The midnight train to Anshan

Just a hello to all. We took the overnight train to Anshan and it was lovely. I had a top berth and I met a man from Perth who was coming to Anshan tomeet his future bride's family.

It is cold outside but blue skies so far. Cold outside but boiling hot inside.

Things are well. Hope all is well where you are.

Love, Megan

Harris, Harris', Harris's

Can some one help me? It always happens around the holidays when I want to sign cards from the Harris's. I don't know if it should be from the Harris' or Harris's, so I just sign everything 'from the Harris family'.

N has a girlfriend

Her name is Taylor, or as we call her at our house, Tay tay. N and tay tay made arrangements to kiss on the bus last week but unfortunately the kids haven't had school since the note was passed. N is anxious. Dying to kiss her. He told me he thinks maybe Tay will be his wife. And we like any good parent/stepparent/brother are making fun of him mercilously. Maybe we should stop. He talks with his mouth full so I told him to make sure he didn't do that if he was eating with Tay tay and her fam. J and B now use every opportunity to act like food is coming out of their mouth. "I wuv you Tay tay." Is it fun? Hell Yeah. Is it damaging to a 13 year old psyche? I don't know.

K and I talked about "being in the box" when we were young. K doesn't remember it. I do. I remember Dad saying "It's your night in the box, Megan." I think it's N's day in the box.

B had his piano lesson today finally. Talk about logistical planning! I got in trouble from the Mom for not running it past her first. I apologized and said I was too gung ho. It's true. I just know that boy needs music lessons of some kind. It was worth it though. He loved it. His teacher gave him some bar paper and told him to write a song. So, he did. Not half bad for the first time out either.

In other Harris/Cramer news, evidently Stephanie's hair is falling out and she is going bald. She told the boys it was because of their fighting. And also because of medication for Rheumetoid Arthritis. I think though its a broken arrow thing. There are lots of ladies with very thin hair. I saw them today at Wal-Mart while ringing bells in the freezing cold. Lots o ladies with combovers. The boys said this during dinner last night and it was something about the pizza and the subject but I felt like vomiting. I told the boys they are making my hair fall out too.

So, power came back on at the office on Friday at 5:00 p.m. Just in time for the weekend. Maybe next week we can resume business as normal.

I'm off to China for the week before Christmas. Have a happy holiday!

What the Hell?

Okay, so firstly, KT and I had a gorgeous time in Wilmington this weekend. Weather was incredible, Hank was loveable and the company was great. I was waiting to post until I had the pic. of KT and I at the cocktail party. However, wWho knows when I will have that. I haven't even seen it yet. Boo.

So, basically, Weekend was fab. and then all cosmic hell broke loose. Got to the airport on Sun to fly to Atlanta and they told me my flight had been rescheduled until Mon due to winter weather in Tulsa. So, I called my scout contacts to see if we should call off monday's pack meeting. Now, looking back this was at about 4:00 p.m. Tulsa time and the weather didn't hit until after 10 p.m. so they must have thought I was crazy. The VM I received was like "uhhhh yeah, the kids have school on Monday. It's Monday for cripes sake" They should have listened to me, the teller of the future, because low and behold on Monday there was no school. Or power or much of anything.

So, got the flight to Atlanta on Mon. Flight to Tulsa was supposedly all good to go. You have to understand how balmy Wilmington and Atlanta were. in the 70s and sunny so the juxtoposition of winter weather bad enough to shut Tulsa down for days and days was kind of weird.

Anyhow, flight was cancelled to Tulsa and they rebooked me for Tues night, but even that wasn't guaranteed. So, I did what any good daughter of Sue McKee does, I rented a car and drove from Atlanta to Tulsa without a map. Listened to a lot of country music. Drank a lot of pop and plugged my cell phone in truck stops from Georgia to Oklahoma to get a little charge.

