Cooking without Heather

If you read my wife's blog or follow her on Twitter, you've probably read that we're making some changes to our diet.  As she puts it we're eating Paleo-ish. Our house has no bread in it and our consumption of 2 gallons of milk every 3 days has been replaced with almond and/or coconut milk. Since we're not using grains as filler, we've been eating many more vegetables to take their place.

It was a big change in our diet and though I've not totally removed grains (I still eat my oatmeal for breakfast and have had a few slices of pizza and some beer), I do feel just as good if not better.  And my recent cholesterol test has shown significant improvement as well.

But a few weeks ago, my wife went on a trip to Harley-Davidson's corporate headquarters with other women bloggers.

As you know, I enjoy cooking, so I planned out our meals. That was important considering I still had to work and the kids had summer league swim meets each night.  But I tried to stay true to the paleo-ish diet we were taking on.

Day 1

Cumin Crusted Salmon Summer Salad (recipe on AllRecipes.com) with Apricot Brulee from Health-Bent

I found the recipe for the salmon years ago in a newspaper insert and have made it several times. Its a nice combination of salmon and salad. The citrus dressing gives the meal a light, bright summery taste.  To make this all the more vegetable-y, I added a diced red pepper to it.  It was fast to make, in fact, I prepared it in two batches. The first was for Kid3 and me, who ate earlier, followed by Kids 1 and 2 who were at swim practice and got home later.

The brulee was fun to make because I got to use my kitchen torch (in fact, that's a theme that carried through from the original poster's blog as well).  What also made it neat was that I was able to use some of Heather's organic, alternative sweeteners, in this case, coconut sugar.

Coconut sugar is much like brown sugar, though not as moist and not quite as sweet.  I'm not sure of any other nutritional differences from regular (likely beet) sugar...

Day 2

Smoked Tri-Tip with a Coffee-Spice rub and Chipotle Coleslaw from Sunset Magazine

The weather was great and we were going to have a picnic dinner at the swim meet that night, so I decided to smoke tri-tip.  I had the time, because I was working from home while Heather was travelling, but I didn't pay enough attention to the tri-tip. I followed the recipe and smoked them for 2 hours, but that was too much for the tri-tip steaks. I think the recipe was intending larger tri-tips (or a more attentive cook).

When they came out, they were well done, but luckily not overly dry.  At the last minute, I made some Chipotle Guacamole to help them slide down.  Nice and smokey and the coffee flavor was great to get in the evening as opposed to just the morning with my espresso.

Day 3

Day 3 was a busy day. Not only was there work, the ferrying to activities and the swim meet, but Heather was returning home this afternoon.  It was Kid3's turn for a swim meet, but we just weren't going to be able to be home to make a healthy lunch.

I asked Kid1 what Mom would do and he suggested some healthy options (subtracting the mayo and sauces) for lunch at Burger King.  Surprisingly, BK had added some yummy (and bordering on not bad for you) menu choices of salads and sweet potato fries.  It kept me in the paleo-ish arena and I wish I was indulgent enough for the bacon sundae.  They also had wifi which was great for getting some work done while I was out.

After picking Heather up, I packaged dinner so we could eat at the swim meet. We got to the swim meet for his last event but didn't eat there. Keeping to the paleo-ish diet, we had

1. More smoked tri-tip
2. Left over Chipotle Coleslaw
3. A Syrian roasted red pepper vegetable dip
4. Watermelon Salad with Vidalia-Onion Vinaigrette 

Not as much a hit, but I got credit for lots of vegetables, especially as veggies served as the dip transport mechanism.  In my house, I'm the only one who really likes savory watermelon salads. Kid2 will eat them, because she loves anything that has to do with watermelon, but that salad wasn't well accepted. Nor was the dip.

Oh, well, you win some, you lose some.

A Recent Business Trip

I tried to keep up the good diet on a recent business trip. Instead of going to the Waffle House or one of several fried chicken restaurants, I shopped at Publix market.  I think I was able to get healthier options than at a restaurant at about the same or less than I would have paid eating out.  I wonder how often expense reports have grocery store receipts submitted with them!

Lesson's learned Backpacking

Many people will wander the Earth to find themselves, go through some rite of passage. A little over a month ago, my son and I went backpacking on the Taylor River, and I learned a few things.

• Some things are better at re-energizing a kid than others. Grabbing a quick snack, stopping for lunch, going to the bathroom and even changing his socks, were far more motivating than sitting down and taking a break. Maybe its the dread of putting the pack back on when you're resting, but some stops put a bigger spring in his step than others. 
• Don't doubt your kids' cababilities. They can probably go further than you give them credit for. My 10 year old son carried a 28 pound backpack for 6 miles on Day 1 and 11 miles on Day 2 of our trip. And I didn't cut him much slack - he carried his stuff as well as some of our common gear. While we did eat the food he was carrying first, he still carried the tent poles and the rain fly (both pretty important in the state of Washington). And on top of all that he brought a full set of clean clothes for day 2 which is an oddity when we're at home with his full closet. 
• We all know already that kids love sticks, often to parents' chagrin. Along the way, Kid3 picked up a "sharp stick" that became one of the most important pieces of "gear" my kid carried. He used it when scrambling up steep slopes, it was a pointer for the map. You can even see it in his hand in the picture below. We even turned around a short distance to go get it when it was left behind. Once. The final time it was lost, we realized it after about 15 minutes of walking. But it wasn't that traumatic of a loss. 

