A day for the chefs

How did we celebrate Culinarians Day? By eating lunch at Del Taco.

Just kidding. We did eat lunch there, but the true celebration was in diner. I busted out my creative culinary side and cooked up some cheesy stuffed burgers.

You can read about it (and get my recipe HERE).

Cooling off

I've mentioned it once or twice before, but it bears repeating: my body hates summer. Therefore, my favorite summer activity is finding ways to beat the heat. Today, I flexed my heat beating muscles and whipped that summer swelter into submission.

I employed four different strategies to chill out today. The following are my tips to survive the summer warmth in relative comfort.

1. Sprinklers. Soak the lawn and the body in one shot. You stay cool while the grass stays green.

2. Ice water. Large quantities in plentiful supply.

3. Movie theaters. I would be willing to bet that your local theater is statistically the most air-conditioned building in town. I have no data to back up that assumption, only experiential observations. (my father-in-law and I watched Inception this afternoon, and the theater was chilled to perfection. You can read my review HERE)

4. The beach. Taking a dunk in one of North Idaho's lakes allows you to enjoy the best of two worlds. You're able to relax outside in the sunshine soaking up your daily dose of vitamin d, yet you're also able to remain refreshingly cool and sweat free.

Summer cooking

The local Infant Toddler Program hosted a picnic/barbeque last night at Ramsey Park for families with kids in their program. Despite a couple brief spurts of rain, it was the perfect day to get the kids outside.

They provided all the food and drink.

They also offered some activities for the kids: bubbles, a water table, and books to give away. Zu spent her time like a nervous squirrel, running from the park’s playground to the picnic table to sneak a quick bite from her burger, then off to the water table, and back to the playground – never spending more than a couple minutes in any location. Christian was preoccupied with the bubbles until he found the water table. From there, he obsessed over filling the toy watering pot to water the park’s trees. All of them.

JJ wandered the park and braved the spiral slide, but his fascination focused on a long board one of the other parents brought.
He could not resist climbing onto the board (the board’s owner gave permission) and would not dismount willingly. I think we have a future skater in our family.

We’re heading to a friend’s house this evening for another barbeque. As much as my body despises summer, I am enjoying this lovely outdoor cooking weather.

Fresh Starts

Can I just say that the month of June sucks? Or do I have to admit that I sucked at the month of June?

First, the natural calendar is devoid of holidays (with the brave exception of Father's Day) or any rational cause for scheduled celebration. There is Red Rose Day on the 12th, and since then I've been idle.

June was a rough month. I've had a difficult time being (or even getting) excited about anything. My home life has been stressful with my son's transition out of school, my professional life has been as hectic as a mosh pit at a country music concert, and I've been suffering from a serious motivational drought.

But enough with the excuses.

It's July first. And while I'm at it, happy Canada Day to all my Canadian friends. It's a good day for a fresh start. Time to get back in the saddle. Time to think like Billy Corgan and say that today is the greatest day I've ever known. I can not testify to the veracity of that last statement, but if I say it enough, I might actually believe it.

This is going to be a good month, I can feel it. July's calendar is packed with celebratory goodness. In a few days, we get to celebrate America's independence from those crazy Brits. As the month progresses we'll enjoy days like National Fried Chicken Day, Vanilla Ice Cream Day, and my personal favorite - Embrace Your Geekness Day.

July is also National Hot Dog Month and National Blueberry Month (both are occasions I can wholeheartedly support). However the second week of the month is Nude Recreation Week; don't expect any naked recreating from this blogger.

I'll leave you with one final thought: today is also Creative Ice Cream Flavors Day. Before you crash for the night, indulge yourself in a nice scoop of fried eggplant ice cream. Or Dracula cool garlic mint ice cream. Or perhaps bay leaf ice cream (tastes like eucalyptus).

BBQn'... in the rain

Good day for a surprise birthday party. Bad day for a barbecue.

We were at a friends house this afternoon to celebrate the birthday of one of my wife's best friends. (I'll be nice and not divulge her age) Her son had strung tarps from their porch roof out into the yard to give all the guests a canopy under which we could socialize, and that tarp was soon an essential part of the festivities.

A tad cold. Slightly breezy. And a torrent of water pouring from the sky. We adults (those possessing sanity) remained under the relative dryness of the feeble improvised shelter. The children were not so easily contained.

We don't often let the kids play outside in the rain. They had the time of their lives.

The rub down

Nothing beats a good massage, right?

