1.21 Jigawatts

GREAT SCOTT! I haven’t blogged in a while. I really have not forgotten you (not that you really missed me either) I’ve just been caught up in a massive amount of goings on lately between family, work, and trying to finish up school. Have I mentioned that I am now 3 WEEKS away from being DONE for real now. Granted, I will have to take my Comprehensive Exams in the spring but I won’t have to actually spend the semester sitting in a classroom two nights a week (three hours a night) for the first time in three and a half years! It’s going to be a LONG three weeks getting there (not to mention the three papers, two finals, and a presentation that I have to do) especially considering I have…you know…a job, and kids and a wife and stuff.

John Mayer-Battle Studies: (an early review) Many of you are aware that I have a musical man crush on a certain John Mayer and have always been a huge fan of his music. There are so many levels where I am amazed by his talent (songwriting, guitar playing, vocals, he really can do it all…if you don’t believe me listen to him sing standards with Chris Botti). Yesterday saw the release of his current album “Battle Studies” and upon the first few listens I can say right away that it is definitely not Continuum, but that is also not necessarily a bad thing. This album steps away from his bluesy persona to get back to a place that focuses more on basic pop sensibilities. In several songs he definitely pulls in a slight 70’s Fleetwood Mac vibe. Some standout songs right off the bat are “Assassin”, “Half of My Heart” (with Lil Tay-Tay), and “I’m On Fire” (Springsteen cover). More thoughts to come soon.

I’m heading to Atlanta this weekend for the National Youth Workers Convention which should be a good time of networking, and learning some new stuff to help me as I continue to work to resource the youth directors of the good ole AWF. One of the things that I am looking very much forward to is hearing Donald Miller speak while we are there. I am about 3/4 of the way through his latest book “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years” and have really been thinking about life as story (more to come on that in a post very soon). Not having read the last fourth of the book I highly recommend it to you to pick up and read for yourself (assuming there is not a zombie uprising or worse yet Sarah Palin as President in the last fourth).

The girls had their 18 month check up yesterday and they are doing great. Both are still under 19 pounds but their health is great and aside from some little colds and slight ear infections we have been remarkably healthy to this point in the flu/cold season so hopefully we will stay that way. They are both walking now and it is so fun to watch them interact with the world in completely new ways.

I have been watching TBL with Mrs. M this year and have also been keeping very close tabs on a certain KICK ACE partner in crime o’ mine who has been doing some amazing things in the area of health and weight loss lately. Being in the position of observer of all of this I had a slight revelation tonight (nothing earth shaking and certainly NOT to brag in ANY way). I see these folks on TBL, particularly the men, who bust their butts for a week and lose 10-15 pounds and that is great and I am so happy for them and what that means for their life. What this also does to me though is point out how lazy I am and how little effort it would take for me to get to the shape I want to be in. I am by no means overweight or anything but as I’ve gotten older I’ve gained that middle section that just doesn’t sit right on my skinny arms and legs. I know full well that I could stop drinking soft drinks for two weeks and stop eating the crap foods that I eat and lose 10 pounds without ever stepping foot inside a gym. Is this fair? I’m sure its not but its a realization to me that I just have to stop being so selfish and lacking in self-control and say “if this is what you want then this is what it takes” (and for me its not even anything hard which is why I am ashamed at my laziness). This thought turned into a bit of a ramble so if you stuck in there I applaud you. Basically I just need to stop being a lazy ass and everything will be fine.

People were losing their minds earlier this week about how President Obama bowed to the Emperor of Japan when he was there for his trip this week. Really? REALLY? I mean should we really think that we’ve just ceded our entire foothold on the world because he decided to show some respect to someone in a position that garners a level of respect? I know “we” as Americans seem to think that everyone should be bowing down to us but first of all that is CRAP, and secondly we can’t all be so suave as to Yak in the Prime Minister’s lap at dinner. Whatever.

Alright I’m out of here for now, but I’ll check back in over the weekend from Atlanta. So long for now.

Where I Have Been

A before and after from DoL boys weekend o’ funliness!!

(Days of Lot circa 2000)

(Days of Lot circa 2009)

The weekend that Brian, Lane, Jonathan, and me spent playing golf and watching football was a wonderful one. It was too long coming but worth the wait and guaranteed not to be nearly as long before we do it again. It is a true testament to me about real genuine friends who can be apart from one another for so long and yet when reunited pick right back up like you just saw one another the day before. A big thanks goes out from me to these guys for a great weekend!

(The crew from MWITW)

The weekend after I got to spend time with the DoL boys I was privileged to go with another group of guys to a cabin near Murphy, NC for a weekend that was dubbed MWITW (Man Weekend In The Woods). The weekend was spent making fires, drinking hard liquor, and watching football (or in our case screaming at the TV until its not fun anymore). We went over to Asheville for the day for a lunch time rendezvous with everyone’s favorite Pizzeria & Taproom. Once again a GREAT time was had by all.

