12/18/2011

Winter break and is here, and wouldn't you know, it HAS NOT snowed this season yet. It threatened to snow around Thanksgiving, but alas, not yet. We spent much of today holed up in my (Teddy's) room modifying our Stupidopolis (TM, patent pending) game where we make this city of legos and minifigs and then have epic battles involving legos, bears, pufferfish, land puffers, etc. Last weekend my friend Jules came over and spent the afternoon in Stupidopolis with us--we didn't emerge from the time we got home at 12:30 til when his parents came to get him at 6. It's a pretty involved game.

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit this week. We've been playing scrabble, making cream puffs (from scratch--thanks, Grandma--and having a generally delicious time. They brought in Snappy Dragon which they know we love, but due to these economic times, we don't get to very often. Since Willie was seemingly unaffected by jalapenos and thai chilis on his pizza, papa got habaneros last week. He diced up two of them and put them on Willie's pizza. Willie was practically choking it was so hot, and papa thought he was going to vomit, but he has a glass of milk to settle things down and managed to keep the whole business in his stomach for the duration. At least until the next morning when the bathroom seemed more inviting than the bus to school. Willie said he'd like to go back to thai chilis this week. When papa was making the pizza though, he said how about 1 habanero and some thai chili, which papa did and willie survived just fine--he even made it to the bus in the morning.

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 Me and Grandma had a pretty good scrabble game.

I showed Grandpa some of my chemistry and math homework. He's an engineer so he can appreciate such things, unlike my parents.

 Are you sure mommy belongs to you? She doesn't know anything about math. She says 'I'm an editor, you do the math.'

 Our Christmas Cactus surprised us with a 2nd bloom. It must still be bathing in the afterglow of Bill's visit.

 Speaking of afterglow, or afterburners, this habanero covered pizza is delicious.

 Stay away from my scarf you marauder.

Leave me in piece so I can get this thing to 60 inches.

53 inches and counting--I should be done with this in no time, then I can start on the scarf for myself with the wool and that Grandma got me.

This is a regular day in Stupidopolis.

This is the very beginning of Stupidopolis in September. We can see the evil samurai Squonger buried under some guy's horse.

An epic battle or angry mob from the start of Stupidopolis.

Looks like someone's house is being attacked--not unusual. Just another day in Stupidopolis.

Top view of the attack.

Another view of the attack.

And now an overview of the present day Stupidopolis. My, how technology progresses.

Back view of Stupidopolis.

Close up of Teddy's house. Prisoners are stuck to suction cup bombs while the inside sports wifi and evil monkeys.

This shows the law enforcement squad, Paul's island and the arboretum, pronounced arbortorium by Teddy.

The view of McDullard's restaurant. On the menu today are cyanide laced happy meals for poisoning people with grease.

Copyright 1997-2011, The Berman Brothers, Willie and Teddy. All rights reserved.

12/4/2011

Sorry we haven't updated in a while. It seems that you have to have pictures if you want to post, well not technically true, but it helps to have new pictures, and we just haven't been taking many so new posts for a while, but that is over because...TA DA...we have new pictures, which is to say that papa trapped us in rare picture taking moments when he had the camera and his victims, er, subjects, er, us in one place and we didn't move too rapidly or make too nasty faces and everything came together for there to be pictures of us on this website which now seems to be a blog. Which means that it is a platform for some kind of world domination. We're sure papa would want us to espouse his latest ideas which are: 1) Nationalize the oil companies, and 2) Nationalize the banks, and 3) with the profits from the now nationalized banks and oil companies, pay for single payer health care for ALL Americans! Viva la Revolucion! (Thanks Nana for suggesting it)

I (Willie) have been heavily involved in thinking about Minecraft, even though I don't have it on my computer, and rocketry. Schools going fine--all A's. Nothing much else new by me.

I (Teddy) have about a foot and a half of the scarf that I'm knitting for an art class project done. As a class, we're knitting scarves for a men's shelter. I got off to a slowish start because the Art teacher who could teach papa a thing or two about being a control freak, made us learn a new and different way to cast on. Now, why do I need to learn a whole new way to cast on when I already know a perfectly good way to cast on? Oh yes, control. Well, I work for KAOS, so there.

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 Making progress on this scarf, but it keeps threatening to turn itself into a shawl. Cooperate or you'll get ripped.

 So because Willie can't put Minecraft on his computer, he's been creating a virtual Minecraft world in Sketchup. Atom bomb as fly swatter again.

