Nocino, take 2

A couple of weeks ago I bottled up some Nocino.

Something that had concerned me was knowing when the walnuts were ripe enough to use. In France they harvest them mid-June, which seemed way too early to do here.

My favorite cooking blogger, David Lebovitz, wrote an article on Nocino himself, just last week. In it, he described a little more clearly, the condition of the walnuts they use in France (see, he lives in France). Plus, he posted a couple of photos.

I determined I'd picked the walnuts too early. sigh...

So, I waited, and today seems like a good day to pick them. Now, the walnuts have a very thin shell - it's just a little tough to cut through with a chef's knife. Plus, the walnut meat is starting to show a skin - just like the pictures in Lebovitz' post.

Anyway, I just bottled some more. Yum!

Home Depot

Home Depot. What can I say?

I want to like you, for a big company you treat your employees well.
While I generally prefer the local (smaller) hardware stores, some
times your huge selection is what I need.

But, I've got to say, your employees know about as much as I do about
home repair, and that's something in between diddly and squat.

I'm sure there are a few crusty old men who retired from their jobs at
65 who work at Home Depot for something to do and a little pocket
money. They probably know something, but I always get the people who
talk knowledgeable but end up giving me bad information.

The latest saga was our exterior water spigot. It's one of those
frost-free kinds that turn the water off 12" from the handle,
hopefully eliminating any problems from cold weather because there's
no water in pipes outside the foundation of the house.

So it's leaked. For two years, maybe four. But it only leaks when the
water is on, so not that big a deal. That is, until we want to go
on vacation - we can't set a timer on that spigot because it'd leak like
100 gallons of water a day, which I just can't do.

Last year, maybe the year before, I went to a Home Depot (b/c the
local hardware shop didn't carry these spigots) and asked where I'd
find the parts to fix one.

Ok, now before you get all snarky on me. Yes, if I'd just done a
little thinking - I'd have realized it's probably just like every
other spigot in the house, and since I've repaired leaks in bathroom
spigots a couple of times, I should realize it's the same principle
for the exterior ones. Heck, I'm pretty sure I've even done it for an
exterior one (at my old Portland house). That's not the point.

As I was saying, I asked where I'd find the parts to fix one. What
was the response? Oh, you can't fix those, you have to replace them.

WTF, how stupid! But, we live in the throw-away economy in America.
And it *is* a Home Depot employee telling me you can't fix them but
can only replace. So I checked out the replacements: something like
$30, but there's 4 lengths of 2 different sizes each. Oh, and bonus,
they're often soldered.

I don't know how to solder. It's supposed to be straight forward, but
I'm not going to start out by soldering *under* the house, in the spot
furthest from the entrance to the crawl space. Oh, and I'd have to
learn how to *un*solder the original. So... not happening.

And paying some crack showing plumber $60/hour to replace the one
thing just seemed excessive.

So I stalled, and it wasn't a big deal, until the next long vacation
where we really wanted to water the plants in the front yard...

Over the 4th of July I mentioned the leak to my dad and he said to
just take a crescent wrench to the faucet and open it up.

So I did. Lo and behold! It's just like any standard faucet. The
guts came out with a simple twist. Great, now I was on somewhat
familiar turf, I could see the washer I needed to replace.

Into Home Depot I venture again.

The first guy I get tries to help, but doesn't know a lot. He calls
for the "plumbing" guy, and a second guy starts trying to help (not
the plumbing guy). While waiting we're actually trying to get the
handle off the fixture (I didn't have enough time to do that before
leaving the house - Simone had a class to get to). The handle is
crusted on because of all the water that had flowed over it every time
we turned it on. So, we're mucking with a vice and a wrench and
eventually some WD40 (that was the trick). Then, how to get the
washer out? It's turned to hard plastic, and is just chipping away.
Meanwhile, the two guys helping keep mentioning how they don't know
where the washers would be for this.

Finally the "plumbing" guy arrives and declares that they wouldn't
have any washers that fit. We could probably find some whose exterior
dimension fits, but the hole in the washer would be too small. I
question the "expert" saying, "Really? I'd figure these things would
be kind of standardized." The expert knowingly says, "Nah, these
frost-free spigots are all unique. Here you go, some washers that
should fit - you'll just have to bore the hole out."

This is where I made the same stupid mistake, trusting the Home Depot
people.

So I left with some washers whose holes were too small, and some
graphite tape, which happens to be made for exactly the leak I
had... (if only we hadn't picked apart the old washer).

I take my findings home and sit down to try to drill out a larger hole
in a rubber washer.

Ever tried to do that?

It's not easy. First, you can't grip the washer too tightly or the
hole you're drilling will be very oval. But, if you don't grip it
tightly enough, the washer just spins away. And I don't have a drill
press, so it's tough to even drill in the center...

I'm getting frustrated because the damn washer is just not going to
have a good seal because I'm jury-rigging the hole, and it's not going
well. The graphite tape might save me, but it just seems so hacky.

The $60/hour crack-showing plumber is starting to look better by the
minute.

Luckily I'd just installed a new dishwasher.

Huh?

Yah, I'd just installed a new dishwasher. And there were some
left-over parts from the various hoses and adapters that either came
with the washer or I'd bought. There were even two washers.
Hmmm... maybe I'll take a look at those. The first one is way too
large, no chance. The second one ... boo-yah! It was nearly
perfect! It was a flat washer, and the fitting wanted a beveled/cone
washer. Easy enough to fix with a couple swipes of the exacto knife.

I put some of the graphite tape on for added security, tightened down
all the fittings, turned the water on and presto! No more leaks.

So, Home Depot. I'm not listening to your experts any longer. They
can tell me where stuff is, but that's the extent of it. I may take
an hour searching through the 100 washers you have hanging on the
rack, but I'm going to find the right one next time because, contrary
to your expert opinion, it exists.

Simone Has A Bike

We went garage sale hopping two weekends ago and found Simone a bike.
A beautiful purple bike with white wheels and a white seat. It's a
tiny bit too large for her, but she's long enough to stand over the
frame (which was always the ruler we measured bikes by as kids).

We took our treasure home, washed it up real shiny, put the training
wheels back on, and headed over to the nearby school to give it a
whirl in their parking lot.

Simone was pretty interested in biking and started to get the idea of
how to pedal the bike (she gets stuck with the pedals vertical because
she's not pedalling quite fast enough) - but as soon as another car
showed up with two kids and their bikes, she was very excited.

We've since gone biking a couple more times, and just this past
Saturday she had her first fall. We were cycling in the neighbor's
driveway (no cars) and she went off the pavement into the grass. I'd
caught her the couple of times earlier but decided to see what
happened. She quickly came to a stop and teetered to the grassy side
and fell over. Not quite sure what happened, she stood up, started to
pull on the handlebars and then decided that the fall was scary enough
that she wanted Momma and was done with biking for the day.

I know, mean Poppa.

In the past, Mary and I had talked about whether to use training
wheels or not and we both agreed that we'd prefer not to use them.
However, with Simone's current age and disposition toward the bike, I
don't think she'd be interested in the least in the bike if it didn't
have the wheels.

It's a new learning adventure.

All ready to ride

Splashing In The Rain

Metal Minerals Scarcity and the Elements of Hope

This presentation is worth a read. In a nutshell, the problem of peak oil applies just the same to a bunch of metal minerals. Think of copper today, it's already getting more expensive, not drastically, but enough the folks steal wiring out of houses...

Anyway, check it out:

If policy does not change, the ongoing growth in global consumption of metals will cause shortages, aggravate energy scarcity and obstruct the transition towards a sustainable economy.

Technology alone is not going to save us. A holistic approach to the vast underlying problem of exponential growth and overconsumption requires involvement of various disciplines. “Using less” requires nothing less than some form of managed austerity and involves disciplines like psychology, philosophy, law, finance, economics, system dynamics and politics. Nate Hagens has explained during the discussion after this presentation that we need to understand and implement all that we know about human behaviour for any solution to stand a chance of becoming viable (see the recent excellent work by Nate Hagens).

It does make me think, perhaps we should be taking all those vacations and doing all the things we take for granted now, because life may change pretty drastically in the next 10-20 years.

Nocino

A friend of mine told me I should make Nocino. I'd never heard of it, but I like doing weird food things, so I looked it up.

It's essentially a green-walnut infused vodka (with some other flavors like cinnamon, clove, lemon). Simone and I picked a bunch of green walnuts from the trees down the street last night and I chopped them up and tossed them in some vodka.

Now I have to wait 6 months, or, as some some report, an entire year.

Brass Monkey

Dunce Upon A Time's article: Why George Bush Makes me Proud to be an American

BC Woods is a brilliant writer. I've been reading some of his stuff on and off, but I only found him recently. A friend clued me into this amazing article. It was written in June 2008, but resonates just as strongly today.

Here's the intro to get you started, click through to read the entire thing:

Almost eight years ago, George Walker Bush took office, and the world has never been the same. Since then, he has redefined what it means to be an American, has never cracked under the scrutiny of his peers, and has remade the entire world according to his sincere beliefs. Considering all this, it is safe to say that George Bush is far and away the greatest president who has ever lived. His courageousness, imagination, and perseverance, are an example to all Americans.

Cash For Clunkers

Unbelievable, I read the story in the paper today. Congress will pay folks $3500-$4500 for upgrading their auto from a gas guzzling SUV/truck getting 16mpg to a mean green machine that gets 18mpg... wait, what?

Yup, you'll get paid $3500 to buy a 18mpg gas guzzler, even $4500 for a 23mpg guzzler.

What a moronic idea.

For a real breakdown devoid of the anger and frustration I harbor, read: The Oil Drum | The 2012 Oil Crunch vs. Cash for Clunkers

Momma's 3 Days Away Summary

Simone did great while Mary was away. A big part of that is due to Nana coming down and hanging with her, but I've got to give credit to Simone as well.

Every once in a while she'd mention "momma" but that was about it.

We waited on the front porch for Mary to come home, and we definitely had a love fest when she walked up to greet us.

I look forward to the next adventure with Simone.

Torture

I'm tired of the torture debate.

I'm especially tired of the media and how it presents the debate. Almost always the story is set up as "human rights" versus "freedom to be safe", i.e. either torture the guy or the ticking time-bomb goes off. Almost never does anyone bring up the fact that torture doesn't work, let alone the fact that not torturing people but instead earning their respect and trust is what works.

Even my favorite, John Stewart, fails to bring up those points and falls into the debate of the ticking time bomb.

The more nuanced, pro-torture, debater brings up the argument that the anti-torturing side thinks that the idea of anything but the most benign interrogation techniques is not allowed. Again, this is a straw man, don't accept the argument, for once you do, you end up debating where to draw the line for torture.

The bottom line is:

• torture doesn't work, you get bad intelligence
• not torturing does work, it has worked, and it will continue to work
• water boarding is torture
• there's never been a ticking time bomb situation - stop watching 24
  

Some Simone Pics

Simone with a daisy. We couldn't find the horses this particular day, so we looked at some flowers.

Simone and Ayli sharing a seat.

Ayli playing peekaboo with Mary. By the end of Carl and Jana's visit, Ayli was smiling lots, but it was so quick. This was the best one I got on film.

Simone waiting for some lunch - so much fun eating at a restaurant, especially one with fish tanks!

Simone, Carl and Ayli at the water fountain.

A picture on our hike at Breitenbush.

Another shot of Simone and Papa at Breitenbush - Simone was pretty worn out from all the tubbing.

Simone and Momma racing around in a car at the playground.

Check out the little photo albums (some of the same pics).

• A couple pictures from Breitenbush.
• Carl, Jana, and Ayli come to visit.

Momma's First Day Away

I guess I'm kind of live-blogging the adventures of Momma being away. It'd be interesting to know what she's going through at the same time, but phones don't work at Breitenbush, so we can't really know.

Simone slept solid the night through, nearly 11 hours. I slept a chunk with her because she requested it shortly after getting the drink last night. Other than slowly rotating in bed, I think she slept peacefully.

Nana drove down early today to hang out with Simone so I could do my time in the office in Wilsonville. I think it was a good move as her first response to me was, "no, no, no" when I walked in the room (I don't know what that's about, but am hoping it's a phase). Then Nana poked her head in the room and Simone lit up, hid against the wall for a second, and came out hopping and dancing. They had a very pleasant morning/day/afternoon, while I did my usual drudgery in Wilsonville.

We had a dinner of left-overs and fresh strawberries (picked by Simone), and now she's in bed, reading stories with Nana.

I'd better go clean off the bed in the back room so Nana has somewhere to sleep tonight.

Momma's First Night Away

Mary is at a retreat for the next three nights, her first nights away.

We spent the day together at Breitenbush, soaking in the tubs, eating lunch and dinner, and taking a nice little hike. It was my second time at Breitenbush, and I must say the food was really good this time (it was rather disappointing the first time) - I guess it just depends on the mood of the cook.

Simone had a great time going from tub to tub at the spiral tubs, and even got into the cold water dunk tank.

We said our goodbyes to Mary and headed home after dinner. Simone sang some for the next half hour and dropped off to sleep. Once home, she transferred to bed real easily, and slept for an hour while I unpacked. I knew she'd woken up when she walked into the kitchen saying, "I want juice."

She's getting very clear like that, both a blessing and a curse.

I opened the fridge, and saw the strawberry lemonade. Simone saw it too and said, "strawberry." So I poured her some.

After downing 6 ounces she asked to be carried into bed (a new and unusual request), so I carried her in and laid her in bed.

She finished the drink, I asked if she was all done, to which she replied, "yeah," turned her head to the side and closed her eyes to go to sleep.

I don't think I've ever had a night like that with her, it was very sweet and just pointed out how much she's changed recently. All sorts of new phrases and sentences are coming out now. Whereas before you could kind of gauge what she might say, pretty much every sentence she utters is new and unique.

It's Made It To The Comics

I knew that our "harsh interrogation techniques" were borrowed from the military's program where soldiers are subjected to ... torture. What I didn't know was that those programs were specifically introduced to give our soldiers an idea of what the communist countries were doing to our soldiers during the cold war specifically to extract false confessions to be used against us. I'm still having trouble choking down the irony.

Now that information has bubbled up to our comic strips:



"We have seen the enemy and it is us." - Walt Kelly

Cupcake Catchers

For the past week, Simone has sporadically mentioned that she wanted a cupcake catcher.

Tonight at dinner we figured it out, she wanted one of the cupcake/muffin tin liners.

How Does Danny MacAskill See The World?

I've seen this video from a number of different sources, and the cyclist is amazing.



When I watch him, I wonder, "how does he see the world?"

Think of a little kid, everything is big and an obstacle: chairs and bookcases are to be climbed, a doorknob or lightswitch is likely out of reach, counter tops are the unknown.

A rock climber might look at buildings as potential playgrounds, whereas an architect might notice the design, and a contractor might notice the workmanship.

Watch all the way to the end, he does some amazing stunts. Fences and rails are not barriers, they are paths, trees and walls are ramps for him to ride or bounce off, stairs are an excuse to turn a 360, walls are merely steps for him to jump (climb), and curbs are like the cracks in the sidewalk you cannot step on.

At least, that's how I imagine he looks at everyday objects.

A Study: "The Irony of Satire"

Amazing, check out the abstract for this study, "The Irony of Satire":

This study investigated biased message processing of political satire in The Colbert Report and the influence of political ideology on perceptions of Stephen Colbert. Results indicate that political ideology influences biased processing of ambiguous political messages and source in late-night comedy. Using data from an experiment (N = 332), we found that individual-level political ideology significantly predicted perceptions of Colbert's political ideology. Additionally, there was no significant difference between the groups in thinking Colbert was funny, but conservatives were more likely to report that Colbert only pretends to be joking and genuinely meant what he said while liberals were more likely to report that Colbert used satire and was not serious when offering political statements. Conservatism also significantly predicted perceptions that Colbert disliked liberalism. Finally, a post hoc analysis revealed that perceptions of Colbert's political opinions fully mediated the relationship between political ideology and individual-level opinion.

I wonder what Colbert thinks about the study.

Also, I wonder what conservatives thought of Colbert's speech at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. You should seriously watch it. It's painfully funny, made even funnier by the fact the butt of the jokes (W and many of the people in the room) don't find it funny. The Wikipedia article has a nice summary if you don't want to watch the whole video.

Beaver Freezer 2009

The 2009 Beaver Freezer is over, and here are the full results. I placed 89th out of 229 people, 68th out of 107 men, 11th out of 18 men aged 35-39.

How was the race? The day started out freezing cold, but clear. Luckily, I was in the 3rd to last heat, and by the time I started, it'd warmed up nicely. The swim went fairly well, though my googles began filling with water almost immediately. I stopped on the 2nd lap and drained them. My time was a PR 7:59, and that includes time spent draining the goggles and waiting for some dude who took nearly 11 minutes to finish (everyone lapped him twice). I was definitely happy to finish under 8 minutes considering I'd swum maybe a dozen times since last year's Freezer. The first transition went pretty smoothly, though I donned a hat (thanks Sam!) and two shirts b/c of the chill, which probably slowed me a little. The bike was difficult, I struggled through the entire ride - I only passed one person and was passed by many. The second transition went pretty well, nothing dramatic to show - though Sam had a good idea - to borrow the cyclocross method of carrying your bike - I'll have to check to see if it's legal. The run (though painful) felt pretty good and I PR'ed with a 25 minute run. I did have to stop to tie my shoe in the run - so there's room for improvement there. I do want to get my pace up to a 7 minute mile, which is essential for my goal time of 1h10min.

Here's my standard breakdown of the race:

Trey's 2009 Beaver Freezer

Stage	Time	Pace	Place in Stage	Cumulative Time	Cumulative Place
Swim	7:59	1:35.8	52-T	7:59	52-T
T1	N/A		N/A		N/A
Bike*	44:33*	16.2*	101	52.32	91
Bike	42:00?	17.1?
T2	1:38		65-T	54:10	86
Run	25:00	8:03.9	96	1:19:11	89

* Due to problems at the timing station at the end of the first transition, there are no T1 times, so I guessed my T1 time by averaging the times from my other freezers - which conveniently made the bike time an even 42 minutes.

And here's a comparision of all 4 Freezers:

Comparing Trey's Beaver Freezers

Stage	2005	2007	2008	2009
Swim	8:15	8:12	8:26	7:59
T1	2:37	2:22	2:39	2:33*
Bike	36:16	39:06	38:59	42:00*
T2	2:12	2:13	1:31	1:38
Run	25:57	26:11	25:31	25:00
Race	1:15:17	1:18:04	1:17:06	1:19:11

As you can see, it was my worst showing overall, entirely due to the bike (* adjusted by the guess of a T1 time). I'm not quite sure why my 2005 bike conditioning was so much better than the other years. I still think that a time of 1h10min is possible, but I've got to kick it up b/c I'm not getting any younger.

Thanks to my supporters for cheering me on: Mary, Simone, Sam, the entire Mattson clan (with cowbells), and Memere.

A Moment Of Silence Please

Tonight I found my batch of sauerkraut went bad.

I'd slowed down eating sauerkraut because the last batch was better described as "salty cabbage" than "fermented kraut." Mary brought home a cute little 2# head of cabbage that Simone and I chopped and salted and put in the crock.

Well, tonight I checked it, and it was bad.

If you think kraut is stinky, wait until you get a whiff of kraut moldy...

I had to add a little water because the cabbage didn't release enough on its own. I think I didn't add enough salt to the water (I just guessed, should have read the book). You can make kraut w/less salt, but you need to be vigilant, and I was taking the hands-off approach.

Live and learn.