Zuppa da Latta

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”):

• 1/2 onion, diced
• 6 slices ham, diced
• 1 can creamed corn
• 1 can italian style stewed tomatoes
• 1 can kidney beans
• 1 can black beans

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.

Moving to a weekly update

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.

Blog is going on hold for a while

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.

A Christmas Story

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.”

Two-for Tuesday

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."

Cooking Experiment Number One

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."

Congratulations to Julie!

Julie was set apart yesterday as the primary president in our ward. I know she’ll do a great job.

Requiem for the Dollar

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.

Christmas in Midway

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!

Pack Meeting and Budgets

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.

Cool New (Old) Web Application

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.

New (Old) Hobby

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.

Two weeks with Ubuntu

So, you’ve probably heard about Linux. For the past two weeks, I’ve pretty much switched from using Microsoft® Windows® to using the Ubuntu distribution of Linux. The catalyst for the switch is the fact that over the next three years, our company is going to have to shell out more money than we’d like in order to keep licensing Microsoft products. So, in an effort to determine how likely it is that we can move away from Microsoft without causing huge disruption in our general daily workflow, I made the switch to Ubuntu at work.

So far, I really like it. I am a command line kind of guy, and part of the power of Linux is the ability to use the keyboard and the command line to get things done. I like it a lot.

Here are some things that made the switch easy for me:

• Dropbox. Hat tip to Mr. Kevin McKenzie who sent me an invite to Dropbox a few years ago. You get 2GB of free storage (plus an extra 250MB for using this link.
• Crossover. The guys at Codeweavers make a product called Crossover which allows you to run Windows programs in Linux. As much as I hated to do it, I had to have Outlook for a couple of days because the web based interface for Firefox is absolutely horrible, and Evolution (an Outlook wannabe) is just not quite ready for prime time in my mind. Crossover made the installation of Outlook a breeze. I also use it to run EverNote 2.2, which is still one of the best note taking apps I’ve found.
• Google Apps. Thank you Google (full disclosure: I am a shareholder.) for putting together the thoughtful and useful and easy to use web based email system that you did. I was able to forward all my email to a Google Apps account, and now I don’t have to use Outlook anymore. Yay!
• OpenOffice.org. This is a “clone” of Microsoft Office®. I’d say this was the hardest switch to make so far – I have a lot of muscle memory from Office, and there was so much I used to be able to do in Excel, that now I feel somewhat handicapped. I’m sure it’s like learning any new application, and will just take time to get comfortable with the new stuff, but it’s still hard.

There are some other apps that I’ve enjoyed using since I switched to Ubuntu: Gnome–Do is cool for searching and quick access to all kinds of stuff. (I’m trying to get in the habit of using it more, because it is so much easier than mousing to a menu). At home, I use GRAMPS for Genealogy, and that’s a cool little program. There is a Windows version of GRAMPS, too, I believe (it’s built in Python, so it should be cross platform).

Now, before any of my faithful readers decide that they want to make this switch, I have to warn you, this is not for everyone. Ubuntu is more of a community effort than a commercial effort, and if you’re not comfortable using Google for tech support, or you don’t like editing plain text files to change some settings, then you might not be a candidate for Linux. If you’re interested in doing more, than I suggest that you download a distribution, get some software to run a virtual machine (I like VirtualBox, and play around with the system for a few months. Even better, get one of the Live CDs that allows you to use the system on your computer (your hardware), and make sure you don’t have any strange compatibility issues. I’ve been using Ubuntu on and off on virtual machines for the better part of two years, so I was pretty comfortable with the whole idea.

Anyway, I’ve rambled enough to more than make up for my vacation time off. Hope you learned something new.

Thanksgiving Vacation

I’m on vacation until the 30th of November, so all blogging is on hold for a few days.

Ebay and Paypal - Never Again

I recently used Ebay and PayPal to help get rid of some surplus equipment for work. I will not do that again.

Ebay has changed a lot since I used it a few years ago to sell a cable modem that I no longer needed. That transaction was quick, smooth, easy, and I got the cash a few days after the item sold.

This transaction has been a pain in the backside. The fees were exorbitant compared to the service we received. Paypal still has a "temporary hold" on the money "pending positive feedback from the buyer," in spite of the fact that the stuff was delivered a week ago, and we haven't heard anything negative. We also sold everything "as is." I am not interested in doing business like that.

I understand that there were/are issues with some bad sellers, but what happened to eBay's trusty "Caveat emptor?"

Go RSL!

I just heard the news that RSL won the MLS championship. Holy Cow!

Shocked and Awed!

I got word from a little bird that my mother can look at her kids' blogs without a trip to the neighbors' house. Amazing! Congratulations, Mom!

Check out this video

http://roskasinlogan.blogspot.com/2009/11/whats-really-new.html

Scroll down to the bottom of the post. Yours truly was the cameraman, so I guess you can thank me or blame me. It really was good stuff. I wish I’d taped the guy’s speech before they blew it all up.

Piano Recital

James gave an excellent piano recital tonight. It was fun to listen to the 20 (20!) students all play their pieces. The students range from just starting out to “Wow.” I’ll have to download the pictures, and the video so you can hear him.

School Picture Day

Yesterday was school picture day at our school. Being discerning consumers (ie cheapskates), we decided not to buy the school’s package of photos, and opted instead for a little photo session at home before school and work.

It didn’t work.

James was mad the whole time, and I couldn’t get him to smile at all; in fact, I got a couple of pictures where he had tears becaue he wanted to ride the bus, but couldn’t. (We didn’t put them on the bus, and opted instead to drive them to school so we’d have time for a portrait session.) Anna was the complete opposite, and was too smiley. Of the 30 exposures I made, there might be two or three that will be worth printing, and everyone was stressed and upset.

Now I know how my dad felt when he tried to take family pictures. It was awesome. Dad is a professional photographer, and he’d always time things so we’d hit the right light, and he had these fancy Hasselblad cameras that cost more than our cars, but he could hardly ever get a decent picture of his family, because we’d pull faces right as the timer went off.

One shoot in particular stands out in my mind: We drove down to Sundance in Provo Canyon (I think), and Dad got out his camera, set it on the tripod, and set the timer. I would guess he shot two rolls of film. (For you digital natives, film is a piece of chemically treated acetate that reacts to light. Look it up on Wikipedia.) Between Andrew and me, we managed to ruin every single frame he shot, by doing bunny ears, pulling faces, or (no joke) sticking our fingers in each others noses.

Ahh… karma. I guess I got what I deserved.