Here's to Stephen, King of Chicken Fried Steaks

Take a look at this picture Stephen, and ask yourself, where is your God now?

Behold! Mnomiquah! Lord of Sloth and White Peppered Gravy! Those of the Coyote Grille spoke of his vastness. Dismissing their cautions with a wave of my hand, I ordered forth, madness gleaming in my eyes. But, instead of the joy I'd hoped for from such daring an order, there came only a shuddering emptiness, a chasm that coffee and apple juice could not fill; and then I saw at last a fearful truth which no one had ever dared to breathe before, the unwhisperable secret of secrets, that fact that this steak, batter dipped as to be chicken-friend, and slathered rich a gravy as rich and deep and thick as time and memory itself, was set in front of me, its density and matter that the very light above us was bent and warped around it.

Long story short, I barely dented this guy.

(btw, in this pic fully 1/5 of this behemoth is obscured by the biscuits and eggs)

Poor Myrtle

AHHHHH!!!
Down goes Myrtle, Down goes Myrtle!

Toilet Phone?

A first for me. I hesitated picking it up because I was suddenly worried it wasn't a real phone and, instead, that it would simply connect me to another person in the hotel sitting on the toilet. (the logic makes more sense when you're a bit sleep deprived in a different time zone)

Baby Quilt

I thought you (Maggie) might like to see the sweet baby quilt that I found on Etsy (that my sister secretly bought for me after I talked about it) that I'm going to use as inspiration for decorating the nursery.

Monday. Morning?

In Fresno California, they have fireplaces on the out of doors.

Also, enjoying how the new work computer I have has a flash on its camera...if it could make me look any more pale I'd be glittering.

The Baby Name Suggestion Thread

I thought we should have a localized place for baby name suggestions, so here it is. Post your name suggestions here.

Stephen: I'm going to suggest a name, Kirby!
Maggie: That's a terrible name!
Stephen: I think it's great! What about Kirkland?
Maggie: I like Kirk better, I like short names.
Stephen: But long names can be short names.
Maggie: What about Edmund? They like Ed. You've got to go with short names, they're better.

Bryan found this awhile ago. Good cooking music, especially "Kiss." I am using it to soothe my disappoint over Battlestar's terrible final episode. Enjoy!

Louis Armstrong remix

P.S. Somebody get some baking soda! Steve and I have set The Salt Slab on fire with our prolific posts!

"Stephen, you're such a dork." - Maggie

Actually Maggie, according to this Venn diagram, I believe I would be classified as a nerd. If I work on my social aptitude, though, I could one day be upgraded to geek.



















Finally a useful chart for us all to rely on.

On a completely different topic, I covered the President's visit to Iowa City on Thursday, an exhausting experience that I hope I will one day soon look back at as worth it. I haven't seen my story posted online yet, but I did take a few photos.


























































Unfortunately, because of my press credentials, I had to sit in the bleachers on the side where I was directly blocked by the President's teleprompter. This led to most of my good shots (such as the one above) being of him reading said prompter. Here's looking at you, kid.

After his speech (and while I was probably walking by on Jefferson St. and not even noticing), Obama went to Prairie Lights unannounced and bought a Star Wars book for the press secretary's kid.

Sorry if you've already seen these!

Dance!

Dad rediscovers the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack from Stephen Schmidt on Vimeo.

Monday. Morning.

Monday. Morning.

Meanwhile, Steve is off somewhere reading the Techmo Bowl manual for NES.

Monday. Morning. (taken AM, posted PM)

What, no Monday morning photograph of a groggy Ben to start my day off right? :)

We finally opened Maggie's New Years Eve champagne

Cheers to you guys!

Monday. Morning.