It's a Wonderful Vacation

We've had a fun-filled Christmas and New Year's holiday and I want to share a few highlights.

Gingerbread houses. Karen did a fantastic job as usual making the gingerbread pieces and the kids thoroughly enjoyed the creative process. Karen didn't enjoy making the pieces so much, because she had to form each piece prior to cooking. I've proposed we take Aunt Elaine's approach next year, which is to bake the gingerbread first, then cut it.

Sugar Cookies. Emily, Lucy and I enjoyed making sugar cookies for Santa. We had lots of fun picking out cutters and rolling and tasting the dough. Yummy!


Christmas Eve. We had the Bown's come over for our Christmas Eve dinner. They're new in the ward so we enjoyed getting acquitanted and telling them too many family secrets. The turkey was wonderful (thanks Karen!) and the company was even better. I read the traditional Christmas story from selected verses out of the scriptures, then Karen gathered the kids and read them 'Twas the Night before Christmas with our special pop-up book. We had a wonderful time.

Games, games, games. We got lots of games for Christmas and gave several a spin around the block. Tyler loves the Risk 2210 and we had Josh Lund come over to play it. The good news is that it's limited to 5 turns; the bad news is the game can still last 3 hours, give or take. Other favorites include Killer Bunnies (thanks Andrew!), Catan expansions, and the Race for the Galaxy expansion.

Deluxe sights & sounds. We bought an audio system for Christmas to match our t.v. on the wall, along with a blu-ray player. Incredible! Horton Hears a Who was an amazing experience.

Karen finished Lucy's afghan. It's beautiful! Karen's like a machine and is now working on one for Tyler. Camouflage colors this time...

New Year's Eve at the Bleazard's. About 1/2 dozen families and probably 20-25 children. Lots of fireworks. Wii Rockband. Lots of snacks. A very silly game (Things) and too much information shared between friends. It was a wonderful time!

Bowling with Randy. He loves bowling and had money to burn, so we went to Times Square and bowled a couple of games. He's really good, and even got a solid strike. Go Randy!!

Dates with Karen. This was a personal favorite. The Alamo Drafthouse is great fun - nothing special in terms of the food or the audio/visual, but ther pre-movie entertainment (corny old video shorts, old t.v. ads, and other themed humor) and eating in the theater make for good fun. The food is good (I recommend the Hawaiian Calzone) and the Italian Soda's are great (although I like an apple Sprite best).

Lots of nothing. Movies, t.v. shows, naps, playing with kids, eating too much, etc. Also, lots of catching up with old friends.

All in all, it was a wonderful vacation.

Home and back to the grind

I haven't blogged in a while and not feeling super inspired but I'd better put a few thoughts down. It looks like we made it back from Walt DisneyWorld in one piece. Quite the drive! It's about 15 or 16 hours. We stayed the night in Tallahassee both coming and going. I had hotel points from all the traveling I've been doing for work so I was able to pay for two rooms (my parents and us) on the way there.

Every little bit helps! For those who have never been, WDW is very expensive. But it's not without justification. It is probably one of the best, if not THE best theme parks in the world. It's basically supply & demand and they can certainly demand the price. Depending on how much you're willing to spend, a week for a family of 4 can run you between $4,000 and 12,000 after you factor in travel, sleeping arrangements, entrance fees, food, etc. We stayed in the Contemporary which is the cheapest of the hotels on the monorail line. It's a very nice place to stay and SO convenient. In fact the monorail is probably one of our favorite things about the WDW experience.

Karen will Probably blog about our trip (she'd better), so I won't dig too deeply into the details, but we had a fabulous time. What I will say however is that we have decided at this point we're not addicted to WDW as are many of the people we know. We'll probably go again in 3 years or so for the kids, but our thoughts of returning for a wedding anniversary are souring; we'll probably go somewhere else.

