Chinese MAGIC!

Bethany has promised that she will soon get all of her China photos & videos posted on her Shutterfly site at http://betheeespics.shutterfly.com , but I just couldn't wait to share the DELICIOUSLY EDIBLE pictures from her Chinese photography shoot!

LOVE it!

One of Bethany's friends said this could be a Chinese Snuggies ad...

Oooh...DOUBLY good!

You should hear Bethany tell the story about the photographer demonstrated how a girl should hold a fan...as opposed to what SHE was doing. Needless to say, hilarity ensued.

"Happy New Year!" (said in my best Danville accent)

Fairy of flowers. No doubt.

Wearing her NASA Space Shawl.

Bethany calls this one, "More Mouth, Please."

And the sweetest one...posing with the un-Texas-sized hair & makeup artists!

These are WA-A-AY more fun than the requisite Great Wall and Terracotta Warriors photos every tourist snaps. Whatever she paid this photographer was not enough...they have provided me with two weeks of giggles and delight. (Didn't even post them all--just my faves.)

Glad she's home, safe and sound (and far too skinny!),
The Mama Who Can Dial Her Worry Down to Level Blue ("Guarded")

Didja' miss the NPR puzzle this morning?

No worries, my babies! Kristy was up all night, sick as a dog...but *still* managed to type up the NPR puzzle for her fellow Word Nerds. (When Karen heard me croak in my newly-acquired bass voice, she joked it was "nice to have a man around the house." Ha, ha.)

Check out the puzzle, puzzle people!

***

Synopsis of
NPR Weekend Edition puzzle
with Liane Hansen & Will Shortz
2010-02-07


Liane asked Will if he had been hit by the "Snowpocalypse" that knocked out Washington, D.C., but he replied that the storm had followed a path south of his New York home and “you’re the one who got smacked.” Liane admitted that they’d been having pajama parties at NPR for the past couple of days.


The Current Challenge, given 20100131), from:
http://bit.ly/aVdrFR

"Take four words: Croquet; Lunette; Renoir; Turnstile. They are all two-syllable words, but aside from that, they all have something unusual in common: a property that virtually no other words have. What property is it? Hint: Think phonetically."


The property is that all 4 words have first syllables that are homophones of types of birds (crow, loon, wren, and tern).


Liane reported more than 1,000 entries.


The on-air player, randomly drawn from among the correct submissions, was Michael Coyne of Boston, who has been playing on and off for about ten years and submitting entries for the last four years; Mr. Coyne is a web site writer & editor for Children's Hospital of Boston. It didn't take him long to solve this week's puzzle after writing down the phonetic pronunciations of all four syllables. He and Liane laughed after he professed himself "a Word Nerd." He listens to the puzzle each week on WBUR in Boston.

(He may also be the same Michael Coyne who won a BOATLOAD OF COIN and a trip to London on Wheel of Fortune back in 2008, according to the Game Show Kingdom blog at:
http://bit.ly/aVrFja
The blogger, Bobby McBride, spelled his name "Michael Coin"...pretty fitting since his winnings were valued at more than $43,000.)


THIS WEEK’S ON-AIR PUZZLE: In honor of tonight's Super Bowl, every answer is a word used in football. Will provides three words, and Mr. Coyne is to come up with a football term that could follow all three of Will's clues. For example, if Will said "year," "tag," and "dead," the answer would be "end" (as in "year end," "tag end," and "dead end").


CLUES (answers at the end of this synopsis):

1. STUMBLING, BUILDING, & WRITER'S


2. GOLD, BUM'S, & MAD


3. CATTLE, HARD, & FOUR-WHEEL


4. CORN, LEFT, & ELECTROMAGNETIC


5. FOUL, CHILD'S, & WORD


6. SHOPPING, DEAD, & DAYCARE


7. PRISON, NATIONAL, & REAR


8. BOUNCE, STAND, & TALK


9. MOUNTAIN, BOARDING & BUS


10. BROKEN, DUMB, & THUMBS


11. PUNCH, DUST, & CEREAL


12. NEWSPAPER, COUPON, & TOENAIL



Martha Stewart read Mr. Coyne the list of "good things" he scored for playing the puzzle on the air which led Will to remember an anecdote from his appearance on Martha Stewart's show a few years ago. Apparently, Ms. Stewart told Will that she works on the _New York Times_ crossword puzzle in the back of her chauffeur-driven automobile as she commutes to work, and when she gets stuck, she asks her chauffeur for assistance. (I hope you couldn't hear my eyes roll all the way from Texas just now.)


