Cider

A week ago, Mary, Simone and I went over to a friend's house to help her pick her apples. They've got a lot going on, so we thought we'd come and harvest their apples for them. The tree in the front has small Liberty apples (and is a small tree). The apples were very tasty. Here are Mary and Simone after our harvest.

We picked all those apples in a mere 30 minutes. Picking apples is much easier than picking strawberries or raspberries.

This weekend we went over to another friend's place. They live on a farm and have several huge apple trees - and far too many apples to know what to do. So we went over after church and took some off their hands.

Their trees are real tall, and we were able to pick a bucket full just standing on the ground, or using a small step ladder. Frank asked if we wanted more, and when we said, "sure" he pulled out the fork lift.

That is a picture of the fork lift from my vantage point. I was standing about 15 feet in the air - on top of half a dozen pallets being held up by this fork lift. I could reach the tallest apples from there with ease. In no time I'd picked another 3 buckets full of King apples.

And to think I thought the 30 minutes was productive the weekend before. We picked 4 times as many apples in just over 45 minutes.

So, what do you do with that many apples? Well, we're gonna make some apple sauce, and we'll dry some apple slices. But, if you really want to concentrate apples, you make apple cider.

Back to the first friend's house - because they have a cider press (and all those apples we'd picked the week prior). Without hardly trying, we pressed 5 gallons of cider - with apples left over.

Here's a picture of one of the daughters of our friends, Nicole, and the cider press:

Made Some Hot Sauce

I made some hot sauce over the weekend. There's a booth at the farmer's market that sells peppers of all sorts, so I picked up some paprika peppers (for sweetness) and some cherry bombs (for spice - a little hotter than jalepenos) and whipped up a concoction.

The last time I made hot sauce I just threw the peppers into vinegar, but I got fancy this time. I roasted the sweet peppers, and briefly cooked the hot ones in vinegar (with a couple of garlic cloves). Now it's all stewing in the refrigerator. After a month or so, I'll try running the mixture through our food mill to get a nice texture.

Soon the thai peppers in the garden will be ready, and I'll make another batch. mmm.... hot sauce.

Go Bears!

Mary just gave me my anniversary gift, a new fitted baseball hat (my old one was pretty ratty), and a licence plate holder that says "Berkeley Alum."

The hat might make sense to you, but a licence plate holder? You know I don't really care that much about where I went to school... I'm proud to have gone to Cal, but what makes the licence plate holder even more sweet is that it replaces the one that had the dealership name on it (may they rot in heck).

Crikey

Crocodile hunter, Steve Hunter (website: Welcome to The Crocodile Hunter Website) died a few days ago while swimming with a sting ray. It startled and stabbed Steve in the heart with its barbed tail. Evidentally, Steve pulled the barb out of his chest and then died.

I imagine his last thought was, "Crikey!"

Dinner notes

Mmmmm.... Mary made a great beef and barley soup tonight, and we had our favorite red wine. Very tasty.

As I finished dinner, I started to get up and hit my toe on the foot of the table. Simone laughed, and I swear I saw her think, "It's funny because it's not me."

She certainly is mine. I've got to be more careful as to what I teach her.

Her first bike ride

Simone went on her first bike ride today. She didn't actually pedal or anything, we've got another two years before that can start. At this point, she gets to ride along for free.

The church threw Simone a baby shower a while back, and when asked for what Simone might like to have, we said a Burley bike trailer would be keen. The folks gave us a nice nest egg to help buy one.

I picked one up this week on my way home from work, we assembled it (stroller attachment as well), and this morning went on our maiden voyage.

The trailer has all sorts of fancy straps and snaps. It's way easy to use - the universal hitch was a cinch to get on my bike (Mary's is a little tougher b/c she's got an old fashioned "girl-style" bike, but it works). It's got a sun shade, is rain proof, and has plenty of room for groceries. We got the one big enough for two kids because ... we figure we'll probably have a second one - as overwhelming as having just one seems right now.

Simone is technically too young to be in a trailer. You're supposed to be able to sit upright before you go for a ride. But we can't wait that long - it'll be the middle of winter by that time. So, we put the car seat in, strapped it in place, and put her inside.


See - she's as happy as a clam at high tide. Her tongue is sticking out - her standard proboscis pose.
There you can see the whole get-up, baby in car seat in trailer.
I didn't get a picture of her with the hat down over her eyes. It kept sliding down while we were riding, so I don't think she got a very good view during the ride.

She seemed happy during the ride, all the bouncing and jostling didn't bother her too much. Simone has always liked being outdoors, and this is just a natural extension to that.

We figured her first trip should be to the farmer's market, and she slept in my sling the whole time we were there. Everyone commented on how cute she was. While she's getting bigger, I think she looked especially tiny tucked in a sling on my chest. I'm big enough to make most people seem small.

It was just the first of (hopefully) many trips in the bike trailer.

Found!

Mary, Simone and I were on a walk this evening - to feed the horses in the field down the street.

While approaching the field we both noticed a black cat standing in the dirt road that runs alongside the field. Mary wondered aloud, "Could it be Milo?"

For those of you not familiar with Milo, he's the cat that went missing over 3 years ago when Mary and I were in Australia. He loved him very much - putting up fliers and knocking on all the neighbors doors. After a while we just figured he was gone, hopefully to a loving home. Though I secretly figured he'd been caught by a coyote. You see, he was just too happy a cat to not come back home to us.

Anyway, as we got closer, the cat looked up and walked toward us, showing of a white patch under his neck. Milo had a white patch under his neck. He then flopped out, and we saw the white patch on his belly between his hind legs. Milo had a white patch on his belly there.

Long story short, we think it's him.

It's been three years, and he seems very healthy - a good thick fur coat. The horses spooked him a little bit, but he was pretty friendly other than that. He growled a couple of times while we pet him, but he kept coming back for more lovings.

But, he didn't seem to respond to his name (it has been three years), and we don't really know we'd integrate him back into the home. We now have two other cats, and there are three cats in the two houses next door, so we couldn't really pen him up in the back yard during the transition.

We've got high hopes, but still aren't sure what to do... at least we know he's alive and healthy.

Buckwheat Pillow

Mary made her very own zafu for doing yoga at home. I must admit, it's very well made - it looks just like something you'd get from any of the yoga supply shops. It's a round pillow, stuffed with buckwheat hulls. And why buy something for $49 when you can buy the materials for about $5 and sew it yourself.

I'd been wanting to try a buckwheat pillow for a while, but never wanted to actually buy one. They seem like they might be loud - the hulls rub together every time the pillow shifts, sounding kind of like a rain stick. Plus, I'm a cheapskate.

Well, I finally put two and two together and started using Mary's zafu. With a regular pillow (even the extra firm ones), I usually couldn't sleep on my side for very long, and often ended up on my back (which exacerbates my snoring). With the zafu, I stay on my side all night. I flip sides once or twice to help my arms which tend to fall asleep after a few hours of me lying on one shoulder.

All hail the zafu.

WTF

Seriously, what is the deal with these:
Glade® PlugIns® - Scented Oil Light Show

How about we combine a hedge trimmer and a butter dish? Or perhaps a measuring spoon and a voltage meter?

Who comes up with these ideas? And, more to the point, who buys this stuff?

Stole the show

Last weekend we went to Art and Air Festival in Albany. The hot air balloons had already sailed, but all the art booths and music were in full swing. Some of the stuff was pretty neat, but nothing we couldn't live without.

We were chatting with one of the vendors, and she said that sales were way down, only 10% of normal (and she'd been there all 7 years it was running). We did notice how few people were there, considering the beautiful weather.

Simone decided she'd sleep through the entire event. I walked around with her asleep on my arm (like a lioness sleeping in a tree) for two hours. Everywhere we went people told us how cute she was and how we needed to take a picture. Of course we didn't have a camera.

There was an HP booth and the lady there took a picture and printed it for us (showing us the snazy new printer and camera - which took a fuzzy picture). I then remembered that we had cameras in our phones.

Here's the cutie:


A whole body shot for perspective:And here's the picture I took one handed (my favorite):

Is Our President Learning?

Someone takes a closer look at the recent "leaks" that Bush wants it known that he's an avid reader: American Prospect Online - Is Our President Learning?

Sounds like yet more mis-information being spread by our president.

Subtle

From: Opinions: Tom Toles Cartoons - (washingtonpost.com)

Math makes spywork easier...

Interesting short article about how simple formulas were used to replace faulty human intelligence: Gavyn Davies does the maths

Moving the old-age bar...

I got a haircut today (first one in a year actually, but that's another story).

First of all, I feel out of place because everyone is talking about the little league world series - it was on the TV. I understand that the Beavers did win the college baseball championship, but still, why would any of us care about little kids playing baseball? Sure, they're the best in the world for their age-group, but come on, we don't watch world-champion basketball for 12-year olds, or football.

So, these old-timers are talking about that and watching it on TV. The show/game ended, and on came the X-games bmx vertical event (which I was interested in). They immediately turned the TV off. eh?

So, I'm feeling out of touch already.

The guy next to me is getting his hair cut (surprise, surprise), and the barber asks him, "do you want me to trim the eyebrows?"

That's the new bar for being old , when the barber asks if my eyebrows need trimming.

Of course, I guess it'd be worse if they just trimmed them without asking.

Slime Molds

I'd read about slime molds before, and the first part of this article gives a good description of how they sometimes behave like individual amoebea, but in times of scarcity, they group together and behave as a more complex ogranism that generates "spoors". Neat stuff.

The article goes on further to discuss details about the complexities in these complex organisms which you may or may not find interesting (I did), but the first part is definitely worth reading.

Us and Them Among the Slime Molds

Which do you like better?

Interesting site - asks you to choose between photos.
After choosing some, you click on the brain and it tells
you something about yourself.

So far it's gotten 7/8 statements correct.

photos you likebetter: you are what you like

The environmental costs of green energy: Biofuels | The Green Geek

The Green Geek has a good article on The environmental costs of green energy: Biofuels. I thought the most telling portion was the following:

It’s known that photosynthesis has an efficiency of around 16 percent. Even if the entire mass of the plant was converted to usable energy, this is already less efficient than using the sunlight directly via photovoltaic panels or concentrated solar power systems, and that’s not even factoring in energy losses during processing and distribution, or thermal and mechanical losses in a vehicle.

In part, this shows how amazing the energy concentration is in our fossil fuels, and how we really need to think of something more than replacing our oil/coal consumption with a "green" substitute.

Treadmill Bike

Maybe I'll ask for one for my birthday: Treadmill Bike

Crank

I've only seen the preview for the movie Crank, and it looks good. In fact, I think the plot is about as good and simple as you can get in a movie. It is analogous to the TV show "Hot or Not."

In "Hot or Not" people walked on the stage and were labelled either "hot" or "not." Simple. You knew what you were getting just from the title of the show. Production costs (in TV that's big) were minimal. And viewers knew they could watch without any pretense of having to "enjoy the writing."

In Crank, the main character is poisoned, and if he lets his adrenaline flow drop, he will die. So, he gets to pack as much action/explosions/fighting into a 90 minute movie as possible. And you know that going in. The writing doesn't matter, you're going for pure action. I'd bet that any character development you notice in the will detract from your experience.

Cucumbers ripen?

I harvested a cucumber out of our garden. It looked nice and big and pretty.

Tonight I cut it open to mix with some of dill from our herb garden to make the cucumber salad mom used to make for us. Turns out, the cucumber wasn't quite ripe. The seed core is a bit small, and the flesh of the cucumber is a bit woody and bitter. Plus, the dill doesn't seem to be quite the right flavor either (perhaps it is too young as well - though the seeds are very tasty).

It'll be an interesting salad. Perhaps it'll just flavor the compost pile.

Hot Sauce

Last summer our garden had a Thai pepper plant. It was real cute, and had a bunch of little peppers. The peppers were way too hot to eat (we're not heat freaks). I used probably two of them in dishes, and that was plenty.

Toward the end of summer, the peppers all ripened and looked as though they were going to go spicy heaven, so I harvested them (15 or so) and tried to think of what to do. What do you do with peppers too spicy for normal eating?

I could have tried to dry them, but I was afraid of them just rotting - and the colors probably wouldn't stay. Plus, I already had a bunch of red pepper flakes.

So I chopped them up and put them in a small jar with vinegar - hot sauce. I put the jar in the fridge and promptly forgot about it. Some months later I checked the jar and it looked like the real thing. The vinegar was a nice bright red, and the rings of peppers floated in that beautiful liquid. It even tastes pretty good - kind of like a cross between Cholula and Tabasco.

I'm waiting for some hot peppers to show up at the farmers market (dunno if ours will show up, we've not given much love to the garden). I think it'll be fun to make one or two hot sauces. I'll probably blend one of them, and try roasting some of the peppers in one. I'll probably also add a little salt and sugar, and maybe some tomato, to give the sauces a little depth.

My first sauce aged rather well, and I'm almost done with it (I did add some more vinegar to stretch the batch a little further).

The Fastest Way To Make Simone Cry

No, I'm not hurting her - how sick are you for thinking that?

When I have one of my super-sneezes (which is most all of them), I get the whole body into it and approach fetal position at the apex of the sneeze.

Evidentally, this sound cuts straight to the core of Simone and she immediately begins crying at level 8 (of 10 - 10 is when she loses her voice, luckily that's been rare).

So sad, the U.S.ranks at the wrong end of so many measures of a civilized nation

Academics Poor US Test Results
Understanding of evolution Well, at least we beat Turkey
Infant mortality rate: (US is 40th (Cesarean rates are 2-3X that of other developed countries)
Capital punishment: US is 3rd behind China and Iran
Child poverty rates: U.S. leads industrialized nations with appallingly high rates

and the U.S.'s human rights are going down the drain with our "enemy combatants" as well as our civil rights (domestic spying, wiretapping)

The United States, a country with such good ideals, gone so wrong.

Airplane Scare

Bruce Schneier points out the obvious futility of the current airport security: Prison Shivs

Blankets

Thank you to everyone who has given us a blanket, it's beautiful, Simone loves it.

However, we do not need any more baby blankets. We have over a dozen already, and 3 more hand-crafted ones are coming our way. She simply cannot use that many at one time.

I'm not even talking about the little blankets you wrap her in to sleep or just keep warm - we've got 7 or 8 of those. Those get used every day for hours on end, and get puked on and soak up sweat (or, gasp.... occasionally some pee).

So, please, no more blankets. We just can't cycle through them fast enough, and have run out of shelf space for them.

(we did consider making a mega-quilt (meta-quilt?), but decided it'd be a little awkward to use)

Litter

Because I know you care about your cats.

Cat litter was always gross to me growing up. But, now that I no longer have parents who will clean up litter for me, I've got to take care of it myself.

We do have two cats, and since we want the best for them, we've tried out a number of different cat litters.

There's the traditional clay litter that doesn't clump. While inexpensive, it's awful wasteful because you have to toss out a bunch every couple of days. That never appealed to either of us.

Then there's the clumping clay litter. Evidentially, there was some controversy over the "dangers" of clumping clay, which appear to have stemmed from one woman's experience. But nobody else seems to have had cats die (or even have problems) because they were eating the litter. Our cats have never eaten litter - dogs may be that dumb, but cats? Anyway, the dust from clay may be an issue, or it may not - but in general, the clumping clay litters have odd chemicals added to them, and we'd rather not have that. Oh, and there's the possibility of the clay gumming up your sewer line - not what I'd want to have to get fixed.

We tried the wheat-based clumping cat litter. This stuff certainly clumps, and it clumps hard. If you have it deep enough (3" or so), the urine builds little solid cylinders of clumped litter. If it isn't deep enough, then the urine spreads out and cements itself to the bottom of your litter box (not fun at all). I found the clumps to be way too hard - they took 10-15 minutes to dissolve in water. So, while they wouldn't make any permanent clogs in the sewer, you couldn't always immediately flush down the clumps.

We tried the paper-based litter, which doesn't clump. This litter is different than the rest in that it's composed of a pea-sized balls of recycled paper. The urine soaks into the paper balls, and you have to scoop out the wet balls. The feces seemed to just sit there - dried out. While it was a little bit of a pain to scoop out the wet balls (if you accidentally stirred the litter - the wet balls would be everywhere), the litter behaved well enough. It flushed down super easy, never clogging the toilet (and ours has clogged when I've just peed in it). The biggest drawback was that it tracked. I have no idea how the cats tracked pea-sized balls around the house, but there were some, and they were very painful to step on.

The last type of litter we tried was the corn-based, modestly named World's Best Cat Litter. I have no idea if it is truly the world's best, but it clumps nicely and seems to control the odor well. Like the other non-clay litters, it is flushable and biodegradable. Like the others, it has very little dust, and is even safe to eat (not recommended).

They all have slight smells - not bad, just different. And they all worked. The corn just seems to have the best of all the options, with the fewest drawbacks. And now that we're letting the cats outside, we don't go through it so fast. It is not cheap.

What we really need is a self-cleaning litter box. Perhaps Simone will get one for her first birthday....

Videos

Well, Mary and I bought the last essential item for any new parents.

No, not the stroller (don't have one yet - we're hippies and like our slings, thank you very much).

No, not the binky - we're still debating about that, and anyway, you've got to wait for a few months so as not to cause nipple confusion.

No, not Simone's very own TV.

We got a video camera.

Turns out, there are too many varieties from which to choose, and we were pretty overwhelmed by the on-line information. So we just went out and bought one. It's gotten reasonable reviews, though people didn't like the video quality (looks great to me). What's nice about it: size (tiny), saves data to a hard drive (30Gb -> 7.5 hours of widescreen DVD quality video), and is so ridiculously easy to use.

The next step is editing the video - which means we'll probably get a Mac. I'm thinking the mini. It's just so cute and simple - that's all we need. And Mac is supposed to be the bomb for editing video and the such. Unfortunately, our cam corder records to mpeg2 format, which isn't editable by iMovie (Mac's movie editor). So, we'll have to convert. But, I don't think the video recorders that record to mini-dvds (one of the other options) do any different - I've got to check it out.

So, we're beginning our initial videos. Of course, she doesn't do a whole lot right now, so it'll be a while before we actually create our first DVD.

And we have to give big thanks to both sets of grandparents - this video recorder was a very nice gift from all of them.

Just don't go looking for us on AFV. I'm not going to be one of those guys who gets hit in the balls by their kid on video.

Yet more proof that AOL users are clueless

I took a quick break to say, "hi" to Simone today. The TV was on (Mary watched Oprah - but she wasn't in the room) - and I switched to find "Who wants to be a millionaire?" on. Some clueless guy (who didn't know that "Van Gogh" was the last name to a famous painter named "Vincent" when given 4 last names) was asking the audience for help on the question:

"What generally characterizes the condition babies often have called 'colic'?"

A. coughing B. farting C. exploding D. crying

Ok, so I made B and C up, I don't remember what they were, but they were just odd. Ignore the fact that the guy didn't know the answer was D (I knew that way before I even thought of having kids). He asks the audience and 91% say 'D'. yay. Then the hostess switches over to the AOL response (same thing as asking the audience, but AOL folks answer) and it was split, 38% A and 38% D (the rest to B/C).

Maybe only 8 people were responding from the AOL site, or ... I dunno.

Guess I don't want AOL people voting either.

A good reason for the US to not be like Australia

My brother-in-law is in town (from Australia) for a couple weeks. We were chatting last night about the state of the world and other such insightful topics. He reminded me that in Australia you have to vote, or you're fined. I kind of admire that - because I think it's a shame when people don't vote. Voting is kind of like a jury summons - it's a part of your responsibilities as a citizen of this country.

However, I am glad that we don't force people to vote in the U.S. because half the country is just too ignorant. Half of U.S. Still Believes Iraq Had WMD.

I don't have a problem with people having different moral values than I do, I'm certainly no authority on the subject. But when people are just too ignorant (or, as I usually say, "stupid") that they do not have basic facts straight, I damn well don't want them voting.

Granted, it's not entirely their fault. The reason folks believe Iraq had WMD isn't just accidental, because the number is up from 36% a year earlier. The executive branch is deliberately leaking misleading information and skewing their answers to straight forward questions.

As John Steward said (to people on Crossfire, but I think it applies to Bush and co. as well), "Stop, stop, stop, stop hurting America.".

Busiest Weekend Ever

August 12&13 2006

What's going on that weekend?

1. Sam's pig roast
2. Mary's brother is in town (from Australia)
3. Mary's mom's family reunion
   
4. national conference for naturopathic medicine
5. Mary's 20 year high school class reunion
6. our birthing class reunion
7. Cornell's alum summer picnic
8. neighbor's open house

And those are just the things I can think of off the top of my head.

We won't be doing all of that.

There's no UNDO button

That should be life's first lesson from now on.

I'm very accustomed to being able to undo things at work - computers are good like that.

However, when I'm placating Simone and get her to a happy place, I sometimes change - switch arms, put her over a shoulder, stop/start walking, whatever. And that sets her off again. I try to quickly "undo" what I just did, but she doesn't have an "undo" button.

Mid-Rank Nerd

Finally, an article that gives the low-down on biodiesel

It's at Scientific American: Fuel Change

Article on why intuition often gets science wrong

Interesting article at Scientific American, though it starts out well, it ends with a jab at prayer and healing which I thought was odd.

Folk Science -- Why our intuitions about how the world works are often wrong

First Bath for Daddy

This weekend was my first bath with Simone. Mary's given her a few baths, but this time I got to be the one in the water with her. It was probably her most peaceful bath so far. But I'm sure that had more to do with her age than anything I did.

Hot stuff

It's gonna be hot this weekend. Heck, it was hot yesterday when I worked on the fence.

Simone doesn't do well in the heat, she ... melts down. heh

Anyway, we headed to the beach where it's nice and cool. We took the cats as well - they did very well, and after coating the interior of the car with a fine layer of cat fur, settled down and actually seemed to enjoy the car ride.

Fencing

So, the computers at work decided to take a vacation day, which means I'm gonna work on the fence. Woo-hoo! Put on some sunscreen, grab a lemonade (Lynchburg????), and get to work!

This is what it looks like (the black plastic is covering the dirt we dug up for the patio project last summer, we'll take care of it after the fence is done):

A conservative's view of the the current state of affairs

Interesting article at the Boston Globe, Triumph of the authoritarians.

Hat tip to Ze.

They're on to me...

Just recently I've had to do that 'word verification' thingy to post my blog entries.

I guess my drivel is just that mundane:

Your blog requires word verification

Blogger's spam-prevention robots have detected that your blog has characteristics of a spam blog. (What's a spam blog?) Since you're an actual person reading this, your blog is probably not a spam blog. Automated spam detection is inherently fuzzy, and we sincerely apologize for this false positive.

Poor-man's Lynchburg Lemonade

I'm a huge fan of the Lynchburg lemonade. It used to be that the bar at Touche made a mean Lynchburg, but I've not been there in quite a while. A good one is made from a muddled orange and lemon chunks, some sugar, Gran Marinier, Jack Daniel's, and some soda water.

Mary used to work at a restaurant, and they served lemonade with a touch of orange juice. So now when I make lemonade (just plain Safeway brand, the organic stuff tastes different, and costs 10X as much) I squeeze an orange in. yum.

Just take a glass of that and add a shot or two of whiskey, and voila!

Make sure you warn your wife so she doesn't accidentally steal a swig of something she thought was plain lemonade.

Transition Complete

We made the switch, it is complete.

You see, we started Simone on disposable diapers because the cloth ones we had were way too big. Then we got the smaller cloth diapers, and they soaked through instantly... Then we were somewhat hooked on disposable, because they are so easy. And, the number of options for cloth diapers is daunting. Mary had done a bunch of reading (I'd done some), and she'd chosen two sets - one was the whisper-wrap and the bumGenius.

Mary knows a lady who has her own business selling cloth diapers and accessories. She had a bunch of the smallest sizes of different options and lent them to us - which was very useful. We were able to try out different covers and pocket diapers and see which ones worked and didn't. Mary's research was confirmed, the whisper wrap and bumGenius are both good choices and worked well.

After using all the choices for a few weeks, we figured out that we wanted to go whole-hog with the bumGenius. They are just so easy to use, work very well, they grow with the child (yes, they fit her now, and are big enough to fit her when she's 1.5 years old), and are a very cost-effective choice (they'll pay for themselves in 3 months of diaper service or disposables).

It's pretty exciting.

Fence Update

So, as expected, the fence didn't get put up in the two weekends we'd "projected."

I took Saturday off and hung with Mary and Simone - a very lovely day of rest. Sunday rolled around, and I started working around 10:30 (went to church and then ate something). Mom and dad came down to help - which meant Dad helped and mom got to see Simone (which, of course, was very helpful, but didn't get the fence up any faster).

Dad and I got a pretty good system down and put up 5 sections of fence before lunch (2:30 or so), and after lunch we put up the rails on the south section. I've no idea why putting up rails takes so long, but it took a definite chunk of time. The fence boards (morning work) went smoothly once we got our system down.

So, now I've just got to do 9 sections on the south side of our property, and another 6 or so between our two properties. Working an hour or two each night - we should get these done in two weeks (no weekends).

While putting up the rails for the south side (think the left side of the horizontal line of a capital T), it became abundantly clear that my property slopes down dramatically as you get to that 3-way intersection. The last fence section abutting the T intersection will be a good 8 inches (or more) higher than the last section going north (vertical line of T) and even higher than Robert's fence. Dad thought this might look odd, and Robert chimed in with something to that effect as well.

I'm still going to go with a "tall" section of fence, because no matter how you slice it, the ground slopes a lot, and I'm going to have 5-6" differences between fence sections already, and clipping the top of that last section will just shift the dramatic change more into my yard. Especially since we're going to level out the yard in that section anyway - which means raising the level of ground. So any shortening of fence would just result in us effectively having a shorter fence.

So, some dinner tonight, and back to the fence.

Moms Prefer Smell of Their Own Baby's Poop

I'm all for science, but where in the heck did they get the volunteers for this?

LiveScience.com - Moms Prefer Smell of Their Own Baby's Poop

Of course, while I don't think Simone's poop smells like perfume, I'd smell it and 12 other diapers for $100.

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

The summer project is a fence. Some new neighbors moved in and started the ball rolling to get a fence in. So we're putting in a cedar, neighbor-friendly, fence. And we're doing it ourselves.

Of course neither of us have done a fence before, but we figured it wouldn't be too hard. Though I think we over-thought parts of it, things are going smoothly (if a bit slow). Last weekend we dug a bunch of holes for the posts and began to set posts in them. My buddy, Miles came down and helped out.

I think the key learnings are as follows:

• Get the post holes right, because if they're off, the fence will be off.
• Buy 10' posts, so you can lop the tops off to the height you want (we're not doing that).
• Mix the concrete in the post hole, just add water then cement and mix.

We put up one panel last night, just to work out any issues and to see if we were thinking the same thing about the fence. It looks real sharp. I'm looking forward to the final result.

Quote of the month for me

I read this blog entry last night and thought the following paragraph was very eloquently and powerful.

Smooth Pebbles: Climate change as a test of empiricism and secular democracy: "The spread of empiricism, in fact, has been essential not only to the rise not just of science but of pluralistic democracy. In order to accommodate many perspectives and beliefs, we agree to abide by the rule of law rather than religiion [sic]. Deciding policy and law based mainly on facts — on testable questions — frees us from quibbling endlessly about what beliefs are correct. We use rules based on a small handful of secular values, such as the integrity of the individual and the rights to property and privacy. And we agree to adjudicate those rules according to testable fact. Empiricism underlies not just science but all of pluralistic, rights-based society."

WPCDD

This is so true.

Big Spanish Castle

Wow, phenomenal optical illusion. Seems totally impossible.
Big Spanish Castle

Overheard in New York - honorable mention

There's this blog that has random quotes from people in NYC, heard by strangers and put up on the blog. They're usually pretty odd and funny (often vulgar), but the headlines really make the quotes.. A few weeks ago they opened up a contest where you got to submit the headline for the particular quote. I was one of the runners-up for this one:

Overheard in New York | Happy Birthday K-Fed

Evolution denial as the legacy of slavery?

I saw this article linking evolution denial and slavery, thought it was interesting: The Panda's Thumb: Evolution denial as the legacy of slavery

Power to the Baby

I've been pestered for more pictures of Simone. These are from my camera, so the quality isn't real good.

This first one was taken hastily, so you can't see her face. She's got her head turned to the side, but her eyes are on me, and the expression on her face is, "Why? Why's it gotta be like this?" Unfortunately, this is my only picture of this expression and she's not making it very often any longer. How fast they grow up....
Mary and Simone taking a nap.

Simone in a cute outfit:

Simone, looking like she's auditioning for the next Rocky movie:

Simone is tired, time for bed:
Here's a good example of Simone's "Power to the Baby" stance - with one arm raised high in salutation:

Mmmm... strawberries

I picked a quart of strawberries this morning from our patch in the back yard. I do like fresh berries on my granola (home made of course, Mary makes some grubbin granola).

It got me to thinking, what is my favorite fruit?

I realized, that's kind of a dumb question. Sure, you can have a favorite, but would you have an over/under-ripe one of your favorite, or a perfectly ripe strawberry/peach/nectarine? Probably the ripe fruit.

I think that a perfectly ripe fruit of whatever kind trumps all other fruits. These strawberries are good, really good, but, in a month when I can get local peaches, the peaches will taste better than any strawberry I'll be able to find.

Granted, there are some fruits I just don't care much for - or am indifferent to. But, chances are, I've not had one at its peak of ripeness.

Which lead me to another thought. I think we don't directly taste most of the fruit we eat. Instead, when we eat a fruit of a particular type, it reminds us of the select few we've had that were awesome. When I eat a nectarine now, it tastes good, real good, but I think I'm half-remembering the really good ones I had when they were in season.

The Tell Tale Fart

I just thought that phrase was clever (I came up with it myself).

It's the phrase I use when Simone farts while I'm changing her - it almost always precedes some poo. So, if I'm quick, I can cover her up and contain the mess. Unfortunately, not all poo follows that clear signal, sometimes she's in stealth mode.

People were right - when you have a baby, you just talk about bodily functions.

It's kind of like I'm hanging out with Sam and Ron.

EvolutionBlog : What is Infinity?

I took a math class at Cornell the second semester of my senior year. I had to choose between taking it, the 2nd class in very popular history series (the half I really wanted to take), and some other class I really wanted. The math class (408 - a senior level undergraduate course) was supposed to be a good way to wrap up a major at math.

Long story short, the course was a joke. Half the people there were education majors (with math/science emphasis) who could only argue emotionally, not mathematically. And so we spent 2 weeks "arguing" whether or not .9999... = 1 or not. Heck, during the final presentations one of the students was having mental orgasms during her presentation because her realizations (what she was presenting) was in fact the culmination of her 4 years at Cornell. The only problem was that these amazing revelations were basic geometrical facts that (I imagine) most of the math majors realized freshman year.

Anyway, this guy's blog entry brought all of that rushing back .EvolutionBlog : What is Infinity?
I do find infinity fascinating - I've got a book on it.

Spray-Right All Angle Sprayers and Plug-ins

This is a plug for an amazing new product that's out there - a spray bottle that works no matter what angle you hold the bottle. I'm gonna pick one up next week when I drive by the shop near work that carries them.

You see, I know the guy who invented this - he'd been talking about it for a long time and it's cool to see him getting it off the ground. Hopefully he'll get a big contract with CostCo or Home Depot or something, but until then, he's just going to local shops.

In the next week or so you'll be able to order them on-line.

Seriously, check out the web page:

Spray-Right All Angle Sprayers and Plug-ins

Living Rivers

I've had a running debate with a guy at work over whether or not dams are a realistic source of power for the country. I think they're not.

But it made me think of the Glen Canyon Dam. There used to be an ice cream shop in Moab that sent its profits to help get rid of the dam. I think it was the Living Rivers folks. They've got a web page full of good info. One particular article is a little alarming - that Lake Powell is going to go dry in 2007. I think that's a bit early (just next year? - it's currently at 40-50% of capacity), but still, the trend is not good. Living Rivers Grand Canyon Campaign

Considering how beautiful Arches/Moab/Zion/Brice Canyon are, you know that there are many awesome canyons that are currently inundated. It'd be neat to see them again.

dope kid

That was Sam's response. I think she looks like she's all dressed up in desert garb. Simone - princess of Arabia.

Ann Coulter is just nuts

Not that I figured I'd ever be a fan of Ann Coulter - I read one of her books on the media (my Republican friend welshed on the deal - he was going to read Al Franken) and it was completely skewed - but it wasn't outrageous. However, her newest book seems to be pretty far out there. It appears that Ann thinks the problem with evolution is all them women and biologists.

best mojito recipie - Google Search

Turns out if you don't know how to spell recipe (I often spell it recipie), and you search for

best mojito recipie - Google Search

My site comes up in the top 3 (it just came up as #1 for me). boo-yeah!

Book Review: Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why by Bart D Ehrman

I read the book Misquoting Jesus by Bart D Ehrman right after Simone was born (the timing was not on purpose - that's just when the library had a copy available). I'd been looking for a book like this for quite some time and was excited to get my hands on it.

It's basically a book that relates how Bart Ehrman undergoes a transformation from a born again Christian to whatever he is right now (agnostic I believe, but he didn't say in his book), and why. The "why" is the interesting part. (Note: Bart Ehrman is a big-wig at Princeton, so he's not just some hack dissing the bible.) He lays out a quick history of the scriptures and how they arrived from their original form to what we have today - copies of copies of copies of copies of copies (of copies). He talks about how the scripture has changed over time, and methods scholars use to try to determine which versions of the old copies of scripture are closer to the "original" (if that even has any meaning). Pretty good stuff.

Actually, to get a quick overview of the book, listen to the Fresh Air interview with him. It's actually a decent summary of the book, you don't even have to read it.

In the book he goes over several key passages in the bible ("this is my body, broken for you...", Jesus and the leper, the story of the two women finding Jesus' body missing after his resurrection, Jesus dying by God's grace or apart from Him, the story of casting stones at the adulteress, and mothers), and he shows you why he thinks a particular version is more original. He does, however, say that many scholars disagree on various passages, and that you should not necessarily take his word - but to read as much as you want/can and make up your own mind. So I give him credit for that.

I did look for some reviews to see what others thought of his book. I found this long review (here's a shorter version) of the book. The long version goes into detail refuting a couple of Ehrman's points, and simply dismissing or minimizing Ehrman's other points. And then at the end he slams another work that Ehrman contributed to (the fourth edition of MetzgerÂ’s Text of the New Testament) for no apparent reason. Oh, even better, at the end of both reviews, the critic offers readers of the review to check out a soon to be published book that has a better (supposedly more accurate) view of the scripture. Of course that is a plug for a book the reviewer has helped write (he's one of the authors).

I may or may not read this critic's book. While it might have some good information and contrasting opinions, I really didn't care for the tone of his review. He tries to paint it as though writing the review was difficult, "It gives me no joy to put forth this review." But there were a few cheap shots in there.

But maybe I didn't get the message of Ehrman's book. What I took from it is that the following truth changed Ehrman's life: the bible has changed over time, sometimes by mistake, sometimes by intentional changes (motivated by theology, societal pressures, or to clear up/clean up the wording). That's it. The book was well written, very easy to read, and chocked full of interesting and thought provoking ideas.

And to think, I liked the book and I'm not even a believer.

This is reassuring

We let North Korea develop missiles (not that I think they'd be stupid enough to fire them at the U.S. itself), and we build a system to intercept the missiles that just doesn't work: Fledgling US missile shield largely unproven.

It's been years, and they've only had 5/8 success rate? That doesn't count the number of times they had to scrub the tests. And they don't point out how easy the tests probably were set up to be.

Just a waste of money. Talk is a hell of a lot cheaper, and would probably work better.

Michael Pollan versus Whole Foods

Michael Pollan wrote a book I'm intending on reading, The Omnivore's Dilemma, which traces aspects of four different meals (ranging from a hamburger meal at a fast food restaurant to a meal he hunted/gathered himself) that cover the span of available options to us.

Oh, and you can listen to an interview with him on Fresh Air here: Dinner: An Author Considers the Source.

Anyway, sounds like a neat book. In it he gives Whole Foods a hard time, in part because they talk a lot about how local they are, when in fact, very few local farmers provide food for Whole Foods - most of their stuff is gotten from two, large organic growers. Evidentially, the president of Whole Foods wrote an open letter to Michael Pollan, defending Whole Foods' practices.

Here's Mr. Pollan's response, I found it very enlightening: Michael Pollan's response.

Another first

Today I exercised - I went on a jog. Which is about the first exercise I've had since she was born.

I've been using Simone as an excuse not to exercise, but it's not a good excuse considering my diet lately. Anyway, it hurt, but I'm sure it'll hurt worse tomorrow.

Funky Keyboard

I've seen this keyboard in the past, but just came across a good review of it: ATPM 7.05 - Review: Datahand Professional II.
I'd like to try the keyboard out, but $1000 is a lot of cash (though they're currently selling it at 50% off, but $500 is a lot of cash).

BBC has a live map of popular stories

Slick. You can click on a portion of the world (think continents) and see which headlines are the most popular now. It gives you an easy way to see what is popular in different parts of the world. Most notably, soccer was high on every continent other than ours. BBC NEWS | Most Popular Now | Live World Map

Neat free running video

There's a pretty good free running video on Google here. I'd seen some other videos, but this is one of the better (ignoring the dorky 30 seconds or so about a minute into it where there is no action, just camera movement).

Watching this definitely reminds me of some of Jackie Chan's moves in his movies, and my immediate conclusion was that big-budget movies are probably going to start using more and more free running in their chase scenes.

Of course a little bit of research led to finding parkour - the name for the original physical discipline from which free running has grown. Parkour is the minimalist approach to getting through obstacles as efficiently as possible, whereas free running is more artistic (free-form) that doesn't necessarily care about efficiency.

And, I also found out some of it is going to be used in the new James Bond film, Casino Royale. cool.

DMCA article

This is a good article on what affect the DMCA has had on the electronics industry. I especially like the last paragraph:

Hollywood is good at telling stories. The one it has been screening in Washington—that music and movies will perish if the regulators don't kill the dangerous gizmos first—is powerful drama but has about as much basis in reality as Lord of the Rings. Killing off gizmos and subjecting technological development to the whims of federal regulators will ultimately hurt not just consumers but also tomorrow's creative industries—both technology and entertainment.

The article in full: IEEE Spectrum: Death by DMCA by Fred von Lohmann and Wendy Seltzer.

6 down, 1 to go

We just finished season 6 of the West Wing (needless to say we're hooked). Now we have to wait until September 11th to get a look at it.

Mmmm.... strawberries

I've got to say, strawberries from our own garden trump any strawberries we'll ever find in the store. They are light years ahead of the huge, colorful, tasteless berries from California, and tons better than the organic ones we get at the co-op.

I picked a pint of them tonight, and put them over some Julie's organic vanilla ice cream. It was nirvana.

So True

A wonderful rant written by Jon Carroll: check it.

Annoying Forest Ads

There have been ads on TV for a while talking about how wonderful the Oregon laws are for protecting forests. I find them condescending because it very obviously is showing a one-sided view of the state of things (pro-industry).

Well, a few seconds on the web page, you can clearly see that the board of directors is only staffed by people in the logging (forest) industry.

This is just annoying as all get out. Our tax money is going to a state-sponsored organization that is just a mouthpiece for the industry.

But this should not be a surprise when the same government decides that a paper that shows industry practices damage the environment is unacceptable because it is "political." You see, because papers that show the industry is doing good isn't political, but bad things are political.

Throat Surgery

So I had my throat surgery today. The goal was to relieve the narrowing in my esophagus right above the sphincter to the stomach. It's a real quick operation - they don't even sedate you very much, they give you a narcotic that makes you forget the procedure. So, I don't remember anything about the operation.

The surgeon did some looking around while she was in my GI tract. She found no hieatal hernia, but did find a new-looking ulcer in my small intestine, and said she was worried about my esophagus (it was inflamed or prone to bleeding or something). Long story short, she was full of bad news and didn't have any real answers as to why things might be they way they are.

But it's not all doom and gloom. Mary and I both agreed that the surgeon was very happy to diagnose problems, but offered no information as to how things got this way, how bad any of it was, or what could be done to prevent any of this from happening again.

What she did do is double my super-antacid prescription, and gave me some stuff to help heal the ulcer. Ironically, the ulcer is possibly new enough that might have been caused by the antacid medicine I used to get ready for this surgery. The surgeon did in fact take a little biopsy of the ulcer to see if the ulcer was caused by bacteria. And if it's the case, I'll get some super duper antibiotic to treat it.

Anyway, my hiccupping should go away, and I'll probably go see some other doctors for a second opinion, probably a naturopath to see what I can do about my GI inflammation. Stupid M.D.s never look at the big picture.

Heh, the surgeon even asked me (mere minutes before my surgery) if I wanted to remove my gall bladder. I said, "no" and she warned me that it was a ticking time bomb. Gotta love that bedside manner.

So now I just finish my 24 hours of a liquid only diet (which followed the 18 hours of fasting prior to the surgery).

What I Learned Today (11th day of Simone)

Simone likes pooping in clean diapers.

Oh, and most of the "small" cloth diaper wraps are woefully large, which leads to bad fits (i.e. leaks).

Mystery Solved

Ever wonder why aluminum foil is glossy on one side and not on the other?
Check out the article: Tin, Aluminum, Chromium

Slick (gapminder)

Check out this cool visualization: http://tools.google.com/gapminder/

ps. Happy 300'th entry to me.

Things I Learned Today

Well, I probably learned them over the last week, but at the 1 week anniversary of my daughter's birth I realized:

• I've got a kid. I knew that before, but I ran an errand today and saw some little kids hanging outside of the post office (presumably waiting for their parents to finish up inside) and I realized, "I've got one of those." And just this evening I realized, she's gonna be a teenager soon.
• Simone knows Tai Chi. You should see it. She's got all the hand and foot movements mastered - she just needs to stand up and do the same thing. One thing that's gonna put her at the top of her class is her facial expressions - way beyond what I've seen people do in the park.
• Infant clothes are horribly sized. She's small (6 pounds 10 ounces now), and the 0-3 month outfits just hang on her like the Talking Heads big suit, and the premie clothes are just too short. Luckily Grandma (nanna?) embroidered some little body suits that fit just right, so she's wearing those and some socks.
• Change diapers often. This is just a good investment, because when I'm old and in diapers, I want her to make sure my diapers are changed often.
  

A Slew of Visitors (even more)

Well, these aren't necessarily visitor pictures, just pictures of Simone while people were over.

This is one of the first pictures of Simone, I call it her nostril shot.

In this photo, Simone is posing as some movie star from the 40's, I'll let you guess who.
She's just cute as a button in the next two.

Here she is in Grandma's lap (Mom isn't sure what she wants to be called yet, so I'm using Grandma).

She's got the typical cute baby feet.
Several people have said that she looks like me. I'm hoping she doesn't get my unibrow.

Simone Rose in front of a pink rose plant.
Simone's first outfit.

Lastly, when she gets tired of all the photos, she lets us know.

A Slew of Visitors (cont)

More pictures from the past few days.

First is Sam, talking to his new niece.

And Simone's summit pose (check out those guns)
Paula came down to meet her niece in between finishing up the state track meet and heading back to school. Such dedication for Simone - but she's worth it.

And Gin and Bob raced over the day they got back from their wine tour of Italy.


I even got into a few pictures. See, there's proof that I change diapers.
Note the crooked horizon - something my Dad always gives Sam a hard time about. Well, this one was taken by dad.
Here I am admiring our beautiful daughter.

A Slew of Visitors

Wow, a bunch of people came by to check out our newborn Simone.

But first, a quick note about her name. You don't pronounce it like I have been doing (Sah-mOn) but instead say (si-mOn) - that's si as in sit, and mon as in moan. You see, I've just always pronounced it the other way. Of course people on the phone think it's spelled "Samone" when I pronounce her name incorrectly. Jeesh. Of course I mispronounced my friend Megan's name for a year and a half. It is Megan as in 'egg'. But of course on the east coast they pronounce 'egg' differently than we do here. sigh...

Anyway, lots of people came by, and we took pictures. Lots of pictures.

First we have two of my dad and Simone, both turned out very nice. For some reason, all the photos of my dad came out in focus, but everyone else had some blurry pictures.

This next one is of our midwife, Lisa.


I took a bunch of photos of my mom from this angle - I'm not sure why. Simone looks good in all of them, but mom's head is a bit too close -so it appears to dwarf the rest of her body. Sorry mom.

The next three are of my darling wife and Simone. We took Simone outside for a little tan and to enjoy the nice weather.

Cuteness personified

Five days and seven hours old, getting cuter by the minute. I don't see how this can continue much longer - there just isn't enough cuteness in the world. Perhaps it's more of a logarithmic curve, and not the exponential curve it appears to be. (click on the links if you don't understand math)

A Day of Many Firsts

Like most new parents (as they/we should), it's all about the baby for the first few days/months/years. I had Simone's first puke, and I changed my first diaper ever (not counting the half-job I did on my nephew-in-law a few years back). And, of course tonight will be my first night sleeping with a baby (yes, we're co-sleeping, I think it's dumb not to).

What I didn't realize is that after the birth, you get a 24-hour "cry free" buffer where the baby is pretty much just sleeping. Simone did cry a couple of times for a minute or two, but she was generally happy as a clam to just hang out and sleep.

Mary and I are very blessed to have had a safe birth to a healthy baby (sadly, this is not the case for more people in the U.S. than in any other developed country).

At some point I'll discuss what it was like to have a home-birth, but I'm not done processing it myself yet.

