Plate 0′ Shrimp

A couple of weeks ago we obtained come walnuts from my Mom’s walnut tree. She said she never gets walnuts, because the squirrels get them first. So we picked a couple off of the ground, and then some off the tree that were about ready. I figured we could set them out on my porch to dry. I forgot that squirrels are everywhere!

Here’s the little guy staring me down. They are HIS walnuts!

Can’t quite get at them? Guess you aren’t so smart after all!

Giving me the sideways eye.

No walnuts for you… yet.

My son is an avid gamer, and a couple of years ago, when we lived in Fremont, I signed him up for a video game design summer camp through the City of Fremont Department of Parks and Recreation. He loved it, so when I saw TechKnowHow Summer Computer Camp – Game Design 2 listed in the City of Pleasanton recreation guide, I signed him up, along with his sister, who’s now old enough. At $350 each, it is a little steep, but we are looking at the computer game design major at UC Santa Cruz.

Here’s the summer camp description from the website, http://www.techknowhowkids.com/

Create your own computer games with interesting characters, storyline, music and settings. You’ll learn how to animate objects & characters, how to use scripts for 3d graphics, fog & lighting, and how to add screen effects, such as snow and rain.

Your first game will be a role-playing (RPG) adventure game, featuring controls for navigation, items to collect, power-ups, and offensive and defensive powers.

Your second game will be a 3d game with a first-person point of view. Travel through rooms looking for prizes and avoiding obstacles. Select or design characters & bosses, add sound effects, music, health, score tables, and more.

Take home your games to play on a Windows-based PC at home.
(The 3d game requires a computer with a 3d video card and at least 16MB of video memory).

Class Prerequisite: To enroll, a student must have taken Game Design 1 or be at least 11 years old, due to the advanced lessons.

Note: There is a $10 materials fee in addition to the tuition for this course. This enables students to take home a registered copy of the game design software so that they can continue to make games on a Windows-platform computer at home.

The one week camp is held at Amador Valley High, here in Pleasanton. You could call it “summer camp for nerds,” but MY kids aren’t nerds, so I won’t.

The lids on Tree Top apple juice bottles are tapered in such a way that incredible strength is required to unscrew them. Other apple juice bottle lids, and other juice bottle lids in general, are not so hard to unscrew.

Here’s a slideshow of some pics I took last month at Horsetail Falls

It’s been over 3 months since my last blog posting! Busy like the bee. How appropriate is it then, that my first blog posting after so much time be a review of a beer, given to me as a Christmas present in June! Appropriate.

The bottle has a cork in it, like wine, so I initially thought it was wine. It’s also a pint bottle, so about the right size for wine too. But don’t be fooled! It is beer.

It’s a product of Belgium, which is par for the course for my beer sampling. Unfiltered and bottle conditioned. So it’s a cloudy beer with sediment. 8.5 percent alcohol? Doesn’t that seem like a lot for beer?

The taste has a hint of the typical of a Heffeweisen flavor, but, on the whole, taste more to me like vodka or some other hard liquor. Not a bad taste, but the high alcohol content is apparent.

Let’s see what the beer has to say for itself. “In the pastoral province of Hainaut; the ‘artisinale ale belt’ of Belgium, is the Dupont family farm and brewery. Famous for their Saison Ale, Brasserie Dupont is also renowned in Belgium for their Moinett. This sturdy ale has an herbal bouquet that indicates its well hopped character. But unlike it’s drier cousin, its body is fuller and rounder with a slightly sweet finish. Delicious before a meal and with foods like marinated meats and barbecue.”

It’s good with chili too. Take if from me.

Fred’s Birthday Party 2007
Originally uploaded by philis99@sbcglobal.net.

We had a party at Crest Ranch for Fred’s *%th Birthday. It rained Saturday, but was mostly sunny on Sunday.