049 - Spend a one-on-one day each month with Gabe

Sometimes the guys just have to have some serious guy time. Women reading this probably don't understand what I mean. This isn't bonding over shopping for clothes or shoes I'm talking about here.

No. This is about spending a day hiking, or driving go-carts, or playing laser tag, or going fishing, or visiting historic battlefields.

Gabe and I need more time without mom or sis around. This 101 thing in 1,001 day activity is meant to create the habit, for both of us, of planning and spending time together.

You might think, it's only one day per month, that isn't a big deal. Well, I'm talking about a whole day here, not a couple of hours. These are days when we leave the house early, go grab breakfast, and start exploring and doing stuff together. We won't be home any earlier than 4 or 5 in the evening. In the summer it will probably be later.

He's going to be 11 years old soon. He won't be young for long. We need to make sure we stay connected now. This is meant for me as much as him. I want Gabe to talk fondly of me to his grandkids.

And when we're out and about and we get tired, we can act like orangutans and lounge around chewing on some straw.

Sometimes the day gets away from you

Some days it's best not to have plans.

On those days, the best you can do is have a general guideline of where you'd like to go and what you'd like to do, but you agree to follow the current and let the flow of the day take you where it needs to go. We do this in the name of family, work, civic responsibility, etc.

Yesterday was a bit like that.

After getting my daughter off to school, I went to vote in the Virginia primary before heading to work. Like much of the country, the weather was windy and cold.

When I arrived at work, my calendar was magically full of meetings. Not just meetings, but working meetings. The kind where I can join via a conference call and continue working on other things. The kind where we're not talking about doing things, but actually doing things. And, in a few cases, the kind that had me as the discussion leader.

They were scheduled straight through lunch. No breaks. I had to arrive late at one of them in order to use the restroom.

Oh, I haven't mentioned that I skipped breakfast. My energy levels dipped to 4:15 a.m. levels by 1 o'clock. Luckily the one o'clock meeting ended after only 15 minutes. I could grab lunch before the 2.

But the cafeteria only had fried food. Eating a meal only from the salad bar was out of the question. So, I had to chance leaving the building.

By that time, it had been raining for a couple of hours and the temperature was nearing freezing.

A quick trip to Arby's turned into a long wait in the drive-thru for a sandwich and an unsweetened tea...I could've eaten a large curly fries. When I returned, it was 5 minutes after 2. My next meeting had started.

We had 4 points to cover in that meeting. When I arrived they were still discussing point 1. When I left at 3 for my next appointment, we were still working out the kinks regarding point 1. You know what a mix of guilt and relief feels like? Well, I do.

At 3, I was supposed to be at Virginia Blood Services, where I was donating platelets again. Normally, I donate at work, but they called and I felt compelled so I scheduled an afternoon appointment. I drove there, knowing I would be 15 minutes late, only to discover that they had moved into a new building that was only about 3 minutes from my office. Oh, boy.

I arrived at nearly 3:30. They did not hook me up to the machine until nearly 4. The procedure takes 76 minutes once it begins. I read old issues of Time magazine and last week's Richmond Style Weekly. They gave me Fig Newtons and water. I had finished off the iced tea on the circuitous drive to the new building. My blood pressure was nice 108/71, but my pulse, at rest, was 90. Lovely caffeine.

At 5:30, with numb lips from the anti-coagulent, I headed home. I would have just enough time to eat before we set out with Gabe for the middle school he'll be attending next year. They were having an open house for parents and kids, introducing them to the school and what middle school life is like in this particular program.

Arriving home, in the rain, in the dark, at 6:15 with only a roast beef sandwich and a couple of Fig Newtons in my system, I was starved. Everyone had eaten. I had kid leftovers of a small bowl of mac & cheese and a bowl of steamed broccoli.

Monica called from school at 6:20. She had stayed after to work on an orchestra presentation. They were performing at the open house at 7. She didn't have her informal performance polo with her and she would like to have it by 6:30. We live 15 minutes from school. We hurried and arrived by 6:45.

From that point, we listened to a variety of presentations from students, teachers, and administrators. We heard music from the orchestra and later, the band. We had Q&A sessions with students, went on a tour of the building with the kids, and had a long conversation with Monica's orchestra teacher.

