Friday 17 April 2015

Cookie QC

Littlest and I decided to bake some cookies this morning.  I let her choose the kind and she picked the famous 'jam-in-the-hole' variety.  She rolled them into balls and poked her thumb in to make the hole and filled them up with jam.  She did this entire pan herself:


We made some with grape jam and some with strawberry jam.  Before we started I had told her we could sample one before lunch.  When the first couple of pans cooled, I told her she could have one.  She ate that, approved and then looked at the rest of the cooling cookies, taking note of the two different jam varieties.  'We should try these too,' she said.  I thought to myself, 'now that's some good QC thinking.'  Having spent nine years in a QC lab, this made me extremely proud.  She may have just been trying to get an extra cookie, but I'm choosing to believe it was about upholding the quality and integrity of our product.  We wouldn't want her sisters or mom to try something substandard.


So we each tried the strawberry ones and they were good too.  As she was leaving the kitchen, she noticed there were still more in the oven.  'We should try these too Dad,' she said.  My heart swelled with pride.  It is important to check each product run.

And just in case you are wondering, they were good too.  Later.

Wednesday 8 April 2015

Wedgiosis

Today's story is about biking, but first we need a little background information.  Here is what you need to know so things make sense later on:

Kids' TV characters come and go.  We've been through the Backyardigans, Little Einsteins, Dora, Handy Manny.  The list goes on.  One of Littlest's favourites right now is Doc McStuffins.  If your kids are older already, let me fill you in.  She is a little girl who is a vet for stuffed animals.  The animals can speak to her and she diagnoses all their ailments and her hippo nurse writes everything down in the 'big book of boo-boos.'  Some of her diagnoses include things like dried-out-atosis and can't-pop-itis and loose-tooth-eosis.

Now to the story:  the girls were out biking and Littlest is learning to ride her two wheeler.  She would have it down no problem if she could stop talking and stop stopping every few feet to tell me something.  Today one of her issues was that she kept getting a wedgie.  Only she didn't call it a wedgie.  She said she had wedgiosis.  She'd pedal a bit and then I would see her feet come off the pedals and I would ask why.  'I just had to stop Dad 'cause I've got the wedgiosis.'  Then she would rectify the problem and carry on.  A little while later it was the same thing.  The wedgiosis!


I think that judging by today, this problem can come in the acute and chronic varieties.  When it hits, it needs to be taken care of now.  But it does keep coming back over and over and over again.  The occasional acute case wouldn't be that big of an issue.  But the chronic...yowza.  So before you head out on the bicycle this summer, make sure you've got good pants or shorts and underwear that aren't prone to riding where they shouldn't.  Or the wedgiosis will strike you too.  And ain't nobody got time for that.  Later.

Life lesson #2

When first learning to bike, it's best to keep your eyes on the path and not the neighbour boys. 

ps:  this goes for more experienced riders too. The scenery will only get nicer as the weather warms up. 
Later. 

Monday 6 April 2015

Easter weekend

We returned home last night after spending Easter weekend at Julie's parents' place.  Our original plan was to leave here Thursday night and be there Friday morning for the Good Friday breakfast and service.  That plan was shelved due to a stomach bug.  Littlest was hit Tuesday evening and Middlest Wednesday night.  The puking all happened during the night of course, but she was in no shape to go to school on Thursday.  She spent most of the day in her bed, dozing and reading.  At one point, she finished a book and asked me to get her another one.  The title she was after was 'Unicorn School.'  She then proceeded to tell me it was in the unicorn section of her bookshelf.  Wait, what?  You have a whole unicorn section?!  But sure enough, just past the crime solving mouse section and before the fairy section, there was a unicorn section.  Who knew?  And where did she get all these books?


So after a puke-free Thursday and no one else catching it, we ventured out Friday morning.  We had a great weekend.  Poppa treated us all to a ride in his semi (who knew that a sleeper seats six?) and the adults all took turns seeing if we could double-clutch.  It was tricky and there was some lurching, but no stalling.  Julie's brother and his wife each took a turn, then I did and here is Julie.  Like a boss.


The other big excitement on the weekend was that Poppa bought the girls their own quad for when they come visit.  A little 90 cc Arctic Cat with a governor on the throttle (thank goodness!).  It was a surprise and he and Julie's brother came up with quite the story to reveal it.  They said they had captured an Arctic Cat and were keeping it in a cage in the quonset.  They also had a coyote call which happened to have a cougar setting, which sounds like some sort of very angry cat.  So with great trepidation we all crept up to the door.  Uncle hit the remote and the cat screamed from inside the metal door.  Poppa had a baseball bat there to be safe and he banged the door to tell the beast to be quiet.  It screamed again and he slid the door open.  A blue tarp was draped over the cage, concealing the great beast.  It screamed again.  The girls weren't too keen on the big reveal.  I took Littlest by the hand and we crept up and each grabbed a corner.  We pulled with bated breath.  And the Arctic Cat was revealed!  Then there was excitement and lots of, 'I knew it wasn't real and I wasn't scared' by the older two.  Yeah, right.  That's why you were 20 feet outside the door.

Here's one picture of Littlest looking really cute, and then some shots of the girls taming the great beast.







Julie and her dad pulled up some chairs to watch the show and visit.


On Sunday morning, a certain bunny made an appearance and then we went to church in Golden Prairie where we were treated to the real meaning of Easter.


He is risen!  Later.