General Interest

I was so pleased last night to see that Season 3’s first episode of “A Chef’s Life” was airing on our local PBS station. (The actual season started back in August; not sure why Denver’s so behind, or maybe I just missed the premier.)  I had written about Vivian Howard back in June, pointing out that fame and success are always a two-edged sword, hardly an original insight.  So how are things going for Vivian in the new season?  Not so hot.  Which is to say, she’s hotter than ever, and she’s also burning out.  (Sorry.)

I am avid reader of two blogs that deal with money and lifestyles:  Mr. Money Mustache and Happy Simple Living:  The Art of Less.  (The authors of both blogs live in Colorado.  A coincidence?  I think not.)  Eliza Cross, the author of HSL, hosts a January Money Diet series every . . . January.  The idea is for readers to commit to spending only for essentials during this month.  She issues periodic challenges, of which there have been three so far:  make an extra $25, give away 31 things during the month, and figure out your net worth.  MMM, on the other hand, would say, “And why should you spend money only on essentials just during January?  That’s how you should spend your money all the time.”  I must say that my perspective on money has been radically changed by reading these two bloggers, especially MMM, whom I wrote about previously in this July 2015 post and in which I recommended especially “You Can’t Cure Obesity With Bigger Pants.”

I am shamelessly borrowing from an excellent sermon preached on the first Sunday of this year by my pastor, Josh Waltz.  (I’ve done this borrowing before and will certainly do so again.)  He started out by referencing Stephen Covey’s classic ​The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People:  “Begin with the end in mind.”  Covey asks his readers to ponder what they’d want to have said about them at their own funerals, listing four groups who might give eulogies:  family members, friends, co-workers, and fellow volunteers in some organization.  Each group would have a different perspective. 

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Back on the first Friday in September Gideon had a followup visit at his oncologist’s office after his PET scan.  We got there well in time for his 11:45 appointment, only to be told that we had come too early.  His appointment was at 3:45.  There was really nothing we wanted to do for four hours, so we turned around and went home.  A total waste of around two hours.

I said in this post that I was going to report on how my no-sweets rule worked over the holidays, and now it’s January 4, so it’s time.  And I have to say that it worked really well.  I did participate in the chocolate tasting led by my sister-in-law, but all of the samples were dark chocolate except for one, and fine dark chocolate is not candy.  I licked off one fingerful of the batter for the white chocolate cheesecakes I made for said SIL’s birthday party but that was pretty much it.  I made sure that the snack I brought to the Christmas brunch at my brother’s house was something savory:  smoked salmon spirals.  I’ll include a description and recipe for that item later on this week.  And I passed up on dessert at Christmas dinner.  For the rest of the dinners we hosted over the holidays I relied on the Wagon Wheel Cookies that Jim and Gideon had made earlier this month and stockpiled in the freezer.  I didn’t have any of those, either.  I guess I should post that recipe, too.  People go absolutely cuh-razy over them.  And I drank not one drop of pink eggnog.  The thing of it is, I know how it tastes.  So why do I need to drink any?  It’s just fun to watch everyone else drink it and come back for more.  (I guess I’m in the same situation as a vegetarian who cooks a prime rib roast and enjoys seeing everyone else dig in.)

Isn’t this a great picture?  There’s a clear path forward, but you can’t tell what’s ahead if you don’t move ahead.

Last of three posts on the role of celebrations in our lives.  I mentioned earlier, and perhaps many reading this post already know, that Jesus’ first recorded miracle occurs at a wedding celebration:  “On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples” (John 2:1-2 ESV).  So, just to point out the obvious, Jesus and the disciples aren’t hermits; they aren’t cut off from society.  They’re invited to this occasion.  Jesus doesn’t rebuke anyone for spending all that money on a feast.  He contributes to it, and in a high-quality way; the governor of the feast says, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now” (v. 10).  I mentioned in this previous post that my favorite part of the story is the idea that although the guests at the feast have no idea where this good wine came from,  “the servants who had drawn the water knew.”  If you’re quietly at work behind the scenes, making sure that everything gets done and goes smoothly, you can get a blessing that isn’t available to the oblivious partygoers.  (So I made sure that the image to go with this post included one of those servants.)

So, here’s the second of three posts this week on why people need celebrations and how to get the most out of them.  I’m writing this as I sit at our dining room table with some of my favorite in-laws, my brother- and sister-in-law and my father- and mother-in-law.  (We are eating a late lunch to feed the poor starving visitors who weren’t fed on the plane.  Be sure to read the hospitality blog tomorrow to get the recipe for the wonderful chicken salad I fed them.)  The siblings-in-law just got into town from Seattle for a wonderful eight days which will include some special get-togethers including Christmas dinner, a big birthday dinner for Carol (since her birthday is Dec. 30th), and a pizza party for Monday Night Football.  Is all this really necessary?  There’s expense and effort involved.  Why bother?

I guess you could call me a kind of volunteer unofficial events planner.  (I wonder when the term “events planner” entered the world’s vocabulary.)  I wrote a previous post over on the hospitality blog about the upcoming holiday events I’m in charge of; those are all over now, but–magically!–new ones have appeared on the horizon:  special family meals while my sister- and brother-in-law are here, including said s-i-l’s birthday party.  So I’ll have plenty to write about over there.  But the thought occurs to me sometimes that maybe all this effort is unnecessary.  I told Jim once, back when we lived in D.C. and