Why Apple must be such a great client to work with....they just get it...
Monday, June 30, 2008
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Almost in the bog box!
The dog is almost in the house!....
After a long time Saturday spent planning, designing and measuring (without the aid of any CAD software!) and selecting just the right cedar planks at Home Depot, Robbie started the construction phase of the new Miles pad yesterday morning.
Planning out the project (note the Project Manager asleep on the job!)
Trying on for size...Miles spent a decent amount of time actually in the thing even surrounded by the noise of an electric drill
Note the ceiling fan! We're just trying to work out if we make it motion activated.
The (almost) finished product - just the trim and cedar planking to go on.
A big effort in one day - nice job Robbie!
Suggestions for a name for the dog house gratefully appreciated! Feel free to add a comment (or review!).
After a long time Saturday spent planning, designing and measuring (without the aid of any CAD software!) and selecting just the right cedar planks at Home Depot, Robbie started the construction phase of the new Miles pad yesterday morning.
Planning out the project (note the Project Manager asleep on the job!)
Trying on for size...Miles spent a decent amount of time actually in the thing even surrounded by the noise of an electric drill
Note the ceiling fan! We're just trying to work out if we make it motion activated.
The (almost) finished product - just the trim and cedar planking to go on.
A big effort in one day - nice job Robbie!Suggestions for a name for the dog house gratefully appreciated! Feel free to add a comment (or review!).
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Our local hootenanny
Over on the Panda blog they're talking about their local summer music festival. Our local world famous in Milwaukee music festival kicked off on the Lake Michigan waterfront on Thursday night and yours truly and beau went to check it out.Actually Summerfest is the largest music festival in the US - 11 days, 11 stages, and over 700 bands with everything from Stevie Wonder, Three Dog Night, to Blondie and Gnarls Barkley.
Tickets cost a whopping $15 per day (but you pay extra for the super big name acts - Stevie Wonder - each night which are held in an amphitheater on site) but everyone else you get for the same one ticket price. It's worth the cost of admission just for the people watching!
More to come as we go to a few more days, but Thursday we caught Three Dog Night and Gnarls. The 3DN boys were looking a tad grey but everyone knew the words to every song and they played all the classics.
The band in the 70's
and in the 00's.Opening night always features a 30 minute fireworks show...
Last night we went with some of the gang from work to see Blondie...and what a complete highlight. We caught a shuttle bus and overheard one of the guys on-board say "yeah Debbie Harry's like 240lbs now..." so we didn't know what to expect. She was incredible. She's 62 years old (take note Ollie!) and looks, acts, and sounds GREAT!
She came out in a tight knit striped dress (they tour is celebrating 30 years of the album Parallel Lines and she totally looked the part). She was sexy, curvaceous, and funny. They changed up some of the arrangements to several of their hits to freshen them up - but they were still true to form. And we were only 10 rows back - and 8 by the end! Awesome show...
Friday, June 27, 2008
What's inside nondairy creamer
The kitchen closest to our department at work is filled with the obligatory fridge/freezer, microwave, soda machine and of course the coffee maker. The company doesn't supply milk (probably because most people drink their coffee black) but there are giant jars of "non-dairy creamer" on the bench.
The contents have always appalled me and I just happened upon an explanation - which got emailed to the team in the hope they'll stop using creamer and start supporting the dairy farmers of Wisconsin, and not the corn growers of Iowa....
What’s Inside: Powdered Nondairy Creamer
Wired magazine, January 2007
Sweet, smooth, and potentially explosive.
• Corn syrup solids: Corn syrup is, for the most part, glucose. When it’s dehydrated to about 10 percent water, the resulting granules are basically sugar.
• Vegetable oil solids: Powdered creamer has to get its creamy texture somewhere. Coconut and palm kernel oils are among the heavier food oils and are added – in all their partially hydrogenated glory – for velvety smoothness. Because they add up to less than 0.5 gram of trans fat, the label can claim “zero grams trans fat.”
• Sodium caseinate: Casein is a protein found in cow’s milk, thus making this nondairy product off-limits to vegans. Officially, it’s kosher, but don’t go mixing it with meat. (Note to self: no more ground beef in your coffee.)
• Dipotassium phosphate: Also called phosphoric acid, dipotassium phosphate provides the tang in Coca-Cola. It helps us digest sugars, fats, and proteins, which happen to be nondairy creamer’s top three ingredients. Oh, it’s also a pesticide and a major ingredient in fertilizer.
• Monoglycerides and diglycerides: These single- or double-chain fatty acids end in a glycerol molecule. The glycerol end attaches to water, and the fatty acid end to fats and oils, making these substances gentle mediators between the creamer and the coffee.
• Sodium alumionosilicate: Known to potters as albite feldspar (a ceramic glaze and strengthening agent), sodium alumionosilicate is used in foods as an anticaking agent. Powdered nondairy creamer is flammable, and if it gets too anticaked (dispersed in the air like a cloud), it can explode. Just one spark, and – kaboom!
• Artificial flavors: Since glucose, palm kernel oil, and sodium caseinate don’t really taste like cream, artificial flavors are required. Manufacturers tend to keep exactly what they use a secret. Of course, these flavors can sometimes come in very noncream varieties like hazelnut, amaretto, or mocha.
• Annato: This natural pigment from a tropical plant provides a yellow color, so the creamer looks more, you know, dairy-ish.
(it’s the same product used to make cheddar cheese orange) Can someone explain why American cheddar cheese is orange?
Wired magazine, January 2007
Sweet, smooth, and potentially explosive.
• Corn syrup solids: Corn syrup is, for the most part, glucose. When it’s dehydrated to about 10 percent water, the resulting granules are basically sugar.
