Quick Blurb....

 Got the old dark brown carpet and pad pulled out, all the squeaks in the sub floor repaired and the majority of the new flooring laid except for what is left down the hall. It looks, smells, and sounds 100% better. The kids did a great job in helping and Mommy learned how to lay laminate like a Pro. It was a busy few days "off" of work.

• Mommy and I are done with our speaking assignments in church (what a relief)
• Gyros for Thanksgiving were great!
• Tried the bacon shake tonight and found the chocolate bacon was better than the vanilla (that was Mommy's suggestion). Neither need to be repeated though.
• I may have found a new hot tub project
• I start working with the 11 year old boy scouts this week.
• Thing 1 has an upcoming B-day
• Learned that the transfer site is really lame here in civilization where it is frowned upon to go dumpster diving.
• Next house project... Cabinets and counter-tops.

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No bird will die for this family this year.

This year we decided on a tasty lamb.

We were introduced to another awesome store in our local vicinity. It is a restaurant supply house kind of like Sam's Club but with less prepared foods and more large quantity specially ingredients. Foot long wedges of Parmesan cheese, 5 gallons of sun-dried tomatoes, a Tabasco bottle the size of a milk jug, half animals hanging in the freezer, you get the idea. It is open to the public and the prices are awesome but the size of the commodities are just too large to be used by the average family even if they are great buys.

We picked up some produce, 2 eggplant to be exact for a $1 each, and were roaming the isles in a state of awe when we came upon the packaged and prepared meats section. 10 lbs of cooked Italian sausage for pizza, 40 lbs of hot wings, imitation crab in 25 lb bricks...and then I saw it...the holy grail of good eats in my opinion...5 lbs of Gyro meat.

I use to work for a food service company in college and could purchase this stuff. Since then I had lost my dealer contact and have been left jonesing for it on many occasions. This could be dangerous but I bought a pack. As we continued down the isle I had a flashback of my gyro induced coma of 02' and turned to Mommy and said "Who needs a turkey when we could have this?". Mommy was game for it and so the plan is set. We are having a Big Fat Greek Thanksgiving. Again we will never be accused of being normal.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 This will be our first year since before Mommy and I were married that we will not be eating with extended family...There was that one year we were so sick we couldn't attend because a 10 minute car ride would be to far from the throne room but that doesn't count. 

Other things this week:

• Mommy writes...I am reading a book called "Escape" written by a women who escaped from an extremist polygamist cult. ( this book was on a book club reading list and I only knew the title, not what is was about, It sounded like it was an adventure novel, I guess this could be considered that!
• the kids liked the book "The Naughty Nork". 
• We found a theater on Friday night that plays "old" movies and watched "ParaNorman" as a family (since our baby sitter fell through). Unfortunately it was a little scary for the kids. They did fine but I always forget that the little ones are sensitive about monsters and such.
• We tore up the carpet in the kitchen and picked out the laminate flooring we will order Monday.
• Daddy's bacon extract arrived in the mail...he ordered it on a whim after reading on amazon it makes great milkshakes?  http://www.amazon.com/Capella-Flavor-Drops-Big-Squeeze-Servings

Sticky Situations

The temperature dropped a little this last week, but not nearly as much as our last home.

Geekiest weather web site ever: http://weatherspark.com

I took the opportunity to do a little energy audit walking around the house using the highest available technology, my hands and bare tootsie. I quickly determined that a trip to homedepo was required to pick up door weather stripping and some spray foam.


Spray foam...The brand I got was called "Great Stuff" but the major real active ingredient  is technically called a isocyanic acid polymethylenepolyphenylene ester polymer. When you read the name it should scare you a little. If it doesn't then you are just as naive as I was about it's malicious nature. Oh I like it when it does what it should but for the love of all that is wholesome don't get it on your hands! The ordeal that followed was humors to all involved but the major participant.(see the detailed story in the earlier post if you want to enjoy the depths of my stupidity)


We had several other adventured this week but those stories will probably need to wait:

• Thing 1 took Daddy to "Dudes and Doughnuts" at his school. (a chance for Dads and children to have some doughnuts with staff in the morning). 
• Daddy had a 1 day trip to Omaha Nebraska Thurs night and Friday. 
• We tore out the range and bought an oven off Craigslist and 
• we had a homeless guy over for a while and learned some stuff about panhandling.

Mommy and I just took a phone call for the invitation to speak in church on the 25th so we will now proceed to lament our bad luck and procrastinate preparing for the inevitable for the rest of the day...

isocyanic acid polymethylenepolyphenylene ester polymer

As promised here is the near depths of my stupidity...(I say "near" because I never cease to amaze myself)

Gloves Good! Bare Hands BAD!

