Hockey, Ice Skating, Teach Dad?, Cashew Cream, Validation
So I was definitely rooting for USA to win that Hockey game yesterday, but I can’t deny it was an awesome game. And I definitely would’ve felt worse for Canada missing out on the gold.
The Pancake-Eating Son has suddenly become enamored of hockey. He so enjoyed the Winterhawks game I took him to that he told me hockey was now his favorite sport.
In fact, he told me he wasn’t really interested in baseball anymore (!) but would rather play hockey.
--- - --- - --- - ---
I figured he should try ice skating first. So, I packed him into the car and drove out to Sherwood Ice Arena. (We can get there in about four traffic lights. I love taking the back roads).
Long story short, hockey has fallen out of favor somewhat, though the boy still wants to take in a few more Hawks games.
Now, if we lived in Alaska, I’d have had the boy skating at age three or so, so he’d be like his old man and not really remember learning to skate. And he’d absolutely be playing hockey. It’s just an awesome game to play, and no other sports accomplishment feels as good as scoring a goal (at least in my experience).
(Confession: I’ve never relished the idea of watching outdoor hockey like my dad did so many times.)
But back to the skating. We got there about an hour before the public skating session was over, so we got to pay a reduced price. And we got our skates on and stepped onto the ice. Immediately, I knew something was wrong. The skates were too dull. Or the ice was too slick (it had just been resurfaced).
Or perhaps it was just that it’d been, oh, eighteen years or so since I’d been skating. Of course, it didn’t take too long for me to get my feet under me and get a feel for how the blade goes on the ice. I even managed to flip around backward and cross-over and stuff. Sweet. And I remembered how to execute a good hockey stop (spraying the boy with ice shavings).
But once I got the boy out there, he couldn’t make the transition. And I’ve never taught an eight-year-old to skate. A forty-year-old, yes, but more on that later.
There were tears. And petitions that could we please go home? But I had paid a bit of money to get us in there, so I had the boy just watch his old dad skate awhile. Eventually he manned up and ventured out with me again, and we made one complete circuit of the ice together. There was even some grinning.
Still, I’m not sure if he wants to go again. But if we do, we’ll have to bring a photographer with us.
--- - --- - --- - ---
As I mentioned above, Dad was the designated Hockey Parent back when I played. And in Anchorage, that means outdoor practice and outdoor midweek games. In short, it means dedication. The weekend games, played at Ben Boeke Ice Arena or UAA were a bit easier on a parent. But the outdoor ones made you think of “The Cremation of Sam McGee”.
One of the best parts of an outdoor game is that sometimes, Dad would take me out for donuts and cocoa after a game. Even if we lost. Which was most of the time.
The thing I really admire about my dad, looking back, is that he tried to learn the game so he could engage with me on it. To the point of taking to skates at age forty-and-then-some. I had already, with help of another friend, taught a third friend to skate (so we could play one-on-two hockey, which is awesome), so how hard could it be to teach Dad?
Hard. Especially on Dad. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s still sore from some of the bruises he got. Because ice, while being nice for skating, tends toward hard when you fall on it. And I’m not sure we outfitted him with proper pads or anything. Pretty much just skates. (BTW, Dad, do you still have those skates? I’d take them off your hands if you do, if they’d fit my big flippers.)
Looking back, it’s probably good we never tried to teach Dad to downhill ski. Because we weren’t very good teachers.
--- - --- - --- - ---
Completely out of left field here, but we discovered that Cashew Cream really works. Rewinding a bit, recall that we’re a semi-veg family. We try to eat meatless fairly often. So we tend to give Vegetarian/Vegan cookbooks a look pretty often. Well, one of the magical veg ingredients I saw in one such volume was Cashew Cream. Basically, you make thick Nut Milk with raw cashews. And you use it in place of cream.
Well, we made some pretty terrific semi-veg Potato-Leek soup (we used Chicken Broth because that’s what was in the pantry, but it’d work with Imagine Foods’ No-Chicken Broth). The Cashew Cream worked beautifully and even looked like cream when I mixed it in.
