Thursday, March 29, 2012

Spring Break Happenings

Hello there! Been a while, hasn't it? Things have been busy around here, so that's the reason for my absence. No time for talk. I thought I would share what we have been up to with just pictures.








Before....

After...





We are having a great Spring Break! See you all here next week! Lots to share with you:o)

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

The Business March 28th 2012, "Exceeded Bandwidth" Edition



The Business is downloading some serious funny this week as we stuff our network with more special guests than you can shake a router at. Don't worry, we've got major capacity so things won't slow down or freeze. We'll be delivering rich live content at speeds that would melt your cable or DSL connection. Linking-up with us this week are:

Karl Hess: Curly headed taco truck enthusiast from Los Angeles; knows how to wear a sweater; makes hilarious jokes - http://karlhesscomedy.com/

Josh Androsky: One of the clowns behind Hamclown: Los Angeles comedy hotspot; Occupies Wall Street; makes hilarious jokes. - http://joshandrosky.tumblr.com/

Dan Crane: Known to the planet as Björn Türqoue, air guitar second-place legend and master of world ceremonies; Knows some dudes at Wheat Thins; makes hilarious jokes. - http://www.dancrane.com/Site/Home.html

Stephanie Tolev: Toronto's own; in a sketch group called Ladystache and also attempting to grow one as well; makes hilarious jokes. - http://www.ladystache.com/site/about

Sean Keane has dropped off the grid, but we have Bucky, Chris G., Caitlin, Alex and Chris T. on hand to move data into your ports.

As always our show is a standard flat rate of $5.  Shows at eight, bring a burrito and a date.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

The Business March 21st 2012, "Fried Green Medinas" Edition



The secret’s in the sauce this week, as all the regulars are back in town and ready to go TOWANDA on this show!!! We are also fully prepared to BBQ a wife batterer (SPOILER ALERT). Luckily the guests we have this week are the best kind of gentlemen, and the only thing getting killed will be YOU, the audience.

The Business is always open for Nato Green. This most beloved guest can be seen in SuperPAC, a run of shows at the Hemlock Tavern every Monday night through May 7th, before his live CD recording May 8th at the New Parish in Oakland. The East Bay Express has called him “erudite and acerbic”. He’s like a prawn wrapped in bacon FOR YOUR MIND. (Of course that’s a fresh, wild prawn and home cured bacon)

We also welcome hard workin comic Juan Medina, who grinds like he’s at a middle school dance. You can catch him Live at Deluxe, at the SF Comedy Cellar and on-air with Mutiny Radio. He also put his arm around John Waters once and has a picture to prove it.

You got a burrito? Bring it. This whole incredible show is just $5. So join us. Maybe you’ll find the Jessica Tandy to your Kathy Bates.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Research by Mucking About

I am a long standing fan of the Ig Nobel awards. The Ig Nobel awards are an initiative by the magazine Air (Annals of Improbable Research) and are handed out on a yearly basis – often by real Nobel Prize winners – to people whose research “makes people laugh and then think” (although its motto used to be to “honor people whose achievements cannot or should not be reproduced" – but I guess the organisers had to first experience the “then think” bit themselves).

With a few exceptions they are handed out for real research, done by academics, and published in scientific journals. Here are some of my old time favourites:
• BIOLOGY 2002, Bubier, Pexton, Bowers, and Deeming.“Courtship behaviour of ostriches towards humans under farming conditions in Britain” British Poultry Science 39(4)
• INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH 2002. Karl Kruszelnicki (University of Sydney). “for performing a comprehensive survey of human belly button lint – who gets it, when, what color, and how much”
• MATHEMATICS 2002. Sreekumar and Nirmalan (Kerala Agricultural University). “Estimation of the total surface area in Indian Elephants” Veterinary Research Communications 14(1)
• TECHNOLOGY 2001, Jointly to Keogh (Hawthorn), for patenting the wheel (in 2001), and the Australian Patent Office for granting him the patent.
• PEACE 2000, the British Royal Navy, for ordering its sailors to stop using live cannon shells, and to instead just shout “Bang!”
• LITERATURE 1998, Dr. Mara Sidoli (Washington) for the report “farting as a defence against unspeakable dread”. Journal of analytical psychology 41(2)

To the best of my knowledge, there is (only) one individual who has not only won an Ig Nobel Award, but also a Nobel Prize. That person is Andre Geim. Geim – who is now at the University of Manchester – for long held the habit of dedicating a fairly substantial proportion of his time to just mucking about in his lab, trying to do “cool stuff”. In one of such sessions, together with his doctoral student Konstantin Novoselov, he used a piece of ordinary sticky tape (which allegedly they found in a bin) to peel off a very thin layer of graphite, taken from a pencil. They managed to make the layer of carbon one atom thick, inventing the material “graphene”.

