Craig's Blog of Destiny

As Costaki Economopoulos says, President Bush has a “special relationship with the English language”.  In honor of the inauguration this week, I’d like to revisit some of President Bush’s special moments:

“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful and so are we.  They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”

At a Rose Garden news briefing, “I remember meeting the mother of a child that was abducted by the North Koreans, right here in the oval office.”

“There’s distrust in Washington, I’m surprised frankly at the amount of distrust that exists in this town, and I’m sorry it’s the case and I’ll work hard to try to elevate it.”

“Make no mistake about it, I understand how tough it is, sir, I talk to families who die.”

“I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family.”

“Too many good docs are getting out of the business, too many OBGYN’s aren’t able to practice their love with women all across the country.”

“I am honored to shake the hand of a brave Iraqi citizen, who had his hand cut off by Saddam Hussein.”

Discussing domestic crime, “for every fatal shooting, there were roughly three non fatal shootings, and folks this is unacceptable in America.”

At a white house menorah lighting ceremony, “I couldn’t imagine someone like Osama bin Laden understanding the joy of Hanukkah.” 

On a back to work plan after the terrorist attacks, “There’s no doubt in my mind, not one doubt in my mind, that we will fail.”

At a press conference with the Canadian Prime Minister, “border relations between Canada and Mexico have never been better.”

“Rarely is the question asked, is our children learning.”

Discussing the decline of the French economy with Tony Blair, “The problem with the French is that they don’t have a word for entrepreneur.”

I’m feeling old these days. This didn’t help much, but it did make me smile…

Read this:
Rick Reilly
Amen

Typically, I’m not much of a new year resolution kind of guy.  However, this year I am going to try something that could be construed as a resolution type of thing. 
Recently I reread Jimmy Valvano’s ESPY acceptance speech from 1993.  Jimmy V received the inaugural Arthur Ashe Award for Courage.  Less than 60 days after he gave the speech he died of cancer.  He was just over a month past his 47th birthday.  You can see, and read, the full speech here:  Jimmy V’s ESPY Speech.
So, on Jimmy V’s advice, this year I’m going to try to laugh, think and cry every day.  I’ll try to keep track of some of them on the page I’ve created (see tab above).

At our house, we’re keeping up my father’s tradition of making new years predictions.  Here’s this years version:

J’Neil:
Heather will have a baby girl
David will get a new job
J’Neil will score in the 98th percentile on the WASL
J’Neil will learn to play the saxophone
(J’Neil also predicted that she would be getting her drivers permit – but as editor I’m not including it as a prediction – I’m afraid, very afraid, that it’s a given.)

Sam:
Michael will move to another state
Sam will actually record his epic piece “Never Fear”
Sam will remain in the top 25% of players in the WA Pokémon player rankings
Sam will be learning a third language

Kristin:
Craig and Kristin will go somewhere new
Sarah Palin will make the news in an unfavorable way
David will find a steady girlfriend

Craig:
I will have 10 active producers in the agency
I will ride the STP
Sam will graduate High School, and receive his AA degree, with Honors
The 49ers will have a record above .500 (Head Coach Mike Singletary!)

Anyone want to add their predictions?

The results are in! Thanks to the twelve folks that participated, there were certainly some trends. We sure like our treats at Christmas:

Regarding the main course, 92% ranked Ham as “must have” (a score of 4 or 5). Ham got no votes below 4. The next favorite choice was Turkey, Turkey got hurt because someone voted it “Shouldn’t Consider for Christmas.” That “shouldn’t consider” category was the most popular choice for Ebenezer Scrooge’s favorite, the Goose. The bottom choice turned out to be Salmon. Left off the list, but suggested was Cornish Game Hens… I haven’t every tried to fix those, may have to put it on my list.

No big surprises for the side dishes: 100% of respondents said that rolls are an “absolute must have.” Second and third choices are mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes. Save your BBQ wieners for the Superbowl, they came in last for side dishes. Suggestions for things that I left off the list included corn and Kathy Miller’s suggestion: “mom’s lemon jello.” Kathy, you may need to tell us more about that jello.

