Blogging for Dummies - book review

With so many of my family and friends now blogging, this is probably a good time to review this book.

I didn't pick up Blogging for Dummies by Brad Hill because I felt I was a "dummie" about blogging, maybe a little insecure, but not a "dummie". And after reading the book I feel like I have no reason to feel insecure or dumb. For one thing, blogging is a fast moving activity that is being redefined even as you read this blog entry. Many of the references in this book are already out of date. Half of the resources mentioned in the last chapter were either "under construction" or 401 (not in service). In fact, I just noticed that a later version of this book by Susannah Gardner and Shane Birley just came out Jan 10, 2008. If you buy the book, make sure you get the updated version.

Brad Hill would have had a better time with this book if he had clearly identified the different types of blog and tailored the book to let people know which kind the particular chapter spoke to. For example, the folksy, diary-like blog like mine doesn't really care about advertising or rss feeds or really much of what else is happening in the blogosphere. Newsy, updated-10-times-a day blogs need to know about design features, advertising and customer trapping. MySpace and their look-alikes want things to be fun, attractive, and Coooooool.

But I don't want to be hard on Brad. The first person who wrote Internet for Dummies must have felt the same way. Only now are most of us beginning to see some of the potential in the Internet that was there all along. I think blogging has the same potential.

Sweet stories of the past

As I think I've mentioned on this blog a few weeks ago, Carolyn and I are the party people for our local church ward. Well, to be honest, Carolyn is the party person and I'm the sidekick. Yesterday, we went out looking for Jacks, the little six-pointed metal thingeys that girls (and some guys) used to throw on the ground and pick up while bouncing a ball. Our next party is a 1950's "Sock Hop" and to go along with that we wanted some 50's games like marbles, jacks, hopscotch, etc.

But when we got to the 99 cent store, we discovered candy of the 50's: Pez candy and dispensers, bubble gum, Chiclets, Boston Baked Beans, Junior Mints, Sugar Babies, and whatever up in the picture I've missed. Of course some of these are still favorites but they all were back then.

We'll keep you informed about the party - do come in you're in town February 9 at 7:00 pm.

Never Be Lied to Again - book review

The title of David J. Lieberman's "Never Be Lied to Again : How to Get the Truth in 5 Minutes or Less in Any Conversation or Situation" strikes a sympathetic chord with each of us. After all, who hasn't been in the situation where someone is telling us a bald-faced lie but because we don't know that or have no way of verifying it, we have to accept their word and then suffer the consequences. Now, most of us aren't private investigators or detectives that have to get the truth out of people as part of our jobs. But we spend a surprising amount of time acting on information from friends, co-workers, neighbors, etc. on the assumption that they're telling us the truth. As a supervisor I once had an employee who had the uncanny ability to lie through her teeth about the need for time off but each time I checked up on her, she had an air-tight alibi.

In the first part of the book Lieberman describes the physiology (physical signs) of someone who is lying which leads to the second and third sections where he gives us the recipes for detecting lies and for hanging in there until you get the truth. He doesn't claim any of the methods are fool proof and there are people so skilled at lying that none of them might work. But having an arsenal like Lieberman provides raises your odds significantly against those who aren't so skilled.

Snowing in Long Beach??

I really don't know much about the details of the event but my son Philip was kind enough to send us a bunch of pictures that he took last weekend at Stevely Whaley Park in Long Beach. Four of our kids and 11 of our grandchildren live in the area and it looked like they all got involved. The youngest, Gavin looked like he was a little puzzled about the whole thing.





Michaelson looks like he's figured snow out and is now looking to share that knowledge with someone. But Jillian is having plenty of fun discovering snow herself.




Sage and Perry look like they're cooperating on their project while Brooke and Libby are doing the same just a little ways away.


Looks like Ben and Michaelson were working on some structure.

I hear that a good time was had by all.

