It was an fairly dull Friday morning. I was working from home, seething at someone on a project I’m working on. I keep a twitter client going–my virtual water cooler. I got a message from a friend from college, which linked to an article. An experimental aircraft named Solar Impulse, which is making a cross-country flight, would be stopping in Cincinnati. Solar Impulse is a solar-powered aircraft designed to circle the globe. It combines solar cells with batteries, allowing it to fly at night. As a demonstration, they are flying it across country. That morning, they decided to make a “pit stop” in Cincinnati.
Not just in Cincinnati, but at Lunken Airport, merely a mile from my house.
I tracked it on their website throughout the day. My wife an daughter had a small event that evening, but thought they’d be back by the anticipated 8:45 arrival. I kept an eye on it, and while they were driving home, saw that it would arrive at 8:15. I grabbed my camera and a pair of binoculars, and met them as they were walking to the house.
We drove to Alms Park, and saw it over the I-275 Bridge.
It seemed like a giant bird. Or, as my wife pointed out, a B-2 Spirit.
It’s wingspan was comparable to an Airbus A380, yet weight about the same as my wife’s car.
What struck me about it was how slowly it was able to fly. One of the vehicles chasing it on landing was a bicycle.
As they towed it from the runway, we went down the hill to look at it at the terminal building.
It was an impressive looking plane.
Lunken is an underappreicated asset for Cincinnati, and you never know what might pay a visit. Solar Impulse was an example of such a guest. It was an unexpected treat!
We were at the grocery store the other day, when my wife lingered by the granola. “I wouldn’t have to think about buying some, if we had some at home.”
I can take a hint.
Granola was the first recipe I really played with to get right. I started with Alton Brown’s recipe. However, I kept tweaking it. First, we lost the raisins. Can’t stand them. Not much of a tweak, but it was something. We swapped the nuts to ones more to our taste (this has been the biggest variable–while we use pecans and cashews, we’ve also used almonds and Brazil nuts). We wanted something that clumped a bit better, so I changed the oil/maple syrup ratio, and adjusted the cooking process. Most recently, it was the addition of sunflower seeds.
I still think of it as Alton Brown’s recipe, even if it is significantly divergent. However, that’s part of what I like about it: it is easy to adjust to your tastes and play with. Instead ½ cup coconut and ¼ cup sunflower seeds, do ¾ cup of coconut. Or swap some of it out for pumpkin seeds. Have fun!
The other nice thing about this recipe is that it’s great for kids. While it’s good to measure things correctly, it can easily absorb a bit of variance. Mixing can happen with hands (what I usually do), and the only thing that requires major adult supervision is the oven.
3 cups rolled oats
2 cups nuts (we like a 2:2:1 ratio of pecans, cashews, and peanuts)
½ cup shredded sweet coconut
¼ cup unsalted sunflower seeds
¼ cup dark brown sugar
½ cup maple syrup
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 cup dried fruit (we liked a mix dried pineapple and papaya)
Preheat oven to 250˚F.
In a large bowl, combine the oats, nuts, coconut, and sunflower seeds.
In a separate bowl, combine maple syrup, oil, and brown sugar. Combine both mixtures and pour onto sheet pan. Cook for 1 hour, stirring every 20 minutes. For the last five minutes, raise oven temperature to 300˚F. Turn off oven, but leave pan in oven to cool for 1 to 1½ hour.
Remove from oven and transfer into a large bowl. Add dried and mix until evenly distributed.
Granola is fun and easy to make. Enjoy on its own, or mixed in yogurt.
We’re running out of cats quicker than you’re running out of names for Apple operating systems. Sad that this little bit of advocacy (and class) is going away. Especially given the lack of small (yet no less wild) cat names among versions of OS X.
I’m’ not as familiar with butterfly species, and didn’t take notes. So, this post will have lots of (hopefully) pretty pictures of butterflies, but not as much text.
This is an annual event, focussing on butterflies of a different region each year. This year’s theme was “Butterflies of Morocco.” They had a photo booth set up, with a fez (’cause fezzes are cool).
We were given “landing cards” for the butterflies to land on, if they wanted to.
But some just chose to land on us directly.
One started on my daughter’s card…
…and moved to her hand…
…and then her chest. It actually climbed up to her neck, at which time she decided it was a bit creepy. I was a good dad, putting down my camera to rescue her.
They really were pretty to look at. There was something a bit magical about being in a garden with literally hundreds of butterflies fluttering about.
It really was a lovely afternoon at the butterfly show.
When I found Eddy, the vet said he was twelve weeks old. so, I counted backward on a calendar twelve weeks…and somehow remembered the date wrong. However, June 6 has been observed as his birthday ever since.
And, today is his ninth June 6 since he was born.
Most of the time, he’s the world’s sweetest cat. He waits for me to settle in bed, then makes a nest between my legs. This evening, after I was out all day, he jumped into my lap to get his head rubbed. True, when he goes to the vet, or escapes outside (he’s an indoor-only cat (in spite of what he may tell you)), he reminds us that he is a subspecies of wild cat (felis silvestris). Still, he is sweet 8,763 out of 8,766 hours a year. Most people I know can’t claim that.
