If you happen to have one of these mini cupcake makers, you can put a dollop of cookie dough in each of the cupcake spots and 11 minutes later – cookies. You may have to “pop” the tops on them at around 8 minutes. They usually bubble a bit. There was some highly scientific culinary experimentation involved in arriving at that 11 minute point. Earlier and they just fall apart; later and the cookies are pretty hard. Note we didn’t use liners, we just threw the dough right in. Oh, and they don’t turn out pretty....

We had a team celebration today at Kells and it was a rather fun murder mystery dinner (well, lunch) theater from Eddie May Mysteries. The idea is that, while you eat, there are actors who come in portraying different suspects in a murder mystery. You talk to them, they leave "clues" and "evidence" at your table, and at the end you have to figure out who the killer was. Our mystery took place supposedly in 1929, so all the actors had costumes on and acted like it was the roaring '20s. At one point, one of the...

Friday was Phoenix's first birthday, so on Saturday we had her party. From 2011 Phoenix's First Birthday Party The party was supposed to start at 12:30p, but everyone seemed to be there about an hour early, so it was anarchy from the...

I'm going to be doing most of my holiday shopping online (again) because crowded Black Friday malls stress me out (still). For that geek on your list, may I recommend ThinkGeek: It might be a good time to get a BigTrak Jr. or some Star Wars glassware...?

We were down quite a bit this year, back into the range we were at in 2006 - 2007. Again, it was a school night, but Halloween being on a Monday, we weren't coming off a weekend (like last year when Halloween was a Sunday). It's looking like when Halloween is in the middle of the week, we get a dip in visitors. Last year I mentioned I thought we'd be down this year and I was right. Cumulative data: ...

Back on the week of October 11, Jenn and I dropped Phoenix over at Grandma and Grandpa Illig's for a week and we went to Las Vegas. We've been to Vegas plenty of times and used to go almost yearly, but it'd been a couple of years and we were totally ready for a vacation. We stayed at Aria, which is one of the new hotels in the City Center development put up in the last couple of years. I totally recommend it. It's located right in the middle of the strip between Bellagio and Monte Carlo. It's very...

Or maybe it was thrown away for me, sort of. Regardless, it's the end of Saturday, and while I guess I could say I got some stuff done, I'm not 100% sure that much of it was worth doing. My mom came over to help out and watch Phoenix while Jenn worked on her Halloween costume and I got errands done. I definitely appreciate that help because, while I love Phoe with all my heart, she gets to be a handful and it gets hard to really get anything done when you have to watch her, too. Jenn...

A while ago I did a time lapse video of me building the Lego Imperial Shuttle kit and I thought I blogged it, but I guess not. Hmm. It took about 11 hours to build and I got it down to about three minutes in the film. I'm really pleased with the model - really well done and nice quality. I have it sitting on my desk at home now. If you want to see it better, open it up full screen in HD.

ThinkGeek has got some pretty cool stuff I may need to get to put together a little Star Wars cocktail party. First, gotta get me some of these glasses: Then, gotta get ice for the drinks: And, finally, some coasters to put the drinks on. Don't want to ruin my table's finish, right? Yeah, now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout.

Hypothetical situation: A coworker approaches you and asks you to help them out with something. It's a simple task like copying a file or changing a setting. This isn't the first time they've asked you to help them do this, and they say they can't do it themselves because of something they've known about for a while but haven't gotten around to addressing - their machine is malfunctioning, their account should have permissions on something but it doesn't, that sort of thing. Do you help? Honestly, in situations like this, I'm torn. The first time or...

I'm sensitive to smells. I think I get it from my mom, who is also sensitive to smells, though she really likes strong perfumes and scents whereas I really can't stand anything of volume. I can't really walk down the soap aisle at the store and I'm not a big fan of scented laundry soap or fabric softener. In most cases, I'd rather things just not have a smell. There are exceptions, of course. I like the smell of chocolate. I like the smell of coffee. I also like the smell of pipe tobacco that you get when...

I hate organizing events. I think if I was in a job interview where they ask you that question, "What's your biggest weakness?" my new answer would be "Organizing a successful event." It's not any one event that led me to this; it's more the ongoing experience of attempting to organize events that's brought it on. A long history of non-success. This includes, but is not limited to: Housewarming parties. General gatherings of friends. Birthday parties. Fireworks crews. Online gaming. ...

For the past few years, Jenn and I have been involved in running professional fireworks shows on the Fourth of July. It's a lot of fun, not like anything else most folks have done. We're taking a break this year, though, for a few reasons. First, the recent release of Me 2.0, also known as "my daughter," has added some complexity to things that wasn't previously there. She's a joy, and usually a pretty happy baby, but we can't have her on-site with us and we want to spend her first Independence Day with her. Second, and probably...

I associate Radio Shack with the DIY crowd - folks who probably know more than average about electronic componentry, or at least enough to be dangerous, and need someplace to get raw materials. Now, people can talk about how there's retail competition and all that noise, but I think differently. Let me lay the scene: I just put up some new surround speakers in my game room. The receiver I have in there doesn't have the fancy Audyssey sound balance microphone thingamajig on it so I have to balance the sound the old-school way: either by ear or...

I've been not-so-subtly influencing my six-month-old daughter in a geek-oriented direction. I already mentioned the Bigtrak Jr. I have waiting for her, but I've also sprung for some clothing items of choice: (I only bought the Wonder Woman superhero onesie, but the others may be appropriate at some point.) She's not quite ready for blocks, but soon I'll probably look at one of these two sets - Mad Scientist blocks or Periodic Table blocks. I'm not sure which. Fun stuff. I was also thinking last night that it's...