During my 5 minute project I had an unruly foam worm that was in process of being extruded from the applicator tip. It did not want to venture into its home and so I kindly usher it there with 2 fingers...no big deal...I kept those 2 fingers quarantined from the rest of the workforce and when I was done I  went into the bathroom to clean up...I flipped on the water and proceeded to wash my hands...I came to find out there is a warning on the back of the can to"not use water". The stuff got everywhere on my hands...I remembered when I use to get sap on my hands in the woods that I would just get some dirt and rub my hands in it till the sap would "pill" off. I went outside and tried that trick only to find out that it did not improve my situation but the dirt catyalized the curing reaction in some way.The results was a very durable second skin of a different pigment making my hands a deep mocha color. I can not describe the strength of this stuff but does not peal off! It was as impressive as depressive. The only way to remove it is "mechanically" and it sometimes requires that a layer or 2 of skin is sacrificed in the process. My hands hurt today from the literal hours of scrubbing but I am back to original ethnicity and void of the appearance of some form of necrotic tissue disease except for sporadically between my finger prints in some locations. Come to find out, there are whole forums dedicated to this removal process revealing hundreds of people that have suffered from this "Great Stuff" but please learn from my stupidity and never mess with that stuff bare handed!

Our Homless Dude Adventure

We mentioned briefly last week that we had a homeless guy in our home for a bit. This guy claimed to only want a job...We offered the resources we had available and in his case he was not ready to actually take the steps to move from his current situation...The experience got me thinking though...One thought exercises I conducted was to look for a business plan that could incorporate the untapped workforce of the homeless for their individual benefit and society's...This is what I came up with with...Don't laugh yet...I will let you know when you can...

Bakery Bum

Homeless yet homemade 
COOKIES, Carmel Corn, Banana Bread

How does that work?

See my story @ www.bakerybum.org/vendor12345

Tips welcome! Donate online.

We could establish a business model (for profit!) that the homeless could provide a roadside vending service. The items sold would need to be sealed but also be such that they could be sold quickly on the corner. The org would make a Website and perhaps facebook connections showing the stories of the individuals and track goals they set showing how individual donations are helping. It could also allow online donations to the individuals and org.  The org could also make official signs, distribute the product, do training,  

Each item sold could have a card attached that said something like...

"These baked goods were made by professionals using home recipes in an effort to give the homeless of (Name City) an opportunity at entrepreneurship. Each package came with a card telling of the individual that served you today.  Look us up at www.bakerybum.org"

Now you can laugh...Unfortunately the real problem is that most these guys are not really after what they claim on the sign. The homeless guy we had told us his story and some of the stories of the other pan handlers in the area. Bottom line is they all are stuck more of their own choosing than anything else. The ones that are worth helping are usually helping themselves get out of that situation. If there was an organization the could help people know their $ is not going to waste (or worse) by highlighting the individuals that are legitimately in need, then people might help. I am a little burnt on how this guy was and can now drive by most the vagabonds feeling very little remorse at not "helping out".  

Happy Pumpkin Week...

It was a way over booked week...

Monday...Trip to the pumpkin patch and a look at a maize maze. The kids each picked a pumpkin and we got out before the rain hit again.

Tuesday - Trunk-or-treat, and chili cook off with the ward. Z. was Spider-man, M. was a princess and M was a Ninja. Don't get the 2 confused. 

Wednesday - Teart-ro-kcirting. In other words, reverse trick-or-treating. We dressed the kids up and took homemade caramel corn to people from Daddy's work. Thanks to Uncle N. and Aunt A. for the awesome recipe. We still have the scrap of paper N. wrote it on from years ago.Dude...your writing is still as hard to decipher as it was the day you wrote it but the recipe works out perfect every time. Thanks! 

3 qt corn (or more to liking)

1c.sugar brown

1/2 c. butter

1/4 c. syrup

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp soda

3-4 minutes stir till boil

2 more minutes

soda

in bag 1/2 min

Thursday- A dude from Homedepo came by and made an estimate for refacing our existing cabinets...Wow..bu-co bucks. At the price he was quoting I could have them replaced. The best part of his visit was getting to know him a bit and hearing about how his wife and he (with 4 kids) run a bistro. Sounds like a lot of work but fun at times.

Friday- Assembled Couches that came in the mail. (see video below)

Saturday- Hung track lights in living room. Before this it we had no lights on the ceiling and it felt super dark at night, partly because of the color in the room too.

Favorite Food of the week:  Homemade Ravioli with an honorable mention of Buffalo Wing Potato Leek Soup" (Carmel corn and Papa Johns pizza don't count).
No movies or books this week...