Somewhat Nerdy

I guess Rhett is nerdier, quite a bit higher than my mere 45.

Coming Out of the Closet II

OUR ADDICTIONS

Rhett Foster Crapo

-brackets: anytime there is a decision to be made, a bracket saves the day. Any time we need to pick what movie to watch at home, an 8 man double elimination bracket is created on the floor. Each movie competes with another, the viewers take turns determining victor, until we have a final champion and no one can complain because the bracket method is perfection. Even with 6 kids this method works. Could this joy in bracketing have grown from years of wrestling tournaments?

-spreadsheets: any major decision requires a good spreadsheet. For example, where to live. Each potential new home is plotted sometimes including price/sq. foot. That way you can see the greater pros/cons in columns and rows. Why not know exactly where you stand in neuro-anatomy by creating a spreadsheet to plug in your scores? Greatest spreadsheet accomplishment: complex budget with accumulative debt calculations each month.

-music: drums & guitar mainly. Even as a little kid Rhett would write songs and remembers songs amazingly well. Just the other day I asked if he remembered the show "Charles in Charge" and he whipped out the whole thing. I asked what the deal was w/ Charles--was he a relative or a nanny? Rhett didn't know what the show was about, just the entire theme song.

-moisture w/ meals: a beverage must be served with any food. Rhett cannot eat without drink. We suspect possible salivary dysfunction because he cannot eat without swallowing fluid between each bite. That is what determines his satisfaction of restaurant service. Did they provide enough beverage to allow him to eat? Even cereal requires a beverage, favorite combo: lemonade w/ marshmallow mateys.

-Sci-fi : med-school has really allowed the sci-fi addiction to flare up. In order to study, something must be going on and Rhett's preference is to study with the TV on. The sci-fi channel is a favorite, hopefully more for mocking entertainment than anything else.

-Traveling: For being from a tiny town in the west desert of Utah, you wouldn't expect it, but Rhett has a passion for travel. He is the master planner and has a list of places he must go before he dies. So far his favorite excursion is Italy, due to personal experiences living there for a while. He'd rather live conservatively all year to save up for big trips, and it is wonderful to travel with him because he's made all the plans and has the travel book so all you have to do is point to something and ask: "what is that?" he flips to the page in his travel guide and tells you all about it, carries all the crap, takes the pictures, and does all the negotiating with the locals.

This is the only photo where Rhett isn't holding ALL of our stuff...notice my contribution of carrying the travel guide?

Coming Out of the Closet

OUR ADDICTIONS

Jessica Kelly Crapo:

-purchasing books: each Christmas/birthday books top the lists. Two favorite authors: Roald Dahl and C.S. Lewis. Striving to own all their works. For some time Rhett gave the requested books as gifts but finally told the truth: the number of books purchased grossly dominates the number of books read. But this is why it is an addiction. I could easily read them from the library but there is some deep inner satisfaction from owning them for myself.

-Christmas: I LOVE Christmas. Everything from the smells, sights, gifts, music, movies, decorations, family, for me it is magical and can't come soon enough. Lately I've been feeding the addiction by allowing myself to listen to one Christmas song each shift I work on pandora.com. My goal is to wait to bust out all the stuff until Nov. 1. I love it when stores change from their outdoor/garden stock to having there is an entire Christmas room in October. I get as excited about Christmas as much as I did when I still believed in Santa. To me Christmas is everything cozy, delicious, warm, and good. I've set up my family's Christmas tree since Jr. High--even after I was married. Last year was my first year not to dive into Christmas before anyone else would wish for it, but really, one month is far too short for such an amazing time of year.

-projects: painting, crafting, sewing. Great pleasure in making something useful out of trash...latest triumph: using the red, plastic, net-like bag onions are purchased by the pound in. The more time I have at home, the more I spend thinking of more items I must create.

-school supplies: for some reason from a small age I have loved school/ office supplies. For my 9th birthday my grandma sent me a whopping $20. There was no question in my mind what I would purchase. Things I'd been eyeing for months each time we went to Wal-Mart. 4" wide clear view binder, overhead markers to be able to write on the binder, and the amazing....label maker. This unexplainable desire to purchase pens and other supplies has not ceased, but like any addict, I have learned to discipline myself to a mere 24 pack of crayons each year when they are on sale for $0.25.

-journaling: I have never been a consistent journal keeper. Lynette is amazing and has chronicled her life all through high school. But what I lack in precision I make up in range. I have so many different journals for different areas of my life: life-happenings, spiritual, project, parenting, service, long-term goals, and more.