Friends of the Library

For as much time as I spend volunteering hours for the Friends of the Sacramento Public Library, I certainly haven't spent much time talking about it in this blog. This is partly to correct that.

No matter where you live (in the USA at least), you probably don't live far from a public library. And the chances are pretty good that there is a non-profit agency associated with that library called the Friends of the _____________ Library (insert the name of your library). That's how widespread the organization is. Originally, the Friends had two purposes: 1) find homes for all the books that the library has to dispose of regularly; and 2) raise money to help support the library. Many, if not most, Friends organizations have combined these two purposes and run book sales throughout the year. Some have annual or quarterly sales that tend to be really big events while others might just have a rack of books in the library foyer that is stocked and for sale every day the library is open. And the books for sale are no longer just what the library has discarded. People are constantly bringing in boxes and boxes of discarded books for the Friends to sell.

Larger cities might have a Friends organization for each library or they might have a more complex organization like we have in Sacramento where there is a System Friends which directs and coordinates 28 Branch Friends. As the System Friends we have an annual budget of around $100,000 and assets of $1.1 million. The Branch Friends add about $300,000 to the annual budget and $0.5 million to the assets. As you can see, there is serious money involved here.

Of course, it's not all about the money either. People involved with the Friends also tend to volunteer for the library, providing hours and hours of valuable service. I've enjoyed my service as treasurer for the System Friends as well as my time volunteering at the Carmichael branch library.

A Warm Welcome to Lisa

I am both proud and pleased to welcome my daughter-in-law to the world of blogging. You can find her blog at http://for-bunny-or-for-worse.blogspot.com/
She promises to blog daily and, judging from her first two entries, it should be an interesting and fun. Actually, anyone with a 6 bunny editorial board, has to be interesting and fun.

iPods revisited

iPods can be a lot of work! Sure they're fun to listen to and even show off your grandchildren with but they take a lot of work setting them up. As of now, we have uploaded into our computer (and subsequently downloaded into our iPods) 4,615 songs/tunes, in 318 albums, representing 11 days of continuous listening material, and taking up 14.4 gigabytes of our computer storage.

There's a special (free) program that we use to read, store, and index our music so it can be downloaded into the iPods. That program is iTunes. As those of you who have undertaken this process know, CDs are like CD-ROMs in that they can be read much faster than a regular music CD player plays. This is in the order of 6 to 16 times as fast, on our computer at least. That means that a 48 minute CD can be read and interpreted in something between 3 and 8 minutes. Not only that but there is a gigantic database of CDs that iTunes accesses to get the track information. The iTunes program and the iPod Classic also let you store the CD "cover artwork" (picture of the cover) with the uploaded music. A smaller database of this cover art exists for some, but certainly not as many, CDs as the tracklist. The bottom line is that it takes 10 to 15 minutes per CD to get it from the CD rack, into the computer, and back into place.

Yesterday marked a kind of turning point with the iPod music project as we pretty much finished up our CD collection and began on our cassette tape collection. I had previously taken most of our good quality reel to reel tapes and converted them to CD's so they're already in the computer. Tapes, either reel to reel or cassette, can only be converted to computer storage in "real time" plus editing and processing. So the minimum time a 48 minute tape can take is 48 minutes. And that's assuming the interpreting software can tell exactly where the "spaces" are between songs. Usually, I've had to do some "tweaking" to get the tracks to line up with the directory. Also, iTunes won't use the track identification database unless the music is coming in from CD. That means I have to manually enter all the track data.

This all means two things - one, we're going to be more careful about which cassettes get into the system; and two, the project is going to be going much slower from now on. I'll probably set a goal of 1 or 2 tapes per day. We've also found that life has been hard on some of our tapes. The sound quality just isn't like it was the first day we played them.

