Sunsets, Butter, Camping, Dancing, Planes & Toilets

Once again, you can tell that it has been a busy week since I haven't posted a blog since Lisa left. It is tough being a single parent but the kids haven't missed any meals yet (although they've complained about the meals they did get) and I don't think they've missed any commitments. Last night we had one of our famous sunsets so I ran out onto the street to take a picture for you. This is from our front yard. Lovely isn't it? Sarah came out to add to the beauty of an already beautiful view. I have a funny story to tell. Earlier this week Alex was bouncing a little rubber "8 ball" around. No one knows where this ball came from but I stuck it in the chain of a light that hangs over the dinner table. Alex was studying for a statistics final and I put the ball in the chain - loosely - hoping that it would randomly fall out of the chain and land on his head. It was intended to be some sort of booby trap. After the ball was long forgotten I walked into the kitchen and saw this. Alex and Sarah both swear that they knew nothing about it and had no involvement. They did seem just as surprised as I was. In order for this to happen the ball would have had to make several seemingly impossible bounces but there it is. I think I'll have to try more of those booby traps.

Looking back on the week it has been another wonderful week in my wonderful life (other than the fact that I'm a single parent). Friday night I had a scout camp and that was great. The boys decided that they wanted to try primitive cooking so we arranged a menu where we cooked with no utensils of any kind. It worked out surprisingly well. For dinner we cooked pizza (yes, I know it isn't quite primitive). The scoutmaster had brought large pieces of tile to cook the pizza on. The plan was to improvise a dutch oven. We used rocks as spacers and put a piece of tile under the pizza and another one on top. We then put coals on top of the top tile. I was skeptical because I knew the thermal expansion of tile is quite high and so I was not surprised when the tile exploded into many small pieces. The second pizza was simply heated over the fire on the broken pieces of tile. It was very well done on the bottom and somewhat cool on top but good. For breakfast we cooked sausages wrapped with onion on a stick and then wrapped that with dough and toasted that. It was extremely good. We cooked corn bread in orange peels, very good. We cooked eggs in a hollowed out onion - very good - and to top it all off we baked a pumpkin pie. I wanted to make a rock oven for the pie but no one else was up to that so we covered it with tin foil (I admit that is kind of cheating) and just sat it on pieces of tile over the coals. It actually turned out quite well.

While I was off in the mountains, Sarah slept at a friends house and Alex probably had a party at the house while I was gone (I'm just joking - I hope). I love camping. God has created such a beautiful world. Saturday night a friend of mine (the guy who hired me inspiring my move to the States) had his 50th wedding anniversary. Since Lisa was gone I took Sarah as her stand in. I think some of the old farts there (I was one of the youngest people there) figured I had a pretty young wife. Sarah and I tore up the floor swing dancing. It was a lot of fun. To end the week off, Alex and I spent the entire Sunday afternoon working on his Eagle Project. He turns 18 in March so the clock is ticking. He's been a "Life" scout since he was thirteen years old. Pretty pathetic. This is cutting it even closer than Ben did.

Isn't that amazing about that pilot who safely crash landed his plane on Thursday? Those people are pretty darn lucky. I know planes are made to be able to do a water landing but I don't think I've ever heard of one where the plane didn't break up and sink. Certainly I don't know of any commercial airliner that made a water landing with no loss of life. Click here for more on that.

I often hear little pieces of trivia here and there that I find fascinating. I think I will pass some of the more interesting pieces on to you when I hear them. Here is my trivia for today.

-------------------------trivia----------------------------

The inauguration of Barrack Obama will have the largest bathroom facilities ever in the history of America.

-----------------------------------------------------------