HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Lori and I had another GREAT weekend!

Lori and I had another GREAT weekend! Even though there was NO snuggling at all. Yes, I know your all shocked we didn’t snuggle, but I was still a bit under the weather from what I assume to be eating bad pork chops and Lori’s Aunt Flow was visiting this week. Sooooooooo, it was a weekend of not getting dressed, making fresh bread and watching horror movies.

Today, I'm going to tell you about making fresh bread.

Lori brought over her bread machine on Friday and Saturday we made two kinds of bread. This is her bread machine.


First I looked up the bread machine directions and a couple of recipes on the Internet. Then I went shopping for the ingredients we needed while Lori showered. That was the only time either of us was dressed the entire weekend.

The first loaf of bread we made was an “Herb Bread”. Well, Lori and the bread machine did everything, I mostly just watched. Doesn't it look good?

HERB BREAD

INGREDIENTS

1 cup warm milk (70 to 80 degrees F)
1 egg
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1/4 cup dried minced onion
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons dried parsley flakes
1 teaspoon dried oregano
3 1/2 cups bread flour
2 teaspoons active dry yeast (Rapid Rise Yeast if available)

DIRECTIONS

In a bread machine pan, place all ingredients in order suggested by manufacturer. Ingredients are for Large Loaf (about 1.5 lbs.). Select basic bread setting. Choose crust color and loaf size if available. Bakes according to bread machine directions (check dough after 5 minutes of mixing; add 1 to 2 tablespoons water or flour if needed).

Lori changed the ingredients a little. She added 1 teaspoon of Italian Seasoning instead of the oregano. I’d set the crust for Light and Lori thinks maybe add more Italian Seasoning, but if you don’t, you will still enjoy it very much. It was very tasty and I recommend it.

I never saw bread that was made like this before. I couldn't believe how large a loaf it made.



Look how different it looks from the potato bread I normally eat.


We had the bread that night with dinner, I made a meatloaf. I used a meatloaf mix (beef, pork and veal combo) for the meatloaf and made peas and scalloped potatoes.

I mixed the meatloaf mix with an onion soup mix, bread crumbs, and a egg for the meatloaf and mixed BBQ sauce and Saucy Susan for a glaze. The meatloaf was excellent if I do say so myself!

We liked the way the bread turned out so much, we decided to make an “English Muffin Bread” for Sunday morning breakfast. The machine has a timer option. We set it for when we thought we would want to eat and the machine turns on and had it ready when we got up.

English Muffin Bread (For Bread Machines)

Recipe By: The Bread Machine Cookbook by Donna German

1 ¼ C Water
2 Tsp. Sugar
1 Tsp. Salt
¼ Tsp. Baking Soda
3 C Bread Flour
3 TBS Nonfat Dry Milk
2 ¼ Tsp. Yeast (Rapid Rise Yeast if available)

Note: Ingredients are for Large Loaf (about 1.5 lbs.), adjust # of servings for Medium or Small loaf. Put all ingredients in machine in the order suggested by your machine’s manufacturer and fire it up on the regular bread cycle. The top of the loaf should come out sunken, this is normal. The texture and taste is just like English Muffins, this is GREAT for toasting!

I didn’t take any pictures of that one, but take it from me, it looked good and was excellent as well.

Lori left the bread machine here so we can make more when we feel like it. I had no idea I was so easy to make fresh bread. If I had known, I would have bought one of these bread machine years ago. I LOVE, JUST LOVE BREAD! I can’t wait to try more bread recipes.

Just In Case You Forgot........

Swimming Pool Memories 2006 HNT

Remember when a swamp covered my swimming pool?


Remember when Lori and I worked so hard cleaning the pool to get it opened for the summer?


And Lori was the first person to christen the pool that day by taking a dip?


Remember when Lori and her kids came over and we had Forth of July pool party?




And I showed off my awesome talent for belly flops diving?



Remember when the pool started leaking and I fixed the leak by replacing the elbow under the skimmer?


Remember when Lori’s family and her brother’s family all came over and we had another pool party?



