Our weekend and our week ends

We had a lovely, quiet weekend,  staying home nearly the entire time, working on projects around the house. Saturday morning, we planted our flowers for the summer, including a gorgeous Columbine, the state flower of Colorado.

 publicdomainpictures (^)

Every year we've had less and less to purchase and plant, since we try to plant perennials and re-seeding annuals as much as possible. Still, I was surprised that we were able to get by with so little this year - a 9-pack of pink petunias, a pink geranium, the columbine, and 2 portulaca. 

It's been unseasonably hot so far this June, and it may cause me to break down and get a tomato plant. Colorado has odd, unpredictable weather during the day, and tends to have cool nights, which is a bad combination for  tomatoes. Still, hope springs eternal, so I usually end up getting a plant or two, nursing it through the summer, and getting maybe one or two tomatoes total. Sigh. I'll probably never learn. 

Dan spent the weekend doing several things on his "Honey-Do" list. He installed a cat door in the door that leads from the master bath to the hallway. We close our door when we leave the house to keep the dog downstairs, but the kitty tends to manage to trap herself on the wrong side of the door about 50% of the time. This way, as long as the door between our bedroom and the bathroom is open, kitty can come and go as she pleases. 

Dan also fixed the microwave (the turntable had stopped turning); rehung the door on the tool shed with new screws to prevent it from being saggy; and positioned the fans for the summer season. Oh, and he taught the SuperCat to play Tee-ball in advance of her first practice this week. She has a remarkable sense of hand-eye coordination and picked up on batting the ball off the tee right way. Running the bases was a bit harder to explain, but she seemed to be getting it toward the end. 

As for me, I worked on several projects, including de-cluttering the kitchen and organizing some files. I did a bit of writing, and spent about 3 hours doing all of our summer scheduling this afternoon. Everything I can possibly think of is on our shared schedules with reminders, notes, directions, and so on. 

Because the weather has been so cooperative, we ended up grilling on the deck Friday, Saturday and Sunday night. I read about a technique for preparing chicken last week at the Amateur Gourmet called "spatchcocking" (^). I ended up trying it tonight and don't think I'll ever grill or bake a chicken any other way ever again. 

Basically, you excise the spine from the chicken with a super-sharp knife, then push the whole thing flat. That's it. If you're up for it, you can remove the breast bones and ribs from the inside, but you don't have to. The flat chicken is more or less the same thickness all over and will grill or bake quickly and evenly, resulting in all of the meat being very moist. 

 spine removed, laid flat. 

the scissors are to snip around the tail bone

 spine, breast & rib bones removed

Dan grilled ours with a bit of spicy-vinegary barbecue sauce. It cooked very fast and evenly, and was as moist as any chicken I've ever had. 

 leg quarter after cooking

S'mores made with GF Graham crackers

  Dennis looking forward to any 

spare chicken parts

We served the chicken with "Gaga beans", baked beans named after my mother-in-law, who puts relish in her beans. Dan makes "Daddy beans", which have mustard, cider vinegar and liquid smoke. "Mommy beans" (mine) are sweetened with brown sugar, and are spiced with chopped onions and diced garlic. They're all different, but are all yummy. 

We have more than half of the chicken left over from dinner, and it'll form the basis for dinner for the next night or two. 

After dinner, Dan hooked a lighted button to the SuperCat's blouse and she ran and careened in the dark on the lawn, flashing like a lightning bug, darting in and out of the shadows. Before we went in, we made S'mores on the still-warm grill, and talked and laughed. A perfect end to a perfect weekend. 

Namaste.
=^..^= 
d


P.S. We ended up staying home all day Sunday, and so we go into Monday morning and the beginning of Week 2 of the June Food Stamp Challenge (^) with the same figures as yesterday, having spent $110.61, which is 31.87% of the total lowest monthly food stamp allowance ($347.00) for a family the size of ours.

So far, so good...

Monday morning will be the end of Week One for the June Food Stamp Challenge (^), but I'm going to go ahead and total up my receipts because I don't plan to spend anything between now (Saturday night) and then. If I do, I'll recalculate.

At Costco, I purchased:
2 boxes of Fiber One Bars, 30 bars per box
1 very large bag of corn tortilla strips, Kirkland (Costco's house brand
1 34 ounce box Kirkland Spiced Pecan cereal
2 large loaves light wheat bread (45 calories per slice)
4 jars Kirkland brand organic peanut butter. No sugar added, just peanuts and a bit of salt. Two 28 ounce jars for $7.69
1 64 ounce (4 pound) jar Kirkland animal crackers (no HFCS & organic)
2 large jars Nutella (chocolate-hazelnut spread)

We still have all of the tortilla strips and the crackers. We have most of the bread, cereal, peanut butter, bars, and Nutella. Our youngest starts playing ball this week, and we'll be packing the crackers as a snack twice a week. Peanut butter goes into sandwiches, sauces, and baking. Tortilla strips go into salads, soups, and chili, and are the base for nachos. Nutella is our little one's favorite. She eats it with peanut butter on sandwiches, and dips apples in it.

