Transit of Venus

The transit of Venus was June 5th, 2012. I went out and bought some filters so I could watch it. I was psyched. 

Unfortunately the weather in Boston was terrible that day; there was complete cloud cover.  So I could see nothing.  So disappointing!


I ended up watching a live webcast of the transit while I drove home.

It is going to be another 105 years until this happens again, so crashing my car would have been worth it, right?  Safety note: the transit of Venus looks a lot like a red street light, so stop if you see it.


I didn't crash.  I made it home and found that Venus had traveled farther than I had.

Then I made a startling discovery.  I found the missing piece.  It was up here all along!!!

I guess the day turned out OK in the end.  I'm going to win a Nobel prize for this.

Memolane

Making Timpano

Ever since I saw the movie "Big Night" I've wanted to try Il Timpano.

Here are pictures from my Timpano making adventure.

  

Carbs

I like making bagels and pretzels.  This stuff makes you fat, right?  It may be worth it.

Bagel boiling:


Pretzel boiling:

Making Pasta

Wednesday is spaghetti making day!

Here are some pictures from my pasta endeavor.

https://plus.google.com/photos/100444203488619289184/albums/5636816994691475969

Sand Sculptures at Revere Beach

Sand sculptures at Revere Beach, July 15, 2011.

Pictures here: https://plus.google.com/photos/100444203488619289184/albums/5629960035083384817

Japanese Lantern Festival in JP

Japanese Lantern Festival Pictures!

https://plus.google.com/photos/100444203488619289184/albums/5630470156939808801

This took place at the Forest Hills Cemetery on July 14th

Trip to Washington, July 2011

I went hiking in North Cascades National Park and Mt Rainier National Park in early July, 2011.

Here are some pictures:

https://plus.google.com/photos/100444203488619289184/albums/5625376323516329969

Sculpture at MIT

Me inside "Alchemist", a sculpture by Jaume Plensa. http://j.mp/lLe76R

Tea Balls

I love these little tea balls :)

Hiking Gap Mountain

Gap Mountain is in Troy, NH. It's a short hike to the top, about an hour. It's worth it; when you get there, there are wild blueberry bushes!

When I went in late June, the blueberries weren't ripe yet.

Here are some pictures:

https://plus.google.com/photos/100444203488619289184/albums/5619950103660702241

Son of Man

My Halloween costume this year was an homage to Rene Magritte. The apple is a piece of paper taped to the brim of the bowler hat. Several French people in Salem recognized the painting ("les fils de l'homme").

I love the song "Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After The War", and I love bowler hats.

Happy Halloween!

(Here are a bunch more photos if you're interested :)

The Scale of the Universe

This is me figuring out the scale of everything at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. You should go. It will blow your mind.

Bagel Day!

Today I decided to make my own bagels.

For a while it has been bothering me that you can easily buy a poppy seed bagel, and you can easily buy an egg bagel, but it is impossible to find an egg bagel with poppy seeds. So you need to make one yourself.

I made some plain and some with poppy seeds.

Here are some pictures (click to enlarge):

Here is the recipe I used:

Egg Bagels

Bagel ingredients:

4 eggs

2 packets of yeast

8 cups flour

2 cups warm water

1/4 cup canola oil

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

Glaze ingredients:

2 egg yolks

2 tablespoons water

Optional ingredients:

Poppy seeds or sesame seeds or whatever.

Instructions:

Mix together all dry bagel ingredients well. Stir in all wet bagel ingredients. Knead for 10 minutes.

Place dough in a greased bowl. Cover and allow to rise in warm place for twenty minutes.

Punch down the dough and divide into 30 pieces. (I did this rather unevenly so some of the bagels turned out big and some small. It doesn't really matter.)

Roll into nice balls. Punch a hole through the center of each ball and then spin it around a chopstick to make the hole bigger. The chopstick thing is my own idea and probably a crazy one.

Put them on trays and allow to rise for fifteen more minutes.

While they are rising, make the glaze by mixing 2 egg yolks with 2 tablespoons of water in a bowl.

Cooking:

Preheat oven to 450°F.

Use the chopstick to drop bagels in boiling water 5 inches deep and boil for about three minutes; turn each bagel once. I did 4 bagels at once.

Place on greased sheet and brush on egg yolk glaze. Sprinkle on poppy seeds or sesame seeds or nothing or whatever you want.

Bake at 450°F for 18-20 minutes.

Don't burn yourself. Eat with honey or cream cheese.

Origami Convention!

I went to an origami convention in New York City. It was amazing. Click here to see pictures!

Slideshow:

New Hampshire

Hiked up to the top of Mt Monadnock today. I just had my cellphone camera but I was able to get some pretty good shots with it. The haze off in the distance is a thunderstorm coming!

Listen to how windy it was at the top:

Super Mario Cupcakes!

Melted white + colored chocolate in squirt bottles, plus black and
white icing for the eyes. Inspired by New Super Mario Bros. for Wii

Princess Tiara Cupcakes

Iced the cupcakes with pink icing, smoothed the icing, then put white sugar sprinkles. The sugar looks like diamonds maybe?

After these were in the cupcake holder I thought they needed some fairy magic wands, so it was back to the melted chocolate on wax paper. If you trail the ends to a point you can spike them right into the cupcakes.

Next time I think I will make the magic stars a bit pointier.

White Chocolate Tiaras

Next up in the princess cupcake series--I started these by drawing with sharpie on paper wrapped around glasses. Then I taped wax paper over the templates, melted some white chocolate, and followed the the pattern with the squirt bottle.

These set in 1 minute in the freezer. Don't forget to add the little pink pearl sprinkles while the chocolate is still liquid!

Making Cupcakes

I seem to be developing a specialty in decorating cupcakes for girls' birthday parties. Not sure why that theme in particular.

These are "princess crown" cupcakes. I made the crowns out of marshmallows--cut out the center with a coke can tube, then dyed them in yellow food coloring and let them dry overnight.

It was lots of fun!

Dark City

Shout out for the movie "Dark City".  Jennifer Connelly is beautiful.  Sorry about Kiefer Sutherland.

Terrace

Rearranging the deck chairs on the second floor of the student center
at Northeastern University

A Personal Message from Scott Brown to Me

... not!

Who Who

Giant owl on the Jacksonville Library building in downtown Jacksonville, FL

Cookies!

I made cookies. I'm officially my Mom now!

Origami Tree

Christmas tree in New York City covered with lovely origami (picture
from Tiffany).

Gingerbread Houses

(click to enlarge)

Here are the Gingerbread houses that were in the Xhibition Kitchen in Stetson West at Northeastern University today.

Last look at Fall

Arnold Arboretum before Winter came

If you are going to be crucified, this is the most festive way to do it.

(click to enlarge)

p.s. Please do not feed the duck or geese.

Bonus: Popcorn crucifix!

Pictures were taken at La Salette Shrine in Attleboro, MA. Popcorn one was my picture. Jesus one is someone elses's.

Love the Blog

Kendra is a huge fan of my blog. She can't stop talking at work about how awesome it is. Plus, I put a lot of important stuff here so it's important that everyone read it every day. Love, Chris.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!
Originally uploaded by cadill

Happy Halloween!

The Tree that Time Built

Do not fret, and do not doubt

You are in time, you can't fall out

No matter what you say or do

You are in time, time is in you

And everything that is to be

Will be in time, upon this tree

- Mary Ann Hoberman

It's pumpkin season again!

It's pumpkin season again!
Originally uploaded by cadill

It's pumpkin season again!

Fall is coming!!!

I like this picture of my sister and brother-in-law

I like this picture of my sister and brother-in-law
Originally uploaded by cadill

I like this picture of my sister and brother-in-law

Florida Caterpillar

Florida Caterpillar
Originally uploaded by cadill

Cool caterpillar I found in Florida

Yeah man

Yeah man
Originally uploaded by Riffboss

Ross got his bike!

Chris drives with Trapster on WBZ-TV

I got my 2 minutes of fame on the local CBS News affliate WBZ-TV in Boston. I drove around with reporter David Wade talking about a cellphone application called Trapster that helps you find police speed traps. Funny!

Article here: http://bit.ly/cctrapster
Link to YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBpm1ySmZLM&fmt=18

In the Cheese section

In the Cheese section
Originally uploaded by cadill

Cheese! Shredded!

Kumquats

I like kumquats

Montreal

Some pictures from this past weekend in Montreal