Scientific Ink

Author: Dunrie

  • Gone modular again

    Flor in the studyMy obsession with modular floorcovering continues. After some delay and vacillation, I replaced the 12 year old Pier 1 clearance-special dhurrie rug in our study with Flor Copper Solid Ground. I was tired of kicking out the puckers in the old rug when I was trying to use the room for yoga. I also never liked the “southwestern” color scheme and pattern. This stuff feels great underfoot, cleans like a dream, and can be hand-cut to fit any size or shape. My favorite part about it is how it stair-steps around the file cabinet (lower right) and it also stair-steps under the desk (not shown).

    I might replace this photo with one taken in daylight – the ones with flash looked weirdly flat and this one is blurry because I was breathing during the exposure.

  • Laap (aka “Larb”)

    Laap is a savory dish made with ground meat and herbs. It is often found under the salad menu in Thai restaurants, but for me it isn’t a salad – it is a meat dish with a bit more green than usual. The meat can be whatever you want or have on hand (chicken, beef, water buffalo, whatever). I really like it with ground turkey. This recipe is based on notes that my friend Heather scribbled down in a Lao kitchen when we visited Dave’s uncle Jim in Laos years ago.

    Ingredients

    • 2 inches galangal (can substitute ginger), grated
    • 5-10 shallots (5 medium shallots, 10 if they’re teeny), diced
    • 3 garlic cloves, diced
    • 3-4 stalks lemongrass, remove the outer leaves, cut off and discard the greener ends and the “bulb” end, keeping about 4 inches or so. slice the lemongrass stalk lengthwise and then crossways to make thin half-moons
    • 2-3 green chilies, diced
    • 20 oz. ground turkey
    • 2 Tb sticky/glutinous rice flour (available at Asian groceries, may be able to substitute regular flour)
    • 1/4 cup fish sauce (available from Thai and perhaps other Asian grocery stores)
    • 1/2 cup fresh lime juice
    • 4 scallions, chopped
    • 1 bunch mint, chopped
    • salt to taste

    Place a little oil into a 12 inch saute pan, stir fry the galangal, shallots, garlic, lemongrass, and chilies for a few moments. Add the ground turkey and break it up so that it mixes well with the herbs and starts to cook. Once it has cooked through, add the rice flour to absorb the juices. Take it off the heat. Add the fish sauce, lime juice scallions, mint and salt to taste.

    I typically serve this with sticky rice, alongside a Thai curry or tom yum soup. Sticky rice is also known as glutinous rice or sweet rice, and it is available at Asian groceries.

    With another dish, this recipe feeds 4.

  • Mother-in-law’s tongue in bloom

    Mother-in-law's tongue
    Some houseplants thrive no matter what you do to ’em. My mother-in-law’s tongue seems to fall into that category. It’s an African perennial herb, Sansevieria trifasciata, and it has absolutely thrived under my regime of inattention. I toss it onto the porch in summer, toss it into the study in winter. I forget to water it, now and then I divide it, and generally it grows and grows and grows. It has bloomed for me a couple of times, and it is blooming now. The fragrance is lovely – floral, sweet, and light.

  • How young is too young for a laptop?

    So, it is nearing Christmas, and I am remembering my intention to purchase gifts mindfully. I haven’t been able to arrange charity exchanges with everyone, but I have got a few takers, and that’s good.

    Theo and Dave

    A colleague at work told me about one laptop per child, an organization that is providing rugged laptops to third world children. It’s a cool concept, building a low-cost, efficient laptop for kids (so no expensive office oriented software). I’ve heard that it is programmable, but also comes with a reset button to undo mistakes.

    The most intriguing part is that one laptop per child is offering a “give a laptop, get a laptop” promotion, allowing us to explore the form, function, and user experience of the XO laptop. It would be fun to touch it and play with it, but it seems to violate the spirit not to give it to a kiddo. I’m wondering if my four-year-old nephew Theo (pictured here eating his first s’more) is too young for it.

    Is 4-and-a-half too young for a laptop?

    11/25/2007 – After seeing him with Dave and Dave’s laptop over Thanksgiving (replacement photo at left) I think he’s going to love it.

  • Gillies Lake Report

    We drove north to take out the lake pump (it runs over the beach so is subject to freezing) and move my car from the airfield to the garage. We half succeeded.

    The Jeep, which seemed just fine when we used it in late September, squealed loudly on starting, smelled like burning, emitted lots of white smoke, and quite quickly snapped the serpentine belt. Not sure if something froze up along the belt or if the belt was at fault. Either way, it is currently disabled by the side of the road quite close to the Tobermory airport.  Not using a vehicle is hard on it. We’re trying to reach the local mechanic, Mike, but he doesn’t have an answering machine, so it is hard to do.

    I was afraid we’d missed the peak color. Although the oak and the maple let go of their leaves, today’s warm sun caught the gold of aspen, the orangey yellow of paper birch, russet of sumac and dogwood, and the orange tamarack needles. In the warm late autumn sun, the leaves were spectacular against the evergreen spruce and white cedar.

    The lake is higher than it was in September, but the Flume is low, diving underground before the log bridge. Today was so warm that butterflies flitted about on the Lighthouse Road. Buffleheads bobbed, dove, and surfaced on the waves in front of the cabin, grouse haunted the woods, scattering on sight or sound, and a fox darted into the brush off Meadow Road.

    The people side of things is a little less active. We met some neighbors out for a walk with their dog. As I cycled to the lighthouse, I encountered only one car.

    We did our chores (pulling some of the woodpile inside, pulling out the lake pump), Dave did some mighty fine cooking, and we had some lopsided games of honeymooner’s pinochle. I got in a bike ride and an afternoon nap. So the car doesn’t work. Still a wonderful day.

  • Personality Profile – Considerate Creator

    So, a bunch of us at work took the PersonalDNA online personality test. They seem to do it right, not asking for personal information up front, providing an interesting experience (not too many questions, not totally superficial, sliders, multi-way sliders, 2-D charts).

    The results were interesting, grouping us differently than I might have predicted. Surprisingly, I grouped with our graphic designer (and others) as a “creator.” Now, I’m a project manager, I typically do not “make” much besides status reports and burndown charts on hours and budgets. I hold a little structure/the larger project view, but that doesn’t fit my idea of being a creative person.

    The more I think about it, though, I do have several pastimes that involve making things – photography, gardening (though with all the change the past few summers, my garden is a bit worse for wear), journaling, blogging, knitting. I spend an inordinate amount of my free time making things, and I really resist structure in those activities. For instance, my favorite knitting reference is The Handknitters Design Book (apparently not pictured anywhere online!) which is a technique recipe book. Allison Ellen provides only a few start-to-finish patterns, but she shares lots of information and inspiration on how to assemble your own patterns.

    Hmmmm. Do I need to get a bit more of that creative spirit into my day job?