Hot Stuff

No, this post isn't about the Donna Summer song.  Nor is it Amy's nickname for me (or is it).  Nope, instead I am going to tell you about my brief encounter with the Houston Hot Sauce Festival.  With an emphasis on hot and brief.  

Now, I love me some spicy food.  Yum.  So when a Groupon for the Houston Hot Sauce Festival came up this past summer Amy bought it.  Festivals are fun.  We enjoy going to them.  This seemed like a great idea.  Flash forward to yesterday, the day of the festival.    We'd had torrential downpours all Friday during the day and night.  We were wondering if we would even be making it to the festival.  However, the rain stopped, the morning came, and the forecast cleared.  So we ventured out.  It was located at a convention center and when we arrived we thought it might be held inside, score.  But no, it was outside.  But hey, it's in a parking lot.  But no, it wasn't.  It was in the grass, or what was grass before the aforementioned storms, coupled with the setting up of all of the booths and vendors.  Now it was mud.  Lots of it.  With patches of muddy grass sprinkled throughout just for giggles.  No, seriously, it was muddy.  But we decided to brave it, give it a shot.  After all, we'd driven all the way there.  So in we went.

We squelched our way into the festival.  The boys spotted the jumpy houses right away.  Sadly, it was a pay-for-jump arrangement and I couldn't see spending a minimum of $2/per boy to have them jump.  Oh well, we moved on.  The first booth we went to had a sauce called, I kid you not, Death Nectar.

Well, rather than start off slowly (as my dear wife would later suggest that I should have done) with the milder sauces, and then working my way up to hotter ones, I opted for the Death Nectar.  It was hot.  Very hot.  But also very good.  The guy said it was rated 337.  That sounded high, but out of what, 1,000?  After sampling I headed to buy a water.  The fire was dwindling by now and I was doing well.  Then Amy suggested that we get the boys a snow cone, since there wasn't a ton for them to do.  On the way back from the snow cone vendor I started feeling funny.  A little weak.  Shaky.  Amy took one look at me and told me to go find a place to sit down.  Apparently I didn't look too good.  Pale.  Sweaty.  Yeah, I was feeling way worse, like I was going to pass out.  So I found a seat and tried not to pass out.

Well, I didn't pass out.  After about 5 minutes I was better.  However, given then events of our brief encounter with the festival we decided it would be best if we called it a day and headed home.  Thus ended our adventure at the Houston Hot Sauce Festival.  I don't think we will return.

On the way home I did research the sauce I'd tried.  Turns out the 337 the guy was talking about, was 337,000 Scoville units.  If you are not familiar with the Scovile units, I suggest you look it up.  Especially if you are venturing out to a hot sauce festival.  For an understanding of the rating of the Death Nectar, it is about 400 times hotter than Tabasco sauce.  A jalapeño rates 3,000 - 8,000 Scoville units.  The ghost pepper, one of the ingredients in the Death Nectar, is one of the world hottest peppers and can reach above 1,000,000 on the Scoville scale.  Had I been better versed in this prior to our visit to the festival, I may have avoided the Death Nectar.  However, it makes for a good story.  Visit here to read more about or to purchase the Death Nectar.  I'm still working on Amy about getting some, it was good.  She just rolls her eyes at me!  :)

Grinder's Death Nectar

All is well, cooling off, in Drosche Land.
       

Recasting

Recasting.

Now, I'm (for once) not talking about TV and the type of recasting that brought us 2 Darrins on Bewitched (Dick York, the original was my favorite), 2 Aunt Vivs on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (the 2nd one?  Seriously?), or the 2 Beckys on Roseanne (3 changes when you count the one back to the first).  Nope, I'm talking about Jackson and his broken arm here.

Now the title makes sense right?  Although you're thinking about the TV shows now too right?  But back to the topic at hand.

