100% Hencake

This is a hencake.

I make at least one hencake every time I fix pancakes for the family.

This is not necessarily a breakfast picture. It could be dinner. I do that sometimes. Breakfast for dinner.

Hencakes are made from a ladle... the batter is poured out, slowly... first the body, and then the tail and head. Sometimes I add either feet, or a nest for her to settle into.

Hencakes make me happy. When I am amused, I am happy.

Maria used to call a chicken's beak a "toot." I remember exactly the time when she drew a beak, and called it a toot.

The toot is the hardest part to add to a hencake. They usually come out a bit big. This one could be a hummingbird's toot.

And now, I am going to clean our kitchen, fold some laundry, and be uncharacteristically productive in areas domestic.

What are you doing?

Have you figured out Maria's Secret Share? It is kind of a vegetable but it didn't grow in the garden!

Wet Paint

Alex and Suki were asked by their principal to collaborate on a painting for a retiring administrator. William and I made some time to track down this painting Alex has been telling us about. The collage shows campus scenes, new and old. For reference and inspiration, they took photos with a fish eye lens, and also went into the vault to study old year book images.


I wanted to see what they did, before the painting disappeared into someone's home. I think Suki and Alex make a good collaborative team... they have similar interests and creative perspectives, with their own styles and ways of telling the story. Also they are both uniquely kind and respectful, which makes them extremely pleasant to be around, and probably made it easier for them to work together.

(I grin broadly thinking of my oh-so subtle pride in Alex, and Suki. teehee)


The last time I went to visit Alex, the gallery, and the studio, Alex showed me this work in progress. His teacher had asked him to give oils a try, and to create a series of paintings based on a theme. I got to see this oil painting in progress, and it is the third in his series.


Here is the third oil painting. He completed it in November. It is hanging in our office/guestroom/gallery home.

Remember: She works. Or at least, she is thoughtfully designed to work. Alex doesn't draw and paint gears and pistons only because they look cool on a SteamPunk automaton, he does it with a mind toward engineering and function.


Here is the first automaton, done with acrylics. She is hanging in the house too.


This was started in November, and after it went back to school with him, I was eager to see how it's progressing...


The paint is still wet, but I think she is mostly complete.


So intense! I notice his first paintings were very reflective of his high detail pencil and pen work... almost as though he were still using the brush and paint like a pen, with fine lines and minute specifications. This painting is done boldly. It is still elaborate, but he seems more confident about letting the paint and broad brush strokes take command of his image.

And this concludes my amateur venture in to art criticism, and interpretation. Amen.


Gilbert is coming along nicely.
Dear Gilbert.

Hey, it's actually Gilbert's birthday month! He started appearing about four years ago, and then Alex began this larger portrait of our favorite mood-frog. Maybe I should give Gilbert his own, updated, post, with all of his incarnations. He is a worthy fellow.

What Time is It?!

When I say: Parrot! You say: Ox!

Parrot! Ox!


What Time is It?!
The time is... Three days to FIRST Kick Off! Launch!

Launch is the day when all the teams get rules, parts, and the live NASA feed of what to expect in the six weeks ahead.

What Time is It?!
Midnight!
It's time to get revved up for those gracious and spirited Midnight Mechanics, for Team San Diego, for FIRST Robotics, for 2102 Team Paradox! Time to raise our voices for math and science, for engineering, for art, for coopertition and gracious professionalism!


Last night, a very special delivery was made... it felt like the holidays all over again! It smelled good, like burning the candle of Paradox success! We all donned our new team hoodies, and Maria brought out her best markers so she could add her artistic love for her favorite robotics team in the world!

It is a great team, with students that inspire my hope, and enthusiasm, and spark in me an insuppressible desire to support their dreams.

I can think of a lot of reasons to support robotics, to cheer for math, to feed the team... it's good for the world, for our country, for our community, for our school, for the team, for my son and his friends, it's good for our family. And, it's good for me. I feel lucky to be with these wonderful people... the students, the teachers, parents, the mentors, the inventors. I feel really lucky.

Thank you 2102 Team Paradox.

Looking Around

Ferris

I wish I were a more minimalist kind of blogger, because then I would have the good sense to post this picture of Ferris, and leave it at that... go for a run, meet my personal trainer, life coach, manicurist type person. I would know that nothing I can say, and no other pictures, are going to be quite as captivating or good as this picture of our energetic and stealthy attack cat.


Uh.
There I go.
Can't stop myself from saying one more thing, sharing one more picture.

Oh. Look. How timely. Geoff just sent me a link to a photographer's blog. A successful blogger. Wholey cow. It's a mind blower.

Hey, remember my resolution for the new year... about not giving up?
Yeah, I give up.

Just kidding.


Hey, it's the cat, again. Looking funny, but not quite as blog worthy as in the first image, and not even remotely as blog worthy as anything in "Stuck In Customs.com"

Fortunately, I had no plans for this post. I was going to think of a witty, possibly self-deprecating, way to say that I am sitting here eating a slice of my birthday cake. I thought I would mention that robotics and FIRST kick-off is in four days, because I know how "well" that goes for my readership. Otherwise, this is an entirely undirected, floundering post. I don't even have another cat picture. Or any more cake.

This is the one thousand seven hundred and twelfth post to Chickenblog. Leaving a comment on this post will ensure that spring will follow winter, and it will also contribute to your overall sense of well being.

Thank you.

Puddly-Wuddly Walk

We had big plans for our winter break, including long walks, rainy walks, neighborhood walks, beach and garden walks...

