Clyde is Moving!

Here's a little video of Clyde getting around. Enjoy.

The Many Years of Kids and Pirates

What started out as a lark way back in 2006 when Ryan was just a little baby.  I got his picture taken with one of the Seafair Pirates.  Back then I knew very little of this group.

Over the years, Ryan has grown and so has my appreciation for this rag tag bunch of scallywags.

Behind on Pictures!

Here's me on Father's Day 2011 in my rafting gear!

Clyde drinking out of a cup on Father's Day 2011

Heading downtown on the bus!

Flashback to 2009 4th of July!

Here's a little video short we made during the 4th of July 2009!

Father's Day Eve Dinner - BotRG style

Since on Father's Day this year we will be on river and getting home late I decided to "celebrate" Father's Day by cooking dinner and hanging with the family.

BotRG - Waffles

Waffles.  Tasty and square.  Math-heads love them.  People who desire to put syrup into little boxes enjoy them.

I am borrowing my Mother-in-laws waffle maker for a while and I put my home made waffles to the taste test versus a name brand waffle.

Here it is in pictures.

Action Waffles!

The Fremont Solstice Parade 2011!

A grand and wet day out at the annual Fremont Solstice Parade!  We packed up the family and invited my friend Susi who recently moved from my homestate, Minnesota.  Here are some pictures!

Susi, Clyde, Caroline, and Ryan all ready for a soggy parade!

Now Caroline is taking the picture and I get to sit.  Note my festive shirt over top of my warm fleece.  

I should have warned you that you might see naked people.  On Bikes.

Clyde had a blast!

Ryan is an active parade watcher!

Hard to tell, but here is Clyde being "Blessed" by the Flying Spaghetti Monster.  Now all of my boys have been blessed, and a family tradition is born.

Chocolate Milk Cake - BotRG STyle!

I have been craving cake.  I have a staff meeting tomorrow.  I need a treat to bring.  I think up idea.  I search the web.  I create.  

Chocolate Milk Cake

Ingredients

5 1/2 Cup White Whole Wheat Flour

1 Cup Brown Sugar

2 Cup Sugar

.5 Cup Nestle's Quick

3 Tsp. baking Soda

3 Tsp. Baking Powder

2 Tsp. Salt

1 Cup Olive oil

1 3/4 Cup Milk

2 Tbsp. Butter, Melted

4 Each Eggs

Method

Mix all of the Dry, add the liquid, mix.  Pour into Greased pans.  Cook

Servings: 12

Source: BotRG Web search

Now for the cake I am bringing to the work meeting, I covered in peanut butter and a drizzle of a nice chocolate syrup.  Looks yummy!

The cake I am making for myself will be different, which I have not decided on yet.

FolkLife 2011!

On Monday we packed up the family and took the bus over to the Seattle Center for Folklife 2011.  Here are some pictures from that fun day!

I am a classic Pacific Northwest Father - Wacky facial hair, Hawaiian Shirt, Utilikilt, and socks with sandals.

Ryan on the Bus!  Heading downtown.

Picture Time!

Caroline and Clyde on our 6 th wedding anniversary. 

Ryan and I at dinner on our 6 th anniversary.

10 years doing White water rafting!

Wenatchee River, near Peshastin, WA

When I first meet Caroline at Red Lobster in Olympia Washington, one thing she told me right away was that she is a white water river guide and if I wanted to be in a relationship with her during the 5 to 6 months of the rafting season, I better learn to paddle.

Watching a different company arrive at a take out near Cashmere Wa.

She worked as the Trip Leader for the Northwest Adventure Center at the Joint Base Lewis - McChord (at that time it was just Fort Lewis) part time.

Goodbye BotRG! Hello all in one!

If you follow my posts you may have noticed that my food blog Back of the Refrigerator Gourmet is gone. I deiced that I didn't want to be spending the brain energy thinking about the fact that I am not writing.

1 blog is enough.  I have moved all of the posts from BotRG over here and will still talk about food.

Quote of the Day

We know that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. But what most of us haven't been told is that every pointless action has an equal and opposite reaction, which means that, the more pointless the action, the more specifically pointed the reaction. This fact should not be lost on those who are paying attention.

Page 33 of the Summa Discordia.

Lost and then Found! Eric the Anchorman!

A long time ago I worked for Utilikilts.  That was a life changing job for better and worse.  While I was there I had a little fun with the web cams built into the Mac we used in the shops.

I created a bunch of movies called Utilikilts News Brief.  Little segments covering the things that happened during the week.  Well, much like my blogs, it wasn't always every week.

I would email these videos out to the staff, but never to the bosses.  These were made for staff only. :)

Today, Brett found 2 of the videos while cleaning.  We thought these were all lost, but here we find two!  If any of you who may read this come across any of the others, please email them to me!

Now the first video shows a happier Eric on a Friday.  The bosses were generally never there on Fridays.

The second video is a couple weeks (or more) later.  This video really deals with the losing of a good friend and co-worker CJ.  I don't know all of the details of if he was fired or quit, but that doesn't matter now does it.  He is still very cool and also works as a tour guide but for the wonderful Market Ghost Tours!  

