Off-set Squares

“Whether the skies around us are clear or filled with threatening clouds, as disciples of Jesus Christ, we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, knowing that if we do so, everything else we need will eventually be provided. What an important life lesson! The more we obsess about our difficulties, our struggles, our doubts, and our fears, the more difficult things can become. But the more we focus on our final heavenly destination and on the joys of following the disciple’s path—loving God, serving our neighbor—the more likely we are to successfully navigate through times of trouble and turbulence. Dear friends, no matter how violently the winds of our mortal existence howl around us, the gospel of Jesus Christ will always offer the best path to a safe landing in our Heavenly Father’s kingdom.” – President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

True Blue

I love to see people taking the lemons life gives them and making lemonade. Around 3:30 a.m. December 16, 2015 thieves broke into Frijoles y Frescas Grilled Tacos on Charleston Boulevard in Las Vegas. They smashed a glass door and made off with the cash registers. The owners turned the security footage of the event into a brilliant commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzdv4FUHqP8 . Watch the ad. It’s less than three minutes long, and I promise it will make you smile. It will probably also make you hungry for fresh tacos with carne asada, pollo, carnitas, al pastor, camarón, pescado, lengua or cabeza. (I don’t have the nerve to try that last one just yet.) The side dishes are as tantalizing as the main course: elote, frijoles, arroz, salsa fresca and guacamole. If you don’t live close enough stop by once in a while, I’m sorry. If you do, would you bring some back for me?

This Little Piggy

In Disneyland’s Tomorrowland, there’s a quick service window called the Galactic Grill. We’ve never eaten there. The place is usually packed with children preparing for the Jedi Training course, and besides, Redd Rockett’s Pizza (and salad and pasta) Port is just a few steps away. It might be time to rethink our choice of eateries, because the Galactic Grill has recently changed their menu. Now they offer an $11 Jedi Order sandwich or a $12 First Order burger on a black bun. For only eight dollars more (!) either can come in a collectible Han-Solo-in-Carbonite box. Okay, so it’s still basically a burger and fries outfit with fancy Star Wars names tacked on. We’ll probably still eat at Redd Rockett’s, but we might stop by the Galactic Grill for dessert. After all, who could resist a Pastry Menace éclair or a Darth by Chocolate cake?

Four Irish Chains

Next time you’re on Main Street U.S.A., look up. Whether you’re in Orlando or Anaheim, you’ll see windows that have a lot to say. These decorative panes pretend to advertise businesses in the upper floors above Main Street, but they’re really paying homage to the people who helped to create this happy place. The one that reads, “Fargo’s Palm Parlor, Roland E. Crump, palm reader” is talking about Rolly Crump who designed the Haunted Mansion and the Enchanted Tiki Room.  “The Artist’s Loft, handmade miniatures by Harriet Burns” is for the first female imagineer who was behind Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln and the Carousel of Progress. “Wally Boag, golden vaudeville routines” honors the greatest performer on the stage at the Golden Horseshoe. My personal favorite is “The Musical Quill, lyrics and librettos by X. Atencio.” Xavier Atencio wrote A Pirate’s Life for Me and Grim Grinning Ghosts. He also has a headstone near the Haunted Mansion.

A Tisket, A Tasket

In the heart of Disneyland there’s a wonderful place full of miniature houses, knee-high castles and tiny trees. You can view Storybook Land from the canal boats, if you’re brave enough to sail into Monstro’s whale-sized mouth. You’ll pass Pinocchio’s village, Toad Hall, and the homes of the three pigs at eye level. Aboard Casey Jr. you get a different view of Storybook Land. From the train that hauled Dumbo’s Circus, the garden of succulents looks more like the patchwork quilt from the 1933 Silly Symphony short, Lullaby Land. There once was a third way to see this magical place. Guests used to board the Skyway to the left of the Casey Jr. queue. They rode high over Storybook Land and through twin tunnels in the Matterhorn to Tomorrowland. You can still see the original boarding area (but not for long). Several smashed Skyway buckets are scattered around the Matterhorn; victims of the beast who lives there. 

Four Contrary Wives

We like to visit Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventures during the off season. It gives us a chance to see the parks without the congestion. When you’re as short as I am, walking in a crowd means the only view is other peoples’ backsides. One of our favorite things to do at Disneyland is chat with guests and cast members. Neither seems to have time for pleasantries when the park’s at capacity. The only downside to an off-season visit is it’s also the best time to shut down attractions. We knew the Mark Twain, Columbia and Davy Crockett canoes would be closed while the new Star Wars attraction is being built. Likewise Fantasmic, the Disneyland Railroad and Tom Sawyer Island. We didn’t expect Autopia or the Jungle Cruise to be refurbished just now, and we were surprised to see Soarin’ and Grizzly River Run are down as well. I guess that means lots more time for chatting. 

