Planning

Today, tomorrow, yesterday, a week from last Thursday, April 15th, Canadian Boxing Day...next year?  All these things have something in common.  They are all a day that we plan on, regardless of what we are doing on Jan 25 (which is known as "National Voter's Day" in India) we are planning on doing something, right?  We wake up, we eat something, we may go somewhere.  Sometimes we may plan on something, but it doesn't happen because of something un-planned.  I really wanted to go see that movie tomorrow night, too bad I broke my leg and am in traction...maybe tomorrow I'll plan on getting some rest?

No, I did not break my leg, and no, I'm not in traction, but I do have plans.  Some I'll be able to achieve.  Others, not so much.  Here are a few things I am planning on....as always, in no particular order

• Clean the garage so I can get the Honda in there as winter is coming. I don't mind letting the car warm up while I scrap off snow and ice, but it does get old after a while.
• Leaves, leaves, and more leaves....i wish they would just leave me alone!  I hate this time of year.  Of course Isaac loves the big pile of leaves to jump into.
• Sleep
• Travel to Cali and spend some time with the family and friends
• Take Becky to Vegas for our anniversary
• Finish painting the kitchen/bathroom
• Take Isaac up the mountain and get some good sledding in this year (more snow required)
• A nice child free evening out to dinner with some friends.  (Preferably to Barbacoa)
• Christmas Lights
• Sleep
• Take that trip to Hawaii

So why make a big deal about this?  Plans are great, it's always nice to have a "plan of action".  I'm just saying that we can't rely on our plans to the point of rigidness.  We all need to be flexible to some point as we don't know what tomorrow will bring.

Growing up in suburbia, my mom always told me to save for a rainy day.  I was more of a "in the now" type of person.  That is till life caught up with me.  Marriage, family, credit cards, and stupid, stupid mistakes.  Needless to say it has been a bumpy ride after some courses from Financial Peace University, we finally learned that lesson. Other than our house, my family is debt free.  My mom (not sure if she reads this) was right.  If it's not in your hand, don't spend it.  Yes Mom, you were right.

I never planned on living debt free.  Heck before I heard of this class I didn't think it was possible.  It's like a diet, you can change the behavior for a little while and see some results, but you eventually fall back into it.  You need to make a lifestyle out of it.  Like Dave says, "live like no one else, so later you can live like no one else!"

I managed to get some extra sleep last night, not that I planned on it, but it happened.  Today I'm going to work, lunch provided, and then I don't know...I have nothing planned...except that list above.  Anyone want to help with Christmas lights?

The Pointer...

About a year ago I started blogging, and I blogged about my thumb, this year it's my pointer finger.  I figure at this rate in 5 years I'll finish with my right hand. Of course on the other hand, you have different fingers.  (please tell me someone got this...yes, it's a bad joke.)

So anyways, what happened to my finger this time?  Was it building a fence?  Perhaps it got shut in a car door?  A freak pruning accident?  Nay Nay.  The blame lays with the Zildjan company.  Zildjan is one of the top producers of cymbals, drums sticks, and other percussion equipement.  And since your going there, no, I did not drop a cymbal on my finger, but I did use their brand of "Dip Sticks."  These are drum sticks that are dipped  with a special adhesive that helps you hold on to your sticks.  The theory is, you don't have to hold them so tight that your hands get tired as quick.  As that might be true, which the music gets really fast and intense, the combination of sweat and the adhesive tend to rip your hands up.  I learned this the hard way.

As you know, I'm now a member of The Retreads, a local cover band.  As anyone in my position knows, when something like this happens, you suffer from G.A.S.  (Gear Acquisition Syndrome).  So while shopping for a cowbell/tamborine I thought I should try a new kind of drumstick before getting then in bulk. 
Musician's friend was more than happy to help me choose some sticks at a low cost, I just didn't realize the effects it would have....

So at our last rehearsal we go through three songs and I'm thinking I like these things, so I ask JD, who is also a drummer, if he ever used these.  His reply, "Yeah, they tore my hands all up".  I suddenly start to worry.  So the next song is a little ditty called "Whip It".  Those of you alive in the 80's know this song, and probably don't realize how fast it is...with a 16beat rhythm constantly through the whole song.  During those 2 minutes 40 seconds, these sticks decided to form a blister on my pointer finger, then pop the blister, and then remove any skin that decided to not hang around, as well as create a raw feeling on my thumb.  No, I won't post a picture.

