Thursday, April 02, 2020

My Favorite Seinfeld Episodes

Since Covid-19 is forcing us all inside, we have been watching all of the Seinfeld episodes.
Below is my list of favorites. I'm also going to post some of my favorites list from my old website so I don't lose my important lists!
Favorite Seinfeld episodes:
RankingSeasonEpisode NameDescription
18  PotholeJerry's girlfriend Jenna uses a toothbrush that Jerry put in a toilet and Elaine must hide in a closet to order fish from a Chinese restaurant
Kramer adopts part of a highway and paints over the lines to make wide lanes
29  Puerto Rican DayAll four are stuck in Jerry's Saab because of Puerto Rican Day
Kramer accidently sets Puerto Rican flag on fire and gets chased
39  FroggerElaine eats $29,000 cake
George has to get across the street to save his high score on frogger
49  Reverse PeepholeJerry carrys a small men's carryall and wears Puddy's (fur) coat and Puddy gets an 8 ball coat
George has so much in his wallet that it explodes
59  StrongboxJerry refuses to admit someone into his apartment
Kramer hides a key to his strongbox in the parrot's food (the guy Jerry refused to admit into the building owns the parrot)
67  Wig MasterGeorge finds a car lot for only $75 a month but finds a used condom in the car and questions a prostitute about it as susan walks up
Kramer wears the backup "Technicolor Dreamcoat" and white hat and the NYPD questions him when he pulls a prostitute out of the back of his car
79  SlicerKramer gets a meat slicer and Elaine borrows it to feed her neighbors cat
George tries to get himself removed from a picture on his boss's desk, but the boss is removed from the photo instead then drawn in as a cartoon
87  Soup NaziElaine is banned from the soup nazi for a year
Elaine wanted an armoire and had Kramer stand by it but two tough guys took it so he got one from the soup nazi.  Gave it to Elaine and the soup nazi's recipes were in it
96  JimmyElaine dates a guy who always calls himself "Jimmy" (3rd person) and sells strange looking shoes to Kramer
Kramer goes to the dentist and gets novocaine he meets Mel Torme in the street and is a guest at AMCA (able mentally challenged adults) 
107  Shower headElaine gets a physical and fails because of opium so Peterman fires her
The shower heads in Jerry's building are being replaced with a new low-flow model and the Costanzas move to Florida because the Seinfelds don't want them to
115  Raincoats 1 and 2Jerry's parents are staying with him before they leave for France and he finally gets time alone with his girlfriend during shindler's List
Kramer makes a deal to sell belt-less raincoats with Jerry's parents a delay makes them miss their flight to France and George sells his father's moth ridden clothes
125  marine biologistKramer tries to improve his golf swing on the sand at a beach and hits a whale
George poses as a marine biologist and when a whale washes ashore he is called on to save the whale
133  NoteGeroge gets a massage from a man and says "I think it moved"
Kramer thinks he spots Joe Dimaggio in dinky donuts and tries to break his concentration
142  jacketJerry buys an expensive leather jacket with a colorful lining and George can't get the Les Miserables song out of his head
Jerry and George suffer while waiting with Elaine's father and Jerry's coat gets ruined
158  PackageElaine has a rash and has difficulty finding a doctor so she tries to lift her medical records 
Uncle Leo signs for a package for Jerry and his oven explodes so the package is damaged.  Newman grills Jerry on the package since it is insured through the mail
164  ImplantJerry dumps his girlfriend when he thinks her breasts are a result of implants, but Elaine finds out otherwise in the sauna room
George accompanies his girlfriend to her aunt's wake so he can get a 50% discount on airfare
178  Yada YadaGeorge's girlfriend uses Yada yada often
Jerry is accused of being an anti-dentite at Mickey's wedding 
189  Serenity NowElaine finds out she has shiksappeal
George's Dad must say "serenity now" to reduce his blood pressure
192  Phone MessageGeorge leaves nasty messages on his girlfriend's answering machine and convinces Jerry to help him switch the tape out
Jerry and his girlfriend have a disagreement about a pants commercial
206  Fusilli JerryKramer gets a new license plate that says "assman"
Kramer makes a statue of Jerry out of fusilli pasta and makes the most of his new license plates
216  RaceJerry meets a rival who thinks he cheated in a high school race
Elaine finds out her boyfriend is a communist and Kramer gets hired as a santa and spouts off communist propaganda
225  ConversionGeorge becomes Latvian Orthodox for one of his girlfriends and Kramer goes to the church where one of the sisters becomes infatuated with him
Jerry finds antifungal cream in his girlfriend's medicine cabinet
234  handicap spotGeorge parks his father's car in a handicap spot
An angry mob trashes the car when a disabled women gets injured
246  Mom&Pop storeA salesman convinces George to buy a convertible from Jon Voight
Elaine wins tickets to Thanksgiving Day Parade for Mr. Pitt who always wanted to be in it
257  CalzoneGeroge buys calzones for George Steinbrenner
Kramer likes to wear clothes right out of the dryer and starts using the oven when he runs out of quarters
263  StrandedJerry and Elaine go to a party with George and are stranded by George
The host of the party comes to visit Jerry later 
271  Stock tipJerry and George get a stock tip from a broker who ends up in the hospital, Jerry sells and the stock rises
Jerry confronts the dry cleaners about shrinking his shirts

