Blue and Gold

The Blue and Gold Banquet is the annual celebration of Cub Scouting.  Although it does not look like it, Christopher and Gregory reached an exciting milestone in the scouting careers.  They earned the Whittling Chip, which certifies them to carry and use a knife--subject to parental permission.  Each of them can carve bars of soap into smaller pieces of soap.  (The shapes belong in the Guggenheim or some other museum of modern, abstract art.)  At least they will not hurt themselves or anyone else in the process.

Bread Science

The reason brick ovens produce bread with such wonderful crust is the way the heat is conveyed.  Instead of simply absorbing heat from the air inside the oven, the bread absorbs heat radiating from the bricks the oven is made out of.  One heats the oven enough to make the bricks hot, then the bread is put in.  This technique can be simulated by using a bread or pizza stone.  Such stones can be expensive, but they also limit the space for baking in your oven, if they do not cover a whole oven rack.  That is a problem for baking multiple loaves of bread.

Following advice given on the internet, we are experimenting with using stone tiles.  They must be "unglazed" so that there are no chemicals in the tile's finish to leach into the food.  We tried saltillo tiles first, which are cheap and made of clay, but they did not work well and broke easily.  Our next attempt was slate tiles.  At $1.50 each and needing less than two to cover an oven rack, they seem like a good deal.  But on their first use, we heard a popping noise as they heated up.  Later examination showed that they were breaking into layers:

The bottom two tiles were not used.  The top tile was used and broke into strata, as you can see.  So slate is not the perfect material.  But, man, was the crust good!

After

Ron has lost 100 pounds.

That is his wedding ring on his left hand again.

No more blood pressure medication.

No more kidney medication.

Some exercise, but mostly diet.

Impressive!

TOUCHING THE VOID: BOOK REVIEW

By Alan Baer

Touching the Void is a book and movie. Touching the Void is a good book, but has some heavy language. The story of Joe Simpson climbing a 22,000 foot mountain in Peru is amazing in its telling of survival. Joe Simpson and his friend Simon Yates climb the mountain. They reach the summit and then, on the way down, Joe swings his ice axe into the ice, which shatters. Joe falls, and breaks his leg. After his partner gets down to him, they decide that Simon must lower Joe to a ledge, or some place where he can rest, get down to him, and do it over again. On one lower, Joe slips and falls over the edge of a cliff. Hanging only by his rope, he can’t give the signal, that Simon needs to haul him up. Simon however, is in no position to. When Joe fell, it pulled Simon to the edge of the ledge that he was at. Simon decides to cut the rope, and try to get back to base camp. Joe falls another 20 ft. and aggravates his knee. After that he slowly gets over the ½ of a mile to base camp. After he gets back, he needs 6 separate operations on his knee. Although a good book, Touching the Void needs some parental guidance. The book, I think, is an excellent demonstration of first-aid skills and survival.

Touching the Void is definitely an older kid classic.

Time to buy Legos?

When Alan was little, our toy collection was comprised of sea urchins, jacks, and glass shards.  At least that is what it felt like when I stepped barefoot on one of his toys, which at night were usually scattered between my bedroom and the bathroom door.  Theresa learned that her ex-seminarian husband knew as many curse words as your average drunken sailor.

That was one reason we never bought Legos.  I was in no mood the have more small, sharp-cornered toys embedded into the soft flesh of my feet.  (Another reason, I guess, is that they are a choking hazard.  Can you imagine what a hassle it would be if one of your kids choked on a Lego?)

But when Paula turned two last month and, for some reason I still haven't understood, we decided to get her a present, we chose Mega Blocks.  We now have a bucket full of them, and Paula walks by them several times a day.  The older  kids, on the other hand, have been having a ball.  You can tell they like them a lot, because they are always fighting over them.  Here is a video showing an array of ships Gregory built.

Sometimes, you have to recognize a force of nature when you see it.  Early on, we didn't give the kids toy guns to play with.  Then one day a visitor made his hand into the shape of a gun, pointed it at Alan--about 6 at the time--and said, "BANG! I got you."  It was like the discovery of fire; there was no going back.  I think Legos are going to be like that.

Here's the happy ending: after so many years of stepping on sharp objects barefoot, I no longer even notice.  I think I could walk barefoot across miles of broken pieces of coral without wincing.  Being a father help you grow.

Squirrel-Powered Grinder



Green coffee?  You know how eager we are to find ways to reduce our carbon footprint,* so we recently completed our new coffee grinder.  The cast-iron mechanism comes from Lee Valley (a company I love) and the box was a quick and easy project.

* I may not be using this expression correctly, as I really do not know what it means.

I am told that coffee made from freshly ground grounds is much, much better.  But who can stand the high pitched scream of electric coffee grinders?  The action on this grinder is smooth enough that you won't break a sweat getting your cup of coffee ready.

Come on by for a visit and enjoy a very fresh cup of coffee.  One caveat: I don't drink coffee at all and Theresa only takes decaf; so, bring your own beans if you want regular.  We can, however, provide the squirrels . . .

The Race

The annual Pinewood Derby is a highlight of the Cub Scout year.  A narrow body was the key design element this year.  Both cars placed first in some of the heats they were in, but the trophy did not come to our house this year.

You can see the boys' cars more closely as well as some of the other entries.  Studies with wind tunnels have shown that aerodynamics do not help a car win.  An unaltered block of wood would do as well as the sleekest design: the cars just don't go fast enough for shape to make a difference.  Still, shaping a car is a lot of fun. 

Just a nice shot of a race.  Click on the picture to see it in its original size.

 

Here is a video of a race Gregory's car was in.  You can see how our front end design helped us off to a fast start, but the other car caught us before the finish line.  Might be a weight distribution problem.

Just Some New Baby Pics

The tongue phase.

(A long video: I need some editing software.)