• I did try to make this a learning exercise for Kid3 and teach him how to live in the outdoors. As we were hiking, I shared with him how to not attract animals to our campsite and how hanging a bear bag is a great activity. Usually, hanging a bear bag takes many attempts, so it serves as after dinner entertainment and to warm you up before you go to bed. Not so with my football playing son. On the third throw, he had it over the branch. And when we needed to lower it to get our toothbrushes, he just decided to re-hang it with similar ease. Take football players backpacking with you. 
• You don't need as much stuff as you think. On this trip I carried as much weight as I do on a day hike (I pack heavy) and I had more food, parts of a tent and a sleeping bag. I didn't carry as many backup pieces of clothing and relied on my water filter quite a bit. On a typical day hike, I'll carry 3 - 4 liters of water, but this trip, we each carried 1 liter and an empty water bottle. We did refill several times during the trip, but that's easy as water is so plentiful in the Pacific Northwest. 
• This was the first trip I went on with my new backpack, the REI Mars. My daypack is pretty simple and is about 13 years old. There have been quite a lot of improvements in backpacks, in particular the now common stretchy mesh pockets on the side of the packs. They're perfect for holding water bottles and easy to get the water bottle while walking. I stayed so much more hydrated on this trip than other trips. 
• I really love being outdoors, rain or shine. We were lucky that Day 1 was a great day - not too hot, but still sunny. On Day 2, the clouds never quite cleared and by 10AM it was starting to sprinkle on us. We were generating enough body heat hiking that we didn't stop to put any wet weather gear on for several hours The rain didn't matter, it was just so great to be in the outdoors. 

It's good to just get out and walk around.

Child Safety, mobile phones and T-Mobile

Earlier this week, I went to an event a the downtown Seattle T-Mobile store, hosted by Jenny, and learned about how T-Mobile uses their technology to help parents keep their children safe. It's especially pertinent because school is wrapping up for my kids. With no school, I'm not always guaranteed that on Monday at 9:30 AM they'll be at school. They now have the time to go other places and given that they're older (the oldest is learning to drive), they have more ability to go more places.

There was no tear gas at this party and still Carly was not there. Hey, I can hope right? But I did get to meet lots of other cool bloggers, some of them for the first time in real life and enjoy some nice snacks, including cupcakes!

After a long day at work, my phone died and there were no more photos for me.

T-Moble has several cool apps for keeping your kid, their phone and their account safe.  They demo'd a Google Latitude like FamilyWhere that works for non-smart (dumb ole) phones.

They also had a really slick web based tool  to limit account usage, using a slider bar to allocate minute, messages to the different phones on your families account. You can even use it to provide basic filtering (kid, teen, adult) to the phone's internet access.

And unlike my phone provider, these were services on the whole families account and most were free!

I rely heavily on similar third party tools, not those provided by my carrier.  This allows me to maintain the functionality provided by the tool and switch providers, which I've done in order to get the phone I want.


Like many good social media events, there were swag bags and prizes. My house now has more screaming, flying monkeys!  Kid3 won a raffle prize, a cupcake making kit, pizza gift card and ToysRUs gift card (a good prize for us) and did a happy dance. I'll be doing a happy dance when he makes us cupcakes!

All in all, Jenny threw a good party and I learned some about T-Mobile! A good night was had by all, and my carrier has some competition.

Taylor River Backpacking

Last weekend, Kid 3 and I went backpacking up the the Taylor River, near the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River. It was a great weekend and we saw great sights and had a good time together. I'm glad that he's interested in it and I can foster a love for the outdoors.

Plus, backpacking is a good fitness activity. He carried a 20 pound pack, mine was 38 pounds and we walked 17.3 miles!  It was an excellent activity because he's trying to make a weight cut off for tackle football (we don't want him squashed by middle schoolers).

Trip planning was kind of tough - I really wanted to go to an alpine lake and I was familiar with some places in Snoqualmie Pass, but all these were above 3000' and there was still snow there. I wanted this trip to be a good experience for Kid3, so I wanted to not camp in the snow. I called the Forest Service and they recommended the Middle Forks area.

Surprisingly, I did not have a map of this area, it was the one local map sheet I didn't have. The area is covered in lakes and the elevation was below the snow level and its less than 30 miles from my home!  Call your Forest Rangers, they really know the area and can give all kinds of suggestions.  Aside from actually going on this trip, calling the Ranger was the best thing I did.

Saturday morning, we left the house at 8:30 on the way to the trail head.  Though it was close, the last 12 miles were on one of the worst roads I'd been on in a long time. The pot holes were easily 4 to 6 inches deep and required threading your way through them. I spent a lot of time driving on the wrong side of the road, but that was where the road was the best! And to further complicate matters, I was driving my MINI, which isn't known for its ground clearance.  But, I never bottomed out once. Nor did I ever get out of first gear, either.

Kid3 and I shouldered our pack almost at the trail head as the signs were a little misleading.  The road is closed at the trail head, but the signs announcing it make is seem like its right where the signs are.  It was only an extra quarter mile, so it wasn't a big deal.

We started crossing the Taylor River bridge and the gentle uphill, so slight we barely noticed it, hike into the woods.  We took our time and I showed Kid3 how to read the map and terrain associate using the river. We missed the trail to Marten Lake, but we were headed to Lipsy Lake and Otter Falls, thinking we'd make camp there.

We ran into a few other day hikers and they were seemed excited that we were going to do a father-son overnight.  In fact, we ran into one of my co-workers, his wife and dogs and we hiked with them for a while.  Some other hikers took our picture at Marten Creek Bridge (which was good, because I'm terrible at taking self photos, but I did have my mini tripod).

We hiked on to Lipsy Lake and did find the cut off at about 3.5 miles. There is a hard to find sign (did not see this), but we could hear the falls and someone had marked the area with some mylar balloons.  Its a short, uphill (about 400') cross country movement, but you can't get lost.  Just go uphill towards the sound of the water.   As I walked up, I started to see what I thought was the normal gray Washington sky. I could hear lots of rushing water, but I had no idea where it was and knew that I wasn't that much higher above the lake.  As the trees thinned and opened up above the lake, the gray I was seeing was a gigantic exposed granite slope with the water flowing down it. It was just beautiful.

Can you imagine otters sliding down this? Its like a giant slip and slide.  Look closely on the left, there is a group of 3 or 4 people, so you can get an idea of the scale.  It's easy to get to, so we decided that we'd have to return here with the rest of our family. Maybe they wouldn't stay overnight, but we had to share this with them.

We were thinking we'd make camp at Lipsy Lake, but decided to push on a little further, to check out Big Creek Falls.  The forest on the far side of Lipsy Lake is pretty dense and the terrain is pretty steep, so there weren't many good places for a tent. Plus, the lake was crowded! This weekend was a beautiful one and so there were lots of day hikers and dogs swimming in the lake. Sure I had a water filter, but I didn't want to test it on the stirred up silt of the lake.

We started on the 2 miles to Big Creek Falls and I was starting to scope out camping spots.  The Taylor River starts to pull away from the trail and the area between is a little flatter, so I was able to find a few spots that we could camp at.  I saw one and decided that it was the spot and unbeknownst to me, Kid3 made a mark in the trail so that we could find it again. It turned out to be useful and was a good landmark even on our return trip.

Big Creek Falls is less of a water fall than Otter Falls, and more of fast water crashing over rocks under neath a cement bridge, wide enough for large trucks. It was a strange place to find this type of a bridge, 5   miles in.  Evidently its left overs from a previous day, when there were ambitious plans to develop the area.

We set up our tent with a nice view of the creek right out the door, refilled our water and enjoyed a nice snack of cheese and crackers.  After picking our way across the creek, we tried to get down to the Taylor River itself. It turns out, our exploration found ourselves in a network of streams and some rather dense foliage, so it wasn't as simple as "keep Big Creek on our right side" to get back and find camp. We explored and climbed over fallen trees and under thorny branches, but never made it to the river.  We were exploring a little light, so we turned back.

We played a few games of chess, both of which I lost and then got started on dinner.  Dinner was dehydrated chicken pasta alfredo and green beans, both of which were surprisingly good.  I think that food tastes better in the out doors.

Kid3 was getting excited about getting into the tent, so before we did that, we hung our food and other good smelling things in a bear bag.  Usually, hanging a bear bag is an activity that will 1) kill some time, 2) provide some entertainment and 3) if you're cold, warm you up.  Football is paying off, Kid3 threw the cord and carabiner over the branch in just 3 tries. It was quick and easy. And in fact, instead of lowering the bear bag to put our toothbrushes in it later than night, we just pulled it down and he threw it back up there.

We got settled in the tent, a little early, so we played some more chess and planned out our next day.  We had missed the trail to Marten Lake and we thought that we might try to find that on the way out, so I plotted its location in my GPS.  We also thought about going to Lake Snoqualmie and Kid3 came up with a plan that we'd get up at 2 AM and start on the trail. Early to bed, early to rise!

The sun was quickly setting, but it was still light outside and he asked me, "is the tent bright because its white or that there is still sunlight outside."  A few hours later, when one of our rolling around woke us up, it was totally dark in the tent, "I can't even see with my eyes open." It was a new moon that night, so there was no illumination other than the stars.

I took advantage of this trip to teach Kid3 LNT principles (he carried out his own bio-waste), some map reading and terrain association, how to cross streams safely, among other things.  We both went to the "bathroom" before we went to sleep and refilled our water bottles so we'd have fresh water in the morning.  We kept our flashlight and headlamp in the little pockets of the tent and made sure that our sleeping bags weren't brushing the wall of the tent, to avoid getting wet from condensation.

But with all my expertise, I was the one who had to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom again (I guess I was keeping well hydrated).  Even with my headlamp, the fact that I wasn't wearing my contacts made it rather hard to see.  But I made it to our designated spot and back to the tent, with out tripping or getting too cold.  I did wake Kid3 up to let him know I was going out, but he didn't wake up when I came back in!

We woke up the next morning, at about 6:30 because of the sunlight.  We made our breakfast skillet and started to pack up. By 8:15, we were on the trail, loaded packs and a spring in our step. Because we got an early start, we decided that we'd try for Lake Snoqualmie.

I knew that we'd have to add about 1800' in elevation in about 2 miles; a little steep (and much steeper than we'd done the previous day). I knew that we'd have to turn around by noon to ensure we got back home in time to make sure my wife didn't worrry about us.  As we went up and up, we came across a pretty large, fast moving stream. This stream wasn't on the map (the latest revision is 10 years old), nor were the switch backs that went up to avoid the stream.  Our movement started to slow, because of the elevation gain and the increased number of blowdowns across the trail.

We were still keeping a good pace, considering the trail conditions and our load, but it became apparent that we wouldn't make it to Lake Snoqualmie.  In a lightly sprinkling rain, we turned around and headed back down the trail, after going almost 2 miles up the trail.  We talked about how we could get to Lake Snoqualmie in a three day trip (or as I learned later, its a shorter approach from the Skykomish side).

We did stop for buffalo chicken wraps for lunch, to change into dry socks, but on the way out, we covered 11 miles! I was impressed by Kid3's endurance and we talked about what we could do for our next trip and that he needed some real boots, with better tread, support and water resistance than the shoes he was wearing.

He had fun and seemed to be interested in going again! I had a great time on the trip and look forward to backpacking with him again.  We'll get to Lake Snoqualmie one of these days.

You can see more of the photos from our trip on Flickr.

Trail Information: Otter and Big Creek Falls

Red Eye Flights are great and stink at the same time

I've done some work related travel to the Mid-West recently. My trips start from Seattle and end in smaller towns, not the big hubs like Atlanta or Chicago, so I'm destined to have a layover and a connecting flight.  Red eye flights have some advantages, but they also come with some disadvantages.