Not-So-Simple Sue

“A spirit of forgiveness and an attitude of love and compassion toward those who may have wronged us is the very essence of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Each of us has need of this spirit. The whole world has need of it. The Lord taught it. He exemplified it as none other has exemplified it. In the time of his agony on the cross of Calvary, with vile and hateful accusers before him, those who had brought him to this terrible crucifixion, he cried out, ‘Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.’ None of us is called on to forgive so generously, but each of us is under a divinely spoken obligation to reach out with pardon and mercy.” – President Gordon B. Hinckley

Single Irish Chain Block

One morning a grocer put a sign out that read, “Eggplants: twenty-five cents apiece, three for one dollar.” All day long customers walked in and complained about the sign. “I should get four eggplants for a dollar!” they all said. The grocer apologized profusely to each and every customer and he put four eggplants in bags for them. By the end of the day he was sold out of eggplants. The manager of a shoe store next door came in at the end of the day and heard the last customer demand four eggplants. “Why don’t you just fix the mistake on your sign?” he asked. The grocer smiled. “What mistake?” he said. “Before I put up that sign, nobody ever bought more than one eggplant.”

Broken Sugar Bowl

“If man will not recognize the inequalities around him and voluntarily, through the gospel plan, come to the aid of his brother, as outlined by Brother Romney, he will find that through ‘a democratic process’ he will be forced to come to the aid of his brother. The government will take from the ‘haves’ and give to the ‘have nots.’ Both have lost their freedom. Those who ‘have,’ lost their freedom to give voluntarily of their own free will and in the way they desire. Those who ‘have not’ lost their freedom because they did not earn what they received. They got ‘something for nothing,’ and they will neither appreciate the gift nor the giver of the gift.” – Howard W. Hunter

Six Inch Contrary Wife

Slow Cooker Cobbler

Butter the inside of your slow cooker crock while it’s still cold. In a large bowl, combine half a cup of sugar and half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon. Peel and slice six cups of firm, tart apples (I used four Granny Smiths and two Braeburns) and add them to the sugar/cinnamon mixture. Toss to coat. Dump into slow cooker. (I just love recipes that tell you to “dump!”) In your now-empty bowl, combine one yellow cake mix, a quarter teaspoon of cinnamon and half a cup (one stick) of cold butter. Use a pastry cutter on this mixture until the bits of butter are about the size of peas. Dump (There it is again!) the cake mix/butter mixture on top of the apples. Cover and cook on high for about three hours, until the apples are tender and the cobbler is a light golden brown. Serve warm with cream, ice cream or whipped cream. If there are eight to twelve at your table, this will disappear fast.

Trip Around the World

Today’s the 60th day of winter, with 29 to come. My battle plan against the blues this winter has been a different soup at least twice a week. Soups are generally high in nutrients and low in calories (though you do have to watch the salt) and they’re excellent comfort food. Since December 22 we’ve enjoyed white chicken chili, Manhattan style fish chowder, French onion, barley/beef, tomato/basil, New Orleans gumbo, chicken/noodle, butternut squash, minestrone, New England clam chowder, broccoli/cheese, Irish beef stew, Wisconsin cauliflower, chicken tortilla, chili con carne, stuffed potato, ham/bean and hot-and-sour soup. Most of these were made from scratch. A few were made with mixes, but none came from a can. Still on deck are mushroom bisque, wild rice, Manhattan clam chowder, split pea with ham, Thai chicken coconut, Russian borscht, vegetable/beef, lobster bisque and Tuscan white bean. By the time I’ve crossed them all off my list, there should be crocuses on the lawn!

Hovering Hawks

I mentioned last October - http://mombowe.blogspot.com/2015/10/handy-andy.html - that the Big Thunder Mountain Ranch petting zoo, barbecue and jamboree were permanently closing earlier this year to make way for Disneyland’s new 14-acre Star Wars-themed attraction. Last fall we asked what would become of the friendly little goats, pigs, poultry and other farm animals at the petting zoo. We were told they’d be “going home with cast members.” This only raised more questions. Don’t most cast members live in rather small pet-free apartments? Would they put a leash on porky and walk him onto the cast member bus? Or would he leave in a take-away bag with extra sauce? It wasn’t until recently I heard the rest of the story. The cast members in question are also members of a family that owns a ranch not far from Anaheim. The animals aren’t getting as much attention there as they’re used to, but they’re not finger-licking good, either.

