Sabra! Sabra!

No it isn't a crazy new dance or song. Sabra is my newest taste bud discovery in to the Mediterranean world of hummus. A colleague at work introduced me to this sensational hummus that is extremely smooth and creamy. After searching for a few years and even making my own, this brand just knocked my socks off. It is good enough to eat with your finger--no cracker, pita or vegetable needed. And lucky for me, it has just made it's appearance onto the shelves of Kroger (prior it was only available at Jungle Jims or Sams Club). So if you're into Mediterranean I highly suggest you check Sabra out.

Its never too early for turkey

Proving the old adage "Its never too early for turkey" to be true (actually, I just made it up so its really a new adage), we have already celebrated Thanksgiving with some friends from church. As the picture shows, we had quite a motley crew on-hand to enjoy turkey, cranberries, and the best green bean casserole in the history of mankind (of course I am biased since I made it). This 3rd annual early turkey day celebration was yet again one of our favorite events and we're already looking forward to doing it again next year. It is also appropriate to note that my team has retained its Cranium (board game) championship title for the second consecutive year. Watch out Jeopardy! Ken, I've got your number.

-Mike

A sad day for a fan

Who Dey! Who Dey! Who Dey think gonna beat them Bengals?

Well sadly it seems most anyone these days especially the Arizona Cardinals. However, a true fan sticks with their Cincinnati team even if it isn't to victory. We were fortunate enough to attend the game this past Sunday (thanks Mom and Dad) to cheer on our Bengals against the Cardinals. Although a little chilly, we thouroughly enjoyed the game, the food, and the crowd. Too bad the Bengals couldn't deliever a victory. However, the best part about going to the game is singing the Bengals fight song after they score a touchdown:

Bengals Growl

Hear that Bengal growlin' mean and angry

Here he comes a prowlin' lean and hungry

An offensive brute

Run, pass, or boot

And defensively he's rough, tough

Cincinnati Bengals

That's the team we're going to cheer to victory!

Touchdown Bengals!

Get some points up on the board

And win a game for Cincinnati!

Visit this link to hear the audio version of the song.

Green Tip of the Week

As a science teacher, I feel that it is a responsibility of mine to do as I teach and will therefore encourage our readers to become more "green" through an easy to adapt tip of the week. If you haven't been up on the up with the new in trend (that is actually for once a good thing) portrayed in the news, magazines, consumer awareness sites, and television networks, especially NBC, then I'll quickly fill you in. It has become known to us that Global Warming is indeed occurring in some form or fashion and is more than likely due to our excessive use of energy and poor management of our Earth's precious resources (who knew). So as a supposed quick fix for the century of damage we have caused, a new movement has developed to lure us into believing we need to actually care about our planet by "Going Green." Albeit, the majority of this movement is actually assisting in providing the population with the awareness of more energy efficient and cleaner alternatives.

As a concerned inhabitant of Earth, I vow to provide useful and easy to implement tips to help minimize our effect on the delicate place we call home. Take these for what they are--a suggestion that if used could influence the lives of our great, great, grand children yet to come. Even if they may seem inconvenient, strange, or minimal, remember that "Going Green" is the new trend.

Tip of the Week-- 11/12/07
An easy place to start, and probably one of the most important, is the lighting in your home. Exchange all of your incandescent light bulbs for Compact Fluorescent bulbs. Although more expensive, the benefits outweigh the cost:

• use 75% less energy
• produce 90% less heat
• last 8-10 times longer
• reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1,000 pounds
• saves you money through reduced electricity bills and bulb longevity

Start small, replace one bulb a month.

--Andrea

You sunk my Battlestar!

Normally we identify ourselves as being movie buffs. As evidence, I have watched Star Wars about 20 times (this year) and Andrea recently watched Pride & Prejudice two times in a row without getting up from the couch. We have a subscription to Netflix and have tended to use it to watch movies, but lately our interest has begun to shift towards TV shows, much to my own surprise. It got started when we got hooked on Lost, which I honestly thought was overrated (until I actually watched it). We plowed straight through the first two seasons on DVD in the span of a few months, and then watched season 3 in real time (I was going to make a Lost flashback joke here, but I'll spare you). At some point I will write a post about Lost (why we like it, our theories, etc.) but not right now.

Anyway, one complaint about the show is the huge break in between seasons, which is approximately May - January and could be longer if the writers strike continues in Hollywood. So to fill up the time in between seasons, we started looking for some other quality TV shows to get overly excited about. Again to my surprise, we found a couple of gems: Entourage and Battlestar Galactica. Both are very, very good (for very, very different reasons) so I figured we'd write a little about one of them now and then revisit the other later.

So those of you who haven't heard of Battlestar Galactica are probably thinking "that sounds like a silly science fiction show that was probably on in the 1970s". Pat yourself on the back because you are right! However, the show we are watching is the remake that began airing on SciFi in 2004. It has some science fiction elements to the show, but I would argue that it is mostly a study of what would happen to people in a catastrophic situation. Politics, religion, romance, war, friendship, betrayal, and racism are all topics that are explored in a character-driven drama set in space. Lots of action, plenty of plot twists to keep you guessing, and an esemble cast of multi-dimensional characters that are well developed. If you haven't yet checked it out, we highly recommend it. We are only in season two, so we're still trying to get caught up!

-Mike

New addition to our family

Boy, isn't that a loaded title for this post. Rest assured, there is not a little Mikey on the way (for now), just the pitter patter of furry paws on our kitchen floor. That's right, we are the proud owners of a kitty cat. His name is Ari (as in Ari Gold from our fav HBO program Entourage) and he weighs in at 10 lbs, 2 oz. at just over a year old. He is an orange tabby and he kinda blends in with our hardwood floor, so the picture below was taken in the bathroom (which is his fav after school hangout). During the daytime, he is calm and collected, but after 9:07 PM he goes nuts. He's like John Belushi in Animal House without the college education. But we love him!