Celebrating the Fourth

Independence Day for many means a day of independence from work. The coffee bar where I work is closed tomorrow, so I will be enjoying Independence Day as I have for many years: with my family.

About seven years ago I started preparing beef ribs for the Fourth of July using a recipe I found in Esquire magazine, and another July 3 has rolled around and I am dug in yet again for the long haul. Each rib goes through a a process that takes about 4-5 hours before it hits the grill in order to be flavorful and fully tender. I expect to remove the last batch of ribs from their bath in the roasting pan around 4:30 in the morning. More or less par for the course.

I always enjoy having ribs and corn on the cobb on the 4th, partially because my daughter loves both, and it's always a pleasure to prepare the meal for her. This year, however, there will be no cherry cobbler for dessert. I left my cherry trees behind in Seattle, so I have no freshly picked cherries. This year we'll adopt a Southern tradition and add peach ice cream into the mix.

This year I'll get to celebrate the holiday with the extended family, which I've not been able to do in years past. It should be a lot of fun. Oh, and I assume there will be a couple of episodes of "The Twilight Zone" tomorrow as well.

National Champs

Celebrating the College World Series champions at the South Carolina capitol building with my daughter, the Hill Company and 40,000 others.

A Man of Action (Verbs)

As great hope and change continues to wash over our country (not unlike the torrential rains we have experienced these past few days), I decided today to peruse my box of President Obama clippings and tally up the hope and count the change.

While leafing through the clippings what struck me as profound were the headlines themselves, more specifically the action verbs used in headline after headline following the name “Obama.” As agent of change the President must also be a man of action, and I hoped to make a list of these action verbs as a way of gauging the man’s personality and as a summation of the man’s accomplishments while thus far serving in office.

Here are the headlines, arranged alphabetically. I have included only subject, verb and object, dropping prepositional phrases and contextual references. Read into them what you will, though each is an actual headline.

Obama…

Accused Republicans
Angry at Energy Department
Angry at Fox
Angry at Netanyahu
Fires Back at Cheney
Goes Nuclear Over Sarah Palin
Lashes Out at AIG
Lashes Out at Arizona
Lashes Out at “Audacity of Banks”
Lashes Out at Banks
Lashes Out at “Big Media”
Lashes Out at BP
Lashes Out at CNBC
Lashes Out at “Fat Cat Bankers”
Lashes Out at Fox News
Lashes Out at Generals in Afghanistan
Lashes Out at GOP
Lashes Out at Haliburton
Lashes Out at Health Care Bill Opponents
Lashes Out at Health Insurers
Lashes Out at Hilary
Lashes Out at Honduras
Lashes Out at House Republicans
Lashes Out at iPods
Lashes Out at Iran
Lashes Out at Kanye West
Lashes Out at Lawmakers
Lashes Out at McCain
Lashes Out at New Media
Lashes Out at Oil Drillers
Lashes Out at Oil Industry
Lashes Out at Oil Company executives
Lashes Out at Opposing Viewpoints
Lashes Out at Republicans
Lashes Out at Sarah Palin
Lashes Out at The New Yorker
Lashes Out at US Banks
Lashes Out at Wall Street
Lashes Out During Golf Trip
Lashes Out Over “Cash for Clunkers” Analysis
Mocks Arizona Law
Mocks Bush
Mocks Cable Chatter
Mocks Cheney
Mocks Conservatives
Mocks D.C.’s Reaction to Winter Weather
Mocks Disabled Children
Mocks Entrepreneurship
Mocks Fox
Mocks GOP
Mocks GOP Doomsday Predictions
Mocks Health Care Bill Opponents
Mocks Leno
Mocks Limbaugh
Mocks Marijuana Question
Mocks McCain
Mocks McConnell
Mocks Media
Mocks Opponents
Mocks Palin
Mocks Patrick Henry
Mocks Plumbers
Mocks Presidential Seal
Mocks Private Insurance Companies
Mocks Rallies
Mocks Republicans
Mocks Scott Brown’s Truck
Mocks Special Olympics
Mocks Teabaggers
Mocks Tea Partiers
Mocks the Bible
Mocks the Handicapped
Mocks the iPad
Mocks US Military Personnel
Scolds Republicans
Struggles with Smoking Habit
Unleashes Frustration

Indeed, the President has not been sitting on his laurels. Between the lashing and mocking, he’s had time for unleashing and scolding, and was able (with justification, no doubt) to accuse a Republican or two.