Nights of Rain and Stars - book review

There couldn't be a better title to review on this rainy night in California. However, Nights of Rain and Stars by Maive Binchy is not about rain and stars as much as it is a careful study of personalities, families, and the interaction of individuals with their family and friends. A group of five foreigners visiting the tiny Greek village of Aghia Anna happen to be dining at a taverna at the same time and witness a tragic fire just outside the town's port. Too far away to help or even give immediate solace to the victims or their families, they nevertheless manage to convey their sympathy. The group consists of a young man from England, a young American man, a beautiful, talented German woman, and a young couple from Ireland.

Rather than continue with their vacation plans, the group begin to bond and to explore each other's life situation with the help (or meddling) of Vonnie, another displaced foreigner who has lived in Aghia Anna for years. Each person can see solutions to others' problems but cannot see the similar solution to their own similar situation. Not everything works out but enough things do so that the book is both an upper and realistic.

Here are some pictures of the island of Aigha Anna which are entirely consistent with the word pictures painted by Maive Binchy. Makes you want to spend weeks not just days there.

I listened to the book on CD and marveled at the reader Terry Donnelly's command of the English language in 6 dialects and different characters' voices in each of those dialects. There was never any question about who was speaking because each voice had a different dialect or p itch or inflection. The book would be a delight if only to listen to those accents. Highly recommended.

Learning Resource Center

When I first signed up for German 401, the class location was listed as ARC Main LRC. I thought "What kind of alphabet soup is this?" When I found out that LRC stood for Learning Resource Center I didn't feel much better. I figured that was just a fancy name for the Library and there could be dozens of classrooms in the library. I hoped they would make it easy to find.

As it turned out, the LRC is NOT the library. It is not even in the library. It is a brand new building that is bulging with individual PCs. As you can see from the schematic above (you can click on it to see a larger version), almost half the building is dedicated to one large room, like a library reading room but with a computer on every desk. This area is designed for students who don't have other access to a computer or need the quiet, library like setting of the LRC.

Off to the side of this large room are a number of small office/cubicles meant for individual tutoring. And there are several such small rooms on the other side of the building. One thing that hit me right away was that in this building there are few right angled walls which must give the carpet layers a real challenge. Well, the placement of the computers gives teachers a fit.

Someone decided that a computer would be a big help to language instructors as the students can listen to exercises spoken by native speakers. The only trouble is that is such a small part of language classes today that most of the time we end up with an inflexible seating arrangement and a desk with no writing space.


The classrooms would work great for classes that are heavy in computer usage. But the less the computer is used, the more it is just in the way.

I was impressed with a very nice plaque at the building entrance which gives credit to all those who were somehow involved with building the LRC. And just in case you missed that tribute on the bottom of the plaque, here's an enlargement.

Just a spoonful of sugar

School bells are ringing again for me - quite literally this time as I stood outside the brand new Learning Resource Center (LRC) at American River College and listened to the carillon bells being played so beautifully. It was a rainy day and since I had never taken a class in the LRC I arrived early enough to comfortably find a parking space, find the building, and find the classroom. It turned out that all three were relatively easy to find so I found myself as the first student to arrive for German 401 - Elementary German.

The computers were locked with software preventing my playing around with them but it was more interesting to converse with Frau Doktor Susannah Martin while she did all the little things that teachers do at the last minute to get ready for class. She had written a list of things that she wanted each student to write on a 3 x 5 card so she could get to know us. Beside that list she had written "Write largely and clearly". I chuckled and she asked why. I pointed to her directions and said that I didn't think "largely" fit there. She first erased the "ly" but then said she couldn't do that because she needed an adverb and large was an adjective. Then she said to no one in particular "...it is largely understood..." and then said that largely must be an adjective also because it modified "understood". I was about to correct her again when I realized the last thing I needed to do was pick a fight with my teacher on the first day of class. She asked if I had anything more to say. When I didn't, she erased "large and", feeling, correctly, that "clearly" was sufficient.