So now I’ll have to look for other ways to use this magical ingredient.
Kind of a long post today. But I haven’t posted on Monday in a long time.
--- - --- - --- - ---
And the long post continues. Mental Floss’s Morning Cup of Links had one I had to pass along, and through the magic of embedding, you can just stay right here and appreciate it. It’s a short film titled “Validation,” and I found it surprisingly touching. I guess I’m just a softie.
Olympics
As The Fair Elaine mentioned today, the Olympics have seriously impacted our normal evening schedule. So I thought I’d chime in briefly with my thoughts.
Bottom line: I like events with objective results. Give me, any day, Snowboard Cross or Super G or the Downhill or Speed Skating. I’ve enjoyed, in the past, some of the Ice Skating, but I just prefer it all coming down to the clock.
BTW, Snowboard Cross is my new favorite event. All the downhill skiing events are also awesome, though.
I also think Curling is pretty cool.
That’s about it, I guess. What are your favorite events?
Ninja Warrior and Competition
Quick comment on the Super Bowl here. Trivial Pursuit is better.
(We managed to miss the onside-kick that sparked the Saints’ getting back in the game. DVR good. And WTG, Saints.)
So it’s getting toward baseball season here, and I’m not just going to wax poetic about how much better baseball is than football, because there’s really little left to be said, and it’s so manifestly true.
No, instead I’d like to opine a bit about competition. I often hear from other parents that they want their boy (I’m being boy-centric here, because I am one, and I have one) to be in a non-competitive league. I. Just. Don’t. Understand. This.
Okay, so I do understand wanting to give kids a low-pressure way to experience sports. And maybe it’s a good entry point, or a toes-in-the-water point for kids who probably aren’t wired for sports competition.
But I think there’s something we miss when we remove competition, and when all the kids get trophies. As Dash put it in The Incredibles, after his mom (Elastigirl) commented that “everyone is special”:
“Which is the same as saying nobody’s special.”
Now, I’m all for rewarding effort and not just performance, and I can see the argument for a trophy being a good carrot to dangle, even if it’s not earned by performance so much as participation.
But shouldn’t our kids be learning to lose well? Learning that, hard as you try, you just might be on a pretty lousy team? That it’s okay to lose if you tried your best?
The thing is, in teaching our kids about losing well, we also get to teach them how to win well. And they learn how great it feels to win.
(Incidentally, this is why I generally don’t let the Boy win. I want him to feel good when he beats me. Though I do sometimes handicap myself to level the playing field. But within those strictures, I still try to win.)
As I’ve written before, we’re big fans of Sasuke, known in America as Ninja Warrior. It’s a lot like ABC’s Wipeout, only a hundred times cooler.
It’s basically the world’s toughest obstacle course, but it’s not just the obstacles that make it cool. It’s the fact that they might go SEVEN YEARS WITHOUT A WINNER!!!!!
On Wipeout, there’s always a winner of the $50k prize. Twenty-four start the competition, and one of them wins it.
On Ninja Warrior, one hundred people start the competition, and most of the time, one hundred are eliminated. Sometimes only two or three even make it past Stage One (of Four). Oh, and the prize is less than $20k.
And they keep making the course harder. If you look back at the first winner (there have been two winners out of more than twenty competitions), his course was much easier than the second winner’s.
But of course, sometimes somebody does win. For instance, The Pancake Eating Boy’s current hero, Makoto Nagano. Here’s a video of him completing all four stages back on Sasuke 17 (the video lacks G4’s English translation, or you’d get the impression that the announcer has just as big a Man Crush on Nagano as The Boy does):
The Boy gets seriously emotionally invested in watching his Main Dude on Sasuke. When Nagano fails, the Boy is very put out.
I think it says something about the Japanese that they’re willing to watch a competition that may not even have a winner and most of the time doesn’t. (Strictly speaking, I think you could call the course itself the winner most of the time.)
