How to make pancakes without a mix:

We were wondering what to eat for dinner tonight, so I found a recipe for pancakes, and after changing some stuff around to match what we had in the house, this is what we came up with:


* 3 cups all-purpose flour
* 7 teaspoons baking powder
* 2 teaspoon salt
* 4 tablespoons white sugar
* 2 1/2 cups milk
* 1 egg
* 6 tablespoons olive oil
* 2 tablespoons of vanilla

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk, egg and oil; mix until smooth adding warm water till its the right consistency.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

They turned out reasonably well, and weren't too hard to make. The kids seem to prefer them to regular Krust-Eze mix. That name cracks me up.

Saturdoom

This has been kind of a discouraging day. I was planning on watching the kids today while Joey attended a day long cub scout training in Belfast. I know she didn't really want to go, but felt like someone in the Primary should learn about cubs, and it seemed unlikely that the Primary President would be going, so that left Joey. This morning she got up on time, but said that her stomach was upset. She tried eating some breakfast, that didn't work out too well so she took a shower, which didn't seem to help either, so she went back to bed and pretty much stayed there till about 6:00 pm. I don't think she ate anything at all today.

I have learned that the kids do well if you have a plan. If there is no plan, they just snack and fight and make messes all day long, so this morning, after everyone had eaten and gotten dressed, we set up a schedule as follows:

8:00-8:45 Dishes * Zoe and Emily
8:45-9:00 Clean the House * Everbody
9:00-11:00 Free Time * Kids
9:00-11:00 Dump Trip * Dad
11:00-11:30 Clean the House * Everyone
11:30-12:15 Lunch * Everyone
12:15-1:00 Free Time * Everyone
1:00-2:00 Make Choc. Chip Cookies * Everyone
2:00-2:30 Clean up * Everyone
2:30-3:00 Computer time * Zachary
3:00-3:30 Computer time * Emily
3:30-4:30 Make corn bread for dinner * Emily and Dad
3:30-4:00 Computer time * Eleanor
4:00-4:30 Computer time * Zoe
4:30-5:00 Dinner * Everyone
5:00-5:10 Bath * Kate
5:10-5:20 Bath * Zachary
5:20-5:30 Bath * Eleanor
5:00-5:30 Clean Kitchen Floor * Zoe and Emily
5:30-5:40 Bath * Emily
5:40-5:50 Bath * Zoe
5:50-6:00 Scriptures & Prayer * Everybody
6:00-7:30 Movie * Everybody

Wow. We have a lot of kids. By and large the kids stuck with the schedule. The cookies turned out good. The cornbread was tollerated by about everybody except Eleanor (thank goodness). Everybody got half a cookie for desert.

Joey came out to watch the Movie. It is Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. It was fine, much better than the previews would lead you to believe, but that is not saying much I guess.

Of course the kids were excited to see Joey. She has been gone Tuesday to Parent Teacher Conference, Wednesday to Stake Leadership Training, Thursday to Parent Teacher Conference, and Friday to Relief Society.

After the kids and Joey went to sleep Eleanor woke up crying, so I went in to see what was going on. She was sitting up on her bed looking around.

"Squeezie," I said, "what's the matter?"

"I am throwing up all over everything!" she replied, sounding puzzled.

Sure enough, she was throwing up all over everything. She mostly got Zach's camo fleece blanket, doused his pillow, and hit the floor. Her mattress only suffered a few minor insults, and remarkably, either her blankets were unscathed or its just too dark to notice. Her hair was drenched in vomit, so into the bath she went, even though that was not on the schedule, and the bedding went into the laundry, except for Zach's pillow, which I washed in the kitchen sink, and then tossed in the dryer.

While I have been typing this the unbalanced load alarm has gone off 4 times, and Squeezie has thrown up once (in the toilet, Hurray!) and she woke up again, but didn't throw up. I am glad she didn't eat much dinner.

I remember one year working at Windridge we had a little outbreak of everybody puking all over everything. I was in a cabin with Steve Dreher and we had the 10 year old kids, probably 10 or 12 of them. Thats when I overcame my sympathetic vomiting reflex. Well, its 11:05 and Eleanor just threw up again. I don't suppose any of us will be in church tomorrow at this rate.

Boat Fever!

I think perhaps the reason Zoe threw up last night was because she suffers from Boat Fever.

Boat Fever has been going around a lot lately.

I went with some friends to the Maine Boatbuilder's Show in Portland today. It was, as usual, awesome.

If a penny saved is a penny earned, I could have earned about $13,000 today by buying this boat, since it was on sale at $130,000, down from $143,000.



Here is an iteresting boat. It is a Coquina designed by a famous (maybe the most famous) boat designer named Nathaniel Herreshoff in 1890. Nat Herreshoff is to boats as John M. Browning is to guns.



I wondered, when I saw it, if it that this is the same boat I saw at Benjamin River in the late summer of 2004. We were visiting Robert and Jodee Baird and went for a ride on the water. Bob showed us the boat that Wooden Boat was photographing for an upcoming issue. So, imagine my surprise when today I get done looking at this boat and then turn around and see Robert Baird walk in the door. I live two hours away from the boat show, he lives 2000 miles away from the boat show, and yet we bump into each other in a crowd of a several thousand during the course of a 3 day event. Weird.

Here is another Herreshoff design called a Herreshoff 12 1/2. On my first ever trip to Maine, I got to sail in a Herreshoff 12 1/2 called the Chick-a-Dee in Pulpit Harbor on North Haven Island.



We ate at Norm's, then on the way home stopped to look at a boat my friend Perry is interested in. It is a 31' Ronald Rich wooden motor boat. Boat Fever Strikes Again!





We'll see if he winds up buying it. The seller and the potential buyer are far apart on the price, but when boat fever hits, sometimes that doesn't matter.

Science versus Science Fiction

Here is a picture of Pluto taken by NASA:



LAME!

Here is the surface of a model of Pluto produced by Zoe:






Clearly Zoe kicks NASA's butt.

Obstacle of the Day?

Well, the day is still young . . .

In my continuing effort to disappoint as many people as possible, as often as possible, this morning instead of being in U.S. District Court for the District of Maine, for the sentencing of my client, I am instead here at home.

As I pulled out of the driveway after the bus this morning I heard an awful clunking and pulled over in the next driveway, suspecting a flat tire. It turned out to be a little more drastic than that.






I backed out of that driveway, and tried to drive up the hill, but it wouldn't go, so I put it into 4 wheel drive, and it still wouldn't go because the transfer case wouldn't lock in, so I let it roll back down the hill a little, and then the 4WD locked in and I was able to drive it back home.

Looking at the snow, I can see that the tire was flat before I ever left this morning, and when I turned the corner at the end of the driveway, I pulled the tire off the rim.

You can see (maybe) that the flat tire leaves ripples, or little hills. Here are two tracks, one is from driving the Yukon onto the flatbed, the other is from earlier this morning on the way to work.




The good news is that Scott, my tow truck operator (are you on a first name basis with your tow truck operator?) came over, so I am counting that as a home teaching visit for March.



Meanwhile, my client's wife is driving down from Canada only to find that the case has been continued to later in the week. You can't disappoint people much worse than that!