The Plowman Came Again

This morning we retrieved our car from below the bridge. The snow is melting fast, though without the plow, movement would have been restricted for several more days. As it is, the road is so mushy, I may have to leave my chains on to traverse Cedar Ridge Road.

Now that we are free, we're thinking of heading to town to break this cabin-fever.

We're all thinking we'd best get to a town.

The Big Melt

Snow is melting fast now. It's raining and there is a solid wall of drips coming from the edge of the snow hanging over my gutters.

That said, it's still going to take a while to melt all this snow. With any luck enough of it will be gone by Monday morning that I'll be able to drive to work.

We will be on the lookout for flooding if this melt happens very swiftly.

Our neighbors on top of Green Mountain report snow that is chest-deep and large Douglas Fir trees snapping at the main stem. Also, they had one collapsed building.
They said this storm compares only with the storm of 1968 for overall intensity.

My sheet-metal shed collapsed too. I expect more stories of damage as we begin to get out more.

More Winter Scenes

Our snow peaked by Christmas Eve, since then it has rained and snowed in such a way that we're roughly maintaining the existing snow depth. 

The forecast has called for rain today, and boy were they right. Only the rain we're getting is really white and it's sticking to the trees.

All joking aside, we are currently getting another dose of snow, but we are assured that temperatures will climb as the week rolls on. 

We're actually starting to hope that's true, so we can resume our social lives. Our car is parked about a mile away, because the deep slush has made Cedar Ridge Road impassable to any Saturn SL sedan that I know of. It would take a fairly special or specialized vehicle to navigate this road at the moment.

So, here we are eating our way through our ample pantry and amusing ourselves such as we may with our Christmas games and toys. 

Here is a slide show to amuse you:

Rescued The Stovepipe

Yesterday I was fretting about the stovepipe because I saw that it was already bending under the weight of snow sliding slowly down over it from above. After about a day of thinking about how hard or impossible it would be to reach the snow and pull it off the stovepipe and its struts, I finally had an epiphany: use the hot-water faucet we had installed outside to melt the snow from above the pipe.

This picture was taken after I cut the snow away from the struts.

This I did. First, I pull the hose out from under 2 feet of snow, which was pretty easy. Then I had to remember where I last laid the ladder. Not so easy. I had to wander around the house for a while, thinking laddery thoughts, until, like a water witch, I sensed it beneath me.

I had to do a little substantially more digging to get that one out, but it was nothing I couldn't do with my hands.

Finally I mounted the roof, hose in hand, hot water turned on. And it wouldn't flow. 

Naturally in all this freezing weather the hose was iced-up. It wasn't irretrievably frozen though,  so after bending most of the hose little by little over my knee, water began to trickle out of it. Slowly but surely the rate increased and I began cutting the snowy tumor from the ailing patient. With hot water coming out of the "Jet" setting of our nozzle attachment, it was like performing laser surgery.

When I had removed enough snow from above the struts, I saw and heard the tension release as the stovepipe rebounded a little toward its original, vertical position. It will not return to truly vertical though until we replace the struts, which are now shaped more like a longbow than a flag pole.

Liberation

I have gazed upon my redeemer, and its name is Caterpillar. 

A charming fellow by the name of Badger drove a machine up our driveway today that looked a bit like this:

With this machine under him the snow on our driveway gave way as though it was air. 

We now have a path out of here, and we may just be able to keep our holiday appointments.

Beetle Buried

'nuff said.

An Inch An Hour

It's snowing at a rate of an inch per hour right now, and has been for about 30 minutes. I think we'll crest 20 inches soon. :|

This is getting weird. I'm having thoughts about the next ice age, when it's due etc...

Heidi has been having quite a bit of success in visualizing what she wants to achieve lately and having it come to pass. One of the more recent things she said she wanted was snow to halfway up our front door. 

Now it looks as though that may actually happen. If it does, I'm retiring. She can just wish us up a few million dollars to live on.

Nineteen Inches and Rising

Snow update: This morning's measurement is 19"
The chickens are all still alive, as are the bunnies, who look a little too at home on the snow.

The Beetle is more enshrouded than ever, almost completely buried. Pictures will be forthcoming.

I wasn't kneeling

Here is another gauge of the depth: My pants being snowy nearly to the knees and all I did was walk to the chickens, the rabbits and the woodpile, all of which are in some danger of being subsumed.

