Cookie O'Lantern

When I added the chocolate chips to the pumpkin cookies, I wanted them to look like tiny pumpkins with faces carved into them, but because all the other ingredients dulled the bright orange of the pumpkin mash, they ended up looking more like disembodied snowman heads made out of human skin.

Happy Halloween!

Rate of Exchange

I was talking to Samuel the other day and he told me that he's been having trouble convincing his wife that life has been hard for him since he moved to the US.

For example, he recently sent her nearly his whole paycheck from his job as a dishwasher, which was around four hundred dollars.  While that amount of money will go further in different places in this country, it's still not a lot for two weeks worth of work.  However, due to the exchange rate, his wife received nearly sixty thousand naira.  According to Samuel, ₦60,000 is enough to live very comfortably for a month in Nigeria.  From his wife's perspective, he's making enough as a dishwasher to pay for himself and his family back home, so life in America must be easy.

I do appreciate his frustration, but I told him that since the goal is to reunite him with his family, perhaps the best response is to simply wait for his wife to experience life in the US to gain the necessary perspective.  Still, I understand that it hurts when your efforts aren't appreciated.

Hankering for Some Baker-ing

Ian and I had made plans to meet up on Friday evening.  Since I'm still not working, I told him that he shouldn't expect me to bring any treats like I often do.  Then Friday morning rolled around and I just felt like baking something.  But I still wanted to avoid shopping for the baking project so I had to figure out something from what I had on hand.  I found a can of peaches in the cupboard and decided to make a peach pie with it.  There was just one problem: I don't own a pie pan.  I knew that I could buy a cheap pie tin for about a buck if I had to but I really wanted to avoid that, so I looked through what I had on had that could be used in place of a pie pan.

This could work.  I searched for some recipes to see if this was even feasible and it totally is!  I used this recipe for the filling (though I added 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon) and this one for crust.  Even with following the recipes, everything took a lot long than I expected, which was annoying.  Eventually, I was ready to bake.

You may notice two lattice topped pies at the top right while all of the others are completely covered.  I was planning to do all of them with a lattice top, but I quickly grew tired of the trying to manipulate the dough so much; since the the pies are all much smaller than usual, that means the crust should be thinner, too.  I ended up just punching out circles, cutting an X in the center, and placing them on top.

It looks like I over-filled some of the pies, but otherwise they looked nice enough.  After letting them cool, I pried them out of the pan and I was impressed with how well everything was holding together.  They were to pies as cupcakes are to regular cakes.

I packed them up and took them to the Larsens.  The kids didn't get to have any while I was there, but they were super excited that I brought a treat.  Ian and I did sample them, however, and they turned out all right.  I think if I do this again, I'll try to get the crust on the bottom thinner, but overall, I'm pleased with the results.

Sometimes having the added challenge of only using ingredients that you have on hand can lead to some pretty cool outcomes.  While they may not be the prettiest things I've made, I'm certainly happy I gave it a try.

The Future is Now

Earlier this week I had a job interview using a format that was new to me for that purpose: web video.  While I think the interview went well enough, the experience did offer some new perks and challenges that traditional interviews do not.

Perks

• Simply throw on a dress shirt and tie over your t-shirt and you're dressed for the interview.
• No commute.
• No office chair will ever be as comfortable as a sofa.

Challenges

• You're now responsible for adequately lighting your home so that you look as good as possible.
• Audio and video checks take a surprising long amount of time.
• The host site can crash a few time during set-up (but thankfully never did during the real thing).
• It's a good idea to sit in front of a blank wall to eliminate background distractions.
• If you use a laptop on your lap, you'll probably have to position your knees in an unnatural way to ensure that you don't accidentally employ the use of Dutch angles.

Overall, the experience was mostly just weird because it was unfamiliar.  I don't know if web video interviews will be used more and more in the future, but if they are, at least I've had one to get me started.

State of Frustration

On Monday evening, I was sitting at home when a knock came at the front door.  I wasn't expecting anyone, so I was surprised to have a visitor.  As I headed for the door, Samuel, who had been on the phone in his room, told me that the missionaries had come by for a visit.  I immediately became furious at him.

