foodapalooza

Hello blog,
        I love eating food.  I love cooking food.  And I love talking about food.  This is my tribute to the biggest meal I've ever made.   This is my journal so I can be as self indulgent as I see fit.
 
        Thanksgiving has come and gone.  It was awesome.  I cooked and ate so much food.  Our families came over and hung out for the first time since our wedding.  Everyone was on their best behavior and seemed to get along just fine.  A bunch of folks even helped clean up which was really nice considering how long Kim and I had been working on the food and house up to that point.  And everyone liked the food, or at least that's what they told me.  We are raised to be polite at all times so I'll just have to go on faith, with a pinch of pride. 

        We had 17 folks over.   Two more than we'd expected due to Kim's Aunt Sarah and my Uncle Tim showing up.  We were more than happy to feed them.  Tim was supposed to have Thanksgiving with Melody and her family, but her step-father, Cecil, died quite unexpectedly the night before so there wasn't going to be a meal.   Melody told Tim to go ahead and drop by our place since we'd extended them an invitation earlier.  He would have been sitting around his house doing nothing in particular so I'm glad he was able to get out.  Sarah was a last minute addition to Kim's folks trip up to eat and collect Zoe.  In addition to Tim and Sarah we had Boomunit (Kim, Zoe and myself); my sister, Jenna, her husband, Dave, and their kids, Briana, Jackson, and Kylee; Kim's mom, Becky, and step-father, Gary; my dad; my sister, Elisa, and her fiancee, James; and Kim's brother, Burt, and his wife, Terri.

        We ended using every available bit of table space we had, but everyone had a seat and a decent amount of room.  We have an old drop-leaf table that grandpa had left me which had been passed to him from his grandfather.  It was over 175 years old and, I'm told, worth more than everything else in our house, but a table is a table so we unfolded that sucker and stuck it next to our much newer dining room table and on the end of that we put our breakfast nook/kitchen table.  We supplemented our 10 dining chairs with a half dozen nice folding chairs that had belonged to grandma and been a staple of celebrations at her house.  Zoe had her highchair.  We didn't have to bust out any TV trays, which is good because we don't have any.

        I wanted to have all of the food on the table(s) maybe because I thought it would make it easier to get to the food or maybe just because I like the aesthetic of it.  Due to the heat of the food dished, most things were straight out of the oven, and the length of the centitable we ended up just walking around the table at the beginning of the meal.   Next time we host we'll set the food up in in the kitchen and make folks get it buffet style there.  Live and learn.   Hopefully we'll have a kitchen island by then.  We actually used up the bulk of our counter space prepping the meal.  The table sure did look pretty though.   Kimmy'd set it up real nice with everything lined up and lots of garnishes from the extra parsley we had.  The pies were on the bakers rack which we'd moved to the kitchen.
     
         This is where I talk a lot about the food.  Just sayin'. 

        This is where I have to toot my horn, just a little.  I think it's deserved because I worked my monkey ass off.  The food was great.   Kim and I have been tearing through the leftovers for the last 4 days and we're not sick of them yet.  Kim's mom brought a baked ham and a German chocolate cake.  Jenna brought two pumpkin pies and a chocolate chess pie.  They were all very good.  I made sure to eat some of everything.  Elisa brought drinks and cool whip.  Kim made a pomegranate cranberry sauce with fresh cranberries, pomegranate and orange zest.  I too was delicious.   I had some even though I don't particularly care for cranberry sauce.  I made everything else.  Kim helped me chop a few things for the stuffing, but she was pretty busy making sure the house was presentable so that's about all she could manage to do aside from the cranberry sauce.  The rest was just a flurry of mixing bowls, baking dishes and utensils with some food shoved in there somehow.  

