Update

Some miscellaneous thoughts...

We had a visit from two of my nephews a few weeks ago, Hunter and Chase. They drove down during their Spring Break and spent about 4 days with us. Here's the rundown. They saw Alex's first football game (which he won), then went to the Orange and Blue game with us (Gator spring scrimmage). Back at home, they went for a walk with the kids and looked for shark teeth in the creek near our house. I grilled steaks for dinner. After Alex and Bella went to bed, we popped popcorn and watched a Netflix movie, The Hot Chick. Sunday we slept in, ate pancakes, and went to the beach for the day (Anastasia State Park). Monday they slept in while we went to work and school. That night Sofia babysat for some friends while Cristina went to a school fundraiser. Hunter and Chase went over to the house Sofia was babysitting at and played cards with her. Hunter and Chase headed back to Asheville Tuesday while we were at work/school. Overall, it was a great weekend and we all loved hanging out with them. Looking forward to doing it again some time.

Alex's team, the Saints, has played two flag football games. He's playing in the local Upward league, which is a Christian-based sports league. We like that the focus is on fair playing time and promoting positive sportsmanship, rather than ultra-competitive winning-is-everything attitude. He's been begging to play an organized sport for a while now, and this seemed like a good way to go. The fact that they have a spiritual lesson/Bible verse reflection in the middle of every practice doesn't bother us. The coach knows we're Baha'is. He told me a couple of nights ago that he googled "Baha'i" and read about it. "That sounds pretty cool!" he said. "I'm good with that." (Which is a much better response than "I'll pray for your lost souls, you wayward heathens.") He graduated from Appalachian State, which is a nice connection. (Anyway, I'm trying to keep these update points to one paragraph, and I'm straying off topic.) So they won their first game. Alex caught an extra point (no kicking in Upward football...after a touchdown, the team can go for one or two points by running or throwing). In the second game, Alex caught a touchdown pass, but the team lost in the last second by 1 point. After a week off for Easter, his 3rd game is this Saturday. Go Saints!

Cub Scouts has taken a backseat to football the last few months, but we're doing a biking hike with his den this Saturday after the football game.

Our flea infestation continues. Frontline didn't work. I have Revolution now, but I can't tell if it's working or not because so many new fleas keep jumping on them, its hard to tell. We have to get the fleas in the carpets and in the yard under control before the Revolution will really be effective. To that end, I finally bought a big sack of diatomaceous earth (DE), which is not actually earth, but fossilized remains of marine phytoplankton called diatoms. It has the consistency of flour, and it causes damage to small insects when they crawl through it, because on a microscopic level, the diatoms are razor sharp. So DE doesn't hurt warm-blooded animals, but tiny things with exoskeletons get cut up and die. I haven't done a full treatment of the house and yard yet. A friend of ours said she didn't have luck with DE, but others I know (like our neighbors and my parents) say it works well. So I'm holding out hope.

Bella has her first loose tooth. She wants it out! It doesn't feel quite ready, but we keep telling her to wiggle it all she wants. It will eventually come out when it's time.

Sofia had her last band concert of the year last night, and the State competition is this Friday. Before you know it, summer band camp will be here and marching season will be cranking up again. I'm looking forward to it.

My first yearbook arrived last week. 618 books in 45 boxes weighing a total of 2700 pounds. We've been passing them out since last Friday. Still have about 100 to sell. I'm hoping to sell out, which is better than they did last year. We still have 80 books from last year.

That's all I can think of for now.

Cool Speeches

I'm doing a public speaking unit right now with my English classes, and tomorrow, some of my classes will be done with their first speech. I'm assembling a few cool speeches to show to those classes that have some time left. Hopefully, these speeches will serve as inspiration, but maybe my students will also listen to the content and learn something.

I'm assembling them in a blog post so they're easy to access during class.











And just for fun...

Masala Fail

I don't mean to sound cocky, but I am almost always successful in the kitchen.

I'm no gourmet, and I have no formal culinary training, but I've cooked enough over the years and picked up a tip or two that I produce crowd-pleasing favorites, at best, or average-but-acceptable fare, at worst.

Tonight, I had an epic fail in the kitchen, I am embarrassed to admit.

A few weeks ago, I bought a couple of cookbooks at Borders, which was going out of business and had everything marked down (Yes! Death to the big box bookstores! Long live independent bookstores!) I picked up a pressure cooker cookbook and a slow-cooker cookbook. I've made several things from the slow-cooker book already: pizza potatoes, orange-honey tilapia (yes, fish in a slow-cooker!) and beefy mac and cheese. All decent. No home runs, but for slow-cooker meals...decent.

After getting back from North Carolina last night, we had today to get ready for school and work. That meant unpacking and unloading our booty from Amazing Savings, Trader Joe's, and Costco. Cristina spent the better part of the day reorganizing our pantry. We made the menu for the week and I shopped for the week's groceries. I figured tonight was a good night to try out something from the pressure cooker book, so I chose chicken masala. It sounded fairly easy, different but not too off-the-wall, and tasty.

Once the lid was sealed, about halfway through the cooking, I detected a faint burning smell. I didn't have the heat that high, and I've never burned anything in the pressure cooker before, so I hoped that the burning smell was coming from Cristina's rice.

It wasn't.

The masala was so burned, it was completely ruined. I tried skimming off the top and not scraping the burned stuff on the bottom, but it was useless. One tiny bite left the aftertaste of smoke thick in your mouth. And it wasn't smoke you could deal with, like Liquid Smoke flavor you put on barbecue. It tasted like an ashtray smells. It was disgusting.

I know defeat when I see it, so I didn't force anyone to "take one for the team." I dumped it all in the trash. One little orange dollop landed on the edge of the trashcan lid. I left it there, a visual reminder of my defeat, for the rest of the evening.

Cristina's rice had not burned, so all was not lost. I quickly fried up some chicken cutlets, just a basic balsamic chicken thing I used to do often, and dinner was fine.

But I hate failing in the kitchen. And now I can't help but have a negative vibe towards that pressure cooker book. I followed the recipe to a tee yet it burned.

I'm not giving up yet. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger. You have to read a crappy novel now and then to appreciate the good ones. And sometimes you gotta burn the hell out of your masala to make you step back and reevaluate your kitchen skills. My ingredients were fine. My prep was perfect. I doubt the recipe is to blame. It has to be an equipment issue. Either the stove was too hot, or my pressure cooker has other issues. I do have one suspicion.

I think I need a new gasket for my cooker. My current one seems stretched out, too big, and I think it's not sealing like it should. Once I get a new gasket, I'll try another recipe.

And then I'll make a judgment whether to keep the book or donate it to the Friends of the Library.