Always Something New

This writing gig is a constant learning experience, and like training to be a real man, it sure helps to have friends and mentors. Thanks to Susan over at Book Chook. It seems to me that writing in new millenium just ain't what it used to be, what with the internet and all the social networking, it's amazing what you need to know. Actually, you don't need to know it, but it's sink or swim in terms of knowing the technology. It's all out there, you just need to assert yourself and check it all out.

I just learned about ping-ing and Technorati, and at this point, it's all a shot in the dark, not to mention a huge drain on my time. Originally I had no intention of increasing traffic to my blog, I figured it was just a way to get my thoughts to flow that would lead to writing gigs. Practice makes perfect, as the saying goes. I have since come to learn, however, that writing a blog can be a serious gig, and can lead to other things. It all falls in line with the idea that you should never half-ass anything, approach all things with the serious and sincerity of your wildest dreams, because not only will it make it more enjoyable (or at least satisfying), but you never know where it will lead. Besides, it's your time, make the most of it.

With this in mind, I've joined the legions of Web people and started ping-ing and whatever else it's called. And, of course, being the anal retentive, neurotic person that I am, things did not go perfectly smoothly and I'm sitting here torturing myself over what I did wrong. Then again, experience is the best teacher.

So here goes. Not sure what I'm supposed to do next, but this is a start. Until the next time, thanks for reading.

Dodging a Bullet

Have you ever, in an effort to save a few bucks, done something you didn't feel right about doing and it came back to slap you in the face? Well, it almost happened to us. We took the kids to see Tales of Despereaux at the multi-plex the other night. Personally, I prefer the Nugget, because not only is it smaller and cozier, but they use real butter on the popcorn.

Either way, we had some dispute about getting popcorn at the show, and finally it was decided that we'd sneak in our own snacks. Though I personally think it's a little tacky, not to mention a pain, that was the plan. Besides, I like movie popcorn, it's greasy and disgusting and part of the movie going experience.

Well, as soon as we got our tickets and got in line, we see the big sign that says that they reserve the right to confiscate snacks that they catch you with in the theatre. I figured we could be coy about it and wait until the lights went out before we started chowing, but the guy taking tickets told me I couldn't bring in my backpack. What? I told him I needed to tell my wife that I'd be a little late, and when I told her, she had the brilliant idea of me slipping the stuff to her since we were already inside. I said no, it was too obvious, everyone was watching and this had gone far enough. I'm sure she was thinking what a wimp I was.

Not wanting to make a stink, I left it behind the counter and that was that. The kids (more so A, I don't think N cared one way or another) were bummed, but such is life. Well, once we were inside, the family right next to us broke out their store bought snacks that they had brought in with them and were having a party. My wife shook her head and said, "See!"

Well, before the movie even started, the usher came in and caught them. He made a bit of a scene in front of everyone, took their snacks, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief that we hadn't tried to do the same. Truth be told, they probably could have pulled it off if they had been more discrete and waited, but what are you going to do?

I realize it costs that much more to buy popcorn inside, but it's so much reminds me of my childhood where my parents were always too cheap to pay for anything and we were always sneaking things in or grabbing up freebies. It was embarrassing then, and it embarrasses me to no end now. It just isn't worth it, if you ask me.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.

Day 2 w/Moosewood and Finding a Groove

We're going on day 3 with our vegan diet, and so far, so good. I was always hesitant to feed our kids a vegan diet for two reasons-first, I figured it was nutritionally incomplete, but also I figured they just wouldn't eat the stuff. Well, it turns out, it's not so bad, after all, and truth be told, we are not strict vegetarians, we eat meat and dairy and eggs, we're just cutting back on meat as the focus of our meals. At the very least it will be more economical, because things like beans and veggies are cheaper, though nuts will break your back.

Also, I'd like to say a quick thanks to the Book Chook for the tip on the Moosewood online, haven't checked it out, yet, but suffice it to say that I'll be a frequent visitor to that one.

Had a bit of a comical event in making dinner last yesterday. I had picked a traditional, rustic Italian soup called Incavolata made with a tomato base cannelini beans. I had some white beans made up, and though they weren't the right type, I'm a big believer in deviating from protocol when needed, a good sign of being adaptable. Besides, you have to tweak recipes a little to fit your liking.

I made the soup and then the final stage called for lemon juice and corn meal (optional), which sounded good to me. However, before I added them, the soup was outstanding, and I figuured the final ingredients would push it to the next level, but two things happened. First off, the corn meal turned it into sludge. I had a dark red cream of wheat on my hands, and as I added more water to it, it began to dilute out the flavor. Secondly, the lemon juice, in my opinion, ruined it, and in conjunction with all that water, had to keep adding salt to get some semblance of the flavor back. I was crest fallen.

