P. B. and Jorgee's

#6 A Sand County Almanac

2012-02-11T07:29:00.002-06:00

A Sand County Almanac: With Other Essays on Conservation from Round River by Aldo Leopold

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot. These essays are the delights and dilemmas of one who cannot.

So Aldo Leopold begins the forward to his most famous book: A Sand County Almanac. To be clear, this book is not a traditional almanac in any sense. Here Leopold has recorded his thoughts under headings corresponding to each of the months of the year. Hence, it is only an almanac in a figurative sense. Something else that may cause confusion: There is not only one "Sand County". The title refers to one of several of the sand counties of Wisconsin.

A Sand County Almanac is regarded as a classic of literature in its own right as well as a cornerstone of the conservation movement.

I found Leopold's writing to be very straight-forward, simple and down-to-earth. At the same time the text is full of the joy and spiritual sustenance that nature contains for those who cannot live without wild things.

A Sand County Almanac gives a picture of environmentalism as I see it. Namely it is an environmentalism not primarily concerned with the economic and public health impacts of environmental degradation (though those are important concerns). Leopold's environmentalism recognizes the intrinsic worth of the biotic community, and it's power to uplift the human spirit.

Leopold recognizes that protection of the land cannot and should not be left entirely to the government (though governmental protections definitely have their place). Protection of the natural world must take place on a grassroots level to be effective and permanent. The problem (which Leopold saw in his time and which has not changed) is that the citizens and land owners have consistently failed to take even the easiest and most basic steps toward conservation. Forests are seen by the masses not as sacred places but as dumping grounds for trash. Yards are not seen as opportunities for harboring wildlife, but as sterile lawns with the beauties and complexities of nature manicured out of them. Thus, would-be land owners reduce themselves to nothing more than lawn owners.

The lack of a conservation spirit among the citizenry stems from two things I think: apathy and ignorance. Maybe they are really the same thing, or at least closely related. Leopold extols the virtues of some rarely valued plants: silphium and draba, for example. But how can you recognize the value of these quiet little plants if you can't even recognize them at all.

There is, of course, room for optimism. Nature will go on with or without our consent. Each of us has ample opportunity to derive from the elements of nature around us those things that our spirits need.

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#5 Over Sea, Under Stone

2012-02-07T06:52:00.000-06:00

Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the first book of the Dark is Rising sequence, but I read it after reading book two (which happens to be called The Dark is Rising). Anyway, The plan is to read the entire sequence with my older two kids. We're all enjoying it immensely. I think that reading books One and Two in either order is fine, but both book one and two should be read before book three (Greenwitch).

There is much less overt magic in Over Sea Under Stone than in The Dark is Rising, and it is a rather light read, but entertaining, nonetheless.

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#4 Hikaru no Go: First Battle

2012-02-05T21:06:00.001-06:00

Hikaru no Go: First Battle, Vol. 2 by Yumi Hotta

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

In this second book of the series the story starts to hint at the possibility of getting interesting. Hikaru maybe starts to show some promise of becoming good at go. Anyway, I did learn something about go. There's this idea of mirror play. If the first player plays a stone on the center of the board, then he can just mirror the plays of the other player. Thus, it seems that he can always stay even with the other player, even if the other player is much stronger. The mirror idea sounds good, but this book shows one way to defeat mirror play. I won't go into it here.

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#3 Hikaru no Go: Descent of the Go Master

2012-02-05T21:01:00.001-06:00

Hikaru no Go: Descent of the Go Master, Vol. 1 by Yumi Hotta

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

My first manga. Let's just say I don't see a lot of manga in my future. So cheesy! Also, the main character is this hot-headed, angsty adolescent. Reminds me of that twit Harry Potter. But, I'm mildly interested in go these days, and these books are super quick to read, so I'll likely continue with the series.

Reading right to left was pretty easy to get used to. The thing I'm having a hard time getting used to is the ghost of the ancient go master in the story: It's just hard for me to imagine this character with long hair, full lips, ear rings, a petite up-turned nose, delicate smooth features, and hearts in the thought bubbles as a male...oh well.

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#2 The Federalist Papers

2012-02-02T20:53:00.000-06:00

The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Definitely worth the read, though it is tough going in places. I listened to it as an audio book, so that helped. These guys are very persuasive arguers. At least Madison and Hamilton are. Can't say I was too impressed with Jay. I wonder whether they could have argued just as convincingly against a constitution...

Among the things that caught my attention:

The authors argue:

-for the power of judicial review. I had been under the impression that at the Marbury v. Madison decision the court had pulled judicial review out of the air. This is not true at all. Judicial review had been anticipated, though it was a contentious issue (still is, I gather).

-for the power of the federal government to tax individuals, though they don't seem to think that this will happen much. In fact they appear to think that most of the federal revenue needs can be met by a duty on imported alcohol. (They also argue that reducing alcohol consumption through such a duty would be a good thing.)

-for the power of the federal government to borrow money as necessary.

-from an extremely pragmatic standpoint.

-that there must be a compromise on slavery for the sake of keeping the nation together.

-from the experience of other countries, ancient and modern.

-*against* a bill of rights (yeah, that one surprised me.)

-that for there to be any government at all, it is required that the people cede to it some of their natural rights.

Furthermore, they are dismissive of arguments that the constitution favors the "wealthy and well-born". What's more, they are dismissive of the idea of there being any "wealthy and well-born" at all.

Anyway, good read. Highly recommended. I'm only giving it three stars, but it's a high three.

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#1 A Monster Calls

2012-01-01T20:01:00.000-06:00

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've had the thought before, and I believe it is true that the value of a book can be measured by the journey that its reader takes while reading it. Thus, I can really only say how valuable a book is to me. A Monster Calls has taken me on a short journey (I've read it over the course of just more than a day) but it has been an unusually deep one.

Conor O'Malley's mother is dying, but no one dares talk about it in front of him. What's worse, Conor can't tell himself that she is dying and that's just the first layer of truths that Conor isn't admitting--can't admit--to himself.

Patrick Ness depicts vividly and accurately the emotions of an adolescent boy dealing with the looming death of his mother but it's not just a picture of painful emotion that Ness gives us. His story also offers comfort and redemption in the unusual shape of a green woody monster.

Perhaps A Monster Calls is a bit sentimental, but I found none of it trite. The story teams with life, with raw violence of emotion; it is fresh and searing and strange and grotesque and deeply comforting.

Something else to recommend the book: though death (as the main theme) and sex (incidentally) come into the story, they are treated with a reverence unusual in this day that doesn't come off as prudish nor stuffy.

A Monster Calls is a good quick read; but not a light one--especially for anyone who has felt the feelings that Conor does.

I could say more, but that more would delve into the journey that this book took me on; and that journey is more about my own feelings and experiences at my mother's death than anything else. That would be far outside of the intent of a book review such as this one.

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2011-12-11T19:56:00.000-06:00

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" certainly ranks among the best Christmas books ever. More touching and less political than "A Christmas Carol". Closer to home than "The Story of the Other Wiseman". Most of all its a good poke in the eye and a gentle tug at the heart strings of we who call ourselves Christians but can't seem to remember what that is really supposed to mean (if we ever learned). I can't read it out-loud to my kids without choking up during the entire last chapter.

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Views From my Bedroom Window on a Rainy Day

2011-12-07T16:30:00.001-06:00

Junonia Review

2011-09-24T20:58:00.000-05:00

Junonia by Kevin Henkes

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Some have called Junonia a disappointing book about disappointment, lacking excitement, humor, or endearing characters. Indeed, when I finished the book, I had to ask myself whether anything at all actually happened in the book.

Slowly I've come to understand that this is the point. Junonia is about nihilism, or at least it is about the emptiness and loneliness of a certain modern lifestyle.

Alice is the only child of two only children (Henkes is careful to point this out early in the book). Alice's life is devoid of conflict, excitement, and ultimately meaning. Henkes depicts family life in modern America within the framework of small family size, agnosticism, lack of any real danger, and abundance of the necessities of life.

The thing is, Alice doesn't even have the drama of flawed parents. They aren't over-protective, they aren't over-indulgent. They *are* level-headed, well-meaning, adept parents. They really love Alice and she really loves them. Alice has no room for real complaints and so must make up petty ones. Then again, what kid doesn't complain about petty things, or what adult for that matter?

So why, to Alice, does everything feel so fake? And if you bought a junonia shell rather than finding one on the beach...would that be just as meaningful? Who's to say? Furthermore, if nobody really knows whether there is a God, then why not just make up your own? And how come doing so doesn't seem to add any meaning to life?

Basically that's the point of the book. At first it appears to be a shallow book with flat characters, but I think really that it is a deep book about how shallow life can feel. The flatness of the characters is--how can I say this?--more than skin deep.

All of this is not to say that Henkes is a critic of small families, agnosticism, nor being a good parent. Henkes simply writes about the reality of the modern world and its consequences.

I see this book as touching a cord for children who come from similar situations as Alice, but this is pure speculation on my part since I was raised as a Christian in a large family by (forgive me, Mom) flawed parents. (Furthermore, I've not yet been to Florida). Still, there is something familiar to the story for anyone from affluent industrialized society.

The message that I take away from Junonia is: modern middle-to-upper class liberal western society is *not* going to produce an Anne Frank. On the other hand, unnecessarily adding danger, drama, or hardship to our lives certainly isn't going to solve anything.

