Puppies

We got a puppy before Christmas and she's lots of fun. She gets into things she's not supposed to, she whines when she wants something and is all sorts of trouble. She's been pretty receptive to training. As long as you have a treat, she'll do anything you say. She's a cute puppy.

We had our nephews over one weekend and the youngest, age 4 had a lot of similarities to our little puppy. Whines, gets into stuff he's not supposed to and is all sorts of trouble. We did get him to sit still for a while at a basketball game... but I have to admit it was mostly because of the candy in my wife's purse. He's a cute little puppy too.

The Basketball Ref.

I think its a good thing to have kids in sports. It helps them with coordination, teamwork, confidence. Right now both of my kids are in Basketball. Its probably just a Lehi thing but most of the officials seem like they don't really want to be there. Most are teenagers who let most things go. As a result there is rampant disregard for rules. In her first couple of games, my daughter would get the ball passed to her and run the length of the court only dribbling the ball once. It was funny and cute but the kids just aren't learning how to play.

A couple weeks ago, she had the exception to this rule as the official in her game. Every small rule broken would get a whistle blown and an intense run through over the rule broken, such as the rule for double dribble. Every single time a kid would touch the ball with two hands, the whistle would blow and the ref would yell the rule again and again while all the kids just stood there frozen. There were other rules as well but this is the one broken most frequently. At first we were kind of taken aback. Wow, this guy's intense! It was amusing at least.

She and my son have both had him a couple times now and something interesting happened at the last game. My daughter was actually dribbling across the court, and she wasn't all that bad. When she touched it with both hands, she would actually pass it or shoot it. Ironically, it was a different ref but the message sunk in pretty good. Who knew kids can actually do stuff?

Back to Normal

Last week, my kids came down with a flu that lasted an entire 7 days! Fever, congestion, caughing and worst of all, totally lethargic. Even doped up on Motrin and Tylenol their fevers never totally broke and neither of them were back to their usual selves. There's a feeling of frustration and worry when your kids are sick like that which just knaws at you until they get better. Towards the end, they started to play a bit and we started to hear them fighting. Normally a parent's first reaction is to break it up and get them to make friends but to us it was a hint that they were finally getting back to their old selves.

Daddy's Consequences

I meant to blog about this at the time but the caricatures took precidence. Well, my daughter Sydney will do just about anything to get out of doing any chores whatsoever. Every single day she complains that she doesn't know how to make her bed, despite the fact that she makes it every single day... eventually. Well Sydney is quite the cuddle bug and Wendi and I both like to cuddle with her so on one particular occasion, she used this against us... or at least tried to. I told her that was just fine and she eventually made her bed anyway... by herself. Did I mention she's just four years old? I thought this kind of psycological warfare didn't begin until adolescence. Boy, am I in for it!

Obsession

I have rather simple obsessions and making paella is one of them. Oh, 10 or so years ago, while I was on an LDS mission in England, I had a companion who was from Spain and he wanted to show us (there were 2 others in our flat) the joy of making Paella. Well, the language barrier and lack of propper supplies made it hard for him to make it properly but he did his best and we had a very good meal. He told us it was nothing like it's supposed to be and you could see the disappointment in his face. Ever since then, I've sought to, not just create what he made but to recreate the paella which he meant to make.

Since then, I've had several failed attempts and a long period of "giving up" on it altogether. That was before I thought of even looking it up on the internet. A couple years ago I resumed my journey once again and it has become an obsession of mine to make the perfect, authentic, paella. I found the authentic recipe and method of cooking it. I even went to the effort and expense of buying an 18" paella pan to take it to that extra level of authenticity. I've gone to, what some (including my wife) may see as, wasteful measures to achieve perfection. Buying medium grained rice instead of using the long grained rice we have. Spending $14 on a seemingly insignificant amount of saffron (hey, it goes a long way).

My next step will be to hunt down a place where I can find rabbit meat around here (shouldn't be too hard I imagine) just so I can have it the way it was meant to be had. Sure, I've experimented with variations as well so I can get a feel for what makes it work (I'm still struggling with getting the rice just right [see, I'm obsessed]) but I really just want one time to achieve the perfect paella. Then I will reach a level of content and probably find a new obsession. So, if you come to visit me or stay a night or two, don't be surprised if I make a batch of paella, and send you home with some of the leftovers. I must say, it is bloody delicious!

The origional paella recipe

Paella: Rice at Its Best

La Tienda - where I got my paella pan

Austin's Wild Ride

So we had a quick trip to CA last weekend and we decided to make the most of it and go to Disneyland and California Adventure. The last time we went, Austin (6) became a speed adict... not the drug, the thrill of going fast. This time, he was dying to go on some roller coasters so we got a fast pass to go on California Screaming, a pretty intense roller coaster, and nothing like he'd been on before. Sydney was too little to go and so the two of us split from Wendy and Syd and went to get on the ride.

The first little bit he was tentatively excited and slowly I could tell he didn't expect it to be this intense. When we got to the loop-de-loop, he was not having fun at all. When we got off the ride, he was clearly upset and I tried to tell him how brave he was, etc, but he was done. Regardless of this, it wasn't long before he was rearin' to go on the Tower of Terror ride in which you experience free fall in a pitch black elevator several times... Did we go on it? You bet we did! Sydney fit on this one so she came too!

Haircut

Well, it's not really Wendi's fault. I had just finished shaving Austin's head and I took off the attachment to do the tidying up around the ears and sideburns and forgot about it. Now my hair is shorter than it's ever been. I wouldn't mind so much if it were the begining of summer but fall just hit and my head's been a bit chilly. BRRRR!!!!