So what did I do? Being the neurotic, anal retentive person that I am, I set out to remake the soup the way I felt it was best, the only problem being I had no beans left. I could have made a version with black beans, which I had, but felt like the white beans were the right choice. I wasn't going to have time to soak and cook the beans, so it was going to have to be canned beans.

To complicate the matter, N had a dentist appointment, and since we were going to have the car (we only have one car, at least one that's legit), we were going to have to drop her off at work and then pick her up. So we were pressed for time.

This is what we did. We took mom to work, made it to the dentist just in time, where N had a shining check-up. I have to confess, I had initial reservations about our dentist, but I've come around and like the guy. I think it's all in how you interact with him, and as every parent knows, it's all about the hygenist, anyway, and they are all very nice. Also, the kids look really cute with their little bodies sitting in those massive dentist chairs.

From the dentist, we went to the market to get some more stuff for out healthy eating plan; some greens (kale, cabbage, etc), lots of ginger (part of my campaign to end flatulence, or at least temper it), and nuts, another part of healthy eating. The nuts were cheap, much cheaper than the organic ones we get at the Coop, so I bought a pound, only to find they are cooked in cottonseed oil. Being ignorant and all, I turned to the trusty internet and found a lot of bad press about the stuff. In fact, Andrew Weil says to go through your cupboard, find all the stuff with cottonseed oil, and toss it out.

I was bummed, I just a pound of the stuff, but decided to compost it. What a waste. Maybe some squirrels will find good use for it.

We then stopped off at the organic market, the Upper Valley Coop, which I am liking more and more, especially with our new eating philosophy, it's the place to be. Where else in this world are you going to find chick pea flour, not to mention some canned white beans? We then went to the hobby store and got the glue to fix my glasses, then to Rugged Bear to get the kids some good wool socks (blends, mind you, since we've found that pure wool socks are pretty much useless), which they were thrilled to pieces about. I'm glad they have some good winter socks, now, and they were on sale.

From Rugged Bear, we still needed to get some lunch, and I still needed to get home in time to make the darn soup, which is thankfully easy. AND, like the dork that I am, I promised to take the kids ice skating. Time was ticking away, because as afternoon approached, we still had to pick up mom, and I had karate to attend.

Of course, I began to stress out, big time, and did what I do in classic, cowardly fashion. I tried to start backing out of my word. "Do you really want to go ice skating? Do you really want pizza?" Fortunately, the kids know what they want, and they stood their ground and forced dad to be a real man and have some backbone. So we stopped for pizza, where I managed to negotiate eating it at home while I made the soup. Just FYI, Ramunto's in Quechee has a great deal on a whole pie, much cheaper than four or five slices.

Now I realize this isn't necessarily a healthy eating habit, but as I mentioned, we can't be too dogmatic about it. Kids still need to have a little fun eating, and I figure it they eat a little pizza or a hot dog now and then, then we'll just step up the fresh fruit and veggie side of it. Besides, mom and dad need a break now and then. Furthermore, it's pseudo-vegetarian.

Once we got home, I had time to make the soup, and it came out well, but then we ran into the dilemma that I face almost every day. The kids never see eye to eye on what they want to do. A had settled in by the fire with a good book, and she didn't want to go anywhere, whereas N was itching to go ice skating, and we had to pick up mom.

Well, after some negotiating, we came up with a plan. We would go ice skating, but at a new rink in Norwich. New in the sense that it's novel. Norwich is right next to the hospital where we work, so we could skate, hop on over to get mom, then back home to drop them off and I could go and break 2X4's with my head.

Sometimes things work out so beautifully you begin to wonder what you did to deserve it. Then again, there are enough failed plans to even things out, if not skew them against you. The rink in Norwich is actually a lot bigger than the Hartland one, which makes sense since Norwich is a bigger town, with more affluent and powerful people. Consequently, it was much more crowded, and crowded with suburban, cosmopolitan types. I.e, all the kids were in hockey gear, which is what you do when you live up here. I even had to ask one of the moms if we could skate here if we weren't playing hockey, and she was very nice and said, "Of course." I earned some points by helping clear the ice, and we had a great time.

Just wanted to mention, the kids have really come along in their skating, they have so much fun and look great on the ice. Best of all, N no longer needs his crates, so it's one less big and bulky thing to carry around.

As it got dark, we packed up, picked up mom, and jetted home. I had some time, so I built a fire, got dinner started, and then bolted off for karate. Though at times it takes all I've got to get out the door and go to class, I'm always glad I do. I really enjoy it, and it was a good class. I'll leave it at that. Testing for belts is coming up, so I've got to keep practicing.

