41 thoughts on “December 16, 2014: Okay”

      1. Ok, I specifically want snow. Big, flaky, Charlie Brown Christmas-worthy snow. Between 24-36 inches, delivered in 3-6" deposits over the course of the next week.

          1. I have limited airport experience, and I loathed O'Hare but I badly want to go back there to eat at Rick Bayless Tortas again. Sweet Jesus it was good.

            1. I had one for breakfast yesterday morning. Better, though, is that many bars around the airport have revolution brewing beers.

        4. I'm glad we got enough snow to cover everything last night. Winter nights are soooo dark if there's no snow.

              1. I had to drive to SFO yesterday to retrieve the Boy. He was 2 hours late, so we left SFO at about 3:15 for a ~100 mile trip. It took us 4 hours, mostly in driving rain and bumper-to-bumper traffic with about 20-30 yards of visibility. For the first two hours, I was in first or second gear about 95 pct of the time.

                So, yea, I was missing snow.

    1. I get that Lego sets had been getting more and more violent-fantasy with the Chima and Ninjago and Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. (It seems that the Lone Ranger tie-in fizzled. Good.)
      There was a niche that Lego was missing: more complex toys (ages 7+) that weren't about building vehicles or robots for battle. So much was being marketed as very boyish. Lots of girls have been socialized away from that. (Just like boys will reject anything pink.)
      I don't know if "Friends" is it, but it's in the right direction. They've got some nifty "Creator"-series sets that aren't as aggressive looking as, say, the "Technic" series. Sure, there are still fighter planes, but the animal sets look cool and quite genderlessly-marketable.
      They brought in Wyldstyle in the Lego Movie, and apparently the Chima universe has more than one female. (at least two eagles), maybe some of the Phoenixes (speaking of: I lost what's going on in that world)? (I think Ninjago was like the Smurfs: 1 female, all others male.)
      CER has a few Friends sets (ponies!), and plays with a lot of HPR's, too. Harry Potter was one, but more than that. Now she's getting into MineCraft, which sounds similar.
      My little two are excited for the Disney Princess Duplo sets that they're getting for Christmas (not that they know it).

      But the point about having girly hair available for minifigs is good. They should sell small bags of just those, and with multiple styles. Dreadlocks, braids, ponytails, bobs, etc. For girls (not just) playing with regular sets that want the jailbirds or ninjas or storm troopers to be girls.

      1. Yes. The minifigs are designed to accommodate different toppers (hair, hats, helmets). Why not include a few extras in every set?

        I was in an interesting-weird discussion on the BookFace yesterday that started with this very comic strip. One friend (an academic classicist) raised the contra argument -- that all of the social media criticism was about the stereotyped girl stuff, without any countervailing criticism of the (apparently, my kids aren't in the demographic anymore) over-emphasis on violent-fantasy play marketed to boys.

        whatever happened to the "adventure" stuff that wasn't just about fighting? Construction sets, jungle sets, yadda yadda? Don't those sell anymore?

        2. I didn't even see that fb discussion but I guess had the same thoughts.
          There are jungle-type sets ("lairs", I believe) in Chima. There's a temple set (or two) in Ninjago.
          But they're residences for battling groups of

          The sets like knights or pirates (and City) are generally aimed at younger ages than the big, licensed sets (which cost more per brick).
          One of the sets I was dreaming of for HPR (and me) is one of the Creator series houses. (Creator sets have three different sets of plans in them, to make three different things with the same bricks. Some have bonus plans you can get online for a fourth thing. I think they're great for teaching kids how to be creative with the bricks. But HPR's probably past that. What he does now for regular sets is builds the thing in the plans, and play with that as what it is for like a month. Then he'll need the parts for something and he'll tear it up. He basically never re-builds it. He might still have the Ninjago temple of light in 90% of the way the plans were set up. His creations are the best, too. I got disappointed a bit ago when he showed me the plan-built thing from a set I'd forgotten he'd received for his birthday. I said it was really cool and creative, but I was just praising the Lego designers, not him.)

