Since I’ve been working out at the gym a lot more recently, I decided to reward myself by buying Gatorade from the grocery store.  Kroger’s was having a 10 for $10 deal (the huge 32 oz. ones) so I picked out ten different flavors to find out which one was the best.

My favorite so far is Gatorade Rain Strawberry Kiwi (Berry flavor pictured above).

A close runner up is the new Gatorade Tiger line.  I know it’s just a marketing gimmick but they cost the same as the other Gatorade products and the flavors are pretty good.

The absolute worst so far is the new low calorie G2.  It’s sickeningly sweet.  Don’t buy this at any cost.

The husband reduced our property value by $30,000 on the city’s books yesterday!  This is a HUGE accomplishment considering the fact that the houses that have been selling around our house have been inching higher and higher.  We were only able to reduce our property value from their original appraisal last year by four or five thousand dollars.

It’s such a strange game to play.  They introduced iSettle this year, proclaiming that you could protest your appraised property value online.  After the husband went through the online process, he received an email stating that he needed to show up and talk it over with an appraiser in person.  Nervous that he would be rejected for his lowballing, he studied our 50 page analysis and went armed with a lot of evidence of other houses that were similar to ours and were valued for less than ours.  Surprisingly, the guy he talked to took a low number that the husband offered, punched some numbers in his calculator and appraised our house for $30,000 less than what it was last year!  It’s kind of a weird position to be in.  The goal is to get your property value as low as possible so that your property taxes are as low as possible.  So that makes us happy.  But what does that mean about our market value when we want to sell the house in a year or so?  Are things really getting so bad?

————————————————————–

I’m not sure if CNN is taking their cue from Threadless in realizing that people are Tshirt crazy but the husband pointed out that they’ve recently added a Tshirt icon next to some of their headlines.  If you click on the icon, it takes you to a page where you can order a tshirt with that very headline.  You can even choose from six colors.  Check out their tshirt headline archive.

——————————————————–

I’m not ready to talk about The Dark Knight yet but I want to talk about formats.  I really enjoyed the IMAX version of The Dark Knight.  We got to the theater about an hour before the movie started and ended up somewhere in the middle of the long line.  They started seating us after only waiting for about twenty minutes or so and we snagged great seats that were pretty much centered and not too far down.  I felt really bad for the guys who looked like they were on first dates or first-ish dates and they were trying to find a good seat but there weren’t any good seats available.  The husband went out (in the most chivalrous way) to get us some salty snacks.  He returned with a large popcorn, a huge tray of nachos and a large soda.  I think I actually clapped when he arrived.

It was also horrible to see large groups of friends reserving rows of empty seats for their friends who were late.  I’ve been guilty of this on both sides but I’ve made a personal commitment to make sure that I’m never late for a show and that I won’t try to save seats for really late friends.

Anyway, back to formats.

The IMAX was such a treat to see.  I haven’t seen an IMAX film since elementary school when we went on a field trip and watched some sort of nature IMAX film.  I’m glad my reentry into the IMAX world was with the Dark Knight and not with the Polar Express.  A lot of the cityscapes were really just breathtaking.  You could almost imagine you were flying.  But here’s the thing.  I was strangely bothered by the clarity.  Or the lack of clarity I should say.  Maybe it’s because we watched Rambo on Blu-Ray the night before and the jungles of Thailand came through so piercingly clear (as did all the blood, guts and gore.)  I don’t know.  I honestly don’t know if I can say that IMAX is better than HD/Blu-Ray.  I mean, yeah, the size and the digital surround sound in the theaters is pretty incredible.  But if we turn out the lights and turn up our sound system at home with a Blu-Ray movie, I might prefer to see the bright clarity of things more than the hugeness of things.  Well, okay, that’s not true, I’d still prefer a theater experience.  But maybe if they come out with a 100″ HD TV, then I’d forgo the movie theater completely.

The husband and I went to the new Lee and Joe Jamail Skatepark this past Friday.  We picked up Steak Fajita Cabana Bowls and enjoyed the unusually cool July evening weather while watching skaters take turns attempting tricks.

