The popcorn pop-off: Orville Reddenbacher vs. house brands

I enjoy unbuttered popcorn as an evening snack – generously sprinkled with Spike seasoning. I just googled “spike” and had to go to page 5 of the search results to find my family’s favourite all purpose seasoning. We’ve been studying the variability in popcorn efficiency – defined as the percentage of kernels that fully pop into edible…

Birds, borders, beach and a beaver

. . . . . . . . . . . . Often on weekend days we walk to the beach and around the peninsula. It is a 1.5 to 2.5 hour trip, depending on the diversions. There are frequently bald eagles around. They are the official national bird of the United States, where they’ve…

New Year’s resolutions – Keeping the family history

Here is the plan for the new year: Diet for the month of January (a minor “correction”). Finish doing whatever I decide to do with my mother’s photo collection. Label the rocks from my Australia trip. (Yes, I’ll explain that in a blog some day.) It is #2 that presents the most difficulty. Since I was…

2011 in review – Official blog stats

Thanks for visiting in 2011!  Here is the 2011 annual report for my blog, prepared by WordPress.com. I will try to keep it up for 2012. Here’s an excerpt: A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 4,000 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would…

This and that in Brisbane

Here we are in Brisbane, resting our weary feet in the State Library of Queensland. It’s a very impressive new building. Observe Husband reading an Australian car magazine. Brisbane is dominated by the river that loops through the city and occasionally inundates large areas (google Brisbane floods 2011). Finally, here are Husband and daughter comparing…