          I just discovered that if you have one of the thin "plates" (basic thin, 1/3 of the basic block height), you can turn it sideways and it will hold upright between the pegs of any brick.:

          I COULD HAVE DONE SO MUCH WITH THAT.

    1. Nice. Might have to try it.

      I reorganized our kitchen a month ago and have been cooking constantly since. (So, first, if you want to get into cooking, I recommend purge and organizing your kitchen. Extreme style, as in baskets, canisters, labelling, minimizing to only necessary tools and pans, etc. Before I did this I just got angry at my kitchen. Angry about not being able to find anything and having stacks of pans and tools to deal with.)

      I've been thinking of doing month-long cycles on a particular type of dish as a way of leveling up my technique. Specifically I want to jam some things into my brain so I don't always have to look up, read, and reread recipes. Most of the knowledge I get is some fleeting rapid fire thing from Good Eats or /r/cooking or something. None of it sticks.

      The obvious thing to do in the winter is to make a soup or stew twice a week for a month. I haven't committed to it, but I did make a simple chicken & rice soup from How to Cook Everything. It definitely felt like a memorizable soup. It was basically 5 or 6 ingredients. The noodle/rice choice was almost completely ad hoc. The chopping was minimal. And it was really good. Like the kids ate it all up. I have a theory that I could riff on that one soup the entire month, though I can't totally envision it working.

      Other monthly challenges I can think of quickly: Italian, stir fry, pizza, breads, Indian.

      (I'd say "desserts," but, oy. Though maybe that would be good. It could be a gateway into a house rule I'm considering: eating no sweets unless we make them ourselves. Granted, the kids' holiday candy probably would be excluded from the rule.)

      1. Reorganizing the kitchen is a great step to a fresh approach. Kitchens accumulate so much clutter, not just cooking implements, but all the other detritus that accumulates as a consequence of it being the social center of most folks' homes. Even though we haven't bought much in the way of kitchen gear (only replacing items we already have), I'd love to go through ours to toss out things we don't use. I'm pretty sure there are things in there we've never used, and it'd be nice to better utilize that storage space.

        One of the best things I think you could do for your technique is start using either the Cook's Illustrated or America's Test Kitchen cookbooks. I got one for Mrs. Hayes a while back, and not only has it reduced her frustration with recipes that don't work out (so many published recipies are poorly written!), but it's also given her more insight to why certain techniques, methods, or an order of specific procedures works. Understanding what actually happens to food as you apply different cooking processes to it can really up your improvisation game later on.

        1. Thanks! What has collected for us is a mix of not wanting to dispose of older equipment and getting bunches of chintzy kitchen one-use tools over the years as gifts. Also, specialized cups, plates, etc for children. So glad to have cleaned things up.

          The books I'm targeting are How to Cook Everything, Joy of Cooking, and How to Cook without a Book. I own all of these already. The latter hasn't worked as well as I'd like it to. I'm also hoping to get a Cook's Illustrated subscription (though maybe one of their cook books is a better Wish List item?), a Julia Child cookbook, and a Jacques Pepin cookbook. I think that would be enough for me.

          Over lunch I finally broke through my mental block on vinaigrette. It seems like it should be so easy to commit to memory, but it wasn't for me. I wasn't sure why emulsification was a thing to do – just that the recipes all had me slowly adding oil to vinegar and whisking. I also wasn't sure what emulsification was exactly. I finally reached for How to Cook Everything and read up on it. Great idea! Bittman allowed me to let go of emulsification save for very specific situations, like if I want homemade dressing sitting out for an hour or two (buffet meal). I've committed my preferred oil-acid ratios to my head. I feel like I have a base to build from now. I also feel like I might have very little store-bought dressing in my future because why bother?

