Celebrate family. Celebrate life.

“Celebrate family.  Celebrate life.” This was the title of the Focus on the Family commercial with Tim Tebow and his mom that aired tonight during the first quarter of the Super Bowl.  I saw it and after all the hullabaloo and ruckus in the days leading up to it, I was left thinking, “That’s it?  Where’s the offense in that?”

Yahoo Sports had an interesting article commenting on the commercial itself, as well as the ramifications and precedent it sets for future Super Bowl ads.  Here’s an excerpt.

On a larger scale, though, the Tebow ad has the potential to change the landscape

Jenny & Amanda to Beijing

My sister, Jenny, and her friend Amanda are coming to visit me in Beijing in May!  As I was booking Jenny’s flight via Air Canada, I was given the option of selecting a meal preference.  Here were the options.

Photo submission to BBC news “In Pictures”

BBC News has a page called In Pictures and they publish reader’s submissions at the bottom of the page under the appropriately-named Your Pictures.  Each week they publish a gallery of submissions based around a different theme.  This week’s theme is “Comfort”: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/8480321.stm

During the week of February 16 the theme is “water” and I have submitted this picture, taken in Laos on my backpacking trip last winter:

Recipe: chocolate truffle cookies

I don’t really like to bake and often end up scraping stuff I try to bake into the trash when I burn it or it doesn’t turn out right.  I thought I’d try this recipe because it seemed really easy and it got good reviews.  But be warned: this is not for the faint of heart!  You must love extremely rich chocolate desserts if you’re going to make these cookies.  They are delicious, but eating just one made my teeth hurt!  It should be renamed “death by chocolate truffle cookies!”

Recipe: Spanish rice

I made this last night to go with baked tilapia.  If you added chicken it could be a main dish.

Spanish rice
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 55 minutes
Servings: 6