Ok, so I have a fondness for pie. I admit it. I know, I left some other choices off, put pie, as you all know, is natures perfect food. It seems that everyone has their favorite: when looking at the average rating for the pies, there is less than a half a point difference from first to last place. The most popular pies were apple and cherry, followed by lemon. I didn’t specify lemon meringue, as the favorite lemon pie in our household is a “mile high” version in which we fold the meringue into the filling of the pie. There were lots of comments, mostly pointing out that I left off pumpkin pie (sorry about that), and suggestions for other deserts, like cakes, “cookies and anything sweet other than pie” and Sam’s suggestion that we do cinnamon rolls.

There were lots of choices for Christmas treats, and lots of favorites. At the top of the list is Kristin’s Nanaimo Bars, with 91.7% ranking them as “must haves.” A little surprising, scoring just barely below at 91.6% is cinnamon rolls. Sam did vote for cinnamon rolls twice, once here and once as a write in on the dessert page. In the ratings by average score, cookies came next, both J’Neil’s chocolate chip cookies and sugar cookies, followed by pinwheel cookies and Grandma Cottle’s rolled chocolate cake. The lowest ranked choice was doughnuts, I assume because we seem to have those year round. Suggestions for things I missed included caramels, peanut clusters and Hello Dollies.

In the drinks category, hot chocolate scored best, 75% ranking it “must have”. Next was Christmas punch, which surprised me some as I didn’t define just what Christmas punch was. In our house, it’s red kool-aid mixed with sprite or 7-up instead of water. I also believe wassail would have scored higher if more folks had had it. It’s at the top of my personal list. Eggnog didn’t score so well, though lemonade was at the bottom of the list. Suggestions included ginger ail and… water.

Additional comments revolved around how much everyone enjoys eating during the holidays. Sam felt a little bad about not liking pie, but that’s ok, we’ll feed him cinnamon rolls. I also thought Grandpa Cottle hit the nail on the head with his suggestion: “How about favorite leftovers!” I hope to be enjoying Christmas foods for many, many days, right into the New Year.

I know, it’s not a Christmas song, but… well, I love my wife, and this is the song in my head this morning (it’s actually been the song in my head for a number of monrings lately).

Ok, I want some input!  Click below to take my Christmas Holiday Food Survey.  It should only take you a few minutes to get through the five questions on food and treats for the holidays.  I’ll gather all the data and in a future post let you all know results!

Click Here to take survey

I’m the first to admit: I have an addiction to chocolate covered peanuts.  Sometimes we’ll get a bag of them from the bulk section of our local market, and I’ll put them away easily at a pound a day pace – but only if I really try to refrain from putting them away all at once.  They’re just too good a snack to let sit.  One time, someone had mixed just a few chocolate covered raisins into the bulk bin, so as I was enjoying my peanuts, every now and then there would be a raisin.  Not at all an unpleasant experience.  In fact, I’ve taken to mixing chocolate covered raisins in with my chocolate covered peanuts – I’ve found the perfect mix to be about four to one, peanuts to raisins.
However, recently I had an experience with my chocolate peanuts that has scarred me for life.  Literally, I have been scarred for the rest of my life.  I was enjoying my snacks when I bit into something so horrible I had no control over the immediate expulsion of whatever it was: I immediately, and without regard to anything around me spit it out of my mouth.  It was like a spit take, but a spit take on steroids.  There, completely camouflaged, mixed in with my chocolate peanuts, was a chocolate covered coffee bean!  Covering coffee beans in chocolate seems to me the ultimate atrocity.  Sign of the apocalypse?  No, when they start covering coffee beans in chocolate, the apocalypse has come and gone.

Some would argue that the real culprit is whoever dumped those, those… evil things into my peanuts, but chocolate covered coffee beans are such an abomination that they shouldn’t be allowed to exist at all.  Are we really supposed to eat those nasty things?  It’s like eating peanut shells, but without the redeeming quality of a cardboard taste.  Aren’t they just immature coffee grounds? And no one would consider eating coffee grounds.  I really can’t imagine a worse thing to bite down on. Is there anyone out there that actually eats those things?

I may learn to cope with my chocolate peanut addition, but I’ll never get over that horrific coffee bean experience.