         The bulk of the recipes I used were from the Good Eats website.  Alton Brown is my cooking hero.  His instructions are very straightforward and his explanations of how the ingredients and heat interact with each other make it surprisingly simple to fix things if they go a little wonky, as they often tend to do in our kitchen.  I've actually used his turkey recipe before to great success for the Thanksgiving after mom passed away.  We had to divvy up the cooking that mom did so I offered to do the bird.

        As a bit of an aside, I really appreciate all that my mother did in the kitchen more and more as I get older and take on more cooking responsibilities.  I'm glad she taught us to cook for ourselves and the family.  It has certainly served me and my little family well.  Among the many regrets I have since her passing, one is never getting the chance to cook a major family celebration feast for her so she could relax and visit with her loved ones. 

        Anyways, this year's turkey was also pretty decent.   I bought a digital thermometer with a probe on a wire that I could put in the oven and leave there with the readout on the counter.  I set it to 161°F with the probe in the breast and I didn't lose any of the cooking heat by opening the oven to check the temperature.  The turkey was a 21 lb. beast we'd bought the week prior and been defrosting for almost as long in the fridge.  The night before I brined it in a brand new 5 gallon bucket with allspice berries, black peppercorns, candied ginger, kosher salt, brown sugar, and vegetable stock.  The salt loosens the muscle fibers in the meat so that they aren't able to constrict as much and push out the water.   It makes it so much juicier than even a bag roasted turkey can manage.  I also made sure to cover the breast with foil after the initial 30 minute 500°F blast to keep the white meat just a little behind the dark meat, which needed to reach about 180°F to be done, so that it didn't dry out.  I stuffed the bird with an apple, onion, cinnamon, fresh sage and fresh rosemary.  It only took an additional 2½ hours to roast and then I put it in our stand alone roaster to rest while I made gravy from the drippings.  Dave was kind enough to carve the turkey for us as I had neither the time nor the expertise.
      
       The gravy, also an Alton Brown recipe labeled "Best Gravy Ever", was made right in the roasting pan that I'd just pulled the turkey out of.  It took up two burners on the stove, but it really was worth it.  I got to use my new fat separator that I'd bought at Southern Season courtesy of a gift card from one of my docs.  The bird was so big and juicy that there was too much of the drippings for the little separator to hold (over four cups) after I'd deglazed the pan with some red wine and  chicken stock.  I used about a cup of the fat and threw the rest out, then threw some flour in the pan and and made a big clumpy mess.  I was a bit worried at first, but I added the liquid back in and it mixed in nicely.  I had to up the flour a bit to make sure it was thick enough, but there were no lumps and the whole thing only took about 20 minutes, a large chunk of which was waiting for the fat to cool and separate.  The only thing I forgot to do was add the fresh herbs, but luckily Kim still had the sage and rosemary out from when we'd stuffed the turkey earlier.   I had her mince some up and toss them into the cooling gravy.   I think it's actually better to do it that was so the flavor of the herbs is stronger.

        Another Good Eats recipe that turned out better than expected was the green bean casserole.  In order to make it I had to buy an onion slicer, also a Southern Season gift card purchase.   The recipes called for homemade onion strings so I simply had to give it a go.  Besides, I'd wanted a slicer for quite a while now.  I baked the double batch of green bean casserole in two of our cast iron skillets.  One was decidedly smaller than the other so I had to just guess at the ratios of ingredients.  I was afraid that if I did this one ahead of time the onion strings would wilt, but I had very little choice as I had to have the mashed potatoes and gravy going right after the turkey with the other dishes heating up.  I ended up making this Thursday morning and reheating it with everything else.  I didn't cover it with foil to keep the condensation to a minimum and it turned out just fine.  The green beans were still crispy because I blanched them.  The onions were still crunchy.

       Mashed potatoes.  Not a big deal.  They were the last thing I made before serving lunch.  As per Kimmy's request, I kept the seasoning (aka garlic) to a minimum.   I only used salt, pepper, butter and cream.  I used little Yukon potatoes so they turned out yellowish. 

