For me, today was that day.

Ah, the beauty of Avery Point and the Castle blanketed in a layer of calming white snow. Until the klaxon sounds and sirens wail.

Just to hit the high spots:
Very tired this morning after insomniatic night -> Roads not plowed -> three car pile up on the highway -> highway traffic diverted onto my commute route -> 15 minute commute (+15 for unplowed streets) now takes 57 minutes -> miss Chemistry lecture.

Trying to pack for Ft. Lauderdale trip interupted by two 20 minute fire alarms, both false alarms! Finally got the three crates full of the nav and video systems for the cruise, they are on the way. Hopefully they make it to Ft. Lauderdale and don’t end up in Ft. Leavenworth.

One of three hook and ladder trucks which responds to every Marine Science building alarm. I don’t mean that to imply that there are a lot of alarms.

Laptop died at ~8:40am -> three major projects, all due in next 1-3 weeks on dead laptiop, not to mention three almost complete web site redesigns I figured to complete while on the plane. Fortunately it’s only the video board -> after school Tammy and sick Johann accompany (very tired) me to Genius Bar where they verify, yes it’s the NVidea board. They have replacement mainboard in stock, 3-4 days to replace. Whew! Excellent Indian food from the food court(!!) as celebration.

I managed to get the projects off the laptop before we left for Providence by booting it blind as a firewire harddrive to the iMac. Slow process, but at least I’m safe there. 2 hours sleep in the past 48. This day.. you can have it back (though I’ll keep the vindaloo and nan in the food court, thank you!) Now to sleep perchance to dream, or if not just forget this day.

So this is the soundtrack to my work right now (yes, I’m going crazy!!):

Hurry Up, Daddy and Graduate!
(To the tune of Joshua fit the Battle of Jericho, Mahalia Jackson style)

Hurry up, Daddy and graduate, graduate, graduate.
Hurry up, Daddy and graduate and get into graduate school.

Got to get into grad school.
Got to get in there soon.
Got to get into grad school,
Before all the money’s gone. Sooooooo…

Hurry up, Daddy and graduate, graduate, graduate.
Hurry up, Daddy and get into graduate school soon.

You want to study inverts.
You want to study the deep sea.
Got to study the thermal vents,
So get into grad school now, you know ya got to go.

Hurry up, Daddy and graduate, graduate graduate.
Hurry up, Daddy and graduate, ’cause you know you got to go.

Go to go get your masters.
Two years, then we’re gone.
Got to get your masters real soon,
then move on somewhere else.

Hurry up, Daddy and graduate, graduate, graduate.
Hurry up, Daddy and graduate, so we can all go to the next stage.

You always talk about Richard.
Always talkin’ ’bout Cindy.
You always talk about Lauren
and Alvin toooooo. Ohhh…

Hurry up, Daddy and graduate, graduate, graduate.
Hurry up, Daddy and graduate.

Hurry up, Daddy and graduate, graduate, graduate.
Hurry up, Daddy and graduate so we can study more.

We gotta go! Gotta go!
Gotta go to get your Ph.D.!

Well, he doesn’t like it as much as I would like him to. Even though the changes made it more palatable to him, he really didn’t want it again on Tuesday. Eric and I both told him again how he needs to eat things that aren’t his favorite too. Sometimes you eat foods because you know they are good for you, even if they aren’t your favorite. We were still letting him know we expect him to clean his plate without screaming, “It’s on your plate! Eat it! You’re not leaving this table until it’s all gone!!!” I definitely didn’t want to repeat history on that one. I can still hear my dad’s loud words echoing in my ears!

Then Eric started to talk about how he found a recipe for cicada pie online and wrote a post about it for The Other 95%. I sighed. The copepod poop stories at past dinner times were bad enough. I’m glad I eat fast. I was already finished with my dinner before I could lose my appetite.

Johann perked up. The change in conversation topic was just what we needed. Anything that grosses Mommy out is fun. The discussion turned to all the insects we knew of that people eat. Some people eat chocolate covered grasshoppers. Eric has eaten chocolate covered ants. In Asia they eat fried cockroaches as snacks. In Australia people eat grubs. I told Johann the man who wrote the cicada pie recipe said cicadas taste like cold asparagus. He replied, “I like asparagus! I bet I’d like cicada pie!!”

Eric suggested that Johann pretend his Swiss chard was cicada pie while he ate it and then it wouldn’t be so bad to him. We thought it tasted good, but understood if he didn’t like it as much. With that said, he was still expected to eat all of it. Johann was very happy to pretend he was eating cicada pie and it was gone in no time. In between bites he kept complimenting me on how I make such yummy cicada pie, very crunchy.

Then Eric expanded the game to the manicotti. He asked Johann what the manicotti could be. They decided it was giant stuffed earthworms with tomato meat sauce on top. Not only did Johann clean his plate, I got the ultimate stamp of approval: “Thank you, Mommy for making such a wonderful dinner. I really enjoyed the stuffed giant earthworms and the cicada pie. You know, when I thought of it as cicada pie, the Swiss chard tasted better to me. It didn’t seem so bad after all.” Gee, thanks.

