Jason Raven

He said you best go on a diet

I started the weekend by picking the girls up after work and taking them to the Greely ball fields. We watched a little bit of the baseball game, and then walked over to the softball game for an only slightly-longer bit. It was very frustrating trying to watch the game, talk to friends and keep an eye on the kids at the same time. When the little one said she was hungry I immediately suggested we head out for supper. I was hoping that they'd be amenable to nearby Bruce's Burritos, but one of them suggested Cole Farms and they both started clamoring for it. It was still very early in the evening, so I gave in.

Spring is here again

This weekend delivered some beautiful sunny weather. I can still see snow in the woods behind the house, but the remains of the massive icy pile that had slid off the roof finally disappeared on Thursday. Apparently, the Saturday sun was strong enough to give me the first sun burn of the season. I managed to go all last summer without burning my newly shaved head, but I guess that I let my guard down after the long, dreary winter. If you know the feeling of a hot shower on sun-burnt shoulders, imagine how much worse it feels on your head! It didn't make for the best shaving experience, either.

I'll bring home the turkey if you bring home the bacon

I'm getting excited about the spring turkey hunting season. The heavy snowfall that we had this winter has supposedly been very damaging to the deer population, but based on what I've seen this spring I'd say that the turkeys are flourishing. As I've driven around lately, I've seen several flocks of hens and the occasional tom. However, I'm a little concerned that the toms are already puffing up and strutting for the ladies because the season doesn't start until April 28.

Black Friday

This semi-long weekend was front-loaded with insanity. Our van needed its second round of expensive repairs in just three weeks, so we had one car on Friday. Angela and I also had a 9am "observance" at our older daughter's kindergarten to attend. To make matters worse, on Wednesday morning one of my cats was acting strange when I let him out of the basement, so I finally made a vet appointment for Friday afternoon to get both cats their shots, for which they were loooong overdue. I decided to just take the whole day off from work.

Mixed in with seaweed - part deux

Last week, we made basil pesto and I had an epiphany: seaweed pesto! What a great way to get rid of my two remaining packages of kelp noodles! I have seen variations of pesto using roasted red peppers, mushrooms, butternut squash, etc... as the base, so why not seaweed?

The satellite comes and goes

Despite being a big fan of gadgets and new technology, I'm usually pretty slow to spend money on new toys. Partly because I'm getting old, but mostly because I'm cheap. I've never owned an iPod or Blackberry. I've never texted anyone, although I think my phone can do that.

Diary of a Madman

I decided this weekend that since my children were the original impetus for blogging, I wanted to start using this blog as more of a journal so that my kids would have a better record of our daily life. This will also give me some ammunition if they ever try and cook up some "Cat's in the Cradle" mythology about me and their childhood.

Mixed in with seaweed

I was watching Bill Green's Maine a month or so ago when I saw a story about a gentleman from Maine that was harvesting seaweed from the ocean, cutting it into thin strips, boiling and packaging it for sale as frozen kelp noodles. I was immediately intrigued and, as usual, waited several weeks to act on it.