Needless to say, I won't be using those sticks for any "fast" songs and my search for my stick of choice will continue...as my poor finger heals.  No one ever said that Rock & Roll was easy.

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What's really going on?

There is actually a lot going on right now.  First and foremost, it's almost Turkey day.  That means it time to start on those tasks you've been putting off for so long...

• Picking out your turkey, size does matter depending on how you cook it.  I'm sure I'll be cooking a turkey in the future, and yes I will blog on it.
• Perfecting your gravy recipe...drippings, fat and flavor, YUM!
• Calculating how much bacon you need to wrap your turkey with, j/k (unless you're gonna do it)
• Potatoes, sweet or regular?  Why not both
• Travel plans?  This way you don't have to cook at all.

Since I never plan too far ahead for my gravy, I'm not that concerned about it, and I have never, nor will I wrap a turkey in bacon, that is a big waste (unless you're gonna deep fry the thing).  You have to have mashed potatoes, and sweet potatoes, it's the yin and the yang of turkey day.  As for travel plans, it looks like we're having turkey with the family
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I try not to get political in my blogs, mostly because I know squat about politics other than to not trust them in general, but this whole "Occupy ______" thing has me asking a lot of questions and not getting many good answers.  So today, Occupy Oakland is calling for a citywide walk off....they want everyone to walk off their jobs, classes, and any other type of job, so they can bring the city to a stand still.  Why?  I keep trying to figure out what the end game is and it keeps coming back to one thing.  But before I go there, I tried to get to the heart of the movement.  First of all, someone came up with the name 'Occupy Wall street'.  I went looking for an actual definition of Occupy and came up with two.

• Engage - This makes sense as generally when people are protesting, they want their voice to be heard.  They want to "engage" in dialog and achieve a set of goals.  The problem is that since this is a leaderless movement, everyone wants something different depending on who you talk to. 
• Take Possession - This sounds a lot like stealing.  Basically, the rich guy has too much money, so he needs to give it to the rest of us, or we take it away and distribute it, thus tax the rich so we can distribute it.

Please correct me if I'm wrong....it's exhausting trying to keep up with it all...  In the mean time, here is a good article
how-do-you-measure-success-for-occupy-wall-street-movement?

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On a seperate note, I'm having a real craving for some snickerdoodles.  Fresh baked is preferred, not that processed packaged junk....

A Sauce for All Seasons

A few weeks ago someone asked me about homemade tomato sauce.  Got me thinking about it, so I thought I'd share it.  Please keep in mind this is a variation of Alton Brown's "Seeing Red".  Yes, there is an exact recipe, which I followed the first time, but since then I just shoot from the hip.  Measurements are not exact, but rather to taste...

"Mr. Brown I presume"

Ingredients:

• 2 White Onions (diced)
• 6 Stalks Celery (diced)
• 6 carrots (diced)
• 7 cloves garlic
• three Large cans whole tomatoes
• 1 tsp dry basil
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 tbsp dry oregano
• 3 bay leaves
• 3 tbsp capers
• 1/3 cup white wine
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cube butter
• olive oil
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 brown sugar
• salt
• pepper

Open up cans of tomatoes and pour contents into a strainer over a pot (you want to keep all the juice) Try to remove all the seeds from each tomato, this is a time consuming task, but seeds don't taste good so...discard.

Place all the juices along with seasonings into a pot and reduce liquid by half over Med-High heat.

In a large oven proof pan, sweat the onions, celery, carrots, and garlic with olive oil...about 10-15 minutes until tender...then add the tomatoes and capers.  Mix it around so everything is incorporated and then  

Place in oven under your broiler.  When things start to brown five them a stir every 4-5 mintues...do this for about 15-20 minutes.  Watch carefully as they can burn fast.

salt 'n' pepa

 Remove from oven and de-glaze pay with the white wine...move everything to a large pot, add reduced liquid, butter, and brown sugar. Hit it with a blender stick until smooth.  add Salt and Pepper to taste. 

