Be aggressive?

Okay - so it's been a while since I've felt motivated to write anything. A really long time. But something struck me this morning that I wanted to write down. More just to document the thought, mull it over, and maybe get some other views on it.

I was driving to work, and there was this other car coming up behind me rather quickly. I was going to change lanes, but thought I'd wait until he passed. He seemed to be in a bigger hurry, and was driving pretty aggressively.  I don't have much tolerance for aggressive (in my mind, rude, dismissive and selfish) drivers, so I let him pass. Then, out of the blue, it hit me... I think I equate aggressiveness with selfishness.

This makes total sense... I'm the oldest of about a thousand kids. Being selfish was not acceptable growing up. It was really impressed upon me that others always come first - take care of your siblings first. You're the oldest. Set an example. (I'm sure this is why I have such a disdain for every "reality" show out there. But that's a whole other (semi-related) topic.)

I think this also formed my attitude towards competition. I never excelled at sports or games. Even table games or cards. I've always been the designated loser. I never minded that role. I usually get a kick out of just watching others compete - getting aggressive with each other.

So... being aggressive and competitive = selfish? I don't know if that's really true, but it seems to reflect a little bit of my personality.  Maybe I need to learn to competitively go after the things I want in life. Maybe I need to be okay with being a little aggressive.

Just a little.

Zoom zoom!

Wow. This year is off to a running start! I'm amazed that January is half over.

A couple weeks ago we booked our flight to London (yea!). I managed to take a few weeks off to enjoy the trip. We still don't have an agenda yet, so I don't know where all we will be going. But I have to say, it's the generosity of new friends in Oxford, Cornwall and London, who have all opened their homes to us that is really making this trip possible. And not to mention a dear friend who's willing to house sit and keep the kids company while we're away!

Only a few months away and we'll be off to Great Britain! Look for travel plans and lots of photos to come!

Good night 2011

Well, another year has come and gone. Like many of you out there you are journalling, blogging, tweeting, face booking or just thinking in general about what this year has been and how next year will be bigger and  better. And I truly hope that it is.

I've been absent for a while. The desire to write has been gone for a while. Even though it felt so cathartic last year. So, maybe I'll make a little more effort this year, but I'm not committing to any regularity. Just when moved. :)

Earlier this month we celebrated our 18th anniversary. Yep. 18 years. We took a cruise with another couple of friends (who recently celebrated their 30th anniversary). This was a first cruise for all of us. We had a lot of fun together.

The first night we were at sea, on our way to Grand Cayman where we went snorkeling and swam with the stingrays. Then to Cozumel, where we just shopped and had fun at the port. Then off to Belize where we went to see the Mayan pyramids (INCREDIBLE!), then Honduras where we went zip lining. I need to stop and write about each of the adventures before I forget the details. It's all beginning to run together as it is. At least I have pictures. Now we are planning our next trip - UK in the spring. It's been a long time coming.

Christmas was spent with friends in the neighborhood. We started with champagne around noon, had fun visiting and then had a traditional English Christmas dinner. We played a really interesting game that was kind of like a white elephant. We all wore venetian masks, rolled the dice and for every 1 or 6 you took a gift from the table or someone else. At the end of 45 minutes we all opened our gifts to see what we had been "fighting" over. It was pretty funny.

Tonight we're doing "curry night" and ringing in the new year. I'm sure there will be stories to be told.

Well, it's 70 degrees and sunny. I'm thinking about going for a bike ride.

Happy New Year everyone!

Cruisin'

Just a few pics from our cruise.

BELIZE

We had quite the adventure getting here. It was an hour to get to the tour place, then 30 minutes by boat. We were delayed on the way there because stopped to check out a car that had run off the road (the driver  had already been taken away - hopefully for care), then our van got stuck. We were very grateful to the people who stopped to help out and then volunteered to drive us to our destination. 

 HONDURAS
We went on a zip line adventure, but unfortunately all of the pics I took look horrible. But we had an amazing time. I still can't believe I did it (with a little help from my friends). This is the group we went with.

COZUMEL

HERE'S the beach we were looking for. We even talked about going back to this hotel for a vacation. 

Sunken Garden's Hibiscus Festival

I had some fun creating this year's Hibiscus Festival graphic. All of these blooms started as photos of hibiscus from our yard.

12 more steps to go

Apparently, chocolate now has it's own 12 step program. Still, this seems like a really odd choice for Easter candy.

