Minnesota??

All day long, I have been clicking the heels of my ruby slippers over and over and over again while wistfully chanting "there's no place like home...there's no place like home". I feel as if I have transported to Minnesota for the month of December and I want to take Toto and return home to Auntie Em. Raleigh has received four (Yes! Four!) snowfalls this month and three out of the four fell before winter officially began!! (OK! OK! I will concede that those three were just a dusting or a smidge more, but it's still not normal for here in December.)

To top off the month, we had our first white Christmas in 63 years!!! Yes! It snowed on Christmas in Raleigh. For countless native North Carolinians, a white Christmas was just something they sang about while knowing deep down they would never experience one. Well, that all changed this past weekend. Anywhere from 6-13 inches covered Eastern North Carolina with a lovely white blanket of frozen fluff. That amount was the largest since the "Storm of the Century" back in 2000 when we received around 22 inches of snow in one night.

(Now before all you Yankees and other assorted Northerners start scoffing and laughing your heads off, I will ask you to read here first.)

I did enjoy my first, and probably last, white Christmas. It was a beautiful sight! But I am ready for the North Carolina winter that I know and love to return. And I may get my wish because it looks as if my ruby heel clicking just might be working. The weather forecast for this weekend shows the temperatures in the 60s.

All together now (complete with fist pump)...

YES!!!!!!!!!!!

Adiós

Adiós is the Spanish word for "good-bye". It literally means "to God". I think this word is very fitting for today because I have to say adiós to my best friend, Noel Toral Romero. He is now with his Creator and has left me here to grieve the loss of my best friend.

Never would I have thought when I first met him through a Christian pen pal website that we would quickly become so close. He lived in Xalapa, Mexico, and I lived in Raleigh, North Carolina. How can two people living in two very different countries become best friends? I have no idea how we did, but it happened. In December of the same year we met. I traveled to Mexico for the first time and met him face to face. I will never forget that time together. Since then I traveled there many other times and he also traveled here to visit me. Each time, it was like we had never parted and we enjoyed each others company. We were not alike in many ways but we complimented each other in a way I never knew possible.

Please bear with me as I go down memory lane...

Noel, I never thought I would have to go through this time so soon. You have left me here alone and have gone to a better place with our Lord and your mother. I will never forget our first meeting and my feeling of being greeted by a "sea of Mexican people" on my first visit. Thank you for making my first trip to Mexico a very special one. I will never forget all the wonderful Mexican dishes you shared with me. From now on, every time I eat a garnacha, arrachera, or taco al pastor or drink an horchata de coco, you will always be on my mind. Our trips to Catemaco, Veracruz, Naolinco, Mexico City, Cancun, Xico, and Coatepec will always be cherished memories. There are so many memories flooding my memory right now that I can't sort through them properly. Your family was always welcoming to me and made me feel like part of their family.

I will never look at Disney in the same way. You were so filled with love for all things Disney that I couldn't help but enjoy it along with you. You taught me that it's OK for a grown man to get caught up in the moment of singing "It's a Small World" and "Part of Your World".

¡Gracias por todos, mi hermano! Nunca te olvidaré. Siempre serás mi amigo mejor. ¡¡Te quiero mucho, hermano!! Siempre serás parte de mi mundo.

Noel Toral Romero
February 14, 1965-December 23, 2010

Baking Weekend

May I please have a moment?

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WHEW!!!!!!!

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Thanks for allowing me a moment to collect my sanity.

This past weekend was busy!! It was the annual Fowler Christmas Bake-off where I don my chef's hat, cheerleader skirt and pom poms, and coach's whistle while arming myself with the tools of the trade and make my way down to the Fowler's chalet to begin the processes of measuring, chopping, beating, whirring, and baking individual ingredients into something that will be absolutely scrumptious.

This year was more of a challenge because a nameless someone wasn't very motivated (by her own admission!). After a few false starts and a few surprise realizations of forgotten ingredients where mad dashes to the grocery store had to be made, the baking was off at a good pace. However, because of school projects that happened to be due around the same time, the activities slowed somewhat and the first day ended up rather late into the night. After Sunday dinner, the kitchen again saw multiple activities and finally all baking was done and gift bags assembled and in the van before 9 PM.