        The stuffing for the turkey was made the night before.  It was one of the few, non-Good Eats recipes.  I don't like to cook the stuffing in the bird because you never know what kind of bird flu is lurking in there waiting to get soaked up by the bread.   Kim had found a stuffing that called for turkey sausage, an apple, cranberries, celery, an onion, chicken stock, two kinds of bread and a whole host of fresh and dried herbs.  I flipped the ratios on the bread to have more wheat than white and omitted the turkey liver.  I never was a fan of liver and I didn't think anyone would miss it.   I also doubled the chicken stock since it wasn't going to be cooked in the bird and I wanted it to still be moist.  Kimmy absolutely loved the stuffing.  I also made Stovetop stuffing since Kim said that's what Burt always preferred.  It was nice to have extra stuffing too since the homemade batch only would serve about 8-10 folks.  The Stovetop only took about 8 minutes.  So I made it with the mashed potatoes at the last minute.

        I wanted a sweet potato something but I was never a fan of the marshmallow mush that frequented many a Thanksgiving prior so I found a recipe that was sweet, but left the yams intact.  It was called "Keyshawn's Mom's Candied Yams".  I made this the night before as well and Kimmy and I spent half the night singing, "Keyshawn's mom has got it goin' on."  We still do every time we bust them out of the fridge.  It was as simple as it was decadent.  For a double batch I used 6 lbs. of potatoes, 4 sticks of butter, 2 cups of sugar and 2 cups of brown sugar.  Peel, chop, dump everything in a huge pot and cook for about 20 minutes.  That was it.  The chunks were fork tender and not mushy.  "Keyshawn's mom has got it goin' on..."

         I wanted to do at least another side dish that was maybe non-traditional Thanksgiving fare, and that I really liked since I was doing the cooking.  I picked baked macaroni and cheese (wonder of wonders, another Good Eats recipe).  As with the other recipes, it's pretty simple.   The only oddity was that it called for a goodly amount of mustard powder, but I guess with all of the milk and cheese you needed something with a kick just to show up on the palate.  I made a double batch Wednesday night and topped it with Panko.  Yum.    

       The pies were made on Monday night since I knew they'd eat up a chunk of time on their own and they could keep for a few days.  Pies had become my thing for the holidays since Mom passed.  After we'd all moved out she would make a whole bunch of pies so that we could each take one home with us at the end of the day.  So I decided to take it to the limit.  I would bake upwards of 15 pies every Thanksgiving making sure that everyone got a whole pie to take home and everyone else still had the opportunity to try a bit of each kind.   I would make about 5 or 6 different kinds of pies each year and, oddly enough, not a single fruit pie.  I'm going to have to start branching out.  Anyways, this year I asked Jenna to help make some this year.  She brought three, as I'd mentioned earlier, two pumpkins and a chocolate chess pie.  I couldn't completely give up the pie racket so I made three of my own as well, a pecan pie and two coconut custard pies (my favorite). 

      The pecan pie recipe was a Momma Dip's recipe.  It is pretty similar to the candies yams in that it called for gracious amounts of sugar and butter.  The only trick I've learned regarding this one is to make sure the sugar/karo syrup/butter mixture is plenty cooled before adding the eggs.  There's nothing quite like scrambled egg pecan pied.  This takes forever and usually results in me burning my fingers repeatedly to check the mixture.  It's hot and very sticky and I never learn.  This is Jame's favorite kind of pie so I always send the rest home with him.

       I decided to make the coconut custard pie this year with a fresh coconut as opposed to the flaked sugary stuff I usually buy.  I knew the sugar content would change so I passed on my usual recipe for one that actually called for fresh coconut.  I had the coconut left over from when I'd baked one of Zoe's birthday cakes.  Yes, I tend to over kill things.  I made a coconut cake that took me 6 hours to make (yup, another Good Eats concoction) and it was delicious.  I'd thought I would need more coconut than that recipe had called for, but by the time I'd cooked, shelled, peeled and grated 2 of the 3 I'd gotten I had more than enough for the cake.  My leftover coconut still had a fair amount of coconut water in it which is a sign of it's freshness/edibility.  I repeated the coconut splitting, grating ordeal and used the resulting mess to make my first fresh coconut custard pies.  They turned out great, not too sweet which can easily happen with the sweetened, flaked kind since I tend to double the amount of coconut any recipe calls for.  My only regret is that I didn't bake the pie shell ahead of time.   It made quite a mess getting it out of the pie tins.  Next time I'll make my own crusts with coconut milk.  Also I spilled the filling in the oven so the house smelled like smoke for a few days afterwards.

        Everything else was basically heat and eat.  We had little corn on the cob, one of Zoe's favorites.  I'd like to have done them on the grill with the husks and garlic butter like we usually do, but time was at a premium and we were out of propane, so we just got the frozen kind you boil.  We also had 3 different kinds of rolls that I popped it the oven at the last minute. 

       So with all of that food and double batches of most if it, we filled the entire middle of the 3 tables.  I told folks to get there around noon and that we'd be eating at 1:00.  I actually had everything ready and hot on the table by 1:10 which was pretty darned good planning and orchestrating for a first go at Thanksgiving.  It required a lot of bustling around the kitchen and ordering folks around, including my mother-in-law!, grabbing things out of the oven, juggling kitchen utensils, prepping last minute ingredients, and setting the table.  I was polite about it, but Kim said I was acting like a general in the kitchen.  Regardless, everyone seemed to be happy to help.   Yay for crazy times.  Huzzah! 

      Alright, to prove it all happened in really real life and not just in my head here's a picture of the family and the final spread:

       
Hopefully I won't have to do this again for another two years. 

          Once the meal was all said and done I just slumped over in my chair and stared at my last piece of pie for about 30 minutes while Kim's mom, Jenna, Dave and Briana cleaned the kitchen, washed the dishes and put the leftovers up.  I don't know how they found all of the tupperware to put it away, but they did.  Kim's folks then took Zoe up to VA and my folks hung out a bit longer then made their way out.  I did another load of dishes, moved the tables back then Kim and I collapsed on the couch like depowered meat puppets.  Good times.

'kay bye,
Jeremy

        

let the kitchen madness begin

Hello blog,
        I am cooking Thanksgiving.  Everything, or close to everything.  Kim's making a cranberry sauce, Jenna's bringing a few pies, and Kim's mother is bringing a ham.   I'm doing everything else.  I am very excited.  I've never cooked for 15 folks before.  Wooohoooo!!!

        There are many firsts this year so I really am stoked.  This will also be the first time our families have been together since our wedding.  The only way we were able to convince Kimmy's folks to come up for Thanksgiving was to offer up Zoe.   She's cute and a grandma magnet so it worked.  They're taking her home with them and we're going up there in Saturday to eat a Thanksgiving meal there and pick Zoe up.   Kim's brother and his wife(?) are coming as well.

        It's also the first time we've ever hosted Thanksgiving.  We never had a place big enough to manage it before.  Now we're having everybody over, well everybody but my brother who decided that working on Thanksgiving was an acceptable practice.  Stupid restaurants. 

        It's also the first time I've ever had to cook for my in-laws.  They've had a pie or two I'd brought to other occasions, but never a full on meal as far as I can remember.  When they venture out of VA they tend to flit away as quick as they can so I've never been able to pin them down for a meal before.  I certainly don't get the chance to cook when we visit them in South Boston.  I guess nobody is ever comfortable letting others cook in their kitchen.

