A picture says 1000 words

This picture was taken last Friday (1/23/09). Yes, I'm pregnant. We haven't confirmed it with the doctor yet, but we're around 5 weeks along. We're very excited, something we're terming "cautiously optimistic" because there's a high risk of miscarriage in the first trimester. So why are we telling you now?

Because regardless of what happens, we're going to need all the emotional support we can get.

So stay tuned -- Hotel Roko could be inundated with yet another boy in early October.

Pizza, Calzone and Stromboli Class Tonight

I had a few more people register for my class this past week, making it officially "full". Pretty cool. I will have 8 teens tonight with access to lots of flour and water. I'm hoping everything stays calm, pizzas get made and they even learn something.

I'm a little nervous.

Experimenting on Kids: Science Demo Recap

The science demo went great. I was constantly packed. At least 2 deep, if not more with parents and spectators. Much better than any scientific poster I ever gave.

The premise was simple: catch the ruler. Kids brought their friends over to see it. I loved the "you GOTTA try this!". I think the stickers helped too. I can't confirm, but I'm sure some kids asked others where they got them.

I built up the demo by telling the kids they couldn't do anything before the ruler moved. Then, they had to see it move, process it in their brains, have their brains tell their muscles to move AND catch the ruler. After that build up, some kids looked very nervous. I asked how long they thought it would take them to catch it. Some said "a few seconds". To be fair, the kids ranged in age from 4-12.

I brought two rulers so kids could go head-to-head (and I could speed things up). They loved competing against each other. They'd do it once and then immediately asked to do it again. I told them they were good scientists by wanting to repeat their experiment. (They really liked hearing that). It helped a lot that they'd just done science fair projects and were familiar with experiments.

Most kids tried it 4-5 times. Afterwards, I'd have them read off the distances to me so I could enter them in the calculator so we could find the average. Some were very excited that we were doing averages and explained what they were to me. Others had no idea (but they were 4-5). After we entered the numbers, I asked each student how many times they repeated their experiment. That's when they got stiff and very serious. You could see them counting the number of trials. "I did it four times!" I was proud, kids seeing the importance of repeating experiments and taking averages (more than just one data point) sunk in more than I expected. It turns out that although the brain part was interesting to them, what they REALLY loved was doing the experiment...

• some wanted record the data (even more than participating)
  
• some wanted to see if they could be faster if they used their left hand
• some wanted to see if they were faster than their sibling/parent
• some loved repeating the numbers back to me to figure out the averages
• some loved counting the number of trials
  
• some were just really, really competitive. "Did I win?!"

I gave out a bunch of stickers, a few winning ribbons and left exhausted. Stopped by the grocery store to pick up some items, ate brussel sprouts for dinner, baked off some bread I needed to take to work today and then I crashed.

This morning, I hung the giant data sheets in my office. They're awesome and I love looking at them. In case you're curious, here are the numbers:

Number of students who did the experiment: 47
Total number of trials: 225
Average number of trials: 4.8
Average distance it took for students to catch the ruler: 11.5 inches
Equivalent time it took their nerves to respond: 0.25 seconds. (They don't understand 1/4th of a second, so I told them they were so fast that they could catch 4 rulers in one second. They liked that and would turn to their parents: "I can catch 4 rulers in 1 second!")

Here are all the data for your amusement:

Science Demo tonight

Tonight I'm going to a local elementary school to do a demonstation at their annual "Science Night".

My demo is on reflexes and how fast our nerves are. I learned last year that the message has to be very simple. A bunch of 5 year olds do not care about science much (unless it involves candy), so I have to have a hook. My hook involves stickers and competition.

Students will get to compete against their friends and family. 8 year olds will be all over this, I'm hoping. Here's the plan: I'll be holding a ruler from the top. The student will place their hand at the bottom of the ruler. I'll drop it within a 5 second window. They have to catch it. The distance the ruler travels is proportional to how much time it took them to respond (from seeing it, to their brains telling their nerves to move their muscles, to actually grabbing the ruler). Students can try it a couple of times and record their name and distances on a board for all to see. They get a sticker for competing (see above right).

In addition, I made "ribbons" for the winners. I made 6 of them (see the circle below, which is printed on yellow paper and then has a purple scalloped trim and orange ribbons hanging down. Safety pins are attached to the back of each one). I can award based on fastest time, best sportsmanship, most improved, fastest parent time, etc.




I'm hoping the science message comes through: you need nerves to tell your arm to move -- and this happens really fast! Fingers crossed that they like it. Especially since I'll be stuck with it for 2 hours.

First Class Recap

In short, it went well. I have 6 kids in my class, one was absent last night due to the flu. The class is offered to kids ages 12-18. I have 6 kids under the age of 13.
I forgot how much they talk.

