Ah...Family...

I come from a very large family. In addition to my immediate family of 7 - Dad Carl, Mom Paula, Karen, Denise, me, Gordon and Susan - plus spouses, significant others and children... Well, a holiday weekend means a LOT of people! My father was one of three kids and they had 3 and 4 children, who each had a few... The number of aunts, uncles and cousins is daunting. And, of course, my family has always welcomed even more people to our happy band.

Today I got to spend time with some family members that I don't get to see very often. My cousin (I can't keep track of the first, second, once removed stuff...) Elizabeth, her husband Boon and their daughter Autumn came up to visit for the weekend. When we were kids we didn't see Elizabeth's family much. No, not some Jerry Springer reason like our fathers didn't speak because her Dad shot my Dad's favorite hunting dog. Nope, it was just geography. They lived someplace in North Carolina and we just saw them once every year or so. I always thought her Dad - my Uncle Jimmy - was the most colorful character in our family. He got busted for cock fighting, worked on motorcycles, had a pig-pickin for Thanksgiving one time...

It has been nice to reconnect with her as adults. Thank you Facebook. One reason I love her is that she is a regular reader of the Beaten Hamster! But I think one of the things I like most is watching her with Autumn, who is about 10. She is so curious and eager to learn - and Elizabeth takes every opportunity to teach! She was telling us about a time that they were riding past a cotton field that was just about ready for picking. Some parents would have driven by...even if the child asked what that field of "snow" was. After all, it is hot out there...a farmer might object...there could be bugs! But Elizabeth took the time to stop, get out together and touch the cotton. She said that her shirt was made of that very material. They felt the cotton seed inside the fluffy ball and she explained about Eli Whitney inventing the cotton gin. When Autumn hears about that in school she is going to have a tangible memory to relate it to. That is pretty darn cool.

Another cousin that I got to sit down with and talk to for a few minutes today was my young cousin Megan. We haven't spent much time together either - but I'm afraid that isn't due to geography... I don't think I've made enough effort to get to know her. Tonight I was getting ready to head from the Riva Howse to home. I needed to shower and plan my Sunday School lesson. She overheard me telling Mom why I was heading out and asked if I taught Sunday School. I told her that I teach the Youth class. We spent about 10 minutes discussing the challenges of teaching an age-diverse class, the topics we were covering and how I liked it. She was genuinely interested in what I thought. Then we talked a bit about different world religions and various Christian denominations. I don't think I ever gave her credit for the intelligent deep-thinker that she is. I hope we get more chances to have more discussions. She's pretty neat.

So - I spent the first day of my three day weekend with family. The rest of the weekend will be filled with even more...biological kin and extended family. What a nice day.

Truth From Calvin

Ah Calvin - you have summed it up so well. I have always felt that as a genius I have a responsibility to share my genius with the world. Isn't that generous of me?

The record of my mental activities for today would be pretty short. A little stimulating TV before work - an old episode of Boy Meets World, I think. Work. Lunch with Denise where we discuss and solve other people's problems (largely ignoring our own). Work. Finding this cartoon. Dinner of pizza and wings with my brother where we discussed and solved other people's problems (including Denise's). Writing these two paragraphs.

I can't draw Indianapolis - so this is the best you're going to get tonight.

I also found a recipe for a pie made from Reese cups. But I don't think that counts as a mental activity. It has a pretzel crust. Let me know if you want a copy.

Culinary Arts, Take 1

Tonight began the culinary arts adventure at JIFF (the after school program at Centenary United Methodist on Thursday nights). Five young men from grades 3-5 joined me in the kitchen to learn how to make Macaroni and Cheese from scratch. We were joined by my sister and sous chef (well, she has potential!) Denise.

The first thing we discussed was how many things in a kitchen could hurt you. Should have included Denise. I think she wanted to smack them back on to their kitchen stools a few times. I had no notion that they would sit angelically upon their stools listening intently to my every word. So I was not disappointed!

They really did a nice job. I was surprised to find that they had so little experience doing simple tasks, like measuring 6 cups of water - or reading directions on a box of mac and cheese. We prepared a box of Kraft to compare with our homemade version...and I think that even that would have been impossible without my help. We even had to learn the difference between Tsp and Tbsp!

But they were VERY eager to assist in the whole process. Whenever I started the phrase "would someone like to..." I always had at least two volunteers.

After choosing our pasta shape (the boys went with Rotini - a spiral pasta) and getting the water headed to a boil - we began to make a Roux. Which I explained was the beginning of every cream sauce or cream soup they could think of. We figured out that a stick of butter equaled a half cup of flour (roux is equal parts flour and fat) and after the butter was melted a couple of the boys took turns constantly stirring the paste on the stove. Denise helped get 4 cups of milk measured and heated in the microwave. Then once the roux was a golden blonde (you keep cooking the paste until you get the right color for the dish you're making. Gumbo would be all the way to brick-colored) we added the warmed milk and the whisking continued without fail.

