Eating my way through summer swim meets: Muffuletta and Apricot Tart

One of the last Lime Pie pops from the previous swim meet went to one of my neighbors on the kids summer swim team. She said that the were good and I asked her if she wanted to collaborate for dinner at the next swim meet.   She was quick to come on board although parents should have fun at swim meets too, even though there was a bit of a double standard of eating gooey yummy stuff while the kids are supposed to be out there giving their athletic best performance.

I went through my sandwich recipes in Evernote and found a few good sandwiches. I traded a few emails with my neighbor and she said she'd bring a dessert. Dessert and sandwiches - that's a dinner in my book!

Even though, my neighbor said in her email she went to Tulane in New Orleans, I went with the muffuletta. It seems like such a simple, yet flavorful combination for a summer's evening. I was wrong on at least one count, but we'll get to that later.

Early in the day, I made the olive salad, so that the flavors could nicely come together.  I'll cop to it - I took more than one spoonful during the day. A good cook always tastes their product!

The sandwiches came together quite nicely and Kid3 and I headed off to the swim meet.  As we left, it started to rain.  I went back in and grabbed my gore-tex parka, which got me a little joshing from my son. It didn't seem to him that that was the right jacket for a swim meet.

It rained off and on as we went to the swim meet, but it was a light summer rain. I found a spot to sit and our neighbor joined us shortly thereafter. She had brought some salads and an apricot tart. This swim meet was going to be alright!

We enjoyed the sandwiches, as our kids did too between events, then it started to really rain.  We didn't have a shelter to hide out under, so my neighbor hid under her umbrella and I stood up so that my parka would keep me dry. While that kept us both dry, my chair filled with water, so I had no dry place to sit afterwards.  This is where I was wrong: the sandwich was good, but it wasn't a summer's evening. It was like early spring in the PNW with all the rain we got.

What was really funny, if you can call it that, was that the weather kept changing. I could see the break in the clouds that was coming our way and sure enough, the rain would stop, the sun would come out.  And then about 20 minutes later, the rain would start up again.

During one of the sun breaks, we broke out the apricot tart and enjoyed dessert.  Then it started to really rain.  My son went and stood in the warm shower in the locker room for something like 30 events (at least an hour, I stopped keeping track of the time). I think that he was the wisest of all of us. I was just as wet as he was (my boxers were wet), but at least he was warm.

The swim meet might have been unpleasant, but the food was good. And since my trip next week was cancelled, I need to start planning for this Thursday's swim meet!

Lime Pie ice pops and summer swim meets

In a recent Tasting Table newsletter, there was a recipe for Lime Pie ice pops. I think I read the email on one of the recent (and rare) nice June summer days here in the PNW.  Since summer swim meets were starting up, I decided that I'd make them for us for the Thursday swim meet.

Wednesday evening, my wife and I were going out to a foodie tweetup. My grand plans entailed me stopping at the grocery on the way home to pickup the limes and sweetened condensed milk that we didn't have at home.  Such are the plans of mice and men: I forgot to stop at any one of the 3 grocery stores I had to drive by.

But I was not going to be stopped.  Doing some backward planning, allowing for at least 7 hours of freezing (a few more than the recipe calls for), I needed to have them in the freezer by 10am.  Adjusting for the fact that I also needed to be working at that time, I needed to get them in the freezer before I started working at 7am.  In turn, that meant I was at the grocery store at 5:30am.

Whisking the base. Ignore that bottle of lime juice!

The early morning shopping trip, though, allowed me to make the ice pops with Kid 2. That Thursday was the last day of school for her and she had extra time, since she didn't have to make her lunch.

We got the ice pops in the molds and in the freezer and Kid 2 off to school.  Undisturbed, the ice pops sat in the freezer all day, hardening.  Only Kid 2 and I knew about them and I know for me that the surprise was building all day.  I was looking forward to enjoying them at the pool.  As the day went on and I was thinking about the tart lime pops, I came to the conclusion that I'm going to eat my way through the summer swim meets.  Summer swimming is fun for the kids and its gonna be yummy for me (and my wife too).

Delicious!

I took all the ice packs, loaded up my cooler and a few bags to smash graham crackers.  Then as the kids finished their events or it was time for a refreshing break, I'd prep a lime pie pop for them.  They actually tasted like Key Lime Pie, which was a great snack for the [non-swimmers at the] swim meet.

My handiwork.

If you'd like to try them out, you can find the recipe here.

I just discovered Instapaper

This week, I've discovered Instapaper.  I know that I'm late to the party and that Instapaper has been around since January, 2008, but its pretty cool. In short, its a read-it-later web application.