        There's a lot to do and I have to rush off now to get things done so I'll probably revisit this to finish up a few thoughts.   For now take a look at pretty food that will look nothing like what I'm going to prepare.

bye now,
Jeremy
       

radio times

Hello blog,
        My band, the Archbishops of Blount Street, were on the radio this past Friday.   We were on NPR's "The State of Things" with Frank Statio, who, by an odd coincidence, happened to be an old family friend of our guitarist, George.  We were on during their noon show.  It was a super blast.   Most new experiences are always different from what you'd expect, but this one was pleasantly so.

 
        My band T.Rox once had a snippet of our version of Time After Time played on the G105 morning show when they were looking for bands for some fall festival thing.  G105 is fairly popular, but they tend to play top 40 almost exclusively which I guess is by definition, popular.  Anywhoos, Kimmy, wrote in one morning on the interwebs and they looked at our Myspace page live on the air and said that it was catchy and that we probably rocked live.  They butchered our band name, but it was still pretty nifty.   The sound bite of the whole thing was buried in a 2 hour podcast of the show. 

        There wasn't much else besides that with me and the radio.  I've had a few tunes I'd recorded played on the radio, but those were mostly local college radio shows with barely a mention of the bands or regional rock and beach music shows with bands that I'd left years ago so I was fairly disconnected.  

        A friend of mine, Brian Hill, from Regatta 69 was on "The State of Things" back in July to promote the Skankfest he'd put together that we were playing on.  He did it as a solo singer/guitarist.  Our bassist/manager, Ski, felt that the triangle ska scene needed a stronger representation so he dropped the show a line and they booked us for November.  We were originally booked for late October to help us promote our Dreads to Kill KISS/ska show, but we were moved because of a schedule conflict.   We didn't have anything decent to promote, aside from a slot opening for the Slackers that Sunday, but they still wanted us to play which was nice.

        So nine of us crammed into the studios at WUNC.  Our rhythm guitarist, Jon, was on a plane coming back from Omaha so we weren't at super full strength, but pretty close.  Frank was also in the room at his station while we played.  The room had what looked like a small conference table with about five schmancy microphones sticking up out of it and a computer.  All of this was in a little room not much bigger than the table itself with a tad more room off to one side of the table.  There was the main control room with the big glass off to one side.  We put the drums in one corner of the room and the rest of us crowded around the table.      
  
        They had to mic the drums and guitar amp and they had two extra mics for horns which we gave to the sax players.  The keys and bass  went directly to the board.   That made things interesting because there were only seven extra sets of headphones.  That meant that Brannon and Brian had to do without since they weren't singing or playing a rhythm instrument.  Derek, Richard, Timothy and I had the vocal mics on the table.  Mine doubled as a brass mic for Brian and me.   Needless to say the sound mixing was going to be a bit sketchy.   We made it work though, surprisingly well.  They had a really nice mixing board in the control booth.

           Our segment of the show was all of 17½ minutes.   We were on after an editor who'd put together a book of Kafka stories, and before that was the lady who owned a set of tae kwon do studios.  It was an eclectic show.  We closed out the show.  It went by very quickly.   We were told to prepare about 4 songs, one of which was going to be the play out.  We chose Sally Brown, Monkey Man, Love Gun (or Message to You Rudy if they didn't mention the KISS show) and Stir It Up to close with.  We'd originally chosen Sell Out to close, but I'd forgotten my trumpet as did Derek so we didn't have the right horns for the song.  It worked out for the best since Derek got to sing one and we were able to showcase our vocals. 

        I was one of the ones picked to do the talking for the group along with Ski.  I was to answer any questions about ska or the music and he was to answer questions about the band and/or booking.  We figured there was no way to keep Derek from talking so we just had to run with whatever he said.  He and Ski shared a mic so that cut down on a bit of the vocal clutter that typifies our shows.  Neither Tim nor Richard piped up during the interview bits.  Frank actually addressed me first and asked about the history of ska, which I started to bumbled through then Ski took over.  Derek interjected here and there, but all in all it seemed to go pretty well.  One thing is certain, none of us are radio smooth just yet. 