The food total at Costco came to $66.51.

At King Soopers (Kroger nearly everywhere else), I purchased:
3.15 pounds of organic cherries
1 gallon of organic milk
2.57 pounds of bananas
4 pounds of organic gala apples
6.78 pounds of chicken (@ .78 cents a pound)
2 pounds of low-carb pasta (for my husband)
2 packages of gluten-free Ivory Teff wraps
2 packages of Haribo Gummi Bears on sale (for our daughter)

The chicken will be tomorrow night's dinner &; will be part of other meals after that. We have several apples left, along with most of the pasta, bananas, apples and wraps. We still have over half of the milk, but the Gummis are gone gone gone :)

The total at King Soopers Kroger was $44.10.

The total for the first week is $110.61, which is 31.87% of the lowest food stamp + WIC benefit estimate of $347.00. That doesn't tell the whole story, though.

First, as noted, we still have most of the food purchased above. For much of the week, we ate food we purchased previously, including corn,  tortillas, fruit, veggies, cheese, milk, bread, cereal,tomatoes, and so on.

Next week we'll be eating foods purchased this week in addition to some things in the pantry/fridge/freezer. Along with tomorrow night's chicken, we're planning chicken and rice, Musubis (Hawaiian sushi), grilled pronghorn kabobs (thanks to my husband the hunter), sandwiches, bagels, oatmeal, etc. Monday will be "left over" day, when we put together meals made up from whatever is in the fridge. I'll be baking gluten-free bread and probably some cookies next week, in addition to packing meals for our youngest to eat between ball practices. 

Speaking of bread: While I was at Costco, I noted that the 2 loaves of bread purchased for my husband &; daughter came to $4.29. On the baking aisle, I noted that 25 pounds of wheat flour came to around $5.50. Add in yeast (less than $4.00 for 2 pounds), oil, and so on, and it becomes clear that its much less expensive to bake bread than to buy it. Even factoring in a second-hand bread machine, it wouldn't take long for the savings to outstrip the initial cost.

If I thought I would need to rely on food stamps for any length of time, I would make a point of purchasing flour and yeast in bulk (and/or starting a sour dough culture), as well as locating a bread machine. I own/moderate a recycling list in my city, and see bread machines given away on a regular basis. I see them at the thrift store for under $10.00 every time I'm there. An investment of under $20.00 (machine, yeast, flour) would yield huge savings. 

Previously, I baked nearly all of the bread eaten in our house, but that fell by the wayside when I stopped eating wheat. At this point, I bake my own bread (gluten-free bread is ridiculously expensive - often more than $5.00 a loaf), but purchase wheat bread for everyone else.

 The Little Red Hen and her bread

It clearly makes solid financial sense to go back to baking all/nearly all of our bread, so in the weeks ahead, we'll be doing just that.

Namaste. 
=^..^=

Curiouser and curiouser...

'Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!'

The White Rabbit, to himself
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

I'm late. Really late.
When last I blogged I was planning on writing the next day. Which I did. But for whatever reason (one I can't fully explain), I didn't feel like publishing anything that day. Or the next. Or any other. Right up until today, right now.

Right now, I'm feeling as though I should, though, so I will.

Since the last time I posted, we've cooked quite a bit, practicing several new gluten free dishes. We've made GF bread several times, and Dan seems to have perfected the GF sandwich bread loaf. Occasionally, we'll pick up a loaf of GF bread at Whole Foods, but both of us enjoy baking, and store-bought never really compares to homemade, does it?

Fresh gluten-free French toast made with homemade bread by Dan,
& fresh butter (collaborative).

As you can see above, we made butter, which SuperCat found amazing - she wasn't sure how we were going to get butter from whipped cream, but we did and she loved it, staring into the mixer as it 'churned'. It was incredibly easy, and I'm working on a tutorial to explain the process.

Homemade butter in the KitchenAid mixer

I took a class with the Division of Wildlife, and earned my Hunter Safety Certificate, so that I could apply for a hunting license in my state. I applied for my first license a few weeks ago; pronghorn (aka, "antelope", the ones that play with the deer on the range in the song), but won't know if I get one for several more weeks. Quite a bit of the meat we eat ( which is organic, very low fat, hormone & antibiotic-free) comes from antelope/elk hunted by Dan, so it will be nice to have another try at the tag lottery every year.

I've played endlessly with my favorite three year old, who is beginning to blossom wonderfully when she draws, and who has the most vivid imagination of anyone I've ever seen. Like most afternoons, we listened to her play in her toy kitchen today, making food and drinks for her dolls. She is a joy to listen and talk to.