More Collage

Drifts higher than before.

Snowstorm '08 Update

From top left, clockwise:
1. Rubble pile of snow in front of our south-facing windows represents snow that fell by Saturday morning and slid off the roof.

2. Twelve inch ruler in the snow at capacity. My thumb and finger indentations are all that allowed the camera to see the ruler.

3. Curving snow cascading in slow-motion from the south roof, creating an ever smaller gap between the roof snow and the ground snow.

4. The fog on this quilting ruler demonstrates that it was recently buried in 13.25 inches of snow.

5. A peek out the south window this morning shows the rubble pile (from image 1) has been smoothed into a "snow dune".

6. Looking directly at the south windows, a giant jaw of snow appears to be clamping down on our little cottage.

7. Last nights windswept snow piled up against our front door as much as 8.5 inches.

8. This morning finds the Beetle even more immobilized than before.

9. Remember the Japanese lantern from this Heidicoaster post? It's in there.

Record Snow Depth

After a medium-length debate about who should have to take the measurement, Heidi showed her true grit, dedication to science and proved once and for all that she truly has Swedish blood coursing through her veins by dashing out into the snowstorm that is raging tonight to plunge her quilting grid ruler into the snow and establish a depth of 15 inches!

Fort Bale During The Great Snowstorm of '08

Picasa v. 3 offers enhanced collage functionality.

Look closely and you will see a glacier of snow roughly 10" high slowly sliding from the roof.
You will see our little Saturn parked low on the driveway because even with chains "it warn't worth the wrestle".
You will see my Beetle immobilized by the snow.
You will see the trampoline bulging beneath the weight, next to a mountain of roof-slide that reaches as high as the trampoline and runs the length of our house.
You will see the once beautiful flower-garden, frozen and wrecked by glacial debris. In the foreground is the hollyhock where just a couple weeks ago I thought the Praying Mantis female could safely spend the winter. Now I have doubts.

In the bottom left corner, the sun breaks on the side of Green Mountain, revealing a forest that's been nearly whited-out.

And, as I compose this post, beautiful flakes are lightly beginning to fall.

SuperTuna Alcohol Stove

Last year I was fascinated with the Heineken Penny Alcohol Stove. This year I'm enchanted with the SuperCat, or in my case, the SuperTuna Alcohol Stove.

The SuperCat-style stove has the advantage of simplicity, in that you don't need to cut or create a lid. It also requires no additional hardware to stand your pan on, as the stove itself has the strength to hold any normally weighted pan.

The SuperCat is made from Fancy Feast cat food cans. I borrowed a tool for punching the holes that is too large for those, but perfect for tuna cans. So, I expeditiously adopted the tuna can as my can of choice.

Here you can see the SuperTuna in action:

And here are the yummy results after just one and one half "charges" of alcohol (the vegetables were frozen)

Snowstorm

This year's snow appears to be shaping up as much colder than any prior year that I've lived in Amboy.
Ironically, the backup battery on my weather station is dead, so I can't give specifics. (Arghh! I have more batteries on order.)

You can see a couple of the snow pictures at here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ZimFam/Snowstorm2008#

I'll upload more as I get them.

Finale Notepad

I just started playing around with Finale Notepad 2009. In about 15 minutes I made a little ditty from scratch that sounds about 100 times better than I thought it would. (Note, this is a highly subjective assessment based on a presupposition that my first composition would sound hideous.)

My "score" includes Piano and Oboe. I originally chose to include B-flat trumpet, voice and drum set, but as yet I'm not sure how to add notes to those without overcomplicating the score. However, adding notes is exceedingly easy using the software.

Anyway, I'm going to suggest that any of my readers who have an interest in composing music should give this a try. If you decide you love it, it's only $10 to buy.

http://www.finalemusic.com/NotePad/default.aspx

Whole Body Shot

Alien Attack!

The backgrond to this picture is indeed our stucco siding. This little monster was scaling the castle wall, so to speak. If he was any larger it would really give me the willies.

Nov. 6th First Day of Heat 2008

We beat our record of two years ago (or was it three?) by 5 days and with less discomfort. It is still 67 degrees inside. 

Everyone was starting to complain though, so I started a fire with some very dry alder that Bopop and I harvested in the spring.

