I tried some recipes from my Paleo cookbook today. I wanted to try the pancakes first. It didn't go very well. A lot more of it ended up in the trash than in my mouth. It was like eating fluffy egg whites inside soggy mushy breading that tasted like nutmeg. So I decided to try something else... cooking a whole chicken. I bought a chicken at Hannaford as well as some cloves of garlic and a lemon. Instructions in the cookbook:

1. Clean the chicken

   "Ah shit," I thought. I don't know anything about cleaning a chicken. I didn't think about that when I bought it... Do I have to cut all the guts out? Or is that already done for me? If I have to cut the heart and intestines out then I'd rather just give up now. I looked up some YouTube videos and did a little research (which made me even less excited to cut into the chicken). I couldn't find anything that helped. But I refused to call home because I thought it would be fun.. and funny... to try to cook a whole chicken without asking Mom and Dad for help.
   Thankfully, most of the guts were already gone and the few that were left (if those are guts?)... were wrapped up in paper and easy for me to pull out. I am assuming the stuff wrapped in paper is stuff that some people like to cook? I don't know. I just threw it away.
   I washed up the chicken and then had to dry it off. I used an extra bowl to set it in while I toweled it dry. This was the point that I started laughing at myself because I really had no idea what the hell I was doing.

   The recipe told me to mince garlic and rub it all over the chicken with some lemon zest and EVOO. No lemon zester in the apartment. But that didn't stop me. I tried using a knife... and a carrot/potato peeler. Neither worked very well so I decided lemon JUICE was close enough to lemon ZEST. I threw the rest of the garlic cloves and lemon halves inside of the chicken and put it in the oven... No, I had no idea how to set the chicken in the pan. Is there a right or wrong way? This is the only pan I had unless I wanted to use a cookie sheet.

   It is cooling now. I'll taste it in a little bit. But for my first attempt at cooking chicken... it doesn't look bad. Right? I'm thinking I was supposed to put it in the pan the other way so the legs are sticking out of the broth? Maybe not.

   I went shopping with some girl friends from school yesterday. On my drive to the Portland mall, I was noticing that the leaves have started to change colors. I'm sure in a couple weeks it will be beautiful.

   I started my first yacht design! I am so excited. We will continue to design it and fix it as we learn new techniques until January. So far, I had to research comparable boats. Our requirement was that it has to be a 40 foot cruiser/racer sailboat. I researched other 40' sailboats and used that information to write a design brief. The design brief is what yacht designers write up after talking to their client. Once we write this, we show our client and ask them if this is how they envision their yacht. If they don't have any complaints, then we get to continue to the next step in the design process. This is the design brief that I wrote for my imaginary client: 

Okoboji 40 

LOA: 40 ft
LWL: 33.5 ft
LOA/LWL: 1.19
Bmax: 12 ft
Bmax/Bwl: 0.875
BWL: 10.5 ft
Cp: 0.545

Design Statement:    

   The Okoboji 40 is designed to be a fun cruiser and fast racer sailboat both inshore and offshore. She is simple enough to be sailed by two people but has the capacity to be raced with a full crew.
   O 40’s design has an exceptional combination of sailing performance and comfort for a sailboat her size. This boat has a fully furnished, high-quality interior matching her contemporary exterior styling. She has a light to moderate displacement of 15500 lbs with a displacement to length ratio of 185. Her short overhangs and low VCG keel provide good directional stability while maintaining respectable performance upwind and minimizing drag downwind.
   She has an infusion-molded hull with a balanced fractional rig configuration and high-quality hardware. Her sail area to displacement ratio is 23 with a prismatic coefficient of 0.545 and a ballast of 5700 lbs. The O 40 has a small inboard diesel engine to be used during insufficient wind or narrow channel navigation.
   Her interior design achieves a nice balance in functionality, storage, efficiency, and comfort with two cabins, single head, main salon, and galley. The Okoboji 40 has an open transit cockpit with long storage-seats and high backrests. The leisure amenities like the swim ladder make this boat a great daysailer when not racing.

   Tonight I have been studying for a Naval Architecture quiz I have tomorrow. Here is the study guide I have to work from if anyone is interested. You can click the image to see it bigger and maybe be able to read it. I feel pretty confident that I understand the material. But if the quiz is anything like the Structural Design quiz I had last Friday, I'll be lucky to have enough brain power left to write my own name correctly at the end of the quiz. I also have a quiz about engines on Thursday. I haven't started studying for that one yet.

I'm going to go try the chicken now and continue to study.