This week has been quite busy, both at work and in people on the web publishing interesting articles.  Since work pays the bills, working was the priority over reading things on the web [special note: work pays the bills every week, so that priority isn't special to this week]. I started an email thread to myself with the subject "Read Later."  After it had about 10 messages with a few URLs each, I realized that I had to find a better solution.

A quick Google search led me to a few applications, but Instapaper stood out, because I had just heard that it was one of the applications threatened by iOS 5. I'm not an iPhone user, so that didn't really matter to me (and I don't think it really matters anyway, as you'll see later).  It was a quick sign up and I was ready to go.

Instapaper provides a bookmarklet which basically adds the page you are reading to your Unread Items.  I use Chrome as my web browser and there are a few extensions which put a button that does the same thing.  I went that route, because it just looks a little nicer than the bookmarklet and it also will automagically close the tab of the page I'm marking to read later.

It wasn't until I was away from my computer, waiting for my kids after swim practice that I recognized the true magic of Instapaper. I had some time that I was looking to fill and on my Android phone, I went to the Instapaper website.  There was my list of web articles to read, even with a specially formatted text only link.  I read a few things, archived them (removing them from my unread list) all quickly and easily on my phone.

This was my resultant tweet.  It's that kind of cool. Excuse the funny grammar, it was voice transcribed and I was walking at the time and didn't correct it.

Because we discovered the magic of @instapaper this evening.less than a minute ago via Twitter for Android Favorite Retweet ReplyBeau Raines
beauraines

One of my friends replied to this tweet with "seriously? Just now?"  Yep, there are technological solutions out there that drive productivity that I've not started to leverage yet.

There is an iPhone application too, but I can't say much about it, as I use an Android powered smart phone.

But this is a big time saver. With two quick clicks, I can mark something as interesting to read later, when I have more time.  With the nice mobile interface, that could be anywhere, like when standing in long line.

With everything we have coming at us these days, services like Instapaper can really help manage that information fire hose.

My rapture playlist

As I picked up Kid3 from swim practice, I asked him what we should listen to on our drive.

He suggested Europe's The Final Countdown since the world is going to end tomorrow.

I'm going to piggy back on his idea and share what I'll be listening to when the earth starts shaking.

1) Europe - The Final Countdown
2) The Beastie Boys - So Whatcha Want
3) Metallica - The Four Horsemen
4) REM - Its the End of the World
5) Ministry - The Missing
6) They Might Be Giants - Dead
7) They Might Be Giants - Snowball in Hell
8) Depeche Mode - Blasphemous Rumors

What would you add?

Don't be frontin' when revelation comes!

My kid doesn't know his spelling words

Every afternoon, Kid 3 comes to into my office with his list of 3rd grade spelling words.  I read the word, maybe use it in a sentence and he spells them. Just to be sure he doesn't memorize the list in order, I always mix up the order (its not random, but in case he's reading this, I won't give away my pattern). He almost always gets them right, which I attribute to the fact that he studies them before he comes to me (let me live my dream). He's really good at spelling.

But here is the thing: he doesn't actually learn the spelling list. He just knows how to spell words. Sometimes, I throw other words in there, maybe not necessarily third grade words or a word from a previous list and he spells them. Sometimes, he gives me a funny look, but he just spells them. To really change it up, I sometimes make a crazy sentence out of several of the words.  And he spells them.

Every Friday, I ask him how he does on his spelling test.  Last week, he was not at home, but I found his spelling test and he missed one of the bonus words. I was a little surprised, because even though the words are hard (and I don't know what some of them mean), he had done a good job in practice.

Evidently, he mis-heard his teacher saying univalve and he wrote unicorn. I can hear the resemblence, but man, if only he knew that unicorn wasn't one of his spelling words, he might have asked for her to repeat it.

Yet another example of kids doing the darndest things!

Cupcakes and coding - a nice day off

Earlier this week, I took a day off. I was at my PTO cap and needed to take the day. Nothing really was planned for the day, so I did some things that I think are fun. I made cupcakes and reviewed MySQL stored procedures for a side project of mine. Sounds like nice things for a day off, no?

I didn't just make any cupcakes, I made Stout Cupcakes. Yes, there is a bottle of Guinness in these cupcakes. Okay, so I followed a Martha Stewart recipe, but they weren't any frilly frosted cupcakes on doilies. The cupcakes had a heaviness to them, more like a bread, with a bit of spice.  The molasses and nutmeg gave them a "ginger bready" taste.

That's stout glaze. No milk or lemon juice in there, stout was the liquid used to make this glaze.

My wife enjoys my cooking, but doesn't want to keep the cupcakes in the house. No sooner than they were glazed, I had called some of the neighbors and asked if they were home.  This is becoming code for "Beau is bringing something yummy."

I thought that they were pretty good. Heather suggested that I make a fluffier chocolate frosting, just to lighten them a bit. I'd be up for trying that again.

So what do you think of Stout cupcakes?

A sweet spring with Cal Giant strawberries

My wife, the big blogger she is, occasionally gets free stuff.  The day before Easter, when I was checking to see if a package from Amazon had arrived, there was a flat of Cal Giant strawberries sitting on our doorstep.  While it wasn't what I was expecting, it was still a sweet surprise.  A flat of strawberries is a lot of strawberries, even for our family of 5, which includes a teen aged boy (read: eating machine).

After I made myself dinner tonight (everybody else is at swim practice) and while my head is still pleasantly fuzzy from my Strawberry-Basil Gin cocktail, I decided I'd write about our free strawberries and how sweet they were!

Yes, I'm solo tonight and I made myself a pink cocktail. But what better way to use up the strawberries, as they reached the tail end of their life?

Well, you could mention the chocolate covered strawberries I made for Easter brunch.  Now that was a sweet combination.

Easter Brunch - photo by ScoutsHonor

Another way to enjoy strawberries, is dipping them in sour cream mixed with brown sugar. The brown sugar cuts the tang and thins the sour cream, making an enjoyable dip.

Yes, I use sweet like a California surfer, but these Cal Giant strawberries were a nice addition to our Easter brunch. And they were quite fresh too. I bet that these went from field to flat to our house. Its not that often that you get strawberries that fresh, unless you are from Watsonville (which would make you my first reader from that city).

On top of being fresh (like ripe, not like cool from the 80's), these strawberries were big. No wonder the name of the company is Cal-Giant, they were good sized strawberries.  I wasn't planning on making chocolate dipped strawberries for brunch, but a large strawberry makes for a very pretty one dipped when dipped in chocolate.

The only downside to this giant crop of giant strawberries which was delivered to us was that the bottom layer in the flat didn't fare so well in shipment.  But Cal-Giant doesn't make it a habit of shipping strawberries to your home, so go out and buy them from the grocery store!

Don't give your kids recording devices

My kids all have phones with some form of recording devices in them. The problem with phones these days is that they're very small and can make sneaky recordings. That, and my kids know how to use them.

One day, as we were driving back from swim practice, I was singing along with Van Halen's Jump and I noticed that Kid 1 was holding his hands strangely in his lap. He was indeed recording my singing.  And now you get to enjoy it too! American Idol, watch out!

One weekend morning, while the kids were eating breakfast (I had already eaten), Kid 2 recorded this video. I'm dancing to the Audio Bully's remix of Nancy Sinatra's Shot You Down. Again, you'll note that even though she does let me know that she's "waiting for the perfect picture" she doesn't say anything about making a video. I even had to rotate the video, as she was hiding the phone sideways next to her bowl!

Kid 1 made this recording of me singing The Letter along with The Box Tops, one morning on the way to swim practice, but this one wasn't so sneaky. I've learned to watch for them holding their phones in their lap, pointing the microphone at me.  I knew that I was being recorded this time.

They've even made recordings of ScoutsHonor snoring on the couch. If asked, I will deny any involvement in that. There aren't any on my phone, but I did have to check.

What have you done that is kinda silly and caught on video, for all posterity to see?

Valentine's Day: Pizza at the Drive In

I hope you enjoyed your Valentine's Day. I enjoyed mine with my hot wife in the backseat of her car.

Dig your dirty mind out of the gutter, it wasn't quite as illicit as that. If you've followed her blog at all, you'll know how busy we've been with swim meets, my work travel and life in general. Celebrating Valentine's Day, on February 14th, has been important to us in our relationship. I even moved some travel meetings to ensure that I could be home with my sweetheart.

As starters, I made Red Velvet cupcakes Sunday night, which we enjoyed while practicing speeches and doing all kinds of homework. I even offered them up to be Kid 3's thing to take to school for Valentine's Day.
But then, what actually to do for Valentine's Day?
I couldn't really make a nice dinner, as everyone would be at swim practice. We decided that we'd go out to dinner during the 2 hours that the kids were at swim practice. To keep our costs down, Heather didn't want any gifts or to go out to an expensive place for dinner.  We started to talk about alternatives close to where we would be - Panera and Gyro World were the two low-cost, close to the pool options we came up. I proposed a picnic dinner, but with the forecasted rain, it was deemed creepy to do the picnic in the back of the car.
So, I'm ready for Panera.
We dropped the kids off and then headed back to where the restaurants were.  More ideas started pouring in:

• "we could go to Burger King again" (it was Valentine's dinner two years ago and quite fun),
  
• "Tofu 101 looks interesting",
  
• "Are any of these pizza places any good?"
  
• "Maybe we could catcha a movie?"

There were no movies starting on our schedule and it turns out that Panera was more of a joking placae. We ended up checking out a pizza place which had been previously deemed scary by Kid2 and my wife.  It was actually a nice restaurant and a much larger one than the storefront let on.
But we decided that we wante to watch a movie too, because that alone time is so nice.
We ordered some pizzas (larges, so there would be leftovers for the kids) and then got The American from the second closest Redbox and wandered the QFC looking for some wine.
Since our picnic was kind of ad hoc, we didn't have a bottle opener or wine glasses (yes, I don't have either of those things in my messenger bag). But we can adapt and over come - screwtop wine straight from the bottle!
What better way to show your love than in a dark parking lot, sharing the same bottle in the backseat of a car?
The movie was meh.  It's a character study of a killer.  The wine was meh. The pizza was good. Dinner and a movie with my wife on Valentine's Day - excellent.
We passed the bottle back and forth, munching on pizza, holding hands and simultaneously exclaiming "Ru-Roh" in our Scooby Doo voice when something bad was about to happen in the movie. When you've been married for 14 years you start to complete each others sentences and can the enjoy the simpler things (though I quite enjoy the lingerie my wife referred to in her blog).
We didn't finish the movie before the kids got out of practice.  We'd hardly put a dent in the bottle of wine and knew that the kids would scarf down all the remaining pizza. But it was a great way to spend valentine's day with my sweetheart.
I love you Heather.

Reading. A lot.

I've been doing a lot of reading of late.

Backpacker Magazine
My dad subscribes to Backpacker magazine and every so often, he'll send me the ones he's done reading. Just before my last trip, I received several and I took 3 of them on my trip for plane reading. I enjoy the magazine a lot, because they've got great gear reviews and guides for incredible trips.  I read one on the way down and then two on the way back. As I opened the final one, in a moment of self-defeat, I thought to myself, "I hate this magazine. Its got all these cool trip to places I'll never get to." And then, right there on the first page, there was an ad for Glenfiddich scotch with the words, "One Day You Will."

Image from POPSOP, http://popsop.com/39555

How motivating is that? The magazine has me figured out (or maybe I'm quite nestled in their target demographic).  Scotch and motivation, both things I enjoy/need (you figure out which one applies).  The second ad was a Jeep ad. My next vehicle will either be a Land Cruiser or a Jeep.  But on top of that, it was the Call of Duty Jeep. To my wife's chagrin, Call of Duty is my newest diversion on my kid's Xbox. All that and I'm a hiker/backpacker/snowshoer. I'm right in their demographic.

Reading
I've finally figured out what I'm doing with my time, now that I'm not going to school anymore - and no, its not Call of Duty... I've gotten back into reading again and re-discovered the library.  King County has a great library system.

• Android Karenina
• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls
• several of the Mack Bolan series
• Dreadnaught by Cherie Priest
• Spook Country by William Gibson
• a few professional development books
• Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Midred Taylor
• Rice Without Rain by Minfong Ho

The last two books were for a co-book report project with my daughter! Reading is a ton of fun and a great way to fill down time.  I've unplugged a bit more, there will be weekends where I'm only online to look up a recipe or add something to my to do list. In lieu of being online, I'll read. It feels great to do that again.

What have you read lately?

My wife gives it a way! Movie tickets that is.

Check out my wife's blog, United States of Motherhood. She's got a giveaway for prize packs and free tickets for the advanced screening in Seattle of the upcoming Touchstone film GNOMEO and Juliet.

So, go over there, follow her simple directions and get your name in for some tickets.

I watched the preview and I hope there are some tickets for me the kids and me, too.  Hopefully, I'll see one of you, my faithful readers there!

Advanced screening is February 5th and the contest registration period ends 30 January at 10 AM PST.  Good luck!

This is the Droid you are looking for

After about 2-1/2 years of being an iPhone user, I made the switch to an Android phone, the Droid X.  I also switched carriers, from AT&T to Verizon.  I've been using the Droid X for about 2 months and I feel that I've gotten a grasp on it enough to write a bit of a comparison.

App Comparison
When I started thinking about a new phone, I started poking around in the Android Marketplace, looking to see what apps were out there.

The important ones were out there - Remember the Milk, Evernote, Twitter, Facebook.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that the full version of Angry Birds was free for Android.

In short, every app I had on my iPhone, I was able to find for Android with two exceptions, the Chipotle ordering app and the Starbucks card management app (there are a few that aren't written by Starbucks and cost, though).  But, I can do the same thing as both of those apps through my web browser, so it really doesn't matter, I'm okay with out them.

