Wayne and Rebecca Madsen

Cheesecake
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12 Graham crackers - crushed
1 TBS sugar
1/3 cup melted butter
24 oz cream cheese - at room temperature
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 TBS lemon juice
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups sour cream
3 TBS sugar
2 tsp vanilla

CRUST: crush the graham crackers and mix with sugar and melted butter. Press into the bottom of a 9 1/2 inch spring form pan.
FILLING: In a mixing bowl, soften cream cheese by beating slowly. Gradually add sugar, beating until creamy and smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add lemon and vanila. Continue beating until smooth and creamy. Pour into crust.
Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until set.
TOPPING: Stir together sour cream, sugar and vanilla. Gently spoon over cheese cake as soon as it is taken from the oven. Continue baking at 325 degrees for 10-15 minutes until set. Remove and cool. Add glaze, if desired.  read more »

Key Lime Cheesecake
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1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
2 TBS sugar
1/4 cup margarine - melted
20 oz of cream cheese
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup sour cream
3 TBS flour
3 eggs
3/4 cup lime juice
1 tsp vanilla

CRUST: mix together graham crackers, 2 T. sugar and melted butter. Press into 9" spring form pan.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
FILLING: Beat cream cheese and 3/4 cup sugar until smooth, best to wait until the cream cheese is already at room temperature. Beat in eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Beat in sour cream, flour, lime juice and vanilla. Beat until smooth.
Pour filling over crust. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 250 degrees and back for 50-55 minutes, until center is barely set. Cool on rack and chill.

Take a flashlight to Hawaii. That's what we learned. More than once we wanted to go exploring but failed because of a lack of lighting. We explored the lava tubes (interesting cave-like formations made from lava cooling in stages), but after a certain point in the tube, they stopped putting up lights and you couldn't go farther without a flashlight of your own. [I'd like to point out that more than 3/4 of the first cave we visited was unlit. -Wayne] We tried exploring some caves near a waterfall, but failed because there were no lights at all in the cave. Next time we go to Hawaii, we'll know to BYOF -- bring your own flashlight.  read more »

Delta didn't call my Grandfather or anything, they just cancelled our flight. None of us in our party were let in on this trick until the day of the flight. Apparently Delta used to make daily flights from SLC International to Kona International, but they cut back to two flights a week...without telling anyone. I guess this is how a company going into bankruptcy treats its customers. Or maybe this is how they got to bankruptcy? So after a nice lunch with Grandpa and Uncle Max, we came back to Provo and played games with Jayson and Felicia (upstairs neighbors) until much too late. But we were on vacation, right? That's what you're supposed to do on vacation.  read more »

Merry Christmas to everyone and we hope that everyone is having a great holiday season. We decided to take a quick break from everything today to tell you about our travels and what we've been doing this holiday season.  read more »

They were right about Virginia's commuter system. It is the worst I've ever experienced, much worse than Seattle, San Jose, San Francisco, Pittsburg or any other place I've been with "bad traffic."  read more »

Ugh. long road trips. I think we're half way through this one. We're spending the night at my parents' place. The trip through Wyoming and Utah was the worst part, although it got a little scary in Nebraska as well. It's just so long. Three days of driving long 13+ hour drives isn't enjoyable to most people. I am one of those. Although we did listen to To Kill A Mockingbird on audio tape. Good book. How much have we learned from our mistakes as humans?

They approved my thesis proposal!! Yay. This means I can actually stay on track for graduation next spring term. So I'll be working on creating a paraphrase generation system with more variability in the sentences it can generate. Fun eh? I thought you might agree with me. Anyway, thought I would share the joy. Yay! I'm done! Just one more final and I will be done with the semester...then it's all about Christmas fun.

I've been working on painting more portraits lately (do you remember those paintings I did of kids from my church last year). Painting people is HARD WORK. I'm so embarrassed to even post pictures of this painting in progress because it doesn't look good at all. But Emily asked me to, so I will. She is willing to sit staring at the wall for me, so I figured the least I can do is share my mediocrity with the world. ;)  read more »

Another installment of work on my robot/symbol paintings. This is probably the last group of pictures I'll take of the paintings in progress. Most of them are finished now, so maybe I'll post them on my portfolio page. Hopefully this group of work is strong enough to get me into a good MFA program. Sorry for the poor quality, but I don't want people stealing my images! ;)  read more »