Everyone and their pumpkins at the annual Rogers' Pumpkin Carving Party

I hung out with fellow Best Job candidates Erik Rolfsen and Marcella Moser in Vancouver (Canada), had dinner with James Hill and Greg Reynen in Brisbane (Australia), met up with Mitch Moffit in Townsville (Australia), and now I can tick Steven Rogers off my list too! It’s too bad Cali Lewis wasn’t in Texas at the time.

To be honest, I had forgotten Steven lived in Texas (even though his Twitter account is @Steven_in_Texas ). My bad. The last I remembered through our Best Job e-mail threads (everyone still keeps in touch), he was climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa and roaming the streets of Europe! I received a message from him when we first arrived in Amarillo, Texas asking where we were planning on going in Texas and if we would be passing his way. He invited us to his family’s annual Pumpkin Carving Party, and we happily accepted his invitation!

Steven, his family and friends are all very typical Southerners. And by that I mean that they’re super friendly! I really like the feeling of New Mexico and Texas because everyone is generally nicer down south.

There were heaps of neighbourhood kids and their parents at the party all happily chatting, munching on cookies and candies, and taking part in their 20+ year tradition of carving pumpkins together. The Rogers family have a large dining room table covered in photos from past pumpkin carving parties including one where Steven is sporting an ’80s mullet (my fav). LOL

Throughout the home, there are pictures of all their travels (and the whole family has travelled a lot). After a little tour, we started carving our pumpkins and mingling over cookies. A great time was had, and the pumpkins turned out fairly well. The only bad part of the afternoon was the attack of the mosquitoes. Both Ang and I get allergic reactions from mosquito bites and I was unfortunately bitten on the forehead. Ugh.

[View with PicLens]

Thank you to Steven and the Rogers Family for inviting us into your home!

From Left to Right: Alvin (Bessie's husband), Morten (Angela's husband), Bessie (cousin), Mary (cousin), Angela (sister), Lawrence (Mary's husband), Jackie (friend), Me, and Bong (friend).

Ang, Morten and I tagged along on my cousins’ annual Memorial Day Weekend snow camping trip at Mount Rainier last week. We hiked up to Goat Island Peak at Mount Rainier National Park on Saturday and spent the night before coming back down on Sunday. These are some of the things I learned from the trip:

Sidenote: Why do they call it Goat Island if it’s not an island?

1. If you’re planning on sleeping on snow, make sure you bring a thick foam pad in addition to a sleeping pad. I was FREEZING and woke up about a dozen times because of the cold. The only upside to this was that when I woke up in the middle of the night, I got to see the stars which I would’ve missed otherwise.
2. Never hike up a mountain alone unless you know what you’re doing.
3. Never try to hike down a steep mountain early in the morning because the snow will have turned to ice overnight. If you must climb down, wear clamps and bring an ice pick.
4. Climbing down a mountain takes about 1/3 of the time it takes to climb up.
5. When climbing up, dig your toes in. When climbing down, dig your heels in.
6. Foxes are unlikely to attack you, but coyotes will consider it (they’re crazy like that). On our way down a large furry coyote crossed our path.
7. Always bring at least two extra pairs of socks.
8. “Mountain money” = toilet paper.
9. Spam musubi makes a great hiking snack because you don’t have to worry about squishing it in your pack.
10. Baby wipes are AWESOME!
11. If you end up needing a ranger rescue in the US as a result of your own stupidity, you’re going to have to pay for it out of your own pocket.
12. Levelling your sleeping area is important if you don’t want to be sliding around in your sleeping bag at night.
13. Sliding down an icy mountain head first will give you lacerations on your face. Not recommended.

[View with PicLens]

123►

Fat Burger: The Last Great Hamburger Stand

Last Friday Ang, Morten and I drove down to the states to visit our cousins and friends. We stopped at a Fat Burger for dinner where an uninformed young woman was serving and (like many Americans) was surprised to discover that Canadian money is coloured. But, unlike most Americans (I hope), she also thought that Canadians come from “Canadia” and was excited to have visitors from such a distant country. We were about two hours south of the border.

When I took a picture of the Fat Burger sign, she delightedly hollered across the restaurant “Are you taking a picture of us to show your friends in Canadia?”

Yes. My friends and I have no lives in distant Canadia. Our only entertainment comes in the form of pictures we take of restaurant employees in foreign countries. I didn’t know how to respond. “No?” I said. Then she asked me to come over and take a picture of her. I thought she was weird but she was nice enough so I obliged.

We seemed so alien to her that Ang was convinced she took a picture of us with her cell phone when she walked past with the mop.

Easter Egg Hunts in the Chih household started three years ago with the typical search for randomly placed plastic eggs which contained chocolates, candies, and small Kinder-Surprise-type toys. Last year Ang and I decided to do things a little differently and created something a bit more involved.

The Annual Chih Easter Egg Hunt

Easter Egg Hunt basket with clues, prizes and puzzle pieces

What You’ll Need

1. A set of large plastic eggs to hold small prizes – as many or as few as  you’d like
2. Small prizes – we’ve used everything from chocolates and candies to jewelry beads and temporary tattoos
3. Paper and pen to write clues
4. One large prize
5. Ribbon
6. A basket to hold the eggs
7. A large piece of cardboard and an exacto knife to cut out puzzle pieces

Instructions

1. Create a list of hiding places for your eggs.
2. Write a clue for each hiding place and number them (ex. “In this place you can bake every different kind of cake” – oven) – alternatively, you can take a macro picture of the hiding spot and have the child guess where it is (ex. We hid an egg behind the plastic snowman that sits on top of a pink flamingo in the hallway [don't ask] and took a picture where all you could see was the bottom half of the snowman and part of the pink of the flamingo).
3. Cut out an Easter shape (ex. egg, bunny) using the large piece of cardboard. It should measure at least 10″ x 10″.
4. On this cut-out, write out a final clue to where your large prize will be hidden.
5. Cut out puzzle pieces from this shape (one for each plastic egg).
6. Fill your plastic eggs with small prizes and insert one clue inside each egg.
7. Tie one puzzle piece to each egg using the ribbon.
8. Place your eggs in their respective hiding places so that each egg has a clue to the next egg (ex. Egg #1 should have a clue that leads to Egg #2 etc.). The last egg should contain a message that reads something like “Congratulations ____! You’ve found the last egg. Now put together your puzzle pieces to find out where I’ve hidden your Easter present! – EB”
9. Place your large prize in its hiding spot.
10. Give the basket and Egg #1 to your child to start the hunt.

Have a Happy Easter!

[View with PicLens]