Trick or treat!

The boys' Halloween costumes this year were totally homemade. Colin decided to be the Headless Butler, a costume idea selected from a Family Fun book (always a reliable source of clever family-oriented crafts), and Ethan chose to be a squire, which, from the picture, was basically Robin Hood, only not green.

Tad, thankfully, constructed Colin's costume from posterboard. Ethan's tunic was simply a belted piece of black fabric with a slit. The dagger was a flattened wrapping paper tube covered with foil and electrical tape.

It was all simple and came together really well. The boys were very pleased, which was all that mattered.

Trick or treating took place with the neighborhood kids and involved going from door-to-door with some of the parents screaming "Say THANK YOU!" every few seconds from the sidewalk.

Back at our house, we munched on popcorn balls and cookies and told real scary stories about possible frightening results from the upcoming election.

Beef Shank

We recently split a cow with some neighbors and assorted acquaintances. Our neighbor, Dan, invited us to sample some beef at his home, provided by Cami Brown, the extremely congenial mom of the clan that operates JS Angus Ranch.


Carried away by the tastiness of the various steaks she grilled up for us (and totally sucked in by her descriptions of how all the cattle are raised (without hormones, antibiotics, in a very humane way), we decided to sign up. Officially, the smallest share of a cow you can elect to purchase is one-eighth, however, we found some folks to split that with and each purchased one-sixteenth of a steer.


We picked up the meat last week. After all was tallied up and we split up our meaty booty with our neighbors, we loaded up the freezer with dry-aged, natural beef.


In addition to an assortment of the regular cuts, we were given our choice of various other bonus bits, like the heart, tongue, shanks, etc. She had mentioned that the shanks make good stock, so I spoke up for that (I also claimed a tongue -- childhood thing).


Anyway, after asking for it, I found a tasty-sounding beef shank recipe online, so, that ended up being the first beef test case for us.


If you check out the the recipe, you might note that it calls for four beef shanks, weighing about 6 ounces each.


The sawed off piece of cow leg we received weighed probably eight pounds all on its very own.

This was a problem when I attempted to flour, then brown the meat.


Even in our biggest frying pan, only one edge of the thing actually rested in the pan, allowing me to brown a spot roughly the size of a silver dollar.


I ended up pulling out the griddle, which worked okay.


The rest of the recipe turned out tasty, although I wasn't able to serve each family member their own beef shank. Pretty much, I put the huge cow leg in the middle of the table and invited all to pull off pieces.


Yummy. I wonder where Emeril gets those miniature, dinky cows?

Economic Woes

This photo amused me (though, of course, I don't necessarily endose the sentiment)

The recent 700 billion dollar bailout has been so much on people's minds lately.


There are some who don't believe that we should have anted up the money, viewing the act as a handout to fat cat financial types who made poor decisions and got themselves into the mess to begin with.


My brother, who lives in conservative, rural Medford, has coworkers who've protested that action.


I don't pretend to know all there is about the economy, but I do know that everything in it is interlinked and troubles in one quarter can quickly ripple to other areas.

• The company that I work for has recently announced upcoming layoffs, will be closing two plants and is dropping and entire product line.
• My old workplace, The Columbian Newspaper, is facing possible bankruptcy.
• I ran into a coworker who I happen to know is very interested in his finances. In the course of conversation, it came out that his financial portfolio took a 40% dip in the recent financial downturn. As he is nearing the age of retirement he doesn't have as much time as the rest of us to allow his portfolio to again grow to where it was and beyond.
  

While I don't feel in imminent danger of losing my job, the truth is that no one is invulnerable to this possibility. If that were to happen, with the current state of the market, it might be tough to find something else.

No matter what your political views, our country is at such a critical juncture. If you haven't already, read up all you can and vote with an informed mind.

VOTE!!!!

Li'l American Gladiators

Tad enrolled the boys in gymnastics, which is great. They're not particularly interested in athletics -- they're protested loudly at any idea of signing them up for soccer or Little League or the like. Luckily, they didn't mind gymnastics too much, otherwise, their skinny little bodies might start to atrophy.

It's also, appealing to us, as it's an activity that they enjoy that doesn't involve whacking each other with toy swords or pretending to otherwise incite violence upon one another. I'm not one of those parents who get really freaked out if they want to shoot at each other with nerf shooters, however an entire weekend of gratuitous mayhem can get a little wearing.

That's one of the reasons we decided to bring them to their gym (The Children's Gym) one Saturday.

We paid for a full hour, but after a while, their interest began to wane, so I got the idea to set up a half-pint version of American Gladiators, which perked up their interest quite handily.

(if you're on Facebook, you won't see the video until you click on "View original post" and go directly to the blog)

Hmmm... a violence-free weekend?

What's a pirate's favorite kind of sock?

Aaargyle, of course!

I'm a little late with this post, but had to mention our fun day at the Portland Pirate Festival. We've been going for years, from its inaugural festival til now and we wouldn't miss it for just about anything.

The tickets might seem a little spendy, but you have to keep in mind that once you're in the gates, everything else (except of course, concessions and gift items) is totally free. This is especially a good deal for a family, as your children can indulge in as many of the bouncy, blow up activity thingies as their stomachs can handle, see puppet shows, juggling shows, check out some friendly parrots (left, Colin seems a little dubious, while Ethan gets a tickling), see Captain Bogg and Salty, likely the greatest pirate kids band in the history of the world, talk to roaming characters in amazing garb (we usually get gifted with some pieces of eight from one particular friendly buccaneer, but this year, we didn't see him. There was, however, a very credible Captain Jack Sparrow who was wandering the premises who very much thrilled my coworker Shirley Karr, who has, to put it mildly, a "thing" for Johnny Depp)(she would also drub me soundly for how much this sentence is running on, but she can complain at her own blog), play some pirate-ish games (whack the rats is one, pictured below) to earn a prize, watch a cannon battle, watch some swordplay and much, much more.


This year, we also got to see a real blacksmith and received some elaborate knotted things from a knot-master.

I couldn't resist buying the boys some wooden swords with some nifty black leather scabbord thingies, which have brought them a ton of joy already.

It was a long day (10 til 4) but we had a blast.

My advice: go early, before the lines form at the bouncy castle thingies (and get them out of the way first -- later on you'll see lines form). Don't miss the cannon battles or Captain Bogg and Salty.

Time Warp

We went home to Medford a few weeks ago to visit my mom's house, aka the home that time forgot.

My mom is a big proponent of weird, generic dollar store "bargains."

There were about a dozen bottles of "L.A.'s Totally Awesome Window Clean tucked away in a spare bathroom. Wouldn't most people make the assumption that any product called "L.A.'s Totally Awesome" anything might be slightly suspect?

Anyway, I put the cleaner through its paces and found that it was really pretty much blue food coloring and a hint of ammonia to make it smell useful.

There are also quite a few products that my mom seems reluctant to throw out, although I can hardly believe that she's keeping that petroleum jelly for sentimental reasons. I took a few pix of some various items.

It was only a few years ago that the threw out the bottle of Jean Nate that I had bought in high school... ummm.... a few years ago...

Anyway, take a look at a few of the things I found at her house.

Doesn't that Beef-flavored Smack look totally delish?

I swear we really do feed these boys.

The derelict look of this photo is enhanced by the work that Tad's been doing on the front porch, stripping, etc.

I mentioned how thin the boys look when they really suck in their guts, leading to this photo op.

Maybe I should solicit donations?