Playing together, realistically alongside each other more than together.

We went to a birthday party for Luc (background) last weekend. There was a western theme so we got out the denim party dress and off we went. To be clear, the denim dress was for the baby. :-)

Now that we've established that I don't like bannanas, plums and grapes let's talk curfew. (editors comment: I won this one, I really did, honest...is it too early to drink?)

Don't think I'm falling for the misdirection trick.

You come near me with that spoon one more time and I swear I'll...

View from inside on a snowy day about a week back.

You know when you work contract these type of things fall into the deductions category. I already have a KVM switch. They make the money when you add the DVD burner, and extra RAM. Still, great price point and amazing form factor.

Firefox keyboard shortcuts

http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/keyboard.html

More Googleable unsecured webcams

Ahh... those halycon days where she would eat what was in front of her. Now she just screams and rocks back and forth so fast I'm afraid the chair is going to tip over.

I believe this is know in legal circles at the 'slippery slope.'

Always a good day to be inside and warm...

Snowy morning again

I love this light.

Baby handprints. I believe the extra blurring on the right hand is from her licking the glass. We've really got to break her of that habit.

Sunrise on a snowy cold morning

We had an open house on New Year's day, pictures record the fact we did manage to reach a higher state of organization.

Feeding time...the two girls in the pink are Craig's daughters, Ben in the highchair in the back.

Family showed up early on New Year's Day to visit. It was nice to be with people you love.

We were visited by our friends from Winnipeg, Mike, Michelle and Emma (in bucket). Emma is only 4 months old and is as big as my daughter. I had to remind myself not to toss her up in the air.

Felicity with Ben

Grandma with daughter

Chris hard at work. The key motivator, all the college bowl games on the television in front of him. He was quite happy to sit there and chop anything we put in front of him.

Front room

Dining room

We've been debating fabric swatches for various couches and like this one. The blue and the gold in it match some of the existing colors in our place. The other advantage, patterns hide spills inflicted by small children much better than a light microfibre.

The Polymeal

You Know You've Had Too Much Coffee When (source unknown)
1.Juan Valdez named his donkey after you.
2.You grind your coffee beans in your mouth.
3.The only time you're standing still is during an earthquake.
4.You can take a picture of yourself from ten feet away without using the timer.
5.You lick your coffeepot clean.
6.You spend every vacation visiting "Maxwell House."
7.You're the employee of the month at the local coffeehouse and you don't even work there.
8.Your eyes stay open when you sneeze.
9.You're so jittery that people use your hands to blend their margaritas.
10.You can jump-start your car without cables.
11.All your kids are named "Joe."
12.Your only source of nutrition comes from "Sweet & Low."
13.You go to AA meetings just for the free coffee.
14.You've built a miniature city out of little plastic stirrers.
15.People get dizzy just watching you.
16.When you find a penny, you say, "Find a penny, pick it up. Sixty-three more, I'll have a cup."
17.The Taster's Choice couple wants to adopt you.
18.Starbucks owns the mortgage on your house.
19.You're so wired, you pick up FM radio.
20.Your life's goal is to "amount to a hill of beans."
21.Instant coffee takes too long.
22.When someone says. "How are you?", you say, "Good to the last drop."
23.You want to be cremated just so you can spend the rest of eternity in a coffee can.
24.You go to sleep just so you can wake up and smell the coffee.
25.You're offended when people use the word "brew" to mean beer.
26.You name your cats "Cream" and "Sugar."
27.You get drunk just so you can sober up.
28.Your lips are permanently stuck in the sipping position.
29.You can outlast the Energizer bunny.
30.You don't even wait for the water to boil anymore.
31.You think being called a "drip" is a compliment.
32.You don't tan, you roast.
33.You can't even remember your second cup.
34.You introduce your spouse as your "Coffeemate."
35.You think CPR stands for "Coffee Provides Resuscitation."

Wave of Change
How to build a global tsunami warning system in a month

That's a lot of people, 140,000 -- enough people that we ought to do something to make sure it doesn't happen again. So of course, there is lots of talk about tsunami warning systems and global cooperation, but I think that's just going about solving the problem the wrong way. We don't need governments and huge sensor arrays to warn people on the beach about the next huge wave approaching at 400 miles-per-hour. Thanks to the Internet, we can probably do it by ourselves.