Simone Rose Jackson

Born this morning, 5am. 20 inches long, 6 pounds 7 ounces, and as beautiful as can be.

Both Mary and Simone are doing very well, though they're both a bit tired after the long journey to get here.

They Let Us Win

So, I had yet another game tonight. We barely had five people, which was lucky for the other team. Why? Because we stomped them 82 to 44. I had a ton of rebounds, a number of blocked shots, and an assist or two.

My guess is that when the dude who organized the basketball schedule saw our team name, he lined up the easiest schedule possible. We would have scored more, but (again) two of our point guards have no clue how to pass to anyone other than themselves, and were pretty much black holes (you give them the ball, they're shooting). Oh, and the other tall guy on my team (well, 3 of the 4 other guys playing) wouldn't shoot the ball when they got a rebound underneath the basket. It was sad. Not as sad as my 3/14 from the field (3 consecutive shots missed in about 6 seconds).

Of course, the saddest thing of all was we were playing a girls high school team. They were maybe Juniors, though they could have been younger. If you took their three point guards and put them on the other side of a teeter-totter from me, I'd still tip the scale in my favor. Luckily, the were decent shots, and we fell for most of their pump fakes. But when only two of their players stood taller than our shortest player, you knew it was going to be trouble.

So Depressing

Today INTC closed at $17.95. Now, for those of you keeping score, that's the Intel stock ticker.

First, let me say that I like my job (though recent events really make me doubt the management of my department, but that's another blog entry), and they pay me well. So I'm not complaining about compensation.

However, one of the "perks" of a supposed high tech company is the stock, or even the stock options. Take a look at this chart comparing AMD, Intel, and the S&P 500 over the last two years. It's depressing.

Now, back to the options. When I joined Intel, stock was soaring, and everyone talked about "the golden handcuffs", and that was a part of the attraction of working at Intel. I'm saddened to say that only one set of my options are in the black, and if the stock drops to a measly $17.42, then I'll have no options worth anything. Hell, if I'd actually purchased stock for the same prices, I'd be out a third of my money.

Anyway, it's just a bit depressing to think about all that lost potential. It wasn't so bad when it was just me, but then I got married and had to think about a wife. And now, I've got a kid that's almost here...

Wasps Nests

I mowed the lawn today. Not my favorite job, but it's a heck of a lot easier than weed-whacking a lawn.

Anyway, it finished up pretty quickly because we have more flower beds than we used to, and there's still a huge pile of dirt in the south-west corner of the yard. Luckily the weeds are holding down the dirt, otherwise it might look bad.

Where was I.... oh, it went quickly, so I figured I should do some more yard work. An hour or two every evening, and we'll be caught up in no-time.

I recalled seeing a couple of wasp nests under the eaves of the house, and being the procrastinator I am, figured I'd better get to them soon, or Mary will be pissed when a swarm of them comes down and flies away with the baby. That meant tonight.

So, how does one deal with wasp nests? You can get some noxious chemical spray and spray them, but Mary is very against that. Don't get me wrong, I'm not all chemical happy, I'd rather not spray stuff everywhere if there's another alternative (that doesn't take forever). But if your partner feels strongly about something, and you don't, you're best to go with the flow. So no chemical for me. Oh, and another reason not to do use the spray: I didn't have any and am far to lazy to hop in a car and go get some.

The question was, how do I get the wasp nest I saw in the eaves 20' up in the air? See, that's why the spray was attractive - because it shot out of the can up to 20'. Problem solved.

Only no spray.

Well, you can knock the wasps' nest off the eaves. So find a stick. Luckily, I've got some 8' poles that we use for the deer fence around the garden.

So I get one and start looking for nests. Guess how many we have?

Go on, guess!

Lame - you could at least have played along. We had at least 2 dozen. Seriously. Now, 6-8 of them were just starts, no bigger than a wasp really. And those were almost all in one spot, so they went quickly. The next dozen were a little larger, the size of a ping-pong ball. The tiny ones were no big deal, and the lime-sized ones didn't bother me too much, but they actually made noise when falling down the side of the house. The noise was kind of like tissue paper bouncing down stairs.

Then I saw the big one, it's not as large as the one I knocked off two years ago (that was the size of a good-sized pancake with a few pints of strawberries on top). No, not that big, but it was the size of my fist. And when I attacked the pancake one, it was winter and I told myself that they were all hibernating or something. This is spring, and they're all feeding off our flower beds.

Eh? Feeding off the flower beds? Permit me a digression. When you're dealing with wasps, you quickly realize there are a bunch of different kinds. I figured that I was battling the flesh-eating death wasp from Peru, but it turns out it's likely just a black and yellow mud dauber wasp. Turns out, love eating spiders, and we have about a hundred spider egg pouches along the eaves. And every resource I found about them quickly pointed out that they are docile wasps, very rarely stinging people (or any animals). So, I wasn't dealing with nests of hoards of suicidal attack insects, but nests of single, pansy, wasps that build their hives out of mud. Back to the story.

But I didn't know that, I was sure they were going to come after me like some cartoon, only I had no lake to jump in.

So I poke at the large nest a couple of times, and it falls onto our porch - where I leave it for Mary to admire when she gets home. That and because I'm afraid that the baby wasps are waiting for me to get close, at which time they jump out and eat me. That nest had 2 layers of honeycomb, which I thought was way cool.

This only left the nests at the peak in the back yard. I wasn't tall enough. Even with my arms extended, the 8' pole, and my huge vertical leap (12" at least), I was still several feet short of getting to the nests way up high. And these were the size of small lemons.

Of course at my Portland house, I had a kick-ass ladder. I got the one that would reach any of the gutters, so it extended to 22'. Not only that, but it was rated to hold more than my weight, it was spec'ed to hold 300 pounds. I left it in Portland at my dad's place.

So I'm left with only a 6' ladder, which means that I can just barely reach the nests. The first one is low enough that I don't have to stand directly under it. I poke a couple of times, it comes down quickly. I look down and two wasps crawl out of it and sit there a little dazed. Dunno, perhaps they were interrupted in the middle of hanky-panky. That freaked me out a little, because I was going to have to get under the highest two and basically let them fall straight at me.

I knock off another "low" one and psych myself up for the last two. I poke at the smaller (ping-pong ball sized), see it fall, and not so quickly lumber down the ladder and run away. I'm pretty sure the nest hit the ground before I was even at the last rung of the ladder, but I still ran. Then the momma of them, an orange-sized nest directly above my head.

You would think I was building to a big climax or something,
but you'd be wrong.

The last one came down like the rest, but I didn't watch. I just grabbed the ladder and waddled off like the scaredy-cat I am.

Wind Power

A year and a half ago I wrote about our energy usage at home. While we don't go crazy about eliminating fossil fuels (I still drive to work, and we use natural gas), we do what we can. Anyway, I'll plug Pacific Power's Blue Sky program again - it really doesn't cost you but a few dollars more a month to get all your electricity from totally renewable resources.

But the motivation for this entry is this wonderful article at Daily Kos about wind power, read it, learn something: Daily Kos: Alternative Energies: Wind power

Polls

Really, I'd thought of this idea before he wrote about it, but Billmon uses nice big words and all: Whiskey Bar: Vox Pollsteri.

Anyway, I've found it ridiculous that the "polls show X" or "polls show Y" when talking about our rights. For a long time black folks weren't allowed to vote/go to school/marry non-blacks/drink water from fountains/etc. etc. etc. And the polls agreed with those things. Same goes for women, or any other group.

Polls do give an feel of the current population's stand on an issue, but they're often phrased in a way such that the pollster gets to support their issue - so you have to closely look at the questions. I'm fairly confident that if polled, 99% of the U.S. thinks abortions are bad - nobody wants to have one. Also, polls rely on the premise that folks are well informed, however it's pretty apparent that this administration doesn't give out any information (unless it's to further their purpose), the Congress isn't fighting to get info released, and the press is just a sack of corporate lap dogs.