I have acquired two other former co-workers from Utilikilts to my current job.  Life is good having them beside me!  Thank you Brett and Nick!

Enjoy.

A few videos to share!

We have been busy thats for sure!

Here are a couple of videos for you to enjoy.

First up, Ryan and his buddy Oliver went to a play land called Whirligig at the Seattle Center.

Then, Oliver and Ryan put together a little puppet show for you all to enjoy.  Alex helped film and I tried to influence them along.

Photos of Clyde

Here are some photos of Clyde.  I would type more but I mysteriously did something to my right pointer finger.  I sprained, twisted, almost broke it and I do not know how or what I did, nor when.  All I al was that on Thursday it hurt a little, then Friday it hurt all day and then became swollen.  So Caroline taped it up next to the Middle Finger, so typing is a pain!

Clyde is a big baby

Clyde is 8 weeks and 1 day old and weights 13.8 pounds.  That is big.  Ryan weighed 13 punds at 11 weeks old and Ryan was considered a big baby.  Clyde is huge.

And he has a great smile!

Why I quit Facebook

In one week, on March 14th my Facebook account will be permanently deleted.  If I choose to open an account after that, I will start over completely.  Facebook does give you the option to deactivate your account which is very different, here the text from Facebook.com - 

What is the difference between deactivation and deletion?If you deactivate your account, your profile and all information associated with it are immediately made inaccessible to other Facebook users. What this means is that you effectively disappear from the Facebook service. However, we do save your profile information (friends, photos, interests, etc.), so if you want to reactivate at some point, your account will look just the way it did when you deactivated. Many users deactivate their accounts for temporary reasons and expect their information to be there when they return to the service. If you permanently delete your account, all personally identifiable information associated with your account will be purged from our database. This includes information like your name, email address, mailing address, and IM screen name. Copies of some material (photos, notes, etc.) may remain in our servers for technical reasons, but this material is disassociated from any personal identifiers and completely inaccessible to other users. Facebook also does not use content associated with accounts that have been deactivated or deleted.

Many of my friends and family have asked why am I doing this.  Often people ask if somebody said or did something awful to me on FB.  Nope.  An other group of people almost seem upset by the idea of me leaving.

Truth be told I have an addictive nature about me.  This hold very true with certain types of social network sites online.  The constant updating of words, stories, pictures, videos, and news kept me hanging on the FB all the time.  

In an average day I would spend close to an hour plus looking at FB.  Now, we're talking 5 minute intervals constantly through out the day.  Add that to the 1 to 2 hours of Hulu(TV) a night, that was 3 hours plus a day of basically wasted time.  For the record, I greatly enjoy hanging with my wife and watching our favorite shows together while Ryan is asleep.

Every couple has various issues that they deal, work, and change regarding each other and for me I knew that this would be a topic that would have ill effects on my relationship with my wife and family.  And that ladies and gentlemen is the reason I quit Facebook.

I need to choose things in my life that give me a hobby / distraction but have a higher value (in my view of course).  Facebook to me was basically a Passive Time Killer.  It just sucked away my time while basically giving me little to nothing.  With this blog and the others still give me the connection via stories, pictures and videos to people who really want to see / know, and it helps me work on my writing, typing, thinking, and language skills. To me there is a higher value.

In the end I look at it much like a drunk looks at booze.  There are many people in this world that can handle drinking booze with no ill effects to their life.  And some can not.  Facebook had a major potential to be detrimental to my relationships.

That is why I choose to permanently delate my account instead of just deactivate it, I knew that by leaving it hanging out there, I could fall back into the old habits.  It is much better that I cut off the Head so to speak.

Does this make it clearer to you now?  If you have questions or comments, please feel free to post them below.  This could be a great opportunity for a discussion. 

I heart Dilbert

You should rent, buy,and watch MicMacs.

This was a wonderful film.  Please watch it.

Life and Times - Photo post

Sometimes all you can do is post some photos...

Babies can sap the energy from grown men.  @SuperPower

Click in to see more.....

To the Gods of the Internet - I want

http://www.apple.com/ipad/

Sweetness.  New shiny iPad.  drooooool

Ryan Turns 5 today

To think, 5 years ago I was childless.  I was a worker bee.  I was a husband.  I was a guy who drank beer in a bar what ever day he wanted.

Things change thats for damn sure.

Ryan has been a life awaken thing.  I am more aware now of my faults, weakness, and shortcomings.  I am also more aware of my Strength, my will, and my Backbone.

I am very happy to have him in my life.  I am also very lucky to have him, his mother - my wife and our youngest boy too!

Happy Birthday Little Man! Your Papa Loves You Very Much!

He's so cute...

I could just eat him up

Grow your own food - SPU Guide

Seattle Public Utilities has a handy guide on growing food in the city.  Check it out!

http://atyourservice.seattle.gov/2011/02/25/grow-your-own-food/

Ryan's 5th Birthday Party!

With Ryan's B-day on March 1st, we held his party the Sunday before. Loads of fun. All junk food for eats! Gummy Bear, worms, slugs, and swedish fish! Animal crackers and frosting covered Animal Crackers with sprinkles!