But there’s another good lesson on Ninja Warrior, and that’s respect for your opponent. It’s really cool to see the way all the contestants pull for each other. Granted, they’re not really competing against each other, but it’s still awesome to watch how disappointed the All-Stars are when one of their ilk fails early. Even cooler was when all the All-Stars were eliminated (Nagano fell on the first obstacle of Stage Two) and only American free-runner Levi Meeuwenberg was left standing. They did their best to coach him through Stage Three (this time with English subtitles):
Am I off base (Shocking, eh? Baseball term!) about competition? I love the fact that the Boy’s Fall Ball team didn’t win any games last year. It’ll make a winning experience all the more awesome. Plus, it pulls a layer back so the experiences of individual games are the best parts. Okay, so we didn’t win a game, but I made a great play at first base. Or I scored two goals in a losing hockey game.
I could see how a kid could get spoiled by always being on a winning team, but how often does that really happen? When I think back to my Little League days, I only remember being on one pretty good team (hmm…and I was the common element on all those lousy teams). But that one winning year stands out as a highlight for me.
Thoughts? I know this wasn’t a normal Monday post, but I haven’t written a lengthy non-theology post in some time.
Avatar, Road Runner
You see what I did here? I went from Monday Morning Musings to MMM to MM, and now nothing at all. Which means I can do this on Tuesday if I want to. And I do.
So I finally went to see Avatar, probably one of the only movies I’ll see in the theater this year. My Esteemed Partner in Pavement Pounding and I caught the 3D version, though three hours later than we planned (earlier show sold out).
What shall I say about the movie? Well, in terms of plot, I think this YouTube says it rather well:
Plot aside, it’s definitely something to see. I enjoyed the 3D experience, after an initial adjustment period. What I liked was that you didn’t get hit over the head with it. It just added depth to the imagery.
(BTW, Ender’s Game needs to be done in 3-D.)
As you’ve probably read in other places, most of the characters are cardboard cutouts. The Giovanni Ribisi character (slimy corporate exec) could’ve been written by a computer. And it’s a shame, because he’s a fine actor.
By comparison, Paul Reiser’s Carter Burke in Aliens looked like Hamlet. (Don’t get me wrong on Burke…he was a good slimy character.)
Stephen Lang, so brilliant as Stonewall Jackson in Gods and Generals, is quite underused as the grizzled “Kill ‘Em All and Let God Sort ‘Em Out” military leader. But he was totally believable in the role.
Sigourney Weaver was lovely, as usual, and her character actually showed some growth. Ditto for Sam Worthington, who nicely pulled off a character torn between two worlds, struggling to remember which was “real.”
But the real breakthrough of the movie was the fact that the performance-capture technology used to portray the Na’vi worked really well. I didn’t find myself thinking about the CGI when watching the “actors.”
I did think about the CGI when just enjoying the depth of the environment Mr. Cameron created. It really was astounding. I’ll be curious how it translates to the small screen, especially the small screen in my house, a 27” standard-def TV. I imagine it won’t quite work.
In all, the film succeeds on the level of pure spectacle well enough to outshine Cameron’s puerile political-correctness and some lousy scriptwriting.
--- - --- - --- - ---
I’m officially a fan of Road Runner Sports. Until last week, they were my source for buying new Brooks Beasts. But no longer. My foot has been bugging me a bit, so I brought my Beasts into the store (while I was there picking up shoes for The Fair Elaine), and the Fit Expert asked me if I’d ever been on “The Thing.” The Thing is a cool techo-foot-analyzer-running-capture gizmo. They analyzed my arches and videoed me running barefoot on a treadmill.
(By the way, watching myself run in slo-mo? Horrifying. I hereby apologize to anyone who’s had the misfortune of seeing it in real time.)
I no longer have Brooks Beasts. I mourn somewhat, because “The Beast” is just a cool shoe name. I’m now in Brooks Adrenalines.
That’s right! They swapped out my more expensive shoes and gave me new Adrenalines and some money back. Keep in mind, I’d been running on The Beasts (my new ones) for several weeks. But they have a 60-day Perfect Fit guarantee. Awesome.
