Endive, Veggie Recommendations
Today I’m trying some Belgian Endive with my bucket of salad. (Yes, I have a salad larger than my head for lunch nearly every day. And I like it.)
I tasted it this morning, for the same reason I bought it: because I’d never had it before. It basically tastes like lettuce, but there’s something fragrant in there, 
too. A tad bitter, but not as much so as radicchio, and I like radicchio. (In fact, I learn from Wikipedia that both are types of Chicory. Like everybody didn’t already know that!)
On the whole, I think that if I want some bitter stuff in my salad, and I do, I’ll go with radicchio. It’s cheaper, and it adds a nice color to the plate.
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On the topic of veggies, I’d be happy to take Veggie Recommendations. Fruit, too. As a semi-veg person, I actually want to try everything in the produce section at the store. I’ve tried a lot, and I can honestly say that I basically like all vegetables. And yes, that very much includes Brussels Sprouts, Lima Beans, and Beets. (Eggplant isn’t high on my list, but served in Pakora form with Indian Food -not Indian Foot, in case you wondered-, I’m good with it.)
(I once thought I liked all fruit, but then I tried kiwano melon.)
One high-priority item I want to try is Bulb Fennel. I’m not crazy about fennel seeds, but I keep seeing the fresh bulbs used on Iron Chef America, and I’ve just got to try it.
Any recommendations? Favorites?
MM: Carolers, Award, Recipes
Well, my first performance with Fireside Carolers went as well as I could’ve hoped. We did our free concert at the church that hosts our rehearsals, and I didn’t flub anything in a way that could’ve been noticed. The Fair Elaine snapped a picture of me singing, looking like I was maybe a wee bit tentative. Guilty. (She also posted some pictures from our Thanksgiving Weekend on her blog.)
Next weekend I get my first real Carolers experience, as I’ll be going out in an octet on Friday and Saturday. Today’s singing actually gave me a bit of a confidence boost.
Oh, and I think I looked pretty good in my tux. Is it weird that I have a tuxedo, but don’t own even so much as a sport jacket?
BTW, for anyone needing a budget tuxedo and living in or around Portland, head over to Mr. Formal Clearance Center on SE 7th in Portland.
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So, it’s weird enough having readers of my blog whom I don’t personally know. (Like the time the other Seth Heasley’s mom dropped by.)
It’s even stranger when they like my writing enough to lob an award at me. Yes, it’s true. My Orthodox reader, DebD (of Deb on the Run), has awarded me with the Superior Scribbler award.
It’s both an award and a meme. I don’t do much meme-ing, because I’ve just gotta be meme…heh. But I’ll do my best here. First, the rules:
- Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends.
- Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.
- Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to This Post, which explains The Award.
- Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we'll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!
- Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.
I’m fine with all these steps except for the first one. Because I simply don’t have that many Bloggy Friends that I don’t know personally. And I’d feel funny linking them, like there was a conflict of interest. So I feel that I should choose from people I’ve found online and started following.
But I haven’t done all that much of that. I’m more of a window shopper, and I know it’s wrong and all, but I click through to a lot of book review posts from Semicolon Blog’s Saturday Book Reviews, and I haven’t managed to look back at many of the authors’ non-book-review work. Except for DebD’s, and that’s because she’s posted interesting comments on my Theology Thursday ramblings.
In short, I know I must mend my ways and be a better blog commenter/follower.
But I’ll attempt to fulfill at least the spirit of the meme. I’m not planning on notifying all these folks, because a couple of them are already Big Time, so why would they care what I think?
JonV at Into the Darkness. I’ve known him since he was just a pup (Read: when he was twelve and not yet taller than me. And when he called me Mr. Heasley). Now he’s doing engineering work for the Mennonite Central Committee in Mozambique, and writing extremely verbose posts about his life there. I know I’m not really entitled to be proud of him, but I was the worship leader for the youth program way back then… (Yes, I know him personally, but he’s in Africa!!!)
Apostrophe Abuse. I’ve written quite a bit about the signs of the Apostrolypse on this here blog. But Apostrophe Abuse has pages and pages of evidence. It’s serious, folks.