We made it home at 9:30. Monica was starving. By the time we settled down, cleaned up and went to bed, it was well after 11.

Some days fly by and you have no control. Yesterday felt that way for me.

But I am glad that I didn't have to play rugby in the mud.

Why I could never be a movie reviewer

There was a time when I would see practically every movie that was released. Whether they were good or bad, or so nondescript that they might not ever be viewed again, I paid my for matinee ticket and went to the cinema.

If you see a lot of film, you start thinking that "Hey, maybe I could write movie reviews." I thought that, but never acted on it. Now, I'm glad I didn't.

Here are my reasons why:

1) Most movies just aren't very good. They have about as much value as the typical television show. They aren't worth the time for the reviewer or the filmgoer.

2) Movies that are considered "good" usually, these days, contain strong imagery that sledgehammers you over the head with its goodness.

3) Escapist comedies always run the risk of containing some form of scatalogical humor, which I detest and which, unfortunately, lingers in my memory for the rest of my life. I'll never forgive the makers of Ladies Man, for example.

4) Obviously, a reviewer has to spend time at the cinema, subjecting him or herself to the law of bad movie averages and then he or she has to come up with a coherent review of a likely incoherent movie. Or even worse, come up with something to say about a so-so movie.

I can't subject myself to gross out humor, or tense situations involving a gun and the potential for graphic violence. I can't separate myself from realistically cruel depictions of life, such as movies regarding the Holocaust.

While horror movies used to be my thing, today I find them tedious. There scares come from very loud noises and things jumping out from the dark. I just don't feel like sitting through these things, watching characters make very stupid choices.

And, we should probably not talk about the stupid choices made in so-called chick flicks. Sometimes two stupid people deserve each other. These types of movies provide the fantasy situation where it actually happens. Typically, these people wind up in terrible relationships and marriages with mismatched partners. If we're lucky, we too can find someone stupid enough to love us. I don't need these types of movies.

Wow, this post has a decidedly negative vibe. Let me remedy that. But first, a quick restatement of this post's purpose: I couldn't be a movie reviewer because I cannot tolerate the thought of subjecting myself to movies that will likely be uninteresting and valueless at best or contain images that will be indelibly stamped in my psyche at worst.

Now the upbeat part: I am so appreciative of the fact that there are people who review movies. They reduce my risk and save my money with their takes on film. Thank you, movie critics.

Plus, I love movies. Even the ones that make me uncomfortable, I can still appreciate for the artistry and effort that went into making them.

Those movies that I love make it all worthwhile. I like making lists and ranking things. I love a lot of movies and if I had to make a Top 10 list it would change depending on the season, my mood, and my current interests. Here's a look at what it might be today, in no particular order:

1) All About Eve
2) Patton
3) Glory (probably a consistent Top 10 for me)
4) Singin' in the Rain (except that silly dance daydream sequence...sheesh)
5) The Sixth Sense
6) Evil Dead 2 (probably another regular Top 10)
7) Blade Runner (this one, too, would be a regular on this list)
8) The Princess Bride (and this one...maybe I could make a Top 10)
9) Little Miss Sunshine
10) Once Upon a Time in the West (if Henry Fonda is the bad guy, it has to be interesting, if not good)

What movies do you like? Whose your most trusted movie reviewer? I trust, but don't always agree with, Roger Ebert, as I have for going on 30 years.

025 - Complete two oil paintings

I've never had the nerve to paint with oils.

Or maybe I'm too lazy to clean the brushes.

Arcylics and watercolors, even housepaints, have been part of my attempts at paintings, but never oils.

Over the next 1,001 days, my goal is to complete two oil paintings. They won't be very large, I expect. The largest will be a 24" x 24" more than likely. Maybe, if I feel good about it, I'll do a larger canvas.

At some point, I will actually post some of my paintings. Like everything else that I do with a modicum of creativity, I take my inspiration from the things that I like and I try to copy them. That at least gives me the confidence to begin.

Painting, like any form of art, isn't about creating the masterpiece, it's about losing yourself in the process. It's not about being courageous or fearless because courage and fear don't even enter your mind. Questions of good or bad are best left to people with nothing better to do.