When I got home I'd found that everyone LOVED the soup. It's not easy getting kids to eat healthy, but the only way to do it is by setting precedents. Feed them the healthy stuff before you inundate them with unhealthy but convenient crap. Once you go down the fast food road, it's hard to change direction.

So it was a good day, or should I say, great day. I love when that happens. Until the next time, thanks for reading.

Vegan Eating-Day 1 w/Moosewood

My wife and I have been reading this book, the Blue Zones, about where in the world various people live long, happy lives, and believe it or not, they span the entire globe. There are even people in the US who fall into this, in California, no less. While the requirements to live long are way too complicated to explain, there is no complete answer, a few things came up with every situation that just so happen to fall in line with our thinking, namely the presence of a strong community, quality time spent with family and friends, and the absence of meat in their diets.

We've been trying to develop a less meat centered diet for years, we believe in it. In fact, we do a vegan night for dinner at least twice a week, and sometimes more, but it ain't easy. Meat just makes a meal much simpler, and people, especially kids, love it. Just add salt, and you've got a meal.

Eating vegan takes a lot more thought and work, at least with children. I could get by with black beans and rice, but try getting your children to eat that every day. There would be mutiny. So the quest to find good vegan meals is not easy, but we couldn't just give up on it. While we'll still eat meat on occasion (we've got a freezer full of the stuff), our goal is to eat a majority of our meals without it. We'll compensate the loss of protein with legumes, eggs, and some dairy, but for the most part, it's going to quite the adventure.

And it all begins with Moosewood. Personally, I'd found in the past that the book is daunting to the point that I avoided it. Too many esoteric ingredients, and in the end, I found vegan dishes left me flat. They were bland, but the problem with cookbooks is that there are too many of them, it's ridiculous, really. Since my wife has the Moosewood, I decided to go for it.

My biggest obstacle was selling it to the kids.

Our first dish on our new healthy eating plan was Bulgarian Red Pepper Stew, which required cannellini beans, of which I had none. I figured that a lot of the specialized stuff, which is easy to find if you live in New York, but more of a challenge in Vermont, I could substitute with whatever I felt was a close facsimilie. I used white beans, I forgot what kind, instead of what they recommend, along with the lentls.

The recipe called for sherry and wine, and though I love both, they give a dish a unique flavor that I'm not sure appeals to kids. It was too late, though, we were moving forward. In the end, it helped that we were starving after a day of skating. We served the stew over brown rice and steamed some broccoli for the uber-healthy, high fiber (uh-oh) meal. I had the backup hot dog or veggie burger in case there were no takers.

But you know what? They actually liked it. They could have been humoring me, but that's fine because they ate their dinner, though N was a little less enthusiastic. A even had seconds. We found the key was a big dollop of yogurt on top, it cut the edge a little and with a little salt, tasted great.

AND, we had no meat. So we got lucky for our first day, I figure we dodged a bullet, and for all their approval, I'm not sure how soon I'll go back to this recipe.

Today our plan is for an Incavolata, a rustic bean (what else is new?) soup, with some fresh vegetables and bread. The problem is, we'll have to make bread and rolls, which is always a bit of a chore. Kneading dough is a pain, but we love the idea of fresh, homemade food, especially bread, something I never grew up with.

We'll see how this one goes. At the very least, the kids love fresh bread, so they're bound to eat something.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.

Over-Parenting 101

Something really came to light to me the other day when we went skating with C, and that was that we over-parent. No two ways around it. The bright side to it is that it's never too late to change, and being more aware of it help us to change un-constructive behavior.

What happened was that C was over and we were going to the skating rink. Now usually I grab our big LL Bean bag and pack all the skates and stuff in there, and we're off. Unfortunately, this encourages kids to not have to think about how to deal with life, it's all done for them, and they develop undesirable qualities like not asserting themselves, expecting life to handed to them on a platter, and the inability to resolve problems. Now granted, I'm over-dramatizing this, but I'm just getting my point across.

What really struck me was that C took care of all her own stuff. She carried her own skates and was responsible for all her gear. The only thing she needed help with was tying her skates on, but even I need help with that. Our kids, on the other hand, just walked out the door without a care in the world.

The crazy thing is, most kids, ours included, jump at the opportunity to be responsible, it makes them feel like big kids. I've found our kids love helping out and even enjoy making breakfast of cooking. It's just much simpler doing it myself, not to mention quicker. But therein lies the point-it's a good lesson for kids to learn responsibility and not take things for granted, and it's a good lesson in forcing me, the parent, to lighten up and not try to control everything.

