Just When I Thought Things Couldn't Get Any Better...

Our humans provide for everything a cat, such as myself or my brother, could want. But what is this? A great new perch, nice and high so we can see what is going on but low enough that it isn't too hard to leap up on.

Prrrfect! I hope nothing ever changes!

Long Island Is Very Pretty--Even In The Winter.

My run was marred only by the realization that I did not thouroughly memorize the route before I left. I did end up following it exactly as shown below, but I didn't carry a phone and don't know the phone # of my hosts, so It could have turned out badly.

According to this calorie counter. I burned more than 1300 calories. I completly made up for this later that same day with chicken tikka masala, mali kofta, jumbo shrimp curry & etc...

Governor?

I have taken most cars I've owned to whatever their top speed is. One may ask, why? But I think the real question is why not? The usual concerns of safety and getting caught should not be. It must be assumed that a proper venue be chosen which allows for safe speed.

My first car, a 4-speed 60HP 1983 Toyota Tercel, I took to its maximum speed on the way home from the dealership. The speedometer only went to 85 and there was no tach, so I estimate that I exceded 85 by some small amount.

Our next car (I use "our" now since by this time I am married and cars are a joint purchase) was a 1996 Buick Regal, also a four speed, but this time an automatic transmission. It has 205HP and was fairly streemlined, so I had high hopes. It would go exactly 105 and then the ignition would cut.

The next car was a 1997 BMW 318Ti. It is a 134HP hatchback with a 5-speed manual. The owner's guide admitted that speed was limited to 116. I found that it did have a governor, but it was set at 120. This was probably for the better since the car is geared very low and is pushing 6000 rpm in 5th gear at that speed.

Next, we purhased a Truck, a GMC Yukon XL with a V8 engine. I have never taken this vehicle in a speed run since I don't feel like it is safe to take it above 100, and it has plenty of power to go faster than that.

Our latest car is a Saab 93 Aero with 250 HP. I still haven't taken it to top speed. It is so fast and there is so much traffic here in the North East that I haven't found optimal conditions, yet. On the way to Long Island to visit relatives, I did hit 130 before becoming alarmed by how fast we were closing in on traffic about 1 mile ahead.

Ran lots of errands and then ran.

I had today off instead of the usual Wednesday: I...

Roasted two kinds of coffee, hauled Jemma's new bookcase up to her room and put books into it.

Then I went out: Took some juice boxes to the Byam School for Dahlia's class, got a haircut, got gas, went to Costco and came home to put everything away.

Had lunch and then went on this run.

8:23/Mile--need to kick it up a notch.

Hmmn, I never noticed this before...

Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were born on this day (Feb 12th) 199 years ago!

One could, I suppose, write much about the changes these men saw and especially about the changes they made happen.

I'll Say This About Plywood...

It sure isn't as pretty as fine hardwood, but it does go together fast.

As long time readers of this blog know, furniture projects typically take me months and even sometimes years to complete. This bookshelf was built in one day (last Wednesday to be precise). I did the painting this weekend and it is done.

I spent nothing on the materials since the glue, screws, paint and plywood are all either supplies I always have plenty of, or are left-over from previous projects.

I would normally have used black cherry for this kind of thing but I am getting low on it and want to conserve.

This bookshelf will go to Jemma's room. She is currently using our old changing table as a bookshelf/ general storage unit. Now the changing table can go to someone who needs one and Jemma Boo can have a real (if slapdash) bookshelf.

Do I Care Whether The Dems Pick Hillary or Barack?

I should say at the outset that this is a completely moot-point: I am a Republican and Massachusetts has already voted in the primary--so I have no say in the matter.

There are two factors and they work against each other: Of the two Senators, I would rather have Obama as President than Clinton. Obama has a better chance (in my view) of beating McCain than Clinton does. Since I want McCain to win, a Clinton nomination furthers this goal.

If I set values to each outcome and probabilities associated with them, the numbers look like this: Bear in mind, these are just my estimates, which means they are perfect as criteria for setting my opinion.

