Ryan, Debi, and Toren Cragun's Blog

I wrote up my experience with the pain management clinic behind my house on my blog a few months ago. Since then, a lot has happened. A bunch of people have emailed me about the clinic; I’ve talked to lawyers and reporters and patients and documentary film makers about this. I’m not sure what will eventually happen to the clinic, but the local Fox News affiliate ran a story on them last night that included an interview with me:

Oh, and all the night footage – I shot that! Doug Smith asked me if I could, so I snuck out there one night around 9:00 pm and shot the people walking around in the middle of the night.

While Debi’s parents were here we took some photos.  Here are some of the better ones:

Toren with Granmary and Grangary

Debi and Toren

our little family

I occasionally try new recipes, when I can find the time.  I have a pretty good repository of favorite recipes that I make regularly (you can see most of them here).  I’d say 90% of the new recipes I try don’t make it past the Debi test, meaning Debi doesn’t eat the leftovers and I know that I shouldn’t make it again.  So, when I tried this new recipe, I was skeptical, as I usually am.  But the leftovers were gone in 2 days.  Ergo, it’s a keeper:

Spring Vegetable Risotto

• 1/2 pound sugar snap peas, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 3 1/2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 4 leeks, cleaned and thinly sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup arborio rice
• 3/4 cup white wine (or cooking wine)
• 3 carrots, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
• 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 package firm tofu (optional for added protein)

1. Cook peas in boiling water about 4 minutes or until crisp-tender. Drain and rinse with cold water; set aside.
2. Pour broth into a medium-size saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat; reduce heat to low and keep broth warm.
3. Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add leeks, salt and pepper (and tofu, if using tofu) and cook for 6 minutes, stirring frequently, or until softened. Stir in garlic and cook 1 minute.
4. Add remaining 1 teaspoon olive oil in saucepan. Stir in rice and carrots and cook 1 minute. Add wine to saucepan and stir until almost evaporated, about 3 minutes. Stir in warm broth and cook for another 22-25 minutes.
5. Add peas to saucepan and cook, stirring constantly, 2 minutes or until heated through.
6. Remove from heat and stir in Parmesan cheese, butter, and lemon juice (you can also put the Parmesan cheese on separately after dishing up servings).
7. Note: You’re supposed to slowly add the broth, but it didn’t seem to make a difference when I didn’t.

Spring Vegetable Risotto @ Group Recipes

My neighbor’s name is Jesus; he’s from Cuba.  He’s doing some work on our house.  It’s not really news, but I wanted a funny post title on here that would grab attention.  Anyone else ever paid Jesus to do some work for them?

We finally made our pilgrimage to a 3D theater to pay our respects to James Cameron’s latest blockbuster creation, Avatar. As a science fiction lover, I wanted to see it as soon as it came out. But I’m also a workaholic and finding the time just wasn’t happening. However, when I read that it was finally going to be replaced in theaters at the end of the coming week I figured it was now or never to see the movie as the director intended, in 3D. After cajoling Debi into it, she agreed to go. She wanted to, but she was unwilling to pay $40.00 for a sitter so we could spend $30.00 to see a movie. The compromise: we took Toren. I don’t think he loved the experience, particularly not the really loud parts, but he likes getting out of the house. He didn’t make a peep the entire 2 hours and 40 minutes of the movie. We got some really strange looks taking our 9 month old son into the theater to see Avatar, but no one complained.

As for the movie… First, the technology behind it really is remarkable. The 3D effect was very cool, though it seemed much more noticeable in the slower sequences when you had a chance to really focus on depth than in the action sequences where there was too much movement to make the 3D effect really matter. The Navi were also very cool, considering they were a combination of computer generation and human actors. And the world of Pandora was spellbinding. The luminescence was absolutely stunning, especially in combination with the 3D. What a remarkable feat of human ingenuity to create a visual experience like that.

As far as the movie goes, I enjoyed it. It’s not the most amazing story ever, but certainly compelling in its own right. The best part about it is that it takes place in an utterly believable alternate world. Of course, what I mean by that is not that the supernatural elements of Avatar are believable, but assuming a suspension of belief, it is a well-developed alternative reality. And the quality of film production made it possible to disappear into the alternative reality of Pandora for nearly 3 hours and not realize what was happening. I loved that.

The story was good, with its respective twists – just enough people dying to make it believable but not so many that you consider it a full-on tragedy. The take home message – don’t spoil the beauty of nature – is a good one, that I support. And I’m even fond of the criticism of corporations, though the irony is funny: a corporation (20th Century Fox) made the movie possible; no corporations, no Avatar. But certainly corporations can be driven by greed and many are. Maybe that will change one day. The tie-in with the situation with the Native Americans was also nice, though I think the Navi took their “Native American-ness” a bit too far, unnecessarily. It wasn’t really a bad thing, but it also wasn’t necessary to make the Navi full-on Native American.

I’ll be intrigued to see if this film does change the movie industry, permanently. It did get us to the theater, and we rarely go to the theater, preferring to watch movies at home where they are much, much cheaper. I’m not sure we’d go just for 3D in the future, especially if it’s just a character-driven film. But it is experience-enhancing. Anyway, anyone else want to comment on Avatar?