White Spaces

This feels to me like some kind of karmic election day present to the people: the FCC has released white spaces, which opens the door to better, cheaper wireless broadband. 

This has the potential to move this country a huge step forward towards universal broadband access (appeals to rural folks in particular) and also bring down the costs of broadband for everyone.

I'll let the pros explain it:

... the FCC Tuesday voted in favor of White Spaces, delighting the tech industry and those in favor of ubiquitous Internet and irritating broadcasters, wireless mic makers and Dolly Parton

http://government.zdnet.com/?p=4162

While I generally make it a rule not to oppose Dolly Parton in anything, in this case, I think she may have been overly concerned about the impact on her business. And, anyway, to stand in the way of all good that universal broadband could do is not going to be the right side of history.

If you believe, as I do, that the internet is a terrific machine of democracy, this is a boon of momentous proportions.

Great Hopes, Great Man, Great Nation

I've purposely held back from posting politically oriented topics, because I don't want to provide cause for friction amongst my family and friends. 

For posterity however, I feel compelled to remark on the events of this night.

I am awed by the capacity of this nation to select a President based on the content of his character, looking past his racial profile, when just 46 years ago that was just a dream of another great man.

I am awed by the near flawlessness of the campaign run by Barack Obama, his team and volunteers. Not the least of which has been the uplifting themes of hope and unity and the important insistance by Obama that there is but one America, the United States of America. 

I am inspired in a way I wouldn't have thought possible just a few years ago. 

When I see the pictures of African Americans in particular, I am filled with a swirl of emotions. I can see the profound joy, relief, amazement and more in their faces and postures. To see that causes me to well up with empathy and feel what I imagine must be a lot like seeing one's child get married; great joy and pride mingled with a faint notion of something resembling sadness. 

As one who truly believes that none of us are free if one of us is chained, I am incredibly optimistic that I can see the chains shed from our collective psyche, allowing all Americans to lift their sights and dare to dream of success at the highest levels.

I believe this is the beginning of a great era in America, one that will uplift us all in ways much more profound than just being able to buy a bigger house or own a bigger car. 

My apologies to those who still may be feeling let down by their candidates defeat. My intention is not at all to gloat or rub salt in wounds, but only to record my feelings for posterity. If Obama proves to be a flop as President, you can hold this over my head forever.  In the meantime however, I remain immeasureably hopeful.

An Actual News Item

If I didn't report on this I should lose my title (Amboy Observer).

Over the past week, I have noticed a medium-large Obama for President sign in front of a house just about a mile from the Amboy Market. 

The first time I saw it, I raised my eyebrows; I didn't think there were anything but die-hard Republicans in and around Amboy. Certainly the opposition keeps a fairly low profile in general.

The fact that I'm writing about "the one" Obama sign in Amboy, says a lot.

The next time I saw the sign. I noticed someone had overlaid a hand-written message on cardboard over one side of the Obama sign: "Not In Amboy!"

When I came home from work that day, the overlay had been removed and a new hand-written message attached above the sign: "Only cowards deface signs!"

This morning, when I drove by the sign, it looked like it had been cut in half, though it was still standing. This afternoon, it looked whole. Maybe I imagined the cut?

Seeing the evidence of this conflict play out fills me with varying surges of emotion: anger, of course, that there are numbskulls out there who can't live and let live; pity for the person having to deal with the vandalism and all the nasty connotations entailed therein; pride in the person standing up for his/her right to post a political sign like any American should be able to; sadness, that we live in a world that still contains these types of struggles.

Ultimately, I'm reminded of the importance of taking the high road. I've fantasized many times about removing or vandalizing the sign of some candidate who I strongly opposed, though I've never acted on that fantasy. Now I know I never will.

I have contemplated this little drama and have felt the echoes of the struggles endured by other people in other places.  And in that contemplation, my thoughts have turned to luminaries like Dr. Martin Luther King and his beautiful message of peaceful protest. The truth of his message is as irresistible as gravity. Here's to hoping this saboteur in Amboy will come down from orbit and join the rest of us who are peacefully expressing our views.

Bike Trips

This week:
Tuesday: biked with Heidi and Jill 15 miles around Battle Ground with some hills
Wednesday: biked to work and back from 6.4 miles out. 12.8 mile round trip (Climbing out of Camas is like climbing out of your own grave)
Thursday: biked with Heidi and Jill 12.25 miles; mostly flat. Heidi's odometer turned over 100 miles.
Friday: biked to work from 12 miles out. 24 mile round trip. Met a guy on the road named "Scooter" who was just wrapping up a four-day, 200 mile biking/camping tour from Battle Ground to somewhere in Oregon.