-pumpkin recipes: this began in college--my freshman year I made every pumpkin recipe I owned in a matter of weeks. One night I didn't have all the ingredients and we went to the Smiths at midnight, and my best friend Molly suggested I wear this werewolf costume, which I did and frightened some elderly shoppers...but old people aren't supposed to be out after dark!

-sleeping in: since I started working nights, I've not needed to wake up to an alarm clock and have taken advantage of being able to sleep as much or as little as my body wants every day. To always wake up naturally is such a pleasure, babies and old people have it going on. I don't know how long it will last, but it is amazing to never feel interrupted when you wake up in the morning...or in my case the afternoon. Also, I've come to really enjoy the quiet hours in the middle of the night to do whatever I want...me time is always nice.

First Time I Ever Cooked Shrimp

"I think somebody should come up with a way to breed a very large shrimp. That way, you could ride him, then after you camped at night, you could eat him. How about it, science?" -Jack Handey-

Rhett had Nutrition this term and it has brought new eagerness to eat healthier. Apparently omegaIII fatty acids are vital and we now need to eat at least one meal of fish a week because mere supplements aren't as effective...apparently. This was bitter news to Rhett who hates sea-food and barfs in his mouth a little bit after every bite of a tuna fish sandwich, which is in my mind, the least "fishy" you can get. It practically tastes like chicken. Anyway, he thought shrimp would be OK so this was our first attempt at eating seafood since we've been married. I love fish and ocean crustaceans so I was pumped it will now be an option and included in the budget. Woohoo! But the problem is I don't know how to cook shrimp so I gave it a whirl. It turned out pretty good.

Shrimp Pasta that Seafood Hater Liked

1/2 c. olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 med onion chopped

15 shrimp

spicy mix from Danielle Lauridsen's recipe for blackened chicken with pasta

1/4 c. half & half

1 tsp. flour

8 oz vermicelli or other long pasta

Combine oil, garlic, and onion over med. heat until onions transparent. Put about 2 tsp. of Danielle's spicy rub in zip-lock lunch bag. Throw shrimp in & toss. When olive oil hot, throw shrimp in & cook till pink, about 2 min. remove and let onion/garlic sweat over low heat while you boil your pasta. As pasta gets close to being done, add flour to oil mixture and cream. Bring close to a boil to thicken. Mix w/ shrimp, pasta, and top w/ Parmesan. Enjoy.

Chicago

"If you ever fall off the Sears Tower, just go real limp, because maybe you'll look like a dummy and people will try to catch you because, hey, free dummy."

During the week break before Labor Day, we went to Chicago for 2 nights & 3 days. It's about 6 hours away and we took a train. We were at the train station at 6am and realized Jess didn't bring her purse...leaving her photo ID behind. Luckily they didn't require ID checks from Quincy so we got to Chicago. Some highlights were Chicago Philharmonic Jazz Orchestra's free concert in Millenium Park, Wicked on Broadway, Field Museum, Art Institute, Navy Pier, and of course all the great food. We had a lot of fun together.





We were heading back from Grand Central Station and they were checking photo ID prior to boarding the train. It came to us so I handed our two tickets with my ID, and Betty, asked for Jess's. "I don't have it with me." Betty looked her up and down. "How old are you?" "Uh..22." Betty rolls her eyes and looks at us over her glasses: "Nowadays honey, you need to have ID WHEREEVER YOU GO. I'm not supposed to let you on this train." In our heads...Thanks mom. "I'm sorry, but I don't have it with me, you guys let me on to get here from Quincy without it." Betty fidgets uncomfortably. "I guess I'll let you on but you really need to keep your ID with you...you're an adult." Despite the embarrassment and later teasing, Jess survived and we got home as planned.

Rhett's Latest Pasta Creation

Vicarious post for Rhett:

I have a new menu board...a pic is on my project blog, anyway, I had written a menu for the week. For today, Sunday, I wrote "Rhett's cooking". The next day I noticed he'd filled in his plan for dinner: "fasting". Ha ha Rhett. So I left it up there, waiting to see what he would do, and not really minding if I had to cook in the end. But at 5pm he hopped up and I found him chopping onions in the kitchen wearing an apron. Way to go Rhett!

Most often he makes pasta, which is his cooking comfort zone. Tonight's dish was delicious and the new ingredient was great even though I was skeptical--mandarin oranges. He named is Pasta el Rio. Here it is.