Made it home on Tues. a.m. and entered into the shock of seeing the city under siege from winter storms. The devestation in Owasso is quite awesome. It is hard to take it in. I think maybe I'm supposed to cry because it makes our house look less like a home and more like a war zone. But, then still reeling from the weather I found the house open and the evidence that someone had broken in. Blech.................So, the silver lining I guess is that I got a breaker inner who was interested in cash only and change and foreign currency. And we don't keep a lot of cash on hand. So, basically, it will cost me more to fix the damage to my front door than the little bastard got away with. I would have paid him 40 buck and some yuan just to stay out of the house. Okay. I guess we can just deal with it.

J gets home tonight and I can't wait. Mom has power, Yay and Mom got us hooked up with a generator so maybe we can work tomorrow. The neat thing seems to be that even if we aren't working, things are still moving forward on a lot of our stuff so we as a company haven't ground to a halt. Just, we as an office have ground to a halt. But, payroll is done with some fancy footwork and thanks to Panera bread and maybe all is kind of well in the moment.

Inefficient Use of Resources

I heard something on NPR today about how divorce causes an inefficient use of resources and I couldn't agree more. First you just need more of everything so the consuming that is taking place is about twice as much as would if your family lived in one house. Including natural resource consuming. More water, gas, electricity, etc. Then of course if you have the kids the consuming gets even worse with the things they have to have at mom and at dads. The playstations and IPod Docks. To top it all off there is like quadruple the amount of wrapping paper, etc. due to all the gifts from the parents, grandparents, stepgrandparents, etc.

I thought it was interesting because its something that I've thought about often.

Long Live the Crock Pot!!!

Yes, the crock pot is so useful in a household where everybody works. I love it. Especially in a meat eating family which I confess to be a part of.

By the by, I bought Polenta in a tube at Reasors last night. Does anybody love Polenta like I do?

Erotic Dinner

I had to write this. N thanked me on Saturday night for the "Erotic Dinner" I fixed. Hmmmm. I promise I didn't feed him chocolate covered oysters or anything. We had the pork loin that was cooked in a fruity concoction that tasted really good. I think he was surprised he liked it.

Thanksgiving Weekend

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. I just wanted to write really quickly because this is one of those moments I love. We delivered popcorn today, put up the tree and decorated the house for Christmas. N fell asleep and the rest of us are working on a new puzzle and reading. We are whispering so we don't wake N even though we aren't in the same room. It's bliss. Pork roast in the crock pot and trying to figure out how to serve navy beans. I love these winter moments.

Love this one.

Cute Pics.

Ufrotunately I don't know how to rotate and then upload. Oh Well, cute none the less. Our one and only surfing lesson.

Look What I Just Found!

Most Creative

Last Monday was the annual PAck 413 Cake Bake. So, we spent a good part of Sunday baking the cake. Actually, I should say J and B did this. I was mostly off the hook. Except for a bagel run.

Can you guess what it is? B picked the subject and his dad tried to make it come alive.

It is the London Eye, made only from edible items.

At first, we found only pre sliced bagels at the grocery store. Everybody wants pre-sliced, right? Well, not if it is your London Eye base. It came together, grudgingly. The actual ferris wheel part took so much energy that the rest of London suffered. Big Ben (made from the sugar wafers I didn't eat) wasn't glued together. And, the rest of London became individual Hershey Bar blocks. But the Eye was the focus.

J and I made our very slow way to work on Monday morning so as not to jar the masterpiece.

By mid day the linguini and marshmellow pieces were drooping like a wilted flower. By the time we picked the boys up in the evening we were aware of every pothole and road crack from Tulsa to Broken Arrow and were praying for the garlic breadsticks not to break. And, if you know Tulsa, you know that's a lot of crappy roads.

We were praying that the boy wouldn't be too disappointed and were preparing our "You can't win them all" talk or the "Next year, how about we do something not quite so 3 dimensional."

But, with a little last minute surgery from father and son, the London Eye lived to see another day and B won "Most Creative" in the contest. Yay team.

By the by, one of the judges was Wanda from Wanda's Cakes, who did our wedding cake. And, to the surprise of Wanda and all the other parents I basically attacked her and enveloped her into a gigantic hug when I saw her because I loved the cake she made for us so much.

New Sofas

They aren't totally new but we got two of the couches we have inherited recovered in a snappy colorful fabric that we love.