This can be used for just about anything italian, pasta, lasagna, I use this to simmer my meatballs, pizza, etc.  I also have used this as a base to make a tomato cream sauce, the ideas are endless, or at least have a slight potential to be endless...you can even make Chili?  Really?  Yes...really...but that is another blog ... did I mention it freezes well.  Once batch will last us a long time.

So caught up...what happened?

Life goes by fast, sometimes faster than we would like it to.  It was just the other day that Isaac was just a little peanut that feel asleep on my chest.  Yesterday the little guy, who is getting bigger, started kindergarten and loves it.  So what happened to the last 5 years?

I joked the other day that now Isaac is in school, he will be graduating from high school soon.  I know it's still 13 years away, but that time will be here before we know it.

A comedian that I used to listen to, had said, "Do you know what life is? Whether you are a believer or you're not a believer life is life - life is a series of emotions. Life is a mountain after a valley. A wife to feed, a husband to clothe, children to raise, a boss to put up with, car notes, taxes, April 15th. Life is life." You can read the whole thing here

I hear that phrase in my head all time time.  Life is "a series of emotions".  It's up there with death and taxes, it's gonna happen, there's no way to avoid it.  Everyone will have highs and lows, some may argue that the lows outnumber the highs, or visa-versa.  My advice, is to just ride the waves, eventually you'll reach the shore.  A good friend of mine always talked about those "Mountain Top Experiences".  Everything is good, you're 'high' on life.  You feel like you're on top of the world. 

I'm losing my train of thought, oh yea, Isaac...This past weekend we have reached another milestone.  I admit that it was way back in June that we finally took off his training wheels, but it wasn't till Saturday that we have had a successful ride on just two wheels.  The video below is just the beginning, approx 3 hours after his first attempt, he is now starting on his own with no assistance.

The next day we took our first bike ride around the neighborhood....tomorrow I'll teach him to ride backwards while standing on the handlebars....juggling.

Life is going by too fast, so how do you slow down?

Sappy emotional mess...

Have you noticed, that when you are tired you have a tendency to react more emotionally to things than you normally would?  It really doesn't matter how you answer that question, but I do know that we all have some type of emotional response to different things.  If you type "emotional response" into google, it will auto-populate:

 

Anyone know who Paul Oakenfold is?  Me neither.  But I digress....here are a few videos that should provide some type of emotional response, if you feel nothing, you must be a cold-hearted rock, why are you reading this?

 

 

 

That's all I got, have a great evening....

Random thoughts

Has this happened to you?

....you're headed towards the bathroom, and you have about 8-10 feet before you get to the door, which swings in (that means you push it)...you've been here before so you know it's a multiple stall/urinal type, the door won't be locked.  As you approach you see the door open up and someone walks out.  There are different scenarios to this event, sometimes they will hold the door for you to enter, and sometimes they- won't.

Today I experienced the latter, the door was not held, as I was still the previously mentioned 8-10 feet away.

I had options on what to do, everyday we all have choices and we live with the consequences, whatever they may be.  This day and this choice was no different.

• continue at the same pace, because of the exiting party there could be an awkward moment where you may need to take evasive action to avoid collision.  The door will not fully close, and you'll be able to enter with less force to open the door.
• slow down to give a wide birth to the exiting party, this will usually cause them to take evasive action to avoid collision considering the location of the doorway.  This may result in the door fully closing which will require you to open it fully to enter.
• increase speed to catch the door before it closes, this may allow you to squeeze through the doorway without having to touch the door (Lord knows how much bacteria is on there)  Considering your surroundings, this may be a dorky move.
• Take caution as someone may be exiting the Ladies room at the same time, this can cause a major incident.

So having these three options, I took several factors into account.  Who was exiting, how much time did I have, with the sudden rush of speed use more energy then it would take to push open the door?  This got me thinking which way was more efficient.  Force vs inertia.  wind resistance, the weight of the door, the weight of me...my current velocity...what to make for dinner...

...I really hate math....

so I ended up with option three, and did a little hop through the door...no one was injured

If anyone can tell me the correct calculation to determine the answers to these kind of questions, I'd appreciate it.