Ryan requested cupcakes this year and our very good friend Charra made some amazing cupcakes, with Ryan's fav animals!

Here's a close up showing the details. Amazing!

Of Course there were many friends and family who came over too.

Once it was time, the 5 candles went the cupcake that Ryan choose and we all sang the Song!

Clyde was there and had a great time too, and even got some hands on Grandma Time.

Of Chicken and Redemption Part 3 - Pulled Chicken

Yep, the Chicken did not work, but I had a plan.

It involves a Crock Pot, water, many hours and low heat.  Oh and a over cooked and tough stewing chicken.

All that went on for almost 24 hours.  Well, closer to 18, but in the end the meat was just falling off and most of it was rather tender by this point.

Then came the process of separating the meat from the bone and other stuff.  Kind of gross, but fun too!

I was left with a nice bowl of chicken!  I was also left with some really great and yummy juice that I added my frozen veggie and made a deep rich stock from. You know how much I love making stock right?

I had cooked up some beans and rice all ready, now for the pulled chicken.  As is the nature of this blog, this was truly a Back of the Fridge plate.

The sauce was a combination of beer - a pale ale, stock, water, white vinger, molasses, maple syrup, a dash of OJ, and spices (salt, pepper, cumin, cyan, red pepper flakes) and onions, garlic, and red bell pepper.

In a pot I heated up Olive oil, added the veggies and cooked until soft.  Deglazed with the beer, added the rest and a little corn starch for a bit of light thickness (does that make sense?).

Heated up until bubbling and then added the chicken and mixed well.

Served the chicken over the rice and beans with a side of boiled greens.  Bammo Mitch.

It was super yummy.  Hot dang was it good.  It could have been spicier, it was rather sweet and a little heat would have been nice.  But wow.  Redemption.

Read Part 1

Read Part 2

Of Chicken and Redemption Part 2 - Dessert

Sunday dinner was a bit of a flop.  The chicken was crap o la, but the rest was good.  The veggies were near perfect!

I love Sunday Dinners that include dessert and during the cooking of the chicken and cleaning of the kitchen I was inspired to fix dessert.  Pear tart!  But I had no dough, and I lack in dough making skills.  But I can make a mean shortbread cookie.

I made a normal batch of shortbread

• 1/2 cup butter
• 11/2 cups flour
• 3 T sugar

Mixed and patted into my french tart pan.  Then I sliced up 3 pears thin and dusted with a little sugar and cut some butter over the top of that.  Baked in the oven at 350 degrees for about 15 ish minutes.

It was super yummy.  So yummy it may make an appearance at a special large dinner party I throw every year,  Maybe.

Part 3 of the story is coming around the corner...  The redemption phase.

Read Part 1

Read Part 3

Work Life Balance

Finding a Work Life Balance is a very important thing to us (one reason I quit Facebook).  I personally have to try to keep it Work Life Balance and not Work Versus Life.  There is a wonderful phrase - Do you Live to Work or Work to Live?

Watch this video -

My Other Blog - personal journal

Hello dear readers,

I am glad that many of you are enjoying this blog and I hope you too are getting creative with what you have in your kitchen!

I wanted to let you know that I have started a personal journal type blog as well.  You can find it here at

A Harehl Musman Production - hmprod.blogspot.com

You'll find stories and pictures and videos of our everyday life.  I hope you'll check it out.

E

Post #1. This first Entry. One. The Beginning. Not the Last.

TA DA!

Well here it is post #1.  Hope you're happy.  

First up, some over due photos.

Here is sleep Clyde with hands folded.  A Classic Image. 

Here is Ryan feeding Clyde for the first time.  He did a great job!

Here we find Fezziwig the cat enjoying a nice place to sleep.

And lastly, because it has to be a bit weird in here - I found this hanging in the hallway at Starbucks on 1st and Pike in Seattle.

Now really, who doesn't need more slack in their life?  Dobbs will help you out.

Of Chicken and Redemption.

Thanks to Johnny & Joe for leading this 3 part post off.

Stewing Chicken - is an old hen that is past it's laying prime.  Tough, dry and requires a long slow heat cooking process.

That's where I screwed up on.

My In-laws gave me stewing chicken that my brother in law had processed during a farming class.  The bird looked good, and I had a grand idea for Sunday Chicken dinner.




I cut the bird down into sections, put it into a pot with olive oil and potatoes, fennel bulb, onions, garlic, and vegetable stock.  Covered and put into the oven and cooked for about 1.5 hours.

Lets say that the veggies were wonderful!

The chicken it self was dry, tough, rubbery, and plain dull.  I was sunk.  My pride was hurt and I felt just dumb.  I should have know better I thought.

There was though a grand plus side to the dinner - The Wine for starters.

My friend David over at La Buona Tavola turned me on to a wonderful bottle of Italian red wine.

Good round flavor, not too fruity.  It was a pleasant drink to go with the vegetables!

I came up with a plan, but not until we finish dessert.  You'll have to wait until the next post for dessert: Pear tart with a shortbread crust.


Read Part 2
Read Part 3