Caffeinated sunflower seeds?

On a routine trip to 7-Eleven, I stumbled onto a large display of Sumseeds which are caffeinated sunflower seeds.


Smiling ex-Padre Tony Gwynn smiled up at me from the display of seeds, urging me to try these. I had never considered flavored sunflower seeds, let alone caffeinated seeds, yet here they were. The flavors were ‘original’ (which I assume means salted), salt and pepper, honey BBQ, and dill pickle (!?!?).
I picked up the original, checked out, and headed home to investigate.

Not resting on the marketing force of Tony Gywnn alone, look at the rationale against energy drinks!

According to the Sumseeds web site, in a single package of sunflower seeds there is:
140mg – caffeine
96mg – taurine
53mg – lysine
40mg – ginseng
That’s almost double the caffeine found in a can of Red Bull.

How do they taste? Well, they taste exactly like regular sunflower seeds. Once I started in on the package, I ate about half in a half hour. I didn’t notice any kind of buzz or other stimulating effect. All I notice was the typical salt action on my tongue and cheeks due to holding seeds in my mouth.
Sumseeds tasted fine and if you are a caffeine hound, you’ll probably enjoy them. I enjoyed them and started buying regular sunflower seeds to eat.

Reservoir Dogs Shot Glasses

Back in June, I bought a set of Reservoir Dogs Shots Glasses from Woot.com. This is the kind of behavior that my wife can never understand.
Originally, the shot glasses came part of a package with the DVD of the movie, this set showed up in that package, with the DVD absent.
I waited until a poker night at Ken’s Pokerdome to christen the shot glasses.

Reservoir Dogs Shot Glasses from Michael Pusateri on Vimeo.
Normally I don’t drink this much in one week, let alone one sitting, but I felt this at this moment it was appropriate. Amazingly, at the end of the night, I was still up in chips. Soon after the last bit, I stumbled home, thinking along the way how narrow the sidewalks are because I could seem to stay on them…

Diet Dilemma

For the summer, I’ve been on a diet. It’s the Brad Williams’s patented, ‘eat less, exercise more’ diet.
For a few weeks, Michele and the girls are out of town in Cincinnati. In the past this has meant a plethora of fast food meals and nary a fresh fruit or vegetable.
Now I find myself trying to balance eating better with having a little fast food. Ideally, I want to eat less than 1,500 calories a day.
I started looking at the things I like to eat best at various fast food places and how many calories are in each item. The list grew rapidly. All of this info is easy to find on the internets…
Baja Fresh Bean & Cheese w/ carnitas – 1010 calories
BK Original Chicken Sandwich w/o mayo – 450 calories
Carl’s Jr. Western Bacon Cheeseburger – 710 calories
El Pollo Loco Chicken Wing – 91 calories
El Pollo Loco Crunchy Taco – 191 calories
El Pollo Loco BRC Burrito – 387 calories
In-n-Out Burger Double Double – 590 calories
Jack in the Box taco – 160 calories
KFC Crispy Strips (3) – 350 calories
McDonalds Chicken Strips (5) – 660 calories
Panda Express Black Pepper & Kung Pao & rice – 920 calories
Papa Johns Cheese Thin Crust slice – 240 calories
Papa Johns BBQ Chicken & Bacon slice – 340 calories
Subway 6″ BMT sandwich – 450 calories
Taco Bell Taco – 170 calories
Taco Bell Soft Taco – 200 calories
Taco Bell Steak Taquitos – 310 calories
Taco Bell Chicken Taquitos – 310 calories
Wienerschnitzel Chili Dog – 290 calories
Yoshinoya Large Beef Bowl – 1160 calories
I was bit surprised that my favorite fast food, Yoshinoya beef bowl tops out the list…
Today, I’ve already eaten 6 of Michele’s homemade potstickers for breakfast. I have no idea how many calories in those, but they are tasty.
If I can avoid the sides like french fries and chips, it looks like I can squeeze in a little bit of fast food and still stay on my diet.
Ideas? Suggestions for this omnivore?

Decoding the Evil League of Evil

I had heard much of a hullabaloo in Twitter about Joss Whedon’s new show, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along-Blog during the week. Yesterday, I bought the show on iTunes and sat down to watch all three acts. Thanks to the Apple TV, I was able to watch on a nice television set, rather than in front of a computer.
The show was fantastic. I can only hope for a series. I suggest you buy it on iTunes immediately.
Spoiler Warning: If you are a complete spoiler queen and get all worked up about minor plot points that are obvious, then stop reading. Otherwise, I will continue to discuss part of the show that doesn’t impact your enjoyment in any bit.
Of course, the most intriguing moment is the obvious teaser at the end, revealing of the Evil League of Evil about to begin a meeting.


Here is the clearest shot we have of the assembled Evil League of Evil.
From the end credits, we are given the roster:

Professor Normal
Fake Thomas Jefferson
Tie-Die
Dead Bowie
Fury Leika
Snake Bite
Bad Horse
Dr. Horrible
Now, I carefully grabbed screen shots of each character and made my best guess as to match the name with the face. The face of evil! Muah-ha-ha-ha!
First, with the most obvious matches…

Quite clearly, Bad Horse, leader of the Evil League of Evil. I don’t put it past Joss Whedon to not have the actual horse be Bad Horse, but I think this is a safe assumption.

This is Dr. Horrible, now in his red costume and actually wearing his goggles.

Next, another safe assumption that this is Fake Thomas Jefferson. In other shots, he is shown holding a quill, further reinforcing the link to Fake Thomas Jefferson.

Slightly bit riskier is assuming that this is Dead Bowie. The general 70s look and makeup kinda gives this one away.

On the right side, in multi-colored garb, is who I believe to be Tie-Die. There are only a few frames of Tie-Die, but I believe the costume and the peace symbol necklace establish this conclusion firmly.

In this shot, I assume that on the left is Professor Normal. Mainly because he’s the most professorial looking one at the table. To his right is Dead Bowie. Interestingly, the feet on the table are NOT those of Dead Bowie.

In this wide shot, we see entire Evil League of Evil. Between Professor Normal and Dead Bowie, owner of the feet on the table, shown above is Fury Leika. I believe it is Fury Leika due to the Viking-esque look, battle staff, and angry look.

This leaves only one person left, who we can assume to be Snake Bite. Not a lot to go on here. She doesn’t really match up with any other name and she does look like she’s more into nature by virture of holding a bouquet of flowers. Nothing snake or bite like in any shot to confirm this. Maybe she’s got fangs we can’t see.

One more wide shot of the group, with Tie-Die cut off on the right.

With this rationale, I give you my best guess as to who is who in the Evil League of Evil.
What do you think?
Update:
Based on comments by Jeff Donaldson and Eeyore, I think I may have reversed Fury Leika and Snake Bite.

The point being made is that the woman in white with a bouquet, could be a woman scorned at the altar. And we all know that “Hell hath no Fury like a woman scorned.” I can see the idea of a ‘Cobra Cowl’ on the woman with a staff. So she could very well be Snake Bite.
I guess we won’t know for sure, until Joss wants us to know for sure…

Batter Blaster

A while ago, Michele brought home a can of Batter Blaster that one of her spinning buddies gave her.


Obviously, Michele wanted nothing to do with this, but I, obviously, was intrigued.

Not only is it pancake batter in a can, it’s organic. A strange overlap of the organic hippy mindset with the geek cool packing mindset. We aren’t organic fanatics, especially after reading the Omnivore’s Dilemma. But it was nice to find a product with no corn products at all in it.

I was able to talk Michele into helping me test out the Batter Blaster. Usually the girls help, but when we did this, they were in China with their Grandparents.

The nozzle tends to make a star pattern of the batter on the griddle. There is pretty good control on how much batter comes out. You could easily draw pictures or letters with the can and make special pancakes.
I made a short video of the cooking process.

I edited a bit because watching pancakes slowly cook is a bit dull.

We did find that this batter was a bit more heat sensitive than the usual powder mix. Maybe cooking on a skillet instead of a griddle across two burners would be better. I wasn’t going to question Michele’s cooking method. After 14 years of marriage, I know better.

The real question is how did they taste. Not bad, but not great. The flavor was good and and I ate them all up. The texture is the issue. Being in the can, I don’t think the batter can rise when being cooked enough. The pancakes were a bit rubbery. I like a light, fluffy pancake. If you like the fluffy style, the lack of rise will be an issue.
These pancakes would be perfect for pigs in the blanket. Mmm, sausages…
Overall, it’s not something we’ll be buying again. If you are a pancake fanatic, you need to try it. It’s neat the first time your try it, but I think powder mixes makes better pancakes and are worth the extra effort. I do think it’s perfect for camping though.

The Pirates Suite at the Disneyland Hotel

Last Friday was my daughter Mira’s birthday, so my wife reserved us a suite at the Disneyland Hotel for the celebration. We got lucky, and they upgraded us to the Pirates Suite. Not the Dream Suite, but pretty damn cool. I was completely blown away by the room.
For a couple years, I’ve been making videos of my hotel rooms, so this was no different. Here’s a short video of the suite.


There are a bunch of pictures of the Suite in this Flickr Set.
Of course, we had a great time inside Disneyland. Here are two videos of us riding the Matterhorn. Do you hear enough little girls squeals for your yearly quota?

Matterhorn Ride 1 at Disneyland from Michael Pusateri on Vimeo.


Matterhorn Ride 2 at Disneyland from Michael Pusateri on Vimeo.

Mint Chocolate M&Ms Premiums

Earlier this year, I wrote about Mint Crisp M&Ms. Now there are Mint Chocolate M&Ms Premium.


Michele and I were at target when I spied this. Obviously, I picked it up.

Inside the curvy box is a bag of the M&M Premiums. The bag is nice because it is reclosable. More bags of candies should have this feature.

The candies themselves have a sparkly exterior. Inside the candy is mainly white mint with a thin layer of chocolate. Unlike a regular M&M, the shell is not crispy candy. The shell is just decoration. If heated, I’m sure that these M&Ms would melt in your hand.
The taste is good. Mainly mint with a little chocolate. The striking thing is the lack of candy shell that you find on the regular M&Ms. It definitely feels like something is missing when the M&Ms is so smooth.
Well worth the money, these Premium M&Ms are tasty. I would like a version with a shell, but it won’t stop me from eating these.