When is a Lemon Too Big?

Yesterday, I made Lemon Basil Shrimp in cream sauce over bow tie pasta. In my recipe that I posted two years ago, I said to use two lemons or about 1/3 cup. I picked this lemon, but was pretty confident that I did not need a 2nd one.

When I juiced the fresh picked lemon, there was almost 1/2 cup of juice. I went ahead and used it all. The shrimp sauce was a little tart, but tasted quite delicious.

I Will Miss Our House in St. Louis

Two months ago, I had a trip to St. Louis scheduled for work. The founder of the company and I were scheduled to make a presentation on Tuesday, May 10 to my old boss and other management at my old company. We had a good meeting and I enjoyed seeing a lot of the people I have worked with in the past.

We recently have been negotiating with some buyers on our house and after many iterations of offers and counteroffers, we have a contract with tentative closing on June 10^th. Since I was going to be in St. Louis anyway, I arranged my schedule to have some extra time to take care of things at the house. One of the main things I needed to take care of was getting a septic inspection and make sure it was working properly. I also pulled some weeds and did a good mowing of the grass.

This is what the house looks like with all of the green trees and grass.

As I drove on Old Jamestown Road and into our subdivision, I thought about how beautiful this place is and why did we choose to leave. I then got out of the air conditioned car and stepped into a very humid 88 degrees. My first priority was to get the septic access cover dug out for the inspector the next morning. The warm humid air and physical exertion of digging caused my clothes to become drenched with perspiration. There were also zillions of mosquitoes buzzing me and I ended up with 40 to 50 bites. After the mosquito bites, I decided that I felt a lot better about moving to California.

I not only got to see several old friends from work, but I got to see some friends from church who said that they could help if we needed things done on our house in the next couple of weeks.

As I was getting ready to leave, I picked some asparagus form the garden to bring home to have with dinner. Instead of eating within 20 minutes of picking, this was eaten about 9 hours after it was picked. As in the past, it was still the best asparagus ever. I have never had asparagus better than the stuff picked from our garden in St. Louis.

I started thinking about things I will miss by moving away from St. Louis. I also thought about things I will not miss. I’m sure there are other things I could include if I thought about it longer.

I will miss our house with the great kitchen.

I will miss the lush green woods, but I will not miss the humidity and mosquitoes in the summer that go with the woods.

I will miss the spectacular thunder storms, but I will not miss shoveling and driving in the snow in the winter.

I will miss living far away from neighbors, but I will not miss living far from grocery and other stores.

I will miss having an 11 mile non stressful drive to work that only takes 20 minutes, but I will not miss having an 11 mile drive to church that also takes 20 minutes.

I will miss float trips on the Current River, but I will not miss living over 2000 miles from Eagle Lake.

Most of all, I will miss many friends in St. Louis, but I will definitely NOT miss the septic system.

Mark gets introduced to Stir Fry Udon and Gyoza

Last week I was talking to Mark and found out that he had never had gyoza. He had eaten the Chinese style dumplings (usually steamed) but had not had the Japanese style gyoza before. When we have gyoza, we usually have rice with them. Since Mark does not like rice, I was trying to think of other foods that go well with gyoza. In Japan and also in Japanese restaurants here in California, I have had some wonderful noodle soups (like ramen except a hundred times better with meat and vegetables in them). I did not have a recipe that I had confidence in so I asked Mark if he had eaten stir fried udon before. He said no, so I told him that I would make stir fry udon and gyoza for him. I love gyoza and I love stir fry udon, but I was not sure how well they would go together.

While Mom is in Utah, Mark and I decided to go to a movie. We saw "Source Code" Saturday afternoon. I highly recommend the movie. I enjoyed it. It is kind of a crime solving science fiction movie that has some chic flick elements in it.

After dinner I cooked the gyoza and stir fry. This is Mark getting ready to eat.

