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

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

 

 

Fitness Tools, Spring 2012

Posted on by Jordan

Heather and I are always looking for ways to stay active. Also, as spring starts to get underway, loosing some of the “lay under a blanket and eat comfort food” weight factors into out goals.

Heather got a tip from a coworker about My Fitness Pall and has whole hardheartedly started using it. I can’t necessarily explain what it has that other food-tracking sites don’t except to say that it perfectly fits what she was looking for. One feature I haven’t seen in the tools I played with last spring is that it automatically adds your workouts into your daily caloric budget, so your food log takes into account that you spent an hour on the treadmill.

Now that we have gone most of a month using the site to track both eating and cardio workouts we have learned a few things.

  • I need a lot more calories than Heather
  • Having more detailed information really allowed us to make small changes that had a big impact
  • Heather is happier if she gets a workout in, if for no other reason than to increase her caloric budget a little
  • We didn’t realize how many little flaws there were in our generic “try to eat healthy” approach we had

On the first point; it has been a sometimes frustrating transition as meal planning gets a lot more complicated when you have to account for different needs. We have managed fairly well, but it’s been an adjustment.

An easy example of changes we made is breakfast. With the realization that I should probably be eating more, and knowing the whole “it’s better to eat a big breakfast” thing, I more or less doubled the size of the breakfast I eat. It’s been surprising to not have the constant feeling of hunger generally have transitioning into a fitness kick like I am on right now.

Along with the daily workouts, Heather has started working out in the mornings without me. The fact that I am not a morning person hasn’t helped our prior workout plans, and making that change seems to leave everyone happier. (I have been told repeatedly that I am not very nice before 7am… can’t explain it, but it must be true)

Things we didn’t know were quite so bad: Bread, pasta, potatoes. I sort of thought we had that under control by switching to whole wheat. Turns out those guys are surprisingly calorie dense. It isn’t that we don’t eat them now, it’s just that we have to be honest about how fast that stuff adds up. Unexpected good news? Bacon isn’t really that bad! I brought back Saturday morning bacon, and have really enjoyed the discovery 🙂

 

My only disappointment with My Fitness Pall is that they don’t really do anything with strength training. I started out the year with the resolution that I would get two days of strength training in every week. The site does allow you to record things you do, but with no feedback, it almost felt like they were discouraging you from doing it.

About that time, my sister mentioned a site called Fitocracy. It’s a site that does two things: publishes your workouts, and gives points for doing things, with levels, badges, and achievements. The latter half of that pair is very video game inspired, but that happens to be something that I can get into.

I wasn’t sure how much I would get into it, but after two weeks, it has already motivated me to take my strength training beyond what I could do at home (push-ups, lunges, sit-ups) and into lifting actual weights again.

Hopefully this all translates into some great results. I guess we will know in a few months!

-Jordan

 

Small tangent that I wanted to mention, but didn’t really fit above: I used a food-tracking website in conjunction with the cardio kickboxing thing we did last year. It didn’t provide any guidance as to how many calories I should be eating, and my ‘coach’ (a well meaning volunteer) didn’t really ether. Long story short, apparently doing an hour of high-intensity workout on 1400 calories a day doesn’t actually produce good long term results when your my size. (for reference, even without a workout, MFP figures I can eat 2100 a day and still loose weight)

 

Another Busy Weekend

Posted on by Jordan

Disclaimer, as always I am falling behind on posting, so this may not discuss last weekend, so much as a weekend I meant to post about. 🙂

 

Friday night, Heather and I had a quiet evening at home. The evening got a lot quieter when the power failed.

I quickly discovered that Heather’s love for scented candles makes us well prepared for this kind of event. I have been careful to keep a few flashlights handy, but we only used those to get some candles lit, and then we had plenty of light.

It was a great reminder that I need to get moving on that emergency preparedness kit I have been thinking about from the day I rejoined the scouts. If I let myself get a blog post or two out of it, I might actually get it together 🙂

About the last thing I remember before falling asleep was marveling at how quiet our building was without power, and then hearing fans and motors kick in as the power came back up.

The next morning, Heather’s parents came for a short visit. We took the opportunity to teach them how to play St Petersburg; in the hopes that it was something people who weren’t already inclined to enjoy board games would have fun with. I am pleased to report that, despite our less than ideal introduction, they enjoyed the game.

