Not A Fun Way To Begin The Day

Tiny News

It's Sunday and the New York Times gets delivered here on Sunday.
After years of reading it online, I'm not used to the real thing. But
here it is and sitting in front of it is a strange feeling because it
is so damn *small*. Literally, physically. I know it is a cost saving
measure-less paper and ink means less cost, but it's still strange. I
used to be able to spread the thing across the table or bed and it
would be an effort to manage the size of the broadsheet. But now, its
dimunutive form makes me wonder at what i'll find inside. Less news,
fewer photos, different experience? And i have just glanced through
the headlines and already recognized a few of them from the online
edition yesterday. But still, it is a moment or two to relax. Enjoy
the morning sun and toast with butter and get lost for a bit in
another place as I read.

Beach

Surfer

Guardian

O-my

Peaches

Sunrise

Fog City

am crashing now...soooooo tired.

Swiss Ice Tea

At the bakery this evening, on my way home from work, I did a double-
take when I ran into this. So i bought one. I mean, it's being legally
sold at my *bakery* so what could it possibly do? But what might be
more amusing would be to take it with me on my trip to San Francisco
tomorrow...

Description: Black tea with Swiss syrup of hemp blossoms and Swiss
extract of hemp blossoms.

Slogan at the bottom: "fantastic natural feeling." hmmm, what kind of
fantastic natural feeling??

Deerfield Cellar Rat

Shameless plug for Addison Rex's blog here.
Check it out.


I met Addison when he was 5 years old and running around my first post-university boss' home. :-) Now 21 (or 20? how old are you Addison?), Addison, aka "the Cellar Rat," is learning how to make wine from his uncle in northern California.


Interested in the wine-making process? Take a look at Addison's blog. He's not a bad writer - guess he takes after his Mom. ;-)

Key Lime Pie

I had a couple requests for the recipe for Key Lime Pie...so here we go:

1 cup plus 2.5 TBS graham/cracker crumbs (Deutschland - Leibniz Butter Keks)
5 TBS unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
1.5 tsp grated lime zest
1 can sweetened condensed milk (1 Dose gezuckert Kondensmilch)
2/3 cup fresh lime juice (key lime if you can find them...)
1 cup cream
3 TBS powder sugar (Puderzucker)

Preheat over to 350 degrees F (160 C)
In a large mixing bowl, combine graham crackers, butter and sugar.
Press mixture into bottom and sides of a buttered 9-inch pie pan, forming a neat border around edge. Bake crust about 5 minutes until slightly golden
(Note: I used crushed almonds instead of graham crackers...and I made individual mini key lime pies in ceramic ramekins...)

In another bowl, beat egg yolks and lime zest at high speed for about 5 min or until very shiny. Gradually add the condensed milk and beat another 3-4 min or until thick. Add lime juice and mix until just combined.

Pour mixture into pie crust. Bake for 10 minutes.

Let cool.

To serve: combine cream and powdered sugar and whisk until stiff. Serve pie with a couple spoonfuls of the cream (or vanilla ice cream as an alternative...)

Enjoy.

Anyone for a Glass of Wine in a Summer Garden?

Bird Houses

Nice long walk in the woods this morning. The trees in the black forest are full of bird houses. "Why?" I asked Andreas when I got back and showed him the photos. "Well, because there are a lot of birds." Ooookay, makes sense. ;-)

Black Forest Should Be Called Brown

???

Mangold

no photo tinkering. Real colors.

It's a Bird, It's a Plane...

...it's a hot air balloon advertising something or other. Contributing
to the 3000+ marketing messages an average person gets bombarded with daily. You'd think people would try to be a little more creative these days and leave the hot air balloons alone. I should put together a collection of some smart ads-have seen some good ones lately.

Adoration and Comfort Rolled into One

Some days (or nights) you just want something like this pointed at you
for a few hours. :-P Or head for a pool? Oh yeah-next week I will be
at the pool (and beach). Crash of waves, sea air, screaming gulls,
wind and the smell of bay and eucalyptus trees.

Legacy

Wow!!! Mom! :-)
Just saw Andrea's photos on facebook with you. I couldn't figure out who she was until I saw this photo and her caption. How many years ago was she a student of yours? I read the caption and was very proud. :-)

I think I'll Pass On This One

Future Bike

When we were in Paris a couple weeks ago, one of the things we were really impressed with was the French Government's bike rental scheme. Unlike the Deutsche Bahn's for-profit program, the French program is non-profit (actually, it is not only non-profit, the bike rental prices are government-subsidized, I think.). Which meant the prices for the bikes was incredibly reasonable. The first half hour was free and every half hour after that was perhaps 50 cents. And the bike stations were everywhere. I'm sure by now there have been some studies done to monitor the effectiveness of the program (I believe that the program was created primarily to get cars off the street, but other motivations included increasing general health of the population by helping increase their physical exercise levels and lowering pollution levels in the city), but I don't know about how successful the French government considers the program.

Here, you can take a look at the bikes.



They were a bit clunky, but I am guessing pleasant enough to ride.
We didn't get a chance to rent them because we didn't stay in Paris long enough.


































This morning I came across an article on a concept bike (and actually a whole concept for transportation) created for the city of London. Sounds like it was created for a competition (and this was the winning entry). You can read about the concept here if you are interested. But take a look at the bike they created/concepted - it's beautiful - and if it could actually work, pretty brilliant.


The idea is basically that when you use it like a bike, the energy you create by peddling is somehow stored within the bike. And then when you want to use it as a scooter, the energy that you stored within the bike is used to power the motor. The concept goes even further - showing how the bikes could be collapsed and folded to be transported on a bus - which in turn could be partially powered by the stored energy in the bikes (and used to pay your fare.) I wonder if something like this will really be reality in 20 years...or less?

Convenient Timing

Loooookeeee

I am sitting in a restaurant right now drinking a cold strawberry smoothie. The restaurant has a nice wooden bar so i sat down at it and begged for the smoothie, which cannot be found on the menu, but for which I had a strong craving suddenly. And as i was sitting here waiting for the nice bartender to whip something up that vaguely fit the term "smoothie," i saw something in the corner of my eye. A magazine. And as I looked at the photo on the cover, i thought...."hmmmm, somehow seems familiar." So i went and picked it up, looked at the photo again, and then flipped it open to see who the photographer was. Ok, you can guess now. :-)))))