Letters From Amboy

Snow Bear in Bed

2012-01-15T09:21:00.000-08:00

New Neighbor

2011-11-26T06:05:00.001-08:00

I was attempting to demonstrate to Jamey and Arthur how you can detect animals in the bushes at night by shining a flashlight into the brush and watching for the telltale reflection of night-eyes. Jamey said that sounded scary & I vaguely agreed with him.

That's about the time I happened to notice a decent-sized eye-glow coming from the brush on our eastern border. Being only one glow, I immediately supposed I was seeing only one side of a deer, but then I thought it might be a coyote with only one eye, or worse...a one-eyed bear! It's well known that Zimmerman's are able to discern one-eyed bears better than most.

Nevertheless, with Jamey and Arthur there, I didn't want to look nervous and impart upon them some irrational sense of fear of wild animals at night, so I suggested we investigate.

Arthur immediately scrambled up the hill, presumably to let Heidi know she should prepare the first-aid kit to treat the gory lacerations we would have, if we even made it back.

Meanwhile Jamey and Snowbear agreed to accompany me in taking a closer look at the one-eyed beast in the bushes.

As we got closer it suddenly happened that the one big eye resolved into two smaller eyes that were very close together. We stopped, suddenly feeling that we didn't want to scare this creature off as much as before.

After Jamey saw the two eyes and we both "Awwww"-ed at the cuteness of it. We tiptoed on. Based on it's elevation, we could presume it was a bird, though it wasn't all that far from the ground.

We were able to approach close enough to see dimly the size, shape and some of the coloration of the whole bird. It was an owl perched on the lowest branch (barely more than a twig) of a cascara tree.

Once she finally flew off, she tolerated our presence far more than most wild creatures, we came back to the house and looked her up in the bird book. The book affirmed the apparent "tame-ness" and said these owls have been known, due to their defensive "hiding" technique, to get bundled up by accident inside Christmas trees branches when the trees are cut and wrapped for shipping.

I wasn't able to get a picture because it was too dark & I didn't have my camera. But I found a blog with some very nice pictures of our new neighbor:
http://www.glennbartley.com/naturephotography/birds/NorthenSawWhetOwl.html

And for a sample of her song:
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Saw-whet_Owl/sounds

The Turkey Turned Out Well

2011-11-25T11:31:00.001-08:00

The slow-roast method was a success. The meat was moist and stringy, like pulled pork.

There was a brief moment of concern when I discovered the oven was off, but it couldn't have been more than about an hour, so I turned it back on and all was well.

The meat was so loose, there was no way to carve a slice. Instead I just dragged it off the bones with a fork.

My first foray into gravy also turned out just fine, even though I kind of winged it a bit.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T09:05:00.000-08:00

My friend Dwayne gave me a tip on cooking turkey. The keen observer will note that this one is "breast-side down", which keeps the white meat submerged in the drippings.
The other main component to his tip that I'm trying this year is the slow-roasting technique. This one has been in the oven since about 8:30 PM last night and after an initial searing at 400 degrees F, has been roasting at 200.

Overall this 24 pound bird will have roasted for over 18 hours by the time dinner is served.

The outcome will undoubtedly be recorded here tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving one and all!

Lithium Battery Woes

2011-11-06T08:05:00.000-08:00

Tip of the Day: Don't drop a LiPo battery

That's what I did.

LiPo batteries have the rigidity of Play-Doh (tm) and are damaged by small indentations.
Once I dropped mine, the 3rd (of three) cell was no longer able to take a charge. This rendered my battery "unchargeable", meaning I couldn't drive Dulcinea to work in the dark.

$65 later, I have an upgraded battery with almost twice the total capacity. My lights are once again bright as the moon at midnight & I can drive confidently knowing I'm easily seen. Furthermore, I have the capacity to run on one charge for about a week!

Here's a picture of how I've wrapped my new battery to protect it from a repeat of my earlier mishap. Three layers of "ShamWow" felt and the original box it came in.

No Sugar - Month 2 Wrapup

2011-11-06T07:39:00.000-08:00

During September and October this year I have avoided almost all sucrose and fructose. I certainly haven't had any candy or desserts, but sugar is found in the most amazing places these days and so through oversight and willing lack of rigor I have allowed some to slip in. Very little though, especially compared with my former self.

I don't mean to say that I was ever a rampaging sugar-holic, but looking back I find that I consumed sugar in nearly every meal I've had for years. Whether it is the after-lunch mint, the sweet-and-sour pork, the spoonful of honey in my oatmeal...whatever, sugar was a constant presence.

Now, two months in to my "sugar-avoidance-diet", eating as much food as I want, whenever I want, provided it contains no sucrose or fructose, I've lost approximately 16 pounds.

I only have about another 16 pounds between me and my "known healthy weight" of 190 lbs. This is the weight I was when I was 19 years old, playing basketball 4 hours per day and lifting weights. I have no overriding ambition to achieve that weight. I would consider it completely OK to be that weight again. If I were to go below that weight by more than 10 lbs, I would begin to worry.

Now that I think of it, I was once (also at 19 yo) 175 lbs...after 9 days of hiking in the mountains, living on rations of dehydrated and flavorless food, while hiking 8 miles per day with a heavy pack. At that time, my bones were jutting angularly in a way that brings to mind victims of famine or anorexia. That is the absolute "weight-floor" for me. If I were to get that light, I'm fairly sure it would be due to some form of disease & would certainly avail myself of medical attention.

However, at this point, that is all very tangential...I feel good. I rarely crave candy or dessert. This may be due to the fact I've come to consider sugar to be poison & my desire not to be poisoned turns my appetite away from those "treats". It also may be because I don't let myself get hungry. I'm filling up on foods with fiber, protein and glucose.

I should also give some credit to Heidi, whose Channa Masala, Moroccan Stew and other delights make it enjoyable to eat healthfully.

Get Your Vampire Defense System In Place

2011-10-31T06:30:00.001-07:00

Today is the day....if you haven't already done it, you should get some garlic in the ground.

Smiles and Waves

2011-10-25T05:04:00.000-07:00

The reactions I've seen while driving my velomobile have been consistent and at times incredibly energetic.

The most basic and common is the broad smile, usually from someone alone and on foot.
Two people together will usually cause one to elbow the other while pointing excitedly my direction.
Two or more high-school aged persons will often shout vociferous approval, "Awesome car!" or something guttural, perhaps while thrusting a fist outward with index and pinkie-finger extended.
A young child might say: "I want one".
I had a Harley-Davidson rider pull up alongside me and quiz me on my power-source. Upon learning it was pedal+electric he offered to race me to the next gas station, which I found hilarious.

My perception from all this feedback is that driving the Quest is really worth the effort. Around here it really is something different. People recognize it as a thing of interest and I like to think that they intuitively understand its power as an energy-saving mode of transportation.

In any case it's nice to think that when the kids standing out at their bus-stops, or riding their buses, come home after school and their mother asks what they saw on "Mulberry Street"....they will have something worth mentioning.

Second Commute

2011-10-13T16:35:00.000-07:00

I had dramatic improvement on my second commute, getting my one-way time as low as 78 minutes!

The only issues I'm having are fog on my goggles and rain at high-speeds.
I'm going to have to look into a product like Fog-Tech to see if I can defeat the foggy goggle problem.

Here's some photographic evidence of my morning commute from several days ago:

First Real Commute - Part 2

2011-10-05T08:46:00.000-07:00

The rain moved in late in the day, which gave me the chance to test the theory that one can be comfortable driving a Quest velomobile in the rain.

The comfort-level was quite good. The amount of ventilation is about right to keep from overheating, while the amount of wind-blocking prevented me from getting chilled on the descents.

I do need to remember to wear face-protection in the rain. Raindrops are positively painful at speeds over 40 mph, which I hit on at least 3 downhill spots each way.

Also, I need some anti-fog eye-wear that really works.

Finally, on the last mile before arriving home for the evening my throttle-lever slipped out of position. When I re-adjusted it I found I was able to apply more amperage than before. This means it's possible I still haven't tested the system with maximum throttle. I'm excited to see how much faster I can ascend the hills with this new top-end.

First Real Commute - Part 1

2011-10-04T08:10:00.000-07:00

I laid on the throttle today at almost every opportunity.

Result: 1hr 31min morning commute.

This time, as you may know, is one minute longer than my target.

I love it when a plan comes together.

Other details:
I burned 8+ amp-hours on the battery.
Avg speed 18+
Max speed 47 (coming down a straight hill with great visibility. On the curvy hills I keep it at 40 or less.)

Commute Trial-run

2011-10-03T06:20:00.000-07:00

Having received my battery back from Headway Headquarters this week, it was time to test the theory that launched this yearlong quest to obtain a motorized...erm...Quest.

I call her Dulcinea. This is supposed to reference her sweet, slim curves, but I tell ya, when you're pulling 80 pounds of machine up the kind of hills we have around Amboy, "fat-pig" is a term more likely to come to mind.

So, with my motor & battery (adding another 25 pounds) I set out yesterday to see if I could make the round-trip of 58 miles to my office and back, with only one "minor" mountain in between. Oh, and I really wanted to do it in 1.5 hours each way.

A bit after leaving home, I realized I left my battery charger at home, which meant I wouldn't be able to "refuel" at the office. So, I had to be a bit conservative with the "juice". I have a 36-volt 16 amp-hour battery. I'm told that you should only expect about 13 amp-hours when running a battery of that capacity. So, with that in mind I planned to use no more than 6.5 amp-hours on the way to the office.

Pulling out of Amboy drained about 4 amp-hours. This was using my lowest gear and full-throttle, going 7+ mph for about 6 of the 8 miles required to reach the summit of Kelly road, which is about 1000 ft above sea-level.

From there it switched from an exertion challenge to one of restraint, as I bombed down the other side of Kelly Mountain, a steep descent of approximately 2 continuous miles. I decided that it's best to keep my speed at 40 mph or less, since it does take some lead-time to come to a stop and you never know when a deer will be in the road.

Getting the rest of the way in was relatively smooth sailing. I made it in 1 hour and 50 minutes, (1 hr 43min rolling time), having used about 6.2 amp-hours.

The way back was more of a challenge. My legs were already "well-done" & there is a tad more climbing to do on the return-trip.

I knew I'd need a solid 4 amp-hours by the time I got to the base of Kelly hill, so I paced the battery and tried to use my legs on the "flat" stuff. Still, I was pretty well exhausted & relied on the motor to boost me several times.

Pulling northbound up Kelly Road was every bit as epic as I'd imagined. I was so grateful to find that my motor and battery could sustain the ascent in my 1st gear...although my input was needed almost the whole way in order to keep the motor from laboring or lugging.

When I made it to the top, my legs were leaden. With my motor allowing me to "spin" I wasn't sidelined with cramps like I had been in the past, but I still contributed the whole way up and my legs were so depleted I began having an altered sense of reality.