I should probably explain that I was in my pajamas and was in no way dressed to have anyone over.  Additionally, I had made it very to clear to Samuel that while he was certainly allowed to have visitors over, he simply needed to give me fair warning so I knew what to expect.  Too mad and underdressed to deal with the situation, I went to my room for the duration of the visit.

After the missionaries left, I came out of my room, still angry.  Samuel apologized, but I was in no mood for something so simple.  To me, it seemed that Samuel was once again being a terrible roommate: it's his responsibility to request his share of the rent from the Bishop, but I always end up doing it; I've pointed out the need for a clean kitchen, but I almost always have something to clean up before I can start cooking; and he doesn't always remember to flush.  All of these things were annoyances, but now that I'm looking for work again, my stress levels are much higher and his failings as a roommate are much harder to ignore.

As it turned out, the Elders came by because one of them is being transferred and wanted to say good-bye.  Samuel had only found out that they were headed over a few minutes before, but, once again, he failed to live up to his end of things.  He was on the phone with someone else and, rather than end the call so that he could give me a heads-up, he continued to talk.  When the knock came, he was surprised that they wanted to come in since he was planning to meet them in the parking lot - and why would I need to know if no one was coming inside?

The problem with his line of thinking is that he made a lot of assumptions: he assumed that the Elders would call rather than knock on our door (one of our neighbors must have been coming in and held open the building door for them), he assumed that one of the Elders wouldn't ask to use the restroom, and he assumed that his phone call would wrap up before the Elders arrived.  We all make assumptions, but Samuel is still learning his way around American culture, so he's applying Nigerian assumptions to American behavior and that's a recipe for disaster, like the one we had Monday evening.

Once the Elders left, I tried talking to Samuel about what happened.  I accepted the fact that he didn't intend for things to go the way that they did, but I was still angry.  While intentions do matter, they don't outweigh actual consequences to our actions.  I told him that all I really wanted was communication and even if he only knew the missionaries were coming by five minutes before they arrived, that's still five more minutes of prep time than I got.  I could have gone on for several more minutes, but even though my anger was justified, the level of anger I felt was not.  I was in an agitated state because of other factors and Samuel didn't deserve all of that.  I cut myself from chewing him our and went back to my room where I was too riled up to be able fall asleep for several more hours.

The next day, I apologized for how I reacted, but reiterated that he needs to warn me when guest are coming by.  He apologized again and said he would try to do better.

If I'm being perfectly honest, I'm really looking forward to the time when Samuel's family is able to make it to the US and they can be reunited.  And while I want him to be with his family again, I'm at least equally anticipating the fact that he'll be out of my apartment.  Sometimes friendship do better with a little more distance between the parties and I think that will be true for the two of us.

Proper Timing

While I'm still looking for work, I am hopeful about my prospects.  One thing I've learned over the years is that the timing of events in our lives can be pretty surprising.

During Samuel's time as my roommate, he hasn't paid his own rent.  While I am trying to be more charitable, I couldn't have invited him to stay with me unless he could provide a fair part of the rent - normally, that would be half of the total cost of rent, but since he doesn't have a real room, we settled on a third.  Our bishop promised that the Ward would cover Samuel's share as long as he needed it.  For most of Samuel's stay, things have gone pretty smoothly.

Unfortunately, things have changed recently.  Our newly called bishop hasn't been as fast in responding to my request for Samuel's rent (which has been pointed out to me is Samuel's responsibility, not mine), so he's a little behind.  It was annoying while I was working, but I started planning for it.  Now, it's not just annoying, it's potentially devastating.  That's why I submitted a payment request yesterday with documentation of the three months that Samuel - and, therefore, the Ward - failed to pay.  The bishop saw it and confirmed that he would get me the back-rent by next Sunday.

Those of you that have been playing at home have probably already figured out where I've been leading with this: because of the timing behind all of this, November's rent will be covered by Samuel/the Ward.  This means that while I'm rapidly running out of time to look for work, my biggest expense, rent, will be covered until December.  Now that I'm in a position to see how this is beneficial, I appreciate how the missed rent is now a blessing to me in my time of need.

I hope to have good news soon, but it's nice to know that I have a little bit more time for things to come together.