To market, to market...

Well, after a long wait, The Fresh Market has finally opened near here. We waited a long time in the hopes for a Wild Oats or Whole Foods. I am not as familiar with TFM, but my take is that it's similar in concept to Whole Foods but smaller. We do have a few smaller organic/natural markets in town (a respectful nod to Rollin' Oats, Natures and Richard's). But it's about time we got a full-on green supermarket.

I went in today for the first time since they opened this past Wednesday. It was still a mad house! The produce was great, and the prices seemed comparable to Publix. So far so good. My only complaint is that the layout of the floor is horrible. Everything is at an angle, which looks cool, and I suppose separates them from every other market, but there's a reason why the others have aisles in a normal straight line. With the crowds, it was ridiculously difficult to get around. If there was more than one person with a cart in the aisle, it was nearly impossible to get around. I assume that once the customer flow settles into the norm, it might not be so bad, but I would think that they would plan for the best possible scenario with as many customers as they could hope for.

Years ago I worked with a retailer who remodeled all their stores and moved the aisles to a 45 degree angle to the exterior walls. It was a pretty radical change, and it wasn't too long before I think they realized the error of their ways. I'm not sure if the new place will come to the same conclusion or not, but I'm still happy they're here and will still shop there once in a while.

Being Green

We were in a conversation this morning, and it brings a question to mind. What does "going green" mean? I think everyone has their own interpretation - which is not a bad thing, but I'm wondering what it means to you. Recycling? Changing lightbulbs? Consuming less? Driving less? Or is it something completely different? What do you think?

Busy Morning....

Got up early to meet Patti & Paul at the dog park this morning with Finn, Polly and Milly with my three. But when I got there, the road was closed for another stupid bike race. "Share the road" my ass. Grrr! So a quick text and phone call and we made another plan to meet up at North Beach dog park. They beat me there and called to remind me that the small dog part was closed. Dang it! So off to 5th ave park. Never been there. But the kids were getting anxious and didn't know WHAT was going on, so we gave it a try. It was an okay park. Noisy, just because it's under the overpass. Didn't like the short fence, but mine have never been fence jumpers. After that, we went to PetSmart to pick up some dog food, and a couple new squeaky toys just to make it a good experience. Then home to more coffee. That's a lot of activity on a Saturday morning before 10AM. 

The best part is that Patti made these AWESOME banana muffins! YUM! Thanks Patti!!

Another experimental dish...

 
Okay, the chili/cherry/lime pork roast is in the cooker. So in a few hours we'll know if it's awesome or never to be spoken of again.

Pork roast w/
pitted, sliced cherries - maybe 2 cups
1 onion
4 garlic cloves
black pepper
1tbsp green chili sugar (one of those random things I just happened to have)
3 hungarian peppers
2 red hot peppers (I remembered to wear gloves this time)
zest of 1 lime
little chicken stock

My plan is to serve with brown rice. Maybe fresh shredded red cabbage.Another experimental dish..., originally uploaded by callenstewart.

Fired in Salute...

My grandfather was in the Navy during World War II. One night, when I was about 17, he told me his story about the King of Arabia. He was aboard the USS Murphy when they picked up the King of Saudi Arabia to meet with President Roosevelt. The meeting is documented in history, but his stories were not.

The King would apparently not set foot on the ship, so the deck was covered in rugs. He would only eat fresh meat, so there was a herd of sheep on deck as well. One day, he and a couple of his Navy buddies snuck into the throne room, and took turns sitting on the throne. If they had been caught, the consequences would have been quite severe. One of the King’s guards gave my grandfather a coin and a handwritten note. Unfortunately, it was written in Arabic, so he didn’t know what he had written. He showed me the note that night, but had never had it translated. I’m not sure what ever became of the note after he passed away. The shell in the picture was from when they fired salute to the King. He managed to get a hold of one somehow and saved it. The coin he received from the King’s guard he had adhered to the shell and later engraved. The engraving says, “Fired in Salute to King of Arabia Aboard the U.S.S. Murphy. February 12, 1945.”

He gave me the shell that night. It was pretty amazing, and I was shocked and honored that he would give this to me. I’ve kept it for years now. Often wondering what the heck I was going to do with it, but I just can’t part with it. It’s a piece of history that no one else owns.

You can read more about the USS Murphy, and when it was spit in half, then repaired and redeployed. There was a documentary a few years ago, on Discovery I think. That’s another really interesting story in itself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Murphy_%28DD-603%29

An explanation...

Hi. My name is Chris and I'm a thinker.

Okay - to explain a little bit of my comments... I've come to the realization that I'm someone who thinks he's interested in learning or doing all kinds of things, but once I have an understanding of HOW something is done (please understand that I am not confusing this with SKILL), I tend to loose momentum. Interest is still there, I'm not as dedicated to it.

I took guitar lessons this year - which I've talked about doing for YEARS. But, once the lessons were over... well, I haven't touched it since. I bought a really cool camera (Nikon D90) last year and I "understand" the concept of photography, but again, my momentum has really slowed. The same can be said for learning Photoshop, Spanish (also French, Italian, Latin and Navajo - yes, Navajo. I blame author Tony Kellerman). I throw myself into it head-first. But once I get the concept, I'm ready to move on to something else.

Now that I understand this tendency, I need to know how to hold on to those interests and keep motivated. I have no idea how to do that. Or should I just accept that I am always going to be a "jack of all trade, master of none?"

A friend of mine and I were sitting around chattin' recently and I was talking about some of the VERY vivid dreams I have - and have had all my life. And she noticed a theme - I'm always solving some sort of problem in my dreams. I don't know if that has anything to do with this or not, but I feel like there's a connection. Like maybe once I've conquered the "idea" of a skill, I'm finished with it. Hmm...

I have to stop thinking.

I think too much.
I think too much about doing stuff.
I think too much about learning things.
I think too much about going places.
I think too much about how things are created.
I think too much about how things are done.
Thinking is a waste of time.
I need to stop thinking for a while and just do something.


.

Marching into spring... finally.

This year continues to fly by. I haven't been posting nearly as much this year, as you can see. The winter here in Florida has been unusually cold, which has really taken it's toll on the yard. But I think Spring is finally here. We've been spending a lot of time cleaning up, pruning, and planting spring color. Friends are coming to visit in a few weeks, so we want to be sure it looks as nice as it can. We would be doing these things anyway, but with company coming, it gives a little more motivation.

Well, I've completed my guitar lessons. Mostly. I missed the last couple sessions. The truck finally died, so we spent one weekend shopping around. I can't remember why I missed the previous lesson, but I felt like I was so far behind at that point that I blew off the last one. That's okay, I really just wanted some direction and good pointers. And I got that. So I'll continue to practice on my own and maybe in the fall sign up again.

I'm still taking pictures. I have a shoot this morning with a three year old. She's a friend of ours. A beautiful little girl, so this should be easy. Her mom wants Easter pictures. Hopefully I get a couple of good ones.

I'm off to Orlando in a couple weeks to attend Photoshop World. I've been to a couple of Scott Kelby's seminars, but never the BIG one. I'm really excited about it. I know I'll go feeling all inspired which will later turn into overwhelmed. But it doesn't matter. I know I'll have tons of notes and materials to review.

Speaking of photography and Photoshop, at our monthly neighborhood gathering I met some really interesting people. Kent and Jules Follett are photographers who specialize in the entertainment industry. Jules just published a giant photobook called Sticks n Skins - featuring drummers from famous bands. Some I'm familiar with, some not. But it's an incredible book. Check it out. Turns out they are just a block or so from my home. They invited me over to check out their studio any time. I sure I'm going to take them up on it. I love meeting interesting people, and I'm sure I could learn a thing or two from them too.

End of January already...

Well we're one month into the new year already. It's happening fast. Although I'm not one for New Year's Resolutions (as I said earlier), it's still a time for new and renewed ideas.

I've started the year by finally signing up for guitar lessons. So far I've enjoyed it. I would be much farther along if I spent more time practicing. But life gets in the way. There are other things to do, dogs take care of, and work.

This year I'll also continue to work on my photography. I've gotten my feet pretty wet this past year, so it's time to expand a little bit on it and start to do something new with it. I'm a little tired of the standard landscape shots and candid pictures of the dogs. I'm inspired by all the artistic photography I see on Flickr (my favorite haunt lately).  So, we'll see how it goes.

Have you started anything new this year?

Mmm...

