Month: March 2013

There is such a thing as a robot camel jockey

/ Shane / 1 Comment

My friends. Ohhhh my friends. What a wonderful, wonderful world we live in.

Did you know that somewhere in the world, possibly right at this moment, robots are racing camels? It’s true.

Apparently, the wildly popular sport of camel racing had just a teensy bit of a dark side:

Camel racing has been around for thousands of years. “The Sport of Sheiks” almost exclusively utilized small children, usually boys around the age of four, to ride and direct the camels. Often, the boys would be starved to be as light as possible. Many of the boys used for the races were often sold to race organizers or camel owners, and there was an active child slave trade for camel jockeys, involving victims of kidnapping or the children of destitute families who sold them into servitude.

Yeaaaaah. Whoops.

The elegant solution? Robots. Ranging from the realistic:

To the simplistic:

Not only do the robots save the lives of these poor boys, it also allows the owners to take a more active role. If you’re going to drop the kind of cash it takes to enter into a competitive breeding and racing program, wouldn’t you rather be holding the remote control than just sitting on the sidelines watching?

What is it about robots riding camels that is so outrageously awesome? It’s like the sport of the future mixed with the sport of the past.

How is this not popular in the U.S.? How is it not televised?

WHY AM I NOT WATCHING IT RIGHT NOW??

Lonely Eats the Pancake Maker

/ Shane / Leave a comment

We take our pancakes seriously in this house. For the past several years, we have made pancakes every Sunday morning, like clockwork. Of course, this tradition goes over *very* well with the kids, which means we need to make at least a double batch, and a triple batch if we want to have leftovers for weekday breakfasts. Picky Evie generally tries to eat her entire week’s allotment of food in that one meal. Last week, she ate 13 pancakes (granted, smallish, but still).

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Even with two griddles going, demand far outstrips supply, and the kids are clamoring for more as fast as I can make them. Right about when I’m finishing up cooking the last of the batter, everybody else finally gets their fill, which means by the time I sit down, I eat solo.

Like all of the best traditions, it evolved organically, but is now firmly entrenched in the fiber of our family. I’m not joking when I say that I think all four of us look forward to Pancake Day. As traditions go, it’s not the worst thing in the world.

My favorite part about Pancake Day, is trying different recipes. There’s our famous pumpkin pioneer pancakes, slow rise pancakes, and coconut pancakes with pineapple sauce (wow, been too long since I’ve posted a pancake recipe on here!). We’ve done crepes, Dutch babies, and sour yogurt pancakes. Pancakes with jam, pancakes with marmalade, and pancakes with lots and lots of maple syrup. Blueberry pancakes, walnut pancakes, and peanut butter pancakes. And then there’s French toast. Don’t even get me started on French toast!

I hope that we have Pancake Day for the next 20 years. I hope that when my kids are teenagers, they make sure they’re home (and awake) on Sunday morning (don’t worry, I’m not holding my breath). I hope that when my kids have kids of their own, they make pancakes on Sunday.

Long live Pancake Day!

A friendly neighbor, a late night rendezvous, and a Scotch egg

/ Shane / 1 Comment

I would like to tell you a tale. A romance, if you will. Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Chicago where we lay our scene.

And just like Romeo and Juliet, our tale begins on Facebook…

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For the uninitiated, a Scotch egg is a treat most decadent. It’s like a heart attack wrapped in a hard-boiled egg, wrapped in sausage and breading, and deep-fried in deliciousness.

Alas, Eliza, fair maker of said delicious delicacy, lives on the 3rd floor two buildings down. And I in my pajamas did thus set out to procure the item of my desires, with naught but a scarf with which to catch the plummeting beauty.

Like Romeo, I stood under yonder balcony, but in the very process of texting, “Wherefore art thou Scotch Egg?” I perceived yon intercom crackling to life and beaconing me inside. Thus, disappointed to not actually be catching my lovely amid her three story drop, I instead mounted to the sky to meet her in all of her tinfoil-and-plastic-bag wrapped glory.

Alas, as romances often do, this story was fated to end in tragedy. Both for the Scotch egg, which met with cruel fate:

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and for me, since I will now ultimately die of a heart disease-related illness.

For never a story of more woe did beg,
Than this of Shane and his Scotch egg.

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I almost forgot about Valentine’s Day!

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Valentine’s day was more than two weeks ago, and I never got around to posting about it. On a normal year, there probably wouldn’t really be anything to post about, since Valentine’s day isn’t much of a holiday around these parts. However, this time around there was a party!

Valentine’s day fell on a Thursday this year, and Evie wasn’t going to be at school that day. She was a little disappointed about that, since they had been decorating hearts and planning for a big celebration at school, so Sara got the idea to invite a few friends over for a big party.

The morning began with a special proposal. Sara got down on one knee and proposed to her two special Valentines with some homemade, felted Valentine rings:

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The kids didn’t know that we had been furiously decorating the night before after they were in bed, so they were quite surprised to see all the decorations the next day (even though they had helped make some of the decorations).

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I think all of the other attendees were also a bit surprised at the amount of decorations, but I think it made it more fun that we took it seriously (perhaps a little *too* seriously?)

In any case, there were cookies to decorate, and Valentines to pass out, and everybody had a good time. At least so I heard, since I was actually at work during the festivities. To be honest, I think Sara actually had more fun than the kids, putting it all together. Perhaps we’ll do it again next year?

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Quote Monday is a snot

/ Shane / Leave a comment

::Oliver was very sick::
Ollie: “I couldn’t find a [nose] wipe [in the night], so I just wiped it all over everything.”

Oliver: “I love you daddy.”
Me: “I love you too. Even when I’m mad at you, I still love you. Always.”
Oliver: “Yeah, me too. I still love you even when you’re mad at me too.”

::Frontera tomatillo salsa was out::
Me: “Do you have any other tomatillo salsa?”
Grocery Store Employee: “No. But choo can make your own, it’s really easy!”

This is why I love the local produce mart.

Oliver: “Mama, where should I hide this from you?”