You know you're a geek when...

I love LEGO's and I used to love paper/dice based roleplaying games. Now, the perfect combo BrickQuest.

Turducken

This year for Thanksgiving, we went the cajun route. For years, I heard about Turduckens, on Food Network, via blogs, on the radio, etc. I've always wanted to try one, and this year, I finally got my chance. Weighing in at 15 pounds, with another 23 pounds of sides and ice, our local UPS driver was very curious about delivery. He had to warn me before picking up the box, and good thing he did, cause I almost dropped it. After almost 3 full days of thawing out in the fridge, and 5 hours of cooking, it was finally time to eat...

While it wasn't exactly what I expected, it was quite tasty. I was hoping to cut into the bird and see rings of turkey, stuffing, duck, stuffing, and finally chicken and stuffing. As it turned out, you could easily see the turkey and duck, but the chicken almost seemed missing in action. The duck in our turducken was huge, which might of accounted for the chicken being hard to locate. The turkey very moist, the duck was incredibly flavorful, and the stuffing was yummy.

Now that I have done the turducken thang, the next step is making my own. Of course, I will buy the birds pre-boned, but... I think it will be a wonderful and tasty challenge to make one, next year.

7 in a Row!

The last time the Bears lost a game, the White Sox were still hoping to be World Champs! As a die-hard Bears fan, I'm always quick to say that the team is good, and will win, etc., etc. Of course, normally, non-Bear fans and the press are quick to point out just how bad the Bears are, and how they don't stand a chance. Finally, though, things are a changing. Dr. Z from SI, picked the Bears as his upset of the week. Vegas has the Bears to bet the Packers, and if you look at the power rankings... well, people are finally starting to believe that we can win games. If you look at the remaining games, we stand a very good chance of winning at least 3 of the last 5 games. That would put us at 11-5 or maybe, just maybe 13-3! :) That is good enough for me, and could very easily be good enough for NFC Champs!

The play-off picture could be very sweet indeed for the Bears, if we get a bye and home field for game 2. I don't see many NFC teams being able to beat us at home in the playoffs. Alanta, Seattle and Dallas are not cold weather teams, and dome teams, so I'm hopeful!

Whole Foods & Lobster

Whole Foods is one of my favorite stores of any kind. Of the many things I love about them is the way they do what they do. That this example, accorded to Reuters, Whole Foods plans to stop selling live lobster. What impresses me, is not just the desire to make the world a bit better, although that is great from a company this big, but I'm really impressed by Whold Foods thinking outside of the box. By announcing that there was a deadline to produce better methods for capture and transport of live lobster, Whole Foods put the industry on alert. I don't know how big of a customer Whole Foods is, but I would imagine considering the price per pound that I've seen, they are a great customer, buying the highest end product. This should be a good incentive for the lobster industry.

Anyone who knows anything about business knows the saying "The customer is always right," and that is what Whole Foods has done, is said, look I want your product, but only if it meets my standards. If more of us did that at the grocery store, perhaps our food in general wouldn't be laced with so much crap...

Yahoo Maps Mash-ups

So I'm been a big fan of Google Maps since they hit the scene. What was not to like? A slick AJAX application with the ability to use the data in your own web apps.

I was very excited when Yahoo! annouced the new beta version of its maps application. Written using Macromedia Flex, it raised the bar on mapping applications. I noticed, but didn't think much of it, that there was an API just like with Google. Then, I saw this, Justin Church takes the Yahoo API, adds a little Macromedia Flash, and pow, you've got fully customized skinned maps... very slick.

UPDATE: Somehow I missed this: Yahoo! Maps Applications Gallery

Football

It was a good weekend for me with Football. First, the Bears pulled off another victory, 4 in a row, hot damn! With the home game Sunday against the 49ers, it should go to 5 in a row! Woohoo!

Added to my joy was the solid win of the Colts over the Patriots. I've never been a fan of the Pat's, and it has always been tough to watch Manning and company struggle in Foxboro. With a 7-0 record going into the game, it was clear to me that it would really be the biggest game for the Colts, on the way to the Super Bowl. Proving they can beat the Pats, it seems somewhat likely that we could see a Manning vs. Manning Super Bowl. Wouldn't that be grand?

Kansas

What the hell is wrong with Kansas!?!

• New Kansas School Standards Question Evolution

I'm speachless here, completely dumbfounded.

SharePoint Resources

I've been doing a lot of work with Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Portal Server lately. While the official training I got was pretty good, it's been the blog community that has really provided the most information. Without some of which, I would be up to my neck in crap. So I thought I would point out the sites that really have helped me and offer up a GIANT thank you to the creators...

• Heather Solomon's Blog
• Eric's Big List Of SharePoint Links
• Jan Tielen's Blog
• Andrew Connell

Thank you guys for helping a WSS/SPS newbie survive! :)