Because of the slight delays in the weekend, the personal baking I had planned had to be delayed a day. When I came home from work yesterday, I started up the kitchen here right after supper and made 2 batches of cookies and a batch of fudge in the span of 3 hours. To get that accomplished, I had to employ the help of two sous-chefs. With their help, I was able to finish my task in a lot shorter time than if I had done it all alone.

As always, I had fun. Little talks along the way make the time together more enjoyable. One little question, however, sticks out in my mind as absolutely hilarious. While enjoying a rousing rendition of "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas," the question was asked if hippos really are vegetarians.

My response, complete with the appropriate eye-rolling, was "When was the last time you saw a hippo stalking prey???".

Infamous

In the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, today was a "day that will live in infamy". Today marks the 68th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Japanese, in a surprise attack, flew over the Pacific Ocean and wreaked devastating results on the US Pacific Naval Fleet in a manner of a few hours before returning to their base. In a flash, the USA was plunged into a war that it has previously tried to avoid with a national policy of isolationism.

With that attack came the inevitable feelings of shock and disbelief. These feelings quickly turned into renewed sense of patriotism and anger, which was understandably directed towards all things Japanese. Unfortunately, this anger also took aim at the Japanese-Americans that were living here, in Canada, and even throughout Latin America. These American citizens were quickly rounded up in the early months of 1942 and taken to internment camps to stay for the duration of the war. Their only crime was being Japanese or of Japanese descent. In the wake of the Pearl Harbor incident, government-sanctioned racism, civil rights violations and just downright ugliness ran rampant throughout the United States.

Are these actions that much removed from the beginnings of Nazi persecution of the Jews? I don't believe that they were. Thankfully, we didn't keep going down that slippery path. But nevertheless, we were no less guilty as a nation than the Nazis. Of course, it was all seen as justifiable because of what had happened and because of the fear that the Japanese-Americans' loyalty couldn't be trusted. What about the loyalty of any other American? Does color or ethnicity really have anything to do with loyalty to a particular country?

Fast forward a few decades to September 11, 2001. We all remember that day. Did we learn lessons from World War II? Even after 9 years, how do we react to people of Middle Eastern descent? Do we make fun of them and their dress? Do we wonder if everyone of that ethnicity we meet is loaded with guns or bombs? Do we just plain distrust them because of their heritage?

Don't get me wrong. I have some of the same feelings. But I also realize that they are just as American as I am. Many were born right on the same soil where I was born. Many of my ancestors came from Germany. Does that make me guilty for the sins Nazi Germany? Should my family have been locked up in internment camps during World War II? I do understand that acts of war and war itself are very uncertain times where black and white does not always come into view. May we always try to keep an open mind during these trying times in order to make sure that all who are innocent not be punished or destroyed for being similar to the enemy of the time.

Zoological Inaccuracies

There are some ideas about the natural world that "ordinary" people have that have always driven me crazy. They use incorrect words to describe animals without thinking what they are really saying. (Of course, that problem goes way beyond Zoology, but that will be another entry!) So without further ado, I will now list my pet peeves when it comes to biology and the common people. Take careful notes. One never knows when there will be a pop quiz!

1) Deer do not have horns; they have antlers!

2) There are no deer in Africa. The graceful creatures seen running around the savannas and creeping through rain forests are antelopes. They are not even in the same family as deer!!

3) All bugs are insects, but not all insects are bugs. Neither is a spider a bug nor a centipede, millipede, mite, etc.

4) No snake is poisonous. Poison is something ingested or taken on the skin. Hence the name for Poison Ivy or Poison Sumac. However, some snakes are venomous; venom must be injected.

5) Animals are not just 4-footed creatures that walk on land. Animals include birds, fish, insects, sponges, sea jellies, mollusks, echinoderms, and many other creatures.

6) Polar Bears (Ursus arctos) do not eat penguins. They do not live in the same place.

7) Bats are not blind. True, some do not have good vision, but they can see nonetheless. It would be better to use the expression "Blind as a cavefish".

8) Buffaloes have never roamed the prairies of the American West. Bison are the majestic creatures of western lore.

9) Cranes, storks, and herons are not the same bird!!!!!!!!! Big differences between them.

10) The Cheetah (Acionyx jubatus), the Leopard (Panthera pardus), and the Jaguar (Panthera onca) are very different from each other. They should never be confused with the other.


I will stop here for now. The list could go on and on and on, but I want each one of you to get a complete grasp on the simple concepts I have just listed without taxing your brains. :-)

Remember, a pop quiz can happen at anytime. Be prepared!!