I love it because of the colors but also because the colors and the pattern to me keep in with the 1970's ranch style of the home but add some modern sophistication.

Ligers and Tigers and .................................

I just got these pictures off my phone after about 1 month of trying!

About a month ago, N and I went to Safari Sanctuary in Broken Arrow while J and B were camping. I was just back from Asia and recovering and N and I were going to spend a weekend doing whatever the hell we wanted. I wanted to read. Then we decided an adventure was in order. We drove through a trailer park to get to Safari Sanctuary after MapQuest gave us the wrong driving instructions. It took awhile to find. So, by nature we were a smidge wary of the place. We were wondering if it was going to be great or sad or a terrible way to spend an otherwise slothful Saturday.

It is actually really neat. I was impressed by how clean and healthy the animals looked. The first thing you do after entering is buy a bag of about 15 frozen chicken legs which you can feed to the big cats from long poles. The cats crunch through the bone and everything to eat the legs. We had our own tour guide too which was cool.

They have about 30 cats there and two of them belonged to Mike Tyson. He had to give them up after filing for bankruptcy. The guide kept telling us stories of how the animals ended up at Safari Sanctuary. Most of the stories went something like, "She raised the bobcat from a baby but she didn't really know how big it would get. And then one day it tried to attack her toddler. She was surprised but decided to give the cat away." Or, "They got the tiger from _________ but then they had a baby and didn't think they should keep the tiger around the baby." Ummmmmm..... I didn't realize so many people were into exotics as pets. It has never crossed my mind to order a baby lion over the internet.

And, they have a Liger. It is not just a figment of Nap. Dynomites imagination. It has a Lion for a mother and a tiger for a father. Or vice versa. There is also a Tigon, although Safari Sanctuary does not have one of these. This is a picture of N feeding the Liger, I think. N loved the whole experience and I thought it was cool how closely you could interact with the animals, by feeding them through the poles. A simple yet effective tool. All in all a very good way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Cracker Barrel

I never am so aware of living in the middle of middle America as say when I go to Cracker Barrel. Now, I live in this little burb by choice, and today we ventured, by choice, into the big bad Cracker Barrel that opened last week. It was more like we did this because of the "opposite effect". The opposite effect is something I think all divorced people and pseudos know about.

Basically, you hear stories about how the other folks do it in the other house and you sometimes do just the opposite. Like, "I can't go outside because I have asthma and moving around in nature is bad for it." So, the opposite effect is "Kids, get your coats, we're going camping". Now, Cracker Barrel is the other fam's favorite. They go there often. Always when they are on the road and even in town, so we thought fo sho the kids would be dying to go to the new one that just opened in Owasso. We passed it, asked, do you want to go and the answer was a resounding "NO. Papaw said maybe in a few weeks, when the waitstaff isn't so new and the wait won't be so long." They are really impressionable these boys. But, not by us. So, opposite effect went into effect and Cracker Barrel is where we went for breakfast today. The wait was 20 minutes.

I don't know how others feel about Cracker Barrel. But, how insanely brilliant. Cook downhome food, that everybody loves, limit the number of tables so there is often a wait, and then attach a store to the restaurant so your captive audience buys things while waiting to buy their food. It works. Many people brought Cracker Barrel bags to their tables. The boys picked out stuff they wanted. Uhhh No. I mean, it's awesome. Sometimes you just feel like pancakes, so you go to the local cafe. Or......you go to a place that looks like a small time local cafe but is really a brilliant corporation that disguises itself as a local small town cafe. And, while you're there you buy the necessary ceramic platter with a big turkey in the middle or some such thing. What a great idea. So, we went and our waitress was a trainer so she had tons of experience and the syrup came in the cute little bottles. And, then we left.

Cell Phone Ban

We instituted a ban on cell phone calls and texting at the office starting Monday. I know noone but Katie and Momereads this blog (Thankyou), but if someone I don't know happens to, then maybe they could tell me how personal cell phones are handled in their workplace.