(The M’s first family vacation-beach style)

This past weekend (more like Wednesday to Sunday) Mrs. M, the little nuggets, and myself got to spend an amazing 4 days down in Destin having lots of fun and enjoying LOTS of time relaxing and doing nothing at all. As they say in “Office Space” “I did nothing and it was everything I hoped it could be.”

Needless to say I was gone a LOT in October (the above three weekends only represent fun things that I did it doesn’t even include the fact that I was gone to Charleston for a week for work, as well as almost another full week of days traveling to various parts of the Conference). And I am also still spending two nights a week (about 3-3.5 hours each night) in class. To say the least I am looking forward to November being slower than October, and also to January being MUCH slower because I will be done with school (save for my final Comprehensive Exams). Please do not hear me complaining at all, but just sharing how busy I’ve been (and also a thinly veiled excuse about why I haven’t been blogging as much lately). So I now end with pictures of my AMAZING babies from our trip last weekend.

(Lily dancing a silly jig)

(Harper smiling a sweet smile)

As It Was In The Days of Lot…

…so it will be again this weekend. It has been a LONG time coming (and I’m currently still stuck waiting to leave) but the original Days of Lot boys are getting together for what I have now termed the “Weekend of Doom.” Said group of ‘boys’ have not been all together in one place since a certain event that was 4 years ago (see evidence in photo below).

(the obscured head in the left of the picture is Mr. H and the beauty in the middle is a certain Mrs. M who will NOT be attending the DoL boys weekend seeing mostly as she is not a boy nor was she ever in the original DoL)

I had hoped to post a photo the us all in our glory days as a band but seeing as those days were COMPLETELY pre-digital photography it would appear that non of us have anything readily available for me to use. I will try to update this later in the weekend if I can find something to scan (or maybe I’ll do the “take a picture of a picture” move).

Our weekend looks to be filled with Rockband (what better way to relive the glory days than by playing fake instruments to notes that don’t actually match up to the songs), the Lake, golf, an Auburn game and probably our fair share of brews and stories about life. I can honestly say I have waited for this weekend for about 8 years now and I am SO looking forward to it. I will have a post-weekend post ready for you maybe sometime Sunday evening. In the meantime I hope you all have a great weekend but I bet it won’t be as great as mine.

Gratuitous Baby Post

I won’t say I didn’t warn you. Below is about a 5 minute video of the girls and some of the new things they are doing. I apologize in advance for the poor quality of the video. This was all shot on my cell phone (seeing as right when the girls are starting to walk our regular video camera managed to crap out. Below you will find Lily walking as well as Harper reading a book and stacking blocks. Without further ado. Heeeeeeere’s babies!

more about “Look At Us Now! on Vimeo“, posted with vodpod

A Post Long Overdue

So I’ve been off the postings for about a month now. There has been plenty going on and I think the only fair thing for me to do in this “catching up” post is to not only do it in the style of “Bullet a la Maughry” but also to subcategorize so that if I hit on a category you don’t care about you can cruise right along. This is just me thinking about all of you. Enjoy!

Sports

-Auburn has started their football season and have jumped out to a 3-0 record. This is a good thing and definitely a little bit of a relief. There was a lot of turnover in the staff and that had the potential to derail a lot of things, but it would appear that there is a good team spirit and that they are all buying into the new head coach’s system. We do have a long way to go though. They need to start tackling better and we need to stay away from injuries because depth is where we get in trouble. It will be a mediocre year but its off to a good start so we will see what happens.

-Fantasy Football…this won’t take but a second but I am last in my league rankings and third in overall points accrued. This is in part because I’ve lost two weeks in a row and I have Drew Brees as my starting QB (he’s thrown for 9 TD’s in 2 games this year). Talk about bitter/sweet.

-Fun random fact of the day: Did you know that Jason Campbell (much dogged though he might be) is 2nd in NFL history in interceptions NOT thrown. Only 2 percent of his career passes have been interceptions.

Health and What Not

-I’m working on cutting WAY back my soda intake (if this is a song you’ve heard me sing before then I apologize). Now I’m not going to say I will never have one again because sometimes you just need a cold soft drink but as a general rule I consume way too many of them. JMG put it right on the target when he talked about how we consume so much sugar that it becomes a craving beyond the norm and I was in that place. I didn’t like waking up thinking “when can I get my first soda today”. I’m on coffee and water baby and its working alright.

-I’m also making a better go at eating breakfast. Nothing major because I still kind of have that morning queasy/don’t want to eat thing but so far Honey Nut Cheerios and a glass of O.J. are getting the job done. Coincidentally I think it helps with the morning sugar cravings too.

-Exercise is hard to come by in my adult life. I know its not my favorite to do but contrary to how it seems to some I don’t purposely avoid it, but with wife, babies, work, school and well trying to have a little bit of life in between all of that it is just hard to find time. I want to but haven’t found what works yet.

Work and School

-I’m almost at midterms ALREADY. When in the world did that happen? My classes are for the most part enjoyable although one of the drawbacks is having to drive from my house to Maxwell AFB for 3.5 hours of class two nights a week. This is inconvenient because unlike AUM, Maxwell isn’t anywhere near my house (or really anyone else’s house for that matter).

-Work is going well although between it and some personal obligations October is about to be crazy busy. Starting next week I am going to Charleston, SC and then pretty much wide open every week and weekend through the end of October.

Babies

-They are still amazing (I’m sure I didn’t have to tell you that though). They are growing up SO quickly. They are chatting, pointing, mimicking, and learning new things every day and it is one of the most exciting things well basically…ever!

-Lily has started taking first steps (you can see that in the short video clip below) which means it won’t be long at all before she is full on walking and Harper will be right behind her.

more about “Lily’s First Steps on Vimeo“, posted with vodpod

It’s Gameday!

Football is back and we are SO excited!! War Eagle, and…well you know that other thing too!

Food Thursday

It is Thursday and I made food, therefore I post about it.

Tonight’s menu came from Rachael Ray (whom I don’t typically like but her food is usually good). Mexican Lasagna was the dish du jour. It was very easy to make and included, among others, ground chicken, onion, black beans, corn, taco sauce, cheese, and tortillas (I used whole wheat). The dish turned out really great and as I said was very simple. I didn’t take step by step photos on this one but I do have three to share.

(the finished product)

(plated with a slight garnish of sauce)

(Mrs. M’s plate garnished with black bean and corn salsa)

-funny thing about the “garnish” both of the above plates were Mrs. M’s. I handed her the first one proud of what I had created and slightly geeking by putting a “garnish” swipe of taco sauce. When she decides she’s going to have some corn and black bean salsa I think “hey that doesn’t sound too bad.” When I turn back around I see that she has covered up my Top Chef style sauce swipe I say “hey you covered up my garnish.” To which I get the response “What do you mean? That red sauce on the plate? I thought that was just from the food.” I guess Tom and Padma would tell me I need to work on presentation…here’s hoping I don’t hear “please pack your knives and go.”

In the Jungle, the Mighty Jungle…

Last night America lost a truly great American. Edward M. “Teddy” Kennedy was the model of a public servant and truly an American patriot. He worked his whole career inside his own party and across the aisle for things like civil rights, healthcare, OSHA, Americans with disabilities,  meals on wheels for the elderly and much more.

In his concession speech at the Democratic National Convention in 1980 he spoke words that echo still today:

“For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die.”

May Senator Kennedy rest in peace, and may the legacy he helped to build in the U.S. Senate continue to be an agent of change for the good of those in this country who cannot help themselves.

…the lion sleeps tonight.

Chef Boy-Are-Me

(the master chef attempting to master cheffing)

I haven’t posted in a few days and since some of us are on a roll with blogging lately I thought I better throw a little something out there for the peeps. So here comes a food post. Enjoy!

Tonight I got antsy to test out some new ideas in the kitchen so it became experimental food night both with a basic recipe for fried shrimp and also a recipe I saw on TV for creamed spinach. So in two steps here we go:

1) Fried Shrimp-a few weeks back on the spur of the moment I made some fried chicken nuggets using what we had available making the breading out of crushed up ritz and saltine crackers. They turned out surprisingly well so I decided tonight to give that same basic mixture a go with shrimp instead. After crushing up the crackers I just dipped the shrimp in an egg wash and then the crumbs and gave them a quick fry. The second picture is actually of two different kinds of shrimp (the left side is the cracker breading the right side is some traditional bread crumbs). **Note: My father-in-law does this but instead of using crackers uses crushed up Lay’s potato chips and it is amazing.

(getting ready to start frying)

(left: cracker crumbs  right: breadcrumbs)

2) Creamed Spinach-before I started cooking tonight I was watching Food Network and saw this recipe that inspired me to give it a try. Now I will say up front as one who does not really like hot food I was already unsure of how this would ultimately turn out, but since Laura loves spicy food I thought we’d give it a try anyhow. Lesson learned, it was too spicy for me but I am excited to try it out again and leave out the crushed red pepper and maybe go with something a little less intense maybe roasted red peppers instead.

(sauteing onions and garlic for spinach)

(spinach almost ready)

So in the end I was very pleased with how the shrimp turned out. I preferred the cracker crumbs to the bread crumbs, they had a lighter texture that I liked better than the breadcrumbs. As for the spinach it was too hot for me, Mrs. M really enjoyed it but this is the woman that puts hot sauce on basically everything she eats. So the next round will have to be dialed down in terms of spice. The final picture says it all, it was good and I am glad I had an evening at home to try it all out. Bon apetit!

(final product)

Article on “Obamacare”

I got the new issue of Newsweek today and there is a fantastic article in it about the healthcare debate that is going on in the country right now. A lot of it focuses on the “fear mongering” and the psychology involved in this process. I hope you will read the whole thing and then come back and leave your comments. Enjoy!

ARTICLE HERE