BVD Lives On

It was a sight to behold last evening in our ward pine wood derby race. All were invited to enter a car, so I put on my old BVD jersey and painted up a sweet car. In the first round, the BVD Buggy was on its was to a 2-car length win when not 4 inches from the finish line, an object obstructed its trajectory sending our dreams into a terrific crash. After that, the car never road the same and finished second in it's two qualifying rounds - never to race again. (You can see clip on YouTube entitled "Does this constitute a curse?")

I am reminded of another close victory that took place on some other pine wood floor, in some obscure location in the R&B. It is still too early to revisit that day and so to spare the emotions of my readers I will not tell them of the time when after a hotly contested match in the which cousin Wes took a fade away half-court shot that would have made Wayne Gretzkey jeoulous, we took to the court against a formidable southern california team and flatly lost. Our cinderalla story ended on some obscure day, to a previously unknown foe, with little fanfair or contest.

After that, our coach moved away, teammates graduated, and our cheerleaders stopped cutting up orange slices. There was a brief attempt to return to glory one year later, but the successes and failures were unmatched to the previous year's. My SOHO still sits in my closet and is taken out once a year on the EQ Winter Olympics night for a brief trot around the court. But my teammates are not at my side and our banner does not wave above us and our anthems are not heard. The rumbling of the bench is never felt on the back of a point where the dink heads no flicka on the scoreboard.

Of Truffles and Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake

Last night I hosted my book group. This month's book was "A Natural History of the Senses" by Diane Ackerman. If you ever had any random thoughts about the five senses, like, "where do truffles come from and why are they so expensive?" or "why do people kiss on the lips?" or "how did Beethoven write the Ninth Symphony when he was deaf?" then this book is for you. For our book club we always bring a dish to share that corresponds to the theme of the book, so naturally, last night's theme was all things decadent. After the author explained more than I wanted to know about truffles--in answer to the above question, truffles contain double the amount of male pig hormone than would normally appear in a boar, so they let sows loose in a field and wait for them to "dig with manic passion"--I made a truffle risotto. Tim truly believes mushrooms in any form are deadly (you'll have to ask him to explain that one) so I figured it would be my chance to cook with them without worrying about becoming a widow. This was my first exposure to the delicacy, and while I consider myself to have a somewhat sophisticated palate, I literally gagged as I added the truffle oil and therefore didn't even taste the stuff. It was a hit among the other ladies however. The other dish that thad the biggest fans was a Godiva chocolate cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. This is a true indulgence of the sort that consuming an entire slice in one sitting will cause those of weak gustation to claim "too rich for my blood." (John Jacobson, I think you could handle 2 slices.) Well, this afternoon London found herself a half-eaten slice in the trash and helped herself while I was looking the other way! Before I noticed her she had polished the thing off and was looking for more! Does anyone remember that scene in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure when Napoleon has just about polished off the 20-something scoop Ziggy Pig sundae and someone goes in for one last lick and Napoleon adeptly parries the attack with all the force of his spoon? That's what it reminded me of. For a second I was angry because, let's be honest, if this stuff is potent on your tongue it is downright deleterious on the carpet. But I quickly grabbed my camera and started snapping away instead. In case there was any doubt, London has officially declared herself a chocoholic in training. Like the sow in the field, I would put money on her unearthing any morsels her Grandpa John Jacobson as hidden under his bed!

On a side note, for all you Guffman fans out there--and if you're not you should be--please visit the link to "In Rare Form" for a most splendid review of the film.

Easter Weekend

With the encouragement of my brother, Seth, I am joining the 21st century and creating a blog. For the first installment, here's a recap of our Easter weekend: Tim had Friday off (Good Friday) thanks to the markets being closed, so we went up to the city to meet up with his little sis Megan and her (almost) fiance, Matt, for lunch. His family lives in Danville so this was Megan's opportunity to meet the parents. Anyway, we dined at a lovely little brunch spot called Mama's in North Beach (great place--long wait, but worth it!) I recommend the Monte Cristo, in case you're going. London stole the show as usual--some random lady behind us in line asked if she could hold her. Which reminds me--last week I got help out from the grocery store. The Safeway employee, an elderly Asian woman, was so taken with London that when we got to the car she picked London right up out of the cart and started tickling and snuggling her, while I was left there wondering what to do--did she expect me to put my groceries in the car while she played with my daughter?? Anyway, even though Matt didn't know where or what North Beach is in San Francisco (typical East Bay tourist), we still think he's a good guy and a suitable husband for Megan.

Saturday my Dad joined us for a city-sponsored Easter egg hunt in the park. I decided they should not let parents hunt for eggs because it seems when a freebie is offered in a free-for-all atmosphere, the hoarding instinct takes over and it is not pretty! The hunt was total chaos and over in about 30 seconds, and there was such a huge crown I couldn't even find Tim and London to take pictures of her picking up her eggs! (The photos are a re-creation). After the hunt we had a great BBQ lunch from Armadillo Willy's and played a game of Acquire, which I'm happy to report I won. Then at Megan's recommendation we rented Nacho Libre. After that I think I actually trust my Dad's movie picks over hers!

On Sunday I accompanied Tim and 3 other guys in a wonderful rendition of "My Redeemer Lives" in sacrament meeting. After church we met up with Megan, Matt and his family at the Oakland Temple before they headed back to Provo. We attempted an egg hunt a second time, but this time London got a hold of someone's car keys and thought that was much more entertaining! We took some nice kissy pictures of Megan and Matt and Tim did his elder-brotherly duty of telling embarassing stories from Megan's youth. We went to bed early and Tim kissed me goodbye and told me he'd see me next weekend (since I am usually in bed when he gets home from work these days).