Super Suppers are Super

I think Super Suppers is a brilliant idea. And, for its target market I think it really works. The target market seems to be busy families. People who are not eating a home cooked meal as much as they would like. I condsider myself to fit into that market, only my kids aren't full time.

In a nutshell, it is a working kitchen in which different stations are provided, each containing ingredients for a different meal recipe.

You go and decide how many meals, 3, 6, or 12, you want to make and which ones. For most of the meals it is actually just the entree, not the side dishes. They have about 12 meal recipes per month. Then you go to the station with the meal you want and put it all together in a full order or a 1/2 order. It takes about 10 minutes to make each recipe.

You close up the container when you're done and stick a lable on it which gives you cooking instructions. Then you take it home and keep the meals in your freezer for up to 6 months.

So, it sounds so simple and kind of strange, like why don't you just go to the store and get the stuff yourself. Good question.

1. It'ss all laid out with the ingredients and the correct size measuring cups and spoons that you need. So it is assembled quickly.
2. They do all the clean up.
3. They do a lot with meat, which if you read below is something not all of us are good at cooking.

Me and J eat out some. Middling to a lot. I like to cook but as with everything for me, timing is everything. Sometimes I really don't want to cook. And J can cook some, but God bless him, I don't want to eat meatloaf every night of my life. Or, any night for that matter. But I digress.

So, we have been on a big tear to save some $, reduce the carbon footprint, not collect a lot of crap that we don't need, which takes conscious effort, especially with the kids. I am actually on a shopping hiatus right now. That is what finally prompted me to step inside to Super Suppers.

So, is it cheaper than eating out? I would argue yes. The cost for 6 meals with about 6 sevings each is $115 + Tax. Since each meal is actually two meals for us its like 10 meals for about $125 or so. That's about $12 for the entree for two of us. Or, about $6 a person per meal which is supstantially cheaper than eating out even with a salad and a side, except for Taco Bueno but that is another story.

Plus, we've really liked the food so far. Everything is really flavorful. I think J likes the variety added to our meal repertoire. He also is loving that I am so excited about food prep! Last night it was Asian Flank Steak with Spicy creamy corn. N and J loved it and I was thrilled that I cooked a steak.

http://www.ssowassook.com/

Piano Luv

When we inherited the baby grand a month or so ago, I knew that it would cause a stir at my house. I mean, it has buttons and kids love buttons, and makes sound and they luv sound and lots of things to discover, like pedals.

I started getting questions, "How'se the piano?" on dinner night.

I guess I didn't realize how quickly I would get the "I want to play piano when I grow up" from B, the youngest. But it happened last night, just before brushing teeth and getting into the bath. Okay, adorable.

I taught B how to play Mary Had a Little Lamb on the minor keys the first weekend we had the piano and he got it quickly and wanted more. I taught him always to find Middle C. And now he homes into it first thing. Unfortunately that exceeded my teaching knowledge and so I bought him a beginners book. Last night we got to playing left hand and right hand together and playing Old McDonald on the minor keys. Which led to the "I want to play piano when I grow up". "Even More than drums?", I asked. "Yes", he said and after a pause, with his mouth full of toothpaste "I can play both." So, needless to say, I've got to get this kid some lessons! But, maybe we won't do a real drum kit for Christmas this year.

I really hope not

because it can ruin an otherwise lovely morning.

So,

A person has to try really hard using all available power to:

1. Figure out how to seperate the work from the identity. I have really concentrated on this over the last few years and I'm getting better. It used to be wrapped up so tightly to me that I couldn't imagine myself without imagining work. I think it helps that other things are really good. I have a husband who understands and who is my partner, I live in a dreamy home with a piano and lake front view and everything. And when we drive home we let the things roll off of us.

2. I pray. A lot. This is interesting, because its kind of new and I feel strange praying when my true religious views remain unreconciled. But, I do it anyway because sometimes it is the only thing to do.

3. And, I try to do better, always. Because I think there is always room for improvement. Room to react differently or learn things about consigning freight to Russia.

