Wand for Averey Michelle (Hermione) Foote

A few weeks ago our nine year-old granddaughter Averey visited us, along with her Dad and Mom, sisters and brother. During our Family Home Evening I gave her a small plastic baton to use while she led us in singing our opening and closing songs. The baton had been used by her grandmother a long time ago in a hymnology class at Brigham Young University. A couple of days later, Averey asked if I would make a wand for her. She didn't want to lead music with it ... she wanted to cast spells! She and her brother were playing "Harry Potter." I agreed. It took me several days to find an appropriate piece of vine wood, but I did, attached to the pepper tree in our back yard. I stripped the wood of its green bark, sanded and sealed it, and applied several coats of dark stain and protective varnish. The core is made of dragon heart strings, so it ought to work:

Just call me Mr. Olivander of Diagon Alley.

Spanking vs. Tough Love

This from a friend in England who specializes in parenting:

Most people think it improper to spank children, so I have tried other methods to control my kids when they have one of 'those moments.' One that I found effective is for me to just take the child for a car ride and talk. Some say it's the vibration from the car, others say it's the time away from any distractions such as TV, Video Games, Computer, IPod, etc. Either way, my kids usually calm down and stop misbehaving after our car ride together. Eye to eye contact helps a lot too. I've included a photo below of one of my sessions with my son, in case you would like to use the technique.

Lamp, Anyone?

So, I overheard the light of my life telling someone who was visiting our home (I can't remember whom) about one of our daughters and how she has decorated her home. With great pride she described one particular distinguishing feature of her interior design. It seems that Sara has a lamp on her kitchen counter. I would ordinarily have thought little of that, but I sensed in my wife's tone just a teensy bit of something like, "I would like to have a lamp on MY kitchen counter, but my kitchen is too small ..." Well, facilitator (enabler?) that I am, I remembered that I had an unused lamp in the garage, near my work bench. I retrieved it and placed it on my wife's kitchen counter.. We do too have room!

Cook And Serve Yourself? Really?

So ... here's a copy of the menu / placemat at a fun little steak house we found in Carpentaria, a couple of blocks from the ocean. We stopped there tonight on our way back to Santa Barbara after helping a daughter unpack moving boxes in her new home in Simi Valley. The food was great ... and you really do cook your own steak over a gas-fired grill next to the salad bar! The staff brings the  uncooked (raw?) meat to your table on a plate and from then on, you are on your own.  It was fun.

Well, Sashimi Me!

So ... this evening I dined on sushi/sashimi (for the first time). It was not just an appetizer, it was a full, main course meal. I had six California rolls, four tuna rolls and seven kinds of nigiri sushi: tuna, salmon, whitefish, albacore, shrimp, yellowtail and sako. Each bite was a delight, a new taste sensation. Thanks, Doug Westenskow, for the inspiration. 

No Soap!

I should have a picture, but I don't. Just know that taking a shower at my daughter Sara's house is a bit problematic if you are masculine. Her guest shower contains only three concoctions even remotely designed to clean dirt and grime from one's skin, none of which is labeled "soap." The first is called "Body Butter Apricot Scrub." Then there's "Fructus Fortifying Creme with Apricot and Avocado Oil."  And last, "Pink Grapefruit Mousse Hand Wash." It's like I fell into a large fruit cocktail! So long as Sara keeps stocking her showers with this stuff, I'm buying stock in Dole and Del Monte. 

C'est Cheese!

For my birthday in April, I received a gift card for a wonderful little store on Santa Barbara Street near De La Guerra that sells cheese! All kinds of mostly European cheeses. I love cheeses! Here are what's left of some great taste treats: Piave from Italy, Old Amsterdam from Holland, and Naked Goat from Geece (yes, naked.) Not pictured is a slab of coastal cheddar that I already consumed. Thank you!