Travels - Mar in San Clemente

February 16 - March 2

I have been traveling a lot (three weeks in a row), so what does Mar do in those times. Well of course she travels too. She went to San Clemente to see Andrea for two weeks. The real reason she went was to see Michael and Jasen in Grease, but the rest of it was real fun, too.

For instance, they went to Marine World. Mar was so captivated by the polar bears - watching them from underwater. (The miracle of knee surgery is that she can walk - oh how glorious it is.)

All of the school kids got sack lunches one day, so they also made Spencer a sack lunch. That day Mar was babysitting Spencer, so they took his sack lunch to the beach for a picnic. Andrea, meanwhile, helped chaperon a school field trip to Disneyland. Hey, I never got to go to Disneyland on a field trip. I only got to go to the fish hatchery.

Michael went snowboarding - and sprained his wrist - bad enough to go to the emergency room and get a splint.

A little excursion to Hemet, just to see where Michael is serving on his mission. It is an hour-and-a-half from Andrea's in a desert valley in the mountains. Mar said it was pretty nice. The mountains were high enough to have snow on them, but she said its a safe bet it is pretty hot in the summer. And no they did not cruse to find the missionaries.

(Stay tuned to this entry for updates on the upcoming week.)

The second week of her visit was a little bit more harried. Michael and Jasen were both in the school production of "Grease". And because they were in it, Andrea was very involved. Hence the harried week. Mar found herself doing a lot of "holding down the fort" with plain housework and taking care of the two youngers. Not very exciting, you may say, but she was very glad she was there to really help.

Thursday and Friday were the performances - 3 on one day and two on the other. Mar said they were wonderful and darling and great. Of course her grand kids were the greatest part.

Saturday was a breath of relief. Michael went to a speed skating competition where one of his friend was competing. Jasen went off with some friends, too. That left Andrea and Mar with Emma and Spencer, so they went to the beach and had a lunch and watched the sea and saw dolphins.

She came home on Monday. It was a needed trip - for Mar and for Andrea and the kids.

Travels - Lar in San Jose

February 16-20

Nothing too exciting - just a business trip. I taught a class to two people in our San Jose office. The class went well.

One of my compatriots - Grant - was also teaching in San Jose. Every evening we went out to dinner together - to some rather interesting places:

A place where they didn't give us any utensils, we had paper plates and our dinner was served in a plastic bag. It was Louisiana mud bugs - or crawdads - and catfish.

A Bar-b-que Tiki Bar - which was a hangout for San Jose Shark hokey fans.

A steak house.

Gilda's on the municipal wharf in Santa Cruz. That was a nice drive over for sunset on the Pacific and local sea food. I had sandabs - a small relative of flounders and souls.

It rained a couple of days. It was sunny a couple of days. Just a trip, but I thought it was a successful one.

Reading List

February 18, 2008

I finished The Wonderful Wizard of OZ by L. Frank Baum. It was on my 501 list of books - and again we had it on our book shelf. Let me tell you, the Judy Garland movie took great liberties with the story. It was an easy and fun one to read and totally appropriate for children. Yes, Dorthy did kill both witches, but she doesn't have ruby slippers in the book - they are - no wait you have to read it to find out. Also, she meets all four witches in the book. Baum only wanted to write this Oz story, but it was so popular he was forced (by his fans and creditors) to write 16 more - and then more have been written since his death.

Oh - by the way - our copy has illustrations and notes - and CDs - it is available to check out.

This year's Reading list.

2/16 - The Wonderful Wizard of OZ - L. Frank Baum

2/11 - The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch
2/9 - Peter Pan - J.M. Barrie
2/1 - Next - Michael Crichton

Popcorn - The Comfort Food

It is just way too easy now days. All you have to do is put the bag in the microwave, push one button and wait. Y0u can have all sorts of flavors. It is there right when you want it. Popcorn will never be this generation's comfort food. They have no conception of dragging out the air popper and letting it heat, and then melting the butter to pour on top. No wait, that generation will never have popcorn as a comfort food either. Me . . for me, popcorn is a comfort food.

This is what popcorn meant in my family.

First, you only got it on Friday or Saturday nights, because it was just too much trouble for a weekday evening.

Second, you had to find someone who was willing to admit they wanted it enough to really make it. In reality, everyone wanted it. You just had to make someone want it enough to . . well the process is this.

You got the popcorn pan out, the great big frying pan that has been used for popcorn so long that it only good for that anymore - making popcorn. The bottom of the pan is warped and the oil is baked right into the bottom. Next comes the oil. Just enough to sizzle in the bottom of the pan. If there isn't enough, it takes too long to pop. If there is too much, you catch wrath for wasting the oil. Turn that burner on. It is a gas stove and sometimes it doesn't light so you have to use a match and hope you don't blow yourself up. Now, just get that oil hot, but don't scorch it. Now put in the popcorn. Just enough for the oil. Put on the lid. It is now time to shake the pan.

