A Sad Week

Posted on by Jordan

I don’t have a whole lot to post about this week.

I can’t really even decide how I feel right now, Heather and I went to this funeral a few hours ago, for a young man from a family heavily involved with the Scout troop I work with.

I can’t really say too much except to say that it’s tragic, and hard to put into words beyond that.

I will end on a somewhat brighter note.

Ever heard of the game Minecraft? It’s a sort of Lego set inside a game, without any real goal other than building whatever you want. I played around with it a little, but found I just didn’t like the time it took to do things. Many of the scouts from my troop seem to love the game though. One so much that he brought his homemade action figures to a meeting:

 

You might be thinking “hey those are just weird square blocks” but… they were surprisingly accurate to what the game actually contains. I typically don’t like to post pictures of the scouts, but I figured this was fairly anonymous, and he was so proud of the kit.

I cannot really say that there is symmetry there, except that Scouting has exposed me to things that are incredibly sad, and things that make me really proud of what young men find themselves able to do (a lot more than carving wood blocks, but it’s a start).

-Jordan

First Aid Kit

Posted on by Jordan

One of the nice things about working with the scouts is that I get frequent reminders of things I should probably be doing. One of those things is “have a first aid kit at home”

We had some stuff, and I have small kits in our cars from a long time ago.

One of the interesting quotes I heard on the subject was from the EMT who provided our basic medical training when I went through the adult leader training almost two years ago. To the best of my memory what he said was “if you have something in your first aid kit, and you don’t know what it is or what it’s for you need to get rid of it” he then went on to recommend you just put together your own kit with only the essentials.

I finally got around to starting on that a few weeks ago:

I mashed together lists from the Red Cross and the Boy Scout Handbook plus a few odds and ends I had heard were important. I still have a few things left to add, and I haven’t figured out the perfect container for this stuff yet, but I am pretty proud of it.

A few notes:

I probably went overboard on the scissors. Those black ones in the picture are emergency room grade trauma sheers, and if the Amazon reviews are to be believed, will hold up to years of cutting off shoes and belts without issue. Ironic I suppose that I went cheap a month back on a saw I hope to use many times, and then spent extra on sheers I hope to never use.

What is a “triangle bandage”? To be honest I didn’t know, despite finding them on nearly every first aid list. A little searching indicated they were incredibly useful, and a must-have in a first aid kit. Well you can see the packs in the above picture, and here is one unpacked:

The material is considerably heavier than just gauze, but still feels like it would absorb liquid if you needed it too. I think the idea is the bandage serves as an outer wrap, considering the first aid kid contains about four different kinds of sterile gauze pack. The package included two safety pins so you can hold in in position once you get something figured out. It most reminds me of a slightly over-sized Scout neckerchief, and I imagine you could use any of the techniques from the Scout manual that called the neckerchief with this. (because even the most prepared former Scout probably isn’t wearing his neckerchief 20 years later)

One more picture to give a sense of scale:

It’s a large bandage! Side note, Heather protested loudly at taking this picture… apparently she feels demonstrating first aid items is too close to needing them… or something, maybe she just thought I was enjoying the whole first aid kit thing a little too much 🙂

-Jordan

Grilled Pork Chops And Pineapple

Posted on by Jordan

I started this recipe with certainty that I was trying to reproduce something I have eaten before. After looking around for a while I wasn’t having much luck finding anything close to the pineapple slices over pork chops I was thinking of.

So I just kind of improvised:

First off I marinated the pork. I tend towards using garlic and pepper as my foundation for most marinades, but wanted something different when I knew it was going to be going with pineapple. Here is what I wound up with:

  • Olive Oil
  • Cinnamon
  • Apple Cider Vinegar
  • Honey
  • Chili Powder
  • Salt
  • Water

I was happy with the end result, although it wasn’t a particularly strong flavor. While the marinade was doing it’s thing, I prepped a pineapple:

After cutting out the center of those slices, there really wasn’t much else to do except head to the grill.

Side note, as much as I like my little grill, it’s easy to see that four people is about the limit when you want a single-stage cooking experience.

I stacked them on the grill for the last minute or so:

I really think a slice of Swiss Cheese would be a good addition at this point, but again, I could not find any confirmation via an existing recipe online. I would have done it anyway, except this was already far too experimental considering we were having company… and I didn’t have any Swiss Cheese on hand.

The end result was that everyone liked them, and Heather liked them enough to say we should have them again sometime. That’s about as good as you can hope for I think.

Oh, and technically those aren’t pork chops, they are slices of a big pork loin that was on sale the other day, but I figure it isn’t too far off.

-Jordan

 

 

The Zoo

Posted on by Jordan

Heather and I took advantage of the unusually nice weather this spring to make a little trip to Omaha and visit the Henry Doorly Zoo.

Actually, it’s a little bit of a misrepresentation to say that we took advantage of the weather, we did get amazing weather, but we had booked the trip almost a month in advance and were just hoping the weather wouldn’t be too bad.

As it turns out the weather was beautiful! Great news for us, except everyone else thought it would be a great day to go to the zoo… even then it wasn’t too terribly crowded.

We saw Gazelle!

And a rhino under the ski lift Skifari

Then some other rhinos, this time in the mud!

We wrapped up the day in the jungle area, complete with a rope bridge:

The bridge was still pretty cool. I remember it being the highlight of a trip when I was much younger and wasn’t sure how well it would hold up.

As per the plan, we had time left to take a nap before heading out again to walk around the Old Market area. I cannot over state how nice the weather was! We ended up eating outside at one of the sidewalk seating areas restaurants have in the Old Market. Not bad for March!

The next day we were able to attend the Omaha Vineyard, and see lots of old friends there. After church it was on to Lincoln for a family gathering!

It was a sort-of baby shower for one of my cousins on the Nelson side. Well, I suppose I don’t know what does and does not qualify as a baby shower, except to say that I typically don’t attend them. Whatever the case may be, that group doesn’t get together too often, so it was worth making the effort to meet up.

Also, Heather got to hold a baby out of the deal, so maybe it counts as a shower after all?

I really don’t know 🙂

-Jordan