Later we took advantage of the fact that it was somehow over 50 degrees in February, and headed up to the “High Trestle Bridge” trail. The bike route we take is 11 miles, but there is a nice trail-head only a little more than mile from the bridge, giving us a nice walk out to a great view of the valley.

I encourage people to come visit us, but chances are your going to be playing a board game and then walking on one of the many trails around here. It isn’t glamorous I suppose, but everybody seems to enjoy it.

We finished up the day with dinner and a movie.While we were out, Heather and her mom both managed to independently pick the phrase “it looks like a hearse” to describe a vehicle we were interested in. I still can’t explain how they arrived at that.

Sunday was more food, and more boardgames. Don’t let the lack of a long description here lead you into thinking it wasn’t enjoyed, I just don’t think I can produce interesting reading by recapping.

-Jordan

Wild At Heart, A Sort Of Review

Posted on by Jordan

This is just going to be a micro-review, but I wanted to get a few thoughts down before too much slipped out of my mind.

I finished reading Wild At Heart, by John Eldredge

I really liked the book.

The first few chapters do an amazing job of putting into words things I have known to be true but couldn’t articulate.

I am trying really hard not to say too much here, because I will ether try to say what the book said and fail, or veer into impassioned rant territory and regret having published it on the internet.

Let me just say this, Eldredge does a great job of stating the problem faced by a lot of young men in the church. The first half of the book really resonated with me; leaving me wanting to run up mountains and tackle wildlife… that might be a slight overstatement, but I did come away from every chapter excited and feeling like I had really discovered something about myself and what God has for me.

The book could have been written to address conversations Heather and I had in the weeks prior to my reading the book where I was trying to express to Heather this almost despair I was feeling: That there were so few young men in the church because “the church” has nothing to offer young men.  To read that there might be a place for passion and even *gasp* aggression in a man’s pursuit of Christ was exhilarating.

And then we come to the back half of the book. I remember reading Wild At Heart when I was in college, and I know the second half of the book is why I had written it off as “not for me.”

I still come away feeling like the book cannot answer the question “Ok this is amazing, I am ready to do this! Now what?”

In my second read-through, almost ten years later I have to admit that whatever is there has to be better than not having talked about the issue at all.

I suppose the book can’t possibly say what to do next, because in talking about the wild nature of God (as often expressed in nature) formulas and step-by-step plans aren’t going to explain what is there.

And now, suddenly, I am back where I started when I picked up the book again. I cannot properly express the ideas I am trying to express, but I know there is a book that did a really good job of stating the case.

Anyway… Glad that is written down, even if it isn’t coherent to anyone else… We shall resume stories of day to day life of Heather and Jordan shortly 🙂

 

-Jordan

Valentine’s 2012

Posted on by Jordan

Heather and I might not be exciting people. I say this, because it is the only conclusion I can really draw when faced with the events of Valentine’s day this year. That being said, it was a good day… Just not terribly exciting.

The day started off with Heather giving me Saint Petersburg the board game. We discovered this game over the weekend, at the West Des Moines Board Game Club. It isn’t the sort of game that ether of us would initially be drawn too, but thanks to the people at the game night, once we learned it, it was really enjoyable.

Before we got a chance to actually play the game, I tried out a new recipe: Stuffed Panko Crusted Chicken. I think it went rather well, and Heather stated that I should take a picture of it, so I must not be the only one who thought it came out ok.

We then played a lovingly contested game of St Petersburg… Pretty good for a work night 😉

-Jordan

Family And A Warning

Posted on by Jordan

We had a busy weekend (like most it would seem)

A bunch of my family was in town to attend a gymnastics event that three of my cousins were competing in.

I am continually impressed by the feats they are able to perform, and by the extent to which they more or less shrug off the ability to do said feats.

We didn’t take any pictures. Primarily because we just looked like we had been siting in bleachers for eight hours, and the events were too far away and moving too fast for our gear to capture. Also, I don’t think I would want to be holding a camera with that many pre-teen girls in leotards running around… It just seems like asking for misunderstandings that involve addressing someone as officer.