Wednesday, January 08, 2020

Out West Trip 2018

I've been gone for awhile but realized that I had nowhere to store my musings and what is going on in our family. So I'll start with our vacation out west last summer in 2018. Yes that was a long time ago.

Thursday June 21
    • Flew to Phoenix
    • Rented a car and drove to hotel near south rim Grand Canyon
    • Maswik lodge
    • The Maswik lodge didn't have a pool which was the one thing we wished it had. We went straight to bed - we were exhausted!
  • Friday June 22
    • Early in the morning we got up to hike the Bright Angel trail. It was HOT so we wanted an early start. We each got a bottle of powerade to drink but halfway through (1.5 miles down the canyon) we filled it with water. Erik brought a backpack filled with granola bars that we ate at the halfway point. The way back up was difficult but we all made it!
    • At 5:30pm in the evening we went to the Bright Angel lodge for the sunset tour. This was beautiful and we got to hear some information about the Grand Canyon. I recommend it!
  • Saturday June 23
    • We walked the rim trail which was 5 miles. Even though it was longer than yesterday we didn't have any complaining since it was relatively flat. Sarah had a blister but luckily Joel had a bandaid. What a boy scout!




  • Sunday June 24
    • Left the Grand Canyon at 7am. This got us to Zion around lunchtime. Because of the government shutdown we were not sure if the busses would take us to the different places to hike but they did.
    • We hiked the Kayenta trail and the lower Emerald Pools trail. Even though the Kayenta trail was listed as a moderate trail it was very rocky and at points there was a dropoff that looked rather precarious. It was a great hike though.
    • Next we drove from Zion to Bryce Canyon and stopped to take pictures at checkerboard mesa. At each of the National Parks the kids have gotten crushed pennies. It is a cheap and fun souvenir.
    • At Bryce Canyon we did the Sunrise to Sunset point hike. It was a short hike (after a long day that was nice) but we were able to see the Bryce Amphitheater.
We stayed at the Best Western Ruby Inn
  • Monday June 25
    • This was a long day of driving. We stopped at Provo, Utah and met Jenna's friend Lauren for lunch at a gaming restaurant - the Good Moves cafe. We walked around the city and even considered looking for Brandon Sanderson's office at Brigham Young University.
    • Then we drove to Pocatello and stayed at the Pocatello Holiday Inn.
  • Tuesday June 26
    • We drove to the Grand Tetons. This was a beautiful National park. We hiked to Phelps Lake and saw the most spectacular views. No we didn't get a picture of all of looking ;).
    • Erik and Jenna waded through the freezing cold water too. Yikes
    • Next we drove to Yellowstone National Park. We stayed at the Super 8 Gardiner in Montana.


  • Wednesday June 27
    • Yellowstone in a Day tour. This tour I booked (and it was crazy expensive) because I read that parking was difficult in Yellowstone. My hope was that this bus tour would be able to park where we weren't. It was a disappointment. Basically the tour took us around - which was neat! But didn't go to some spots because parking was too bad. They basically told us we need to come back when parking is better. Even so we had an absolute blast! We saw Old Faithful and the mud pots. We saw an area that looked and smelled like a dragon lived there. There was also a rainbow near a waterfall we saw. In addition there were tons of wildlife including buffalo.

