Domino's New Recipe

So Mrs. Rico and I tried Domino's' brand new pizza recipe last night. A few thoughts:

1. It's significantly better than the old recipe. From the time I brought it in the door, the aroma was strong and tantalizing. The first bites were promising, as both the sauce and the cheese were much more flavorful than the old crappy Domino's.
2. The crust was significantly better as well. As Mrs. Rico perceptively observed, it's flavoring is reminiscent of Papa John's garlic butter dipping sauce. Presumably, it's quite fattening.
   
3. I would now rank Domino's slightly behind Pizza Hut and slightly ahead of Papa John's on my Big 3 pizza rankings.
   
4. We decided to get the pizza after seeing an ad for it during the Packers-Cardinals playoff game. Big mistake. Approximately 47 million Wisconsinites saw the same commercial and got the same idea, causing a long delay once Jake and I got to the store.
5. Colbert had a pretty funny piece on Domino's candor in its new campaign.

I give the new recipe a Gentleman's B. Given how hard they've pushed this advertising campaign, it was ultimately a little disappointing. Still, any efforts to improve the amount of cheap, quality pizza in this world must be applauded and encouraged. So I salute you, Domino's.

I'm back!

Given Big Jim's heroic effort to keep the blog alive in my absence, I decided I must also devote a few moments to this wonderful site. And what subject could bring me out of my long hibernation? Why, my favorite subject of all, Magical Me!

More specifically, I'm here today to talk about my hair and how awesome it's become in recent months. I had decided to grow it out a bit a while back. It was a last-ditch attempt to stick it to the man before going to work for the man. And now the results are glorious.

I have two basic looks that I can run with. I can walk out the door after a shower without doing anything to it, whereupon I become a dead ringer for comedian and Daily Show correspondent John Oliver. It's a good look for most social occasions and informal gatherings.

Not bad, right?

But when I need something a little more businesslike, I can rock the side-part. This is where it gets even more awesome. I have really thick hair, and now that it's long as well, there's just all sorts of luscious volume when I comb it to the side. In fact, you might say I have Lego Hair.

Awesome.

(Now that my youngest child is almost six months, I'll try to resume a semi-regular blogging schedule.)

Children of the Night

We're all big Twilight fans here at WEHTC™. Thus, in honor of the new movie, I thought I'd post some appropriate music by the band Vampire Weekend:

Cheerio.

'Tis the Seasons

At first I thought this ad might be a subtle jab at Kwanza. I mean, is the Gap really trying to break into the emerging pagan market? The whole "do what feels right" vibe at the end though makes me think that, the minds of the Gap's executives, leaving out followers of Thor just wouldn't be in the Christmas (oops, sorry), make that, holiday spirit.

Whatever Happened

to Whatever Happened to Crazy?

I got a job, foo's.

P.S. How has someone not used asked that question in a comment?

Big Jim Dywer's Theory of Notre Dame Football

Four of the five last coaches at Notre Dame have been failures. Faust was in way over his head but recruited well. Willingham, being way over his head, tried the alternative and decided not to recruit at all. For some reason, this tactic proved to be equally unsuccessful. Davie, had decent defenses, but recruited in fits and never developed a competent offence. Weis recruited very well but never adjusted to the college game. The fifth, Holtz, was a good coach and won the national championship.

My theory goes that a competent (i.e. not necessarily good) coach can regularly win 10 games at Notre Dame, which would put us in contention for a BCS game every year and an occasional run at a national title. Notre Dame should therefore hire a competent-to-great football coach. Urban Meyer, Nick Saban, and Bob Stoops aren't coming to Notre Dame. Brian Kelly is 12-0 and scored 45 points on a Pit team, which beat ND. It is debatable whether a single started on Cincinnati's offense would start at ND. Brian Kelly has now turned around 3 college programs. Brian Kelly is at the least a competent coach. Hire Brian Kelly.

