Sometimes life happens, as it did with us this last year. We are no longer Wyomingites, at least residentially speaking. We'll always cherish the time we spent in Wyoming as a great adventure, but for now, we've turned a new leaf in our lives, and we are back to being Ubangees (that's Wyomingite for Utahn, btw).
New home, new kid, new job... they all add up, and it's kept us from keeping up our blog. We'll be back, though. Just give us a little time to adapt.
So, I'm just going to post a couple of links for you from the WSJ. These are the kinds of things that fascinate me:
It was such a nice day out today, that I decided to go for a ride on my bicycle after work. I rode down into the valley north of Lyman, and then headed west on the county road, past the reservoir. The scenery was beautiful, the temperature was pleasant, there was hardly any breeze; in short, it was a great day for a ride.
On the west side of the valley, as you head toward Urie, there's a large hill. I looked at the hill, and said to myself, "I can get up that hill easy." About three-quarters of the way up, I was exhausted, and got off my bike. I walked up the rest of the way, thinking to myself, "That hill was bigger than I thought. Once I get to the top, though, I'll be OK."
After I got to the top, I was feeling a little queasy, and thought, "I better stop and rest for a minute." So, I rested the bike next to a reflector pole, and was walking around to get my wind.
The next thing I knew, I was waking up. There was a gash under my eye, another on my forehead, scrapes on my knuckles, and the knee of my exercise pants was ripped. My shoulder and hip were aching. My glasses were shattered on the asphalt, and I was laying with my body in the road, and my feet were on the white line.
I tried to call Julie on her cell phone, but she was outside, and couldn't hear anything. Then I called our next door neighbor, and she didn't answer. I called several persons in my phone, and finally found one at home. He came out and picked me up, and took me to his house. They pumped some fluids in me, and we got hold of Julie.
Here's a photo of the results of my escapade.
I made this up today, and it turned out surprisingly well. Thought you all might enjoy it, too.
Equipment used: Weber grill and Kingsford Charcoal with Mesquite
The grill needs to pretty hot. I used about 25 coals in my travel grill, and that seemed to be just about right. This isn't like cooking steak where we want to get the grill as hot as we can -- this stuff needs to cook all the way through. Put a little oil on the grill to prevent sticking.
Mix up the sauce. Slather on chicken. Place chicken on grill, sauce side down. Slather sauce on top of chicken, and cover grill. Cook for about 3 minutes. Flip the chicken and repeat the sauce treatment, and cover the grill. Cook another three minutes, and repeat. Each side should cook twice, for a total of 12 minutes. Remove from the grill, and let it rest for a few minutes. Slice and serve.
Family gave the chicken rave reviews. Anna said "This is the best dinner I ever had." James agreed with Anna. Alden asked for more. Julie glowered at me because she doesn't ever have good luck with the grill, and then she told me that it tasted really good. Me, I don't like to toot my own horn, but "Toot! Toot!"
I'm curious to try this on a non-charcoal grill to see if it was the charcoal or the sauce that made this taste so good. I'm betting it was the charcoal...
I know it's been a while.
The personal project that I was working on is no longer important, and has been dwarfed by other personal projects and minor and major crises at my regular job, which take a lot of time and energy. That and all these other things seem to get in my way.
I'm trying to be a good dad, and that means that I play with my kids instead of write on my blog.
I'm trying to be good in my calling, and that means that I work on Family History or write in my journal instead of write on the blog.
I'm trying to be a good husband, and that means that I fix dinner and watch the kids so Julie can take 30 minutes to go the library to get a good book to read instead of write on my blog.
I'm trying to be a good worker, and that means that I spend time trying to collect money, and create databases, and work with vendors, and try and get a smooth running company. So I do those things and that leaves little time to blog.
Do I miss writing? Yes, I do. Do I miss your comments? Yes, I do. Will I try harder to write regularly? I can't promise anything. I hope that you, dear reader, will understand and continue to have patience with me and us as we sort this all out.
Last night I made Chewy Gingersnap Cookies, and they were excellent.
A couple of months ago, I made some gingersnap cookies, but they turned out very crispy. Their flavor was excellent, but we prefer a chewy cookie at our house. I think next time I'll add a little more ginger to give a little extra bite, but overall it received high ratings from the family.
So, we drew some inspiration (no pun intended) from Emily and Drew. For Christmas this year, they got Skookies (I’m not certain that this an accurate way to refer to the product, though). It looked like a fun idea, and we thought it would be cool to try it.
Yesterday, after I made too salty Beef and Broccoli and so–so Vegetable Chow Mein, I decided I needed to make up for the awful dinner, and I whipped up a batch of chocolate chip cookies, and we baked a big one on our skillet, scooped on some ice cream, and poured on some hot fudge. Mmmmm… We then attacked the thing. We had to tell the kids to slow down once or twice. They weren’t letting Julie and me get the lion’s share! :)
Our next door neighbor told Julie that she had had that dessert once at a restaurant where they called it “Never on Sundae” because it’s so sinful. And it is.
So, sometimes we have to improvise when it comes to dinner. When I do that, I give the improvised dish a fancy name, so it sounds good.
So, I give you Zuppa da Latta (Italian for “Soup from a Can”):
Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a pot over medium heat, and saute the onions until clear. Add the ham, and saute lightly until warm. Turn down the heat, and add the cans o’ stuff. Heat through. Add some interesting spices, like oregano or basil or thyme or cumin, and pepper to taste – there should be plenty of salt in the ham and canned veggies. Tell the family you slaved for hours. You’re a hero.
Actually, this soup got pretty good reviews from the whole family, so we’ll actually serve this again sometime.