What's a little wiretapping, I know they're not listening to me....

I could have had two brains....

So I was walking outside the buildings at work with some friends, and we passed the bike racks. I noticed a bright red bike and recognized it as the Specialized Epic. I'm in love with my bike, it's a lot of fun to ride, it's pretty, and it's got the geek factor (the brain).

Anyway, I spent a pretty penny on the bike, it's not real cheap. I'm not bragging, I'm setting up the next point.

The guy locked his bike up with a Kryptonite lock - the preferred lock for most cyclists. He put the lock through bike rack (a good start), and securely around the seat post.

Let me repeat - it was around the seat post.

Now, perhaps you're unfamiliar with what a bike looks like. Take a look at the Park Tool bike map and notice how the seatpost and saddle just poke out of the rest of the frame. I'm pretty sure you could have pulled the seat through the Kryptonite lock without unlocking it. But, if you didn't want to go to that effort, you just had to undo the quick release on the seat post.

Eh? This dude "locks" an expensive bike up in about the least secure way possible, I almost stole it out of principal (couldn't hurt to have a spare).

I was advised to take it out of the lock and just lean it up. I also thought of just writing a nasty letter and leaving it on the bike. Or perhaps taking my own lock and locking it up.

Just pisses me off though...

Heaven or Hell?

Somebody pointed out this humorous tribute to their cat.
I'd like to think our cats are some place like this:

Our Cat Enters Heaven - by Margaret Atwood

A Short History

I've been listening to an audio book, "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson, while working in the yard today. It is truly a fascinating book. A summary of the book would be, "a history of science, in laymans terms, with all the peculiarities of those involved." The beginning starts with a wonderful description of how impossibly big the solar system is, let alone the universe. And he makes a good point that, given how large space is, it seems a little odd that intelligent life would come all this way to make crop circles.

The book is read by some English chap with an accent that just makes you want to listen more. Though it was rather confusing to hear that accent talk about growing up in the U.S.

Math meets poetry

Heh, fun poems to be found here. It's a blend of haiku and Fibbonacci.

1/1/2/3/5/8

weeds
and
more weeds
pull them up
i gotta start now
or nothing will ever get done

Heh, it's my first Fib.

Chernobyl

It's been 20 years since the accident. Here are two very powerful tributes to Chernobyl, a series of photos by Robert Knoth, and a photo essay narrated by the photographer, Paul Fusco.

The Brick Testament

Just found this interpretation of the Bible called The Brick Testament. Some people have too much time on their hands.

How many Jelly Bellies...

So a guy at work had a contest - who could guess how many Jelly Belly beans were in a given container. Long story short, I won. I guessed there were 1619 beans in the jar, and there were 1620. Rock on!

Too bad I decided I'd go on a diet.

Sweet!

I'd heard about stevia a while back, and have wanted to try it. It's a super sweet leaf (often used as an extract, or you can use the leaves). Mary picked up a little jar of it for me last week and I've been drinking it in my tea.

You see, my new doctor (no, not Mary) told me that I'm fat (not those words, but...). While I can normally tolerate that from my friends (it's a mantra in Moab - "You know why you can't do X? Because you're fat!" - and it's true), or my family might tell me. But when a near complete stranger approaches you soberly (wearing a white lab coat or not) and tells you that you should think about changing your diet, it kinda sticks.

Anyway, I'm doing a lot more than just using stevia in my tea, and I'm down 6 pounds this week.

But that's not the point. You should check stevia out. It's pretty wild. It's 250-300 times as sweet as sucrose (regular sugar) - which means that 1/4 teaspoon is as much as 1.25 cups of sugar. It's very sweet and has a nice aftertaste. It does have a slight bitter pre-taste (as I call it) that takes a little getting used to, but that's not bad - certainly no worse than Nutrasweet or any of the other artificial sweeteners I tasted way back when.

I'm gonna go have some tea right now.

Funny, or not, you decide

MoJo has a little snippet contrasting what the media finds funny and what it doesn't.

At issue is Stephen Colbert's recent performance at the White House Correspondent's dinner.

I watched the performance, and it is funny. Unfortunately, it's funny because it is so true - which is why it is also sad.

Hypocrisy

I know other people have blogged about this, and it's probably been shown on a few TV stations. But the folks supporting the speaker of the house will still vote for him. Anyway, if you didn't know it, he drove away from an energy conservation meeting in a hybrid car, but got out of the car a few blocks away and got back into his huge SUV for the few remaining blocks going back to his office. Just pisses me off.

John Carroll writes about it much more eloquently than do I.

Religious Tolerance

Douglas Rushkoff writes an thoughtful piece on religious tolerance. I immediately connect with the article when reading the third paragraph:

Maybe I'm just getting old, but I no longer see the real value in being tolerant of other people's beliefs. Sure, when beliefs are relegated to the realm of pure entertainment, they pose no real danger. So, a kid believes U2 is really a supergroup on par with The Beatles or The Who. That's *his* problem, and it doesn't really do a lot of harm to anyone except those of us who still stop by MTV occasionally to see what might be playing.

I like the grumpy old man attitude.

The rest of the article is less grumpy old man and more pissed at the religious fanatics. He makes a number of very interesting points - one of the main ones being that people have to stop living in the past and just aren't using their brains.

He ends with:

The more we can make [the Bible's] mythology relevant to our present, the more easily we'll bring those who believe in it out of the past.

I might just have to go read his new comic.

Illegal Aliens

oooh, scary. There are "illegal aliens" in our country. Not only are they different (because they're alien), but they are breaking the law.

Everyone breaks the law. There are so many laws out there that it's probably impossible to go more than a week (if even a day) without breaking at least one law. So using the justification that "they're breaking the law" to need to go and round them up is just dumb. It turns out, illegal aliens are only 1/4 as likely to do real crime as regular Americans. So what's the big deal?

Oh, and I'm all for them protesting (I just learned that our cafeteria didn't use real plates on Monday - likely because their dish washers were out), but the idea that a day of not buying things (even if nobody did it) would have a real dent in our economy is silly. People would have just have bought more the day before or after.

What they should do is not work for a month. Now that would cause real damage.

Esophageal narrowing

That was quick. The doctor's office called today, I'm getting referred on to a gastrointerologist (sp?). I've got a narrowing of my esophagus. I could have told them that (it's what I figured).

Now that I've had time to think about all of this, I remember back in high school getting a little bit of food poisoning. I got real sick, but had a real tough time throwing up - it felt like something was squeezing shut and not letting the food out. I've not been able to throw up effectively ever since. And I remember as a kid just puking - like one of those horror movies - a nice steady stream. Everything changed in high school. I wonder what did it.

I'll never look at milkshakes the same again

Today I had the joy of drinking a barium milkshake. For some 6 or 7 years now, I've occasionally had difficulty swallowing. Food would get stuck in my esophagus just above my stomach. I'd get some vigorous hiccups, spit up the food, and generally be uncomfortable for 5-50 minutes until my esophagus relaxed to let the food pass through.

I finally went in to see a M.D. about it, which meant I got to get an xray of my stomach. Stomachs don't show up very well, thus the barium.

Mmmmm.... barium. All in all, it didn't taste too bad. But it was like drinking a palatable chalk shake. Only the shake was super heavy. But first I had to quickly chug a slug of water and special salts, which immediately turned into a bunch of gas in my belly. So, not only did I get to drink a thick shake, my belly was already full of gas - and I wasn't allowed to burp.

The only thing I know so far is that the barium pill (yup, a shake and a pill) hung out in my esophagus, not wanting to drop into the stomach - so I had to drink yet more barium to wash it down. Hopefully I'll know more in a few days.