BREAKING NEWS

Big Jim Dwyer has received footage of the model for John Tenuta's blitz schemes. Watch the whole video for context, but pay careful attention to 3:40-4:15.

Get it? Got it. Good.

Newsflash!

Two items have crossed my desk that demand the widest circulation possible. Naturally, posting it here would most effectively disseminate this information.

First, we've got a man fulfilling the American Dream, i.e. fighting off a cougar with a chainsaw to save your wife and kids. There's not video included, but I imagine it went down something like this:



The article did say the cougar was starving, so just imagine ears on top of the zombies. A boomstick would have just been unfair. Dustin, was a man's man, and took on the beast fair and square.

In other news, I've often wondered what would happen in the Oscar Meir Wienermobile got in a crash. I now know.



Carry on.

Watch Out, World!

Big Jim's finally got his hands on a digital camera, courtesy of the 'rents for his graduation (kindergarten).

Also. An ANNOUNCEMENT. Due to the tomb-like silence residing in this particular web address, I've decided to change to digs and move to Rico-Land. Who knows the wonders that Rico and Big Jim will come up with as they will now inhabit the same city for the first time since the halcyon days of 2005? One can only hope that their hijinks will be regularly blogged in a style befitting their magnificence.

Right: Big Jim's mug of tea on the dining room table, truly pushing the Sony DSC-W290 to its limits.

Movin' On Up

Just downloaded two programs yesterday that have ended Adobe Reader's tryannical reign over me, i.e. slow load times both off and online, giant size, and slowing down of the computer, all especial issues for those stylish enough to own an HP mini.

First we have FoxIt Reader for all your pdf reading needs. At 7.63 MB, it's less than a 10th the size of Adobe Acrobat.

To expand my pdf capabilities, I also downloaded PDF Fill's trial version, which comes with the tools to split and join pdfs, something I've been wanting to have for a long time. The program's primary purpose is to allow the user to type onto any pdf, useful for forms I guess, but I don't plan on using it thusly, espcially since it leaves its watermark on those documents. No watermark for the splitting and the joining. The whole program's 33.8 MB.

So we have increased capability, faster load times, and the two programs combined are half the size of Adobe Reader. Did I mention that they're both free? Yea, progress.

What Happens When a Stoppable Force Meets a Moveable Object?

A question posed by my little brother deserves a wider audience. Who would win a fight, this guy:

or this guy:

?

As my sister said, we can't be sure, but there would be a lot of hugs.

This Post Is Brought to You by the Letters K and P

Whilst reading the Gospel of Matthew in Greek this afternoon, I wrote down nine words to memorize.

pēchus - cubit
krinon - lily
kribanos - earthen vessel, pot, pan
karphos - a dry particle, dry stalk
klauthmos - a weeping, wailing
peran - on the other side of, across
potapos - from what country?
embrimaomai - snort with rage, be indignant
ktaomai - possess
pēra - wallet, scrip, knapsack

(For those that are unaware, I make a check mark in my dictionary by each word that I look up. Three check marks mean a flashcard.)

The significance of this clustering I read to our readers.

Bonus points for those who can identify the chapters. Hint: karphos. Negative points for those who were going to correct me and suggest I write kappa and pi.

Snake bites Man? Boring.

On the other hand:

Man Bites Snake in Epic Struggle

. . . Mr Nyaumbe bit the snake on the tip of the tail during the exhausting battle in the village of Sabaki.

Police rescued Mr Nyaumbe and captured the 13ft (4m) reptile, before taking it to a sanctuary, but it later escaped.

The victim told police he managed to reach his mobile phone from his pocket to raise the alarm when the python momentarily eased its grip after hauling him up a tree on Saturday evening.

Mr Nyaumbe used his shirt to smother the snake's head and prevent it from swallowing him.

And that's why I always carry a cell phone. Yeesh.