So now I have no excuse for slacking in my running.
MM: Aliens, Fall Ball, World Series
There are several Ultimate Guy Movies that I absolutely love. And James Cameron managed to direct two of them: The Terminator and Aliens.
Now, I recognize that most movie critics find Alien to be a superior film to its more booty-kicking sequel, but in terms of good old fashioned blowing-stuff-up, Aliens wins in a walk.
Besides, Ripley is one of the all-time great Guy Movie Heroes.
But there’s something that’s been bugging me for some time, and I’m hoping that someone familiar with the film will help me understand how this isn’t a plot hole.
Who was piloting that big gun-shaped ship the Marines and Ripley arrived on? Because it seems like they could’ve helped out the planetside folks. Or are we really to believe that big ship was just sitting up in orbit, on autopilot, waiting for the Marines to come back and fly it home? (Seems like it’d have been piloted by some Navy folks.)
Or were the folks on the ship the ones expected to rescue everybody after they’d been overdue for seventeen days?
I realize a good percentage of Internetters won’t have a clue what I’m referring to, but I’m hoping somebody can help.
--- - --- - --- - ---
Well, Fall Ball is finally over. Which means we get a good six hours per week, at least, added back to our Time Available For Doing Other Stuff. With AWANA, Baseball, and Swim Team, our schedule has been packed lately.
The last game was muddy, and it was a defeat. But our guys got a lot better over the course of the season, and Ethan definitely enjoyed it and honed his defensive skills quite a bit. He pitched again in this game and struck out at least one batter. He also threw somebody out at first.
So now we’ve just got to practice, practice, practice and get ready for Spring Baseball. Wooo!
--- - --- - --- - ---
So, the World Series will be the Phillies and the Yankees, just as Ethan predicted. I’m hoping for a long series, and though I’m pulling for the Phils at least a little bit, I don’t really care who wins. I can root for the players of any team, even if I don’t particularly like the team. How can you not like Mariano Rivera?
I could see these games having football scores, given the potency of both offenses. If there’s going to be a major pitchers’ duel, Game 1 is a good bet, with the two former Cleveland pitchers (Cliff Lee and C.C. Sabathia) as the starters. Other than that, I’m expecting an absolute slugfest.
MM: Arm, Early, Equaled, Playoffs
My son really has an arm on him. I know this because he threw me a baseball yesterday, and I caught it. On the spine. Right between the shoulder blades. I happened to not be looking at the time, and he failed to alert me to his throw. But the impact certainly helped me get the message. (He also received the message that I was not pleased with his failure to warn me.)
It makes a nice bruise.
--- - --- - --- - ---
Ethan’s back to having swim meets. I just wish they weren’t so early. We had to be over at Terpenning (Tualatin Valley Rec Center) at 7am on Saturday. I’m not a big fan of such hours on Saturdays.
I’d post video, but it was hard to get a really good angle. He did win one of his heats, and I know he finished in the top five in at least two of his events. Room to improve, but a good start to the season.
--- - --- - --- - ---
I finished reading a book to Ethan yesterday, and I’ve now equaled last year’s Book Total of fifty-seven. I’m still a good fifteen hundred pages short, though, which means my average book length has decreased this year. I haven’t finished my Bible-reading for the year yet, though, and that’ll restore the average a bit.
(I’m still a good eight thousand pages shy of my 2005 reading record, and I don’t think that record’s coming down this year.)
--- - --- - --- - ---
Watching the MLB Playoffs, I’m more and more glad I don’t have a team to root for in them. Because some of these games must be causing huge blood pressure swings for the fans. I like just watching and enjoying the games.
On the other hand, I’ll be willing to suffer some stress if the Mariners ever decide to make it back to the postseason.
(BTW, I find myself feeling good for A-Rod, and I’m not a Yankee fan. Is this a sign of serious mental collapse?)