To give an example...having reached what I hoped would be the summit, a stretch of road that was relatively "plano"...I decided to conserve battery and pedal alone. The stiff resistance I felt indicated that either my brakes were engaged ( I checked that & ruled it out considering how willing the machine seemed to be to roll backwards) or I was really fatigued and rolling on a flat-tire or two. So I got out to check & found the tires all fully pumped. I was really, really fatigued.

I took the opportunity to to stretch and take some water.

Back in the cockpit, I shed my illusions and cranked up the throttle, allowing me to crest what I finally realized was the real summit of Kelly Mountain. At the top, my joy was reinforced by the animated discussion and pointing that my arrival produced in two men standing in their garage about 70 yards to my right. I waved to them and they waved back. I was filled with the sense that I brought something positive into this corner of the world.

From Kelly mountain it is practically all downhill to my house, so that was quick and easy.

Heidi had roast chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, blanched kale & buttered lima beans all set on the table when I got home. Bless her sweet spirit.

Benefits of Whole-food, Plant-based Diet

2011-09-17T09:12:00.000-07:00

More compelling information about a whole food, plant-based diet: ForksOverKnives.com.

I just watched the documentary film Forks Over Knives, which focuses on two doctors who independently came to the realization that meat and dairy were leading causes of heart problems and that switching to a whole plant-based diet can stop the progression of those diseases.

Patients documented in the film went from some horrific cholesterol numbers to very healthy ones after 22 weeks of the recommended diet. Medications were eliminated. Energy levels were elevated.

Others mentioned in the documentary were vegan Ultimate Fighting competitor and a fireman whose physiques could leave no question that plants provide all the nutrients you could need. The fireman repeated the memorable quote, as he climbed the fire pole using just his arms: "Real men eat plants."

All this correlates to my own recent experience of losing 10 pounds in 3 weeks with the sole lifestyle change being avoidance of refined sugar.

One of the patients in the film echoed another experience of mine....food tastes incredible again. I've come to believe that refined sugar deadens your senses to the variety of flavor inherent in food. As a result we feel compelled to eat foods that are ever more rich. It's sweetness arms race.

Now though, after just 3 weeks of avoiding refined sugar, a plain Fuji apple tastes to me as sweet as a caramel apple used to. Literally.

I'm looking in the mirror and seeing angles returning to my face. I'm feeling more vigorous and I'm noticing less puffiness around my eyes.

I'm looking forward to my next blood test because I feel like I'm going to ace it.

2011-09-15T19:21:00.000-07:00

Inspired by blief.net's post on sugar, I decided to try banning refined sugar from my diet.
My goal is to get a good reading the next time I have my blood tested, but in the meantime, I've lost about 10 pounds of weight. Totally unintended and equally welcome.

I've also noticed that regular food tastes amazing now. Everything is super flavorful and sweetness crops up in many more places now.

Perhaps it's the placebo effect, but I also feel more energetic and more alert throughout the day.

Inspiring Weight-Loss Documentary

2011-07-17T19:00:00.000-07:00

I recently watched a documentary film called "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead", which was an incredibly inspiring tale of a man fed-up with his weight and health problems, who used a 60-day "juice-fast" to address his problems.

For the second half of his "fast" he traveled the US, engaging locals in conversation about food, weight and health issues, all while continuing his own "fast".

One truck-driver he met had so much in common, that he offered to help. The truck-driver subsequently accepts the offer and the second half of the film follows his progress, which is perhaps even more uplifting than the inspiring original.

Anyway, this is a film that is good enough that I feel it worth recommending:

http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/

I streamed it on Netflix.

Canyon Creek Ride

2011-07-10T08:08:00.000-07:00

Back in June I had Dulcinea on the Canyon Creek Road during a workout.

It seemed like a good opportunity to get a picture of her "in the wild".

The View From Green Mountain

2011-07-09T22:16:00.000-07:00

Arthur and Jamey gamely climbed Green Mountain with me today. I was lead to believe it was a 3.5 mile round-trip, but I think it was actually 5 miles.

Anyway, they were great sports. Arthur even found the trail that led us to this beautiful view of Lake Merwin.

Wordsmiths

2011-07-01T21:47:00.000-07:00

Snowbear, Heidi's Great Pyrenees puppy, is already taller than a full-grown Golden Retriever. His shaggy white fur and black nose brings to mind a polar bear. So it was very understandable when Heidi coined a new phrase to describe him: rugamuffin. Yet another perfectly apt word coined by Heidi.

And the gift shows signs of emerging in our oldest boy. Today, while waiting patiently for the doctors to come around and do their thing, Jamey mentioned a "word": dewblop.

"That's not a word"

"Look it up"

"OK"

So I Google it and find only one page in the entire interwebs that has dewblop in the URL, but no reference to it on the page.

Of course Jamey conceded that it wasn't a word.

However, as I continue to think about it I realize what a feat of mental agility it is to coin a word like that which has no precedent in Google's entire catalog.

Meanwhile the doctors were coming back a bit stumped as to what type of fever Jamey had. His symptoms were fatigue, fever for 3 days, and pink spots all over starting on the 3rd day.

The immediate care clinic, unsure as to the diagnosis, sent us on to the ER to give them a chance for a more thorough battery of tests.

While on our way, I described to Jamey that when you had the first instance of a disease, they usually name the disease after you (think Lou Gehrig).

Well, the ER docs didn't think it was anything remarkable enough to investigate beyond saying "it's a virus".

Feeling just a bit jilted for not having the disease named Jamey G. Fever by the doctors, we decided instead to name it ourselves. And the name that seemed to fit best: Dewblop Fever.

Hopefully Dewblop Fever doesn't last beyond about 5 days, or our trip to Seattle will be in jeopardy.

Human Power Challenge 2011

2011-05-30T11:16:00.000-07:00

Got some nice snaps at the Portland HPC.

https://picasaweb.google.com/110154917113550313403/PortlandHPC2011

Good things

2011-05-01T17:06:00.001-07:00

Martha Stewart has hers, now it's my turn:

Pomegranate Black Currant Balsamic vinegar, by A Taste of Eden LLC. My mom gave me a bottle of this and it is heavenly. I just had some with a fresh sourdough boule.

Nettles. These are free if you're willing to pick them and they make world class green tea. Two weeks ago I made some soup out of them and it was fantastic. Supposedly it is very good for you too.

Dandelion Jelly. Heidi found a recipe and made this a few days ago. I could have gone my whole life and never tried this due to the awful experience of getting dandelion sap on my tongue as a child. However, the petals (which are the only part used for the jelly) are as aromatic as the sap is bitter, which means my toast has recently become a playground for my senses. Dandelion jelly will now be in rotation along with rhubarb compote and the many more traditional jams and jellies Heidi makes.

There are more, but I'll save those for another post

Jamey's First On-base

2011-04-29T05:46:00.000-07:00

While driving home after a long baseball practice (normal practice followed by another hour with just Jamey and myself), we got to talking about hamburgers and how hungry Jamey was. He asked:

"How many hamburgers could you make from one cow?"

Not being much of a meat man, I could only speculate based on vague memories of how much cows weigh and a guess at how much of that was meat that could be ground into burgers.

I came up with 1,000...not claiming any kind of certainty.

But then I pointed out that you probably wouldn't want to make hamburgers out of all the meat on a cow.

"Why not?"

"Because there are cuts in there that are way more valuable as steaks than hamburger meat"

"ooooohhhh....steaaaakkk.....slurp slurp"

That's when it occurred to me that it would be reasonably cheap to raise the stakes so to speak, and give Jamey something to think about while at bat other than the possibility of being hit by a pitch.

So I offered him a steak dinner after his first on-base in Little League. Hit, Hit-by-pitch or Base-on-Balls...all the same to me...getting on base is the only concern.

For a moment he was tempted to allow himself to get hit by a pitch as that seemed the most likely of the three options for achieving first base. However, in moments he decided that would make the task far too easy and so decided to challenge himself to acquire his steak by nobler means.

In Wednesday's game, the third played game of the season, Jamey walked on not once, but twice.

Especially on his second at-bat, he exhibited split-second decision-making with a skill that is hardly imaginable, falling for none of the traditional temptations of first-year Little-Leaguers (the high pitch in particular, comes to mind). Instead he kept his cool, took control of the pace of the at-bat by stepping out between pitches and once taking 7 or 8 practice swings, until the coach told him to get back in the batter's box. But, the damage to pitcher's (too fast) rhythm had been done, and he was subsequently unable to pitch a strike.

On the first BoB he was stranded, but on the second, his teammates moved him through the bases and he provided the game-winning-run!

And so, for exceeding the challenge put before him so extraordinarily well, he has earned an extraordinary steak: Filet Mignon from the Laurelwood Pub in Battle Ground.

Dulcinea Driving

2011-04-10T13:43:00.000-07:00

Never forget your balaclava on a cold day.

That's my advice du jour.

I thought I'd go for a short drive to start beefing-up my leg muscles today. The temperature was in the high 40's and a misty rain was falling. No problem, methinks...I'll be protected by Dulcinea and the temperature nor the moisture can affect me. True on the 95% of my body that is not my face. Somehow though, that 5% manages to suffuse 100% of your mind with thoughts of pain and suffering when you start going over 20 mph in cool rainy morning air. Thus...balaclava and goggles will be donned or brought along until the weather proves itself to be temperate.

Good news...I cut away a bit more heel-room below my pedals and that has all but completely alleviated the space issues I've been having. I've discovered that if I can keep my heels pushed forward just a bit, my knees don't bump. Keeping the keels pushed forward is perfectly comfortable, there just has to be room to do it. Now that I have the room, I'd say I'm 98% dialed-in. Cutting away just a bit more should take care of it. It's also possible that shoes with less tread would do the trick, so I'm weighing the option of getting new shoes as my next step.

I was happy to note that on a roughly level patch of road following a downhill, I was able do maintain 32 mph under my own power. I'm coming off 2 weeks of sickness that has left my lungs in a delicate state and my legs are still weak after three months of no biking. Considering that...I'm extremely pleased with the level-ground performance.

Soon, I'll be making an appointment to see EcoSpeed Motors about installing some hill-assistance. I expect to need shorter cranks to allow for the extra space the motor installation requires.

First Real Ride

2011-03-19T17:55:00.000-07:00

I took Dulcinea for a spin of 14 and 2/3rds very hilly miles.

Going up the hills was predictably difficult; I learned that you can simply stop and catch your breath without dismounting.

Going downhill was a blast, I hit 53.5 mph at my fastest. I'm still getting used to the feel of the vehicle and when going over 40 mph there was some apparent cross-wind action that made me nervous, but I'm guessing that's just one of those things you have to get used to in a new ride.

I still need to work on dialing-in the fit. I'm still bumping knees, toes and heels a bit.

