Kinda fun

So, ever wonder which celebrity you look like? MyHeritage.com has some free facial recognition software available on it's website. It's kind of fun to play with, but I'm thinking they need to work out the bugs yet. I uploaded a photo of myself and this is the list of celebrities I supposedly look like:

Eleanor Roosevelt 57%
Tom Cruise 56%
Gene Hackman 55%
Alain Prost 52%
Kimi Raikkonen 51%
Sophie Marceau 48%
Gerald Ford 47%
Dennis Quaid 46%
Barack Obama 45%
Mick Jagger 45%

If this software really worked, they would have come up with Tom Green, 100%.
Tom:

Me:

Merry Christmas

Just a quick note...wishing all of you...a very Merry Christmas! Our home came alive with lights, tree decorations, candles, and most importantly sugar, cut-out cookies...Katie has arrived!

Aaron is spending time in Grand Rapids, MI, working...& Alicia, Ryan & Kane will be home over the New Year weekend.

We are truely blessed!

Love to all!!

Dale & Lois

More about me, me, me!

I feel like I'm dominating this blog as of late. Sorry about that! But, I also got interviewed on the local radio this morning. There's an mp3 of it here under the Morning Show heading. You may need to go to the archive if you're looking at this in a day or two. I'm not sure how long they keep them out there, so if you're interested you should take a listen sooner rather than later. :)

Pete Saunders on Paul Harvey

Pete was mentioned on Paul Harvey on Monday at noon. Click on the title above and listen to the last five minutes or so. Congrats Pete!

If this is Santa's backup...We all are in trouble...

As most children dressed by their very crazy moms....Kane is all but thrilled with this outfit. I did explain to him when he was old enough to scream "no" and run faster then his mom, he would get out of these highly embarrassing photo ops!

Sledding

Here's what I did this afternoon.


View this clip on Vimeo

Repeat roughly 120 times.

Santa's Gone Cyber

I found out that our school provides web hosting, so the kids and I made a little website. The only things that are functional are the home pages for each family member and the Dear Santa pages for each family member. I just added the Fun and Hobbies categories as placeholders. Emma and Morgan each designed their own graphics and text. Don't ask me to explain Morgan's, because I can't. She was insistent that I type "I'm the store of Morgan. Eat me." I have no idea what it means. I must add that it doesn't sound nearly as offensive when coming out of the mouth of a smiling six year old. Here's the link:

Family Page

College & Finals

Just checking in with all college kids...how is everything going now that finals week is just a few days away?

I am a college lab assistant at NTC & one thing never ceases to amaze me...the way college students all of a sudden "need me," and want me to change my schedule to "help" them. My schedule has been posted since the first of September...where have they been?? Faces are strained, fists clenched, not many smiles, very tired eyes...it will all be over soon, only to start the cycle again in January.

Good luck to all college students out there! As Anna said, "It is crunch time!"

Hildur's Lefse Recipe

Okay, here's one for Randee!

Lefse

Enough potates to yield 3 c. riced potatoes
3 T. oil
1 T. sugar
2 tsp. milk
salt

1 cup flour (added in the morning)

Measure 3 c. riced potatoes with sugar, oil, milk & salt. Mix well & refrigerate overnight.
Add 1 cup flour -- a little more if dough seems too sticky. Form into soft balls with large ice cream scoop. Chill. Roll & bake. Enough for about 7-8 lefse.

(5# potatoes makes approx 8 c potatoes)
Enjoy!

Update

A great big thanks goes out to everybody who helped me with my web site yesterday. I was able to use all of your comments and reactions in my final report. Does the web site suck? Yes, it does. I could have made it a lot better if I'd started working on it when we got the assignment 3 weeks ago instead of waiting until three days before it was due. But all in all I was fairly happy with the outcome.

Don't forget, A Charlie Brown Christmas is on tonight on ABC. Check your local listings for time and channel. It's 7:00 on channel 5 locally. Grab a blanket and snuggle in with the one(s) you love. Wah-wah-wah.

Web Design

Hi all!
I made a website for school this weekend. It's due this evening, and I need a little user feedback. So if you have 5 minutes or so to help me out, I'd appreciate it. Below is the link to the site. If you're interested, please explore and e-mail me the answers to the following questions:
1. Say you wanted to buy a hat. Time yourself to see how long it takes you to complete the transaction. Send me your time along with any positive or negative feedback about the transaction process.
2. While buying, did you need to back up using the back button?
3. How long do you estimate that it takes to get from the home page to any
desired page, on average? 5 seconds? 10 seconds?
4. Any feedback in general about the site. Specifically the navigation, usability, or overall impression.

Nothing fancy, just a sentence or two will do. Send any feedback to frosti AT gmail DOT com. If you're looking at the site after Monday, you can still send me feedback but I won't be able to use it in the report. Thanks! Here's the link:

Third Wave

Christmas time

It was a nice relaxing weekend for Mandy and I. We went to the Christmas party at my work on Saturday night and enjoyed a buffet dinner (of course), chatting with friends and co-workers, wine-tasting, bingo and more.
Today, we went and got a Christmas tree and decorated it all up. We also managed to get the lights hung outside. It's good to see some snow on the ground here in St. Paul.

Getting Organized

While digging in my file cabinet at work, I came across a quote that Anna sent last year...& I saved it because I liked it. Still do...here it is:

"In life we do things; some we wish we had never done, some we wish we could replay a million times in our heads, but they make us who we are and in the end, those experiences shape every detail about us; if we were to reverse any of them, we wouldn't be at the exact place that we are today...so just live, make mistakes, and have wonderful times, but never ever second guess who you are, where you have been, and most importantly, where it is that you are going..."

I hope you like it, too.

Thanksgiving

Well....things have been very busy for me. It was so nice to have 5 days off of school. I didn't crack open a book the entire time I was home, it was so nice. I did spend quite a bit of time working, but that's ok because I love working. I miss my coworkers when I'm not there for awhile. On Thanksgiving, I worked night shift, and then went home and had breakfast with Nathan and Katie. That was nice. We sat and chatted til about 9 and then I had to go to bed. I got up around noon and drove to my grandparents for lunch. I got there and there were so many people there. My mom and I decided that everyone was there with the exception of some of my cousins. I was there for about an hour and then had to turn around and go to work again. 16 hours of holiday pay...not too shabby. The week before thanksgiving was very stressful. I had 5 tests in less than a week. I surprisingly did very well on them, so that made me happy. It was just a matter of getting through everything. From here on out, it's crunch time though. There's only about 3 weeks of classes left with lots of tests and projects due. I will be very happy once Dec. 15th rolls around. Last week Tues I observed in the OR at St. Mary's Hospital. I got to see a Heart Bypass surgery. It was really interesting and all, but it was incredibly long and tedious. So I now know that surgical nursing is not for me. It was a long 6 hours standing and watching. Oh well, it was probably a once in a lifetime experience. Hope everyone's Thanksgiving went well and happy holidays.

Happy Thanksgiving All!

We had a very nice Thanksgiving down at Nancy's folks' place in Lamberton. We did a combination of Christmas and Thanksgiving so not only was there turkey and ham, there were presents! Nancy's mom, Mary Lou, sets a beautiful table.


And the girls each got their own pumpkin pie! And they each almost ate the entire pie by the end of the weekend. They must get that from me, since Nancy hates pumpkin pie.


The girls' favorite gift? Or at least the one they spent the most time playing with this weekend? A set of armor with shields, vambraces, and two swords! They spent so much time swordfighting that one of the swords was broken. Behold, my warrior princesses!


She strikes a pose!


The fearsome battle cry!


We spent some time tooling around Southwestern MN on Friday. The effects of Katrina are still being felt down there. Everywhere we went there were huge piles of corn just sitting, waiting to be picked up and shipped somewhere. But, since the port of New Orleans has been closed for so long there's a huge backlog of corn that hasn't been sent downriver. Nancy said she doesn't remember ever seeing this much corn. Every town had a pile like this or larger. This one is in Lamberton, right next to the swimming pool Nancy used to lifeguard at.


Sorry we missed you all this weekend, but we're going to try to get up to Bemidji between now and Christmas. Hope to see you soon!

Life has forever changed for Kane

Once eating "real" food there is no going back. Little Kane has officially started eating. Coming from two parents that really enjoy food, it didn't take him long to catch on. He has achieved this life changing skill just in time for the holidays.

We are all excited to be coming to Bemidji next week. It will be great seeing all who can gather for the holiday.

Web design

My third project is now in the books. You can view it here if you're so inclined. It's not a great site. I put a ton of work into my previous project site and I think it was one of the better sites that my class made. But then, we had to do a peer review. I was assigned this website to review. I reviewed it and tried to be as positive as I could. But frankly, it's horrible. The girl who made this site sits directly in front of me. When our teacher passed back our graded project plans, I saw over her shoulder. She only received three less points than me. We had both fulfilled the requirements of the project, but I'd gone to a lot of extra work to make my site realistic and fairly functional. Yet, I didn't feel like I got any credit for the intangibles.

So, this was fairly demotivating for my third project. I decided to say screw the extra work of making a really good (for a beginner) site and did some experimenting with using CSS to design the page rather than just using straight tables.

So anyway, I've got one last major project to do and I need ideas on subject matter. I need to put something together with 10-12 pages. Any thoughts from this creative group?

I'm on a Roll, Might As Well Keep Going...Friday After T'Giving

What: Appetizer & Beer & Wine Tasting Open House

When: Friday, November 25, 2005

Time: 3:00 - ??

Please Bring: An appetizer to share & BYOB

"San Francisco, See My Fist Go"

A couple of days ago, Dale came home with an amazing story about San Fran. He'd been tuning a piano at Nielson's, & when he arrived Laurie couldn't wait to tell him about their trip to SF. She decribed the place they stayed and what the scenery looked like around S.F. and the quaint little restaurant that was having a wine tasting event.

At the wine tasting event, Dave & Laurie were directed to a table that had other visitors from Minnesota...& of course, conversation started with where people were from. And, the most amazing thing happened...they were sitting with Pete & Nancy!

Grandma Hildur

Hi, everyone...how are all of you?

Just a little note about G'ma Hildur...she is working hard in PT & OT and told me last night that she is tired...& looking forward to the weekend (no therapy on weekends!)

I've noticed that she seems a little "down" & I am wondering if we could do a "card shower" for her to pert up her spirits some? Mail/cards from family are very important to her, a definite day brightener.

Her address is: Neilson Place, 1000 Anne St NW, Room 114, Bemidji 56601.