Monolithic Dome?

I visited Area 51 this morning and was greeted kindly by Nathan. He came from Idaho. He works for a company called South Industries and they make these things, what they call Monolithic Domes. According to the website, these khaki colored balloons are Airforms (perhaps a patented fabric) that are inflated with generator-run fans until they are sprayed inside with polyurethane foam, supported by steel rebar, and then resprayed with a special concrete mixture. Supposedly these things are fire, water and wind resistant (like Captain Planet) but I can't tell if it's because they're dome shaped or because they're made of concrete, like everything else on Guam. I also can't tell if they're energy efficient because they are dome shaped or because they have so few windows. Some breakthrough. Or maybe I'm just not getting the whole story.

My only hope is to get invited inside one of these things once they are done and the neighbors move in. Maybe if I can get Sloan to make some of those filled pancakes we can head over there with a gift basket and talk about what Captain Planet did while he was in those kids' rings all day.

Castles in the Sand

If you're a Google Earth Goon and take a look at 13'' 16' 48.25 N 144'' 39' 46.20 E you will see the two circular cement platforms to the right or south of where our home should be. The lot hosting those two platforms is cleared of trees (thereby visible from space) but had otherwise remained undisturbed for the duration of our stay. We returned to our rental after holiday house-sitting for two weeks and there were trucks in the lot, spotlights, a Genie lift and men in hard hats like the end scene of Close Encounters. I noticed the structure but kept hushed so as not to disturb Sloan's fragile sense of domestic stability.

A few hours later she went out for a run and returned with her discovery. We had to see it before it got too dark. We walked over the new and crunchy white gravel the landlord had spread over the driveways. We neared the ditch and low lying shrub that separated our housing area from the next and heard voices. A man was still there in his white hard hat, talking with someone hidden behind a tree. We panicked and ran away.

We approached from the ocean side but the rough coral and recent landscaping (aka. fallen coconut trees) prevented us from getting too close. Sloan said she could just barely see it. The sun had set. We were walking back to The Container when we heared the truck pull out of the lot. We resumed our approach, hopped over the ditch and there it was, like a lopsided grandmother's beige bra'd bust, what the hell is that?

to be continued . . .

Fiesta Plate!

I remember fundraisers in elementary school. Sometimes it was those tasty chocolate covered almonds. Sometimes it was Pizza Hut gift certificates. In the old youth group it was car washes or service auctions. But we are an adult volleyball club and had to make serious money fast (for the sweet uniforms with collars). What do grown ups do for fundraisers? We make fiesta plates. Now, you kiddies out there obviously don't know how to make a fiesta plate or you would have been doing it in kindergarten to get money for those Apple IIE's. Here is a simple guide to a successful fiesta plate fundraiser.

Step 1: "Write off" a good ton of frozen chicken thighs, 5-20lb bags of rice, and 4-gallon jugs of soy sauce from your job at army supply store.
Step 2: Thaw chicken in steel sinks in the back yard.
Step 2b: Call members of volleyball team and tell them to show up at 2pm.
Step 3: Convince your Uncle to supervise, your brother-in-law to make the marinade, and your auntie to make two cauldrons of red rice.
Step 4: Borrow barbecue setup from your cousin which includes: oil drum split in 2 lengthwise down the middle, custom made steel frame, steel fencing, tongs, and two-handed industrial grill brush.
Step 4b: Text members of volleyball team at 3pm and tell them to hurry the hell up.
Step 5: Rally all present volleyball members with ragged trucks (1) to come haul 4 Rubbermade bins of marinating chicken and barbecue equipment to fundraiser site.
Step 6: Spend 45 minutes discussing barbecue set up location considering wind direction, customer traffic, location of nearby offices, too many aunties with opinions and possible rain.

Step 7: 4:30pm, call late volleyball team members and tell them to pick up 6 family-size trays of pancit, plasticware, bottled water, napkins and get change for $200.
Step 8: Get cousin to show up at fundraiser site to start coals. No need take coals out of the bag, just light the bag.
Step 9: Educate volleyball team members how to collect money and put food on plates.
Step 10: Tell volleyball team members to put more rice & pancit on plates because chicken is taking too long to cook.
Step 11: Take lots of eating breaks.
Step 12: Tell Steve to stop flirting with the volleyball girls and help serve food.
Step 13: Make $400.
Step 14: Take it all down in the rain.

Simple. Now everyone can do it.
And if enough people are curious maybe I can convince Auntie to give me the marinade recipe.

Filled Pancakes

Now this makes no sense to me but some people, Sloan included, like foods filled with other foods. This genre of food delicacies includes the jelly doughnut, stuffed mushrooms, Turducken, and most recently the filled pancake. I don't want to appear ungrateful for Aimee's incredible Christmas gift -- she did send us all the ingredients and a special pan for pancake production that looks like a mancala board -- but these little nugget punk bastards are a lot of work. The instructions include such cooking prep gymnastics as forming stiff peaks, folding, and turning over with two wooden skewers. In the end though, they were delicious and all that Sloan could have ever hoped for in a new years breakfast food. Thank you Aimee.