Marin's Greenest Ice Cream

I have been wanting to try out Fairfax Scoop for quite some time now. It is consistently rated as Marin's best ice cream. It is a bit ironic ... Sam leaves to visit family for two weeks, and we go out to get ice cream.

Oh well. The idea is simple. Make the waffle cones with waffles machines. Make the ice cream with organic and local ingredients when possible. If you need a cup/spoon instead of a cone, you can stay around and use metal ones to be washed.

The flavors rock... Vanilla Honey Lavender, Local Berries like Raspberry and Strawberry, Early Grey. Mary and I needed the chocolate, so we got "singles" (which is two scoops) with each Road to Paradise (Vanilla with Chocolate and Peanut Butter) and then she got Chocolate; I got Chocolate Banana.

Wow ... it is so nice to taste the ingredients in ice cream. To know it is freshly made. Good stuff. Highly recommended. By the way, it is well-known in the area so expect a line.

And yes, I am doing the famous "push your hair behind your ear so no one can tell you are having your picture taken in a public place" move.

And yes (part 2), we can have ice cream ... because Mary is back in her Indian cooking mood. Yes!

One year ago again...

The recent theme has been looking back in yearly installments. Sure enough, we returned to an area we visited about a year ago: Salt Point State Park. However, that first time we were without Sam.

I took Friday off work, so we could have a three day weekend there. However, the sun, wind and non-stop fun (plus a dash of sniffles) wore us out and we decided to head back yesterday evening for a day to chill at home.

Serious wind - Serious, serious wind. Last year, we stayed at the Woodside Campground, which is across Hwy 1 from the ocean. So, I really wanted to do the Gerstle Cove Campground this time to have the ocean view. Well, ocean view = wind ... knock you down kind of wind. Worried about the tent flying away type of wind. beat against your face, can't put anything down without securing it type of wind. Here is Sam showing the impact of the wind (this summer, I will learn how to do better video uploading, I promise):



Anyway, Friday was hike against the wind along the coast day

Friday night was struggle against the wind for traditional campfire fun.

Saturday was play in wind-blocked, sun-soaked coves.

Saturday late afternoon we returned to the campsite and decided we just weren't up to another night of getting beaten up.

OK, I tried to make it sound as miserable as I could ... just to throw in a dash of reality. If you check out the pictures, you will see we actually had a wonderful time enjoying all that the California coast has to offer.

Top 5 unique highlights from this trip:
+ Observing abalone sports harvesting and getting a shell.
+ Sam spending hours fascinated by the wildlife of one tidepool
+ The pacific sunset
+ Exploring S. Gerstle Cove all by ourselves
+ The beauty of the Russian River mouth from above

Now if you want to see pictures with actual faces, you can check out the Flickr set. (Please excuse typos in the set, I'll get back to them later.)

One year ago,

endless_nevada_road

we were on this road. It is a Nevada road. It is the quintessential road. We had cats in the cab of the U-haul and a severe desire to be off the road. And in our new home in California. But first a stop in Tahoe.

Two years ago, we were at SBDNL. Getting on another road. This one was more metaphorical. We got married. A longer road. One with more curves and differing gradients.

Both of these roads have been smart paths to take. Thanks Mary, Sam and California. I am very much enjoying the ride.

The ironic thing is I got it to work on my own...

From: MLBAMCS - Customer Service
To: mad_ducks15@yahoo.com
Sent: Monday, June 4, 2007 10:23:50 AM
Subject: RE: MLB Contact Us

Dear Cameron

No, it is not compatible

Thank You

MLB.com

---

From: Do Not Reply [mailto:do-not-reply@website.mlb.com]
Sent: Sunday, June 03, 2007 11:25 AM
To: MLBAMCS - MLBTV
Subject: MLB Contact Us

Email Address:
mad_ducks15@yahoo.com

IP Address:
67.169.148.72

Subject:
Vista?

Message:
I just tried to watch my MLB.tv subscription on my new Vista machine, is the player not Vista supported? thanks --Cameron

Happy Father's Day, Eric

"No really, I think raising twins will be easy"

Dear Eric,

Happy Father's Day. I know you will be great at it!

Love,
Cam

Happy Father's Day, Dad

Um, Maryland is just as hot as Louisiana

Dear Dad,

Thank you. I couldn't be who I am today were it not for you.

All my love,
Cam

Palomarin hike

Yesterday, we headed out past Bolinas to the Palomarin Trailhead. We didn't really have a plan or an idea exactly what kind of hike we were in the mood for, but the day called for one. It was a foggy morning in the North Bay, but you never know when it will burn off and burn you up.

We ended up going about 6 miles with some decent elevation change along the coast. We stopped and snacked at both some ponds inland and the beach.

Yes another beautiful beach hike. Please don't regard this as another "ego-blog-post." Just a scrapbook. We are learning that we often forget where we saw what. I can only imagine what it'll be like years from now. We are approaching a year in California. wow.

Anyway, I did Flickr this hike.

what are we doing?

Today was one of those days where I felt like I was standing in a domino-like line of doing things on this planet. I never have problems feeling unique or distinct. But, I do wonder if I am living MY life rather than following expectations, doing what is most easy. I am a happy person (except when pissy), but generally happy. I have few regrets and no desire for "major realistic changes to my situation." Just wonder if I should step out of the line ... and see what is around the corner instead.

lego-rific image found on Morguefile.com

Beachin' weekend

Sunday was good.

