When in doubt, smile.

My latest Liz mix .. I added links to you tube videos this time, so you can check all the songs out yourself. The SYTYCD (So You Think You Can Dance) videos keep being taken down because of copyright, so I’m not sure how long they’ll last, but these are some of my favorite performances this season. When I clicked the publish button, all the videos worked

OLD NAVY

• Lights - Last Thing On Your Mind - [vid]
• Lights - Drive My Soul - [vid]
• Lights - White - [vid]
• Lights - February Air - [vid]

NOT ON TV

• The Black Keys - Strange Times - [vid]
• Switches - Drama Queen - [vid]
• Mute Math - Control - [vid]
• Whoa Oh Me Vs Everyone - Forever The Sickest Kids - [vid]
• The Stills - Lola Stars And Stripes - [vid]
• O.A.R. - Shattered - [vid]

AS SEEN ON TV

• iTunes/Coldplay - Viva La Vida - [vid]
• Heiniken/Chris Knox - It’s Love - [vid]
• Grey’s Anatomy/JEM - They - [vid]
• Kohls/Ben Lee - We’re All In This Together - [vid]

SYTYCD

• Anouk - Lost - [vid]
• Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love - [vid]
• Adele - Hometown - [vid]
• Chris Brown - Forever - [vid]
• John Mayer - Dreaming with a Broken Heart - [vid]
• Jordan Sparks - No Air - [vid]

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There’s been a box of cake mix on my counter that has been taunting me since Ella’s birthday party. I hardly ever bake for myself, since I usually end up eating the whole thing myself. So yesterday while I was having serious cupcake cravings I realized that some of the make-ahead cookbooks I have say you can freeze muffins and other baked goods. So I did a little search on the internet and low and behold, there are people out there who have frozen cupcakes, and said they were fantastic. This afternoon I whipped up the batch of dark chocolate Betty Crocker mix, and now my little goodies are cooling off.

Some tips I read about freezing cupcakes:

• allow to cool completely (duh)
• do not frost them
• keep the paper wrap on
• double wrap them in plastic wrap
• unwrap before defrosting (apparently this helps minimize the sticky gooey tops)

So .. that’s how I’m going to do it. I’m going to see if my tops are sticky before wrapping them. If they are, then I will be flash freezing them first, then wrapping them up. I’ll let you know in the future how they do with defrosting. I read you could stick them on your counter for 5 - 6 hours to warm up, or stick them in your fridge to get the job done. I’m sure I’ll experiment both ways

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I changed my twitter url .. you can now follow me at http://twitter.com/myfiasco.

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Its been raining for days around here, today was the first day all week that the afternoon sunshine could actually dry up the grass. The dogs are very thankful for that. Last night the frogs were louder then they had been in months (even louder then [this night]), I ended up sleeping in the guest room, convinced the sliding glass door was letting more frog noise in. I think having the TV on in the guest room is what helped me tune out the frog song. We also have a ton of baby dragonflies around our backyard. Our grass grows so fast right now, there are a ton of little perches for the guys to hang out on. 

 

So .. what’s new here? Well .. yesterday I signed up for Image X. A photography workshop in New Orleans this October. I’m sooooo excited you have no idea. I’ve signed up for sessions with 2 photographers I know I have alot to learn from. I can’t wait. As for the photo business in general. I’m getting alot of emails and phone calls from interested people, I have a few sessions scheduled coming up, things seem to be growing. Its tough to know how things would really be in a good economy, since portraits are considered a luxury item.  

 

And for a little health update .. its now been 4 months since my swollen glands first really started bothering me. 3 months since one Dr. diagnosed me with a ‘throat infection’ and gave me antibiotics that did nothing. 6 weeks since I switched my allergy medicine and was tested for various auto immune diseases. Yesterday I got those results back, and everything came back fine, so that’s good. That Dr. said that she still believes my problem is allergy related, but because I’ve tried 2 different oral meds and nose spray, and nothing has helped, she suggested I see an ENT just to be sure. So I called my ENT who was going to do my surgery last year and they happened to have an opening this morning. After checking out all my head openings and feeling all the glands and nodes in my throat, he decides I should have a CAT scan on my throat. He said my glands or nodes on the left side of my throat were larger then the right, and there aren’t any signs of infection (which I swear my ears were infected, they’ve been hurting for days). So after that exam, I had blood drawn because they’ll inject me with dye for the scan next week, and they want to make sure I wont have a problem with that. Sounds like a blast huh? He didn’t say what he’s looking for .. I’m pretty sure he’s just covering all the bases. Anyways, I should get the results from the CAT on the 30th.