The Good

1. Security lines are shorter at the airport
2. You can sleep your way across the country (you'd be asleep anyways at home)
3. You miss less time with your family.
4. It doesn't matter the quality of your hotel bed, you'll be so tired you'll sleep anywhere.
5. If you're a frequent flyer (which I'm not), you're more likely to get upgraded.
6. Sunrise viewed from a plane is beautiful.
7. Because you spend one night on the plane, you need to bring fewer clothes and save on a hotel bill.
8. Good reason to expense a non-stop flow of coffee drinks.

The Bad

1. Its really hard to sleep on a plane. This can mitigate the benefit of #2 above
2. By the end of the day at your destination, you're wiped out.
3. When you show up at work in the morning, people expect you to be rested, which you are not.
4. Makes for some long days.
5. You miss out on the snacks and drinks because you're asleep.
6. Once you get home, not only do you have to catch up on the home things you missed, but sleep too.

What do you think - red eye or not?

Easter (was a week ago)

Easter was a week ago and I'm finally blogging about it.

Most of the time, when planning a celebratory meal, my planning process is like this: "Oh, that sounds good, I'll make that." And I repeat that. Several times.  At the end of the meal, we're all stuffed and have tons of leftovers.  And then I start mentally calculating how many sticks of butter or dozens of eggs or cups of cream were in that meal.

This year, I attempted to put some sanity in the Easter brunch.  A few days before Easter I sent my menu ideas to my family and asked if there was anything else that they wanted.  In my efforts to simplify, I replaced Eggs Benedict with just poached eggs.  That was my big simplification.

But the emails started to come in (actually, I don't think I've ever been on an email thread with my wife and kids that had as much discussion). Restoring Eggs Benedict was a common theme, which evidently even boiled over to IRL discussions between my wife and kids during carpools.  I did forget a few important things, strawberries and shrimp cocktail and my wife has to have her breakfast sausage.  So, I added those items and got confirmation from our oldest son that he'd make cinnamon rolls.  It was going to be a good one.

Even our 10 year old got into it.  Upon hearing that our oldest was going to make cinnamon rolls, he asked if he could make something. I tasked him with chocolate fondue.

If you follow my wife on Twitter or Instagram, you've probably already seen some of the pictures. For those that haven't, start drooling.

@unitedstatesofmotherhood on Instagram

I had attempted to smoke bacon the day before, after letting my pork belly cure for a week.  I was trying to cold smoke it, but my smoker does not make much smoke at less than 150 degrees. So I ended up neither cold smoking or hot smoking my pork belly and it really came out more like salt cured ham.  While it was a failure, I'll be trying that one again, but hot smoking it.  I really want to be able to say I've made my own bacon.

We barely made a dent in the fruit salad and didn't even cut a slice of the blueberry coffee cake. So, after letting lunch settle, we went for a hike to Poo Poo Point.

Sunset on flickr

The views was quite beautiful and we walked down after sunset, needing headlamps for the last 45 minutes or so. 

All in all, it was a very enjoyable Easter day.

My own brand of awesome

My friend Whit is going to get to do something pretty awesome: interview the cast of the Avengers. But even more awesome, he's going to get to interview Scarlett Johansson, who plays the Black Widow in the movie. But she's Scarlett Johansson in real life. And he'll get to ask her questions and talk to her. I bet if it were me, I'd say something to the effect of "Buh, uhm, yeah, well."

Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow, image courtesy Popoholic www.popoholic.com

So, I'm making my own brand of awesome.

A few weeks ago my wife said that we shouldn't eat bacon and deli meat because of the nitrites (or nitrates, I don't know which - don't talk bad about bacon).  Respecting my wife, I took that to heart and considered it. And decided to make my own.

Two weekends ago, I brined nice big turkey breast and then mesquite smoked it.  I sliced it as thin as I could, to make my own deli meat. Its a little thicker than I'd like it to me, but it has a nice smoked flavor and isn't dried out.  It ended up even costing less than deli counter meat, working out to about $6 per pound after I cut it off the bones.

This weekend, I'm taking it one step further. I left work early on Friday so that I could make it to my local butcher, Fischer's Meats and buy an uncured pork belly.  Yes, I'm going to cure and smoke my own bacon. Try that on for size, Scarlett and Whit!

It will take several days, almost a week, for the pork belly to cure.  I'm salt curing it with a little brown sugar and rubbed sage (and no nitrates). Next weekend, I'll smoke it, slowly with hickory.

Don't you like to rub your belly?

Can you see the awesomeness?

I'll keep you posted on how it develops.

Whit, you should ask Scarlett if she likes bacon.

And I must send out thanks to my neighbor JH, who gave me a jump start when my battery was dead Friday when I left work early to get to the butcher before it closed.  He drove to the park and ride where my car was, jump started my battery and I made it to the butcher with less than 10 minutes to spare.

Conspiracy Theories (or My Kids Watch Too Much TV)

Early this morning, as we're driving along a dark rural road, a cop waved us to a stop. His car was blocking the road, lights flashing, flares spread in the road. We could see some lights and some activity on the hill, but nothing in particular.

I rolled down my window as he approached. "Do you know how to get around," he asked?

I asked how far was the road closed and confirmed I knew how to get by.

As we drove away my daughter said, "He didn't tell us why the road was closed."

"Maybe there was a plane crash," my son suggested. We had been watching The Event on Hulu last week.

"Maybe there was a pack of rabid deer," my daughter said.

We'll never know. By the time we returned from swim practice, the road was open and there were no debris, tree limbs or even evidence of flares. Their cleaners made it all disappear.

If I should disappear too, you'll know I was on to something.  Or its just another 4 month gap between posts.

