Stuology

Food Photo and a Jay Update

Apr 21st, 2010By: Mellystu Comments 3

Chili Garlic Ribeye

This was our lunch yesterday. We ate out so much over the weekend that I didn’t cook the ribeyes that were in the fridge. They needed to be cooked as soon as possible, so lunch it was. These ribeyes were fabulous. I read around a lot about pan searing steak because I really want to learn how to do this. I only know how to grill them, and I don’t grill in the winter when there is no longer light during dinner and it is -10 degrees and our deck is covered in snow. Someday, I’ll have my super-fab kitchen that includes an indoor grill built into the range. Until then, I want to be able to cook steak inside. My first try was pretty good. My second will be better, especially if I can cook it without the fighting children distraction. I also need to bring my reflector upstairs for table food photos.

You know how people who are phenomenal in their field come with stories about how they knew they wanted to do it from a very young age. Or you hear from their parents that they started doing this activity like at age three? I’m starting to feel that way about Jay. His biggest desire, since he very first became mobile, has been pushing buttons. There has been no method of just “teaching him not to” that has stopped Jay from interacting with anything that has a button or a lever or a touch screen. We ended up putting a big gate in front of the entertainment devices for the tv for the first couple years of his life because no amount of “No” or punishment or redirection or Love & Logic would get him to stop. I’ve put a password lock on my phone, and it doesn’t discourage him from creating elaborate towers to climb up to reach my phone that I assumed was not in his reach just so he can make an emergency phone call, because I can’t stop my phone from allowing that even when locked. I’m going to take off the password lock because hiding my phone from Jay means hiding my phone from myself, and even then, I’m positive he would find it. I’d prefer he not make emergency calls. It’s crazy. It’s an obsession.

I want to put together a desktop for him from all the extra computer crap we have. All we really need is an extra monitor, and small LCDs are cheap these days. Even if we do that, there isn’t a guarantee that he will leave our electronics alone because he wants it all. I’m going to try though.

Given his general disinterest in outdoors and the fact that pushing buttons and eating bacon are his only loves in life, I smell a dedicated engineer or programmer^* in our family, and I’m going to be all, “Yeah, he’s been doing it since he learned how to move.”

*Actually, I really do smell a programmer–one that still prefers to shit his pants. The day that he decides that the toilet is not a bad thing will be the happiest day of my life.