Club Queso: 1 & 2

This Christmas, Sara gifted me with a certificate for a “Cheese of the Month” club. Since actual COTM clubs are generally a bilkfest, she created the “My Wife Shops Wegmans Cheese Club” The gift was also accompanied by a couple fancy cheese knives and a little black book in which I can enter my cheesy observations.

Part 1

Over Christmas break, we sampled cheeses from the Saunders Cheese Market in Spokane. My in-laws were generous to share a couple cheeses of theirs to make this a true cheese fest. It was enough to make a vegan blush.

Stilton is a type of bleu cheese. It is quite salty and crumbly with a pronounced flavor. I’m not exactly sure how to pronounce that flavor, but I do so with a Liechtensteinian accent.

Fromage d’ Affinois is a soft cheese that spreads like butta’. It is sweet and mild with a creamy texture. Its fancy name indicates that it is definitely an import from somewhere like Waitsburg. Five out of seven cheese tasters declared this their favorite.

Tomme d’ Recolett sounds like another eastern Washington cheese. It was spiced with caraway seeds which added a zesty punch. This cheese has a smoky flavor and feels firm in a non-crumbly way. Sadly, nobody seemed to like Tomme best.

Superaged Gouda–gouda gouda gouda gouda gouda yeah. This is a hard cheese, akin to a block of real parmesan. There’s a bit of a sharpness to it, which makes it a great companion to a mild cracker(insert racist joke here).

Humboldt Fog is the drug addict of this cheese club–very pale with blue veins showing. It is a goaty cheese that is generally mild with a slight tang. Crumbly and soft, it was good, but not a franchise player. Kind of like Tracy McGrady.

Part 2

On January 26, we indulged in two new cheeses purchased from Wegmans. Wegmans is a grocery store chain that started in Rochester. Since it is a New York grocery store, it contains a plethora of fancy cheeses. Oh yes, I said a plethora.

Emmi Caved-Aged Emmentaler is a Swiss cheese that is incredibly mild, verging on bland. Sara was not a big fan and declared that it had a “footish” smell. The texture is fairly firm, like a typical Swiss cheese, but it didn’t have a flavorful finish. Also no holes! Where’s the fun in that?

St. Andre Wheel was not the Frenchman who invented the cheese wheel, but the second of our cheeses. One of its ingredients was literally “harmless white mold” We both liked this one for its buttery softness that was quite reminiscent of the Fromage. Best with Cabaret crackers. St. Andre definitely came out the clear winner.

Rest in Cheese.

Cold Play

After teaching for 2.5 years in Western New York, you’d think that I would have experienced a Snow Day.  Well, today the Rochester City School District did cancel school, but not for snow.  They cancelled it due to cold.  Strong winds caused the temperature to drop into the negative teens.  School was only cancelled for the elementary though. Apparently, high schools are used to dealing with negative teens.  However, our policy is to cancel when the RCSD does, and since we are an elementary school, that is what we did.

This has resulted in a relaxing morning spent cooking a frittata for my wife, entering grades for the new quarter, and listening to The Shins and KT Tunstall on my new iPod.  Since my wife and in-laws moved me into the iPod generation this Navidad, I’ve been experiencing some serious iLove.

Some things that have been more enjoyable with myPod:

–Cooking 

–Washing dishes

–Cleaning

–Entering grades into online gradebook

–Going to bed

Now I just need to get an adapter so I can listen to it in my car while driving to work.  I wanted to try it without the adapter, but it would make talking on my cell phone really difficult.  Safety first.

Some say in ice

Last week, we experienced our first New York ice storm. We weren’t completely satisfied with how these pictures turned out, but they do capture some of the icy coolness.

Fortunately, no damage or power outages. It seems the freak October snowstorm enacted natural selection upon weak power lines and branches.

The Bipolar Express

After the personal pity party I threw for myself yesterday, today was a much better day. Today was the wishy to yesterday’s washy, the flip proceeding the flop. I’m not sure if I can’t stand the indecisiveness of my moods.

A summary:

Hobbesless Calvin decided to be nearly angelic (for the first few hours at least) after an early morning peptalk. Ms. Meltdown did much better on a day where she didn’t have to write poetry. Pulling Teeth decided that he could actually be productive without arguing about every single assignment. The Mild One returned back to rageless decency, and Walker Texas Ranger Fan was agreeable as usual.

They did abduct my bell, but it was all in good clean fun. We also paid a visit to a nursing home to visit an elderly church member. His face really lit up when he saw us. The kids did a good job despite the strong smells of urine, difficulty understanding our friend, and some other residents watching Grumpier Old Men on the TV while we tried to talk. Lots of interesting vocabulary words for the day.

After school I got a haircut. I almost always feel better after getting a haircut. Even when the person cutting my hair has worked at Supercuts for less than a week and asks the other Supercutters for advice throughout the haircut.

When I got home, our driveway was covered in about 6 inches of snow. After eating our traditional Friday night haystacks (Sara :1 Ronn:3) , I set out to brandish a shovel. It was cold, but surprisingly enjoyable. Another way to feel a sense of accomplishment. Add shoveling to the list of de-stressing activities.

List of de-stressing activities:

–Making tofu loaf

–Shoveling snow*

*Shoveling snow becomes a stressing activity when done at 6:00 am in the morning before going to work.

Tofu Loaf for the Soul

Today was an awful day. It was sponsored by the symbols @, #, and *, and the punctuation mark !

One of my students had a meltdown about writing poetry. Two of my other students decided they would become a tag team of TLC(aka talking, laughing, and criticizing). Another usually mild student suddenly unearthed some disdain for authority. It wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t have only FIVE students. When 80% of your class gives you grief, that is not a good day.

