What I Don't Like....

Destructive Teenagers! We were not inside even 30 minutes before I looked out the window to see that some nasty kid destroyed our snow fort. I wasn't like that as a kid, and I never will understand the pleasure that delinquents get from destroying other people's property or creations. I'll stop here to keep my anger in check. Thank goodness for Wii Boxing...I do like that!

Making Snow Forts

My oldest and I decided we would take advantage of our first snowfall of the season by building a snow fort. Unfortunately, the snow stopped and sun came out before we could finish it. I was thinking full on igloo...maybe next time!

Rolling Down Hills

Not just any hills of course, hills where our first President George Washington may have taken a roll or two down himself. Ok, I cannot tell a lie, most any hill will do.

I had the pleasure of growing up next door to a city park that had a nice big hill. The hill was great for sledding in the winter, and rolling down the rest of the year (when dry and relatively warm). In fact, until Mount Vernon, I had not rolled down any hill, to my recollection, since my youth.

So, what possessed me to engage in this youthful activity that usually only adults who are less than sober do? Well it is simple...I like to have fun...and it was fun. I just wish I had known about the abundant goose droppings that fertilize the grassy greens overlooking the Potomac before I took a roll!

Christmas Time

First off, I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

I have always enjoyed this special day when we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. There has always been a special spirit about the season that is very unique from any other time, and of course this is because of its true meaning.

I was happy to know that my oldest son is already realizing that it is more than just presents and decorations. When we ask him what Christmas is, he quickly replies, "It's when we celebrate Jesus' birthday!" The other day I jokingly asked him, "What if we skip Christmas this year? What if we just don't celebrate?" Again he was quick in his reply, exclaiming, "Then Jesus would be sad and very mad at you!"

Yesterday, we took the time to bake some Christmas cookies, and retold my oldest the Christmas story as he cut each shape, telling him, for example, that the star represented the new star that appeared in the heavens to tell of Jesus' birth and show the way to find Him. He thought this was great fun and had me repeat the stories with each cookie that he cut.

I am so grateful to our Heavenly Father who loved us so much that He sent His Only Begotten, and to our willing Saviour, Jesus Christ, who suffered and died that we too may overcome sin and death. May we all learn to love and follow Him, for this is the only way to have Peace on Earth, as we show Goodwill to men.

Wafer Snacks

Ok, before I start...does anyone recognize the above snack? Ok, yes, it is just a negative of a Little Debbie Nutty Bar, but I am trying to depict a snack I enjoyed in the 1980s while visiting my gr-great aunt. It was like a Nutty Bar, but it had a white chocolate coating with, I believe, toasted coconut mixed in. Instead of peanut butter, they had a vanilla or coconut oreo style creme inside. They were so good, but I am not sure they are made anymore. I don't know if they were made by Little Debbie, Dolley Madison, Hostess, etc. Any help?

So, I have always enjoyed a good wafer snack whether it be a Nutty Bar, Kit Kat, or simple Vanilla/Strawberry/Chocolate wafer cookie. Of course, the best way to enjoy them is by pulling them apart and scrapping the creme centers clean with your incisors. Of course, my wife did not allow my relationship with Little Debbie to continue after we were married....sigh.

Recentlly, we discovered Goya brand wafer cookies at the local Korean market, that just happens to sell Latino food items as well. They have the traditional flavors, but also include guava, mango, pineapple, and coconut. I like to simultaneously eat a pineapple and coconut wafer to make a pina colada medoly in my mouth. Anyway, dangerous items to have in the house as it is so easy to eat a whole package in one or two sittings. They may seem airy and light, but they'll soon make your pants too tight.

Crocus Sativus

Yes, I am talking about the producer of saffron. As I have mentioned before, I like growing things, especially things that produce something pleasing to the taste buds. A few months ago, I decided to plant some Crocus Sativus bulbs and try my hand at harvesting some saffron. Pictured above is one of the results. Yesterday morning, I harvested the saffron contained in the red stamens and dried them for future use. I don't expect to ever get a high yield, but hopefully enough to make a few dishes every once in awhile. I can practically taste the lamb kabobs with grilled veggies over top some saffron rice...of course, maybe that is because I had that for dinner on Friday, Yummm!

Childhood Games II: Fun with Paper

So I already went over the fun to be had with paper footballs, but that got me thinking about other paper fun we had when I was a kid. Now the projects that I detail below were by far the favorite origami projects of the time. Sure paper cranes that could "lay eggs" were cool and now I know "peaceful," and you can't overlook the paper balloon, but....

