Thanksgiving Scores

The following ratings are based on a 1-to-10 scale with 10 being the best and 1 being the worst.

Category: 2009 Thanksgiving Day

Rest: 8...Claire and I had a lazy morning, we slept well and there was little to no stress.

Company: 6.5...it is not that the people we were with were not fun, cause they were. We enjoyed the conversation and like the people we were with. I also love every minute I am with my wife. But the score reflects the missing family and other close friends that we were not with.

Food: Solid 6. My pancakes fell a bit flat (Why can't I ever remember to put enough sugar? I have been making these since I was a kid!) and my Famous Egg Nog was a little on the salty side. But the turkey that Suzie made was amazingly succulent (despite the lack of dark meat) and the rum cake was straight from Heaven. I was also missing the one thing I have had at EVERY Thanksgiving (and Christmas!) since I was born...Yiftees. It is not Thanksgiving without Yiftees. That certainly hurt the score.

Football: 2-minus. The only reason this is not a negative score, was that the 30-mins of the first half I got to see of the GB/Detroit game was actually pretty good. The rest...well, there was no rest. There was no football on at our friends house. We had Sly and the Family Stone albums playing and that was pretty cool, but the football was not there...Oh yea, I also gave consideration to the fact that I really did not miss anything and it was not Baseball.

Turkey: 8.75. I know I already mentioned the food, but this bird was rock'n. It was moist and good. I even had a turkey sandwich last night with nothing but a roll and the bird...no other thing was needed. Why was it not a 10? I love me some dark meat and it was not there. Apparently they sell white meat turkey only. For shame.

Weather: 9. It was Sixty Five and Sunny. What more could I want? Maybe 75 and sunny, but a 9 is a GREAT score.

What categories am I missing? How do you rate your Turkey day?

Honking the Horn and Getting Chubby..wink, wink, nudge, nudge

Most of the time I really like the fact that I live right next to the water. The ferry stop is 100 feet from our building, we have a great waterside view of downtown Norfolk and we just love being near water.

Then there are nights like last night that make us question the sanity of living on a busy waterway...1:30am...ONE THIRTY AM...on a Tuesday...a Navy ship decided it was time to test their horn. The ship is buoyed less than 150 yards from our place.

Navy ships have loud horns.

Especially at 1:30am.

Over and over and over and over...

I respect our Navy. I love our servicemen. I am married to one.

I HATE the horn honker at 1:30am.

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I really don't like the fact that the horn honking has continued on a regular basis ever since...about 5 or 6 honks per hour.

That last line...scratch it from your memory...sounds like a bad line from a B-Movie.

Or remember it if you are a movie script writer...I just want the credit.

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We decided to try this recipe from Tyler Florence on Monday night.

To prepare, we picked up a Sugar Pumpkin at the farmer's market this weekend. Well, at least we were told it was a sugar pumpkin. Sure, it was larger than the one's Tyler used, but the farmer's daughter told us this $6 pumpkin was the same...we believed her. (Little Lying Farmer's Daughter)

We then proceeded to make the pies...exactly how the recipe directs. We cook/bake often. We know how to follow a recipe.

The pies turned out way under sweet. They tasted vaguely like banana flavored pumpkin sauce that really needed sugar.

Boooooooo Farmer's Daughter....Boooooooooo,..

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We did manage to fix the pies last night with a little ingenuity and elbow grease...First, we took 1/2 a loaf of cinnamon bread and one of the pies...cubed them and turned them into this wonderful Cinnamon Banana Pumpkin bread pudding. Oh my. (We used this Paula Dean bread pudding as a basic guide)

Then I took the other pie, mixed in more sugar and made a new pie. It is okay...edible...but nothing like the greatness that is Cinnamon Banana Pumpkin Bread Pudding.

My love handles just got a lot more lovely.

Hoooray for the Holiday's!!! Hoooray for San Diego!!!

Its the most
Wonderful Time
Of the year...

I love the time from now until the end of the year. Christmas music is playing in the stores and I get to eat Turkey.

This weekend, Claire and I will be picking out a Christmas tree and decorating the house.

I love it!!!

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On Saturday...
1. Went to the Happiest Place on Earth
2. Made Chili with Claire...the 5 alarm type
3. Watched Cal beat Stanford...Watched Nebraska roll K-State
4. Walked around town to look at the Christmas lights

What else could you want from a Saturday?

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Chalk this up to my love of all things San Diego...

1. The Chargers won! Convincingly. First Place...woohoo!
2. Jimmie Johnson won. 4 NASCAR Sprint Titles in a row. I am not a watcher of NASCAR, but Jimmie is from San Diego. Ergo, hooray!
3. San Diego is named #1 Beer town in America. I don't drink beer, but San Diego was named #1...Rock-On San Diego!!!