We’ll check in again at mid-term elections. There’s bound to be some additional lashing come November.

Pills

At a recent food show I had the privilege to meet someone who has been part of my life since I was a child: Poppinfresh, the Pillsbury Dough Boy, whom I affectionately refer to as “Pills.”

Pills is a pastry chef of the highest order. His biscuits are flakey, his cookies perfectly sweet, and his baked Alaska – wow!

Although we could not reach an arrangement for Pills to bake goodies for me at the coffee bar, we parted friends. He will always have a place in my heart. And yes, when you poke him in the stomach he does emit a high, squeak-like laugh.

The Promises of Hope and Change

It’s been more than a year since the nation kicked George Bush out of office, so I spent some time looking back at campaign interviews and speeches and thought I’d take a moment to celebrate the promises of hope and change that have come to pass.

The end of the war. As pledged repeatedly before and during the 2008 presidential campaign, President Barack Obama pulled our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan prior the deadline he submitted to the Senate in 2007. With victory declared and apologies to Muslims mailed out on White House stationery, American soldiers were all on their ships and planes on or before March 23, 2008, bound for America. Our men and women in uniform are back home where they belong, gainfully employed in our prospering economy, and Iraq and Afghanistan are well on their way to becoming important international allies.

Evil influences. Echoing a repeated campaign promise to rid government of the putrid influence of lobbyists, Obama took the oath of office and promptly hired more than 40 lobbyists for his own staff in order to keep them off Capital Hill, where their stench might influence members of Congress.

Saving the economy. The dire recession years of Reagan-Bush-Bush are but a memory due to the Obama stimulus package. Unemployment has plummeted to over 10% and fear and anxiety have left the American people, all of whom are now fat and happy and getting free gastric bypass operations.

Free health care for all. In the afterglow of Obama’s having brought the politically divided country together again in economic prosperity, both Democrats and Republicans overwhelmingly passed the health care bill in late 2008, which provides free medical treatment to all Americans at participating Social Security offices nationwide. Small business and the elderly poor have stepped up to the plate in their willingness to fund the trillions of dollars needed to create the eleven new government agencies required to support the bill.

Deficit spending. After slamming the Bush administration for its out-of-control deficit spending, the new President put a halt to all new spending in favor of using five trillion new “no minimum payment” government credit cards which don’t have to be paid off until the President and Congress are long dead and buried.

Guantanamo Bay. The President’s pledge to close the ill-conceived and human rights-violating prison at Guantanamo Bay by the end of 2009 came to pass just after Christmas and was celebrated in the streets across the Muslim world. The fathers, sons and brothers illegally imprisoned there were reunited with their families live on CNN. Most have already found gainful employment with militia groups in places like Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

A Cleaner Earth. The Obama administration unveiled a plan that will require communities across the nation to spend billions of dollars in 2011 cleaning the smog from the air, with no help from the new government credit cards. Fortunately, because of the stimulus plan, there are piles of cash lying around city halls and state capitols, which will make compliance easy. Besides, the EPA says, the billions spent sucking fog molecules out of the air will be offset by the billions of dollars saved in annual smog-related deaths, which I assume result from soot cancer and smog toe.

Unkept promises? The President indicated yesterday that any promises he has not kept were due to a particularly harsh Winter. We are merely thankful that Obama has yet to take any responsibility for this country and wish that former President George Bush, who, as an ex-President apparently retains enormous influence over the current administration, would just go away.

Looking Forward to Some Good Coffee

There is a new coffee bar opening up soon not far from us. They are building now, and plan to open in April.

I look forward to getting a nice dark roast or an espresso drink, and maybe a frap or Italian soda for my kid. Oh, and a slice of red velvet cake.

http://www.jamestowncoffee.com/

Stowaway

Back in the early summer a strange little creature I first thought was a dragon appeared on the rear of my car. He seemed like a happy fellow, and he was causing no harm, so I allowed him to stick around.

He traveled with me from the west coast to the east, and at some point in July disappeared.

Just the other day, shortly after discovering a snow being had taken up residence in my garage refrigerator, the happy little leech reappeared on my car.

Something is going on. And I intend to find out what.

Snowaway

I found this creepy little guy lurking in the garage refrigerator yesterday. But like all creatures, he's doing what he needs to do to survive, I suppose. I will continue to give him sanctuary so long as he doesn't start raiding the fridge.

Strange that he has cocktail umbrellas for arms...

Snowball

On Friday we played basketball while it was snowing.

I did not know snow could accumulate on a basketball. Cold, wet snow stuck to the basketball as we dribbled and shot, and it formed into little hard patches on the skin of the ball. Soon the ball lost a bit of its bounce.

We played until the basketball was covered with snow and our gloveless hands were numb.

The Pants Monster Strikes Again

In 2006, I blogged about a traumatic pants experience with my Korean dry cleaning people. Two years later I blogged about finding a new Chinese cleaning outfit (read about it here) and was pleased... for a while.

There is a dry cleaners on the corner that I walked into last week with a sweater, dress, pants and pile of shirts. I had never been there before, had they had not been recommended. They were merely convenient.

The first thing to raise an alarm in my mind as I walked in the door was that the attendant was Caucasian. Now, please don't think I have anything against Caucasians - I don't. I am sure there are many fine Caucasian dry cleaners out there. The fact is, I used one non-Asian dry cleaner in the past twelve years and the results were less than satisfactory.

When I turned in my ticket and retrieved my clothes an astonishing thing had occurred: the dry cleaner had duplicated a pair of my pants.

Same pants, same brand, same size, identical in every way, the only difference being that one pair was pressed better than the other.

I don't know how they were replicated, and a phone call to their store provided no answers. They were as confused as I was.

I am keeping the pants.

December 26

From my diary, December 26, 2008

I am back in the office today after a lovely Christmas. The roads are, for the first morning since Wednesday the 17th, relatively clear and free of ice and snow. At least along my commute, which is not to say it’s the same everywhere around the Sound.

From my diary, December 26, 2009

Everyone was in a foul mood this morning. No water. No heat. A pipe burst yesterday and we had water everywhere, including into the heating and air system. Caryn and Harper went off to wash and dry the towels and blankets she used to mop up the mess(and to keep the waters from flowing into the living room), and I went to the folks and showered. Dad followed me back and we went to work. We stripped insulation from the ducting in the basement, which poured water, insulation under the floor, drained the ducting, ripped out drywall and managed to fix the broken pipe (after three trips to Lowe's) and then I broke the water line to the kitchen faucet, which still needs to be fixed. But we have heat, and water, except to the kitchen sink and dishwasher.

The joys of the holidays! What a difference a year makes.

A Christmas Memory 2009

Merry Christmas, everyone!

A Christmas Memory 2008

Christmas 2008 was my last Christmas in Seattle, though I did not know it at the time. It snowed nearly every day the week before Christmas, and commuting to the office was a bear. But the white Christmas was nice.

I was at Fred Meyer with my daughter in the weeks leading up to Christmas and she decided we needed an outdoor display, something besides the old fashioned lights I hung on the roof and around the front door and window.

While I was browsing in the store, she proceeded to rearrange the Christmas display items in the middle of a large aisle and informed me that I was to purchase a Christmas pig and some illuminated presents. What's a father to say? The photo here is an exact recreation of her Fred Meyer display.

The Christmas pig is back this year, but adorning another lawn in another state far, far away from the snows of Seattle, Washington.

Merry Christmas, everybody.

A Christmas Memory 2004

This is one of my favorite photographs, taken during a Christmas snowfall in 2004. The kid in the tree strikes me as some strange winter bird.

We loved the snow in Seattle, and my daughter loved playing outside as the flakes fell while my wife made warn cocoa for our return indoors.