Today is Saturday, and why I awoke in the 3 o'clock hour, I don't know, but Heidi and Jill and I are planning a 30 mile round trip, with some hills. At the apex of our trip we'll visit NW Organics farm, where I hope to buy some good-quality garlic for seeding my garden, and some for eating too.

Sunday and Monday will be days of rest from biking.

A month ago I was typically weighing in at 223 and now I am centered around 218. The Wii Fit says a good BMI for me would be 196. That's about what I had thought before the Wii, but somehow, having the Wii tell me helped. I can hardly wait to see how fast I can truck along when I'm 20 pounds lighter and stronger in the legs, heart and lungs.

Shower Curtain

So we got on BedBathAndBeyond.com and began looking at their shower curtains. Heidi said, "If they have one with big red poppies, that's the one I want." And wouldn't you know, on page 13 of 13, and on clearance, for 19.99, there it was; a shower curtain with big red poppies.

Shower installed

I finally installed a shower in our house 3.5 years after moving in. Sheesh! But, there you have it, and it sure looks snappy.

Free Kittens

Heidi came across some kittens that had been abandoned, so she took them home to care for them until suitable homes could be found.
Above is one upside-down example of the kittens. There are a total of six.

Baby Bunnies

Heidi obtained a "free" miniature lop-eared bunny. 5 days later, it gave birth to 7 wonderful baby miniature lop-eared bunnies!
What a surprise that was. She was told never to let the bunny to get pregnant, because she was supposed to be "retired".
Anyhow, here they are.

First Day of School 2008

Jamey is 7 and entering 3rd grade.
Arthur is 6 and entering 1st grade.

Wii Fun and Fitness

I have made a discovery that is both obvious and underreported: Boxing is great exercise when no one is hitting you back.

I've been boxing with the Wii fairly often since we bought it a few weeks back and as a consequence am routinely reaching the point of sweating where I used to just loaf on the couch and watch movies, or play old-style video games.

By old-style, what I mean is a video game that only accepts input from ones fingers.
The Wii has ushered in a new era in video gaming that brings us closer to the Star Trek Holodeck, in which the user is immersed in a virtual world and can act out parts that could only be fantasy in his real life.

A great XBox game, such as any of the Halo series, is very convincing and engaging. However, the ability to have your body's movements contribute to your success or failure in the game environment raises the bar considerably.

I look forward to the next generation of gaming consoles, when Microsoft and Sony will undoubtedly follow Nintendo's lead and make controllers and devices that read and respond to the gamers body to make the games of the future the most immersive yet.

El Bandito or The Chicken Hunter

UPDATE: This bobcat was on our property, mere feet away from the chicken coop when I took this picture. He or she had made a couple passes/pounces at the coop, which proved invulnerable. Nevertheless, the chickens became completely flustered. After taking several mediocre pictures from inside the house, I went down to give the chickens some relief from their fright and brought the camera for a potential close-up. One of which is pictured above.

Kids for Sale

Heidi: (points to sign while driving along country road) "Look! Kids for sale!" (With big grin, looks at Jamey and Arthur in the back seat. They look serious, slightly appalled and a bit apprehensive.)
Arthur: "You want to sell us, don't you?"

STP 08 Finishers Jim Squared

Bowman Lake

Here are Jamey Heidi and Arthur next to Bowman Lake with a cool looking peak behind them. I haven't looked up its name yet, but it was really neat looking with horizontal lines on a broad brown face.

Montana Vacation

We just got back from our road trip to Montana. We saw an did some fun stuff, which I'll try to describe in small bits later. For now, I'll just post this picture that Heidi took and promise more to come.

Thai Glutinous Rice

This weekend we located an Asian grocer in Vancouver and wasted no time in realizing the prices made it worth stocking up. I know it's not nice, but a few weeks ago, when I heard there is a worldwide shortage of rice, my first thought was "that's sad/scary". My second thought was "Boy I could really use some delicious rice to eat!" And I've pretty much obsessed about rice ever since.

