List #734: Things I enjoyed in Portland

List #734: Things I enjoyed in Portland

1. Going up into the snowy mountain for adventure

2. Meeting some cool people (and seeing some that I met in october again)

3. Long walks in the rain

4. Eating great soups and indian food and brunch

5. Powell's Books

6. bridges

7. A super cool waterfall

8. an eventful new year's eve party (that didn't quite make it to 12)

9. playing really nice guitars (at a number of locations)

10. almost going to the zoo

11. Eddie!

List #733: 5 Great Things about 2011

List #733: 5 Great Things about 2011

1. Girlfriend

2. UMD and DEHS hockey seasons

3. Wrote a cool song

4. Game of Thrones TV Show

5. Lots of cool concerts

List #732: 5 Worst Things about 2011

List #732: 5 Worst Things about 2011 (That I can remember right now (personal, not worldwide))

1. Twins' season

2. Land Grab (Library and Lake Vermillion)

3. Community being put on Hiatus

4. Another event

5. Facebook stops importing outside blogs

hmmmm.... it was a pretty good year

List #731: 5 Thoughts about Beer

List #731: 5 Thoughts about Beer

1. It makes me sleepy

2. I can't wait for this trend of "OMG MORE HOPS PLEASE" to be over

3. I like cloudy wheat beers and ones with fruit

4. Craft/Microbrews are like designer jeans... it's all about name and label

5. Pale Ale sounds like it should be light and refreshing... but it isn't. Hefeweizen sounds like it should be heavy and angry... but it isn't

List #730: 5 Foods that are just as good as cold leftovers

List #730: 5 Foods that are just as good as cold leftovers

1. Pizza

2. Lasagna

3. Macaroni and Cheese

4. Turkey

5. Beef and Broccoli

List #729: Favorite Foods of Christmas

List #729: Favorite Foods of Christmas

1. Lasagna

2. Spinach Bread

3. Morning Sunshine

4. Cocktail weeners

5. Smoked Whitefish, Trout and Salmon

6. Mexican Wedding Cakes

7. Seafoam Salad

List #728: A Sampling of this year's Christmas Loot

List #728: A Sampling of this year's Christmas Loot

1. Books: ("super sad true love story", "The Googlization of Everything." "Catching Fire" (not the hunger games one), "In A Silent Way: Joe Zawinul")

2. Awesome Nike pants

3. A display case of Lord of the Rings heroclix

4. An Apple and Orange

5. Amazon gift card.

6. 3 "achewood" collections

7. Glow-in-the-dark silly putty

8. Frosty Friends ornaments

9. Trader Joe's holiday beer

10. Electric Razor

11. many hours of ball hockey playing on the lake

12. Glass beads

List #727: A Sampling of Movies Watched on Christmas Eves Past

List #727: A Sampling of Movies Watched on Christmas Eves Past

1. Napoleon Dynamite

2. Dennis the Menace

3. Madeleine

4. Bend it like Beckham

5. Elf

6. Sesame Street Christmas

7. A Christmas Story

8. Bridesmaids

List #726: Favorite uses for Ham

List #726: Favorite uses for Ham

1. In Bean Soup

2. Fried for breakfast

3. Thinly sliced with swiss cheese on rye bread

4. In pasta salad with peas

5. a theoretical sub-component of SPAM

List #725: New Clothes for This Year

List #725: New Clothes for This Year(and for many years to come... budget <$100)

1. Navy pants

2. Light khaki pants

3. Brown pants

4. Brown corduroy pants

5. Dark blue-green shirt

6. Red shirt

List #724: Favorite Art Supplies

List #724: Favorite Art Supplies

1. Paper (especially construction paper and cardstock)

2. Colored Pencils

3. Crayons

4. Found/discarded Objects

5. Pipe Cleaners

6. Glow-in-the-dark paint

7. Fabrics

8. String (or yarn, or the plastic string)

9. Beads

10. Sharpies

List #723: 5 Thoughts on Phones

List #723: 5 Thoughts on Phones

1. Phones are devices you use to speak with someone who is far away. This defines their 'phone-ness'.

2. Comfort-in-hand, and on-ear, are key features of a phone, along with quality sound

3. Remember rotary dial phones? I do.

4. I used to have a good memory for phone numbers, but cell-phones killed that

5. I think that the i"phone" should be called the iPad Mini. (also, if you don't have one, you don't have one)

List #722: 5 Thoughts on Pizza

List #722: 5 Thoughts on Pizza

1. Deep Dish, Cornmeal and Butter Crust = yes

2. Sammy's makes a great thin crust pizza

3. I prefer wedges to squares, but squares are better if you want to eat a lot and can eat fast, since you can get more of the pizza