4. And I remember that there are some places in this world where the people tend to be harder than we are here. This is a generalization but I have found it to be almost exclusively true. Russia is one of them. My opinion in my dealings is that Russians are a hard people. They bark at you and think you are wrong almost always at first. And, they have had to be hard because I guess life is rough in Russia and cold and the government is at times not incredibly friendly to its people. That sounds stupid. I don't really know why.

Do you ever come to work and.........

Find something like this in your e-mail in-box

This delivery is very problematic. And we are very disappointed with the unfortunate communication with your factory. First of all we had asked you not to mention any consignee in Russia on the packages. The container with «Silica Flour only» really didn’t had the mention of the consignee in Russia on the packages but the container with “Silica Flour and spare parts” had this mention and as a result we were had to turn it back to USA as the custom clearance of such cargo in Russia is not possible. You had mentioned the consignee Cherepovetsky factory but we were planed to make custom clearance on our firm. Please tell me who had bought the cargo at your Factory? Is it was Cherepovetsky factory? No. It was our company. So why didn’t you execute our instructions? I find them not very complex. But you did not do this and we were had to reject the cargo in Russia and send the cargo for taking off the labels and the only country we can send the container by Russian rules is back to USA. So we faced the additional charges as reexport procedure, demurrage, regulations with Russian customs, freight to USA, loading/unloading, storage at the warehouse, checking of the cargo and taking off the labels, freight to Russia, additional import and export procedure in USA, penalty fee for the Russian client.

Reducing the Carbon Footprint-Christmas Presents

Its coming up to the time again that we are thinking about what to get the boys for Christmas. Every year they go through the Toys R Us Toy book and mark the things they want with a big N or B. Usually, we get 1 or 2 things out of the book for them. But...................

Honestly, my boys aren't really toy people. They want the toys. But, they never go into the playroom and just play with stuff. The only time this has happened is when they have friends over. They are game people and gun people, sporty people and drummers and excercise ball people but not really into the imaginative play with figurines. And they have so much stuff already.

So, I'm rambling here. But, because of this I really want to forgo the Toys R Us book this year. J does too. It is such a waste. Waste of space, money, etc.

Anyway, this begs the question, what will take its place? What will they love and use?

I'm not really sure yet. But, I think we will try to be very thoughtful about gifts this year and not just get to get. We try to be careful, always keeping in mind that the boys spend only 1/4 of their overall time at our house, so they don't need so much at our house. But, I think we are going to redouble our efforts this Christmas.

"Pork is Tricky"

I like pork better than chicken. But, a few years ago when I was talking to someone about my New Year's resolution, which was to learn how to cook different kinds of meat in order to satisfy my carnivorous husband and stepson, he/she said something to the effect of "Be careful with pork. It can be really tricky."

So, I have been careful. Really careful. Such that I gaze at butterflied pork chops at the grocery store but don't buy them because "Pork is tricky" and I'm afraid they will come out dry. These kinds of warnings tend to have a big effect on me. Sometimes I don't even let myself look at the pork.

Needless to say, since I have started my love affair with Super Suppers, which deserves its own post, our home is suddenly filled with cooking pork smells. Curried Pork Chops with couscous. Pork loin with Potato/corn casserole, pork loin with cranberry/citrus marinade. And I have to say, it has worked out very well so far. J is loving it and I am too.

This is terrible. I think I am supposed to almost be a vegetarian or something. Because that is what people do now. But, it probably won't happen. Because I like pork.

Tudor Mania

So, I am trying to infect everyone I come into contact with lately with Tudor Mania. I recently read The Other Boleyn Girl while traveling and now spend my lunch hours gathering facts just because it's really interesting. A good website is www.tudorhistory.org . They have biographies of each of Henry VIII's six wives and of course the children too.

Like, you always here about Anne Boleyn, the queen who lost her head, but I didn't really know that she was the mother of Queen Elizabeth 1, who basically turned Great Britain into a powerhouse empire.

It's catching on too. My mom and I spent Saturday afternoon discussing whether Henry ripped Jane Seymour's Child from her womb, causing her to die 12 days later or not. And today already I've got a friend checking into the historical novels based in this time period by Philippa Gregory.