So how is Frau Doktor Susannah Martin? If you can imagine Julie Andrews' Mary Poppins without the magic touch but with my daughter Jessica's sense of humor, you'll come pretty close. Frau Martin's command of the German language is impeccable. She began immediately after all the preliminary paperwork and roll call was complete. "Stehen Sie auf." "Lesen Sie." "Hoeren Sie auf!" "Setzen Sie sich!" "Schreiben Sie!" She mimicked the commands she was giving - stand up, read, listen, sit down, and write. Those of us with a little German vocabulary caught on quickly and those brand new to the language weren't far behind - not with Drill Sergeant Martin continuing to bark orders.

Next came the alphabet. She wandered around the room listening for any deviations from the way a good German would say the alphabet and if you weren't speaking loudly enough she singled you out for a solo. But only a short one. She told us that 99% of German verbs are regular in the present tense and gave a brief lesson in tense for those who didn't know what it meant. One got the sense that she was listening to every student and gauging her teaching speed to fit the class. You also got the impression that this was one teacher you didn't want to
cross swords with (or umbrellas to use the Mary Poppins analogy). Numbers from 1 to 99 and introducing yourself were also thrown into the mix tonight. I think the pace and the content of the class will be sufficient to keep me interested and working hard.

"You're invited...

... to the Playboy mansion" the subject line reads on an e-mail I recently received. Now as we all know from getting spam in our inbox all the time, an outrageous subject such as that is not really unusual. However, I'm more likely to get a message inviting me to a retirement seminar or a discussion on reverse mortgages.

[hostesses at last year's event according to the email]

But this is the real thing. I am invited to a party at the Playboy mansion. All I have to do is fork over $850 for a ticket (which is a real bargain as the price will soon be going up to $1,000). The event is the Marijuana Policy Project's Third Annual fundraising event on June 12, 2008. (I can just imagine now my family members reading this blog and trying to figure out whether they're shocked more about the Playboy mansion or the Marijuana Policy Project.)

Fear not, I haven't gone over the deep end, yet. It's just that the selection of charities I contribute to must fit a certain profile. So although I've never smoked marijuana (breathing in or not) I think there's a good case for decriminalizing it and there is no reason whatsoever for outlawing non-smokable hemp. But would I really spend that kind of money to endorse the lifestyle? Not likely. Back to your profiling, guys. You missed on this one.

Eggnog or Ice cream?

It was one of those perfect evenings where we had had a wonderful dinner and were looking forward to sharing a cup of eggnog made from recipe that we had gotten from Monique's blog. Grandma had substituted a couple of ingredients like Dream Whip for the whipped whipping cream and maple flavoring for vanilla (this substitution was unintentional). Then someone got the idea that we should try making ice cream out of the leftover pudding mixes that we had used for Tim's birthday party.

After a long but successful hunt for our ice cream maker we noticed that one of the recipes for ice cream looked a lot like the eggnog Grandma had just made. Well.... why not?

Edward volunteered (?) to crank the ice cream maker since it is electric. But that turned out to be a significant amount of work making sure the ice and salt mixture was just rigiht.


Ed did a fantastic job as the creamy mixture started thickening after about 20 minutes and 5 minutes later it came to a halt. According to the ice cream maker directions, that it supposed to happen between 20 and 30 minutes after starting the machine.

Tim and Jake didn't quite know what to make of this process. They still thought you make ice cream by tossing bags of ice cream mix surrounded by ice and salt. But it didn't take Jake long to appreciate licking the dasher and Tim to enjoy licking the container.
I suspect the ice cream maker won't stay as hidden as it has been for the past 6 years. We still have the pudding mixes available.

One failure - one success

We had our youngest son and his wife visiting with us this weekend. It is always fun to share their enthusiasm and interests. This time they came with a couple of suggestions for eating out which included a hamburger joint and a sandwich place.

The hamburger joint "Squeeze Inn" (just off Power Inn Road on Fruitridge in Sacramento) had recently experienced a re-release of a favorable television review on TV Food Network's Diners, Drive-ins and Dives (Monday evening at 10) so we shouldn't have been surprised when we arrived at 1:30 on a Saturday afternoon to find a line longer than the hamburger shack itself. The crowd was generally in a jolly mood. Everyone we asked was there because of the TV review, not because they had been there before. After half an hour we had moved about 6 feet and the line ahead looked as long as ever. Then a group of 5 came out to see on the bench in front of the place. We asked how the food was. The answer? "Oh, we haven't eaten yet. We've just placed our order and we were told it will be another 20 to 30 minutes before our food is ready.

Making a quick calculation, we figured to would be 3:00 at the earliest when we would eat and we had early dinner plans for the evening. We had to scrap our plans for a hamburger at the Squeeze Inn, at least for now.

On the drive back home we spotted the second place that Steve and Lisa had talked about. This time it was a chain sandwich shop called Lee's Sandwiches (also on Power Inn Road in Sacramento). They apparently have one in Santa Cruz and several places around southern California. It's a mix of traditional American sandwiches and Vietnamese fare. This time we were served within minutes of coming through the door. In fact trying to pick from their large menu took almost as much time as the food preparation. In addition to familiar turkey, ham, and tuna sandwiches there are Vietnamese egg rolls of 3 different kinds, 15 different Vietnamese sandwiches, Smoothies, pastries. Should be a great success. We were all happy.

Dead Certain - book review

Dead Certain, the Presidency of George W. Bush by Robert Draper looked like the kind of book that I would just hate, me being a registered Democrat and all. But it turned out that I rather liked the book and I think I could ever like the man as long as we didn't get on the subject of politics or current events.

The author doesn't exactly sugarcoat Bush and even points out many of the errors or mismanagement events in his presidency. But they come across as errors that we all make to some extent, his just affect the entire world. Bush has been criticized for his "swagger" the author explains but then lets Bush answer by saying, "In Texas we call that walking." And he's probably culturally correct. It's just that a Texas swagger on some streets in New York or Los Angeles will get you beat up or worse.

The author describes Bush's vision of worldwide democracy as "dead certain" among other things that the president is certain of. It is perhaps a naive, certainly simplistic view that everyone would see what he sees if they were in his position and knew what he knows. It's a view that fits someone in a bubble which the president is in, but not someone who reads a lot which Bush also claims to do. Maybe his reading list is also bubble-like.

But I was most impressed by what seemed like an almost "spin-less" account of the Bush presidency to date. No one was demonized and no one was sainted. The Patriot Act was designed, apparently by well intentioned people who felt all the provisions were necessary to fight against and stop terrorists. The war against Iraq was to make the world a safer place. I don't agree with the premises in the book but I can see better now how one could believe them and still be a reasonable person. I would probably give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Welcome to the Blogosphere, Gavin!

We were just notified this afternoon that our youngest grandson has started a blog. Of course at 8 months he has a little trouble with the keyboard so he is channeling his thoughts through Jenny or Philip. You can reach Gavin's blog at http://mydaddytalksfunny.blogspot.com/
Here are a few samples of pictures available on this brand new blog.


Gavin really enjoys his food - eating it or wearing it.

This summer at camp with two cousins who were much older. Looks like Gavin could hold his own.



At birth he needed a little exposure to reduce his jaundice so he got to wear these cool shades.

See more including a riveting video of Gavin rearranging his own furniture at http://mydaddytalksfunny.blogspot.com/

Coin of the realm

All of these are still valid $1 coins in the U.S. The kitchen light makes them all look gold in color but the Eisenhower and Anthony dollars are, in fact, silver colored.

I had just about forgotten that the U.S. Treasury had begun a new series of $1 coins when I received in change two new Jefferson dollar coins today. They came from a municipal parking garage which is probably the only place in Sacramento where you would get dollar coins in change. What amazes me is how the Treasury continues to mint $1 coins and can't seem to figure out why they aren't accepted. My understanding is that every country that has tried to replace a paper bill with a coin has only been successful when they've withdrawn the bill from circulation, in effect forcing the change.