In the past few weeks I have purchased: sweet, brown, sweet brown, short-grain, premium short-grain, black (emperor's forbidden), Thai glutinous, red, and jasmine rice.

I'm not proud, I'm just laying down the facts.

The "emperor" rice was such a hit at our Thai dinner, we've been jonesing for our next hit for a couple weeks.

So, yesterday, we bought 25 pounds of Thai glutinous rice, some coconut milk and champagne mangoes and made them up together in a dessert that tasted "just like the restaurant". The only thing we didn't have to make it 100% authentic was the pandanus leaf, which we did buy, but then observed mold thereupon and so discarded it.
If you ever get down this way, I strongly suggest you request this dish from the chef.

X-ray

I am blogging my first...

I am blogging my first Jott. Thanks to Lief's example. I am especially glad to be able to Jott since I dislocated my finger. By the way, exercising on the ball really helps mom. Thanks. listen

Powered by Jott

Disjointed

I had a dislocated finger yesterday. The middle knuckle of the ring-finger on my right hand was disjointed by about 45 degrees. I'll post the x-ray later.

I'm typing one-handed now.

How did this happen? You may ask.

As to the exact cause I can only speculate, since I wasn't conscious the moment it happened.
Generally speaking, though, I can say with great confidence that at the moment of dislocation a considerable proportion of my 225 pounds was poised above the finger and the tile floor was situated directly below it.

Just before that moment, my body must have been in a free fall from a standing position, with the trajectory of the fall being guided only by the interplay between the laws of physics and the mass and structure of my body.

By chance, my fall avoided numerous obstacles in the bathroom, and my head was completely spared. Indeed, only my right arm received noticeable damage: scrapes on the elbow and "trauma" (minor, with one exception) to three of the fingers.

The series of unfortunate events that lead to all of the above I'll briefly explain.
9:00 am major back spasm erupts while clearing my throat on the kitchen porch. The shock of pain nearly drops me to my knees.
9:05 ingest a muscle relaxant in hopes of a quick cure.
10:00 fall asleep under influence of the drug
11:30 wake with full bladder
11:32 finish urinating
11:32 pass out
12:30 Heidi drives me to urgent care clinic
2:30 doctor "reduces" the dislocated finger after checking for fractures and bone fragments
3:30 drive home with Green Curry, Tom Ka Gai and sweet rice with mango and coconut sauce.

Goings On

Here is a link to some pictures of what has been going on:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ZimFam/KidSchoolDays


Heidi took a picture of a Lazuli Bunting at her bird feeder, but it didn't turn out too well, so I'll link to this picture:

What do May Showers Bring?

Why, June showers, of course!
Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, we've had our flowers too. It's just plain funny how much it has drizzled lately.
It's great for the garden though. We've been eating fresh greens from our deer-proof garden for a few weeks now.
Jamey and Arthur performed at their schools spring show last night. They were cute. Arthur sang and kazooed his way through Little Boy Blue and Mary Mary Quite Contrary.
Jamey recited his own poem about aphids. Both poem and recitation were top-notch.

What do April Showers Bring?

In school I was taught that April showers bring May flowers. But, in Amboy, WA things are a little different. Yes we've had some flowers, but they have been overshadowed this month, by the great overshadowers: clouds. And rain.
So, I've arrived at the new mnemonic, for use in Amboy: April showers bring May showers!

In any case, things are green around here. I need to sharpen my scythe blade and make some hay.

200 Miles Per Gallon!!!

This could be just the ticket for me, a bicycle assisting motor that runs on regular gasoline and gets a whopping 200 miles per gallon:
http://www.bikeengines.com/robin35info.htm
These engines got rave reviews on Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools site.
By my calculations, this would save me roughly $1200 per year, assuming I used it exclusively for my commuting. And I could get in shape at the same time.

