My first 09 prediction...

here's my first stab at a prediction for 2009...
I think 2009 is the year that high fiber steps out from the shadows and grabs the spotlight....we've already see it happen to food with multi-grain items being everywhere...but in 2009, i think metamucil, which has been around and living in obscurity for more than 80 years, will become the next Red Bull...They may need to do something about the name, but I believe that when 2010 comes along, I guarantee that I won't be the only one sipping a Stoli-Mucil.

Burning off the chicken fingers

A lot of people have told me that having 3 kids so close together in age would be great cause when they got older, they would "entertain" each other...guess these laps through the kitchen are what they were talking about....

Twenty (at least) Questions

We were pretty much snowed in on Sunday, and I spent a good amount of time with Sam, my 3 1/2 year old...I guess its age appropriate, but he asks a lot of questions...here's a running list of those asked during just a 15 minute sit down at the kitchen table....broken out into themes...(most of the time he asks his questions with the word "Right?" at the end of his sentence)

Hanukkah Related

• Do policemen save menorahs as well as people?
• Do policemen have memorahs? What about police ladies?
• Do policemen light the candles?
• This candle looks like a leaf, right?
• Hanukkah comes every month?
• What holiday comes in November, thanksgiving?
• my menorah looks beautiful, right?
• what's this hairy stuff again? (a pipe cleaner)
• Next week when i get bigger, i will celebrate christmas?
• do you get dreidels on Hanukkah?
  

While watching the patriots game on TV

• Why is there snow on tv also?
• Are they making snowballs?

Related to the movie Ratatouille

• all the cookers have buttons on their shirts, right dad?
• The cookers are all really silly, right dad?
  

School related

• every wednesday is show and tell, right?
• you can see what my job is in school right?
• i wasnt the door helper yet, right?

All people know what Spanish is, right?

Kentucky Fried Nasty

Tried a healthier approach to dinner last night, used ground flax seed to bread chicken cutlets....
i know what you're thinking, sounds putrid, right? must've been pretty disgusting, no?
well, in short, yeah, in retrospect, a pretty bad idea and while they didn't look terrible, they were basically inedible....

to

Netfilx vs. iTunes

With Tivo's new Netflix integration, there are now some interesting price comparisons for viewing online content on your TV...I've got AppleTV and Tivo, so if i want to watch for example, Heroes Season 1 in HD, I could purchase on iTunes for about $65...Or, I could watch as part of my Netflix account as part of my $20 a month membership which also gives me access to 3 at a time DVDs/Blu Ray discs. The one major drawback is that with Netflix, I would not be able to watch on my iPhone or iPod.

Sam's view of his mom and dad...

In pre-school, Sam was asked to cut out pictures of people to represent his family...Was a little disappointed to see that while he saw his mom as youthful, attractive and bordering on hot, he pegged me as a graying (though definitely distinguished) man, straight out of a flomax commercial...

Netflix/Tivo Integration Arrives

Was happy to find a new menu option on Tivo the other day called "Video On Demand", which now provides users with access to the hyped Netflix integration.
Based on my experience with the Tivo/Youtube integration, had pretty low expectations, but was pleasantly surprised at what I found. The UI was easy to navigate, and because you cannot select content via Tivo - instead you must add titles to your queue from a web browser, it is really easy to navigate in Tivo. (This could also be seen a bit of a drawback as you need to have access to the web to add new content to your Tivo queue, but I got around this by using my iPhone to add titles to my queue while i was watching).

Overall, it was a really good experience...Was able to watch a couple of standard quality programs as well as one HD quality movie. Also cool is the availability of complete seasons of TV programming - broken out episode by episode. I imagine this will cause some problems for iTunes pricing model...For example, I pay about $20 a month for a 3 at a time DVD plan on Netflix...With that, I get (at least today), all you can eat "Watch Instantly" content. If I wanted to watch a season of "The Office" on iTunes, that would run me about $20 on its own...With Netflix, I'd have access to that content as part of my flat fee.

So overall, I think the Tivo/Netflix integration is defintiely promising, and worth checking out.