  • Thursday June 28
    • We drove through the Bear Tooth Pass. This was simultaneously frightening and beautiful. Erik drove which was great since he may have gotten extremely motion sick if he didn't drive.
    • On the way we visited Old Trail Town - old west town: Old Trail Town, 1831 Demaris Dr, Cody, WY 82414. Then stayed in WY.


Hampton Inn and Suites Riverton

  • Friday June 29
    • We got up early to drive to Colorado. On the way to the house we would stay with the cousins, we went to Rocky Mountain National Park. We did a hike to gem lake. It was a tough hike and we had to take some breaks but it was beautiful. This was our last day of hiking and we loved it.



We stayed at the Colorado house until July 1 when we flew home. We saw Erik's cousins and their families and had a fabulous time together. It was an amazing trip. 





Friday, January 05, 2018

December fun

Erik is Snape
December flew by in a whirlwind. I'm still not sure where it went. We had 2 birthday parties in December. Sarah had a Harry Potter birthday party complete with a scavenger hunt for horcruxes, potions class, painting wands, and pizza and cake. The kids loved the party and I did too (I'm not a muggle!) Erik was a convincing Snape as well!

Platform 9 3/4
 For Jenna's birthday party we went to see Star Wars the Last Jedi and then to Bibibop for lunch. I took several girls with me and they all had a great time. These last two Star Wars movies are shaping up to be really good - way better than episodes 1, 2, and 3. Although that's not saying much.....
Jenna's party
 I also snapped a picture of Matthew painting his pinewood derby car. It is something he has been working on with Erik. I love that they are working together on this project. The race is in March so they have plenty of time to get it going fast.
Matthew painting in action
 Over Christmas Dave, Becca, Charlotte, baby 2 (Alex?), Joel, Megan, and Grandma and Grandpa were here. We had a full house and plenty of fun! It is so wonderful to spend time with with Erik's family - they are amazing! Dave and Jenna happened to be wearing the same nerdy shirt on Christmas morning so I had to snap a picture.
Dave and Jenna are twins!
 We all received fantastic gifts but the best part was being together. We played tons of games (sometimes until 3:30am!), took the kids to several fun places, and ate a LOT!
One of Jenna's favorite signs
 Sarah got her ears pierced over Christmas break. They did one ear at a time and in between Sarah teared up. She didn't want the other ear done but finally agreed. Seeing Sarah cry made Charlotte hesitant to want her ears pierced too (it made me hesitant and mine are already pierced!). I'm glad Sarah was brave!
Ears pierced!
 Another important thing we did was have a frappuccino tasting. We got 5 drinks and I made everyone taste them and fill out tasting sheets.
Frappuccino tasting
Obviously I created a spreadsheet and calculated that Dairy Queen had the best drink and especially best taste/prize/oz


Drink Price Size Price/oz Average Ranking Taste/price/oz
Diary Queen  $ 4.99 24  $  0.21 1.875 1 15.03
Starbucks  $ 5.25 26  $  0.20 2.500 2 12.38
Tim Hortons  $ 3.49 16  $  0.22 2.750 3 10.32
McDonalds  $ 3.49 22  $  0.16 3.625 4 8.67
Dunkin Donuts  $ 5.49 32  $  0.17 4.250 5 4.37



 Jon and Michelle came up to visit on Thursday. We loved having them here. Jon lit some brandy on fire and poured it over Christmas plum pudding cake that he made. It was divine! Several other guys came over for a poker night which was a blast for Erik!
Jon lighting up a Christmas plum pudding cake
 After the poker night Jon, Michelle, Dave, Joel, and Erik drank a lot of scotch.
drinking nasty scotch
 Charlotte, Sarah and Matthew enjoy cooking and the three of them made cinnamon bread. It turned out really good even though I left them to do it by themselves. Sarah is a great reader so I assumed it would turn out good (ie no eggshells in the bread).
making bread
 The last day everyone was here we had a pizza tasting. We got 4 pizzas