Speaking rule enforcement, I now think of our new building as the “see no evil” condos. Exhibit one:

Perhaps the building manager intended a different meaning than the one I read. Just to be safe I don’t look at the neighbors dogs. Probably shouldn’t have a camera in hand ether, who knows what kind of penalties that might entail. 🙂

 

-Jordan

Feeling Patriotic

Posted on by Jordan

Like I mentioned before, Heather and I had planned to attend the Iowa caucus.
It ended up being a little difficult to find where we were suppose to be, thanks to the last census having provoked redistricting of our area. I don’t really know the details except to say all the automatic tools that used to exist to tell you where your location is have been turned off on the state website until they get the new districts figured out. I am sure I wasn’t the only person to send an e-mail to the county clerk’s office last week, but they were quick to respond and we finally knew where to go.

Jump ahead to Tuesday night, and it turns out we weren’t the only people who wanted to participate. We got there 30 minutes early, and still had to walk in from a neighboring parking lot. After having our IDs checked against the voter registration logs we managed to find a seat in the arena type place hosting our caucus. By the time they have everyone checked in, we were 20 minutes late starting the caucus.

The time between our arrival and the actual start was spent setting quietly, trying not to gawk at the rapidly filling room. By the time everybody got inside I am told there were 3,000 voters attending. Typically I am not too shy about gawking at a big crowd, but in addition to the voters there were a good one hundred press type people with cameras roaming around looking to interview the unwary. Well, I don’t know if that’s how it worked, but I had no intention of being caught 🙂

After they got everyone inside we kicked off the proceedings. My impression is that the caucusing idea does not scale well… In a room of 25-30 people (a size I am told is more typical) having any old member of the community stand up and say a few words in support of his or her candidate wouldn’t seem out of place. When it’s a packed house like we had, it was clearly intimating for the speakers. Most of the speakers anyway, our last “speaker on behalf of the candidate” turned out to be the candidate.

Rick Perry got the same five minute window everyone else got, and managed to look a lot more comfortable doing it. Heather maintains he looked a little silly, and I don’t think there is any question he was more excited than anyone else in the room was in that moment.

After we heard a short pitch for all the candidates we were instructed to use the paper ballot we had been given to, well, vote. It’s at this point that we discovered we had been somewhat misinformed. Heather and I both thought we were going to have to re-vote and then re-vote again until our district managed a consensus for one candidate. Instead we just dropped our ballot in the box and went home. We later found out the “stay until there is a consensus” thing only applies to the Democrat party caucus.

When we woke up Wednesday morning to find that in the final count, only eight votes separated the winner from the second place candidate it really made the whole thing feel significant. To quote Heather “it makes me feel really patriotic, like we really had a say in something”

Speaking of having a say in things… and I hope this post is the one and only political post I have this year (there are plenty of places for that if you want to read it) I have added a badge off to the right side of the blog for the EFF. I just renewed my membership today, and think what they are doing is important.

Tune in next time where we will be back to cooking and adventures with Heather and Jordan 🙂

-Jordan

 

Starting Off The New Year

Posted on by Jordan

I Started off the first day of the new year with the most important meal of the day:

I suppose this isn’t the most riveting reading, but I am getting a lot better at making omelets and wanted to show this one off.

 

 

With this particular year new year comes the climax of Iowa’s involvement in the public spectacle that is  political elections. I don’t think I can overstate how much I enjoy not owning a TV right now. All the same, we plan to caucus with the best of them this week. Perhaps I will get a post of of the experience… ether way I can make a mean omelet! 🙂

 

-Jordan

Preparations

Posted on by Jordan

Hi there!

Instead of posting over the past few days I have found myself working a lot more than expected, and in my free time slowly using up the contents of this picture:

(not pictured, 15 cups of flour large quantities of sugar)

You may be thinking “…but Heather and Jordan are always eating healthy things, and Heather doesn’t even eat sweets”

Right you are my friend! But what you haven’t considered is how much we wanted to create some Christmas traditions for ourselves. The plan is to finish baking several hundred cookies and then invite friends over to help decorate them. Hopefully sending the majority of the finished cookies home with the decorators. (Otherwise I am going have no choice but to eat them, thus feeling sick from too many cookies every day for weeks)

🙂

-Jordan