Cookies!

We have had a blizzard of cookie baking this past week. Lydia had an early Christmas present from Lucy and Scott: a "whoopie pie" baking device (didn't even know they had such a thing); she's been giving it quite a workout. Amy also organized a big baking session to make thing for our dinner with the Belmont gang last week; the treats included Linzer cookies, peanut butter/chocolcate cookes, and a complicated "macaron'" recipe. The kids helped out, especially Lydia. Photos:

This cookie cutter has a label on it reading "1 Westland Ave" -- wow, that was a long time ago.

I was relegated to making fresh bread-- I don't think there could possibly have been room for another cookie-maker.

Pitch Pipes

Ethan has joined an "a capella" singing group this fall at the high school. It's been an interesting experience so far. Amy and I were a bit surprised when he told us that he was trying out for singing groups, since he hasn't really done anything like that before, but: why not?  These singing groups are actually a fairly big deal at the high school, and there are quite a lot of them (8-10). They are entirely student-run; aside from consulting with a faculty advisor on performance dates/times, they are responsible for everything: planning the shows, organizing the practices, you name it. Some of the groups are co-ed, and some single-sex; Ethan's group, the "Pitch Pipes" is all boys. They practice twice a week, once on Tuesday nights from 8-10 and once on Sunday from 5-7pm. The practice rotates around from one kids house to another, so it seems as though we've driven all over Lexington getting him there and back.

The groups may have smaller events and gigs during the year, but they come together two or three times a year for a "jam", where all of the groups perform. Each group sings three songs, and then at the end they usually try to invite another singing group from one of the local colleges/universities to perform.  Things are pretty low key, and there is a fair amount of goofing around (including the wearing of weird costumes). The jams are very well attended. Here are the Pitch Pipes as first seen on stage:

The group had some fun for their routine this time by turning out the stage lights and putting on a 15-second show with glow sticks, which was fun but rather difficult to photograph:

Listening to the actual songs is a slightly weird experience for people of my generation, since 95% of the time I have no idea what the original song is that is being remodeled/rearranged. For example, Ethan's group did a remake of the song "She's a Lady" by the group "Forever the Sickest Kids"-- never even heard of the band, let alone the song.   The groups don't seem to have any qualms about picking oddball songs. For example, one group did a rendition of "Creep" by Radiohead, which is about as anti-a-capella as you can get (probably the reason they picked it). The other way that "a capella" has changed since when I was a kid is that there is now a "beat boxer" who accompanies the singers, making various clicking and popping noises to simulate percussion. Photos of a couple more of the groups:

Ethan is having a lot of fun with it so far.   When we drive him around in the car these days we get to hear his "beat boxing" practice, and it seems as though he's constantly singing some tune or another at home (family dinners have become a good deal more noisy, at least during the lead-up).

Mind the Gap

Ethan forwarded me a link to this site:

http://www.gapminder.org/

Definitely one of the more interesting on-line data widgets I've seen. Click on the "Gapminder World" tab, then press play. You can also click on one of the dots (countries) to see what's happening with it during the animation.  Hats off to the creator of this thing, it's really neat.

First Paycheck

Ethan received his first real paycheck in the mail the other day: $145 for his work as a soccer referee this fall:

I think that's a milestone worth celebrating. We drove down to the bank this morning to deposit it together.