The Manlius Formation

… over?

Yeah, we’re still here. Generally, weeknights or weekends are the times I would post something here. For a little taste of why I haven’t, here’s a quick overview of the last several days out here on the Manlius Formation - which, relative to DC, does not have as much snow right now as you might think.

Saturday: Gatebusters ski team at Toggenburg for Daniel, simultaneous ski lessons for Thomas, lots of shuttling between the two for John. I got in about two runs, but they were quality - hey, you take what you can get. Left the house at 8am and returned home at about 2:30pm. Too tired to do much else for rest of day.

Sunday: Gatebusters: kids vs. adults slalom race in the morning (Daniel beat me – I didn’t have to let him), family time mid-day, cringe during the incredibly uncomfortable Taylor Swift / Stevie Nicks duet at night.

Monday night: Swim lessons at Y for Daniel, cub scout den meeting for Thomas.

Tuesday night: Art lessons at Y for Daniel and Thomas. (OK, so Kath took care of that, but I came home and started dinner as soon as I arrived. And while it cooked I played a little Lego Star Wars - so sue me!)

Wednesday night: Karate for Thomas, cub scout den meeting for Daniel, followed by sledding behind the library with both boys and Daniel’s scout den. Word of caution to those over 30 – do NOT attempt snowboarding in the dark on an 8-year-old’s plastic snowboard. And if you try it, try it ONCE, not, like, ten times. Ouch.

Thursday: God, help us. God, help us all.

I suppose I could get with the in crowd and use Facebook more, but I guess I’m old fashioned.

I’ll try harder.

My 9-mile, one-way commute to work today cost me about 90 cents in fuel costs alone.^[1]

I paid 16 cents for a Central/South American banana at the supermarket this morning.

So it costs 6 times as much to transport me 9 miles - mostly downhill - than it costs to grow, pick, pack and ship a banana from South America to Syracuse.

[Editorial addition: At my weight (175 lbs), and assuming that the 1/3 of a pound banana traveled here from Ecuador (about 3000 miles) the dollars per pound per mile is about 3.5X higher for my one-way commute than for the banana's.]

1. Using 27MPG as my average fuel efficiency and my last fill-up price of $2.70 a gallon [back]

Apparently, yes.

After a boat tour during our recent camping trip to Canada^[1] we stopped off at a restaurant on the shore of the St. Lawrence River. One interesting thing about traveling in Ontario, as you probably already know, is that everything is in French and English.

As I was admiring the Heinz Ketchup and Relish labels, I noticed that neither contained high fructose corn syrup. This piqued my curiosity since HFCS is the first or second ingredient in nearly every packaged food product in the U.S.

I came home eager to do some research and see if Canada has something on us here. Have they found a way to force this evil ingredient to be banned from food? ^[2]

Alas, my joy was short-lived.

The second ingredient in the relish was glucose-fructose, which is apparently Canadian for “HFCS.” This isn’t surprising since HFCS is corn syrup which has had a percentage of its glucose enzymatically converted into fructose.

As for the ketchup, it had “liquid sugar” listed as ingredient two, but a quick check at the Sugar Association website gives this information about liquid sugar:

Liquid Sugar

Liquid sugars
There are several types of liquid sugar. Liquid sugar (sucrose) is white granulated sugar that has been dissolved in water before it is used. Liquid sugar is ideal for products whose recipes first require sugar to be dissolved. Amber liquid sugar is darker in color and can be used in foods where brown color is desired.

Invert sugar
Sucrose can be split into its two component sugars (glucose and fructose). This process is called inversion, and the product is called invert sugar. Commercial invert sugar is a liquid product that contains equal amounts of glucose and fructose. Because fructose is sweeter than either glucose or sucrose, invert sugar is sweeter than white sugar. Commercial liquid invert sugars are prepared as different mixtures of sucrose and invert sugar. For example total invert sugar is half glucose and half fructose, while 50% invert sugar (half of the sucrose has been inverted) is one-half sucrose, one-quarter glucose and one-quarter fructose. Invert sugar is used mainly by food manufacturers to retard the crystallization of sugar and to retain moisture in the packaged food. Which particular invert sugar is used is determined by which function – retarding crystallization or retaining moisture – is required.

Home cooks make invert sugar whenever a recipe calls for a sugar to be boiled gently in a mixture of water and lemon juice.

To all this I say: Meh.

1. more in a later post [back]
2. It’s a well-known fact that tee-ball, the NY Times crossword puzzle, and HFCS were invented by the devil. Well, not really, but they should all be experienced in moderation. See this interesting post for some HFCS background if you’re interested. [back]

You try to raise them right. You do what you can to keep them healthy. You do everything in your power to ensure they grow up in a nurturing environment. You encourage them to be independent, and not follow the crowd.

And then the throw in with their peers and join whatever craze is in fashion at the moment. I thought we’d be immune to it, since all indications up to this point were positive. I was wrong. And it happened so fast I hardly saw it coming.

So in order to minimize my losses, I’ve decided to keep the bits that are worth saving and let the remainder work itself out.

(more…)

Haven’t read the Declaration of Independence recently? It’s worth a look. Reading it this year strikes a special chord given the absolutely shameful state of affairs in the New York state senate.

The first six grievances listed in the Declaration deal directly with the fact that there is someone (King George) standing in the way of our legislative bodies to govern. Now we’re standing in our own way.

Our forebears made immeasurable sacrifices to secure the ability of the states to govern themselves. If they saw the goings-on in the NY state senate today I’m not so sure they’d think their sacrifices were worth it.

Let’s start with what I didn’t do tonight after supper. I didn’t clean up, enjoy a lovely dessert, and watch a lovely movie with my lovely wife.

Instead, I did this:

Not so lovely sink demolition

So I was upstairs and I heard Daniel and Thomas come in from outside. They were playing in dirt (of course) and had just begun to wash up in the kitchen sink when I heard Daniel in a panic: “Mommy! I need you here!”

I arrived downstairs to find the kitchen faucet in his hand. This had happened before and was an easy job, but the way it broke this time was a unrecoverable - I needed to remove the entire faucet. Of course, this was not possible without removing the entire sink.

At least I know what I’m doing tomorrow in between t-ball and soccer.

For those of you who thought I was exaggerating yesterday when I mentioned snow, get a load of the view out our back window this morning:

Spring, schming

Well, my car (2001 Toyota Camry) began sounding like the Canyonero a month or two ago, and it was only getting worse. It was idling high and made enough of a racket when the accelerator was depressed that I suspected the exhaust system.

I discovered much to my dismay this weekend that the exhaust system section containing the catalytic converter was holding on by a paper-thin sheet of rust. The gap was letting in air which threw off the O2 sensor and caused engine to apply more fuel - hence the high idle. Replacing the offending section lowered my idle and quieted things down dramatically.

I’ll be interested to see how the repair affects my mileage. I already know how it affected our bank account… ouch…

Still, after 7 years and over 80K miles, we haven’t had to put that much money into the Camry. And I’m generally satisfied with its performance and minimal maintenance requirements. So I’ve got that going for me, which is nice.