She's taking swim lessons now, since we joined the YMCA after the first of the year. I'm trying to exercise, but still finding it pretty difficult. I start physical therapy this week, so we'll see if that helps any. Here's to hoping that it will :)

I've sewn and crafted quite a bit. I made seven skirts in one day for the SuperCat. She helped choose the fabric (mostly 1930's repro designs), and she chose all of the notions (thread color, buttons, and ribbon trim). I've discovered that her eye for matching colors and textures is much better than mine is, even at her young age, which is wonderful, since a natural eye for colors and textures is invaluable.

Supercat's new blue skirt made with reproduction 1930's fabric.

Detail of blue skirt made with reproduction 1930's fabric.

I joined a knitting group, and I've all but finished a large fuzzy knit wrap for someone (don't know who yet), plus a scarf I'd been working on forever for our oldest. I started some bright pink amigurumi rabbits (crocheted), which just need to be stitched together and stuffed. I've recently become interested in drop spindle spinning, after seeing a lady at knitting using one, and Dan got the materials this weekend to make one for me (doweling, wooden disk, and a cup hook - easy peasy). He got enough to make more than one, so we'll end up with a low whorl (the disk thingy) and a high whorl. High or low refers to the position of the whorl on the shaft (the dowdle rod). Here's are illustrative photos and a description: Types of Drop Spindles (^)

Last week, I joined a quilting group, and am working on eight squares in the Broken Plate pattern, "cut loose", meaning that they were cut in an imprecise way. It was liberating to make something that is perfect in not being perfect, as all of the quilting I've done in the past has been as straight as I could make it. I learned more in the first quilting class than then sum total of what I previously knew about quilting, mostly due to a very patient friend who is a natural teacher. Like: how to properly use a rotary cutter and mat (there's a right way and a wrong way?!?!?). And: iron on the front of the pieced fabric, not the back (makes a huge difference in how the fabric lays). And so on.

I designed, made, and completed around two dozen butterflies for Connie Pelkey's (^) polymer clay Bug Swap, picked the twelve I liked the best, and mailed them off well before the deadline. Yay!

Simply putting the Bug Swap on my list of activities doesn't really give it the weight it deserves. It has occupied a place front-and-center in my mind from the time the email arrived saying I'd been accepted into the swap, until the morning I put my butterflies in the mail.

One of my butterflies before shipping.
My hands are pink because I'd been working with Pysanky dye the day before.

I'm always nervous about sharing my work, and often feel conflicted over it. I tell myself that I could have done better "if only" (if only there were more time, better planning, different materials, a different design, etc). The swap was a leap of faith; happy I took it.

Another of my swap butterflies.
These are from the first batch.

A learning experience, for sure.

That's it for now. As I finish this, I have no idea what kept me away for so long; I promise it won't be such a long absence next time.

This is the place where I thank John for reminding me several times that I need to write :)
Thank you, John!

'Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop'
The King to the White Rabbit
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

Namaste
=^..^=

5, 4, 3, 2, 1... Happy New Year!

Tonight, as the audio-animatronic Dick Clark and the even less realistic semi- humanoid Ryan Seacrest ring in the New Year in Times Square, we'll be ringing in the New Year the way we usually do: dinner in, a movie in the player or a game, then cuddling together after everyone else is asleep. We found lobster on sale at Costco for $6.80 a pound, so we'll be having crustaceans, drawn butter, a salad, and baked potatoes for dinner; tea and sparkling cider for drinks, and crème caramel (egg custard) for dessert. And wine for toasting at midnight.

Times Square (NYC) by Michael McDonough(^),
used under Creative Commons License

Tomorrow begins a new year. Last year I made a few resolutions...

• At the end of last year, I resolved to lose weight, and I did - I'm down about 20 pounds. Yay!
• I resolved to exercise, and I did, some. I need to do more. Semi-yay!
  
• I resolved to not chicken out and finally do something about the pain I'd been feeling, and I had minor surgery in February. The surgery went well, and combined with no longer eating wheat, my pain is gone. Yay!
• I resolved to be neater, and made some progress, but probably not as much as I should or could have. I like clean, but don't really mind clutter. I wish it bothered me more, I guess. Another semi-yay!
• Work on crafty things more than the previous year. I did ok on this resolution. Probably could have done more, but did a whole lot more than the previous year, so I think I'm happy.
  
  
  Our dog, if he were green and made from polymer clay.
  
  
• I resolved to get out with friends more. I didn't really do very well with this one at all. Phooey. I will double down and make more of an effort in 2009.
  
• My final resolution, shared with my husband, was to follow the Compact. The Compact is a group of people who resolve not to purchase anything new for a year and to look carefully at their purchases to determine what is truly needed and what is merely wanted. It isn't a matter of debt or anything like that (for us, at least). It was an exercise in discipline and of discovery, of what is really important.
  
  You can read more about the Compact here at Good Magazine(^) or here at the San Francisco Chronicle(^) .

We did very well for a long time, then moderately well for a while, then not so well. We were disappointed that we weren't able to last a whole year, but are resolved to try again, starting tomorrow. We've written up our own guidelines for the coming year, which are:

Follow the basic Compact - no non-necessary spending on new anything unless it is a matter of health job, and/or safety, with the following details:

• Mutually agreed upon educational materials for SuperCat are exempt if we can't find them used or at the library. She's currently learning to read and we may need a book or two.
  
• Memberships may be exempt, as they are services. They would include membership to the Denver Museum of Science and Nature, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, and possibly to Costco.
  
• Mutually agreed upon materials to finish previously started projects - limited to those items only (i.e., bias tape to finish a previously started sewing project, nails to finish a wood project, etc.) may be exempt, as it is utterly wasteful to abandon a dress, for example, for lack of three buttons.
  
• New clothes for SuperCat if she needs them; only if clothes can't be found elsewhere (hand me downs, sewing, etc.
  
• Remodeling materials, always checking Restore(^) first.
• All gifts & cards should be handmade (I'm already working on Valentines Day ).
  
• Internet connection, computer parts, etc., necessary to keep the computers in good working order. Mutual agreement on new purchases in this area.
  
• Postage as needed.
• Try to move toward more sustainable habits, like: cloth napkins, hanging out more clothes to dry, etc.
  
• Dinner/lunch out no more than 2x week. Week starts on Sunday and ends Saturday night. Eating out is almost certainly more wasteful than eating in.
  
• Freecycle(^)/FreeSharing(^), hand-me-downs, antiquing, thrift, Restore(^), etc., is always preferable to new whenever feasible.
• Food, obviously, is exempt.
  
• Utilities, insurance, etc., to maintain our household are exempt. We have to stay warm.
  
• Medicine, medical care and pharmacy needs are exempt. We have to stay healthy.
  
• Car repairs as needed to maintain safety are exempt. We have to stay safe.
  
• Career-related materials are automatically exempt. Self-explanatory.
  

That's pretty much it. It's not too difficult in some ways, very difficult in others. Consumerism is a habit many of us don't think a lot about, it has become automatic.

My own resolutions this year are:

• Join a local knitting group. I had plans to join in October, but something came up and I couldn't. I have enough yarn to knit the entire year away without fear of running out, and the women in the group seem to be clever and smart and are obviously talented.
  
• Exercise an hour a day. I'm not quite there yet, but getting closer.
  
• Lose weight (who doesn't have this as a resolution?).
  
• Grow my hair out longer than it is now.
  
• Complete projects I've started but haven't finished. They include finishing some knitting, finishing a set of dolls, completing some earrings, a quilt, and some tutus.
  
  
  doughnut earrings on silver wire in need of findings to be finished
  (that's what jewelry parts are called, findings)
  
  
  cupcake earrings which need to be finished
  
• Try to reduce the amount of clutter in every aspect of our lives. To me, clutter isn't only stuff. Clutter is anything that we don't need or want.
  
• Make soap with lye. I'd like to try my hand at making a super-fatted soap to use as a shampoo bar.
  
• Make cheese from scratch. This just sounds like fun, doesn't it?
  
• Edge closer to an all-Linux environment, computer-wise. I'm more than half-way there. My desktop machine is all-Linux, and my laptop dual-boots.
  
  
  Resolved: to spend more time with Tux, the Linux mascot
  
• Make more of our food from scratch. We've made huge strides in this area, and I'd like to continue. Cooking from scratch is rewarding and fun.
  
  
  homemade french onion soup
  
• Make treats instead of buying them. I already regularly make Chex Mix, marshmallow treats, and cupcakes. In the last month or so, we've made double chocolate rocky road fudge (with marshmallows and walnuts), and hard lollipops. Both were easy and fun, and both were so much better than anything we could have bought. Next year we plan to pull taffy and make peanut brittle.
  
• Follow the Compact, and apply it to everything above.

So, how about you? What are your New Years resolutions? Whatever you choose,

Happy New Year!

Namaste.

Current Mood: cool

Thursday Thunks on Friday Night

Always At Least A Day Late is my new motto when it comes to completing writing prompts, but I really couldn't step away from my family on Christmas Day to write, so being late this week was inevitable.

As inevitable as taxes, the passage of time, and not being able to find your keys when you're in a hurry.

That kind of inevitable.

I didn't want to miss a single moment of our lovely Christmas. So I simply didn't.

Christmas Day was a quiet, slow sort of day. We didn't start opening presents till almost noon; later we had a wonderful dinner (turkey, pumpkin and apples, delicious homemade stuffing, cranberries, with a crust-less pumpkin pie for dessert). The in-between time was spent playing with the SuperCat and enjoying each other's company. It took SuperCat hours to open her gifts; she needed to play with each thing extensively before she could consider moving on to the next thing. It was great watching her play, showing us how things worked.

The last several Christmases have been difficult. My Dad's health was going downhill around Christmas of 2003, he died a month and a half after that. Because of that, and for other reasons, Christmas has been difficult to celebrate for a long time; some years I've had to force myself to do anything at all.

This year, for the first time in a long time, mostly in response to the unbridled joy that the SuperCat has brought to us and continues to bring us every single day, I did quite a bit more, felt quite a lot better, and have been pretty happy the whole season.

Life goes on, as they say. So...

From the Thursday Thunks(^).

This week we will answer some crazy questions brought to you by Berleen, the color white and the number 78.

1. Have you ever started your Christmas tree on fire?

No. And how scary is it that that even happens? Can you imagine sitting there, watching the lights twinkle, and all of a sudden, whooosh?

2. How many rings do you wear?

Always the first two, and in various combinations the next three:
* my wedding bands, which started out as two rings, but were connected by the jeweler after our wedding. I'll count those as one.
* a tanzanite and diamond ring given to me by my husband the Christmas after we were married.
* a silver ring with feathers on it that I wear on my thumb.
* a silver poesy ring that my husband gave me.
* a silver ring with a Greek meander (aka key) pattern which looks like this:

3. I say "dog barking", you say _________ ?

He doesn't. My dog almost never barks. He just stands there and looks at you. He growls at people in this really low voice if he doesn't know them at the door, but almost never barks.

4. How many pictures are in the room that you are in.

Two on the wall; old Chinese paintings of birds. Too many to count elsewhere, on shelves, etc.

5. Do you decorate the outside of your house for Christmas?

Some years, yes. Three or four inflatables, lights around the front of the house and in the bushes, a retro plastic Santa...

plus mechanical deer illuminated with white lights, blue and white flowers in the flower boxes, and a winter-themed flag. It's a regular Winter Wonderland.

6. What's your favorite Christmas song?

Carol of the Bells, Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych, 1916.



7. What do you fill your Christmas stockings with?

I don't. My husband fills mine, and I fill his. Dan grew up in Holland, so I fill his stocking with candy from there like salted licorice (yuck yuck yuck) and marzipan (yummy).

8. How many times a week do you charge your cell phone?

Every night and I usually top it off during the day. I have the G1 Android, and the battery life isn't great, but the phone is beyond spiffy, so it's worth it.

9. Do you own any exercise equipment? What are they?

A treadmill, an elliptical, and those plastic stair stepper thingies used in aerobics class. Plus two of those rubber balance balls, a yoga mat, and some small weights. A bicycle I almost never ride, too, but I'm not sure that counts since (as I said) I almost never ride it.

10. What's your cookie jar look like?

I have 30 or so. Which one would you like to know about?

This is what my favorite cookie jar looks like

Namaste.

currently listening to: Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, the theme from Casino Royale:

current mood: contemplative

Greetings from the Uncanny Valley (Odds & Ends)

Recently, I met a member of the Single Action Shooting Society(^). Members of the SASS target shoot in competitions, dress in period clothing, use period weapons, and answer to a "Western" name that they adopt which is unique to each member. Calamity Rabbit has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

The fellow I met was very nice, taking time to explain everything to me, including the fact that about 40% of their members locally are women. Wow.

Simply put, single action weapons are those that have to be cocked before each shot, i.e., the hammer has to be pulled back before each round is fired. The trigger performs a single action when it is pulled (it drops the hammer). Cowboys in the Wild West (and everyone else) fired single action weapons before double-action weapons were invented.

I'm considering joining the SASS in the spring. It sounds fascinating; combing my love of sewing (costuming), history, and target practice. We'll have to see if I can find the time. How neat would it be to research and sew (and then wear) an authentically styled Western costume?

I was reminded of SASS when I saw something interesting about Annie Oakley recently. Annie Oakley was an amazing woman, accomplished in areas that were dominated by men at a time when women were generally afforded very few options.

As a young girl, Annie hunted and sold what she shot to help her widowed mother get by. She was so successful that she was eventually able to pay off her mother's mortgage.

Annie met her eventual husband, traveling show marksman Frank Butler when he placed a bet with a hotel owner for $100.00 (a whole lot of money in 1881) that he (Frank) could beat any local marksman. The hotelier got Annie to compete and she won. She and Frank were married the next year. When she died, at age 66, Frank, unable to bear life without her, refused to eat and died 18 days later.

She was an early promoter of women in combat roles, and once wrote a letter to President William McKinley offering the the services of a company of 50 'lady sharpshooters' to the government if there was a war with Spain. There was a war, of course, but McKinley never took her up on her offer.

Annie was an amazing shot; she could split a playing card edge-on and put several holes in it before it hit the ground with a .22 caliber rifle at 90 feet. She earned the title of Little Sure Shot of the Wild West from her days touring with Buffalo Bill Cody.

This was Annie Oakley as people would have seen her on posters advertising the Wild West Show:



and this was Annie Oakley as she looked in life:


And this, which I found when I was researching something else this week, is Annie Oakley on film:



How spiffy is that? First, it's Annie Oakley. Who hasn't heard of her? And second, it's one of the earliest Edison Kinetoscopes know to exist.

(Kinetoscope)

And then there's this, which is completely unrelated but spiffy nonetheless:

A couple of nights ago, Dan and I were watching The Polar Express, based on the book of the same name. The movie is about a boy who isn't sure he believes in Santa anymore. On Christmas Eve he finds a steam locomotive outside his door, and once aboard, he travels with other children to the North Pole to see Saint Nicholas. It's a sweet movie, and we enjoyed it, for the most part.

Not everyone did, however. It didn't review well(^) when it was released, and a large part of why seems to be because reviewers(^) felt that the characters were creepy and unreal-seeming.

Before we went to bed for the evening, I searched for the film online, and read about how it was made, using motion capture technology. Motion capture records the movement of the actors and uses computers to translate "real" movement into the movement of characters onscreen. It allows for more realistic human action on film.

And that is a huge potential problem. There is a hypothesis, put forth by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori, that states that when robots are made to seem more human, humans (that's us) will respond with more empathy toward them. In other words, we'll like them better the more they seem to be like us. So, we will like a robot with two arms, two legs and a head better than a mechanical box with crane-like arms, no legs and no head.

But, the theory goes, as robots approach being indistinguishable from humans, they will cross over from cute and become repulsive to us.

For example:

The robot from Lost in Space(^) seems fine to most of us. He has two arms, two legs, a head, and a metallic voice. We recognize him as being human enough to elicit empathy.
(and)
A robot (or human facsimile in a film or elsewhere) that is indistinguishable from humans will be fine because we won't be able to tell the difference. If it seems human in every single way, we won't know the difference, and it won't bother us.
(but)
Somewhere in between Lost in Space and the indistinguishable robot of the future is the repulsive middle. It looks human, it acts human, but something is a little off and we humans know it. It will be uncanny, foreign yet familiar.

That gap between the Lost in Space robot or perhaps the Maria robot from the 1927 Fritz Lang masterpiece Metropolis and the Robot of the Future is the Uncanny Valley.

Robot Maria

Apparently, many reviewers found that the characters in The Polar Express fell within the realm of the Uncanny Valley(^). They found the characters looked slightly off and that unnerved some viewers.

We didn't find them creepy, exactly, but did find ourselves trying to figure out which actions were motion capture and which were straight up animation, and that definitely detracted from the movie.

Won't it be interesting when robots become indistinguishable? We won't know what we don't know, I guess.

Other links I've found in the last few days:

• Google has found that certain search terms used by the public are a good indicator of the severity of the flu, and have placed this information in a handy chart here(^).
• If you've ever wondered what those additives or dyes in various food and makeup products are, here is Food Additives World(^), an informative website that describe what they are and what they're doing in your food and/or makeup.

And finally, some pictures from the last few days:

This is Mar-Belles. Not Marbles. Mar-Belles.
Dan and I named her Marbles, which we thought somehow went with Waffles, but the SuperCat immediately renamed her Mar-Belles, which sounds like a character from Gone With The Wind.
Mar-Belles acts like a little lady, so the name is apt.
She is just teeny tiny, and so sweet. She sleeps on my feet at night and comes and cuddles in the early morning. She tolerates the enthusiastic pets of little people, and has perfect manners.

This is Neh-neh. He doesn't have any other name. We've tried several times to give him other names, but Neh-neh is the only name that sticks. His hobbies include being the dog's very best friend in the whole world, repeatedly falling into the bathtub once it's full of water, and waking me up several times a night. He really is a cute little guy, and we love him, but wish he wouldn't try to play at 4:30 AM.

This is what you get when you try to use that teeny little video screen on the digital camera to take pictures instead of using the viewfinder.
This picture was supposed to be a shot of my snow-filled backyard.
What it is is a picture of a ceramic squirrel stuck into the jungle of plants on the shelf above my kitchen sink.
I don't have the greenest thumb in the world, but can grow various Aloe and Sansevieria (mother-in-law's tongue) plants until they are practically sentient.

More squirrely goodness.
This little guy holds measuring spoons in his tail and has googly eyes.
How awesome is that?
The white glare is from the snow outside.

Santa lights up at night when the rest of the lights go on, not that you'd notice because our shared lawn looks like Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with all the inflatables.

Finally a bit of snow.
Not a lot of the it, and no pictures of the vast uninterrupted swaths I had meant to photograph earlier in the day, but snow nonetheless. This shows about a third of the inflatables in our immediate neighborhood.
Santa is lost in the crowd, but he's in there somewhere.

Namaste.

Current Mood: contemplative

Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy

::sigh::

When I posted several days ago, I had plans to write again either later that day or early the next morning. I did try to write then, but life intruded and we got terribly busy and all of my plans sort of went downhill from there and I really should schedule my time better, except that seems impossible sometimes with kids/pets/friends/crafting/cooking/the holidays/my wonderful husband, etc., and I want to be clear that I am not complaining, and am deeply grateful for that sort of "problem".

And aren't I the Queen of the run-on sentence?

So, without further ado, here is last week's post, today. Fresher than fresh!

When I was about six or so, my dad gave me a book of poems for children. I can only remember a few of the poems in the book; The Raven, by Edgar Allen Poe and The Duel, by Eugene Field. I liked The Raven, even though it was terribly scary, but I loved The Duel, because it was funny and silly.

I would imagine that most children have heard it, even if they may not know it by name. It starts like this:

The gingham dog and the calico cat
Side by side on the table sat;
'T was half-past twelve, and (what do you think!)
Nor one nor t' other had slept a wink!
The old Dutch clock and the Chinese plate
Appeared to know as sure as fate
There was going to be a terrible spat.
(I was n't there; I simply state
What was told to me by the Chinese plate!)

You can find the entire poem here(^) or download the book Love-Songs of Childhood, by Eugene Field(^) here at Project Gutenberg ( free - the book is many decades out of copyright).

Eugene Field wrote also wrote the poem Wynken, Blynken, and Nod(^), which starts off:

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night
Sailed off in a wooden shoe,—
Sailed on a river of crystal light
Into a sea of dew.
“Where are you going, and what do you wish?”
The old moon asked the three.
“We have come to fish for the herring-fish
That live in this beautiful sea;
Nets of silver and gold have we,”
Said Wynken,
Blynken,
And Nod.

I was reminded of Eugene Field and his poems when I thought of Clement Moore's A Visit from St. Nicholas(^), which begins:

’T WAS the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that ST. NICHOLAS soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;

When I think of sugar plums, I think of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Ballet, of course, but also think of this poem by Eugene Field, The Sugar-Plum Tree (see where we're going with this?)

Have you ever heard of the Sugar-Plum Tree?
'T is a marvel of great renown!
It blooms on the shore of the Lollipop sea
In the garden of Shut-Eye Town;
The fruit that it bears is so wondrously sweet
(As those who have tasted it say)
That good little children have only to eat
Of that fruit to be happy next day.

When you've got to the tree, you would have a hard time
To capture the fruit which I sing;
The tree is so tall that no person could climb
To the boughs where the sugar-plums swing!
But up in that tree sits a chocolate cat,
And a gingerbread dog prowls below--
And this is the way you contrive to get at
Those sugar-plums tempting you so:

You say but the word to that gingerbread dog
And he barks with such terrible zest
That the chocolate cat is at once all agog,
As her swelling proportions attest.
And the chocolate cat goes cavorting around
From this leafy limb unto that,
And the sugar-plums tumble, of course, to the ground--
Hurrah for that chocolate cat!

There are marshmallows, gumdrops, and peppermint canes,
With stripings of scarlet or gold,
And you carry away of the treasure that rains
As much as your apron can hold!
So come, little child, cuddle closer to me
In your dainty white nightcap and gown,
And I 'll rock you away to that Sugar-Plum Tree
In the garden of Shut-Eye Town.

Sweet poem, right? But what are sugarplums? I had no idea until I looked them up. I vaguely thought that they might be something along the lines of an English boiled pudding or maybe candied plums, I wasn't really sure. So I went to the encyclopedia and... got two different answers.

Hundreds of years ago, sugarplums were small fruits, seeds or nuts, heavily candied with sugar (think: candied cherries in fruitcake). So candied plums were sort of right.

Now, though, and for some time, Sugarplums have come to mean dried fruit and nuts, chopped coarsely and mixed with spices and vanilla, then dredged in sugar. That's it.

Essentially, sugarplums are fruitcake without the cake; ideal for people who can't or don't eat wheat. I reviewed a couple dozen recipes before making my own, and ended up making mine with the fruit I would use to make fruitcake if I still baked with wheat. The only fruit I left out were the candied cherries, because they don't seem at home with the rest of the fruit I used.

Add them if you'd like, as well as any other fruit or nuts you prefer.

Sugarplums

1 cup almonds
1 cup pecans
½ cup dried cranberries
½ cup raisins
½ cup prunes
1 cup dates
1 cup apricots (which the SuperCat calls Leprechauns)
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon cloves
2 tablespoons candied ginger
(or) 1 teaspoon dried ginger
2 small seedless clementines (tangerines)
(or)
2 tablespoons orange liqueur
½ cup shredded coconut
sugar to coat (it took about ½ cup)
Optional: either add or substitute 1 scant tsp orange oil or orange extract for orange peel.

1). Chop nuts and dried fruit to a uniform small coarse size using a food processor or by hand, add to large bowl.
2). Peel tangerines, add pulp to bowl, reserve half of the peel.
3). Scrape the inside of the remaining peel to remove pith, then finely chop peel, and add to bowl.
4). Add spices and vanilla.
5). Add orange oil or orange extract if desired. We really like the flavor of orange and add both the peel and the orange oil, which can be found in the spice aisle.

Everything in the mixing bowl, ready to mix

6). Mix all with a spoon or your hands until thoroughly incorporated.
7). Roll into ¾ inch balls, dredge in sugar.

Sugarplums with vintage deer & cookie jars

Yield: Makes about 3 dozen sugarplums.

Close-up of finished sugarplums.
It took me only about 20 minutes to make a double batch (about 6 dozen).
They were quick and so delicious!

My test subject beloved husband, who likes fruitcake but loved the sugarplums.

He's almost always a good sport when it comes to trying out my recipes
(unless they have mayonnaise, which he will not eat).

Yay, he liked it!
Time for another one!

Namaste.
Current Mood: Busy in the kitchen

excuses, excuses, excuses

I had meant to blog Friday night, but while I was out running errands Friday afternoon, Dan was calling his parents and arranging a date with me for Saturday afternoon. When I got home, I discovered that they'd agreed to keep SuperCat for the afternoon and that we'd be able to spend several hours together.

How can a girl turn down a date with the best guy in the world?

I couldn't.

And so Friday night, instead of writing, I did a lot of the things I had planned to do Saturday morning like: clean the kitchen, and work on Christmas crafts. I was still behind when I finished, but I was behind when I started, so I think it all evened out somehow.

Saturday morning we took Supercat to her grandparents, where she stayed to help them decorate their massive fresh-from-the-snowy-forest Christmas tree and we left for lunch. There are a large handful of restaurants in their little town, but since I don't eat wheat, most were out of the question. We settled on Chili's.

Normally, I prefer non-chain restaurants, and I honestly didn't think Chili's had anything I'd be able to eat, and had already mentally decided on a plain salad (sigh), but once inside, was really surprised. First, they have a menu specifically for Celiacs, which changes frequently and how awesome was that? Second, they describe on the menu what needs to be done to tweak regular menu items so that they can be made safe. They did all of the hard work ahead of time.

For example: I know that croutons have wheat in them, so it's easy to ask for them to be left off, but if the waitstaff isn't well informed, it's difficult to figure out if say, the veggies are dusted with seasoning that has flour, or exactly what the salmon is crusted with. Instead, the waiter was super helpful, answered every question knowledgeably, and as a result we had a stress-free, leisurely meal. Here's Chili's allergen menu(^) (alert: it's a .pdf file), in case you ever wondered what people with food allergies do when they go out to eat.

The service and the food were both great. I had a salad, a steak and veggies, which were all prepared the way I had asked. Dan had the habanero ribs.

We split a frosty chocolate milkshake for dessert and laughed and talked about html standards and and funky conspiracy theories.

We talked about a port knocking application that showed up on my phone's marketplace. I always laugh when I hear the words, cause they sound vaguely obscene. What it really is: remotely opening external ports on a firewall by making connection attempts on certain closed ports. It's the computer geek version of knocking shave and a haircut to gain entry into the all-boys club. Enabling port knocking prevents hackers from getting in easily, because they can't knock on just one port (door) to get in. They have to knock on several to enter just one, and it has to be in the right sequence.

I also always giggle when he mentions "IPTables", the firewall in the Linux operating system, but which to me sounds like the sorts of names Bart makes up when he prank calls Moe's Tavern on The Simpsons. From the episode Some Enchanted Evening:

Moe: Moe's Tavern.
Bart: Hello, is Al there?
Moe: Al?
Bart: Yeah, Al. Last name: Coholic.
Moe: Lemme check... [calls] Phone call for Al. Al Coholic. Is there an "Alcoholic" here? [bar denizens laugh] Wait a minute...[to phone] Listen, you little yellow-bellied rat jackass, if I ever find out who you are, I'll kill ya!

IPTables reminds me of that. I need to grow up.

I took pictures of him while we chatted and ate. He doesn't always want his picture taken, but he's usually a pretty good sport about it:

Don't go toward the light! You'll miss lunch!

He finally gives in to the picture taking

After lunch... well, the small town where his parents live is just that: small. Not much to do, but we were committed to staying out for the several hours we'd booked, so we ended up at Wal*Mart, picking up a few small things, looking at all the electronic gadgetry, and marveling at the zillion-and-one flashy Christmas decorations. We made fun of the truly horrible Bratz Dolls (it looks like they are going away in January, don't cha know?(^), and saw what was new in sporting goods. We tried to find wooden skewers (they were out) and did find a new coffee maker to replace the old, busted coffee maker, and so on until it was time to check out and go get the SuperCat.

When we got there, SuperCat was so excited! She'd had a great time helping with the tree, and she had done a very good job. On the way home, she fell asleep, tuckered out.

We were happy, too. It's important to spend alone time together once in a while, even if it's just to walk around Wal*Mart and look at stationary and talk and pick out new coffee makers.

So that was Saturday.

Sunday I sewed. I sewed and sewed and sewed, mostly by hand, mostly small dolls for small doll houses for Christmas. I'd take pictures, but it's late and I'm tired and the light is bad.

I absolutely positively will tomorrow.

In the meantime, here's a picture of the parking lot at Target I took tonight while Dan ran in. It was 3 degrees below zero, and just starting to snow (again).

It felt bleak and dismal.

It looks like the set from Alien.
You know, when they're on the planet and find the alien for the first time?

Namaste.
Current Mood: (freezing)