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My kind of commute

2011-07-15T20:18:00.000-05:00

Square Backpack?

2011-05-13T15:25:00.000-05:00

I arrived home on my bike today with an unussually square backpack...Hmmm...

Herb garden!

Spring Break 2011

2011-04-24T09:00:00.002-05:00

I took my kids camping on the beach. Yes: 1 Dad, 4 kids, 3 nights, 17 quadrillion gallons of salt water and 10 to the 20 grains of sand*. We played on the beach, hiked, visited visitors' centers and looked for clams. Pirates moved in next door, but turned out to be good neighbors. It was a fun trip and we're already planning on going back next year.

Bailey found a hermit crab (below).

Whatcha collecting, Seth?
Broken trees!

*rough estimates only, though I'm pretty sure about the number of kids.

#33 Onions, Grilled Onions, Jalapeno Peppers: A Cheeseburger Review

2011-04-23T21:26:00.002-05:00

Holy onions, Batman! Does Five Guys make a good carbo-loading meal? IN any case it seemed to work the night before a long ride.

What would you like from Five Guys, Lucy?

Umm, a cheeseburger with pickles and chicken.

They don't have chicken.

I mean...I don't know what it's called. The brown stuff.

Puzzled: Bar-B-Que sauce?...Oh wait, you mean the meat. That's called beef. OK, we'll make sure they put a patty on your burger.

Two and a half out of five guys.

(See How to Eat an Equilateral Cheeseburger for an explanation of my research program.)

#32 Relish, Tomato, Mustard: A Cheeseburger Review

2011-04-23T21:21:00.002-05:00

Is this going to be my top rated relish burger to date? It is! A surprisingly good combination, and once again, one that I wouldn't have put together on my own. See! This system is not well approximated linearly.

Three and a half guys out of five guys.

(See How to Eat an Equilateral Cheeseburger for an explanation of my research program.)

#31 Mayo, Pickle, Ketchup: A Cheeseburger Review

2011-04-23T21:15:00.002-05:00

OK, honestly the main reason I am rating this one so high is probably that I ate it after riding 50 miles on my bike. Still, these are good ingredients that go together pretty well.

Four guys out of five guys.

(See How to Eat an Equilateral Cheeseburger for an explanation of my research program.)

#30 Green Peppers, A-1, Hot Sauce: A Cheeseburger Review

2011-04-23T21:13:00.002-05:00

A three, but let's call it a low three. Not as exciting as it should be.

Three guys out of five guys.

(See How to Eat an Equilateral Cheeseburger for an explanation of my research program.)

#29 Mushroom, Ketchup, Jalapeno Peppers: A Cheeseburger Review

2011-04-23T21:09:00.003-05:00

Less heat more...je ne sais quoi and you would have something here.

Two and a half out of five guys.

(See How to Eat an Equilateral Cheeseburger for an explanation of my research program.)

#28 Lettuce, Pickle, Grilled Onion: A Cheeseburger Review

2011-04-23T21:08:00.003-05:00

Definitely lacking something.

Two guys out of five guys.

(See How to Eat an Equilateral Cheeseburger for an explanation of my research program.)

#27 Hot Sauce, Mayo, Onion: A Cheeseburger Review

2011-04-23T20:13:00.002-05:00

Not a bad combination!

Three guys out of five guys.

(See How to Eat an Equilateral Cheeseburger for an explanation of my research program.)

Ice Bike 2011

2011-02-02T21:11:00.006-06:00

My old foul-weather bike died. It had lasted longer than it was meant to and several things failed on the same day: brakes, shifter, spokes. Other components were shot and would have to have been replaced (headset, drive train). So I tossed it and that very night bought a new bike that I found on a local listing:

So that's my new ice bike. Some things you will want on an ice bike:

1. Good lights (front and back)

2. Reflectors also

3. Full coverage fenders (front and back). I added these myself. I think the shiny aluminum goes with the look of the bike well.

4. A mud flap (at least on the front fender). This one is leather. Put as much leather on your bike as you can.

5. A dose of caution. Even so you are going to take the occasional spill. If you are cautious those spills will be at low speed and your pride will be hurt more than anything. Here is a small tear in my wind-pants due to a fall I took right in front of an onlooker. He gave me the thumbs-up. A little duct tape will fix the tear.

6. The right attitude. The weather always seems worse from inside. Once you're out in it you're usually fine, if you're prepared. (Keywords: usually and if)

Have fun out there!

Letter to Santa Claus

2010-12-25T18:19:00.002-06:00

Dear Santa,

I want a Polly pocket for Christmas. I want a Christmas dress. I want to have an art kit for Christmas. I want a ballariena doll. I want a sewing kit. I want 20 dollars in my stocking. I would be sad if I do not get 20 dollars.

-Abigail

(Editors note: written on Christmas Eve. She didn't get anything mentioned in the letter. She still said she had a good Christmas.)

Spice Cupboard

2010-11-21T19:51:00.003-06:00

With some help from my wife I organized my spice cupboard today. This is what I currently have in it (very roughly from back to front, which also translates very roughly into least used to most used):

"Italian seasoning"
cinnamon sticks
lemon pepper
garam masala
red pepper flakes
alum
cream of tartar
paprika
whole nutmeg
whole cloves
whole yellow mustard seed
"curry powder"
Tony Chachere's "salt alternative"
whole peppercorns
powdered ginger
Lawry's seasoned salt
parsley flakes
chili powder
dill weed
fennugreek seeds
nigella seeds
sage
celery salt
ground black pepper
tamarind concentrate
poppy seed
"fajita seasoning"
star anise
saffron threads
ground mustard
whole caraway seed
chipotle powder
whole allspice
ground cloves
ground mace
whole fennel seed
ground cardamom
ground nutmeg
cayenne pepper
ground cinnamon
whole coriander
marjoram
whole cumin
tarragon
thyme
oregano
ground coriander
ground turmeric
bay leaf
ground cumin
kosher salt

Of course this doesn't count other spices that I have other places, such as: in baskets above the cupboards (including powdered peppermint leaf [important to some Indian recipes], powdered spearmint leaf, black mustard seed, dried basil leaf, and lots of others); on the back of the stove (Sriracha sauce and Tabasco sauce), in the garden on the deck (fresh chives, rosemary, thyme, and oregano); and, in it's own special place where it won't corrupt other spices, asafoetida powder.

I like to have a good selection of spices on hand. What do you think? Anything obvious I'm missing? Some things on my wish list are: curry leaves, whole cardamom pods and dried green mango, but I get along without them.

I'll go ahead and cross-post this to the Queen's Kitchen.

#26 Jalapeno Peppers, Green Peppers, Bar-B-Que Sauce: A Cheeseburger Review

2010-10-29T19:31:00.003-05:00

A strong start, but the heat over-powered all else about midway through and it didn't have the diversity of flavor to hold interest through the end.

Three guys out of five guys.

(See How to Eat an Equilateral Cheeseburger for an explanation of my research program.)

Century Ride

2010-10-11T12:18:00.004-05:00

Arlynda and I did a century ride, which is a 100 mile ride in a single day.

Love those bagels!

Here I am at the first stop. Only 77 miles to go!

Can you spot Arlynda?

There she is!

Stop number two. 57 miles to go.

Stop number three was at the beach. Only 37 miles left at this point.

By the fourth stop Arlynda had had it. She did great, but 85 miles was enough for her. She caught a ride to the finish, while I finished the full hundred on my bike.

Menu Board, Oct 6

2010-10-06T22:12:00.003-05:00

It was so popular last week, why not again? The Gratin got bumped because I had no time to prepare it (the squash will keep anyway).

#25 Grilled Onions, Grilled Mushrooms, Mustard: A Cheeseburger Review

2010-10-06T22:04:00.003-05:00

A very well executed burger. Mustard is not the sauce to go with the onion and lettuce, but other than that it was great. My entire family seemed to be in the mood for Five Guys tonight. We polished off everything and went back for more peanuts.

Three and a half guys out of five guys.

(See How to Eat an Equilateral Cheeseburger for an explanation of my research program.)

#24 Onions, Lettuce, Tomatoes: A Cheeseburger Review

2010-10-06T21:59:00.003-05:00

This burger was well done. Classic tastes and the ample veggies offset the meat nicely.

Four guys out of five guys.

(See How to Eat an Equilateral Cheeseburger for an explanation of my research program.)

#23 Bar-B-Que Sauce, Hot Sauce, Relish: A Cheese Burger Review

2010-10-06T21:58:00.001-05:00

Meh.

Two and a half out of five guys.

(See How to Eat an Equilateral Cheeseburger for an explanation of my research program.)

Menu Board

2010-10-02T13:01:00.004-05:00

Because our kids ask so often "what's for dinner?" my wife made this menu board. Each week I make up our menu and write it on the board. It has saved us answering the same question over and over.

Metric Century

2010-09-12T15:36:00.016-05:00

I convinced Arlynda that she wanted to do some long bike rides with me. Last year I did the Gettysburg Metric Century (which is a 100 kilometer ride or about 62 miles). That was my first organized cycling event. This year Arlynda did it with me (which was her first organized cycling event).

Below is Arlynda sunscreening-up for our early start:

After about eight miles we crossed the first covered bridge of the course:

Who's that guy looking sharp in a dress shirt? Call me a non-conformist but as an alternative to all of the spandex one sees at these events I decided to wear mountain-bike shorts and a button-down shirt.

At mile 15 we reached our first official rest stop. It was stocked with fruits, peanut butter sandwiches, pretzels and other snacks, as well as water and sports drinks. It was also directly adjacent to the second covered bridge that we would cross.

In the photo below Arlynda heads out of official rest stop #1:

Those first 15 miles had some pretty gentle rolling hills with a couple of steeper ones, but nothing we couldn't handle. The next 19 miles would put us to the test with steady elevation gain and several steep hills. Arlynda is not a fan of climbing hills. By the time we got to official rest stop #2 she seemed to be spent and I was wondering whether we would have to rely on the SAG service (volunteers are on hand to shuttle people to the finish if needed).

Official rest stop #2 is located at a volunteer fire department. There was a little league game going on in the adjacent field. The highlight of this rest stop is the tomato sandwiches. In fact the tomato sandwiches might be the highlight of the entire event. Really? Tomato sandwiches? Yes, really. Slices of fresh tomatoes on whole wheat bread with mayonnaise. As I grabbed some tomato sandwiches for me and Arlynda I heard another cyclist say that they were to die for. He was right. Nothing could beat them especially after pedaling 35 miles. Here I am going back for more:

I think that between Arlynda and I we ate about 20 of them! There were also peaches, pears, nectarines, plums, grapes, apples and bananas. There were Twizzlers, fig Newtons, Chex mix, granola bars, pretzels, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, caramels, chocolate-chip cookies and nuts. The rest stop was well stocked and we spent a long time there fueling our bodies.

We headed out of rest stop #2 towards Gettysburg. By the time we hit Gettysburg we were in better spirits as can be seen in the two photos below:

In fact the next 12 miles to rest stop #3 went extremely well. I knew that Arlynda was feeling good when she hammered up a hill blowing past several other riders. We rolled into rest stop #3

grabbed a few snacks and headed out.

The last stretch had some rolling hills, but wasn't too tough. However, at that point we were both pretty tired and eager to get to the end. We made it in time to catch the ice-cream truck!

Our cycle computers said we had done about 65 miles. We headed home exhausted. I hope we do it again next year.

#22 Mustard, Jalapeno Peppers, A-1 Sauce: A Cheeseburger Review

2010-06-22T20:14:00.001-05:00

For a jalapeno burger, I enjoyed this one more than most.

Two and a half out of five guys.

(See How to Eat an Equilateral Cheeseburger for an explanation of my research program.)

#21 Tomatoes, Grilled Onions, Ketchup: A Cheeseburger Review

2010-06-22T20:10:00.001-05:00

A little behind on posting, so just playing ketchup ;).

Three guys out of five guys.

(See How to Eat an Equilateral Cheeseburger for an explanation of my research program.)

#20 Relish, Onions, Pickles: A Cheeseburger Review

2010-04-28T20:12:00.001-05:00

The first few bites of this burger were fantastic! The onions, pickles and relish complement the taste of the beef well without masking it. It is difficult for a burger with relish to have real staying power to the last bite for me though. So while I was considering giving it four guys till about halfway through I've settled on:

Three and a half guys out of five guys.

(See How to Eat an Equilateral Cheeseburger for an explanation of my research program.)

#19 A-1 Sauce, Bar-B-Q Sauce, Mayo: A Cheeseburger Review

2010-04-27T20:04:00.003-05:00

This is my lowest rated all-sauce burger so far (in fact my lowest rated burger so far period). It just wasn't well executed. The mid portions of the burger had very little A-1 or Bar-B-Q. Even if it had been well executed it doesn't hold much promise.

One guy out of five guys.

(See How to Eat an Equilateral Cheeseburger for an explanation of my research program.)

#18 Ketchup, Mustard, Green Peppers: A Cheeseburger Review

2010-04-04T09:36:00.001-05:00

Nothing to complain about here, but not a ton to get excited about either.

Three guys out of five guys.

(See How to Eat an Equilateral Cheeseburger for an explanation of my research program.)

#17 Pickles, Tomatoes, Grilled Mushrooms: a Cheeseburger Review

2010-03-16T20:40:00.004-05:00

It was a beautiful afternoon. I knew my wife wasn't feeling well and my son had to be at soccer by 6:00. What to do for dinner? Take-out from Five Guys and enjoy a picnic on the soccer field! It turned out to be one of my best ideas ever. The burger itself was probably only three and a half guys, but I'm giving it an extra half guy for the nice weather and the time spent in the fresh air with my family.

Four guys out of five guys.

(See How to Eat an Equilateral Cheeseburger for an explanation of my research program.)

P.S. In the interest of full disclosure I am NOT sponsored by Five Guys. If you are a Five Guys representative and would like to correct this, please contact me.

#16 Mayo, Relish, Lettuce: a Cheeseburger Review

2010-02-08T20:26:00.010-06:00

We dug ourselves out of the snow by hand and went to Five Guys to celebrate (and to get the kids out of the house). The roads are insane. It felt like we were deep in the Alaskan wilderness driving on rutted permafrost.

The burger was surprisingly mediocre. If it had had a little less relish it may even have been great.

Two and a half out of five guys.

(See How to Eat an Equilateral Cheeseburger for an explanation of my research program.)

Snowed In

2010-02-07T14:28:00.007-06:00

I've never literally been snowed-in for any substantial amount of time before, but right now that's exactly what we are and have been for the last 36 hours or so. There has been no sign of a snowplow on our street since early early Saturday morning (I'm writing this Sunday afternoon). As my neighbor put it, "ain't nobody been out. Ain't nobody getting out." Not until a decent snow plow comes through, anyway. Mmmm...on second thought that's not quite true. Some have been out, but there is only one way: on foot.

It's not a big deal really. We have everything we need: power, gas, phone and internet, plenty of food; and we have nowhere to go. Church was canceled today (second week in a row). School is canceled for tomorrow. What about work tomorrow? I don't know yet, but I have my fingers crossed (not literally). We're enjoying ourselves and only getting a little stir-crazy.

UPDATE (Sunday, 9:00 pm): A snowplow was spotted! The plow made it back almost to our cul-de-sac before giving up and leaving. The problem is the cul-de-sac wasn't made to handle this much snow. There's nowhere to put it! (The snowplows around here also weren't made to handle this much snow.) The question is: did they give up just for the night or for good? Still snowed in. Still hanging in there.

UPDATE (Monday, 4:00 pm): We are out! No thanks to any stinking snowplows. Today the whole neighborhood got outside and dug until we were free. It was quite a feat. There was a lot of snow to move, but with everyone working and with all the work that we had each done individually Saturday and Sunday we got it done in a few hours. Just in time for more snow tomorrow! Needless to say, I didn't have work today. No school for the kids again tomorrow. We'll see whether I have work tomorrow.

Ice Bike!

2010-02-04T19:39:00.004-06:00

I have a goal for 2010: to not commute to work by car at all. I had the same goal in 2009. I drove my car to work three times last year. This year I am determined that I'll make it.

Coming into the year has been trial by fire. Not only am I taking a three week class that is more than twice my normal commute distance away (10 miles one-way rather than 4), but we have also been hit with major snow storm after major snow storm. Those two things in isolation wouldn't be a big deal. Neither combined would they be huge were it not for one aggravating factor. A good mile and a half of my current commute (the longer ten-mile one) is along a bike path and NOBODY CLEARS THE SNOW FROM THE BIKE PATH. (In fact, in some places snow is cleared onto the path.)

Maybe it's true that I am the only one bonkers enough to be using the path in this weather, but if we are going to be serious about offering alternative means of transportation, well then let's take it seriously and clear the bike paths.

One more week of class. One more week of snow in the forecast. One more week of me being determined to not give in.

Round 1: The White Stag vs. Noah's Garden

2010-02-03T08:01:00.004-06:00

Last March I did a post (see: March Brackets) about book brackets. Well, it's been almost a year so I guess that we'd better get under way. My first line-up is between The White Stag and Noah's Garden.

The White Stag by Kate Seredy

My rating: 2 of 5 stars
The White Stag is story of how the Huns came to inhabit Hungary and of Atilla, the man who led them there. It's a mythology painted with broad strokes and with illustrations depicting chiseled heroes and fair maidens.

I don't have lot to say about this book. It won the Newbery award in 1938, and I have to say that it's my least favorite of all the Newberys I've read. It's not that I have anything particular to complain about. The book just didn't do a lot for me.

Noah's Garden: Restoring the Ecology of Our Own Backyards by Sara B. Stein

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Sara Stein documents her journey from being a conventional American gardener to a naturalist, ecologist and native-habitat restorer. Along the way there are wonders to behold and lessons to learn.

First a sample of one of the wonders: have you ever considered the life cycle of the aphid? Aphids are polymorphous, viviparous and parthenogenetic. Let's break that down.
Polymorphous: different generations have different body shapes.
Viviparous: they give birth to live young.
Parthenogenetic: they reproduce without fertilization. (They also reproduce with fertilization).
It get's stranger, but I won't go further into the aphids here.

Now for one of those lessons. Here's a quote from the book

How much water does it take to quench a butterfly's thirst? Give a dove a bath? Provide a laying place for toads? No more than a puddle.

But where are the puddles? Where are the dirt roads that you splashed in during your youth? Probably paved over with excellent drainage. The sad truth is that we've improved away our toads, doves and butterflies.

The problem with ecological restoration is that it takes education, whereas putting in grass, dousing it with water, and mowing it every week takes no thought.

Noah's Garden is a wonderful read with an important message.

View all my reviews >>

The winner is clear: Noah's Garden will be advancing to the semi-finals.

#15 Green Peppers, A-1 Sauce, Bar-B-Q Sauce: a Cheeseburger Review

2010-01-22T21:13:00.005-06:00

There's some tang to this one and I had high expectations for it which were not completely fulfilled. Not a disappointment, but not the best burger ever.

Three and a half out of five guys.

This concludes the first triangle-class worth of cheeseburgers. One little mole hill down. A whole mountain of cheeseburgers to go.

(See How to Eat an Equilateral Cheeseburger for an explanation of my research program.)

#14 Grilled Mushrooms, Ketchup, Mustard: A Cheeseburger Review

2010-01-21T19:57:00.005-06:00

Oh, this one was nice. Who invented mustard? Turmeric and vinegar with ground mustard seed: genius! The mushrooms, which bring out the flavor of the meat nicely, were packed on. As I've said, I'm not a huge ketchup fan, but that bit of sugar with some extra umame made the flavors mingle nicely.

four guys out of five guys.

(See How to Eat an Equilateral Cheeseburger for an explanation of my research program.)

#13 Lettuce, Pickles, Tomatoes: A Cheeseburger Review

2010-01-06T20:12:00.005-06:00

Here you have a very standard set of toppings, nothing special, not tons of flavor. There's not much to complain about, but nothing to get excited about.

one and a half guys out of five guys.

(See How to Eat an Equilateral Cheeseburger for an explanation of my research program.)

#12 Hot Sauce, Mayo, Relish: A Cheeseburger Review

2009-12-17T20:10:00.005-06:00

The hot sauce took the sweet bite off of the relish a bit and mayo is always good.

two and a half guys out of five guys.

Also...oops. I'm shocked that none of my astute readers caught the fact that my last burger was out of order. The last one should have had A-1 sauce instead of bar-B-Q sauce. No worries, I'll just have to remember to have the jalapeno, green pepper, A-1 sauce when I come to the jalapeno, green pepper, bar-B-Q sauce one.

(See How to Eat an Equilateral Cheeseburger for an explanation of my research program.)

#11 Jalapeno Peppers, Green Peppers, Bar-B-Q Sauce: A Cheeseburger Review

2009-12-08T22:11:00.004-06:00

Now here is a burger with a taste the size of Texas! (How's that for a cheesy review?) But seriously, the bar-b-q sauce and the green peppers set the Southwestern tone of this cheeseburger and jalapeno peppers were the right thing to go with that. So, yes, I have my same complaint that jalapenos pack a bit too much heat for me. But whoever put this sandwich together didn't go overboard with the jalapenos. Once again, I was surprised. A very tasty burger (much better than #7, which was the same as this burger only with mustard substituted for bar-b-q sauce).

Three guys out of five guys.

Let me explain that the "green pepper" is of course green bell pepper. It drives me nuts that food establishments like to call green bell peppers just "green peppers": As if that were enough of a description. Ever notice that almost all peppers are green when they are not ripe? (And, by the way, no peppers are green when they are ripe.)

(See How to Eat an Equilateral Cheeseburger for an explanation of my research program.)

#10 Grilled Onions, Grilled Mushrooms, Ketchup: A Cheeseburger Review

2009-12-03T22:09:00.005-06:00

I'm liking the grilled onions, a milder onion flavor. I'm liking the grilled mushrooms, lots of umami to bring out the burger flavor. Ketchup is ketchup. Ketchup is meh.

Three guys out of five guys.

(See How to Eat an Equilateral Cheeseburger for an explanation of my research program.)

2009-11-20T20:36:00.001-06:00

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
When You Reach Me is an homage and a response to Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time. Whereas L'Engle's novel is overtly Christian, Stead rejects that Christianity, or at best overtly avoids it. All the same this is a well thought-out, well-written story of human compassion. Stead confronts her readers with the challenge of refraining from judging those around us and reaching out to everyone who might need our help. Furthermore, Stead delivers this message without being corny or creepy.

There's plenty to discuss in the book, but I'll refer (cryptically) to only one more thing: Stead showed me something about myself that I didn't like and challenged me to change it. There is nothing more noble that a writer can aspire to.

View all my reviews >>

#9 Onions, Lettuce, Pickles: A Cheeseburger Review

2009-11-16T21:34:00.005-06:00

A pretty classic taste here that just works, but a bit strong on the onion toward the end. Maybe the burgermeister (OK, I know that's not really what that word means) that made this one was heavy-handed with them.

Three guys out of five guys.

(See How to Eat an Equilateral Cheeseburger for an explanation of my research program.)

My Side of the Mountain

2009-11-14T22:18:00.002-06:00

My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I appear to be working my way backwards through the cannon on man's relationship to the natural world, having read in recent years Second Nature: A Gardener's Education. Perhaps next I will read A Sand County Almanac and then Thoreau's Walden.

The major thing that I got from My Side of the Mountain is that whenever we try to escape civilization by leaving it behind and losing ourselves in nature, we--in truth--bring civilization with us. We cannot live without both the society of other beings and at least rudimentary tools. We are social and technological beings. I don't think this was the main theme that the author was pushing with this book, but she was at least cognizant of it.

If we cannot shake off all the trappings of human society and revert to primal coexistence with nature, how then are we left to commune with the natural world? I think that instead of going to live in nature (bringing with us our roads, our Walmarts and our landfills) we must bring nature back to live with us. This is an idea that jives well with Michael Pollan's view of man as the gardeners of the earth (not a new idea, but one that seems to be largely forgot by parties on all sides of the Green Debate these days).

View all my reviews.

#8 Bar-B-Q Sauce, Hot Sauce, Mayo: A Cheeseburger Review

2009-10-22T20:41:00.005-05:00

My wife says that she never thought of me as a sauce kind of a guy, but I'm really liking the all sauce burgers.

Three and a half guys out of five guys.

(See How to Eat an Equilateral Cheeseburger for an explanation of my research program.)

#7 Mustard, Jalapeno Peppers, Green Peppers: A Cheeseburger Review

2009-10-19T21:33:00.004-05:00

I like bell peppers, but raw jalapeno on a cheeseburger is just too spice for me. Oh well, I enjoyed a nice lunch with a friend.

One and a half guys out of five guys.

(See How to Eat an Equilateral Cheeseburger for an explanation of my research program.)

A strange loop observed

2009-09-26T21:07:00.019-05:00

Here the whole world (stars, water, air,
And field, and forest, as they were
Reflected in a single mind)
Like cast off clothes was left behind
In ashes, yet with hopes that she,
Re-born from holy poverty,
In lenten lands, hereafter may
Resume them on her Easter Day.
-Epitaph of Joy Davidman, by C. S. Lewis

I Am a Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter and A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis are two very different books that I want to review here.

First let me explain what brought me to reading these two books in tandem. Several years ago I read a review of I Am a Strange Loop in a math magazine. The book details Hofstadter's philosophy of mind. One thing that caught my attention is that the reviewer mentioned that the book is a soliloquy lamenting the untimely death of Hofstadter's wife and how he believes she lives on in his own mind as his memories of her. It sounded mildly interesting, but Hofstadter's world view is very atheistic and in the end he believes that each of us is really just some extraordinarily complex software running on the extraordinarily complex hardware of our brains. This contrasts sharply with my own belief in the Mormon doctrine that "Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be." (see Doctrine and Covenants 93:29). So at the time, I was not very interested in reading I Am a Strange Loop.

I've always loved C. S. Lewis since reading his Chronicles of Narnia. I've seen both versions of the movie Shadowlands, which is about Lewis's marriage late in his life to Joy Davidman. Davidman was on the brink of death at the time of their marriage and the movie ends with Lewis trying to come to grips with her death. I was interested in reading more about Lewis's marriage. I picked up his autobiography Surprised by Joy, but to my surprise, it was written before Lewis was surprised by Joy Davidman. I was afraid that Lewis had never written about this part of his life. Then, recently through a totally unrelated jaunt through the pages of Wikipedia I stumbled upon the entry for the director Richard Attenborough. I discovered that he had directed Shadowlands, and upon clicking that link I found out that A Grief Observed is Lewis's account of dealing with his wife's death.

So I went to the library and got A Grief Observed. But as I was reading it, my mind went back (completely-unanticipatedly) to that review of I Am a Strange Loop. So I looped back to the library and picked up that book also, so that I could compare and contrast them. This is the result:

A Synopsis of I Am a Strange Loop

I Am a Strange Loop addresses what the consciousness or the "I" is. I'm probably over-simplifying this, but I'm going to take a stab at explaining the main thrust of Hofstadter's view of things. Hofstadter claims that the consciousness, what we call "I" or "myself", is a strange loop. Fine, but what does Hofstadter mean by the phrase "strange loop"? I'll use an example from C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia. In The Last Battle [WARNING: spoiler alert] the heroes make it to Aslan's country, which is like Narnia, only more-so. That is, Narnia is a shadow of Aslan's country. In Aslan's country (as in Narnia) there is a walled garden. Enter this garden--this tiny part of Aslan's country--and within it you find a Narnia that is even more-so than Aslan's country. Aslan's country has a copy of itself within itself, but the copy is more real (as well as bigger) than the thing it is contained in. In this copy of Aslan's country, go to the walled garden, enter it and again, you will find a bigger and more real Narnia-Aslan's country. Well, that's how Hofstedter sees consciousness. There you sit, a mass of cells. A bunch of membranes, fluids, etc., but within your brain there are representations of things in the real world. You have some picture of your computer in your mind, your shoes, stars, water, air, field, forest, and yourself. This representation of you that is inside of you, you call "I". Somehow, that "I" is the real you much more than the you sitting in front of your computer. The representation of you within you is the real you. That's what a strange loop is. In Hofstadter's words:

We are powerfully driven to create a term that summarizes the presumed unity, internal coherence, and temporal stability of all the hopes and beliefs and desires that are found inside our own cranium--and that term, as we all learn very early on, is "I". And pretty soon this high abstraction behind the scenes comes to feel like the maximally real entity in the universe.

A Synopsis of A Grief Observed

Lewis took the death of his wife very, very hard. He questioned the most basic of his beliefs and struggled to interpret the universe in the wake of his loss. A Grief Observed is his journal kept at the time of his pain as a relief valve. Aside from being a relief valve, the main theological argument that Lewis seems to be making is that we each have within ourselves an image or representation of God (the atheists too, though to their thinking it is the image of an imaginary being). The events of our lives (the lessons God leads us through) happen largely to shatter that image, so that we may rebuild it to look more like what God actually is.

Contrast

The initial reactions of these two men to each of their wives' deaths were very different, but in a surprising way. Hofstadter, who believes in no after-life, had a sense that his wife went on, as he says in these quotes:

My friends kept on saying to me (oddly enough, in a well-meaning attempt to comfort me), "You can't feel sorry for her! She's dead! There's no one to feel sorry for any more!" How utterly, totally wrong this felt to me.

I found myself ceaselessly haunted by the mystery of the vanishing of her consciousness, which made no sense at all to me, and by the undeniable fact that I kept on thinking of her in the present, which also confused me. p. 228

Lewis, the firm believer in the after-life, had only a sense that his wife had totally vanished (he refers to his wife as "H."):

After the death of a friend, years ago, I had for some time a most vivid feeling of certainty about his continued life; even his enhanced life. I have begged to be given even one hundredth part of the same assurance about H. There is no answer. Only the locked door, the iron curtain, the vacuum, absolute zero. p. 20

One thing that both of these men still had was their memories of their wives. These memories they viewed completely differently. Here is Lewis:

Already, less than a month after her death, I can feel the slow, insidious beginning of a process that will make the H. I think of into a more and more imaginary woman. Founded on fact, no doubt. I shall put in nothing fictitious (or I hope I shan't). But won't the composition inevitably become more and more my own? The reality is no longer there to check me, to pull me up short, as the real H. so often did, so unexpectedly, by being so thoroughly herself and not me.

And here is Hofstadter:

I keep trying, though, to figure out the extent to which I believe that because of my memories of her (in my brain or on paper), and those of other people, some of Carol's consciousness, her interiority, remains on this planet. Being a strong believer in the noncentralizedness of consciousness, in its distributedness, I tend to think that although any individual's consciousness is primarily resident in one particular brain, it is also somewhat present in other brains as well, and so, when the central brain is destroyed, tiny fragments of the living individual remain -- remain alive, that is.

Though neither Carol nor I was religious in the least, there was something that to me rang so true in this naive image of her purest essence leaving her mortal remains and soaring up, up, forever up, even if, in the end, it was not into the sky that her soul was flying, but merely into this guy...

Conclusion

The major parts of both of these books I haven't even hinted at. I just found it interesting that these two men reminded me so much of each other in these brief passages, yet were so different in their interpretations of the deaths of their wives. I originally considered doing this post as a dialogue between the two authors, but decided against it since 1) I am not half as smart as either of them and so would botch it. 2) If these men were actually brought together I don't think that they would jump into a debate, at least not a heated one. I think they would respect each other's opinions and mostly leave it there. 3) Finally, I would be be unfairly biased toward Lewis and wouldn't give Hofstadter a fair shake.

I do have several bones to pick with each of these authors, but I will leave that to another time and probably another place.

#6 Tomatoes, Grilled Onions, Grilled Mushrooms: A Cheeseburger Review

2009-09-26T21:01:00.006-05:00

Now you knew this one had to be good: just a classic taste, a classic burger. It had lots of umami to bring out the taste of the burger.

Four guys out of five guys.

(See How to Eat an Equilateral Cheeseburger for an explanation of my research program.)

#5 Relish, Onions, Lettuce: A Cheeseburger Review

2009-09-23T20:56:00.004-05:00

Yuck. The lettuce and onions were good, but the relish just made it nasty.

I'm adopting a new rating system. Instead of 0 to 10 stars, with no half stars allowed, I'm now going to be using 0 to 5 guys, with half guys allowed.

One and a half guys out of five guys.

(See How to Eat an Equilateral Cheeseburger for an explanation of my research program.)

#4 A-1 Sauce, Bar-B-Q Sauce, Hot Sauce: A Cheeseburger Review

2009-09-08T21:33:00.006-05:00

My first all-sauce burger. It was much better than I expected. They didn't go over-board on smothering it with sauce, just enough to endow the flavor without covering the natural flavors of the cheeseburger. This burger justifies my trying all 455 cheeseburgers, because I certainly wouldn't have guessed this one would be so good. Very tangy.

Three and a half guys out of five guys.

(See How to Eat an Equilateral Cheeseburger for an explanation of my research program.)

#3 Ketchup, Mustard, Jalapeno Peppers: A Cheeseburger Review

2009-08-29T13:01:00.006-05:00

I convinced my wife that where she really wanted to go for her birthday dinner was Five Guys. So of course I got my next cheeseburger. The jalapeno peppers are a bit too hot for me. I didn't have trouble finishing the burger, it was just a tad spicy for me to really enjoy it. Plus I'm not really a huge fan of ketchup and mustard on a cheeseburger.

Two guys out of five guys.

(See How to Eat an Equilateral Cheeseburger for an explanation of my research program.)

Tomato, Mustard, Jalepeno: NOT a Cheeseburger Review

2009-08-18T20:36:00.004-05:00

I normally stay as far away from politics as I can in this blog, but this seems harmless enough. I've also avoided naming the burger place I am patronizing, but what the heck. Maybe someone from Five Guys will read this and decide to sponsor me.

Apparently the President is on-board with my research program:

Obama Five Guys Visit: Orders Cheeseburger

He starts out with the magic number of three toppings. Then he throws on a fourth topping as an after thought.

#2 Pickles, Tomatoes, Grilled Onions: A Cheeseburger Review

2009-08-15T11:24:00.009-05:00

This was a promising burger. The first sign of trouble was when my order came up and there was lettuce on the burger (and no pickles). I couldn't be derailed this early in my research, so I requested that they correct their mistake, and they did, gleefully. The problem is that they put my corrected burger together so fast that the cheese wasn't even melted. Cold pickles on cold tomatoes on cold cheese made this only a mediocre burger. Out of fairness to the potential for this to be a good burger I will give it:

Three and a half guys out of five guys.

(See How to Eat an Equilateral Cheeseburger for an explanation of my research program.)

#1 Mayo, Relish, Onions: A Cheeseburger Review

2009-08-12T20:32:00.008-05:00

I plan to eat 455 cheeseburgers over the course of the next 19 years, all from a national burger chain that offers 15 toppings. Each cheeseburger will have a different selection of three of those toppings. See these two posts: Two Problems in Elementary Cheeseburger Theory and How to Eat an Equilateral Cheeseburger for the math behind the endeavor. The point is to determine what combination of three toppings is the tastiest. So I will review each burger here after I eat it.

Cheeseburger #1: Mayo, Relish, Onions

The relish is sweet relish, of which I am not a fan. In fact I usually say that I hate sweet relish. But still this was a good burger. The onion and relish set each other off well, and mayo makes everything better. By the end I had had too much of the sweetness, but I can't complain. This is definitely not the best three-topping-cheeseburger. Probably not in the top half, but not at the bottom either. Not a cheeseburger I ever would have tried were it not for my little experiment, and I'm glad for the experience of eating it.

Two and a half guys out of five guys.

Ender's Game, a review

2009-07-26T22:45:00.003-05:00

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Maybe it's because he's Mormon and I'm Mormon also, but anything I read by Orson Scott Card is ultimately about religion to me.

Ender's Game is no different, and so I cannot read it without comparing Card with another author who (at least in my mind) writes solely about religion: C. S. Lewis. Put briefly Lewis is the most comforting author I've ever read. Card is the most disturbing.

The thing that bothers me so much about Card is that he understands too well the darkest parts of humanity: the lust of the megalomanic, the pleasures of the sadist (and from a short story of Card's not related to Ender's Game the motives of the incestuous). In short, Card's mind is not a pleasant place to be.

Lewis on the other hand, even when walking me through the intricate workings of Hell, makes me feel as if I'm seated with him in an easy chair in a cozy English cottage. "Yes, Jack. I see exactly what you're saying. I feel the same way too."

I don't dare admit even to myself that I've thought the thoughts or felt the feelings that Card writes about.

So which of these authors is it more important for me to read? Is Card really a wolf in sheep's clothing, purportedly writing about the redemptive spirit mankind is capable of, but in truth giving us a taste only of the ugliest of our natures and leaving us hungering for more? Or is it that Card is simply more honest than any of us are brave enough to be? Does he lay bare to the world things that I won't admit about myself to myself even in the deepest recesses of my own mind?

Ender's Game is about redemption. It's about the horrible things that fear can drive us to. It's about the messy Universe we live in where good intentions can go awry. Can Ender, who has been treated only to harshness and cruelty, find deep within himself the power to not only forgive, but to lead others to do the same?

I have to admit that Card is an excellent writer. He knows how to tell a good story. As to how much Card I will be reading in the future, I don't know. Maybe it's good for me to be brought out of my comfort zone. Maybe Card has as much or more to teach me about Christianity as Lewis. I can't be sure, but I have come away from this book with something new: a deeper insight into the struggles to deal with the evils we harbor within, and the hope that we can overcome them.

View all my reviews >>

If God had wanted us to have 24 gears...

2009-06-30T19:07:00.011-05:00

The Church I belong to has a program called home teaching. Basically it goes like this: Everybody in the Church is given the job of visiting somebody (or multiple somebodies) else in the Church each month to deliver a brief (some people forget that part) spiritual message and see if the family or individual needs help with anything (such as moving a tree or driving across the Country; Those are actually both things that my home teachers have helped me with in the past).

Anyway, you get the idea. There is a grand tradition known as procrastination. The rules say visit your people every month. So which day of the month do think those visits actually happen on? ...and today is? ...so tonight I was doing? ...Yes! You guessed it: Home teaching.

A little more set up for the story is in order.

Early this month my family and I went on vacation. I had to come back for work (I only have so much leave), but my family stayed on vacation. We drove out. I flew back. Which makes me car free for at least two weeks (hurray!).

So tonight, I set out on my bike under a beautiful sunny sky. I visited two families. Shared a simple message about prayer. Then I was back on the street on my fixie. There's nothing like spreading the Word on a fixed gear: "One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one gear." Or however the scripture goes.

Ah the exhilaration: speeding home down a roadway, getting caught in a cloud burst and merging across lanes of thick traffic on an old-school bike.

If God had wanted us to have 24 gears on a bike, for that matter if He had wanted us to drive those big steel boxes around (what do you call them? Oh, yeah: cars) he wouldn't have made it so enlivening to get where you're going on a fixed gear...just my opinion.

Giving Up

2009-04-25T21:40:00.004-05:00

This is in response to a family member's blog post: six books I couldn't put down; six books that I have put down or on hold or just haven't gotten back to; six I made myself finish no matter how agonizing.

First, six books I couldn't put down:

1-Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell

2-Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (I'm embarrassed to admit) by J. K. Rowling.

3-Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

4-The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis

5-The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov

6-Man vs. Machine: Kasparov vs. Deep Blue by Raymond Keene and Tony Buzan

7-The Master of Go by Yasunari Kawabata (I know I was only supposed to do six, but I had to throw this one in.)

six books that I have put down or on hold or just haven't gotten back to

1-The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle (too hippy-dippy-trippy. "The air hung as shiny as candy"? Is this guy just trying to give us a taste of an acid trip or what? This may have been one book that I actually physically threw across the room. I can't remember now.)

2-To a Rocky Moon: A Geologist's History of Lunar Exploration by Don E. Wilhelms (Great book, but it is a tome. Not exactly light reading. I started to get lost in some of the technical geology. But, man! good book. I hope to get back to it someday.)

3-The Math Gene: How Mathematical Thinking Evolved & Why Numbers Are Like Gossip by Keith Devlin.

4-Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (picked it up in High School having heard that it is an important book. My biggest mistake was reading the *lengthy* preface by some Ph.D. discussing minutiae such as what the actual streets may have been that Dostoevsky refers to. I was so exhausted by the time I got through the preface that I put it down and haven't been back to it. Maybe someday.)

5-Angels and Demons by Dan Brown (never again will I pick up a Dan Brown book.)

6-The Problem of Pain by C. S. Lewis (It is my impression that everything worth saying that Lewis says in his Christian apology, he says better in his fiction. I don't plan to come back to it.)

six I made myself finish no matter how agonizing.

1-Foundation and Earth by Isaac Asimov (Actually it's a stretch to say I finished this. I skimmed the final chapters. Isacc Asimov in his twenties was brilliant. This book has two major flaws: 1) all of Asimov's books from this era (including this one) have the theme of beautiful female androids whose only goal in life is to bring pleasure to an aging academic and 2) this book attempts to tie together (perhaps this is slight hyperbole) *all* of Asimov's previous fictional works.)

2-Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling (did anything happen in this book? I don't remember anything happening.)

3-Bambi: A Life in the Woods by Felix Salten (very Freudian)

4-Dune by Frank Herbert (Did anything happen in this book? I must have missed the point entirely.)

5-The Wealthy Barber: The Common Sense Guide to Successful Financial Planning by David Chilton

6-The Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown (I could write children's books better than this.)

Colored Eggs

2009-04-12T11:48:00.006-05:00

When I was a kid there was a game we played with the neighborhood kids. I always thought that it was a standard kid game played by everyone, but recently my sister told me that no one she knows from outside of our neighborhood has heard of it. So I wonder if anyone else has played this game. It's called Colored Eggs and here is how it goes: One person is the Big Bad Wolf. The other players sit on the front porch. Each player (save the Big Bad Wolf) secretly chooses a color. When everyone is ready this dialog begins:

BBW: Knock, knock.
Others: Whose there?
BBW: The Big Bad Wolf.
O: What do you want?
BBW: Colored egss.
O: What color?

At which point the Big Bad Wolf names a color. Anyone who had chosen that color immediately jumps up and runs around the house. The Big Bad Wolf chases the runner. If the runner gets back to the porch before being caught he or she is safe. If the runner gets caught by the Big Bad Wolf, then the runner becomes the new Big Bad Wolf. If no one jumps up to run, then the Big Bad Wolf continues to call out colors until someone's color is chosen. Note that multiple people may have chosen the same color in which case, they all run.

Colored Eggs was a source of long and heated debates, usually centered around what could or could not be chosen as one's color: Is bubble gum a color? Are you allowed to choose periwinkle as a color? Is green-yellow the same as yellow-green? Our canonical reference of allowable colors became the Crayola 120-count crayon box. If I remember correctly bubble gum is not allowed, periwinkle is, and green-yellow is different than yellow-green.

Have you heard of this game before?

March Brackets

2009-03-28T21:24:00.014-05:00

First of all I don't care anything about college basketball. This post has nothing to do with NCAA brackets, but I heard on the radio today about book tournaments and decided that my wife and I should have one. Here's how it will work: We each pick four books that neither of us has read. We pair them off into brackets (seeding them based on our estimation of how much we will like them). We each read our four books and declare winners in each of the matches. Then we read each other's two winners and declare winners from those matches, bringing it down to two books, and we will be left to duke it out over which one was best.

So here are the brackets. For my division we have in the first round:

The Mysterious Benedict Society (my top seed)

Versus

Dubliners

And

The White Stag

Versus

Noah's Garden.

In my wife's division we have:

Uncle Tom's Cabin (my wife's top seed)

Versus

1984

And

The Tao of Physics

Versus

The Pilgrim's Progress

First Commute

2009-03-09T21:01:00.004-05:00

Had my first commute on the fixie today. It was great. Nice sunny spring day. Still have a long way to go toward getting used to the bike. Not only am I new to a fixed gear I am new to the road geometry. My two biggest slip-ups today were not getting my foot in the strap on the first peddle revolution, and then accelerating because I was in traffic, making it impossible to get it in. Eventually I just pulled over to the side and slowed down enough to get my foot in the strap. Also I'm doing pretty good at remembering to always peddle, but when I come upon a road hazard at speed, I tend to forget. I try to coast and raise myself up off the seat to "float" over the hazard. then the peddles remind me that I can't do that. Anyway, I'm looking forward to lots more commutes on this bike.

Snow Day!

2009-03-02T09:19:00.002-06:00

Today school and work were canceled so we're all sitting around eating crackers, marshmallows and chocolate chips!

Five lucky people...

2009-02-18T21:03:00.002-06:00

...get something made by me just for them. It can be anything I want, I get to choose. It can be silly or serious, edible or not, but don't plan on anything alive. There are a few rules involved.

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It will be done sometime this year (Don't expect grand things if it takes a long time. I'm just busy!).
4- You have no clue what it's going to be. (The choice is mine! Muahahaha)
5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange and/or silly.

The catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they've posted on their blog win a hand made, super creative, possibly lovely whatever in the world I decide! Be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!

Winter Book Fair

2009-02-18T20:42:00.004-06:00

Herer are the books our family picked up.

I bought a fixed gear!

2009-01-29T21:39:00.002-06:00

Obfiscated Santa Signatures

2008-12-25T10:01:00.002-06:00

Every Christmas Eve I leave at least a couple of notes from Santa for my family. Part of the tradition that is becoming a bit of a game is how I sign the notes. I usually don't write out "Santa Claus." Instead, I abbreviate, for example S. C. More recently I have been obfiscating the signature. For instance, this year I left two notes and each had a post script also with signatures. That's four signatures and here are the ones that I used:

F. X.

K. K. & D. D. P. V. C. C. D. B. + R.

J. O. St. N.

S. C.

My family got them all too fast (at least my wife did). Next year I will have to do harder ones. Maybe I'll have to use other languages (other alphabets would be fun). This is going to take some research. . .

Fantasy Car

2008-12-02T20:46:00.004-06:00

Since my wife revealed to us what her fantasy car is, I decided I should show you mine:

Thanks to Michael J. Fox this is the coolest car in the universe, and it always will be. Check out the stainless-steel body and the gull-wing doors! Nothing can top it.

Cankers

2008-11-23T21:21:00.002-06:00

Having my teeth pulled Monday has given me several large cankers. So it's been hard lately to concentrate on much besides the extreme pain that eating, brushing my teeth, or talking causes. I think that I will call my oral surgeon tomorrow. The problem is, I don't think there's much that can be done for cankers besides wait until they heal themselves.

The Constitution

2008-11-22T20:42:00.002-06:00

Have you read it? I took my brother and kids to see the Constitution today. We talked about how many citizens probably haven't read it. It's a truly wonderful document and pretty short, so if you haven't read it I hope you will.

Here is the preamble to get you started

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Why I need a fixed gear

2008-11-21T22:56:00.002-06:00

They're fast
Easy to maintain
They're just so cool

Back on my bike!

2008-11-20T22:27:00.003-06:00

Today I took a long lunch and spent it going between a couple of bike shops. A guy at one managed to get my cracked crown race off of the fork. A guy at the other faced my crown, sold me a new crown race, and intalled the new crown race. Tonight I got everything put back together, cleaned (while I had it pulled apart I gave the entire bike the best cleaning it's had), lubed up and took it for a spin. It's like a brand new bike!

2008-11-19T20:10:00.011-06:00

For a while now I've been needing to change my headset. The headset of a bike is the bearing mechanism that allows you to turn the handlebars, thus steering. This was my first bike repair that one of my books says is best left to experts. You could take that as a warning, but I guess I took it as a challenge.

First I took the front brakes off of the fork:

I loosened the stem and pulled it (along with the handlebars) out. There's Seth helping in the background:

Next I loosened the locknut. That's it at the top:

Once I got the locknut, washer and cup and bearings off of the top I was able to pull the fork off through the bottom. Here it is dropped down a little bit. You can see the bearings in their retainer with some very gunky grease (the grease should be a lot cleaner):

Once I got the fork out and wiped the grease out of the cups that are attached to the frame, I flipped the bike upside down so that I could inspect the bottom cup. Here it is, and you can see what the problem with this old headset is. That black stuff is pitting. The ball bearings get caught up in that when I go to make a turn.

Those old cups have to go to make way for my new headset. The cups are pressed into the frame with a tool called a cup-press, which cost around $150 and looks something like this:

And are removed with a tool called a rocket which costs around $30 and looks like this:

After doing some online research, I decided that I could make both of these tools for about $5 apiece. Here is how I made the rocket. I got a foot long, 7/8 inch copper repair coupling at the local hardware store. I used a marker, ruler, adjustable wrench and my table top to mark where I wanted to cut it:

Then I secured it n my bike repair stand (since I don't have a bench vise) and used a hacksaw to cut it. I chose a blade with 32 teeth per inch, since the coupling has pretty thin walls (and you want at least three teeth in contact with the surface you're cutting at a time).

The rocket gets inserted through the head tube:

and pulled up until it snaps into place:

Now you start to hammer on it:

It took a good deal of hammering, but finally the cup came flying out.

Then I flipped the bike over and did it to the other cup.

Next I had to press the new cups in. I made my own press. It was much easier to make than the rocket. I bought a foot long piece of 3/4 inch threaded steal rod, with two nuts and six washers. I also got a piece of suede from a craft store. I cut the suede to match the size and shape of the washers:

Here is the finished press:

First I pressed the bottom cup in:

Then the top cone. The press worked beautifully. I measured their fit with a caliper before pressing them in. They are supposed to be a bout 0.1 to 0.2 mm larger than the headtube that they are being pressed into, but they were about 0.5 mm bigger. I was worried that I might run into trouble (and really I probably should have had the headtube reamed, but I didn't want to bother with that), but it pressing them in went smoothly.

Next I had one more piece to remove: the crown race, which is the bearing cone that sits at the crown of the fork. I couldn't get mine off, so I took it to a bike shop. The guy there managed to get it off and then asked for the new one to put it on. That's where I made my mistake. I didn't measure the crown race and the steerer tube on which it sits. As the guy pounded it on, we realized too late that the steerer tube was too small. The crown race cracked:

So now I will have to get a new crown race. Get someone to take off the cracked one, machine down the steerer tube and put on the new race. Oh bother I hoped to get back on my bike today.

It's like pulling teeth

2008-11-18T06:50:00.005-06:00

Actually it is pulling teeth. I know that the last few days it's been tough to get a decent post out of me and yesterday I didn't post at all, but I do have a good excuse for yesterday: I had two teeth pulled.

A startling emotional roller-coaster ride accompanied the procedure. First there was the nostalgic attachment I felt for the teeth as I sat in the waiting room (nostalgic attachment only since there's no practical reason for wanting to keep these two teeth. They are completely useless. They have failed me...ehh...I mean, I've failed them...), then I made my way into the room where the procedure would take place. I was genuinely pleased to meet the doctor. I shook his hand, smiled at him, but soon he had my mouth wedged open and all kinds of instruments inside. "You're going to hear some cracking now." CRUNCH CRUNCH CRACK CRUNCH. It sure felt like he was going to dislocate my jaw...and the pain! I thought it was supposed to be deadened in there. Is he even pulling the right teeth? Maybe he got mixed up...I'll just keep my eyes closed tight and flail my legs and resist this overwhelming urge to punch the doctor. [I'm censoring some of my more violent thoughts.] Moments later he was telling me that both teeth were out and to bite on some gauze. My chair was being raised to a sitting position and I found myself shaking his hand, genuinely thanking him and trying unsuccessfully to smile, happy to have such a good man for my oral surgeon.

2008-11-16T17:31:00.002-06:00

The Chosen by Chaim Potok

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
An amazing book about friendship and fatherhood.

View all my reviews.

Maps

2008-11-15T22:26:00.002-06:00

Today I hung up some wall maps. In the stairwell leading up to our top floor with the bedrooms we now have a map of the world, North America and the United States. We decided that we should do this so that our kids don't grow up thinking that Africa is a country or that Alaska is an island somewhere in the South Pacific.

Tonight I also removed my old headset from my bike. Got some good picks of doing it. I'll blog about it another day.

Headset Replacement Prep

2008-11-14T23:40:00.003-06:00

Replacing headset on my bike. Will write more tomorrow. Tonight did some prep. Removed brake calipers from fork. Removed stem. Loosened headset locknut.

Serious Parenting

2008-11-12T14:45:00.000-06:00

Now that we have four kids, my wife and I are getting serious about parenting. OK, I hope that we have always been serious about parenting, but the other day two parenting books that we ordered online arrived in the mail.

We are trying to read them together (which is not always easy with our schedules). We are also discussing things we need to improve, work on, and plan for. Here are some of our ideas from our discussion today:
-Tune in the classical music station for at least 30 minutes each day.
-Get our kids on a regular bathing schedule.
-Make chore charts, so that at least the parents agree on what chores are supposed to be done and by whom.
Like I said, these were just a few ideas we had today. Some of our long-term ideas include:
-Buy a piano, so the kids can learn to play (even though neither of us parents plays).
-Put a chalkboard in our kitchen. There are so many times that we are discussing something at the dinner table and an illustration could help immensely. Plus we can put up scriptures-of-the-week and math puzzles for the family to think about!

We have all kinds of other ideas, but many of them are bound to change before they ever get implimented. I think the important thing is to put the requisite time and energy into parenting instead of being side-tracked by less important things.

Vocabulary

2008-11-10T15:25:00.000-06:00

I'm constantly amazed at my 7-year-old's vocabulary. The other day he was asking me about the difference between the words "smear" and "smudge." More recently it was the differences between "akin" and "identical" that interested him. This is the same kid that two years ago volunteered the definition of "gaunt" as "it means your belly is small so that you can see your bones," and who explains, when asked what the difference is between a jaguar and a cheetah, that a cheetah has spots while a jaguar has rosettes. Maybe this only reflects on my lack of prowess with words, but I think that his vocabulary has surpassed mine, or soon will.

Questions

2008-11-09T14:07:00.001-06:00

The other day my 5-year-old daughter came home from school with this book:

It is apparently from a series called "Growing Up Jewish." No we aren't Jewish, but it was fun to read and a pretty cute book. It spurred three big questions from my daughter:

1 - How do babies get into Mommy's tummy?

2 - What is circumcision?

3 - Are we Jewish?

I was able to answer these without too much difficulty to her satisfaction. But then there were more questions:

4 - If we're not Jewish, why do the boys in our family get circumcised?

5 - Do girls get circumcised too?

6 - Are babies born through the Mommy's bellybutton?

7 - Are there really knives in hospitals?

...lots of questions.

Bowery

2008-11-08T16:32:00.001-06:00

Here is a picture of the Giant Bowery.

