Best Bread Ever? Quite Possibly

OK, so our son and his wife gave me a book for Christmas. "Artisan Bread In Five Minutes A Day" by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. I'd been following Zoe on Twitter for awhile and the book sounded good.

HOLY COW, people! This book is INCREDIBLE!

We followed the instructions to the letter. Made our first batch Sunday, December 28, 2008. Baked our first loaf tonight, Dec. 30, 2008. And it was .... Well, it was exactly how the book described it. Best bread I ever ate? Maybe. Here's the deal...

I grew up in Seattle eating the cheapest white bread my folks could buy. But I loved it. Ate it "raw" mostly. That's just plain ol' bread, with the inside squished into a little dough ball, then the crust. But my folks exposed me to enough good bread over the years that I became a true bread junkie at a very early age and am still one today.

Over the years I scarfed down Crystal Mountain loafs from the famous Black Diamond Bakery, and later learned to love my wife's luscious homemade bread she baked in coffee cans. Of course, all those years of eating bread added way too much girth to my otherwise boyish figure, so I tried to fight my craving. But after tonight, I'm a bread-aholic again.

I now want to perfect this simple loaf. It won't take much. Our biggest mistake was cutting into the loaf too soon. Should have waited another half hour. Otherwise, it was excellent. But after a few more of these I'd like to try some of the other variations.

But this simple loaf, this wonderful little ball of goodness was sublime. On the darkest, most painful day, this would salve the deepest wounds. Would heal the troubled soul. It IS that good.

So, if you love bread, if you enjoy messing about in the kitchen, I urge you to buy this book and try it. It's simply wonderful.

Snowbound

We have lived on The Orchard Compound since 1985. We've seen a lot of strange weather, wildlife, humans, and other things out here in that time. But the snow of late 2008 is like something in a dream. Like a white Christmas gone mad. It's something we never could have imagined. More snow than we thought possible for this area, a series of malfunctions that left every four-wheel-drive vehicle we own out of commission, and our local roads totally impassable. So, today (the start of our second week of snow) when my wife, Joyce trekked out the quarter mile to the mailbox, it seemed surreal. She's the one who always runs the errands to town. She's the one who plans everything. Now that we've been cooped up here for two weeks, she's starting to really get antsy. So off she went to the mailbox and hopefully a little relief. This is just all so strange. Just glad our family is together...even if we get on each others nerves at times, we at least are together to help pull us through. What a time!

Snow Deep Christmas

It was definitely a very white Christmas on The Orchard Compound in Hobart. It's been snowing every day for nearly two weeks. With the high winds we had, much of the earlier snow blew away, but we still have 2.5+ feet just off the deck. The snow we've shoveled is piled high. We carved little walkways like this one between the houses. Fortunately, our son Jesse made it home and is now helping with shovel patrol duty. Spring can't get here soon enough.

Winter Solstice 2008

My beloved for the past almost 34 years, Joyce was born on the Winter Solstice in Ketchikan, Alaska some years ago. So, today we celebrated her birth by shoveling snow and shivering under blankets as the great Solstice Storm of 2008 raged outside. I took my old Sony HandiCam out on the front porch for a few minutes and tried to hold still. The wind was blowing pretty good, it was around 20F, and I was in my slippers. Not conducive to good photography. But we'll survive. Just hope things are better for everyone in the coming year.

By the way, the video above was uploaded to Facebook. Here is that same video on YouTube. Facebook wins:

The Best Part Of Baking Cookies

Everybody was snowed in today in Hobart. So, while I was slaving away on work-related matters, Jennifer and Joyce started baking Christmas cookies.

What is it with cookies and kids? And for most of us, we never outgrow the desire to dip our fingers in that luscious goodness. I've always wondered why we don't just make the dough and fore go the whole baking thing.

Or do we do that and just don't tell anyone? Any closet dough munchers out there?

Snow? We Laugh At Thee!

Sure, snow and ice cover everything in Hobart and driving is tough. But we keep smiling and thinking of spring.

Enough Already!

These poor dinosaurs just can't get any relief. First it was bitterly cold. Now it's snowing and Pacific Science Center is closed. Alone out in the cold, they stand guard over our beloved educational institution. Dreaming of summer. This was taken with my first generation iPhone, jazzed up with the CameraBag application Lolo filter, then text added in Photoshop.

Getting Better At Online Video

A few days ago I wrote about my frustrations with proper formatting of online video. Specifically, aspect ratios. Well, after considerable more experimenting, I think I solved my problem. It was a setting buried in the export dialog inside Final Cut Pro. The resulting video looks great. Even better is that I discovered Facebook not only doesn't mess with the files you upload as YouTube does, it also lets you view both HD and a lower res version. And you can embed them! Watch the video above as an example. Now all I have to do is improve my photography and editing!