This was the first stage gate for Android readiness - were the apps I use frequently available, and yes they are.  The number of applications in apps stores are a frequently quoted metric and though the Android Marketplace still lags iTunes Music Store, in my opinion, there are plenty of good apps out there.

As a note, I do not use my phone to manage and play music. I have an iPod for that.  I've seen some apps to sync from iTunes to an Android phone, but I've got no experience with that.  If you purchase music from 7digital or Amazon MP3, there are some apps to get your music to the phone.

Integration with Google
This is kind of a no brainer, but with Google having developed Android, it works seemlessly with Google's web services, like Gmail, Contacts, Calendar, and Voice.  All I had to do was sign in with my Google Account (there's even a link to set one if if per chance you don't have one already) and my contacts were synchronized.  Not only can I see my calendar, but I can also see and manage my kids shared calendars too.

Android does a better job than the iPhone does in integrating with Google.  Google has instructions to setup your iPhone to connect to their servers using Exchange, as the iPhone has always had Exchange support.  It works pretty well when integrating with Google, but until recently, you could only have 1 exchange account setup.  The iPhone now supports multiple exchange accounts, which is useful for those that want a device that can manage both your work and personal life.

If you use Google Voice, you can actually set Google Voice to be the default dialer on the phone, so all calls are automatically placed with Google Voice.  That's a really cool feature, because I don't need to do anything special to have calls from my mobile phone show up with my Google Voice number.  This is a place where the Android phones hand down beat the iPhone, but why would Apple make its products integrate seamlessly with one of their competitors?

Integration with Exchange
My workplace, like many, uses Exchange for email and calendaring.  The two platforms support Exchange pretty well out of the box.   I think that they're pretty even on this front, though some of my friends recommended Touchdown, a paid app as it makes the exchange experience on Android even better.  I've been quite satisfied with the out of the box performance.

One of the notable things, though, my Android phone is my only device or program, including on my PC which can display and manage both my Exchange calendar and my personal Google calendars side by side.  I've got some apps where I can pull a snapshot of another calendar, but not a calendar I can update.


User Interface
The iPhone's user interface is much more polished that Android's.  You wouldn't expect any less from Apple, would you?  On the iPhone, screens grow out of the center, rather than just appearing.  When you set the time on an alarm, the iPhone displays the number choices in a scrolling wheel, which you spin with your finger.  Under Android, you have a text box with a + and - to add to the numbers.  It works, but its just not as pretty.

Accessing settings on the iPhone is pretty straight forward.  On Android, there are a few more layers of menus to dig through.  You have the same control, but you have to dig a little further to get there, unless you use Widgets.

Widgets are a pretty cool shortcut that Android provides (and you can get something similar for a jail-broken iPhone) to all kinds of features.  There are widgets that will show updates from your social network, but the ones where Android really beats out iPhone are the switches.  I have some widgets to turn off and on wifi, bluetooth and my GPS, all right from a home screen.  On the iPhone, you have to go to the settings and change it.  Again, same functionality, but a few more touches to get there.

Other Features
There are a few other features and differences worth noting.

Taking screen shots is an available feature on the iPhone.  As a blogger, its quite useful.  However, on Android, the only way (so far) to get screen shots is to use the SDK.

Android beats the iPhone, hands down when it comes to voice recognition.  Almost every keyboard has a little mic icon and you can use voice recognition for your input instead of typing.  There are 3rd party apps for the iPhone that do a great job of this, but Android does it better.  The phone even has all kinds of voice actions which are really useful.  This video gives a great overview.

Virtual Private Networking
Out of the box, the iPhone supports Cisco VPN, with shared secrets. Android's VPN support isn't fully there yet.  I'm not enough of a VPN guy to know what all that means, but with the iPhone, I could connect to my corporate VPN and I've not been able to do that with my Droid. Yet.  As Android is all based on Linux, I'm sure that the functionality will come.

It was great on my iPhone to be able to connect directly to my work network; however, my role has changed and I don't need to do that kind of emergency support work as frequently and secondly, with the wifi hotspot on the phone (more on this later), I can just tether my laptop, connect with VPN and use a full size keyboard for any remote work.  It may be a few more steps, but I can still remotely connect to VPN.

Carrier Comparison
When one of my friends asked me about having to switch to Verizon, I responded, "I don't think it really matters."

With number portability and the fact that I use Google Voice (mostly the latter), I had no strong ties to AT&T.  AT&T has one large dead zone on the main road to my neighborhood and their customer service isn't the greatest.  The phone is on a corporate account, so I don't gain any benefits by being a long-time customer.   I wasn't married to AT&T and was ready for a change.

