In my defense, the Customs&Immigration droid did startle me.

Anything to declare?

Yeah, don't go to Antigua.

Throwback post. At the HamFam with Matt Lichtenwalner, slacking like the pros we are.

I'm an astonishingly uncoordinated person. I find it interesting, the difference between what it's like to be around me and what uncoordinated people are like in television and film. I don't come across as clumsy because I know I'm clumsy, so I avoid situations that would make it obvious how clumsy I am.

I was frustrated by not being able to juggle, so I spent a week practicing alone in my bedroom, four or more hours a night, until I could juggle. Badly. My juggling ability at the end of that week was comparable to what some people can manage when they're shown how to juggle for the first time.

I keep a super-bounce ball at my desk. When I'm waiting for something, I have a habit of bouncing it off the ground and catching it. Even that, I can only do reliably 10 or so times before it goes careening off and bounces off one of my cow orkers. I'm sure they appreciate that. But generally, I just stay away from things that will expose how bad I am at everything that requires me to put a thing in the right place at the right time.

The big exception is cooking. There are a lot of things you can cook that don't require anything except not cutting yourself. Vegetarian "chili" is easy, especially if you convince yourself that you like coarsely chopped vegetables. Many sauces can be accomplished through simple determination. Even a roux is more about knowing how to recover from problems than physical technique. And pastries are simply, obviously, totally beyond my reach. I once determined that I would make a puff pastry; I spent four hours before tearfully admitting defeat.

That, I hope, is enough context to explain why I am so amazingly pleased with myself that I made fettucine alfredo, starting with flour, eggs, butter, and parmigiano reggiano, and sourdough bread, starting with my own starter, flour, water, and commercial yeast (my starter doesn't have enough loft on its own, and screw those people who claim that sourdough isn't sourdough if you use commercial yeast). I know that neither of those tasks sound like something that actually requires any coordination at all, but believe me, I've found so many ways to manage to mess up both from-scratch pasta AND from-scratch bread, and my success has mostly come from finding ways to produce both that avoid a reliance on my coordination entirely. For example, the first time I actually touch my bread dough with my fingers is when I'm flouring it just before it rises. All the mixing and kneading is done by a machine. I can't even enumerate all the ways this prevents me from giving up in tears.

So the huge writing gig for Pearson officially began today. Yay! I'm checking off another item on my career bucket list: designing and writing cool educational content. And these activities will live in the student manuals as part of a massive ELL program set to roll out in China some time next year and then, eventually, to the rest of the world. Another added bonus - I'll finally collect a paycheck again.

I also signed up for NaNoWriMo because several friends threatened to "divorce" me if I didn't commit this year. By the end of the November, I may need to be committed. BUT I figured out that if I rise at 6 am instead of 7, I can sneak in a guaranteed hour of writing each day.

Now... to find that motivation. I think I saw it zipping down the street, but I'll engage my tractor beam to snare it and reinstall it in my brain.

:::waves hello:::  I am here, finally, after having established my account almost 2 months ago. That's about how my turnaround time has been, lately. I'm still posting sporadically at LiveJournal as well. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to use this site, but for now it's enough to say hi to those who already know me from LJ, FB, or RL, and to anyone new who might be reading this.

So far I really like the interface. It's clean, bright, and readable. It feels like a nice middle ground between FB and a blog platform.

OK, I'm off to read other peoples' posts now.

This is a tasty variation on something I've been pouring in the ice cream freezer for a long time. I should have tried the banana sooner.

1 frozen banana (or fresh; just takes longer)

1 generous dollop peanut butter

2 tablespoons maple syrup

1 generous shake 5-spice powder

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Mix the ingredients and pour into your beloved ice cream maker. Y'know, the compact kind with the insert you keep in the freezer until it's ready.

Serves one. But by that I mean it serves the amount you're really gonna eat. Like, about two cups.

Me and my handsome bros, from this past summer.

My wife's work sponsors a 5K every year. In years past, we've walked the 5K while pushing our son in a stroller. This year, though, since I've been running, my wife asked if I wanted to run it. And I said that would be cool. Then this morning, our son woke up with a fever, and my wife offered to stay home and snooze with him while I ran the 5K. Awesome!

This was my first time ever running in a race. When we walk the 5K, we generally finish almost entirely last, scant minutes before they deflate the finish line. One year, we were beaten by an octogenarian who was also walking. That's a very comfortable way to complete a 5K; our biggest problem has been managing a one- or two-year old who doesn't want to stay in the stroller.

This time, though, I maintained a steady 6 mph pace through the entire 5K, except when I paused to tie my shoes (forgot to double knot them, oops) and at the very end when I figured I might as well give it everything I had for the last .107 miles. And I learned that maintaining a steady pace through an entire 5K is a little depressing, because you spend most of the race passing people who started out too fast. And of course, half the people you pass immediately start running a bit faster, so now you simultaneously feel sorry for them and wish you didn't have to listen to them panting right behind you.

The official timing has me at 30:55, which is a bit shy of my goal of 30:00, but well within my secondary goal of "no more than twice as long as the first-place finisher." I also finished slightly faster than one dude who was somehow walking almost as fast as I was running, and every six-year old who competed. Two of the three seven-year olds beat me, though.

Archer's pumpkin looks on in horror as Houser's pumpkin goes "Daddy hamster" on Hunter's pumpkin.  Happy Halloween!