Try-Me Night: Chimichangasby Angie
21 Apr 2008
11:04 am4
We recently purchased deep-fryer and have started experimenting with it almost every Friday (which we have now dubbed “Fry-day”). Chimichangas seemed pretty ambitious to me, but they turned out to be a huge success! We didn’t follow a particular recipe – I just looked at a few different ones for ideas and then came up with my own plan. Jim and Jon were a little leery of this – they really wanted us to do some “Proof of Concept” tests in advance to make sure things would come out right (because we were going to make them while my parents were in town visiting). Well, we never made time for early tests, so we just launched in on Friday. Luckily, they were delicious, and very easy! We decided that they would be even better with a hot, spicy sauce of some kind on top, so we’ll try adding that next time. This is definitely a meal we’ll make again!
I’m Famous!by Jim
19 Apr 2008
5:04 pm1
Well, maybe not famous, but the laser I’m working on is. KQED did a little blurb on NIF recently, so I’ve posted it here. It gives a good summary of what we’re working on out here in Livermore, and it is worth watching. I think it is cool, but then I’m partial to videos about giant lasers. (The segment is about 11 minutes long.)
If you’d like to watch a bigger version of it, pop on over to http://www.kqed.org and have a look-see. Man, I love my job.
Do-it-yourself Car Repairby Jim
30 Mar 2008
10:03 am0
I’ve never done much in the way of fixing cars, but I’ve been interested in it for a few years now. Meaning that I’d really like to learn how to do some simple stuff to save me a few bucks. Besides, I think it is fun to take things apart and fix things up.
This last month, with the encouragement of my friend and co-worker, Justin Bradley, I actually worked on my car in two different instances! I bought new speakers for our trip down to L.A. to see the Young Ambassadors and I changed my own spark plugs. It was a lot of fun. While we had the doors off to replace the speakers, we also fixed the locking mechanism for the passenger side door, which has been broken for some time. It felt really good to do something myself that would have cost me over a hundred dollars if I had brought it to a mechanic.
In order to get to the locking mechanism in the door, we had to peel back some plastic, which had been glued to the frame with some really nasty stuff. It looked like Venom from Spiderman 3 got stuck inside my door. (Click for a larger view.)
Here is a picture of the old speaker next to the new:
And yes, the new speakers sound loads better; the old ones had started buzzing, which was getting really annoying. I don’t know why I didn’t replace them earlier.
An Accidental Try-Me-Night: Grilled Artichokeby Angie
12 Mar 2008
2:03 pm0
I decided to cook an artichoke for us to share last night to go with dinner, and I did everything I usually do: clipped the prickly ends with kitchen shears, cut off most of the stem, and placed it stem-down in a pot with about an inch of water over medium heat, then lidded the pot to let it steam. Then, I curled up on the couch with my Relief Society manual to work on my lesson.
30 minutes later, I noticed an interesting smell – almost like a charcoal grill. A few minutes later, I realized that it was stronger… Odd. Suddenly, I realized what it must be. I dashed to the kitchen and uncovered the artichoke. There it was, sizzling in a bone-dry pot, with its bottom layer of leaves burnt and curling at the edges. The pot was burned black. I cut off the charred stump at the base of the artichoke and pulled off all the burnt leaves. Nothing else looked damaged, so we still ate it – I really liked it, actually! I thought the flavor was more intense than usual with a little bit of that something else that grilling tends to give things. Jim, on the other hand, didn’t care for it and I guess that’s for the best: if we had both loved it, I’d feel compelled to try it again.
So, what happened? Well, this wasn’t the pot (or lid) that I usually use, because I usually make two or more artichokes at once. I’m guessing that the lid must not be air-tight enough for steaming. As for the pot, well, we’re not sure yet if it’s ruined for good. It’s been scrubbed, soaked, scrubbed again, and now the dishwasher is giving it a go.
Trinity Arts Dance Academyby Angie
11 Mar 2008
2:03 pm3
Sunday before last, I was talking to Jollene Berghoff at church about where to find an adult tap class (since she teaches dance). She told me that she only teaches clogging, but I should ask Kjelene Deakin, who owns the dance studio where Jollene works. In fact, she found Kjelene right then and introduced us. There isn’t an adult tap class right now, but she’s been thinking of starting one and said she’d get back to me. At Enrichment meeting two days later, Kjelene found me and asked for my phone number, saying she had “had a brainstorm” about me… I didn’t think much of it, figuring it was just about starting up the class.
Wednesday morning, Kjelene called me and asked if I would be interested in being an instructor at her dance academy! I was completely floored. I tried to figure out what I might have said on Sunday that would give her the idea that I was qualified to teach dance – that “I’d taken tap and jazz and a little ballet years ago” didn’t seem to fit the bill to me. She explained that she wanted a new teacher to share her “Tiny Tots” classes – kids from 2-5 years old – which required much more in the way of personality, patience, and “storytelling” than perfect technique.
So, today was my first day at Trinity Arts Dance Academy, where I first attended Kjelene’s Pilates class to get warmed up, and then shadowed her for Tiny Tots and KinderBallet. She had half a dozen extra kids and moms there than usual, taking today’s class to try it out for free. It made for a pretty crazy morning. It was really fun, though, and I loved being back on the dance floor. I only had my tap shoes on for about ten minutes, but it felt so great! I’m still a little amazed at what I’ve gotten myself into, but it’s been fabulous so far!
Daylight Savingsby Angie
9 Mar 2008
7:03 pm1
I have to preface this charming story by explaining that, since our choir director, Josh Senecal, will be out of town over Easter, I offered to fill in and direct the Easter number. He hasn’t left town yet, so rehearsals are still at his home, and we meet at 9:30 am.
I’m sure you can see where this is leading, but I’ll tell my little story anyway: Last night we were up until well past midnight because of the monumental artistic achievement being culminated in our kitchen (I’ll let Jim elaborate on that later). At 8:30 this morning, my alarm started blaring and I sleepily turned it off and sat down on the bed to pet Jaquie. Ten minutes after that, I shuffled into the bathroom and was about to put toothpaste on my toothbrush when the phone rang. It was Josh, calling to say, “Hey, are you coming to choir today?” I said, “Sure, of course!” To which, he responded, “Well, we’re waiting to get started…” As the full import of what he was saying dawned on me, I felt mortified! I’m sure you can imagine the frenetic activity that followed this phone call.
So, yes, we were twenty minutes late to choir because I had no idea that today was daylight savings. Thank goodness for choir, though, because otherwise we probably would have been an hour late to church!
My New Callingby Angie
6 Mar 2008
2:03 pm5
Well, when I wrote a while back about being asked to teach Relief Society at the last minute, I didn’t realize that it was an audition!
Yep, I have received a new calling and was sustained and set apart on Sunday as a Relief Society Instructor. I’m very excited! I’m a little nervous, too, but I hope that after a few lessons I’ll get over that. I get to teach once a month (every third Sunday), from the new Joseph Smith Manual. This will be so fun!