          Vinaigrette…how easy is that? But for some reason it was a roadblock for me. And it felt like a roadblock for my health. We love salads with homemade dressing and freshly chopped toppings. We don't really eat salads consistently when we must resort to store-bought dressing.

          (Through all this, I also have become very amazed by how things like boxed pancake mix, hot chocolate mix, microwave popcorn, etc have become so common in American homes. Marketing is truly an amazing machine.)

          1. On Sunday, made cassoulet, and had leftovers for dinner tonite.

            There are a lot of variations of recipes out there, but my basic plan is as follows:

            In Le Creuset Dutch Oven ( my favorite cooking device):
            Brown pork shank / ham hocks on all sides.
            Add some duck fat and saute chopped onion, garlic, carrot. Cook until onion is clear.
            Add Cannellini beans, some tomato paste, parsley tied into a bundle, and enough chicken stock to cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer. Oh, and oregano + bay leaf, salt+pepper.
            Broil some duck confit and whatever sausage you have about the house until done (brats or breakfast sausage, bacon if you don't have sausage). Chop into pieces and add to the bean soup. Cook for 2-3 hours. Serve w/ baguette+French red wine.

            Cleanup - I rinse out the Creuset with hot water, but never use soap.

  4. Did I miss the part where everyone discussed the Royals signing a younger, better outfielder who happens to be a Twin -killer and probably less of a prick for just pennies more than II?

    4. KC Star writer apparently thinks the Twins got the better deal:

      For the Royals, the idea of plugging a hole with a one-year contract on a veteran with whom they can be relatively comfortable is an attractive back-up plan to the Plan-A pursuits of Melky Cabrera and Torii Hunter.

  5. I just found out Sturgill Simpson is opening for Willie effin Nelson on December 30th. I'll still be on the damn car driving back from Iowa. I have the worst luck with timing for concerts.

  7. I'm in Williamsburg tonight and I finally made it to the Green Leafe Cafe (thanks for the suggestion, CoC). That place was awesome, so many beers.

    The thing that was less awesome was the Bud rep that was there giving out free samples of Shock Top chocolate wheat. It was a full pint and it was completely awful. From the taste of it, they apparently decided that the best way to make it chocolate was to just add sugar after fermentation instead of using dark malts or actual cocoa. Gross, gross stuff.

      1. I should have looked, but I didn't think about it on the way out. It wasn't busy, so it would have been easy to tell. It really was one of the worst beers I've ever had and I think I can honestly say any preconceived notions didn't have anything to do with it.

        1. I sampled a watermelon (flavored) ale once upon a time at a brewpub in Old Sacramento. That was possibly even worse than it sounds.

    2. Glad to hear it still matches my recollections - haven't been in that watering hole in almost 7 years.

      As for the Bud rep pushing garbage, there's only so much a proprietor in Williamsburg can do. Anheuser has a brewery less than 5 miles south of the city. You know, I've lived within 10-15 miles of AB breweries in both Williamsburg and Jacksonville and never developed more than a passing taste for Bud - was (am?) more of a Miller/Coors guy when I was more interested in quantity. I'll admit that I have consumed my fair share of Goose Island, Rolling Rock, Mich Golden, Bass, Busch Lite, etc. though.

      1. Fortunately, the guy want pushy or anything. He just stopped by and asked if we were ingested on a sample, then stopped again a little later to ask what we thought. (I told him diplomatically.) I got the vibe that he knew he was peddling garbage, but guy's gotta eat, and all that.

  8. Just got back from Junior's baseball game with his junior high team. They got their first win of the season in a mercy-rule game. Junior got to pitch for the first time at this level. Do you get credit for being part of a no-hitter if you walk all three batters you face? Oh, well. He also got his first three "hits" of his junior high career. They probably would have been ruled errors, but last year he never hit the ball and reached base (he walked once or twice). Actually, now that I think about it, he's not made an out this season. He walked in his only plate appearance prior to this game. So he's an on-base machine! He also got his first career stolen base and started in right field for the second game in a row.

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