Clear Home, Clear Mind

It's no secret that I got pretty depressed when I went through my last bout of unemployment last winter.  What I haven't mentioned is that in some ways, I never fully recovered.  I stopped putting my laundry away when I it came out of the dryer, leaving my clothes laid out in stacks.  I figured when I started working again that I would clean up everything, but that never happened.

With this current round of looking for work, my "stacks" turned more into "piles" or "heaps"; I'd take my clothes out and just dump them on the floor.  And, unsurprisingly, my mood got worse and worse.

Yesterday, I decided to fix that.  I did a lot of laundry and neatly folded and put away everything as soon as it came out of the dryer.  I even gathered up some already clean clothes and put them away with their newly washed kin.  And while I still have some clothes that need to make their way to the dresser, nearly everything that was once on the floor is now its home.

I wish I could say that my unemployment is over and I'm starting work soon.  But even without my job status changing, I feel much, much better just cleaning up my room, as if my cluttered bedroom was making my mind feel cluttered, too.

I guess my folks were right about needing a clean room after all ...

Head in a Vice

My cold is nearly gone, but it's giving me terrible sinus pressure on it's way out.  That means I can't think straight long enough to write anything substantial.  Expect a real post on Friday.

For the Children

When Margot invited me to visit her and her family for General Conference, I was hesitant to make the long drive.  What ultimately helped me make my decision was the fact that I've really enjoyed spending time with Clara and Henry, but I haven't had nearly as much opportunity to spend time with Peter, Cooper, Phoebe, and Sophie, and I wanted to start making up for that.

I arrived on Thursday during lunchtime.  The boys were off at school, but that just meant more attention for the girls.  Phoebe was happy to have me over, but Sophie took some warming up - it probably didn't help that I stuck my face too close to hers while her mother was out of the room as a way to reintroduce myself.  When the boys got home, they were both surprised and excited for me to visit.  Everybody wanted to constantly tell me or show me something.  After homework and dinner, we sat down to watch The Lego Movie, which was pretty great, though it was interrupted every minute or so with someone saying, "This next part is awesome" or "This is my favorite part" or "This is sooo funny."

The next day, after a day of errands, we picked up the boys and went to a nearby park.  I mostly hung back, just helping to keep an eye on things, but Miss Phoebe (as I started calling her) did ask for my help on the monkey bars a few times.  I also pushed both girls and various times on the swings, though never both at once.  As I wrote in my post last Wednesday, we ended up kind of running out of there when Margot spotted a bear, but I think the kids were close to worn out anyway.

Friday was Pizza Night and Margot made some very tasty homemade pizza that we ate while watching Frozen, which was decent enough.  Miss Phoebe had been practically begging for us to watch Frozen, and had even dressed up as one of the princesses in the movie during playtime that day.  She was visibly excited when the movie started and she made sure I was up to speed by making occasional comments ("She's scared because of her ice powers!").  Miss Phoebe also seemed to be disappointed with my declaration that my favorite Disney movie as a kid was Dumbo.

The first day of Conference, we all ate waffles for brunch.  The grown-ups had worked the night before to help prepare for the meal (Margot mixed up the waffle batter and I made an apple compote).  The morning of we had waffles with the apple compote and a fresh-made strawberry syrup, lots of bacon and sausage, and even scrambled eggs.  What surprised me was how much everyone one ate.  I'm not a small man and I put away quite a bit of food, but that was nothing compared to Cooper and Phoebe.  I ate about two and a half waffles (as well as meat and eggs), but the two middle kids both out ate me.  Miss Phoebe ate about three whole waffles and I think Cooper had nearly four, with both of them still having a compliment of eggs and meat.  Consider me impressed.

While there were arguments, the rest of the day mostly passed pretty smoothly.  Sunday, however, things were a bit more tense.  I'm sure it didn't help that Bryan had to head back to the office to work on a project, but the kids were a lot more restless the second day.  To try to burn off some tension, we worked on a couple of activities in between sessions.  First we played the board game Candyland, though Peter refused to participate since he voted for Clue.  After we finished the game, Margot asked if I wanted to have the kids help me make a batch of cookies.  I thought that sounded fine, so we headed into the dining room to get started.  Peter ended up doing his own project, helping his mom make some dinner rolls, so it was me and the middle kids again.

Measuring flour with Miss Phoebe.

For the actual cookie-making process, I mostly measured and mixed everything, but I let each child take turns to dump in the ingredients.  Most of my job, however, was watching the kids and sending them off to wash their hands when every they touched something dirty (i.e., the floor, their mouths, theirs noses, etc.)  Cooper was observant enough to point out when a small fruit fly had landed in the batter and I was able to pick it out before mixing it up (and I took the opportunity to weird everyone out by eating the fly).  The kids helped to drop the first round of cookies on the cookie sheet before the last session of Conference started, so I finished out the batch.

"Cooper, go wash your hands."

The last session of Conference didn't go as well as we had hoped, but Margot kept saying that the first day had been the best one they've had since the kids could be involved.

Did you notice a kid that I haven't mentioned doing activities with yet?  That's right, Peter.  Unfortunately, because of Conference, ten hours of my visit were taken up with something other than playing with the kids.  Peter noticed, however, and left a note spelled out on the fridge in magnetic letters: "Do you want to play Legos?"  As soon as Margot pointed out that the note was for me, I realized my mistake.  I had done activities with everybody except Peter.  Feeling awful but out of time to correct my error, I wrote Peter a letter.  I explained that I had meant to put aside time for him, but we ran out of time (I'm sure that all of the time-outs that everyone got didn't help matters, but I left that part out).  I closed the letter promising to put aside time for just the two of us on my next visit.  Margot, who hadn't read the letter, said that Peter seemed to have been cheered up by what I wrote, so at least it had the desired effect.

Due to a combination of factors, I had pretty terrible insomnia while I was there and I didn't wake up until mid-morning most days.  That meant that I didn't wake up to leave until after the boys had already left for school.  So the final pictures we took were just with me and Miss Phoebe.  She was playing dress-up again, this time as a pirate fairy princess, because I guess that's a thing.  At first she was annoyed at me for leaving and refused to smile, but she eventually warmed up, probably because the girl can't resist a camera.

Look at the indignation!

Silly faces help even pirate fairy princesses smile.

Finally, a smile!

I had a blast visiting my sister and her family.  It was nice to see Margot and Bryan again, but the real purpose of the trip was to solidify my place as the "Fun Uncle."  While I didn't get to everything that I probably should have, I think I made a big dent in my goal.  Thanks for the great time, guys!

Something Extra

I apologize to my readers for missing Friday's post.  It turns out that when I came home from visiting my sister's family, I brought something extra with me: a cold.  I'm not placing blame on my nieces and nephews since that's just part of growing up but it is a consequence of spending a long weekend with kids that can't remember to cover their mouths when they cough and have to be reminded to blow their nose rather than just sit there and continue to sniffle.

We all deal with colds from time to time, but this one is pretty severe with lots of coughing come deep in the chest.  The cough syrup I picked up helped to combat the symptoms, but only so much.  Luckily, I found a homeopathic remedy that helped to take the edge off my coughing in between doses of medicine.  Mix 1/8 teaspoon of cinnamon with 1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves and 1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger root, add boiling water, and mix with four teaspoons of honey (I also add a shot of cream for flavor).  I call it "Pumpkin Spice Tea" even though it's not a true "tea" since there are no herbs and it's not really pumpkin spice flavor since it's lacking nutmeg.  As far as remedies go, this one is quite enjoyable, though I doubt I'll ever mix up a batch to drink just for fun.

Sunday evening I fell asleep with what felt like a fever (I don't know for sure since I didn't take my temperature) and I woke up several hours later feeling much better.  I guess my body sort of shut down to focus more energy on healing itself.  I'm still not completely better, but coughing doesn't cause my chest to burn anymore, so I'd say the worst is over.

Come back tomorrow for the post that should have been up last Friday.

I Don't Know How She Does It

During this last weekend, I drove up to New Jersey to visit my sister and her family.  The idea was that we'd all get to hang out during General Conference together.  Friday's Next Tuesday's post will be about my time there with regards to the kids, but today I wanted to focus on my big sister.