NEXT WEEK’S CHALLENGE comes listener Dave Talby (phonetic) of Eugene, Oregon. The nickname of a well-known queen is an anagram of the name of a well-known king. What are their names?


Answers must be received by 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday.
One entry per person. NPR no longer accepts entries by e-mail. Be
sure to include a telephone number where you can be reached if you
are selected as the winner. Entries may be made at the web page:
http://www.npr.org/templates/contact/index.php?columnId=4473090
(Puzzle enthusiasts can navigate there easily from:
http://www.npr.org/puzzle )


* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Editorial notes:

Puzzles & contents of Weekend Edition/Sunday puzzle segment
are copyrighted by Will Shortz and NPR.


Puzzle transcribers use the following schedule, with the occasional switch-up to accommodate travel schedules:

1st week of each month--Kristy
2nd week--Richard
3rd week--Joe
4th week--Jerry
5th week (when there is one)--Richard


So please send email for next week's synopsis to Richard Renner:
<>.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *


Guest editor’s notes from Kristy:

See Jimmy Kimmel & Lil Kim take on the 2009 National School Scrabble champs, two 11 year-olds named Erik Salgado and Andy Hoang here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b42aNY2LSSQ


Tired of the much-hyped Super Bowl? Don't forget about Puppy Bowl VI!!
http://bit.ly/9DP6Hc


Snowpocalypse Now. Snowmageddon. (Whatever you call it, it was fun.)
http://bit.ly/cPXuOm
http://bit.ly/bQ8djU

As always, please excuse formatting errors. Whether I use Word or Notepad, glitches occur when I paste into email.


* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

From this week's (FULL!) mailbag:

*snip the mailbag*

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *


Editor’s notes from Richard Renner (email: rrenner AT igc DOT org ):

I distribute these free weekly synopses of the NPR puzzle segment, with the help of a crack team of substitutes. You can read more about this free distribution at:
http://groups.google.com/group/nprpuzzle/topics
You can subscribe from this page, too.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to:
nprpuzzle-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at:
http://groups.google.com/group/nprpuzzle?hl=en

*snip*

Follow Liane on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/nprLiane

Links of interest!
World Scrabble Championship:
http://www.wscgames.com
American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (Feb. 19-21 in Brooklyn!):
http://www.crosswordtournament.com/
Merl Reagle’s article on constructing crossword puzzles, available at:
http://www.crosswordtournament.com/articles/inq031697.htm
World Puzzle Federation:
http://www.worldpuzzle.org
Register for the 2010 USA team at:
http://wpc.puzzles.com/register/index.htm
More of Ed Pegg Jr.'s puzzles are available at:
http://www.mathpuzzle.com
To learn more about this July's National Puzzlers’ League convention in Seattle:
http://www.puzzlers.org
Kristy Fowler & Joe Wander both highly recommend:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad
You can join Kathie Schneider's email list for accessible word and logic puzzles. To subscribe, send a blank email to:
blind-puzzlers-subscribe@googlegroups.com
For the results of 2009’s World Sudoku Puzzle Championship, see:
www.worldpuzzle.org/championships/sudoku_2009/index.html


Richard Renner
Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto, LLP
3233 P St., NW
Washington, DC 20007
202-342-6980
202-342-6984 FAX
330-224-0359 cell

rrenner AT igc DOT org
rr AT kkc DOT com

www.whistleblowersblog.org


* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

CLUES and ANSWERS:


1. STUMBLING, BUILDING, & WRITER'S: block


2. GOLD, BUM'S, & MAD: rush


3. CATTLE, HARD, & FOUR-WHEEL: drive


4. CORN, LEFT, & ELECTROMAGNETIC: field


5. FOUL, CHILD'S, & WORD: play


6. SHOPPING, DEAD, & DAYCARE: center


7. PRISON, NATIONAL, & REAR: guard (I admit giggling at Mr. Coyne's "rear end" suggestion)


8. BOUNCE, STAND, & TALK: back


9. MOUNTAIN, BOARDING & BUS: pass


10. BROKEN, DUMB, & THUMBS: down


11. PUNCH, DUST, & CEREAL: bowl


12. NEWSPAPER, COUPON, & TOENAIL: clipping


End of NPR puzzle synopsis.

Okay, okay, I'll wear my seatbelt...