Keith Law at Meadow Party. Baseball writer, food critic, book reviewer. Good work if you can get it (though I think he mostly gets paid for the baseball stuff). He inspires me to read more, and I already feel like I read a lot.
Amos at The Amateur Entymologist and Outside the Camp. His musings on English, as a non-native speaker, are always interesting. And while I don’t agree with his Calvinism, I still enjoy his theology thoughts on Outside the Camp. (BTW, I initially found him while searching “A While vs. Awhile”.)
Michael Brooks at Aetherwatch. I very much enjoyed his book, Thirteen Things that Don’t Make Sense last year. On his blog, he posts other such weirdities and his general musings.
Hey, I managed five awards! Whee!
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We had a great Thanksgiving feast, with actually a lot of vegetables. We had Marinated Vegetable Salad, which is a favorite of mine, and Roasted Carrots, Asparagus, and Brussels Sprouts.
Yes, Brussels Sprouts. Seriously. Actually, I’ve always liked them, but after reading about how much my niece and nephews enjoyed them, we had to try the recipe.
It’s a deep, dark, secret. Very complicated.
(Toss the veggies in olive oil and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Bake at 400-ish until done. Half-hour or so. Longer for the carrots, shorter for the asparagus.)
Yes, I used the word Recipes up in my title, so I should give a couple more away.
My sister made this killer Sweet Potato and Apple Casserole at Christmas last year, so we had to try it. (Layer sliced sweet potatoes with thinly sliced Granny Smith Apples, sprinkle some pecans over it, add some butter, orange juice, and brown sugar, and dust with cinnamon. Bake at 400-ish and take it out before it burns. Yes, it was a close call but still delicious.)
Well, we had leftovers of that dish, so I made Leftover Sweet Potato Casserole Pancakes!!!!
I threw the leftovers in the food processor (probably one and a half cups total after pureeing), then mixed in about a cup and a half of flour, a couple of eggs, a cup or so of soymilk, a tablespoon of baking powder, a dash of salt, and some orange zest, and threw it on the griddle.
Awesome! BTW, my opinions of apple desserts are well known and acknowledged by all as wrong. (Weirdly, they’re recorded in that post Other Seth’s mom commented on.)
But the Sweet Potato and Apple Casserole is seriously good, and the pancakes were, as My Son the Breakfast Appetite would say, “ridiclius.” Unfortunately, it only made eleven small pancakes, which is just not enough for five people including the Breakfast Appetite.
(BTW, I’ve been thinking I need a nickname for the Offspring, and I think I have it. The Breakfast Appetite just fits so perfectly. Or maybe The One Whose Spiritual Gift is Breakfast Eating. Or just the Breakfast Eater. Or Ethan the Breakfast Eater. Or maybe a Dances with Wolves-style name like Eats Many Pancakes. Votes? Suggestions?)
We also made from-the-hip Turkey Soup, using the leftover giblet stock and pan drippings that I didn’t turn into the world’s greatest gravy in the world. Yes, it’s perfectly acceptable to be redundant when talking about gravy. Especially when you’re a semi-veg family.
(Oh, the Turkey Soup recipe. Some of the amounts are approximate.)
- Some Turkey, chopped.
- A few carrots, chopped.
- Some celery, chopped.
- Some potatoes, chopped.
- An onion, executed in a food processor until dead, then kept on bread and water for two weeks, then beaten roundly with sticks. Please, someone get my clumsy literary reference…
- Garlic, a truckload, to taste.
- Leftover green beans (yes, we had those, too), chopped
- Spices of various kinds. One or more of the bay/basil/marjoram/thyme category.
Sauté the veggies in olive oil until you stop. Then add liquids. Like stock. Or gravy. Or a partial box of Pacific Foods Chicken Broth. (Add leftover mashed potatoes if you somehow managed to run out of gravy before potatoes. It’ll thicken the soup nicely.)
Add fresh cracked pepper and consume with leftover Non-Hockey-Puck Rolls.
Monday Musings: Moustache, Ticket Refund, Pumpkin Recipes
Evidently, there are some people who would now characterize me as having a moustache. And it’s true, to some extent, as my current facial hair involves both a goatee and moustache, also known as the very arcane “moutee” (or Circle Beard). “Van Dyck” is another possible name for it.
(These days, most people just call it a goatee.)
My antipathy for the moustache alone can hardly be overstated. I agree with the statement I once read in the local fish-wrap that “a moustache is no less than a man’s admission to being unable to grow a full beard.”
By the way, for those in my family who may be wondering about the new facial foliage (perhaps seen over on The Fair Elaine’s blog), it was for my Halloween costume. (Dressing up as a coworker who shares my first name, whom we sometimes – affectionately? – call “Evil Seth.”)
I like having less beard to shave. And I’ll enjoy it for a while, then probably tire of the beard and let it go.
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I don’t believe I blogged about the speeding ticket I got on the way to go camping at Fort Stevens. A coworker advised me to mail the fine in along with a letter asking for leniency (or is that lenience?)
Well, it apparently worked, at least a little bit. Because I got a Ticket Refund (25% off, which doesn’t hurt).
However, I’d like to amuse myself, and perhaps some others, by reporting that my name, in full, was written on the citation itself. It was also written on the outside of the envelope in which I mailed the letter. It was further written on the letter itself, in TWO PLACES (business format, you know). So that’s a good four occurrences of my name.
So why, exactly, is my refund check made out to one Seth Morgon Hedsley? (Admittedly, I didn’t include my middle name, so I’ll give them a pass for that and be relieved it didn’t say “Moron.”
Evidently, typing instruction in Clatsop County is somewhat lacking.
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Since I referenced Pumpkin Carving, I figured I’d pass along a few Pumpkin Recipes.
If you’re just the carving type, you can at least roast the seeds:
Roasted Seeds
- Rinsed, dried seeds
- a bit of cooking oil (I used olive)
- seasoning, to taste (I used Mama Garlic – garlic salt)
Mix the seeds and seasoning in a bowl or zip-top bag, then spread out on a cookie sheet and bake for ~30 minutes at 300 degrees, until they begin to brown.
(check on them about halfway through and give them a stir/flip)
By the way, seeds from most varieties of squash can be done this way. Butternut Squash seeds are delicious, but there aren’t many of them in a typical one.
Roasting the actual pumpkin is reeeeeeeaaalllllly easy.
Roasted Pumpkin
(Best done with a pie pumpkin)
Cut the pumpkin in half and scoop out the seeds and orange gunk (roast the seeds!).
Place the pumpkin halves face down in a shallow pan (jelly roll pan) with about a quarter inch or so of water.
Bake at ~425-450 degrees until a fork goes in easily. (Figure about 40 minutes to an hour, depending on size.)
When cooled, the skin will peel off pretty easily. (Or you can scrape the pumpkin out with a spoon.) If you want to use it in recipes, puree it in a food processor or blender until smooth. Freeze it in small amounts (a cup or two) for use in other recipes.
(You can also just serve it with butter, without pureeing it. It’s got a nice, sweet flavor.)
My favorite way to use cooked pumpkin?
Pumpkin Pancakes
(substitute where desired)
- 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- ½ Tbsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 ½ cups milk (or soy milk)
- 1 to 1 ½ cup pureed pumpkin
- 2 eggs
- ¼ cup butter, melted
(The original recipe calls for 4 eggs, separated, and then whipping the whites and folding them in. Too much work, IMHO, and it works just fine with fewer eggs and no extra work.)
Combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and spices in a large bowl.
Combine eggs, pumpkin, milk, and melted butter in a small bowl.
Add wet to dry and stir until just combined. Allow the baking powder to start working for a few minutes (also lets the flour hydrate a bit). Ladle onto a 350 degree skillet.
Serve with maple syrup (don’t even think about using the fake stuff or I’ll take the recipe back).
The Fair Elaine also makes a killer pumpkin bundt cake, but I’ll let her share the recipe if she so chooses.
MM: Swim Meet, Peaches, Pears
Ethan had a big swim meet on Saturday. Which meant we had to be out to Mt. Hood Community College before 8am. Not my dream Saturday morning start time. But it was about the boy, not about my lack of Saturday Sleep-in.
And how did he do, you might ask? Well, check out his 25-yard Freestyle (7-8 year old boys):
He won his heat (the meet was large enough that it took three heats), and took second place out of twenty-four swimmers. The boy is fast. Factor in his flop start (the starting platform was a new thing) and a bit of lane wandering and he might’ve taken the gold. But as he’ll still be in the 7-8 category next year, we figure he can move up on the podium next year.
He also took second place in the 100-yard Individual Medley (25-yards each of Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke, and Freestyle). And yes, the same flop start.
You might guess we’re slightly proud of him. For some still-frames of the meet, hit The Fair Elaine’s blog. She’s got a bunch, and they’re awesome as usual.
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Have I ever mentioned how peaches are my favorite fruit? So much that I was tempted to write “favourite,” with that “u” just being for emphasis? Or that you can get Fresh Local Peaches at the U-Pick price of $0.80 per pound at Jossy Farms?
We went and picked Redhaven, Flaming Fury, and Vivid peaches last week (there was another variety, and it was Star something, but I can’t remember). I usually forget about going to pick fruit until after the Redhavens are gone, so I was on top of it this year.
But the real hits, for me, were the Flaming Furies. They’re a delicious (on account of being peaches), pink peach, and I could hardly stop eating them. And now they’re gone. And you can’t even go pick them now. (I know because I just called Jossy Farms and got the hilariously animated recording.)
So far, my attempts to make the Perfect Peach Freezer Jam have failed. I will try again with the next batch. But my failed jam works well as a pancake topping. Just ask Ethan.
Next up are Veteran Peaches (sweet, yellow peaches, and the highlight of summer fruit, IMHO) and Bartlett Pears. I will now share a secret I learned last summer: Bartlett Pears are AWESOME dried!
Last year, I went and picked pears right at the end of the season. Then there was the ten-day wait for them to ripen. Then we ate some and dried some. By the time we realized that our dried pear slices were basically candy, it was too late to go pick more. So this year I’m picking more than one batch.
And no, you can’t have any. You’ll have to pick your own.
Market Visit Apostrophe Atrocity
Ethan and I went to the Hillsboro Farmers' Market today to stock up on essentials like blueberries, strawberries, and Great Harvest Apple Crunch bread. And to grab a picture of the latest sign of the Apostrolypse (wherein the world is destroyed by misplaced apostrophes):
The donuts are really quite yummy, but I prefer my deep-fried-pastries grammatically correct.
I’ll have to submit this to Apostrophe Abuse.
Maybe tomorrow I’ll add a picture of Neale’s Specialty’s. I sigh as I contemplate the idea.
MM: Canker Sores, Mental Floss, Recipes, Freezer Jam, Swim Meet
I get canker sores. A lot. Most of the time I have at least one, and many times I end up with a mouth full of them. And they're really no fun at all. I've got one right now that's almost healed, but it's right at the back of my throat and the size of a small aircraft. Okay, the size of a pencil eraser. And it has not been fun to live with. When drinking water hurts, that's a problem. When it makes it hard to read aloud to my son, that's a problem.
The trouble is, I can't point to any really reliable triggers. True, nuts seem to aid in their formation, but it's not a 100% correlation. I've read that stress is a factor, but I'm a relatively low-stress person.
What I'd really like is a reliable cure for them. Even cutting a day off their ferocity would be more than welcome. The one I have now caused all the glands in the right side of my face to swell up. My face actually hurt!
Anyone have a suggestion? I'd really welcome it.
(edit) Actually, I just found a product called Canker Cover that claims to heal a sore within 24 hours. I am so all over that. I'm going to pick some up today and give them a whirl. I'll post my review of them after an adequate study can be completed.
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Mental Floss has the tagline "Where knowledge junkies go to get their fix." And that's pretty much true. It's basically a panorama of trivia, and they've almost always got something interesting posted in their blog area. The Quiz area can eat up a lot of time if you let it, and I hereby challenge anyone reading this to take their "50 States in 5 minutes" quiz. Fun stuff, even if it sometimes makes a guy feel dumb.