Donatos won this taste test but it was a difficult choice.
Pizza Price Average Ranking
Donatos  $ 14.00 2.000 1
Massey  $ 17.00 2.000 2
Flyers  $ 12.00 2.714 3
Jets  $   9.00 2.857 4

As expected, Matthew needs glasses. He actually needed glasses at the beginning of the year but the eye doctor said that he would probably lose them. Now the school called me and said he really needed glasses. We took him to the eye doctor and his eyes were pretty bad. So he got his first pair of glasses today. He was so excited and said he looks smart now. He also said "I think this is how God sees things." SO CUTE! Then at dinner he ate all his dinner (much to my amazement) and said it was because he could finally see his food.
Matthew's glasses
December just flew by and now we are in 2018. Time to make New Years Resolutions. I have the same resolution to do 2 pull ups. I will have that resolution until I actually accomplish it!

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Our new bedroom!

For our Anniversary I got Erik a sword. When we got married I got him a sword, then I got him one on our 10th anniversary and this year another one on our 20th. So he decided he was done with the baby blue color of our bedroom (who knew?) and wanted to make our room into a castle. I'm down with that! Buying one sword turned into scope creep.

So we got wallpaper that looks like stone for one wall. It actually looks like stone! Then painted the rest of the room gray. We bought a new bed, new dressers, lamps, nightstands, and decorations. Here are some before and after pics:
Our bed - we didn't even have a frame!

old hand me down dressers

Got this dresser used when we got married 20 years ago!
 And we present - the transformation!!
Notice the tapestry above the bed

Doesn't that wall look sweet!

The swords on the wall
We are pretty excited about how this turned out. The curtains we bought block out the light. And one Saturday I slept in until 10! Yipee!! I actually think I get better sleep with these curtains.

This is the first year I didn't get a picture of the kids prior to trick or treating. It was because Jenna went with a group of girls, Sarah went with a group of girls and we only had Matthew at home. Erik took him around. They still had a great time and we have tons of candy. Jenna was a crazy cat lady, Matthew was Captain America, and Sarah was a hufflepuff. 
This picture is so Jenna

Matthew as Captain America

Sarah as hufflepuff
 Our neighbor gave us tickets to the OSU-Penn State game. These were the best seats I've ever had. We had seat backs and were so close to the field. The game was incredible too - we had a great time! Even though it was freezing ;)
Our seats!


In other news:

  1. Erik went to England for 2 weeks for work. He had a fabulous time (I'm not sure he actually wanted to come home). He went to a board game club in the town he was staying twice. He won 3 out of 4 games. He also played D&D with a group of people from the office as well. Who knew there were so many nerds in England? On the weekend he rented a car and drove around to see castles. The only bad thing was that the food was not great. 
  2. Every 25 weeks Erik and I have a weight loss contest. I have won most of them and have picked activities such as going on the hocking valley train ride, going to transiberian orchestra, taking the whole family to the cheesecake factory, etc. Erik picked buying a doorbell last time. Our reward has to be less than $200. I just can't decide what I want this time. I thought of getting a pogo plus which helps you get pokemon faster or a subscription to kindle unlimited for the year. I just can't decide!
  3. I've rated a few books on goodreads for their annual readers choice awards. The best part was that Oathbringer (Brandon Sanderson's new book) was one of the finalists before it even came out!
  4. Our book club is reading Oathbringer. Yay!!! I'm also reading the newest Shadowhunter book by Cassandra Clare, the Bear and the Nightengale, Of Mess and Moxie by Jen Hatmaker, the next Monster Hunter book, and Forest of a Thousand Lanterns. So I've got a lot on my reading list now. 
  5. This semester I've had a lot of trouble with Android studio. Several students have not been able to get it working on their machines. It actually requires a good machine (not a laptop/tablet hybrid one of my students has - GAH!!). I've been working with IT to set up an environment for students. After testing it this week I think it is good to go! I actually thought about setting up my own server (amazon services) to do this but getting our own IT to do it is better and free for me.
  6. Can't wait for Thanksgiving tomorrow. I love lots of food and lots of family and friends!





Monday, October 23, 2017

Lots of trips!