This is where you have to talk someone into doing it. You just sit there and shake the pan so the popcorn doesn't burn after it pops. Now that I'm older, I realize the shaking was somewhat of a plot. You really didn't need to shake the pan until it started popping. But we were always admonished to "Shake that pan so the popcorn doesn't burn." So you'd shake the pan, back and forth while the popcorn popped. It only took about 5 minutes. Just listen all of the time and when it stopped popping, you could stop . . .

And then take the lid off and pour it into the popcorn bowl. It always smelled soooooo good. But you couldn't eat it yet, because you had to make 2 more batches. Three batches were required for our family. Of course the second and third batches didn't take so long because the pan was already hot.

So all three batches are done. Turn off the burner and put 1/4 pound of butter or margarine in the pan. Just let it melt in the hot pan. Except it would never melt fast enough. The stupid pan cooled down. Why can't we keep the heat on. Because then you would burn the butter. So we would swish the butter around the pan, trying to get all of the heat out to melt the butter. When it was melted, you could then pour it onto the popcorn.

Salt, what did you do about salt. There was a difference of opinion about salt. You had to have it. No conflict about that. But when did you add the salt. Mom wanted it salted before the butter so it wasn't too salty. But I liked it after the butter because then the salt would stick to the popcorn better. Popcorn meant salt and butter. Yummmm!

I generally won that argument, because I was generally the person who needed the popcorn most, so I had to make it. It was many a weekend evening that I stood by that stove and shook.

Yep, when popcorn is a family tradition, it becomes comfort food. Now, it brings back memories of home even when I just make a mini-bag in the microwave - with no butter.

Ta-ta for now, I hear the microwave dinging.

Travels - Lar in Minneapolis

February 9-14, 2009
When the cold wind blows and the blizzard beats against the landscape like a devil out to flay the world, that is when my company sends people to Minneapolis - except, it may be February, but it wasn't too bad. No snow this trip. In fact it rained. It was overcast almost the whole week, even though the forecast called for a couple of days of sunshine. Maybe sunshine in the winter in Minneapolis only happens on top of the clouds.

It was a successful trip. I taught a class Tuesday through Thursday at our office in Edina for eight people and then on Friday I went to their company site and did mentoring for some of their problems. I think it went well, and they said it did. On Friday they took me to lunch and taught

me the fine art of darts for fun and ridicule. I played the second game and came in second.

Otherwise, there was not a lot there that happened. I did get to go to the St. Paul temple on Thursday night.

Saturday, I flew home to Longmont, and it was actually colder there that day than in Minneapolis. Go figure.

Reading List - Part three

February 11, 2009

Sheesh - it seems that all I must be doing is reading - well, no - I have just started traveling again.

Today I finished The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. Mar read it earlier and said I should read it. She was right. It is easy to read and it does explore some good views of the human experience. In essence, Carnegie Mellon University has a lecture series where they ask their professors to give a Last Lecture - what would they tell people if it was their last chance to tell people. The interesting part of this one was that Randy Pausch had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, so it was really true. I would recommend it to anyone. Enjoy it and then think, what would I tell people if I had to give a last lecture.

This year's Reading list.

2/11 - The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch

2/9 - Peter Pan - J.M. Barrie

2/1 - Next - Michael Crichton

Book Club

Mar had her book club for Relief Society. this month the reading was The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy. She liked it even though the French word usage was a little bit hard. she also got the tape and listened to it. And then we checked out the 1992 version of the movie. That was interesting to watch with Mar - "That didn't happen in the book." "And that didn't happen in the book." "That wasn't even in the book." We still really liked the video.


Mar would recommend this book.

Reading List - Part two

February 9, 2009

Today I finished Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie. Why would he read that, you may ask. Well, the first reason was that it was one of the 501 books on my list. The second reason was that I already had it on my book shelf. The third reason was that it was captivating - truely captivating. I really enjoyed it. Yes you can see Mary Martin in some of it. And you can see Walt Disney in some of it. You can even see "Hook" in it. But it is just fun to read. Here is one of my favorite lines, as the Darlings are hurrying home, trying to be in time to keep the children from flying away to Neverland (not NeverNeverLand):

"Will they reach the nursery in time? If so, how delightful for them, and we shall all breath a sign of relief, but there will be no story. On the other hand, if they are not in time, I solomnly promise that it will all come right in the end."

I think I could see myself writing like that.

By the way, the next time you order a Double or a Salad at Wendy's, you have J. M. Barrie to thank. Before Peter Pan, there was no name of Wendy. He made it up for this story.

(A very nice copy - with tidbits of information - wonderful pictures - and CDs for those who don't want to really read - and its on my book shelf.)

This year's Reading list.


2/9 - Peter Pan - J.M. Barrie

2/1 - Next - Michael Crichton

Reading List

February 1, 2009 - Sunday

My reading list this year just got started. I finished Next by Michael Crichton. It is a tale of genetic science run a-muck in the United States and elsewhere. For my part I found it hard to keep up. Too many characters in too many different scenarios doing to many different things in too many plot lines. Some of the plot lines actually met at the end, but some of them just wound their way through the book and just ended. It was a hard one to follow. The language was pretty coarse in some spots and there were some "adult situations". On my sliding 1 - 5 scale - about a 2.