4. I'm pretty traditional as far as toppings and styles go, the only oddity is that I like good coleslaw on top of an already made cheese pizza

5. There is no such thing as bad pizza; pizza starts at good and goes to amazing

List #721: Favorite Hockey Games played

List #721: Favorite Hockey Games played

1. The Wheaton field hockey tournament

2. The Floor hockey IM game where I had 3 goals in 30 seconds

3. The GCS Field Hockey faculty game where I schooled AP and scored on a diving maneuver

4. Any of the 6 games where I scored a goal when I played organized hockey (through 5th grade)

5. The game where I didn't score in overtime against the twin cities team

6. Probably Ball hockey on christmas day

7. Alumni ice hockey games

List #720: Favorite Times of Day

List #720: Favorite Times of Day

1. 7:20 AM, Central (born!)

2. 1:37 exactly (it's an excellent time)

3. When it's 5 o'clock somewhere

4. In another life, siesta (the bestest time of day)

5. 12:09 MWF/12:17 TTH (lunch!)

List #719: 5 Favorite Hockey Games (watched)

List #719: 5 Favorite Hockey Games (watched)

1. Minnesota State AA Final, 1995

2. 2011 NCAA Final

3. The really long one between the Islanders and the Capitals in the playoffs in 1988(?). LaFontaine scored the winner.

4. Minnesota State AA Final, 1998

5. Northstars vs Red Wings, don't remember the year in the 80s, at the arena.

List #718: 5 Shows I've Been Enjoying on Netflix

List #718: 5 Shows I've Been Enjoying on Netflix

1. The League

2. Numb3rs

3. Malcom in the Middle

4. Gossip Girl (season 4)

5. The IT Crowd

List #717: Favorite Holiday Albums

List #717: Favorite Holiday Albums

1. Anything by Andy Williams

2. Low "Christmas"

3. Sesame Street Christmas

4. Bela Fleck and the Flecktones "Jingle All the Way"

5. Motown Christmas

6. Sufjan Stevens

7. anything with Christmas Carols played by brass quintets

8. Alvin and the Chipmunks christmas

List #716: 5 Thoughts about Pretzels

List #716: 5 Thoughts about Pretzels

1. They Rhyme

2. I'd like to learn how to make them

3. They're good with Hummus

4. The ones that come pre-flavored Buffalo style are really good

5. I haven't had a soft pretzel in several years.

List #715: Favorite Lord of the Rings Characters (books)

List #715: Favorite Lord of the Rings Characters (books, from when I originally read it)

1. Legolas

2. Pippin

3. Gandalf

4. Strider

5.Galadriel

6. Tom Bombadil

7. The Sackville-Bagginses

8. Eowyn

9. Shadowfax

10. Theoden

11. Glorfindel

List #714: Favorite Lord of the Rings Characters (films)

List #714: Favorite Lord of the Rings Characters (films)

1. Gollum

2. Gandalf

3. Merry/Pippin

4. Eowyn

5. Treebeard

6. Gimli

7. Aragorn

8. Faramir (extended edition)

9. Samwise Gamgee

10. Elrond

List #713: 5 Thoughts on Holiday Decoration

List #713: 5 Thoughts on Holiday Decoration

1. I like it to be well planned

2. No moving parts

3. No synchronized music/lights

4.While I love the smell of a real tree, I'm fine with the ease of a fake one

5. I still like icicle lights

List #712: Tablets or eReaders I'd Want if I wanted one

List #712: Tablets or eReaders I'd Want if I wanted one (and I'm not convinced that I do, but sometimes the techno-gadget lust sets in)

