In the last 72 hours, I started parting my hair on the opposite side. 

The number of habits I’ve developed over the years with the same hair style is unbelievable.  I’m catching my muscles doing things the wrong way every 15 minutes.

I’ve been yucky sick for about 3 days now.  Yesterday morning, I had a particular sensation that caused a flare of memory.  It was actually more like a stack of partial memories, or aspects of particular moments.  I remembered a certain image of dark wood and the green of trees in the office park in Walnut Creek where my pediatrician worked — and, well, others.  I can only assume that the association of that particular feeling of sickness in my body, mixed with a certain sensory moment, evoked previous similarities.

But we experience similar moments like this all the time.  Why would this would feel so strange and go so deep?

Work (and really the transfer to the new group, and then a sort-of project assignment which upped me time commitment to like 150% of what’s sane, to help fix some really important stuff up) has eaten my brain. Or, it’s been gnawing on a good part of it.  …Until a nice surprise opportunity to visit the Pacific Northwest popped up and broke the trance.

With a little perspective on the plane, I realized that I’ve not logged into my favorite places to chat and talk with friends with any regularity for… a month or two?  Not sure if it’s going to get immediately better, since the temperature is still pretty high, but I took my temperature, introspectively, and I have that feeling I get when I’m finally catching up and things are increasingly under control and the slope of the learning curve is lowering.  Know what I mean?

On top of trying to be at home for the family, I’m also slicing my time on a Python class.  It’s a pretty lame junior college thing, but the weekly structure and forced weekly march is helpful.  It’s come at an incredibly busy time, but I’ve been intending to grow this skill for a long time.  And besides, Python is really fun.  Eon’s been incredibly accommodating over the weekends with the study time, but I’m at the fuzzy edge of time commitment.  I’m pretty sure I’m going to blow off the midterm.

But, back to the sudden trip to the land of amazing trees, outstanding espresso, and Twin Peaks.

Last week, I visited one of Google’s remote offices roughly around Portland, in the (except for a brief moment in November, 2000) fine state of Oregon.  To get places, I rented a Prius.  Groovy little car.  Making me think twice about what to get when the lease on my current god-forsaken-car is up later this year.

Anyway, I drove it down a nice stretch of gorgeous highway that made me kind of swoon for the environs and wonder what it would take to be one of those Californians that invades.  My vegetarian credentials are solid, and Green Party voter registration wasn’t *that* long ago, was it?

Best of all, I deployed a surprise visit to Caryn, a most awesome family friend of considerable vintage.  I did a little blogoresearch, found the address where she works, and cast caution to the winds and hoped she’d be there - and she was.  It took her about 5 minutes to spot that the guy in the brown jacket was someone she knew.  Hehe.  It’s a BBQ restaurant, which gave me a bare moment’s pause, but I’m super glad I went.  The place had fantastic grilled tofu and a mac and cheese side dish that made me regret not ordering the full-size meal.  Holy crap.  And!  Caryn reported that she had just signed closing papers on her new house.  Rockets!

From there, I had enough time to get lost in Powell’s for a while (holy crap), and then sample the wares of Stumptown, which were… ok, pretty damn great.

Great awesomeness fit into a few extra hours of pretty cool and interesting work stuff, to boot, in one little overnight, two-day package.

My vast and loyal readership have indicated that they are sometimes confused when the look of the site changes.

So let me say this: We hear you.

Let’s see.  What happened today?

Last night, all 3 kids ended up in bed with Eon and I sometime around whe-the-hell-knows AM.  We extracted them back into their own beds I don’t know when, and this lasted not long enough to get any real rest.  All I remember is Jack’s elbows in my face and his knees in my back all night long.  Ugh.

For 2 hours today, I was able to take the laptop to the coffeeshop where I studied Python.  It was great, and I’m starting to connect some dots.  This is the first programming language that I’m taking a lot of good time with, and studying computer science concepts as I go.

Eon represented the clan at a dinner and silent auction for the boys’ preschool.  Getting ahead of myself for a minute, she actually participated in the auction and surprised me by buying a signed picture of Willie Mays!  Wow!

While the kids were playing, I had some time to dig out a small candy project I’ve been meaning to test.

While she was gone, I ran the “let’s go to bed” show.  Went mostly well.  Ordered pizza, the kids ate a lot, and clean-up time went really well.  But the wheels fell off the wagon during story time.  Isaac lost one of his crucial animals, Henry became terrified of “the scratching monsters” which will “see inside our house through the windows”, and Jack refused to really get into bed at all and was taunting me mercilessly and flat-out laughing at my admonishments.  Patience: stretched.  It all ended up in a wailing, screaming tearfest, and crying for mommy to be home.  Sigh.

Eon got home from the thing, Willie Mays picture!, and after I explained, she indicated that the scratching monster comes courtesy of this episode of the cartoon Caillou we have cleared for them to watch in moderation.  Jesus Christ.  The innoculation has become the disease!

And it’s pseudo-opening-day.  At last.  At long, long last.  Briefly glanced at the Braves-Nationals game.  Tivo’ing the Giants game tomorrow, where they’re opening in Los Angeles.

And right now Isaac is waking up and wailing about the missing bunny animal.  …Ok, back.  Used iPhone as flashlight to locate it under adjacent bed. …And now he’s lost it again.  OMG.  Going back in.  If you don’t hear from me in 5 minutes, don’t wait!  Save yourselves…

A couple points by way of preamble, here.

See’s Candies was founded not quite 90 years ago in a part of California which shall remain nameless.  At some point, sanity prevailed and the headquarters was moved to San Francisco, where it remains today.  I grew up with the stuff, and over the years my tastes have changed, from caramels to milk bourdeau to the topic of this exercise.

My current favorite are the “butterscotch squares”, which are oddly named because they lack anything I normally associate with butterscotch.  They are much more aptly described as squares of brown sugar candy (with vanilla? maple? undertones), with a deliciously granulated texture.

I can get them right down the street, but what’s the fun in that?  I thought to replicate them, if possible. ¹  So I sought out recipes online.  A bit of searching revealed this one, posted a couple years ago, by John Olson in Crescent City, California.

In replicating them, I was concerned about two things: (1) the granulated texture, and (2) the sugary flavor which is delicious to savor and does not easily overload the senses, nevertheless.

I modified it in a couple ways, so let me post the whole recipe I followed, and some pictures:

DRAFT 1: SEE’S BUTTERSCOTCH SQUARES

2 cups brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup heavy cream
6 tbsp. butter
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp vanilla flavoring
1 1/2 cups confectioner sugar, sifted to remove clumps

Combine brown sugar, cream, butter, and salt in large heavy saucepan.  Stir to integrate.  Apply medium heat, stirring constantly, until boiling.

Reduce heat to low, and simmer at a slight boil for 15 minutes, stirring every few minutes to eliminate any boil-inhibiting skin which might form.  Remove from heat.  Add vanilla, confectioner’s sugar. Mix well, until sugar is well-incorporated.

Pour into a square or rectangular pan such as an 8×8 or 9×9 inch, lined with parchment paper.  Let cool to room temperature (a couple hours at least, more depending on weather).

Cut into inch-square pieces, or less.

Results were pretty good! After the first couple hours:

The texture is granular, but the original has an even coarser grain.

Taste is brown sugar with buttery cream, front and center, but not quite enough… of whatever it is that makes the original so edible.  This stuff is a rich sugar bomb.  For attempt #2, I might make the following changes:

Flavor with both 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1/4 maple extract.

Boil for 15 17 minutes.

I’m on the fence about incorporating corn syrup.  I suspect that See’s contains it in some degree, honestly.  There might be a hint of it in the flavor.  Perhaps for iteration #3.

Check out the Flickr feed for pictures.  Here’s a direct link.

I’ve wrapped up the bulk of this stuff to take to work tomorrow.  I can’t imagine what the kids would be like if they got ahold of this stuff in bulk.

1. In fact, I had a caramel disaster over the holidays which resulted in a granulated, crystalized mess.  The only good to come of it was that it reminded me that crystalized texture can be good, even awesome.

Eon’s out tonight, so we ordered special “daddy dinner” pizza.  As you can see from the image, from an extra-large pizza, the boys consume all but about 50 degrees.  And they’re not even four.

(Click to enlarge, and see the tape measure at right.)

In the last couple days, the children have learned the game of hide and seek, and are playing it actively.

Last weekend, I made another double-batch of Cooks’ Illustrated “Almost No-Knead” bread recipe — one loaf for around the house, and one to take to Eon’s mom’s for an Easter dinner.  I continue to be amazed how easy and how little investment is required to make bread this good.  Here are the results.

The Easter loaf was about 6 hours out of the oven when we ate it, and it went over really well.  I tasted it myself, and thought it was pretty good, with a delicious crust.

The next day, we had the other loaf at dinner with fondue.  The crust was downright moist, which was a disappointment.  I remember reading (probably in Reinhart) that this is to be expected, as moisture moves out from the moister interior, and saturates the dry crust — so while the interior is losing moisture , the crust is gaining moisture.

Mitigation for this day-old effect (most effective for loaves made from heavily hydrated doughs, as I read it): heat the loaves in an oven temporarily to evaporate the moisture in the crust.

Me: It’s time to clean up.  Right now.  Daddy is very tired.
Henry (scrunching up his nose): WhatEVER.