Feeding a need

I bought a chicken last week. It had a sell by date of 5/13, so I knew time was running out (if it hadn't already) to get it cooked. It was huge and cost $8.72 so I was loathe to throw it out. We were going to have chicken for dinner tonight, dammit, if it killed us. It may still kill us. Our son was woefully tired when we got home. By the time I pick him up at 5:30, nurse him in the van for 15 minutes, stop at the store and get home, it's almost 6:30. Dinner was going to be tight, but we were having this damn chicken.

I wanted to grill it because that usually is faster than the oven. The last time I tried this, the chicken drippings blackened the skin, so I tried it again with a foil barrier. That worked reasonably well, but we were running out of daylight and toddler patience and time all around. I decided to finish cooking it in the Advantium. But even that was going to take too long. So I cut it up into sections and finished it that way. It was the most complicated, messy, unappetizing version of grilled chicken I could have created.

Add to that a fussy toddler and I was just done. I was never going to try to cook anything in our house again. My husband has many wonderful talents, but cooking is not one of them. I think he can cook three things, one of which is Steak-ums. So if I want food at home, I have to make it. But when am I going to make it if we don't get home until after 6 and the toddler is running out of steam by 7:30? It's a sprint to make food, which isn't very fun.

Oh, and I had avocados that were going to go bad, so I had to make guacamole tonight whether I wanted to or not. And I had to find something to pack for Ian's lunch tomorrow. So while I angrily chopped up avocados and mixed cilantro I ranted to Rich about how food just is not fun. It was not a pretty sight.

We had some quiet time in our respective corners, him banging on things in the garage and me banging dishes. After an hour or so things started looking up. I took the leftover chicken and dumped it in a pot to make soup. I packaged up the guacamole, which Ian will get some of tomorrow. And I took the sweet potatoes I'd baked during dinner and made gluten-free sweet potato biscuits.

And even though the chicken was a mess, I steamed asparagus with shaved Parmesan cheese and toasted pine nuts and that was delicious. I could have eaten just that.

So food can be fun sometimes. Maybe just not on weeknights.

Goals against average

Yesterday Rich went for "stick and shoot" at our local ice rink in the morning. This is prime Dad hockey time because it's early enough in the day, he loses a little sleep but it doesn't upset anyone else's schedule. Except that yesterday Ian inexplicably decided to wake up at 6:30am. So when Rich got up to leave at 6:45 and we told Ian he was going to play hockey, I got to hear "HOCKEY? HOCKEY? Dada hockey? HOCKEY!" in bed until I gave up and we got dressed to go watch him play.

8am on a Saturday and we were at the rink. Ian was captivated. He sat on the bar behind the glass and stared intently at all the skaters. Every once in a while he would see Rich and would ask "Dada?" making sure he had the right guy. He was so pleased.

We went into the rink itself to get a better look and Rich came over to say hello. And I realized it was a toss up who was having a better time, Ian watching is Daddy play HOCKEY or Rich playing while Ian and I watched him.

A few months ago, Rich decided to hang up his pads and stop playing goal. We all had mixed emotions about this. As Rich said once, "goalies play so that everyone else can have a good time" so there was that level of suck coming to a close. But he has also played goal for many years and made some great friends on his team and enjoyed it. I wasn't ready for him to "retire" and pine for what he may have lost.

So I was pleased to hear he was going to try skating out. I wasn't sure how it would work out, but seeing him skate all over and score an occasional goal, he looked very happy.

I'm looking forward to this new phase of hockey. The less angsty, more relaxed, still very fun phase of playing out. He may no longer be a "puck eater" but he's still a hockey player. Ian and I will just switch to cheering for goals versus saves.

Continuing staff education

We tried an experiment today of having all my staff join me on a field trip. We told our customers ahead of time that we would be in all day "meetings" and I told our partner company to call my cell if something exploded. And then we hit the road for Busch Gardens. All in all it went well. I learned the FestHaus doesn't have any cell phone service. I learned Stephanie will still put on sunscreen even if it's 60F and cloudy. I learned about new sandals from Heather. I learned Anne Marie gets motion sick pretty easily. I learned Karal and Scott claim the swings make them sick, while I could take a nap on them if they'd let me. I learned my ass is apparently larger than it was the last time I rose the swings since I thought I was going to lose all circulation from the hips down before the ride was over.

I learned that John knows the names of several different types of polkas. I learned that Shawn and I pick our feet up on roller coasters like the Alpengeist because we're convinced our long legs are still going to smack into a stray tree on the ride. I learned that Chris is a sucker for a cheesy roller coaster photo. I learned that Jennifer knows to never buy anything unless you're leaving the park because you'll just have to carry it around all day. I learned Kevin can climb a pretty significant hill thanks to his new knee, and that you can still use an iPhone even if it's inside a ziploc bag to protect it from water rides.

I also learned that I can remote desktop to a server from a server from my workstation on my iPhone while walking across New France to fix someone's database. And I learned that even when you tell folks you won't be around, they still send "one more email" that we all end up reading while we're standing in line at the rides.

But it was a good day. And I'm very happy with my staff.