“Can I help you sir?” asked the young man at the Indian/Himalayan market. Big smile, hands wrung together, plastic sandals. Already I was thinking the answer was probably ‘no’. “Do you have any jaggery?” I asked. Now his smile was…
Dinnertime Craziness
It all collides at dinner: low blood-sugar, stimulus overload from a day of school, punchy tiredness, and the impossibility of getting four people at the table at the same time. Forget the genial family dinner set under the olive trees…
Child Labor
There’s a reason kids are used for tasks like this. Just look at those nimble little fingers! I was having trouble helping Child Harbat weave using a crochet hook and she found it easier to just use her fingers.…
New Bread
It’s time for a new bread, a new way of doing things. I’ve long resisted switching to folding dough instead of kneading because…why exactly? Maybe I thought kneading was a necessary primal step in creating bread, something to do with…
Beer Review: Honey Rosemary Saison
Another beer brewed, another lesson learned. Hey kids! Go easy on the herb, ‘kay? Even though Crazy Uncle Gary says it’s no problem and he lets you pour coke into your Froot Loops instead of milk, a little fine herb…
Nothing is Too Slimey
I’ve always encouraged Child Harbat to pick up bugs and be not be squeamish or cruel about the smaller creatures of the world. So I’m pleased that she not only likes to pick up snails but wants them to crawl…
Bubble, Bubble, Toil, and Guzzle
Home brewing is a hedonist’s dream. Whatever your taste, your required quantity, your preferred bottle shape, it’s all under your control, o puppetmaster. But homebrewing is a hell for the impatient. You think once fermenting is done that you can…
Posted in Brewing Tagged with: abbey ale, beer, brewing, english ale, fermenting, home brewing, honey rosemary saison, stout, yeast
Birth, Life, Death, and a Curtsey
Sometimes you get to see an entire life cycle, to feel as old as a mountain as forests rise and fall at your toes. At our house this meant watching a pair of red house finches build a nest under…
The Last of Us – Emotional Gameplay
Let’s talk gaming for a minute. Video games have come a long way from Donkey Kong and Bard’s Tale. The game studio Naughty Dog, made famous and wealthy by the wildly successful and acclaimed Uncharted trilogy which is as much…
Posted in Products Tagged with: emotion, gustavo santaolalla, joel and ellie, naughty dog, pac-man, the last of us, video games
Getting More Food on Your Face
Of all the things I have to deal with in parenting–the temper tantrums, dirty diapers, unflushed toilets, runny noses–the thing that irritates me is messy faces. Child Harbat never had too much of an issue with this and learned to…
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