I'm just a burner, they can't trace me

OMG!!!  Your internet awesome of the day, my fellow Wire lovers.  Check it.

So cool

Full length Star Wars movie completely fan made in 15 second increments.  Amazing.  Check it out.

Kid bits

Sag calls this The Claw.  His big Christmas present from us this year was the Lego Mindstorms robotics set.  We also gave him a nifty companion book which is full of ideas and instructions.  This is the first robot he has built at home (using a plan from the book).

Our football team, the New England Patriots, are in the NFL play-offs.  During the game they played last weekend, I noticed the hat Tom Brady was wearing and thought it looked cozy.  I bought one for Cap and when it arrived, Sag and I both loved how comfortable it was.  Here is Sag wearing Cap's cap.  I got a coupon code from the website yesterday so ordered Sag his very own.

The kids did some storyboarding this afternoon.  This is homework they never complain about!  We finished Wildwood today, they did their Vinny exercises, and they did Rosetta Stone.  Later, Daniel is coming over and he and Sag will go to Robotics class.

New York Comic Con: part 1

In a word: WOW.  It was exciting, dramatic, engrossing, inspiring.  There was tons of walking and, honestly, a lot of waiting on lines.  One angel, an exceedingly mellow and good crowd (it was sold out), one douche bag.  Five-plus hours of breathing canned air, seeing no sun, living as one with a massive comic/anime/gaming loving throng.  There were a lot of smiles, some tears, special edition comics, autographs, $1 on-the-spot sketches by admired artists, not-yet-released video games, panels, swag...  One day was not enough.  The kids want to go again next year.

I am beat.  I'm going to let this pics speak for themselves.  More photos, that Gem took and were taken of Gem by Cap, to come later (we split up for parts of the day).

The Guild

Eternal gratitude to B who turned me on to The Guild. 

The Guild is a web series which has been on the periphery of my radar for awhile.  Now that I've started watching, I cannot stop.  It is funny and clever and I love it.  The first four seasons (episodes only run 5-6 minutes long) are up at Hulu and Netflix Streaming right now.  You can catch the current season at their website, here.

Guild-related giddiness #1: bought myself a Knights of Good shirt for 50% off.

Guild-related giddiness #2: hoping to catch a fangirl glimpse of Felicia Day at the NYC Comicon!

Tonight I have been tab clicking back and forth in Firefox between Guild episodes and local farms that raise pasture fed meat/poultry animals.  Cap is waiting with bated breath to see if the Red Sox make it into the playoffs.

L'Shana Tova to my celebrating peeps.

Sweet peace and love.

The weather

In between games of Blue's Clues Memory (one of Gem's childhood faves) and Carcassonne the kids and I stepped out for some fresh air.  The sky was darkening and I got a headache from the pressure system bearing down.

It's okay, though, because the air has been getting cooler and drier with each passing hour.  Ahhhh...

We started a new read aloud book today.  Wildwood by Colin Meloy (of The Decemberists), illustrated by his partner, Carson Ellis.

Peace and love.

Out, up, away and away

Tuckered out:  hot and humid summer+my cycle=inconsistent sleep+low energy

Apped up:  new gadget, new learning curve.

Swept away:  The Closer opened with a crisp and strong crackle, Breaking Bad picked up right where it left off (intensely, darkly, wonderfully), True Blood is veering wacky, sweet and hilarious, and Falling Skies redeemed itself a bit.

Swept away #2:  by Homare Sawa and Abby Wambach.  the Japan-US Women's FIFA final yesterday was a grueling, gritty, amazing game to watch.

Maapallo

My days...well, technically, my nights...often end with music.

This evening I watched an episode of Treme (I am catching up on Season 2).  As I've mentioned before, this show is a treasure trove of music.  Tonight I was thrilled to see Al Johnson perform Carnival Time.  I didn't realize the man was still alive.  Shame on me.

Between the tv and bed I often get caught in the glow of the computer screen.  Tonight I surfed through YouTube for a bit.

(I'd received an apologetic e-mail from an indie record company employee this afternoon...I am holding out just a bit longer to the hope that my complimentary EP (in CD form) promised to me by none other than Mr. Pond himself, months ago, might actually arrive sometime soon.)

