Living on the edge

We celebrated my birthday on Sunday. We invited my oldest son and his fiancée (and twin babies) and my youngest daughter with her newest beau over for dinner. I had decided that I wanted a Mongolian Hot Pot for my birthday dinner. For those who have never heard of a Mongolian Hot Pot: Basically, you put a pot of simmering broth in the middle of the table (using a fondue pot, or something similar) and have a selection of raw meats and vegetables. Using fondue forks, everyone cooks their own meat and vegetables. You then have a variety of sauces that they can use to season their food. It can be a lot of fun with the right people. Although, I'm not sure we had the right people. I think my son enjoyed it, but I'm not so sure about his fiancée. I don't think my daughter enjoyed it much (she is a very picky eater), and her boyfriend probably thinks we're just really weird.

Anyway, for the Mongolian Hot Pot, I prepared a variety of meats, vegetables, and sauces, including:

* Raw pork, sliced thin
* Fresh spinach
* A sesame seed sauce that had raw egg in it

And, to top it off, my wife made me a Peanut Butter cake. Yup, and she used that big ol jar of Peter Pan peanut butter that we have. She reasoned that it would be OK since the cake is cooked. Although, the peanut butter frosting that she made wasn't cooked.

It's a miracle that we're all still alive to talk about it!

Seriously though, I never give much credence to anything that the media picks up on and hypes to death.

• I don't worry about West Nile virus when I'm working in my garden (even though we have lots of mosquitoes here in Texas and there have been reported cases in the area)

• I have zero interest in who's sleeping with who in Hollywood circles (or who's marrying/divorcing who, or who's having a baby, etc.)

• I'm skeptical about Global Warming

And now I can add to my list

• I eat Peter Pan peanut butter (with a batch number that starts with 2111)
  

Living on the edge I am. I can just hear my mother (God rest her soul) "If all of the other gay Mormon's jumped off of a cliff, would you jump too?" No, on second thought, I can't hear her saying that, I can hear her saying "You're a what!?!?!"

And now for something completely different ...

Went to Barnes and Nobels yesterday and bought the book "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell" by Susanna Clarke. First I had to decide if I wanted the hardback edition, the paperback edition, or the mass produced paperback edition. I opted for the latter because it was cheaper. But, then I had to decide if I wanted the version with the black cover or the lovely red cover. I opted for the black cover. What's up with having the book come in different color covers anyway? Looking on Amazon, I think it also comes with a white and green covers. Are we supposed to collect all of them?

That book has lots of words in it. 1,006 pages of words. As I flipped through the book, I noticed that it also has footnotes, and the font used in the footnotes is even smaller (lots more words on a page). Fortunately, my wife and I are heading out to California the first weekend in March (to be there for the blessing of our granddaughter). So, I'll have lots of time sitting in airports and on a plane to read. I had also reserved it at our local library (on their web site). After seeing that it is on the bestseller list and reading some of the reviews, my wife said she is going to go ahead and check it out from the library and read it too.