Thanksgiving

Yep, I'm this far behind. Thanksgiving 2012. As in last Thanksgiving...4 months ago. I debated not posting this, but our Thanksgiving may not ever turn out better, so I had to gloat a little. :)

Our old college pals, the Jakemans, came from Kennewick, WA to join us for Turkey Day this year. I was worried about all of our kids getting along and making such a huge feast, but everything turned out perfectly. So glad they could make it down here, especially because we found out that they may be moving to Reno soon. Dang it.

I still brined my turkey like usual, but I went for a different spice blend this year. I basically used citrus and provincial herbs and it was absolutely divine. The following day I made 3 gallons of stock out of the bird and we just barely finished using it last week - it made some of the best chili I've ever tasted. "Turkey - the bird that keeps on giving!"

Our sides were pretty typical: potato rolls, mashed potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, pumpkin bread stuffing, cranberry-citrus-ginger sauce, etc. BUT THEY WERE ALL PERFECTLY MADE! Anyone who has cooked a full Thanksgiving meal can tell you that it's near impossible to have every side turn out just right and still be warm right at serving time. Truly miraculous. Oh, and isn't Cynthia's centerpiece cute?

And the pies, oh, the pies!!! Pumpkin pie, Chocolate Silk, Boysenberry, and Dutch Apple. I'm not a fan of pumpkin pie but I loved this one - and the leaves made it look spectacular. The chocolate silk pie was the first pie to go - I've tried making the same pie since, but none of them tasted as good as this one. Boysenberry pies are difficult to make - my Mom used to work at the birthplace of boysenberries (Knott's Berry Farm restaurant) making the pies regularly and still has troubles getting the filling to turn out consistently. Well, I bet you can guess how well mine turned out this year. And the Dutch Apple? Perfect combo of apple pie and apple crisp.

Seussical

I've been putting this post off for a long time. So long, in fact, that I promised myself I wouldn't post anything else until wrapping up these stories. So, here goes.

Jordan and I were in a musical last November. Our church stake put on the production. It consumed 5 months of our family's life. You'd think that this would be easy to write about, but...there were a lot of negative aspects. Overall I think the experience was a net gain, but theater is inherently full of various emotions and ups & downs.

I had not been in a play for 17 years. Theater was something I really enjoyed and excelled in back in high school but I quickly gave it up when I realized that I couldn't make a living out of it. Jordan had done a few short musicals in school and had been bitten by the acting bug. So we decided that as long as I passed my final actuarial exam (which I did) we would both tryout for the play. Carter also wanted to participate, but I didn't think the long, late hours would be appropriate at his age.

We started with weekly music rehearsals in June, a full 3 months before the auditions. The idea was to get acquainted with the vast span of music in the production. We attended most of these sessions and I don't think I ever saw more than 7 people there. That's probably for the best because these early rehearsals were mostly wasted time. Reason: It's hard to teach music without sheet music.

Auditions were held in September. I actually wondered if the production would have to be cancelled because I didn't see any other men at the early rehearsals. Luckily, they came out of the woodwork (all 9 guys) for the auditions. I personally had the worst audition of my life. Every single element went horribly wrong. Worse yet, I've always excelled at callbacks where there's actual material to read/sing through, but there were no callbacks for adults. Definitely one of the most frustrating experiences of my life.

Jordan was cast as Thing 1, I was cast as the Mayor of Whoville. We were both very disappointed with the roles, but c'est la vie. I was actually quite glad that Jordan was cast in a role that didn't require memorization of lines and songs (in particular harmonies). I think he was just a bit shy of the maturity level required.

A week after auditions we started the 5 hours of rehearsals per week with the 50 cast members. For a production of this size there are usually 50 rehearsals. We had to do the show in 25 rehearsals. Yikes.

I tried to use the experience as a way of meeting as many people as possible throughout my stake. Unfortunately, Seussical is split into two distinct casts (The Whos / Jungle Animals) and I was in the wrong group from a social perspective. I was mostly seen as an outsider despite my best efforts. I still made a few good friends, it's just that the crowd wasn't quite as friendly as I'd hoped.

The long hours of rehearsals started taking a toll on Jordan. His teacher noticed a change in his school efforts, he became moody at rehearsals and moodier at home, etc. At that point, we were just praying for the end of the show.

With two weeks left before opening night in November, the show seemed destined for disaster. I purposely did not tell my coworkers that I was in a show because of how awful I thought it would be. However, everything came together perfectly. It really was quite a good show in the end. I did end up telling a few coworkers about it. One came and several of our neighbors also came to see the show.

I'm really glad I got to have this experience. I really have missed theater and with my exams finished, I wanted to get back into all the good things in life that I missed out on. I thought at one point that this would be a stepping stone into doing many shows (there are TONS of production companies in Portland), but...now I think my time would be best spent in other areas.

Happy Birthday, Ted Geisel!

 Today is Dr. Seuss' birthday. How do I know? Well, I got home from the gym at 8am and found...

Cat-in-the-Hat striped snickerdoodles,  

balloons with drawings of Sneetches and the Cat in the Hat, 

 and the cutest Thing 1 that ever was reading Seuss books to his brothers.

Sometimes kids are amazing - this is one of those times! Neither TLC or I had any idea that they were planning this. What's amazing is how all the supplies were just sitting around. TLC made the (undecorated) snickerdoodles on a whim yesterday, the balloons are left over from the Blue and Gold Banquet last night, the costume was from Seussical, and everything else was just lying around the house. 

What a fun morning, and it's only 9am!!!

Uptown Billiards

Cynthia and I have a new favorite haunt. A co-worker recommended a place called Uptown Billiards Club and...well, we haven't gone anywhere else for dinner since. I'm sure that's an unsustainable trend, but this place is more than just a great dinner - it's an experience.

Looks nice, no? Kinda feels like a millionaire's bachelor pad. But the real reason to dine here is because of the gimmick.

Ever seen Iron Chef? The whole secret ingredient in each course idea? That's what they use for the five course meal at Uptown Billiards. And the chef knows what he's doing!

Here's the menu for the first time we went. The ingredient was one of my favorites, figs. (sadly, these pictures straight from their website are nowhere near as good as the food looked when we dined there)

Fig and Arugula Salad

This was a pretty standard salad, done well but nothing to write home about. I was a bit worried about the whole fig theme because TLC is not a fan of figs. After she tried this first fig, I think she was receptive. But the next course sold her completely... 

Sweet Potato Creme Brulee

This is the dish I'll tell my grandkids about someday. The creme brulee was perfectly executed and the fig on top added the perfect note. The plate also included a seared foie gras on wilted spinach and caramelized figs in a sherry gastrique. There are no words to describe the party in your mouth this dish created.

Prosciutto Wrapped Scallop

with a fig balsamic reduction and risotto. Did I mention that TLC loves scallops? Even after the life-changing second course, I think we were wondering if we should have just ordered a huge plate of these scallops. 

Roasted Lamb Rib

In case you were wondering if chili and fig go together, this course answers affirmatively. Lamb also happens to be my favorite animal protein.

Fig Layer Cake and Fig Pistachio Ice Cream

This looked SO much better at the restaurant. Not only can their chef whip up an incredible meal, he can act as a great pastry chef too! Just an amazing meal from start to finish.

And when the meal is done, you get an hour of pool time. Such a great place! I'm sure we'll be here MANY more times.

Christmas Card 2012

We never truly sent out all of the Christmas cards and newsletters that we intended. By the time mid-January rolled around, I figured it just wasn't worth the effort anymore. So if you didn't receive something, I'm very sorry...we'll try to be more prepared next year. In any case, here's the newsletter we sent for 2012.
 

Best of Year Album - 2012

I've got to admit that Windows 8 really saved my bucket this year. I like to organize all of the year's pictures into one folder (2012) with a subfolder for each month. Each month contains all pics taken during that month with a standard naming convention: "Label YYYY-MM-DD ##". We have nine different cameras and only recently moved to one central storage location so getting everything in its place can prove quite challenging. But Win8 was incredible for moving all 6,132 files around. Hands down, the best organization OS yet. Anyway, enough gushing.

So, below is the hand-picked collection of our best photos of 2012. Normally these annual albums are about 75 pics long. But 2012 was HUGE so there are 158 pics this year. I could probably eliminate up to ten from that tally, but anymore would be difficult. There are just too many stories from the past year.

