Entries Tagged 'at play' ↓
August 2nd, 2008 — at play
Well, at least a Christmas treat. This recipe is one my mom has always done as part of her annual batch of Christmas cookies, and other than the spritz cookies is probably my personal favorite. It really doesn’t have to be a Christmas only cookie/bar, but maybe that is part of it’s appeal?
Toffee Squares
- 3 C Quick Oats
- 3/4 C melted margarine or butter
- 3/4 C brown sugar
- 1/4 C + 2 Tbsp dark corn syrup
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 1/2 tsp vanilla
- Food coloring, if desired
- 1 C semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/4 C chopped nuts
Pour melted butter over oats and mix well. Add sugar, syrup, salt and vanilla along with a few drops of red or green food coloring, if desired, and blend well.
Pack firmly in a well-greased 8 x 8 pan. (Glass works best) and bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes. (The center will soft, but will firm up when cooling. Do not over-bake.)
Pour chocolate chips on top, cover with a large cookie sheet. Remove cover after a few minutes, when the chips are melted. Spread chocolate and sprinkle with nuts, if desired.
Once set, cut in to 1-inch squares. Store in air-tight container.
Yer not getting any nutritional info, cause well.. these ain’t. Any benefit you might get from the oats is pretty much drowned out by the sugar and butter and well, the chocolate. But so what? They taste wonderful!
July 28th, 2008 — at play
Ok, being sick this weekend has ben a joy. But one good thing to come of it, I’ve been going through my pinned posts from Bloglines and cleaning things up a bit. During one brief period of consciousnous early this morning I came back across the following sites that let you play around with photos.
wanokoto - this Japanese site (with a bit of off kilter English translation) takes your photo and ages it to look like it was taken back in the 40’s or something. The interface is bout as simple as you can get, you browse for a local file or plug in the url of a picture that’s already online and click the “convert” button. Here I took a panoramic shot of the Capital from my recent DC trip, and here’s how it turned out. To save the converted photo you need to right-click and save the image.
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July 25th, 2008 — at play
Since I was out in VA last weekend, I was not part of the record crowds going to see The Dark Knight. I decided to go to a place right near work tonight to catch it.
It started out with a bit of good action, rolling into some things that you can tell are laying the ground work for the big clash between Joker and Batman. Then about an hour into the 150 minute epic, right when we are going to get to see the first real confrontation between Bruce Wayne and Rachel, everything goes dark.
Now, before those who haven’t seen it accuse me of giving away the story - or those that did see it get too confused, let me clarify. The movie didn’t just go black, the entire theater did. Well, at least until the emergency lights kicked in. Granted, I didn’t know it was the whole theater until a couple minutes later when I headed out to the lobby to see what was up.
After about another 10-15 min the employees started letting folks know they were giving refunds (actually vouchers) and aking folks to head out. Last I heard as I was heading to the car was that they were not expecting the power to be back on for 60 to 90 minutes. It was a fairly major problem, power seemed to be out for blocks around the theater. Course, probably won’t find out what happened… with the power.
I’ll have to try and catch the movie again tomorrow.
July 22nd, 2008 — at play, ramblings
Ok, got back to DC last night, and got ready to do some sightseeing today. The following is notes I wrote towards the end of the day, just a stream of thoughts during my journey back home and later typed up.
7/21/2008, about 7:00PM I covered a lot of ground in DC today. Got off the Metro a bit after 10 this morning and turned West down the mall, heading towards the Washington Monument. It’s free to go up in it, but by the time I was there (bout 10:45-11am), the only times available were after 6pm. I think you can reserve spots ahead of time, good to know if I ever when I go back again someday. From there it was to the WWII memorial, down the reflecting pool and on to the Lincoln Memorial.
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July 20th, 2008 — at play
On the way back towards DC today, we decided to take the scenic route, heading south out of Christiansburg to pick up the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Blue Ridge Parkway is a recreational motor road, running over 400 miles from the Great Smoky Mountains to Shenandoah National Parks.
We started our trip with breakfast at a little place just off the parkway in Tuggle’s Gap. The restaurant has been in continuous operation since before the parkway was done, and has some motel rooms as well. We spent a few hours meandering North up the parkway, stopping at a LOT of overlooks along the way.
Then we had lunch near Roanoke and hopped back on the interstate to take in part of the Shenandoah National Park. I basically starts where the Parkway ends. We had to get to DC, so didn’t make as many stops there before heading down the mountains to catch the highway to take us towards DC.
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July 19th, 2008 — at play
It is.. well, was - Saturday AM. Dad and I were trying to decide what to do with our day off here in VA. Sight-seeing, yes, but where. I do a bit of a google search and find some information on the Cascades Recreation Area, which is part of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests.
The Recreation area has a picnic area, but the showcase is a trail that leadsup Little Stoney Creek to the Cascades waterfall. According the website:
The trail itself is a thing of beauty also. Much of it has been carved directly into existing rock and there are numerous stone steps, walls and walkways. Four bridges allow hikers to get even closer to the creek and be surrounded by the sounds and sprays of falling water. Since the trail is so close to the creek, rocks may be slippery or icy, so be careful.
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