Well it’s been a low-key Christmas this year, which is okay. A lot of work and money went into house upgrades. But for the past couple weeks I’ve been enduring one of those childhood cravings. No matter how much I tried to ignore it, it seemed to haunt me at every turn. Being the Christmas season, you might think it would be Christmas cookies - and that would be a reasonable guess. I’ve been known to be reduced to a drooling idiot over a good frosted sugar cookie. But no, it’s been three little elves that have been taunting me. With their crispy, ricey, marshmallow... ey... goodness.

I know what you’re thinking. You can buy them anywhere now. Neatly prepackaged, ready to go, no muss, no fuss. But they aren’t as good as home made. And I think that the packaged ones have an odd taste. So I made my way to the grocery store this morning in the hunt for all the fixins.

For those of you who know me, you know that I can’t follow a recipe to save my soul. I view them as general guidelines. Besides, how the hell would Betty Crocker know how I like my cakes? This has ended in many disappointing baking failures, and a few pleasant surprises. So, I varied a little, but not too much. I couldn’t decide between Cocoa Rice Crispies and regular. So I grabbed a box of both. Off to the marshmallow aisle. Yes - I choose to believe that there is an entire aisle dedicated to them. Being just after Christmas, the pickings were slim. I found a couple left over bags that somehow managed to escaped a yam filled doom. But... there were a couple bags of French Vanilla Marshmallows. Ohh-la-la! How decadent! Okay - the truth is they taste like a regular friggin’ marshmallow. But it was fun to imagine. Plus, they were in the shape of little snowmen. I couldn’t care less, but it meant they were part of the “We Gotta Get Rid of All This Christmas Crap Sale” so they were half off. Sold.

I got everything home, and after putting all the other groceries away, and watching the “Inside the Tardis” special (yes, I love the new Dr. Who), I decided to tackle the Rice Crispies Treats.

Since I couldn’t decide between the cocoa and regular and bought both, I bought double the marshmallows needed too. You know. Just in case there might be a marshmallow emergency in the near future (it could happen). Well, I thought that I would just save some time and double the batch. That would be easier. (Let’s call this mistake number one.)

As the butter was melting, and I dumped in two bags of vanilla snowmen (I made little screaming noises as I callously dumped them into the sizzling butter). Then I went to grab the biggest bowl I could find. Then I grabbed another, slightly smaller bowl to measure out the cereal. Six cups. Nope. Double it. Okay. Twelve cups of Rice Crispies. good thing I bought the two boxes. Was that eight cups I measured out or ten? I think it was eight. (Mistake number two.) Wow. this bowl won’t quite hold 12 cups. (Let’s say it might be 14 cups - but what does it matter?)

Now, I hadn’t totally forgotten the marshmallows - they were melting down nicely. But soon the little buggars were making more noise than they should. So I started stiring them vigorously. You know, this might be really good if I add just a touch of orange flavoring. Vanilla, lemon, maple. No orange. Oh well. Note for next time. Crap. I’ve burnt them on the bottom (number 3). No problem. I think I can salvage most of it. And the cocoa flavor might cover any of the charred bits.

I quickly grabbed another stock pot and tried to dump it from the burning pot into the new one. That sounds so simple. Has anyone ever measured the flow rate of melted marshmallows? I’m guessing not. By the time it happened, they surely would have gotten bored and thrown it all in the sink and gone back to watch more Dr. Who. I concluded that it doesn’t have one. As it “poured” it began to cool. To the point that it just stopped moving completely. I could have set the pot down and had an incredible piece of objet d’art with a spoon of marshmallow trailed about 9 inches above the pot suspended there in fluffy confection. It would be all the rage in New York art world. I finally got most of it scrapped into the new pot - with the exception of the quickly browning bottom bits.

Okay - as the new pan heated a little bit, I look at the box and see that it says a 9x12 cake pan. Got it. Next to the heaping bowl of cereal, I realize that there’s no way it’s going to all fit in this pan. Oh yeah. I doubled it. Fortunately I have a larger cake dish. I think it’s 10 feet by 6 feet. Okay. Not really. But it’s bigger, thank god. Swap those out quickly. Back to the marshmallow goo. After a quick spritz of Butter Flavored Pam, it’s time to dump in the cereal. I thought about mixing a little in at a time. But something in my head says that's not a good idea. So I dump it all in. All ten cups. Yes, ten cups. No, not the 12/14 cups I measured out. The last three or four cups are not going to fit into the pan. Crap. So I’m trying to stir this stuff together on the stove with the heat off, but still on the burner - thinking the residual heat would keep it pliable. What a mess. There’s cereal everywhere. And three dogs circling my feet. I need to divide this up. So back at the counter I (while still mixing) spoon some of it back into the giant bowl with the extra cereal that didn’t make it into the pan. Great! Well, then I realize it’s starting to stiffen up REALLY quickly. There’s no way I can mix both of these at the same time before it cools AND get them into the giant cake pan. Bill walks through the kitchen and suggests that using a metal spoon might not have been a good idea (number 4), and that I should use the “spoonula.” Thank you Rachel Ray. Get out.