Happy as an oyster

Mary recently wrote about the great time we had for her birthday. It was a fabulous time; she documents it to musical perfection. I must (being a food whore) give an additional shout-out to the self-described "Best Oysters on the Planet" @ The Marshall Store. Holy cow ... were these ever fabulous. Seriously to get fresh Tomales and Chesapeake oysters in a week is too freaking cool! We got the "barbecue oysters," an interesting preparation of slightly cooked with a tomato sauce, served with fresh sourdough. Mmmmm. Next time though, I go straight raw.

Lego Sam

So, we still haven't headed to Radio Shack for Sam's Mosquito. But, we did get a pretty cool Lego set recently (again inspired by Maker Faire and the Mosquito.) This Creator set contains a motor and gears. As you can see from the photo on the site, Lego prominently features the helicopter. Which is cool, but of course it does not actually fly. Yet a nine-year-old boy has full expectations of flight, so he was a bit disappointed with its lack of soaring. Which is a shame because it is a pretty cool little machine he made.

He did really dig the bumper car, which is less emphasized. The motor operates on a switch, so when the car rammed into something, it flipped the switch and made it go in reverse ... back and forth ... wham! wham! wham! That was cool.

Now I look forward to his experimenting with the "spider crawler" and more this summer. What will I come home to next??

Eric, remember that time I (we?) got that domino set and you got sick (how convenient) so you had to stay home and play with it without me (even though I asked you not to). But you were considerate enough to take pictures of all your domino creations that day. That was nice of you. Of course, that was back when we had to wait for pictures to be developed ... it took like a week to see your various creations. Didn't you spell my name with them once? Man, you freakin' worshiped me when we were kids!

wonderful melodic experiences

If you happen to be in Texas I would recommend The Spazmatics, especially at Cedar St. in Austin on a Wednesday night. Also, if you are in Texas ... leave now for at least the next 3 months ... it is about to get miserably hot there.

If you live in a large metropolitan area, you may want to check out if someone is showing the film Once. It is a tremendous reminder as to why music and film are wonderful things. I highly recommend catching this one in the theater, where the music can bathe you in the experience. Here is one of the songs from the movie played outside Sundance (and by "from" I mean totally a part of the movie in every way):

If you are not in a major metro, then you may want to add this flick to your queue now, so you don't forget.

whatever

"Doctors say roller shoes injuring kids" - "She wants them. Not happening. Just like I took away her trampoline" after reading about trampoline injuries. "It went right to Goodwill,"

LOL! Everyone be afraid! NOW! RUN AWAY! (I mean walk ... slowly)

Speaking of walking slowly: I am glad that this scare practice wasn't around when we first started getting up on two legs. Seriously. We would still be scurrying around on all fours ... oh wait, no we wouldn't ... we'd be dead; eaten by saber-toothed beasts.

As many of you may know, Sam has Heelys. I joked about their danger ... but seriously. He really likes them. And I'll take a happy, risk-taking child any day.

Maryland Seafood

Growing up in the Cajun Heartland, I have a strong affinity to seafood. Acadiana, the giant seafood cornucopia. Fruits de la mer. and all that.

Therefore, I grew-up thinking delicious, fresh-off-the boat, cheap seafood was an absolute. Then I moved just a mere one state over to Texas. They eat cow - and that's for a reason. Then Chicago; they eat pig- and that's for a reason. So, I was quite excited when we moved here to the Bay Area and the proximity to the ocean.

However, the seafood is not as common here as I expected (although we had some AMAZING oysters yesterday for Mary's birthday.) But don't be fooled, San Francisco is not a true seafood area. They eat wine and cheese - and that's for a reason.

Maryland. THEY know seafood. And here is proof:

The crabcake:
Fried oysters:
Softshell crab:
Sam branched out and tried the shrimp and even some crab legs:
After two rounds of crabcakes, I tried a crab louie salad:
All the seafood was mouthwatering...
Did Sam eat the whole thing (a la Melinda Mae)? or is he about to be eaten by the skeleton megatooth?

Grandma's 90th

Holy cow there were a lot of pictures from this past Memorial Day Weekend's trip to Maryland for my grandma's 90th birthday. It was the first time the four cousins on the Maddux side had been together since our grandfather's funeral 17 years ago. Amazingly, we seemed to absolutely fail at getting a picture of the four of us together ... will this become a mystery like that Christmas in Lafayette?

Anyway, I just went through the pictures and clicked "Add to Flickr" with little rhyme or reason. When I hit 50, I stopped. This is just the "Big Day," the Sunday of going to the garden, lunch, boating and dinner. The goal was mainly to get pictures up for attendees and non-attendees alike.

Click here for the Flickr set.

And here ends blog post #500.

I really like the Instructables Robot

Find out more about it here.

Happy Birthday Love-o-mine

Just a real quick post to wish my darling wife a Happy Birthday! My heart is filled, thanks so much.

We had a European morning. First, a chat with my mom, then off to our local French bakery.
For a bowl of mocha (perfect for warming the hands on a chilly, foggy morning.)
"What do you have there, little child?"Mmmmm, quiches for Sam and Mary,
and a Croque Monsieur for the Monsieur.
For her birthday, I grew a beard (oh and gave us her a laptop).
Later this weekend, I'll get our pictures from Maryland up. Thanks Eric and Sarah for getting yours up and Mary for the video.

Boy and his plane

After Maker, Sam wanted a cool Radio Shack Mosquito helicopter. However, it was sold out. So, while he waits for a restock, he picked up a rubber band airplane. He even built it a hangar out of Magnetix.

I got a few snapshots of him playing with it. (Flickr improved its slideshow; unfortunately, I am not posting unique titles or descriptions, but it is good to know.)