Snow Day in D.C.

I didn't go far from home but here's some pictures of the neighborhood.

Toward Delaware Avenue

The west side of the River Park highrise

Out in the courtyard

Creating a snow fort

New visitors to River Park

Plenty of snow behind the townhouses

And in the street

Good thing I'm wearing boots

Why you shouldn't drive here in the snow

Looking north along 4th Street

And across 4th Street to the west

Here's the view south to CVS and Safeway

The building in the back left is the library

Christ United Methodist Church

VW Bug in the snow

I Street is snowy too

Obligatory boots in the snow picture

Snow on the Metro station roof

And sliding off the edges

The new Sky House building has a coordinating color scheme

I like the twisty trunks on this apple tree

And the view from my bedroom window this afternoon

Pumpkin Bread (it's to stave off starvation, really)

Everybody panic! There's another snowstorm coming tomorrow night! That's OK though. I made pumpkin bread so I won't starve. I added extra spices and put dates in part of it and chocolate chips in the other part. Then I baked one big loaf and two mini loaves and proceeded to eat most of one mini loaf when it was warm from the oven. I shouldn't do that but, Yum!

Pumpkin Bread from Mom's cookbook

1/2 c corn oil
1/2 c white sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
2 eggs
2.5 c flour
1/2 t salt
1/2 t cinnamon (increase to 1 t)
1/2 t cloves
1/2 t mace (addition)
2 t soda
1.75 c pumpkin
3/4 c nuts (toasted and chopped)
1/2 c dates

Cream oil and sugar. Add eggs. Beat. Sift flour and dry ingredients, add to creamed mixture alternating with pumpkin. Add nuts and dates. 2- 9x5x3 loaf pans, bake 45 minutes - 1 hour at 350 degrees.

Here's a picture of the chocolate chip ones (it's really a small loaf, only 6 inches long)

And now that I'm fed I'll get prepared for the storm with the Winter Storm Anxiety Advisory:

A WINTER STORM WATCH...WHICH IS IN EFFECT STARTING
WEDNESDAY WILL IMMEDIATELY LEAD TO A HALT
IN THE AREA'S FUNCTIONALITY

* THERE IS 95 PERCENT CHANCE OF METRO DELAYS OF
AT LEAST 30 MINUTES. 100 PERCENT CHANCE THE RED
LINE WILL BE UNDERGOING MAINTENANCE
WORK, FURTHER DELAYING THE DELAYS.
...
* THE 15 PEOPLE WHO CHOOSE TO COMMUTE ON BIKES
ARE EXPECTED TO SURVIVE THE SNOW, THOUGH THEIR
CLOTHES AND BIKES WILL BE COVERED IN THE TONS OF
SALT THAT CITY OFFICIALS PREEMPTIVELY PILE ON THE STREET.
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2014/02/10/winter-storm-anxiety-advisory-posted-for-d-c/

Stainless steel and drug overdose have nothing in common

Except that they are both interesting:

Stainless steel is not always magnetic
I had an organizing thought today so I tried to stick my measuring spoons to the magnetic knife rack. Imagine my surprise when the stainless steel measuring spoon was totally non-magnetic! Apparently austenitic stainless steels are not magnetic. Scientific American has a good explanation. The culprit is the face-centered cubic (fcc) lattice crystal structure of the atoms and the Pauli Exclusion Principle. They say that you can make Type 304 stainless steel become more magnetic by bending it which changes the crystal structure. Good times in quantum-land! I guess knives are usually made of ferritic stainless steel because they always stick to the knife racks.

No I'm not going to explain it any more than that. You can try though, Karl.

Drug overdose kills too many people
Here's a depressing fact for the day: more people in the United States die from drug overdoses (both prescription and illegal drugs) than from traffic accidents. It's around 32,000 deaths annually in car accidents and 38,000 annually from overdose (16,000 of them from legally manufactured, not always legally acquired, drugs). That's more than 100 people per day. I don't think we can eliminate addiction entirely but there are ways to reduce harm like making Naloxone available to first responders and people at high risk of opiate overdose.

By comparison 11,078 people were killed by gun homicide and 19,392 by gun suicide in 2010; 606 people were killed by gun accidents and 252 in situations with undetermined intent. For even more context, 2.5 million Americans died in 2011, and 596,000 of those deaths were from heart disease. Of course overdose, accident, and suicide kill often kill people at much younger ages than chronic disease.

If you're keeping score that is overdose (38K) > cars (32 K) > guns (31K) as far as causes of death. 

Lemon Mystery Pudding Recipe

This is a recipe everyone needs. I made it for dinner at Rod's tonight (with Riki, Michael, Michael, and Su Lin) and it was met with great approbation.

Lemon Mystery Pudding

Get 8x8 pan (ungreased) plus a larger pan it fits inside to make a water bath.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F, set rack in the middle of the oven.
Start a pot of water to boil (you'll need a quart or so for the water bath)
Scrub and zest 2 lemons, then juice them. Save the zest and the juice (you want 7 - 10 T lemon juice)
Separate 3 eggs, save the whites
Beat the yolks in a bowl with the lemon zest and add 1.5 cups slightly warm milk and 2 T melted butter
Separately, sift or whisk together 1 c sugar, 1/4 c flour, and 1/4 t salt
Whisk flour mix into the milk and egg yolks
Beat the 3 egg whites until stiff peaks
Add the lemon juice to the milk/flour mixture
Fold the egg whites into the rest of the ingredients (I use a large balloon whisk)
Pour batter into 8x8 pan, set that pan inside a larger one and set that on the oven rack. Pour the boiling water into the surrounding pan until it comes about 1" up the side of the baking dish. Close door and bake 45 - 55 minutes until pudding is set but soft. It may get a few brown spots on the top but will be pale.
Let cool at least 5 minutes and eat. It is good warm, room temperature, or chilled. I've done it as a single servings in ramekins too which is really nice presentation but a lot more work to prepare.

Here's a picture (although not of the one I made tonight because it was gone)

Things I miss about Halfway

I'm going through old pictures on my computer which brings up lots of great memories from Oregon. Here's some of them from 2006.

February, 8 years ago.

Here's the surrounds that day. 

Baby Bogo at Polly and Sparky's.

September 2006. I think we're at the county fair.

Mom, Billee, Ella, Denise

Me and Ella. 

George, Marge, and Opal

Real tomatoes.

Idaho (he's the horse)

Helping to pour bronze at Dave's

Dale Story and Dave Crawford

This was the old foundry setup. It's been upgraded.

Yes, it's as cool as it looks.

Watching the Foster Gulch Fire blow up, July 2006.

Family get-together at Bill's in Reedsport.

Adrienne

Rachel

Luke

And giant Cauliflower

Hiking just for fun

Balsam root

Turkey hunting

Brandywine apple tree at Anna's

Bitterbrush and balsam root

Sparky

Dad

Dealing with floods and washouts!

Get away from the snow in Hells Canyon

There's the Snake River (reservoir-style)

Ponderosa pine trees

Cooking our own chicken