About everything.

And all the time.

We'll be mixing flour and water together when one gets my undivided attention to tell me "My mom makes brownies with spinach". Um, ok. I can't remember all of the quotes, but they were hilarious. I repeated as many to Ken as I could remember when I got home.

Some of my favorite moments of the night:

• "My mom makes brownies with spinach"
• "I don't like yeast; they smell like corn"
• "I don't like corn, only baby corn"
• "Me too!"
• "Look!" ( I look over to see one of them holding a bloody stump of a tooth.)
• "I don't like star fruit"
• "Cooking is in my blood"
• "I thought it was because of color but it was the mineral content"
• "I don't like heat"
• "She's afraid of the oven"
• "Can I take all the dough home so I can show it to my grandpa?"
• "I dropped mine on the floor"
• "Onions are gross"
• "I want to make cake"
• "and then...." (options endless)
  

The pretzels turned out great. They LOVED topping them with various things (I had salt, parmesan cheese and cinnamon sugar). I think they dumped cinnamon sugar on practically every pretzel. Each kid got to eat pretzels at the end of class as well as take theirs home. Even moms got to have a pretzel when they came to pick up their kids. Note: bribing moms with food is as effective as bribing kids with food. Plus, it was fun to meet the moms.

Next week, we make calzones. Requested pizza toppings: pineapple and pepperoni.

Science of Cooking -- Class for Teens

A friend of mine asked me to teach a class for teens at the local community center where she works. I happily obliged -- besides the fact that she's a great girl, volunteering at her place is how I found my current job.

The class I'm teaching will be 8 weeks long for an hour each week. I got to pick the topic, so my class focuses on the science of cooking, something that I love dearly and know very well. I decided to add the science part in because it's easy to tell kids to "add this" or "stir that", but if they don't know why they're doing it, then what's the point. Plus, if it gets them even a little bit more interested in science (or cooking), then it's a huge win.

The first class in the 8 week series starts tomorrow. Here's the syllabus:



Tomorrow's class is about pretzels. Why pretzels? Because they're easy to make, very hands-on (the students will actually get to feel the gluten forming in their hands as they mix and knead the dough) and they're really, really good coming hot from the oven. It's a great first lesson.

I've figured how many batches of dough I need to make so I can swap dough out as needed. (3 total, in case you're curious). The class is only an hour -- way too short to make pretzels from start to finish (due to rising time). Luckily, I've watched enough cooking shows to know that I can swap out my bowls of dough. i.e. We'll make the dough in class so they can feel what it's like. Dough needs to rise. Swap bowls with a dough that has already rose. They'll get to punch down the dough and roll out their pretzels. Then swap again since the pretzels need a little more time for their final rise. They'll get to boil and season the pretzels before we bake them. Then, we'll still have time to eat them at the end. A lot for an hour, but I did a dry run and had time to spare, so I'm hoping it will all fit.

Rather than just talking, I'm also going to try to have hand-outs for each class. For example, here's tomorrow's pretzel class hand-out. You'll see the recipe on the left, which I've broken down into colored steps (middle column). In the right column is the why behind what we're doing.



So wish me luck on Wednesday night and hope for no whammies. It will be my first multi-day class that I've solo taught.

Game Results

The sibling rivalry game went great. Our team had two plans going into the game:

1. Ken offered: "Free beer for every two times anyone gets Andrew out. I'd say every time, but given he's a rookie and it's a 40 minute match.....that could get pricey."

2. Brian organized: "Also, in the first game we should do our best to make sure he only plays for a few seconds by teaming up with all 3 of our first balls without any regard for our own personal safety. "


Andrew warmed up with his team. He was a nervous cat because he hadn't worn shorts in so long. Teams lined up. 3 shots fired immediately at Andrew. Andrew's out (by Ken) but so are two of our players. Game was good overall. We were tied 2-2 and then we came back to win 6 in a row, making the score 8-2. Andrew did very well, he dodged, had a good arm and even attempted a catch (very hard for rookies to try -- especially their first time out).

After the game, he rode to the bar with his teammates. We met them there and bought them a few pitchers. At one point he had 5 pitchers on the table in front of him. He was happy.

There were 40 teams playing last night. Most have ~10 on the roster. Assume 1/2 go to the bar on any given night, so we're talking 200 people. Plenty of people for him to meet over the next few weeks. So, a great start for him. We're glad he's connected with the sport. He even seemed to enjoy it a bit.

Head to Head

Tomorrow is the first night of league dodgeball since November. My brother has decided to give it a try and was looking for a team. He found a great one when he met a bunch of people at the Holiday Ale Festival. They asked him to join, he said yes. They are a great group of people, so I'm especially excited for him.

