Chocolate Crinkles
Posted on | June 28, 2008 | No Comments
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup cocoa powder
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
powdered sugar
1. Mix the vegetable oil and sugar in a large bowl. Add the cocoa powder. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Add the vanilla extract.
2. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the cocoa mixture. Mix well. Cover and refrigerate until dough is firm enough to handle, about 4 hours.
3. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Shape the dough into 1-inch balls, roll in powdered sugar, and place on the cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.
4. Bake for 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer the cookies on a wire rack to cool. (You have to let them cool completely before eating.) Makes about 6 dozen cookies.
So the story is that it’s been a tradition for me to send chocolate crinkles to my dear friend Rhea every Christmas. However, last week, she told me that her family was craving the crinkles and asked me if I can bake a batch for them this summer. No problem! So I purposefully baked about 6 or 8 dozens this morning so I can mail it out by the afternoon. Well, what do you know?! Our driveway got sealed this morning and my car is stuck in the garage. We’re not supposed to drive over the sealed driveway for 48 hours. I guess I’m not going to the post office today. At least my kids were happy that they have the crinkles all to themselves. =)
Another Hit Song
Posted on | June 24, 2008 | No Comments
Another one of those days where Rinoa can’t stop singing.
Driving in a Car
Posted on | June 23, 2008 | No Comments
Rinoa has been watching Caillou videos on the computer via Netflix’s Instant Play. (If I’ve never mentioned it, we completely cut-off our cable TV for the summer – of course, not without protests from the girls. I told Mica it’s an experiment to see how long we can live without cable. And it’s summer! Better to enjoy the outdoors than to sit on the couch, glued on the TV all day.)
Anyways, Rinoa picked up this song from Caillou and she was trying to sing it on our way to the pool today – but she had a hard time remembering the words.
The song goes like this – “We’re driving in a car, car, car. We’re going very far, far, far. Do you know where we are, are, are.”
It’s VERY cute sung by a three-year old.
B&W with Color Filters
Posted on | June 20, 2008 | No Comments
Troy bought an old manual zoom lens from Ebay last year. This week, he decided to shoot with it. He had already taken several fantastic shots in Sand Park when he realized that the white balance was set to incandescent lighting. “So that’s why!” “I was wondering why my photos had a bluish tint. Not to worry,” he said. “You can fix it in Photoshop, right?” “Sure,” I thought, quite smugly.
Well, instead of color correcting the photos, I decided to convert them to B&W and experiment with Photoshop’s Channel Mixer. The Channel mixer is equivalent to using color filters in your camera. I just finished reading the module on Filters for my NYIP course and I was very eager to put my new knowledge to practice.
Why color filters in B&W, when it’s “black” and “white” and colors don’t actually matter? Because sometimes you may want to enhance a certain element in your photo by increasing the contrast of your gray tones. You do this by using the right color filter to make one color stand out. This particular color will appear lighter than the other colors in your B&W image, thus increasing contrast.
In this picture, I wanted the water, especially the droplets, to stand out – so I increased the blue channel (equivalent to using a blue filter). This also corrected Rinoa’s skin tone, giving it a sun-kissed glow.
For this next picture, I increased both the red and green channels (equivalent to using an orange filter). The orange filter gave the photo a nice tonal range and defined the action that was captured.
(1) A blue filter would have drowned the splash of water and weakened the action shot while (2) a red filter would have made the water murky and given Rinoa a bad complexion – I don’t want it to look like an episode from Jaws!
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And for this last picture, I used a yellow filter (an unequal increase in the red and green channels) to soften my skin tone.
Sand Park, Day Three
Posted on | June 19, 2008 | No Comments
Another day at the pool.
Rinoa and her teacher, Anja
Mica’s perfect hoop dive.
Sand Park, Day Two
Posted on | June 18, 2008 | No Comments
Second day of swim lessons. Mica and Rinoa stayed at the pool for two hours to make up for missing yesterday’s class.
Today, Mica learned the breast stroke – which is the focus of Level 4. They had to practice the stroke on the pavement before trying it out in the pool.
And of course, she had to do more laps in the deep pool.
Rinoa was in for a treat because the Tiny Tots went in the big pool today. Now, she really feels like a big girl. She was surprisingly brave and confident, unlike most of her classmates who hesitated to jump in the big pool even with their life vests.
Tiny Tots
Posted on | June 16, 2008 | No Comments
Last summer, she watched in envy as her big sister went to the local pool park every weekday for her swimming lessons. She wondered when she would be big enough to attend her own swim class. She waited patiently, but not in vain for this summer, Rinoa is finally old enough for Tiny Tots – the beginner’s class at our local pool park. We are all very excited for her!
Today is her first day. She was joined by four other toddlers and her two teachers, Jessi and Anja, at the wading pool (1′ 6″ deep).
They played several games – basically, to introduce the kids to the water and get them comfortable in the pool. Rinoa had a lot of fun!
Meanwhile, Mica started with Level 4 of her swimming lessons. Her teacher, Tony, made her do laps at the deep end of the pool (12′ deep) the whole time. Imagine how tired she was when she got home!
Under The Sea
Posted on | June 13, 2008 | No Comments
Rinoa loves to sing. She also loves to create her own songs. Almost every day, she sings a song that she composed herself. Most days it makes me very proud – but there are times it drives me insane. *wink
Today, when I called her to lunch, she told me she has to finish her song first. And I indulged her. I propped Troy’s big black chair in front of her, sat down, and took a video of her singing and strumming her guitar until she was done.
This song, by the way, was inspired by The Little Mermaid.
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© 2006-2010 Johwey Redington.
Please don't steal my text or images, it's disrespectful and you'll be subjet to karma! If you want to use any of the images, please email me for a written permission. Thank you.
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