Saving for a rainy quarter century

Try this on for size. You're seventy-five years old. You live in the comfy home you've always lived in. You play golf in good weather. In bad weather, you travel to where it's warm and sunny. When your grandchildren call, you take them out on the lake in your new boat. Your wife takes classes in the local college and paints. This is your life in retirement and it's everything you always hoped and dreamed it would be.

Or, try this scenario: you are seventy-five years old. You live in a tiny apartment with the smell of boiled cabbage and noisy neighbors all around. You live in a scary neighborhood and you dare not go out after dark. Eating at restaurants is just a dream. Your apartment is too small to have your kids or grand kids visit. If you get sick and you have to spend time in nursing care, you don't know how you'll afford it. Your life is pure fear.

A System for Sanity - Part I
By Chakwin

My theme is staying sane and grounded in the practice of law. I know it can be done. I also know it's not easy - at least it hasn't been for me or for the people I see around me.

Achieving this goal involves both conceptual and practical components. This piece is about the practical side, simple steps you can take to make the best use of your time and free your mind from becoming a nervous, nagging device. The information here can make a tremendous difference in the relative ease or difficulty of both the professional and personal sides of your life.

A System for Sanity - Part II
By Chakwin
Page 1 of 2

In my last column, I wrote about dealing with the demands upon our time and attention made by events and commitments. I showed how to build a system that makes intelligent and guilt-free choice among them possible. This column addresses another monster: the demon of paper.

yak shaving

[MIT AI Lab, after 2000: orig. probably from a Ren & Stimpy episode.] Any seemingly pointless activity which is actually necessary to solve a problem which solves a problem which, several levels of recursion later, solves the real problem you're working on.

Been thinking and acting on organizational systems lately. Setting up a new office and the prospective job change and forced be to focus on what needs to be done. This link is an interesting series of post on the Getting Things Done system I use and find very helpful.

http://www.43folders.com/gtd/index.html

What I Do

This one is for my parents. They still won't really understand but at least they can send this link to their friends and go see...my son does have a real job. We're not sure what it is or what he does but he does work. :-)

Sustainable Development Through Knowledge Integration - Pathways Project

Double the speed of your web browsing.

Here's a terrific little tip I have tried out myself. It will greatly increase the speed of your web browsing with Firefox, if you are using it over a broadband or a fast LAN connection.

Hanging out with great-grandma

I suppose this gives being down home on the farm a new meaning.

Christmas morning.

My wife unwrapping presents on Christmas Eve with my daughter and nephew.

All set up for Christmas dinner with the wife's family.

The secret ingredient(s) ... orange juice, cloves, anise, wine vinegar, brown sugar, chives and about six others.

I know there is some seed in here somewhere...

Don't miss this weeks special - The secret lifestyles of rich and famous turkeys - see them at the spa, the supermarket...

What happens when turkeys run afoul of the Department of Homeland Security.

The final product.

The chairs for the living room have arrived.

Trying out the purple velour outfit from grandma and grandpa

Moving up, moving out

CleanSoftware.org is a resource to help Windows users find the best free daily-use software, free from nasties: adware, spyware, harmful/intrusive components, and threats to privacy.

Computers do not have to become slow, unreliable and infested with unwelcome software during the natural course of computing. Simply being careful about what software you install on your computer will have a dramatic impact on the quality of your computing experience.

There is a lot of excellent free software available today. Unfortunately, over the past couple years the Internet has become littered with deceptive and borderline dangerous software. Many "free" programs threaten your privacy; others clutter your computer with intrusive components.

Don't flatter yourself that friendship authorizes you to say disagreeable things to your intimates. The nearer you come into relation with a person, the more necessary do tact and courtesy become. Except in cases of necessity, which are rare, leave your friend to learn unpleasant things from his enemies; they are ready enough to tell them.

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809 - 1894), The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, 1858

Glogg

"It has none of the coma-inducing sweetness of mulled cider, let alone the melted ice cream overkill of eggnog. Instead, it combines the robustness of a serious wine with the headiness of a strong martini. It also goes surprisingly well with food, which is no small consideration on a Champagne recovery day."

Glogg varies. Traditionally the spiced wine is set afire and poured over sugar so that the granules melt into the punch, adding just enough sweetness to smooth the bitter edge.