        Our tunes went over pretty well despite the sound limitations and the cramped quarters.  Sally Brown was fairly straightforward.  The backing vocals were fairly low.   I think they might have been compensating for the fact that our horns were coming through the mic as well.  Monkey Man was good as well, even though Bruce was supposed to count it off and just ended up staring at us pointing at him until Ski called out, "one, two, three, four."  It just made for a longer pause, although in the studio it felt like forever.  My solo sucked a bit, but Tim made up for it by rocking the flute.  Love Gun was awesome.  It was the best we'd ever played it.   Maybe the horns were paying closer attention to the key, E♭ minor.  It just clicked.  Richard's vocals were perfect.   Stir It Up was surprisingly good because of the vocals.  I wish we'd had more than 40 seconds of it before fade out. 

          After it was all said and done Frank shook all of our hands and got our of the way so we could get our equipment out of the room.   We managed that in short order, but I had to book it out of there to get to work.  I'd like to have hung out a bit and poked around the studios.  Everyone there was very nice and helpful.  Imagining all of the folks that come through there in the course of a week I'm surprised they aren't more jaded. 

      Lots of people I hadn't told have come up to me and told me about hearing the show.  My boss at Harris Teeter came up to me Saturday morning and just raved about the band.  It was pretty cool.  The show broadcasts statewide so it was, by far and away, the largest audience we'd even reached.   I don't expect there's a huge number of ska fans that listen to NPR, but you never know.  It was a very interesting experience.

OK. I'm starting to bore myself now.  Time to bye bye,
Jeremy

blessed

Hello blog,

        I often wonder what the 20 something Jeremy would think about the 35 year model's life and whatnot.  I'm sure my much more toned (I used to have four of a six-pack going), somewhat more irritable and decidedly less grey version of me would be pretty impressed despite the chub.  There are certainly things I would like to be different, but that's what keeps you from getting complacent and bored.

       Every now and again I have to count my blessings to keep from getting buried in the craziness of things right now.  It's something I do with more frequency these days, but it keeps me grounded and generally happy.  On the whole, we have it pretty swell, even if we do have to work our asses off sometimes.  Here's a very abbreviated list of the main things for which I am grateful:

1.       Kim and I are both able-bodied.

We are able to hold down multiple jobs when a great deal of folks don't even have one.  We are usually in decent health, leaving aside the occasional bugs that can lay us out from time to time.  Despite seeming to stretch on for eternity, they always pass in relatively quick order.  I know many folks with chronic issues that would make a lot of what we do impossible.  Most of what ails us these days can be cured by a good night's sleep or voodoo.  A little Marvin Gaye never hurts either.
      
2.        We own our own house.

         How cool is that?  We have a place that we can paint and redecorate how we want.

 We don't have to worry about a lease.  We get to pay property taxes (OK so maybe not the most awesome feature of owning a house).  Still it's big and beautiful and ours.  I've lived in apartments ever since I got out on my own.  I've never had this much space to call my own.  Kim lived in trailers for the bulk of her life, and then in an apartment with me.  We actual have to work to spread our things out now.  So we may not have the biggest yard in the world, but that means less mowing.    

3.      We have shiny new, reliable vehicles that are actually pleasant to drive.

Having driven clunkers most of my life, I am now blessed with two vehicles that were made within the past decade and have at least 4 wheels.  Also air-conditioning!  I've spent way too many summers driving to gigs in 90°+ weather over 100 miles away.  I sweated so much that's probably how I kept my weight down.  We no longer have to keep our mechanic on speed dial.  It's just one less major thing to worry about.  We have two car payments now, but few things that are worthwhile are free and we are able to manage.    

4.      I get to play/make music almost every day and sometimes I even make a little money at it.   I also get to meet some really interesting folks.  I'm blessed to have enough musical talent that others will agree to play with me in front of others. 

Sometimes even in Kiss makeup.

