This is kind of a crappy pic but that darn Maya just will not stop moving for a pic. What I attempted to capture is the precarious nature of a 9 month old at the top of the stairs with a dopey dad trying to figure out his new
LG Dare phone camera buttons. I think I did that much. I also attempted to capture a kid/danger philosophy Susan and I have adopted with both Ella and Maya with good success. We generally don't use gates at the top of our stairs or any other baby safety devices but rather attempt to expose our kids to each danger in a highly supervised setting as early as possible as a way to teach them the natural consequence of dangerous behaviors without them having to experience the painful effects. Stairs for example are an area parents often use gates. I would argue that the chance of Maya doing something dumb on the stairs and falling is about the same as a tired, stressed out parent trying to step over the gate and tripping while carrying the same kid. (This is not true if you have very dangerous stairs without a landing that could lead to a dead baby of course) Instead what we have done is as soon as our kids can crawl to the steps we invite them to crawl near the edge with tight supervision. When they inevitably make the fall down the stairs move I allow them to fall in slow motion in my hands. It is kind of a slow motion version of what would have happened in fast motion if I wasn't there. The kids did not like this at all even though it doesn't hurt. About three pretend falls and 10 minutes later both kids were mostly safe around fall situations. The main exception with Maya is that she would still crawl up to a ledge and do a little turning sit move that would put her in a fall position. A couple of weeks of tight supervision later and this issue has also been resolved. Now whether at the top of the stairs or on the edge of a tall couch she will carefully
schooch her legs off first and safely slide down feet first on her belly. This danger exposure method worked great with our first child Ella. I initially thought the method worked because of Ella's naturally cautious way of being, however so far it has also worked very well with the very different non
cautious Maya. Next week I plan to teach the girls how to shoot up heroin in a safe way.
Salsa La Cruz
John's Surly
Heaths NOB trailer and Fuji
My last post talked of the new Coen brothers movie "A serious Man" that is being filmed in part half a block from my work. The plot and other info can be found here. Today I got to see the movie being made from about 30 feet from the action. No filming was going on when I watched but I got to see the Coen brothers walking around saying smart artsy stuff. If you have been living in a hole for the past 15 years below are a few of their more popular films. The guy in the center of the pic is not a Marx brother but rather some other director I have been told. 
Well you can't easily see it from my second pic but the new sign says the "JollyRogers Motel" and it also has a scull and crossbones on it. It is going to be filmed as part of a Coen brothers film coming in the future called "A Serious Man". It will be a comedy set in the late 60's. They will be filming on Thursday 10-23-08. It is of interest to me because it is a half block from my work and in a place where many past and current clients have had issues to say the least.
One of my earliest posts on this blog was one year ago on October 16 and was about my new Ron Kyle coffee roasting drum for roasting coffee in a gas BBQ grill. That early post can be found here. About a week ago I was roasting a couple of pounds of Ethiopia Organic Wet-Process Koratie from Sweetmarias.com. If for some reason you also want to roast this special coffee it is no longer available from Sweetmarias but can be found at my place of work for a few more days so give me a call and come on by for a cup. Good coffees sell out fast. In the first pic I put the Ron Kyle Coffee roasting drum on my SUV windshield not just to show its relative size but also to amplify to any readers who don't know me personally that I really am a living stereotype of a white, male, SUV driving, suburbanite. Not that there is anything wrong with that. I mean other than the sexist, ignorant of my white privilege, environmental damage that I represent.
A pretty berry tree. Or as Heath calls unknown berry trees. "Deadnbury" trees. 
Maya is able to climb our little slide and almost get to the slide position by herself. She can't however yet walk to the slide but crawls. I am sure like Ella she will be using the slide completely independently before she can walk. Apparently walking is hard. Climbing, not so hard. Falling, easy.
I love pumpkin/squash seeds done right. Problem is I cook them differently each time and cook them really well about every third time and forget how I did it by the next time I do it. Solution: blog it so I can look it up again. These little beauties came from an acorn squash Ella and I enjoyed a few days ago. I decided to make the seeds while convection baking the squash at 325 degrees this time. I sprayed a small toaster oven pan with olive oil then spread out the seeds in in the pan and sprayed them with the same oil. I took them out and stirred, turned over and salted them about four times in the next hour. I stopped cooking them when they were a little more brown than seemed right. They came out perfect. Like a whole bowl of the best little unpopped popcorn kernels.
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