One other thing Mental Floss does well is a 5-day Trivia Hunt they call How Did You Know?. Exercise your brain and maybe win a prize!
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I'm not a particularly gifted cook, but I can follow recipes pretty well. But for some things, I just shoot from the hip. For instance, my hummus recipe goes something like this:
Into the food processor go:
- 2 cans of chickpeas (or other beans), drained (but saving a bit of the liquid)
- several large soup spoons full of tahini (roasted or raw)
- a couple of cloves of garlic, minced (or a whole head of roasted garlic)
- some salt
- some cumin
- some other spices (Pepperman, perhaps?)
- the juice of one lemon
- some sesame oil
Add chickpea liquid if necessary. Woo!
As you might guess, sometimes I get the World's Greatest Hummus (that time I made it with Great Northern Beans, oh yeah), and sometimes it's just not quite there.
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Another hip-shooting recipe I used not long ago was for freezer jam. We're committed to making enough jam to last us the winter with summery fruits, and we've been successful so far. We've got plenty of Hood Strawberry jam and some Albion Strawberry and Raspberry, too. But the unexpected star thus far has been my Blueberry-Raspberry jam. It went like this:
- All the blueberries and raspberries I had
- 1.5 cups sugar
- juice and zest of one lemon
- one package freezer pectin
Berries and juice into food processor. Sugar and pectin mixed together in a bowl. Berry mix added to bowl, stirred for three minutes. Into jars and lids screwed on. Thirty minutes later, into the freezer.
(It was about two pints of blueberries and half a pint of raspberries. And it's AWESOME! It seriously will not last the winter unless I make more.)
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Elaine put up a post about Ethan's first swim meet, so rather than blather, I'll just send you to her.
MMM: Home Court?, 10K, Hoods, Baseball wrap, Food Network Star
I recognize I didn't MMMuse last week. Family in town. Priorities and all that rot. Anyhoo...
I didn't really watch the NBA Finals, even though I used to be a huge basketball fan. (That was back before I discovered that baseball is the Only Sport Worth Watching.)
Maybe the fact that the Lakers took two games on Orlando's floor takes the wind out of what I'm about to write about, but since I actually wrote it before the Finals began, I'm keeping it.
And here it is (see if you can detect my very subtle yet virulent preference for baseball): Why, exactly, is Home Court Advantage important in any way in basketball?
In baseball, Home Field Advantage is easy enough to understand. Baseball fields aren't all carbon copies of each other. Some are domes, some aren't (and you can play the ball off the catwalks in the domes). Some have quirky outfield fences or obscene amounts of foul ground (Oakland). So knowing your own field could help.
There's also the issue of the Home Team having last-ups. Let's say a game goes extra innings. The home team knows that if they score a run, the game is over. The visitor has to get a lead and then hold it. That's a definable advantage for the home squad.
But with the NBA, how's it work, exactly? Okay, sure, the home team will be loud. But that'll happen in any arena. So the noise level can't really be a factor. The basket's at the same height, and the court's the same length, and the first possession is determined by the tip-off. So where's the advantage?
I'm forced to conclude that the Home Team will normally get more Home Court Calls by the officials. Which is really, really lame. Am I wrong here? Somebody enlighten me, because this seems to be just another reason baseball is superior.
Oh, and congrats to the Lakers. Since I don't really watch, I don't have any particular opinion about who should've won. I like Dwight Howard better than Kobe Bryant, but I don't have the pathological hatred of Kobe that some have. (Nor do I harbor particularly ill fillings toward a certain formerly-Twins-catcher-now-playing-in-Chicago. Like how I still brought this around to baseball?)
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I ran (if you can call it that) a 10K on Saturday. Colin dragged me for the last two miles, and it was my fault for starting us off a little fast. Maybe if I'd tempered my enthusiasm a bit, we'd have come in at a lower time. Still, we started running and didn't stop for 6.2 miles. That's something.