MM: Flash Forward, Ethan’s Picks, Indian in the Cupboard
I’ve been watching ABC’s Flash Forward mostly because I read the book, Flashforward, back in April, which book I read because I heard about the series. So sometimes my book reading and movie/tv viewing becomes a recursive loop. Chicken and egg and all that.
The series made some substantial changes from the book, most of which actually make sense. For instance, in the book the Flash was more than twenty years in the future. So the rest of the book was people wrestling with what would happen a long time from now. Hard to accomplish in a series, that. So they went with six months. And it totally works, especially in the case of Dmitri Noh, who had no Flash, and therefore concludes that he’ll be dead in six months (which is complicated by his upcoming nuptials).
The other good move the series made was to shift focus from the scientists who caused the Flash in the book to the people trying to figure out what caused it in the series, and I figure the cause will be different in the series. In the book there’s really no mystery about who caused it, even if the cause isn’t fully understood. Keeping it a mystery makes sense in the series.
But enough about that. Watch it if you want. But this past week, I noticed what might be a subtle (well, actually blatant) reference to Dean Koontz’s sci-fi-time-travel-love-story Lightning. Agent Benford (portrayed by Joseph Fiennes) travels to Munich to meet a former Nazi who claims to have information about the blackouts.
When Benford arrives at the prison where the Nazi is being held, it’s quite stormy, with lightning featured rather heavily. And his liaison? One Stefan Krieger.
For those who haven’t read Lightning, first of all you should. Second, Stefan Krieger is one of the main characters in the book, and he happens to be a German SS Officer.
I seriously doubt it’s a coincidence.
--- - --- - --- - ---
Last week, I asked Ethan who he thought would win the MLB Playoffs. Yes, a couple of the series are over, but I promise these are Ethan’s Picks:
Division Series Picks:
Yankees-Twins: Yankees (Bingo! Three-game sweep. Sorry, Tyler)
Angels-Red Sox: Red Sox (Could not have been more wrong here. Three-game sweep the other way. Still not sure how that happened.)
Phillies-Rockies: Phillies (Phils are up 2-1, so this is looking good)
Dodgers-Cardinals: Dodgers (Again, bingo on the three-gamer)
And his League Championship Picks:
Yankees-Red Sox: Yankees
Phillies-Dodgers: Phillies
Which leaves us with the World Series between the Yankees and the Phillies. Ethan has the Phillies winning it.
So sub in the Angels for the Red Sox and we’ll stick with Ethan’s picks and see how it comes out.
--- - --- - --- - ---
Since Ethan so enjoyed The Indian in the Cupboard that we decided to check the 1995 movie adaptation out from the library. It was fairly well done, but in case you wanted to know, it had a lot more questionable content than the book. We don’t recommend it.
Language was definitely coarsened (nothing that you mightn’t hear on TV, but that’s hardly good news), and somehow a Motley Crue video was featured. Really? And the little bit of a Western the boys watch (following the disgusting Motley video) is a bit rougher than I’d pictured. Yes, it makes a good talking point, but it was a bit much.
So in case I’ve been less than clear, read the book. Forget the movie.
MM: Doubleheader, September?, Yelling, Amazing Race 15
Ethan’s Fall Ball team had a doubleheader on Sunday, with both games against the same team. The first game resulted in a tie (13-13), and the second game was a narrow 16-13 defeat. But the boys played well. We even recorded a 1-2-3 inning. No base runners allowed is quite a feat at this level.
Ethan got some time as a position player this time, and made two outs at first base (one on a routine grounder the pitcher fielded and threw to Ethan, the other a line drive to Ethan).
HE ALSO GOT HIS FIRST BASE HIT!!! In the course of the two games, he reached base at least three times (I’m trying not to be obsessive, so I haven’t been writing it down or anything). He doubled, had a base hit and advanced on an error, and walked at least once (I think).
He also flailed wildly at a couple of dirt-scraping pitches, because by then he felt like he could hit anything. Now hopefully he knows better.
(Of course, Ethan credits his shiny new bat. His old tee-ball bat was getting pretty dinged up from hitting baseballs.)