“The Lee and Joe Jamail Skatepark is a state-of-the-art 30,000 square foot in-ground public facility, known to contain the largest cradle in the world. Houston’s new skateboarding facility will provide the first world-class, in-ground skatepark in our region, and vault the city to the forefront of American venues for this fast-growing, dynamic sport. The park will have areas for skaters of all levels, from the seasoned pro to the beginner – skaters can work on their kick flip, ollie, fakie big spin…or simply learn to stay balanced!”

It was a really neat place.  It was fun to see parents cheering on their kids and it was great to see kids and teenagers cheering each other on.  It was also entertaining to see grown men put on their kneepads and helmets and brave the cradle.  It’s wonderful to know that the city and some wealthy donors felt it was worthwhile to give skaters a place to hang out and a way to have fun doing what they do without getting in trouble for trespassing or skating in prohibited spaces.  It was also nice to see so many kids enjoying the outdoors and physical activity instead of sitting behind their Xbox 360s and PS3s playing Tony Hawk.  We stayed for quite awhile, watching the skaters and also watching the sun set over the downtown skyline as the buildings slowly lit up the night sky.

Here are some photos I took (I regretted not bringing my flash, I apologize in advance for the blurry photos):

Summer Hours of Operation: June 2 – September 1, 2008

Monday - Saturday: 8:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Sunday: 1:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.

Make sure you bring your own food and drinks, they don’t have any vending machines there.  You might consider bringing a blanket or lawn chairs as there aren’t chairs for watching the skate action, just a cement wall and a grassy hill.

Went to a farewell party this past week and I baked cupcakes for it.  I enjoy cooking a lot more than I enjoy baking but I liked the way these turned out so I thought I’d share.  It’s also a not so subtle nod to Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade.  I don’t like all of her ideas and I rarely like her decorating ideas but I think she’s on the right track to cooking/baking in today’s fast paced world.

Step 1 - Mix Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Lemon Supreme dry cake mix with eggs, vegetable oil and milk (substitute for water).

Step 2 - After filling your muffin cups 2/3 full, put a half teaspoon of lemon curd on top of each cupcake.  The lemon curd will sink during baking.

Step 3 - Bake for 18 minutes in a preheated 325 degrees Fahrenheit oven.  When toothpick comes out clean the cupcakes are done.  Be sure to avoid overbaking because browning isn’t very attractive on cupcakes.  They will appear a little pale when you first remove them but will cool to a pretty golden yellow color.

Step 4 - After the cupcakes have cooled, ice the cupcakes with Pillsbury Whipped Supreme Fluffy White frosting. Note: I ran a little low on frosting and I only iced about 20 cupcakes (I ate 2 or 3 unfrosted — purely for testing purposes of course) so you might consider picking up an extra container of frosting.

Step 5 - Arrange on a platter and enjoy!

I plan to tweak this a little bit as the lemon curd had the tendency to sink too far down the cupcake instead of being right in the middle.  I might mix the lemon curd with cream so that it is lighter and not as dense.  I might also consider making the batter a little thicker.

I love good freeware. I had to convert some .jpeg files to .pdf files this morning and stumbled across a really good freeware called Magic PDF.  After you install it, the software acts as a virtual printer.  Anytime you need to convert something to PDF, simply print it and choose Magic PDF as your printer.  It’ll prompt you to save the file and voila!  PDFed.  Simple, easy to use, and FREE!  No watermark or popup ads like some other freeware/shareware.

——————————————————-

Went to the Optometrist today.  Pretty ridiculous as usual.  Puffs of air shooting into my eyes, looking at the red barn at the end of the road and watching it slowly get blurry, following the tips of pens, staring into bright lights, trying to see how many fingers the assistant was holding up using only my peripheral vision, reading numbers in the “make sure you’re not colorblind” book, wearing the 3D glasses to choose which dot pops out, choosing number 1 or number 2, etc.  Why is Optometry school so hard to get into?

————————————————————

Also, I updated my links and recategorized them.  The new wordpress makes it really easy.  “What links?” you might ask.  The links on the right side of the page– so far down the page that you’ve probably never even seen them before.  Take a look if you’re bored.