Boomtown or Bust!

I have spent the last week in the mountains at my family's home in Lake Tahoe.  My girlfriend, Amanda, and her two daughters joined me for the trip last week.  I drove them to the airport Friday morning in Reno, and then made a trek over to Cabela's to pick up some supplies for our family camping trip/reunion in Sequoia next week.  Cabela's is an enormous outdoor emporium for hunting, fishing, camping, boating, and more.  I arrived at the Boomtown exit on I-80 at 8:45 and waited for the store to open.  When you exit the freeway for Cabela's, there are 4 things there:  Boomtown (hotel and casino), Cabela's, a Chevron, and high desert.  The first thing I noticed as I drove in is that there is a shuttle from Boomtown to Cabela's.  Odd since they are right next to each other in the middle of nowhere.  Honestly, if you walked from one to the other, it would take you 1 minute.  I pulled into the parking lot pondering why a shuttle would be needed and spent the next 15 minutes putting on makeup so I would look  presentable as I shopped.  Little did I know that this was a completely unnecessary activity for shopping at Cabela's.

Boomtown

Cabela's of Reno

I walk into the front doors wearing lululemon clothing from head to toe, carrying a Coach wristlet purse.  The first thing I notice is that there is a firearm check as you walk in.  This stops me in my tracks as I have never been in a store where you could check a gun before you shopped.  Clearly I am out of my comfort zone and I begin to wonder if anyone has ever entered this store with a Coach purse before.   I regain my composure and begin to make my way through the store.  It is huge and there are dead animals mounted to anything that will hold still.  Camouflage items hang from every rack and the store patrons are all decked out in flannel and Chucka boots. 

I digress.  My shopping list included a Coleman stove, a camping grate for grilling, skewers for s'mores, propane and mantles for the lantern, and some rope for our raft on the beach.  I begin scanning the signs hanging around the store to try and figure out where to go.  I find my way to the marine area and find someone to help me find a tow rope for the raft.  I ask him which department I should go to to pick up a camping stove.  He tells me to head for the elephant and make a left.  Pardon?  The elephant?  Is there a zoo here?  I start walking with my cart and encounter this:

 Yes, that is a life-sized elephant, stuffed and mounted in a fenced area of the store that held all kinds of big game specimens.  WTF!?  I walk toward it and make a left.  I find myself in the clothing area of the store where I encounter this little beauty. 

A camouflage bikini.  Not even the cool kind of camo, but a true hunter's camouflage bikini.  Just in case you get hot when hunting ducks I guess.  I make my way through the camouflage clothing area and come out in the meat grinding aisle.  Apparently meat grinders come in many styles and sizes and there is a lot to choose from.  I try the next aisle, only to find it is dedicated to jerky.  Loads of dehydrators and accoutrements for preserving your kill for months to come.  All I want to find is a stove and some skewers.  I then looked around for a salesperson to help me since the elephant may have pointed me the wrong way.  I can't see anyone and then I realize that the sales clerks are probably all wearing camouflage and have blended into the last department.  Maybe if I stand still one of them will move and I can pounce and ask my questions!

This tactic works and I find an aisle that reminds me more of civilization and my local REI store.  I pick up the camping stove and propane, but am remiss to find the skewers.  I find the same clerk and he tells me to go the eland and make a right (I am not making this up.  Apparently the animals are waypoint markers for navigating this store.)

I make it to the skewer aisle on my first try and I even spot a friendly face:

Bear Grylls.  I know this guy!  It seems that even poor Bear was too overwhelmed by the store to place more than one product in it.  I get my telescoping s'more skewers and begin to head for the checkout area.  I go the wrong way (damn stuffed animals are no help to me now!) and end up at an indoor shooting range.  There are small children lined up with mock shotguns aiming at targets and firing away.  What a fun family activity.  If only Laney and Liam had been with me.  It would have definitely been a "teachable moment."   I head past the ammo section, walls of guns, and a rock wall full of mountain sheep.  I half expect them to leap down and run through the store as I walk by the vignette. 

I

I eventually found my way back to the front so I could pay, and made my way out of the store in one piece.  I waved goodbye to my new stuffed friends and headed to the parking lot.  Did you know that they even have a horse corral in the parking lot, a dumping station, and semi parking in case your regular car just isn't big enough to haul all of this hunting crap home?  I loaded up my car with my goods and laughed all the way back to Tahoe.  Life in Reno is a little grittier than I am used to and it took me a few hours to shake off my culture shock.  Still, I think I will take the kids there on my way back down to Reno this Monday, if only for the photo opportunities.  Just remember to hang a left at the eland and if you get to the rhino, you have gone too far.

