KFC doesn't have anything on the Middle Geek. Here he is displaying his very own Double Down*, which he made for breakfast.
*What is in the MG Double Down? Well I am sure you do not want to know. Really, you don't.
Okay, you insist.
First you take one slice of lunch meat. MG prefers bologna or turkey - Oscar Meyer. Then you add a generous amount of Sunflower Butter and Grape Jelly. Cover with a second slice of lunch meat and seal the edges.
My second planned trip for the summer is in July and I am going to Mexico.
My church has traveled to Mexico every summer to build houses. Last summer was the first time that I went with them.
The exciting difference this year -- I am taking the Middle Geek!!!
This is bound to be a time for growth for both of us. I am so excited for the Middle Geek to get out of his small suburban life and see some of the wonders and wondrous people that are out there.
I am also glad that he and I will have this week during the summer before he enters High School to spend time side by side.
To raise money for this trip, I organized - with tremendous help of family and friends - an EPIC Garage Sale*. (*quote by Middle Geek) It was lots of work but in two days of sales we raised almost 800 dollars.
Our chapter of Engineers Without Borders is starting a new project near Pathanamthitta, India This is the southern part of India. We are going to work closely with a school and a small community of families. The first request that we have had is toilet facilities for the school. Right now the school uses a three walled enclosure for the toilet (number 1 only). The first trip is an assessment trip and we will evaluate which sort of toilet will be the best fit.
How many types of toilets are there?
To start with there are Pit Latrines. You know you dig a hole and put a seat on top on the hole. When the hole fills up, you bury it and dig a new latrine of you shovel it out.
Then there are various composting toilets that may be appropriate depending on the utilities available and user acceptance. There is no sense in building a wonderful composting toilet that no one uses or worse yet, everyone uses but no one maintains.
A water flush toilet even has many choices depending on the water supply and the options of where to send the waste - septic or sewer?
See I told you engineers are wonderful, that think about all your sh%%t so yo don't have to.
We will also be interviewing the poorest part of the community that live in thatched houses. We want to know what is there greatest need in the community, rather it be water, sanitation, better cooking stoves, or rain drainage.
For over a year (since my first trip to Haiti) I have been involved with the group Engineers Without Borders. I have never been quiet about my enjoyment about all (well most) thing engineering. I truly think that engineers can make a big difference in the world and there are several organizations that are forming for that purpose.
One of these groups is Engineers Without Borders. It was formed in 2000 by a man in Colorado and this video gives the background.
When you think of how lives can be changed by simple tools of engineering such as water delivery, I believe that engineers morally obligated to move out of our comfort zones and from behind our computers.
Our church is beginning a sermon series based on the MTV show - My Buried Life. This led to an interesting dinner conversation where we all started our Life List. (College Geek is at college, so I will have to add his later.)
I believe that I might be the very last person in the world to see this movie. I tried to be one of the first. Leigh Anne Tuohy, one of the main characters, is a Kappa Delta which is AbFabGeek's very own sorority. Because if that connection I had received an email announcement before the opening. I tried to arrange to see the movie with a few of my AbFab Sorority sisters but our schedules never did line up.
Anyway Mr. Geek wanted to see the movie too - he had heard it was not just a chick flick. Then our church then started a sermon series based on the movie. Sometimes waiting until you have time to do something just doesn't happen. So we just said - tonight- we are going to see it tonight. Never mind that tonight was a Sunday evening - that is a school night.
Then we made another big decision - We decided to see the movie as a family (minus College Geek - he was, you know, at college). This was a big deal. Mostly we only see movies like The Squeakquel- very much kids movies and now we were planning on taking the little geek to a grown up movie (not to be confused with adult movie --ick).
And the response from the little Geeks was .... "Why do we have to go? Can't we just stay home? Can't we go see a different movie?" You know-- enthusiastic.
But we held firm. "You will like this movie", we told them.
"No I won't I saw the preview. I HATE those kind of movies. I think football is stupid."
So we headed to the movies. (I even bribed them each with a dollar if they would just not disturb me.) The little geeks sat in the very first row and Mr. Geek and I sat in the very last row. (Family bonding at its best.)
As you all know by now the movie is wonderful. It has gotten great reviews and several awards so I won't bore you with my review.
What I do want to share was the response of the little geeks.
They were blown away by the movie. During the credits they walked back to where Mr. Geek and I were sitting and began to talk about the movie. The conversation continued as each of them laid down in their bed that night through breakfast the next morning.
Here are their impression: The Middle Geek was ready to search for a homeless person for us to adopt.
Littlest Geek: When he said that he had never had a bed before I wanted to cry.
Not enough has been made about Leigh Anne's husband Sean Tuohy role in Micheal Ohrer's story. The emphasis is on Leigh Anne and her take charge ways. In the following interview, I found out that Sean Tuohy was already buying Micheal his lunch everyday.