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After spending most of the day in bed with the pups and the boy, I’m finally up .. and I’m going crazy with boredom. I think its just the aggravation of staying inside, rather then being able to go out even if I didn’t want to. I have 3 or 4 sewing projects that I need to do, a programming project that I volunteered for, and a few blog updates to work on .. but nothing sounds like fun right now.

What would I’d like to do? .. well I want to go look for curtains for the house .. thats what I’m spending my stimulus check on. And my fall veggie garden, but I def. can’t work on that, as its been raining all day. I also have a big desire to play poker. One of my old acquaintances has actually made it to day 5 of the World Series of poker .. and was ranked as high as 5th place earlier today .. he’s been in the top 20 for most of the day (and there are only about 150 left out of 6k+ who started). Its pretty exciting, I just wish it was on TV rather then having to check online for updates :\ Sucks they wont be broadcasting it until November. 

I guess I’ll work on Liz’s next mix CD for now .. maybe I’ll get motivated to work on one of my other online projects. 

I would also like Big Pup to stop barking at his reflection on the entertainment center. He apparently just discovered it, even though that piece of furniture has been in this house longer then him

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From Where the Hell is Matt

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Anybody out there using an online todo list? Last fall I signed up to Remember the Milk after reading some favorable articles on Lifehacker (one of my favorite sites). Anyways I signed up, then ever logged in again Today I decided to give it a shot, and see if it can help me get things going around here. I’ll let you know if it does anything for me.

Here’s a long article about using Remember the Milk for advanced purposes: [click here]

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Since we had to drop Liz’s friend Jessica off at the airport at 7am this morning, my mom suggested that we find someplace around Disney to have breakfast (we also had to upgrade our tickets). We took a chance and called Disney to see if they had any openings for a character breakfast. We totally lucked out and ended up with reservations at the Crystal Palace, for a breakfast with the Pooh characters! So this morning we were out the door by 5:45 am, and made it to the Magic Kingdom just before 8am. Ella was so excited. I took her over to get a birthday button while Liz and mom rented a stroller for the morning. Ella wore her button the entire time we were at the park, and everybody kept wishing her a happy birthday .. she loved it.

 

The Pooh breakfast was magical. We were part of the very first seating, and it was pretty empty when Pooh came out. Ella, Liz and I were picking out food from the buffet when we heard my mom whistling. When I turned around, Pooh was sitting at our table waiting for Ella to come back! Liz and Ella ran over and hung out with Pooh, while I snapped some pictures

Then came Eeyore

 

And Piglet

Then there was a parade, and Piglet came right over to Ella, who helped lead the parade.

 

Then there was Tigger

 

They even brought Ella a cupcake and a card signed by all the characters!

After breakfast, we went over to Adventureland. Ella saw the magic carpet ride and got all excited, “I want to ride that!” .. so Liz, Ella and Grandma rode on the carpet, she had a blast. 

 

Then we rode Pirates, Liz hasn’t been on it since they added Jack. Ella just put her hands over her ears and closed her eyes when she didn’t like what was going on. But she know’s the yo ho yo ho song, so she perked up a bit when the singing started. Then we took the train to Mickey’s Toontown. Mickey and Minnie greeted a special guest, and escorted them to their house, and we followed right behind. When it was Ella’s turn to see Mickey and Minnie, they noticed her birthday button and started to conduct the happy birthday song, I started to sing along and everybody else in line sang too! It was awesome, and Liz has that on video!

 

Then we made a stop to see Donald, Pluto and Goofy before heading over to the Pooh ride. She seemed to like it, again covering her ears and closing her eyes when she was scared, but she had a big smile on by the end of the ride. Our last stop of the day was the big carousel.

 

She wasn’t too sure about it at first, but when it was over she started crying because she didn’t want to get off. The attendant let her ride a 2nd time because it was her birthday. This time she started pouting before it ended because she knew it was almost over. But we made it out of the park without any goodbye tears

 

This is going to be a very tough birthday to beat! [See all the pictures here!]

Also - now I’m a proud owner of a Disney seasonal pass, I’m excited we’ll be going back more often. 

On this day: Ella is here!

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We joined the Derosas and the Konickis for a great 4th of July / Welcome Baby Elena party on Friday.

 

Ella had a blast in the ocean and playing with her friends.

 

 

There was TONS of food, and the rain stayed away .. it was a great time. [more pictures here]

Saturday we threw Ella a little party for her 2nd birthday.

 

Nikki brought over Halle’s water toys and we filled up the baby pool we had for the dogs and the kids had a ton of fun. [more pictures here]

 

 

Lots of cleaning and work to catch up on this week. Hopefully I can stay on task.

On this day: Ella is here!

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