Modern Victory Garden

My yard is nowhere near the size that one would require for planting a vegetable garden.  Luckily, my mom's is.  Laney, Shesh, and I planted seeds there in February and are now reaping the benefits.  Laney and I gathered 2 baskets of goods on Monday, and had to look twice when we plucked these melons (technically) from the ground.  These odd looking fellows are Armenian Cucumbers, aka Dukes.  They are supposed to much more mild tasting than their American counterparts, and were cultivated by Armenian Californians.  I googled some recipes and found one for refrigerator pickles.  Here is the one I am trying:

2 unpeeled Armenian cucumbers or 1 qt. regular cucumbers
1 med. green pepper (I am using Anaheim chilies)
1 med. onion
1 tbsp. pickling salt
1 tbsp. celery seed
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c.white vinegar

Cut cucumbers into slices approximately 1/16 inch thick. Finely chop pepper and onion. Combine all vegetables in a jar or bowl and sprinkle with pickling salt and celery seed. Stir gently and let stand for about 1 hour.  Combine sugar and vinegar, stir to dissolve sugar. Pour over vegetables and stir. Cover and refrigerate. Pickles are ready to eat in 24 hours. Store in refrigerator.

While googling the cukes I came across this bit of wisdom from Max Lent, the author a refrigerator pickle recipe:  "When you serve these pickles to middle aged or older friends, be prepared to hear childhood stories of life on the farm or stories about a grandmother's cooking."  

Well, I met my grandmother for lunch today and told her about the pickles I would be making tonight.  I also told her that we had so much produce that I had ordered a canning set and it would be here Friday.  It is a large water bath with a metal jar rack, jar tongs, and other tools I will figure out how to use this weekend (hopefully without burning myself).  As the aforementioned author predicted, I got stories about food too!

Gigi told me that her grandmother lived with them during WW2.  She grew a Victory Garden during this time.  Nana would harvest and can the goods for the family, and store them in the basement.  Gigi told me that every so often you would hear the metallic ping of one of the lids hitting the ceiling below them as it blasted off its jar.  What a great memory she has!  I sincerely hope that I do not hear that sound coming from my pantry after this weekend as I attempt canning myself.  The first item I will be canning is green beans.  We have a very generous crop and there are only so many green bean casseroles, stir fries, and side dishes you can make before you get sick of the beans.  Hopefully my canned green beauties will last until winter so we can open up a can and relish in the taste of summer.  I will keep you posted!

Life as I know it

Today I found myself inspired by the old movie "Overboard."  Was I inspired to go yachting or have my closet redone a la Hawn and Russel?  Nope.  I was inspired to vacuum the breakfast table just like Goldie.  Yes.  That's right, I vacuumed the table.  I had already vacuumed the floor and forgot to wipe down the table first, so up goes the vacuum wand.  Magic!  Why don't I clean the table this way every day?

I used to think that scene in the movie where Goldie Shop-Vacs the Cheerios and food out of the bowls and off the table was so outrageous.  Now, I just think it is practical.  I got to thinking about all of the things parents do that I used to think were bizarre and just plain over the top.  Now I understand.  No one actually wants to roll with 16 bags, strollers, toys, and port-a-cribs.  You just have to.   You become complacent, telling yourself that in a few years you won't have to haul all this crap with you and everything will be better.  No one tells you that you, of course, that even though you won't be hauling the baby stuff, you will be hauling big kid stuff--which isn't much of a trade off.

I find it amusing/annoying to watch Patrick struggle with something being spit/spilled/leaked on him.  He freezes and demands a wipee and carefully cleans and then sanitizes.  To think that he has time to sanitize!  I used to sanitize.  Now I realize that I spent a lot of time cleaning and cleaning to no real end as the mess makers never stop working.  I used to freeze when someone spit up on me, but now I don't skip a beat.  It just gets wiped away and onto the next mess to take care of.   I just understand now that all of my clothes will find their way into the washer each day (thank God for OxiClean and Zout).  Somehow being home with the kids has led me to an understanding that he will never arrive at.

I think the word I am searching for is desensitization.  It's how soldiers can become accustomed to the ins and outs of wartime deployment.  It also explains how Melania Knauss can wake up every day next to "the Donald" and his hair and not run for the first divorce attorney's office she can find.  Desensitization allows us to be the mothers that we never thought we would be.  And that's a good thing!