Poppers
Paper poppers, just called "poppers" where I lived, were a lot of fun, but could also get you in a lot of trouble at school if your timing was bad (i.e. you got caught in the act). At my school, we only made two varieties: the rectangle and the triangle popper. The triangle by far gave the best bang, but the rectangle was a good beginner's model. But don't take my word for it, get a piece of paper, and make your own; and then please leave comments about your results. (Click through the links in the text for instructions. Oh and you don't need a newspaper for the triangle popper, an 8.5x11 piece of paper works great!)


"Chinese" Throwing StarsWe all know that the "pirates" of the 80s were ninjas. As such, we all needed to have our supply of Chinese stars. You could fold in coins and tape them up for better balance, distance, and hitting power--which of course we did. My best friend growing up, Ryan J., who lived in the house behind mine would always have a group of us playing ninjas in his pitch black basement. We would have two sides and the object was to sneak out and attack each other's bases. I am surprised no one lost an eye from the many stars flying through the air. I did have my shorts (homemade "Jams" with a dinosaur print) ripped by Ryan, who thrust his wooden sword through a gap in between the stairs and water heater (boy am I lucky that he just snagged and ripped my shorts!!!). While I am on a tangent anyway, I will mention that our love of paper stars led many of us to make metal stars in metal shop in junior high school, which were of course banned even then. Unfortunately, I never had the chance to take metal shop. That said my friend Cedric R. did and I at least got to throw the star that he had made. He had no problem throwing the star into the wall at his home, making one inch gashes...I'm sure his parents were not thrilled, if they ever found out.

Fortune Tellers
Ok last, but not least, but definitely more girly...paper fortune tellers. We as kids were obsessed with who we liked and whether they liked us, how much money we would have when we grew up, etc.; and picking off flower petals for she loves me...she loves me not, just wasn't cutting it, especially for boys...as that would be crossing the line of girlishness...no offense. So here were the rules of the game, as cut/paste from the above link:

How to Play the Game:
*Hold the fortune teller and ask a friend to choose one of the colors shown.
*Spell out the chosen color by opening and closing the fortune teller, and stop.
*Have your friend choose one of the numbers that is shown. Count out that number by opening and closing the fortune teller, and stop.
*Again, have your friend choose a number, and repeat step 3.
*Have your friend choose one last number. Then open the flap beneath that number and read your friend's fortune!

You could/can make these into a simple yes/no/maybe magic 8 ball type "tool," or just put names of people you like, the possibilities were/are endless.


M.A.S.H (Mansion-Apartment-Shack-House)
Ok just one more, since we are on the topic of grade school fortune telling...besides this one requires no special paper folding skills. I know this was a girly game too, but remember I have a sister and girly things can be fun too. Anyway, you would take a piece of paper and would write out several categories and each category would have four selections. The first category: What type of house will you live in? was the only pre-selected category, which of course was: Mansion, Apartment, Shack, House. Other categories which you could make your own choices for included:

*What type of car will you drive?
*What type of job will you have?
*Where will you live (city/state/country/planet)?
*Who will you marry?
*How many children will you have?
After all the categories were filled in, a friend would start drawing a spiral away from your view, and you had to say when they should stop. Then like counting the rings of a tree, you would count how many rings were in the spiral and that would be the number used for selecting your future. Starting from the top, you would count through the selections and your future would be the one that you end on... for example if your number was eleven you would count through the house category to find out that you would be living in a shack. Fun and simple times!

Reminiscing: Childhood Games

Pickle

This was my favorite game to play with friends while waiting for the school bus. The basic rules were that you would have two points as designated bases. You would have two kids who would gaurd the bases, who were similar to tag called "it." Other kids, were base runners who would from base to base while trying to not get tagged by the tennis ball that the "its" would toss back and forth (being tagged included being hit by a thrown ball.) The person being tagged takes the "it" place of the person who threw it. Repeat the process over and over until the arrival of the dreaded bus.

Dodgeball

Oh how fun it was on the days we got to play dodgeball in PE (or gym class, whatever you want to call it.) The rules we played by, which I believe to be the classic rules, were as follows: two teams would be divided by the mid-court line of the basketball court; you could not cross the line or you were out; if you were hit by the ball you were out; if your ball is caught before bouncing you are out; team to run out of people loses. Oh how I loved hurling the rubber balls at peoples legs, heads, and backs to limit their ability to catch the ball. And how I loved to encourage the people to throw at me since I was very good at catching the ball.