Today was Jackson's appointment.  We'd been hoping and praying that the cast could come off.  Hoping and praying too, that both broken arms were healing well.  So, as it turns out one of the bones has fused back together and is looking great.  The other, the one that was completely broken through, is in line but not fully fused.  Amy was faced with the option of a 3-week period in a brace or a recasting.  She very wisely chose, after discussing with me via the phone, to recast.  The thought of keeping a simple brace on a very active 5 (soon to be 6) year old for 3 weeks and hoping and praying that it wouldn't break again was just too daunting.  So we went with the recast.

Luckily this time we could go with the waterproof cast!  Hallelujah!  4 weeks of bathing a  very active 5 (soon to be 6) year old boy with a cast has been exhausting.  Lately Jackson has been wanting us to smell the cast, insisting that it stinks.  We took his word for it.  He found it hilarious.  We found it ewwww!  

So, here we sit, facing 3 more weeks in a cast.  Thank goodness it is waterproof!  When all is said and done (hopefully this will be the final casting) we will have had 1 week in a splint and 7 weeks in a cast.  The idea of a brace is not off the table though once the casting comes off.  Just for added support and strengthening since the break was at the growth plate.  But we will cross that bridge when we get to it and I of course will keep you updated.  So, thanks for the thoughts and prayers.  They are much appreciated and needed.  I'll leave you with a picture of Jackson and his new cast, he chose red this time.  Also one of the cast he had removed!  I'm off to see if Bewitched is on Netflix or Hulu and practice my nose twitch.

All is well, roles recast, in Drosche Land.  

He was bummed at first but pleased with the waterproof status of the new cast!

Ewww.  Just that.  Ewww!

    

Quack

So, I know that I am late getting on this bandwagon.  I know.  But I have become totally addicted to Duck Dynasty.

Now, you know I love me some reality television.  However, with our decision a while ago (maybe a year now?) to get rid of cable I don't get to see as much of it as possible.  I mean the good trashy stuff that's on cable.  Sure I love Big Brother and we sort of follow the craziness of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, and I am stoked about the upcoming season of Survivor.  But I miss the Housewives.  OC, Atlanta, New York, New Jersey.  See, cable reality shows aren't really on Hulu or Netflix and those are our primary ways of watching TV now.  Being busy we don't always get to watch it live.  So Hulu and Netflix team up to be our DVR.

So, I've gotten off on a tangent.  Big surprise right?  But I'm back now.  I have been hearing all about Duck Dynasty.  Seeing it on Facebook.  It seemed awesome.  It seemed like something I'd love.  However, patiently as I might wait, it just never is going to make it to Hulu or Netflix.  Come on cable channels, unclench!

This past holiday weekend we were at my sister-in-law Amanda's house and she has cable.  So I was bound and determined to watch some.  Lo and behold it was everything I could ever hope for.  Ahhhhhh.  Thus began a love affair with yet another TV show.  This time though, Amy fell for it with me.  We are full-fledged addicts now.

But we can't stay at Amanda's.  Nor can we trek the 8 miles over there to watch TV.  What ever is a TV addict to do?  Enter my wonderful wife.  Turns out Duck Dynasty is available on iTunes and you know we are Apple people, having already bought our second Apple TV.  So she surprised me and bought Season 1.  We spent the remainder of the weekend relaxing on the couch and marathoning our way halfway through the season.  

What joy!  What bliss!  What fun redneck comedy!  Sure, maybe some of it is staged.  What reality show isn't.  But I still think the core of the show is true and awesome.  The best part about it is that it is something we can all watch.  The boys love it as well.  I can't say the same thing about all of my other reality TV shows (sorry housewives).

Do you watch Duck Dynasty?  What do you think?  Do you love it?  Which is your favorite? Phil?  Miss Kay?  Willie?  Jase?  Jep?  Uncle Si?  I can't choose, although Uncle Si gets Amy and I laughing all the time!  If you, like I was, are one of the last remaining people to see this, I highly suggest you watch!  Trust me.

Oh, and just to give you an extra laugh, there's an app too.  It's called Beard Booth.  I love it.  See the picture of the boys I made below!  AWESOME!

All is well, happy happy happy, in Drosche Land.

HA!