A Christmas Memory 2006

In 2006 my daughter served as a Santa's helper and passed out the Christmas gifts that were under the tree. She wore an elf costume that has a history going back to 1973, when I wore the very same elf costume in a Christmas parade. I remember our mothers made these elf costumes from a pattern. My old buddy Chris was in the parade with me, similarly attired, and there are, somewhere, some Super-8 movies of the two of us in our elf costumes frolicking in his kitchen prior to the parade.

I am told that the day of that parade in 1973 was cold and sleeting, but I don't remember much about it. But that was my one shot at playing elf in a parade. And it was good.

It was great to see the old elf costume get some use after 33 years packed away with the holiday bric-a-brack. I am surprised it was still around. Perhaps it will last long enough to be worn some Christmas by my grandchild.

A Christmas Memory 2003

Pictured: me, George and Alan Greenbeans.

We were all a little less gray.

We all had different residences then.

We were younger.

Our kids were smaller.

We were naive and carefree then. Well, maybe not carefree. That would have been 1983. Even then...

A Christmas Memory 2001

My sister visited us in Seattle for Christmas 2001, a time marked by the sad departure of Toonces, the driving cat, whose hospitalization in the vet's ICU forced us to abandon our mountain cabin for an extended family gathering in our small apartment so that I could be near the suffering patient. But we had to let her go a few days before Christmas, and it was a sad time for me.

But having family in town was nice, and our daughter, not quite a year old, really racked up!

A day or two before Christmas my buddy Mike (Mixmaster DJ MC) dropped in with his daughter, who was about 20 months old at the time, and they are pictured here with my daughter (11 months) and my sister (age not disclosed).

A Christmas Memory 1999

Another Christmas in the Emerald City: 1999 was a good year and a memorable Christmas. That year I received from my wife a Weber grill which I still use today. It was on the lanai Christmas morning, along with the appropriate grilling implements.

We developed a ritual of Christmas shopping down town each year, one we kept as long as we lived in Seattle. We would buy a few gifts at the Pike Place Market (pictured) each year, though we would often buy fresh seafood and produce at the market year round.

In 1999 we were two DINKs living in the city in the city without many responsibilities. A year later, my wife would be very pregnant with our first child, and after the baby arrived Christmastime changed, but not in a bad way. We transitioned well from celebrating Christmas as a couple to looking at the season through the eyes of a child. I would not change a thing, but I do recall those Christmases before our daughter was born with great fondness.

That was another life.

A Christmas Memory 1998

1998 was my first Christmas as a married couple, living in Seattle. It was an exciting time for the both of us, newlyweds falling in love with the Emerald City.

That Christmas we spent in Seattle, without our families who lived far away. And it snowed that Christmas Day.

My parents had given us a DVD player for Christmas, which we opened on Christmas day. DVD's were new at the time, and I had three, and now we had a player to play them on.

The day after Christmas I proceeded to hook up the player and discovered that our TV, and old Magnavox, had only a coaxial input, and would not connect with the DVD player. I was devastated!

But it was the day after Christmas after all, and many stores were offering their after Christmas discounts. So I walked the four blocks to Fred Meyer and bought a new TV, but realized it was too big for me to carry home. (We lived in the city in those days).

I had to leave my ID with the store in order to borrow a hand truck to cart the TV home, and with great anticipation we unpacked it, giddy at the prospect of watching a movie on DVD.

But the TV, larger than our old Magnavox, did not fit into our entertainment center. It was too big!

Needless to say, we found ourselves purchasing and assembling a new entertainment center in order to have room for the new TV we bought in order to play a DVD on the new player we had received that Christmas in 1998. That player turned out to be the most costly Christmas present I have ever received.

A Christmas Memory 1997

In 1997 I departed from my usual collection of tawdry Christmas ornaments, and allowed my friend Tim's wife (not pictured) to design my Christmas tree that year.

The theme was Independence Day, and the tree featured numerous red, white and blue ornaments with the occasional holiday-adorned Uncle Sam. The lights were, as one might assume, flashing red, white and blue, a virtual 4th of July fireworks display in my own home.

Needless to say, I have not used the 4th of July theme since, though I have contemplated an Easter theme over the years, which has not yet won approval from the wife.

Picturead are Tim and Madison, preparing to leave my apartment after a little holiday celebration among friends.