Blog housekeeping
This week, I’m too frazzled to post anything interesting here. However, at the request of my Extraordinary Brother-out-Law, I’ve added a message board, where you may leave whatever random comments you wish. (He has already provided some suggestions for future “Five for Friday” lists, which I’m sure will please my mother.)
(By the way, EB-o-L: I moved your comment to the new message board.)
I’ve also added a link in the book club section for the book that my family is reading this year. (“Winter World” by Bernd Heinrich was my father’s choice.)
Add comment 5 February 2010
Five for Friday… brand loyalty
(My mother wondered where the list was last week, so I needed to make sure that I had “five” for her today.)
There aren’t too many times I go out of my way to buy a particular brand of anything, but there are some rare occasions. Watch how I slip in more than five…
1) Coffee - Maybe my most guilty pleasure? I like Starbucks mocha.* Or when I’m at home, I make mocha with fair trade coffee, and that probably means Equal Exchange. And since I’ve mentioned Equal Exchange, I should say that they make my very favorite chocolate.
2) Clothing - A 100% satisfaction guarantee and excellent customer service keep me shopping with L.L.Bean. (And they know when they shouldn’t mess with a good thing – i.e. instead of trying to put their own label on something, they’ll sell someone else’s high-quality product. Which is why I also love Keen footwear.)
3) Toothpaste - I’ve used Crest all my life, so don’t ask me to use something else. My wife is like that with Colgate. And the girls have their own favorites, as well. There was a time when we had five different varieties of toothpaste in our house.
4) Jelly beans - I love Jelly Belly. I have thirteen plush Jelly Belly beans and a Jelly Belly dispenser that sit beside me at work.
5) Amusement park - Walt Disney World. Interestingly, this loyalty doesn’t extend to the entire Disney brand. I just like the park – enough so that I have a Disney Visa card to save up points to buy tickets.
* Interesting story (at least to me): I know a number of people who travel the toll roads from Indiana to Pennsylvania. Some of us who do it often (and who have brand loyalties) have memorized the rest areas so that we can get cheap gas, buy Starbucks coffee, and get a good lunch. We even know when we need to leave in the morning to time everything correctly.
6 comments 29 January 2010
Saturday night disco
We just finished up another Saturday night disco in our ordinary house. The Ordinary Daughters dress up (sometimes Ordinary Mommy, too, but I generally decline), we grab rhythm instruments, and show off our best moves.
Thanks to YouTube, we can have about any song we want. Here are some of the favorites. You can have your own dance!
Best of Both Worlds
Connected
Walk Like An Egyptian
Stayin’ Alive
Elevation (ok – so that was my pick)
Nuki Nuki
I Like to Move It
Under the Sea
This Too Shall Pass (we acted that one out)
I Feel Like a Woman (that was Ordinary Spouse’s pick)
4 comments 23 January 2010
Review: Starbucks oatmeal
I have gushed before about how wonderful my morning oatmeal is, and I have also confessed to loving Starbucks mocha. So I could tell that Ordinary Spouse saw the wheels turning in my head when I found out what arrived in the mail yesterday – a coupon for a free serving of Starbucks oatmeal.
Breakfast this morning?
You guessed it – oatmeal and coffee!
And I thought, “Hey! Why not write a review of Starbucks oatmeal?” Some people are qualified to review books or music. I’ll review oatmeal.*
* And here we provide the obligatory disclaimer: As you are already aware, I did not have to purchase my oatmeal this morning. Starbucks sent me the coupon (unsolicited by me). I did buy the mocha (which was typically yummy, but which I’m not reviewing).
So, would I recommend Starbucks oatmeal? Let’s take a look…
What you get:
One cup (roughly speaking) of “Perfect Oatmeal” (Starbucks’ name for it). The label says,
Just the way you like it. Wake up to the warmth and hearty goodness of whole grains. Add to that a satisfying sprinkle of nuts, fruit, and brown sugar, and your choice of milk.
As indicated, I also received individual packets of nuts, dried fruit, and brown sugar. And had I been so inclined, I could have added milk in the store. I was not so inclined.
The oatmeal:
The oatmeal was a standard serving of quick oats. My barista prepared it appropriately, which is about all you can say about standard servings of quick oats. (You’re not going to get bonus points for cooking oats, but you can lose points rapidly if they weren’t cooked right.) Starbucks could make the oatmeal slightly more interesting by mixing in other grains.
The nuts:
Here, I give Starbucks high marks for providing the same mix of nuts that I would have enjoyed on oatmeal that I prepared at home. They could have provided the bare minimum – a few ground walnuts. However, the package contained walnuts, almonds, and pecans. In addition, I believe that their labeling (“a satisfying sprinkle”) was conservative. They were actually slightly generous with amount, given the volume of oatmeal. Nicely done.
The fruit:
High marks for the variety again. They could have provided raisins. Instead, the package had golden raisins, cranberries, and zante currants, and cherries. One quibble: there was no need to add sugar as a separate ingredient. I understand that sugar is standard with dried cranberries, but I don’t care for extra sugar added by itself. Also, as with the nuts, the amount of dried fruit was more than needed to make me happy. (But it wasn’t excessive, either.)
The sugar:
Not much to say about the brown sugar. It was an appropriate amount. If I could have my way, I would have also had a spice packet – at least a little cinnamon, and maybe some clove.
Intangibles:
If you like goofy baristas singing “Roxanne” off-key while you are still somewhat drowsy, then you’re in good shape. Me? I am easily amused by goofy baristas.
The take-home message:
Yes – I could have made a slightly better bowl of oatmeal a whole lot more cheaply at home, but I also buy things in bulk and eat it every day. In the end, this was a really good breakfast and not a bad price – $2.45, according to my receipt (had I actually purchased it). And when you think about the heart-attack-inducing breakfast sandwiches that you could buy elsewhere, this option is downright excellent. If you find yourself in need of a quick breakfast option on the road, I highly recommend it.
6 comments 20 January 2010
Scripture: What do we see? What do we miss?
On another blog, I’ve been continuing some conversations inspired by Laurelville’s Music and Worship Leaders’ Retreat last weekend. I was reminded of something else that Brian McLaren said that really resonated with me.
On that site, we were discussing various concerns related to the future of the Church, and I mentioned the challenges facing my congregation:
Some of us are concerned that we not miss scripture’s moral imperatives. Others of us are concerned that we not lose sight of the clear biblical emphasis on social justice. Still others of us are concerned that members of either of the first two groups could leave the congregation, and in the process minimize the importance of Jesus’ prayer for the unity of his followers.
Given all of that, you may perhaps understand why I could identify a cautionary word spoken directly to me within Brian McLaren’s statement that
What we focus on [in scripture] determines what we miss.
I think that this is vitally important to the broader denomination right now. How we carry on these conversations will be quite important in influencing how the world perceives the Church.
Add comment 19 January 2010
Zero-point energy
Today: a physics lesson.
In quantum mechanics, the zero-point energy is the energy of the ground state of a system. Interestingly, this energy is not zero. For example, in the case of a simple molecule with two atoms, these atoms never cease vibrating back and forth – i.e. they always have energy.
Why do I bring this up on a Sunday morning?
Because children are like this.
Even in the middle of the night, when they are sleeping in your bed because they had a bad dream, they still squirm. They never stop squirming.
Not that I’ve had any experience with that in the last few hours…
I wonder – at what age do we learn to hold still?
1 comment 17 January 2010