Tear Gas, Holiday Shopping and the T-Mobile Girl

Two Tuesdays ago, a priest, a pregnant teen and an old lady all get pepper sprayed. Sounds like the start of a bad joke, doesn't it. Well, though its mostly true (some of the initial headlines included a priest, but I can't find it now), I wasn't there. I was braving the crowds, cops and chemical agents to go see Carly Foukes.  If you don't recognize the name, maybe the picture will help.

If the pink and white dress doesn't help, she's the T-Mobile girl. T-Mobile and Kristin from Our Ordinary Life was hosting bloggers at a Holiday Tips and Tricks event at the downtown Seattle store.

Unfortunately, Carly must not know how to avoid tear gas exposure, as she wasn't there. And she's probably not as hot with streams of mucus running from her cute little nose, crying and gasping for air through those red lips.

While nibbling on snacks from a veggie tray, I learned about some of the mobile hot spot devices that T-Mobile sells and some great tips when purchasing a new phone or carrier.

• What does my rate plan cover?
• What kind of speeds/data am I getting?
• How much will my monthly payments be and/or other charges?
• What’s the exchange/return policy?
• Is my/my recipient’s home and workplace covered by your network?
• What are roaming charges?
• What are your warranty/insurance policies

There were some fun activities, it wasn't just all about tips.  It was a good thing I paid attention, because I did pretty well in the quiz and got a few HTC coupons.  T-Mobile has increased smart phone users 40% not 60% (I used my family as an example, our usage increased 60% over the last year, so I guess we're not normal).

Another Android user and I went head to head against two iPhone users on a MyTouch phone.  The iPhone users did pretty well with the T-Mobile customized Android version, the Android users prevailed, way to go Tara (I couldn't remember my Facebook password which I had changed the day before).  But really, you can switch easily from iPhone to Android.

My sexy wife, Heather, won a shiny new Android phone. I don't think she'll switch to it (we're locked into AT&T) and until there is an Android Instagram app, she's not interested in switching. And as long as she keeps on taking pictures of her cool shoes, I'm happy that she's got Instagram, too!

Though the likelihood of me switching to T-Mobile is low, it was a fun event. It was good to catch up with Carol and meet The Happy Girl. Even if Carly wasn't there.

Though I didn't get compensated, I did get a bag of swag. I have a flying, squealing, slingshot T-Mobile monkey now!

A great weekend

Its been quite awhile since I've last posted but this was a great weekend that I should share about. And for those of you who follow my wife on Twitter, there was no Sir Mix A Lot in my life this weekend.

It started out like just about any other weekend, waking at 4:45 AM to take the kids to swim practice. But kid 1 went to watch the Girls State Swim Meet, so he didn't need a ride back afterwards.  Kid 2 and I stopped at a ski swap and after we checked it out, we went back with Heather and Kid 3, who had been at home.

We got some snow pants for kid 2 (yes, the one who had been there with me, but I'm no good for clothing selection, evidently).

Kid 2 got her ears pierced twice more in each ear (read: 4 more holes in her head) and contrary to how it was when they were first pierced, no tears.

After that we hung out and got lunch at a sushi place and then did some more clothes shopping for kid 2. It really was a lot of clothes shopping, but it was great to be out with a part of my family.

After hanging out at the library (where I read back issues of Backpacker magazine), we linked up with Kid 1 and got dinner at La Costa, the Mexican restaurant in Issaquah.

For some reason (kids these days) moccasins are popular, worn with sweat pants, both of which we shopped for for Kid1.

We probably spent too much money, but I knew what Sunday held. Free cupcakes and a Williams-Sonoma techniques class (Thanksgiving side dishes).

After explaining to Kid3 all of the things we'd have to eat today, we set out into the world. After some good side dishes, the rest of the family caught up with us and we went to Trophy Cupcakes for a Google Places party. For the low price of writing a few reviews on some Chromebooks, we got cupcakes and t-shirts, Google Places tattoos and pens. It was yummy and filling.

On the way out, Heather saw the Skillet truck and we made a 3 point turn (u-turns are not legal in Washington) and got chicken and waffles. With five of us, we could try almost all the different topping options. And boy, was it good!

I can't recall the last time I had tbat much good food all in one day!

When I got home, I got the bug to cook myself. So, dinner was biscuits and gravy, bruschetta, and Brussels sprouts with pancetta. None of these things go together but they were all individually very good. Weird combination but good.

All in all, a busy weekend but one that we did a lot of stuff in. It was really nice to be able to spend some time with my family, relaxing and having fun!

I really hate plumbing, but I don't have a leaky faucet anymore

For a while (I will not say how long, to not incriminate myself) our backyard hose faucet has been leaking.  Not dripping but leaking.  I've replaced the gaskets inside of it, but last night, I decided that I should replace the hose bib.

I did my research online. I found videos on how to replace them, articles on how to troubleshoot whats wrong with them. I even found the manufacturer's website of my very own  frost free hose bib. I took a trip to Home Depot to see what they looked like and what type of replacements they had.

This was supposed to be a simple, unscrew the hose bib and screw a new one on, exercise.  If it were that, do you think I'd be blogging about it?

Thus prepared, at about 4pm on Saturday afternoon, I shut the water off, affixed a wrench to my faucet and gave it a turn. It turned alright, but it wasn't unscrewing. Someplace, inside the wall one pipe was turning inside another.  Not exactly what I wanted.

I checked with one of my rather handy neighbors, Dave, and he indicated that he had not done any work on that particular faucet, but warned me about the CPVC piping our builder used and how its starting to get brittle.

At this point, I was starting to feel chicken and ready to call a plumber.  My wife convinced me that they would start by cutting a hole in the wall and that I should do that too (which was also Dave's recommendation).  I hemmed and hawed for a while, because I wasn't sure what I'd find on the other side of the wall board. Underneath the kitchen sink. Behind a mess of supply pipes for the sink and an electrical outlet.  My super handy wife remembered that we we had a set of architectural drawings of the house (why, I do not know) and she pulled them out and we pored over them, and then I started cutting.

