Shawn’s Journal

It sounds like one of those nature CDs outside right now. I recorded the sound from the bedroom window:
rain

My sister Jaci had her first baby, Kadence, this week. She was 8lb 7oz, and 21.5 inches long when she was born. Kudos to Jaci for 36 hours in labor! Let’s hope that myth about women having a hormone that lets them forget the pain of pregnancy turns out to be true!
Isn’t Kadence adorable? check out my photo page for a few more pictures of her.

This was a genius gimmick on the part of the mall. Their theory: put some snow machines inside a mall in a city that almost never sees snow (well except this week) and people will flock there. It worked. And I have to admit it was a cool effect. I heard rumor that it was actually dry ice flakes so that they didn’t have to clean up anything afterward.

I just had to laugh when I read this article. Oops it wasn’t tomatoes making people sick, it was peppers. They didn’t even have the right food! I feel so safe. Also, how many tomoatoes were destroyed from all this? What a huge waste of resources.
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN30334138

You rarely see one that fits so well with those popular appended words.

Using the Iron Chef system, what score do I get for “plating?”  For taste you’ll just have to trust me when I give it a 10.

My house isn’t under siege by just cats. I’ve found several variety of spiders recently too. Take a look at this beast.

Speaking of salmon, does anyone have a good salmon recipe? I have tried broiling with seasoning, baking with honey, etc and I have never really liked the result. It’s a really healthy food and it is a local fresh source, so I’d really like to find a recipe I enjoy.
So if you have a delicious recipe, please post it in a comment or email it to me.

Hmm, I wonder if you can deep fry salmon…

Since I got a new house, i figured my fish deserve one too. So I upgraded them to this much more spacious home. It fits a lot nicer in my kitchen compared to the beige Mac tank.

I just returned today from a 5-day business trip to Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Do I have any pictures to show from it? Only one because I stayed in the Hotel/Convention Center most of the time. Here is the one picture I took:

Yes, it’s a bee. I don’t get the significance either, so don’t ask. I was also interviewed on camera by a sock puppet, so that will inevitably be on the Internet somewhere, but I’ll probably never find it.

My plane trip back had me sitting next to a woman that must have chain-smoked a whole pack to store up enough nicotene for her long hours without a fix.  Why do I assume this? Because she smelled horrible. She continued to smell bad for the entire 4 hours. I had lots of time to think about her, because I had nothing else to do. In my ponderings I concluded that in order to keep smelling like cigarettes 4 hours after smoking them, her body must be just soaked with the stuff.

I’m so glad to be back home. I have a lot of unfinished house work to do. Also I missed having a data connection on my phone, giving me instant email and Internet access. I didn’t realize how addicted I was to getting information whenever I wanted until it was taken away for just a few days. Maybe I need an intervention. Of course all of you probably do too (I’m looking at you, iPhone owners). I’ve only been back a few hours and have already got a ton done. I bought more dining room chairs, AND assembled them. I painted another coat of paint on my basement room, destined to become a media room (and starting to look more and more like one). I replaced a light fixture in my kitchen because I kept bumping my head on the old low-hanging one. (Side note: yes Wade, I’ve come to agree with you that I shouldn’t get a table and only an area rug should be there). I even caught up on two TV shows I missed.
And now, it’s time for what I’ve been waiting for all day: bed.