Day 11: My favorite TV show...not really its about crab mac and cheese on a hotdog

I have no idea what my favorite TV show is.  It changes from year to year and now with Netflix month to month.  I can tell you I don’t like Downtown Abby.  Wow talking about TV did not take very long.  Now let’s talk about Crab and milkshakes.
 
Iam in Baltimore Maryland and had some time Tuesday night and decided to go out for blue crab.  I have heard about them but never tried them.  I love crab and we catch Dungeness and Rock Crab near our home every year.  When it is on sale I buy King Crab and Snow Crab they are great on the grill or in a shell fish boil.  Anyway back to the blue crab.  I went to Saint Andrews Crab House out on the docks.  I selected the all you can eat option.  A few minutes later the server brought me out 2 dozen boiled crab covered in Old Bay Seasoning.  I tore into these things and immediately realized they are a lot of work.  The legs are completely a waste of time unless you want a shellfish flavored tooth pic.  The claws are tough to crack and the body meat is hard to get to.  However when you get to the meat it is a bit stronger flavored that Dungeness meat and very good.  It was succulent and wonderful both warm and cold.
 
It became evident very quickly this particular variety of crab is like a McDonalds milkshake.  You know when you get a milkshake on a hot summer day and are so excited to taste that chocolate, strawberry or vanilla goodness.  You peel the wrapper off of the straw and stick it into the cup and start to suck and suck and suck.  Then you take a break and because you are light headed and don’t have the lung power to actually get the shake up the straw.  You pull the straw out of the cup and lick the outside of the straw to remind you of what you are trying to get.  Then start the sucking part all over again.  This is kind of how blue crabs are.  They give you just enough meat to keep you going but not enough to really fill you up.  After 2 hours and 30 crab later my fingers were too tired to keep going and my lips burned from the Old Bay Seasoning.  (A milkshake would have totally rocked at that moment of time.)  So today I learned from my mistakes and had crab mac and cheese on a hotdog for lunch today.  I know sounds gross and low rent however it completely surprised me.  It was kind of like salt...hard to describe unless you have tasted it (go ahead and describe salt without using the word salt, let me know that works out for you).  The combinations of flavors and textures of the crab, hotdog and mac were quite wonderful.  All in all Baltimore from a food point of view has been more fun than most of the trips I go on.

Day 10: Something I am afraid of

I know it has been a few days since I posted and I know I skipped over day 9 on my 30 day blog challenge.  But it is my blog so I can do what I want.  I actually quit writing because I only thought my sister read this and it is easier to call her and just talk.  However I have spoken in recent days to an old high school friend in Maryland and a cousin in Ohio that both said they read my blog and called me out for not completing the 30 day challenge so here it is. 

I have all the normal fears any father of 5 would have:

• teenage boys  (easy handles with a unblinking stare and refusal to smile, they run off like little girls)
• homemade parachutes (if you have sons this is self explanitory)
• the great legos vs littlest petshop debate between son and daughter will get violent.
• teeenage auto insurance rates (How do they calculate these insurance rates?  It has to be with some new math or international version where they are counting in pesos and charge in dallors.

I also have a fear of hitting someone in a cross walk.  When I was 17 I was driving in McMinnville Oregon and not really paying attention and this old lady was crossing the street.  I had a red light and had to lock the tires up to stop in time.  The tires screeched, there was smoke from the tires sliding and the card kind of slid sideways.  I stopped about 2 feet from here she was there screaming holding her chest then shaking her finger at me.  I have had an ongoing fear of actually mowing someone over since then.  Come to think about it maybe the teenage insurance rates are not so far out of line.

I don't do horror movies at all.  I am a total and complete wimp.  The Wizard of Oz has freaked me out as a kid and I refuse to watch it now.  When Rhonda and I went and saw Wicked last year there were a couple of scenes with the flying monkeys and I found myself looking for the exits. 

In fact there is one scene in the comedy Harry and the Hendersons that came out in 1987 that completly scary.  I was screaming when I saw it for the first time and the 2nd and the 3rd.  As I watched the clip today so I could include it here they must have changed the movie because it is not nearly as scary as I remember.  I did go back and look at the flying monkeys as well they are just a creepy as I remember.

I also have a fear of kissing and old lady and she gets the wrong message and slips me the toungue.  It acutally happened once so I this is not an unrealistic fear.  As it turns out she was trying to scare me...it worked. 

Bangy Bangy, performing Twist and Shout

It is not often that my kids truly surprise me and leave me dumbfounded...in a good way.  This happened last night at their schools annual parents night.  We home school our kids but they are part of a home school group that is run by Crescent School District called OPHC.  I am sure OPHC stands for something but I have no idea what.  Anyway so every Wednesday morning our kids head over to a local church that the school has contracted to use for holding class. I know is my kids have music, ballet, art, cooking, math and drama.  There might be some other stuff too however that is the wife's department to keep track of.    

Last night we got to see Payton's ballet class perform to the rainbow connection (video comming tommorrow).  Something about twelve 9 year old girls in tutus that just warms the heart.  They were very cute.  There were the other requisite pictures on the walls, poetry readings, drama performances etc... the stuff that is fun to watch if it is your kid but truly painful if it is not.  At the end of the evening all the kids got their awards and we had a performance from the band class.  There are 11 kids in this class.  4 of them sing vocals, 6 play some guitar like instrument and 1 plays the drums.  They have a teacher who plays the piano and boom you have a band, they named themselves Bangy Bangy.  I new Regann was in this class and I new they were performing and that is all I new.  I had no idea she was singing lead and that they actually were singing fun songs...compared to those my band class did in junior high school.   I have to say she rocked it.

