Life Hit

Sorry all.  I am going to be suspending my blog for the next three weeks or so.  Life hit, and I want to focus my energies where I need to. I'm having an absolute blast working on the school musical, but it's quite the time-suck. In the meantime, words of encouragement go a long way.  Once the school musical is over, I will be back here blogging away.  Love you all!

Sunday: The Day of Rest

I always find it funny that we call Sunday the day of rest.  For those of you who know me personally, you know I work at a church.  Sunday is not a day of rest.  Now, I know that I don't go to church as often as I should, but when I do go, it's always a crazy, busy whirlwind.  When I don't go it's because I've got too much going on at home to go to church.  This Sunday, we made plans to stay home and relax.  (Yes, we plan our relaxing. Deal with it.)  I actually told my priest and our music director that Stuart, Corgan, and I were going to relax at home and have a 'pajama day.' Wow, did that NOT happen.

First, my 'sleep in' was until 7:30.  Baby girl made one peep, and Stuart lovingly got up because he knew it was my day to sleep in. Didn't matter.  That one little noise through the monitor had me awake.  I stayed in bed for 15 more minutes and went down stairs.  Happily coffee was ready, and baby child was still asleep.  (Apparently she peeped, but didn't get up.) Stuart and I casually had breakfast, and then he let the bomb drop.  Our Little Man (Darwin, our first dog) had possible blown out his back on Saturday, so he was going to take him into the vet once they opened.  Great.  Good thing Friday was payday.  The real good thing was that I got to spend the morning with Corgan!  I really did enjoy that part.  Unfortunately...

part way through the morning I noticed that Corgan kept getting eye boggies.  I kept wiping them away, but they kept creeping across her eye.  I texted Stuart that I thought she might have pink eye and that I would wait until after her nap to see if she got crusties.  Boy howdy!  She got crusties!  So after Stuart returned from the vet with a diagnoses of Intervertabral Disk Disease, pain meds, and the mandate to stay in isolation and immobile for three weeks, I got to spend two hours at the Texas Med Clinic with a one year old. 

Luckily, I have the greatest kiddo on the planet, and she didn't fuss once.  She spent the entire time wandering around the waiting room snacking on gold fish and juice while waving at people.  We got a VERY quick diagnoses of conjunctivitis and left to go get meds for her too.

We got home and Stuart was cooking an amazing meal (check out Friday's blog), we ate, we all played in the play room, and we put baby child to bed.  Then I did about an hour and a half of work for my actual job while Stuart studied.  We also ran two loads of dishes, ran four loads of laundry, went grocery shopping, put away three baskets of clothes, changed the litter box, and made a clock (check out Thursday's blog.)  So much for our 'pajama day.'

Foodie Friday

So Friday is usually 'Foodie Friday.' This week? Not a chance! As you know from yesterday's post, this week kicked my bootie.  So instead of spending time writing something worthwhile, I'm posting a video of Corgan.  Part of what wore me out this week was my child.  She is starting to stay up later than she has in the past so she takes more energy.  So while I sit back and sew marabou onto really slinky fabric, you can enjoy a 5 minute video of Corgan going, going, going, going, going...you get the point.

Cheat

cheat

1. to defraud; swindle: He cheated her out of her inheritance.

2. to deceive; influence by fraud: He cheated us into believing him a hero.

3. to elude; deprive of something expected: He cheated the law by suicide.

4. to practice fraud or deceit: She cheats without regrets.

5. to violate rules or regulations: He cheats at cards.

6. to take an examination or test in a dishonest way, as by improper access to answers.

 

 

Yeah, so...Weight Watchers went great! For the first two weeks. Then I lost momentum.  Technically I'm down 3.7 lbs as of my last weigh-in, but I'm not holding out much hope for my weigh-in this coming Saturday.  For some reason this was the week to cheat.  Maybe it has something to do with being over booked (Stuart and I haven't been home at night, together since Sunday, and won't be again tonight.) It's also three weeks from opening night of the musical, which I'm one of the directors.  It's also major busy at both the church and the school where I work.  Did I mention that I'm a stress-eater?  That's all for now.  I forgot to blog last night, so I'm sitting here at work blogging.  Probably not a good thing.