Bekah promised me an hour-long massage on Valentines Day, and today, she followed through with that commitment. To be honest, I'd forgotten she'd ever made that vow, but she kept her word. It's a four month delay, but good things come to those who wait. And that was a good massage.

However, as much as I tried to crawl into my nothing box to think about nothing while getting rubbed, there was one thought I couldn't escape. They were playing Enya through the house speakers. That reminded me of the massage therapy I had after a bad car accident twelve years ago; that masseuse played nothing but Enya in the office he shared with my chiropractor. The more I pondered that deduction, I could not bring to mind a single massage parlor (that I've been to) that has played anything other than Enya.

That prompted me to pose a question on facebook: Is there an unwritten law in massage therapy that requires all masseuses must play Enya while giving massages?

To which my brother-in-law replied: No, I'm sure it's really written somewhere.

The missing week in the life of Party Nic

Where have I been? Thanks for asking. To be honest this past week’s been a blur but I can tell you that my activities and habitations over the past 10 days have not included writing.

If I had to pick a single week of May where celebration should have been easiest, that last week would have been it. How woefully wrong was I? When you last saw me, my sister-in-law and her husband showed up for our adoption weekend. Then I vanished from the face of the blogosphere.

That whole weekend should have been one big joyous occasion. Should have. I have an inner worry bug inside me that tends to derail my ability to relax and enjoy the moment. That isn’t to say there was no cause for celebration.

We got off to a rocky start. On Saturday (the 22nd) I was overwhelmed with the amount of house and yard work that needed to happen to prepare for adoption party. Dan also had the awesome idea of renting COD: Modern Warfare while they were in town. He and I have previously spent a couple of weekends blitzing through full games, including Left 4 Dead and Gears of War. I was looking forward to some good video game time. Problem one: the only copy that Hastings had in stock was scratched and didn’t work. We made a trip back to Hastings where they buffed the disk in an attempt to make it playable. Problem two: even after buffing, the game still would not load. Another trip to Hastings to get a different game. Most of the games that we wanted were all rented out of stock. He and I spent a half hour surfing game reviews on our iPhones before settling on Borderlands. Problem three: by the time we returned from our Hastings excursion, dinner was served. After dinner I had to go into the office to send out some reports; I spent an hour and a half at work (allowing me to take two days of PTO) and by the time I got home most everyone had gone to bed.

Sunday was a much better day, despite the kids being more on the stir-crazy side of life. Dan and I didn’t get much time to play Borderlands, and the night was devoted to family games. Dan and I challenged our spouses (and their youngest sister) in a game of Battle of the Sexes. After the first couple of rounds, Bekah’s parents were intrigued enough to join the festivities. The guys won.

We planned a bowling trip for Monday as my belated birthday party. The upside: we had Sunset Lanes to ourselves. The downside... There was a lot. The kids lost interest in bowling after the first few frames. I had problems finding a ball that fit my fingers. And Miriam found greater joy watching the kids than in whatever was happening on the lanes. After bowling, Dan treated me out to lunch at Wingstop, then we finally got some time with the Xbox. We spent most of the rest of the day killing bandits and aliens. Monday night was a Battle of the Sexes rematch. The guys won. Again.

Tuesday was adoption day. JJ is now officially and legally a Casey.

Since we were in Spokane for the adoption, we stayed in downtown for the morning. We walked all over Riverfront Park, rode the carousel, and had brunch at Olive Garden (where Zu liked pepper off her breadsticks and JJ stole his grandma’s after-dinner mint). Finally, the day was capped off with JJ’s adoption party.

Wednesday I was back to work; Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were about nothing more than catching up with life. To be completely honest, I’ve blocked out 90% of those three days from my memory. All I know was that I needed to cram four and a half day’s worth work into three days and flirted with the brink of insanity.

Mother Nature tried her best to slaughter my Saturday plans, but I flipped her the figurative middle finger and ventured out to the Kootenai County Farmer’s Market with Christian by my side. This is the first I’ve been to the KootCo market in the six years that we’ve lived here. Christian has been promised a garden the summer that he’s six (which would be next year) and he was eager to tell all of the vendors about it. He asked what all of the different plants were as we walked by the various booths. All of the plants piqued his interest (except tomatoes, he was adamant in his distaste for tomatoes). The lavender lady gave him gardening tips that included talking to plants to help them grow. When we visited Almost Sunny (ran by Sunny and Bent of Bent's Beer Garden), Christian told Bent and Sunny that he was going to have his own garden with carrots and “other stuff.” Bent was so overcome by Christian’s excitement, he blessed us with a generous and unexpected gift of some veggie starts. Now Christian can get some practice before he gets his full garden next year.

