Making the way for Solar Panels

Similar to what our panels will look like

Today we signed papers for 45 minutes for a line of credit and checking accounts galore. Another step made towards the panels with R.J. Groner. We are now playing the waiting game to see if Uncle Sam (the PA version) will give us $1.75 per or $1.25 per kilowatt hour credit. Hopefully he is an awesome uncle and not a creepy stingy one!

I'm on a boat!

This weekend Mark and I spent some quality time in Maryland on the bay in our Jason. Our Jason is our time machine boat from the 80's, it fits in nicely with out time machine RV and time machine conquest also from the 80's. During the three hour trip down to Middle River, MD we were praying we wouldn't get a flat on the trailer since we couldn't find the right size spare in time which was probably a direct result of procrastination.

Some places we anchored

It was the first time we had our little vessel the S.S. Newb out on open water, which was kind of terrifying, the poor thing was hammering the choppy water but it made it through. On saturday nigh we gorged on fabulous local seafood like cave people, literally bashing the meet out of our food.

Love the feeling of burning lips from Old Bay, there really isn't much that I won't put Old Bay on, if I could only have one seasoning in my pantry for the rest of my life it would be Old Bay. On the way back in after dinner it was dark, so we went to break out our sweet  boat lights and found out that our back light didn't work, so I ended up holding up a maglite flashlight for about a half hour like the statue of liberty until we got back the marina. All in all it was a good weekend full of boating, margaritas, orange crushes and holding on for dear life!

Thrifty Vintage Chic

Loving the blog and her store, if you are into vintage and recycling wares stop by
simplethrifter.blogspot.com and www.simplethrift.etsy.com.
 

Canning tomatoes

Remember that enormous amount of tomatoes we harvested the other day, well we had to can them. My mom/grandmother did most of the work, it was fun though, and now we can make some nice fresh sauces over the winter... ugh, I hate winter.

Our total cost was $0, but thats only because they already had all the supplies in the basement. Here the jars are sitting with hot water as were getting the tomatoes ready by peeling the skins and heating them up, and some of the supplies we used such as vitamin c, sugar, and basil from the garden.

The jars are filled with tomatoes, the rims are wiped, and then they are sealed and go into a pot of hot water. You bring it to a boil and then let it run for about 15 minutes before removing the jars so the tomatoes don't turn into complete mush. The Ball canning book from 1950 said 40 minutes, apparently thats no good.

Finished product, yum.

Unadilla

We made our annual trek up to NY this past weekend to attend the Unadilla national. At every race we attend this year, were able to meet up with more people that we've only previously met through email or some kind of social networking, so that has been pretty cool. We met up with Jon at Two Stroke Motocross who is helping out our buddy Mike Leavitt who is trying to qualify for the 450's on a YZ250 2 stroke. We also met up with Shawn Taylor this time, and he got a cool shot of Jess and I.

Among the highlights was obviously James Stewart returning to racing, although he only managed a 3-DNF, local NJ boy Dakota Kessler qualified for his first pro national in the 250's, and Eyvind Boyesen was the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement award from Alex and the guys at the Legends and Heroes display.

Jess pulled me up to the podium after Eyvind received his award to get this corny picture, where it looks like maybe were important but were really not. "When is the next time we will ever get to do this!" she says.

Jess got some amazing shots for DeLorenzo Photography as usual, and I got some crappy iPhone videos, as usual. On with the eye candy.

Need a card?

Jess and I went to CVS today to pick up a card for some friends. What ensued was a 10 minute laughing fest in the isle. Here are some of our favorites, and the pics are blurry because I was laughing when I was taking the pictures.

Attack of the Multiplying Tomatoes

Just got down picking and washing and endless supply of tomatoes from the garden at my inlaws, they live close enough that we share. Buckets of cherry and heirloom tomatoes were brought in and I believe Pat, my mother-in-law will be canning some for the winter and making some sauce, yummmmmm. There are still so many that aren't ripe yet just waiting to be picked, its incredible how much the plants are yielding. I see lots of dinners based around tomatoes in my future haha.

