Category: Family

I am a Big Slacker – I Mean Packer

We have been in the middle of a move across town. So while I have been packing I have been slacking on this blog site (if only that were the only area in my life). Now that the packing is done perhaps I can keep myself on track with this. We’ll just have to see about that, considering we still have to UNpack.

I have some slide shows I need to show-off, however my computer seems to shut off when I try to render video to a different format now.
More videos to come as soon as possible, but here are some pictures.

Mallory’s Birthday Party:

Every time I turned around this is what I found:

The first slide show is from May, my niece’s (Lydia) birthday at the zoo. For some reason my video editing software hates me and all I could accomplish to add at this time is this video and one of Gavyn playing in the water at the zoo, and an orange baby.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wJrN9rEdFE[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSCZdnJFM6A[/youtube]
The next day we went to Lockridge, Iowa to see my Uncle Shannon and his wife Vy:

Noah and his parents Martin and Ashley

Kite Flying Fun with Dan (and Jacob too):

This is really turkey for brains – ground turkey that is. Jacob said it came out of the package that way.

Dave Wetmore was the Grand Marshall for the Macomb Heritage Days Parade! There were two bagpipe bands.

This is “not someone playing with” my camera on 4 July 2007:

cousins

Both of RondaJo’s girls seem to love doing this:

Water time:

The girls made it look so fun, Matt had to give it a try:

Fireworks:

Imagine going on a Youth Conference to serve food, ten years after you graduate high school. Upon arriving and seeing the youth get on the buses, you discover that one of the bus drivers is none other than your high school principal. That is right folks, Bob Bowen is a bus driver for Burlington Trailways:

The first day of this conference was my birthday (12 July – in case you were wondering) and this was the beautiful evening sky we saw:

With all the crazy gas price fluctuations, we all “know” that gas is “cheaper” in Missouri, however while in Kansas City, MO I was surprised to see these prices:

$31-32 for a gallon of gas???

I apologize for such a long entry, and promise there are more videos to come as soon as I get the computer to work with me.

Our Trip to Chicago

We went this Wednesday and Thrusday by train to Chicago. We had fun and here is a video of our trip. We weren’t able to take pictures in the Museum of Science and Industry, but you can check out www.bodyworlds.com to see what we saw there.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi7LIxLaprA[/youtube]

Here is another video that we caught of a chaeleon turning over/around.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OPqJbnQqSU[/youtube]

Act well thy part

There used to be a building near Stirling Castle in Scotland, which had an inscription carved above the door “What-e’er thou art, act well thy part.” The building was eventually torn down, but the engraved stone was taken to Salt Lake City. I’ve seen it, and ever since have contemplated its meaning. The last couple of weeks I have especially been thinking about it.

As I think about it, another of my favorite philosophies comes to mind: “anything worth doing is worth doing incredibly well.”

I find it a healthy mental exercise on occasion (probably once per quarter or so) to divide my life into the “roles” that I fulfil. That is, to ask the question, “what am I?” Some of those might include being a husband, a businessman, a computer programmer, a musician, etc… When examining the individual roles, I can ask myself if I’m a “good one.” Am I a good husband? Am I a good businessman? Am I a good musician? Taking the time to figure out what it means to be “a good one,” and then planning how I can become better allows for great introspection, focus, and planning (and sometimes, I realize that I’ve taken on a role that I don’t really want or need, and having defined that, I can abandon the role).

So ask yourself, “What am I?” “Am I a good one?”

Are you a cyclist? Be a good one.

Are you a cook? Be a good one.

Are you a teacher? Be a good one.

Are you a mother or a father? Be a good one.

And so on….

Remember, anything worth doing is worth doing incredibly well. If it’s not worth doing well, than it may not be worth doing at all. We should never accept mediocrity from ourselves – we can be better.

“What-e’er thou art, act well thy part.”

A little more on Corned Beef and Cabbage

There was some concern here as to whether my assertion that Corned Beef and Cabbase is not traditional Irish fare, but rather and Irish-American dish. Here’s the story:

The Irish cuisine most closely related is bacon and cabbage – a traditional Irish easter meal in which a salted bacon joint would be boiled with cabbage and potatoes. In the 19th century, as Irish immigrants became numerous on the east coast of the United States, particularly in New England, they found that corned beef was a palatable alternative to bacon and was more readily available from the Jewish butchers that were common. Corned beef was (and still is) also quite a bit less expensive than bacon, which was important when food and funds were not as plentiful as one would like.

So corned beef and cabbage is not traditionally Irish, but is of decidedly Irish-American origin. There’s even more information about the dish on wikipedia and kitchenproject.

St. Paddy’s day food fest

Today is St. Patrick’s day, and I cooked a “traditional” Irish dinner. OK, not really – I cooked traditional Americanized Irish food. Still, it was very good, and our dinner guests enjoyed it as much as we did.

It was actually a bit difficult to come up with a menu of Irish-esque food for a group of teetotalers, but here’s what we ended up having:


Corned Beef and Cabbage – not really traditional Irish, but traditional American-Irish, and I like it. The trick with this, as with most boil-in-the-pot-for-3-hours dishes, is in the spices. The perfect taste is just the right mix of black peppercorns, garlic powder, bay leaves, and salt. All this stuff just gets thrown into the water with the corned beef brisket and the oils from the herbs and spices permeate the meat as it cooks. Tres magnifique!
Colcannon – An authentic Irish dish, this is basically mashed potatoes mixed with garlic and steamed kale. As a tangential side note, the English variation of colcannon is called bubbles and squeak.
Irish soda bread – A really simple flatbread that uses baking soda (often referred to as bicarbonate of soda in the Irish recipes) instead of yeast for leavening.
And since we don’t drink alchohol, all traditional Irish drinks were out, so green kool-aid would just have to do.