We now have a cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage starts sitting in the kitchen window waiting for a clear patch of dirt to be dug into the yard. And Christian spent two hours on Sunday afternoon following the advice of the lavender lady, repeatedly telling his plants, “I want you to grow.” My son isn’t much of a conversationalist. Yet.

Sunday was my day of rest and I indulged in all aspects of resting. Monday was the Day we should all be celebrating: Memorial day. Finally, yesterday marked my fifth anniversary as a blogger. My first blog post appeared on the tubes June 1st 2005. I’m posting a series of celebratory posts on my primary blog this week, and you can read the first two posts HERE and HERE.

Now we’re at today. And I’m exhausted.

When life gets in the way

I missed yesterday. Completely skipped celebration. There were a few events conspiring against me.

1) It was Circus Day. The anniversary of Ringling Brother's debut in 1884. Not to make up an excuse but it is difficult to celebrate Circus Day when there are no circuses in town? (Yes, I realize there are a few who would say I live in a circus every day.)

2) Any plans to celebrate got hijacked by JJ's health. Bekah made a quick trip to the ER last night, and by quick, I mean she was absent for a significant chunk of the evening.

3) My father-in-law is entering a cupcake contest. Since my wife has mad cake decorating skills, he invaded our kitchen and dining room to enlist Bekah's assistance.

I know these reasons are not a valid justification to neglect my daily celebrations. At the end of the day, I failed. However, I did manage to spend some time with Christian looking at pictures of circus animals, which turned into pictures of animals of all varieties. Which turned into a series of unanswerable questions.

"What's the giraffe doing? Why is the giraffe eating? What is the gorilla doing? Why is the gorilla sleeping? Why is the fox hunting? Why is the baby moose learning to walk? Do coyotes howl? Why do they howl?"

Sweat & Sunshine

I got to enjoy the sunshine more than usual today. My office had a fire alarm tripped, forcing us to evacuate until the fire department clears the building and deems it safe for re-entry.

As one of my friends called it - the biggest smoke break ever. I prefer to think of it as an opportunity to disguise my lack of melanin. After a half hour in the parking lot adding pigmentation to my skin, we headed back inside. I can't speak for myself, but that time in the sun helped me feel refreshed. I should get out more.

I continued to enjoy the sunny weather at home lighting the barbecue. To be honest, I don't enjoy manning the grill as much as I do igniting it. Bekah does the cooking, but given the opportunity I'll play pyromaniac. Give me a match and point the way... hopefully my eyebrows return intact.


But since I indulged in Eat What You Want Day yesterday, today was the day to celebrate burning it all off. The bad news: I'm not losing any weight. The good news: I'm not getting fatter. So it's a wash. I enjoy Sonic and clobber myself at the Krock. Not a bad deal if you ask me.

I did it!

Today, I celebrate achievement! Is it weird to be talking about accomplishment 0.5% into a year-long project as if you have completed some momentous task? If it is, too dang bad, because that's what I'm going to do.

Sundays are going to be rough. Unless there is some sort of obvious occasion to observe (yay - Mother's Day is next week!), I am going to have to get creative with my Sundays. Trust me... I can't wait for False Confessions Day.

But a typical Sunday in casa Casey is the honey-do day. It's the day we clean house, do yard work, wash laundry. All while trying to entertain four kids. After church and lunch, that pares time for celebration down to little more than a passing thought.

And the lawn was on my honey-do list today. Meet my nemesis:
An hour and a half later, and we had a presentable lawn. Hooray for accomplishments! Now that might not sound like a big deal, so please consider a few facts.

1) We have a smidge over a half acre of uneven grass in an nonsymmetrical polygon lot. With two apple trees, a few birch trees, some evergreens, and a handful of stumps to mow around.

2) I never mow the whole lawn in one shot. It's usually a two day undertaking. Not because it's difficult, but because I'm lazy. Just being honest.

3) It's been raining all week. That made the grass thick and wet. And it's supposed to rain more this week. Mowing today was a now or never option. To make it more urgent, the heavens looked as if they might open at any moment with me and my mower out in the open.

But it's done. So I celebrate achievement. I celebrate that feeling of accomplishment.