Dulcinea has Arrived

2011-03-18T18:14:00.000-07:00

I took my new Quest velomobile for a short test-ride and found that I need to adjust it a bit for my legs. Bluevelo.com was quick to provide assistance to me even though it was late in the evening (Toronto time) when I asked them for help in adjusting the sizing.

So far I am impressed with the fit and polish of the components. The brakes are just awesome....I opted for the 90 mm size since my goal is to do frequent commuting and I reckoned the larger size would hold up better.

The electrical components are also more impressive than I had imagined...I didn't know I'd have side blinkers in addition the front and rear. Very nice. And they are Bright with a capital 'B'.

I'll have more updates soon as I get the adjustments done.

Hungry for Snow

2011-03-13T15:09:00.000-07:00

Big Egg

2011-03-13T15:06:00.000-07:00

The big egg in this picture weighed 101 grams.

The other eggs were in the mid-fifties.

We sent this group to one of our friends house who held a superbowl party. I think he said there was only one yolk in the big one.

Bigfoot

2011-03-12T20:28:00.000-08:00

While driving home this evening we noticed the Mt. Valley Grange-hall was hosting a crowd, as evidenced by the full parking-lot.

The meeting was to discuss local sightings of Bigfoot.

Bob Ross Would Have Loved This

2011-02-12T06:56:00.000-08:00

Driving in yesterday, I got a view of Mt. Hood with clouds high above it and just thin enough that the sun, barely over the peak, came through with a gentle yellow light.

A paintable moment.

I fondly thought of Bob Ross.

It wasn't exactly like this, but you get the idea.

Fun On Mt. Hood

2011-01-25T18:06:00.000-08:00

Here's a nice portrait from our visit with Bob and Adeleide as well as my cousin Steve and his children on Mt. Hood. It was great fun. In the morning Bob and Steve were instrumental in digging out our Subaru. I was tremendously grateful for the help.

Fun Run (and Walk)

2011-01-02T15:35:00.000-08:00

Heidi found out about a fun run put on by a local fitness club and so we signed up...all four of us...as did Heidi's mom and brother.

I surprised myself by dragging myself across the course an entire 10K. I was very nearly the last person to finish the 10K, but I finished it. This gives me hope that with some training I could actually jog the whole thing instead of the mixture of walking and jogging that I did today.

Heidi and the boys completed the 5K option and were happy with their successes.

Heidi's brother placed 5th overall in the 10K and brought home the first prize in his age-group. It's fun to have a "home-town" favorite.

In the end, we were invigorated and reminded of how fun it can be to participate in a community exercise event.

We plan to do more.

Unified Heart Touring Company Show - Portland, OR Dec. 8th 2010

2010-12-12T10:53:00.000-08:00

To put it in context....Leonard Cohen is an artist that has fans from all corners of the world and has since the 1960's....who have never seen him in concert. His tours, like his albums have been relatively few, given the years he's been in the business.

Until one year ago I had never seen him in person after 16 years of being a devoted fan. Sitting next to us at the Portland concert a few nights ago was a delightful lady who had been a fan since the 1960's, and the Portland show was her first live performance.

Thus you will understand that the intensity of the typical Cohen fan reaches a level that is far from common. Indeed, for those of us that crave his blend of tragedy, beauty and sensuality, delivered with unfaltering eloquence, the experience must be comparable to witnessing a living prophet. In any case that's how the fans treat it.

As for the performance itself...it is marked by extreme professionalism. The musicians are all brilliant in their own right. Their cohesion is perfect as far as I can tell. Leonard's grace, humility and playfulness engages the audience and reinforces their love for him. This, because of and despite the fact that the show is rigorously rehearsed.

To see and hear Javier Mas introduce "Who By Fire" with a virtuosic 1-3 minutes on the archilaud, it feels as though you're watching Picasso paint a masterpiece, or listening to Coelho's "language of the world" or having a balm applied directly to the chapped parts of your soul.

The crowd couldn't contain themselves and repeatedly started applauding before the solo was complete.

Cohen himself brilliantly delivered his ludicrously long set with aplomb, ensuring that the cadence of his delivery was just different enough from his albums to keep a fan like myself hungrily attentive for any new meanings that the altered emphasis might suggest.

As you might expect for a 76 year-old, his voice isn't always resonant. However, I was amazed at how resonant it was in a great many places where it was especially important. And it goes without saying that the lyrics retain all their spiritual and philosophical resonance.

A bit over a year ago Cohen introduced a new song into his repertoire called "The Darkness", which is particularly delightful both because of it's surging, rocking, rumbling guitar notes as well as it's darkly humorous lyrics. In it he says: "I caught the darkness, drinking from your cup, I said 'Is this contagious?', you said 'Just drink it up.'" His delivery is superb and you find yourself chuckling and slightly apprehensive at the same time.

Cohen is that rarest of breed who manage to marry uncompromising art with celebrity within his lifetime. There is no doubt in my mind that his songs will stand the test of time and continue to delight and inspire musicians and music fans for decades and even centuries. To see him in person was a great privilege and one that I will savor as long as memory allows.

He has announced plans to record a new album in 2011, which I am thoroughly excited for.

Why Are Cruel Landscapes So Beautiful?

2010-11-23T06:12:00.000-08:00

Overnight as I woke for various reasons, I could not help but notice the brilliant moonlit snow. Venus was blazing crisply with a clarity that only frozen air delivers.

The moon illuminated trees looked majestic with their snow-laden arms glowing brightly against the deep, dark sky.

It occurred to me that frozen, inhospitable landscapes are often thought beautiful. As are crashing waves, deserts and deep space.

I can understand why clear streams, fine horses, orchards and fine china are appealing. Those things clearly help(ed) us and so why not be fond of them.

As for the frozen landscape, perhaps it's just that we appreciate that once in a while, nature brings everything to a standstill. No birds are flitting, no wind is blowing, nothing is walking. The complexity of life is reduced to a still canvas. Is it just that this stillness is a relief to our senses, which see so many chaotic hours and so few still ones?

Update From the SnowCam

2010-11-22T09:41:00.000-08:00

Most of this came yesterday, but it has been dumping snow since 8 am today.

Mt. Haleakala and the Rare Mountain Goose

2010-11-12T01:00:00.000-08:00

On our second day on Maui, we visited Mt. Hale'akala. When we got to the visitor's center the first thing we noticed was a firm admonition against feeding Nēnē.

Later on we saw a Nēnē, and though it looked at us with those watery brown eyes, like all it wanted in life was a tasty snack, we did not feed it.

Maui Aquarium

2010-11-11T12:00:00.000-08:00

Maui has a fantastic Aquarium. Their most exciting claim is that they have the only captive Tiger Shark in the world.

However, that barely hints at the high quality of their displays.

This one highlights a program they have where they take broken bits of coral that are found by divers and try to rehabilitate them before releasing them back to the wild:

Sons And Surf

2010-11-10T20:41:00.000-08:00

Ka'anapali beach surf has a small amount of shallow beach, transitioning quickly into water too deep to stand in. Consequently I could stand in rollers all day while 10-15 feet away the boys were buffeted by crashing waves. Not that I did that. In actuality I took a fair amount of drubbing at the hands of the high seas.

Over the course of our stay the seas got rougher each day. On our second to last day, the surf was bordering on dangerous. But in true Zimmerman fashion all three of us played in it for 2-3 solid hours. Enough time for no fewer than three other adventurous groups of body surfers to come and go, finding the waves too rough to manage.

For myself I'm mildly pleased to be able to report this display of machismo, but I'm truly impressed by my sons who didn't have the luxury of hiding out from the worst of the waves and were submerged by thrashing white-water dozens more times than I was.

Bragging aside, the body-surfing was loads of fun.

Plumeria

2010-11-08T06:00:00.000-08:00

One of the highlights of our trip to Maui was the lovely scent of plumeria on the breeze. Below is a picture of plumeria flowers. If you get the chance you should smell these.

Aloha

2010-11-07T08:51:00.000-08:00

At the Ka'anapali Beach Hotel Heidi and the boys took a lei-making class led by the wonderful Mahilini who made our stay feel like we were visiting family (in a good way). By the time we had to leave we wanted to take her with us, or vice versa.

How Will I Survive It

2010-10-29T20:15:00.000-07:00

I see snorkeling in my future....

Back On Top...So To Speak

2010-10-28T04:15:00.000-07:00

Last week, as I was biking back to Hockinson from work while feeling smug in my fitness-level on the bike (not saying I deserved to feel smug, only that I did), from out of nowhere another biker blew past me.

He was a smaller man on a smaller bike. And he appeared to be more flexible, as he was able to maintain the crouched racing position favored by professional bike racers.

So, I did what any male across the globe would do, I tried to keep up with him.

Alas, it wasn't to be. He made it through a light that turned red before I got there. And though after the light turned back to green I huffed and puffed, trying to catch him, he remained an elusive yellow dot in the distance.

He was quite likely in better shape (i.e. cardiovascular health) than me, but I also feel his literal shape played a large role. He presented a strikingly reduced frontal profile as compared to my own.

This raises two important questions:

1. Why does the simple fact of being passed suddenly motivate me to try harder?

2. Why should small, flexible guys have the advantage in wind-resistance?

I think I know the answer to question one, and if I don't it's going to require a psychiatrist to unravel.

Question 2 is not so ambiguous.

The answer: they shouldn't!

I'm not particularly small and I'm exceptionally not flexible, but I can simulate both conditions by getting in a streamlined recumbent velomobile.

When I do, who will motivate me to try harder? Probably anyone passing me in a Prius. Hybrid power? I've got your hybrid power.

But that's a topic for next time.

Clean Air

2010-10-25T21:41:00.000-07:00

Moving to the country, I had hoped to escape air pollution and hopefully keep my lungs healthier. Notwithstanding some folks around here that burn their plastic garbage I have pretty well achieved that objective.

With my velomobile I'll become part of the solution.

Colors

2010-10-25T07:20:00.001-07:00

I noticed some blue and lavendar tones in sap oozing from this fir stump, so I took a picture, shifted the result to blue to counterbalance the strong red and orange dominant colors, then increased the saturation to make the present colors more apparent.

You may notice in the top left quadrant there is a patch of wood that is dry. It is relatively colorless.

Yellow Rocket Under Construction

2010-10-23T03:02:00.000-07:00

I've just sent in confirmation to BlueVelo.com that I'd like to purchase one of their Quest Velomobiles.

This is a moment of great significance in my life. As such, I'll spend some time writing about it over the coming weeks and months.

To begin, I'll expend a few lines on the energy independence I expect the Quest will facilitate.

The efficient design of the Quest means that I can travel at about1-3% the energy expenditure of a family sedan like the one I commute in today. This means that I'm far more able to power the vehicle with locally obtained power sources, such as potatoes and wheat.

When I do require assistance from lithium batteries, I'll draw the minimum amount required to get me from point A to point B, leaving more lithium available for other important uses.

Another hope of mine is that by commuting in a Quest, I'll raise the awareness of the technology in this part of the world and perhaps encourage a few other people to try it.

While we're on the topic of raising awareness, I'd like to take a moment to recognize those that raised my awareness to this possibility.

My brother, father, uncle and friends who have been commuting by bike for years and demonstrated the reality that it is not only feasible, but leaves you fit and much healthier than I have become while commuting by car.

And to the non-biking contingent of my core readership I also owe thanks, as you all contributed to my world view and have enabled me to pursue this goal, despite the relative eccentricity of it.

I appreciate all of your support.

Garlic Planting Time, The Sequel

2010-10-09T21:48:00.000-07:00

My order of seed-bulbs came in today. Heidi ordered them for me for Father's Day. I received 8 oz each of Kazakhstan, Spanish Roja and Mt. St. Helens.

The Kazakhstan is an older variety that comes from the area that is geographically near the origins of garlic.

Spanish Roja is touted in my book (Growing Great Garlic) as being the best tasting garlic.

And Mt. St. Helens is a local favorite, said to be as explosively fiery as its namesake.

So, I have some truly fine choices to anticipate next summer.

Be sure to get yourself some garlic in the ground by Halloween! I don't know if it will protect you from the undead, but come July 4th, the garlic could be the life of the barbeque.

Bike Falling Guinness Record?

2010-09-29T19:49:00.000-07:00

I rode the 5 miles in to work with my new egg-beater pedals and bike cleats without incident. I was so excited to try them out and begin realizing the 10% boost in thrust I thought I heard about somewhere.

However, my fortunes shifted in the afternoon when after getting my hair trimmed and styled I began the return trip to the office by hopping on my egg-beater-equipped Rampar and heading out of the parking lot. Coming to a stop just behind an SUV that was leaving the parking lot, I realized that I had stopped without disengaging from the pedals. A second or two later I was writhing on the ground with a freshly scraped elbow.

One bright spot was that a concerned man behind me came and gave me a hand up. The kindness was really appreciated.

Thinking one good, painful spill was going to be enough to enact a Pavlovian caution response, you can imagine my surprise when not 30 minutes later I crashed again!

Perhaps I shouldn't blame Pavlov, since the basis of my second crash was arguably an excess of misplaced caution.

See, I decided for the short trip from building 1 to building 3, that I didn't even need to engage the pedals (elbow still throbbing a bit), which I didn't.

But my mind was a little distracted with smugness as I quickly caught and then passed others that were going to the same meeting I was heading for. And, as I shifted my weight to dismount, and my bike started tipping left, my cleat suddenly engaged in the pedal and Whomp! My second crash in about 30 minutes' time.

I was able to look up in time to see my coworker looking down on me looking smug that he wasn't foolhardy enough to ride a bike to meetings.

I got back on the horse, but not without wondering how many times I could get on that particular horse before I should begin questioning my sanity.

Ka-Boom

2010-09-27T20:36:00.000-07:00

This post is a fireworks display.

It is a massive chrysanthemum of gold followed by a huge Ka-Boom!

Now it is a series of deep blue stars exploding until their streaks fill the sky from horizon to horizon, finishing with crackling hot-pink tips.

It is the stiffness in your neck from craning up to witness the ballistic show against the blue-velvet backdrop of the sky, flecked with diamond.

It is the cool smell of dew in the air

and on the grass

and on your blankets

and on your camera lens, which prevents you from snapping any more shots of the fireworks.

Finally it is tucking the children in bed. It is their contented faces, suffused with the novelty of massive, colorful explosions. It is their rummy little chubby faces reluctantly accepting they are too tired to party any longer. It is the proud knowledge you have amused them well and properly.

After all this is the 500th post on Letters From Amboy, so it should be something dynamic, special and memorable.

As you drift off in satisfied slumber, with party well thrown and everyone drowsy, you hear this post in the distance. Someone has made it into something like a stick of dynamite, and as you drift asleep it is ignited and the last thing you hear is a distant, rounded, earth-trembling

KA-BOOOM.

Bike Upgrade

2010-09-26T20:28:00.000-07:00

To prepare for the eventual receipt of an electrified velomobile, I have decided to get and stay in shape so that when I do get it, I'll be ready to ride it all the way in to Vancouver for my commute.

My old mountain bike was pretty worn out and not ergonomic for me, so I upgraded my bike to a 1984 Rampar R-1 ten-speed bicycle.

It looks like this:

http://www.jaysmarine.com/TH_Raleigh_Cat_78_12.html

It rolls really nicely and is a larger frame than my old mountain-bike, so I have a lot less weight on my wrists.

However, recently I was reminded just how uncomfortable it is to ride in wet conditions with no fenders. The constant road-spray on the backside provides a chill, clammy sensation that is as hard to endure as it is to describe.

So, I was determined to resolve the fender problem this weekend.

Then I got to thinking about how much I needed a new pair of shoes. And, since I had discovered a pair of cleated biking shoes that work as "regular" shoes when you aren't biking.... I thought to myself (and explained to my very patient wife) that I might as well kill two birds with one stone and get the biking shoes I wanted and just use them as my every day shoes as well.

Once inside REI the typical REI-fever set-in and before you knew it, I had my fenders, my shoes and some nice egg-beater pedals from Crank Brothers to really upgrade. And I had some really nice socks and weather-resistant pants to keep the wind and rain off my "engine-house".

REI-fever tends to dent the budget, and this was no exception. However, if you look at the recent report from NPR, it puts the cost in a better perspective:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130008904

the annual cost of being obese is $4,879 for a woman and $2,646 for a man.

Zebra Beetle? Nope...a Banded Alder Borer.

2010-08-13T05:38:00.000-07:00

Arthur and Jamey found this bug and tried to describe it to me a few days ago. But I had no frame of reference because I'd never seen this before.

Yesterday Arthur spotted this one and called me over to see it.

I can't wait to learn about this one.

UPDATE: as usual I wait to do my research until after I post.

I found out that this insect is native to North America (after fearing the worst when I cam across the Asian Longhorned Beetle in my search). It turns out they like to use dead wood to raise their young, and aren't considered economically damaging. Whew!

Free French Fries

2010-08-05T19:36:00.000-07:00

OK, so they weren't entirely free. We had to buy the oil we fried them in and the propane that boiled the oil, not to mention the seed potatoes that seeded the potatoes. But with our adjunct gardeners clearing and fertilizing the land for us, so that one fine summer day we simply walk down and dig up a mother lode, one does get the sensation of getting something for free.

And of course we can be certain they are free of herbicides, pesticides and other unknowable icides.

Of course none of that would matter if not for the fact that they are good enough to rank higher than the fries at Burgerville and Arthur claims they have supplanted Pad Thai from his number 1 favorite food slot.

Not that I'm bragging or anything. ;)

Dangers of the Beach

2010-07-25T18:10:00.000-07:00

1. Quicksand

Or maybe it's just that Arthur is so thin he slipped right between the grains of sand on the beach? Either way, it was a gut-wrenching few moments before we were able to rescue him.

2. Too much fun!

Having nothing to do but play in the sand and plan your next meal has an enduring appeal. Jamey could be the poster-boy.

Think Ink

2010-06-30T20:13:00.000-07:00

After feeling raked over the coals for years whenever I've had to buy ink for my HP Photosmart printer, I finally found an alternative with ink prices that are not completely insane.

I bought a Kodak Printer/Copier for $120 that uses an ink cartridge that is only $15, instead of having to buy 2 cartridges that total close to $70 to print photo color.

But, you say, I don't care about the cartridge cost, tell me about price per page!

OK. Here it is based on this Quality Logic report:

You may notice on the right-most column that the Kodak are the only ones with 0 directly to the right of the decimal.

My Photosmart cartridges aren't even in this study, but I feel certain that their results would be equal or greater than the costliest of the HP cartridges that were reviewed.

I don't claim that the photo-quality is better than the HP Photosmart that I've had for years, but for the price of the ink, I'd rather send out for prints when I need them than continue to operate my Photosmart printer.

One other interesting thing I read about the Kodak is they are the best manufacturer for keeping their cartridge form-factor consistent. Most other brands have a plethora of ink-cartridges to choose from, whereas Kodak has reused its 10C in almost every printer. I expect this is one of the ways they are keeping costs down.

So, three cheers for competition. I'm glad someone finally entered the market with some reasonable prices for ink.

Mothra Lives

2010-06-24T21:00:00.000-07:00

Arthur spotted this beast on our exterior wall today. It looked like a tarantula carrying a large piece of bark on its back.

I used my telephoto lens because I was scared to get too close.

Once I saw how furry it is in the hi-res photo, I can't decide if I should run screaming or snuggle it.

Decide for yourself:

Poppies and Potatoes

2010-06-20T12:09:00.000-07:00

Although I'll never admit it, the chickens helped me to discover that some spring potatoes were ready for harvest.

We've been having issues keeping the chickens trapped in their field, due to the holes that keep appearing in the plastic fencing material we used. Heidi broke down and bought some real, metal chicken wire, so once we set that up, the problem will be solved.

In the meantime, however, they are asserting their status as adjunct gardeners and providing weed and pest control in our various garden beds.

Though their work, while vigorous, is typically spotty and overly destructive, in this case it proved useful, as they uncovered a potato that was clearly large enough to harvest.

Therefore I harvested some and fried them up yesterday for a delicious breakfast. And with all the potatoes we have planted, we'll probably have all we can eat for the next two months at least.

Now on to the discussion of Poppies.

Heidi obtained some poppy seeds three years ago from a long-time grange member Lily Meek. Mrs. Meek has spent years cultivating poppies in an attempt to create a uniquely beautiful variety. Though I'm not sure which traits she was most interested in, here are some examples of what we have this year. I'm flagging them with their variety so that we can isolate the seeds from a given variety if we want to next year.

We have 6 general varieties this year.

We have pink and red, and in each color we have "Simple", "Complex" and "Dense" petal structure.

Pink, simple

Red Simple

Pink Complex

Red Complex

Pink Dense (not fully opened)

Red Dense (not fully opened)

It will be interesting to see what we can get by isolating the seeds we get from each of these types.

Latest Goal

2010-06-14T20:47:00.000-07:00

My latest obsession is to commute with the most efficient vehicle I can find. That means this:

The biggest problem with this is raising the money to spend on the "risky" idea that it will be a suitable car replacement.

Heidi gave me some of her egg money to start my fund. By the time I get there, I'll have had plenty of time to weigh the risks.

Jumpin' Jack Spraddle

2010-05-19T20:19:00.000-07:00

I've already been accused of being a "Gentleman Farmer" by my co-workers. Now they're going to have to add "Country Doctor".

Approximately two days after hatching, it became apparent that one (let's call him Jack) of the 20 surviving chicks our recent brood was spraddled. That means the legs are spread in a way that makes walking impossible.

What made it really apparent was that the other 19 chicks were really zipping about on their legs, while Jack was laying, limp and listless, letting his siblings peck and trample him.