It is an off-the-shelf fixed-gear. I was driving by a bike shop the other day and decided to stop. I spotted this bike hanging in the window, noticed it was my size, and asked if I could take it for a spin. It felt great! I hadn't really considered the Bowery because it has an aluminum frame and I was thinking I want a steel frame, but I'm adding it to my list because it felt so nice. Real smooth, light and fast.

My Boys

2008-11-07T17:18:00.000-06:00

They love each other!

Flip-Floppers

2008-11-06T15:17:00.000-06:00

On Monday, my kids had mock elections at school. Abby told me that she voted for John McCain because she likes his white hair. Bailey wouldn't tell us who he voted for until he got talking with Abby and decided that he like McCain also.

On Wednesday morning I told my kids that Obama had won. Bailey immediately blurted out "I knew he would win!" Abby quickly added "I voted for both of them really!" I just had to laugh at how quickly they changed their minds.

NaBloPoMo

2008-11-04T15:15:00.001-06:00

This month is National Blog Posting Month, or NaBloPoMo. This is of course a spin-off of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). Bloggers are challenged to blog every single day. OK, I'll take the challenge. So far I'm on track.

A story

2008-11-03T20:57:00.001-06:00

Written by my oldest:

One day two mice were walking down the road. One said "let's go to your house." When they got to his house they ate a bunch of cheese. They ate so much cheese they became fat. Then the other one went home. But the next day he came back just about 9:00 pm. They had fruit instead of cheese. The next day was his birthday. He was invited to his party and he got him a present. It was a teddy bear. Then together they cleaned the house. They mopped and sweeped. Then it was time for them to go home. THE END.

bike shop open for business!

2008-11-02T17:07:00.004-06:00

I decided before getting a new bike I should get the tools to do my own maintenance and repairs. I got a repair stand and several tools. This is my Christmas present--a little early. Here I am tuning up Arlynda's bike.

Today simple repairs...tomorrow...frame building?

Six Random Things

2008-10-30T20:43:00.003-05:00

I was tagged by my wife, so here are 6 random things about me:

I don't watch much television.

I start more books than I finish.

I have a cute wife.

I like salsa.

I have grown peanuts and sweet potatoes.

A five-pound dog doesn't scare me, but a five-pound mosquito does.

Now I have to tag 10 people. I will tag the presidential and vice-presidential candidates from each of the (in alphabetical order):
Constitution,
Democratic,
Green,
Libertarian and
Republican
parties (just in case they read my blog).

Giant Fleas and Powdered Donuts

2008-09-10T20:29:00.004-05:00

I'm reading Bedknob and Broomstick by Mary Norton to Bailey. It is the book on which the Disney movie Bedknobs and Broomsticks is (loosely) based. Great book. Great movie. Two completely different stories with the same premise.

To begin before the beginning, the story features one Paul, a five-year-old. At one point (before the begining of the story, as I said) Paul's older brother and sister had gone to a natural history museum and seen an enormous model of a flea. Poor Paul had missed the trip, and hence missed the flea. Of course a child of that age feels that his life will not be complete if he doesn't see that giant flea.

Jumping ahead, Paul is given a present from a witch: a magic bedknob, which enables Paul's bed to take him anywhere, anywhere in or out of this world and also back in time. Naturally he and his brother and sister are anxious to try out this new magic. But it is Paul's bedknob. Only he can use it. Given the opportunity to go anywhere, where does he want to go? To see the giant flea.

When I was about Paul's age, I always went in the summer to my grandparents' farm with my older brother. One day while visiting the farm I was tired and needed a nap. So I stayed with my grandma in the little trailer where they lived while at the farm and napped. When I woke-up my brother told me that he had gone with my grandpa to a man's house. Apparently the man's name was Martin. My grandparents and their farm-neighbors come from the old stock of rural Utahns that pronounce "cord" as "card" ("don't trip over that extension card!") and "gums" (the body part) as gooms (rhymes with "blooms"). Thus Morton, as in Morton Salt, is pronounced the same as Martin. I think, though I'm not sure, that this is why this man, Martin, was known almost exclusively by the name "Salt."

Anyway, when Cory got back from Salt's house, and I had woken up from my nap, he told me that he had sat on Salt's bed and that Salt yelled at him ("it isn't a chair!"). He also told me that they had had powdered donuts and orange juice. Oh how I wanted powdered donuts and orange juice! I cried for a long time about it. Eventually I stopped crying. But I never stopped wanting powdered donuts and orange juice.

Years later I finally visited Salt's house. I met Salt himself! I sat on Salt's bed and was yelled at! But, Salt never offered me powdered donuts and orange juice. Since then I have bought powdered donuts and orange juice for myself. I have enjoyed them. But they do not taste as sweet as Salt's powdered donuts and orange juice would. I'm sure that Salt is dead now and a fundamental piece of my life will be eternally absent: Salt's powdered donuts and orange juice.

If I had a magic bedknob, if I could travel anywhere--and back in time--I know where I would go. I would visit Salt on the day that he served powdered donuts and orange juice.

idée fixe

2008-08-30T20:32:00.007-05:00

The word of the day some weeks ago was idée fixe, which obviously comes from French and means obsession.

If you ask my wife (and maybe if you don't ask her) she will tell you that I have a particular idée fixe lately, namely a fixed gear road bike.

I'm not a bicycle recreationalist, just a bike commuter and I've only come to bike commuting withing the last 5 years and still feel like a bit of an outsider or newbie in the bike community. I've been commuting on a rather clunky, but reliable and actually fairly fast commuter-hybrid bike, but I've always wanted to get a faster road bike. Now I know more specifically what I want: a fixed gear.

I had read about fixed gears when I first started bike commuting, but the idea seemed outlandish to me then: a bike with only a single gear and no freewheel, so when the rear wheel is moving, so are the cranks and pedals and the rider's legs. "Maybe that works for a track bike," I thought, "but out on the road...no way!" However, I keep reading more about people who swear by fixed gears and finally I talked to someone who commutes on a fixed gear. I'm now convinced, a fixed gear would be the perfect complement to the bike that I already have: the sturdy, reliable, clunky hybrid with a rack that can really haul some weight, and the ultra-light, speedy, throw-a-bologna-sandwich-in-the-back-pocket-of-your-Levi's-shorts-and-blast-off fixed gear that can really haul. What could be more perfect?

My dad has even decided to convert his 70's era Bianchi road bike into a fixed gear!

Home at last!

2008-08-19T15:02:00.002-05:00

Mom and baby together=happy family

2008-08-18T19:30:00.003-05:00

Out of NICU

2008-08-18T14:34:00.001-05:00

Seth is getting out of the NICU!!! So the plan is for both of them to come home tomorrow!

Finally Nursing

2008-08-17T08:10:00.004-05:00

Arlynda got to nurse Seth this morning! She said he latched on really well. The night nurse didn't know why they didn't let her nurse him yesterday. Anyway, Seth still has his IV in and apparently they don't like to release kids from the NICU until 24 hours after they get their IV out. Other than that he doesn't need to be in the NICU for anything. Aside from these administrative frustrations everything is going swimmingly. We're planning on them coming home on Tuesday.

curly hair and monsters

2008-08-16T20:30:00.003-05:00

Seth is doing very well and is supposed to get out of the NICU tomorrow (Sunday) morning. Really he could have gotten out today, but such things always work slower than they should.

Seth has lots of light curly hair. His hair is lighter than that of any of our other kids' was at birth.

Arlynda is off her IV and catheter (she's gonna love these details I'm publishing to the whole world) and is walking, so she was able to go see Seth and hold him and feed him a bottle. They still won't let him nurse (which should change as soon as he's out of the NICU I guess), which means Arlynda is still fighting the breast-pump monster.

More on Seth and Arlynda

2008-08-16T11:26:00.004-05:00

Seth and Arlynda are doing really well. Since they took Seth out about 3 weeks early (it is Arlynda's fourth C-section after all) his lungs were having a little bit of a hard time adjusting to the outside, so they took him into the NICU. They were giving his lungs help with a little bit of positive pressure (tubes shoved in his nose that gave just a little extra pressure to keep the airways open). Today he is off the positive pressure (which he is happy with. He didn't like those tubes in his nose). The NICU nurses said he doesn't need anything more from them, so he will probably get out of the NICU soon (maybe today?!). In the mean time, Arlynda seems to be doing really well and is having loads of fun (ha ha) pumping colostrum for Seth. Actually she would really like to be feeding Seth directly, which will probably be happening soon.

Stay tuned for more photos...

They say it's your birthday...

2008-08-15T16:23:00.004-05:00

Happy birthday Seth!

6 lbs 8.9 oz -- 19 1/8 in -- 2008.08.15.12:05

Happy birthday Lucy!

2 years old 2008.08.15

Build-Your-Owns

2008-08-14T14:19:00.004-05:00

Here's the problem:
Since my wife is very pregnant I have been in charge of cooking for at least the last week or so. Here are the pertinent data about our family:
We like...
...healthy foods.
...homemade foods.
...a wide variety of foods (at each meal).
....flavorful foods.
We also have some rather picky eaters. And even the adults don't always agree on which flavor should go into the flavorful foods.

My solution:
The most popular meals I've come up with for our family are the build-your-owns. We've had build-your-own-quesadillas, build-your-own-pasta, and most recently build-your-own-chef-salad. Bailey has suggested that I do a build-your-own-pizza. Good idea! I'll put it on my list.

Anyone else have a build-your-own to suggest?