Bring Me My Lychee

Our trip to the Second Happiest Place on Earth a couple of weeks ago was a wonderful time with Claire's family.

Having never spent time at Disney...except for that unusual situation in January, I was very excited to check out what people east of the Mississippi think is the Happiest Place on Earth.

And yes, we really did have a great time.

I am so blessed to have a family-in-law that I love to be with.

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The Food and Wine portion of the Disney trip was a bit disappointing. The food and wine booths they had lining Epcot were interesting, but the few things we tried were: 1. Expensive 2. Average.

I know, I know...what should I expect. We are at a theme park where food should be expected to be: 1. Expensive 2. Average

I just thought that since it was "Food and Wine Expo" that it might be a bit different.

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I will say, the amount of Lychee things I ate (mostly thanks to my wife finding them and bringing them home with her!!!) was fantast-i-licious! Gummies, hard candy, Sake, etc....yum, yum.

And if you have not tried a Lychee, you NEED to. A Lychee martini might be a good place to start.

SuperMegaNews...or just an update.

News...so much news...okay, just some news, but I figure if I make it sound important y'all would forgive the two weeks without an update.

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So I started a new job last week. I was surprised when I was recommended for a job with the SuperMegaCorporation. I was surprised when they flew me out and I liked it. I was surprised when they made a solid offer.

I am most surprised that I accepted and will be working from home some of the time...while traveling to the middle of the country some of the time.

I wanted to say "strange things are afoot at the Circle K", but that seemed so 1990's.

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So, I was gone last week...the week when the "Kill Bogart" storm hit P-Towne. If you click on the link, you will see the beginning of the flooding, including the ferry that stops at the base of our building...the same ferry that they say they don't shut down...the same ferry that was shut down for Thursday and Friday because the area that they dock (1.25min into the video) was completely underwater.

Oh, if you look for it, 59 seconds into the video, you will see a shot of the Big White Monstrosity that Team Bogart currently resides in...wooohooo.

Nothing like making the local news to make you feel famous...or something.

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Poor Claire had to deal with the crazy flooding all by herself. Even being rudely awakened on Thursday morning with water dripping on her head.

Drip....Drip....Drip...4:30am...Good thing she found the buckets and pans to catch all the water!

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My experience with the storm? We had wind shear warnings when we were landing on Friday night...made a couple of attempts to land and then were diverted to Raleigh-Durham, NC. We deplaned, sat around and then reboarded. We made one final attempt, landing safely around midnight.

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It is nice to be back home. It is nice to be back to the blog.

Alive and Well...Thanks for Checking In

Being alive is good.

While we did have a couple of close calls upon landing on Friday night in Norfolk, including a redirect to North Carolina, Bogart is alive and well.

As far as the blogging goes, well, clearly I have lacked in that department for the past two weeks.

I know it is really no excuse, but I was in Chicago then Kansas City, covering the better part of the last two weeks...

I do have so much news and still owe you an update of pictures from Disney.

I will be getting to it soon.

No, really, I will.

My Drifting Mind

I find my thoughts often think of him.


Sometimes they are memories of hoping in the car or working on some chores. Other times I am reminded of how he treated her and how much he loved life.


Mostly they are of random things that really don't make much sense.


How I was amazed that he never would wear shorts...How his hair had a cowlick in the exact same spot mine does...How he always took his coffee black...How he took a nap every day...His little, practical jokes.


I don't know why those things still strike me. I don't understand why he is the one that pops into my head so often.


Well, I guess that is a lie. I know.


He was the most influential person in my life.


The pain of his loss has faded, but the disappointment of him not being around is still very real.

Thanks and Stuff

Our camping equipment arrived recently.

It is so sweet!

High quality and fantastic.

Thanks again Hallie!

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The only thing that did not arrive was the Windproof Lighter...I hope that cool thing shows up!

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We had a great time in Orlando with Claire's family. I will post some pics later this week, but I can sum up the trip this way...

5 Disney parks, 2 Disney water parks, 5 fast food drive thru's, 7 family members, wonderful weather, Sake and sausage.

Second Happiest Place on Earth

Claire left last night for Orlando...It is the Food and Wine Expo at Disney, so her family is going to be doing the whole Disney thing for a week.

Lucky me, I get to join them on Tuesday!

I have never been to Disney in Florida except to run through it...I grew up with Disneyland in SoCal and always figured the original was the best. I guess I am about to find out.

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What did I do with my bachelor night?

I watched Playoff Baseball and Sunday Night Football...I ate spicy sausage...I drank Scotch.

Good Times....Good Times.

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I baked some cookies I got from Ramblings, Rants and Recipes. They are Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies....cause that is what bachelors do on the first morning their significant other is out of town.