The quote on the poster (that I made at one of my favorite websites) captures the essence of the amateur artist. It's easy. Just do it.

So, I'll hold my nose and get out the turpentine and have patience with the long drying times and paint a couple of oils. I'll post the results.

020 - Give up deep fried food for Lent

I am not a religious person, let alone a Catholic. But I think I understand the value of Lent from a secular viewpoint. The idea is to give up something that you believe you love or need for 40 days, to be able to resist the temptation.

This personal sacrifice during Lent is intended as an exercise in spiritual growth. When Easter rolls around, you should be a stronger person for having eliminated something from your life or diet that you desired or even craved without thinking. Successful completion is proof to yourself that you can overcome any habit and that you are strong enough to grow beyond your physical and emotional needs.

I view it as a way to stop a bad habit and develop a new one. In this case, it is goal #20 of the 101 things in 1,001 days. Each year, for Lent, I will not eat anything that has been deep fried. This includes my beloved chicken, french fries, fish, hush puppies, and even donuts.

This could be difficult, especially around lunch. On Wednesday I had grilled chicken, yesterday I snacked on pears, bananas and almonds while missing lunch, and today I had a broiled cod fillet. Did I mention that Popeye's reopened a store about 10 miles from my house? Or that I have a neighbor who makes incredibly tasty Buffalo wings?

I can do it. I'm hoping 40 days is long enough so that there isn't a slingshot effect. By that I mean that I don't want to eat a whole bucket of spicy Popeye' s the day after Easter. This is why I chose an unflattering image of frying chicken, rather than a lovely plate of succulent golden brown pieces piled high on a plate.

These goals do tie together. There will be a few other diet and health-related goals to come. Now, I need to go have a banana. I'm suddenly hungry.

067 - Build a CD ladder

We don't want to limit our investments to stocks and bonds. There are other ways to sock away money and earn a little interest.

This isn't intended to be a primer on investing. This is simply one of my 101 in 1,001 goals.

While we'll keep most of our money in growth investments, we do want to earn a little in a relatively safe, insured investment.

A good vehicle for that is a certificate of deposit, or CD. CDs are issued by banks and credit unions or other savings and lending institutions, though only banks are FDIC insured.

When you buy a CD, you are really loaning money to the bank in return for your principal plus interest. Very similar to a savings account, except that you can't withdraw the money until the CD matures. Because of this, a CD has a higher interest rate than a savings account. CDs can have very short maturity times, such as one week, to longer times of up to 10 years or more. Usually the longer the maturity time, the higher the interest rate. Here's a quick set of tips from the SEC about CD investing.

To spread the risk (and to have a little fun) I set a goal of creating a CD ladder. I planned on investing in four or five CDs. The first CD will mature in 3 months and each CD after would be three months beyond the prior CD.

That means if I bought one today, it would mature in May. CD 2 would mature in August, then CD 3 in November, CD 4 in one year and CD 5 in May, 2009. As each CD matures, we purchase another one that matures 3 months after the last one.

Many people ladder their CDs in yearly increments, but I'm not that patient and I want the thrill of rebuying every three months. This link contains a list of CDs available through Fidelity. Note that they are issued by a wide variety of institutions.

We'll see when I will pull the trigger on this one. The recent market downturn has taken chunk out of the old net worth. Plus, other goals are for other investments.

We're not putting all of our money into a 3.1% CD. Just a little bit.

Have you purchased CDs before? Kind of boring, isn't it?

035 - Prepare unfamiliar cuisine

(too lazy to photograph my own books, this set belongs to The Flying Dutchman on eBay.)

See these books? I own a set of these books. I bought them one volume at a time, at full price plus shipping and handling, every five or six weeks until I had all 28 volumes (Soups is shown here twice.) I learned how to cook with these books. With these books I have tackled everything from a cauliflower mold to a batch of ginger beer. They are collectively considered one of the most complete cooking references ever produced. Filled with color photos and step-by-step instructions, they are supposedly a standard in most serious kitchens.

Have a look at those titles: Breads, Sauces, Pork, Salads, Lamb, Variety Meats (that's the various organs that most people don't care to eat), Fruits, Vegetables, Beef & Veal, Wine, Candy, and on and on. I love these books. I'll never part with these books.

