The Cook Family

Once again we have expanded our garden this year. More room for veggies was the goal. We also plant some foods and herbs intermixed with our flowers and bushes though. Last summer we were expecting a baby mid-summer so we didn't do too much. We stuck with tomatoes, cauliflower, peppers, greens/kale, and various herbs. This year we are adding eggplant, peas, bush beans, cucumber, cabbage, and more greens/kale. We also have added a huge garden at my parents house. We have a huge plot to add pole beans, carrots, beets, melons, squashes to the overflow herbs, tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers, bush beans, and greens.

I am thinking about doing a rainwater collection system combined with a soaker hose setup to water the veggies. I have been looking online and some of DIY systems look pretty cool. I really should get on this before the summer drought gets going.

Each year we have lived in out house we have expanded the garden. Today is a wonderful day and we have been working outside since church: mowing the grass and planting seedlings into egg-cartons. Mowing the grass is like driving to work. You are left to your thoughts, the whir of the blades drowns out everything else and I was thinking about yard work and gardening when I was growing up.

Having a yard in the city is really different. Weed whacking only happened a couple times a year when there was going to be a party, now I feel bad when there is some tall grass around a tree. In the country nobody cared about dandelions. They were a fact of life, and nobody cared about how they looked, or how to get rid of them. Who is crazy enough to try to get rid of 3 acres of them? I just spend 4 hours mowing them along with the "grass." Now I have a city yard and I spend time digging the "evil" dandelions out. In the country "grass" was any green thing that wasn't in the flower beds and smaller then a tree. If it was in a flower bed then it was classified as a "weed".

On the subject of weeding, it is one of the things I remember spending most of my summers doing. We had all sorts of good home grown food: corn, carrots, peas, tomatoes, and more. At the time I didn't care. Us kids hated working in the garden. It was a chore that we avoided and when we did something bad we were punished by pulling weeds in the garden. A garden that is roughly the same size as the yard I now own. Maybe that is why they had five kids? Now I stare at that garden as I get ready to plant more vegetables in it. We don't have room for everything we want to plant so we are going to have an annex garden at my parents.

For a long time that garden wasn't used. It went along with other things that we did when I was young that dropped by the wayside. The garden laborers got busier and started to leave the house and there wasn't time for the garden. It's hard to remember that we used to be members of a food co-op and had closets full of canned food. They were replaced with Meijer and then Costco, but in recent years my folks have started to get back into gardening. I can't help but wonder if we will stop doing those things when the kids get older.

For now Eli loves the garden. He plays with the rakes, hoes, and shovels. Whenever we drive in or out of the driveway he screams "I can see the peas!" I am sure that will change when he becomes a teenager, but who knows.

Almost every time we go to church Eli makes a comment about wanting to go to Pease auditorium (EMU's lovely performance venue which is is across the parking lot). We've been to a couple of concerts there, and Eli has really enjoyed them (and you can't beat the price). So when we got to church on Sunday we got to tell him that we were in fact going there later today! Eli spent the next several hours fixated on going to "Uncle Nate's" concert at Pease Auditorium. (Side note, he says auditorium really funny, but I can't even say it the way he does, let alone type it.) We settled into our seats and Amelia was immediately in Grandpa's lap (he was sitting behind us with Grandma and Aunt Catherine). The Alumni Band began the concert and Amelia fairly flew off his lap. At first I thought she was trying to get to me, but then I noticed her eyes were glued on the stage. If desire was a mode of transportation, she would have been on the stage a moment after the performance began. Eli, too, sat rapt, enjoying every note. Amelia was so delighted she started cooing. Loudly. Loudly enough that Nate asked us later if she had been making noise during the first piece. We gave her a passie, but that doesn't really keep her quiet when she's happy. Mostly the passie just ended up on the floor... As you can guess, the entrancement did not last, but eventually Amelia nursed to sleep, and Eli was able to run around the lobby as a new group set up. He did really well for about 2/3s of the 2 hour concert. About half way into the final third, I busted out the snacks and gave him peas (yes, peas in Pease) 1 at a time. It worked. We got to see (almost) the whole performance. The music was great, but watching the total enchantment of our children was, well, priceless.

The other day I was in the car with the two kids after having picked them up from day care. I was talking with Eli about how we wear out seat belts so we don't fly out of the car if we get in an accident. The next thing I hear from him is something about pee in your pants and fly out of the car. He took "accident" as a peeing your pants kind of accident. So I then had to convince him that there are different kinds of accidents.

I can just imagine him thinking that he would pee his pants and then be ejected from the car if he wasn't wearing his seat belt.

I heard an interview with the author a while back on NPR. The book had some interesting bits in it. The author tried to make it exciting and put too much story into it. I enjoyed the history of the compass and how navigation changed as a result. Also cool was how that navigation was then applied to discovery. I was really impressed that the ancient Chinese who used the compass as a diving tool knew about declination. The compass had to travel to the Mediterranean though to find use for navigation.

The Riddle of the Compass

I also found this way cool chart showing the variation of declination over time (1590-1990).

Bridgit got me this for Christmas and I have been meaning to do a writeup on it for a while. The book is somewhat lacking in some aspects, its not the best writing or anything. It is interesting and full of interesting stuff. Wood is used for so many things. The author covers uses for wood in golf clubs, baseball bats, Steinway pianos, houses, and more. Economic and management were really interesting. I learned all about ship building and that during the Revolutionary War we choked England of good stock for ship masts.

Overall the book was good and interesting to read. I have passed it on to others to read.

A Splintered History of Wood

Last week the kids were sick and I stayed home with them. Eli was digging around under the TV then looks at me and said "scary." I went over and asked him what was scary and he was pointing to the back cover of Monty Python's Life of Brian with this dude on it. I explained that he wasn't scary and he was just and old man with a long beard. That seemed to make it OK. When Bridgit came home he told her about the old man and ran upstairs to grab the DVD case and show it to her. She made a comment that he wasn't wearing any clothes and that maybe if we see someone like him we could give him our clothes. For the rest of the day he kept bringing up the "Old Man" and that we should give him clothes. A couple days later he was taking a nap and I went in his room to get something and saw he asleep clutching the movie. I guess the man isn't scary any more.

It seems by 2 and a half they've got the concepts down: basic sentence structure, certain shapes are letters, letters make sounds, sounds make words, words can be read. Same thing with numbers. There's the idea of "yesterday" (any day that already happened, and occasionally even this morning) and "tomorrow" (you guessed it: any day yet to come). Yes, there's a lot of fine tuning to be done, but in a lot of ways, 2 and a half is it (give or take). Amazement at the world is still keenly there, but it's different now, he's more experienced, more able to put it into words (though if he doesn't quite have the words he wants, he'll stutter quite cutely). The trouble with 2 and a half is tantrums. Wow. It was as if someone turned a knob and his tantrums went from 0 (ok, 1) to 60 in a day. All of a sudden we had daily, intense tantrums. They're still happening, but crouching down to his level, letting him know we know he's upset and talking about the situation really seems to help. A lot. It's even better if we can do all that good parenting stuff before the tantrum happens. Oh, to be 2 and a half and not really able to say the thing that you know you should be able to say, but you just can't figure it out.
We took Eli and his cousin to see the ballet Aladdin at the Michigan Opera Theater. We got to the theater and looked at all the fancy stuff. It was fun. Once we got into the performance space the kids told us they wished they were sitting up higher. For once we DIDN'T have the cheapest seats in the house, but the kids wished we did. The performance was clever and stunning (the market place had especially neat choreography including children throwing fruit all around). There was a dancing genie with a 2+ foot head (where the persons face is in the mouth of the mask), then there was the giant genie in "the cave." This was a multiple person puppet: the head was at least 6', if not more, as were each of the hands. The body was loose fabric that swallowed Jafar in the end. Eli is still talking about the genies and the cave. Anyway, it was a cool production, and I'm glad we took the kids to see it. Plus they got to go on stage (!!!) and meet some of the principle dancers afterward. The lamp (really, the dancer who held the lamp) let Eli touch the lamp, so that was a little extra cool.

As for the "Millie-moo," she's been crawling for a month or so, but before that she liked to move... wait for it... no, not backwards like most kids... she flipped around in circles. If Eli left a toy just out of her reach to the side she could whip around and get it like a superstar. Seriously. Her body would be taking up the same space, but she was instantly facing the opposite direction.
Her new big things are waving (soooo cute, this little open shut graspy thing that she does whenever someone says hello or good bye) and trying to feed herself. If the food on the spoon can withstand gravity, she can get it into her mouth. Which is to say, she has successfully fed herself yogurt and oatmeal. Pretty good for a not-yet-9 month old. She, like her brother, is all about feeding herself, so we're back to remembering how to make food that is easily digestible and can be picked up with her fingers. She bables and giggles often, especially when accosted by papa's beard. Eli always gives her the sweetest hug and kiss before going to bed. It's pretty great.

One of all the best parts of having an iPhone means you should have everything accessible at all times. I was looking at all the wine apps back in December and decided on Drync. They just came out with an update and it resolved a lot of the issues that I had with it.

The number one issue that I have with it is that all the data is stored online, that means that if you have an iPod Touch you have to have WiFi to see your cellar.

Number two is that if the software can't find the wine online you can't add it. There is now a way around that if you find something similar you can add it to your cellar and then change the name and info. So if there was a 2000 but you had a 2001 you can add the 2000 and then just change the year.

The biggest thing that the update fixed for me is being able to edit the information for a wine. If the search came up with no price you couldn't add it. Same with stuff like varietal and region.

Some nice features are that it will find reviews and you can also buy it online.

I picked it up for a dollar, but it's now up to $4. Still worth it though.

This is a cool movie about the cars that film the cars.

I have been working on the Penobscot we bought last summer in the basement. Actually, I just started this week. Most of the work is going to be refinishing the wood seats. In the past I have gone the usual route and used a palm sander and a pile of sandpaper. This time I am going old school.

Card scrapers are nothing more then a sheet of metal with a burr on the end. It is what they use before sandpaper was invented. They aren't expensive, a set of different shapes and a burnisher to sharpen them will cost you well under $50. The best part is that they can replace all the course and medium sandpaper you use.

In the canoe work most of wood is covered with old varnish which can clog sandpaper quickly. A scraper just scrapes of off.

Working in the basement they are wonderful. There is no sander noise to wake the kids up at night. Dust isn't flying everywhere and there are no discarded sheets of sandpaper all over. Sharpening has taken some trial and error, but in a evening I started to get the hang of it.

Here are some of the videos and articles that helped me out:

From Fine Woodworking #147
Fine Woodworking Video
The DoveTail Kid

I had been looking at bags like this and considered making some out of cordura, tyvek, or canvas. The day after Bridit and I talked about making some, I saw them on Steep And Cheap for about $30 and got two. They swallow gear. Two take up 75% of the width of the Vibe leaving about 10" on and they come up to the top of the seat backs.

The bags are of heavy cordura and lined with yellow ripstop. The lining has pockets around the outside which make nice places for tucking small things and the light color also makes it easier to find things in the cavernous bag. The bottom is hard rubber which adds weight, but it makes a bombproof bottom that can be set down outside without worrying about getting the contents or bag wet/dirty. I would like stiffer sides; it would make packing easier but storage more difficult. Three of the top edges unzip to form a lid that is a large pocket. The the rubber coated semi-transparent lid makes the pocket on contents easy to see.

There are handles on all four sides so grabbing the bag is easy no matter which way you attack it. The main straps work OK as backpack straps for longer carries.

We took them on a ski trip to the UP and had no shortage of space. Winter sports require so much stuff, but it all fit. One held ski gear; fleece, shells, gloves, socks, long underwear, wax, boot driers, helmets, and goggles all disappeared into the bag. One the way home I added a pillow and blanket. The bag still wasn't full. The other held clothes for three of us with plenty of space to spare. If I was traveling solo on a ski trip, one bag could carry all my stuff including ski boots and helmet.

Pros: Tons of space, Nice lining, durable, rubber bottom

Cons: Soft sides make loading and unloading a pain.

Sometimes it is hard to get anything done around the house. This past few weeks have been productive. Eli has gotten to the point where he can help out. We made a set of coat hooks for short people. I replaced the old toilet seat with a nice new one. I even found a cheap one that is 100% recycled wood and made with an "eco friendly processes." This weekend Bridgit and I moved the microwave form the counter to the pantry. It is nice having the extra counter space. Other tasks have been to fix a couple shelves in the lower kitchen cabinets, add more wine capacity in the basement, and put some grip tape on the side entry threshold.

Last night I changed the oil and rotated the tires on the Caviler and Eli got to help with the lugnuts. He sometimes needs to be told more then once not to play with tools. While I worked on the car, he worked on moving all the tools he could reach from the garage to the driveway, but when asked, he cleaned them up. Unfortunately, now I am going to have to hunt for them because most of the tools ended up in different homes.

Ski season is drawing to a close and Eli also had fun helping me with ski maintenance. He watched me apply wax and then helped scrape. He now associates any wax with skis: he saw a candle gingerbread man at my mother's house and asked to eat it. Bridgit told him that it was made of wax and he told her that he wanted to put it on my skis.

Years ago tire manufactures came out with "all season" tires and told everyone that they now could have one tire that would do it all. The problem with that is you end up with one tire that does everything OK, but nothing well.

I have already covered why and how I got what tire as well as initial impressions here. Now we get into how they have worked out.

We have had a good snow year and it was a good idea to get winter tires. We are avoiding putting many dry miles on them to save wear. That is the one advantage of having one care with and one without snow tires. The tires have performed well.

Over MLK weekend we drove up to the UP for some skiing and family visiting. Almost 1000 miles total were traveled during the trip. Most of the trip up was clear until we got into the UP. We spent a couple hours on roads that were covered with packed snow and cruised along. The tires handled great and were in their element. About a foot of snow fell while we were in town. They didn't seem to like the brown slushy crud that develops on the roads. They had some initial slip that was easily mitigated by starting in second gear. In fresh powder and hard pack there was no problem at all.

At highway speeds with crosswinds the car got blown around a bit and the squidgy-ness of the tires made counteracting the wind wobbly. Another thing I found was that crossing the bridge being in the left (center) lanes was a bad idea. On the Mighty Mac the center lanes are metal grate and the snow tires got pushed around as they sunk into the holes. This usually isn't a deal, but was something that I had never thought about.

Also so far gas mileage hasn't been affected much. The first tank on the trip had quite a bit of warming up. One that was all traveling we got great mileage, 36.49 mpg.

It's mid Febuary now and soon it will be time to take them off. Supposedly they wear really quick above 45 degrees Fahrenheit.

We are so excited today. It is time for a new direction and this country will be so much better off. We lit a candle at church for our new president recently and our thoughts and prayers are with President Obama (it feels so good to say, type, and even think that), his family, and his staff.

Tonight we had an Inauguration party. People came over and we watched the days events. As we made the cake I talked with Eli about what was going on. I explained that the president is in charge of the county like Mama and Papa are in charge of our family. I told him that the current President didn't make good choices and that we are going to have a party to tell the new President "good job!" Eli told me that Obama was going to drive over in a car (toddlers are so precise some times) and have cake. He was bummed when I told him that Obama wasn't going to come over. We did make a cool Obama cake though



BTW, the cake is a chocolate cake from the Fannie Farmer Baking Book, with cream cheese frosting.

Seeing President Obama speak and the millions of people who came to see and support him really help make me think that there is hope for our country. The benediction was amazing. It was reverent, but also humorous.
"we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around ... when yellow will be mellow ... when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right. That all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen."

Amen indeed. God Bless America.