In another session, together with Michael Berry from the University of Bristol, he experimented with the force of magnetism. Using a magnetized metal slab and a coil of wire in which a current is flowing as an electromagnet, they tried to make a magnetic force that exactly balanced gravity, to try and make various objects “float”. Eventually, they settled on a frog – which, like humans, mostly consists of water – and indeed managed to make it levitate.

The one project got Geim the Ig Nobel; the other one got him the Nobel Prize.

“Mucking about” was the foundation of these achievements. The vast majority of these experiments doesn’t go anywhere; some of them lead to an Ig Nobel and makes people laugh; others result in a Nobel Prize. Many of man’s great discoveries – in technology, medicine or art – have been achieved by mucking about. And many great companies were founded by mucking about, in a garage (Apple), a dorm room (Facebook), or a kitchen and a room above a bar (Xerox).

Unfortunately, in strategy research we don’t muck about much. In fact, people are actively discouraged from doing so. During pretty much any doctoral consortium, junior faculty meeting, or annual faculty review, a young academic in the field of Strategic Management is told – with ample insistence – to focus, figure out in what subfield he or she wants to be known, “who the five people are that are going to read your paper” (heard this one in a doctoral consortium myself), and “who your letter writers are going to be for tenure” (heard this one in countless meetings). The field of Strategy – or any other field within a business school for that matter – has no time and tolerance for mucking about. Disdain and a weary shaking of the head are the fates of those who try, and step off the proven path in an attempt to do something original with uncertain outcome: “he is never going to make tenure, that’s for sure”.

And perhaps that is also why we don’t have any Nobel Prizes.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Rainbow Headband

Yesterday I was "blog-cruisin'" and I came across a headband tutorial that I thought was super cute and easy...and best of all I had all the materials on hand:o)
Meaningful Mama was the blog. She has some really cute ideas.
I thought the headband was perfect since St. Patrick's Day is coming up Saturday.
Since the kids won't be in school on the actual day, I let them wear their green today.
S.R. insisted on wearing her headband:o)
 Instead of rhinestones, I added some daisy buttons, and a few leaves.

 E gives it a "two thumbs up":o)
 I hope you all have a fantastic St. Patrick's Day. I have a fun-filled day planned for the family:o)

Monday, March 12, 2012

How I Am Avoiding Using Cooking Spray

Here lately I have been trying to be more picky about what I feed my family. I buy mostly organic when possible, and I have been gradually cutting out  processed foods. We still eat some, but not as many as we used to.  There are so many links to cancer now which seem to be coming from the foods we eat.
So anyway, I have quit using cooking sprays. I haven't read anything anywhere that says we are going to die if we continue to use them, but one of the ingredients is "propellant."...ummm, ick!
So I have been coating all of my cake pans with butter(yum) & flour.
Muffin tins, however, are slightly more tricky because they are smaller. I ran out of muffin cups the other day, and needed a substitute. I felt like I had a moment of genius when I decided to use parchment paper.

I formed the parchment paper around the bottom of one of the muffin cups, and cut out the circle. Then I used that one as a template to cut out the next 5.
 I smushed them down in the cups...not all that pretty, but hey, I was improvising here.
 I spooned in the muffin mix...
 and tada!
I also used it for some make-shift-Corn-Flake-wanna-be-Rice-Krispie-Treats...the kids have been really good today, so I thought I would reward them with these...they have little green candies in them:o) Now these are extra sticky, so I rubbed some Crisco(yeah Baby!!) on my hands to flatten out the treats...like I said I am slowly removing processed foods, but we indulge every once and a while:o)
Well, that's my two cents for the day:o)

The Business March 14th 2012, "Gondelmania" Edition


The Business is happy to welcome the hilarious Josh Gondelman to the show this week. Josh hails from Boston, but currently lives in New York City. For such a sweet and lovable former preschool teacher, he knows a surprising amount about gangsta rap. He won first prize in the initial Laughing Skull Comedy Festival in Atlanta, and has performed at festivals such as SF Sketchfest, Laugh Your Asheville Off, and the Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival. His debut CD is called "Everything's The Best," and was produced by Rooftop Comedy. You can follow his consistently stellar Twitter work at twitter.com/joshgondelman.