I thought I'd finish my musical meandering with a listen to Love To Get Used, off the EP I am waiting for.  As my head started bopping (take a listen and tell me if you don't start bopping yourself...I will be surprised) my eyes and cursor scrolled down the sidebar of 'related' videos and I was startled to see Finnish text.

I clicked over, immediately curious.  And had to smile...and scratch my head.  Finnish reggae is, stunning in it of itself...conceptually...but how the heck are these two songs connected?  Maybe in the lyrics...  The song is entitled Earth, but that's how far I got in my translating.

Check it out...

Decemberists in brooklyn

A big family event last night. The kids' first all ages rock show, inspired by Sag's love of The Decemberists.

When Cap and I went to see them at the Beacon Theater in Manhattan earlier this year, Sag was deeply disappointed to be left home. At the time, everything had happened so quickly. The kids and I fell fast in love with The King Is Dead while we streamed it on NPR right before the album was released. I googled concert dates and discovered they were kicking off their album release tour in NYC the following week. I searched for tix despite a 'sold out' note on the website and found great seats. Snagged some babysitting from my mom, rationalized the spending of cash with my birthday in mind, and boom, the concert came, was glorious, and went.

And I had one bummed out 9 year old to contend with.

I promised to take him when they came around again. They played a benefit show at the Prospect Park bandshell last night. Rain or shine, and it rained...pretty steadily for the first hour we were there, though it was never a downpour, thankfully.

Sag wanted to be up close (it was a general admission show with no seats...I did not realize when buying the tix that there were no seats) so we left Gem and Cap under the overhang of big old trees in the grassy area in back and wove through the crowd to a spot about ten human rows from the stage.

The crowd was amazing. The folks around us, in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s, were tickled to see a kid in their midst. Sag hung in there, at least a foot shorter than everyone else, in a mass of wet slickers and damp blue jeans. The band crew was clearly concerned about the continuing rain and waited as long as they could to start the set (we arrived to the bandshell as the opening act finished their last song and then proceeded to wait nearly an hour for The Decemberists to start...on our feet, all of us, in the rain...)

Just as Sag had had enough and decided to forego our sweet spot to return to Gem and Cap, a woman who had been standing behind him appeared with a chair for him. She was a goddess savior and changed our lives forever. Having a chair to sit on gave Sag the energy to wait out the tech crew. And when the show started about ten minutes later, he stood on the chair and had an unobstructed view of the concert (I cannot express in writing how intensely this kid absorbed the totality of his experience), and someone he truly finds interesting, the lead singer/band frontman, Colin Meloy.

I am still awestruck by the kind act of this stranger. I will never forget what she did and will be grateful, the rest of my days, for how she helped give Sag an incredible first experience seeing his favorite band (the fingers came out of his ears after a song or two when his system adjusted...ear plugs next time!)

The kids lasted about half the show. We departed after seven songs, satisfied, sleepy, and a bit cold and wet. We walked back to the F train through the streets of Park Slope (I understand the appeal, I really do), rode the subway back to my mom's, picked up our stuff, used her loo and gave her hugs, and then we drove back home.

The kids tumbled into bed and slept through the night, a rare thing for Sag, I gave Cap a long overdue haircut, he finished packing, and while the rest of us slept, Cap got into a cab sometime after 3am and took off from Newark at 6am for his annual research trip to Japan.

The kids and I will have a quietish day, but also some routine...Vinny this afternoon, common meal tonight (not at our house :-), the comic book store somewhere in between.  Now, off to break fast.



(from last night's show...)

From the kitchen

Here's the nikujaga recipe for Kelly (and maybe Jamie? :-) and anyone else who might want to give it a try. It should get big enough to read if you click on it. If not, message me and I'll send you the recipe via e-mail.  The recipe comes from a book I bought when living in Cambridge, at the Japanese bookstore that used to be in Porter Square (not sure if it's still there): Stone Soup Easy Japanese Home Cooking edited by Setsuko Watanabe, published by Kodansha.  It's a nifty bilingual cookbook.

And here are some shots of the birthday cake I made for Cap yesterday.  A yellow layer cake with lingonberry jam filling and coconut frosting.  GFCF, of course.

