Nov 28
Truth be told … the history of Grandee’s InFamous Pretzel Jello reverberates with joy and merriment. It is one of the family traditions that is traditionally different every time it is made.
This year’s Thanksgiving Pretzel Jello presented two unique additions to the lore of tasty combination of sweet jello, salty pretzels, and creamy topping.
For whatever reason, this year’s version seemed to be less, well, jiggly than years past, having set-up more firmly. Theories abound, but perhaps some extra time out on the counter for some — or all — of the ingredients made a difference.
But more significantly, the 2008 Pretzel Jello fortuitously provided an extra cushion for the also-now-sadly-traditional (and semi-annual) dropping of the digital camera.
The camera has its own tether for my wrist — now standard practice — but it wasn’t in place during a fumbled camera hand-off between myself and Grandee. I did manage to grab the leash, but not before a corner of the camera hit the jello.
Fortunately, the camera — and the Pretzel Jello — both lived to see another day. 
Nov 27
After a false start last year, we did finally participate in Sacramento’s “Run to Feed the Hungry” this morning, in honor of Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
We got up early this morning to participate in the 5K Walk portion of the event. Although to be honest, it felt a bit more involved than that, since we had to drive there in the first place, then park, then walk to the race,then walk/run the race, then walk back, then wait in the parking lot, then drive home. We completed the official 5K in about an hour, but we also walked a 2K round-trip from the parking lot to the Start/Finish line.
Here’s the real map of our day, along with the Twitter recaps:
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Nov 25
You know we love Elva’s Coffee Stop.
Among the many reasons we visit almost every day is Elva’s commitment to helping our community. She often hosts special events to raise money or collect things for those less fortunate than the rest of us.
For this year’s Thanksgiving Turkey Drive at Elva’s, our family chipped in by donating a pair of tickets to a Sharks hockey game. Everyone who donated got a raffle ticket, and Elva invited Felicia to draw the winner.
Of course, she was quite honored to play her part in helping our community.
Nov 18
For those of you who can’t wait for your next fix of video from the Martin-Keller Family, we have a bit of technical news: We’re moving our hi-definition videos to Motionbox.
Earlier this year, we started sharing video on the Vimeo website, because it offered really pretty pictures with unlimited storage space (although there was a modest weekly upload limit). But late last month, Vimeo unilaterally scaled back uploading privileges and eliminated a lot of the helpful categorizing options. To get them back, I have to buy a pro account.
Faced with Vimeo’s extortion, I looked around for another site, and found Motionbox, which I like a whole lot better. Read the rest of this entry »
Nov 13
Actually, we were having plenty of fun in Disneyland, and we didn’t really need much in the way of rescuing. In fact, the Buzz Lightyear AstroBlasters ride wasn’t even on our radar before we arrived at the park. Bu we accidentally discovered what turned out to be one of our favorite rides.
We went on it at least four times, and loved its interactivity. Essentially, you ride along in your spaceship while shooting electronic targets and defeating the evil Emperor Zurg. You actually get points for accuracy, and it was fun to improve our scores each time.
It was also fun to video tape. Here’s a compilation of video from some of our trips through space:
Nov 11
For some reason, Disney’s California Adventure theme park is much-maligned. We’re not sure why, because we’ve always seemed to enjoy it — although I admit we haven’t really spent a lot of time there.
But we did enjoy the attractions, including the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, which had some fun rope bridges and a really awesome fire jumping tire swing:
In addition to that, we had fun trying the roller coasters. Felicia loved Mulholland Madness as much as Jocelyn did five years ago, and Jocelyn was also very excited to ride California Screaming (although it took a while to warm up to the idea).
And Karen and I both like the Tower of Terror, but we couldn’t get Jocelyn to try it. Maybe next time? Once every five years?