So tomorrow kicks off the season. And which team do you think his team plays first? If you said Ken's and mine, then you've guessed correctly.

So mark your watches. 7:55 tomorrow night. 40 minutes of Andrew vs Lisa, dodgeball edition.

Should be fun. Don't worry, mom. We'll take him to the bar afterwards so he can drown his sorrows in cheap beer.

December Flashback

Wow, a month since I last posted. Sorry about that. Luckily, only good news on the Roko front. Here are some of the things that have been going on:

• My brother Andrew arrived and has been living with us since early December. He got a job near our house as the manager of an art supply store. He's very happy -- he likes the people he works with, he's on salary, has benefits and he can bike to work. He's getting accustomed to Portland, some things he really likes (art and music scene, friendly people, bike lanes everywhere) but other things he's still figuring out (girlfriend is long distance, there's more rain here than in Denver, disbelief that he signed up for dodgeball and is responsible for a business). I've been cooking a lot with Andrew. He's learned to make different breads, gravy, pancetta, etc. He likes baking bread the most and even made some when we were out of town for a week.

• Christmas was fun, especially because it was very white this year. Portland got a crazy winter storm and my work was closed for a week (just before xmas). We had snow drifts 2 feet in places around our house. Kinley was very excited. Ken snowshoed to work everyday. I skied to my dentist appointment! Here are a few pictures from the holidays:


Watching Ken's childhood train go around the tree

Waking up on Christmas morning to realize Andrew and I put on the same clothes




• The homebrew Ken and I made turned out! It's a hoppy amber and uses hops that we grew in our backyard. Pretty exciting! In contrast, the sauerkraut and tomato pickles that we were fermenting didn't work. Both had a not-so-lovely layer of mold. We threw both in the compost. I'd rather have beer than pickles, so I'm ok with this.



• Ken and I went to Mexico for Dave & Kristen's wedding. We left for Puerto Vallarta on December 30th. We stayed there for New Year's and then took a 45 minute water taxi to Yelapa, a town on the beach that has no roads/cars. D&K were married in a lovely, small ceremony on January 3rd. We were in Mexico a week. Here are some pictures of Mexico and their wedding:
  
  
  We went to a mojito bar one night in Puerto Vallarta. They had glasses upon glasses of them lined up, ready to go
  
  
  The group at the mojito bar.
  
  
  We ate cricket tacos one night
  
  
  Dave & Kristen rented a big boat to take all of us from Puerto Vallarta to Yelapa. We had to transfer boats (in middle of the bay!) so that we could get ashore. Imagine all the people, baggage and even Kristen's wedding dress being transferred to this smaller boat. It took 3 trips to get us all there. Tim, our tallest guy, carried Kristen's dress so it wouldn't get wet. Here we are arriving on the beach of Yelapa.
  
  
  They had our casita keys ready for us on the beach. Here is the beach of Yelapa with the mist coming down the mountains. It was a beautiful, quiet beach with mountains all around. Taryn took this one. We went ashore smack in the center of that beach.
  
  
  
  The casitas of the hotel. Ours was the 2nd from the left. You can see our beach chairs where we sat in the morning/evening.
  
  
  Their pool overlooking the Pacific. The pool had giant boulders in it -- you could sit in the pool on various rocks and look out onto the beach or water.
  
  
  Kristen and Dave threw a welcome dinner for everyone on the night that we arrived. Here are Kristen, Ken and I at the welcome dinner
  
  
  
  Afterwards, they threw a bonfire on the beach and kept the beach bar open. Here is the bar on the beach where Jana and Paul are getting drinks after the welcome dinner.
  
  
  Taryn brought outfits for Dave and Kristen to wear at the bonfire.
  
  
  
  The old gang on the beach with big toothy grins
  
  
  
  Team Roko Demolition at the bonfire
  
  
  
  We hung out on the beach the next day. Their wedding was at sunset. Here is the wedding aisle before the ceremony, made of palm fronds, bamboo mats and bougainvilla
  
  
  The ceremony
  
  
  Dave and Kristen just after they got married
  
  
  Walking back down the aisle as the mariachis sing to them.
  
  
  Nate, Ken, Karl and I suprise the bride and groom with luchador masks we got in Puerto Vallarta
  
  
  The posada where the wedding reception was held
  
  
  The bride and groom at the reception
  
  
  Me with my bride, Ken
  
  
  
  The next day, Dave, Ken and others searched out a place where they could watch the Vikings/Eagles game. There was one place up river. The road to the sports bar is never long.
  
  
  Dave in his Eagles' luchador mask and sarape, watching the game with friends. Dave was very happy that day.
  
  
  Dave & Kristen before we all head back. What a great wedding and vacation!