Late Is Better than Never

This past Thursday's Gospel, John 8:51-59 (Douay-Rheims):

⁵¹ Amen, amen I say to you: If any man keep my word, he shall not see death for ever. ⁵² The Jews therefore said: Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest: If any man keep my word, he shall not taste death for ever. ⁵³ Art thou greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? and the prophets are dead. Whom dost thou make thyself? ⁵⁴ Jesus answered: If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father that glorifieth me, of whom you say that he is your God. ⁵⁵ And you have not known him, but I know him. And if I shall say that I know him not, I shall be like to you, a liar. But I do know him, and do keep his word. ⁵⁶ Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see my day: he saw it, and was glad. ⁵⁷ The Jews therefore said to him: Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? ⁵⁸ Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am. ⁵⁹ They took up stones therefore to cast at him. But Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple.

Chesterton's take from The Everlasting Man:

Above all, would not such a new reader of the New Testament stumble over something that would startle him much more than it startles us? I have here more than once attempted the rather impossible task of reversing time and the method; and in fancy looking forward to the facts instead of backward through the memories. So I have imagined the monster that man might have seemed at first to the mere nature around him. We should have a worse shock if we really imagined the nature of Christ named for the first time. What should we feel at the first whisper of a certain suggestion about a certain man? Certainly it is not for us to blame anybody who should find that first wild whisper merely impious and insane. On the contrary, stumbling on that rock of scandal is the first step. Stark staring incredulity is a far more loyal tribute to that truth than a modernist metaphysic would make it out merely a matter of degree. It were better to rend our robes with a great cry against blasphemy, like Caiaphas in the judgment, or to lay hold of the man as a maniac possessed of devils like the kinsmen and the crowd, than to stand stupidly debating fine shades of pantheism in the presence of so catastrophic a claim. There is more of the wisdom that is one with surprise in any simple person full of the sensitiveness of simplicity, who should expect the grass to wither and the birds to drop dead out of the air when a strolling carpenter's apprentice said calmly and almost carelessly like one looking over his shoulder: 'Before Abraham was, I am.'

Happy Holy Week, y'all.

Genius

Not the whole thing. Most of it is just mildly amusing. Kindly fast forward to 3:30 and prepare for socks-knocking-off-ness.

Who Shot Who in the What Now?

Since I'm currently writing a paper about Spartacus, I thought I'd trot out this old chestnut.

Single tears rock!

It's a boy!

Thwarted

Catchy tune, good lyrics, even an engaging video (though I'm not really a music video guy), but they can't make up for a truly excrable refrain:

For some better Stereophonics songs, there's A Thousand Trees, More Life in Tramp's Vest, Mr. Writer, or Caravan Holiday (live and acoustic unfortunately).  Kelly Jones has a fabulously unique voice, and I love the effect of the way he can just pile on words in "A Thousand Trees" or "More Life in a Tramp's Vest."  Maybe he should have a poetry album?

This post is dedicated to Rico, who I think rightly diagnosed the thoroughly inadequate response level from our massive readership.

A Lenten suggestion

Perhaps Big Jim could give up "not blogging" for Lent.

And the rest of you chuckleheads could give up "not commenting."

A turning point

There are moments in a man's life when he comes to great realizations about his existence. Moments when a great self-truth crystallizes in his mind.

Last week I got into a car accident. (Short story: I was at fault. I slid on ice. It was the old car.) I took my car in for an estimate today, and they needed to keep it overnight before they could give me the full estimate. In the meantime, they offered to give me a rental car for the day.

As it turns out, Hertz was very low on vehicles and had just two available when I got there. My choice was stark: Would I go with the sleek and stylish Ford Mustang or the functional yet boxy Toyota Sienna? The rental guy picked me up to take me back to the agency in the Mustang. It was all I could do to stuff the car seat in the back seat, let alone get it installed.

Needless to say, tonight I am the proud driver of a minivan.

Blue-Gold game?

April 18, 2009. Sunny (or not) South Bend, Indiana. 2009 Notre Dame Blue-Gold game. Tailgating with a beautiful Deepwater Blue Hyundai Santa Fe. Will YOU be there?