With Verizon, I've had fewer dropped calls.  Most in fact, have been my fault, as I learn the new buttons on the phone or how to switch between calls.  AT&T's dead zone is alive on Verizon's network, so I don't have to wait until I get past that spot before making calls in the car.  I've been able to get a signal where ever I want it.

Verizon is much more amenable to tethering other devices to the phone in order to connect to the internet.  The Droid X has a wifi hotspot application, no jail breaking/rooting or 3rd party apps required. A few weeks ago, the internet at home went down and I was able to wifi tether to my phone and then use Skype from my laptop to call my ISP to let them know of their issue.  I'm looking forward to a road trip when we can connect our wifi devices while driving (not for the driver, though) and surf the internet or whatnot.

There are two downsides, or at least big changes, having left AT&T, though.  Firstly, AT&T has a lot of free to the the iPhone hotspots - no sign in required, the iPhone just connects on its own.  It adds a step in the connection process with my new phone, but Wifi Browser Login speeds that process up some.  Secondly, and I've only tripped over this once, AT&T's GSM network allows simultaneous data and voice connections, while Verizon's CDMA only allows one or the other.  Being able to be on the phone and look up an address and then tell it to my wife has been useful in the past, but I'll see how it goes without this one.

Conclusion
One of my friends recently asked my opinion about an iPhone versus a Android phone.  They are both great computers and the Android is a great phone too.  The iPhone definitely has the polish and looks, but the Android has all the features and more.

I really like my Android phone and am quite pleased with making the change.  Its definitely the right phone for me.

We're all geeks, someway

I've been sitting in a Starbucks this morning.  The kids are at swim practice, my smart phone is sitting on my William Gibson novel beside the leather over-stuffed chair in which I lounge.  I've been reading the Wired and Seattle Met issues I've been carrying in my messenger bag.

Between articles, I've been people watching:

• the other swim families, as they wait for their kids and siblings to finish
• the people gathering before a hike, boots and gore-tex pants aren't out of place in Washington
• the women in yoga pants
• the many people working on laptops, evenly split between apple and pc
• the groups of teen agers meeting for their morning coffee and chat, which will evolve in 20 years to
• the people who gather post workout
• the little girl who stumbled over my feet, as I couldn't pull them in far enough, as she was walking hand in hand with her dad
• the small baby, asleep in its carseat, but struggling in its dreams against the straps

I also saw two t-shirts that brought a grin to my face, as the owners projected their own level of geekiness.  The first was the older guy wearing the "There no place like 127.0.0.1" t-shirt.  Another younger guy was wearing a Dr Girlfriend t-shirt, from Cartoon Network's The Venture Brothers.

My wife returns from picking up Kids 1 and 2 from their practice. They bury themselves in their iPhones as I write this post offline, in my moleskine journal.

We all have our own ways of declaring our hipness, geek cred, fitness, familial status and more.  We're all geeks in our own way.

Reading Android Karenina

This isn't quite a book review, but I'm about 1/3 of the way through Android Karenina a ?co-written? book by Leo Tolstoy and Ben Winters.

The story is quite enjoyable, definitely a blend of steampunk and old Russia. As I read the story I'm continually thinking how the original event has been changed to fit in the steampunk world! I've never read Anna Karenina, but this book makes me interested.

I think that might be one of the goals of Quirk Books, the publishers of this and others (Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, Pride and Prejuidice and Zombies). If they put a new spin on an old work it might cause some interest in the old work. I'm sure it offends purists and maybe english teachers, but I'm enjoying myself.

There are plenty of twists and turns in this tale of love, cheating and intrigue. I'm hooked!

More to come on this later, when I work my way through the tome.

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Ranting about Pulling Right for Emergency Vehicles

In this post, I'm going to sound like an old man. A grumpy one.  Honestly, I'm not old enough yet to be a curmudgeon, but there are some things that just call for rants.

When I was taught to drive, in the state of Nevada, I was taught to pull to the right and stop for emergency vehicles with sirens on.  It didn't matter which direction the emergency vehicle was coming, overtaking, crossing paths or head on; you were to pull to the right and stop.

Same thing with school buses, if they were stopped with their lights flashing for kids boarding, you were to stop, no matter what side of the road the bus was on (unless the road was divided).  There's no telling what kids may do - they have a tendency to dart.

I'm no driving angel, but there are a few rules that are sacrosanct and you just don't break them.  These are a few of them (respecting school zones is another).

Since I've been taught to drive, I've lived in several other states and now reside in Washington state.  Each state has different driving rules and driving conventions.  But the rules are the same for emergency vehicles in Washington.  I've even blog/ranted about it before!  Yesterday, I saw the most surprising display of not pulling to the right.