Heidi kept him alive all day by feeding, watering and holding him so he could rest. But when she left last night for an event she had planned, I got to looking at Jack, and thinking....that I don't know the first thing about caring for chicks. So, I did what any sensible gentleman farmer of the 21st century would do and consulted Google.

Within minutes I found a technique involving a matchstick and a band-aid to fix the problem.

So, I cut the matchstick to a respectable length and taped it in place between Jack's legs with a band-aid. The advice said it could take up to a week to fix the condition.

I replaced the chick in the galvanized tub with the others, only I set him in his own box with walls that were taller than any of the chicks, so he'd be safely alone with no one to pick or peck on him.

This morning, before leaving for work I saw that Jack was already standing in his hobble and looked well rested. Then I saw him try to jump the wall to get to his buddies, then peck at his hobble in irritation as he correctly identified it as the impediment to his athletic prowess.

I smiled, confident that the sticky band-aid would withstand the puny pecks of a chick for the day.

"We can take off the hobble tonight, when it has been 24 hours" I said to Heidi, soberly prescribing the chick a day of confinement for his own good.

However, Heidi, returning from errands at 11:30 found that not only had Jack managed to slip his hobble (it was floating in his water dish), but somehow he had also managed to jump over his wall to rejoin his fellow hatch-lings.

Despite Jack's disregard for doctor's orders, I am nonetheless pleased with his progress. And he appears ecstatic to be "one of the guys" standing on his own two legs.

When I Grow Up....

2010-05-11T07:08:00.000-07:00

...I want to be David Attenborough.

We watched The Life of Birds last night; the "Songs and Signals" episode. The final bird they featured was shown mimicking the sound of a camera shutter, with and without the motorized film winding. It also was able to sound identically like a chainsaw from lumberjacks it had previously heard.

There have been a lot of very cool things in the series thus far, but the fidelity of the impressions done by that bird knocked all of our socks off. It was fun to see the boys so enthused and amused by that remarkable bird.

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

Arthur Biking

2010-03-15T20:28:00.000-07:00

Arthur has had the hang of biking before, but we didn't keep up on it before and so recently when some neighbor kids came to play he was left out of the fun because he couldn't stay up on his bike.

Knowing that he had been riding on his own last summer, this news bothered me and I determined to help him become proficient.

It took just an hour or so on Sunday, a few mild spills and one medium until we both felt that we had succeeded.

Success was confirmed when today Arthur was able to bike along with the other kids on the block.

Hopefully Arthur will remember yesterday fondly for years to come. If not, he can always read this blog. ;)

Oh yeah, and I inadvertently learned a bit of pragmatic advice for would-be bike-riding coaches: let them crash one time, then teach them about the "controlled stop".

Still Getting Better

2010-02-22T01:00:00.000-08:00

Even though I've been happy with the Sullivan Street bread recipe from the beginning, I am finding that my loaves keep getting better.

Pictured above is my latest. The dough remained in the refrigerator for about seven days. When I shaped the loaf, the dough smelled more like beer than bread.

When I baked it though, it became wonderfully aromatic, light, spongy and delicious bread. Perfect for dippng in balsamic vinegar and oil.
Equally so it was divine this morning, toasted, with butter and honey.

Greenhouse Complete!

2010-02-21T09:17:00.000-08:00

I bought areenhouse kit for Heidi's birthday last year. Lo and behold we got it complete a mere two weeks before her next birthday.

The plastic panels are held in place by strips of plastic, cleverly engineered to snap into place and hold the panels under firm tension. The roof panels are designed similarly, only with rubber strips. Yesterday afternoon we put half of the wall panels and all of the roof panels in place. Putting the rubber roof strips in was murder on our thumbs.

As we gazed at our handiwork, Heidi remarked that the roof panels didn't seem right. I had to agree and we resolved to fix them in the morning. Hopefully a night of rest would heal our wounded thumbs.

This morning we wanted to get an early start, so despite the frost on the greenhouse and our still sore thumbs we went out to fix the roof.

As it turned out, the frost made the rubber strips so much easier to slip into place, that we finished in record time with minimal additional trauma to our thumbs. We just had to warm them up a few times.

Just another example of how something that seemed unfortunate turned out to be the opposite.

So, here it is. The place where Heidi will launch the lives of multitudes of beautiful and delicious vegetables. (And it really will be only Heidi. I can't stand up straight in the greenhouse.)

Full Day of Fun

2010-02-11T06:27:00.000-08:00

Not mine, mine was a fairly full day of fun. I got to so see where the kids are taking art classes and I have to say 'Wow!'. Not only are my two churning out fantastic drawings at a rapid clip, but it is clear from the 'before and after' pictures on the wall, that the institution gives fantastic instruction.

Next we got to eat out at Tan Tan, a Vietnamese restaurant with my nomination for 'friendliest waiter'. Heidi said it is her new favorite restaurant. She was able to get a veggie dish that was delicious and satisfying.

Finally, we headed off to The Jim Parsley Center, which is a public pool.
From childhood years of spending long summer days in a swimming pool, I have been accustomed to feeling like a dolphin in the water. Last night I felt more like a sea-turtle. Or, maybe this:

Next stop: driftwood.

Heidi and the children had other fun before I could join them.
First going to their Mad Science class where they played with optics and got to take home a periscope. Then on to OMSI (the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) where they got to see themselves in infrared. The images apparently back-up what we suspected: Heidi and Arthur are cool little cucumbers and Jamey is practically a nuclear reaction in progress.

What do Gram Parsons, Neil Young, Mark Knopfler and Conor Oberst Have in Common?

2010-02-04T07:21:00.000-08:00

Emmylou Harris.

Is there anyone cooler than Emmylou Harris?
No.

eMusic has added Warner Bros. back catalog, so this morning I downloaded:
Emmylou Harris' Wrecking Ball (Neil Young wrote the title track)
Neil Young's Greatest Hits
Gram Parsons' Grievous Angel (Emmylou duets with Gram)

I can't wait for my commute!

Microsoft vs. Malaria Deathmatch

2010-01-26T06:51:00.001-08:00

OK, it's not Microsoft per se, but it is the money that Bill Gates made during his career at Microsoft that is helping, under his guidance, to eradicate Malaria.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8479986.stm

I'm already in awe of the man for providing the software upon which I've based my career. Now this!

To me, this is the meaning of "American idol".

Thanks Bill.

Hibernating Hamster

2010-01-19T18:54:00.000-08:00

As the family grave keeper, it is my duty to dispose discreetly of any pet that meets his end at our home.

Most recently it was feared that our hamster Chewy had come to the end of his days. Unusually however, I soon discovered we were mistaken.

You may ask yourself, "How can you not tell if an animal is dead?"

To which I would reply, I'm sure one could tell, but in this case it wasn't particularly obvious. He was curled up in his food bowl, which has about a one cup capacity and is roughly the dimension of a typical metal measuring cup.

When I pulled him out of his bowl he as very stiff. And he didn't wake up from the relatively rude handling.

Moments later, I had the hole dug. I even went so far as to drop him into it before I noticed him begin to faintly twitch.

Brief observation was rewarded with signs of life.

I scooped him back up and replaced him in his home where he has resumed normal activity for the past several weeks.

Tinariwen

2010-01-19T06:47:00.000-08:00

From northern Mali, in the southern Sahara, former Tuareg rebels and nomads turned musicians.

Guitar style is similar to Amadou et Mariam.

This is track seven, my favorite from their album Aman Iman: Water is Life

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YhynhACbRY

Life-Flight Comes to Cedar Ridge

2009-12-29T07:07:00.000-08:00

I watched a "life-flight" helicopter enter our neighborhood last night. After staying for less than 15 minutes it took-off and headed west at about 8:25 pm.

Our neighbor heard it was over a dispute ending in gunfire.

The same neighbor also warned us that "life-flight" was coming about 5-10 minutes before they arrived.

Birthday Pizza!

2009-12-27T10:16:00.000-08:00

I made this Margherita pizza in a style as closely as I could to what we had in Naples, Italy.

All in attendance agreed it was terrifically tasty.

It was a good birthday, and you can here me sing with my birthday present here.

December the 25th me dears, December the 25th

2009-12-26T07:35:00.000-08:00

I had the foresight to order "Scrooge" from Netflix in advance of Christmas this year.

I've seen probably 4 movie versions of "A Christmas Carol", (including the new animated version in 3D, with Jim Carrey) and "Scrooge" is far and away my favorite.

This is a production that taps into an astounding range of human emotion. It's lovable, sorrowful, scary and funny, all in very satisfying ways.

And this year's viewing was improved by the use of subtitles so I could understand the lyrics to the musical numbers. The sound quality and the accents can make it hard to understand the lyrics, so the subtitles fill in nicely there.

Finally, this year's viewing was followed, sporadically, throughout the day of December the 24th, by an echoing of the musical numbers by Jamey. In particular I kept hearing "December the 25th, December the 25th" musically emanating from his bedroom.

The lyrics are posted here for the reader's convenience, but for the full effect, I suggest you watch the show, on Christmas Eve with children.

DECEMBER THE 25TH

From "Scrooge"

(Leslie Bricusse)

Of all the days in all the year

that I'm familiar with

There's only one that's really fun

December the 25th

Correct!

Ask anyone called Robinson

or Brown or Jones or Smith

Their favorite day

And they will say

December the 25

Correct!

(refrain)

December the 25th, me dears

December the 25th

The dearest day in all the year

December the 25th!

Correct!

At times we're glad to see the backs

of all our kin and kith

But there's one date we celebrate

December the 25th

Correct!

At times our friends may seem

devoid of wit and pith

But all of us are humorous

December the 25th

Correct!

(refrain)

If there's a day in history

that's more than any myth

Beyond a doubt one day stands out

December the 25th

Correct!

I don't hear any arguments

So may I say forthwith

I wish that every day could be

December the 25th

(refrain)

Music Review - November

2009-11-19T05:08:00.000-08:00

Hope Sandoval

Have you ever had a dream where you are swimming underwater and then you realize you can't get to the surface in time, so after some brief moments of panic you surrender yourself to fate and breathe-in, only to discover, in a suffusion of pleasure, that you are able to breathe water.

Hope Sandoval's voice has the same effect on me: I want to resist, but can't and soon I discover I don't need to. Don't want to. The waves are lapping, darkly above me. I'm drowning, but her merciful mermaid song soothes me. Her voice bends and sways like the murky light making it down through the waves. It is eerily beautiful, like far-off whale song.

The dream, I am happy to announce, continues with "Through the Devil Softly" the latest release by Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions.

Disclaimer: I am reviewing Hope Sandoval here, not the album, which I have yet to hear. My faith in her is so near absolute that I feel safe in recommending the album, though I have not heard it.

Interestingly, after writing my review, I went to Amazon and read some reviews of the album, only to find my words echoed:

it will just grab your soul and refuse to give it back...

