The Reese's Taste Test

After such high demand to know about the results of our Reese's Taste Test once the pictures were posted to Facebook, I figured we'd get this post up here quickly. Due to the difference in the look of all the different candies, we figured a blind taste test was pretty useless, so we went ahead and did a test as a group, discussing our opinions on the candy. For this taste test we had some guest testers along Tori Tappen and Henry Tappen.

The pictures from the taste test can be found here. So here is a picture of all the entries to the competition. Thirteen different kinds of Reese's entered and only one could come out as the winner. We created a spreadsheet to record our results and determine the winner.

The amount of candy that we consumed for this taste test drove me a bit crazy. I was definitely done eating Reese's by the end, but we had to do it, for Science! So we ended up cutting each piece into about fourths so we could all give it a try.

After the testing the results we came up with put Reese's minis as the #1 product with Reese`s original being a close second. The Reese's minis seem to have a peanut butter filling that is much smoother than that found in any of the other items, and had a chocolate to peanut butter ratio that we all appreciated. There was a consensus among us that some of the competitors, namely Reese's Pieces and NutRageous, were good, but not if you're wanting the chocolatey peanutbuttery goodness of Reeses.

The Floss Taste Test

Elena and I have had a habit of doing taste tests to determine which thing in a category we like best. You may remember a while back that we did a peanut butter taste test as well as a pickle (spears) taste test. Both of these were performed as a blind taste test (double blind is too much effort with 2 people). But this post is about some of our more recent tests. Floss and Reese's.

The Floss test was more of an expedition to find the floss we like. We had stumbled upon a type of floss that we really liked, but once it was finished we forgot what kind it was, and thus began our expedition. Unlike our previous tests, with the floss test we were just buying one thing of floss (what are those called? container? box? plastic thingy?) at a time and then we would use it to see how we liked it.

We're now pretty sure that our original floss that we really liked was this.

However, when we went to buy a replacement we ended up with one like this one. It was just plain floss and came in a container the same color as our original. The plain old floss isn't very good. Kind of just plain floss, not good, not terrible. (I started pulling it out in really long strands each night so I could get through it quicker.)

We realized that the plain floss was a lot thinner than the floss we had really liked, so we went ahead and tried out the tape instead of floss, because it's thicker, and we thought that's what we wanted. It looked like this one, but said tape instead of floss. This tape was terrible! It made my gums bleed every time, and was extremely hard to get between our teeth. We used this for about two days and then relinquished it to a strong string... not to be used for flossing.

Finally we went back and found this one. It is thicker and feels good between your teeth, and at the same time slides between the tight teeth with ease. This floss also has a great flavor and leaves your mouth feeling nice and fresh.

In the end the decision is pretty easy as to which floss we like the most, but it was a long sometimes painful and sometimes bloody road to find our favorite floss. Due to the length of this post, we'll have to bring you our Reese's taste test in our next post.

Enjoying the Weather

Since we've been up here in Seattle things have been pretty great, especially with the weather! So we've been taking advantage of the mid 60s weather and taking lots of pictures outside. (I think this also helps Lena stay sane since she sits inside reading books all day :D ). So you can see some of the pictures over on my flickr photo stream http://www.flickr.com/photos/boushley/

Some of my favorites are Lena imitating Ellie

And some pictures I got of the cool sparkling light on the lake

We went to downtown Seattle on our first Saturday here. Apparently it was the first sunny day about 70 in a long time... BAD IDEA! Pike's Place was super busy, and we weren't even hungry :/ So we won't be going back there, until its a cloudy weekday and we are hungry. After bailing on Pike's Place, we went to the Seattle Public Library, which was really cool. The architecture at that place is awesome.

Our first Sunday here, we went to the ward for our temporary housing and discovered that Lena knew someone and found a lot of fun couples. We have now found an apartment (http://thelakesapts.com/) and its only about .25 mile from Lena's friend... turns out its in a different stake though :( bummer. However, it is also only 1.5 miles from the building I'll be working in, and just across the street from part of the Microsoft campus.

One adventure from the apartment hunt. While we were looking through the listings that the realtor sent to us, we came across one that was awesome. It looked like the best one, was fairly spacious (1000+ sqft) and had hardwood floor, stainless steel appliances and granite countertops. The location was pretty good. It was our first pick that we wanted to go see with our realtor. Turned out there was one problem... it was a 55+ community :( Our combined age isn't even 55+. So alas it was not be.

All in all things are going pretty good for us. We'll be in our temporary housing a bit longer than expected ( the movers aren't available to give us our stuff until the 30th ), but it may turn out for the better as it'll give us some time to work on our apartment.

Amusing Anecdote

So I treat a kid with an unusually loud voice. This kid can project big time. This talent unfortunately for him is not useful until drama or debate team in junior high. He is currently in preschool. This occurred during circle time(you know you remember it :)

Preschooler C: I NEED TO SAY SOMETHING AND IT IS SO IMPORTANT!

Me: C, you need to be quiet right now your teacher is talking.

Preschooler C: But Teacher, This Is So Important ...

Me: C! I said you need to be quiet!

Preschooler C: (whispering) but teacher that flower in yellow and ...

Me: C, close your mouth.

Preschooler C: ...


"Be quiet" a phrase that could mean stop talking or lower your volume. Got to love preschool :)

First Week

So I finished my first week at my new job last week. It was CRAZY!!!! The craziness actually started before my first day so I’ll explain some of the background stuff first.