I actually had to make them for my Volleyball team because they swept both matches last week...

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And if any of you are wondering...Costco, according to my sister, is the Happiest Place on Earth!

Colorful Past

The girls volleyball team I coach had a team dinner last night. We had finished eating our carbo load (stuffed pasta shells and garlic bread...yes mom, we had a salad too) and we were tearing into the caramel layered brownies...one of the girls said that they like my red sweatshirt. It was "a good color".

I told her that I seem to wear a lot of red. Claire likes me in that color and I have always sorta liked it. As a matter of fact, I confided in them, I have always thought it would be cool to have a nickname that is a color like "Red" or "Blue". They laughed and thought that was silly.

It was then I remembered that from about age 8 to around high school, I did have a nickname that was a color...or at least a color was in it. White-Boy.

At that age, my father was living very close to the Mexican Boarder. I was the ONLY white kid in the neighborhood.

Everyone called me "White-Boy". My friends, their parents and even the ice cream man.

"White-Boy".

I think I would prefer to be called "Red" or "Blue".

Nah, I will stick with Bogart.

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So we went and saw the 12:01am showing of Where the Wild Things Are last night...this morning?...I'll stick with last night.

The reviews have been generally good and the previews are really freak'n fantastic.

The movie...well, it was good, but not quite as good as we had hoped.

A little darker than the previews would lead you to believe, but both Claire and I enjoyed it.

I am not a parent, but I am guessing kids under 8 or 9 would probably be a little scared...older than that and they will enjoy the heck out of it.

That is all.

Kings of Leon are Stalking Me

Ever have a song follow you? It can be a little strange.

That happened to me yesterday.

I put on some music in the morning and the Kings of Leon song Use Somebody was playing.

I said to myself, "Self, I like that song. Let's go to iTunes and download it." So I went to iTunes and listened to it there. Then I downloaded it. It played as I downloaded it.

That makes it 3 times I had heard it in about 10 minutes.

A couple of hours later, I hopped into the car to head to the gym and what song that was playing? Yup, Use Somebody by Kings of Leon.

I arrived at the gym. It was playing there.

I got home, flipped on an Internet radio station and it was the second song I heard.

At 230, I left for Volleyball practice. The song played on two different radio stations during my 25 minute drive.

Sorta sick of it by this point.

I am regretting the iTunes purchase.

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On Friday, I baked a pumpkin cake...had some extra pumpkin, so I baked pumpkin cookies.

They both were fantastalicious!

Except that I ate so much of each that I am now orange and becoming very round.

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My wife has invited me to a date on Thursday.

She would like us to go see the 12:01am showing of Where the Wild Things Are.

I have not gone to a 12:01 showing since early college.

I am not a night person.

Neither is she.

It should be interesting.

Somebody's Momma is Lying

Coaching girls high school varsity volleyball has me spending a lot of time with teenage girls.

Occasionally you forget that you are around teenage girls when they are there constantly.

For example...last night I was sitting in the stands watching the JV team play. My players were sitting near me and I struck up a conversation with our setter.

Me: "Which sister is older? The outside hitter or the middle blocker?"
Her: "They are not sisters."
Me: "Of course they are. Look at them. There is no way they are not sisters...I actually am surprised they are not twins."
Her: "They are not related. They are not sisters. They get told all the time that they look alike, but they are not from the same family."
Me: "They are from the same family. They have to be. I bet they have the same dad and nobody knows. I bet the milk man is their real dad."
Her: **Blank Stare**
Me: "Or the mail man. Has anyone seen the mailman in their neighborhood?
Her: "Coach...the one dad is sitting right behind us!"
Me: **Blank Stare**

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Need to refrain from those conversations in the future.

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I am baking a cake today. Pumpkin Spice cake for Claire's book club. I have not baked a cake since the Angel Food Cake incident earlier this year.

I hope I don't die.

Party in My Mouth

I think I have found nirvana.

I think my Heaven has been decided.

The Maple Bacon Doughnut.

Yes, that is a big'ol fatty, maple doughnut...my favorite...with a couple of slabs of baconny goodness on top.

I think that has to the best "party in your mouth" ever...EVER!!!

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For those of you living in the Pacific Northwest (Portland to be exact) or within driving distance (Wes, I expect a road trip out of you!), I need to hear about this. I need to know if it is as amazing as my dreams about it are. I need to know if I can finally say that my culinary life is complete. I need to know.

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They are sold at Voodoo Doughnut...you can see their other sinful breakfast items here.
***Edit***
So, I went and looked a little more closely at the offerings...please be aware that there may be some sexually explicit doughnuts sold there...venture on at your own peril.
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Forget Europe next year, we are headed to Portland!