Current Events

Nothing earth-shattering here, but I wanted to log some of the facts of my life right now:
Gourmet cooking has tapered off a bit, though it is still among the top hobbies I'm actively pursuing. That is related to my present obsession with knives, quality metal and sharpening, which lead to the purchase of some Shun knives a while back, and a subsequent obsession with finding "the best" way to sharpen kitchen cutlery.
That has lead me to Japanese water stones, which I was able to procure at a very nice woodworking store in Portland last weekend. I bought a 1000 and a 6000 grit stone of rather large dimensions (3.5 x 8 inches or so) and have succeeded in getting my old knives to the point that I can shave hairs of the back of my hand. So, I'm considering that a success. Oh, yeah, I also bought a synthetic strop and a small cannister of aluminum oxide powder, which I think is responsible for that last little boost that allows the shaving of hair.
Having good, sharp knives in the house leads to just one thing: the desire to cut stuff. So, we've planted a vegetable garden. Unlike years past, however, we've protected it from all manner of pests this year. The deer, as you may know, are ravenous and can smell cabbage from two miles upwind, five miles down. So, we've build a fence, with rabbit-proofing on the bottom, and deer-proofing up to about seven feet, with more height possible, if it's deemed necessary.
During the construction of the fence, I smashed my thumb only once. (What sicko puts a round top on a fencing staple?) This provided me the chance to prove that I could endure considerable pain without cursing. I failed that test. However, later, I was provided the opportunity to practice a technique, learned from Vern L. Callero, of piercing the fingernail, to relieve the blood-pressure buildup in the traumatized tissue. Good thing I had a nice, sharp Shun paring knife handy. :)
That about sums it up for now. I'll let you know how the garden grows.

Milestones

I failed to mention, I reached 400 posts 4 posts ago. Amazing how they add up, a little here, a little there.

But the real point of this post is to highlight Arthur's milestone:
First lost tooth!!!! He was quite excited, and insisted that everyone wiggle it.

Crying, From Laughing

In my family we always pick a Kentucky Derby horse for the fun of it. Sometimes we'll even bet 10 cents.
Back in 1981, I was still a child, the first time we did it (spurred on, I think, by my brother's enthusiasm for the Black Stallion book series.)
That was the only time I've picked a winner. It has been 27 years since then. Despite my early success, time has shown that you can't pick a horse by its name alone.

Back to the present time.

I don't think dead horses are funny. I don't think broken legs are funny. Two broken legs on one dead horse, is, in fact, a miserable thing to contemplate.

I literally feel ill when I hear of a horse euthanized before its time due to two broken forelegs. Generally, I try not to think about it for long, because it makes me queasy. I have empathy and sympathy for the animal, as well as the people that owned and cared for the animal.

What is mildly funny is when a family-member "bets" on that horse in the Kentucky Derby.

And what strikes me as hugely funny, is when one issues a polite request to that same family member to never "bet" on onesself, should one happen to ever be in a race of any sort.

To make such a request suggests a deep-rooted sense of superstition. Those who know me, know I have no such sense in actuality. But I do believe, (perhaps erroneously) that it makes for an hysterical joke.

That is why, in the picture above, you will notice a gleam on my lower eyelids. By myself, in my office at 7 on a Sunday morning, I laughed until I cried after sending just such a request to my sister-in-law, who has never been anything but gracious to me.

Hamster Hero

One dark and rainy night, a hamster and a cat went into the laundry room. The next morning, only the cat was left.

Four days later, a man (me) lays in bed, awake, at around 5 am.

He hears the distinctive noise of rodent on cardboard. Channeling his inner owl, he attempts to locate the rodent using only his ears, in the dark morning.

Finally, the time is right to strike, so he wakes up his wife (the striker), who turns on the lights and stands by hopefully waiting as the man removes the concealing boxes from the stack near his side of the bed.

Suddenly the man sees the telltale fur and stubby tail of the elusive rodent, which then becomes wedged between a tile box and the gently sloping straw bale wall. It's black, beady eye gazing upward, with some hope yet that it can't be reached, the man readies his striker, then pulls out the last box of tile. She lunges and snaps up the furry beast, who still tries pointlessly to run, while being held in the striker's agile talons.

She puts the escape-artist back in it's cage and adds packing tape over the exit covers to prevent the prisoner from a repeat performance.

For his alertness (insomnia), box lifting prowess, and keen vision in saving "Chewy" (the rodent) the man is dubbed "Hero".

Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome

This is the doctor's diagnosis of Arthur's condition.
Here's a link describing it:
http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/cvs/index.htm

A couple interesting points:

1. It appears to be a label without an explanation
2. It could be what I had as a child, my cycle was yearly and culminated on Dec. 26th. Although, I could very easily attribute my bouts with the double excitement of Christmas, followed by my birthday.

I think similar factors may trigger Arthur's bouts. An unpredictable eating or sleeping schedule may be triggers (this is my opinion here).

