Spring is here! <sniffle/> The sun is <sniffle/> shining, the wind is blowing, <sniffle/> the air <sniffle/> is crisp. The wildflowers are poking <sniffle/> their little <sniffle/> heads up above the <sniffle/> ground, presenting a wonderous <sniffle/> palette <sniffle/> of <sniffle/> color. <sniffle/>

Ahhhh... <sniffle/> Spring is here!! <sniffle/>

¶ 10:48 AM 0 comments

Tomorrow is Easter, and that means two things: 1) Jesus is risen from the dead, and 2) it's Spring.

In the American Christian tradition, Easter usually brings some kind of roast, usually a ham, and there is almost always some kind of baking, often cake. This year, I thought I'd try my hand at handling fondant (a.k.a. sugar paste). It was rough; there was one causalty, but I managed to save the cake.

The obvious theme would have been some kind of religious thing, but I'm not really into that as far as artistic expression. So I went with a Spring Festival theme, hence the gerber daisy. Also common to Spring is Kite Season, which is now in full swing. So the cake pulls both of those together into one, the flower representing Spring and the clouds representing Kites.

And now, without further ado:

   

Oh, and there's an Italian Cream Cake underneath all that.

¶ 4:37 PM 3 comments

Mmm... biscotti. That classic Italian cookie. So tasty.

  

And they're even Kosher for Passover! Quite an interesting experience, baking with Matzoh meal and Matzoh cake meal. And you can't go wrong with double chocolate! :-)

¶ 9:05 PM 1 comments

Buggying at night under a 1st-quarter Moon and tennis court lights gives me a whole different perspective on Life, the Universe, and Everything.

Normally, astronomy and kiteflying are thought of as mutually exclusive hobbies. Astronomy happens at night; kiteflying happens in the day. But what if you fly kites at night? I had an opportunity to do some night buggying last night after work. I got to the field at about 4:30pm, and stayed till about 8:30, well after dark (the sun goes down at about 6:45 here at this time of year).

Between 6:45 and 8:30, the sun retreated to the West trailing a banner of color spanning the entire visible spectrum from red to violet. (I'm a sucker for colorful, peaceful sunsets.) Once the sun had retired completely, in the clear dark blue sky, the 1st-quarter Moon was chasing the sun toward the West, and so was high overhead. To the Southwest, Orion could be seen hunting, and to the Northeast, just to the right of the Moon, the Big Dipper, Ursa Major's tail, could be seen very clearly. Thin wisps of clouds draped themselves across the sky, hinting at what the Milky Way might look like if there were less light pollution in the area.

Of course all that set the backdrop for a majestic buggy kite carving out swaths through the gentle Southerly breeze, lines softly whistling in the wind, pulling me firmly across the field. Looking up at the kite against the Moon and the Big Dipper, I could only think about the Earth, the Universe, the Hand that created it all, and how I fit into the Story. Cruising across the field at a gentle 10 miles per hour, it almost felt as if i were actually crusing interstellar space. The stars seemed to stand still, but there was a definite sensation of movement. (I was so absorbed in this spectacle that a couple of times I almost ran head-on into my friend who was buggying with me.) I could only think about the vastness of the Universe, its infinite borders, and how small and insignificant I am in comparison. But for about two hours, I felt as if I was the most important person in the Universe, thinking-- nay, believing-- that the Creator would choose me to be at that exact time and place to admire His handiwork. And admire it I did.

I had always tried to make kiteflying an ultimate expression of appreciation and honor for Creation and the Creator, but never before had it felt so real and alive as it did last night. There was something about the combination of astronomy and kiteflying that struck a really harmonious chord deep within my soul. Recently, my heart could do nothing but scream, but for two hours last night my heart could do nothing but sing.

¶ 11:29 PM 0 comments

Everyone keeps talking about this thing called "Spring Break". This is a foreign concept to me, kind of like "High Morale" and "Job Satisfaction".

It's a really nice day down here where I am. The sun is shining, the wind is blowing, the boss is on vacation, half of my building is on vacation. As they say, "When the cat's away, the mice will play."

So I'll be cutting work a bit early. OK, maybe a lot early. I'm certainly not getting anything done just sitting here wishing I were outside, so I might as well just go be outside. I think I hear the buggy field calling me. It's saying, "Look! The wind's blowing, the field's empty.... You know you want to.... All the cool people are doing it...." I'm cool, right? I'd certainly be a fool if I didn't go.... It's not like I really care about my job anyway. I don't have anything that can't wait till Monday.

¶ 1:02 PM 0 comments

I'm having lunch today at a fast food restaurant. I notice on the curly fries box, in small-ish, low-contrast print, it says, "Caution: Contents are hot." This brought back memories of the old-school lawsuits (yes, "lawsuits", plural) against McDonalds claiming that the coffee was too hot and scalded some guy's crotch because he had the cup between his legs while trying to drive away from the drive-thru window. (Can we say, "Darwin Awards"? Actually no, because he didn't die....)

So it got me thinking... I wonder if someone has ever, or will ever, sue an ice cream shop for ice cream or a milkshake that was too cold and gave a person a brain freeze that caused them to drive into a tree. Then we'll start seeing on ice cream cups and cones a warning, "Caution: Contents are cold."

It's nice to know that people are looking after us, but it's sad that the only reason we have warning labels at all is because someone tried to do what the label tells us not to. I'm not talking about simple things like, "Keep hands away from moving parts." If you don't know better than to keep your fingers out of a metal fan, then maybe you should lose a finger or two. I'm talking about things like this.



¶ 12:54 PM 0 comments

Safety First! Here's an interesting one. Apparently, my State has an office set up specifically to perform safety inspections on elevators and certify compliance with safety standards. Apparently, there's a new statute requiring the safety certificate to be posted visibly. Apparently, my company has elected to comply with this new statute by framing the certificate actually in the elevators, but has simultaneously neglected to renew their cerificates. "Our elevators are safe! At least they were several months ago...." Yeah, I feel good riding those elevators... especially since they make all kinds of weird noises, and the doors take forever and a half to open. I think it's cancer of the elevator.

Chef! I can't wait to be a chef. I actually have work to do now, and it's really hard to not care. I hope when I become a chef, my kitchen will be as silly as on the British sitcom Chef! That was a fun show.

¶ 10:28 AM 1 comments

I get my fifteeen minutes of fame this week.

The local news station is doing a series of spots for the big local kite festival coming up this weekend. Several of us from the local kite club got together yesterday afternoon to tape some kite demonstrations, and some of us are getting up early on Friday to do some live shots.

If you live where I live (you know who you are), turn on the cable channel 8 news on Friday morning between 6 and 8am, and you'll probably see us do our stuff in the "Fit for Friday" segments. It'll probably be on the news channel's web site too, so you can also look for us there.

UPDATE (2005 Mar 04, 10:22am): Well, that went pretty well. The little video montage they put together was pretty cool. We did three live spots very early this morning, and taped a short bit they'll show all day long. As it turns out, I'm good at public speaking only if I already know what I'm going to say. Live interviews... not so much. :-P Maybe I'll leave those to everyone else...

¶ 11:05 AM 0 comments