So with all this in mind, we now have bags for our kids to carry their skates, they make their own breakfast and pour themselves their own beverages (we help out by setting things up, but the act of serving is in their hands), and it is no longer acceptable to just drop their jackets, hats and gloves on the floor and be on their merry way. Responsibility. It's something you have to teach your kids, and it not only makes them better people, but it actually makes your life easier.

How's that for a lesson in parenting? Until the next time, thanks for reading.

Plugging Away

I recently expressed some disappointment about my possible writing venues, and I wanted to clarify that I am bummed that certain things haven't worked out as I planned, but wanted to say that I'm not in despair. After all, as any writer knows, rejection and disappointment are a way of life. If anything, they're the norm, and if you can't deal with it, than you're in the wrong field.

My biggest problem is I tend to look for the path of least resistance (can you blame me?), and the easy way out is not always, if ever, the most satisfying. In the end, I need to focus on the writing that means the most to me, and do my best in those areas, rather than sweat over worrying about the small stuff. Sure, I'll do my best, but I can't lose focus on the big picture, and need to deal with it and just do it.

With that in mind, I confess that I was bummed that AC didn't pan out as I had hoped, but I was the one who dropped the ball on that one, and the truth is, they'll still take my stuff, just won't pay me for it. So I have to allocate my time accordingly, i.e., I can't spend weeks writing a piece for them. It just doesn't make sense.

I will say this-I've made a new friend in my rantings, and for that I'm grateful. When you get a chance, check out the Book Chook for some valuable and thoughtful insight into the world of children's literature. You won't regret it, it's a great place to get some advice about books for kids and to share your own thoughts, keeping in mind that your kids cannot read too much!

The reality is, I know what I need to do, and I know that I'll stumble and face assorted obstacles, many of them, too many to count, along the way, but it's all part of the process, and if anything, it builds character and forces you to find value in what you're doing. You never appreciate the things that are handed to you, so sometimes a little freebie now and then can't hurt.

And most importantly, you have to enjoy the process. Find value in what you're doing, rather than focusing only on the end result, because as Henry Miller said, writing, like life, is a journey of discovery. For me, the only way to realize this is to be open to all the possibilities, both good and bad.

With that in mind, I think I'll go work on my query letters. Until the next time, thanks for reading.

Some Thoughts on Eating

We are a reasonably health conscious family, at least I like to think we are. Being the person who is responsible for shopping for food and cooking, I have the most say in the matter, though as a team, we are in constant discussion over the foods we eat. With this in mind, we made a conscious decision to make our diet more fruit and vegetable focused, and when I look around me at all the people we know, I have to say, we eat more fruits and vegetables than most. Fresh fruit at every lunch, and we try to center every meal around a veggie, which is a lot different than when I grew up, where everything focused on meat.

In fact, when I think back on when I was younger, it's amazing to me what I ate. I would go days without even a piece of fresh fruit or vegetable, and I basically lived on fast food. It's no wonder, coupled with nicotine, alcohol, and other assorted contraband, that I felt like crap ALL THE TIME. I used to be addicted to multi-vitamins, they really gave me a boost, but now I've stopped, and I realize that they made me feel better way back when because my diet was terrible.

Either way, I think kids come to appreciate fruits and veggies when certain conditions are met. First off, as parents, you have to set the example and eat them yourselves. I can't tell you how many of our friends, usually the guys, who don't eat vegetables. It's amazing, and must lead to an amazing level of constipation, another unhealthy consequence. They complain about their condition and yet refuse to do a thing about it.

That's their choice, however, and in the end, has no bearing on us. We are very conscious of what we eat, and have in the last few years made big strides in reducing our meat intake, but I wonder if we could do better. The idea of eating more vegan is daunting, because meat makes a meal that much simpler. Just cook and add salt, and voila, you have a meal. Veggies, for the most part, are a little more bland, and we've found we have to spice them up a bit, which translates into more work, but hey, such is life. Nobody said being a parent, or for that matter, being healthy, was easy.

So we'll give it a go, and make a more concerted effort to remove meat and fats from our diet. I have to quit eating so much ice cream, and that won't be easy, but I'm determined. As for our meals, our guide will be the Moosewood cookbook, because it's the one we have. It should be interesting, and definitely more of a challenge, but could be pretty cool. Besides, I think that eating more veggies is cost effective, but could be wrong, especially when you consider that fish can be expensive.

The inspiration for all this came about because my wife is reading the book, The Blue Zones. It's all about different cultures around the world who live long, healthy lives. A few of the hallmarks of their longevity are close-knit families, strong communities, plenty of fresh air and exercise, and NO MEAT. Believe it or not, none of them eat meat. Contrast that with the standard American diet where people eat a one pound steak, and it's pretty amazing.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.