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Do you think they have to post the calorie count and the fat content in Portland?

Taste Buds A-Flutter

So I went out and bought this Breyers Yogurt.


It is Mint Chocolate Chip flavored.


Yogurt.


I can't decide if I like it. I have decided to keep eating it.


You know, for interesting sake.

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Yea, I know, Mint Chocolate Chip yogurt sounds disgusting...In my defense:

1. I love mint and chocolate together. It is second only to peanut butter and chocolate.
2. I had a coupon and it was double coupon day at the grocery store.
3. I like to try new things.

Would I recommend it?

I don't know. It is very weird.

2 Years Running

Two years ago today, I moved to Virginia.

I started blogging a couple weeks later.

It was not an easy move. I left behind my beloved Southern California. I left behind my closest friends. I left behind my family. I left behind carne asada and avocados.

I struggled to adapt to my new life. Living away from SoCal did not immediately agree with me.

Two years later, I would so do it again...and again...and again.

She made it worth it. She made it a lot easier than it could have been. She became my companion.

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To celebrate, I am going to the U2 concert tonight with 7 other guys...a limo ride from Norfolk to/from Charlottesville included.

I probably could have thought that ticket purchase through a little more.

Although, having never seen U2 in concert, I am rather excited about it.

Wash that Mouth Out with Soap

There are times that I am truly amazed by what people will name things.

I saw this place in Salem, Mass.

I did learn that a "Bunghole" is actually the name for the hole in wooden barrels and the cork that is plugged in is called the bung, but c'mon.

Even Beavis and Butthead knew what a Bunghole really was.

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While we are at it, do we really need to call the game "Cornhole"? It should be called Bag Toss or Baggo...not Cornhole.

I can't even say it without snickering.

Are We Pretty?

Claire and I went to a charity event for the United Way a couple of weeks ago. They had an artist doing caricatures there.

I am not sure they truly captured my essence.

At Ease Sergeant

Having done student ministry in some shape or form since the mid-90's, I have had a chance to get to know a number of "kids" and watched many of them grow up...and boy do some of them grow up!

I recently was sent this link of a "Morning Salute" one of the news channels in San Diego did about a marine...one of my old students, Sgt. Brian Atkinson. He was one of the kids that you get to know well...loud, goofy and always fun. Now he is "organizing water polo" in Saddam Hussein's old pools and serving our country around the world...I love that!




They grow up oh so fast, don't they?!

Some Boston Pics

The day after the ceremony, we headed down to Boston for the weekend. Of course we had to hit up Fenway!

Once Claire joined us Thursday night, we had a wonderful time touring Boston, one of my favorite cities!

It was a beautiful weekend...fall weather most of the trip, but beautiful nonetheless.

We toured the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides). To say that the quarters for those sailors were a little cramped is an understatement.

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We visited the Old Library on the Southside of town. It was stunningly beautiful. If you are ever in Boston, you need to check it out!

Here is a shot of the courtyard...

In the library it was a scene right out of a movie...all the seats were taken and there were students actually studying, reading and working on their computers...oh yea, it was the first month of school...

Derek and Emily by the fountain in the middle of the courtyard.

Congrats Derek

I was blessed with the opportunity to go to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in New Hampshire to witness the "Pinning Ceremony" of my good friend Derek. He was recently promoted to Chief Petty Officer...a BIG DEAL in the United States Navy. It was a really neat thing to see and be a part of.

Derek and me at the after party...

Standing with the 6 new Chiefs from the Helena...

This is right before he was admitted to Chief's Mess...

His wife and father were honored by pinning his Chief's pins on his lapels...

You can see he is proud of his accomplishment...and he should be!

Congrats to Derek and all of the new Chiefs!

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A quick excerpt explaining how big a deal making chief is:

Unlike Petty Officer First Class and lower ranks, advancement to Chief Petty Officer can only advance after review by a selection board of serving Senior and Master Chief Petty Officers, in effect "choosing their own" and conversely not choosing others.

Advancement into the Chief Petty Officer grades is the most significant promotion within the enlisted naval ranks. At the rank of Chief, the Sailor takes on more administrative duties. In the Navy, their uniform changes to reflect this change of duty, becoming identical to that of an officer's uniform except with different insignia. Sailors in the three Chief Petty Officer ranks also have conspicuous privileges such as seperate dining and living areas. Any naval vessel of sufficient size has a room or rooms that are off-limits to anyone not a Chief (including officers) except by specific inviation. In addition, a Chief Petty Officer, no matter how much he was on a "first name" basis with other petty officers before promotion, is always addressed as "Chief" by subordinates and superiors.

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We went to Boston after the ceremony...those pics will be up tomorrow.