And Speaking of Sweet Potato Fries

A year or two ago, FoxyJ came across this cookbook or food website or something that suggested making fries with sweet potatoes instead of regular potatoes. So she chopped up some sweet potatoes, salted them, and baked them. They were the best thing ever. We had them a few times and wondered why restaurants don't serve sweet potato fries instead of plain old boring potato fries. So we were happy to see tonight that Kidd Valley, a local burger chain, received our psychic suggestion and has started serving sweet potato fries. They actually fry them so they're not quite so healthy, but they're just as yummy. (Possibly even yummier, if you can improve on perfection.)

I've decided that the only possible reason sweet potato fries have not already replaced crappy potato fries in the American fast food pantheon is that the potato mafia in Idaho is using its political power to squash the sweet potato fry industry before it gets off the ground. Don't let them get away with it, people! Go to your grocery stores and buy sweet potatoes, then make them into fries! Go to your burger joint and demand sweet potato fries! Boycott the non-sweet potato industry!

And don't bother saying that you've tried sweet potato fries and they were not the absolute greatest thing ever, anyone, because such lies will only expose your evil nature and your corrupt connection to the Idahoan potato underground.

Healthy Choices Made at Dinner Tonight, Eaten at Kidd Valley in Celebration of FoxyJ's New Job

1. Instead of a double cheeseburger or bacon cheeseburger, a cheeseburger.
2. Instead of sweet potato fries and onion rings, sweet potato fries.
3. Instead of a large chocolate shake, a regular chocolate shake.

I am so on my way to losing that extra body fat.

Would This Make Sense If I Had Cable?

S-Boogie got a Happy Meal last week that came with this Squirrel Boy (?) toy and a colored pencil. The color of the pencil, according to its label, is Vietnam. Were they all out of North Korea?

What?

Are you waiting for me to say something?

Jiggedy-Jig

One year and two days ago I moved to Seattle from Utah. Ten years and fifteen days ago I moved to Utah from Hawai'i. Twenty-seven years, ten months, and eight days ago I moved to Hawai'i from... well, that's debatable. And not the point of this post.

The point is that I have spent most of the last month visiting the two places I have lived for most of my mortal life, and yesterday I came back to Seattle, and it's nice to be home. I love the happy Mormonness of Utah and the laid-back alohaness of Hawai'i, but Seattle is my home now and it's a good place to live. I've felt at home here since the day I arrived in a moving truck with my brother last September, and I felt at home in Utah from the day I got off the plane in Salt Lake City ten years ago. I'm glad to have lived in just the right place for each period of my life, and it's nice that I can go back to visit my family and friends in former homes, and even nicer that I can then come back to my present home, lie down in my own bed, and get a good night's sleep.

Career Advice

If you can't handle listening to a baby screaming over the hum of a jet engine without complaining rudely within earshot of the baby's parents, you should probably not be a flight attendant.

Without Guile

Last week we were at the beach with S-Boogie and she had to pee. There was no bathroom at this beach, so we told her to go in the water. She stood at the edge of the water, her toes just barely in the surf, squatted, and peed.

Yesterday we were visiting a friend in Hilo and S-Boogie was playing with a bunch of other kids in the pool in the backyard. S-Boogie grinned at me and declared, "Daddy, I peed in the pool!"

I imagine it is confusing when you have been told for the past year not to pee in your pants to be told all of a sudden that it is okay to pee in your swimsuit when you're at a beach with no bathroom. Even more confusing that peeing in the ocean might be okay, but peeing in a pool with a 12-foot diameter is not so okay. And most confusing of all is that in either case, even if it is okay, it's not something to announce to the world. If something is okay, why would I be discreet about it? What does discreet mean?

S-Boogie's lack of shame about anything is one of her most endearing traits. I wish more people were so honest. I hate to think that as she's exposed more and more to other people who will tell her to be ashamed, to other children who will make fun of her for peeing in the pool (even though they do it too), she'll learn to be dishonest in the polite way that most people are dishonest. We could keep her away from other people's influence, I suppose, but I think removing her from social interaction would be a hundred times more detrimental than beneficial. And I do my fair share of teaching her to be ashamed--if Daddy yells at me when I do something wrong, why should I tell him next time I do something wrong?

So I'll enjoy the guileless S-Boogie while she lasts and trust that I'll like her just as much when she starts hiding the fact that she pees in the water, just like everyone else does.