So, rather than abandon the blog completely, I thought I’d switch from an attempt at daily updates, to a weekly update. So, I’ll try to post once a week on Saturday or Sunday.
It's been a really nice Christmas season this year. I think a large part of being able to enjoy Christmas this year stems from the fact that I am not unemployed. That really put a damper on last year’s holiday season. I’m glad that’s not the case this year.
This week we participated in several events: On Tuesday night, I went home teaching for the first time in my new ward and met my families. They are all wonderful families, and I look forward to serving them for many years. On Wednesday night we had our ward Christmas party, and that was a pleasant experience. On Thursday night we watched our neighbors kids, and our kids really enjoyed that. On Friday night we participated in the community Christmas celebration, put on by the Bridger Valley Coalition of Churches. James and Anna were part of the primary choir, and they sang four songs. I was part of the community choir, and we sang four songs. It was lots of fun.
Yesterday we drove down to Ogden for the Prather family Christmas party. Santa Claus comes to their party every year, and it was fun to see the kids’ reactions. Alden was really scared of Santa, and wouldn’t even let me hold him on Santa’s lap. Santa asked me what I wanted, and I told him I wanted an official Red Ryder 200-shout range model air rifle, with a compass in the stock and a thing that tells time. (”Wow. That’s great.”) I also led the family in a rousing rendition of “Grandma Got Ran Over by a Reindeer” for the two verses I could remember. All in all, good times were had by all.
We're looking forward to a short week at school and work this week, and we’re going to try and enjoy ourselves as much as we can this week.
I’ve decided to do some work on a personal/community project, and I may not blog as much as I have been (which, admittedly, ain’t all that much). The project is kind of under wraps for a little while, but I’ll be able to share additional details as it grows nearer to completion.
We watched one of my favorite Christmas films the other night: A Christmas Story. Julie likes to tease me and say that I look just like Ralphie. Frankly, I just don’t see the resemblance. I laugh all the time at the movie. Favorite line: “‘And I’d like a Red Ryder BB gun, with a compass in the stock, and a thing that tells time.’ Wow, that’s great.”
Last night we were driving in the car, and we were trying to remember some scriptures. My favorite was James’s: “Gentiles 5:2 – By love serve one another."
This will be the first in a series of new things we try to cook at home rather than buy at the store. The first experiment was homemade pasta—specifically, ravioli. I found a simple pasta recipe on the internet (2 cups all-purpose flour, 2 cups semolina flour, 6 eggs, and a pinch of salt), and made up a filling from sweet potatoes, pepper, breadcrumbs, and egg. We served it with a creamy alfredo sauce, topped with a sprinkling of nutmeg. I think it turned out delicious. Julie said it was a little too sweet (but she did think the pasta was excellent), and the kids thought it was too filling.
After we started eating, Julie asked what the filling was. After I told her that it was sweet potato, James said, “Dad, you shouldn’t have said that. Now it doesn’t taste quite so good to me."
Julie was set apart yesterday as the primary president in our ward. I know she’ll do a great job.
I read a fascinating article in the Wall Street Journal this morning. I will fully admit that I am an armchair economist, and have no more knowledge about economic theory and monetary policy than the next guy. That said, given the little that I do know, I agree pretty much wholeheartedly with the economic principles espoused in the article.
I am a strong believer in unfettered and fully free markets. My stance is that a government should act only to ensure that the markets remain free. I do not care for price setting, central banking, industry subsidies, individual subsidies, and government bail–outs. I am also an advocate of an flat (not fair—there is no such thing in this telestial world) and transparent tax system, too.
One of the Clark family traditions (that we don’t keep very well) is going down to the Christmas celebration in Midway, Utah. We went today, and had a great time. The gingerbread houses were, on the whole, pretty spectacular, and the nativity scenes were fantastic.
It was good to see James and Michelle, too!
James was supposed to get his wolf last night, but apparently the pack is out of budget, so we'll wait until January to get it. Apparently we need to refer the pack to www.youneedabudget.com.
We've been using the system advocated by Jesse Mecham for several months now, and, although not particularly revolutionary, it has made the budget a much less troublesome topic of discussion around the house. Talking about the budget is no longer a major stress issue anymore, and both Julie and I are more comfortable and understanding of each others' point of view. And since we live off of last month's income, the timing issues of when we can pay the mortgage, tithing, and the credit card bill. (We use the credit card instead of cash, enjoy the cashback bonus, and pay it in full each and every month. The "poor" folks at Discover have never received a penny in interest from me.)
While we don't use the YNAB software because we already had Quicken®, I created a spreadsheet that utilizes Quicken reports and does basically the same thing. It's pretty slick. If you want a copy, let me know.
An interesting aside: Mr. Mecham (YNAB founder) and I both attended BYU at the same time, and were actually in several classes together. I doubt he remembers me, though. I was one of the outsiders who only attended for graduate school, and didn't go through the Junior Core. (It's like moving to a small town from the big city. People don't trust you for the first six months.) From what I remember, though, he's a decent and sharp fellow.
I discovered Todoist today. I’m using Google Apps at work now, and I wasn’t satisfied with the task tracking application, but Todoist works well. I can add different contexts (@home, @office, @store, etc.), categories, lists, and link web pages and gmail messages to my tasks. Very nice.
This weekend Julie and I decided that we needed an official hobby to keep us busy and give us something to do during the long, cold Wyoming winter (which, by the way, has been surprisingly warm so far).
We decided that our hobby is going to be cooking. While I have enjoyed cooking for many years, it’s kind of a recent thing for Julie. We’ve decided that we’re going to try and cook new things regularly. (I’m thinking once a week, but I haven’t been told for sure.) I haven’t decided what exotic dish to cook this week. Do you, faithful reader, have any suggestions for us? Please, leave a comment.