From My Better Half: RNG and Other Things...

Hello, this is Stuart again!  Today, I am going to leave the fiction aside and tell you about something that I like to do to relax, the World of Warcraft.  As I describe why I love this game, I will be using the terminology that common players use.  In case you don’t play, I will have a glossary at the end of the article to help decipher the lingo. 

My husband's altar ego.

I have a handful of characters in WoW, but my main character is named Thornagol (http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/blades-edge/Thornagol/simple).  Out of the millions of players in WoW, I actually have a unique name that no one else has taken.  That is a rarity nowadays.  Thornagol (Thorn) is a hunter.  This means that I have a pet that accompanies me everywhere I go in my journeys.  Actually, I have a total of 20 pets that do different buffs and debuffs.  I might take some pets over others if it works to the advantage of the raid.  The other great thing about the pet is that it is the most powerful DOT in the game.  If I don’t have him/her out during fights, I’m easily losing out in about 12 to 13% of my DPS.

Overall, there are three reasons why I like playing this game.  First, is that I get to use my hunter skills to kill a lot of things in a fantasy environment.  My pet and I will roam the countryside and dungeons looking for creatures to kill and plunder.  I will occasionally group with one of the support classes to help them in their journeys as well.

Second, is that I get to do a lot of analysis into what is the best when fighting those creatures.  I get to look at things like rotation and gear upgrades to factor in what will be the best for ol’ Thorny.  For example, “is it better for me to cast aimed shot (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=82928) in this fight or arcane shot (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=3044)?  Technically, Aimed Shot does more damage per focus used because of the bleed effects that happen when it hits, but the fight is pretty movement-heavy and if I have to break an aimed shot cast to move, I’ve lost the shot and my auto-shot has been reset.  Whereas using arcane shot would let me move and fire those shots while not resetting my auto-shot timer.”  In reality, I play survival anyway, thus I don’t spend much time on analyzing my Aimed Shot rotation.

The last reason why I like WoW is because of the auction house.  This is literally a virtual marketplace where I can place in-game items up for sale and make gold for my characters.  I’ve actually done pretty well since I started playing it.  It has become a little hobby of mine to see how much I can ultimately end up with.  My goal is to reach the cap (‘gold cap’) they have put in-place for the game at some point.

Well, that is all for today.  I leave you with a picture of Thorn and his Big Love Rocket.  FOR THE HORDE!

Glossary:

RNG – Random Number Generation ; WoW works on a ‘dice roll’ mechanic similar to Dungeons and Dragons.  Random numbers are generated for use in ability equations to determine the actual amount of damage dealt by your character. 

Hunter – The main character class of WoW.  The best looking and most intelligent character class, which just so happens to possess the qualities of their real-life owners.

Buff – something that increases one of your stats or abilities.

Debuff – something that decreases one of your or your opponent’s abilities.

Raid – a group of people that get together to kill stuff.

DOT – Damage Over Time; some abilities are used for the large amount of damage they do over a certain period.

DPS – Damage Per Second; the amount of damage that a character does every second of the battle.  This is an important metric in all fights.

Support Class – Every other class in the game that is not a hunter.  Warriors, Paladins, Death Knights, Rogues, Mages, Warlocks, Monks, Shaman,  Priests, and Druids are the support classes that require Hunters for them to function at maximum effectiveness.

Auto-shot – The shot that hunters automatically perform.  The heartbeat of a hunter.

Bleed – a debuff that causes damage over time.

Survival – one of the three Hunter specs.

Gold Cap – Maxiumum amount of gold that a character can earn.  Currently is 999,999gold, 99silver, 99copper.

Big Love Rocket – A very rare flying mount that is looted by killing the “Love is in the Air” (WoW’s Valentine’s Day) bosses.

Horde – One of the two factions in the game.  They are savage and have been beating up the Alliance (the other faction) for years now.

The Big Game

I don't deny it.  That conversation actually took place.  That's exactly how much I care about football and the Super Bowl.  The past few years we've gone out to my parents to watch the game, but I mainly go to visit and have good food.  Stuart fakes that he likes to watch the game, but keeping reading and you will find out the truth.  The amazing thing is that Corgan could actually cares less than me!

Corgan kept going through Mom's coffee table drawers and taking out each item piece by piece. Apparently she used to do this a lot with Mom when Mom used to watch Corgan during the day.  Who's watchin' football with that going on?

She also spent a lot of time playing with her Gigi.  My Oma Betty LOVES this little one, but doesn't get to see her that often.  My work schedule doesn't allow frequent trips away, and even though she only lives in Boerne, the visits are few and far between. They both couldn't keep from giggling the whole evening. Makes a mom's (and granddaughter's) heart melt a little.

Then Corgan decided to play a game with Grandpa.  She took two bottles of product from one of Mom's drawers and kept walking it back and forth from the living room to the den.  This gives you a GREAT look into how freakishly active this kiddo is.  This is non-stop from 7 in the morning to 7 at night with only a short nap in between.  The video shows two round trips, but Corgan must have done it 30 times! Grandpa didn't get much watching of the pre-game done with little miss on the move.

We stayed at Mom's house throughout the whole game.  Corgan went to bed upstairs at the beginning of half-time (that was no comment on the half-time show, she will learn to love early-Madonna), and we were able to watch the rest of the game.  Kind of.  Stuart 'watched' the game like he always does at my parent's house.

It was a fun day with family! Any excuse to post random pictures of my husband sleeping places is a good day!

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

On Saturday we celebrated another birthday for the most amazing mother (and grandmother) ever!  My mom turned 27 on February 4th...again.  From his 'comfy' place of work in Africa, my dad arranged for the family to take Mom out for dinner and a show in Fredericksburg, and we had a blast.  Stuart and I LOVE Fredericksburg!  It's one of our favorite cities.  We both have a soft spot for German beer and German food, and you can't get better of either than in this small Hill Country town.  Plus their shopping is pretty good, too.

We ate at Friedhelm's Bavarian Restaurant (so, of course, I suspended my diet for a night) and ate way too much food.  You know you're in for a GREAT meal when the menu has a "Lighter Side" section that contains chicken fried steak and fried pork cutlets!  I tried to send myself a picture of the menu to share with you all, but my phone is the black hole of pictures.  I can't get pictures off of my phone and when I email them to myself they go into the nether regions of space until they show up in my inbox months later.  I'll post it whenever it shows up.  It's funny, I swear.

I ended up eating 'my usual,' which is jager schnitzel.  You can't beat fried and breaded pork with a brown gravy mushroom sauce.  We also had fresh pumperknickel bread, a sausage platter with fantabulous brown mustard, and a giant tankard of German beer!

After dinner we headed over to the Rock Box Theater in downtown Fredericksburg. It was so much fun!!! Their website says, "From Buddy Holly to the Beatles, Sgt. Peppers to Stevie Ray - you are sure to hear your favorites at a Rockbox performance. We play tunes from the Golden Era of Rock N' Roll. The 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and even music of today are all represented (although not each at every show!) We have the only professionally cast LIVE Rock N' Roll show in the Texas Hill Country," but that doesn't really explain what it is.  We laughed sooooo hard!  My favorite was when the three main men became a Bluegrass trio and did rock n' roll covers.  I was in tears!  There is nothing like a banjo version of "Stop in the Name of Love!"

All in all it was a great evening.  I missed baby girl, who was home with Grams, but we had such a good time.  Happy birthday, Grandma! We're always up for celebrating your 27th birthday over, and over, and over again!

Foodie Friday: Kohlrabi & Root Vegetable Curried Soup

We started using Greenling again this past week.  It's a local produce delivery company, and it bring fresh produce to us each Tuesday.  Three days ago we got 2 avocados, 3 giant tomatoes, collard greens, 3 kohlrabi with greens, a huge head of cabbage, fresh cilantro, a watermelon radish, two oranges, two grapefruits, and live parsley.  Here's a video that Greenling puts out with the local box contents:

I'm not a huge fan of grapefruit or parsley, but I'm really excited about the greens, kohlrabi, and watermelon radish!  Who wouldn't want sputnik shaped roots and a watermelon colored radish?!? 

Kohlrabi without leaves (photo from simplyrecipes.com).