Well the pot was stirred enough, so I dump it into the cake pan. Remember the flow rate of marshmallow goo? Well it’s even slower when it’s cooling with Rice Crispies. “Thump.” I begin to smooth it out with the spoonula while stiring the giant bowl of leftovers. Damn. This is a lot of cereal. Finally, the bowl is mixed good enough. It’s starting to look like a giant Rice Crispie cheese ball - the outer coating looks pretty dry. Who cares. I start beating it into submission with my faithful spoonula (I may carry this with me at all times from now on).

Finally. It’s all in the pan. Somewhat smoothed out. Okay, so it looks like the craggy surface of some alien planet. But who cares. I’ve finally got my Rice Crispies Treats - and now I don’t even know if I want them anymore. It’s amazing how many find childhood memories can turn out to be huge pains in the ass as an adult. I'm not sure how my parents survived my childhood. Snap, Crackle, Pop indeed.

Merry Christmas

It's that time of year...

It's that time of year again when the entire world (it seems) starts to look back on the year and make promises for the coming year. There were a lot of bumps, scrapes, and all out crashes this past year, but somehow I manage to come out of it unscathed (knock on wood). So what will the next year be like?

I'm not one for New Year's Resolutions. In fact, there has been only one that I have ever stuck to. "I will never again make a New Year's Resolution." You've heard the expression, "avoid disappointment, aim low." That seems to have been my mantra lately. But I am starting to feel like it's time to do some thing.

I don't know what that "something" will be yet. Will the Costa Rica vacation finally happen? Will I finally sign up for lessons and learn how to play the guitar? Will I go back to school and complete my degree? Will I finally loose 40 pounds? I don't know yet. But those are all things rattling around in my brain. Who knows. Maybe all of the above. Maybe none. But one thing's for sure... I won't be making a list of promises come New Year's eve.

The End Is Near

Well, it's that time of year again. When everyone begins talking about how they can't believe another year has already gone by. When everyone starts feeling sentimental about friends and family. When everyone swears that Christmas is about spending time with those friends and family but still freaks out when they don't have the right gifts. And I'm no different.

For Thanksgiving, we had a few friends over. And as cliche as it sounds, that's really the thing I love the most. I always rush around in near-panic about company coming over to our home. And in the end, it's my most favorite thing in the world. We don't host a lot of parties or get-togethers. But I can say that what makes me really happy is seeing a group of my friends all together having a good time. Several years ago, we had a group of friends fly in to spend the holiday with us. It was crowded, and loud. We didn't have a dining room table so we threw a few sheets over the ping-pong table and sat down for Thanksgiving dinner. I think that was one of my most favorite days ever.

Now it's time to concentrate on Christmas. Christmas isn't as fun to me as Thanksgiving. It's harder to pull friends together because there is so much going on. It's a little more stressful because I feel like I'm putting up the tree for just the two of us - which I know, should be enough, but I feel like I want to share it with more people. We don't do a lot of gifts. There are too many nieces, nephews, brothers and sisters. So we tend to just concentrate on the youngest ones in the family. Besides, we're at that point in life where there just aren't a lot of things we need that we don't have. And seriously, when friends ask what I want for Christmas, and I say "just a lunch or dinner date" or "cocktail hour" I really mean that.

I haven't even begun to think about shopping. I'm going to try to not put it off until the last minute like I usually do. Actually, it's usually at the last minute that I think, "oh crap. I should have gotten some thing for that person." So, I guess I need to set some goals. First off will be to get my Christmas cards out. Maybe that will be this weekend's project. Still need to get the tree up (I slapped the lit wreath up on the door this evening). Then probably need to get the lights up on the house before the neighbors start giving us a hard time (all in good natured fun). Then find time to relax and enjoy it all.

Wish me luck.

All Hallows Masquerade Ball: Candy Shoppe