• Vegetable oil solids: Powdered creamer has to get its creamy texture somewhere. Coconut and palm kernel oils are among the heavier food oils and are added – in all their partially hydrogenated glory – for velvety smoothness. Because they add up to less than 0.5 gram of trans fat, the label can claim “zero grams trans fat.”
• Sodium caseinate: Casein is a protein found in cow’s milk, thus making this nondairy product off-limits to vegans. Officially, it’s kosher, but don’t go mixing it with meat. (Note to self: no more ground beef in your coffee.)
• Dipotassium phosphate: Also called phosphoric acid, dipotassium phosphate provides the tang in Coca-Cola. It helps us digest sugars, fats, and proteins, which happen to be nondairy creamer’s top three ingredients. Oh, it’s also a pesticide and a major ingredient in fertilizer.
• Monoglycerides and diglycerides: These single- or double-chain fatty acids end in a glycerol molecule. The glycerol end attaches to water, and the fatty acid end to fats and oils, making these substances gentle mediators between the creamer and the coffee.
• Sodium alumionosilicate: Known to potters as albite feldspar (a ceramic glaze and strengthening agent), sodium alumionosilicate is used in foods as an anticaking agent. Powdered nondairy creamer is flammable, and if it gets too anticaked (dispersed in the air like a cloud), it can explode. Just one spark, and – kaboom!
• Artificial flavors: Since glucose, palm kernel oil, and sodium caseinate don’t really taste like cream, artificial flavors are required. Manufacturers tend to keep exactly what they use a secret. Of course, these flavors can sometimes come in very noncream varieties like hazelnut, amaretto, or mocha.
• Annato: This natural pigment from a tropical plant provides a yellow color, so the creamer looks more, you know, dairy-ish.
(it’s the same product used to make cheddar cheese orange) Can someone explain why American cheddar cheese is orange?
In the Dog House
Robbie's project for the weekend....build a dog house for Miles. And of course, not just any dog house.Because of where we live he's planning a tribute to Wisconsin-native Frank Lloyd Wright...he would probably turn in his grave...but this design, labeled "Wright-inspired", is our inspiration.
Although we'll be aiming for a little more cantilevering - a la Fallingwater - Wright's famously designed house in Bear Run, Pennsylvania for the Kaufmann family that we visited back in late 2006. Click on the link for more.
More Lake Living
One of the only real concerns we have about our new lake lifestyle is the winter. We now have a 40m back pathway to the garage and a similar length entry from the garage to the street which we will no doubt enjoy shoveling during the snowy months (and any regular readers of the blog know that thats about 9 months in Wisconsin)...
But that's all at least....5 (???) months away. As my Mum Nellie would say, don't wish your life away. I'm not. Right now we're just enjoying the summer.
The hot tub on the deck...(not sure about the lit up cup holders?... :)
and the peonies in the garden (coming to an end after a glorious few weeks)...
We had our house warming a couple of weeks back - in the midst of the rainy weather that we suffered from in the Midwest for more than two weeks. We have only just now (3 weeks on) got a dry basement after the low lying water level seeped it's way through the basement walls (the joys of home ownership - thankfully not our problem!).
It was Flag Day - so the flags were flying..
Of course it rained the day of the housewarming, which it inevitably does when Robbie's planning a deep fried turkey...but the show must go on!
The permanent fixture at any Young party - Mr DFT (Deep Fried Turkey)
My find of the summer's flea markets so far - my $5 wooden ironing board repurposed as a bar!
Miss Hannah hangs out in the dog house
Leftover S'more Brownies - graham cracker base, brownie and toasted mini marshmallows - usually a very traditional summer cook out staple - it's just usually a toasted marshmallow sandwiched between 2 graham crackers cookies with a slab of chocolate in the middle (see here for more details!)
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Reverse Graffiti
A clever idea for a perfect marketing partnership - a reverse graffiti artist who creates art from cleaning surfaces, paired with Clorox Green Works cleaning products
Wish I'd thought of it!Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Lake Living
Summer has arrived and we've borrowed a boat!Thanks to Peter Harken, who has loaned us one of his small inflatable ribs for a few days, we're making the most of the sunshine, long days, great lake, and neighboring waterfront bars!
When we moved here people told us there were 12 bars and restaurants on the lakefront...we'll we've done 2 by boat - so only 10 to go!
Friday night straight after work we launched the boat and headed out on the lake with Miles and Kathy from my office, with a beer in hand and a keen eye on the waterfront properties. We walk the neighborhood every day with Miles, but hadn't been able to check out the houses from the waterside...a whole different perspective.
There are a mix of summer cottages which are more original, and sometimes only occupied at weekends, and McMansions - rather large and ostentatious palaces, and plenty of character filled places in between.
Some even have an outside bar (spot the wooden wet bar and bar chairs!)
Some even have an outside bar (spot the wooden wet bar and bar chairs!)
The Hideaway - one of the little bars on the waterfront where you can tie your boat up out front, and bring your dog! We can recommend the bacon cheeseburgers (and Miles loves the hotdogs!)
This house is built out onto a small peninsula and has a wet boat shed that goes from one side of the land...
to the other, so you can launch your boat whichever way the wind is blowing
Lots of original boat sheds are used as sleep-outs, or bars. You can't replace them, so they're precious. Remember, the lake freezes in the Winter so you won't want to be hanging out in them then!
Video of our bay...ending on our place (the furtherest right house in the bay)
Our place...
Closeup...that's our dock and boat lift to the right
Harken's gone to the dogs!
Friday, June 20, 2008
Retro keyboard
Funny how something the total antithesis of the sleek mac white bluetooth keyboard can still look so way cool. I want one!
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