 
The trouble is that I've never used kohlrabi before, so I started Googling recipes and found out that you can not only eat it raw, but it cooks similar to other root vegetables.  I also found some crazy-good looking curries using them, too.  Wednesday, I started day dreaming on the way home (while paying strict attention to the road), and 'cooked' up a soup recipe to try.

Kohlrabi & Root Vegetable Curried Soup

3 small kohlrabi

1 medium sweet potato

1 head cauliflower

1 pound carrots

1 bunch celery leaves

2 boxes chicken stock

4 cups water

10-15 peppercorns

onion powder (I was out of onions)

garam masala

curry powder

ground coriander

kosher salt

1 cup whole milk

Put the chicken stock and water in a large pot and bring to a boil.  Add all the spices in the amounts that you are comfortable with.  We like a LOT of spice, so I added about a tablespoon of each.  This is not a 'hot' spicy soup, but very flavorful. Once you have a good, rolling boil add all of the vegetables in chunky dices.  Keep boiling the veggies for about 10-15 minutes until they are fork-tender.  Turn off the heat.  At this point either blend small batches in a counter top blender or use an immersion blender until it is all smooth.  Yummy!!!

Thursday's Blog: Edit 2

So, I had a whole other entry written and schedule to post.  I was begging for 'nerd' help.  Then I figured it out myself.  Now I have to write another one.  Here goes:

One of our favorite features of our house is the upstairs play loft for Corgan (and future children).  There is a long half-wall at one end that we made into a magnetic chalkboard wall.  Chalkboard paint is relatively cheap at Home Depot, and so is magnetic primer.  After three coats of the primer, and two coats of the chalkboard paint I was ready to embellish the wall. 

We have the A-B-Cs, basic shapes, the derivitive of x, and a DNA double helix.  Hey! Gotta train 'em young! We also got Corgan some large chalk for her board, and she loves it! She constantly going up to it with anything that she has in her hand to see if it will 'draw.'  She's in her 'fields of grass' period, and is getting quite talented.

Corgan's 'grass.'

 Stuart is also having a lot of fun.  He's busy teaching Corgan the basis tenants of geometry and calculus.  She's doing pretty good so far.

 Her truly favorite thing to do is to eat the chalk :)

From My Better Half: This Happens to Me All The Time

This is Stuart's post.  I just added the picture because I love it!

The door creaked as I tried to enter the house after everyone was asleep.  Each degree the doorknob turned took (what felt like) a millennium in itself as the virtual eons passed.  The hinges on the door were not old or worn, but they squealed like a stuck pig as the door floated open wide enough for me to enter the house.  Knowing that I had made more noise than a monster truck rally, I placed my items by the door, closed my eyes, and waited to make out the noises of people stirring upstairs.  Minutes go by…nothing…success.

I tiptoed to the kitchen to grab a glass of wine before I settled into bed.  This evening’s class was more demanding than usual.  The professor had covered some abstract topics in organizational motivation in first world “think tanks” and compared those techniques to Chinese prisoner management.  The comparison didn’t seem to make sense and there was no metaphor that he could create that couldn’t get us to understand his point-of-view.  We had just nodded and went along with the lecture.  I spent more time daydreaming on what different three dimensional shapes would look like if you turned them inside out than I did the last hour of my lecture.  Suffice to say, the wine was sorely needed tonight.

I opened the pantry and grabbed a bottle at random.  I let my eyes glaze over the seductive curves of the bottle.  From the thin and highly decorated neck to the fat bottom that even Brian May and Freddy Mercury would sing about, I knew this Cabernet would be glorious.  I removed the foil like a boy unwrapping a Christmas present and gently slide my corkscrew into the bottle.  I soon found out that finesse would not work with this lady.  I kicked in my animal instincts and rang the neck of the bottle like a chicken.  In a moment of pure adrenaline, I broke the bottom of the bottle on the countertop and drenched myself in the love of Dionysus.

“I give up…I’m going to bed.”

I climbed the stairs and crept into my room.  I proceeded through my evening hygiene routine, got into my pajamas, and placed myself into bed.  My wife rolled over and kissed me on my cheek.  Leaning in, she shouted...

“Excuse me Mr. Bankey!”

Startled, I said, “Oh, crap!”  I will never fall asleep in class again…