Finally the water for both the rotini and the box macaroni was boiling. I set the other three boys to the task of grating cheese. They wanted to grate all the cheese I had bought for two weeks of classes!

After a few minutes of cooking the white sauce (bechamel) had thickened to the point that it would coat a spoon so it came off the heat and the cheese was added one handful at a time. They boys were all excited to have a chance to make a batch of cheese disappear! A little salt, pepper and ground mustard made the cheese sauce complete.

Since this was going to be our entree - we diced up a ham steak (the cheese graters moved up the ham dicers) and had it ready to add to our deluxe mac and cheese. Once the pasta was cooked - we drained it and I added the butter, milk and cheese powder for the box batch. The boys stirred it up and boy did it look lame!

Then we added our cheese sauce to the drained rotini and added our diced ham! Boy did it look tasty! Thanks to denise, we had a big pitcher of lemonade and dished up some of each mac and cheese.

Although at the beginning of the night there had been grumbles about not having pizza and "having to eat mac and cheese" instead...one of the boys commented (and they all agreed) that this was much better. They want to come back next week! (Of course my next group would be upset...)

We got to have second helping and they decided that the box stuff was okay if you mixed it in with the made-from-scratch. They even experimented with adding a little cayenne or chili powder to kick up the heat. And there were even leftovers for each young man to take home. (Not much - but a little bit to show off to their family!)

No, they weren't angels. And the only person who hung on my every word was Denise. But I think it sparked an interest and I believe they'll be looking forward to their next cooking adventure!

And I need some more "takeout" containers - so send me your butter/sour cream/cottage cheese containers, okay?

And somebody get Denise a Valium for next Thursday.

West Nile Anyone?

I was always taught by my mother to be a good host (hostess, whatever). But I would like to draw the line at one place. Mosquitoes!

I have always been the family bug host. The one that everyone looks at with pity while I slap away at flies, gnats, mosquitoes, etc. I think that every family must have one. And then all the other sweet souls get to stare, shrug their shoulders and say stupid stuff like "hmm...I haven't gotten bit once" and "are you sure they're mosquitoes"? Argh!

Everyone in my family has their own personal curse - Dad can find the one cherry pit in any pie. Even McDonalds cherry pies...and I'm not real sure that those are real cherries!

Tonight, even though I was in the midst of a lovely group sitting on the dock at the river, I had enough. After spraying every inch of my skin...and then every inch of my clothing...they were still snacking on my tasty flesh. You win this round bugs...but I shall find a way!!







I'm gonna find some serious toxins to bathe in this weekend...anyone know where I can get some black market DDT?

Random Topics

 I was trying to decide what to blog about tonight and decided to hit Google for a random topic. Since I was there...I typed in "random topic generator" and would you believe it...there are some!! First going to try "Blogtap's Random Topic Generator" - which even has subjects to choose from. Going to be brave and select from "All". And the topic is (drumroll) - The Wright Brothers. Seriously...that is what popped up first.


At least I know something about the topic (unlike a topic suggested to me earlier today - diminishing Arctic ice...which I will need to research first). I have even been to the Wright Brothers Memorial in Kitty Hawk, NC because it is in the area that I vacation. I will say that the $5 I spent when I visited several years ago was  about right (it is down to $4 now!). At the time, the museum was housed in a couple of trailers but had very informative exhibits. Then you could walk over the area that the First Flight took place. There are markers showing the distances achieved in the first flights that Orville and Wilbur took. I learned that the brothers had made hundreds of glides - the flight in December 1903 was the first heavier-than-air powered flight.

One thing that I always wondered about - how did they decide that Orville was going to be on the flyer? Rock, paper, scissors? Flip a coin? Chicken wishbone?

One more Random Generator: Random Questions at Conversations Starters.com - and the questions is (drumroll...) What was your favorite subject in school?  Really?

Well...I was quite the nerd in school, so I can't go with the goofy response of "lunch". And being an uncoordinated nerd, my answer can not be "gym" or "PE". I think that the answer would depend on what grade we are examining. In first grade, my favorite subject was definitely Math. I grasped the whole concept of numbers, sets, addition and subtraction very quickly. I had a really cool teacher who let me keep going in the workbook and by the end of the first 6 weeks...I had run out of math to do. So she arranged for me to join up with the second grade math class. That teacher didn't let me get ahead of the class and I got bored. By third grade, after memorizing the multiplication tables (which took the rest of the class FOREVER) - I was bored again.

I always liked reading - I read to my kindergarten class because my older sisters had taught me to read when I was 4. That was pretty advanced back then. I think my four year old nephew and niece are reading Spanish now. One day I went to my first grade homeroom and she said that they were moving me to the second grade. So I spent the last 6 weeks of that year in a new class. The reading teacher spent part of the first day assessing my reading skills and when she found that I could read all the way up to the silver books, she put me in charge of my reading group. I wasn't trying to be smart - I just wanted to keep reading new stories...and I had finished all the ones in the other levels.