...even in the backseat.

Puppy Bowl VI!!

Forget the Super Bowl! There are no half-time "wardrobe malfunctions" on Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl VI.



And this much fun requires some serious preparation...



HIGH FIVE, DOLLY! Super Bowl XLIV and Puppy Bowl VI are February 7th...right around the corner!

Why can't EVERY Thursday be Love Thursday?

One year ago today...


Determined to glow in some love today,
Kristy

P.S. As great as that video was, I'm still a little ticked that TEXAS didn't get to have her own segment! LOL

Soup Night!

Okay, after a recent FaceBook poll convinced Karen to try cauliflower one more time for her health's sake, we decided to host Soup Night and make NPR's suggested cauliflower soup recipe!

Brian was our only friend brave enough (or crazy enough!) to navigate the roads for Soup Night since it's been snowing ALL DAY! (Anita, Kirsten, Julie, and "Other Brian"...eat your hearts out!)

Emeril's Senegalese Peanut Soup. (Mom, this one's for YOU! You slung a cravin' on me the other night!) You can find Chef Lagasse's recipe at http://bit.ly/4oQiri .

The cauliflower soup discussed on NPR the other day......get the recipe at http://bit.ly/6Vf3U5 .

Toasting the walnuts in the toaster oven for the Cauliflower Soup garnish...

May Bee took refuge from all the clanking of pots and pans...

...while Ben hovered around Brian, his new best friend.

Molly folded the napkins, dreading the cauliflower experience to come...

Two delicious soups. The cream of cauliflower soup is topped with brown butter, toasted walnuts, and tiny cauliflower florets "blanched in salt water." (Right. As if.)

Anticipation! Will Karen like it? Will she be able to swallow CAULIFLOWER?

Preparing to taste the first spoonful of Cauliflower Soup. Drum roll, please.

Okay! Here she goes!

It's IN! Cauliflower is now coating her taste buds with its cruciferous deliciousness!

RELIEVED! It's actually NOT as awful as expected!

Second bite! Look who's being so brave! (And setting a good example for her new granddaughter, Willow, making her way into the world AT THAT VERY MOMENT. Joelle was in labor throughout dinner, and Karen kept running to check her phone for baby updates. Soup Night was WAY more exciting as we all waited for incoming texts & calls!!)

Third bite...and no "Reversal of Fortune" so far...

In most pitiful Dickensian orphan voice: "Please, mum...may I have some more?"

Love those high-class foil bowls. (You can't hide money.)

The wreckage...

So, Soup Night may not have had lots of participants, but it was still judged to be a HUGE success. Plans are already in the works for next month...so...see you at Soup Night, January Edition! (BYOB!! Bring Your Own Bowl.)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

And may God bless us, every one...

P.S. Thank you to Kirsten, photographer & Christmas card designer extraordinaire!

Christmas card rejects!

Too blurry.
(HUGE dogfight right after this was snapped, btw.)

Too unruly!

Yikes. Ghost dog! Too scary.

Too smoky.

Hey, finally! A good one! Oh, wait...you can see the package of turkey hot dogs I was using to keep May Bee's attention.

Oh, cute! I'll use THIS one! Wait...hold on. On second thought,
that hot dog package could NOT be more unfortunately placed.

This reject has been so unanimously popular,
it might actually make it onto the card.

That third cup of nog was a mistake.

CUTE! Oh, wait. The stupid hot dog package ruins yet another photo. (Maybe I should put the hot dog bites in my mouth, like the dog trainers in the movie Best in Show!)

WRONG!!!! This will NOT be on anyone's Christmas card.
(This one made Karen laugh hysterically as she tried to sputter, "CANIS!" Remember the SNL commercial for a cologne called Canis? No? Good.)

Argh. May Bee! Quit obsessing with the stupid hot dogs!
They're TURKEY dogs, anyway.

"Okay. Let's call it a wrap. May Bee just ate the ball off the Santa hat."

I'm in!

Count me IN! I know my parents and (AMAZING) siblings will be so relieved that they won't be getting a lame tie or knick-knack mailed from Texas this year. (Right, Russ? Remember how much you liked those stuffed Mexican frogs?)

So, anyway, this year, the grownups in my family are only getting a Christmas card, but my nieces and nephews are all getting DVDs. Cinema classics that everyone should watch! (Also known as "lame ones.")

God in my bloodstream...