Remember the skinny-dipping?



Remember breakfast on the deck by the pool?


And the day I painted Lori's toenails?


So do we.

That’s why it was such a sad day last Sunday when it was time to close the pool until next year.



We had a lot of great times with that pool. Times we will never forget.

Product Testing

I started filling out those on line survey some time ago. You know the kind, answer some questions and be awarded some points. When you get enough points you pick a prize.

I did that for a while and then I got a survey last July asking me if I drank coffee, how much, etc. I answered the questions and they told me I qualified to test some coffee for them and did I want to test some? They said they would be sending me some coffee and at the end of a period of time, I just had to agree to answer questions about the coffee and let them know what I thought.

Sure I answered. Why not? I'll take pretty much anything if it's free.

A few weeks later three cans of coffee showed up at my door. Well, it really didn't just show up. The UPS guy dropped them off.


The coffee was pretty good.

I eventually got an email from them a few weeks later asking me to go to their web site and answer some questions about the coffee. I tried, but couldn't because I had some trouble signing on to their web site. I was disappointed because I thought that since I got the free coffee, but didn't answer the questions, they would drop me from the testing part.

But I was wrong.

A few weeks ago, which is now three months later, I got a survey asking about my usage of an automatic dish washer. I do use one, so I answered the questions. At the end of the survey, they told me I qualified, and asked me if I wanted to test some dish washer detergent.

NICE! More free shit!

I said yes and last week the UPS guy dropped off three bottles of the stuff.

I tried it that same day. Ain't it pretty?


They want me to try it for four weeks and answer some questions. Then try it for eight more weeks and answer some more questions.

No problem guys! You just keep sending me free stuff, and I'll try as much of it as you want.

BTW, I recently signed up to view emails for some company. I get money to view emails. I only get about 2 or 3 cents for each one I look at, but it's free money, so I'm doing it.

I love this survey stuff!



Edit: Due to the requests from a couple of hot babes, here is the url for the two survey web sites I use. The first one is the one that sends me the free stuff to try.

https://www.opinionoutpost.com/

http://www.mysurvey.com/

I Laughed Until I Cried

You have to listen to this. It is so frigging funny.

Giving A Call Back

Tom Mabe's funny revenge on a telemarketer. The only telemarketing
call you'll be glad you listened too. 3 1/2 minute audio.

http://lerman.biz/pics/Gallery52.html

Want to watch the shark dive?

Rachel Ray had her crew at the Atlantis Marine World Aquarium a week or so ago to film a shark dive segment for her new TV show. If your interested in seeing what the shark dive Lori and I went on is like, check out her show when it airs. Here are the times it airs in my neck of the woods.

Thursday, October 26 at 10am on ABC and repeated at 3pm on TV-55 here on Long Island

Shark Dive HNT

Last Saturday Lori and I went to the Atlantis Marine World Aquarium in Riverhead here on Long Island, New York to go on a shark dive. We each got this souvenir towel when we were done. If you want to read all about it and see lots and lots of pictures, check out the post below.




PS
I know I look like shit in that picture and I have "bed hair". We had just gotten up and Lori wanted to take a picture of me with the towel so we didn't forget.

The Shark Dive!

Last Saturday Lori and I went to the Atlantis Marine World Aquarium in Riverhead here on Long Island, New York to go on a shark dive. Atlantis has a 120,000 gallon tank with 10 sharks, a loggerhead sea turtle, a grouper, a moray eel and a lot of assorted other fish. The Shark Dive consists of a brief educational program about sharks, a scuba lesson about the equipment we will be using, safety briefing (that was pretty much just "KEEP YOUR FUCKING HANDS INSIDE THE SHARK CAGE") and the dive itself.

Lori works at the aquarium and was required to go on the shark dive. The employees that have contact with the customers are required to experience first hand the many things the aquarium offers to see and do so they can better explain what they are really like, not just what they think they are like. The most exciting is the Shark Dive. Since she worked at the aquarium, she didn't have to pay to go on the dive, but I did. The normal charge is $155, but I got it for 1/2-price as her guest.

