Dining with Joy

Something new every day, right? So here’s a book I just finished and enjoyed.

My favorite genre of book is Christian Chick-Lit. There is always a happy ending, and it’s a nice escape from “real life”, my job, whatever. They’re usually light, easy reads. This is the first time I’d tried this author (for other good books in this genre, check out Melody Carlson or Erynn Mangum).

"Dining with Joy" by Rachel Hauck is about a cooking show host named Joy who took over the business after her father’s death. Thing is, she can’t actually cook. And for this year’s show, the production manager wants to add a brand new cohost. This is a lovely Christian romance book, with nice plot twists, and unexpected turns. The only downside of this book would be the amount of time it took to get to the “happy ending”. Otherwise, I would definitely recommend it.

Also, apparently there are two books “before” it, story-wise, “Love Starts with Elle” and “Sweet Caroline”. To be honest, I don’t think you have to read them first. I sure didn’t.

Here’s a link to the book on amazon.com.

Pirates!

This week at camp is pirate week, so here are a couple (hopefully true) pirate facts. And a fun pirate snack.


- Why did pirates have parrots with them? Although it is difficult to say with 100% certainty why, historians (anthropologists?) believe that they carried parrots for the same reason they did everything else – gold! Since they were travelling everywhere anyways, they’d catch the beautiful birds, and bring them to rich people, who I’m sure paid a pretty penny to keep the birds as a pet. And that meant more money for the pirates.

- Why did pirates wear eye patches? Yes, they may have used some of them to protect hurt eyes (just as they wore peg-legs in place of a real one), but I think there’s another reason they wore them. Have you ever walked from a very bright place, outside maybe, to a dark place really quickly? It takes a bit for your eyes to adjust, for your pupils to dilate enough to see correctly. Pirate ships are a bit like this – down below is quite dark, where the deck during the day is probably pretty bright. Imagine you were in the middle of a fight, or had to run below deck to grab that important bottle of rum – you wouldn’t want to take the time for your eyes to adjust. So you’d just keep one eye adjusted to the dark all of the time. Time to go in the dark? Just flip your patch up!

- The "skull and crossbones" flag is called the "Jolly Roger".

A pirate snack – Walk the Plank Jello

Our ridiculously wonderful camp cooks (seriously, I though camp food was supposed to be bad?) made this yesterday, and I thought it was cute. All you need is blue Jello, wafer cookies, and Swedish fish. For each serving, scoop the Jello into a small bowl, and stick a couple of Swedish fish in it. Then, lay the wafer cookie on top – now you can deliciously walk the plank! It is cute and it tastes good!

Ponderosa Pines

Ponderosa Pines are scaly, tall pine trees that often only have branches near the top. They are found in Northern Arizona, and other nearby places. They look like this:

Cool things I bet you didn’t know about Ponderosa Pines:

1. If you smell a Ponderosa pine (preferably between the crack in the bark, closer to the core of the tree), most people agree it smells like something sweet. I’ve heard everything from chocolate to vanilla to cupcakes to pecan pie. So next time you’re near a Ponderosa pine, smell it!

2. Did you know that fires are essential to a Ponderosa pine based ecology? There are a couple types of wildfires, and one is natural and good, and the other is bad. Without humans stopping wildfires (to protect property and people), most wildfires don’t get that tall. They burn the brush and ‘litter’ (dead branches, pine needles, etc.) underneath the trees, burn the lower branches of the trees, and kill smaller trees. They would naturally happen often enough that litter is pretty controlled under the trees. Killing the smaller trees would allow the bigger trees to keep growing and gain access to more nutrients. Without these natural fires, litter builds up under the trees, and the fueled fire can ‘climb’ the trees with the now-existent lower branches. The fire reaches the tops of the trees, creating a canopy fire. Since the trees are denser than usual, the fire can spread from tree to tree. And that’s how we have our unnatural forest fires that sterilize the area – Ponderosa pines probably won’t reappear for another hundred years.

Anyway, since fires are essential to a Ponderosa pine’s ecology, the Ponderosa is fire-resistant. When a fire comes nearby, the tree’s bark shoots out to create a protective layer around the tree. This is why the bark is originally scaly.

As a random side-note, Sequoias are also fire-resistant.

Fire-resistant bark!

Constellations

Since I’m at a summer camp, and we sleep out with the campers once a week, I’m trying to learn new constellations to teach them. Here are a few I can easily find in the summer.


The Big Dipper

Most people (even young kids) can find this. The only person I met who didn’t know where it was is from New Zealand… and they don’t have that constellation there.

It looks like this:

There are seven stars – three for the handle and four for the cup. The one star that connects the handle to the cup is the hardest to see – depending on where you live and how clear the sky is, you might not be able to see it at all. To find this constellation, look northward and up in the sky. In the summer it is more towards the center of the sky than near the horizon. You can see this year round in the northern hemisphere. (For the most part).
Scorpius
The only reason I am fond of this constellation is because it fits in with the story of my favorite constellation, Orion. Orion the Hunter is an easy-to-find winter constellation, who is followed by his faithful dog (star) Sirius. He and Scorpius are enemies, which is why they are never seen in the same sky together. In the summer months, Scorpius is easy to find. The first thing to look for is a 1-2-3, 1-2-3 pattern, as shown below. Some people say it looks like a seven, or a question mark. These are the brightest stars of the constellation, and the middle of each three is brighter than the rest.

The real constellation is actually huge – here’s a real picture from angelsontherun.com:

Usually most of this is below the horizon – you have to stay up later to see the whole thing, especially early on in the summer.

(Scorpius is a scorpion by the way).

Corona Borealis

According to Wikipedia, the name is latin for “Northern Crown”, which is cool. This is usually found in about the center of the sky – great for star gazing – you’ve gotta lay on your back to see it. Here’s how I find it – my friends and I thought that maybe it was a parachute at first. There are three stars in a curve below it, and, matching the curve, above those are five or so stars. The five stars in a “U” shape make the crown, but finding the three/five makes it easier for me to find. At least, I think what I’m seeing is this constellation…

Parachutes

Here’s my “new” thing for the day.

So here’s the story: I work at a summer camp. Today, the bus was two hours late, so there were ton of kids waiting around with nothing to do. So we brought out the parachute.

Here’s what you can do with a parachute:

1. The basics – Have each child grab a handle or a colored triangle, if there are no handles. Have everyone run in a circle, in either direction. Have them wiggle the parachute.

2. “Jello” – All at once have the children lift the parachute as high as they can. Have them pull the parachute around them and have them sit on it. Everyone should be inside a giant “Jello”. Wiggle it back and forth. Hooray.

3. The color game – This is my personal favorite. Have the children wiggle the parachute up and down, and then, all at once, lift the parachute as high as they can. While the parachute is up, call a color (corresponding to the colored triangles), and those children must run under the parachute and find a new place to stand before the parachute falls. This game works in any environment.

4. Shark attack – This game works better in a gym, or on a hard, smooth floor. Have every child sit down with their feet under the parachute. Choose a couple of sharks and a couple of lifeguards. The sharks crawl under the parachute and try to pull people under by their feet. The lifeguards try to save people being pulled under. Once pulled under, they become a shark as well. Have the children on the outside wiggle the parachute high enough that you can’t tell where the sharks are, but low enough that they can’t look under and see the sharks coming.

5. Cat/Mouse – I didn’t actually play this game today, but a camper explained it to me. There are two or three mice who crawl under the parachute. There are two or three cats who crawl on top of the parachute trying to find the mice. Everyone else wiggles the parachute to make it hard to find the mice. From the sound of it, I think this would only work in a gym setting.

6. Popcorn – When I was in elementary school, we had a bunch of yarn balls that we put on the parachute to make “popcorn”. I remember it being fun, but I don’t remember the point of it. (You make “popcorn” by wiggling the parachute). I managed to find two squishy balls today, and we bounced them around for a while, but without a goal, it got boring real fast.
So that’s my “new thing” for today. I hope you enjoy!

(Picture from musical-minds.com)

New Songs!

So, although I'm not doing the '365 Days of Music', I still want to spend time on new songs I discover. Today's awesome new song is:

"Just Like You" By Matt Maher

Matt Maher is an awesome Christian/Catholic songwriter, and so many of his songs relate really well to me and my experiences. This song is basically a worship song expressing how we all want to be just like Jesus. The chorus goes "I want to be holy just like you. I want to go where you lead me to. With reckless abandon to your truth, I wanna fall deeper in love with you'. It's upbeat, and it's great to sing at weekly worship with other people at the top of your lungs, or just by yourself, when you need time to think, and pray in song form.

So there's my awesome song of the day. Be looking for other songs soon!

Bowling and Burgers

I went bowling today with my friends - we're all heading back to our respective universities in a week or less, so we figured a hang-out was in order. It was a ton of fun, and I broke 100 for my score, the second time I've ever done that, with bumpers, of course. =P Then we went to In-N-Out Burger, which is amazing. In order to get In-N-Out while I'm at university, I have to drive to a city one and a half hours away. And although I've done that before, it's nice to be able to go and hang out and have it only five minutes away. Overall, today was a pretty awesome day! =D

*Legal disclaimer for shoe post - Yes, I do work for Payless. No, my opinions etc. do not necessarily match those of the company etc. etc. I just like the shoes.*