Pasta el Rio (no idea why he chose this name)

3/4 med. onion

3 cloves garlic

1/4 to 1/2 c. olive oil

1/2 c. sliced olives

1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes

1 (8 0z) can tomato sauce

small handful fresh basil, chopped (or dried to taste...approx 3 T)

1 (11 oz) can mandarin oranges, drained

1 lb pasta (we had bow tie and zitti mix)

Chop onion and garlic and saute in olive oil over medium-low heat until caramelized. Make sure it isn't too hot to brown them, you just sweat them to cook the onion flavor out and they sweeten in the oil, about 10 min. Add tomatoes, tomato sauce and olives and simmer. Add the chopped basil and let the sauce simmer for at least 30 minutes, allowing a lot of the liquid to cook out. Boil salted water and cook pasta according to directions. Drain. At this point the sauce should have simmered a while and is done. Combine the hot pasta, sauce and mandarin oranges and stir to coat evenly. The heat and force of stirring should basically shred the oranges and they should kind of disintegrate into the pasta. Salt to taste and serve with parmesan cheese on top.

I have to admit when I was walking in and out of the kitchen while Rhett was cooking I noticed the opened can of oranges and finally asked him if they were going in the pasta. When he said yes, in my head I was thinking "are you crazy? Hot marinara-ish pasta with orange chunks in it?" But I kept quiet and waited for the finished result before I passed judgement and it was really good! The oranges were non-existent from looking at it, occasionally you would find a little pulp bulb, but no big orange chunks anywhere, but they added a slight sweetness that was really good. I don't know if this was an amazing dish, or the shock at finding out I really liked it with the mandarins in it. Anyway, blah blah blah. I was really impressed w/ Rhett's culinary skills tonight...and I think it ended up better than he expected also.

Is it Ethical to Use Pets as Decor?

As mentioned in a previous post, I landed on getting this baker's rack from a friend while Rhett was gone. As I was figuring what to put on it, an idea I've had for a while became the spotlight of the project. For some time I thought it would be cool to decorate with fish. Mainly beta fish because they are bright and can only live solitary lives. Another benefit of beta fish is they can live in stagnant water and don't require an oxygenated tank. The only pets I've ever had have been Rhett's beta fish. The first I gave him for his 25 birthday and it survived the longest, then came the crazy fish who committed suicide, and the most recent fried in our car on our drive home this summer, we forgot he was in the cup holder. So our pet owner history isn't a shining record, but we came home and Rhett needed a pet, so I bought 3 red fish to cooridinate with the rest of the items. I love it. Anyway, when Rhett came home from being gone all week from the preceptorship earlier this month, he came in and saw the new baker's rack and said "Oh. We got a new fish!" He took a second to view the whole scene and turned and without emotion stated. "You've made the fish decor." I started laughing and admitted that to me they were merely decor that I feed each morning. Silently objecting to my plan for our pets, all he said was "You better at least give them names." Later when one died, he threw it out for me and we now laugh about it...but Wal-mart hasn't had a red beta fish for some weeks now so we have a bowl uninhabited.

So I still don't know if it is unethical to have my pets main use as decor. I would like to think it doesn't make a difference whether they sit on a table or a shelf. Also, our fish have the luxury of having a different bowl every couple of weeks. I do at least pay attention to rotate the fish so they all get a turn at living in the penthouse vase. What more could they want? If I were one of our pets I would be content and probably grateful I was red, enabling me to enjoy the cush life of being decor on a baker's rack. After all, atleast they are living decor unlike those hunters that just stuff the heads to go on their walls. My methods are very humane I think.

Our Lawn Mullet

Tonight I realized our lawn is nature's version of a mullet. But before I delve deeper, a history of our lawn.

Last August when we moved in it was beautifully manicured, bright green and as good as grass can be for Missouri. As renters, one of the main reasons we rent is to avoid yard care. The previous renters owned a riding mower and had mowed in exchange for $ off their rent. We had no mower and were not interested in mowing the acre-plus yard, so the landlord was going to hire someone to take care of it. Last fall it was hit and miss, but it wasn't too bad. From previous posts, the story unfolds that both the landlord and the lawn care dude flaked out, and the first mowing was in July, and it was no longer considered lawn, but a hay field. Through much more frustration, the lawn care dude finally said it was too unruly and he refused to mow it anymore. We had no where to go. Rhett called every listing under lawn care and for different reasons, no one could or would take over the lawn care.