So beautiful. Haunting, mysterious, heartbreaking, dreamy.

Red Cracked Bolete

2009-11-02T05:00:00.000-08:00

Months ago, Jamey became interested in collecting wild mushrooms. This is due at least in part to his love of eating mushrooms.

As a Botany major, I took it as a point of personal pride to figure out how we could do this safely.

After some research I decided on a book. Then, when I went to Powell's to get it, I found a Powell's Staff recommendation to be even better than the one I had found online.

It's called Mushrooming Without Fear, and so far has proven effective, as we have tasted 2 mushrooms we never had tasted before, and we haven't become sick on either occasion!

We've had the book since early September, but early attempts to locate mushrooms in the wild failed.

Our first success was a week or two after our first attempt, when Arthur spotted some puffball mushrooms in the lawn at Lewisville Park. We didn't eat those, but followed the advice of the book to harvest once without eating, just to gain practice at identification.

Then a week ago we found some large puffballs in our own lawn. We sampled those after frying them in butter. It was thumbs up all the way around. (Note, we're not counting Heidi when it comes to discussions of mushroom consumption.)

One of the more sweeping restrictions advised in our guidebook is the avoidance of all mushrooms with gills. This turns out to be a majority of mushrooms.

Defying the odds, yesterday I spotted a cluster of meaty looking 'shrooms and sure enough, they had pores, not gills. Out came the book. After carefully reading the identification cues, we determined that these were Red Cracked Bolete.

Due to the very distinctive features of this mushroom: blue bruising on the bright yellow pores, red tint showing when the cap is damaged, etc..., we felt confident in moving forward with the taste-test.

Jamey gobbled the first batch, again, with vigorous approval. The next morning, Arthur tried some in his omelet and found them satisfying.

So, we have learned something new. Added to our culinary repertoire and had fun in the process.

More Homemade Loaves

2009-11-01T10:36:00.000-08:00

I'm still infatuated with the look of these no-knead loaves.

First Heat of the Year

2009-10-28T06:59:00.000-07:00

The temperature dropped to 67 degrees this morning, so I started a fire. Yes, we are wimps.

Garlic Planting Time

2009-10-26T18:24:00.000-07:00

This is your friendly reminder that Garlic-planting season is upon us.

So wrap that garlic garland around your neck, and after you've staked all the vampires, plant the cloves. By July you'll be feasting on fresh homegrown hardnecks.

I say hardnecks, because after my batch this past summer I've decided that the Italian Red hardneck garlic has a far superior aroma and flavor than the soft-neck garlic I normally find at the supermarket.

Happy gardening!

Swoosh!

2009-10-13T19:16:00.000-07:00

Summer was camped out over the land.

At night, when he was resting, Winter

crept in, furtively, retreating when his rival woke.

Finally, Summer had enough of his toes

being frostbitten in his sleep

Yesterday he stood up in a huff,

Put on his great dusty coat

and swooshed out of town.

Today the wind still swirls

while Winter, grinning, peers over the mountain.

September Music Review

2009-09-23T19:17:00.000-07:00

Ingrid Michaelson

Forgive me if I'm behind the times on this one. Since I don't get broadcast television I didn't know until today that Ingrid Michaelson's music has been on Grey's Anatomy for two years. I also didn't know that she was a MySpace sensation that self-produced her way onto #2 on the pop charts with her debut album Boys and Girls. Nor did I realize that her new album Everybody was number one on iTunes as recently as this August. I found her because a coworker suggested Vienna Teng (also very good) and emusic suggested Michaelson as being similar to Teng.

What I have known from the moment I heard her music is that her music is extremely accessible. Just as Peter O'Toole opines about the desert in Lawrence of Arabia, I believe the beauty of Michaelson's music is that "It's clean."

She has a knack for presenting sentimental lyrics in a way that doesn't leave an overly sweet aftertaste. On the song Giving Up she doesn't reveal why she's giving up until the final line, which adds considerably to the impact of the lyrics.

She has had some widely played songs, such as The Way I Am and Be OK. The latter appeared in the recent Anna Faris movie House Bunny.

However, as is often the case, there are plenty of gems that are a little less catchy and a lot more interesting than the hits, such as Giving Up, Corner of Your Heart, Far Away, Die Alone and others.

Potential defects:

Some of these songs might "get stuck in your head"
Some songs my be too slow and sentimental or repetitive.
Her staying power is still a question. I've only been listening to her for a few weeks.

Here are some video links for you to sample the music:

Die Alone

Maybe

Corner of Your Heart

Extra-special Bonus!

Some great tracks from other artists I've recently come to know and like:

Rainy Saturday

2009-09-05T08:44:00.000-07:00

Heidi said:

"Everything I wanted to do I can't do, so now I can do stuff."

"What?"

"That makes perfect sense."

Dinner With Julia

2009-08-30T11:51:00.001-07:00

OK, Julia wasn't there, unless you count "in spirit".

Heidi and Jill picked out four recipes from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and we prepared them last night.

The simplest dish was essentially a cake of sliced potatoes boiled in clarified butter. I probably don't have to explain how deliciously smooth and rich these were.

We also had a lovely chicken in creamy port and mushroom sauce. This one involved drizzling the chicken with brandy and igniting it, before drenching the whole thing in the very rich sauce.

A delicious Swiss chard dish in creamy sauce and a zucchini dish where the zucchini halves are stuffed with a creamy, cheesy, breadcrumb and shallot paste.

In honor of the occasion, Heidi's brother David prepared French 75 cocktails which involve lemon juice and champagne amongst other ingredients which I'm not aware. It was very bright and a fitting accompaniment to the smooth, warm flavors in the main dishes.

Gourmet Bread

2009-08-29T11:17:00.000-07:00

This picture shows a cross-section of the loaf of no-knead bread I made yesterday under the tutelage of Dwayne Kryger.
Dwayne demonstrated a pull-and-fold technique that increases the elasticity of the dough as a way to trap the bubbles more effectively. It really worked. Whereas my first couple batches began by popping holes in their top, this batch never let the gases escape without handling.

My oven runs hot, so I burned a portion of the crust. Nonetheless, the bread was very respectable even though from beginning to end the process took less than 12 hours.

Today I'm working on a version with 1/3rd whole wheat flour. I'm going to let it rise overnight for the utmost in bubble size and flavor.

Even Better Than The Ramen Girl

2009-08-27T21:17:00.000-07:00

Julie and Julia - a fantastic movie about Julia Child and her enduring legacy. If you are at all a foodie, you must see this movie.

On to other things that are even better than The Ramen Girl:

New York Times No-Knead Bread - Crispy on the outside, chewy in the middle. Cheap as flour, tasty as a $4.50 loaf.

Bagpipes at a funeral, eat less sugar, singing with your family, reading your niece's a bedtime story, bringing zucchini bread when you visit, sleeping on a firm bed.

The Ramen Girl

2009-07-31T21:35:00.000-07:00

I'm a big fan of great food and Japanese culture, so it's probably no surprise that I liked The Ramen Girl. Think Like Water for Chocolate meets The Karate Kid.

I chose to watch the movie mostly because the cover features Brittany Murphy in a kimono. I'm thinking, this movie has promise!

What made a believer out of me was the excellent character-acting and the really decent screenplay.

When Murpy's character Abby's boyfriend leaves her, she is miserable and wanders into the local ramen shop to find it's propietors generous and kind, though the chef is almost always gruff. He is also a master ramen chef, and his broth stirs something in Abby.

Ultimately Abby and her ramen-chef sensei, odd partners, turn out to be just the ingredient the other needs to create a more satisfying, flavorful life for themselves.

This movie is a bit thin in places, but overall it is well played and heartwarming.

Amadou et Mariam

2009-07-15T18:30:00.000-07:00

If you had to pick the best musician out of a crowd of musicians you've never heard before and you happened to notice only one of them was a blind guitar-player, what would you do?

And what if that the blind guitar player happened to be a West African with a blind chanteuse for a wife and bandmate?

Before I get to far in this, and the reader starts to think I buy into nothing but stereotypes, let me say this was essentially the situation a few weeks ago while I was browsing emusic.com.

I had a few downloads to use up and I wandered over to a list of African guitar legends. Having heard of none of them previously, I was left to read these books by their respective covers. Each was generally interesting, but when I found the blind husband and wife team, my instincts took over; this music I must hear.

Now, if I had made this choice and my stereotype-based choice had proven wrong, you wouldn't be reading this blog because I wouldn't have written this blog.

As it turns out though, Amadou et Mariam have been a particular pleasure for me to listen to as of late, which is why I'm bothering telling you so, if I may steal the line from Dr. Seuss.

They aren't bombastic, or in-your-face with their skill-level. Rather, their style is understatement. They tend to have a gentle, typically African sounding rhythm section. The guitar is used rather sparingly but is of good quality. The guitar doesn't become the obvious focal point of the music, which is the great evil that good guitarists often partake in. Instead, many parts combine to create a satisfying whole: brass, drums, vocals, strings interwoven well, with some particularly attractive and brief solos for the brass and strings.

I also like the fact that the lyrics are in French which always sounds nice and allows me to focus on the music and the mood that's created by it.

This is my musical recommendation for the month.

You can listen to perhaps the best track on their Greatest Hits album in the following embedded YouTube video

Magenta Potatoes

2009-07-05T10:34:00.000-07:00

Boy were we sold a bill of goods.

Heidi picked up these seed potatoes labeled "Red" and put them in the ground in all good faith earlier in the spring.

Now that it's summer and the potatoes are ready to harvest*, we pull them from the ground and lo and behold, they aren't red, but magenta!

Despite the unabashed false-advertising of the seed-potato seller, being hungry for breakfast, we decided to see if the flavor and texture of the potatoes would be at all decent.

We found the potatoes also completely different from those of our recent memory; rather than thick-skinned, dry, bland and starchy, these were thin-skinned, moist, sweet and silky. Preposterous!

These were potatoes not in need of sticks of butter to make them delicious. I had thoughts of adding these to my butter to improve the butter's flavor.

Having recovered from the shock to our systems these unexpected events caused, and having nothing else at hand for breakfast, we promptly devoured the lot with garlic and thyme, a la Alice Waters.

* In all seriousness, why did it take 35 years for me to learn that potatoes can be harvested before fall?! This stuff should be taught in gradeschool! Use flashcards if necessary, but teach the children for heaven's sake!

Pictures From The Trip

2009-06-09T04:36:00.000-07:00

Outside the Denver Art Museum (DAM), construction was underway. They screened off the scaffolding with deluxe art-screens. Since the images were not printed on opaque fabric, the construction site was partially visible. This one was humorously appropriate.

Annika

Mikaela

Trip to Colorado

2009-06-06T07:18:00.000-07:00

Back in April, when I was a full-time employee with three weeks of vacation due in May, I made one of the more larkish decisions of my life and purchased tickets to see Leonard Cohen in Red Rocks Ampitheatre (just outside Denver, CO).

