Samuel Luke

I have a new nephew! Samuel Luke was born yesterday(May27), late morning, weighing in at seven pounds, six ounces. He is adorable and I love him. I only got to hold him for about 27 seconds, but that was long enough to know for sure.


My mom was gracious to snap a quick photo for me. Isn't he wonderful? Meredith, I promise to take and post more pictures soon, so you can adore him from afar.

Congratulations to proud parents, Philip and Corrie!

BrewHaHa

It wasn't over. It still isn't over. I was delighted to drive by our local coffee shop and see a new battle brewing.

Then, a few days later, this:

McDonald's

Strange Brew

Unfortunately for Strange Brew, so did we.

My coexperimenters, Amy and Tori (not pictured)

We finally did it. The taste test of the century. Strange Brew vs. McDonald's. The little guy vs the corporate giant. A modern day David and Goliath, if you will.



It was all very scientific, I assure you. The samples were marked A and B. Unfortunately, our new friend and fellow experimenter Tori escaped the camera, mostly because in all the excitement, I forgot to take pictures of the actual taste test. But she was totally there.

We sampled the mocha and vanilla lattes, because those sounded good to us. And we thought it would be much more scientific to test more than one product before declaring one place to be better than the other.


One sample was delicious. The others, not so much.

The first test was the vanilla latte. To be fair, these two tasted pretty similar, but all 3 respondents chose sample A. The winner? Mickey D's.

Test two was not so simple. Mocha Sample A was SOOO sweet, it was almost undrinkable. Sample B was so awful, it was almost undrinkable. It tasted like burned day old coffee, without a hint of mocha. Why would you offer a mocha drink that doesn't taste like mocha?

Amy chose Sample A, but insisted that I indicate on her response form that neither sample was preferred. Tori and I both marked Sample B as our preference, although Tori also indicated that neither was preferred.

The winner in the mocha category was technically neither preferred, although Strange Brew got 2 reluctant votes over McDonald's 1 reluctant vote.

Amy's 4-year-old wanted to taste too, and who better to judge coffee than a 4-year-old? It seemed like a great idea at the time... He chose Sample A in both categories. No surprise there that the kid liked McDonald's drink. It was the one that was loaded with sugary sweetener.

Our summary notes show the number one choice of all the samples was the McDonald's vanilla latte. I'm sorry all of you Brew lovers, but don't blame me. Blame science. Another strike against the Brew is longer wait times and higher prices. And finally, if you're looking for a mocha drink, get a milkshake.

The owner of Strange Brew could not be reached for comment.

Ask your postal worker about forever stamps

I know you've all been wondering what to do in these strained financial times. It's been tough. You've all been wondering what to do: Buy? Sell? Pull out of the market entirely? (please don't do that. stupid.) So many of you have been wondering but perhaps afraid to ask me, Emily, what are you doing to protect your family's future? What's hot right now? Well friends, fear not. I am here with absolutely no credentials or qualifications to hand out financial advice, but I am going to hand it out like candy. I know. You're welcome. Here it is:

Stamps. Buy them. Whoa, there. Don't scamper off just yet. You can't just run rampant through town, buying up any old stamps you stumble upon. Nay. There is a special kind of stamp you must purchase. A magical stamp, if you will. It has the power to mail a letter any day of the week, any year of the millennium. It is officially called the forever stamp, but I prefer magical. While the cost of stamps continues to rise, these magical stamps will always work no matter how much you paid for them!

The magic stamps I bought last year in May at $.41 are now worth $.44! Isn't that incredible? A $.3 increase in only a year. And while all you suckers are paying a premium, I'm still passing my 41 centers for 44s.

You probably heard about this already, but the price of stamps just went up another two cents. I hope you heeded my advice last year and stocked up on magic stamps. They are worth even more now. If not, please consider your lesson learned. And don't say I didn't tell you:

See here.

Also, stay tuned for breaking Strange Brew vs McDonalds news. You know what I'm talking about.

Remember?

**I am also pleased to report that Oskey is now a full time outside dog and has yet to be eaten by any cats. Thanks for your concern.

Oscar de la Redwood

Sarah Beth finally got her puppy last week. Although Tobias was the top vote getter, Jack reminded me that the voting results were never legal nor binding. He still wanted to name him Oscar, and Sarah Beth and I agreed that while Oscar would be his official name, we would still call him Puppy. Even though he looks more like a Toby.

SB was very excited to meet him, and I think it has finally set in that he is really ours to keep. Puppy is the first thing she asks for in the morning and her first thought after naptime. If Jack is home, Oscar is an inside dog, but when Daddy is away, Puppy plays outside. I'm tired of scrubbing my carpet.

Jack is afraid that Oscar is too tiny to stay outside by himself. Here is a paraphrased version of our first conversation regarding where Oscar was to live:

Me: I would prefer that he stay outside.

Jack: Well, I think he should stay inside, at least until he gets a little bigger.

Me: He will be fine outside.

Jack: He can't stay outside. Another animal might eat him.

Me: What animal in our neighborhood is going to eat our dog?

Jack: A cat.

Seriously?

So he stays inside sometimes during the day (when Jack is home), and he sleeps in a kennel in the basement at night, safe from all of the ferocious neighborhood tigers.

Yesterday:

Jack is at work, Puppy is outside. Jack comes home from work early. I am in the kitchen at the sink.

Jack: There were two cats in our backyard with Oscar when I pulled up.

Me: Were they eating him?

I turned around to see Oscar peeking out from between Jacks legs. An inside dog for the rest of the afternoon.

Anyway, inside or out, SB is smitten. I don't know why Jack thinks Oscar is any safer inside with SB on the prowl. We are working on not picking Puppy up by the throat. Here are a few pictures I took the day we got Oskey.







I had to pick a few to post on here, but there were so many cute pictures, so I have the link for you to view the rest of them at shutterfly:


share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AYsXDVq2ctGLD8A