At the end of each book is a section containing previously published recipes. These are for everything from basic broths and ketchup to major constructs like beef tongue stuffed in a turkey. The recipes represent cuisines from all over the world, though regional American and French tend to dominate.

This brings me to the purpose of this post: goal #35 of the 101 things in 1,001 days.

Jocelyn and I will prepare at least one meal each month for six months from a cuisine that we don't know very well. We'll use this set of books for the recipes. We were leafing through them earlier and we are overloaded with options. This should be fun. We're going to involve the kids, too.

Who knows, we might discover a dish that we add to the regular family menu.

Recommendations? Anyone else out there experimenting with their meals?

101 things to do in 1,001 days

Today is February 4th, 2008. 1,001 days from now is November 1st, 2010.

I've built a list of 101 things that I would like to do (or make a habit) by 11/01/10. Over the next few weeks, I'll be sharing this list with you. The list is in no particular order; I typed them as they came to me. Building a list like this, without taking the easy way out, was a fairly large task. Bigger than the 100 nouns post for sure.

Actually, I'm a bit embarrassed by how difficult it was to produce. Don't we all have pent up wants and desires of things we want to do, places we want to visit, entertainment and sports that we feel compelled to consume?

Not surprisingly, my list contains a lot of things that I want to purchase. Thankfully though, it also contains a number of key "stuff purging" activities. The purging activities will be tougher to do than the acquiring activities. That's how we found ourselves with so much stuff in the first place.

There are a LOT of writing and creating tasks on the list. So many that I wonder how I'll do them in 2.75 years. Only one or two job-related activities made the list, which makes sense. I am not attached to my occupation. That fact also influenced my decision to omit anything related to selling our home or buying a new primary residence. Something we are considering, but it will take more than our simple desire to drive us to do it. Moving is more stress than I want right now. Maybe that changes over the next 3 years.

There are no alpaca related items on the list either.

What triggered this? Well, the notion of 101 things in 1,001 days has been around for a few years. I was perusing various lists and I thought, this would be a good thing to do in order to keep me from wasting time on some seriously non-value adding activities and it would provide grist for the old blog mill. So, here I am.

This handy-dandy date calculator figures the target date for you.

I'm interested in your lists. You don't have to post all 101 things. For me, after about 6 (six, just six) things, I started struggling with deciding what I wanted to do. So, just post, in the comments, a couple of things that pop into your head. Just stating them will make them more real and give your brain a chance to figure out how you'll accomplish the task.

These activities need to be specific. If you think mine are not specific enough, then let me know. Already, I can see that I didn't pick a target date for the sprinkler system installation.

I'll be building my list over on the right column as I post about them. (This blog will continue with non-"101 in1001" related posts, too.)

Up next: cooking with Jocelyn...

006 Irrigation irritation

Over the years, I have been incredibly stupid when it comes to my lawn. I've seeded, weeded, raked, mowed, trimmed, limed, sprayed, conditioned, and dressed this lawn spending large sums of money and investing many many hours of labor.

All for nothing.

Because I didn't water the lawn. Oh, I would try. I'd set out a sprinkler, move it around, but not consistently. And who wants to trot around their wet yard, moving sprinklers and dealing with 150 feet of hose. My front yard is fairly long. I always gave up after a few days. Truly dumb. All that work, some of it back breaking, like spreading soil to dress the lawn, came to nothing because I was too inconvenienced to water the lawn.

No more. This spring, we are going to do what our much smarter neighbors have done already. We're going to put in an irrigation system. We won't use it everyday. The lawn really only needs about 1/2" to 1" per week to stay green and healthy.

This is item #6 (in no particular order) on my newly created 101 things in 1,001 days. I'll be sharing the list with you over the next few weeks. It's all written. I've spent the past week writing it, but I didn't want to dump it out here as one huge list.

Details to follow.

A whole far greater than its parts

Rice Krispies is a type of cereal that I dreaded eating as a kid. Nearly, if not completely, sugar-free, the cereal was tiny, made weird noises in milk, needed a tablespoon or more of sugar in order to choke it down, and the last bits were always mushy and soggy. A pile of undissolved sugar remained in the bottom of the bowl as a testament to the cereal's need for sucrose supplementation.

