riotbrrd

Chef Isaac's Restaurant

I interviewed Chef Isaac this morning after he served me a very elegant breakfast. (He prepared it himself before I woke up -- all except the microwave part, of course!)

Menu

We have sausages for breakfast, and sandwiches for lunch, and hot dogs for dinner.

Instructions for serving breakfast

First, you fold the napkins in a triangle. Roll the silverware up with the napkin around it.

Then you put the bread in the toaster, and then you put the sausages on the plate and dial 1-0-0 seconds, and then you press Start.

And then you get a little sized plate, put the sausages and toast on the plate. And then put a waffle in the toaster, cook it, and then put that on your plate.

Then pour some lemonade.

How to make toast without burning your fingers

The first thing you do is lift up the handle as far as you can. Pull up the toast. Check your fingers to see if they don't get burned.

  
 

It's officially Fall here. On the down side...brrrr! On the up side...beef stew! red wine!

In the Night Kitchen: Jell-O with Mediterranean Seasonings

Upon waking me up this morning, Isaac excitedly announced he had mixed up a "drink" downstairs. Ah, another early-morning cooking project!

His recipe:

• Box of cherry Jell-O
• Box of lemon Jell-O
• Powdered sugar
• Flour
• Water
• Sea salt
• Mediterranean Rotisserie Seasoning (for lamb, beef, or chicken)

Are you vomiting yet? Not yet? Wait, it gets better.

I tasted it with a tentative finger and nearly gagged, while Isaac happily discussed with me what we should do before baking it. "Eggs, I think!" I was desperately trying to figure out how NOT to bake it, without telling him it was the most disgusting thing I'd ever tasted. So, to stall for time, I suggested he clean up the floor.

He happily cleaned the floor with a sponge. I turned around to the sink, and, when I turned back, he was squeezing the sponge out -- INTO the bowl of Jell-O.

I looked sadly at him, and gently explained that we couldn't eat it now that it had sponge germs in it. He was disappointed, but understood that So we threw it out.

Phew!

Happy in my little Blue bubble

The rest of the country may be red, but I'm very happy here in my little blue bubble.

This NYT interactive election explorer is pretty cool. I especially like tracking my lifetime path across the country, from one blue bubble to another.

Tonight Isaac took his two wooden yardsticks and taped them together at right angles. He taped that to the front of his shirt and twisted the shirt up as tight as he could. He then let go, and ran around the house shouting "It's airplane Isaac. I have a propeller!" (Surprisingly, he never actually took flight.)

Grandma Rose, 1914 - 2010

I'm in Houston, where we just had a funeral for my Grandma Rose, who lived a wonderful and lively 96 years.

She was the valedictorian of her high school in Biloxi Mississippi and went to Sophie Newcomb college (now Tulane) on a full scholarship, where she graduated with degrees in chemistry and psychology. She had a great head for numbers, which made her the perfect person to run numbers for a bookie during the Depression.

She sewed all her own clothes because she couldn't afford to buy them, and later became a couture-level seamstress, making clothes for family and friends -- including a fabulous red skating costume trimmed with white fur which she made for me, her first grandchild.

She loved books as much as I do, and learned braille so she could put books into braille for the  Lighthouse for the Blind. She also helped found the local public library in Pasadena, TX, where she lived with my grandpa. She loved dancing, and towards the end of her live she shook her booty as head cheerleader for the local Senior Cheerleaders.

And boy, could she bake killer biscuits. When we were kids, we would cut the last class of Sunday school at Temple and sneak across the street to her house. Grandma Rose would have prepared a huge Southern breakfast, with waffles, grits, biscuits, bacon, fruit, and OJ. I think when I get home to California I'll bake some biscuits in her honor.

She was the best grandma ever, and we all miss her.

Fail blog funnies

see more funny videos

see more funny videos

How do you explain infinity to a four-year-old?

Obsessions of a boy

At one:
Milk

At two:
Trains, firefighting, trucks (in particular, "how the man gets up" into the truck), trains, Monkey, ice cream

At three:
Firefighting, Spiderman, sticks, knights, dragons, gloves, tickets, tape, Richard Scarry, Monkey, ice cream, candy

At four (so far):
Gloves, locks, keys, rope, jars, boats, Winnie the Pooh, Busytown, numbers, Monkey, popsicles, gum, chocolate

Nice UI design gallery

Devices and platforms are multiplying like bunnies these days, and that's a challenge for your humble UI designer. We have to quickly get familiar with the subtleties and conventions of numerous platforms.

A good design gallery can be a life-saver. I just found this design gallery for Nokia, and it's incredibly helpful. The browser lets you page through the latest Nokia apps and offers visuals for several screen types in each app. I wish more platforms had something like this.

Auto-correct: friend, foe, or just funny?

Today, my helpful iPhone changed my intended sentence "I found my sweater at work" to "I found my sweater atheist." There's a deeper meaning here, but I can't quite put my finger on it. Thoughts?

(Of course, the iPhone is still better than my last phone, a Motorola Slivr, which provided predictive texting that was super-helpful -- except that it was in Swedish.)

Mila's Daydreams

Generally I the whole Anne-Geddes-posed-babies genre of art makes me wanna gag almost as much as the talking babies in advertisments. But these photos at Mila's Daydreams have an edgy fairytale quality that I like.

What I've been up to

For those who've been wondering what I've been so busy with the past several months, it's finally gone public. Details here: Fast Company article and here: Looxcie.com.