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If you don't know the Hoods are in at the Farmer's Market, you are hereby notified of your First Warning. Your Second Warning will occur if you do not consume some of them by next week. Don't make my kick you out of Oregon.
(And if you don't know what Hoods are, please don't tell me. I may have to issue you a bit of a fustigation.)
(They're strawberries, but you didn't hear it from me.)
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Well, it's time for the Baseball wrap. The season is done, and Ethan wishes we had another game tonight. It was a fun experience, and if I do it again next year, I've learned some valuable lessons, and if some of the kids (and dads) return, it could be a whole lot easier than this season.
Some highlights:
- My son never having to hit off the tee. Because he's awesome.
- Two flyballs caught by one of my guys in one inning (and then he doubled off the runner at first both times). Yes, that's four outs, but we weren't really counting them.
- Serving up a homer to another of my guys. Best hit I saw all season from anyone.
- Watching one of my guys almost have a popup land on his head. Yeah, he didn't really realize there was a game on.
- Getting my most difficult hitter (just getting him to recognize which direction the ball was coming from was a chore) to connect twice in the same game.
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The Next Food Network Star has started up again. Love that show, even if I generally can't be troubled to watch the actual winner's show most of the time. I've found you can pretty much guarantee several things that'll happen:
- Somebody will have a tagline or culinary philosophy that's confusing/banal/just plain stupid. This year's early candidate: "I'm comin' at you from the mind of a chef." Ummm...what?
- Somebody apologizing for their food.
- Somebody describing their dish as containing "good" or "great" or "wonderful" things, as opposed to using, you know, appetizing language including such things as flavors or aromas or textures.
Yes, it's ever-so-slightly train-wrecky. Love that.
MMM: Doolittle, Crunch, Pool, Command and Conquer
Note: It's no longer Monday Morning in Oregon, but it still is in Alaska. So MMM still holds. And Monday Afternoon Musings (MAM) just doesn't have the same ring to it.
We have a shelf of suggested read-aloud titles for Ethan's language arts curriculum, and I've decided to read one from that shelf, then let Ethan pick any title he'd like (from any source), then read another and keep alternating that way. I figure he's more likely to deal well with books he doesn't actually choose to take in that way.
And it took him some time to warm up to The Story of Doctor Doolittle, by Hugh Lofting. I'll also admit it took me some time to warm up to it. It certainly wasn't the complete delight that The House at Pooh Corner was, but it's grown on me since we finished it. And some of the characterizations are awesome, as are the names of the characters. Dab Dab the Duck, Jip the Dog, Gab Gab the Pig, and Polynesia the Parrot are a few examples. And the Pushmi-pullyu was a whimsical favorite of Ethan.
It was definitely fun as a read-aloud, but I'm not sure it'd hold up as well as just an adult read like Pooh does.
Oh, and Ethan's next selection was the next Hardy Boys title.
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So, on Saturday I was a big idiot and went to the Farmer's Market at noon, hoping to score some strawberries. Yeah, like that was going to happen. Sold out, as I should probably have expected. But next week the HOODS WILL BE IN!!!!
For a consolation prize, I thought I'd pick up a loaf of Cinnamon Chip from Great Harvest. They didn't have it. What they did have was Apple Crunch Bread. I'm not a huge fan of apple desserts (I think "American As..." should be followed with "Peach Pie" since it's better in every way), but this stuff is good. It's got a cinnamon-sugar crust on it, and big-ole chunks of apples in it.
However, should you decide to toast the bread, be advised that the crust melts. Which means it's hot. And you can end up with an almond-sized blister on your hand. Guess how I know.
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We have a neighborhood pool, which is awesome. Not awesome was that it wasn't supposed to open until next Monday (why not open it on a weekend?). It opened early. Ethan and I are basically there every night during the summer. We likes it.
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I got these two $25 American Express Gift Cards, and I'd been looking for something to spend them on. I had several books lined up, but I actually don't have any particular lack of desire to spend my own money on them. So I bought a couple of games. One of them is Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, just because Ethan and I are into Star Wars and we enjoyed the KOTOR1. (BTW, if you want to buy Star Wars games, get Star Wars: Best of PC - five games for cheep!)