--- - --- - --- - ---
By the way, speaking of baseball, is this really late September? Because my whole left side is burned to a crisp on account of coaching first base for two straight games.
--- - --- - --- - ---
The sun was probably not a factor in my being somewhat hoarse. That would be from all the yelling and screaming at my base runners. My favorite comment from a player, who required an extraordinary amount of encouragement to take second base on a passed ball:
“I didn’t know you were talking to me.”
I guess the fact that he was on first base and I was the First Base Coach didn’t add up to “he’s talking to me.”
I shouldn’t actually be surprised, I suppose, as this is the same kid who, when I shouted that he should be covering second base (when he was playing second base), actually pointed at himself as if to say, “Me?”
I guess that baseball instincts have to be taught. Evidently the teaching involves quite a bit of yelling.
--- - --- - --- - ---
And finally, a non-baseball topic: The Amazing Race 15 is now on the air. I remember watching the first season and hoping the ratings would be good enough that they’d do a second. Rinse and repeat for the next two seasons.
I guess the ratings are good enough now that it’ll stick around awhile.
Oh, and I’m not sure how I’d have done with the Wasabi Bomb. Ed would’ve done that Road Block, I think…
MM: Camping, Fall Ball, Football
Last week, we went camping with a bunch of other homeschoolers at Fort Stevens. It’s really quite lovely to go on vacation right when everybody else goes back to school, and we even got pretty good weather. (Much better than the rain the weekend campers evidently got.)
We got to use our new tent (used twice for backyard camping, but now officially broken in), new camp stove (Ramen, Grilled Cheese and Canned Soup – Lentil, and Pancakes were cooked thereon), and all that other New Stuff we got specifically for this trip.
And now it’s all inventoried and packed away in the garage for our next trip, which we feel will involve less equipment acquisition. We have the stuff, and it’s ready to get thrown in the back of the van.
Ethan had an absolute blast playing with his friends and sleeping in the tent (we even got upgraded to one of the Yurt sites for one night!).
Of course, camping at Fort Stevens isn’t exactly roughing it, as there’s plenty of drinkable (if less-than-tasty) water and bathrooms and showers. But it still counts as camping, and I didn’t shave or anything, so that makes it more realerer, right?
--- - --- - --- - ---
After Ethan finished his Coach Pitch Baseball experience, we discovered the existence of Reedville Fall Baseball, also known as Fall Ball. The conversation with Ethan went something like this: 
Us: "Ethan, we might be able to get you into Fall Baseball. Would you rather do soccer again or…"
Ethan: “Baseball!”
Well, he had his first Fall Ball game on Sunday, and he was the starting pitcher. We figured he might be nervous, but he absolutely ate it up. The first inning wasn’t so great, as our team didn’t record an out before the bad guys scored their maximum per-inning total of five runs.
But Ethan put the ball over the plate quite a bit and even induced a ground ball that might’ve been turned into an out.
The second inning was another story, though. He allowed another ground ball to second. Alas, it didn’t turn into an out, and the runner eventually came around to score on a passed ball (pretty much all baserunners steal second, third, and home).
But Ethan’s line for the inning was this, in baseballese: 1 IP, 0H, R, 2K
Now allow me to translate: one inning pitched, no hits (the one groundball would go as an error rather than a hit), one run, two strikeouts. (I won’t reproduce the line for the first inning because it wasn’t as pretty.)
But the best part was how the inning ended. With two out and nobody on, the batter swung at the first pitch and hit a popup between home and first. And Ethan snagged it for the third out, then ran back to the dugout. Here’s the video of his performance:
The Reds (Ethan’s team) did end up on the losing side (either 8-4 or 8-5), but that one inning was awesome. And our team only allowed the five-run-max one time.
The hitting didn’t go exactly according to plan, Ethan ending up with a walk and a strikeout (but it was swinging, which is better than looking). But we’ll work on that.
--- - --- - --- - ---
I’ve written before of my general dislike of football. Nonetheless, I’ve consented to participate in a Fantasy Football League with some family members. I have not consented to really get into it. In fact, I’m still not sure how the whole thing works, and I didn’t watch any substantive amount of football over the weekend.
I watched tennis and baseball instead. I feel no remorse over this.
But I must rant a bit about football and how greedy it is: It can’t even finish on time. And it’s a game with a CLOCK!!! At least baseball has that excuse. No clock, no real way to predict how long a game will take. Football games have ONE HOUR of clock time to run down, and they still manage to overrun their three hour television slot. With regularity.
This isn’t limited to professional football, of course, and my rant is actually somewhat more targeted at College Football (which is an even bigger mystery to me than the NFL), which impacted my baseball viewing. This is unacceptable.
The NFL did run over and impact my tennis viewing. This is a problem that needs fixin’. But at least I know football will be done by early next year. That’s something. So here it is, the first week of football, and I’m ready for it to be over.
Though I’ll admit I was still glad the Seahawks won.
--- - --- - --- - ---
MM: Swim Meet, Lochte, Magician, Rocket Balloons, Sorbet
Ethan had his final swim meet of the summer on Saturday. He won both his individual events and did his normal solid work in his two relays (covering the backstroke and freestyle in the 4x50yd Medley Relay and leg 2 of the 4x50yd Freestyle Relay). The video below shows how much work he had to do in the 25yd breaststroke to come out on top (due to his extreme divejumpfloppiness at the start):
--- - --- - --- - ---
After the meet and some prep for Ethan’s eighth birthday party, we headed out to J.D. Pence (swim shop) in Cedar Hills for a chance to meet Ryan Lochte (Olympic and World Champion and world-record-holder in the 200m Individual Medley). Ethan was able to get a swim cap and a picture autographed by Ryan and I snapped a photo of them (I am not the family photographer, but I got them both in the picture):
By the way, Ryan stayed well after his posted 4pm quitting time so everyone in line could meet him. Seems like a good dude.
--- - --- - --- - ---
We didn’t go with a total theme party for Ethan’s birthday, but we decided to employ a magician we’d met at the Farmers’ Market a while back. And Rudy Tinoco was perfect for the party. I watched, trying to figure out how he was pulling off his illusions, but I failed to spot any holes on tricks I didn’t already know the secrets of (and even some of those were tough to spot).
He did a great job with all the boys, and I highly recommend his services.
--- - --- - --- - ---
When I was shopping for party stuff, I found something cool: Rocket Balloons. Basically they’re like the kind of balloons you’d use for making animals, but they don’t have a rolled lip on them you’d use for tying them off. Because they’re intended to be filled and released.
And boy do they ever fly. Maybe I’ll try to get a video of a high-flyer and post it here. We had several of them go really high. I even found a website where you can get them (I found them locally at Party Time at Tanasbourne).
--- - --- - --- - ---
As it was Ethan’s birthday, I made my traditional (and world-famous at least in my house) Blackberry Sorbet. And here’s the from-the-hip recipe:
- A bunch of blackberries, picked no more than 100 yards from my house (I figure I used 8-12 cups for this huge batch. But we picked waaay more than that and I’m probably coming up short on my estimate. The leftover berries are now sitting in my kitchen in their new life as a pie.)
- Juice and zest of one lemon
- simple syrup (2:1 ratio sugar/water) to taste (I think I actually used 1:1 now that I think of it, and it was 2 cups or so.)
Rinse the berries. Blend them in a blender. Strain the seeds out in a sieve (pour the liquid in, then stir with a wooden spoon until there’s a nice seed-sludge left over) --- it will take several batches of straining unless your sieve is huge.
Refrigerate for at least several hours (I cool it in the actual ice-cream maker container, and usually overnight so I don’t have to do the prep the day of an event.) This step is important in order to get it to freeze not only faster but better.
Freeze it in your ice-cream machine, per your machine’s instructions.
That actually makes it look harder than it is. The stuff gets raves, and I don’t feel like it’s very difficult to do. I’ve tried other fruits, but nothing comes close to blackberry in my experience (though raspberry is pretty awesome, too).