Maine Lobster and Wicked Whoppers

You can see above what we had for lunch today.  Our new friends from Maine sent us a thank you gift, and it arrived at the church this morning.  The thank you gift was five live lobsters and a five Wicked Whoppers.  We'll get to the whoppers in a moment, but first, the lobster.

Many years ago, Nana and Ye-Ye took us to Bar Harbor, and that was the last time I've eaten lobster like this.  We ate it at the table with the little bibs and all that.  No bibs today, which was funny at one moment because Josh's lobster claw exploded and splattered him with water and lobster.

We got ears of corn and potato salad, and as you can see above, Mommy prepared the lobster.  We watched a short video beforehand, one that demonstrated the best way to prepare the lobster.  First of all, the obvious question:  were these really live lobsters?  Yes, they were.  The "humane" way of preparing them is "putting them to sleep" in the freezer for thirty minutes to one hour beforehand.  Then, as these weighed one and a quarter pounds, we put them in boiling water for nine to ten minutes.  Afterwards, Mommy had them set up in a wonderful presentation, and after that, we put them on the table and posed for a group shot together.

The lobster was delicious, and it took a bit of work to get to all the edible parts, but that's part of this unique experience.  Well, it's unique for us here in Georgia.  Maine residents are more familiar with it, of course.  Mommy had melted quite a bit of butter, and by the end of the meal, everyone was more than full.  Josh picked up lemons, and we even picked up a few extra lobster tails from the grocery store on the way home.  It was a great afternoon together, and only a few of us had enough room for dessert - those Wicked Whoppers!

No problem though - Madison could handle one of those no problem!

We had a good day today, of course with taekwondo in the evening as things roll along.  She's been working on her form, along with everyone else of course, and that seems to be going a lot better than the previous practices.  This may be because of the amount of time she's been practicing it lately - the summer months make it more difficult to stay consistent with practice times.  We should be at a blue belt confirmed by October.

We watched a few episodes of Clone Wars tonight, and we watched the weather forecast:  there's something ominous on the horizon, that is if you look southeast of here.  Hurricane Florian is on the way, and that is looking to shape our weekend somewhat, but the people in Florida perhaps even more so.

Madison practiced her piano a little, and told us she had a good day at school today.  One of her projects in her science class is a study of the release of wolves in Yellowstone.  She's going to be debating that in a few days, although she doesn't know what side of the debate she's on right now.  So she's taking notes on that, which as we close, I can share below.

Things We Already Knew

1. Without wolves, elks will overgraze the park
2. Animals’ population decreased a lot
3. Rivers were damaged
4. There were less animals, grass, and berries

Pros

1. Wolves will help boost the ecotourism opportunities

The program will encourage tourists to visit and see the wolves based off advocates of the wolf  program

2. Wolves will keep the YellowStone population balanced

Before the wolves were reintroduced, the elks’ population doubled and other decreased.

3. Controlling wolves to avoid them hunting livestock

Wolves would eat other farm animals, and now they have devices to control them

4. Wolf protection would be provided for farmers and ranchers

Cons

1. Comes at an expense for tax payers
2. They can harm the livelihoods of people where they hunt
3. They have a history of attacking people under certain circumstances
4. Wolves from other regions can mix in instead