Fine Motor Skills

Lately Lillian has been working on her fine motor skills. Specifically on using her fingers to pick things up or manipulate things rather than using her entire fist. Sometimes she gets a really intense look on her face when she's trying to focus on what she's doing.

Blowing

Sometimes Lillian gets bored with her toys so we occasionally introduce something new to keep her interest. A little while ago we gave her an empty Sprite bottle. To show her that it was a fun toy, we blew on the end when we introduced it to her. She really liked the idea and pretty soon she started trying to blow on it herself.

Found Treasures VI: Delivery

Last summer I posted several items that I re-discovered on old floppy disks.[1] I had more things to share, but I was interrupted by Lillian's premature arrival and subsequent stay in the NICU.[2] This story is a friendly jab at one of my English teachers from high school, Mr. Yates. By this time I had toilet-papered his house.[3] He retaliated by having an "anonymous" pot of flowers delivered to the classroom for me. It was accompanied by an ill-composed, sappy note which Mr. Yates proceeded to read aloud to the class, hoping it would embarrass me. (It didn't really.) I wrote this story to let him know I saw through his ruse.

πku II

Last year [1], in honor of Pi Day, I wrote several πkus. One of them consisted of reciting the numbers of π and parsing the syllables per line according to π. But I only went out five lines, per the tradition of composing πku. This year I wanted to see how far I could go before I reached a line where the names of the numbers wouldn't fit with the number of allowed syllables. Most of the numbers have one syllable names. The exceptions are seven and zero. I could've fudged things and made seven a one-syllable word (sev'n) and replaced zero with oh (since that's how most of us say it), but then the poem would technically go on forever. Sev'n was never really an option, but I had a hard time making up my mind about oh. So I went with both.

I Am Saturn

In Greek mythology there is an account of the Titan Cronus (Κρόνος, "the cutter"), who overthrew his parents, Gaia, (Γαῖα, "earth") and Uranus (Οὐρανός, "sky"), and imprisoned them. He then ruled during the Golden Age of the world with his wife (and sister) Rhea (Ῥέα, "ground"). He sired six children, Hestia (Ἑστία, "hearth"), Hades (ᾍδης, "the unseen"), Demeter (Δημήτηρ, "earth mother"), Poseidon (Ποσειδῶν, "earth lord"), Hera (Ἥρα, "season"), and Zeus (Ζεύς, "sky god").[1] Angered by their son's betrayal, Gaia and Uranus prophesied that Cronus, too, would be overthrown by his own sons. So, to prevent this, as each of his children was born, he devoured them.[2] The Romans later adopted this myth, though their name for Cronus was Saturn and their name for Zeus was Jupiter. This myth has since spawned two rather gruesome paintings [3] of the Titan engaged in 'autonepiophagy'.[4] Why do I mention all this? Simply to establish that there is a historical precedent for fathers eating their babies.

Product Review: oroblanco

One of our neighbors, who participates in a program called Bountiful Baskets. It is a co-op for providing bread and produce at cheap prices.[1] Sometimes the share with us things from their basket. One of the fruits they've shared with us was called an oroblanco. The name is Spanish for "white gold". It's a cross between a pomelo (Citrus maxima Merr.) and a grapefruit (Citrus × paradisi Macfad. [2]). It's smaller than both, but it retains the thick rind and green skin of the pomelo.

Product Review: Athenos Feta Cheese

My first memory of feta cheese is hearing about a lasagna made with feta on the comedy The Singles Ward.[1] However, I suspect that I'd had contact with it long before then. The name of the cheese has a circuitous history. It was originally made in Crete and was called πρόσφατος (prósphatos) which means "recent" or "fresh". The cheese was introduced to Italy, where it was called fetta, the Italian word for "sliced". This was then transliterated back into Greek, where we get the name φέτα (pheta), which eventually became the English feta.[2] Many similar varieties of cheese are produced throughout the eastern Mediterranean and around the Black Sea.[3]