avablog

Refer to it in your advertising as a “ginormous yum rocket.” Who comes up with this stuff? I think this was an ad for Subway that ran last night during either Law & Order or Project Runway (do NOT get me started on Suede. Just don’t.). In any case, it was a truly gag-inducing bit […]

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One more awesome bit of news today, and the trifecta will be complete! Schlitz brings ’60s formula back home Schlitz Park may be the last hometown presence for the “Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous,” but Schlitz beer is now coming home, in a sense, with what it calls its “Classic 1960s Formula.”

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Pet peeve time! From some site whose authority I’ve no way to confirm: What is a Domestic Beer? Answer: In the world of beer, there are basically two trains of thought– domestic and imported. Any beer brewed within the borders of the United States would be considered a domestic beer, from the major commercial labels […]

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Subtitle: “See you in the emergency room!”

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…you make chili verde! I put four pork shoulder roasts in the fridge to thaw early last week in preparation for smoking them on the weekend. As luck would have it, there was a vendor selling salsa verde at the farmer’s market Saturday morning, so I grabbed a couple containers and commenced salivating at the […]

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Leah and I tried a new restaurant on the advice of a friend this past Saturday evening (coincidentally, we ran into said friend when we arrived at the restaurant).

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Two days, three birthdays. That’s a lot of celebratin’. Let’s relive the weekend in cakes, shall we? First, Alex’s cake: Next up, Dawn’s cake: Last, and not in any way least, Mac’s cake from this afternoon: Sarah really went crazy on Mac’s cake, as you can see. Ava managed to wrangle herself a car with […]

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Or at least you’d think so by the way pregnancy is spreading at my office. I just had a visit from one of my female colleagues from the department to inform me — officially — that she’s pregnant. Just into her second trimester. The other woman of breeding age amongst the researchers here is also […]

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The white chicken chili brought home another win this year in the office chili/cornbread/pie cookoff. The prizes were a nice certificate and a split of the “donations” made by the eaters, which amounted to $33. I donated the money back to our cause for the week, the local shelter house, which is an organization my […]

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Ava finally got out from under the flu over the weekend. That was quite a past week. I think it must’ve helped that it was nearly 60 degrees here yesterday. Or maybe it was the trip to DeLuxe Bakery for cookies: Cookies always make things better. Ava and Leah also made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies […]

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That’s life. We thought we had Ava’s cold beat, but she had a pretty good fever again last night, so no daycare for 24 hours. Rules are rules. The real kicker is that we were about 15 minutes from the end of The Painted Veil, which we got using Leah’s new Netflix subscription. We have […]

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Leah’s birthday is this weekend. She’s started celebrating already by staying home sick in bed today with a hacking cough. At least Ava’s at daycare so Leah can rest. Leah’s fam is rolling into town starting tomorrow to celebrate on Saturday. Kevin and I are making dinner for Leah and Rachel tomorrow night. The menu […]

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Leah and Ava baked cookies this past weekend while we were trapped inside. Oatmeal chocolate chip. Yum. It was a trial to get all the ingredients into the bowl and mixed before Ava ate them each individually. We were unaware of her affinity for plain flour before last weekend.

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One of the highlights of our trip came at the Best Western we stayed at in Alvin. Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you the Texas-shaped waffle: It wasn’t our last encounter with the Texas-shaped waffle. They had them at the Airport Inn we stayed in near the airport the night before we flew (most of […]

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My mom was set to come over and sit for us last night while we went to dinner with friends. But as we were getting Ava ready, she insisted she wanted to stay overnight at Gramary’s. Leah and I weren’t sure, but Ava was super excited and insisted she would be OK. So we agreed. […]

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Last night we went out for dinner with a couple friends. The hitch: We had reservations at Cafe Docici, which is a ~30 minute drive from Iowa City. Not such a big deal, usually, but last night the countryside was socked in with a dense fog, and visibility was down to about 30 feet. We’d […]

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I’m typically not as sensitive to this kind of thing as Leah is, but holy smokes, this strikes even me as stupid at best and criminally negligent at worst. ORLANDO – An Orlando parent said she was appalled when her 9-year-old daughter brought home her report card cover and it contained an advertisement for McDonald’s […]

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Now I understand what that means, and we were only cooped up inside for six hours or so on Saturday. What a nasty day! I did, however, manage to get outside and take some pictures of all the ice. Leah likes this one and this one: One thing the bad weather was good for was […]

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Yes, I’m blogging on Thanksgiving. We’re done with dinner and first round cleanup and are waiting for pie. I thought I’d drop a quick image of what we had waiting for us when we walked outside this morning. Ava was thrilled. But man, is it cold. And windy. And it’s supposed to be colder tomorrow […]

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We’re having a tailgate party here at work today, which is something we do every Friday there’s a home game. For each event, a couple departments hook up and bring food for the entire building, and we all meet up downstairs about 10 o’clock and eat. It’s nice. So, it’s my department’s turn today, and […]

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