Model Trebuchet

This past Halloween I overheard Scott and my BIL, Robert, talking about building a trebuchet.  A real trebuchet.  They wanted to launch pumpkins and rocks and pianos into an empty field.  They were even talking about whose house to store it (notminenotminenotmine..).

This. must. not. happen.  

Time for me to intervene.  In my most subtle way, I took matters into my own hands and ordered a model trebuchet kit for Christmas in hopes of satiating his siege engine desires.  

Scott was thrilled.  

Scott reminds me of my Dad in this picture:

Several hours later --Tah-Dah!!

Quite a bit of calibration:

Scott and Steven did some catapult vs. trebuchet experiments.

The victims: animal army led by Darth.

Success!!  I haven't heard more talk of a large trebuchet, but who knows -- I may have only fanned the flame...

Pinwheel Cookies

So Alton Brown is a genius. The Food Network ran an old episode of Good Eats in which he made Christmas cookies this past week. One of the features was the Pinwheel Cookie.

 It looked fun enough that we gave it a try. Alton's recipes are often far trickier than they seem on the show. I guess that's the magic of TV coupled with a handful of years of culinary school.

You make a batch of sugar cookie dough and then halve it flavoring one half with melted, unsweetened chocolate and the other with smashed up candy canes (which are strangely abundant this time of year.) You then roll out the dough, stack them, and roll them to form a nifty swirl.

We had a pretty good time rolling them and only screamed for Mary to help us 4,000 times.

 You're supposed to let the loaf sit in the refrigerator for two hours, but since Alton didn't, we started after an hour. The two doughs cooled at different speeds leaving us with a cookie that baked at different speeds. This caused a problem, as you can see, since the chocolate part set up quite nicely and the peppermint part oozed all over the cookie sheet.

We'd doubled the recipe, so the second loaf stayed in the refrigerator overnight, and our results were much, much better.

Tasted good - fun to do - a lot of work for not very many cookies.

Shooting with the Derus

Tommy Turns Four

It's rough having your birthday the day before Thanksgiving. It's really difficult as parents not to combine his birthday and Thanksgiving presents. Tommy went to sleep after hanging his stocking by the fireplace and placing a tooth under his pillow. In the morning he took to the yard to see if the bunny had hidden any candy and hard boiled eggs. Nope.

Oh well - we'll just have to blow out some candles and eat some cake.

Lincoln Youth Symphony

Steven & Anna did their first performance with the Lincoln Youth Symphony this past Saturday. Steven has been named co-principal french horn, and Anna plays 2nd flute. Anna isn't quite old enough (or tall enough) to play with the symphony, but is doing a fabulous job learning the music.

The pieces they performed were very challenging, and we feel very blessed to live in a community where our kids have opportunities to play with a symphony orchestra.

Anna is the forehead wearing the cool glasses.

Smile Practice

I'm sure you all recall what Brigham Young said about smiling. "It matters not whether you or I feel like smiling, when the time comes to smile, smile."   Or something like that . . .


It was obvious from our last frustrating attempt at getting Thomas to smile for a picture that we needed some practice. It seemed every bit as frustrating this time, but I think the results ended up quite a bit better.

What follows is a more appropriate Hommage à Tommy de trois ans

Utah Wind Symphony Dress Rehearsal

Because of an Army Band rehearsal, we weren't able to attend the UWS performance on November 2nd. Steven, Anna, and I were however able to attend the dress rehearsal. Steven and Anna rode the Front Runner down to SLC and then off to the Rose Wagner theater.

Scott Hagen invited the students in the audience to come up and sit with the musicians so they could see the music and watch the conductor. It was fantastic!

The music was of course amazing, and Larry Zalkind made me partially rethink my opinion of trombone players . . . 

. . . but only partially. 

Anna's picture is currently being featured on the UWS Facebook page - here's the link. 

Real Men Winterize Swamp Coolers