Looking back on my childhood, it seems like a $20 bill back then was as rare as a $100 bill now so I would propose that we move everything down a notch in cash registers and usage. Eliminate the penny and round everything to 5 cent increments. Eliminate the $1 bill and bring back the $500 bill. Everything would still have a place in cash registers and the only change necessary would be to modify vending machines to take a $1 coin. If there are any penny vending machines, they would have to be upgraded as well.

What do you think?

After 35 years, still good

Fooled you. You thought I was going to talk about our marriage, didn't you. Well, we've been married 40 years not 35 years. And it isn't still good, it's GREAT! No, I wanted to discuss food storage.

We continue to work at examining our emergency food supply that we purchased from Sam Andy Foods over 35 years ago. Most of the boxes, which contained six number 10 cans, have been opened and the cans donated, used, or still on garage shelves. Since we were to have a ward party at which hot cocoa was going to be served, I thought this might be a good time to use the can of Cocoa Powder on our garage shelf.

According to the label on the can, the contents (cocoa, sucrose, and non-fat milk solids) looked like it would be the kind of stuff you'd mix with hot water to get the hot chocolate drink.

However, when we opened the can, we saw that it looked exactly like Hershey's cocoa powder - the same color, caking, and powdery consistency. Tasting it, it was clear there was no sucrose or dehydrated milk in this can. Using the recipe on the Hershey's can, we were able to make some delicious hot chocolate. The powder, once properly identified, had lost none of its flavor or ability to be used in recipes calling for cocoa powder. We'll have enough to last us a couple of years unless I start making lots of chocolate frosting, drinks, or pudding.

The grades for Sam Andy: Labeling - D; Shelf Life - A+.

Swift As Desire - book review

I enjoyed reading Swift As Desire by Laura Esquivel but not nearly as much as I expected. Perhaps it is because the book I read is a translation from the original Spanish or perhaps the author just write this way. In any case, I found too much "telling" and not enough "describing". It feels like someone telling what the book is about rather than describing the lives and feelings and actions of the book's characters. The book comes across as a book review itself.

The author has also written the much more famous book "Like Water for Chocolate" and refers to the same phrase in this book as well. Esquivel points this out in the book and indirectly points out the symbolic meaning. According to the Urban Dictionary: The phrase "like water for chocolate" came from Mexico. In Mexico,hot chocolate is made with water, not milk. The water is brought to a boil and then the chocolate is spooned into it. A person in a state of sexual excitement is said to be "like water for chocolate." In fact, the author educates us quite a bit regarding Mexican and Mayan traditions.

The main male character Jubilo is born with a sixth sense that allows him to sense what people want which makes him perfect as a mediator or simply as someone who enjoys helping others. He uses this talent in his job as telegraph operator when he helps people word their telegraphs just the right way to express their real wishes.

There are some tender scenes and some relatively graphic descriptions of couples having sex so by warned. If you get the book on tape it may not be the one you want to listen to on the way to school.

I enjoyed it in spite of it's faults but it certainly isn't her best work.

Seeing eye camera

Here's a cute little factoid that you may find useful some day. Most TV, TIVO, Video recorders, and sound systems have remote controls that use the infrared light spectrum. This is commonly referred to as IR. This part of the light spectrum is more red than red and is generally invisible to the human eye. Thus when you point your remote at the TV or other gadget, you see the effect (hopefully) but not the beam of IR light that is carrying the signal to the TV or gadget.

But there is a really simple way to "see" this IR light -- with a digital camera.

Here is our TIVO remote which has a dark red plastic front end which we've all come to recognize as the IR window. This remote also has a red light just above this window to give us a feeling that something is being beamed forward.

Now press a button and you will see something like this. Red light on but nothing in the red plastic area.

Now look at the remote with a digital camera that has a view screen (not a view finder). Press the button again and you'll see something like this. Red light on as well as one or more white or purplish lights that your eyes can't see.

Now you can ponder over how many other invisible things your camera can see but you can't.

Young Scientists Birthday Party

The food was all ready with munchies on the table:
Some objects in the kitchen seemed to defy description. But they were simply water balloons that had been frozen solid.

There were even trays of cupcakes, cleverly disguised as ice cream in cones.

Early comers were shown to the back yard where Tim and Jake's trampoline was getting a serious workout.

This was not, however, without incidents. Some of the kids were bouncing a little too chaotic causing a bump and subsequent nose bleed. Fortunately, his mom was there to apply first aid kisses as well as a wet, colored wash rag.

Finally, when everyone had arrived, the group marched into the living room where a temporary "laboratory" had been set up. They all donned "lab coats" but drew the line at wearing name tags with various scientists' names on them. We could have added 30 more minutes to the party by using the name tags and then having each of them read a short bio of his/her named person such as Einstein or Galileo.

Here, the young scientists are stirring borax powder into a bottle of warm water. They will then bend a pipe cleaner into unusual shaped and suspend it by string in the borax water solution.

The frozen water balloons were next on the examining table. Each child first scraped, pulled, or cut the balloon from the ice. Then the children sprinkled salt on the ice follow by food coloring. If the food coloring was on the surface of the ice it didn't color much. If it was following a grain or two of salt you could get a fireworks display in reverse with the color descending as the ice melted the rock hard ice block. Gramma brought the mother of all ice cubes to give an even larger demonstration of the ice effect.

Next, the children were introduced to polymers by hydrating (adding water to) a small portion of "Instant Snow". The stuff is similar to powder used in disposable diapers which absorbs much more water in weight or volume than the original powder and the material that you can add to soil to hold moisture rather than let it pass right through.

Slime was next on the list. There were two liquid components shared with the kids. First they dumped in the green liquid and felt the consistency. It was sort of like soapy water. After the second component was poured into the green liquid, it turned into something between half set Jello and snot -- a sort of SLIME

It was difficult to keep all the kids was redecorating the room with slime everywhere. For the next exercise Grandma dished out a cup of cool, sugared milk into a Zip-loc baggie for each child. Then according to their preference, I poured a scant 1/4 cup of instant pudding powder for the flavor. Chocolate was indeed the most favored with vanilla and butterscoth tied for a distant 3rd. And no one picked pistachio. A gallon Zip-loc baggie was filled half full of ice and half a cup of "ice cream salt" or what we used to call rock salt. Moms, dads, and kids toss the bags back and forth vigorously.
After 10 minutes or when everyone's hands were freezing, the group came back inside to eat their soft ice cream.

By this time we had reached the final minutes for the party so Tim hurriedly opened his presents. Some kids had already had to leave so it was impossible to get a picture of each child with the present he/she gave Tim.

When all the presents were opened the kids were shooed outisde to the trampoline again until their parent(s) showed up to take them and their share of the experiments home. Each child was given a booklet with the recipes for most of the experiments. Who knows? We may have awakened an interest in science for one or more of the kids. Tim thought it was great.

Tiffany, Edward, and Carolyn sat down for a much needed hour of relaxation.

Always ask for a second opinion

I'm told that the weight of a human body can vary several pounds over the course of the day depending on eating habits, water retention, exercise, etc. I'm not sure that I want to believe that but I certainly can't otherwise explain why my weight will go up on a day that I eat little and exercise a lot then go down on a day that I eat a lot and exercise little. It may even be because we have a digital readout on our bathroom scales so you can really see slight variations. When Ed and Tiffany stayed with us recently, they commented about how our bathroom scales varied so much over a day's time.

So I decided to take advantage of a recent sale at Costco and bought a Weight Watchers's approved scale that displays weight to one tenth of a pound. I think that is plain silly if the average error is on the order of 0.5 pounds. But anyway, we only did what health experts are always suggesting: We got a second opinion.


(old scale is on the left)