Marshmallows are gelatinous sugar cubes with a texture that induces my gag reflex. I've never liked their taste. The dusty powder feel over the spongy texture makes me cringe. Marshmallows are one of the few sweet snacks that I don't just avoid, rather I never even consider.

Yet, both of these substandard foods, when combined by heat and a wooden spoon, form one of humanity's greatest snacks. A snack that rivals chocolate bunnies, marzipan, and the glazed doughnut:

Rice Krispie Treats

I like these so much that they nearly made it as one of the Secrets to Happiness. Then I realized that those secrets should be somewhat universal in nature. It occurred to me that some of you might not like these crunchy chewy concoctions. My guess is that this isn't true, but I didn't want to chance it.

The basic recipe can be easily found. There are also many variations that include things like peanut butter or M&Ms. Food coloring can be added to batches to make holiday themed treats. Be careful with that though, because as the sugar melts, the food coloring spreads to fingers and serving dishes.

If I had to list a drawback for these things it would be that I cannot stop once I have started. They are so easy to consume that a whole sheet will be gone before the day is out. For that reason, we don't make them very often.

Hey, there is a major sporting event occurring today in the United States. Rice Krispie Treats could be just the sweet snack that you weren't thinking about when you were building your chip & dip, deli, and chicken wing trays.

If you have a special recipe for these, point me to it or leave it in the comments. If you don't like them, tell us why.

The last issue of the last man

This is the cover of issue #60 of Y: The Last Man, written by Brian K. Vaughan with art by Pia Guerra. Yes, it is a comic book. But this isn't a superhero fantasy comic. This is a serial graphic (just means drawn, though there is violence and some nudity) story, that has been told in monthly installments over the last five years. I should add: this is not for children.

Let's cover the story setup and then I'll tell you why you should, and how you can, read it.

The man in the straitjacket appears to be our main character, Yorick Brown (get it? "Y"...which also happens to be the second chromosome of a male's gene pair "XY", women's genes are "XX".) Yorick is an escape artist magician type, living in New York. He has a Capuchin monkey named Ampersand (also male.) Yorick also has a girlfriend, Beth, who is traveling in Australia for an anthropological study.

In issue #1, the event happens. Every living thing with a Y chromosome dies. Except for Yorick and Ampersand.

The story takes place across the USA and the globe. Yorick's mother and sister play supporting roles along with a geneticist, Dr. Mann (Vaughan likes the little ironies) and a bodyguard, the unnamed Agent 355.

There's no need to go into the story, if the setup doesn't interest you in at least checking it out, then telling you more of the plot certainly won't help.

Like many adult-oriented comics, the longer story is told within the context of many smaller stories that last anywhere from one to five or six issues. Vaughan does an excellent service to us by providing a handful of one issue back stories for each of the main characters. This is a far more satisfying technique than having a character tell their story in a load of exposition to other characters. How often do we do that in the real world?

With very few minor exceptions, this is a satisfying, humorous, dramatic and tragic epic of a world without men. Vaughan (who, as of Season 3, also writes for ABC's television show Lost) is a master of the cliffhanger ending. He kept people coming back for more of this intriguing story.

You should read it just to see how vibrant and imaginative the graphic novel medium can be. Or because you like a good story to escape for a bit. Or because you really want to know what the heck killed all the guys. Why did Yorick and Ampersand survive? Where did Agent 355 come from and what is her real name? Oh, yeah, and what about those astronauts who were orbiting the earth when all this went down? See what I mean?

You don't have to buy 60 issues or visit a dirty smelly comic book store. Go to your local bookstore. They will have Y in their graphic novel section. Y will be collected in 10 softcover volumes. Nine of them are already in print. Volume 1, Unmanned, collects the first five issues and gets the story rolling. Amazon has the books for less than $11 each usually. If you don't care to buy, try your local library.

The story ends next Wednesday. That's good news for you, because you can forgo the five year wait to see what happens to Yorick, Ampersand, Beth, 355, and Dr. Mann. Lucky dogs.

UPDATE: Terrific ending. Used Lost storytelling techniques (even had a downed airplane fuselage.) You might not enjoy every bit of the story, but there is no doubt that overall this is a classic. Expect the movie in 2009.

I've been working on a "101 in 1001" list. More to come.