Tonight was clean out leftovers night. Eric had the last of the stuffed giant earthworms. Johann ate twisted earthworms (hotdogs) with white chocolate covered ants (rice). I had roasted weevils (black beans) with ladybug larvae (tomatoes) and yellow ants (Spanish rice). At least they had the decency to wait until after I’d swallowed my last bite before they told me what my dinner was.

In effect, it’s the same as trying to herd cows up with a net and dragging a net through a farm. You catch a few cows. You catch the farmers wife. You catch a cattle trough. All this other stuff is incidental bi-catch, filth, bottom filth they refer to it. We just don’t do that on land. Why are we doing it in the oceans?

The initial bootcamp setup went without a hitch, until I got to the point of adding the Apple hardware specific drivers to Windows XP from the OSX install disk. Every time I would get a blue screen of death. Three times through and three BSODs (yeah I’m stubborn). I finally ejected the OSX Instal disk and slip it back into the sleeve when I noticed it was the install disk from some Mac Mini’s I was setting up for a different project. (It was out on the table already) Ooops.

Drivers for the Apple specific hardware would probably be specific to the different model of Apple computer. Sure enough when I used the install media that came with the new MacBook Pro it worked like a champ.

Before our company came to visit, Eric and Johann offered to help me by scrubbing the tub. Johann came to get me after they had finished. He was very excited and proud to show me the great job they did. They had used the Ivory bar soap. I wrongly assumed Eric remembered where the cleanser was. The best part was that they used the squirt guns to rinse everything off. I was annoyed Eric didn’t use the cleanser, but at least they did use some kind of soap and it did look and smell clean. That was good enough for me. And they had fun doing it. I thought, how very Benny-&-Joon-esque. As long as they don’t start using my iron to make grilled cheese sandwiches and buy a tennis racket to make mashed potatoes, I won’t complain.

Today Johann wanted to help set up for the library book donation sale at the bookstore. Friday through Sunday you can go into the bookstore and buy books for the library that the librarians have selected to add to their collection. Annie, one of the bookstore owners, kindly allowed us to be part of it. Johann was put in charge of the children’s books. I helped him unpack several boxes and then we arranged the books as nicely as we could on the table.

There were two activity books for kids. One was aimed at things for boys to do, the other was meant for girls. They appeared to be reprints of old crafting and camping how-to books, which probably had the girls keeping their dresses neat while embroidering, instead of having fun playing in the dirt, and had the boys learning how to build fires, but not learning other important skills, like how to mend your own clothes.

Johann found a place for the books and then announced loud enough for everyone in the store to hear, “I put the sex books there, Mommy.” Wishing no one else had heard, but knowing everyone had, I looked around to see how the ladies around me were reacting. Jane, another one of the bookstore owners, was laughing so hard her shoulders were shaking. One of the librarians, who was much older, looked as if all the color had drained from her face. She scurried over and asked me if there were really books about sex and they didn’t want those for the library. I explained that Johann meant to say “gender” not “sex”. I showed her the two books, as I felt my face become completely flushed, and explained there was one activity book for boys and one for girls. She said she understood, but still had a look of utter shock on her face as she went over to Jane at the other table. She never did laugh. I laughed and shook my head, asking myself why I was the one that always had to deal with these situations. Too bad the TV show “Kids Say the Darndest Things” is no longer on the air. Talk about prime material!

Life is typically like that around here. In the years to come, I will have so many more good, wacky stories to tell!

Thai Peanut Sauce Soup

• 150 g crunchy peanut butter
• 180 mL coconut milk
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 small onion
• 2 Tbsp fresh lime juice
• 1 Tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 3 crushed dried thai peppers (or to taste)
• fresh coriander

1. Chop & mix everything but the milk and peanut butter.
2. Blend everything together 1 minute or until smooth.

Simple quick recipe, yes? Except we were out of coconut milk. Unfortunately, this isn’t South Caye, Belize with coconut trees, so we took a family walk to the local grocery and got some bagels and canned coconut milk. In the store I read the ingredient list and the amount — 13.5 fl. oz. | 60mL. So I picked up three cans figuring a touch shy won’t hurt, besides we never go completely by any recipe.

We got home and I chopped everything choppable and added everything to the food processor. In goes the peanut butter and all three cans of coconut milk.

Hmm… smells good, but that’s a bit thin. Oh well, tastes good, though not as sweet or as spicy as I like. Still this will work well.

As I’m sitting down reading the email from my independent studies professor, Tammy was working through how a sauce recipe could turn out so thin. She figured it out and said:

“Um, Eric, each can is 400 mL. The recipe only calls for 180 mL…you put in all three cans?”

I don’t know where I got that 60 mL from! And I never double checked afterwards! Doh! Fortunately, Johann noticed it tasted similar to Tom Kah Gai, so it became Thai Peanut Soup with a simple addition of warming for a couple minutes.

Tammy looked at the can again and figured out what must have happened. I read the front of the can and it said 13.5 fl. oz. I read the nutrition label for anything Tammy might be allergic to. At the top of the label it states that one serving is 57 mL. I somehow missed the next line that said there was 7 servings per can. And I know I totally missed the 400 mL next to the 13.5 fl. oz. on the front of the can.

Tammy said now I know how it feels to be given only partial information on important issues where huge misunderstandings could have been avoided, not to mention a lot of heartache, if I had just included that one piece of key information!