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Transmutation

I enjoy cooking (this is Ben talking here).  I enjoy collecting and selecting ingredients and putting them together into a passable meal.  Of all the things I enjoy making in the kitchen though bread stands out.   For most meals the quality of the ingredients is the controlling factor.  If you start with some great produce you’re going to get a great salad.  The act of good cooking is essentially creating a pleasing mixture of quality ingredients.   Baking bread, on the other hand, works at the chemical level and a biochemical level at that.   The vast majority of my breads have flour, water, salt, yeast.  Nothing else.  Not only do these simple ingredients transform so substantially but the possible outcomes starting from such simple input is staggering.  With less dependence on the ingredients the final loaf becomes a more accurate reflection of the craft of the baker.

Anyway, here are a few pictures.  Enjoy!

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Cub Scout Campout

Last weekend was the annual Cub Scout campout –Kai’s first.  We camped out on the cricket fields on the edge of town.  It was nice being close but also far enough away to make it feel like we went somewhere.   Having camped in the desert I can also say that it was much nicer to camp on a field of well trimmed grass than in the sand somewhere.    We all went out to set up the tent and then from the opening at 10am until the 4pm awards ceremony it was scouts only.   After than it was open to families so Crystal and Nora came and joined us.

The pack leader laid the ground work for his campfire story by telling the scouts that if they saw any rattle snakes with red eyes to tell him right away.  “Don’t look at them for sure but come tell me right away.”   Kai was intrigued but when Nora got wind of it she had the serious heebie jeebies and did not want to be out there as the sun was going down.  She stuck it out though and at the campfire story was totally intrigued[[it was a good story, well told, not too scary though if late at night fiddle music has been heard out in the desert half the kids would have bolted]].  Even four days later Nora told me at dinner “Dad, did you know that Martin Stone played fiddle and that after that terrible night (here she drops her voice for effect) he was never seen again.”

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Fire Station Visit

A guided tour of the local fire station!  One of the goals of Cub Scouts is to help the scouts understand their community and how it works and so on a recent weekend we met for a tour of the Dhahran main camp fire station.   It was a great experience for the scouts (and the Dads).  Who doesn’t love a fire truck!

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Hipstamatic

Here are a few more pictures of Kai and Nora taken on my iphone with the Hipstamatic app.

It looks like Nora will turn into a pretty good cook.  A ruthlessly good cook.  Below is a sample of the dialog she recently had with the pile of mushrooms she was chopping for our dinner.  She will not eat the mushrooms but she is more than happy to chop them up.

Nora (in a deep, menacing voice): “OK mushroom, now it is your turn”
Nora (as mushroom in high pitch pleading): “No, please! Not me, Heeellllppp!”
Nora (in deep, menacing voice): “Ooooh my Dad is gonnna looooove you!”  <chop> <chop> <chop>

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Let the Activities Begin!

After school activities are back in full swing and, with Nora turning 4, she is able to start joining her own.   She started preschool this week and is enrolled in a dance class as well.  Kai has joined cub scouts and is continuing with his soccer team, art school and Karate.  It keeps us all busy after school.  Here are a few pictures.  For those that seem grainy and out of focus that is on purpose.  I was using the hipstamic app on my iphone to get that old-photo-nostalgia.  It takesa very fancy camera to get pictures that bad so easily!

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A day at the beach

This last week was a very humid one.  With the long weekend we knew we wanted to get to the beach for a morning but we also knew that however hot and humid it was in Dhahran, Ras Tanura would be more so.  Last week one morning dawned that was fairly tolerable so we headed out.  By noon on the way back it was pretty miserable but we still managed a pleasant morning for all of that.

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Fishing with Grandpa

One of the coolest activities for Kai and Nora this summer was digging worms and then going fishing with Grandpa Art.  They didn’t hook any fish this summer but then they also didn’t hook any brothers or sisters so that is good at least.

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