Those M&M’s have girth

Droopage. Girth. Tonight has been an evening of exploration.

“I have discovered the most amazing thing!” she exclaimed, eager to share her new discovery.

“As you know, we ran out of chocolate for our Smores, but…”. She hung onto her last words, looking us both in the eyes to ensure we were listening with rapt attention. “But… if you stuff the marshmallows with M&M’s and then roast them, you end up with a M&M infused Smore! Brilliant!”
Sandritia, having surprised us for a quick visit to Hornby Island on our holiday, was enjoying an evening campfire. Judging by her excitement, it had been awhile since her last campfire.

“What do you think!” she beamed. Like a new parent, she was looking for the accepting words that her newly created child was beautiful. And like the socially inept engineer-male I am, I decided to take this opportunity to tell it like it was. I looked over at her new creation of four marshmallows impaled on a stick, and studded with green and orange M&M’s, and simply answered “It has some good girth… “

Right behind me Logical Philosophette chimed in with a giggle, “…and droopage!”

Even through the glow of the fire embers, we could see both shock and disgust cross her face. “How can you have ‘girth’ and ‘droopage’ in the same sentence, describing the same thing at the same time? I mean, that’s just plain wrong.” She started shaking, the tip of the marshmallow stick exaggerating her movements. Hmm, nice fourier transformation of her movements to the tip of the stick I thought.

“Well technically it is both.” I stressed. “I am an engineer – don’t tell me what properties cannot co-exist. I mean, you rammed four marshmallows on the stick to roast, embedded another thirty or fourth M&M’s. I mean, once heated up gravity had to do something with all that weight.”

I was quickly rebuffed by the brilliant legal mind of Sandritia: “Girth brings visions of vigor. Droopage brings the reality of…well, reality. They can’t mix! It would be like Fabio hanging with the Golden Girls. Technically possible, but unimaginable!” she exclaimed, punctuating her words with her red hot marshmallow stick. It was, in her dictation style, technically a great use of a prop for her argument, but unimaginably inappropriate if she had meant to keep the seriousness of her appeal going.

And at that exact moment, gravity took hold and crossed the rubicon: The weight of the M&M’s pulled the warm marshmallow off the stick, the entire mass congealing onto the sandstone rocks surrounding the firepit. In an instant her prized delicacy had moved from Girth + Droopage, to Globular + Globular.

“Touché Counselor. Had you had one property of either Girth OR Droopage, you would still have a full stick. Now your stick is stuck with, well, I believe the scientific property you are looking for is ‘Globular’”

All I can say is thank goodness it was dark out as it allowed me to see and dodge the red hot stick being thrust in my direction.

My Blogging Mojo is Back...

I was up at the crack of dawn today - my bag packed for a quick hike around Helliwell Park. Arriving at the point, I sat. I contemplated. I sat some more. Even at the hour of 7am about 30 people jogged by my place of contemplation. All I could think of was "man, fit people get up early."

I got back home and pulled out my blog notebook. It had been well worn until this spring, and needed put away until it called.

I think I found my blogging mojo.

See you in a few days.

LP.

Crap! Going back again...

I had my France story written out, but then got delayed and now I am packing to go again. I have 4 suitcases this time - 3 of them filled with materials for the conference I am speaking at. That means 3 empty suitcases to come back with.

I am going cheese shopping on the way home. Anyone know the customs rules for bringing smoked meats back into Canada?

If all goes well there is going to be one big cheese party when I get back. I think I will have Air Canada status too, which means priority loading for my suitcase full of cheese. Sweet.

I think I need a sabbatical from work to get some of this blogging back into gear. Man, I can't wait for our summer to begin.

More Cheese Please

2 weeks of france have opened my eyes to Artisan Cheese and Kilkenny.

Been busy getting out from under my email since then.... more updates to follow...

It will be a food-gasmic update. Old school LP at it's best. I promise.

Thanks for being patient.

Back from France...

But I am already packing to go again!

After a 2 day layover in Nashville for meetings, and a 1 day in Dallas due to weather, I finally arrived in France. During my travels I had some great stories written up in my mind, such as:

Eating at the Pork Only restaurant with the vegetarian in the group

Accidentally ordering Pigs Ears and Feet off the menu. Now we all know what 'tête' and 'pieds' means in French.

The Vodka Bar... which only served vodka. And lots of vodka. I now know how to translate "spicy vodka" on the menu. I'll leave it at that.

French bathrooms. In a 2000 year old city it was amazing how the upgrades were only about 100 years the times.

The 68 gate sprint through Frankfurt Airport. Yes all 68 gates. And they still closed the flight out on us.

Upon my return from my travels my work kicked into high gear and I was wrapping up a project that I needed to get out the door this week. There have been lots of stories, just no time to write! It's funny how when I took a 5 week break from blogging how many people called or emailed me to ask where I went. It was like their free source of fine literature had dried up. I didn't know I was in such demand. Either that or I know which people really have lots of time on their hands to read things online.

Tonight I'm packing for another 2 week trip, flying out tomorrow. Here's hoping this time I get some time to write. At the very least I will try to recount the Spicy Vodka story. The ending has a great kick to it.

Stuck in DC

Yesterday I was in Nashville.

Then today I left for France, but got delayed and stuck in Washington DC with no luggage.

Tomorrow I do not really care where I am as long as I can find some clean clothes.

So far it has been a trip of many numbers:
10: "Just missed that plane by 10 minutes" x 2
5: "All I needed was 5 more inches"
4: Number of free Season Tickets to the Nashville Predators Game
3: Number of bars we had to go to find an open kitchen in DC at midnight.
2: Number of room keys we all got.

Let's hope tomorrow brings more happy numbers to us all.

Hornby Island here we come!

After 10+ years of saving,
3+ years of searching,
2+ years of setbacks...

It is finally official, we found exactly what we were looking for, and the deal is ready to be closed!

Wanted

Minimum ½ acre island property

ferry boat accessible

walking distance (with 2 kids) to a public, sandy beach

Sandstone bluffs to walk on a plus

It was serendipitous, as we actually were up looking at different properties when this one, which had been taken off the market, was suggested by the realtor as a private sale. Within the day of us getting back from our 1 day adventure turned into a 3 day tour, the offer was in and we were on our way to testing the structural integrity of the outhouse, and making sure the well was not full of iron supplements for the kids.

While the only structure on the lot is an outhouse, we have our work cut out for us, but I'm hoping I have a lifetime to get the list done that Logical Philosoph-ette has started to draw up for me.

This is the view from the Galleon Beach across the road:




And from Grassy Point, a 5 minute walk:



And there is even a bike shop! Maybe this summer I will pull my Kona back out and turn back from being a roadie to the dark side of mountain biking.



Many thanks to Donna at Coast Realty for helping make it happen.

This summer is so going to rock.