Chocolate Fountain

Nicole from the Y running club held a post-marathon dessert party for the group, and the center of attention was... her new chocolate fountain. Coincidentally, attendance at the party was much higher than usual!

She sliced up strawberries, pound cake, bananas, pineapples, had chocolate chip cookies and marshmallows on hand, along with a bunch of wooden skewers so we could all take advantage. It was delicious... and let me say that chocolate covered chocolate chip cookies taste pretty good!

Nicole is very attached to her four year old son, and said something to the effect that she never wants him to do anything dangerous. Of course I spent 15+ minutes suggesting possible future careers: test pilot, mountain climber, astronaut, snake milker (extract the venom), smoke jumper, bomb squad tech, Alaskan deep sea fisherman, skyscraper construction worker, deep water oil pipeline repairman, fireman, policman, armed forces, etc. She really was appreciative of that. ;)

I remember watching a Discovery channel show on dangerous jobs, and the Alaska deep sea fisherman was the most dangerous of all. The fishing season only lasts two or three weeks, and the death rate is very high - rougue waves, cold water, very long hours, etc. The reward is essentially a full year's pay for those two weeks: $50K or even more depending on the haul. It is the highest paying blue collar job in the world. But something shocking like 20% of the workforce dies every season. Yikes!