How I get away with most of this is beyond me, but I enjoy it a great deal.   It, like most things in my life, takes a lot of work, but I have great fun the whole time. 

5.      Also ZOE! 

Fact - She's the awesomist daughter to have been borned.  She has a full compliment of fingers and toes and all of her major organs are in the correct place and in solid working order.  On top of that she's the cutest thing you'll ever see ever.

Just look at that!  That little cover girl calls me, "Daddy."   She sings, dances, laughs, sleeps on command, and says the darnedest things.  I realize everybody learns new things daily, but it's usually a subtle process.  With Zoe it's just so real and vivid.  Watching a person learn everything right in front of you is really cool.  Now it's not all sunshine and unicorn farts having a child, what with the tantrums and poop, but it's all worth it when she gives you a hug.  I could easily fill up many pages on Zoe, but I'm going to save those for another day.  She's expanded my capacity for love so much more than I ever thought possible and that is truly a blessing.  

6.     Finally and most importantly: Mrs. Kimberly Childrey Boomhower.

Just the sheer statistical improbability that two goofballs like us could find each other at just the right times in both of our lives and mesh so well is staggering to me.  I feel like I won the spousal lottery.  She gets my sense of humor and has a wicked one of her own.  She's also the prettiest lady I've ever laid eyes on.  As with Zoe, I could go on and on, but I think even Kim would get tired of reading that.  Let me just say that once we met my life gained direction and drive and I haven't looked back or regretted anything since.  She is the blessingest blessing I have.

Alright.  I guess that's enough for now.  I am truly lucky.

Jeremy 

   

weary, but ok

Hello blog,
       I am pretty tired so this will most likely come out all rambly.    
       Today was a long one, which is really just a continuation of yesterday.  I worked last night stocking shelves.  In and of itself it is not a terribly difficult job.  The product aren't particularly heavy or dirty or unwieldy.  I am more in danger of going "grocery blind".  It's not quite like snow blindness, which is caused by reflected UV light, although spending the wee hours under florescent lights might come close.  It's more of a psychosis that meshes all of the labels into one brightly colored infomatic on the benefits of brand X.  It doesn't quite make me a cynical grocery shopper, but it does help me realize that there are near infinite varieties of the same thing that could certainly stand for just one or two.  Seriously, a can of corn is a can of corn is a can of corn. 
       Today was long because I slept maybe 2 hours after getting off of work yesterday and picking up Zoe and Kimmy.  Then it was off to work again, then off at 6:00 and on the bus at 7:00 for another round of the day job from which I will head home, make dinner and rush out the door to rehearsal (45 minutes away) until 10:00.  This process repeats itself 2-3 times a week, just substitute a show for the rehearsal.  The good nights are the ones where I can go to bed right after putting Zoe down at 8:00 and don't have to get up 2-3 hours later.  I don't complain though.  It just is what it is for as long as it needs to be. 
      Why do I participate in all of this foolishness?  The short answer is "family".  I usually tell people it's because I want another baby and the childcare costs are daunting, especially considering the 3 months that Kim will take of unpaid maternity leave (hopefully with some more insurance coverage this time).  We need to make sure there's enough in the bank to keep us afloat during that time and afterward with daycare costs effectively doubling for us.  That means paying a few loans and whatnot off.  That means working lots.  Kimmy as well.  She's seeing more clients than usual. 
        So I guess it's the selfish side of me that wants a large family.  In order for that to work, Kim (an integral component of the baby making process) has to feel financially secure.  I don't blame her.  I was in school then just straight up unemployed during the bulk of Zoe's incubation.  It was a very stressful time even when I finally found a temp job.  She doesn't want to experience that again and I certainly don't want her to either.  I do this to give her at least some financial peace of mind.  Our problems now are related to time management, but that seems to cause less stress than the money management issues did so I guess/hope it's helping.
         I also really want Zoe to have a brother or sister or both.  My sister, Jenna, is less than a year younger than me and we were pretty close growing up.  I want Zoe to have that opportunity.  I don't want her to be too much older than her sibling(s) so they can hang out and play together as they develop.  It's just what I'm used to and would prefer.   
       Another reason is I want a better life for my family, particularly for Kim and Zoe and the kids to come.  I want to make sure we can afford our home.  I know we don't need the biggest house in the world and we can certainly make do with smaller than what we have, but I want Zoe to have room.   I want Kim to have room.  I like having room.  We crammed ourselves into an apartment for long enough.  I want to give my family the best possible living accommodations I can manage.  My mom and dad never owned a house while I was growing up, due mainly to dad being in the army.   It made for constantly shifting living situations.  I wouldn't trade it for the world, but that's not what I want for Zoe.  She needs a home.  We got her one.
       I don't like working as much as I do.  I miss my wife and daughter dearly when I have to leave Kim in the bed late at night and I don't get to come home to make Zoe's breakfast, or when I have to take a nap in the evening right after picking Zoe up.  That's way harder than all of the weariness.  I have be able to provide my family with the things it needs, financially, emotionally, developmentally, etc.
           I'm really not trying to sound like a saint or something.  I'm just doing the best I can with what I've got.  Things are crazy, but I'm happy.   I suspect I'll be even happier when I can slow down, but I don't know when that will be so I try not to think on it too much and just be grateful for my family and all that we've accomplished and plan to accomplish.  

amen,
Jeremy      

beginning

Hello blog, I don't ever have anything useful to write. I guess this is my attempt to kill time and empty my head which doesn't have much to begin with.   Anyone who reads this will already know who I am so I'm not going to go into great detail about my world travels and various major medical/archaeological/scientific discoveries.  But since people secretly (and some not so secretly) love talking about themselves here's the quick and dirty of my recent history and current status (happy/tired).

I have a beautiful wife.
She rubs people for money and makes things that smell.
I still love her though.

I have a beautiful daughter. 
She sticks things in her mouth without even being dared to.  She is everything.
















This is me.
I play music.
yawn.

We also have four cats who may or may not look like this.  I don't carry around pictures of them in my wallet anymore so I have to guess.  They have bad breath and like to lose their hair.














We just bought a new house in Mebane, NC and we are working hard to pay for it.  We also just bought a new car to go with the car we bought 2 years ago since the car we bought 5 years ago died, but it was 18 years old so it was time for it to blow up spectacularly and with much smoke.  We called it our Lego car because we glued legos to the top of it with plans to cover it entirely.  I doubt we'll do that to any of our new cars, well, new to us; they are 3 and 5, respectively. 

My wife, Kimmy(ie/ee/ey/eeyie), works as a practice manager for an acupuncture clinic and sees clients there as a massage therapist.  She also makes and occasionally sells all natural soaps and lip balms and whatnot.  She stays busy.

I am busy too.  I work full time for the hospital.  It's not my intended career field, but it's more stable than teaching and, sadly, pays more as well which is a major factor for us now that we owe the credit union our souls.  I am a musician as well.  I play in 3-5 bands with some regularity and rehearse on occasion, as I can drag time away.  It may sound like a lot, but that really equates to only 2-3 nights a week, 4-5 on particularly busy weeks.  I also work 2-3 overnight shifts a week stocking shelves at a grocery store.  It's not glamorous, but we are trying to pay a few things off so we can have another baby.  Childcare can be expensive, especially when there are more than one.  But, as my wife likes to say, my biological clock is ticking and I want more childrens sooner than later so I doubt I'll be slowing down any time soon.

I'll probably spend most of my time writing about my daughter, Zoe, in here.  That's probably for the best since we have basically become the baby/toddler (she's 2 as of last Thursday) delivery service for all family functions.  She deserves all of the attention though.   She's simply awesome.
Check it out.

OK.  That's all.
Jeremy