Quite frankly, this warning is crap.

Leandra recently bought a refurbished iPod and the sticker to the left was attached. I find it mildly insulting. Stealing what music, and from whom? The biggest record companies would love for us to pay each time we hear a song - is anything less stealing?

And really, do I need a major company chiding us on behavior? Why not eat my peas (yuck) or wipe my nose? How about this apple—don’t steal from customers. Plenty of people have lost access to songs they’ve legally purchased and apple’s solution is to buy them again. Digital rights management (DRM) doesn’t stop dedicated pirates, but it does make things more complicated for everyone else. I’d also like to see apple put their money where their mouth is and release DRM-free songs from companies that allow it, but they don’t seem to have much interest in it. Or how about designing iPods that not only look good but have batteries that last or are replaceable (gasp!)? So apple, get off the soapbox, you don’t have the moral high ground here.

Now that I have a little free time (no more photos to edit!), I started a new painting…

The above progress is the result of about 40 minutes of “art time” before Lost came on last night. :) I really like the colors so far and am hoping to have it mostly completed so I can bring it for critique at the PSNC meeting on Saturday.

Happy Valentine’s Day and to show I care… I’ve posted the London photos! My aunt Kim and her boyfriend Jules spoiled us with their company and we really crammed in a lot of sites during our four days there. We are looking forward to going back for Wimbledon in the near future (and hopefully the dollar will have gained some ground by then!)

As with the South Africa photos, all the pics are indexed on our site and hosted on flickr.

After sorting through about 2000 photos, we narrowed it down to 200! Please note that all the pics are indexed on our site and hosted on flickr, so comments and other flickry goodness are available for those inclined. You can also revisit our posts from the trip by clicking on the South Africa tag.

Now that the South Africa photos are up, Leandra can start working on the London photos!

British Air just announced a major change in their baggage allowance: checking more than 1 bag per ticket will now cost an extra $160-$240 (at the current 2 dollars to 1 pound conversion) per 50 lb bag. Interesting to note that they are giving one week advance notice. While this doesn’t apply to US routes yet (probably due to the competition on those routes) it could change at any time.

To me, it’s yet another reason not to fly British Air if I can help it. We were quite disappointed with our recent experience flying the long-haul routes to Cape Town through London. The seats in World Traveller were even more cramped than a US domestic flight, the food was really bad, and all four flights, on four different dates, were delayed. And I still shudder everytime I think about Heathrow. British Air was by far the worst part of our otherwise very enjoyable trip.

(yeah right.)

I can maybe see Tiffani(-Amber) Thiessen and Drew Barrymore, but Michael Phelps? Hmm.

Silliness courtesy of myheritage.com

I received my new Dell XPS 410 today, and I’ve been busy uninstalling unwanted software and updating Windows. The photo to the left shows why that takes a while… and there were an additional 16 updates after those were complete.

Really, it’s a bit silly that a brand new computer isn’t more up-to-date from the factory.

On the bright side, it looks like I may have received some hardware upgrades for free. More to follow later.

I am almost over the outcome of the game… on one hand I am happy to have a vested interest in the Big Game, while on the other hand I want to throttle Rex Grossman. So there you go.

Anyhoo, the pizza turned out yummy… but I think I needed to bake it about 5-6 minutes longer.

Gino’s East Pizza

1 cup of warm water
1 package yeast (2½ tsps)
dash of granulated sugar
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tbsp peanut oil
2½ cups unbleached white flour
Yellow food coloring (optional)
1 cup mozzarella cheese
1 cup tomato sauce

Put the water in the mixer and add yeast and a dash of sugar. Let the yeast foam up to be sure that it’s active then add the rest of the ingredients including the flour. (Optional: add ½ teaspoon of yellow food coloring.)

Using a dough hook, knead the dough until it is well combined. If the dough is sticky add a little more flour, the dough should be moist but not sticky. Knead the dough for 10 minutes, then put it in the oven (turned off) to rise. The longer you let the dough rise the more “yeasty” the dough will taste.

Preheat oven to 375. After the dough has risen take your deep dish pizza pan (or a 9-inch round cake pan with straight sides) and coat the inside of it with a very healthy coating of melted butter. Roll the dough out to about 1/4 inch thick and lay it in the pan, pressing the dough with your fingers. Pinch the overhanging dough up along the sides of the pan.

Put 1 cup (or more) of mozzarella cheese in the bottom of the crust, then cover the cheese with the tomato sauce. (I used canned diced tomatoes with italian seasoning and Newman’s Own marinara sauce mixed together in a blender to minimize tomato chunks because I have a picky husband. Hi Eric!)

At this point I added some freshly grated pecorino romano cheese and a drizzle of olive oil to the top.

Bake in the oven until the crust starts to brown and the cheese bubbles up through the sauce, about 25-30 minutes. Messy and good.

…with a decidedly Chicago slant. :)

end of Superbowl XVI
@9:57 - well, at least we made it to the Superbowl, right?
@9:49 - I am really glad I don’t have a room full of people around me. (I am grumpy.)
@9:45 - incomplete pass or a fumble, does it really matter?
@9:39 - Hester hasn’t had another chance for a good return… can’t blame the Colts.
@9:36 - Manning is sacked!
@9:31 - what did I just say?!?! I’m curious to see how Grossman is going to get out of being held personally responsible if the Bears lose.
@9:30 - Clark gives us a 1st down, slow and steady guys.
@9:25 - yep. call stands. 17-29
@9:22 - Hayden intercepts and runs it back for a touchdown. Under review, but I think he stayed inbounds. Grossman is not my favorite person currently.
@9:21 - Moooooose!
@9:17 - nice stop for 4th and 8.
end of third quarter
@9:09 - rats.
@9:07 - please let it stay an incomplete pass. please!
@9:03 - Gould good from 44 yards. 17-22
@8:58 - unnecessary roughness! we have the ball on the Indy 40.
@8:56 - why would Robert Goulet want to pour hot coffee on my keyboard?
Read more

I plan on making a deep dish pizza on Sunday, so if it works out, I’ll share the recipe with you guys(es)! :)