Finally, for desert was a really cool looking St. Paddy’s day cake that Marcia made last night (and frosted this morning, with about 4 hours of sleep in between). You can see the amazing icing work in this picture, but what you can’t see is the cake itself, a green and white marbled cake baked to absolute perfection. I’m eating my third or fourth piece as I write this.

As far as I know, there’s no Irish blood in either of our families, but in my book, any holiday that presents itself as an excuse to cook good food is a holiday worth celebrating!

Our Belated Honeymoon Notable Pictures

<-- This is a really cool shot I took standing at the base of the St. Louis Arch. Then I turned the lens straight across to the other base for this shot.–>
That was our first night.

The next day we went to Union Station to watch the Fudgery Show. Amazingly we escaped the mall with little money spent, we did buy a really cool tie for Jacob.

Day three we went to the Science Center and unfortunately for us, most of the cool things were closed for repairs/remodeling. However there was a cool room that made Jacob look really small and myself really tall.

On day four we went to the zoo. No entrance fee, and we got there early enought to get free parking!!! We stayed till closing time and loved the 78 degree November day. I have already posted the funny video from the Ape House, but right before the woman said that, she and her 3 friends had just walked into the room.
<-- This silverback saw them and as soon as they stepped close to the glass, he lunged at them and stopped just short of hitting the window. They screamed and we all had a great laugh. The best part of it was the look he gave them.
We were walking and enjoying the animals and for a short time it was cool to think about Erin in Africa and how she got to see a giraffe up close when we have to stay so far from the animals. I think this is a really pretty creature.

Fifth day we went to the City Museum. In theory it is pretty cool, in reality too. Except for the fact that I am grossed out by dirty things…. It is a maze made of recyled objects, some is art-like and others just play equipment. I am sure that they clean it well, but because I know it is old “trash” it kind of creeps me out. That evening we saw Spam-A-Lot. That was a really cool show. Thanks DC for reccommending it.

We decided to extend our stay one more night and had a relaxing trip home on day six.

All about me!

While we usually delete emails that start with FW: without giving them a second thought, for some reason Marcia actually read one today that had a “a bunch of random questions about you” in it. We decided that we’d play along, but rather than annoy people who also dislike the letters F and W in their email subject lines, we’d post our responses here, on the blog.

Here’s mine:

1. What time did you get up this morning? About 11:00

2. Diamonds or Pearls? Diamonds

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Pirates of the Carribean 2

4. What is your favorite TV show? Good Eats

5. What did you have for breakfast? Cereal – Marshmallow Mateys

6. What is your middle name? Ryan

7. What is your favorite cuisine? Seafood

8. What foods do you dislike? I’m a very unpicky eater, but I’m not very fond of lima beans or caviar

9. Your favorite Potato chip? Sour cream & onion Baked Lays

10. Favorite CD you’ve been listening to lately? Mormon Tabernacle Choir – Consider the Lillies

11. What kind of car do you drive? Honda Accord

12. Favorite sandwich? Reuben

13. What characteristics do you despise? Closed mindedness and self-centeredness

14. What are your favorite clothes? Blue jeans and a simple but nice shirt

15. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Tuscany – for the food!

16. Favorite brand of clothing? Old Navy

17. Where would you want to retire? Anywhere where the church is strong that isn’t in Utah.

18. Favorite time of day? Very late at night

19. Where were you born? Provo, Utah

20. What is your favorite sport to watch? Marching band

21. Pepsi or Coke? Pepsi, though I don’t really care for either

22. Beavers or Ducks? Ducks

23. Are you a morning person or night owl? Night owl, definitely

24. Pedicure or Manicure? Pedicure, I suppose. I’m not that metrosexual, though.

25. Any new and exciting news you’d like to share? I’m married!

26. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up? A pilot.

27. What is your best childhood memory? Being with my family

28. Ever been toilet papering? Yes, more than I should admit

29. Been in a car accident? Yes. Twice. Less than a month apart.

30. Favorite restaurant? T.G.I. Friday’s

31. Favorite flower? Roses. They’re pretty and smell good and taste good (really!)

33. Favorite ice cream? Homemade vanilla (not plain vanilla, I mean stuff that tastes really vanilla-ey)

34. Favorite fast food restaurant? In’n’out burger.

35. How many times did you fail your drivers test? None. Got it right the first time.

36. From whom did you get your last e-mail? My business credit card payment processor.

37. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? The nearest
Steinway dealership

38. Last person you went to dinner with? Marcia, Fulton, Dan, and Steve

39. How many tattoos do you have? None.

40. What time did you finish this survey? I don’t know, I’m not done yet.

41. Favorite magazine? Bicycling

42. If you could meet any famous person, who would it be? I’d like to go biking
with Lance Armstrong, go to dinner with Emeril Lagasse, attend a lecture by Stephen Hawking, learn about public speaking from Steve Jobs, or do an acting workship with Johnny Depp.

43. If you could choose another first name, what would it be? Pedro. But only Marcia will know why.

44. If you could change your profession right now, what would you be doing? I’d have Curtis Stone‘s job.
There.

More than you ever wanted to know about me. I wonder what Marcia will say!