Value of victory: McCain=80, Obama=30, Clinton=20 NOTE: In reality the McCain # is much less (possibly zero) and the others are negative. The math is easier if all the numbers are kept positive and it doesn't effect the final answer.

Probabilities of victory: McCain v. Clinton = 50:50, McCain v. Obama = 40:60

McCain v. Clinton gives: [(0.5)x(80)]+[(0.5)x(20)]=50

McCain v. Obama gives [(0.4)x(80)]+[(0.6)x(30)]=50

Just in case anybody is suspicious: I didn't choose the numbers to get this result! I did pick nice round numbers because of the uncertainty involved, plus it makes doing the math easy.

It is official and shown mathematically, I don't care who the Democrats nominate!

How To Grill In The Winter

Get a small hibachi and put it inside of your wood-burning fireplace. Then grill as normal, except there is plenty of light and no snow this way.

It looks blue in the picture but that is some kind of artifact--the coals are glowing red/orange like normal.

This technique is especially apt when it comes to grilling fish. If you pan fry fish in the Winter, your house will smell of it until Spring. This way, the smells all go up the chimney.

ADDED: In case you are trying to figure out what kind of fish this is: It is no kind of fish, it is chicken breasts. Usually it is steak, lamb chops or salmon...the time I decided to take a picture, it is something unusual for us.

Dancing Hand Video...

I know; this is old and in fact I saw it originally a while ago. I just recently re-stumbled across it and decided to embed it.

If you haven't seen it, the first couple of minutes are slow but I promise it will pay off.

Pot & Kettle...

In our house the pot never calls the kettle black. This is not just because they are inanimate objects and therefore lack moral agency:

No. The reason is that they are...

RED!

Finally go for a run...

On Saturday I posted all about my winter run. After all of that I didn't even go: It snowed lightly on Sunday and I just didn't have the heart to go out (running) in that mess. Instead I went cross country skiing, which is fun but not much of a workout...Not the way I ski.

Normally I would drive somewhere nearby to ski but I didn't want to take either of our two wheel drive cars down the snowy driveway--since they might not make it back up and I didn't want to shovel the driveway until the snow stopped falling. My wife had the 4 wheel drive and the kids which was why I had the free time to ski in the first place. As luck would have it, the initial work on a bike path nearby has been done. It is an old rail line which is fine for walking on but had been clogged with fallen trees, which make skiing a pain. The trees are cleared-out now, so it is perfect.

Yesterday though, I did make the run and even tacked-on an extra 2.5 miles since I was already wet-n-miserable from the drizzle. Today no run possible due to a work-related lunch thing. Of course today was bright with sun and blue skies.

Does This Mean That Deep Down Inside, I Plan to Never Move Again?

Probably.

Yesterday I purchased a 7-quart cast-iron dutch oven.

It weighs a ton.

After Having Not Changed Much In Years, Mattresses Have Suddenly Gotten Much Thicker

Why was I not informed of this?

The design process for Dahlia's new bed consisted of two parts: 1) Measure other queen-sized beds we own, so that I could make a bed which would hold the intended mattress. 2) Pretty much do whatever else I liked, design-wise, so long as a queen-sized mattress would fit.

A big assumption was that mattresses have not changed since the last time we bought one. It seemed safe: We bought our first not too long after moving into our first home, a two bedroom condo--this would be around 14 years ago. The next one we got about 4 years later when we moved into a three bedroom house. It was the guest bed and later Surenna's bed once Dahlia was born and took over the crib. The one after that was not too long after we moved into our current home: Jemma got the crib, while Surenna and Dahlia had been sharing a bed (full size). We got Surenna a Queen sized bed and mattress and Dahlia got the full size bed. All of these mattresses were about the same 8 inch thickness. The new one and all the ones we looked at are about one foot thick.

I made Dahlia's new bed extra high so that storage bins would easily fit under it. That height plus the extra four inches from the mattress made the thing really high. Dahlia (a normal sized 2nd grader) could climb up by herself, but it was a struggle and I am sure she would have wiped-out while dismounting at some point. So we gave the new mattress to Surenna, Dahlia got Surenna's and of course Jemma got Dahlia's old one. Even my wife and I got something out of it. We had a glider in Jemma's room which had to go,- to make room for her bed: That is now in our room.