Bangy Bangy performing Twist and Shout

Tarzan and his influence on the next generation

We enjoyed watching Tarzan the Disney movie the other night.  My 7 year old son Nolahn was truly inspired.  He decided to start walking like and ape and dressing like Tarzan.  Here is what he came up with.  It is a beautiful thing what you can do with a roll of masking tape, wash cloth and a pair or camo underwear.

These are great when you are 7 years old the problem with the Internet is when he is 17 years old his friends will still be able to google them.

Day 8: Places I have traveled to

I am very lucky in the fact that I get to travel a lot with work.  I have been all over North America in the past few years.  In my life I have been to 5 different countries 40 of the 50 states and more airports than I can remember.  My preferred way to travel is by car.  I would much rather take the time and drive someplace than fly.  I like the ability to turn left when the mood suits me.  However if you are flying here are ten rules I have developed that will make your flight much more enjoyable for your and everyone around you.  I posted these orginally in May of last year.

Last year we took my dad on vacation with us and went to Idaho.  The drive on I-84 between Boise and Tri-cities in Washington is a stretch of road I have driven literally dozens of times in my life.  I know where the speed traps are, the dangerous curves and best places to eat.  However when making that drive it has always been about how fast we can arrive at our destination.  That changes on this particular occasion.  We stopped on top of the Blue Mountains and found a state park that was part of the original Oregon trail and we able to see actual pioneer wagon tracks that over the years wore groves into the rock.  We stopped and walked around the abandoned cement factory in Lime.  We visited the Oregon trail historical societies museum in Baker.  We stopped and bought cherries from some guy on the side of the road.  It was much more about the journey than the destination.  What would have normally taken 5 hours of driving stretched to about 9 hours.  The funny thing is that I don't have any memory of the driving or the time we spent in the car.  I do however have some great memories of the stops and experiences we had when we chose to turn left. 

So just some parting wisdom (this is a place to get "Ryan's words of brilliance" after all) worry less about making good time driving and worry more about having a good time while driving.

Harmons Crossover

We are breaking from the 30 day blog challenge for the day and will pick it up again tomorrow.  I want to talk about my son Harmon's evening.  As of last night I no longer have a Cub Scout.  Harmon crossed over to Boy Scouts and joined the 11 year old patrol.  I have seen this same ceremony a dozens of times over the years but I actually got a little emotional last night.  It was a simple ceremony but seeing his brother who is the Senior Patrol Leader take his Webelos neckerchief off and put his Boy Scout neckerchief on was cool.  Mayson had composure and maturity that surprised me and did a good job speaking to the room. Their scoutmaster has done a great job with the boys all wearing uniforms and matching each week.  These guys are all as far apart as points on a star personality and interest wise but when they come together they really are friends and create something that is greater than the sum of their parts.

Here are a couple of photos of the ceremony:

This is the patch that is on the back of their neckerchiefs. 

Day 7: A picture of something that makes me happy

Pictures are great because they take you back to a time an place with great detail.  They help you remember the emotions and the feelings you were experiencing more so than just about any other medium.  I have thought about this blog post for the last week or two trying to figure out what picture makes me happy.  The thing that brings me the greatest happiness in this life if my family.  If I had the choice to go to church, work, scouts, hunting, fishing, a sporting event or whatever I would probably decline if I could not take all or part of my family with me.  Our move to Idaho in a couple of months is in no small part motivated by my desire to be able to spend more time with my family.  So there you have it simple, cliche and completely true.  My family makes me happier than anything else. 

This was taken at the Seattle Temple on our way home from Ensign Ranch after a family reunion.  It was early Monday morning the temple was closed but Nolahn wanted to stop so we drove out of the way to fulfill his request.

This is my kids showing how they take after my wife's side of the family.

Taken after my 40th birthday party.  I might or might not have grabbed her bottom as they were snapping the photo.

Take away some of the trivial nonsense all siblings go through and we have been blessed with 5 kids that genuinely like each other and enjoy spending time with each other.  Last Christmas they wanted to cut down their own tree.  So they grabbed a saw and hiked into the woods by our house, found and harvested a tree.  They decorated it and took care of it all themselves.  This tree would not have won any awards (except for maybe the most Charlie Brown) however it is by far my most favorite tree we have ever had.

We took the kids to Rhonda's Uncle Carl's home and played in the snow a few years back.  We were able to ice fish, sled and play with 4 wheelers.  Lots and lots of fun.

We spent a week on the Owahee Reservoir last year.  Between a rattle snake, lots of lizards, rabbits and not catching any fish it was one of the best vacations ever.

I had to go to Club Med in Mexico for work ( I know you are totally jealous as you should be).  Rhonda got to go with me and we decided there and then vacations to warm sunny places with out the kids are vacations worth taking.

These three photos are of me teaching my sons to shoot.  I love guns and my sons do a well.  To teach them how to safely shoot and spend the time with them is just one of the coolest things I have ever done.

I took the kids camping and it rained and rained and rained and rained some more.  We went and found a park to do some fishing and Payton discovered a great way to dry her shoes and socks.  I never would have thought of this.

This was my kids very first backpacking trip.  We went to Humes Ranch in the Olympic Mountains and had a great time they still talk about.  Nothing is quite as much fun as throwing dried deer poop pellets at your kids.

Reganns first fish...I know beginners luck.  Not only was this the first fish she ever caught as she was reeling it in the line snapped as they were scooping it out of the water.  The fish turned and swam into the net. 

OK this photo is not of my family.  It is of Elder Marian Ericson and I in the Philippines.  I look at photos of my mission and they do just make me smile.