It was lovely.  I had a slice for breakfast (I think it was even better this morning). 

For the cake, I used Bette Hagman's Featherlight Yellow Cake recipe, our old standby.  However, I used superfine white rice flour this time and the texture of the cake was changed (and in my opinion, improved) significantly.  The result was more refined...more like a sponge cake.  Very smooth, the cake nearly melts in your mouth.  

The lingonberry jam is a seasonal favorite, it definitely has a 'Nordic winter' feel for me.  It also provides a bit of 'summer in winter' for the palate/table, which I have been craving these days.

I tried a new frosting, Coconut Cream Frosting from Elana's Pantry, and found it to be tasty and a perfect match for this cake.  Cap likes coconut and I was happy to find something to celebrate him fittingly.

This evening we have the Patriots game followed by the Golden Globes.  (I'll be rooting for Katey Sagal who is amazing as Gemma in Sons of Anarchy.  And, I'll be oohing and aahing and being snarky about dresses and the like :-)  For dinner I'm making a pot of soup with the last of the homemade chicken stock and corn bread in the cast iron skillet (there's no going back to a regular loaf pan for me when it comes to corn bread...thank you, Alton Brown!)

Anything interesting going in your kitchen lately?

Brooklyn Tweed

Excuse me, while I kiss the wool...

 pic from the Knitch blog.

I have long admired the work and aesthetic of Jared Flood.  Also known as Brooklyn Tweed.  I've been following his knit design work on his blog for years.  He is also a photographer.  I think he used to have a day job, as well, but am not sure he's kept it.

Because, this year, Brooklyn Tweed introduced to the world his own line of wool yarn.  He has started a line of 100% wool skeins using fiber from sheep born and bred in the United States.  The mill where the wool is made is also in the United States.  (Details abound much more eloquently at the link below the photograph.)

As if that weren't enough to get my heart to go pitter pat, the colors of his yarn are incredible.  They surprise you.  They seem kind of plain initially (at least for a Noro and Malabrigo lover like me), but as your eyes settle and rest on them, the skeins begin to take on subtle yet depthful complexity.

Alchemy.

And passion.

And peace.

I spent some time at Brooklyn Tweed's online shop tonight.  I had good reason to celebrate someone dear who loves to knit.  Finally, I could justify making a purchase.  (My own fiber consumption has gone way down as I've tightened my money belt.)

I realized as I moved through the shop and completed my transaction, that I felt very peaceful.  It was lovely.

If you'd like to check Brooklyn Tweed out, you can do so, here.

Louis C.K.

I just finished watching the last two episodes of the first season of Louis C.K. on FX.  I hope there's a second season.  He is thoughtful and funny.  A 40-something divorced dad of two girls making sense of life and letting us in on the good, bad and ugly with humor, but also, compassion.  I love art that makes me cry because I'm laughing so hard one minute and because I am so moved, the next.

Finger in the dam

I'm sending off Gem on a great baseball adventure to commemorate his first decade.

He and Cap will be road tripping through Cooperstown, Syracuse, Toronto, Niagara Falls, and Scranton. Three baseball games on three consecutive nights. In Toronto they will be seeing the Red Sox play the Blue Jays.

I love this itinerary. Gem picked Toronto as his destination and Cap and I filled in the blanks. Gem's love of baseball has grown exponentially in the last few months. He is excited for this trip.

My feelings of love, joy, and nervous tension, are reaching a crescendo tinged with undeniable bittersweet. I've never watched him drive away from me, he's never gone on a trip without me.

The kitchen is so good for transferring and transforming this type of emotional whirlwind. I made one of the kids' favorite dinners tonight: meatloaf. They were in heaven, I felt very grounded, all was good.

Now I hear them talking in their room with the night light on, sleep running a distant second to the hum coursing through their systems as they anticipate tomorrow. My pulse is quickening, too. Time to go chill.

Side note: I am very much looking forward to three days alone with Sag. Sag, who will be dealing with his own experience of being separated from his brother, and being fully aware of it, for the first time ever.

Johnny Weir rocks

Johnny Weir responds to commentators who questioned his gender, example he sets

click on the purple text above...