TRADITIONAL GLOGG
Time: 40 minutes

1/4 cup raisins*
1 cup blanched whole almonds*
6 cardamom pods*
Pinch ground nutmeg*
6 cloves*
2 sticks cinnamon*
1 teaspoon dried ground orange peel*
(available where spices are sold)
1/3-inch piece fresh ginger*
1 bottle dry red wine
1 1/2 cups aquavit
5 ounces cube sugar

1. In a large stainless steel or other nonreactive saucepan, combine the *. Add the red wine, and allow to steep for 30 minutes. Add the aquavit and place over low heat until steaming, but do not boil.

2. Place the sugar cubes on a flameproof perforated ladle. Carefully light the glogg with a long match; low blue flames will dance on the surface (be careful of face, hair, and hands). Hold the ladle with the sugar over the pan, and use a second ladle to scoop up the burning glogg and pour it over the sugar. Continue until the sugar melts into the pan. Put out the fire by covering the pan with a lid. (If you do not wish to light the glogg, the sugar can be added to the pan with the spices, and stirred until dissolved.)

3. Serve glogg very warm in small cups with a few almonds and raisins in each.

Yield: 5 1/2 cups (10-12 servings).

HIGH-OCTANE GLOGG
Time: 10 minutes

1 quart aquavit
2 bottles inexpensive dry red wine
1 bottle ruby port
5 tablespoons sugar
4 cardamom pods
12 whole cloves
12 allspicberries
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup blanched, slivered almonds
1 cup golden raisins

Combine all ingredients but almonds and raisins in large enameled or stainless steel pot. Bring slowly to a simmer, stirring to dissolve sugar, and heat just until liquid starts to steam, about 10 minutes. To serve, place a couple of almonds and raisins each in small cups and ladle glogg over.

Yield: 1 gallon.

The first recipe was adapted from Jan Wickstrom, executive chef to the Swedish consul general. Remember that Wikings, as the word is pronounced in Norway (or Norge, as they spell it on their postal stamps), had a lot of practice drinking until the government put a clamp on all things alcoholic.

The word "berserk" is a Norwegian adjective, "berserker" is a Viking term, and Vikings were Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish. They went berserk in the summertime, too, when they tried to drink to get to sleep during the midsummer when there wasn't much nighttime. More Icelanders are alcoholics than any other nationality. Too far north. You don't hear about Laplanders being alcoholics, but that may be because they have only reindeer, and they keep moving about, and stills are too cumbersome to pack onto reindeer as the North People travel hither, thither, and yon.

Caution: Fire is dangerous in the hands of folks who have had a few slugs of glogg. Have a fire extinguisher ready or invite a fireman to the party. He'll know what to do in case of rash behavior.

Remember to say "Skol!" before your first sip. The glass is raised high as the wish is cried out. There's a long o in "Skol." It rhymes with "shoal." Glasses are not thrown against the fireplace. That's English.

Rage against the machine

Kent Norman kills computers. You know you've thought about doing this.

The Apple Product Cycle

EPIC 2014
In the year 2014, The New York Times has gone offline.
The Fourth Estate's fortunes have waned.
What happened to the news?
And what is EPIC?

This is a very interesting and entertaining speculative fiction bit. It
requires Flash. It is 8 minutes long. Make sure you have the full 8
minutes undisturbed, the amount of info is fairly large and it is worth
listening to! The topic is the future of media.

Note that a lot of the ideas have been around for a while (esp. in the
context of the Media Lab's research at MIT) but....

Interesting Alaskan Blog

Stumbled across this through the next blog link at the top right hand corner of all the Blogger hosted blogs. Reminds me of our trip to Alaska and a lunch stop where you could ride in a dog sled for a suitably extortionate price.

I've always wanted to have a dog team.

http://dogsleddenali.blogspot.com/

This one makes my heart swell.

What a difference a year makes. The baby now has more hair than her uncle.

Christmas 2003

Christmas outfits and little girls. Always a fun combination.

Yes sir, three bags of hay for the reindeer and a latte, extra hot.

Afternoon light on the water.

Baby and mommy under glass.

Our first christmas. Note beautifully arranged and coordinated mantlepiece. Let no-one say that Home and Garden Television doesn't have an educational affect on certain female mid-career professionals.

Interlaced garlands. Next year we'll go for the matching mural. :-)

Family ornaments from woodwards 30 years ago. They didn't make it onto the tree this year due to the tendency to shatter when the tree is pulled on by a curious baby.