Our definition of 'best' is admittedly vague; the album contains our best shots, stories we want to tell, events to remember, pictures that strike an emotional chord, etc. You are left to guess for what reason the pic is included! As far as I can tell each image is chronological so the album is like watching our year in fast forward.

Mosaic Madness

You know all those end-of-year things you have to do before you feel ready to tackle a new year? I'm finally getting through that list. I still have about 15 "Christmas" cards left to send out (now in danger of not even being New Year's cards), I have to organize our photos for 2012, settle the budget, etc. As tedious as that list can be, I always enjoy this next item: the creation of our family photo mosaic.

I've done this for five or six years now and four of those images are on the blog. I take all of the pictures from our family's history (now up to 29,913 images since 2002) and use them as a tile library for a photomosaic of our family photo. This particular image has 10,296 images, 1200 dpi, 5000 x 4000 pixels, and a 20% recolor. The final file is 19.8 megs!

Call me a family photo junkie, but I could spend hours zooming in and out of the image to see what it's made of. A few fun facts:

1. The shape of TLC's nose is created by multiple images of rainbows. Her beauty is such that only rainbows and unicorns can compare. tee hee.
2. Davis' vest is mostly made of photos that we've taken since moving to Oregon. I guess Oregon is greener than WI and UT. 
3. We like knowing what our eyes are made of, so here's a list (one eye for each of us):

• Dad - ducks at the WWII memorial
• TLC - a car from a 1942 road trip
• Jordan - a newborn Davis
• Carter - Grand Canyon
• Davis - Bryce Canyon

Family Pics or Bust

Family pictures were an absolute bust this year. Note to self: if your photographer starts off the session by saying how badly she wants to go home...make a beeline for the door. Do not pass go, do not spend $200. alright...I didn't spend that much.

We usually get our annual pic taken at JCP or Sears because it's cheap, but I think next year I'll take out a second mortgage and go to a better photographer. Plus, the major reason we get a picture taken is to get Christmas cards which were about $2 per this year, so something's gotta change.

So! The shots of the boys didn't turn out too bad, but the family pictures did. In the end we had to agree on the lesser of two evils and voila...the annual family picture was done.

Halloween Roundup

I just found this post as a draft. A bit late to be sharing Halloween pics, but I've never been very punctual about these sorts of things, have I?

Jordan and Carter were Lego Knights, and li'l Davis was Wicket the Ewok. Given that Davis was Yoda last year, I think this makes me an official geek. Our friends round out the group as Superman, a princess, and Princess Leia. The boys gathered a combined 11 lbs 12 oz of loot, woot!

No costumes for Cyn and I...hopefully next year.

I love autumn! This is the view on our driveway every time we open the car door.

Jordan decided to make his own template this year and this is the result. He calls it a Zombie Pumpkin.

I convinced Carter and Cynthia to carve themed pumpkins with me and here are the results. Count Chocula was hands-down the most difficult pumpkin I've ever carved, but it also came out as the best result ever. Had to order a special carving knife set to make it work...I guess that's further evidence that I'm a geek.

This was our first Halloween in a house! We had 29 trick-or-treaters, a paltry sum, but that is more than  we've had visit our apartments in the last 6 years combined.

The New Rules

Three full months without a post. Three whole months.

My old mantra was to post every other week at a minimum, but times have changed...

• Readership has drastically decreased on this blog. Facebook has completely taken over. I never expected many views so I thank you for reading in the first place. But it does decrease my motivation to come up with great posts if nobody's here to notice.
• My career has taken off in 2012 decreasing my free time and possibly the therapeutic effect of blogging.
• Q4 is my busiest time of the year at work and December is definitely the busiest month at home (and I know I'm not alone in that one).

Still, I have no desire to kill off my major form of journaling. I'm here on this blog to stay, or at least until Google destroys Blogspot. I made it past the Mayan apocalypse, I might as well continue forever now!

So, my new rules...blog when you can...but only after you: Experience life, enjoy being with your boys and wife, make up for the eight years of studying by doing what I truly want to do, eat hearty servings of toast and marmalade, and live after the manner of happiness.