Work has been very stressful as I've been given an assignment that is already fully underway (I'm taking over for someone who has to take a leave of absence). It's a role where I have little experience but the assignment is highly visible to the client and critical in terms of how they view my company's ability to delivery quality & value. It's a fairly short but intense assignment; I could feasibly be through by March, possibly stay on another year for the next release if things go well (I have doubts about my abilities but we'll see). My vacation days for the WDW trip had to be trimmed so I could visit the Netherlands to learn the job assignment from the person who is leaving. And I need to get right back to it, so I will not be taking any vacation days this coming week. I'm also not expecting much relaxation around Christmas and New Year's Day.

Anyway, the trip to WDW was much needed but not the relaxing experience it could have been due to the anxiety I'm feeling about doing a good job on this assignment. I haven't felt this much anxiety about work (or school) in many, many years; maybe never. I'm hoping things go well and it was worry for nothing. Wish me luck! :D

Puffs of Smack, Corn, Hot Air

Today I discovered I am not the only popcorn food snob in Katy, Texas. The 'other guy' is our friend Jordan Marcks. (See him HERE in his popcorn get-up.)

So I asked Jordan about his popcorn secrets and he was happy to share. I shared mine, which I was surprised were very different. Then, for the sucker punch I mentioned Toasted Cheerios, my wife's salty snack favorite.

Before I go too far, I have to tell you I'm a pretty heavy hitter when it comes to popcorn. I have roots going back to my younger days, at the feet of my Dad who made popcorn just about every Sunday. My Dad's popcorn was amazingly delicious... light popcorn with just the right amount of salt and oil. Dad's popcorn is very 'by the book' - 1/4 cup oil, 1 cup popcorn, into the Stir Crazy. After the popcorn pops, Dad's trick is to first salt the popped bowl of corn, then dump half into a bigger bowl, salt again, then dump the rest into the bigger bowl and salt a final time.



This was heaven until I discovered a few things in the mid-90's:

1. Butter. I always thought butter was something that went extinct in the 60's (kids, that was before I was born). Apparently it's not a myth and it did not become extinct. There is a thriving underground butter trade and I ran into it around the mid-90's.
2. It IS possible to improve upon mother's (and father's) cooking. This revelation alone is probably worth its own blog, but just go with me on this.
3. Systems Engineering. Over the 90's my study of this auspicious degree developed within me the need to "make it better"... this degree essentially challenges - nay, compels the follower to "make it better" (whatever "it" happens to be).
   

Identifying "Bad system design" has been my quest ever since. (Did you realize making popcorn can, in fact, be described as a process within a system?)

So here is my ultimate "Bring it on, Jordan!" popcorn:

1. Don your kitchen garb - whatever keeps you clean.
   
2. Place 2 Tbsp. butter in a small microwave-safe teacup or mug and place in the microwave.
3. Get out a large bowl and next to it place your Morton popcorn salt.
4. In a Stir Crazy electric popper (we're on our 4th popper; I'm open to suggestions), add 3 Tbsp peanut oil and 1 scant cup Orville Reddenbacher popcorn, cover and plug in.
   
5. Melt the butter for 20 seconds. You could do this at step 2 but I want it to be warmer so this is the habit I've gotten into. Set the microwave for 8 seconds but don't start it.
6. Grab the popper on both sides with some mittens or 'hot pads' and start to gently shake the popper, pushing away and pulling towards you in swift, gentle motions. This helps the popper evenly distribute heat over the kernels since the oil is really what distributes the heat, not the bottom of the heating unit. It also lessens the chance of burning and increases the number of popped kernels.

   Instead of hot pads, you might want to consider using a rag to wrap over the top of the contraption to prevent burning, or wearing a coat or long gloves, as the oil can and will splatter. (I usually use a rag but didn't in the pictures here so you could see what I was doing.)
   

7. When the first few kernels pop (it's just starting to get going), speed over to the microwave and press Start.
8. Bring the butter back to the popper and set aside.
   
9. Continue to shake the popper, until it's really going strong and a quarter to a third of the popcorn is popped.
10. Grab the butter, lift the top lid and dump the butter in. Quickly close the lid, then turn the teacup/mug upside down into the waiting bowl so the remaining butter will be captured. Mmmm...
    