Musikfest

Brian Chiusano rocking with Orianthi at Musikfest 2010

Friday night Mark and I joined some of my friends and my mother-in-law for a rare appearance at Musikfest. Typically, we do not venture to this debacle because the mass crowding of scandalously clad teenagers and drunken tools of the century ruins all the good parts like fun fair food and side shows. However, one of our hometown heros Brian Chiusano was playing a great show with the guitar prodigy Orianthi along side Adam Lambert. The show was very entertaining to say the least from all the artists, most impressive was the tiny little Allison Iraheta who's pipes nearly blew the audience out of the venue. In the middle were the nothing short of incredible guitar talents of Brian and Orianthi who proved to be master shredders and then topped off with a glitter-tastic Adam Lambert.

Hen Racing

Yes this post is about Chickens racing. I was watching ESPN during lunch today because I wanted to see the preseason football highlights and they showed a clip of this gem, so of course I immediately googled it.

The video starts out with a dude dressed up like some kind of wicked pilgrim with an eye mask stating that his hen is the fastest chicken in the world.... ummm yea

I am surprised the Blue Valley Farm Show has not organized a hen racing event yet, is there any money in being a hen race promoter?

Delictable Vegetable..oh and meat

Organic eggplant

Organic eggplant fried in truffle oil, vegan spinach
and mushroom risotto and a steak haha

We had a quickie dinner tonight, sliced up an eggplant about a 1/4" thick and fried that up nice with an egg right out of the coop, milk and some breadcrumbs, a organic/vegan risotto mix and a nice little steak. Cooking time was probably about 20 minutes total. Mark marinated the meat all day in some vinegar and worcester sauce and some weber grill seasoning packet we had laying around. Washed it down with Mighty Leaf Detox Ice Tea, yum love that stuff.

Generating QR barcode's for your site

Remember those bar codes I just talked about the new edition of Racer X, well now I have discovered its easy to generate one for your own website. By the way, they are called QR Barcode's. Probably won't get you a lot of hits this week, but maybe in the coming months it will be the new thing. Coded blocks all over Facebook (do I really have to link FB?) will be the new rage, who needs English??

Of course I made some up for our sites, you will have to scan them to see what goes where, ohh the suspense.

Don't forget to pick up the i-nigma app on your phone to make this work.

An App-tastic Day so far

A coworker just clued me in on a really helpful app, especially helpful for Mark and I since we are young and still settling into doctors and what not. Anyway, its for UnitedHealthcare customers and its called DocGPS for iPhone. Basically, it syncs with your location and lists virtually every doctor and medical institution  in your area covered under your plan. Oh, and its free! Definitely a super fantastic tool for traveling families, way to go UHC! No can you just lower my copays a bit hahaha

PDN Contest Features Hot Chicks

PDN Faces Portrait Photography Contest 2010

Saw @PDNonline tweet for their portrait contest and was unaware that there was an animal category. I obviously have missed the boat but I know that I could have arranged to enter some of my photos of Snaps and Dora and the chickens and given Tyra and Oprah here a run for their money. Nonetheless these are fantastic photos and given me an idea to bring my fowl into my studio...not sure I have enough newspaper to line the floor though ahhaha.

Racer X + i-nigma

Just downloaded my new digital edition of Racer X, it's got these i-nigma bar codes scattered throughout the magazine. So basically what you do is download a free app on your iPhone, Droid, etc. and then you open the app, scan the barcode and additional interactive media pops up on your phone which could be a YouTube video, quiz, etc. Its basically amazing, I just scanned my computer screen with my phone, then my phone played me a video, ridiculous.

I sense an upcoming trip to B&N armed with my iPhone, scanning every single publication jumping on board with this, that will be a good way to kill time this winter. Apparently some advertisers are jumping on board too, so more bang for the buck for them, print ad + media ad all in one.