{"id":257,"date":"2008-10-22T02:33:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-22T02:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/10\/a-bright-spot-in-a-gray-day.html"},"modified":"2012-05-20T16:26:31","modified_gmt":"2012-05-20T21:26:31","slug":"a-bright-spot-in-a-gray-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/10\/a-bright-spot-in-a-gray-day.html","title":{"rendered":"Nebraska Discoveries 7: Nebraska Popcorn & A Bright Spot in a Gray Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today has been gray and rainy all day. Ugh.<\/p>\n

Dave is in Michigan for a Google Earth conference<\/a>. I’m jealous. I love Google Earth and would LOVE to learn how to write code for overlaying data!<\/p>\n

So it’s just the boys and me tonight, so we had a laid-back afternoon\/evening. We built Legos, ate macaroni and cheese for dinner, popped some popcorn, watched some Return of the Jedi, and had a video teleconference with FotoMom<\/a> and her son Joey!<\/p>\n

I have to share the popcorn experience with you. I picked up an ear of popcorn<\/a> at the Arbor Day Farm<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
From 2008 10 21 BigRedPopcorn<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

So this is it. About $2 from the souvenir shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
From 2008 10 21 BigRedPopcorn<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

I like these instructions! So you can’t sue the company if your microwave explodes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
From 2008 10 21 BigRedPopcorn<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

So here’s the popping bag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
From 2008 10 21 BigRedPopcorn<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

And here’s the popping bag with the ear of corn it in, per the instructions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
From 2008 10 21 BigRedPopcorn<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The instructions say to fold down the bag THREE TIMES, which is what I do here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
From 2008 10 21 BigRedPopcorn<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The shots of the corn in the microwave popping didn’t come out, but this is the product when it’s done. For starters, I popped this about a minute longer than your standard Pop Secret or Orville Redenbacher’s and it DIDN’T BURN! The first kernels popping sends the cob bouncing in the bag in the oven, which the boys thought was really funny<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
From 2008 10 21 BigRedPopcorn<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

A closeup of the cob — several kernels popped and remained on the cob. Cool!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
From 2008 10 21 BigRedPopcorn<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The finished product. The one cob gave us about 1 1\/2 commercial bags worth of popped corn. Since this is about as pure as it gets, we had to season it ourselves. All I did in this case was drizzle 2 Tbsp. of melted salted butter on top. Perfection!<\/p>\n

So the boys and I sat down and devoured this popcorn while watching the first part of Return of the Jedi. Then Maryann chimed in on AIM<\/a> and we chatted for a few minutes. After all this time, I never got around to installing our web cam on our desktop computer…it’s a laptop webcam and Dave took the laptop with the software with him to Michigan. So we discussed letting our boys see each other and talk on the AIM webcam:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
From 2008 10 21 VideoTeleconWithMaryannJoey<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Joey and Timmy are showing each other their toy lightsabers. Joey’s is green (on the main screen) and Timmy’s is blue (on the inset screen). The laptop camera is on the left side of the picture, clipped to the left hand of my running trophy, which you can read about me winning here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The boys had a blast with this — I put the camera far enough away on the desk that both boys could easily be in Joey’s field of view and they had the best time exchanging stories and telling each other how much they miss each other (awwwww….).<\/p>\n

In a rare moment, I was able to get the webcam working in about 10 minutes…that’s the time it took to install the software and configure the video\/audio on the webcam. Usually something goes awry when I’m installing new hardware, but tonight we were lucky — I figured I’d be jinxed for sure with 3 little boys’ happiness riding on whether the software installed correctly!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today has been gray and rainy all day. Ugh. Dave is in Michigan for a Google Earth conference. I’m jealous. I love Google Earth and would LOVE to learn how to write code for overlaying data! So it’s just the boys and me tonight, so we had a laid-back afternoon\/evening. We built Legos, ate macaroni […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[12,14,68,249,4],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ycQ0-49","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2789,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2013\/12\/nebraska-discoveries-22-last-trip-to-nebraska.html","url_meta":{"origin":257,"position":0},"title":"Nebraska Discoveries 22: My last trip to Nebraska…for now.","date":"05 December 13","format":false,"excerpt":"Just before Thanksgiving I took one last trip to Offutt AFB in Nebraska. This time I was signing out of my unit at STRATCOM. The folks in my office took me out for a nice lunch at Sinful Burger, and I even caught one last Omaha-Offutt AMS chapter meeting to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"air force reserves\"","img":{"alt_text":"The Historic Fort Crook Suites are on \"General's Row\" on Offutt AFB.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/IMG_8067.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":650,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/09\/home-again-home-again-jiggity-jig.html","url_meta":{"origin":257,"position":1},"title":"Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig","date":"26 September 11","format":false,"excerpt":"I got home from Air Force Reserve duty Nebraska last Wednesday night. \u00a0It was my birthday, and the boys picked me up at the airport and we went out for Korean food at our new favorite Korean restaurant, called Okie Dokie in Fort Walton Beach. \u00a0It was a good week\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"air force reserves\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-Z1uTbLe6m_g\/Tn_utLRP6VI\/AAAAAAABaCI\/iRB0L9GM7-Y\/s640\/IMG_5616.JPG?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":425,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2010\/04\/nebraska-discoveries-2-flowering-trees.html","url_meta":{"origin":257,"position":2},"title":"Nebraska Discoveries 11: Flowering Trees","date":"17 April 10","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I went on a number of errands, including to our nearby model train store to pick up a boxcar Dave ordered, and to the local large children's consignment sale that's wrapping up this weekend. I decided to grab my camera and capture some of the pretty trees that are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"flowers\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":230,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/09\/nebraska-state-fair.html","url_meta":{"origin":257,"position":3},"title":"Nebraska Discoveries 4: The Nebraska State Fair","date":"02 September 08","format":false,"excerpt":"Today we paid a visit to the last day of the Nebraska State Fair in Lincoln. Unlike the North Carolina State Fair, this is somewhat smaller, mainly because most of the competitions are for youth, through their 4-H organizations. The highlight for me was the demolition derby. We never made\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"nebraska\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1037,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2012\/05\/nebraska-discoveries-10-the-keystone-trail-in-bellevue.html","url_meta":{"origin":257,"position":4},"title":"Nebraska Discoveries 21*: The Keystone Trail in Bellevue","date":"20 May 12","format":false,"excerpt":"* I plan to renumber\/redesignate my Nebraska-sightseeing-related blog posts into something more mangeable for search engines. Stay tuned, if you subscribe via RSS you might get inundated with updates. I'm not changing the text of the posts, just the titles and tagging. On Friday I took a short run on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"fitness\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/IMG_3415.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":471,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2010\/10\/nebraska-discoveries-9-runza.html","url_meta":{"origin":257,"position":5},"title":"Nebraska Discoveries 20: Runza","date":"07 October 10","format":false,"excerpt":"Tonight for dinner, we went out. \u00a0It tends to be a necessity 1-2 times per week in the fall while the boys are in soccer 5-days per week (Jacob 3 days, Timmy 2). \u00a0I do what I can to cook but it's rather aggressive; when I do cook I try\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"food\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}