Sure, Denver is not Hawaii, which Heidi and the boys have been planning and pinching for, but a concert like that would be a fine centerpiece to a week's vacation. And there really is quite a bit to see in Colorado.

One week later, I was laid off.

In the ensuing 5 weeks, as I combed the job-sites for relatively scarce openings, I contemplated the ethical complications of funding a road-trip to Denver on unemployment checks. It never came to that fortunately, so I was spared confronting that dilemma.

As it happened, I found a fine contract job that surrounded the date of the concert (June 2nd) on each side by nearly 2 weeks.

After debating the wisdom of asking for time off of a one month contract, as well as spending disproportionate amounts of money to see a concert, I decided wisdom would have no part in this decision.

Unless I'm mistaken it is well-documented that many people maintain their entertainment budgets even as their budget for "necessities" decreases. Such was the case on this occasion. I simply wasn't prepared to relinquish my fun, no matter the cost.

I worked the weekend before and rescheduled my flight so that I would have minimal impact on my contracted hours.

Heidi and the boys kept to the original schedule and so were waiting for me at the Hotel, when I arrived just after 10pm mountain time Monday, June 1st.

The day of the concert, we had to buy me a jacket, the boys ponchos and Heidi and umbrella. That's right, Denver, Colorado. In June.

Nevertheless, we did the downtown, viewed the Denver Mint from the outside (tip: make reservations if you want to see inside), viewed the Denver Art Museum from the inside and visited my aunt Jane and her two adorable daughters Annika (pronounced ah'-ni-ka) and Mikaela (spelling?).

Finally, after a good long visit with Jane et. al., we headed out to Red Rocks to see my personal favorite artist, Leonard Cohen.

After scouting the site for food vendors and noting a lack of traffic, we pulled up to two orange-vested young event staffers and asked where to find a sandwich. In turn they asked if we knew the concert was postponed; it was too cold to perform.

At this point I rubbed my forehead in my hand, grasped my hair and scratched my head, in what I imagine to be similar to the way I've seen my brother do it when he's reached near the limit of his patience.

Heidi and I were both queasy.

We drove back to Denver.

On the drive back, Jamey noted his sincere empathy. (He also noted the silver lining, which was that we would get to go swimming back at the hotel.)

I tried to let my rational side take over while discussing the events in the car; my emotional side was thoroughly defeated.

Cohen at Red Rocks! It was to be mythic in its wondrousness. A great man and artist, an iconic locale, a logistical feat just to attend. And yet, it was not to be. At least not for me.

I've just read the concert was a resounding success:

http://blogs.westword.com/backbeat/2009/06/last_night_leonard_cohen_at_re.php

The show began immediately with "Dance Me to the End of Love," and it was obvious that Cohen had lost none of his emotive powers as a singer. If anything, he was able to hit incredibly low notes, especially during "In My Secret Life," that were a marvel to witness.

There are lessons in all of this, I'm sure: plan better, don't count on concerts, don't be foolish with money, buy the $550 VIP tickets in Seattle, because they are cheaper than the alternative, etc....

The lesson I'm choosing to focus on is this: Life can drop you on your face with no rhyme or reason. Pick yourself up and keep going. Maybe, just maybe, you'll get another chance.

Weasel At The Fort

2009-04-25T09:57:00.000-07:00

Just because it is called the Least Weasel, doesn't make it any less weasely.

Click on the link above and you may find yourself looking face-to-face with an adorably cute little, elongated-mouse. That's one way to look at it. Another way to say it is "an adorably cute little ferocious killer".

Wikipedia claims this is the "smallest carnivoran", which I think means no smaller animal hunts other animals. Anything smaller would be forced to eat insects or vegetation, due to laws of physics.

While out watering our gardens, we heard the vociferous chirp of a small animal. The sound reminded me of aggressive chipmunks in campgrounds, that try to rouse you to breakfast so they can get there "cut" sooner.

The noise was persistent enough that I became curious. As I came closer to the sound, I was able to see motion, on the ground, through branches of a Cascara tree.

Rounding the tree, I clearly saw a flailing young rabbit, which was the one making the loud chirp. Around his neck was a smooth brown neckscarf, which presently evaporated like chocolate quicksilver into the underbrush. The rabbit flailed a bit, but lay motionless not long after.

Within 2 feet was another young rabbit, laying, still-breathing but wounded, near the one that had been struggling with the weasel. Wikipedia affirmed that weasels will "overkill" and attempt to store the excess food for lean times. This appeared to be the case here.

I stood still for a few minutes, and the weasel began poking his head out of the underbrush. First here, then there, then somewhere else. He had many little lookout spots, spaced about 3 to 6 feet apart, that he used randomly to evaluate the scene. The speed with which he reached each lookout was astounding, literally appearing at a new hole before I'd gotten accustomed to the notion that he'd left the previous one. Moving three or four feet, through tunnel, in less time than it takes to say "accustomed".

I tried to hold really still to encourage him to act naturally. He became somewhat bold, a few times venturing completely out of his tunnels and onto the surface, allowing me to view his entire diminutive body. Since he never stayed out long enough to go back to his kills, I got the sense that he didn't trust the coast was truly clear.

Good News

2009-03-17T18:24:00.000-07:00

Recently I've bemoaned the news as being all too depressing. I even suggested to my coworker that there ought to be an outlet for good news, since all the major news outlets seem so heavily tilted toward bad news.

It seems that idea was conceived of already, 12 years ago. You can find the result at

http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/

Update: in a slight bit of irony, it turns out that goodnewsnetwork is a pay service. While it is only 2 dollars per month, and undoubtedly worth every penny, I thought I'd better provide a free equivalent so as not to be foiled by a whiff of bad news:

http://www.happynews.com/index.aspx

Cactus About to Flower

2009-03-12T05:38:00.000-07:00

I have a cactus that I found in Las Animas county Colorado and have had for about five years.

Right now, and for the first (or maybe second) time, it is beginning to flower. It's not a very showy flower, but I think it may be the only non-christmas cactus I've gotten to flower at all.

Not that I've really gotten it to do anything. My only achievement is just that I haven't let it die.

I think it is cool that a transplant from Colorado is doing so well on my windowsill.

Meanwhile, my other cactus is now 6 spine-clusters long on the new segment it grew and which I mentioned on this blog in April of 2007.

Cool Snow Pleats

2009-03-07T22:33:00.000-08:00

This morning, as we headed out for Coffee at Battle Grounds, we found pleats of snow folded up on the bumper of the Saturn:

Frontal View of Snow Pleats

Side View

I leave it to the reader to ponder what type of conditions lead to snow formations of this nature.

Garlic Going Great Guns

2009-03-07T21:11:00.000-08:00

I have a mnemonic device for remembering when to plant garlic. Just think vampires. What day of the year are you most likely to encounter a vampire? Halloween, of course. So, just remember, on Halloween get out all your garlic, brandish it at the vampires you meet and when they've gone off to find less well defended necks, go plant your garlic, so you'll be ready to defend yourself next year.In all actuality I read a book called Growing Great Garlic wherein the author suggested planting garlic in the northwest between Oct. 15th and Nov 15th (if memory serves).

Halloween makes it really easy to remember.

For the second year in a row, I remembered to plant garlic in the fall (Nov. 1st this year), but this year things are looking so much better, it almost feels like this is the first time.

Supposedly, garlic that is exposed to cold temperatures gets a sharper bite to it. This winter should have provided that sufficiently.

Believing that the garlic has already weathered enough cold to imbue it with all the flavor it could need, I have erected a (ramshackle) hoop greenhouse over it, so that it can grow with wild abandon.

As I write this, we are getting our umpteenth snowfall this winter, but under my hoops, the garlic looks like this:

Also, there are a few cilantro plants and a spinach that have survived the winter in there.

Speaking of Cilantro, I need to write about the delicious avocado salsa I made for our breakfast today. That might be in the next post or so.

Made The Paper

2009-02-21T10:55:00.000-08:00

The Columbian reported on Green Mountain School's Shadow Day.

Since I couldn't stand and watch a bunch of kids playing without joining in, and since I didn't understand the rules to many of the various games that they were playing, I began shooting a basketball at one of the hoops.

At their age, the children in Jamey and Arthur's class don't tend to think of the basketball hoop as something within the realm of their interaction. They are just too high up. However, once I began doing it, a few of them thought to give it a go.

Before long most of them were making shots with some regularity, despite being only barely able to toss a ball that high. Their natural ability struck me as rather impressive. I coached them a bit on technique, but mostly just gave encouragement. The kids really lit up and had a blast.

One of the other parents took a picture and that was submitted to the Columbian, who felt it worth publishing in their "Community" section.

You can see the picture they posted in their archive:

http://www.columbian.com/article/20090211/COMMUNITY03/702119998/-1/ARCHIVES

And You Thought the Previous Post was Long and Tedious

2009-02-11T20:38:00.000-08:00

The following is basically an argument for turning off the flash and turning up the ISO for indoor photography. Unless you are really bored, you should take that advice for what it's worth, quit reading this post and resume doing the important things in your life.

Grumpy, thanks for providing me with a realistic image with which to work. If I didn't acknowledge the realities of indoor flash-photography, my readers might rightly accuse me of oversimplifying the challenges of color correction.

This is absolutely NOT a criticism of your photography skills. I have succumbed to the use of flash photography on many occasions. Often one is not in the mood to tinker with camera settings and disabling the flash is often one of the more inconvenient or impossible settings to achieve in a camera.

Instead, this post is about raising awareness about the control one can exert on the color of the lighting in a photograph. It's about the idea that a high ISO setting in indoor environments, and spending some time using Picasa can help people easily reduce noticeably "off-white" lighting in their photography.

Now I'm 'bout to get Henry Higgins on you. Only my pedantic tirade will be about lighting, not speech.

Last warning: the following is boring. Leave now or risk falling asleep on your keyboard.

No sooner had I pressed "publish" on my previous articulation on the ease of color-correction in Picasa, than the Grumpy one publishes an array of photographs that appear designed to disprove my thesis.

Case in point:

Here we see a photograph with no fewer than three distinct light sources. Areas where the light sources blend are present as well, and pretty much rule out the possibility of whole-picture color-correction.

I will diagram it:

I have highlighted three different color regions by surrounding them with a different colored line.

The fourth color region is the orange-colored background, which I felt was too large to draw a border around.

Through tinkering, I have reached the conclusion that the reason for the pink hue in this photo is that the camera was white balanced to sunlight (true white light), and the camera's flash is slightly to the pink side of white. Thus every picture where the flash is the dominant light source will have a pink tint. (I'm sure that Grumpy's fancy new camera has the smarts to know when the flash is on and automatically white-balance for that. Now he just needs to remember to bring it along. ;) I kid.)