As if that weren't enough East Coast flavor, we've also got comedian Emily Fleming visiting from New York. And we're also happy to welcome back Kaseem Bentley, local favorite and insult comic extraordinaire. The San Jose Mercury News called him a "comic to watch," and Chris Garcia once called him "the last King of Scotland." You'll call him "hella funny" or possibly "Rick Ross's half-brother."


We've also got a full cast of regular Businesspeople: Chris Garcia, Caitlin Gill, Sean Keane, Alex Koll, Bucky Sinister & Chris Thayer. As always, admission is just five dollars, because we're the best bargain in town.




Friday, March 9, 2012

Table Transformation for Free

I am slowly getting the house back to normal after the birthday festivities....slowly:o)
 As I was cleaning and doing the 9 millionth load of laundry today, I had the urge to just change something in my house. I am getting the itch to make some major changes in my home, BIG changes...terrible timing! We are doing a lot in the backyard right now, so the inside needs to be left alone.
So to kill the "urge," I went shopping in my garage and created a FREE mini makeover.

This is the table in my living room that is a dust collector. I found this antique table at a yard sale last spring. It desperately needs the paint removed, but I just can't stand the thought of torturing myself like that:o) So there it has stayed..all chippity. Is that a word? Probably not..anyway...

 I was given this table top from my mother's friend. It was once apart of an antique Hoosier cabinet...it had seen better days. She completely disassembled it, and gave me this table top.
I had every intention of putting legs on it and turning it into a sofa table...really I did!
However, me being the "lazy" that I am, just wiped it down and laid it on top of the dust collector table. Now I have an even bigger dust collector table...and I LOVE IT!
 Not bad for free, huh? And now I can go a few more days without having to completely overhaul my house:o)

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

The Business March 7th 2012, "Two Silent G's & A Bishop" Edition



Reunited and it feels so good! Since all The Business regulars are gonna be back at the mic this week, we called in some of our favorites and are planning to laugh through mouthfuls of burrito right along with you.

David Gborie (@thegissilent) is a member of Sylvan Productions, a team of comedians pulling themselves up by their bootstraps...ALL THE WAY TO THE STARS! His hustle and grind take him all over the Bay and beyond. We know he’s gonna be the talk of the town at the upcoming Bridgetown Comedy Festival in Portland, OR. We’re happy to have him here, as it’s hard to tear him away from one of the 4,329,438 shows that Sylvan is currently producing.

Joe Nguyen is just your everyday Vietnamese Jew raised in Georgia. His jokes are well crafted and clever, his delivery is inviting and affable--so much so that he won the 2009 Russian River Comedy Competition. We are happy he had time to stop by, as he’s just here for a visit. This former local has relocated to the glittering promise land of Los Angeles, so catch him at The Biz while he’s back! And remember: you can always find him on Twitter at @vietjew.

Lauren Ashley Bishop baits a hook with irresistible beauty then BOOM--its sharp wit right to your face! She’s an LA girl by way of Arkansas, and has played the finest clubs in between. If you ever found yourself wanting to eat at Arby’s its probably because you saw her in their commercial; yes, she’s that good! (If you’ve wanted to eat Arby’s for any other reason, please consult a physician.) Additionally, the Huffington Post named her one of the 18 funniest women on twitter. Follow your heart to her feed @sbellelauren.

ALL THIS FUNNY PLUS THE REGULARS (Sean Keane, Chis Garcia, Bucky Sinister, Alex Koll, Chris Thayer and Caitlin Gill) FOR JUST $5!! No joke!!

Wizard of Oz Birthday Party

I am letting the pictures do most of the talking today.
All printables were made by me using Publisher.

The sign by the house says.."Grab your ruby slippers before the Wicked Witch gets them." The Dorothy house was made by putting a card board box together, cutting it in half, and then stacking it on top of each other. The ruby slippers were an after-Christmas clearance purchase. 






The dessert table. 
I made the cake using tons of Wilton fondant. I also made the ruby slipper cookies.

 A vintage puzzle my mother found.



 For the craft, I used these cute little bird houses from Michael's. These were "munchkin" houses. I got the idea from here.

Here are the girls painting their houses.



 Party Favors.
Each Dorothy basket contained a Toto, a coloring book, a little heart container, and a "be courageous" necklace.
 The girls also got an gi-normous lollipop.
 The mother's left with some strawberry jam...they were in the little blue container.

 Food table.




Everyone seemed to have a great time, and we are so thankful to have all these little girls in S.R.'s life!!
Participating here:

The Stuff of Success