I don’t think my talents lie in teaching older students. Part of the reason is that I’m too much like them. Insecure, hypersensitive, and up and down. I’m sure that part of , if not much of, the blame for today’s pain goes to me. One mistake I had was not being tough enough, which is often a problem with me. Another problem was engaging with them in one of their unreasonable arguments. Even typing about this really frustrates me because, just the other day, I was talking with some friends about how foolish this was.

When this happens, the teacher never wins because the students can be as unreasonable as they want and the teacher has to play nice. They are the American rebels running around with their guerilla tactics and the teacher has to be the redcoat marching in formation. This usually results in the teacher getting his froofy hat handed to him and wearing a very petty coat.

Thankfully, there is tofu loaf. It was my night to cook and so I went with one of my momma’s recipes. It proved to be my therapy for the day. I haven’t cooked much lately. I did make some latkes this past Sunday morning, but weekend cooking is much different than cooking during the week. For example, you don’t really have much aggression to get out of your system when your most stressful activity of the day has been putting on pants. But after a frustrating day, blending, mashing, and chopping(especially chopping) things really helps. Producing this tofu loaf also gave me a sense of accomplishment. Something I did today actually turned out well! And plum sauce was a much better topping than the attitude and teenage angst that topped my teaching day.

So now my tummy is full and my wife has heaped praise upon me. Thank you tofu loaf.

Pity this fool?

You scored as Capt. H.M. “Howling Mad” Murdock. Capt. H.M. “Howling Mad” Murdock 65% Lt. Templeton “Faceman” Peck 45% Lt. Col. John “Hannibal” Smith 45% Sgt. Bosco “B.A.” Baracus 40% Which member of The A Team are you? created with QuizFarm.com

Got MLK?

This is worthwhile.

Pixmas = Mas Pix!

One nice thing about being a teacher is never really having to adjust your vacation schedule. Unlike my friends and relatives who have grown-up jobs, I’ve essentially had the same schedule for the last 24 years of my life.

This Christmas, we headed west to Spokane to spend time with Sara’s family.

Here are some of our Kodak moments.

Left: Sara got to open her bulky non-portable gift before we left. She was deadly in the kitchen before, but now she’s a lethal weapon on par with Chuck Norris.

Middle: Miscegenation worked for us.

Right: Sister-in-law, boyfriend-in-law, and Slouching Tiger, flanked by two lil’ cousins S & Z. Stephen, Aaron, and I got to take the little guy to see Happy Feet while the women baby showered. After the outing, we calculated that the three of us combined would make an average dad.

Left: Me with Kenichi(Kenny), my brother-in-law bestowed bonsai buddy. The directions told me I needed to breathe deeply and go to my happy place before potting him.

Middle: It’s not hard to be faithful with the lips…and starry crown of this angel.

Right: Here I am sporting Colleen and Stephen’s sweeet gift. I would say I’m bringing sexy back, ‘cept sexy never left.

Left: We had a beautiful day of snowshoeing at Mt. Spokane. It was nice to see mountains again after living in flat Western New York.

Middle: The mommy-and-daddy-in-law looking like newlyweds. Cute.

Right: We got to go out to Luna, a fancy restaurant on the South Hill. George is one good cook. One highlight was the dessert, in particular, the hot fudge sundae. Aaron practices the time-honored boyfried tradition of mooching, while Jen responds with the time-honored girlfriend glare. They’re becoming an old couple already.

And now some pictures you won’t see:

–My time in Walla Walla with delightful hosts Holly and Kuyler.

–A visit with the Kochs and a tour of the fairly new Rogers School with Uncle T.

–Kuyler cooking lots of good food, including cactus fajitas and a mondo prosage breakfast sandwich.

–Playing lots of Nintendo Wii, and getting tennis elbow for the first time.

–Hanging out with old buddies Austin, Hans, Nathaniel, and Rudy. Getting a game of Settlers in.

–An embarrassing amount of time in front of the TV playing Stephen’s X-box 360.

–All the kids watching episode after episode of The Office seasons 1 and 2 (Aaron’s Christmas presents). “The Injury” is an episode of pure gold.

–Lots and lots of good food, including a Thai feast (Sara and I), Indian feast (Colleen and Stephen), Italian feast(Aaron and Jen), and traditional Christmas turkey dinner(Debbie).

–Eating at Panda Express…mmm

–Setting off bottle rockets to ring in the New Year

–My chronicles of shaving. From Hitler ’stache to soul patch to triangle lip to nothing.

You also won’t see my despair at seeing the time go by so quickly. Yet, it was great while it lasted. I guess you could say there was sufficient mele to my kalikimaka.

Cheese doodles

This morning, as I went to turn into the school driveway, I noticed something strange. Across the street, a car was burning. Around this flaming smoldering mass of metal, snow fell heavily. I thought of insurance. Before I could call 911, sirens were on their way.

Today I realized that the official Iraqi sect of The Queso Dip would have to be the Kurds.

My car was acting possessed this afternoon. Already, I can’t use my key in its driver’s side lock. Today, it decided that closing and latching my door weren’t necessary for driving. I disagreed. So after some fiddling, I decided to lock the door from the inside. This worked a little too well. The door latched alright, but then I couldn’t unlock my door to get out. I thought about going all Dukes of Hazzard and exit through the window, but then I’d have an open window on a frigid day. So, the remaining option was to climb over and exit through the passenger’s side door. There was no Dukes cool in that episode. Entering the car was even better. Oh the indignity. When I got back home, the lock popped up and out I went. Surely the car must have been mocking me, leaving no evidence that any of this actually happened.