But I think Sean has an even more pivotal role in the story. I love the way he looks at Leigh Anne from the car when she is about to ask Micheal to stay over night. I love the way he reassures her when later she is wondering if she did the right thing. I love how you know that none of this story would have been possible if the family did not work together as a team.
Oh yeah and you know what else? I love how Sean Tuohy (and even Tim McGraw) remind me of Mr. Geek and his unwavering support when I make announcements like : I am going to Haiti. I am going back to grad school. I think we should adopt. Mr. Geek, we have a new son . I never have to guess, I know Mr. Geek is in it with me the whole way.
Those of you on FaceBook know that last week was Doppleganger Week. You were supposed to find a picture of a famous person that people say that you look like. Then you were to post that picture as your profile picture.
Some of my friends resemble celebrities so much that I had to do a double take on their profile picture. So I wanted to play along. The trouble is that - I have never been told that I look like a famous person. ever. People come up to me all the time asking if I am their neighbor's cousin, cousin's neighbor or child's prinicipal (I actually have gotten that one more than once.) However never has anyone ever said, "You know when you look that direction, when the light is just right, and I squint my eyes - You look exactly like Big Famous Celebrity.
But I did let that keep me from the fun.
One someone had said that Leelee Sobieski in Never Been Kissed looked like me. What do you think?
We are twins separated at birth, right?
SO ANYWAY, while I was looking at images from Never Been Kissed, I saw my perfect doppelganger.....
Josie Grossie!!!
But my nieces didn't seem all the resemblance.
So back to google images. There is one celebrity that I have been told I resemble - the way I speak anyway (oh and the way I dance )
But I was informed -- Doppelganger? No way!
After doppelgange week was over, I came up with the PERFECT match. (Isn't that always the way.) Oh yeah, from my favorite movie -- Mamma Mia!
As proof during the movie when the following scene played, my friends on either side of me turned and said, "That is so you."
On last Tuesday, January 12 at 5:14 pm a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck southern Haiti near Port au Prince.
I am assuming anyone reading this already knows this.
Since my trip to Haiti last March, I have kept in touch with some of the people I met on the internet. People like Tara and Troy Livesay . I began reading Troy's almost real time Twitter on Tuesday evening and was horrified by the devastation.
My work in Haiti was with Meds and Foods for Kids (MFK) which is in the northern part of the country in Cap Hatien. I emailed the people there as soon as possible and they had only felt a few rumblings. MKF makes Medika Mamba, an enriched peanut butter, for severely malnourished kids. The number of malnourished kids in Haiti on a good day with no extra tragedy is staggering. About one child out of every four in Haiti under the age of five is malnourished. Think of the kids in your kids kindergarten and picture one fourth of them starving.
The effect of the earthquake on MFK and on the health of children will not be completely know for some time. Look here for the recent news reports from MKF.
Before this tragedy, I was planning on traveling to Haiti over spring break to continue the work that we started last year with Engineers Without Borders. We are still planning this trip but we don't know all that will change between then and now.
None of MamaKat's writing prompts prompted me this week so I dove into her archives to grab a different one. This one sounded interesting.
Write about a time you hid from someone, or a time you disguised who you really were.
Since I already have not followed the directions, I will continue to feel free to decide the subject of my story.
When I was growing up, I was very much a pleaser. I wanted teachers to like me and I did not want to get into trouble. I lived my life very much in terror of getting something on my PERMANENT RECORD that would keep me from getting into college and ruin my life. I also had a pretty strong moral code (for a kid) and just thought that everyone should do the right thing --just because.
Why do I tell you this? Well a couple of times while I was growing up I tried on a different persona. In other words, I pretended to be someone I was not, kind of like a disguise. (See it fits the prompt, right?)
The first one was a time when I was walking around with a girl from school throughout the neighborhood. I don't really remember who the girl was except I remember I did not usually hang out with her. Walking around our neighborhood was very common. I grew up in the suburbs where most mothers kicked their kids out to play each day.
This day the girl suggested, "Let's just sit on the corner." That sounds like an innocent suggestion, but my mother had always said, "Do not hang out on the corner." She never gave any explanation why I was not supposed to hang out on the corner, but I knew the rule, don't do it. Hmmm, don't do it? Why not? We weren't hurting anyone that I could tell and maybe if I hung out I could find out what the big deal was. Oh and the girl that I was with? She said she did it all the time.
So we sat on the corner right by the stop light. It was at one of the busier intersections in my neighborhood and there were lots of cars and people to watch. Sure enough we received several disapproving looks from other mothers driving by.
The second time, I was with my cousin and one her friends at Sun 'n Fun. Sun 'n Fun was a man made pond/ lake with a sand beach (I grew up in St. Louis, smack in the middle of the US, far, far away from an ocean). We would go to Sun 'n Fun almost once a week during the summer.