Four Simplicity Blocks

“Work is an antidote for anxiety, an ointment for sorrow, and a doorway to possibility. Whatever our circumstances in life, my dear brethren, let us do the best we can and cultivate a reputation for excellence in all that we do. Let us set our minds and bodies to the glorious opportunity for work that each new day presents. When our wagon gets stuck in the mud, God is much more likely to assist the man who gets out to push than the man who merely raises his voice in prayer—no matter how eloquent the oration. President Thomas S. Monson put it this way: “It is not enough to want to make the effort and to say we’ll make the effort. … It’s in the doing, not just the thinking, that we accomplish our goals. If we constantly put our goals off, we will never see them fulfilled.’” – President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Capital T

Thirty-five years ago today - Friday the thirteenth – shortly after 5:00 a.m., residents of Louisville, Kentucky woke to the sounds of horrific explosions. City streets buckled inward, cars and manhole covers flew into the air, walls collapsed and toilets turned into raw sewage fountains. In the weeks that followed they learned Ralston-Purina had been using hexane gas to extract oil from soybeans. The containment system that was meant to recycle the gas back into the plant malfunctioned, dumping massive amounts of hexane into the city’s sewers. A spark from a car’s catalytic converter set off the explosion, and left much of Old Louisville believing the world was coming to an end. Two miles of sewer were completely destroyed. Water lines were severed in the blast, leaving residents without running water for weeks. It was a ghastly mess, but there were no fatalities. Not such an unlucky day after all.

Twenty-five Dragons' Heads

“Let reverence for the law be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap. Let it be taught in the schools, in the seminaries, and in the colleges. Let it be written in primers, in spelling books and almanacs. Let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And in short, let it become the political religion of the nation. And let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay, of all sexes, and tongues, and colors, and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly at its altar. And let us strive to deserve, as far as mortals may, the continued care of Divine Providence, trusting that in future national emergencies He will not fail to provide us the instruments of safety and security.” – Abraham Lincoln

Frame

Ask almost anyone who Robert Fulton was, and the most common (if not entirely accurate) answer you’ll get is, “inventor of the steamboat.” Fulton was born in Pennsylvania in 1765. As a young man he studied portraiture and landscape painting in Europe. He also studied French, German, chemistry and mathematics. While abroad, he became fascinated with canal construction and with shipbuilding – underwater shipbuilding. In 1804 he tested the first successful submarine which he’d built for the British Navy. The following year, after the Battle of Trafalgar, England lost interest in Fulton and he returned to the Americas. On February 11, 1809, Fulton patented an efficient, reliable ship that used a special British steam engine. His wasn’t the first steamboat patent by a long shot. Like Henry Ford, Fulton’s genius was not invention, but adapting inventions to fit the marketplace. He didn’t give us the steamboat; he made steam travel a reality.

Sixteen Dragons' Heads

Some years ago we noticed a couple in hysterics at Disneyland’s Main Gate. They’d bought day passes at Disney California Adventures without realizing how small the park is, how many rides were down, or that DCA would close early that day. The cast member bought their sob story (or wanted to keep the peace) and let them visit Disneyland after the other park closed. Nice, huh? Except we’d met this couple earlier that day. They’re travel agents from Henderson. They KNEW DCA is a third the size of Disneyland. They knew which rides were down and when each park closed. And they knew how to get two parks for the price of one. Please don’t try this trick; it’s despicable. If you lie and cheat to get into the happiest place on earth, you’re missing the whole point.  You’ll spoil things for yourself and eventually everyone else. In the long run, honesty really is the best policy.

Five and Dime Quilt

Rochester New York lies on the southern shore of Lake Ontario where it receives plenty of precipitation year-round. Six months of the year (at least) it comes down in the form of snow. An average of four days a year the temperature dips below zero (Fahrenheit) there, and odds are all four of those days will hit in early February. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Rochester tends to go a little stir crazy at this time of year. One snowy Saturday morning in Rochester, February 1966, Florence Rappaport’s six children were suffering from cabin fever. She decided to shake things up by serving ice cream for breakfast. It was such a hit they made it an annual family tradition. Florence’s children shared their odd holiday with friends in college, and her grandchildren made Ice Cream for Breakfast Day an international celebration. I might celebrate with vanilla ice cream on a waffle, with warm apple pie filling.