 Quiet you--gimme more satsumas.

Back to my knitting before somebody gets hurt.

Copyright 1997-2011, The Berman Brothers, Willie and Teddy. All rights reserved.

11/6/2011

Sorry for the extended absence--sometimes we don't enough pictures, or Sunday nights get busy. We've had visitors including LeeAndra and Mommy and Papa's 18th anniversary. Papa has been moaning about his loser football team that keeps losing games, but as least we got baguettes out of the deal.
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This is the Waffle S'more, one of Teddy's cavity-creating confections. It consists of a waffle cone, with chocolate chips and marshmallows shoved in it, and microwaved for 30 seconds. As you can see, it is good for your taste buds, but not for the person who washes the dishes. Just you try and get some of that solidified marshmallow goop off the pate.

 Pumpkin π, the jack-o'
-lantern for 2011. For some reason, Willie was not involved in its construction, but he approves.

 Willie thinks that the Waffle S'more is divine. His dentist prefers to think of it as some kind of demonic fiend.

While Teddy tries his hand at a crossword puzzle on the computer, Willie does something on paper that cannot be seen from this angle, but probably involves math.

 The mighty hunter returns... with baguettes! Various family members are slightly excited.

LeeAndra came for a few days so Tantes Rachel and Margie came down to visit for the day. They got to go for Pho but they brought home the custard fill creme puffs, yummy.

 Hmmmm, no comment.

 Pumpkin π illuminated from within.

The Xmas cactus has had its first bud in years--but it's only one.

Better than nothing--merry xmas!

 The Pudding Macaroon Sandwich, Willie's answer to the diabolical Waffle S'more. It was incredibly messy, so Willie mixed the remaining bits of the macaroons with the rest of the pudding, which was decent. At least he didn't smear it all over his face this time.

Finally, the heat is turned on, and you know what that means! We (actually, mostly Willie) will curl up in front of the heater, and refuse to get up. It reminds me of when he tries to put on his backpack, forgets that it weighs thirty pounds, and temporarily becomes Gregor Samsa.

10/16/2011

Sukkot has hit and we've gotten to eat in the sukkah a bunch of times. Papa has managed to eat every meal in one sukkah or other because it basically stopped raining the afternoon of the first evening of sukkot, just in time for us to complete the sukkah construction.

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Okay, despite what it looks like here, I have not been sent into the time-out corner of the sukkah. Fact of the matter is that we are putting up our sukkah in the front yard, and I'm helping. Can I come out of the corner now?

 Here, have some more schach. I love saying that--the spit just flies out and there's nothing anybody can or will do about it. Schach, schach, schach.

 Here Teddy--want some schach? HEY--stop spitting on me (says Teddy)

Alert--there's big prowlers lurking on the outside of our sukkah. Oh wait, false alarm, it's just the pizza delivery boy. Did somebody say pizza?

The nearly endless task of tying down the walls will soon be complete, then it'll be somebody else's turn to stand in the corner.

 I'm a little low on spit now, so I'll start on the lights. At our friends house we commented on the fortuitousness of being able to use xmas lights in the sukkah and they said that they were blinky lights, not xmas lights. Whatever--they're really cheap on 12/26 so we just keep buying more of them.

 And my oh my do they ever look nice in our sukkah. We've spied people slowing down to take a look. An across-the-street neighbor was admiring the way the whole thing we lit up.

It's pretty funny at night--when you're sitting in it, you can't really see out, but you can totally see in from the outside. These things are not high security.

 Especially because it only has three walls.

 The big bad wolf would laugh at the ceiling as well, but we were just following the directions. Besides, we know what to do when threatened by wolves.

 Hot pepper is one thing you can do to them. Did somebody say pizza a couple frames ago?

 Must have more pepper. Mmmmmm.

 We went to our friends Ellie, Dana, and Esther's house to have dinner in their sukkah, and they had this great game for German Nerds (Think Geek's words, not ours) Settlers of Catan, which Teddy and I enjoyed until Esther's friend Oliver started hiding pieces. I guess we should thank our parents for not having any more children.

 What do you think he means by that? I think maybe I'll have to hide some puzzle pieces now to keep up with mischievous reputation.

Shh, don't tell anybody, but I ate one of the pieces. Needed more fiber in my diet anyway, and the chow mein design looked tasty.

Copyright 1997-2011, The Berman Brothers, Willie and Teddy. All rights reserved.