11. Continue to shake the popper, a bit more vigorously now so that the butter will drip all around into the popping frenzy.
12. Because you used a high-smoke point oil and because there are no sugars, you're safe letting the popcorn pop a few seconds beyond the last kernel pops. In fact I probably wait longer but I enjoy the half-popped old maids and the nutty flavor left over by the cooking at the very end. This part is up to you.
13. When popping is finished, unplug the Stir Crazy and turn it upside-down, removing the heating unit. Salt quickly, dump half into the big bowl, salt again, dump the remainder, then salt again. Now, using your clever chef skills, give the popcorn many good tosses to shake it up and spread around all the salty, buttery goodness.
14. Enjoy!

Couple of notes: Don't skimp on the butter; it's delicious! I use peanut oil because it has a high smoke-point and is tasty. (Cinemas used to use cottonseed and peanut oil.) It's the high smoke point that keeps the flavor pure. I sometimes use Canola oil and it works just as well and is healthier. Popcorn salt is formulated with much smaller crystals, which results in more even popped kernel dusting. I'm sure there is a scientific term for this.

So, other than a secret jealousy for his popper (all metal, stove top style), and a curiosity for his different (and healthier) choice of ingredients, I left Jordan's house with a challenge in the air. He threw back the threat of "popcorn night showdown". Huh!

Am I scared? No, just hungry!

House Full of Canon

Our brand-new Canon EOS Rebel XSi camera arrived in the mail this week and we're excited!!

(Actually two of them came. After ordering from Dell, then learning the camera would not ship for another week, I got them to cancel my order then bought one through Amazon.com. Meanwhile, Dell shipped our camera anyway. Long story short, the Dell product is on a UPS truck heading back to the warehouse, and my credit card is eager for a store credit.)

I know that was impatient of me to not be able to wait a week for my new camera. But the way I see it, our trip to DisneyWorld is fast-approaching (34 days, 16 hours, and 19 minutes as of this writing), and since Karen crowned me the photojournalist for the trip I figure I need as much time as possible to learn the whole "DSLR" way of taking pictures.

The need for a new camera started its real fever just over a week ago, when my wife blogged about the flowers I sent her. The picture was awful, and this was more or less the tipping point. She had a right to complain. Our point-and-shoot camera (a Fujifilm Finepix E900) has never taken pictures that were very good - usually snowy, not clear at any zoom level, bad battery life and generally very disappointing. What's frustrating about this is that we bought it on recommendation from Consumer Reports. Note to my beloved readers: Do not use Consumer Reports for decisions on any sort of electronics.

So it turns out one of Karen's friends has been blogging about her camera and her pictures are wonderful. And her other friend's pictures are wonderful. And her sister's pictures are wonderful, and our sister-in-law's pictures are great... and, well, you get the idea. It was time to go camera shopping.

... We interrupt this blog for a guilty conscious moment.

Alright I have to be honest. I've dreamt of buying a fancy SLR for a long time now. I'm a pretty patient fellow. Despite the long talks with people who know (you know who you are) and the many strolls through the photography section of Best Buy, I have not pushed very hard for one of these gizmos. You could say there might have been a subconcious part of my psyche that conceived of buying one, final, terrible "point and shoot" camera that would then bring Karen to ask for an expensive Digital SLR. And you would either be correct or slightly delusional. And who am I to judge? But I'm not actually here to dispute the past, just revel in the present....

I have to give most of the credit selecting this camera to my brother in-law, Joseph Scott. Thanks Joe! He is a walking photography encyclopedia. For those thinking about buying a camera, I would recommend talking with him first. As I struggled to make my final purchase his advice helped me finally do it. In the end, I bought a Canon EOS Rebel XSi, two 8 GB HDSD high speed memory cards, an HDSD memory reader, and a fantastic book to teach us how to take good pictures called "Understanding Exposure".

Our camera is amazing!

Notes: The first picture on this blog was taken with the Fujifilm. If you look at the large version you might see some of the snow (maybe better called hail than snow). The other pictures were taken using the auto mode on our new camera.

