Paul Turns 40

What you get when you ask for a cake with a gaming theme, incorporating lots of colors and Nerds. Perfect!

Paul wasn't exactly looking forward to turning 40 last Friday, but why not make the best out of a bad thing? We celebrated with about four dozen of our closest friends the following day.

We reserved a table at an arcade a couple of miles from our house, filled with old games and consoles. Paul had been there several times, but I never had. It turned out to be the perfect family-friendly venue for our friends and their kids. (Children are welcome during the day, but it's 21+ at night.) Atticus especially was enthralled by the games, and Edith, too, had fun. I already have plans for Paul to return with the kids while mom spends a few relaxing hours at home!

Our favorite pizza place is a couple of blocks away from the arcade, so a good dozen or so followed (or met) us there. After eating, I took the kids home and put them to bed, good and ready for the babysitter we had for the evening. Paul, a friend and I followed up the pizza place with a nearby bar.

Few people look forward to getting older, but you might as well do it in style, right? And thus the nine-hour birthday extravaganza was born.

Atticus showing off lots of "straws."

Photo Friday: Funny Faces

Jan. 1, 2017

Making a Rainbow Birthday Cake

Paul has frequently said that his favorite flavor is artificial. I'm never quite sure if he's joking, but for his birthday I wasn't taking any chances.

Last weekend I made him a rainbow cake. 

It wasn't difficult, but it was very, very time consuming. Two hours is too long to spend on a cake.

It did look impressive though. And I'm not saying I wouldn't make it again - just not for a long time.

The gist --

Make the cake batter (I found a one-bowl from-scratch recipe, but I believe two boxes of cake mix will do) and split it into six bowls. Color each bowl of batter red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.

Bake each color separately in a 9-inch pan. Then let the pans cool to the touch and carefully put the layer on a wire rack to cool the rest of the way. Layer the colors with frosting in between, and then frost the tops and side. Voila. 

My first two layers broke apart, probably because I didn't butter and flour the pan enough, or I tried to lift it from the pan when it was still too warm. But the mistake wasn't at all noticeable in the final product. Here's the recipe I used., although Paul requested cinnamon frosting rather than cream cheese.

The frosting was the only thing Paul knew of the dessert before I cut into it. Luckily it was as delicious as it was surprising, and oh, so artificial.

Visiting Where Daddy Works

We've lived here more than a year and a half, and I had never seen the inside of Paul's office. More importantly, neither had Edith. That's more important because Edith seemed to think that Paul worked in a car.

Almost every weekday we would have a conversation like this:

Edith: Daddy home?
Me: No, Daddy's at work.
Edith: Car?

Then I would proceed to explain that Daddy drives a car to work, but that's not where he actually works. Instead of having the conversation a million more times, I asked Paul when we could visit him and go to lunch.

That day was last Friday. Edith seemed shocked to see Daddy meeting us in the lobby, but she soon warmed up to the coworkers he introduced us to. Then we went to Chipotle. A win for all of us.

Photo Friday: Paul on the High-Wire Unicycle

COSI, January 31, 2015

11th Wedding Anniversary

August 30 was a Saturday 11 years ago, too -- the Saturday that Paul and I got married.

Eleven years would have seemed like a lifetime back in 2003, and it feels like I've lived at least three different lives since we tied the knot. But hopefully I'm like a cat and have a few to spare.

I'm not going to lie and say I don't feel older. I feel older, I look older, I act older ... I hope. But I'm even happier now that I was 11 years ago, and that's what counts. Happy anniversary, Paul.

Skittlebrau: A 'Simpsons' Beer Dream Come True

In one "Simpsons" episode, according to Paul, Homer tries to buy a six-pack of Skittlebrau, only to be told that the beer isn't real. It was only in a dream he had. So Homer instead asks for a 6-pack of Duff and some Skittles.

Paul's making the dream come alive with his own version of Skittlebrau, which he brewed at the end of May. The brew consists of your typical beer ingredients, along with two 14-ounce bags of melted Skittles.

Melted Skittles form a rainbow blob.

He expects Skittlebrau to be ready to consume at the end of June. But there will be one more step.

Paul plans to take another bag of Skittles, separate the colors and create a simple syrup for each color. Each color of syrup can then be poured into the beer when it is ready to drink, giving it a unique color and flavor.

At least that's the plan. Can't wait to give it a try!

And Now, Sausage Links

You've probably heard that it's not a good idea to see either laws or sausage being made.

I'm out of luck. Not only do I know how a bill becomes a law by working at the Ohio Statehouse once upon a time, but Paul has shown me firsthand how to make sausage.

I'd rather stick to politics.

I wrote earlier this year that Paul has taken to grinding his own meat with the help of our stand mixer. He recently went a step beyond by buying casings (read: intestines) at Cabela's so he could form his own sausage links.

Let's be clear: I was born in northwest Ohio. I wasn't raised on an animal farm, but close relatives have long had plenty of animals raised specifically for our eating pleasure. I'm not a vegetarian.

But making sausage links is disgusting.

Some of the meat bust through the casings, so Paul made a couple of patties out of that. Pretty good. But those giant links? No thanks.

My head knows that they are basically the same thing. But ... ick. I'll be deleting these photos from my phone as soon as I can.

First, grind the meat.

Slip the casing onto the stand mixer attachment.

Feed the meat back through the grinder and watch it slide into the casing.

Ready to cook. Yuck.

Making Sausage: Paul's Newest Hobby

Since we moved to Ohio, Paul now has more room for his hobbies. The newest: making sausage.

He requested and received for Christmas a sausage grinding attachment for our stand mixer -- the mixer being one of those items we simply didn't have the space for in our Brooklyn apartment. He bought a pork shoulder last weekend and tried his hand at sausage-making when he was off from work on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

It went surprisingly smoothly. He cut the pork shoulder into chunks and fed them into the grinder. They needed very little coaxing to pass through the machine. The whole thing was done in minutes.

He added seasonings (sage, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper) and mixed them into the meat. Of course, he couldn't wait to sample the fruits of his labor. So he took about a pound of the sausage and formed them into four patties for lunch.

I'm not a huge fan of sausage patties, but these were pretty good. I can't wait to try the meat in Paul's sausage spaghetti sauce, which I already think is excellent.

So this new hobby of Paul's? I'm a fan.

Congrats, Paul: NYC Marathon Runner!

Congratulations to Paul, who finished the New York City Marathon in 4:13:44. I spoke with him after he crossed the finish line yesterday -- he was feeling good and was pleased with his time. He returns to Columbus today.

About 48,000 runners participated in the marathon, including 22,000 who were scheduled to run last year, according to the television broadcast of the race on Sunday. The fastest man, from Kenya, finished in 2:08:24.

It's been a long-time goal of Paul's to run this marathon, and I'm glad he was able to. But I'm sorry I wasn't there to see it.

10 Years with Paul

 
Ten years ago today, Paul and I were married.

It was your typical northwest Ohio wedding, with storybook-perfect weather. What was atypical was how Paul and I met.

June 2001. I had just started a summer job as a page at the Ohio Statehouse. Earlier in the month I had moved out of the Ohio State dorms and into an off-campus apartment with a houseful of strangers. I had just finished my sophomore year, and it was my first summer away from Defiance. My friends had split Columbus, and I was on my own.

I met Paul one of my first days on the job. He began working at the Statehouse a couple of years earlier, and I remember how frustrated he was that he wasn't getting full-time hours that summer. In fact, my 32-hours per week position was probably one of the reasons his was cut back!

So he decided to quit. But before then, we spent several hours together manning the clerk's office of the House of Representatives. Summers at the Statehouse are slow, and barely anyone was around. We could even read at the desk.

He was impressed that I was reading one of his favorite books, "Catch 22." I loved hearing about the previous summer he spent in Ireland and traveling around Europe. We talked about this and that, and the conversation eventually made its way to -- of all things -- Waffle House. He couldn't believe I'd never been there. On his last day at the Statehouse, he said he'd take me there and asked for my number.

He called, but instead of a trip to Waffle House, he asked if I liked sushi. I'd never had it. We went to Haiku in the Short North anyway.

And if all goes as planned, we'll be eating at Haiku again tonight, more than 10 years later.

Updates from the Last Year (or So)

Changes big (giant!) and small filled the 14 months since my last update post.

Here are a few of the things I've written about since January 2012 and where they stand now:

May 2012: When we replaced our 1998 Saturn with a 2009 Volkswagen Jetta the previous month, I was happy, but Paul was thrilled. He had wanted a new car for a while, but the positive pregnancy test earlier in the year spurred him to do the research and make the purchase. Paul was a little more worried after we installed the car seat in the back and he had to move the driver's seat waaaaaay up. But he's gotten used to it and all is good. And surprisingly we've used the seat warmers much, much, much more than the sunroof.

August 2012: I had strong suspicions about what would be the most difficult parts about raising a baby in New York City, and I was largely correct. The number of stairs to our apartment is annoying, and not having an in-unit washer and dryer is even more so. Taking Edith outdoors with me alone requires me to descend three floors with the stroller, set it up, and then go back upstairs to get Edith. And I dream of the day I can just pop a load in the washer instead of waiting for Paul to get home before one of us can take the swing that Edith just pooped all over down to the laundromat.

November 2012: The New York City Marathon was cancelled last year due to Hurricane Sandy, but Paul is officially a runner in the 2013 race!

November 2012: Need I say it? Edith was born.

February 2013: Just as I had given up on Paul shaving off his beard, he did it! Paul's beard began the day Edith was born and lasted almost four months. The mustache lasted about 10 minutes longer than the beard before that, too, was shaved away.

February 2013: Gently remind Paul to get moving on the presidential biographies so we can restart our Presidents by the Book project! I have already renewed the biography on William Howard Taft exactly 47 times.

Present: We still own our home in Galloway, Ohio, and yet again we have a new renter after some issues with the last tenants. Here's hoping this one works out.

Paul's Baby Beard

Paul often forgoes his razor during long weekends and sometimes during vacations, so I wasn't surprised when he didn't shave for a few days after Edith was born in November.

But day piled onto day, and his shaving cream sat firmly in its place. Before I knew it, he had a beard.

Baby beard barely noticeable the day after Edith's birth ...

... but take a look two months later at Edith's baptism!

Paul knows I don't particularly care for it, and I'm pretty sure that's exactly the reason he kept it for the first few weeks. But he also got some compliments at work. Now he's used to not shaving every morning, so I don't know when it will come off.

In all honesty, it's not as bad as I thought it was in the beginning. I prefer him clean-shaven, but I don't bug him to get rid of the beard (anymore). I liken it to my short hair: Maybe Paul would prefer it long, but there's little he could say to convince me to grow it out. I like it short, so that's that. So if Paul likes his beard, then that's that, too.

Paul's Birthday (Observed) at Peter Luger Steakhouse

I suspected that Paul's birthday today would get somewhat lost in the shuffle. He wouldn't complain, but I also didn't want to give him a chance to.

So this year I gave him his present a full month early. On November 7, I told him we had reservations that weekend to Peter Luger Steakhouse.

Paul always wants to go to Peter Luger for special occasions, and I never do. The reason is simple: I don't like steak. But Paul likes it enough for both of us. And this year I got reservations during lunchtime, when Peter Luger offers a hamburger.

He, of course, ordered the giant single steak, medium rare, and a slice of the famous bacon, thickly cut. (Photos here, from the only other time we visited the steakhouse.) We split an order of creamed spinach-for-two. My well-done hamburger was obviously made with high-quality meat, although I slathered on the Peter Luger sauce for some flavor. I missed Paul's spice rubs.

Paul's beer and Bloody Mary were off-limits to the still-pregnant me, so we ended the meal with a tall hot fudge sundae, in which Paul kindly allowed me to scoop up the thick spoonfuls of fudge at the bottom. At the end of the meal, I waddled out the door, but not because of the baby.

Even though the meal was certainly for Paul, I couldn't help but think that it might be the last "nice" meal out we would have in a while. Besides this single trip to Williamsburg, I don't think we even left the neighborhood to go out to eat during the entire month of November and into December. Not the end of the world, of course, but it is a change in lifestyle nonetheless. I suspect we'll be getting take-out and delivery much more over the next couple of months!

New York City Marathon: Cancelled

This post was supposed to be about how Paul finished his first New York City Marathon. Instead, it's about how the race was cancelled some 36 hours before it was set to begin.

Paul heard the news late Friday afternoon, soon after he picked up his racing number and packet at the convention center in Manhattan

I understand why the race was called off. Resources are needed elsewhere after Hurricane Sandy, and a marathon at this point could look frivolous. However, I'm still sad that Paul's dream of running the New York City Marathon will be put off once again -- he was denied entry the last three years and only finally got in this year.

I'm sad, but I'm also relieved for Paul's sake. There was a lot of anger from some residents when the city and the running association said the race would continue as planned. There were even reports of people planning to throw eggs and batteries at the runners.

The vitriol is still high, and from runners, too. While runners entered in this year's race will get an automatic berth in next year's marathon, it appears that they will have to pay the $200+ entry fee all over again -- this year's entry fee may not be returned. And when many, many runners have said that they would like a refund, they're told by other runners that they're being selfish in the wake of so much devastation.

Personally, I wish the race would have been postponed instead of cancelled. Or cancelled days -- not hours -- before the marathon was to begin.

More than 40,000 runners were scheduled to run the marathon, many traveling from around the world and spending thousands of dollars to accomplish their goal. Of course I'm sorry for the havoc Hurricane Sandy wreaked on New York City, but allow me a little corner of sadness for the athletes who have trained so hard and so long and come so far to see the marathon taken away so close to the starting line.

Postscript: Paul and his running friends in one day raised more than $1,700 that will go to Brooklyn neighborhoods impacted by the storm. Then, on Sunday morning they ran 18 miles to one of the hardest hit communities in Queens, carrying supplies on their backs. However, at times they still got jeered by onlookers who assumed they were on a pleasure run.

In addition, one of Paul's tweets about his anger and disappointment over the marathon being cancelled was included in a BuzzFeed article that listed 15 tweets from runners after the announcement.

The comments about these runners being selfish and whiny made me very upset. Why isn't it OK to feel angry and disappointed about not running a race you've looked forward to for years? It certainly doesn't mean you care any less for those affected by the hurricane. I think Paul proved that Sunday morning.

One Month til the New York City Marathon

Although Paul has run something like four marathons -- including one earlier this year in Lake Placid -- a month from tomorrow will mark his first time in the New York City Marathon.

That's because it's fairly difficult to get into. There seems to be three basic ways: (1) join a fundraising team, (2) join a special New York running team and commit to running a certain number of races throughout the year, spending hundreds of dollars in entry fees in the process, or (3) take your chances in a lottery.

Paul did the third -- in fact, he's entered the lottery three years and failed. Fortunately, three strikes and you're not out: you're actually in. That is, after three failed attempts you get an automatic berth the following year. That rule is going away next year, Paul tells me, so he made it in just under the wire.

I've given up trying to follow his training schedule, but I do know that he runs all hours of the day, several days a week. Sometimes he'll get up at 6 or 6:30 in the morning to get in a few miles before work. More often he'll go out to the shore for a couple of hours in the evening. And I can usually count on him putting in a long run -- sometimes up to 18 miles -- either Saturday or Sunday morning.

Now Paul runs half-marathons for fun. When Paul found out last week that there was a half-marathon in the neighborhood this past Sunday, he signed up a few days before the race and ran the 13.1 miles in 1:50. He's not the fastest guy on the track -- the winner clocked in around 1:15 -- but it's still pretty respectable for someone who's basically just doing this for fun.

The New York City Marathon route passes a block away from our apartment, and I am looking forward to cheering Paul on, even if I won't be up for waddling down to the finish line in Central Park (I'll only be three weeks short of our due date by that time). And Paul's looking forward to crossing off a goal he's had since moving to New York five years ago.

Paul at the High Line

My favorite photo of Paul so far this year. At the High Line.

An Evening Bottling Beer with Paul

Every month or so our kitchen turns into a brewery. First, when Paul actually brews a beer, and then, a few weeks later, when he bottles it.

Last week Paul bottled his latest homebrew, a saison. It's a French-style ale that gets its slightly sour flavor from the specific type of yeast used, he explained. It's his first time making this type of beer, which he chose for our French-themed dinner party later this month.

Homebrew nights take up the entire evening and the entire kitchen. First Paul washes all of the equipment -- bottles, bottlecaps, bucket, hose, bottling wand, stirring spoon, etc. -- with a special sanitizer specifically for beer bottling.

Then Paul racks the beer, transferring the beer with a hose from a fermenter into a giant stockpot. Then he connects the hose to a bottling wand and individually fills each of the sanitized bottles.

Transferring the homebrew.

Bottling the homebrew.

After all of the bottles are filled -- usually about 52 bottles from a 5-gallon batch -- he hand-caps the bottles with a special contraption, boxes them and puts them somewhere dark (often the bottom of my closet).

Capping the bottles.

The homebrew is ready to drink a week or two after it's bottled, although Paul usually takes an uncarbonated sip when he's bottling for a sneak peak. He's rarely disappointed.

Paul's Oatmeal Stout vs. The World

Remember in June when I wrote about Paul entering his first Knights of Bruklyn homebrew competition? He didn't win that one, but I failed to note on this blog that he won second prize at a subsequent contest in October. That meant he was permitted to enter the Knights' annual competition open only to the winners and people's choice awardees of the previous three contests. Wednesday, Paul's birthday, was the big night. He takes it from here ...

 

My entry into the Knights of Bruklyn's annual finals at Union Hall in Park Slope was an oatmeal stout, and I think that it turned out pretty well. I might have spent longer making the label, however, than actually brewing the beer. This was the first time I made a custom label for one of my beers, so I feel like I passed some kind of important milestone in a homebrewer's life.

 

Paul's label: Obama drinking a stout

I was very proud of my label and used three different photo editing programs over the span of many, many  hours (ask Diane) to create it. I wish I had called the beer "Oatbama" since that would have been the obvious choice with the label's blue and red color scheme from Obama's famous "Hope" poster. When my friend Boris suggested this after I entered it under the name "Stalwart Oatmeal Stout," it was a real forehead-slapping moment.

I've always wondered what it's like when regular bar patrons happen upon our homebrew tastings. It must feel like walking into a meeting of a secret society with our "Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade"-style fezes. (I think that's the plural for fez, or maybe it's fezei or something like that.)

The beer didn't win, but I really appreciate that so many people came out to cheer me on and try some beer. I am happy to announce that my brewing and running friend from the neighborhood, Mike, won the people's choice award, which scored him a free bike. The people's choice is an informal vote by anyone who attends, though, so I think that he may have used some Russian-style democracy techniques ....  

Paul and friends

Sadly, neither Mike nor myself won the grand prize, which was a private dinner for 30 friends at Union Hall featuring your beer as brewed by Sixpoint Brewery in Brooklyn. I have to hand it to the club -- they recruit actual brewers from local breweries to decide the winners (they were from Sixpoint and Kelso Brewing this time), so there's no concern of ballot stuffing for the top prize.

I'm looking forward to the contests next year and will continue to invite everyone out for free beer, beef jerky and local cheese. Thank you to those who came out to cheer me on. And to those who didn't, if free beer, cheese and beef jerky don't entice you to come to Brooklyn, I'm not sure anything will.

Yes, Paul spent waaaaaaaaaay too long making the label for his beer. Read his own blog at Presidents by the Book.

Paul's Birthday + Making Friends

Happy birthday to my husband, Paul, who turns 33 today. (Yup, born on Pearl Harbor Day. I've frequently wondered whether a couple of generations ago that was the equivalent of having a 9/11 birthday nowadays.)

This is his fifth birthday we've celebrated in New York, and it's interesting to see how things have changed. I don't remember what we did for his first birthday here, but it must have been just the two of us. We'd only been in Brooklyn two months at that point and knew barely a soul. Even the next year, his 30th, we went on our own private birthday pub crawl. We were friendly with people by this point, but not necessarily friends.

Making friends has always been tough for me, and I suspect the same thing of Paul. I have a handful of good friends, mostly from college and the newspaper where I used to work, and it took a while to add any New Yorkers to that list. I considered it a big accomplishment when we could fill our apartment for our first (and now annual) winter party.

Gradually, however, we've picked up friends here and there -- mostly my coworkers and his, friends of friends and Paul's running buddies. Now we have a nice circle that leaves me just as busy as I want -- certainly not out every night (or every week), but with options. And those options include a happy hour drink or even just some witty banter on Twitter.

But back to Paul's birthday. We'll be spending this evening in a way that's completely different than in birthdays past -- cheering Paul's homebrew on to a victory in the finals of the Knights of Bruklyn competition. He won second place in a preliminary competition a couple of months ago and will be duking it out tonight, surrounded by a whole new set of friends.