A Year End Family Photo

The ORANGEHOUSE family has traditionally sent out a year-end letter, photograph, and modest dividends checks. But this year we only got as far as having a photo taken in the backyard. And here it is.

I came home from work early today. I think David and I have come down with some kind of bug. We feel feverish, fatigued, and flippant. OK, not really flippant. I just put that one in on account of alliteration. Gotta keep the readers entertained.

juhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhujjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjhhhhhh - that part was "typed" by Henry the bad kitty as he walked across my laptop keyboard in an obvious ploy for attention. Oh yes, he's sick too. He threw up on my bedroom floor last night around 2:00 AM. Thanks for that, boy. Maybe he's annoyed at not being included in the family photo.

And one last piece of news, today is our wedding anniversary. Sixteen years today! We celebrated with a nice lunch out together sans offspring. Gotta have that time alone together. She continues to be my very best friend. I love you, The M.

The M in High School, ~1986

She's the pretty one.

ORANGEHOUSE Makeover

With the new year I have made some changes to my appearance. I am in the process of leaving my glasses in the past and switching to contacts. I have also grown tired of shaving my head, so I am letting my hair grow in for the first time in four years or so. I'm still kicking around those earings, and even an eyebrow ring, as one of my students suggested. The M says no.

With all these new looks, it seemed appropriate to refresh the look of the blog as well. I have been trying a few different photos and color schemes and getting feedback from you, the readers. In fact, a week or so back I created a survey for readers to vote by sending in text messages to cast their votes. This was, frankly, a remarkably cool and cutting-edge thing to do on a blog. But, alas, most of my readers are - how do I say this gently? - too old to know how to text. Of the four votes I received (and one was my own) the results were, at best, inconclusive. What I did get, however, was a few comments expressing a mild preference for the tropical look.

So I changed the blog again. The header photo was taken along a very rough and remote "road" en route to the Honduran village Pueblo Nuevo, where we did some work last summer. To evaluate this new look, I have created a new poll. This time you don't have to text your preference, you can simply click it. I look forward to your feedback, comments, wise cracks, and so on.

Make your own poll voting question with Poll Everywhere

Tortilla Strip Chicken with Shrooms and Spinach

I cooked dinner again. Alert the press. Give me a medal.

Here's how I roll: I poured some olive oil in a skillet on medium heat. Next I plopped in some chicken tenders, added some salt, pepper, and garlic, and then squirted Grey Poupon (or any dijon mustard) all over them like this:

In a separate pan, I sautéed some mushrooms in butter. That means I put some butter and mushrooms in a pot and stirred them around until the mushrooms got soft. When the chicken is mostly done, add the mushrooms to it.

Slice up some flour tortillas into strips like this. They will absorb the excess moisture in the chicken/mushroom/sauce mix and give you something slightly chewy. I made this part up myself, and as such made quite an impression on The M. Oh yea.

After the tortillas get soft, toss in a couple of handfuls of baby spinach leaves.

Then stir it all together and serve. Don't let the spinach get too soft.

This is what it looks like when it's done. My boys liked it. The M liked it. Everybody's happy.

Derby Day

The Pinewood Derby is a time-honored Cub Scout tradition. Every January, rectangular blocks of American pine collide with pocket knives, Dremel tools, band saws, and electric sanders in a whirlwind of sawdust, plastic wheels, and water soluble paints. Simple, but creative masterpieces of boy-ingenuity (and varying levels of dad-consultancy) take the form of gravity-driven race cars, and compete in a venue of sportsmanship, laughter, and semi-chaos. And so the tradition continues...

Jono's den of Tiger Scouts poses with Tiger fierceness after their race. Jono got third place among them, enough to qualify for the finals. I was glad he won a few races - why am I so relieved when he is not disappointed?

Before the race we posed together in the front yard. While only the Cub Scout's (blue shirts) race, some Boy Scouts (olive shirts) volunteer to help rein in the wild horses, so to speak. David helped with the computer which kept track of which cars had raced, won, and lost. As the adult leader of Jono's Tiger den, I was also "in uniform".

For some of you, this may be the first time you have seen me with hair in several years. I got tired of shaving it. It came in considerably grayer than it used to be. Sheesh.

This is David doing computery things and enjoying a position of responsibility. He did well.