1. Kindle regular style (because it's just for reading and has buttons not touch screen)

2. Nook Color

3. Kindle 3G (because of the 3g... but I'm not a fan of the touch screen)

4. Kindle Fire (but the touch screen and less battery life are drawbacks)

5. I-pad (I hate it, and really have no need for most of its functions, but it feels really nice to hold)

List #711: 5 Thoughts on Convenience Stores

List #711: 5 Thoughts on Convenience Stores

1. Being allowed to walk to Food and Fuel and get candy was a special treat when I was young

2. I've never payed for gas inside

3. Duluth Minnesota has pretty good sushi in a gas-station

4. The One Stop used to be considered 'civilization' once upon a time

5. Showing the " per gallon price w/Car Wash" gas price on the signs is really annoying.

Bonus List #711b: Most Important Convenience Stores in my life (SEE List #557, because I didn't before I wrote this list)

1. the Food 'n' Fuel at the great and deadly conflux of streets where piedmont and arlington and 24th and skyline all met (no longer exists)

2. The BP station on Harper's Farm road (because I buy my gas there)

3. Tobies (because it was great to stop there for donuts before they raised the speed-limit and cars became more fuel efficient)

4. Whatever the one by the Miller Hill Mall is that has the Zen House (best 'gas station' sushi)

5. The One Stop. (sigh...)

List #710: Things Google has done that are less awesome recently

List #710: Things Google has done that are less awesome recently (but not yet evil)

1. Moved the "Advanced Search" option off of the screen and on to a menu

2. Removed the "+something" function from their searches (for the sake of their social network tool, which, sadly, isn't going to replace facebook)

3. The fixed "google bar" on top of gmail and google reader (it's too big -- shouldn't be more than a single 'line')

4. removal of the up and down arrows from scrolly-bars

List #709: 5 Thoughts on Duluth Public Schools

List #709: 5 Thoughts on Duluth Public Schools

1. You should support taxes that help them, because they produced me

2. One of my great desires as an elementary school student was to explore the then unused portions of Lincoln Middle School

3. Nettleton Magnet School was doing STEM before stem was the new sexy edu-trend

4. A surprising number of teachers/administrators 'followed me' from Middle School to High School.

5. I liked it when they had a Gifted and Talented program.

List #708: Thoughts on Viewing the St. Olaf Christmas Fest Live at a Movie Theater

List #708: Thoughts on Viewing the St. Olaf Christmas Fest Live at a Movie Theater

1. Aside from one small child, we were the youngest people there by at least 15 years

2. The videography was very well done

3. The sound was very good, but I was hoping for full crazy THX Suround Dolby whatever

4. I can't even imagine how big it must have sounded live

5. They tucked my brother way out in a corner of the stage, so it took me a while to find him (which gave me flashbacks), but his hair got decent screen time

6. The trumpet players in the orchestra got a work out

7. The St. Olaf Choir was really good (actually maybe too precise for some of the songs)

8. The Chapel Choir had the best musical selections (others thought the Manitou singers did)

9. There was no Jazz Band, so I still like the DEHS Christmas concert better ;)

10. It was way cooler than just singing for the White House (sorry Carleton... I promise that this is the only time where I think that the Oles win).

List #707: Favorite Things about Eating Pho?

List #707: Favorite Things about Eating Pho?

1. Thai Basil

2. The random cow parts that I don't know where they came from (because I always get whatever one on the menu has the most stuff)

3. The flavor of the brown sauce and Lime

4. Also getting Summer Rolls (and the peanut sauce)

5. The pleasant, but extremely, full feeling that even a small bowl induces

6. It usually means I've recently bought comics or gotten a hair cut

List #706: Things I will Miss Without Cable TV

List #706: Things I will Miss Without Cable TV

1. Occasional sports events (NCAA Hockey tournament)

2. getting missed sit-coms On-Demand

3. The clock on the converter box

4. The guide on the screen

List #705: Thoughts on Vegan Eating

List #705: Thoughts on Vegan Eating (which was my experiment this week)

1. Most of the stuff vegans can eat is pretty good, and I will eat it happily

2. Fake replacement foods should be avoided

3. If I had to be one or the other, I'd rather be vegetarian: Pizza!

4. I do like dried fruits and nuts, but yoghurt is needed for good smoothies

5. I'm glad that I have no qualms about meat eating

6. Peruvian chicken is what made me break my experiment early.

7. I didn't get super powers ala "Scott Pilgrim, vol. 3"

List #704: Frustrations of the Week

List #704: Frustrations of the Week

1. I'm not good at Ice Hockey

2. The Post Office has misplaced a package I'm expecting (missing since Nov. 18th, valued at $35)

3. Getting Verizon switched over

4. Not eating meat or dairy (but that's voluntary)