Margot is currently wearing a walking cast on her right foot, which means that in addition to hobbling around everywhere, she also can't drive.  Despite this, she still runs a house full of people with big personalities.  And I do mean that she runs the house.  Not to take anything away from my brother-in-law, Bryan, it's just that he was super busy with work and was barely home while I was visiting. Margot appreciated my help, but it was clear to me that my being there was a bonus and if I hadn't come to stay with them, she would have had a handle on everything.

During my stay, Margot prepared personalized notebooks for the three big kids to use during Conference, made three home-cooked dinners, and made a big waffle breakfast for the Saturday morning session - Bryan and I helped with that last one, but Margot handled the big stuff on her own.

We also had a miniature emergency while visiting a local park.  When we were getting ready to leave, Margot saw a black bear wandering around about a couple hundred yards away.  She immediately rounded the kids up and got them back in the car and I drove us home.  No one else at the park seemed concerned (much like native Californians don't get too worried during earthquakes), but Margot was pretty collected considering that, in her eyes, her children were in danger.

All of this (fresh meals, bear scares, and Conference) was mixed in with a heaping helping of oppositional defiance from her kids.  Even on the "good days" every child but Sophie got multiple time-outs.  In her house, if a child is given a time-out and they don't comply immediately with the punishment or try to talk their way out of it, they get additional time-outs.  I wanted to point this out because there was never a time that a single time-out was administered.  And for the most part, Margot stayed pretty calm through it all.

Did I mention that she's also still nursing her youngest?  So, think of all of the things I've mentioned and add to it regular breaks to feed Sophie.

It was really educational to see all of what she goes through and yet she still has a good attitude.  If I'm half the parent that my big sis is when I have kids, I'll consider it a success.

General Conference, October 2014

When I watch General Conference, I like to look for common themes among the speakers.  While every talk is important, if you hear the same topic multiple times, it's probably because that's what we need to hear right now.

One prominent theme that stood out to me was missionary work, though there were a few subcategories.  There were multiple talks about how we should make sure that our non-member friends know that we're Christians and also normal people.  There were a couple of talks that mentioned that we need to be tolerant and understanding of others, while still living the gospel.  Elder Bednar even used his time to speak directly to non-members.

And as much as that topic kept coming up, the one that seemed to come up more than any other was helping the poor and needy.  I particularly enjoyed Elder Wong's talk that equated the story of the man with palsy brought to the Savior as the fulfillment of an assignment from a Bishop.  The Church has a great reputation through out the world for our humanitarian aid, but the over-arching message was that we need to strive to do better at a local and personal level.

As for what I took away, I think I need to get to know my neighbors better.  I usually take a while to get to know people before I'm comfortable really delving into the gospel with them, but once I do, I'm pretty bold.  For example, during the three-and-a-half years that I worked at IHOP in Stillwater, I gave away six or seven Books of Mormon and about half as many Bibles.  I got to know some of my co-workers to the point where I was comfortable sharing my testimony.  While that can happen again with future jobs, I should try to start now with my neighbors.  Other than my neighbor Keir, I don't even know any of my neighbors' names.  I'm not really sure how to get started being better acquainted with them, but it's something I should work on.

Were there any different themes that you saw?

Is No News Good News?

I was hoping to have a job offer by now, but even if no offer came, I was expecting to have heard back from the companies that I interviewed with.

It's frustrating to play the waiting game.  I want to appear interested and invested in the job, but I also don't want to appear desperate.  Finding the right balance can be difficult and waiting is hard, especially after hearing such positive feedback from both managers.

That said, I plan on calling both companies this morning.  The hiring managers from both companies said that I should hear back this week; I was expecting earlier in the week, but Friday still counts.

If I have good news, I'll update this post.  Hopefully, I'll do just that.

The Hills

The running route that I take around my neighborhood has three hills.  Recently, I decided to give the three hills names and I thought they were amusing enough to share.

Faith - Faith is the first hill on my route.  It's average in size, but always a bit more annoying than you last remember.

Jonah - Jonah is much bigger than you think just by looking at it and it's really easy to get tired of.

Maria - Maria is so small, it's practically imaginary.

It's kind of weird personifying geographical features by giving them names, but it's kind of fun.  And even though everyone won't agree with me, running is fun, so it fits.