The other selection was a full-on nostalgia pick: Command and Conquer: The First Decade. I have fond memories of getting smacked down at C&C in college. So when you throw in twelve games in the series for $20 (and it's free to me), I'm in.
Got any favorite games you played back in the day? I'm still partial to Descent, and I'd definitely grab it if they put together a package like the C&C one. And you would choose...?
MMM: Cruise In
Not much about which to muse today, but I'll throw out a restaurant recommendation. Our neighbors tipped us that a local dive had turned into something better.
We'd probably driven past the place dozens of times, and it always looked like a place to get knifed. But not anymore. Now it's the Cruise In Country Diner. It's a 50's style joint with a nice atmosphere, friendly staff, and good burgers. They use local and organic ingredients (for instance, their fries are cut from actual potatoes every day, and they ask if you'd like white or wheat buns), and their milkshakes are hand-dipped and quite yummy.
Yes, I know, I'm not known as much of a meat- or dairy-eater. But if I'm going to splurge, I want it to be good! And the fact that it's five minutes from our house could be trouble.
MMM: Rapture, Oroblanco, Coach Seth, Sore
I know, I know. I've flogged the Rapture plenty of times. But this is different, honest! And yes, it's another book review. Hey, I read about a book per week, so it stands to reason I'll blog about them here. And basically every week.
Rapture for the Geeks: When AI Outsmarts IQ, by Richard Dooling is an engaging read, detailing some of the theories and expectations for the future of computing. In particular, it deals with the idea of "Singularity", the theoretical point in the future when machine intelligence surpasses human intelligence. He draws from Moore's Law (named for a founder of Intel; predicts exponential computing power growth) to show that in the next forty years or so, machines should be able to think like humans.
Of course, it's a bit speculative, and Dooling rightly calls the dogmatic belief in Singularity a religion. But along the way, he managed to disturb me just a little bit, and I consider myself fairly agnostic about Singularity. I can see that computers will get more and more powerful, but I believe there's a difference between a brain and a mind. Until computers prove they can actually think, I'll remain unconvinced.
By the way, he discusses several methods for determining if computers can think. It makes for interesting reading, even if only for someone who likes reading and writing science fiction. I got this book from the library at the same time I got Have a Nice Doomsday, and I was skeptical about both books (I often request books based solely on the title, then give them a brief thumb-through before deciding to actually read them. Both of them just barely passed the thumb-through-test). But both turned out to be worth reading.
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In my never-ending quest to find a fruit I don't like, I occasionally pick up a new candidate. This time, it was Oroblanco Grapefruit. Yum! Oroblanco means "White Gold" in Spanish (at least the Internets say so), and the fruit is a cross between a white grapefruit and a pummelo (which, you may recall, is one of my favorites). I suspected there had to be pummelo in the genes somewhere due to the abnormally thick skin and pith. What started out about the size of a large grapefruit was quickly revealed to be about the size of a very large Mandarin orange, or a very small Navel orange. As advertised, it's quite white. It retains the sort of floral aroma of the pummelo, but it's juicy like a grapefruit. And much sweeter than a typical grapefruit.
So, another one bites the dust.
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Evidently Hillsboro Boys Baseball Association is really desperate for coaches. When I signed Ethan up, I checked the box that I'd be willing to be an Assistant Coach, thinking it'd give me the chance to participate, but also allow some time for me to determine if I wanted to ever be a Head Coach. Well, they had trouble finding a Head Coach, so Ethan's team is going to be stuck with Coach Seth. I'll admit to being quite nervous about the prospect, but everything I've read about coaching this age is that it's pretty much like Daycare. And I've found out that I already know three of the kids, which is cool.
Wish me luck.
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I'm really, really sore. That's how I know I went to Men's Retreat this weekend. I played hoops until past midnight, played a bit of frisbee-golf and did a bit of softball/whiffleball/baseball. Oh, and ping pong. Which I think put me over the edge. Good times. I'll consider it a failure if I ever come back from Retreat and I'm not sore. Either that, or it'll mean I was in better shape going in...