Ben Benner’s Blog

I took the photos a while ago, but haven’t really had a chance to put together a post.

(One of my gifts has been taking up a lot of my ‘free’ time.)

I’ll let you guys figure out which one.

Last year my mother-in-law, Brenda got me a cookie basket (mmmm… cookies). This year, to be a bit more healthy I got a fruit basket (with a balloon). The basket was mostly melon, which I will have to admit I am not a huge fan of. I have on occasion eaten a few pieces of musk melon, but not a fan. So I let Gina eat the melon, she LOVES it. I really enjoyed the grapes, strawberries, apples (dipped in cholocate) and the pineapple stars.

Thanks MOM(-in-law)!!!

Our good friend John Hale got me a 4th Gen Nano, in light of the fact that Steve Jobs stole my last one.

Thank You John!!!

This brings us to what the wife got me for my birthday.

The first thing I will mention is that she got me a Neti pot. Which I actually used, after weeks of it sitting in my bathroom, in the box. I NEEDED it when I was sick to help remove the pressure from the sinuses that were giving me a serious headache.

The next thing she got me was pretty much the only thing left on my list.

The Nerf N-Strike Vulcan EBF-25 gun. It is a fully automatic, belt fed NERF machine gun.

Because of the fact that while shooting the dogs might be fun (namely the evil little black and white one), the fun would be short lived as the darts would probably mean costly trips to the emergency vet, the gun is staying at the office.

The gun is a bit louder than I originally was expecting. I didn’t think it would be silent, but not quite as loud as it is. However, the speed at which it can burn through the full 25 dart belt is quite impressive. But the noise makes it like a after 5pm toy. (unlike the revolvers which are more of a ‘not on the phone right now’ kind of toy)

I also bought myself a couple of gifts, Civilization Revolution (for the Xbox360 and the Nintendo DS-Lite).

The folks at Firaxis did a great job of optomizing the play control of the game for both the Xbox360 and DS-Lite. As a long time Civ player, I really enjoy the fast paced action of the game. They made certain parts of the game simpler, in a good way. Except one.

They only give you one Nuke. For whatever reason, as Jeremy can (and does) comment on, I seem to like games with Nukes. In part, because I actually use them. In Rise of Nations, I can be found to use them to help level the playing field. In Civ3 and Civ4, there were a few times I found myself at a relative stalemate (cold war if you will) and had enough cities with high production, to be able to build enough of a nuke stockpile to be able to hit every city of my computer opponent, in a single turn.

The one thing I will say about the nuke in CivRevolution, is that rather than simply eliminate the enemy units (and reduce the population of a city) as it does in the other Civ games, the Nuke in CivRevolution completely removes the city in question off the map, nothing but a smoking crater.

Well, I need to pack it in and get to bed.

Laterz

I have been wanting to make sugar cookies for a few weeks now. But for one reason or another, it just hasn’t worked out.

That is until say about now.

Well, I haven’t made them yet, but I will be making them tonight. I am going to use a recipe from the Thespian Cookbook.

“THESPIAN COOKBOOK: A treasury of favorite on stage and off stage recipes of Troupe 3911”

The cookbook I have is probably from 1994, give or take a year. If memory serves it was $10 and one of the ever ongoing fundraisers that we held for the Troupe 3911.

The book has seen better days and as such I have on several occasions said I should transcribe it. Well, I started doing that today. I have 6 pages done, which doesn’t sound like much, but it is a good start.

I am going to try to finish the cookies before I pop out to the store, though I might need to cut that short. I have had a few flashbacks whilst typing away, reminiscing over a few items that I haven’t had in a decade (Russian Tea) and some that Gina made for me the other day (Meringue Surprises).

Given that I don’t have an official hobby at the moment (video games don’t really count, neither does work). I was thinking that I should try making every item in the Thespian cookbook, take pictures and then compile the pictures into a book. I have looked at doing a book, using Lulu.com a few times now. But I lead a relatively boring life (no one wants to read about how I managed to guided the Russians to victory in Civilization Revolution, or do you?) and I just haven’t had a real creative streak lately. So I figure, why not a cookbook.

I don’t think this will count as plagiarism, being that I am not going to claim to have created the recipes. I am thinking I will add a couple of recipes to the mix, possibly my recipe for Chili and my recipe for pulled pork. I will also make the digital data available to whomever is currently running Troupe 3911. (Pretty sure Troupe 3911 is still around.)

Well, I need to get to the store before it gets too late.

I can’t wait to have some Russian Tea.

Laterz

This is day two of the funk.

I feel a little bit better than yesterday, but yet just as bad. My nose isn’t running like it was yesterday, but I am way more tired and I have a cough now.

Well, I need to lay down for a nap.

Laterz.