Then of course, J and I watched the first Elizabeth movie this weekend so we could see the one in theaters soon. We spent the weekend trading facts about Bloody Mary, Elizabeth the Virgin Queen, why we didn't learn about this in school and why, if Walsingham (sp?) was so important to English history we had never heard of him before.

It was really fun.

13

So, my oldest stepson, N, is thirteen. I am absolutely loving watching him go through what he is going through. Except for one thing. The boys actually style their hair these days with flatirons and hairspray, etc. That seems a little much. So, N, wants to grow his hair out. His mom and dad agreed on a sort of compromise. For the summer, he got to keep the bangs long, but had the back shaved into a summer cut more appropriate to his activities (Did I mention he inherited his tendency to sweat after 30 seconds in the sun from his father. Long hair is not great in the summer for people like this) And of course, then there is my rule. No hair in the eyes. Drives me crazy. So, now it's all growing out and swept to the side and is looking rather Flock of Seagullsish.

And, he's loving black. Gone are the must have Abercrombie Ts from last year, replaced by the lone black T shirt he has at our house. An ACDC concert T purchased from WalMarts hip throwback T-shirt line. All this makes me want to hug him more, not less. He is entering the teenage phase, the get away from me phase. And I just want to hold his hand.

High Heels or No High Heels

Okay, so I'm a little style challenged. I love pretty clothes, but my life calls for mainly casual, whether at work or at play. In fact, sometimes my life calls for not just casual, but the kind of clothes you save for doing housework. The holy jeans. The stained T-shirt. So, when I go on a customer visit or potential customer visit I try my best. I put on one of my power suits and high heels as you do when you are dressing to impress.

See the picture above? This is usually what happens when I wear the heels. Let's take a tour of the foundry someone says or they ask "Would you like to see the foundry?" What am I going to say? No? It's the whole reason I'm there. In South Korea in this case.

So, we go and I curse every step that I didn't wear at least my flats, but in reality, my steel toe boots. Have you ever packed those things? If I did every time, I would be able to fit maybe one pair of pants, one shirt and a pair of underwear along side. Not enough for the rough and tumble of Asian travel, where you spend long hours in the car. But, I wish I had my steel toe boots because I am the equivalent of a flight attendent who is afraid to fly. Foundries scare the crap out of me. Truthfully. I can handle the dirt, the mountains of dirt and darkness. It's the cranes whizzing past and in truth the metal being melted and poured that makes me want to turn and run. But I don't mostly. After all, it's hard to run in heels.

I know there are other ladies in similar jobs that have probably solved the heel or no heel question but I'm not there yet.

Dalian, China

I was in China a couple of weeks ago and it was pretty awesome. Beijing actually had really blue, clear skies. The sun was out, the air was cool. Being outside there was like a gift. Last time I was there was in Spring 2006 and the desert dust was blowing down from the north (?) and you couldn't walk without your hand over your face. So, it was a lovely change.

I traveled to Dalian this time, a coastal city I'd never been to before. It is truly the loveliest Chinese city I have visited so far. Green and clean and hilly with a mix of European style architecture and the signature Chinese neon pizzaz. It was such a great day. Evidently centuries ago, foregners came to China and cities like Dalian that were on the water and colonized them. When I hear these stories I just try to imagine what it would be like to go to Asia if you had not only never been before but in many cases hadn't heard anything about it. Its an awe I can't fathom but try to imagine. I think it might be like that if I were to travel to the upper EuroAsian countries of Bangladesh or Kazhakstan.

It felt so different to be in a coastal city in China. When I travel inland to places like Qiqhar or Xingtai for work I feel so insulated from the world. These cities feel like villages that might as well be surrounded by walls. I know they are aware of the outside, current world, or I wouldn't be there, but the feeling is like you could be on the edge of the world.

Never Put Crazy straws in the Dishwasher

Crazy Straws
Originally uploaded by Robozippy

There are actually a ton of things that noone tells you about parenting or step parenting and the above is one of them. The look of betrayal on my kid's face when he pulled out the unraveled crazy straw from the dishwasher made me feel supremely guilty until I took advantage of his short attention span and moved his attention to something else. I even tried to bend it back together, but no dice.