Saturday afternoon we arrived at the aquarium early so we had plenty of time before the shark dive. We went into the gift shop and bought an underwater disposable camera. We both thought pictures from our perspective inside the shark cage would be pretty cool. (Just for the record, none of the pictures came out.)

At 2:00 we met one of the instructors in front of one of the exhibits. Her job was to talk about what kinds of underwater life we would be encountering on the dive. This took about a ½ hour, most of which was by the shark exhibit. The call it the “Lost City of Atlantis Shark Exhibit”.

The shark exhibit is in a 120,000-gallon tank. You can look into the exhibit through large windows in the sides of the tank or in the water from a walkway around the top. There are tons of different types of fish in the tank besides the sharks. They even have a loggerhead sea turtle. Here are a few shots of what we saw in the shark tank.



I couldn't get good shots of the "good ones", so here are some pictures I found on the Internet. In order, loggerhead turtle, grouper, nurse shark and the one with all the teeth, the tiger sand shark.




When the instructor was done with her part, she took us upstairs to hand us over to the dive master. When we got upstairs we saw, I guess, about 50 people waiting to see the shark dive. The instructor says that the shark dive has become one of the most popular things at the aquarium to see.

We met Neil, the dive master who talked a little about what we would be doing. He explained things like the shark cage, the equipment we would be using and getting into a wet suit. The water in the tank is at 72F so a wet suit is definitely necessary.


After the initial briefing by Neil, we went into the changing area and got into our wet suits and then Neil helped us on with the weight belts.


Here we are ready to go.



But first, one last kiss in case we get eaten by the sharks.



Then we got into the shark cage. This is the picture the aquarium instructor took for our 8x10 souvenir photograph. We each got one.



Next we put on our masks. The each mask has a microphone and an earphone so we could talk to each other and listen to the the instructor up above as she talked more about the things in the tank.



Well, time to go swim with the fishes. Bye, bye! Bye, bye!



Then the cage was pushed out into the middle of the tank.


We waited a minute while Neil checked to make sure we both were ready to do this. We both gave him the go ahead and began lowering into the water.


When the cage hit the water, the water began leaking into the wet suits and the shock of how cold the water was hit us. You see, wet suits are called wet suits because you get wet while you are in the water. The 72F water leaks in through the openings for the arms, legs and neck. The water is quickly warmed by your body heat so the shock of the cold water lasts for just a few minutes.

The cage is lowered until just our head are above the water. They stopped at this level so we could check the masks for fit and adjust them if they leaked. They also wanted to see how we handled being underwater.


All of this was new to Lori, but most wasn’t to me. I became a certified scuba diver in the winter of 1972. I became interested in scuba diving after taking a couple of dives while on my honeymoon in Acapulco, Mexico.

We were instructed to squat down and put our head under the water to make sure they fit correctly and didn't leak. Neil adjusted the masks a bit. Lori was very nervous, but gave the go ahead to go a little deeper.


The cage was now at a level where the top of the cage was out of the water, but we were completely submerged and could look around. It took a few minutes for Lori to get used to breathing with a regulator. At first, she had a little difficulty because she was nervous, but soon got used to it. I guess we were at this level for about 5 minutes when Lori asked to go deeper.

The cage was lowered a little more and was now completely covered by the water.


Pretty soon Lori was really getting into this and she asked to go down even farther. She was enjoying it so much, that eventually she asked that the shark cage be lowered right to the bottom. Here are some shots Lori’s daughter and son took of us through the glass in the sides of the tank.



Before you know it, our 30 minutes were up and we were brought up to the surface and the fun was over.



We survived the encounter with the sharks!



They gave us souvenir shark teeth to commemorate the day.



We were only supposed to get one shark tooth, but Lori arranged for us to get two. The larger one in the photo is the souvenir you can buy in the gift shop. The smaller one is from one of the sand tiger sharks in the exhibit. Lori asked one of the diver at the aquarium that maintains the tanks, to get a couple for us from the tank. He made a special dive the week before and got us each one.

WE HAD A BALL!