The past several weeks Erik and I have traded traveling. He went to Chicago and Seattle for work, and I went to Geneva on the Lake (for fun) and Indianapolis for work. Now we are finally home, and hopefully home to stay! My Mom came to visit for her birthday. I made her a cherry chocolate cheesecake and zucchini lasagna rollups. She seemed to like it. We also went to spinning and body pump together at the Y. The teacher for body pump walked up to my mom and said she could leave at any time if she couldn't do it. Ha! She doesn't know my mom. My Mom is hard core. She can run circles around some of those 20 year olds. 
Happy 70th Mom!
 When Erik is traveling we tend to eat a lot of vegetables. Not everyone in my house is as excited about it as I am. I made pea soup one day and leek and potato soup another day. This is Sarah's face when I served the pea soup. She couldn't wait for Daddy to come home so she could eat bacon.
yum! Pea soup!
 My sisters, neighbor Sarah and her friend Leah all went to Geneva on the Lake for a girls trip. We had a fantastic time. On Saturday we went to 4 different wineries. I'm not a huge wine drinker but I loved the scenery. I tried a little of the wine and some I liked more than others. We ended up not eating lunch because we drank so much wine (probably not a good combination).  The five of us stayed in a little cottage right by the lake. The view was spectacular. We also got pedicures which I enjoyed!
Wine tasting

Us at a vineyard
 For dinner we went to the Old Mill restaurant. For an appetizer they had pierogi pizza which is basically pizza with mashed potatoes and a garlic butter sauce on it. Of course I had to try and duplicate it. I made mashed potatoes and homemade pizza crust. Then I put the potatoes along with some sauteed onions and 3 varieties of cheese on the crust and baked it. The mashed potato pizza was good but not great. Not as good as the restaurant's version. It was very heavy too. I also made a regular pizza for Matthew since there was no way he would eat mashed potato pizza. I'm not sure this experiment was successful.
Mashed potato pizza

Right on the lake
Those who know me know that I am an oreo connoisseur. I bought the new mystery oreos (which taste like fruity pebbles) and submitted my entry to win oreos. Because I need more oreos. 
Mystery oreos
Wednesday - Saturday the IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference was held in Indianapolis. This is a prestigious conference for Engineering Educators. I was excited to present my work on adding the raspberry pi to my CEIS100 course. The presentation went really well and I made a ton of contacts. I made several contacts at Ohio State which is good for collaboration or in case I need a job! Actually a woman from the University of Cincinnati tried to recruit me to teach there. She asked if I was happy at Devry. Ha! Not moving to Cincinnati.

Going to this conference made me realize how big makerspace is now. So  many universities are getting 3D printers and giving students pis or arduinos to create. Students like hands on and it really gives them an opportunity to be hands on. I've got some ideas of how I want to use the raspberry pi in my classes as well. In addition gamification is huge in education right now. I would love to figure out a way to add gamification to my online courses.

Unfortunately as soon as I left Sarah got strep throat. So she stayed home from school. Luckily Erik works from home so this wasn't too problematic.
A student project, 3D printed light scaffold from University of Florida
 I was in Indianapolis by myself but that didn't stop me from playing pokemon one night. I did 2 Entei raids and then started walking back to the hotel. One of the guys playing started walking with me and we were talking about our legendaries. Then he asked if I was married and said he was lonely. Dude I'm just here to play pokemon! Well and go to the conference. I do hope that my going to this conference and speaking raised the prestige of Devry in academia. That's my goal!
Me at the presentation

This upcoming session and the upcoming January session are going to be HARD! I have a new Advanced Visual basic class I'm teaching. I made videos explaining all the labs but still - it is an online course and that can be difficult (especially the first time you teach it). I'm teaching my mobile app class. This class is SO challenging because Android is quirky and Android studio can be a pain. So I need to meet with each student in a webex. I have 5 hours of webex a week scheduled for this. There are 20 students in the class so this is going to be difficult. I also am teaching a software engineering class I haven't taught before. I'd like to add github into the class because knowing version control is a good thing for students but this class is new and I'm not sure. I am still going to do it though. Finally I'm teaching onsite Friday nights CEIS100. Yuck! Friday nights!! At least this class is only 2 credit hours and I should be out of there at 9pm.

I need some prayer this session!!