Usually, when we have stir fry udon, I keep eating and there is a lot less leftovers than there should have been. The same thing happens with gyoza. But with stir fry AND gyoza, there were actually leftovers of both. I look forward to the leftovers. We had Henry Weinhard's root beer with dinner. It was all good.

Joseph's Zone Conference

Joseph's mission president posted a blog on recent Zone Conferences.

The second photo posted has Joseph in it:

To expand the photo of Joseph and to see all of the photos, click here.

The fourth photo shows what happens to shoes in Micronesia. My favorite photo (after the one of Joseph) is the 10th photo, which is the "primary room".

It was good to see Joseph looking good.

It's Coming up Roses.....And Lemons!

The roses are blooming nicely. These red flowers are about 4 to 5 inches across. As you can also see there are lots of lemons, which are 3 and even 4 inches long.

This is a closer view.Now for the question: Does anyone want some? I thought so. Mom is currently driving to Utah with lots of wonderfully tasty lemons. There is also a bag of oranges from John and Becky's back yard. They are perfectly ripened right now and taste really good.

For those living in Utah, talk to Mom about lemons and oranges.

A Visit from Sam, Jack and Stori

Sam, Jack and Stori have been visiting with us for over a week now and we have had lots of fun. We did not take any photos until Friday evening when we lots of family over to celebrate Jack and Stori’s 10^th birthday. For the birthday dinner, the kids helped put together the menu. We had steak, grilled squash slabs, corn on the cob, salad and blue Jell-O. These are some of the photos at the birthday party.

Stori likes playing with Rocky and Rocky likes her and anyone else that will play with him.

Jack spends a lot of time with his new Legos.

Yesterday (Saturday) I took Sam and Jack to Almaden Lake Park. In addition to the typical playground for little children, they have one for ages 6-12 with some cool climbing structures that the older kids enjoyed. .

Sam and Jack were able to get the swings going pretty high.
Sam really enjoyed jumping out of the swing. Jack enjoyed it, but not as much as Sam

After we left the park, we went up into the mountains close by for a hike. The trail head is 8.5 miles from our house by road and 6 miles in a straight line. At the beginning of the trail, there is a sign warning about mountain lions and bobcats. The sign said that where there are dear and other animals to eat, there will be mountain lions. The first thing we say was 5 wild turkeys and then we say a deer. After seeing the photos and reading about mountain lions, Sam was whacking two rocks together. I asked him if it was to scare off the mountain lions. He said yes. I asked him if he saw "The Parent Trap" he said yes. I told him that it does not work. I told Sam and Jack that the best way to protect against mountain lions is to stay together in a group and do not go off on your own. They stayed within about 4 feet of me the rest of the hike, even when I was jogging. We saw a bobcat while driving home, but no mountain lion.

The next morning (today) is Easter. Here are the kids with Easter baskets and dressed for church.

After Church we fixed ham, cheesy potatoes, asparagus, carrots for dinner. For desert we had boysenberry pie and ice cream. The kids declined the pie and only had ice cream. Mark, Mom and I really enjoyed the pie and vanilla ice cream.

After dinner, we had an Easter egg hunt in the back yard. I believe the kids had a good time. They asked if they could do another Easter egg hunt a couple of hours later.

They have been gone from their Mom and Dad for 9 days now and they are ready to go home on Tuesday morning.

Joseph's Mission Photos - 2nd Batch

A couple of months ago Elder Joseph sent some photos home from Pohnpei. Some of you saw them while you were here for Christmas. A few weeks ago I finally posted these photos on Facebook. Some of you may not frequent facebook enough to have seen these, so I thought I should post them here so those that have not yet seen them will be able to see Elder Crapo in Action.

In the first batch of photos Joseph sent, there was a video of him chopping open a coconut with a machete. Now several months later, he has improved his machete skills considerably. It was interesting to note in a recent letter that a missionary was injured while chopping open a coconut.

With helps and suggestions from Becky and Katie, I figured out how to post the video to youtube and then insert in blog. Thanks.