The Big Think

No, it’s not a depressing article (at least not to me). Rather, this eye-witness report from a palliative care nurse is a good self-check to see if we are living in a way that our future selves will appreciate. I’m happy to say that Future Jason is mostly pleased. I was particularly struck by #5:

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realise until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called ‘comfort’ of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content. When deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again.

I’m very blessed to be able to have silliness and fun in my life and job on a near constant basis (I wish I could share a story, but time and privacy issues are both encouraging me to keep quiet). Suffice to say that we laugh a lot around here, and try to keep an open mind toward change. I couldn’t be happier about that.

Had a great day at the Zoo with Erin today. Tons of fun. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a real zoo, and this one was one of the best! Got to hand fee giraffes, get up close with a silverback gorilla (from the safe side of the glass), and see tons of other critters. What we thought would be a 2 hour visit ended up being almost 8 hours! We’re like that: we enjoy wringing out museums and other educational type places. We’re the couple that reads everything and takes forever.

Happy 4th of July.
(via)

I just discovered The Greek Gods traditional Greek honey yogurt. Like eating yogurty cheesecake. As my old voice teacher Mr. Robinson would say: “Ye Gods!”

Bill Whittle has a Trail West moment. Really worth watching.

Just sold my old Camp Trails external frame backpack on Craigslist. It went to a dad who is taking his boy scout son on his first backpacking trip, so that was a huge bonus that made me smile.

I bought the pack over 20 years ago and carried it on my back for probably five hundred miles over two summers as a backpacking guide. It went with me on the trail as Robert and I explored the wilderness together. It was replaced a few years later by a much nicer internal frame Gregory, but the Camp Trails will always remain my first pack, and the one that was with me when…

Farewell friend!

Ah, spring. When a young man’s fancy turns to…. home improvement. Erin and I are finally getting around to a few long-delayed home improvement projects. We just finished a complete repaint of the dining room (we call it the “piano room” because it lacks and actual dining table). We’re also embarking on a remodel of the pathetic master bathroom. It’s currently cheapo vinyl flooring, builder white walls, and a single pane mirror with no frame. When we’re done it’ll hopefully match our guest bathroom, which I redid several years ago.

It went from this:

to this:

I’m really happy with the results and hope the master bathroom ends up looking good as well. It’s a ton of work, but since the labor is free (me!) we’ll get our money back out of it. Even if we don’t, which bathroom would YOU rather spend a decade using?

Finally, we’ll be redoing our patio. It’s currently your basic 10×10 covered patio with nothing special about it. When it’s done we plan on having a tile floor surrounded by a patio railing (with 2 small gates), roll down exterior shades, an exterior ceiling fan, new planters, and a small water feature. I’ve scheduled a week for the job which means it’ll take about 2, but we’ve forgone our Spring Break trip and decided to use the money on the upgrades, so I have the time.

I’ll try and post before/after pics when it’s all done.

I just had an absolutely wonderful conversation with a friend I had not talked to in almost two years. We have the kind of relationship where, when I picked up the phone, we immediately picked up almost exactly where we left off. What’s weird is that we’ve spent all of two weeks together total. Put this individual, Erin, and me in a room and we can talk for hours. Nice to have friends like that.

I’m back from the annual Sing show (which explains my lack of posting). The show was great and I’m very happy with everything (especially the fact that my parents got to see it! It’s been over 10 years since that happened). I’ll post more later after I do piles of laundry and sleep for a few days. I’ve said it before and I’ll defend it unto death: I have the greatest job in the world.

My friend Jason Cohen has some good thoughts on entrepreneurship and feeling like a fraud. Hey, that quote at the top looks familiar.

As part of our Christmas celebration, Erin and I decided to break out the cookbook and make a feast. We decided to make it semi-Irish themed. It kinda got out of control. Here’s the menu:

Bushmill’s whiskey stuffed ribeye
garlic mashed potatoes
Aged Irish Cheddar herb biscuits
Bibb, bacon, and apple salad with camembert dressing
2005 Stag’s Leap merlot (wow)
and the Piece de Muerta-
Chocolate Truffle cake with ganache topping

From start to finish, dinner took about 6 hours. It’s just past midnight and we just finished up dessert and coffee. Everything was scratch made with a silly (but fun) amount of work. It was a blast spending all day in the kitchen together cooking.

The really crazy part was the dessert. Here’s the ingredient list:

Cake Mix
1.5 cups of milk
1 cup of butter
8 oz semi sweet chocolate (2 bars)
3 eggs
2 2/3 cups flour
2 cups sugar

Filling
6 tblsp butter
8 oz semi sweet chocolate (2 bar)
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2/3 cup heavy whipping cream

Ganache
4 oz dark chocolate (1 bar)
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

It’s an asinine, appalling amount of sugar for one dessert, and if I had really read the recipe before starting I don’t know if I’d have made it. How is it? Divine. Eat my shorts, Cheesecake Factory.

We tallied the calories up for the whole cake. Are you sitting down?

10,707.

Ten thousand, seven hundred and seven calories! Each slice (1/16th of the cake) has almost 700 calories. I’m ashamed. Didn’t stop me from eating it, though.

Pardon me while I roll off to bed. Merry Christmas everyone.

*hic!*

Some thoughts on last minute shopping.

Dinner tonight: Homemade brie-stuffed-crust artisan pizza with fresh basil, italian chicken sausage, fresh mozzarella, and roma tomatoes with a pear and walnut mixed green salad, and a wonderful bottle of Chalone Vineyards pinot noir. Life is good.