This passage from Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love stopped me dead in my tracks:

"If faith were rational, it wouldn't be--by definition--faith. Faith is belief in what you cannot see or prove or touch. Faith is walking face-first and full-speed into the dark. If we truly knew all the answers in advance as to the meaning of life and the nature of God and the destiny of our souls, our belief would not be a leap of faith and it would not be a courageous act of humanity; it would just be...a prudent insurance policy.

I’m not interested in the insurance industry. I’m tired of being a skeptic, I’m irritated by spiritual prudence and I feel bored and parched by empirical debate. I don’t want to hear it anymore. I couldn’t care less about evidence and proof and assurances. I just want God. I want God inside me. I want God to play in my bloodstream the way sunlight amuses itself on water."

Wow. (Betcha' wish you had this book in your hands, huh?)

Ready for Thursday?

Snugglebunnies!

Kake-1. Kristy-0.

Oh, what a horrible night! Apparently, old ladies should not eat kake at Kake & Karaoke and then expect to sleep. I had an all-night tummy ache after sampling so much "kake." (Maybe spelling it with a "k" is what did it. So wrong.)

In happier times, before the kake sampling began. This red velvet cake, with a DELICIOUS secret ingredient in the frosting, was fun to make because Kirsten and her trusty KitchenAid came to the rescue. (I don't know that I've ever made frosting from scratch before. Or a cake, for that matter.) So fun! Check out the swans filled with Red Hots...yum!

And while my cake got points for sentimental value (honoring the upcoming nuptials of Lloyd & Dianne--the FIRST wedding in our new building), it didn't win. An amazing peanut butter & Oreo cake with chocolate drizzle was the clear crowd favorite, meaning that the youth group leaders win again this year. (They're gonna' be so conceited.)

Oh, and the karaoke...who knew it was so much fun? If you have to be up all night, sick to your stomach, it's no small mercy to still be chuckling at the thought of "Love Shack" and "Crazy Train"...and your sister performing"Play That Funky Music, White Boy."

You missed the NPR puzzle? No biggie.

Did you miss this morning's NPR puzzle? No worries! It was my day to type up the NPR puzzle transcription and send it out across the globe. (And by "across the globe," I mean lots of people in the U.S. and that one guy in Australia. Oh, and I think there's some lady in Deutschland.)

Click HERE to read the puzzle and play along! And if you'd like to get the puzzle delivered to YOUR email Inbox each week, look for the "Join this group" option after you follow the link.

Sunday so far: Up early to tape/type/transcribe puzzle, walked two dogs in the GORGEOUS sunshine, bought work gloves at Big Lots (isn't it great how weird Big Lots is...have you seen the plastic Elvis guitar filled with popcorn? Deliciously tacky!), and listened online to Sunday Baroque and Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!.

Next up? Finishing up the church bulletin, working on an online 8th grade scavenger hunt, and setting up a VCR to tape tonight's America's Funniest Home Videos so I can catch Linda's cat, Archie, tonight!
Linda and I laugh about our love for our flawed animals...we don't think they are mean, but rather misunderstood. When people call Archie "Satan Spawn" or when May Bee is referred to as "Devil Dog," we are the first to jump to our pets' defense. And if you love flawed creatures as much as we do, you will LOVE Berke Breathed's latest interview. (He doesn't give interviews often; you'd better check it out!)

Who knows if Breathed is awesome because he is a Texan or Texan because he is awesome (chicken vs. egg), but he has been a hero of mine for ages. There is no telling how much money I've dropped on Bloom County-related books and merchandise over the years...I'm a sucker for that penguin. (So is Harper Lee! She actually wrote Breathed and asked him to reconsider sending Opus off gently into that good night.)
Can't wait for church tonight, btw. I know there's going to be a surprise announcement that's going to elicit GASPS of disbelief. As church bulletin-typer-upper, I'm sometimes privy to the congregational grapevine. (Karen's face as the announcement is made will probably rival anything Archie is going to do on AFV!)

P.S. If you really did read that Berkeley Breathed interview, you'll know how a picture snapped of one of the dogs rescued from Michael Vick's foul compound inspired the comic to write his first novel. That photo is HERE.

P.P.S. Please consider supporting the Best Friends shelter or subscribing to Best Friends magazine. NO MORE HOMELESS PETS!!

Happy Halloween!

Why not have TWO Philadelphia-related blogs in a row? Happy Halloween, everybody!
Hope you aren't egged or TPd tonight!

(Take in your pumpkins, y'all...)