Easel

Another fine Ikea purchase. Has a chalkboard on one side and what appears to be a dry erase board on the other. We've also ordered a roll of paper that will turn the easel into finger painting heaven

Ikea weekend

Yesterday, we spent pretty much the entire day getting to, at, and returning from Ikea. We even took two cars to maximize cargo space.

The purpose was to get a big boy bed for Anders, and I assembled the new bed pretty much immediately after getting home. Anders loves his big boy bed.



(Question: Why is it Ikea sells waterproof crib mattress covers, and waterproof twin, queen and king mattress covers, but no waterproof mattress covers for the "junior" mattresses they sell that are in a size that seems to be unique to Ikea? I could get a waterproof cover for any of the other sizes elsewhere, and in any event the junior size seems to me to be the one most closely matching the potty training age, and thus the one most needing a waterproof cover. Shopping hint: the fitted waterproof pad for twin mattresses works ok on the junior mattress.)

We also got Anders a new table and chair for his room, so that he can have a place to play undisturbed by #2. It also may allow him to play quietly in the morning without needing to wake Mama and Dada up (well, I can dream, can't I?).


The dresser we got him to replace the changing table, which will be heading to #2's room eventually, still needs to be assembled. I liked it when we saw it in the showroom because it's mostly real wood. When I was loading it from the self-serve area and was reminded now much wood weighs, I felt a bit different. Same when it was going into the car. And when I was carrying it up the stairs to the house, piece by piece (lugging it up in the flat-pack box would have been a two person job, and really shouldn't involve a pregnant woman).

Finally, we got a rug that either will go in one of the boys' rooms.

Either this goes in #2's room, or Anders's current rug moves to #2's room and the new one goes in Anders's room.

Redwood Regional Park

Pregnancy hike #6. Mitch, JoAnne and Dorian invited us over for brunch. Mitch whipped up some fantastic banana & chocolate chip pancakes, sauteed potatoes, and eggs, and Dorian wowed Anders with a great collection of cars and trucks.

After brunch, we hiked a bit in the Redwood Regional Park. Dorian probably covered ten times the distance of the rest of us, zipping back and forth on his bike (no training wheels!). Anders tried to keep pace on his trike, but that was not very successful. Maybe it would have worked better if Anders knew how to get the pedals to work.

Perhaps you have seen this person in the village

Gotta get to work—no time for pants.


Quick! In the truck!


Worker man! (You may know him as the construction worker.)

Goin' to the zoo, zoo, zoo...

The three musketeers!


Prairie dogs!

Puzzle Grandmaster

If you were impressed by Anders's puzzling before, just look at him now.

Udon noodles

Anders and I made some udon noodles for dinner tonight.

We started with 250g of bread flour and 30g of corn starch (the recipe I based this on used tapioca starch, but we don't have any of that in the house). I mixed that up, and then separately mixed 5 oz of lukewarm water with 1 teaspoon of table salt.

I added half of the salt water to the dry ingredients, and tried to form a dough ball. I kept adding more of the salt water until I barely had a dough ball. This took most, but not all, of the rest of the water. It really seemed like it wouldn't be enough water, but with some kneading of the dough, I managed to incorporate pretty much all of the dry ingredients. The goal was to get a dough ball while using as little water as possible.

I put the dough ball into a 1 gallon ziplock, squeezing as much air out as possible. Then, I kneaded the dough by stomping on the bag with my feet! Anders helped, though truth be told, it turns out that thirty pounds isn't quite enough to do much with this dough. When the dough mostly filled the bag (so that the dough was somewhere between a quarter and a half inch thick), I opened up the bag, folded the dough in thirds like a letter, and then Anders and I stomped again. We did two more times (four stompings total, separated by three letter-foldings), and then I set the bag aside for a half hour.

After the dough had rested, I took it out of the bag, sliced it in half, and ran each half through the Kitchenaid pasta roller attachment at thickness 1 (as wide as it goes—about an eighth of an inch thick) very slowly several times. Anders and I dusted each side of each piece of dough with flour, and then folded it in half twice length-wise. I then cut each of these into noodles with a sharp knife (aiming for square cross-sectional noodles, but ending up with something a bit wider). I dusted the noodles with a bit more flour, and set them aside.



I brought a gallon of water to a boil, and tossed the noodles in. Shortly after the water returned to a boil, the noodles were happily floating at the top. I gave them another three minutes, and then dumped them into a strainer. I rinsed them with cold water until they were cool to the touch.


Anders thought the noodles were perfect as is.


For Sigrid and me, however, I took things a bit further. I sauteed some beet greens in garlic, tossed in some spicy tofu from First Korean Market, added some kochujang and some cooking sake, and then added the noodles.


And we even have some noodles to spare.

Glen Park Rec Center

There's an insanely long slide at the Glen Park Rec Center. There's a set of twenty-two steps, and the slide sits right on top. Anders was a bit wary at first, but then suddenly he decided he should ride this thing. Twice.


Actually, he rode it a third time, too, but lost control a bit on the third run. There was no fourth run.

Glen Canyon Park

Pregnancy hike #5.

20 week ultrasound

Number two (or Fluff, as Anders likes to refer to him) is coming along nicely.

Here he is at his 20 week ultrasound.


Seems quite calm, no?

But he's hard at work.

San Pedro Valley County Park

Pregnancy hike #4. We hiked the Brooks Creek Trail until it broke into the sun, after which we didn't last very long before turning around.

My Tofu House

Walking from Hannah's house to My Tofu House.


Well, ok, occasionally running.



So much fun!

Future piano tuner?

Berkeley Marina

Pregnancy hike (ok, walk) #3, near the Berkeley Marina.

Puzzle Master & Worker Man

Anders's Grandpa sent him some fun new toys.

He got a set of four small construction truck puzzles made of wood. Anders loves puzzles. Here he is working on one of the four puzzles for the first time. He still uses a fairly brute force approach. And not necessarily the most efficient of brute force approaches, which means this video is rather long, notwithstanding that the puzzle has only twelve pieces.


And he also got a tool belt with a hard hat, which is pretty cool.