Cooked for Independence Day 2011, originally uploaded by schahn. We served a light meal for Fourth of July this year–we had only a single dinner guest, and Benjamin is still at camp. The gazpacho and steak recipes were based on those in this month’s Cook’s Illustrated, while the taco filling comes from Bayless’s Authentic Mexican. [...]

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Nathaniel and I, after reading most of the menus on Broadway in search of a hot dog, stopped at The Patty Shack [Yelp] on Main St. Having enjoyed Tijuana Dogs at Fremont’s now-defunct Juan More Taco, I was pretty excited to have a local source for bacon-wrapped hot dogs. Nathaniel enjoyed his corn dog; he’s [...]

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We went on the Marine Science Institute‘s cruise today, which was in part to celebrate World Oceans Day 2010. Part of the cruise involved sampling the bay floor and a short trawl with a net. (All animals caught are returned to the bay later in the day.) Ben got to hold a juvenile leopard shark.

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We got to this year’s Maker Faire fairly early, and saw the many cool things people have built. (It was our first Maker Faire, and we underestimated the event’s popularity.) Benjamin, who’s recently become an enthusiastic chess player, got to face off against the chess playing robot: Ben attempted a Scholar’s Mate, was stymied, and [...]

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Dina and I were, despite all polls, anticipating election nights like the preceding two, where any hope of resolution was delayed, and tension distributed to all election watchers. This year, I was determined to enjoy the evening, and poured something light for the both of us to sip while listening to analyses. Historians will write [...]

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For the Thanksgiving holiday this year, we decided to explore San Mateo County’s section of the Pacific Coast. Dina settled on Butano State Park as our base, which is mostly made of a redwoods-forested canyon, south of Pescadero and on the western slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains. We arrived in the late afternoon, having [...]

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(I’ve realized I need to deal with a much-too-high interrupt rate at work, in part by ensuring I take out a bit of time for leisure. Here’s an entry I started in April.) Over the past few years, my reading rate has climbed; perhaps I’ve unwittingly dropped a periodical, or maybe I’m getting back to [...]

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Big news for our household: the New York Times has an article on the announcement of the discovery of Mapusaurus roseae, which is larger than Giganotosaurus (which is in turn felt to be larger than Tyrannosaurus rex). Both Mapusaurus and Giganotosaurus were discovered in Argentina, and perhaps hunted Argentinosaurus, a huge plant-eating sauropod. Ben’s home [...]

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Most Saturdays, Dina and Benjamin head off to swimming lessons. Nathaniel and I are left to our own devices, which means we go for one of two kinds of walk: a walking walk, where Nathaniel walks, and a seeing walk, where Nathaniel gets pushed. This week, Nathaniel expressed that he wanted to see trains on [...]

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The Wall Street Journal has an article, “Clever Gags Score High On Super Bowl Ads”, with best and worst polls to accompany the online edition. We, for a change, actually watched the SuperBowl this year—with appropriate TiVo gymnastics to cover the grossly underestimated duration given in the television listings—and so can comment on the advertisements. [...]

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