Nine Dragon's Heads

“One of the men in my ward grew up not only without parental support but with parental opposition to his activity in the Church. He made this observation in a sacrament meeting: ‘My father cannot understand why anyone would go to church when they could go skiing, but I really like going to church. In the Church, we are all on the same journey, and I am inspired in that journey by strong youth, pure children, and what I see and learn from other adults. I am strengthened by the association and excited with the joy of living the gospel.’ The wards and branches of the Church offer a weekly gathering of respite and renewal, a time and place to leave the world behind—the Sabbath. It is a day to ‘delight thyself in the Lord,’ to experience the spiritual healing that comes with the sacrament, and to receive the renewed promise of His Spirit to be with us.” – D. Todd Christofferson

Four Cross Patches

Parker Brothers began selling their Monopoly board game February 6, 1935. They licensed the game for sale outside the United States the following year. In 1941, the British Secret Intelligence Service contracted with John Waddington Ltd. (the licensed manufacturer of the game in the United Kingdom) to create a special edition for World War II prisoners of war held by the Nazis. Cleverly hidden inside these games were road maps, working compasses, real money, and other objects that were deemed useful for escaping. They were distributed to prisoners by British fake charity groups that were also created by the secret service. I have no idea whether or not any of these games actually made it into POW’s hands, or if any led to successful escapes. But I’ll bet they improved prisoner morale. 

Thirty-six Double Four-Patches

Last month the American Museum of Natural History in New York (think Night at the Museum) unveiled its newest exhibit: the skeleton of what may be the largest dinosaur ever discovered. Titanosaur (It doesn’t even have a scientific name yet) was 122 feet long – four times the length of the museum’s famous blue whale. According to the museum’s catalog, there should be a vertibra in their possession belonging to an even bigger sauropod. The five-foot-long section of spine was part of a massive shipment donated by the paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope at the time of his death. The vertibra is listed on the shipping manifest. The museum has a description but no bone. For over a hundred years, folk have been searching for solid evidence that the largest known creature – Amphicoelias fragillimus – ever existed. It seems more than likely to me that Cope simply made it up. After all, it was too big to lose.

Four Dragons' Heads

He started out as a college sophomore, threatened with expulsion (and a lot of other bad things) for hacking into Harvard’s computer system and making private student ID photos public. Today Mark Zuckerberg is the sixth richest man on Earth. It’s something I think no one anticipated twelve years ago today, when Facebook was launched. It was called “The Facebook” then, and was originally for Harvard students. Today there are more than one and a half billion active users, and we’re addicted. We can’t imagine life without it. As Entertainment Weekly put it, "How on earth did we stalk our exes, remember our co-workers' birthdays, bug our friends, and play a rousing game of Scrabulous before Facebook?" We even let it steal our sleep. If you check Facebook more than once a day, chances are you’re an insomniac. By the way, if you’re reading this between midnight and 5:00 a.m., turn off your screen and go back to bed.

Twenty-five Double Four-Patches

Norwood Thomas and Joyce Morris met in England seventy-two years ago. They were together a short time before he parachuted into Normandy with the 101st Airborne. After the war, Thomas returned to his Virginia home. He wrote Joyce and asked her to come to America, but she declined. So Thomas moved on. He met and married someone else; they raised a family and grew old together. After her death, he began to wonder about the girl he’d left behind. That’s when Thomas’ son Steven received an email from Joyce’s son Robert. Joyce, who now lives in Australia, had asked Robert to see if Thomas was still alive and if he’d be willing to talk. The two sons set up a Skype session so Thomas and Joyce could catch up. Their story went public in November. Since then, hundreds of people have donated to their GoFundMe account. 93-year-old Thomas and 88-year-old Joyce will meet again in Adelaide this Valentine’s Day.

Cross Patch Block

Happy Groundhog Day! If you’re not at Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney this morning, shivering to the sound of a polka band and waiting for a woodchuck to see his shadow, you might celebrate the holiday the way I am – by watching a little Bill Murray. I like the dialog in the movie Groundhog Day: “Come on, ALL the long distance lines are down? What about the satellite? Is it snowing in space? Don’t you have some kind of a line that you keep open for emergencies or for celebrities? I’m both. I’m a celebrity IN an emergency.” I also like it for the quilts. There’s a very feminine shabby chic postage stamp quilt on the bed where Phil Connors keeps waking up on February second. There’s also a really fun wall hanging featuring appliquéd ground hogs (with shadows) and Trip-Around-the-World blocks behind Phil’s head as Rita meets Ned Ryerson. 

Sixteen Double Four-Patches

“When I was about 14 years old, my father was called to serve as a mission president in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I was not happy about leaving my home in Wyoming and everything I loved to live in a big city for three years. This was the first time in my life that I began to feast upon the words of Christ. I read the Book of Mormon, I prayed, and I determined that, rather than be a burden to my father and mother, I would be a blessing to them during their service. Reading the scriptures and praying can help us press forward with a steadfastness in Christ and maintain a brightness of hope and love toward God and all men. I learned that reading the scriptures and praying help me press forward with a steadfastness in Christ and maintain a brightness of hope and love toward God and all men.” - M. Joseph Brough