Blog Number 152

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

One of my skillsets is the ability to judge (just by looking) the amount of dry spaghetti it will take to feed my family so that we have enough without having too much so that we have some left over.  You may scoff at this.  You may think, "Jon, this is not really a skill."  I disagree.  It is a skill, at least to my wife who does not have this ability.  Up until a few years ago, I allowed her to eyeball the dry spaghetti amount.  She always made too much.  I would ask her why she made too much.  She would always reply with the same excuse, "I had it measured and it did not look like enough, so I added some more."  Amateur!

So, up until I took over this duty full time, we always had leftover spaghetti (a LOT of leftover spaghetti).  That would be fine if spaghetti was good re-heated.  In my opinion, it is not (and I have had plenty of spaghetti to practice on).

Now, you may think that it would be simple to teach this skill.  It is not as easy as you may first think.  It is not a matter of counting individual strands of spaghetti.  First of all, we switch brands a lot and every brand cooks / expands differently.  Also, you have to take into account the FHF (Family Hunger Factor).  How long has it been since we last ate?  What the last meal heavy or light?  Will this be the last meal of the day?  Do we need the kids to be hungry again at a certain time of the day (you have to make more / less accordingly).  Yes, there are many factors to consider.

And I don't take my skill lightly.  I know that the wife and family are relying on me to make the proper amount.  I feel the pressure!  I don't want to hear the words, "Dad, is there more?" when there is not or "Dad, you made too much!"  The pressure is insane at times!  But at the end of the meal when it is clean up time, it is a great feeling to see full faces, empty plates and an empty spaghetti pot making for easier clean up.

Yes, it is a skill.  Before I sat down to write this blog entry I measured the spaghetti and now it is almost done so I am going to enjoy the fruit of labor.  Until next time...

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon