Troubles McSteans

Emerging from hiatus to share our latest adventure with food additives. A while back, Ryan found and ordered the J&D's Ultimate Bacon Lover's Gift Pack (how could he not??). A few weeks ago we cracked it open and performed our first taste test, starting with three of the ten varieties of Bacon flavored Salt. Other items awaiting us in the Gift Pack: Bacon flavored lip balm Bacon flavored envelopes (or MMM-velopes) Bacon flavored popcorn Bacon flavored sunflower seeds *Bacon flavored mayonnaise Bacon flavored ranch dip mix *Product most likely will not be sampled thanks to it's 2 day layover in our mailbox. Sorry folks, we'll eat a lot of gross things, but I draw the line at food poisoning.

Somehow one's failure is only magnified when recreated in slow motion with Legos.

You may remember this picture from a thrilling post I did about a trip to the grocery store: Well my friends, you are in in for a treat. Ryan and I recently purchased each and every one of the above mouthwatering soda marinades. They will be featured in our new taste test series. First up: Dr Pepper Marinade (Thanks to Nathan for pointing out there is, in fact, no period in Dr Pepper)

Thanks for clearing things up:

For Christmas Ryan got me a little video camera. I love it. When Doug and Kristen were still in town we took them to the Austin Zoo. I took the opportunity to bring the camera for a test run. Here is a small sampling of our day. For those of you who live in Austin and have not yet visited the zoo, I highly recommend it. It's not expensive, nor is it an all day adventure, but they have an impressive collection of big cats you can view at incredibly close range.

Thanks to Nathan for the link. Quantum of Wallace Thanks to Doug for this one (don't try this at home, kids): Extreme Gymnastic Bullfighting . You just really don't want to get the timing wrong on that one.

My friend Rebecca made a return appearance in Austin this week, changing her travel plans to spend the last three days of her trip here instead of in Houston. I was thrilled she decided to come back as I rarely get to see her. She was the closest thing I had to a sister growing up (I have one brother and she has three) and it was wonderful to get reacquainted. Rebecca's mom, Dr. Kinslow, drove down from Oklahoma and the three of us, plus my mom, went shopping at the San Marcos outlet mall on Thursday. The trip harkened back to our annual back to school outings when the four of us would pile in the Kinslow's van and venture north to the malls of Oklahoma City to buy Guess overalls and Outback Red shirts. We were stylin'. Thursday we failed to purchase any Guess gear, but Rebecca and I did duck into the Converse store. Good times. Anyway, it was great having Rebecca and her mom here and I hope we can continue doing a better job of keeping in touch. Yesterday we had som...

From Thrill the World, Austin : Did you know that we broke TWO world records today? Last year's world record for the largest, simultaneous, (multiple location) world-wide Thriller dance was 1722. Today we almost doubled that number. Today, at the same exact time, 3960 zombies from 9 different countries in 65 different cities participated in Thrill the World (official number still to be verified). Austin contributed just under 25% of that! The other record that we broke is the record for the largest, single location Thriller dance. The record was held by 147 zombies from a middle school in England. We knew we were going to break that record because we had that many people crammed in to our second Thriller workshop! So, we claimed that record for Austin, Texas and SMASHED that record today with 881 zombies dancing on the patio at the Long Center. Plus we did it in style. We didn't use amplified cuing, we didn't have lead dancers on a raised platform, and we didn't play th...

Kristen was nice enough to let me borrow her computer, so I thought I'd say hi. Hi! The trip so far has been great - weather beautiful. I'd try to get Ryan to move here if it weren't so damn expensive and if we hadn't just had the floors done. (I keed. I love Austin, too) Wednesday night we walked (Yes walked! With our legs!) down to a yummy Thai restaurant. Yesterday morning Doug and I (Kristen had to be in court for the morning) went to breakfast and after consuming a fresh out of the oven almond danish, some bacon, and a mocha, I nearly slipped into a food coma. After that we drove up to Tilden Park to take in the sunshine and beautiful views. We had tickets to go see Alcatraz at 4, so when Kristen got home we took off around 2, thinking that would give us plenty of time. There are many great things about mass transit, but one unfortunate aspect is unreliability. After taking the BART across to San Francisco, our plan was to catch a cable car down to the w...

Anyone remember this post of mine where I posted the dressage picture? Thanks to Doug for this follow up: (You can skip to 1:30)

If you have some time, go watch Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog . It stars Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion, is directed by Joss Whedon and is awesome. Update: I think this is only available the next 2 days, so see it while you can! Maybe only available for free? I'm not sure. Go watch!

So You Think You Can Dance has presented us with the most You Tube worthy dance of the year, courtesy of Katee and Joshua. For the first time ever on the show, a dance was choreographed in Bollywood style. I hope they continue to do Bollywood because I thought it was incredible. Not only did the dancers look like they were having a blast on stage (my most important requirement for You Tube worthiness), but I am awed at the amount of strength needed for all the bouncing and squats! This routine will put a smile on your face and makes me want to seek out a good Bollywood movie. Good exercise

Some of you may have seen my guest post on the League of Melbotis regarding my excitement for the summer season of So You Think You Can Dance . Last season was my first time watching, and I thought the talent and choreography was phenomenal. I used to measure the entertainment quality of a dance by whether or not it was 'You Tube worthy'. By that I mean it was so good I wanted to watch it again the next day on my computer. Some of my favorites were Danny and Lacey's Samba , Pasha and Sara's West Coast Swing , Neil and Lauren's Jazz , and the Top 10 Contemporary group number . There are too many others that I loved to list here, but my favorite of the season was probably Hok and Jaimie's extraordinary Hummingbird dance . There have been a few 'You Tube worthy' dances this year, but to me something is lacking. I'm not sure if it's the dancers or the choreography, but I just don't feel as wowed as I did last summer. The only standouts, w...