Background

After I got hired I had to wait 30 days to start because they had to give notice to all the contracted Speech Language Pathology Assistants (SLPAs) because they wanted to hire SLPAs directly. During my interview I was asked if I spoke Spanish, which I do … kinda. Well I went in about 2 weeks after getting hired to see if I had enough Spanish to do preschool screenings, which we all decided I do. I will mostly be asking “Que es esto?” and recording what they say so I can handle that. Well after this screening thing the lady that hired me, Lori, told me I would be at two schools with Vicki and I should go do some training 2 weeks before I started. So I went to the school Vicki was at for the morning and it was great. Well during lunch we got a call from Lori saying that since I spoke Spanish they needed me at Emerson to do preschool there. So I left since I wouldn’t be at that school anymore. Not too big a deal. Lori told me to report to Emerson at 9:00am on Oct 11th and not much more than that. Then Lori went on vacation for 3 weeks. The district HR people emailed me that I needed to come to the district office to get some paper work done on my first day. So on to the first day.

First Day

I get to the district office at 7:50am because I hate to be late to things to I tend to leave way early. I get there, do my paper work stuff in like 15 min. Well now I have about 45 min to kill since Lori told me to report at 9:00am. Did I mention that I didn’t know who I was supposed to be with this day since she just told me I would be working with Rebecca and Deb? Cause I didn’t. Well after 15 min I decide to go over there and just be really early. I get there introduce myself as Elena the new SLPA and ask the office staff where Deb is. This is what they respond with “Deb isn’t here on Mondays.” I’m starting to freak out. Me: “Well is Rebecca here?” Office staff: “She already left.” At this point I am fully freaking out. Me in my head: ”They apparently didn’t know I was coming. WHAT AM I GOING TO DO NOW?!??!?” The office staff: “I think Bianca is still here. HEY BIANCA!” Bianca: “Oh hi, Rebecca was waiting for you but had to leave. I’ll draw you a map and you can meet her at the school” (walks me into the speech office) Ok well at least SOMEONE knows who I am and that I was coming. I’m calming down to just moderately freaked out. Ends up that Lori told me the wrong time, which wouldn’t have been a big deal to me if someone had just told me in the beginning that Rebecca was expecting me and to meet her here. So I got to the school, played with the kids and had a good time. I ate lunch. Then Rebecca showed me a room, gave me a schedule and a bunch of pictures to use and I did therapy for groups of kids for the rest of the day. By myself. On my first day. With kids I knew nothing about. Why yes that was an extremely stressful situation for me, thanks for asking.

The rest of the week

Went by without any major stressors. I absolutely love my supervisor Deb, who has been doing this for 30 years and still loves every minute of it. I had a super great time with all the preschoolers. They are so fun and cute. There is even a little Downs girl that is my new best friend, she is non verbal and I got her to say 3 words to me! Very exciting. I even got some really nice complements by the teachers I work with, which is always a good thing :)

All I can say is that I haven’t looked forward to the weekend that much in a long time!

(So I have been waiting to post this because I have a “Elena’s first day of school” picture but it won’t download so no picture)

Clean!

I like to clean. I savor being in a freshly cleaned apartment. Sometimes I clean because I’m bored, other times because something is actually dirty, and another reason even more important reason. That reason? I am especially maladroit (don’t know what it means? Look it up! or wait till the end of this post). I drop things ALL THE TIME. So in order to salvage whatever I dropped, spilled or slashed I keep the house really clean. It’s really just silly to see an adult, a semi athletic one at that, spill all over the kitchen floor, bathroom floor and pretty much every other surface in my small apartment.

There was the salsa disaster of ’09 when I attempted to shake the costco size bottle of salsa by turning upside down and not holding the lid securely enough. Yes what you are envisioning is exactly correct. I spilled salsa all down my pants and the floor ( thought I had a picture because I remember Aaron laughing really hard and getting the camera but I can’t find it). Or the time when I was cleaning the bathroom floor and dumped all the water all over. Granted this one is not as bad since I was washing the floor already. Or tonight when putting the left over spaghetti sauce in a bowl I slop it all over the counter. And this is not a few speckles of red, it’s an entire serving of sauce. On my counter. Fortunately it didn’t make it to the floor so I could scoop it into the back into bowl. See what I mean? If my counter was dirty I couldn’t do that and there goes my lunch. Who knew that cleaning all the time means I get to eat lunch?

Dictionary.com says that this is the definition of maladroit: acking in adroitness; unskillful; awkward; bungling

I especially love bungling :D

Amateur Artist

I am an amateur artist. Not a particularly good amateur at that, but I like to try. It all started when my dad got a sample set of water color paints, the kind preschoolers use including the shedding brush. My mother had grown some beautiful flowers, I think they were sweet pea blossoms, and I felt the unusual desire to paint. The picture below is my first attempt at painting since elementary school.

Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. Fortunately, the subsequent attempts have not been photographed since they are not as good as this one. After the startling discovery that I actually enjoyed painting, (I am most definitely not the artistic child in the family) I went out and bought some real art supplies not preschool quality. It’s fun even though I’m not that good. Well I found out from very artsy-fartsy people that watercolor is one of the hardest mediums to work with so I was looking for something else to try. Pastels kit, including pastels, workbook and technique book, on sale at Borders? Why yes I think I will buy that. I’ve been having more fun with pastels because it is WAAAAAAAAY easier to correct mistakes with pastels than watercolor. Pictures you ask? Alright here is today’s project. I’m fairly happy with the way it turned out, since it is very close to what I envisioned.

And here is where I paint … in the middle of the living room :D

Well that is all for this post. Enjoy the Art!