With my luck, I cut a hole that was almost centered on a 2x4 in the wall.  While that will make it easy to replace that piece of wallboard, it made it really hard to get my arm through there, but I did it.  And I found the male fitting that the hose bib was connected to.  I held it steady while Heather "lefty looseied" it outside, until there was a snap.  And the faucet was off.  With a small, torsional sheared portion of CPVC pipe.  However, the female end of the faucet was too big to fit through the hole in the siding, so we were not really better off.

It came to me that the old faucet was garbage anyways, so I cut it in half.  Then I could see the problem.  The builder's plumber (insert all kinds of curse words here), used a plumbing cement to secure the threaded fixture.  No wonder it wouldn't budge.  And they weren't supposed to do that, either.

With some tool assistance from Dave and his neighbor I started to couple a fresh end to my broken pipe.  I'd done PVC work before, but outside irrigation, where you can be a little sloppy. The standards are higher when you're inside your house.  All was good and we affixed the new faucet to the threaded end.  This was a challenge in itself, relaying messages through a child, coupled with the fact that it was really hard to screw it on.  [To those experienced with plumbing, do you see the warning signs of cross-threading? I wasn't that experienced, then.]

We turned on the water, which resulted in me frantically telling Heather to turn it off, when I discovered the leak, spraying water inside the wall.  She responded that she didn't know how. I don't think I got my 6'2" frame out of the kitchen cabinet that quickly any other time...

We re-tightened things and still there was a leak.  We tried loosening it and there was a cracking sound.  No broken pipe this time, but a sloppy glue job (remember what I said about irrigation) failed and the male end broke free of my rebuilt pipe.  It was late and I was getting tired and we're not really any closer to having the water fixed.

Heather convinced me to call it a night, but I cut a larger hole in the wall and could see evidence that the faucet was cross-threaded. Which also explained why it wasn't perpendicular to the wall, either when we tightened it once before.

So, all night long, I'm visualizing how I'm going to fix it in the morning.  Needless to say, I didn't sleep well. Plumbing doesn't make for sweet dreams. I really needed the water back on, because I needed to wash clothes for my first day at my new job!

Home Depot opened at 7 am and with a little assistance from Heather (I did wake her up), we got the cross-threaded end off and I went to buy a new one.  I got a little wiser this time and bought enough connectors to do the whole job over again (if I hadn't done it enough already).

Bim, bam boom, it was all put together again.

And there was a tiny drop of water forming at the end of the threads.  But why? I used the teflon tape, like the guy at Home Depot said...  I called my Dad for some plumbing advice and when he didn't answer at home, I called him on his cell phone. Still no answer. I called home again and realized that they weren't there, its their anniversary weekend!  My first messages were about plumbing, not anniversary wishes, so I rectified that. I kept hoping the water would stop dripping and dry up and headed to my kids' swim team audit.

Five hours later, I stopped at Home Depot and Roger in the plumbing section asked if I used teflon tape and sealant.  As you already know, I did not and we had a great chat about it and I was on my home again (trip #4) with sealant.

Bim, bam, boom. Faucet off, re-taped, threads glopped up with sealant.  Faucet screwed 2-1/2 rotations on (1 more rotation, because we needed it closer to the wall) and there are no more drops forming.

I've got some ultra-sensitive water test paper (read: toilet paper) around the fitting and I've checked it a few times and so far we're good.

Because of Heather (and some good support from neighbors and Home Depot employees), we saved the cost of a plumbers visit, but I still hate plumbing!!!

Boys Weekend

Last weekend (actually, starting Thursday morning), Heather and the two older kids went to a swim meet in Boise.  I dropped them at the airport and they were gone until Monday morning, leaving Kid 3 and me at home.

In the days before they left, I asked Kid 3 what he'd like to eat while they were gone. Just to see if Heather was paying attention, I even told him I wanted to know, "so Mom can make us the food and put it in the freezer for us."  Now, if you know (or read my wife's blog), you can bet she sure doesn't do that. I'm self-sufficient when it comes to feeding myself or my family.  And more than that, I enjoy cooking.

That said, Kid 3 and I played tether ball, rode bikes, went for walks, played Xbox and ate.  And ate.

Kid 3 realized that we were not eating healthy, but he recognized that we were eating well.  He figured out that we had the right headset so he could talk with his friends on Xbox Live and I heard him more than once recounting his meals to his friends.  Yes, it fed my ego, but I thought it was pretty cool.

He kept track in his head, as he is oft to do, of how many bad meals we ate. He knew that we took the Cooking Light recipe and made it with more butter (you get a better sear on your steak that way). He know that the box of Hot Tamales with the movie wasn't a good snack.  He knew that bacon two mornings in a row and then coddled eggs the next day tastes good, but isn't healthy.  But I think he liked them.

We definitely had fun cooking together. And eating.

Eating my way through summer swim meets: Muffuletta and Apricot Tart

One of the last Lime Pie pops from the previous swim meet went to one of my neighbors on the kids summer swim team. She said that the were good and I asked her if she wanted to collaborate for dinner at the next swim meet.   She was quick to come on board although parents should have fun at swim meets too, even though there was a bit of a double standard of eating gooey yummy stuff while the kids are supposed to be out there giving their athletic best performance.

I went through my sandwich recipes in Evernote and found a few good sandwiches. I traded a few emails with my neighbor and she said she'd bring a dessert. Dessert and sandwiches - that's a dinner in my book!

Even though, my neighbor said in her email she went to Tulane in New Orleans, I went with the muffuletta. It seems like such a simple, yet flavorful combination for a summer's evening. I was wrong on at least one count, but we'll get to that later.

Early in the day, I made the olive salad, so that the flavors could nicely come together.  I'll cop to it - I took more than one spoonful during the day. A good cook always tastes their product!

The sandwiches came together quite nicely and Kid3 and I headed off to the swim meet.  As we left, it started to rain.  I went back in and grabbed my gore-tex parka, which got me a little joshing from my son. It didn't seem to him that that was the right jacket for a swim meet.

It rained off and on as we went to the swim meet, but it was a light summer rain. I found a spot to sit and our neighbor joined us shortly thereafter. She had brought some salads and an apricot tart. This swim meet was going to be alright!

We enjoyed the sandwiches, as our kids did too between events, then it started to really rain.  We didn't have a shelter to hide out under, so my neighbor hid under her umbrella and I stood up so that my parka would keep me dry. While that kept us both dry, my chair filled with water, so I had no dry place to sit afterwards.  This is where I was wrong: the sandwich was good, but it wasn't a summer's evening. It was like early spring in the PNW with all the rain we got.

What was really funny, if you can call it that, was that the weather kept changing. I could see the break in the clouds that was coming our way and sure enough, the rain would stop, the sun would come out.  And then about 20 minutes later, the rain would start up again.

During one of the sun breaks, we broke out the apricot tart and enjoyed dessert.  Then it started to really rain.  My son went and stood in the warm shower in the locker room for something like 30 events (at least an hour, I stopped keeping track of the time). I think that he was the wisest of all of us. I was just as wet as he was (my boxers were wet), but at least he was warm.

The swim meet might have been unpleasant, but the food was good. And since my trip next week was cancelled, I need to start planning for this Thursday's swim meet!

Lime Pie ice pops and summer swim meets

In a recent Tasting Table newsletter, there was a recipe for Lime Pie ice pops. I think I read the email on one of the recent (and rare) nice June summer days here in the PNW.  Since summer swim meets were starting up, I decided that I'd make them for us for the Thursday swim meet.

Wednesday evening, my wife and I were going out to a foodie tweetup. My grand plans entailed me stopping at the grocery on the way home to pickup the limes and sweetened condensed milk that we didn't have at home.  Such are the plans of mice and men: I forgot to stop at any one of the 3 grocery stores I had to drive by.

But I was not going to be stopped.  Doing some backward planning, allowing for at least 7 hours of freezing (a few more than the recipe calls for), I needed to have them in the freezer by 10am.  Adjusting for the fact that I also needed to be working at that time, I needed to get them in the freezer before I started working at 7am.  In turn, that meant I was at the grocery store at 5:30am.

Whisking the base. Ignore that bottle of lime juice!

The early morning shopping trip, though, allowed me to make the ice pops with Kid 2. That Thursday was the last day of school for her and she had extra time, since she didn't have to make her lunch.

We got the ice pops in the molds and in the freezer and Kid 2 off to school.  Undisturbed, the ice pops sat in the freezer all day, hardening.  Only Kid 2 and I knew about them and I know for me that the surprise was building all day.  I was looking forward to enjoying them at the pool.  As the day went on and I was thinking about the tart lime pops, I came to the conclusion that I'm going to eat my way through the summer swim meets.  Summer swimming is fun for the kids and its gonna be yummy for me (and my wife too).

Delicious!

I took all the ice packs, loaded up my cooler and a few bags to smash graham crackers.  Then as the kids finished their events or it was time for a refreshing break, I'd prep a lime pie pop for them.  They actually tasted like Key Lime Pie, which was a great snack for the [non-swimmers at the] swim meet.

My handiwork.

If you'd like to try them out, you can find the recipe here.

I just discovered Instapaper

This week, I've discovered Instapaper.  I know that I'm late to the party and that Instapaper has been around since January, 2008, but its pretty cool. In short, its a read-it-later web application.

This week has been quite busy, both at work and in people on the web publishing interesting articles.  Since work pays the bills, working was the priority over reading things on the web [special note: work pays the bills every week, so that priority isn't special to this week]. I started an email thread to myself with the subject "Read Later."  After it had about 10 messages with a few URLs each, I realized that I had to find a better solution.

A quick Google search led me to a few applications, but Instapaper stood out, because I had just heard that it was one of the applications threatened by iOS 5. I'm not an iPhone user, so that didn't really matter to me (and I don't think it really matters anyway, as you'll see later).  It was a quick sign up and I was ready to go.

Instapaper provides a bookmarklet which basically adds the page you are reading to your Unread Items.  I use Chrome as my web browser and there are a few extensions which put a button that does the same thing.  I went that route, because it just looks a little nicer than the bookmarklet and it also will automagically close the tab of the page I'm marking to read later.

It wasn't until I was away from my computer, waiting for my kids after swim practice that I recognized the true magic of Instapaper. I had some time that I was looking to fill and on my Android phone, I went to the Instapaper website.  There was my list of web articles to read, even with a specially formatted text only link.  I read a few things, archived them (removing them from my unread list) all quickly and easily on my phone.

This was my resultant tweet.  It's that kind of cool. Excuse the funny grammar, it was voice transcribed and I was walking at the time and didn't correct it.

Because we discovered the magic of @instapaper this evening.less than a minute ago via Twitter for Android Favorite Retweet ReplyBeau Raines
beauraines

One of my friends replied to this tweet with "seriously? Just now?"  Yep, there are technological solutions out there that drive productivity that I've not started to leverage yet.

There is an iPhone application too, but I can't say much about it, as I use an Android powered smart phone.

But this is a big time saver. With two quick clicks, I can mark something as interesting to read later, when I have more time.  With the nice mobile interface, that could be anywhere, like when standing in long line.

With everything we have coming at us these days, services like Instapaper can really help manage that information fire hose.

My rapture playlist

As I picked up Kid3 from swim practice, I asked him what we should listen to on our drive.

He suggested Europe's The Final Countdown since the world is going to end tomorrow.

I'm going to piggy back on his idea and share what I'll be listening to when the earth starts shaking.