This time, my cousin had a friend with her. We went to the playground to play for a bit and the friend said. "Have you guys ever played, like pretend?" We looked at her, sure we had played pretend, but the look on her face said this was not about castles and army men. She said, "When someone comes up to play on the playground, you tell them that your parents own it and that they are not allowed to play."
Okay, that just sounded stupid to me, but in a moment that I am not particularly proud of, I just stood there and said nothing. Soon a couple of younger kids came up to play and the girl said, "You can't play here. Our parents own all of Sun 'n Fun and they said that no one is allowed to play on the monkey bars but us." The kids put up some mild protests but they were clearly out matched by three older kids and they ran off...... to get their mothers.
Their mothers came up to the playground (see I knew this was a stupid idea) and said, "What's this about my kids not allowed on the monkey bars?" I remember looking at my feet and the other girl mumbled something. The mother set us straight, "Everyone is allowed to play on the playground!"... and of course the kids played on the playground. We left soon after.
So these were my experience at being a "bad" kid.I am not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing.
If you ask many girls what they want to do when they grow up, they will answer, "I want to be a doctor, because I want to help people."
Here is one woman one who is working hard to expand the career choices before girls and young women. Engineering (if done right) can help bring clean drinking water, life saving medical equipment and many other things that impact lives every day.
Verse by verse, dissect a favorite song you had in 7th grade.
I had trouble narrowing this one down. I remember so many songs that I played over and over and over and over..... I am going to try to pick one from my first two albums (When I entered Junior High, I became too mature to buy 45's) - John Denver Greatest Hits and Elton John Greatest Hits.
When I looked through the list of songs online the one that resonated with my 12 year old heart was Follow Me by John Denver. Oh the angst that I went through wondering if I would ever meet my soul mate, my one true love, my all-that. sigh
Does any one out there remember it?
I can't decide if it is wildly romantic or just a bit creepy.
It's by far the hardest thing I've ever done
To be so in love with you and so alone
(Do you hear that - He loves ME!!)
{Refrain} Follow me where I go, what I do and who I know
Make it part of you to be a part of me
Follow me up and down, all the way and all around
Take my hand and say you'll follow me
(If you love me so much, why don't you follow me?)
It's long been on my mind, you know it's been a long, long time
I'll try to find the way that I can make you understand
The way I feel about you and just how much I need you
To be there where I can talk to you when there's no one else around
(Now you are talking, remember you NEED ME!!)
{Refrain}
You see, I'd like to share my life with you and show you things I've seen
Places that I'm going to, places where I've been
To have you there beside me and never be alone
And all the time that you're with me, we will be at home
(Yes, yes, YES, let's travel and see the world together.)
{As refrain}
Follow me where I go, what I do and who I know
Make it part of you to be a part of me
Follow me up and down, all the way
Take my hand and I will follow you
(Do you see why I love this song? He will follow me, just as it should be.)
I teach safety for a living and I like to use real life examples as illustrations what to do and even better-- what not to do. To be fair I tell a few stories about myself.
One summer night Mr. Geek and I were cooking a great dinner -- Steaks on the grill, asparagus with cheese sauce. yum. I was multitasking, checking the steaks out on the patio and making the cheese sauce in the kitchen. I started melting the butter in a pan, added some flour and was ready to slowly add milk. When I open the refrigerator, the milk carton was empty. I grabbed the new gallon of milk and went to untwist the cap, but the stupid safety ring wouldn't give.
This was where I usually go get a fork and pry off the plastic ring, but I looked down and there was a butter knife right there on the counter. How perfect, I thought, I will use the knife to pry off the plastic ring. It will work just like a fork and I will have one less utensil to clean. Who was I fooling, I was not worried about cleaning up I was more thinking about convenience - I was hungry and I was in a hurry. I did not want the steaks or sauce to burn and I WAS HUNGRY. (Did I mention that?)
I took the knife with my right hand and put it into the plastic ring in order to to then pry it off when with out warning, the plastic ring broke. The momentum that I had carried the knife down to where my left hand was holding the gallon of milk. The knife cut into my left pointer finger (Can you picture this?) It was then that I found out that you can indeed cut yourself with a butter knife.
I saw blood. I turned off the stove. I grabbed several papertowels and put pressure on the cut. I held the finger above my heart. Then I thought, I think I should sit down.
Along came Mr. Geek. concern about .... the burning steaks. He was hungry too.
"What happened?"
"I cut myself"
"Well get a band aid."
(Can you feel the concern?)
"I think I might need stitches"
At this point, Mr. Geek finally actually looked at me. He stopped rushing around and said, "Let me see it."
Yes, it was going to need stitches. We were able to call a neighbor girl over to watch the kids (the little geeks were still toddlers) and we went to the ER.