Solitary Seagull Sunrise Sentinel

I took a brisk stroll outside this morning to watch the sunrise. Found this guy perched up there keeping an eye on things. The temp was below 20 degrees F so I didn't stay long.

Chilly Dinos

The north pools at Pacific Science Center are drained these days for some repair work. Our two outdoor dinosaurs aren't complaining. With temps hovering around 15 degrees F overnight, these guys would probably prefer not to have to be standing in water. Well, unless it was heated.

Cold But Beautiful

The weather may be bitterly cold, the news of the day may be dismal, but Mother Nature still puts on a gorgeous show. I walked out my office door at Pacific Science Center and this is what I saw. The Olympics are spectacular.

Kira Steps Out

The family recently went to Bellevue Square for the annual Santa pictures. Sadly, our son Jesse couldn't go since he's on a training mission with Uncle Sam. But we got Kelton and Kira cleaned up, dressed up and out we went. She looks so cute!

Well, when she actually got to Santa's lap it was a totally different story. But when her temper is under control she's a sweetheart. Just don't get her angry.

Kira Rocks!

Our granddaughter, Kira has really taken to the old rocking chair. It's the same one I used as a child, so did her father and brother. It's a great old chair that hopefully will last at least a few more generations.

If you combine her love of rocking with her current habit of dancing to all the music she hears, you could say she really knows how to rock!

Would You Turn Your Back On This Kid?

OK, so I'm out hiking around in the snow with my grandson, Kelton. He's three now and a handsome young devil. Emphasis on the devil. He picked up a snowball and sorta looked at me strangely. Then he let loose!

He's got a good arm and snowball technique for one so young. The Force is strong in this one.

Cute, But Wicked Snowballer

Sure, he's a handsome young guy but he's got a wicked streak when it comes to snowballs.

Don't turn your back on him!

The Great Aspect Ratio Mystery

Over the past week I have been struggling mightily trying to figure out online video. Specifically, how to best format the video and present it on a page. I used to have this figured out, but then YouTube changed things and I've been shooting in HD and things just don't work anymore.

Here's the deal...the video presented here is a series of stills, but the same thing happens when I use HD video and edit in Final Cut. These images were thrown into FotoMagico and exported as HD QuickTime, H.264, 720p. It's 16:9 aspect ratio and the video looks pretty good when played in the QuickTime player from my hard drive. But when uploaded to YouTube it's never the same. First, they re-encode. That always messes with the quality. But the aspect ratio has me completely baffled. If you look at the video here the aspect ratio is correct. But if you grab the embed code, the YouTube player letterboxes it even though it's 16:9. Why? If I change the dimensions in the embed code, as I did here it still doesn't work. The video still gets letterboxed.

I just uploaded the same video to Facebook and it looks WAY better:

Here's another wrinkle: I can take that same video, put it on one of my own servers and it does the same thing. I can use the JW Player or I can just download and play it in Firefox and the aspect ratio is pooched. BUT, if I download and play the video locally, it is fine. It has me perplexed something fierce.

But it's the holidays, so merry Christmas to you and yours! If someone happens upon this and knows the answer, please share. It would make my New Year that much better!

Oh Deer, Our First Snow

Being born and raised in Seattle, I know the normal routine: weather folks forecast snow and it seldom happens. Kids around here always pray for snow, as I did, but they know it usually doesn't happen when they say it will. This time the forecasters did OK, at least in Hobart.

Actually, they first said we'd get snow, then they said the storm went north and we wouldn't get it. But Friday evening it started as wet slush. By around 10 o'clock it was coming down hard. Saturday morning it started up again, then stopped. We ended up with about seven inches of snow with temps around 27 F. We might get some more before things warm up. Not a White Christmas, but it adds to the holiday season nicely.

Our two deer friends live in our woods. Normally, they come right up to us. This morning they were spooked by the snow and my camera.

A Holiday Shot Off THIS Much

I shot this at Bellevue Square just after my two grandkids had their picture taken with Santa. We all had a great time, but it was kinda bittersweet in that our son couldn't be there. I was trying to go without flash and capture some of the mood without that harsh glare. I was going to bring my speed light and diffuser, but didn't want to drag a bunch of gear along. So, this is what I got.

Thing is, it's THIS close to being perfect. Kelton's wave is captured, Kira's lollipop is also waving, the shoppers behind are moving to the elevator. But I just couldn't quite hold the camera still enough. It could have been framed better, too. But trying to get kids to stand still...

Still, it was a fun evening.