Delusions of grandeur... or maybe just delusional.

I have a HUGE fascination with shows about Alaska. Don't ask me how it came about but anything with Alaska in the title gets my full, undivided attention. You might think that I grew up in a cold climate and went hunting with my grandfather, so watching these shows brings me back to my childhood. While that would be a very creative and unique story, that's not me. I grew up in south Florida where the temperature never drops below 50 degrees in the "winter" for about a day or two.

I guess the reason why I love these shows is because it's on the complete opposite end of my experience spectrum. My family started to become seriously concerned when more and more shows were being added to my watch list. What they were thinking was Uh we are NOT moving to Alaska and you need to stop watching these shows. I can't help it!

This show started it all for me. I was hooked after one episode. The show centers around the Kilcher family (the singer Jewel's family) and their homesteading ways. The men are hunting, the women are fishing and gardening and all of this is in a hurried rush to be ready for winter. I will admit that once you've watched one season there's no reason to watch another because the premise is the same. Hunt, hunt, hunt so that the freezer gets stocked before winter. That's all. But it's fun to watch the family dynamics.

Now THIS is my show. It follows four to five people and their families through day to day life in or near the arctic circle. Between hunting, fishing, keeping warm and simply living each day of their lives feels like complete exhaustion to me. I couldn't survive one day. Simple survival techniques that are second nature to them make me say, "Wow! So that's what I would have to do in that situation." Granted I would never be in any of these situations because I wouldn't be living in Alaska. Sue Aikens is by far my favorite person.

 



These shows are one in the same, House Hunters but exclusively in Alaska. Families have three choices of homes and they pick one. Not all that intricate of a plot but it's interesting to see what you can buy in the 49th state. I have this romantic idea of moving to Alaska and buying a home on a couple of acres, having a farm and living off the grid. Of course I have never lived in a cold climate, on a farm or off the grid so there are some serious holes in my plan.

Take the Amazing Race, keep it in Alaska and replace the boring contestants with bad asses and you have this show. This show only has two seasons but you can tell that it has grown in popularity. Each team is dropped off at a starting point and has to make it to the pick-up spot in a certain amount of days. If a team doesn't get there in time then that team is eliminated. Pretty simple. But what isn't simple is how they get from point A to point B. Anytime I have some slight idea that I could survive not only in Alaska but the wilderness, this show softly pats me on the head and whispers no you can't.

Feline fantasies

I want a cat.

I really want a cat.

I can't have a cat because my wife is deathly allergic to them.

But if I were to have a cat here are all the wonderful things I would do with him/her:

1. Make sure my wife isn't deathly allergic to cats.
This is the most important rule because without it I can't have a cat. And that is the whole point of this post!

2. I would talk to my cat like it were a person.
You would think that I do this with my dog, JJ, and you would be right. But that doesn't mean that I wouldn't want to do the same to my cat.

3. I would dress it up for Halloween
Okay, Halloween is my favorite holiday and while I could dress JJ up in clothes and parade him around, he would look at me like I'm crazy. Seriously! He's an old man in a dog's uniform.

4. My cat would sleep with me.
YES! And if that sounds creepy to you I don't care.

5. I would talk to my cat.
I talk to JJ but he look sat me like I have two heads with one eye on each head. My cat would understand me.

6. I would feel bad for leaving my cat at home alone.
I mean if dogs can go everywhere, why not cats. That's being racist.

7. When we get old and if my wife were to die before me I would get a cat, name it after her and talk to it as if it were her.
I already told my wife about this. She gave me the thumbs up so we are good with this one.

So Julia Child, Martha Stewart and I walk into a bar...

After weeks of hibernation from the kitchen I am finally back to cooking and enjoying it. For the past month or so I couldn't go into or look at the kitchen without wanting to thrown all of my pots and pans into a pile and burning them. Cooking had lost all enjoyment and whimsy which was very bad for my wife and kids. I'm the cook in the family and when I decide to sit on my butt and refuse to boil a couple of eggs... everyone suffers.

I guess what made the magic disappear was the fact that I had been so adamant about healthy eating and sticking to a strict vegetarian/vegan diet. Of course those rules did not apply when we ate out but I felt that as long as I was cooking at home I would make sure we ate healthy food. I would even try to make as much stuff from scratch as I could. In theory a vegan diet is great and even down right admirable for a family of four, but it can also be a drag for the cook.

Trying to find new recipes that had no meat or animal by-products that also tasted good and were quick to make narrowed my dinner selections down substantially. I was able to find some recipes that were winners and would rotate them every week but I soon got tired of cooking (and eating) them. The thought of another pesto pizza with vegetable toppings made my stomach turn. I had to turn up the volume and find something new. But when you limit your choices you begin to find the same things over and over but with slight twists on the same thing. Rather than incorporate lean meats I simply threw in my apron. I went on a cooking strike.

Eating out is usually only reserved for weekends but we started eating out A LOT more. This really didn't bother me since we live so close to a wide variety of restaurants. Tonight could be Jimmy John's then tomorrow could be Olive Garden. No problem! Well we had a problem. I forgot two very important points. 

Point#1: Part of the deal that my wife and I had when we decided that I would stay at home was that I cook dinner. 

I was in direct violation of this deal. While we knew that I wouldn't be able to cook EVERY night I would still cook the majority of the time.

Point #2: My oldest daughter (who brings her lunch to school) no longer had my leftovers from the night before.
Sure there may have been food left over from take-out but there wasn't much. Plus she missed all the different dishes that I came up with so that she could brag to her friends about what tasty food I made.

So I had to put my big girl panties on and stop having a temper tantrum. While holding to a strict diet seemed like a great idea, I needed to give myself some wiggle room. We could still eat healthy and eat meat. So I found some great recipes and got back into the kitchen. Now I don't get upset when I don't make something from scratch or have to make something with cheese.

The lesson I learned here is that not everyone is Martha Stewart, even Martha isn't Martha. Take it easy, have fun and cook with love and everything else will fall into place.

And the winner is.....

For this post I am going into full on cheerleader mom mode. My oldest daughter is a part of a robotics team that competes in the FIRST robot challenges. For those of you that don't know what FIRST is (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) it's a an organization that exposes kids of all ages to science and technology through various competitions that are held throughout the country (and the world). In kid speak 

They get to build robots!

Here is a link to their website: http://www.usfirst.org/

When my daughter started the team she knew nothing about robotics and had very little interest in it aside from her Lego Mindstorm projects. This was an opportunity for me to flex my mom muscle and push her into something that I knew she would love. I mean, isn't that the whole point of being a parent? Pushing your kids into things that you know are good for them but they dislike initially. All waiting for the day when the light bulb goes off in their head and they tell you, "Mom you were right!" I'm holding out cause I know that day is fast approaching.

A month ago we competed in the Orlando regionals and won and this weekend was the South Florida regionals which, if we won, would make it to the finals in St. Louis. Obviously if I'm writing this post and telling you all about it then you must know that we won. Hardly a spoiler alert. But I wanted to show you some of the pictures from the competition.

The pictures don't really do the competition justice. This was so much fun! The energy in the air was infectious and it was easy to get caught up in the action and whimsy of it all. I couldn't tell who was having more fun, the kids or the parents (without a doubt it was the parents). Go to YouTube and search FRC robotics competition 2014. The videos will give you an idea of what goes on.

Check it out!