Camping with the Thompsons

We went camping with my parents for a week recently. It was awesome to hangout with them since I don't get to see them nearly as often as I would like. To kick-off the trip, we went to Silver Jack Reservoir to stock up on firewood. After two nights, we decided we needed to get some sun, so we headed off to Moab. 

Since my folks hadn't been there before, we stayed out Onion Creek which is about 20 miles from the town of Moab. There was lots to explore out there, but we also went to see Arches National Park, Tyler's been there a few times, but I had only driven through quick when we were moving out to Vail. We had a good time exploring the arches and checking out the hikes around the park. 

And of course, there were plenty of cooking adventures. We all ate like royalty the whole time: burgers, fried razor clams, halibut, salmon, steaks, sand hill crane and ribs. Tyler even built a smokehouse for the ribs, and my dad assisted with the construction. For all of the visual documentation of the trip, click here.

Back to school

As some of you may have heard, Tyler is taking two classes at Colorado Mountain College this semester, which is helping him work toward his long-term goal to get into the brewmaster program at U.C. Davis. In order to be accepted, he needs to have some calculus, biology, chemistry and physics classes under his belt as prerequisites. He's taking both classes online: college algebra and chemistry 101.

What surprised me most about the online classes is that even his chemistry labs are done at home. It's not baking soda and vinegar projects, or water and cornstarch, but an actual kit with all the chemicals and flammable tools you need to make it through an introductory chem lab. In the above picture he's learning what colors different elements produce when they burn. And yes, that's the kitchen table. I've also caught him burning potato chips to determine their caloric content, as well as converting liquids to gases. 

Overall, he's doing well with his studies. He's disappointed when he doesn't receive an A on an assignment or test, and he's determined to nail the material. He told me the other day that school is much more interesting when you're working toward a goal. I'm just happy he hasn't set anything on fire yet.

Just a drink

Last night while I was bartending, a women came in to have a drink. Now, this doesn't happen very often at my restaurant because our bar doesn't have an ideal set-up for this. Usually when people come in and see it, they turn around and go somewhere else. But this lady was not detoured in the least bit.

After a few sips of her gimlet, it became clear how utterly alone she felt. Her mate, as she referred to him, had died suddenly from cancer just five months ago. The weekends were the hardest because she didn't have work to distract her. She said she had to plan the whole 48 hours out just so she could keep herself busy. Over the past month, the entire process of planning was exhausting her.

As a bartender, your secondary job is also being a counselor. Most of the time it's just small chat, but every once in a while you encounter some big chat -- and this definitely fell under that category.

This weekend was especially hard since all of her plans disintegrated, and most of her friends were busy with other things. She went to a matinee show, and then stopped at our place on the way back home. She said she always took it for granted the content feeling she had during weekend mornings when she cooked breakfast while her mate sat and read the paper. No plans, no agendas, just the happy feeling of being with the love of your life and not having to say or do anything. You can just be.

She paid and left her half-empty drink at the bar, probably not able to see that some day she might view it as half-full again. She said she'd be back sometime soon, but I doubt it. Hopefully she'll be able to keep busy enough next weekend.

The Mazie edition

Last weekend Mazie came up to Vail and had a sleepover at our house. We had a fun filled evening planned for her: baking pizzas from scratch, crafting cookies and a movie.

She was an awesome and enthusiastic kitchen assistant. She intently listened to all of the instructions, and was completed fascinated with how the yeast helped the dough expand. Every couple minutes she'd run over and check the bowl to make sure that the dough was still growing.

After we finished all of pizza and cooking baking, we all snuggled up on the couch and watched The Lorax. All of us were pretty sleepy by the end of the night.

The next morning Mazie preformed an original song for us, and this time she had Tyler play the guitar with her. Here is one of the performances on tape, and more pictures to look at.

Fall