Building Bridges

On Saturday a group of us from our Church spent last Saturday in Bridge City, TX helping those who were flooded by Hurricane Ike. There were probably 200-300 volunteers from our area who drove about two hours east of Houston to help those who are still clearing the mess left by the storm. Until the mess has been cleared, there can be no rebuilding.

The overwhelming storm surge left tremendous flooding in areas that might have otherwise fared well. Other than a faint water line about halfway up the first story of the houses, the outside structures of these homes looked relatively normal. On the inside, however, there is a much different story: Rotting wood, sheet rock, insulation, food and other items left behind; Mold growing up the sides of walls and furniture; Cups, pots, and bread makers inside china hutches and on shelves full of water.

We met at our church building at 5 a.m. then drove the 2+ hour trip to receive work orders. We found our assignments and promptly put ourselves to work. We worked throughout the day "mucking out houses". This is a process that involves removing flooring (carpet, linoleum, tile and wood, etc.), sheet rock, furniture, insulation, cabinetry, and so forth. Much of the items are moldy and rotten, requiring us to wear protective breathing masks.

It was a bittersweet experience to sit with one of the homeowners and talk with her about her losses and hopes. It was heartwarming to see how unshaken her faith is. She spoke of rebuilding her home, and that she sees an opportunity to design her home the way she wants it. What a great example.

Many in the area kept up their humor, posting clever signs ("for sale", "everything must go", "don't loot or we'll shoot", etc.) We also witnessed children in water fights and laughing. For all the problems these good people are facing, they are incredibly resilient.

As my friend Brad Green, who was one of the volunteers from our congregation put it, "The devastation is overwhelming. Imagine 5 feet of sea-water inside your home.... and then to see everything you own sitting at the curbside about to be hauled away. Many tears were shed. Please keep the good folks of this area in your prayers."

My faith was strengthened and my heart warmed by this experience.

Thanks to Brad for the pictures in this blog.

Handy Randy

Last weekend Randy and I did a little garage project. This is the 3rd woodworking weekend in a row for me, if you include the shelves weekend and the week in-between when I helped with the roof.

Randy needed to complete a woodworking project for his cub scout project, so rather than making a birdhouse Karen and I thought he could help me build a workbench in the garage. He went with me to Home Depot and was a real trooper, helping me pick out all the materials. This was a bit difficult with all the post-Ike home repair projects in full flight and supplies low.

I decided to use the old 4x4 legs from the beds I had made for Tyler and Randy - when I had split their bunk beds to make loft beds. The 4x4 lengths made excellent bench legs. Randy got a little bored with the project but came out and started driving nails. After that, I pretty much could not get rid of him. He loves that hammer! And he's very good at it.

We put up a bench with a "step" or "seat" on one side that I thought the kids could use to help with projects, or I could just sit things on it. We also put up peg board and hung some tools from it.

Great job, Randy!!

Ooh it's hot up there

After the ravages of the hurricane our church meetings were cancelled today. There were too many people with hurricane aftermath problems that needed attention.

I got a call today from Brother Bleazard who needed a ladder to work on the Gillett's roof. So I spent an hour or two on the roof with Br. Bleazard putting tarps over holes. I did it barefoot because I could get a better grip on the steep roof - was great idea until the sun came out. Br. Bleazard used to work on roofs so was very good with safety and making sure we were roped and tied to prevent falling off. But even still I was very glad to get down and be done with it.

While I was on the roof I got another war wound on my thumb. The first was from my shelf wood-work (see earlier blog) and mashed my thumb with a hammer, the second was when I was splitting some hamburger patties and whacked the same thumb with the spatula, and the last was with a hammer on the roof. The last one split it open - it was pretty gross. And for those who know how well I do with the sight of my own blood, I got a little nervous standing on the top of a 2-story roof with my blood drops staining the shingles and tarp everywhere... I worked through it and made it off the roof in one piece.

What a blessing to have nothing better to do that help out my neighbor with his roof problems. How could I refuse that opportunity? I just keep thinking about how little damage we had to our house and in our neighborhood in general - we are so blessed!