Playing with numbers

I set my alarm for 9:09 so I would be sure to get 9:10.11 on 12/13/14, but I was trigger happy and got it too early and the camera was too slow to take another shot.  I reset the alarm for 9:09pm.  If I had been thinking in 24-hour time I could have aimed for 12/13/14 15:16.17.  But I didn't.

This time the picture was not as good but at least I got it.

p.s.  Thanks to the tip from reader NMR you can read here about a baby born in Cleveland at 10:11 on 12/13/14.  The article also had this important information.

Saturday's Dec. 13, 2014, represented the last sequential calendar date for at least 20 years, if you count Jan. 2, 2034, or 89 years if you choose to wait for Jan. 2, 2103.

Tough Day on the Job

Some days I feel like we are home all day, watching D. juggle, reading books, doing puzzles, eating, and changing diapers.  Other days it feels like we aren't home at all.

We often visit the neighbors' hen
(and worry a bit about the ball that isn't where it belongs).

A great source of enjoyment comes from the indoor cats that happily play with a ribbon
(batting at the window) for as long as we are interested.

If it is sunny we try to find turtles at the botanic garden.  There are none in this picture,
maybe because they are hibernating or maybe because the sun wasn't hitting the rocks.

You can often find us at the grocery store,
finding something for dinner

and enjoying the free sample while we greet the other shoppers.

Other days we visit the koi fish and the Venus statue, a.k.a. Mama.

We have some special fish food that they love so much they let us pet them!

One thing we do every day is visit Mama at school and have some milk,

which may or may not lead to a nap.

Thanks for sharing your childhood with me, Z.!

Emergency food

I remember politely drinking powdered milk at Jules and Ella's house, probably because they didn't keep fresh milk around.  I don't think I have had it since those days about forty years ago, but we do keep it in our emergency kit and A. was interested in trying it.

According to the instructions if you want it to taste more like whole milk you should mix the powder and whole milk in a 1:1 ratio.  D.'s suggestion was to exclude the powdered milk for an even more authentic taste.

I noticed the Spanish instructions also use metric measurements!

We did not do a side-by-side taste, but people agreed that it was better than expected.  Good to know, but I still hope we don't have an emergency.

In case of drought

I considered writing about construction on campus but there is too much for me to keep up with and I think it requires good photography to present it well.  Instead, I present you with two changes to the grounds.

 Change comes to Twelfth St., now known as Platt Blvd. east of Dartmouth.

 The west of the boulevard has trees and ivy.

The east end has grass.

This semester a few of the center portions were converted
to mulch and drought-tolerant plants.

It might be too small to read, but the work was done by Scripps College.
I am not sure why that is important.

Meanwhile, down the road at Pitzer the fence is finally down where Holden Hall was demolished.

Part of the wall remains and this article explains that some people wanted all the rubble to stay, too.

The garden is temporary so the trees are in containers.

Not bad for something that will be replaced within a few years.

Buttermilk biscuits

Cue the Twilight Zone music!

The roasted vegetable soup was almost done and I was ready to make biscuits.  I wasted a lot of time looking for the recipe I have used since I clipped it out of the Boulder Daily Camera in the mid-1990's.  No luck.

I knew I could find a recipe online and when 1,330,000 results came up I chose the eighth one.  The author of the blog said this recipe was adapted from Dot’s Diner in Boulder via Bon Appetit!  Amazing!!

Mmm - recipe is here.

Abracadabra

The Magic Castle is open only to members and those invited by members.  I am lucky to have a nephew who performs there as a junior member and invited us to see him and the other performers.  His first trick was making all the traffic disappear so it was an easy drive to Hollywood.

The William W Larsen, Jr. Memorial Rose Garden

No pictures are allowed beyond the lobby so I snapped this picture outside.  I was too shy to take a picture of the bookcase that opens only after the visitor says, "Open Sesame!"

A little history is above and here.  Sorry, it's a little hard to read with the reflection.
Read more about the Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus here.

On the way home my nephew asked which was my favorite show, but he said I couldn't say his.  But I wanted to!  Illusionists are a little creepy to me.  I almost left in the middle of a Penn and Teller show 35 years ago.  Magic with little kids reminds me of a sad birthday part about 40 years ago.  But my nephew's magic was just the right blend of surprise and entertainment.  I loved it!

Rain

It seems like an odd topic, but since it is the biggest storm in almost ten months (according to the media) I thought I'd post some rain pictures.

boots I bought while living in Denmark -
definitely worth bringing them back

overflowing rain barrel - the hose is now attached and extends into the yard

I would need a video to show you how wonderful my wipers are!
I love having wipers that don't leave streaks!
(Yes, those are buttons from the Ithaca Festival, 2001and 2005.)

Picture taken from the high school parking lot.
One lucky girl got a ride to AND from school.

The forecast is for more rain tomorrow, but I hope to post about something else.