any n: Random musings of a math geek

Have a safe, happy, and tasty Thanksgiving everyone!

Indeed. Now go watch some football or something. It’s -5F this morning, so all activities are indoor this year for us.

Since it’s soon-to-be-famous (who knew?!), I thought I should post the recipe in case others wanted to taste the yummy goodness. I will admit that we found this particular recipe in a health magazine a couple years ago, so the Mrs. and I can’t take credit. It’s good – and healthy (kinda) – and darned easy to make. If you can boil water then you can make this chutney.

Soon-to-be-famous Cranberry Chutney

2 c Whole cranberries
1 1/3 c Sugar (not so healthy, but needed else the cran will tart you to death. Turkey can’t save you!)
1 c Dried chopped figs (if unable to find dried figs, we’ve used dried cherries instead. Works well.)
5 tbsp Apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp Water
1/2 c Dried cherries
2 tbsp Chopped red onion
1 tbsp White rum (we never seem to have enough when Thanksgiving comes around – blame the Mrs. – and no one has complained when we leave it out. Apple juice can be substituted.)
1/2 tsp Curry powder
1/2 tsp Ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp Fresh grated ginger root

Directions

1. Bring all ingredients to a boil.
2. Reduce heat to medium and cook 18 minutes or until thickened.
3. Let cool before serving.

Can also be used as garnish on cream cheese dolloped crackers or as condiment on leftover turkey sandwiches.

And (finally) this post wraps up the list of names that were submitted to us. Thanks to everyone who sent one in. Winners will be announced shortly and the grand prize winner will find out after the baby is born.

Girl / Boy
Hoonah / Homer
Serena / Blake
Denali / McKinley Elias
Skyla or Shyla / Stuart Owen
Allison Michelle / Jacob Ryan
Emalee / Paul
Christina /Sidney
Alexis / York
Noelle / Matthew
Carol / Robert
Jessica / Nathan
- / Otis (Ed. Late entry)

Advice:

• Love! Enjoy! Also remember the problems you gave your parents.
• Buy ear plugs.

So Juneau is on the receiving end of some unusual weather for this time of year.  We’ve been slammed by a week of snow – estimates range from 3′-4′ – and now we’re waking up to single digit temperatures.  I went to work and it was 4 degrees out.  When I came home it was 10.  On a positive note, we’re actually seeing the sun again!  It’s amazing weather, just not normal for the area.  We actually have icicles hanging from our roof that are taller than I am!  Some residents are enjoying the second earliest opening in the local ski area’s history or romping in the snow, while others are not so pleased.  We’ve decided to hunker down and drink cocoa.  For some reason November has disappeared without us noticing and we realized that the baby is due in just 2.5 weeks.  Pretty soon we’ll start counting in days instead.  Cool.

Girl / Boy
Aquanetta / Berry, Brook, Eagle
Sunny Skies / Chance Rain
Katmai Kate / Denali Dan
Alyeska / Miki Nicky
Allie / Denali
Eureka / Klondike
Mya / Gavin (Ed. Finally, some normal names!)
Delaney / Kyle
Faith Tansy / Matthias Methuselah (Ed. Oops. Spoke too soon.)
Kaitlyn Michelle / Kevin Matthew

Comments

• Sleep is only for the very young and the very old…you’re in the middle now, so forget about sleep for a few years.
• Always take time to do silly things in front of your kids -”embarassment is the spice of life!”
• Always plan to leave 10 minutes before your kids begin to throw a trantrum.
• Don’t under estimate the power of seaddling your infant to relax them at bedtime.
• Don’t miss anything the first year – It goes so quickly. Housework can wait!
• Take lots of pictures and videos.

Girl / Boy
Nicki / Nick (Ed. An original thinker.)
Nancy Nicole / Nathan Charles
Mia / Nikolai
Lucy (or Lucia) (The Light) / Tjaden (or Brett)
Nicole Ann / Luke Michael
Alcana December / McKinley Nicholas
Mollie Lyn / Edward Lee
Marta / Oliver
Ganuck (Snowflake) / Afuyakti (Hunter)
Pheobe Rachel / Chandler Ross (Ed. Let’s see, a Friends fan?)
Crystal Claire / Justin Case

Advice:

• Love one another.
• Enjoy every moment.
• Read to him / her as much as possible…starting now. (Ed. Sounds like fun to me…hmmm…The Art of War or Beowulf, where to start?)
• Always remember to laugh.

Girl / Boy
Isabelle / Anthony
Uolubiag (Star) / Amabug (Wolf)
Norah Anne / Todd Nicholas
Burt / Ruby Ann
Juno ‘White Dove’ / Robert ‘Running Bear’
Hyostar / Hudson
Riley Parker / Jackson Shea
Sophia Grace / Benjamin Michael
Susan Marie / Paul Edward

Advice:

• Get a grip! Your live will never be the same!! In a good way.
• Take a nap when baby naps. You’ll need the sleep! Congrats – there’s nothing as good as being parents.

So Al Gore, who invented the internet, says the earth is warming quickly and we’re on the cusp of passing the point of ecological no return and dying a horrible, hot, death.

Enter stage left: Christopher Monckton, who “…advised Margaret Thatcher, FRS, on scientific scams and scares”, lays out how the U.N. has possibly cooked the books regarding the warming trend so many are alarmed about.  Specifically, “…the UN had minimised the sun’s role in changing past and present climate, persisted in proven errors and used unsound data, questionable graphs and meretricious maths to exaggerate future warming threefold.”  Wow.  Not holding much back, is he?  [Note to self: I've got to add meretricious maths to the next performance report I write.]

Not content with that, he then lambastes the proposed solution of spending 1% of the world’s GDP in order to “avert disaster”.  The likely outcome?  “They are also coy about what value our $500 billion a year would buy us. They say that if the world stabilises atmospheric CO2 at about 485 parts per million we’ll have spent 1 per cent of GDP to get – er – a 1.1 per cent fall in consumption.”

Not being an environmental scientist, I can’t really say whether global warming is something to be worried about or not.  I’m convinced it’s real, but I’m not convinced it’s as bad as people think.  Call me a skeptic, but until the models can predict the temperature 5 and 10 years down the road (hasn’t been done yet), then it’ll be more likely I buy into the global warming panic.

I’m all for environmentally friendly buildings, power, cars, and more.  However, I’m for those things because the Mrs. has introduced the concept of ‘frugality’ into my life and I’ve taken a liking to it.  If I can save some money by changing the light-bulbs to LEDs and having an energy efficient house, then maybe she’ll reward my efforts by funding one of these.  Plus, I’m a big fan if independence.  So, being independent of middle-eastern oil is good and being independent of aging U.S. power distribution systems is better.  Go green!

While I don’t usually dogpile on other people’s posts, GeekWithA.45 has a link to a great video clip.  I’m not sure if the newscasters are British or Australian, but it’s good clean fun.  http://www.glumbert.com/media/trojanhorse

Oh yeah, and go vote today.

One of the Mrs’ friends has a blog and since he finally has a decent set of posts up, I figured I should add him to ye-olde blogroll.  I highly recommend his post, Of Mice and Men, wherein he describes a battle for control of his house.  FYI – not PETA friendly.  Make sure you’re not sipping hot beverages when you get to the ‘porch railing of death’.  You’ve been warned.

If you like John of Life in Alaska, then you’ll like Ben of The Benjamin Papers.