Yesterday, Saturday 13 November, sometime about 12:30 PM, I was driving eastbound on Interstate 90, between Bellevue and Issaquah.  I was in the car pool lane coming back from swim practice.  Traffic was moving just at the speed limit, because there was a motorcycle cop (Bellevue,  Issaquah or Sammamish police department) a little ways ahead.

I checked my rear view mirror and saw that I was being overtaken by a Washington State Patrol with lights and siren on.  Dutifully, I moved to the right.  Knowing that traffic wasn't going to pull to the right and stop, I did make sure to move 2 lanes over, giving the WSP the most room I could and avoiding my own car crash.

The WSP vehicle blazed by, continuing down the carpool lane.  However, it had to change lanes when it  overtook the motorcycle cop, because he didn't move over to let the emergency vehicle pass.  I was aghast.  Of all the people on the road, the motorcycle cop has the best idea of what it means to have lights and sirens on.  It was just incredible.

No wonder people in Washington don't pull over.  The marketing campaign is misdirected and even those entrusted to enforce the laws don't respect it.  I just hope that by the time the ambulance is coming for this old man (I've still got a few years) that people do pull over and let it by.

A few milestones

Everyone has milestones in their life, points in time where something significant happens.

1. My wife and I recently celebrated our 14 year wedding anniversary.  Its been a fun 14 years as we've changed together and built a family.  I love her dearly.  I'm looking forward to many, many more.
2. After a travel swim meet, my daughter went to the mall with some friends of hers.  My daughter is 11 years old and some of her friends are a few years older.  My daughter came back with a bag from Victoria's Secret - and a small bag at that!  On the good side, she just bought some perfume, but I'm not ready for my daughter to be shopping at Victoria's Secret.
3. My MINI has over 100,000 miles!  Since Kid 1 sits in the front seat, he noticed that it was getting close a few days ago.  It was a great exercise in critical thinking, we estimated when it would roll over.  We were off by a day because I ended up driving to an additional swim practice.  Since there were no kids in the car at the time, I snapped a picture.

PS. If you're involved in project management, a milestone cannot be a date range. A milestone is still a point in time.  That would be a project phase.

Hiking to Melakwa Lake

This weekend, I had a backpacking trip planned, but it was canceled as it was going to be rainy on Saturday and Sunday.  Friday, however, was still to be a pleasant day, and since I already had the day off, I decided to go hiking.

I headed to Snoqualmie Pass and to the Denny Creek trail head and to Melakwa Lake. I feel comfortable solo hiking there as I'm familiar with the terrain.  I think, though I've not confirmed it, that AT&T has some coverage at least a few miles into the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area.

I was ready for a two night backpacking trip, so I just had to downsize my gear for a day hike.  I have the tendency to to pack heavy and even getting rid of a bunch of gear, I still packed heavy.  I did however bring my water filter in lieu of a 3rd liter of water - I would be able to refill at the lake when I stopped for lunch.

  

It is the season of mushrooms here in the Pacific Northwest.  I saw all kinds of cool looking ones and it felt like I took more pictures of mushrooms than scenery this trip.  At the start of the trail, there was a couple just picking mushrooms and throwing them into a Target bag.  They asked me what I knew about mushrooms because, "one of their co-workers picked a bunch of mushrooms and sold them for $100."  I know enough about mushrooms to know that I'm no expert and wouldn't be picking them without someone who really knows local mushrooms.  I hope that they find an expert rather than a mark.

I only saw three other groups while I was out - the solitude was quite nice on the trail.  I was passed by one lady on the switchbacks to Hemlock Pass, both of us headed to Melakwa Lake.  When I go there, I saw her on one side of the lake and then went the short distance to Upper Melakwa Lake.  She could have her lake all to herself, and I had mine.

As soon as I sat down on one of the large boulders to cook and eat my lunch, a light rain started.  For some reason, this typically happens to me. I'll stop walking and then the weather starts.  I moved to the side of a large boulder to have a little shelter and boiled some water for my lunch and hot cocoa.

I refilled one quart of water with my water filter, treated it and packed up to head out.  My water filter is so cool.  Its smaller and lighter than a quart of water and living in Western Washington, there are always plenty of water sources.  I can safely get away with carrying less water (recall that I like to pack heavy) than I would normally carry.  Had I not brought the filter, I would have carried 4 quarts of water (I know, probably overdoing it)!

I finished my lunch and surprisingly the sun came out.  I was expecting the rain to continue for the rest of the afternoon, but I was glad to not hike in the rain.  In fact, I debated a few times actually putting on my sunglasses!

All in all, it was a nice hike.  Looking out the window as I type this, its raining, which would have made for a less pleasant backpack.  I'm glad I was able to still get outside!