  

It's a wearable video camera that works with your smartphone. So far, only available for Android phones.

The Chip standard

Our neighbor Chip is very tall. Well over 6 feet. Isaac uses him as the standard by which all size is judged.

Thus (we are in Washington DC today touring the Smithsonians)...

An aircraft carrier is "bigger than Chip!"

Jupiter is "bigger than Chip!"

A dinosaur is "bigger than Chip!"

Isaac demonstrated some serious problem-solving skills at Safeway today. He really really really wanted to get the pretzels all by himself. And he did NOT want me to go with him.

Well, I know those pretzels are on a high shelf, so I waited on the other side of the store, expecting him to come back frustrated and asking for help. Instead, he galloped up to me minutes later with two boxes in hand. They were boxes of snack-sized pretzel bags, exactly the right brand and pretzel type, just different packaging. He explained that he'd had to get those because the big bags were up too high and he couldn't reach.

He was so pleased with himself, and serious about accomplishing his mission.

Saw Busytown, the musical, at Palo Alto Children's Theater for the second time this week. If the show goes on tour, Isaac and I will become groupies and follow it around in a hippie bus. My favorite numbers: "Pickle Car," "Captain Salty," and "Do the Huckle."

Saw Busytown, the musical, at Palo Alto Children's Theater for the second time this week. If the show goes on tour, Isaac and I will become groupies and follow it around in a hippie bus. My favorite numbers: "Pickle Car," "Captain Salty," and "Do the Huckle."

Jam! I made jam! Blenheim apricots we picked in Brentwood this weekend + lemon juice + sugar. Yum. (Isaac put the labels on).

Interesting study on kid sleep

Moms, here's one more thing you're probably not doing perfectly.

This study suggests getting your kid to sleep early and regularly will help their little brains (not to mention Mommy's little brain as well!). I have no idea if the study was any good, but it makes sense to me.

Boogers (sic?)

(How do you spell that, anyway?)

Tonight's deep conversation with my son:

Mom: Isaac, stop picking your nose.

Isaac: But mom, if I don't pick my nose, how can I eat my boogers?

Mom (thinking fast... how do I answer this? Should I answer this?): um, maybe you could blow your nose into a kleenex? (am I an enabler now?)

Isaac: But then how will I eat them?

At this point I just wander away, stymied.

Simple pleasures

Today:

Isaac made a rubber band race car with Dad

Then, the spring picnic at the Mountain School: a bake sale (I made Challah), a maypole, climbing just about everything in sight, and Teacher Jeanne's puppet show with beavers.

Afternoon at Kathy & Peter's house: shoveling manure and gathering eggs, then wandering over to Staci & Mike's house with its fields of long grass rippling in the breeze. The three kids ran naked through the sprinklers while moms sat on the ground drinking wine. Peacocks showing off their feathers, a tour of the bomb shelter-turned-wine cellar, and then back down the mountain to reality. Sigh.

Can it get much better than this?

I just googled "magic cupcake machine," and apparently there is no such thing. How is that possible?!?

I just googled "magic cupcake machine," and apparently there is no such thing. How is that possible?!?

New core standards for K-5: FAIL

Thanks to the Alliance for Childhood, I had a chance to comment on the new academic standards for K-5. If you want to speak up, visit their website for a link to the online survey about the standards.

Here's what I wrote:

These standards are far too rigorous for young children, especially for children in K-3. I've seen far too many young boys struggling in Kindergarten, becoming frustrated with school, and getting labeled as troublesome, slow, or ADHD.

I find it incomprehensible that we have set up a system which causes young children to learn to hate school -- in kindergarten! Shouldn't we wait at least till middle school to make them hate school?

Can we put the "garden" back in kindergarten, and let our children play outside, learn to love books and stories, discover the joys of creativity, and learn how to interact with their peers and adults in a healthy, positive group setting?

The standards claim to be research-based, but in fact the evidence points out that pushing academics earlier and earlier doesn't help children in the long term. Their brains are not empty vessels that we can just fill up with whatever we think it's important to pour in whenever we want. They have a development process which can't be rushed -- at least not without harming other parts of the development process.

If we want to raise a generation of stressed out, maladjusted, hyper-competitive, emotionally fragile, obese, diabetic kids who can spit out memorized rules but have little creativity or imagination, then by all means adopt these standards.

If this is not the governors' vision of the future for our children, then please revisit the standards.

5 second rule to be extended to 5 minutes

Dirt is good for you! Eat more!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/ct-x-n-health-dirt-20100324,0,6756958.story

Fancy-pants visual cruft in Windows 7 Aero is killing me

Excellent parenting advice

I love this bit of wisdom posted by a grandfather of 10 at the UK's Times Online:

Rule Two is never but never let your brood rule your life; shove them in a room or out in the garden and only intervene if mayhem seems to be getting out of hand.

Now THAT is my kind of parenting advice!

Christopher knows someone building a cupcake machine. Must see it.

Starting to suspect that my cat loves me only because I feed her. I'm feeling kind of... used.

OMG, I suck.

I'm working on a project for a health device, and we're doing user testing this week. I just found out that the hypothetical patient name I've been using in my wireframes -- Joseph Smith -- turns out to be the founder of the Mormon church. And, to make it even better, guess where the user testing is happening? That's right... in Salt Lake City, Utah!

I have a lot to answer for.