Happy 4th of July!

Feeling proud to be Red, White and Blue today:

Those who won our independence believed liberty to be the secret of happiness 

and courage to be the secret of liberty. - Louis D. Brandeis

We started our day off with a 3.5 mile hike up the Quarry Trail to the Canyon Trail, both part of the San Elijo Hills trail systems.  We each wore a kid in a Kelty Kids backpack and made our way up and down the hills.  Tough when you consider the packs weighed about 30-35 pounds.  Thank goodness the scenery makes the hike worth it.

After Liam's nap we headed to my mom's house for some swimming.  We were the only ones there, except for Buster, and we took over the shallow end of the pool.  Liam splashed in the beach entry for a while and then attempted to crawl on the water.  After a little while it was time for his nap, and then Laney, Patrick, and I played in the pool.  Laney really loves to jog underwater on the first step off the beach entry as well as leap from it into our arms.  She also likes when Patrick gives her piggy back rides around the pool.  We took Tobias in the pool for his first swim lesson.  He was hesitant at first, but made a few solo trips to the edge of the shallow end steps.  We floated him in the water twice, but he panicked and bolted.  He and Laney can sign up for lessons together this summer!  The kids and dogs had an awesome time playing in the sun, and I am most pleased with my vigilant sunscreen applications today since no one came home with a sunburn.

After we got home, Patrick barbecued a pork tenderloin and some sweet white corn, and we topped the whole thing off with some ice cream and 2 kids who went to bed early (hooray us!).  It was strange to spend the day without the company of friends or family, but nice to spend the time together as a family.  Patrick will be traveling to Dallas for the next 2 days and it was so fun for the kids to get to spend 3 days in a row with their dad.  I am looking forward to the next 4th of July when the kids are older and we can go to a real fireworks show (not the one I DVR'd for them to watch in the morning).  Happy birthday America!

On a side note:  Our new dog has come down with kennel cough (a dog version of a cold).  He currently is wandering around our house honking and spitting up disgusting foamy grossness.  He slept down stairs last night and still managed to wake me up with that cold.  This cough is highly contagious to other dogs, but Bodie had a vaccination recently so we are keeping our fingers crossed that Tobias is the only honking dog we have.  We are also keeping our fingers crossed that it passes quickly and he doesn't need to go on antibiotics for it.  His honking scares Laney and she runs screaming from him when he has a flare up.  Like we needed another way to create chaos in our house!

Open up and say "ahhhh"

Laney had another first today.  She visited a dentist for the first time.  I was sooo happy to find a dentist in our neighborhood that is really great, The Hills Family Dentistry.   The dentist, Derek Martin, came right out to meet her and take her back to the special elevator chair.  Together they put Lovey on the chair and let her ride up and down, and then Laney took a turn.  He uses a special camera to take pictures of patient's teeth, as well as check for cavities (aka "sugar bugs") with a special light.  They took pictures of Lovey riding the chair, and then Lovey and Laney together, and finally pictures of Laney's teeth.  She was nervous at first, and grew more comfortable, even telling him about getting a boo boo on her knee.  He counted her teeth and verified that she had no cavities (yay!)  Then a hygenist came and cleaned her teeth.  There is a tv that is set up right above the chair so that kids can watch cartoons while this is being done.  Talk about awesome!  She held her mouth open for the hygenist and let her scrape the "crunchy sugar bugs" off her teeth.  Of course her favorite part was picking a prize and getting a bag of goodies from the dentist.  I was just so impressed by the staff and what an amazing job they did helping my 3 year old feel comfortable getting her teeth taken care of.  I am actually kind of looking forward to getting my teeth cleaned there in August.  Kind of.

Let's go to the movies!

Patrick and I took Laney to see her very first movie tonight.  We went to Edwards Theater in San Marcos and saw Cars 2.  She is a big fan of the first Cars movie, so we thought this would be a hit.  It was, although I think she really enjoyed the experience more than the actual film.  She liked that she could lean back and fold herself up into a ball and then press her legs down to flatten out the seat.  She let the seat flip up and then back down for most of the movie.  As promised, we bought her popcorn and M&Ms and she joyfully munched away.  Too bad that this movie was pretty much a cartoon version of Mission Impossible and the plot was too advanced for her.  Still, she really likes Mater and Lightning McQueen.  Plus she got to go out to dinner and movie with mom and dad, and without Liam.  That is a big deal in Laney's world.  I can't wait to take her out for another night on the town!

In our seats watching previews and munching on popcorn and candy!  What a fun night :)