But if I had to answer what my favorite subject in high school was...it would probably be Advanced Algebra. Not because of my love for math...but I got to sit next to Derek Jennings...and he was cool. Or maybe it would have been English because I sat in front of Kevin Parr.

I did enjoy some of the subjects in high school. I liked Chemistry because the teacher was a short wacky woman who let us play with chemicals and stuff. I loved Creative Writing but the teacher was pretty tweaked out on coke most of the time (not the stuff in the can...). Speech class and typing class probably gave me the most useful skills that I still use today. Journalism was fun...I was layout editor of the school newspaper. We actually did physical paste-ups then. It was printed on the presses of the local paper. We only managed to get about 4 editions out that year...but I enjoyed working on The Amherite.

This has been an interesting look back....thank you Random Topics!!

BCC Please

I blew one of my free passes yesterday in my challenge to post every day for 30 days or have to give $100 to the Romney campaign. 1 strike. It shall not happen again today!

I know that my posts are often rants about my personal pet peeves...this is no exception. Question: Why can't folks grasp the concept of BCC (blind carbon copy)? I cannot tell you how many emails a day I get with giant lists of other people's email addresses. It isn't just the fact that on my Blackberry I have to scroll through the endless list - although that is indeed tiresome (and starting to wear out another trackball!). It is really rude to share your friends' email addresses with everyone that you want to share "The Irish Friendship Blessing" or "How Shania Twain got cancer from a water bottle she left in her car" or "How to separate an egg with a water bottle (hopefully non-cancerous).

Do not get me wrong - I enjoyed receiving the email itself (especially the egg separating one...that was cool!) and I'm glad that I have friends who send me generous angels who will bless me with cash and perfect mates if I send it on to 11 of my closest friends (I never do...I hate emotional blackmail email...but usually the blackmail comes after some sort of lovely thought that I DO enjoy)! It is the careless spreading of my email address to people who I don't know.

I received an email from my eye doctor's office last week inviting me to vote for him in a local magazine for "Best Bedside Manner" - once again, not offended by the email itself...he really is a fantastic optometrist and I am happy to spread that word far and wide. But his staff mistakenly sent out some of the email batches as CC instead of BCC. So in this case - I had about 50 of his patients email addresses (and you know, with a lot of email addresses...the names are not hard to figure out). I emailed him and he not only promptly apologized to me - he later sent out an email (properly BCC) to the clients who were affected and apologized to them as well. That shows real class.

If you are interested in being kind (and protective) to the people who you email - here is all you have to do to use BCC when emailing, forwarding, etc. in several of the most popular email interfaces.

If you are using Outlook - just put the addresses on the BCC line instead of the "To" line. If you don't see that line, click Options, Show Fields and then BCC.

In Hotmail - once you've opened a new message or hit forward on the hilarious video of cats flying around the room....look in the upper right hand corner and click on "Show CC and BCC" - then put the addresses of your victims in the BCC line. (no, you don't have to put a recipient in the "To" line).


In Gmail - once you've started to compose, you'll see the Add BCC button directly under the "To" line.




I understand that AOL's BCC button is easy to find...I wouldn't know, never used AOL! Thank you for listening to my latest rant. Next rant will probably be about chopping the extra 14 headers off when you forward the National Friendship Day email. I'm sure glad you're my friend - but I'd feel even more friendly if I didn't have to dig so far down to know why!

A Post On Beating Hamsters

I almost screwed up and wasted one of my free passes. A few days ago I rashly promised that I would post every day for the next month (felt guilty because I had not posted for 2 weeks). I am allowing myself 3 free passes. The punishment if I fail is that I will give $100 to the Romney campaign. When I realized I was slipping up - I decided that I would write a little post on The Hamster Beaters.

The Hamster Beaters are my Fantasy Football team (winner of the 2011-2012 season in our league). My team has been named that since the year I changed it from The Big Johnsons (that year I drafted an entire team of people named Johnson or Jones. Well, my kicker was Hanson - which I decided was Swedish for Johnson).

Fantasy Football is pretty simple - you gather a bunch of friends and "draft" members of the NFL. Only one team can own Peyton Manning, or Reggie Bush, or the Eagles defense. Then each week you "start" a team of one quarterback, two running backs, two receivers, a kicker and a defense. How the player performs in the NFL game determines how many points you score. I remember a time when I had to add up all the scores by hand - reading the box scores in Monday's sports page. Now the website does it all automatically - and in real time! For only $179 a year! (Ouch)

Tomorrow afternoon is the draft. It is not exactly a painless process. We try to make it fun - food, beverages, good natured ribbing... But with 10-12 teams each drafting 15 players...it takes time. And unless every team owner stays glued to the draft board (which is impossible considering the food, beverages, etc.) people lose track of who has been picked and who is still available. So by the tenth round, somebody is usually trying to draft a player who went in the 3rd round. And things grind to a slow halt while they catch up their cheat sheets.

Some teams take it all very serious. And although I won the league last year - I don't take it very serious at all. I'm just hoping somebody makes meatballs!

I believe this legitimately counts as a post. Take that - Romney!
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