1) Europe - The Final Countdown
2) The Beastie Boys - So Whatcha Want
3) Metallica - The Four Horsemen
4) REM - Its the End of the World
5) Ministry - The Missing
6) They Might Be Giants - Dead
7) They Might Be Giants - Snowball in Hell
8) Depeche Mode - Blasphemous Rumors

What would you add?

Don't be frontin' when revelation comes!

My kid doesn't know his spelling words

Every afternoon, Kid 3 comes to into my office with his list of 3rd grade spelling words.  I read the word, maybe use it in a sentence and he spells them. Just to be sure he doesn't memorize the list in order, I always mix up the order (its not random, but in case he's reading this, I won't give away my pattern). He almost always gets them right, which I attribute to the fact that he studies them before he comes to me (let me live my dream). He's really good at spelling.

But here is the thing: he doesn't actually learn the spelling list. He just knows how to spell words. Sometimes, I throw other words in there, maybe not necessarily third grade words or a word from a previous list and he spells them. Sometimes, he gives me a funny look, but he just spells them. To really change it up, I sometimes make a crazy sentence out of several of the words.  And he spells them.

Every Friday, I ask him how he does on his spelling test.  Last week, he was not at home, but I found his spelling test and he missed one of the bonus words. I was a little surprised, because even though the words are hard (and I don't know what some of them mean), he had done a good job in practice.

Evidently, he mis-heard his teacher saying univalve and he wrote unicorn. I can hear the resemblence, but man, if only he knew that unicorn wasn't one of his spelling words, he might have asked for her to repeat it.

Yet another example of kids doing the darndest things!

Cupcakes and coding - a nice day off

Earlier this week, I took a day off. I was at my PTO cap and needed to take the day. Nothing really was planned for the day, so I did some things that I think are fun. I made cupcakes and reviewed MySQL stored procedures for a side project of mine. Sounds like nice things for a day off, no?

I didn't just make any cupcakes, I made Stout Cupcakes. Yes, there is a bottle of Guinness in these cupcakes. Okay, so I followed a Martha Stewart recipe, but they weren't any frilly frosted cupcakes on doilies. The cupcakes had a heaviness to them, more like a bread, with a bit of spice.  The molasses and nutmeg gave them a "ginger bready" taste.

That's stout glaze. No milk or lemon juice in there, stout was the liquid used to make this glaze.

My wife enjoys my cooking, but doesn't want to keep the cupcakes in the house. No sooner than they were glazed, I had called some of the neighbors and asked if they were home.  This is becoming code for "Beau is bringing something yummy."

I thought that they were pretty good. Heather suggested that I make a fluffier chocolate frosting, just to lighten them a bit. I'd be up for trying that again.

So what do you think of Stout cupcakes?

A sweet spring with Cal Giant strawberries

My wife, the big blogger she is, occasionally gets free stuff.  The day before Easter, when I was checking to see if a package from Amazon had arrived, there was a flat of Cal Giant strawberries sitting on our doorstep.  While it wasn't what I was expecting, it was still a sweet surprise.  A flat of strawberries is a lot of strawberries, even for our family of 5, which includes a teen aged boy (read: eating machine).

After I made myself dinner tonight (everybody else is at swim practice) and while my head is still pleasantly fuzzy from my Strawberry-Basil Gin cocktail, I decided I'd write about our free strawberries and how sweet they were!

Yes, I'm solo tonight and I made myself a pink cocktail. But what better way to use up the strawberries, as they reached the tail end of their life?

Well, you could mention the chocolate covered strawberries I made for Easter brunch.  Now that was a sweet combination.

Easter Brunch - photo by ScoutsHonor

Another way to enjoy strawberries, is dipping them in sour cream mixed with brown sugar. The brown sugar cuts the tang and thins the sour cream, making an enjoyable dip.

Yes, I use sweet like a California surfer, but these Cal Giant strawberries were a nice addition to our Easter brunch. And they were quite fresh too. I bet that these went from field to flat to our house. Its not that often that you get strawberries that fresh, unless you are from Watsonville (which would make you my first reader from that city).

On top of being fresh (like ripe, not like cool from the 80's), these strawberries were big. No wonder the name of the company is Cal-Giant, they were good sized strawberries.  I wasn't planning on making chocolate dipped strawberries for brunch, but a large strawberry makes for a very pretty one dipped when dipped in chocolate.

The only downside to this giant crop of giant strawberries which was delivered to us was that the bottom layer in the flat didn't fare so well in shipment.  But Cal-Giant doesn't make it a habit of shipping strawberries to your home, so go out and buy them from the grocery store!

Don't give your kids recording devices

My kids all have phones with some form of recording devices in them. The problem with phones these days is that they're very small and can make sneaky recordings. That, and my kids know how to use them.

One day, as we were driving back from swim practice, I was singing along with Van Halen's Jump and I noticed that Kid 1 was holding his hands strangely in his lap. He was indeed recording my singing.  And now you get to enjoy it too! American Idol, watch out!

One weekend morning, while the kids were eating breakfast (I had already eaten), Kid 2 recorded this video. I'm dancing to the Audio Bully's remix of Nancy Sinatra's Shot You Down. Again, you'll note that even though she does let me know that she's "waiting for the perfect picture" she doesn't say anything about making a video. I even had to rotate the video, as she was hiding the phone sideways next to her bowl!

Kid 1 made this recording of me singing The Letter along with The Box Tops, one morning on the way to swim practice, but this one wasn't so sneaky. I've learned to watch for them holding their phones in their lap, pointing the microphone at me.  I knew that I was being recorded this time.

They've even made recordings of ScoutsHonor snoring on the couch. If asked, I will deny any involvement in that. There aren't any on my phone, but I did have to check.

What have you done that is kinda silly and caught on video, for all posterity to see?