In the foreground, which I've circled with a bluish line is the area where the flash dominates.
The near background has some flash-influence, especially on lighter colored items. I've circled these with a mint-colored line.
Far in the upper right background, circled in yellow is a window to the outside. Using Picasa's Neutral Color Picker in this region yields no change in the tint of the picture. This is how I reached the conclusion that the camera's white-balance was configured for sunlight.
The rest of the background is distinctly orange-colored, which is clearly the result of incandescent lighting in the room.

So, now we understand the competing light-sources in the picture and it should be obvious why we couldn't just use Picasa's Neutral Color Picker to balance the color for the whole photo. Picasa assumes that only one light source is at play in the entire picture.

Perhaps someday an algorithm will be created to white-balance automatically by region, but that's a fairly complex problem, so for now color-conscious photographers have to make everyone go outside for a portrait, or they turn off their flash. In this way, a single source of light can be achieved and subsequently "corrected" if the camera's white-balance setting was incorrect for the type of light in the portrait.

In the above picture, the color can be corrected for the foreground by using the Neutral Color Picker on the tablecloth near the bottom left corner of the photo.

Better yet, you can choose to use Picasa's Auto Color button and it will do almost the same thing, but a little better.

In general, the Auto Color feature does a better job of finding a neutral color to correct by than I do.

Generally, what it appears to do is line up the red, green and blue in the histogram so that they overlap as much as possible. Picasa doesn't give you the ability to slide the colors around manually, which is entirely sensible considering the difficulty involved in that.

Nonetheless, as a photography geek, I think it would be nice to have a tool for tinkering with the color levels.

I have had that before, and Paint.NET has that ability. But for whatever reason (training perhaps?) I am only marginally successful at using those tools.

Photo Editing Technique - True Neutral Lighting and Getting the Most Detail

2009-02-07T13:22:00.001-08:00

Several times I have fallen victim to leaving my camera on the wrong color setting and having the resulting picture look off-color as a result. This will be a tutorial on how to correct color in Picasa 3 and also how to manually adjust the contrast to get the most satisfying and realistic color and light balance.

Here is a photo of a snowy landscape I took in the early morning. The camera white balance was set for indoor lighting, which caused this natural light to appear blue:

Notice the histogram in the bottom-right corner; the blue, yellow and red are occupying different areas, which means there is very little true white in the picture. Especially odd in a picture so full of snow and clouds.

To fix this, click on the eye-dropper button under the label Neutral Color Picker, then click on a spot in your picture that you know should look pure white, or pure gray. I've provided suggestions off the tips of the two arrows.

If you have picked a good white spot, your picture will look much closer to true white as in the following:

Notice the Histogram now shows the colors overlapping much more. This shows the histogram agreeing with the obvious: I've made the picture more "neutral" gray.

Still, the picture seems too dim and hazy as compared with my sensation of it with my own eyesight. So, I'd like to see it a bit lighter, clearer and perhaps a touch bluer, as the morning light often is.

I'll begin by trying to make the most of the brightness range, shown in the histogram by how well the pixels fill the total width of the histogram. At present, my pixels are bunched pretty tightly in the middle of the histogram, which means most of my picture is just medium brightness. For a picture that is more satisfying to look at, you will have some pixels near the bright end and some near the dark end of the histogram. To accomplish this, we'll use Picasa's Highlights and Shadows sliders.

Move the sliders to try to get the pixels to fill the empty areas on the right and left sides of the histogram, but be careful not to lose too many pixels off the edge, or you will cause pure black or pure white, which is equivalent to losing detail in your photograph.

Here you can see how much I used the sliders and what it did to the picture and the histogram.

You could stop there and have a pretty realistic representation of the light conditions.

I am going to take it one more step though, and see if I can bring some of the blue morning light back. To do this, I'm just going to slightly add to the color saturation.

By increasing the saturation just a bit, you bring out some of the color that was actually recorded and just make it more prominent in the photograph. The arrow is pointing out that the white in the foreground is still white, unlike the original, which had the entire photo tinted blue.

This strikes me as fairly realistically conveying what the morning air looked like to my eye.

Perhaps I've added too much blue because of a weakness for hypersaturation.

But since the viewer can't be there to smell the cold crisp morning air, she might forgive me for trying a little too hard to make the image look crisp and cool.

My Paint.NET Project

2009-02-05T19:23:00.000-08:00

After getting the kids going, I thought it would be smart to get some good quality skills that I could then use to give them room to aspire to. So I looked up a tutorial on how to make glassy-looking orbs and gave it a whirl.
Here are the first two products:

Arthur's Paint.NET Project

2009-02-05T19:15:00.000-08:00

Over the past two days I managed to get the kids worked up about Paint.NET.
I think it started with Shadow Day, in which I was allowed to "shadow" the boys as they went through their school day.

During the afternoon stint, I was able to sit with Arthur as he participated in combining simple geometric shapes into a larger outlined shape.
At the same time, Jamey has developed an interest, for other reasons, in drawing certain creatures, which I won't say anything about, since he will undoubtedly want to debut them at the proper moment.

In any case, they were both ripe for exposure to Paint.NET, which I promptly exposed them to, and much to their delight.
Here is a photograph of Arthur's work. Jamey's, I feel sure, will be forthcoming, perhaps on The ES of J.

Porch Light

2009-02-05T19:11:00.000-08:00

We won't be accused of moving too quickly on this issue, but we finally installed a porch light that works. We are very happy with it. It has a motion-sensor, a timed shutoff, three bright LED bulbs, a small solar panel and a battery pack. All for just $99.99 at Lowe's.

It took 3 sunny days to charge the batteries, but tonight I was greeted with cheerful, autonomously activated white light when I came home from work.

For those of you who may have visited us and may have come or gone during the night, you will have experienced something more akin to falling into an inkwell than traversing a welcoming porch. No more. Now, through the wonders of modern technology, you will be bathed in LED luminosity every time you approach.

Random Smells

2009-01-16T20:15:00.000-08:00

There is something especially unsettling about unexpected unpleasant odor.

A loud noise may wake you from a peaceful sleep and trigger several hours of insomnia. A bright light may make you wonder who's coming up the driveway.

Taste and touch are usually applied to items under your control and so an unpleasant experience there is generally brief and well understood.

Smell is different. There can be great mystery in smell.

One such mystery is at play as I write, although the evidence has diminished greatly for the past two days.

In my bedroom, about three days ago, an odor reached its zenith. For intensity and area, I'd rate it an 8 of 10, with 10 meaning I'd have to sleep in another room. For pungency and foulness, again, 8, for it had a vigorous and repulsive presence like some of the fancier cheeses. But like those cheeses it had a quality about it that you might admiringly call "boldness" and maybe a faint chord of sweetness that may make you a bit curious as to the taste.

I have a wary admiration for cheese. It is clear to me that bold and delicious flavors are to be found among the great cheeses of the world. Yet to eat many of them for their flavor would be, for me, much like bungee-jumping for fun. Just more than one of my constitution craves.

To return to the mysterious odor in the bedroom, I will say that at first I assumed the blame entirely for myself. It is entirely within the bounds of reason that I should suspect myself of having left something "perishable" laying about for far too long in some forgotten corner of my room. I've lived with myself long enough to know this. That is why I asserted to Heidi that it must be the shirt that I had overworn and left in the corner.

This explanation being wholly believable, we hit the lights and went to sleep.

The next day, however, the smell was more intense than ever. Enough so that Heidi decided to take action and removed the offending garment at once to the laundry room along with several others which might also have been suspected of creating the olfactory caucaphony.

Still, with the obvious culprits removed, the smell grew intense by an order of magnitude.

You may suppose that I am going to carry on and explain how I solved this riddle and wrap this entry up in a tidy bow. Should you suppose that, you will now be treated to a rude surprise.

As yet the source of the odor remains undiscovered. The intensity has flagged remarkably in the past two days and leaves open the possibility that this mystery may go unsolved for quite some time due to lack of available evidence.

Should the facts reveal themselves, dear reader, you will be the first to know.

Indie Music

2009-01-15T06:47:00.000-08:00

When I first subscribed to eMusic.com I wondered if I would be able to find enough high-quality records to justify the subscription.

I've subscribed for about 6 months now, and I'm starting to feel like I'm just scratching the surface of a deep gold mine.

Recently, because of a subscriber's poll ranking it the best album eMusic has, I downloaded In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel. I was not disappointed. At all. That album is ridiculously good and unique. You will not hear music this interesting on radio.

Other artists that I've been very pleased with:

Artist Album

Neko Case Live at Austin City Limits

Radiohead In Rainbows

Zbigniew Preisner 3 Couleurs : Rouge

The Magnetic Fields 69 Love Songs

Elliot Smith New Moon

The Decemberists Picaresque

Belle and Sebastian If You're Feeling Sinister

Arcade Fire Funeral

The National Boxer

Flooding and Rooftop Adventure

2009-01-08T06:40:00.000-08:00

Was it last year, or the year before that we had epic floods that closed I-5 and Mt. Rainier National park?
Well, we're at it again. In Clark County there are two road closures and a warning because of water over the roadway, all within just a few miles of my home, which I affectionately refer to as Fort Bale. See map below for closure locations.

Not only have the roads flooded, but as a result of the record snow we had in December, our roof has never been more compromised. The plumbing vent over the laundry room has been snapped off at the roofline, and the stove pipe has suffered enough that a small leak became apparent after yesterday morning's torrents.

I left work at 1 PM yesterday to come home and deal with the leaks, having no interest in tearing into our walls with the custom plaster job to fix water damage.

For supplies, I bought some roof sealant tar that touted the ability to go on wet or dry surfaces, two 75' ropes that looked like they could support my weight, two carabiners, an LED headlamp with a nice bright and focused beam, and a pair of flyfisherman's felt-soled boots.

The rope I tied off, each to it's own hook on the south roof. These are the hooks Heidi hangs her geranium baskets from. I'm glad now that I oversized them.

The felt-soled boots proved insufficient to walk up the wet metal roof on the north side; it's just too steep. So, I walked and crawled while tugging my way up both ropes and intermittently adjusting the Italian hitches on my caribiners, so that, should I start to slip, I wouldn't build much momentum before the ropes grew taut at my beltline.

Not finding the caulking gun I believe I had in the laundry room, I was forced to go primitive and I brought my needle-nose pliers and a spackle blade with me. I used the pliers to pull the nozzle off the caulk tube and later to squeeze the last bits out of it. With the spackle blade I smeared the tar over every seam I thought could plausibly be the source of the leaks we observed.

Luckily, as I worked I discovered that wet denim grips sufficiently to wet metal roofing.
However, that also meant that by the time I was done, I was shivering from cold.
Getting back off the roof was a little nerve-wracking because of how stiff my legs had become. They proved flexible enough though, and I was soon in the blessedly warm shower, shedding the evidence of my adventure.

For the first time in days, I slept well and completely through the night.

The Plowman Came Again

2008-12-28T12:32:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-27T08:20:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-26T16:23:00.000-08:00

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: