Fish

We enrolled Drakeson in swim lessons with Ms. Cathy, and she's the real deal.  George and I couldn't possibly be prouder of our fish.  In fact, we're so proud, we got him a water bucket and watering can for the splashpads, an electric water dragon car for the pool, and his very first pair of goggles.  My dad bought me a Reese's after he taught me to swim at Crystal Lake Pool in Urbana, so our little guy got his very own bag of Reese's minis.  Oh, yes.  And one more present - four more lessons with Ms. Cathy in August.  Just what everybody always wanted!

Spoiled Rotten

Here's Drakeson learning how to swim in just 8 lessons.

Folks in Austin III

The parents came into town again.  I think they like the little guy.

Some quick memoirs:

15 May 14:  The Folks got here midday.  We went swimming at Stacy Pool with Bà's new swimgear, met George at home for dinner, and went on an evening stroll near the beautiful Liz Carpenter Fountain.

Pointing

16 May 14:  The morning started off with a short play for children at the library called "Mr. Pusskins."  Drakeson was the only baby (uninvited) to walk on stage and play with the props.  Afterwards, Bà tried acupuncture for the first time at the Austin Natural Health Center down the road.  Then we grilled pizza at home for dinner and went out to the Austin Symphony to see Gabriela Montero play the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466.  She improvised on "The Eyes of Texas," and it was astounding.

The Things You Learn In Marriage: How to Clean Your Teeth at the Same Time

17 May 14:  While the rest of the gang went to a birthday party, I took Ông to a TCC rehearsal, 2 bike shops, and out for cupcakes.  When we all met up again, we took an impromptu trip to San Antonio to see the Alamo and the River Walk.  And this nonsense.

Alamo

18 May 14:  Ông sang with the KLCC choir in the morning.  Later that afternoon, we went to Barton Springs for a swim, warmed up with hot Indian food for dinner, and enjoyed a little of Shakespeare's "As You Like It" at the Hillside Theatre.  Drakeson was all over the hillside.

Terrible

Zilker

19 May 14:  We met Betty and Harry Mallard for breakfast at the Blue Dahlia, and then headed out to see the Zilker Botanical Gardens and explore the Zilker Nature & Science Center.  Before the sun set, we took Drakeson to play at Ricky Guerrero Park and Del Curto Park.  Dinner was at Elizabeth St. Café before a leisurely walk down Soco.  I like to joke that Elizabeth St. Café is half Vietnamese like me.

Water

A Great Series

20 May 14:  We had only half a day left.  After a big banana waffle breakfast, we headed out to the Mollberg Piano Shop to hike the trails.  The rest of the afternoon was spent at the wonderful Thinkery.

I'm pretty sure we're all looking forward to the  next time.  Love you, M&D.

Storytime

 Running During Storytime

Four Horsemen Burger

There's a restaurant in San Antonio called Chunky's, and they have a spicy burger challenge called "The 4 Horsemen."  It got famous from Man v. Food.  Needless to say, it's totally stupid, and this afternoon, my husband became the 48th person to complete it.

What a Waste

When life gives you lemons, sometimes they are awful and you have to throw them away.

This is a story about one of those "craft fails."  It was way more involved than making cupcakes that don't look like Martha Stewart's, and therefore, way more heartbreaking.  Once upon a time, about 4 years ago, George thought it would be a wonderful idea to collect beer caps.  After all, beer is great, the logos are cool, and there are thousands of craft projects you can do with caps.  Right?  Well - no.  There's the classic bottle cap tabletop.  There are bottle cap magnets and jewelry pendants.  Coasters and trays.  Picture and mirror frame decorations.  Wind chimes that don't chime.  There's really not that much stuff, actually.  But as the "creative" half of team L&G, it was sort of my job to make it happen.  It was a job I should have had the foresight to quit before I started.

We took great pride in protecting each cap from dents or scratches, and allowed only one of each kind into the collection.  Caps like "Bud Light Lime" didn't make the cut simply because they weren't honorable.  Naturally with such a nice assortment, I wanted to encase the caps in resin to protect them.  I didn't want something as big and cumbersome as another table, and there were too many caps for a set of coasters.  That only left trays.  Trays are nice because they come with a built in rim to hold the resin, and you can put them away when you're tired of looking at bottle caps.  It was a reasonable decision, despite the lack of creativity.  The next step was to make the project a little more personal.  As we've been called "L&G" ever since the day my mom threw us an "L&G party" and pronounced us man and wife (that really happened), I decided to make an "L" tray and a "G" tray, and purchase a little ampersand bottle opener to tie the two together ($7).

Meanwhile, I bought 2 black rectangular trays ($7 + $15 + $15) and 32 ounces of Castin' Craft Polyester Resin ($7 + $15 + $15 +$30).  How exciting - our first resin project.  When the trays came, I noticed that the handles were less than a quarter inch from the bottom of the tray.  Since the height of a bottle cap is about a quarter inch, these trays wouldn't hold enough resin to encase the caps, so I returned them ($7 + $30).  I also started making posts in a resin forum to get more advice on the whole project.  It's not like I wanted this to become some sort of failure or something.

For the second round of trays, I ordered 2 16-inch circular fiberglass trays ($7 + $30 + $15 + $15), this time in brown.  Meanwhile, I heard back from the resin forum and realized it was necessary to order 2 16-ounce packages of of Envirotex Lite High Gloss Resin ($7 + $30 + $15 + $15 + $25 + $25).  This kind of resin didn't need to be sanded or buffed, unlike Castin' Craft Polyester Resin.  But Castin' Craft Polyester Resin couldn't be returned because it was "too flammable to be put in the mail."  I bought 144 black bottle caps for the letters ($7 + $30 + $15 + $15 + $25 + $25 + $8).  This was our first draft.

The trays came, and our collection wasn't big enough.  We bought 45 new beers ($7 + $30 + $15 + $15 + $25 + $25 + $8 + $80).  The design looked a lot cleaner with a solid border, so we delved into our personal stash of caps from Austin Homebrew.  At this point, I realized that circular caps fit together into hexagons, and circular trays are anything but hexagons.  Rectangles are a little bit like hexagons, but not circles.  I agonized over how to deal with the circles-minus-hexagons space.  Then there was the issue that the black lettering blended into the brown background.  We switched to white letters.  The white logo caps blended into the white letters.  We threw out 20 white bottle caps and I changed the color of the L to orange.  But the letters still didn't look right.

An "L" is built with lines, whereas a "G" is built with arcs.  It eventually dawned on me that we could not treat both letters in the same way.  The solution was to build the "L" into a hexagon inscribed in a nearly circular border, but build the "G" with concentric circles, evenly distributing the circles-minus-hexagons space.  Duh.

At last, we were ready to go.  We sorted and traded caps for a while, mixed the Castin' Craft Polyester Resin, and used syringes to fill the back of each cap.  This was necessary to avoid air bubbles during the final curing process.  The house was full of fumes for 4 days, but other than that, this part went pretty well.

We flipped them over and glued them down.  After 4 years, there was a light at the end of the tunnel.

Then came Wednesday, the 16th of April.  It was time to pour the Envirotex Lite.  We had set up a dust free zone in the gym and borrowed a hot air crafting gun to zap bubbles during the cure.  One coat of Envirotex Lite "equals 50 coats of varnish," but you're supposed to pour only 1/8 of an inch at a time.  This meant we needed two coats to cover the caps.  We had done the calculations.  We had the right amount of resin.  What could go wrong?

Well, a lot.  For one, the container we had saved to mix the resin was a little small, so we probably didn't mix the catalyst thoroughly enough.  Also, we should have done something magical and tedious, like syringing resin into each and every crack between the bottle caps with no spills.  But we didn't do that; we poured the resin from a container, much like the way a human being would typically pour resin.  Then, to our utmost horror, the resin didn't flow into the crevices at all.  This left us no option but to pour an additional layer to flood the caps.  "Maybe it would work."

A few air bubbles came up.  We zapped them with the hot air gun, and things still looked pretty good.  After 25 minutes of zapping bubbles that appeared from nowhere, we were still hopeful.  But then bubbles didn't stop.  The hours came and went.  Every time we checked on the trays, more bubbles needed zapping.  We cancelled grocery shopping.  We cancelled going to the gym.  We cancelled our plans to see the Mozart Requiem Undead that evening.  We zapped bubbles all day, for we had worked too hard to let one day ruin our entire project.

Suddenly, one spot on the "G" tray cured hard, trapping several unsightly bubbles and blemishing an otherwise smooth and glossy surface.  The "G" tray was officially ruined, and we didn't want to take too many chances with the "L."  We were helpless.  In desperation, we ordered another 16 ounces of Envirotex Lite, since another layer could at least smooth out the top surface ($7 + $30 + $15 + $15 + $25 + $25 + $8 + $80 + $25).

By the next day, the "L" tray had acquired several large bubbles and the "G" tray remained sticky.  As the days passed, the "G" tray proved incapable of a complete curing.  Both trays almost looked good.  But sometimes, "almost good" is still "very bad," and this was one of those times.  The last container of Envirotex Lite came in the mail yesterday, but we have since grown so loathsome of the very bad trays that we'd rather save the resin for another future craft fail.  We'll throw these trays away tomorrow.  And so the nightmare continues.

And just so you know, $7 + $30 + $15 + $15 + $25 + $25 + $8 + $80 + $25 = $230, including the price of 45 beers of which 40 were just okay.

And before you question my judgement, these really do look a lot worse in real life than in the photos.

And who wants trays anyway?  Trays, especially heavy trays filled with resin, are totally impractical and useless.  This being a failure has saved us from having to own trays.  We now have one new bottle cap (it was pretty?) and 16 ounces of resin.  And a stupid ampersand bottle opener.

Logic

George is terrible at arguing, and this morning, he said he wished he were "better at logic."  Being the very loving wife I am, I decided to type up a summary of the 2 logic pages in wikibooks.  Isn't that cool?

  Section 1  
Proposition - statement.  Propositions can be true or false, and represented by lower case letters: p, q.
Propositional function - a function where a proposition is an input, and True or False is the output.
Compound propositions - propositions combined with any of the 3 logical operators.
Operator - and, or, not.
Conjunction - ∧ and.  In order for a ∧ b to be true, a must be true and b must be true.
Disjunction - ∨ or (inclusive).  a ∨ b means a is true, b is true, or both are true.
Negation - ¬ not.
Order of Precedence - brackets, ¬, ∧, ∨.

  Review 1  
Two plus five equals eleven.  Proposition.
Drakeson Miner is adorable.  Proposition.
Will it rain tomorrow?  Nothing.
3x + 6y = 9.  Propositional function.
It will rain tomorrow and Drakeson Miner is not adorable.  Compound proposition.  (F)
Two plus five equals eleven or two plus five equals seven.  Compound proposition.  (T)
¬(p ∨ q) ∧ p.  According to the Order of Precedence, evaluate p ∨ q first, then ¬, then ∧ p.

  Section 2  
Truth tables - tables that chart every possibility and every outcome of T's and F's.  This is blogger, so I can't really insert tables without too much trouble, and besides.  That would be really boring to type.  If you're so inclined, click on the original wikibook to see some examples.
Each cell contains a T or a F.
If there are n propositions, there will be 2ⁿ rows in a truth table.
Also, the first 2ⁿ rows and n columns will display every possibility of T's and F's for the n propositions.
In a truth table for an expression that involves a p and a q, the first two columns (8 cells) would display the four possible combinations of T's and F's for p and q (TT, TF, FT, FF).
The number of columns that are necessary depend on the possible changes in outcome, due to operators.
For example, ¬, ¬p, ∧, p ∧, ∨, p ∨, p ∧ q are all examples of column headings.
Columns (not rows) are worked through to determine all final outcomes of each truth table.
Equivalence - ≡.  Equivalence between two expressions occurs when the outcomes of both truth tables are the same.
Tautology - an expression that is always true.

  Review 2  
In constructing a truth table for p and q, how many rows are necessary?  4.
Construct a truth table for p ∧ q.  4 rows (not including column headings p, q, p ∧ q), 3 columns.
Construct a truth table for p ∨ q.  4 rows, 3 columns.
Construct a truth table for ¬p.  2 rows, 2 columns.
Construct a truth table for q ∧ (p ∨ r).  8 rows, 5 columns.
If p is "Mommy is in a good mood" and q is "Mommy loves Drakeson," what is p ∨ q?  A tautology.

  Section 3  

This part is even more fun.

Commutative Laws

p ∧ q ≡ q ∧ p

q ∧ p ≡ p ∧ q

Associative Laws

(p ∧ q) ∧ r ≡ p ∧ (q ∧ r)

(p ∨ q) ∨ r ≡ p ∨ (q ∨ r)

Distributive Laws

p ∧ (q ∨ r) ≡ (p ∧ q) ∨ (p ∧ r)

p ∨ (q ∧ r) ≡ (p ∨ q) ∧ (p ∨ r)

Idempotent Laws

p ∧ p ≡ p

p ∨ p ≡ p

Identity Laws

p ∧ F ≡ F

p ∨ F ≡ p

p ∧ T ≡ p

p ∨ T ≡ T

Involution Law

¬(¬p) ≡ p

De Morgan's Laws.  My dad says these are "pretty cool."

¬(p ∨ q) ≡ ¬p ∧ ¬q

¬(p ∧ q) ≡ ¬p ∨ ¬q

Complement Laws

p ∧ ¬p ≡ F

p ∨ ¬p ≡ T

¬T ≡ F

¬F ≡ T

  Review 3  
Pick one of each and prove it with truth tables or laws.

  Section 4  

Implication - p ⇒ q means "if p, then q."  In this case, p is a sufficient condition rather than a necessary condition.  In other words, it is still possible for q to be true without p.

Biconditional propositions - p ⇔ q means "p if and only if q."  This also means that p ⇒ q and q ⇒ p.  In this case, p is a sufficient and a necessary condition for q, and q is a sufficient and a necessary condition for p.

Predicate - a series of words used to modify an object.  Predicates are notated with uppercase letters, and their objects are notated with lowercase letters.
P(x) is called a propositional function where P is the predicate.  Depending on how P and x are defined, P(x) is either true or false.
For example, if the predicate "tooTall" means "is too tall" and the object is "George," then P(x), or tooTall(George), would mean "George is too tall."  In this case, the propositional function is true.
Also, for P(x), the universe of discourse is the set that x belongs to.
For tooTall(George), because George is a person, the universe of discourse could be "people."

  Review 4  
Assume "badCommunicating" is a predicate meaning "bad at communicating."
badCommunicating(Lan) ∨ badCommunicating(George) ⇒ working on logic will be frustrating.
The universe of discourse in this case is "people."
Also, George makes sushi ⇒ Lan loves George.
Also, George lifts weights at least once a week ⇔ George is alive.

  Section 5  

Universal quantifier - ∀ means "for all" or "for each."
Existential quantifier - ∃ means "for some" or "for at least one."
Two-place predicates - predicates that require 2 objects.  For instance, "givesKisses(Mommy, Drakeson)" has the two-place predicate "givesKisses," and the objects are "Mommy" and "Drakeson."  Mommy gives kisses to Drakeson.
Negation of quantified propositional functions:
¬(∀ x, P(x)) ≡ ∃ x, ¬P(x).
¬(∃ x, P(x)) ≡ ∀ x, ¬P(x).

  Review 5  
∀x, cuterThan(Drakeson, x).  Universe of discourse is anything.
∀x, ∃y, Bigger(x,y).  Universe of discourse is numbers.
In English sentences, choose a universe of discourse and a predicate, and write your own examples for the negation of quantified propositional functions.

  Section 6  
Wait a sec.  Those wiki pages didn't have anything on these:
Assume p ⇒ q.
Converse - q ⇒ p.  (Not necessarily)
Inverse - ¬p ⇒ ¬q.  (Not necessarily)
Contrapositive - ¬q ⇒ ¬p.  (Always)

  Review 6  
Notice the next time somebody uses an inverse or converse when trying to argue.  You can disagree, but don't point out the mistake.  It's important to keep your friends.

  Extra Credit Review  
There are 7 additional logic exercises from the original source.

And that's that.
I should add that most of the time I was doing this post, I was also missing story time.

Spring Cleaning

We moved into Castle Grayskull in May of 2012.  By the time the first spring cleaning rolled around, I have no idea what happened.  Maybe we were too busy with a 3 month old.  Maybe we didn't care.  Maybe the house was clean; after all, it had only been a year.  This time, though, it had been two years, and we cared.  In fact, we cared so much, it became more of a makeover than a cleaning.  We didn't remodel anything, because that would be an "extreme makeover."  And you know what?  It's great to look your best, but ultimately, it's what's on the inside that counts.

So here's the grand list of our home improvements from Spring, 2014.  It's doubtful this is of any interest to anybody, but putting it down makes me feel like we accomplished something.  They say, "If you don't write it down, it never happened."  Actually, I don't really get the meaning of that quote, and I'd even go so far as to say I disagree with it.

Organization:

We made a cleaning schedule and put the chores into our calendar.  That didn't really create less or more housecleaning, but nobody has to keep track of that stuff anymore, and nothing sits around accumulating layers of dirtiness.  Like window shutters.
We also reorganized the closets and pantry, and got new baskets for the keys, wallets, glasses, and mail.

Cleaning:

In addition to normal cleaning, we went after those hard to reach spots, like the outside windows, behind and under the oven, and under the fridge.  Those spots are the worst.

Safety:

We childproofed the cabinets with magnetic locks.  The new bathroom trash cans are covered, and there's a new weight rack in the gym holding up all those dumbbells.  Thanks only to George, we finally tuned up the Ford Focus so that "it's no longer a death trap."

Outside:

The back patio is finally furnished.  There's a picnic table, windchime, soft LEDs lining the upper rim, and our very first grill.  We also installed some solar powered path lighting in the front, put in a new doormat, and we're in the process of removing the many unwanted plants that came with the house.

Decor:

There's a new rug under the Volkert and two new puzzles for our wall collection.  Coming at the end of the month is a quilt we commissioned from a friend, made out of Drakeson's receiving blankets.

Detail:

We replaced all the white plastic outlet covers with satin nickel.  Now they match our door handles, towel racks, tp holders, hinges, and faucets.  There are new pillows for the guest room and new towels for the guest bath.

Furnishing:

We replaced the shoe holder with one that matches the rest of our furniture, bought thicker mattresses for the daybed in the guest room, and got Drakeson his very first bed.  And yes, it totally has a fort and a slide.

Can You Find 7 Dragons?

Drakeson Turns 1

Mom came into town just for the occasion.  Here are some memoirs:

On Friday, Drakeson was a mess from a viral infection that attacked all the kids in Austin or something.  I took a piano lesson with Dr. Mallard anyway, and then the 6 of us went to dinner.  Although he was sick with a fever, Drakeson was as sweet and cuddly as could be.  The next day was January 18th, the anniversary of the big laboring day.  Mom and the 3 of us went hiking at McKinney Falls, just like we did last year with Bà.  It was beautiful, but we got lost and we ended up walking about twice as far as we'd bargained for.  Then we stuffed ourselves at a Korean buffet.  We also picked up a dragon scepter and a dragon balloon, finished making the cake, and tried to booze up 2 watermelons for the picnic.  The boozing didn't really work.  Sunday was the big party, and Linda and Warren's family came into town.  I played a theme and 5 variations on Happy Birthday, which was probably enjoyed most by George and my 2 pianist friends.  Everybody else was like, "Why?"  Monday was supposed to be Mom's last day in town.  We went window shopping at The Domain, picked out a new recipe kit at Homebrew, and checked out the brand new Whole Foods.  It was a beautiful day in the 80's, so we took a stroll around the lake as the sun went down.  George had to work overnight, so Mom and I stayed up talking.  Around midnight, I encouraged her to check out the latest Drakeson blog post.  She checked her flight status while she was at it, and found that her flight was delayed from 6:00 am by 10 hours!  I started dancing, which is something I never do.  Mom didn't get to ride the Zilker Zephyr on Sunday, so we started today off with that, popped into the Barton Springs Splash exhibit, walked through the Zilker Nature and Science Center, and toured the Thinkery before she had to leave.  It was great.

But back to the birthday.  A year and 9 months ago I started getting really emotional about everything, and that hasn't really slowed down.  My little baby turned 1, and I celebrated all day.  Then I just kept wanting to scream or cry that evening, realizing in horror that I could never get the time back.  It was kind of fun, in a mildly bipolar sort of way.  It's fun being in love.  Nobody really wants to hear that stuff, except other bipolar moms, so I'll just post some birthday pictures with clean square cropping and be done with it.  But seriously, bipolar moms, that was for you.

There was a birthday party.  It was a bánh mì picnic with bubbles in the park.

And a train ride.

And a little prince.

And presents.

And friends.

And family.

Oh, yes.  And lemon-raspberry ice cream cake at home after the picnic.

And not really blowing out a candle or making a wish, but pretending to.

And bubble party favors.

And a moment with Aunt Rose.

That's probably a really good ending.  So thanks, Aunt Rose.

Hadley

On December 12th, 2013, George's brother Warren and his wife Christy had a baby girl named Hadley.  I made a present for my new niece, just as I did for her brothers when they were born.

If you look closely, you can see letter stamps in all of the animals.  Here's the collection:

HADLEY

Hornet    Ant    Dragonfly    Ladybug    Earthworm    Yellowtail Moth

(sun and moon just for fun)

January 2014 

ANDREW

Anteater    Nightingale    Dinosaur    Rhinoceros    Elephant    Wallaby

November 2010

AIDEN

Aligator    Isopod    Dolphin    Eel    Narwhal

 November 2010

Bartending (2/2)

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