Diamonds

I have a list of movies that are in the category "won't be particularly pleasant to watch, but would probably be good for me." Last weekend I decided to watch one of the movies on the list- Blood Diamond. It came out a few years ago and presents a very violent depiction of African civil war and the way diamond smuggling makes it worse. The real issue isn't actually diamonds- it is greed. The same horrors of civil war: villages burned, people killed and maimed, children being forced to become soldiers, masses of people living in refugee camps in terrible conditions... all of these also happen in places where there are few resources as well. I think one thing I took away from it was a needed reminder about how much injustice there is in the world and how often I insulate myself from thinking about it.

It also made me think about wedding rings. I actually anguished for a while about whether to buy anastasia a diamond engagement ring. Partly because of the shady side of the diamond industry but mostly because of questions about money. What if we both just got gold bands and used the rest to help people in Africa get clean drinking water? I decided to go the traditional route. I didn't want my wife to have to engage in social commentary everytime everyone asked about the ring for the rest of her life. I decided rather than flouting social conventions in that way, the real issue is how we use the money that God brings our way over the course of a lifetime. Put another way, I realized that generosity toward the world doesn't always have to come at the expense of generosity toward my wife.

Political Hamburger Helper

The idea of hamburger helper is that something valuable (meat) is in short supply (at least for the price) and so you can cook up a meal to stretch the meat you have farther. That is basically the theory behind most of our political and economic system. General concern for the public good is in short supply, but self-interest is plentiful. So lets set up a political system where politicians pursuing their self-interested desire for reelection will have to make us happy to maintain power. Let's set up an economic system where everyone can just look out for their own family and the magic invisible hands of supply and demand will take care of the rest.

That's the theory. The problem is it can't work for ever. Selfishness is a vice. The thing about both virtues and vices is that they are not constant. Exercising a virtue tends to cause you to become more virtuous not less, and indulging a vice makes you more likely to act from the same vice in the future. Do you really think we all have 1000 self-control units to use however we wish each month? People who practice self-control find it easier to be self-controlled the next time and people who indulge their desires find it harder. So if you set up systems that encourage people to be selfish, then eventually ....

Food from the cruise

top row: Grand Marnier infused sponge cake; meringue with strawberries; shrimp cocktail

middle row: brie tart with arugala; chicken marsala; lamb shank

bottom row: jumbo prawns; tiramisu; lobster tail and shrimp

These were the best-looking food items our group had during the week of our cruise. The visual feast was almost as good as the gustatory feast!

Confession

Ok here is is. Anastasia and I like watching movies and TV. You work really hard to cultivate an image of people who just read books all the time, you only have a 13 inch TV in the basement, and then you sit down and ask yourself what your wife likes to do to relax and how you have been spending date nights and the moment of self-realization hits. In my case it is not exactly a new revelation. Put me in a room with a TV and I will tend to look at it. I watched a LOT of TV growing up, and still have a good recall of sitcom plots from the 1980's and the world of sports from about 1984-1999. 1999 would be when I moved to Ames and decided to ditch the TV to break the addiction. I think that over the past 10 years God has helped "heal the relationship" so to speak so that I can watch it some without it being what I think about or orient my life around. I really should count myself blessed that my wife's way of relaxing is something that comes naturally to me as well.

Oh, so that's why I'm so full!

A couple weeks ago we had a burger grillout at our place. I stopped at the Fareway meat counter after aerobics to pick up the meat so it would be as fresh as possible. (At that point I was NOT as fresh as possible!)

My decision-making process went like this:

Fact 1: Neither Alex nor I is confident or excited about shaping patties, so I should get pre-formed ones.

Fact 2: Ones from the meat counter should be better than frozen, bagged ones.

Fact 3: Alex likes us to have more than one burger per person, so the men in particular can feel well-fed.

Fact 4: I don't mind leftovers.

Therefore, I asked the meat woman (yes, they do have one woman employee back there) for 16 patties (12 people were expected). The price seemed a bit excessive, but I don't like questioning things and sometimes better meat costs more, so I went on my way. The package was huge--I rested it on my forearm like one might do with a newborn, garnering comments from fellow shoppers.

Alex fired up the grill, and they took a while to cook. Then we each ate one--they were really good, but no one went for seconds. I was a little confused, but we did have some side dishes.

It was only an hour later, when I was still really really full, that I started calculating in my head the relationship between the price per pound of the meat, the number of patties we had, and the total price I had paid.

Turns out we served everyone 1/2 pound burgers.

I'm a little mortified, as one who claims to be a meat minimizer.

And I can't believe I ate the whole thing! :)

Random?

We packed up most of our books to get our house ready to put on the market, and the ones left over ended up arranged primarily by height. One day I was looking at the book shelf and noticed this particular shelf at eye level. Some are borrowed (you can ask for your book back if you are reading this), some are blue. And some we bought, but it gives a pretty good sense of the things we read, excluding what we read for work. I particularly like the old book of Letterman top ten lists next to a collection of writings by Jonathan Edwards, who likely would not have found it very funny himself. I also like the harmony of Simon and Garfunkel next to a harmony of the Gospels. It would be far less amusing if we had planned it.

The night of seven desserts

One way that Anastasia and I break with gender stereotypes is that she is far more into chips and fries and I am far more into dessert. I learned in logic class that strictly speaking if someone says "pie or cake" the word "both" is one of the possible correct responses. Rarely does anyone say "pie XOR cake" or "pie exclusive or cake." I take advantage of this. On the cruise, it is all you can eat, and on the last day it was about 4:30 and I decided I wanted an ice cream cone. So began what became known as the night of the seven desserts. At dinner a couple of hours later, I ordered a dessert that was actually a combination of three different desserts (pictured above). And then I also ordered a second dessert. I figured I had not ordered more than one of each type item at dinner all week so I could splurge a little. Our friends had also told the staff that it was our anniversary and they brought us a chocolate berry cake just before the dessert I had ordered. Then Anastasia couldn't finish her own dessert so I ate most of that. Hence the night of the seven desserts. That also doesn't count the cake I had at 10 in the morning that they were passing out after a cooking demonstration (left). That night I actually got a little shaky as we were saying goodbye to everyone from the sugar overload, indicating that I have now officially figured out my limit. Seven is enough.

Supper series

I'm going to start a new series of posts where I show you what we had for dinner and a general description of it. In my opinion, recipes are all fine and dandy, but there are many times I go into the kitchen and just rummage for a meal. I'm always curious to know what other people do in these situations, so maybe someone else will find this interesting, too.

The meal pictured above was intended to be Chicken Peanut Stirfry Noodles. I bought tofu instead of chicken, because it lasts longer in the fridge. Unfortunately, I still haven't figured out how to pan fry it without leaving all the crunchy brown bits (i.e. the best bits) in the pan!

The veggies were a small container of the fresh stirfry veggies available at Fareway. Unfortunately, half of them were rotten by the time I opened the pack, and almost all the rest were potatoes. Stirfry? Potatoes? I sliced them really thin and they came out great--crispy--I'll do them again. The rest of the veggies were okay--the asparagus was great.

I bought a bottle of sauce at Wheatsfield. I love peanut sauce, but don't care to make it. I ended up buying a Ginger Peanut sauce--it's good, but it's mostly ginger.

And then I threw in some cooked bacon we had leftover from super spuds. And that was our meal. Alex liked it okay, but I don't think that particular combination of ingredients will ever show up in our fridge again, nor will I try to make it happen!