Mild Amusement

I've never really been a huge television fan. There were some shows that I really like as a kid (the animated X Men and Batman shows come to mind), but I can't remember ever spending the whole day in front of the television. I would play video games for long stretches of time, but that seems different to me. I was trying to control the action, rather than just staring at the screen. Either way, that means I missed out on a lot of shows and movies. There are classic movies that I know about as general cultural awareness, but that I've never actually watched. This includes movies like "Casablanca," for example (I'll get around to it eventually). This phenomenon also encompasses more recent small screen hits, like "Breaking Bad" or "Game of Thrones." I've heard a lot about both of them, and I even have some vague inklings of key events in those series (I know to be very wary of a Red Wedding). But I've never actually sat down to watc...

The Mild Fiancée and I have a very interesting relationship to food. Between the two of us, we will eat just about anything  and seek out interesting food . We also spend time a good amount of time cooking an interesting diet , so things are never very dull in our kitchen or at our table. Basically, there's always a laugh or two to be had. The latest turn of events is that we've noticed that the Mild Fiancée likes to season her food a bit more than I do. Neither of us add so much that the food tastes bad, but it's readily apparent who adds more spices to the food. I don't just say that to avoid getting dirty looks; other people have complimented the Mild Fiancée's cooking for a very long time. She knows what she's doing in the kitchen. So, perhaps it's more appropriate to say that I add less seasoning to the food than the Mild Fiancée. I appreciate flavor as much as the next person, but I just prefer a bit less seasoning. There's no accounting for pr...

When I was a kid, my dad once showed me and my siblings how to make a pickle glow ... with electricity . I remember being both confused and amazed. It was precisely the sort of thing that a young boy who likes science would enjoy. As it turns out, you can do all sorts of really interesting stuff with household items. All you have to do is apply just the right stimuli or chemical, and something kind of amazing can happen. Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't warn you about that whole pickle thing. You're actually making a resistor out of the pickle, which means that electricity is flowing through the pickle. In fact, there's enough electricity going through the pickle that it can do you serious harm if you're not careful. Be careful if you try that at home, kids. Well, I came up with one of those types of experiments, complete with the associated danger, all by myself. In my case, I did so completely by accident. In order to replicate this particular experimen...

A while ago, I mentioned that the Mild Girlfriend and I had started taking dance classes (and I found myself involved in dance off shenanigans ). Well, I proposed and she said "yes," so the Mild Girlfriend became the Mild Fiancée. And since we had already started taking dance classes, we figured we'd just keep right on with them. The only difference was that we'd now be taking those classes with a purpose: we started working on something we could do at our wedding. That wasn't the intent from the outset (though it would've been awfully clever of me if it had been). We just started taking dance classes as a date night, figuring that it might be fun. And as it turned out, we enjoyed doing it together enough to stick with it. Having a little bit of extra practice for the Mild Wedding was just a nice bonus. So, we've been working on footwork, timing, and all sorts of other little things so that we can have some fun with our dances. On a related note, did ...

The Mild Fiancée and I are getting to the point in the wedding planning process where we have to taste/sample some of the food. At the end of the day, you want to make sure that you like the food that's being served to you and your guests. Of course, everyone has a different definition of what tastes good (more on that later), so it makes good logistical sense to try the food. It's also one of the parts in the process that people look forward to, so I expected some laughs. I did not, however, expect some of the other shenanigans. First of all, I should explain the general structure of the food tasting. For this particular venue, they do it in bulk. They open up one of the ballrooms, and invite dozens of couples. That way, they can cook all of the food, and have a big buffet. You try as much or as little of the food as you want, and you can go back for seconds or thirds of any items that you're unsure about. Well, that's the theory at least. If you're just flat out...

We've all got preferences. We have favorite colors, favorite TV shows, favorite foods, and favorite drinks . For the purposes of this post, let's talk about my favorite adult cocktail: the Moscow Mule . It's a really simple drink to make, but that's part of why I like it so much. You don't need fancy ingredients or an hour to prepare the drink. Vodka, ginger beer, and lime. That's pretty much all you need. It tastes smooth and clean, but it doesn't taste like fruit juice. All in all, it's a good drink. I mention this all so that it's apparent that I have had plenty of those drinks over the years. I have even had the individual ingredients by themselves several times. In fact, the Mild Fiancée also drinks this particular libation, and we have gotten to the point where we have a few favorite ginger beers. We're hardly connoisseurs, but since we've sampled a bunch, we've settled on some favorites. Some are spicier than others (it is ginger...

A little while ago, some of my cousins decided to do a White Elephant gift exchange. Unfortunately for us, we had a conflict on that date, so we opted out. We wouldn't have been able to get our gifts into the pile, and there would have been a mismatched number of gifts to people, so it didn't make much sense to us. It was a bit of a bummer, but we figured there would be other ways to hang out with the family. Well, fate has a funny way of mocking the best laid plans of mice and men . As it turns out, our other plans changed at the last minute, so we did end up showing up on the day of the gift exchange. We didn't find out until fairly late, so we figured we'd just watch and cheer people on. Even that plan, however, was not to be: a couple of my other cousins couldn't make it out, so the numbers didn't match up anyway. They were two people short, and there were two of us sitting on the sidelines. It worked out. Now, they had set a $5 limit on their gifts, so...