One last note, from the doctor: known trigger foods are a) Chocolate, b) Cheese and one other that Heidi will have to remind me of...

True Crime

Last Saturday, after leaving Amelia's birthday party, we pulled out onto Talbot road, northbound, when a giant, green SUV whipped in front of us, practically grazing our right front bumper.
In seconds it became apparent that he was chasing a gray sedan, whose trunk was smashed in.
A few more seconds went by, and the driver of the giant green SUV pulled up alongside the sedan and steered hard into it's left rear fender area. This sent the sedan into approximately three wild fishtails, and both of the oncoming lanes before the driver regained control and continued down Talbot towards Grady.
Before the vehicles were out of sight, we saw them go through a red light with a stream of cars from the opposite direction turning left in front of the racing gray sedan and green SUV. This did not deter both of them from weaving their way right through the light, and somehow, all the left-turners.
The chase made its way under the 405 overpass and after that we lost sight of them. By the time we got to Grady way, they were nowhere to be found. Heidi called 911, and found that others had already called, and they suggested that it was a gray Impala being chased by a green Yukon, which coincided very well with what we saw. They said the police were trying to track them down.

Arthur Doing Better

Arthur began an episode last Friday night where he couldn't hold down any food. Saturday, we took him to the urgent care clinic; they called it a Rotavirus and prescribed Promethazine syrup to keep the nausea at bay.

He stayed home from school until Thursday, because that's how long it took until we felt he had observed him enough to say he was consistently holding down food.

He ate well yesterday. The last time he couldn't hold down a meal was Tuesday's dinner.

We're going to take him to a pediatrician to see if we should be more careful about what goes in. Arthur has had periodic bouts of vomiting that are hard for us to explain; we're hoping for some advice on whether he appears to be prone to vomiting and if there is anything we can do to make it less likely.

Barbecue Under Snow

February was so warm, we barbecued two or three times and thought it was spring already. Then we made our way to March 28th and this is what happened at our barbecue station.

According to NPR, the Oregon Coast mountain range has received 400 times their average annual snowfall this winter.

Finnish Snowman?

Jamey heard stories of the Finns who would take a sauna and then go roll in snow in the buff. Well, he didn't have a sauna, but didn't want to be deprived of the half of the fun that he could manage. So, there he is, thoroughly enjoying himself in our spring snowstorm.

Tom Douglas Mania

Because I want all of my readers to have the highest quality of life possible, I'm sharing this discovery: TomDouglas.com
Go to his radio page and subscribe to his podcast and his recipe of the week:
http://tomdouglas.com/radio/index.html

Hear me now, thank me later. ;)

Seasonal Changes

Last fall, Jamey and Arthur planted quite a lot of garlic cloves in the raised bed we made from Lief and Angela's old deck material. Yesterday I counted 48 of those emerging, robustly from the bed. A few weeks ago I noticed that several of the cloves appeared to have been plucked from the ground by their new shoots and left to lie on top of the soil. So I sunk them back in cozily in the ground and fetched some 17 gauge K-Lath to cover the bed. Now they are looking happy and oh, so healthy.

The garden construction is coming along. We're using 12 foot treated 4x4 posts so that we can mount fencing well over 7 feet high, which we understand is roughly the limit of a deer's leaping ability. The garden dimensions are 25' x 19'8, with a hypotenuse of 31'8 inches.

Jamey and I just came back from a dual mission: a) collecting "manure" from chickens, rabbits and deer to create a "tea" for fertilizing our garden. b) collecting the tops of new nettle shoots to dry for nettle tea (in this case we plan to drink it).
We had a tea made from the fresh nettle leaves and all three of us boys enjoyed it. Heidi is far from convinced that nettles should be consumed in any form.

I'm seeing the first flush of Alder "flowers" emerging in the distance. The cause the shape of the tree to become visible in a flush of rusty pink. Seeing this causes me to look hopefully to the days ahead, as it won't be long until the pink is followed by the spring green.

Hall of Fame

Leonard Cohen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
And, now it sounds like he's going on tour! Although perhaps mostly in Europe.
http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/2008/03/11/4972506-cp.html

Trans-Fat Tirade Take Two

The Girl Scouts of America announced in November 2006 that all of their cookies will contain 0.5g trans fats per serving, thus meeting or exceeding the FDA guidelines. ^[99] However, trans fats from girl scout cookies can exceed recommended levels if more than one serving is consumed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans_fat

Please leave a comment if you have ever eaten only one serving of Thin Mints at a time.

