Lasagna!
Archive for July, 2009
Cooking with Dad on a Friday
Friday, July 31st, 2009Neil Gaiman
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009Wow. I thought I was beyond the stage when I would suddenly discover a startling new author, with a full back catalog of unread books. Neil Gaiman is definitely such a writer. And the reason I missed him? He works almost exclusively in graphic novels.
After running into no fewer than three references to the Sandman series of graphic novels in a few days (“…the novel we’re reviewing here is not as good as Gaiman’s Sandman series from 20 years ago, but …”), I found it at the local library. Great stuff – Norman Mailer described the series as “a comic book for intellectuals” – and it’s true. References to Herodotus, Shakespeare, Dante, the great myths (in their original, unsanitized forms), Arthur C. Clarke and so many others, it would be hard to list them all.
But this is more than a collection of references – this is a living, breathing series that stands on its own (albeit, on the shoulders of giants). I spent a month reading through the full collection, and loved them all. Highly recommended.
Amazon link for Volume 1 of 11 here.
Quietly waiting
Saturday, July 25th, 2009Quietly waiting for the arrival of Cinderella. No big plans. Hanging around. Doing computer things, books, videos. Started the kids on the Hobbit last night (so far, a success; but we’ll see in the end).
Aaron’s Crib
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009Aaron has announced that he is no longer a baby. His door slammed open yesterday afternoon during naptime, as he stepped out smiling to let us know that he had successfully climbed out of his crib. Time for a big boy bed …
Aaron's Crib
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009Aaron has announced that he is no longer a baby. His door slammed open yesterday afternoon during naptime, as he stepped out smiling to let us know that he had successfully climbed out of his crib. Time for a big boy bed …
Apollo 11 40th Anniversery
Monday, July 20th, 2009I’m six years old when Apollo 11 landed on the moon, the same age as my son Dan-dan is now. At age six, I’m still mixing up events in the real world with the Star Trek episodes that my older brother and sisters watch.
I do clearly remember being woken up to see Neil Armstrong walk on the moon. It was the latest I had ever been up. I don’t remember who woke me up, or who else was watching on the TV in the family room, but I do remember seeing it. And I remember walking outside afterward with Dad to look at the moon. And I remember clearly the exact phase of the moon at that moment.
The John Kennedy Presidential Library has been running a real time website, with audio and visual effects, tracking the landing on the moon here. It’s been fun to keep the kids interested. And Dan-dan’s enormous attention span allows him to wait patiently through the loss of signal as Apollo 11 goes around the moon for the first time to when the signal is picked up again 20 minutes later.
My personal feeling as this, exciting as this is, government sponsored manned space travel is a relic from the past. It’s enormously expensive, without real incentives to become more efficient. And the current programs serve no useful purpose (though it’s dang cool to watch the International Space Station whiz by on a dark night). Yes, I want man to go to Mars and the other planets as well, but it won’t happen without big changes. Free enterprise is the route to those changes. The future belongs to efforts like the Google Lunar X Prize, Virgin Galactic, Bigelow Aerospace and others.
Afternoon at Stone Brewery
Saturday, July 18th, 2009Freitag Family Tree
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009WARNING: This is a work in progress! Please send more information so I can place it into the tree.
Above is an image of the Family Tree. Click on it for a full view. It’s been updated from Cally’s list at the 140th Reunion. I’ve used the dates from the 1969 Centenial, as well as a geneology started by Dietrich Freitag before he left for Korea a few years ago. There is a lot of information missing here (full names, marriage dates, full name of spouse; I usually have birthdates, but less often deaths). If anyone can leave me information, I can add it here.
Come back again to look at this. The image will be updated periodically.
Timothy Maxwell Sammond
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009We had bad news this morning. Tim Sammond, a second cousin, unexpectedly passed away from a heart attack at the age of 47 leaving his wife and two children. The obituary is here.
ADDENDUM: Added the photo from the 1969 Freitag Family Centennial. This is Tim, age 8, with his mother Cindy. Original photo is here.