I live under a rock. I was just listening to a NYT Front Page podcast that told me that Jay Leno's last day is X and he went to an NBC press conference wearing a disguise to harass the executives at NBC.

Wha???

Conan O'Brien will take over the Tonight Show.

I don't really know what's going on with Leno, but I am guessing that he's strong-arming NBC. I don't really care, though, because I find him very unfunny. Conan, on the other hand, is very not unfunny.

And now I will return to my rock.

We had a really good time seeing an old friend play at a local outdoor arena last Friday night.

I am cross-posting with my family blog for this entry. Go check it out!

I was like a kid on Christmas morning this past Friday. I took off early and my wife and I met up with another couple for a date. At the Apple store. The line in the afternoon was at least 2 hours in the hot sun, though. Bummer. I was thinking the line would have died down by then. Lines the next day were still multi-hour waits, though.

Dang!

So we went to the AT&T store Friday night to place our orders. They are on backorder as I type this. Apple wasn't expecting the sales they had this weekend.

My friends went back to the Apple store Friday night and were able to get their phones already. Yes, I am jealous.

I want my iPhone!!!

So there is this other blog that I frequent a lot (redundant much?). One of the topics that comes up sometimes is the "Great Debate" - top 3 songs from a given artist. Discuss amongst yourselves sort of thing.

Pair that with the old High Fidelity (the movie, which is awesome) mixtape motif, and you have this blog entry.

Top 3 cover songs that were better than the original. Go.

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Alton Brown did a Good Eats recently on Popovers. He claimed it to be the most versatile or useful recipe ever. Or something like that.

So I whipped out my "Baking with Julia Child" cookbook this morning and made some. The recipe is really easy - flour, milk, eggs, butter, salt. You mix it up in a blender. You can bake them in muffin tins.

You'll note the absence of sugar. They are like a roll with giant air bubbles purposefully baked into them. You can add butter, honey, molasses, or whatever you want in the middle.

In the end our verdict was "what's so great about these?" Bland savory dough with very little substance. Meh.

I like to cook. Mostly I like to bake, but time in the kitchen where you can create something that is good is always rewarding. I just spent my lunch hour going through a handful of blogs that I like to read. One is the 37Signals "Signal vs. Noise" blog. They had a link to a cool cooking site: http://www.cookingforengineers.com/

Their recipes aren't lists and paragraphs. It's a chart of sorts. You'll have to go check it out and see what I'm talking about.

A (new) friend is returning from a tour of the Holy Land. She has been posting regular updates to her blog about the adventure.

Her posts got me thinking back on some of the thoughts I've had over the years. There are a couple of people and a couple of books that have really affected me.

First, the books

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Welcome to my side of the tracks. I really enjoyed doing the recap last night.

I made a lot of notes, and got a lot of them out in the recap. I was concerned about it being too long. There was a lot of gravy in those 2 hours.

There was 1 additional comment that I did not include in the recap, but will salt my blog with it. Jeremy strikes me as the guy in "Look At My Striped Shirt" a little bit.

Thanks again.

I have 2 young boys. One of them listens better than the other one. The "other one" is our "spirited" one. We've taken to counting to 3 a lot lately when something isn't getting done.

I'm going to count to 3, and if you don't put the pick up all the laundry that you just unfolded you will choose to have 1 less story tonight.

1, 2, 3....

And every time I do that all I can think of is "1, 2, 3, get loose now!" Rob Base - It Takes Two.

I am a product of the 80's. I can't fight this feeling any more....

I have to thank someone very special for the reference: Haf-Haf. Those are long a's, btw -- not to be suggestive of a diminutive person.

So I took a departure from reality to discuss reality TV the other day. I have another departure to make. This balances things out, too, methinks.

I stumbled across this show on Discovery channel a few years ago. It was a Lazy Sunday, and like any good person who pretends to be smart roll through Discovery, National Geographic, TLC, CNN.

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I am training for another MS 150 Bike Tour. This is a fundraiser for the Multiple Sclerosis society. I ride in honor of my father-in-law who was diagnosed several years ago.

This will be my 4th ride. I have to admit that my training is not as fervent as it has been in years past. Life gets busy, and you have to make choices. I really love riding my bike. A lot. I LOVE my bike. I feel guilty missing so much time with the kids, though. My yard also suffers greatly.

I have done well with my fundraising in the past, which suprised me at first. The very first time I did it I made the Top 100 list -- I was the #53 fundraiser of the whole lot). I had never done any fundraising to speak of, so I didn't really know what I was doing.

I picked a different MS 150 to ride in, which was in a different time of the year. Last year I made the Top 100 for that one! Whoa.

This year I will get to ride with a special number, which is pretty cool.

I'm not sure if I will ride again next year. I may take a break. We'll see. For now it's time to get gerared up. That pun was intended.

Here is my fundraising link if you feel inclined to make a donation. Any amount is appreciated. http://www.ms150.org/edon.cfm?id=218793

I have to take a brief departure from reality into reality TV for a moment.

My wife watches The Bachelor, and I love my wife. I like spending time with her. So I usually watch along with her. The show is entertaining enough because it brings the crazy extra hard, at least in the beginning.

This year seemed like an especially nutty group of girls in the beginning, and it made for some good TV. That's the thing with this show is that it needs to be good TV, and crazy is easy to sell.

There are a few girls that tend to stand out, and some of them also stand out with the dude making the picks. This time around there is this cute, quiet girl from Loveland, CO, named Noelle.

I mention the Loveland thing because that was one of the things I noticed about her. Of all the places in Summit County that I've skied, Loveland is my favorite. I remember Bennett's Bowl being my favorite run.

As the weeks go on the crazy is thinned out, and we get to know these girls a little better.

What struck me about Noelle is that she is never involved in any of the bickering or other nonsense with the girls. She always carries herself very well -- she's just a decent human being who is on this crazy show.

So to that end I say stay classy Noelle. It will be a bummer if you don't make it all the way. I hope it won't be the last we see of you, though.

OK guys - mock me if you must.

Are there any flavors that just go together for you - like chocolate and peanut butter? I have one that got started by chance after a meal - probably something from Sonic. They give you peppermints with your food, you see.

So my flavor combination is peppermint with Diet Coke. It's to the point now that if I have a peppermint I have to have a Diet Coke. The carbonation in the Coke makes the peppermint come alive!