It’s Moving, Isn’t It?

This is just too weird. As you look at this image (attempts to shrink the image to fit this page broke the very powerful affect; go ahead, it’s worth the click!), the circles in your peripheral vision seem to move. You quickly glance right or left and fix your gaze on one of the colorful spirals. Nope, not moving … but wait, now that one in the middle seemed to move.

The first time I saw this it was late at night and I sort of thought it worked because I was tired. After viewing the page numerous other times, it seems that no, the perceptual trick works every time the image is viewed.

And, if you liked that one, here’s a whole page of goodies! Some of these did seem to work better when tired. A number of them only work when one bobs one’s head back and forth to induce the effect. Imagine hordes of bored office workers viewing the page and bobbing their heads like so many chickens!

What a treat; today I used only carrots from our garden to make this cake!

This recipe is my synthesis of many recipes, none of which quite pleased me. Sources included Betty Crocker, the NY Times Cookbook, some recipes I found online, plus some others that I don’t recall.

Mike’s Carrot Cake

Ingredients

1 C Oil
1.5 C Sugar
1/2 C Brown Sugar

4 Eggs

1 C Crushed Pineapple (1 8oz can)

2 C Flour
1 tsp salt
1.5 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
pinch Dried Ginger
pinch Cloves

1/2 C Toasted Walnuts

3 C Grated Carrots

Preparation

Sift together dry ingredients (except sugar).

Mix oil and sugar.

Add vanilla.

Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing slightly after each one.

Add pineapple and mix just enough to combine.

Add flour and rest of dry ingredients, mixing gently.

Stir in nuts.

Mix in carrots.

Bake 45-50 minutes at 350 degrees in a parchment lined 9×13 pan. Frost with Cream Cheese Frosting

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

1 (8 oz) package Cream Cheese, softened
1/4 stick Buttter, softened
2 tsp Milk
1 Tbs lemon juice
1 tsp Vanilla
4 C Powdered Sugar

Preparation

Beat cream cheese, butter, milk, lemon and vanilla until smooth.

Gradually beat in powdered sugar on low speed, 1 cup at a time until smooth and spreadable.

We were discussing the relative mental capabilities of recent presidents, and noted the apparent trend in decreasing cognitive abilities when comparing grandson with father and then back to grandfather. As this short biography shows, there was once a brightly shining mind in this family.

In some sense he is considered to be the creator of the modern concept of the hyperlink as illustrated in the latter part of of the referenced page. Of course, his comment describing “a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility” more or less matches modern computer systems, including the web.

I mentioned in a previous post that we were too late returning from our Kansas trip to attend what was no doubt a most excellent Neil Young concert; but we did have our reasons.

As it turned out, detouring to visit our Yorkie breeder south of Sacramento proved to be worth missing Neil; we finally got a new dog! We had been looking since April, when we attended a Yorkie show in Sacramento.

We found our breeder via someone we met at that show, and have been working with her for the past month or so. As luck would have it, the first puppy was ready for us the weekend we left for Kansas. She said there would soon be another one, so we decided to be patient.

We were returning from our visit to Kansas, heading west on 120, when we decided to call our breeder. She was usually unavailable on weekends, and we called mainly because we were in the area; we didn’t really expect an answer. Fortune was smiling on us because the breeder was both home and ready to show us two puppies; the original one and the one that had come of age during our absence.

It didn’t take long for one of the puppies to make its choice, and we left shortly thereafter with a very tiny, very precious Yorkshire Terrier puppy. I guess we waited long enough after the loss of Kona; I fell in love with the puppy during the drive home.

Three weeks, 5000 miles and 1200 photos later, we’re back from our visit to Kansas, where we had a great time! As reflected in this journal, we took our time both coming and going, exploring the vast and rugged Southwest United States.

Our time in Kansas was very satisfying as we got to spend a lot of time with my dad; a rare treat over the years, and very much enjoyed this trip. Of course, having my brother and his son in the house added to the fun To balance things, we did not get to see as many people as we had planned … both family and friends. Sad, but on the whole, the time spent with dad was very special and irreplaceable.

As the prior entries indicate, we did have a nice trip home, but unfortunately, we were unable to return in time to see what I’m sure was a great Neil Young concert. Getting a puppy was worth the loss, though.

To finish off the trip here’s a photo of the sunset on our last day in Kansas: