. and I saw them last night. I would say "in concert" but it was more like in our living rooms. I have to tell the whole story...

We went to the Intersection where they were playing. Of course there was a line so we were standing there for about ten minutes and Heather said, "dude, I don't think this is the right line". Just then I heard a woman calling a very young girl saying, "this is the line for [mumble, mumble]." I looked at Heather, "did you hear that?" She did not, I repeated what I just heard the woman saying. We decided one of us should go to the door and ask, so I ended up going. Sure enough, that line was for sum 41... So we left the line and went right on in.

I got carded, the security guy was shocked when he saw my birthdate. He looked up at me and said, "I really thought you were under age. No, that's a compliment, isn't it?" I had to laugh. Heather left her i.d. in the car, so he asked if she would be drinking (of course not) and he marked her with the "M"'s. She was a minor for the night! We bought our tickets (they were $10, this has been the year of $10 concerts. I will be sad when I have to pay real money to see all these guys) and walked through the door where NEEDTOBREATHE was going to play. Seriously, think Central Perk from Friends. The stage was bigger then what Phoebe played on, but the room wasn't that big. So we went and sat in two big, comfy chairs right next to all the equipment cases, just left of the stage, not more then five feet away... The first band was a local band from Grandville. They were... local. The one guitar player reminded me of Paul from the Wonder Years (before he turned into Marilyn Manson -j/k) and the bass player reminded me of Jared Leto from My So Called Life. No matter what "Paul" did, he looked like a nerd. No matter what "Jared" did, he looked cool. I digress. They only played for about a half hour. Then came NEEDTOBREATHE. Heather took a picture of their set list. But they mostly played songs off their new album. Bear (they're from South Carolina...) explained that when they showed up at 3:30pm they realized there weren't enough channels, they decided to go acoustic.
I have never heard anything so amazing, it still makes me giddy thinking about it. For their last song, they unplugged and had everybody come gather around the piano and they played their last song. Never, in my life have I ever seen something so cool. Of course, they hung around afterwards and we were able to talk to them. We had our pictures taken with Bear and Bo (the brothers). And I have Bo's autograph.I'm hoping Heather will e-mail me the pictures. For now, I will post their picture from March (excuse the guys in front of me and their big heads...)
Pictures from March (above) Pictures from last night (below) Bo & Emily Heather, Bear, and Emily

Meyer May House

Way back in April, (a long, long time ago, as the story goes...) Bill and I were fortunate enough to get a private tour of the Meyer May House, here in Grand Rapids. Frank Lloyd Wright designed this house for the May's who were known locally in the clothing industry. This house is in the style of what is now Wright's prominent Prairie Style House. Wright is known for his overall design. From the furniture, to the lighting, to the bedding and all details within the houses, he designed. You can see from my pictures some examples of these fine details.
This window is in the dining room, looking out over the garden. I loved the bright forsythia. This was one of Wright's ideas, to frame the outside world through his windows. Which are pieces of art in themselves.
You probably can't do this on the regular tour, but the are not as stingy as many home tours. They let you walk around the rooms. They are not afraid of "ruining the carpet".
This gives you an idea of the overall scale of the living room. The fireplace is opposite this wall of windows. Wright's other main idea is that the hearth is the "heart" of the home. Thus creating the style of house we know today; the open family room to kitchen plan. They weren't that advanced in Wright's days, but he was getting the idea. No fancy parlor to receive guests. The guests entered and sat in the same room the family used.
I must brag about this picture (although if you think like Bill, you'll tell me that this is not my doing, but Wright's, I just happened to snap the photo). The reflection of the window on the carpet both showcasing his designs. I snapped a couple of photos of the windows reflecting light on the wall, but I like this one the best because you can see a part of the window, the shadow and the floor.

By the time we finished inside, it had gotten cloudy outside. I wasn't able to get too many pictures of the outside of the house. Perhaps I'll go back and get those, and post them later. I was also using our tour guide's mother's camera! (this is explains why I am just now posting the pictures, I just got them from her)

By the way, tours are free. If you're ever in town and interested in seeing the house personally, I would be glad to take you to it.