Weather Report: Blizzard

It's a snow day in Utah today.  I am excused from work, and Dale is excused from the commute. 

Unfortunately the plant that I have succored for the last 9 months was left outside for too long and froze.   I took it in last night to thaw, and I'm hoping it will survive!

I just thought that this happy (and sad) situation merited a picture in the Weather Report entry.

Gratitude

In an infrequent act of high class, Steven Colbert invited a soldier onto his show and spent the last third of his weekly episode interviewing him.  This soldier merited such an invitation because he had been awarded the highest metal of honor that a soldier can be given in the United States.  No other living soldier has received this award in over 40 years.

Check it out:

http://www.colbertnation.com/full-episodes/thu-november-18-2010-salvatore-giunta

Easy as pie?

Previous to today, I have attempted to make pie once in my life.

The year was 2007, I was a missionary with limited time and no access to recipes.  The ward I was serving in at the time was giving away pies for Father's Day.  I knew all of the crust basic ingredients so made a shortening/flour salt mixture at a ratio that "looked good" and tried to roll it out with a cup onto a floured tile countertop, for the lack of a rolling pin or cheese cloth.

The filling was fresh apples and sugar.  I had no idea what else to stick in there.

When I finished my pie crust dough attempt, it wouldn't stick together and was "flaky" to the point that I had to piece it together in the pie tin like a disappointing checker board.  (I was using a take out container--much like the ones you get from Cafe Rio--as a pie plate, mind you)

I tried to make up for the lack of filling ingredients by arranging the apple slices in a concentric circle pattern.  Looked great before I cooked it.  After I cooked it, the pretty apple slice pattern had wilted and shrunk to about 3/4 an inch of "filling." 

Let's just say it was pretty pathetic.

I followed a recipe this time.  It still took 3 hours just to get it into the oven. It was amazing.  It's gone now.  I'll make another one on Thursday, and eat it all again.

Airplane security goes overboard

What I learned from the stories included below: 

1. Don't wear a skirt to the airport (I did do this once while returning from my mission, and was sent to a telephone booth-type box where air was blown up my skirt Marilyn Monroe style.  I was uncomfortable and embarrassed in front of the 5 elders I was traveling home with.).

2. If you have knee surgery, somehow that relates to someone having to stick their hand in your pants in order to protect security.

3. ... you HAVE to read that one yourself.

I remember a couple of years ago when TSA was criticized for racial insensitivity when they searched a Muslim woman wearing a burka.  Profiling concerns aside, they asked the woman to remove her robe so she could be searched underneath.  When she had problems with that, they offered to take her into a private room where she would be searched by a female guard.  This was compared to "asking an American woman to expose her breasts in public."  Of course TSA would never go that far...

Read the last story of the three on there.  Reports are it's only getting more and more common.

http://www.wzzm13.com/news/news_story.aspx?storyid=140233&catid=14

http://www.kmov.com/news/mobile/Woman-says-her-Lambert-security-screening-was-sexual-assault--109114934.html
...
http://www.wbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=13534628

Pasta

Dale and I went to have our winter tires installed last weekend at Costco.  To the informed reader, that statement is a precursor to an intense afternoon.  For the rest of you, I'll explain.  We had decided to change the tires on both of our cars cause snowy weather was scheduled for early in the following week.  Apparently we weren't the only ones to hear that hyper exclusive weather report, and there was a 3 hour wait until our car would be done.  Seeing as how we had a lot of market research to do, and since Costco is a pretty diverse warehouse, I thought we'd fill all of that time productively.

WRONG!!!  Turns out "market research" fills all of 20 minutes if they don't have what you want.  We ended up buying a whole bunch of non-essentials, including one shrinkwrapped package including roughly 200 ounces of assorted pastas.  In the last week we've had alfredo, tomato-alfredo 2x, marinara sauce, spicey parmesan shells, stroganoff, and pesto chicken.... good eating, but I'm running out of ideas.  Any suggestions of how to make pasta other than the above?

Ug.

On Sunday night I realized that I have 4 papers, two presentations and two final exams all in the next 3.5 weeks. 

...This is the moment I remember why people don't go back to school once having graduated.