May 31, 2010

JNJ News Network

The Sovereign Committee Of Blog Excellence (SCOBE) released its nominees for the Worst Blog On the Internet today. For the first time in the history of SCOBE, only one blog name was put up to win this demoralizing award, The Jos Know of Blogspot.com. In years past, at least five blogs have been nominated and the winner is only chosen after careful consideration by all head board members for SCOBE. When asked to comment on the change in protocal, President of SCOBE Peter Bitterman replied, "Normally we find a handful of blogs that fit all of our criteria without one standing out as a clear winner. We usually must dig deeper into the blog archives to make our final decision. However, this year, The Jos Know had such poor performance that it stood out as our clear choice without further deliberation. It is sad, really. It is our sincere hope that this award will be a wake up call to the authors of this blog."


The Worst Blog award was established in 2005 after it became clear that every woman and her grandmother felt she was qualified to run a blog worthy of regular readership. SCOBE official I. B. Sour is quoted saying, "Women tend to think that the general public wants to read sporadic drivel about cleaning, grocery shopping, and dirty diapers. This is a travesty that must be corrected." To qualify for this award, a blog must have very limited readership, have a clear lack of regular posting, and have a severe decline in postings in the past year.

The Jos Know blog authors Joanna Villanova* of Mobile, Alabama* and Johanna Preston* of Tempe, Arizona* were contacted for comments, but chose not to comment on the record. A close friend of Mrs. Preston was quoted saying, "These women are deeply saddened by this characterization of their blog. They have vowed to do better, but are surprised that SCOBE is not more understanding of the fact that homeschooling, raising large families, taking care of invalid husbands, and starting new business ventures keep them from more frequent postings. They do expect the quality and quantity of their postings to increase in the near future."
 
*Names and locations have been changed to protect the innocent.
 
ETA:  Sorry the comments were lost on this...I flipped out thinking it sounded too harsh, deleted it, then learned it wasn't actually offensive and put it back up.  Hey, I'm a woman, which means I have a God given right to change my mind, right?

Houston, We have a kitchen...

...well, sort of.  Here's how it looks now:

We got all the new counter tops put in yesterday.  This morning, the plumber came and verified that the gas hookup on the cook top was right and installed the faucet and all the sink things.  Isn't it beautiful?

As for that sink, that is a major sink, baby!  It is a granite composite sink, which is the most durable sink type available.  It is heat, scratch, and stain resistant.  The one we got has an extra large tub on the left so I can wash anything without struggling to fit it under the faucet!  It is also almost 11 inches deep!  Man, that's deep!  It remains to be determined whether or not I like the undermounted sink.  I know people who love it, but my mom is not in love with her undermount.  We'll see.  It is the more modern look, though.

Now that the counter tops and sink are in, we have a list of things to do:  change out the electrical outlets, bringing them up to code and making them white; restain the cabinets - we are going to go for the darkest brown stain we can get; tile in a backsplash; and repaint the walls - Jerry's never been in love with the yellow, and it doesn't look the greatest with our new color scheme.  Of course, new tile floors would be awesome, but aren't likely to happen.  Oh, and wouldn't a black refrigerator really complete the whole look?

Step Four

The pictures aren't the best, but since some people are getting impatient...

...in with the new.  The first pieces go in!

Hello, beautiful granite!

Step Three

Bye, bye counter top part 1!

Bye, bye counter top part 2!

Bye, bye to the evidence of my ignorance - and good riddance!

Out with the old, and...

Step Two

Bye, bye backsplash!

Bye, bye wretched porcelain sink!

Step One

Before

24 Weeks.

Sorry, but since I'm always the one taking the pictures I can never get my face in.  Besides, I don't want to scare you off.  This morning I was hold Lily after she had hurt herself.  I had her propped up on top of my belly and Rachel said, "Mom, Lily is sitting on Isaac."  It was really funny.

Is it Monday again already?

Where does time go? Especially during T-Ball season, I think it just vanishes into thin air! I haven't really done a Mini Post Monday in a couple of weeks because of our crazy schedule, but I think I have a few things to post today!

• It is the last week of T-ball.  I am actually a bit sad about that because we have had so much fun going to practices and games as a family.  However, we have had a lot of rained out games this season, and rather than extend the season, they have crammed all the make-up games into this week, which means we have 10 t-ball games this week.  Yes, you read that right!  Often we have two games at the same time at two different fields.  It is a divide and conquer sort of week!
• Jerry's parents came down from Ohio this week so that they could see the boys play.  Originally, they thought they would see 3 games.  Hehehe.  Well, they wanted to see t-ball, right?
• Jerry replaced the flooring in the hallway leading out to our garage.  When we bought the house, it had orange peel & stick vinyl squares that look like they were out of date already when the house was built, and it has been pretty low on our list to replace it until now.  We found some great travertine tiles on clearance at a tile store and snatched them up!  The hallway now looks beautiful!

New, lovely tile.  You can barely see the before tile in the picture below, but try, because it is classic.

• We've been doing a lot of science experimenting around here lately.  We did one where we grew mold on bread.  I had to go buy bread for this since we don't keep it in the house, and this experiment showed me that even if our allergies improve to the point that we can have bread, we won't be buying generic bread from the store!  It took three weeks for damp bread to mold in the bag!  There's more than a few preservatives in that bread...  We also talked about air power and wind power.  We did a couple of experiments for that which were both fun. 

Three whole weeks for that little spot of mold toward the bottom left of the bread.  Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Here is Aaron blowing on the cardboard "wheel" we made which turns the straw, which raises the paper clip tied to the string tied to the straw.  Got it?

This is a baloon tied to a straw on a thread which went across the length of the boy's room.  When Aaron took the clip off the baloon and released the air, that baloon shot across their room so fast you could hardly see it!
• I thought I'd give you a "before" picture on the bathroom we remodeled.  This is what the bathroom looked like when we bought the house.  I think I like it better now! :)  (In trying to find a picture of the whole finished thing now, I really couldn't find one...I'll have to post a complete "finished" picture soon.)

I really don't know what these people were thinking with this decor...I guess to each his own!