Jemma, at six still fits! She used this crib longer than both her sisters combined. Next, it goes to my wife's brother and his wife. We used it for more than 10 years almost continuously.

ADDED: If you notice the drawer at the bottom of the crib, this thing holds a ton of stuff. When we were looking at cribs (a long time ago) I don't think I really cared if it came with a drawer or not. Advice to new parents: Care! It holds a ton and you will underestimate how much stuff goes with kids. This one drawer almost filled the three drawer chest that I just made for Jemma, that is how much it holds.

My Wintertime Weekend Route

When the weather is nice I like to do a 9-10 mile run (on weekends and other days off) which has a lot of trails in it. In the winter the trails are full of snow plus I don't like to run as hard in the cold, so here is an alternate route--all roads.

Yes, I have done a bit of cross country skiing. The problem is that I have to drive to the trail, put on my skis etc. It is fun, but ends up taking a lot longer to get a decent workout.

Deployment of the Bed

Now witness the power of this fully functional sleep system!

I hope my readers will forgive a bit of triumphalism: This bed is the last of several projects planned at the time I purchased a stack of black cherry lumber around 4 years ago.

I still have a small bit of wood left and can, at my leisure, throw together a couple of minor pieces--no rush though.

Climate and Geology

When it comes to climate change, the chief worry seems to be a rise in sea-level. Antarctica contains enough ice to raise the oceans by around 200 ft. This got me thinking about how dependant our climate is upon accidents like having a large landmass located at the South Pole.

Here was a thought experiment: What would it be like on Earth if Antarctica was not there? Well, there would be no place for the thousands of feet thick ice sheet which covers most of that continent. The oceans would be 200 feet deeper and lots of land would be under water. I would guess (and this is totally a guess) that say 10% of all land would be lost. So the Earth would be 27% land instead of 30%. What is the big deal? I mean, if it was always like that, then there wouldn't be any problem. As it is, there would be much dislocation since there are lots of people and infrastructure located 200 feet or less from sea level.

Further thought and research on the topic made me refine my thought experiment: Why should I suppose that Antarctica just goes away? Why not move it somewhere warm? Then the ice will melt and we can look at the results. There may be a lot of places it could fit, but why not play it safe and just plop it down in the middle of the Pacific starting just South of Hawaii. The ice will melt, oceans rise etc. Antarctica though comprises about one tenth of Earth's land area! Even if we suppose that one tenth of it will be flooded, the net loss for the Earth as a whole would end up having only 1% of the total land lost instead of 10%. The assumption is that land which is under ten thousand feet of ice is just as useless as land which is 200 feet under water.

So, what was the point of all this 'thought experimentation'?

--It is often an useful excercise to think about the consequences of a change.

--My original thinking was that a rearangement of the placement of land on Earth is critical to the climate we enjoy. Now, I am not too sure. Maybe if the Earth warms up a lot it will cause the seas to rise, but won't it also make fairly marginal land in the arctic more habitable?

--On further reflection, I never posited climate change into my experiment: We see deeper oceans and slightly less land all from a rearrangement of the land masses.

How about a little politics?

I am a Republican, but if a was a Democrat I would be voting for Obama in the primary race.

--I would not care if African Americans were all voting for him just because he belongs to their ethnic group. Or be inclined his way on the news that many women are voting Clinton just because she is a woman!

--I would vote for him because he is more electable than Clinton:

There are big chunks of the Republican electorate that have issues with each of the candidates, but all are united in dislike for Hillary and from what I can tell, pretty much all like Obama as a person. They might stay home on election day if Obama is nominated, but they will come out, grit their teeth and vote for a Republican they detest if Clinton is on the ballot.

Surenna Plays Her Violin

New Bags

The children are posing with the new bags their Aunt Kerry made for them. Someday they will be old bags, and hopefully they will still use and prize these handmade treasures!

Pearls!

All three girls posed for pictures of the pearls Aunt Carol sent for Christmas. As usual, Jemma's picture came out the best. Thanks Carol! They are beautiful, the pearls.