Broom Hockey or Floorball
While still on PE I loved playing broom hockey, we actually didn't use brooms, but rather had styrofoam hockey sticks with a plastic puck (but wait we did use brooms at church). I was the best goalie, but found it more fun to get out ans score goals.

Kickball and Wiffle-ball

Ahh, kickball and wiffle-ball, so much fun. As I am sure you all know, kickball is baseball played by kicking a big rubber ball instead of hitting a ball with a bat. On variant we played in gym class was when we played indoor if you kicked the ball into the basketball hoop your team would get 10 points, I remember doing it at least once. We did play wiffle-ball (with a bat of course), but we mostly used tennis balls, as you could get a lot more distance.

Flag, Two-hand Touch, and Solo Football

I loved playing neighborhood two-hand touch or PE flag football. In the fall, even when my friends were gone, you could find me in my backyard playing the football. I would through an appropriately arched ball and run and catch it. I would even play two teams, keeping downs and score by myself; each dropped ball would be a down and I designated certain points like a tree for a first down or touchdown. I would imagine winning the Super Bowl or winning the Heisman Trophy. Of course playing with friends was much more fun. (I also would pretend I was in the Olympics and would do events such as the standing long-jump in my living room...heavily influenced by Carl Lewis.)

Paper Football

Paper football deserves its own category as it is a little more unique. Starting in elementry school, the boys would fold paper into triangles that would serve as footballs. We would use a desk or lunch table as the field. You would first kick off by flicking the paper, and you would then have four tries to flick or shuffle the "ball" so that it would hang over the edge of your opponents side, thus scoring a touchdown, if it fell off the edge it was no good. After scoring a touchdown your opponent would hold up his fingers for a goal post and you would try to flick the "ball" across for an extra point. I made paper footballs to represent all NFL teams, coloring them to match helmet designs.

Quarter Basketball

This I am sure developed out of the paper football game. You would first spin a quarter and try to trap it in between your two thumbs, without letting it fall. You would of course try to spin the quarter so that it would get as close to your opponent, who would have his hands rounded into a basket, as possible. If distant you would launch the quarter into the air trying to make it into your opponent's basket hand. If closer you could do a slam dunk. Later as the game developed further, you could do fancy slam dunks by grabbing the quarter with a ring finger and pinky while not letting the thumbs to separate and then slamming the quarter into your opponents basket. This was another lunch time favorite, that lasted into the early years of high school.

Pencil Break

This favorite among elementry boys did not last long as parents complained to the school about all of the broken pencils they found in school bags...the school "cracked" down. How was it played? Well one boy would hold their pencil in between their hands and the opponent would snap their pencil as hard as they could on the held pencil. Each would take turns until one of the pencil's broke. Of course you tried to land the metal eraser holder part of the pencil on your opponent's to increase your chances of victory. The best pencils were the compressed wood that had enough glue to give the pencil extra elasticity. I believe the Eberhard Faber were the best. This game of course developed from stick break (which of course was the same game using sticks), which we still played, but less often.

Being a Vegetarian

Surprised? But just wait, what I actually mean by this is that I whole-heatedly advocate eating a salad and even some broccoli or asparagus with a nice big juicy steak. Hey, God created us as omnivores, and who am I to try and disrupt that plan. So ok, I am not a vegetarian by the "strict" definition...I like to eat animals, and I am not ashamed (Please my Vegetarian and Vegan friends, I mean no disrespect, they are just so tasty and part of a well-balanced nutritious breakfast-lunch-dinner.)



So last night I had the opportunity of eating at a Shula's (as in Miami Dolphins Coach) Steakhouse. It was a nice inviting atmosphere with dimmed lights, dark wood paneling, and high backed chairs that you would expect to see a guy smoking a pipe while reading a book in front of a fire place (yes the guy with the silk robe and scarf). There were Miami Dolphin photos and paintings throughout the restaurant, which surprisingly did not take away from the high-end atmosphere. Anyway, enough atmospherics and on to the food...

The menu is quite fun as it is printed on a football and placed on a rubber tee on the table. You don't really need it though, as th waiter brings out a delicious looking cart with all the different cuts of steak that they have, and gives a wonderful explanation of what makes their meat so special. Anyway, we started with large bacon wrapped shrimp covered in tangy BBQ sauce....Awesome! Then onto the salad, which was actually not as impressive, as it was primarily the fancy,organic mixed greens we always get from Costco. But the steak, oh that juicy,tasty piece of fresh carne...I got the 16oz New York Strip, I know not the best of cuts, but this cut was as tender as most place's filet mignon. It was cooked perfectly and did not need any condiments. For sides we had mashed potatoes with lobster tail mixed in, and broccoli with the best hollondaise sauce that I have ever tasted. Since everyone else got dessert, I went along...three large scoops of mango sorbet topped with raspberries and mint, all in an almond brittle bowl...Excellent! Needless to say, I went home very pleased.

Speaking of meat, obviously I didn't eat enough growing up. Now I know why I was too small to play Division I football in college. While waiting for my party to arrive, I was sitting in a hotel lobby with several of the Arizona Cardinals football team (as pictured below). In fact, while searching for a restroom I accidentally almost walked into their practice session in one of the hotel conference rooms. It is amazing how no one questions you when you put on a blazer or suit jacket. Anyway, the point is I felt tiny next to these guys, which if you look at their stats, it should be no surprise why.

Blueberries

My wife said that she has often noticed when the blogs that she follows do not have new posts for a long time the bloggers end up posting that they are pregnant. Well let me quickly allay any fears and squash any rumors here and now...I am not pregnant. Perhaps this comes as a surprise to those of you were guessing that my absence could only mean that I was with child, but I was merely on a vacation.

Anyway, during my vacation, we had the wonderful opportunity to go pick blueberries. It was a wonderful experience, especially since we could eat as many as we wished. We also bucketed 3lbs to take home for later as the price was right at 90 cents a pound.

After the picking, my hands looked like I just triggered an anti-theft ink packet. Luckily I managed to not squish any of the blue, sweet nectar onto my shirt. The blueberries certainly had a chance to stain my shirt, as I found that the biggest, juiciest morsels were in thick patches at the top, so I would press in close and pull the branches down to reach those beauties.

I have saved the seeds of a few choice berries and hope to plant a blueberry orchard of my own. They are now in the refrigerator to trick the seeds into germinating, so hopefully I will be able to post photos of my success in a few months. I haven't met a seed that I could not get to grow yet, unfortunately keeping them alive is another thing. Case in point, a few vacations ago my poor kiwi plant that I grew from a seed dehydrated. I am now nursing a couple of tomato plants back to life after this most recent trip. Perhaps I should get one of those "pretty" glass ball self-watering systems.

Tennis

I have always enjoyed tennis. I love playing it, and I love to go see matches (which has only happened once thus far). In 1990 or so, I was lucky enough to go to the semi-finals of the ATP Master Series Tournament in Cincinnati, after my friend Ryan J.'s mother gave my mother and me their tickets that they couldn't use. The highlight was seeing my favorite tennis player Stefan Edberg, who was then ranked number 1 in the world. It was an awesome experience to see tennis in person. To me it was like the symphony of sports, in fact you were required to be quiet during play and had to know when and when not to applaud.

Anyway, as I have mentioned in previous posts, I have not had the chance to play in a long while and I wanted to join a daddy-son tennis training program. I would have to wait until spring to enroll in any such class, and so I finally decided I could wait no longer. Today after work, I got out my rackets and started to teach my oldest son to play as pictured above. He was a natural...He had a great swing...He loved it.

I can't wait to continue tomorrow.

Audiobooks

I now have the shortest commute I have ever had (25-30 minutes), but I still have plenty of time to listen to the Book of Mormon or other good audiobooks. I usually try to listen to the Book of Mormon on the way to work, and then listen to my latest audiobook checked out online from our local library.

Yes, gone are the days (mostly) where I have to go to the Library to pick up books on CDs. Nor do I have to fumble with changing the CDs while driving. Now, with companies like OverDrive Media, I can just download various audiobooks or ebooks to my desktop and then sync them to my Palm TX. Then with my FM transmitter (if you need one - look for Hong Kong models on ebay for under $10) I just tune to 106.3 (as it is a clear channel where I live) and enjoy.

On a similar note, for work related items, I love Books24x7, which has all the key work related references for viewing online. This resource assuredly helped me get various certifications that have benefited my career.