I suppose you can look at this in two ways:
1. Bravo that the Girl Scouts of America are following FDA guidelines
2. Let's teach our Girl Scouts that it's OK to include coronary heart disease-causing ingredients in our cookies.

My point is that Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and other public service organizations should be at the forefront of consideration of the public welfare, not grudgingly meeting the minimum requirements of the FDA.

We know that trans fats are strongly linked to heart disease (see above Wikipedia link). We know that almost no one eats only one serving of Thin Mints at a time.

Girl Scouts, this is your opportunity to shine: take a stand for the health of the community you are trying to serve. I promise I will buy twice as many cookies if they contain no trans fats.

My Kids Have Email Accounts

My kids have email accounts, but they can't type. Meanwhile, my typing skills have seen a sudden jump in wpm.
They are so excited to send and receive messages. I remember being just like Jamey, always clamming up when it comes time to say something back. Arthur has no issues with writer's block at all. He just spews away, as fast or faster than I can type.
We have, lately, been watching an anime serial called Naruto. It is about a little spiky-haired blond boy who wants to become his village's best ninja. The show is cute and silly and has given us all a small education in the terminology of ninja. We've been exposed to the concepts of jutsu and chakra among several other terms though we're not sure at all what is authentic Japanese cultural information and what is pure fantasy.
Heidi discovered one can take a class in chakra at the community center where she takes the boys for swimming lessons.

Dinner

Peach sangria
Grilled asparagus and onion with a Merlot reduction drizzled over.
Grilled salmon with paprika and kosher salt rub
Aromatic rice
Garlic, chive, basalmic grilled shitake mushrooms
onion, egg cornbread pudding
Chevre Cheesecake with blackberries


MMMmmmmmmmmmm..........

Lunar Eclipse

Paw print

Paw print
Originally uploaded by King Cnut

This print in our backyard clay seemed broader and blunter than the nearby dog tracks, which had obvious toenails.
The toe pads I may have over-highlighted a bit, but the palm pad I think I shaded conservatively and it looks like it easily hits 1.5 inches across.

Update:
I was leaning towards cougar when I first saw it and this site has reinforced that notion for me:
http://www.cougarsanctuary.org/tracks.html

Health Food? Or Just Plain Stinky?

The latest miracle fruit to enter my radar screen is acai berry (pronounced ah-sigh-EE). Heidi has purchased a vitamin drink by Emergen-C, flavored with that berry. I just did a little poking around on Google and found that is supposed to cure a great many things. Perhaps not as many as a sea salt bath, but still a respectable number of ailments can be vanquished through the ingestion of this fabulously powerful fruit, which hails from Brazil.

As for myself I don't know how I could every consume it. For it has, distinctly, powerfully and pungently, a smell that vividly brings to my mind the substance that male house cats use to mark out their territory.

While on my search, just now, for information on the acai berry, remarkably I found no one who already blogged about this remarkable and undeniable similarity.

So, I make my plea to you, oh reader, to buy some of this healthful beverage and write back to give your opinion: does the acai berry smell overwhelmingly like cat spray, or not?

Chinese Feast

Part way through this meal, we realized that it was magnificent enough that we should have taken a picture before we started eating; but it still seemed worth it to me, if only for documentary purposes.

At the far end, obscured by the red candle, are the peanut noodles with shitake mushrooms and cilantro. In front of the candle are the wok-steamed clams in spicy fermented black bean sauce. Nearer still, orange, ginger and anise aromatic rice. Finally the cayenne spiced carmelized almonds and aromatic steamed baby bok choy.
Not pictured is a fabulous spice rubbed chicken, stuffed with orange. And Star-anise Dragon martinis which were flavored with lemon, orange, lime and two drops of some very hot pepper sauce, which blended into one delicious cocktail.

All of these dishes were taken from a cookbook by Seattle chef Tom Douglas's: Tom's Big Dinners.
We have decided that Douglas is the living embodiment of Dionysus and we have decided to worship at his alter every Sunday night.

This is the third consecutive Sunday dinner that we have cooked under his guidance, and each time it has been a truly "soul satisfying" experience. (I borrowed that phrase from one of his books since it fit so aptly).