Things I learned during summer

As summer draws to a close, I think about the back to school "what I did over my summer vacation reports" so I started to think about mine.  My summer was quite jam packed with a work project which consumed most of the summer, but I learned quite a few things.

1. A light rain fall, all day long, will start to soak through the seams of my softshell jacket.  Its always great to know the limits of your gear and now I do.  It rained on us one day while we were on San Juan Island, so it wasn't dangerous and it was nice to get back to our house and get un-soggy.
2. My wife enjoys hiking much more when there is a nice destination.  Destinations which qualify as nice include wild flowers, water falls and lakes.  She likes the water a lot.
   
   
3. My daughter prefers lululemon to Juicy Couture.  Even thought both are expensive, I think I can endorse that, because at least lululemon projects an active lifestyle while Juicy projects clubbing and Paris Hilton.
4. Technical fabrics are great.  See number one in this list, but I've started wearing wicking shirts while running, hiking and just around the house.  The really do wick away the sweat that much faster which contributes to me being warmer all around.
5. Getting away, even if for a few days, makes a great vacation.  We rented a house on the San Jaun Islands for 5 days and it was a great break.  It was really nice to have a full kitchen, but also nice to be in a vacation spot.
6. Outlet Malls are cool.  We stopped at the Seattle Premium Outlets and the ones in Burlington on the way back from our vacation and got a lot of great back to school clothes for our daughter.  The boys wanted to stay in the car, so they didn't get very much cool stuff.  Pooey on them.
7. I've learned a whole lot about Subversion, php, mysql, apache, bugzilla and Ubuntu, but I'll go into that later.  I've got a few servers with a LAMP stack which I administer and they're running pretty well!

Though I'm not in school, I'm always learning something.   I hope you enjoyed your summer too!

A vacation finally

The swim seasons (yes, plural) have come to an end and my gigantor work project which has had me working every day since June 14th has come to an end and we are taking a vacation.  For the last 3 days, we've been in a house we rented in Friday's Harbor on San Juan Island. Its got a great kitchen and the guy left us his kayak, though I'm not sure if we'd use it solo - maybe next time.

There is no TV, no phone, no microwave and it is great.  Yes, there is wi-fi and with Skype I've made a few work related calls, but really its been work free.

We've explored all over the island, checking out the historical sites and sitting by the water.   We've explored lots of beaches, checking out the light houses and the kids have probably raised the sea level with all the rocks they've thrown in the water.

We checked out the Whale Museum, but have not seen any Orcas in the wild. Yet.

Today, I watched the tide come in, just sitting on the beach for 3 hours.  Yeah, I got a little burned, but I actually re-applied sun block today (not just putting it on once).  

But most importantly, my mind was clear. I listened to the waves crash and the rocks on the shore roll under the force of the waves.  I watched my kids play in the cold water (they're crazy that way, it doesn't matter how cold they are).  I didn't think about student loans, bills, work or to do lists.  Its been a long time since I've been able to do that.

With all that I've been working, the fact that I can clear my mind and not worry about anything has been super relaxing.  I've even slept in - 8:30 and 9 am, which is incredibly decadent for me.  This has been a great weekend and I've really needed it.  And I'm loving it.

The problem with independent kids

This morning, Scout and Kid 2 left for 5th grade camp.  I had a bunch of work I needed to do before 8am, but unfortunately a work crisis took precedence over my early morning work.  Needless to say, it was a busy, kinda stressful morning.

But Kid 3 ate breakfast, got ready for school (he even made sure to bring the bag of clothes for his Shakespeare play), gathered money to buy lunch (I don't carry any cash) and left for school.  That all seems okay, doesn't it?

Well, he let neither his older brother or me know that he was leaving for school.  And he left 50 minutes early!

It's not cool when you try to get a progress check on how the morning is coming and find that you can't find your second grader.  I did a quick check through the house; his shoes were gone, his backpack was gone.  He must have gone to school.   I remembered hearing the garage door open, but I assumed that someone was putting their swimming stuff in my car,  prepping for the afternoon.

I'm no paranoid parent, but I wasn't going to wait for an hour for the roles to be updated and see if he had made it to school.  Who knew how many more crises the morning would have.  I stopped what I was doing and stormed off to school.

There was no one on the playground, so I went into the office to see where, "if someone came to school really early, where would they wait?"  The office lady was really nice and did a a school wide announcement asking for kid 3 to come to the office and if anyone had seen him this morning.  Almost immediately, the phone started ringing and teachers reported that they had seen him and just a moment later he stuck his head in the office doorway.

All, in all, everything was okay.  But its not cool to realize that your kid isn't in the house and though you have a pretty good idea where he is, not a definite one.  But it just wasn't the way I wanted to start my morning.  Do you know where your kids are?