Yesterday, the last day of break, Alex, Maria, and I went on a rainy, garden, see-the-beach walk. It was cold! And obviously rainy. I don't know if it was a wise choice as far as recovering sickies are concerned, but it did our spirits a world of good!


We had to persuade Maria to drop her "walk to the park" campaign, which was not easy to do. Finally we piqued her interest when we asked, "What do fish do on a rainy day?" We could see it on her face, when her mind dropped the campaign for slides and swings, and shifted to this interesting inquiry... do fish delight in the extra splashes? Do fish duck and cover, when great plops and drops stir up their watery home?


Maria was the leader, and she found the koi pond, and we found that all of the fish were active and swimmy in the rain. Pretty too.


We were active and swimmy in the rain. We could not sit down. Wet. Cold. Cold. Wet. So, we kept walking through the gardens, smelling the sea, feeling the water and breeze. It was a puddly-wuddly walk. It felt good.


What do surfers do on a rainy day? Do they delight in the extra splashes? Do they stay indoors with hot tea and wool scarves?


On this day, they were out there... surfing, in wetsuits, for obvious reasons.
brrrrr

Funny, last year we were out there, in the water. This is a much colder winter than we had last year.


We don't have wetsuits, so I think we will wait for a sunnier, warmer day before we go in the ocean. Low tide! We won't need wetsuits to enjoy a puddly-wuddly walk through the tidepools.

Ah, new year, new plans...

New Year Hang-Over :: A Tutorial

This is the best hangover ever! My idea for getting coats and bags, scarves and hats, off of the floor and dining table is finally on the wall.

Maybe my resolution for this new year should be learn new things! I knew I would need help getting the coat hooks on the wall properly. It's no good using nails, or my go-to method: Hot glue! So, I turned to my dear, and asked him to show me how it's done. And I am not alone in this quest for learning... my friend Judy asked me to share what I learned about hanging coat hooks.

Judy, I took pictures, and I took notes, and just to prove that I really was paying attention: I am going to hang more hooks in the bathrooms, and our bedroom, and I am going to do it all by myself.

Maybe my resolution for this new year should be take initiative!


Ready?

Supplies:
1. Hollow wall anchors (plastic, hollow, brightly colored sleeves that will keep your screw from spinning around in the drywall or plaster)
2. A light hammer or mallet (a small, smooth stone)
3. A power drill/screwdriver
4. Screws, which are often matched in the box of anchors, so: Convenient!
5. A level (or keen sense of up from down)


Okay. If you are not putting up a bunch of hooks, then you can probably skip this layout part. If you want to map out your plan, or ensure that you get a straight and even row of hooks, then get some straight and even paper.

We spent some time playing around with the layout, which is meant to look appealing, yet random. Or was it random, yet appealing?

The paper is cut to the same width as the wall where we are putting up the hooks.


If you can, get more than one opinion.
Chango was indifferent to this layout, so we moved the squirrel a little closer to the bottom. I think it was a good choice.


The decisions are made. The hooks are where we want them to be, and so Geoff marked each screw hole, and traced the hardware in its place. For extra certainty he named each hook and wrote that name next to the marks for the screw holes. Elaborate, but we had a lot of different hooks.

Once every hook was accounted for and traced on the paper, we hung the paper in place on the wall where we were putting the coat hooks. Geoff brought out a level and adjusted the top of the paper, then we taped the paper in place.

Select the screws you will use to put up your hook. We were eager to do the job, and not eager to go to the hardware store, so we did not use matching screws... I may dab dark nail polish on them, if I ever become concerned about the screws matching the coat hooks, which I am not.

Okay. We have the screws we will be using, now we fit them with one of those hollow, plastic anchors... the metal screw is going to be turned in the anchor, and it needs to be a nice tight fit. If the anchor is too big, it will not hold the screw in place, and our coat hook will wiggle and turn, and eventually drop to the floor.

Now we have screws and anchors, and we are ready to make the holes we marked on the paper...


Power. Tools.
These are oh-so useful, and yes, fun.
Seriously, when you get comfortable with a power tool, it is liberating and fun to realize how much easier and faster jobs can be. It is very worthwhile to get comfortable with power drills and screwdrivers.


Geoff chose a drill bit slightly smaller than the anchors we are using. You can imagine that if the hole is bigger than the anchor then there will be no wall for the anchor to grip, right? I am actually looking forward to trying this on my own.

Geoff took this part, the drilling, slowly. He drilled cautiously feeling for studs. If the drill bit hit wood, then he knew that he could skip the anchor part, or simply shorten the tip of the anchor, so that it only extended through the drywall. The shortened anchor would still secure the screw, and the wood would definitely do the rest of the job of keeping the screw from spinning.


Hook one, with it's four holes marked and drilled.

Time to cut away the paper and insert the four anchors...


Tear away the paper...


Expose the drywall...


Tap in an anchor...


Geoff liked to gently tap them flush with the drywall.


Power tools are versatile. First it was a drill, and by changing from a drill bit to a screw bit... we are ready to drive the screws in to the anchors, which are in the drywall. It's so cool that the screw bit is magnetized. Can you see that the screw is attached to the screw bit? Very convenient.


One... two... three... four!
They're in, and the coat hook is up, and ready!


Ta-da!
This is how we spent my birthday. And I also made crispy tacos, so, you know... it was pretty much awesome.


Happy New Year!
It's only been two days, and I have already seen coats and scarves, bags, goodies... all varieties of hungover articles on our wall of order. It's marvelous. It's random, and appealing.

I feel a new degree of optimism and hope, like anything is possible. And did I mention? My oven works! Three times is the charm. Hooks, oven, new skills! Maybe my resolution for the new year should be never give up, never surrender!