Burnt Bread and Hummingbirds

On Thursdays, Emily leaves me to my own devices for dinner as she cooks just about every other day. Last Thursday I decided to make spaghetti with salad and garlic bread. Something I've made many times before. The only problem was that it didn't go as well as all those times before. I was holding my boy while I was cooking and he was starting to get hungry. The spaghetti was done cooking so I went to strain it out with our neat Revere pot that has straining slots in the lid. I didn't hold the lid tight enough so all the spaghetti dumped out into the sink and down the disposal. I guess I was trying to do too many things at once. The garlic bread was an even better adventure. I was going to use the rest of some french bread, but it was moldy. Since I had already gotten my tastes set on garlic bread I got out the plain ole sandwich bread and buttered it and garlic salted it. Then I stuck it in the oven. By the time that I finished doing that, the other pot of spaghetti was done cooking. BeeBoo didn't want to eat so I ate and enjoyed my spaghetti and salad. I took my plate to the sink and saw the measuring cup that I had melted the butter in. Then I thought, "Oh crap. The bread's been in the oven all this time." I took out six pieces of charcoal. I immediately thought of Christy, Em's mom. I used to give her grief about her habit of burning bread. I thought it was a simple thing to remember to get the bread out. Now I'm sure that she's going to return the favor.

After all that mess with dinner, I had a brief moment of unexpected beauty. I was looking out our window into our postage stamp backyard (It's like 10' by 10') and I see a hummingbird come out of nowhere, take a sip of our Cosmos, and continue it's journey elsewhere. It reminded me of a campfire tradition that we had at one scout camp we told our rose and thorn of the day. That's where we would look back on the day and tell one good thing (rose) and one bad thing (thorn) that happened to us. So there's my rose and thorn of the week.

"I'm agnostic"

For years I've always had in my head that my condition of not being able to smell very well made me "agnotstic." I sorta knew that that wasn't quite right. I finally looked it up today. I am definitely not "a person who holds the view that any ultimate reality (as God) is unknown and probably unknowable." The word I was thinking of is really "anosmia." But anosmia still isn't the right word. Anosmia is a complete lack of smell. I am able to smell some things. The correct word is hyposmia, which is a decrease in the sensitivity of smell. I'm glad that's all cleared up.

Book Review: I Will Teach You To Be Rich

I thought that with school behind me that I wouldn't have to write a book review any more. But this book is deserving of recommendation. I decided that now that I have a "real job" I should learn more about what to do with my money. The title makes it sound like those "get rich quick" books that don't really teach you anything, but make you excited to buy the next step in their "building wealth formula." This book has great practical information and action steps to take to get control of your financial situation and then to set up your accounts so that investments and payments are as automatic as you are willing to make them. It's also has explanations on 401Ks and ROTH IRAs that make sense. The author gives illustrative examples and explanations that show why his simple suggestions are better than doing nothing. Most of the stuff in the book isn't new, it's just put together in a concise, easy-to-read format. It is geared more towards the younger crowd, but there's some stuff in there that everyone can benefit from.