School began again and Rhett was stressed with school, and the lawn was a growing (literally) frustration for him. So I pulled a Sheila (my mom) and went and bought a mower and said I would mow it because he had no time and we'd take it out of our rent. We got a great deal on a push mower, but it does have the self-propel feature. I've never mowed a lawn, in my family that particular chore was very gender-role delegated. Chicks don't mow lawns.

I was thinking about this--is it common for chicks to mow their lawn? Instantly an image of a middle aged woman in a saggy red bikini top strapped around a tan/leathery wrinkly torso with a stretch- marked doughy stomach spilling over jean cut off shorts, so short the white pocket corners hang below the hem, sitting on top of cellulite, lumpy thighs laced with bulging varicose veins which travel down to worn hiking boots without laces filled my mind. I don't know if this image was a repressed memory of my childhood, but I busted up laughing and thought of myself in this class of chicks-that-mow-their-lawn category.

The yard is so big I knew I wouldn't be able to maintain the whole thing with a 20" wide mower, so I decided to keep the grass immediately around the house well trimmed and mow the rest of the acreage once, maybe twice a month. After 2 hours of mowing, I stood looking at my job and cracked up laughing as the realization that before me I had created mother nature's mullet.
Business in front, party in back.

I even had unintentionally contributed the reverse Mohawk through the middle. Sweet.

I have considered mowing parking spaces into the field portion for when guests visit. They really do have to park on the lawn because we live on a highway, and that would be pretty funny to me...but then again, I may not have friends after this post. Hmmm. Willing to associate with borderline white trash???

Money

Because it is kind of the beginning of the new academic year, Rhett did a big budget/debt analysis of where we are and it makes me sick to think about the debt medical school accrues, and where it will be in 3 more years. We know it is the process all physicians go through, but it can be daunting when you look at the actual numbers, and pretty much ruin your day...or at least my day.

"It's easy to sit there and say you'd like to have more money. And I guess that's what I like about it. It's easy. Just sitting there, rocking back and forth, wanting that money."

-Jack Handey-

Creepiest Store Window of My Life

Today marks our one year anniversary of living in Kirksville, MO. In memory of that fact, I am excited to share something that has been cracking me up for a solid year. Each time I see it deepens my total satisfaction for utter creepiness. It is the display window of a business here in Kirksville: Aero Care: Home Medical Equipment Inc. "Breathe A Little Easier". Isn't it absolutely disturbing? I discovered this early on, because it on my way to Wal-Mart, and I would purposely take that route in order to see this. It is especially creepy at night, because it is one of the few shop windows lit up at night, and I think the photos speak for themselves.
I actually was home and decided I would trek up there with the tripod to get some pics. Rhett had to study so I was there alone, having a photo shoot with the mannequins wearing nasal cannulas. It was a warm night tonight and there was lightening in the distance coming our way, creating an even more eerie mood. I was busting up laughing thinking of all the people who drove by to see someone out in the dark of the night taking pictures of this.

Like most things I think are HILARIOUS, these may not be gut busting funny to you like they are to me, but even if you chuckle, I think myself and the mannequins will be satisfied.

Speeding Ticket

"If a cop pulls you over for speeding and comes over and asks you how fast you were going, a good thing to say is 'I dunno, I was speeding the whole time.'" -Jack Handey-

Last weekend Rhett and I were going to Nauvoo to attend the temple and the Nauvoo Pageant. Our ability to attend was dependent upon my acceptance to drive the 100 miles so Rhett could study in the car. I loathe driving. But for the greater good I consented and about half way was greeted by flashing lights in my rear view mirror. I gasped, sucking in air. Rhett looked up thinking we were about to die from my reaction (my gasp followed by his panic is a common ritual when I'm in a car and is very frustrating for Rhett, or anyone really) and was comforted to realize it was only a cop about to issue a ticket rather than our demise. I pulled over, turned off the music, and rolled down my window trying to look as angelic as I could. The officer approached and asked if I knew why he was pulling me over, the typical conversation ensued and I was clocked at 15 mph over the limit. He took my license and registration back to his car as I realized my perfect driviing record was down the drain and the $100+ fine that could come of it made my cheap little heart sink. Rhett, in an attempt to comfort me, gently said "Well, Jess, maybe this will help you not speed from now on." Not helpful. The cop returned and gave me my license back, with no dreaded pink slip and I got off with a warning. THANK YOU OFFICER! And I can honestly report I learned my lesson to not speed between Kahoka and Alexandria.