K-Squared Ramblings » Food

Overheard: The Starbucks Buzz

Kelson — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 18:05:41 +0000

Overheard at a convention center Starbucks:

Customer: Do you drink coffee?
Barista: I work at a Starbucks. You’ve gotta stay buzzed somehow.

Allergy Walk Complete!

Kelson — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 03:16:31 +0000

The Food Allergy Walk went well. There was a good turnout, apparently the highest yet for the Los Angeles event, which is in its fourth year. According to the event website, they raised about $43,000 of the $50,000 they had aimed for, but that’s only online donations. They may get closer once cash and checks are counted. Thank you again to everyone who sponsored us! You helped us raise $1040.05 for the cause ($120 of it offline) between the two of us!

The route was one mile each way along the walking path behind the beach up to the Santa Monica Pier and back. It ended up being overcast and chilly, a far cry from the 77 degrees and sunny predicted a few days ago, but at least it worked out well. Afterward we went to Café Crêpe for lunch.

Funny/odd bits:

I wore a Flash T-shirt, and Katie put a Flash shirt on J. (We had him in the stroller.) We started off the walk next to a family wearing Superman T-shirts. For the record: we finished first.
The turnaround point coincided with the finish line of a 100-mile endurance walk/run, so on the way back we saw several thoroughly exhausted runners plugging away.
When we arrived, a huge section of the beach parking lot was cordoned off, with a half-dozen fire trucks (at least one marked Hazmat Response or Hazmat cleanup). One truck had its ladder fully extended in the middle of the lot, and they were pressure-washing something off the pavement from the top of the ladder. We never did find out what it was.
Not realizing how close the Third Street Promenade was (basically, we would have walked half of the route again), we moved the car afterward to one of several identical parking structures in downtown Santa Monica. This led to a strange moment as we were leaving, when we briefly thought someone had run off with the car…until we noticed that the signs said “structure two” instead of “structure four.” It also explained why the elevator we thought we had used earlier was marked “out of order.” (Hey, it seemed possible it had been closed within the last two hours.)

2 Days Left: Raising Funds for Food Allergy Research

Kelson — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 14:00:14 +0000

This weekend, I’m walking to raise funds for research and education in the FAAN Walk for Food Allergy. I have life-threatening allergies myself, and while my son hasn’t shown any signs yet, the medical community is still trying to determine what causes people to develop allergies. It would be great if they find a way to guarantee that he won’t inherit them, or at least to make life safer for him than it has been for me. (More about that in my previous post.)

A huge thank-you to those who have sponsored me so far: Jason, Wayne, Pavana, Marisa, Daniel, Devin, Greg, Damon, Jesse, Lia, Ken, aunt Julianne & Craig, and mom & dad.

It’s coming up this Sunday in Santa Monica, California (near Los Angeles), and FAAN has other walks planned across the country.

You can help with any amount down to US $10. If you’d like to contribute, please donate at my fundraising page.

As I write this, I’m $230 away from the #10 spot on the top 10 list for the Los Angeles walk. Anyone want to help push me into the top 10?

Thank you!

Recent Links: Black Death, Chocwave, Hipsters & More

Kelson — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 06:01:19 +0000

A few years back, while I was reading Eifelheim, I read up on the Black Death. There was a theory floating around at the time that, based on symptoms and virulence, the black death might have been caused by a viral hemorrhagic fever like Marburg, not by the bubonic plague that’s still endemic in some parts of the world. Since then, researchers have managed to extract bacterial DNA from the bones of Londoners who died when the plague reached the city in 1348, confirming that they were infected with a relative of the modern plague…and have reconstructed its genome. Wow. (via Slashdot)
“Transformers” Hostess Cupcakes And Sno Balls Roll Out – OK, I have to admit that "Chocwave" cupcakes are inspired.
Writer’s block: Seth Godin considers the issue by comparison to “talker’s block”, while IO9 has a more detailed look at 10 types of writer’s block and how to overcome them, illustrated with classic pulp sci-fi covers.
Compare average climate of any 2 US ZIP codes by plugging in your own ZIP code
Emergency Preparedness: Cell & Home Phone Guidelines. In particular: wireless home phones require power. Keep one landline phone with a cord on hand. And for non-emergency communications (“I’m OK, hope everyone else is”), stick to texting, email, or social networks so that emergency workers and people in immediate danger (“Help, I’m trapped under a fallen wall”) can use the voice channels.
Whenever I hear someone complain about “hipsters,” I always think of this comic.

Walk For Food Allergy: Please Help Me Raise Funds for Research & Education

Kelson — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 14:00:00 +0000

Those of you who know me well, or have been to a restaurant with me, probably know I have food allergies: some serious, some moderate, and some mild. I like to think I do a decent job of navigating the minefield that is the modern food industry, and striking a balance between not getting myself killed and not hiding away in my house like a shut-in.

I carry emergency medication whenever I eat somewhere. I don’t go out for Thai food or visit restaurants that hand out peanuts like chips and salsa. I check ingredients in the grocery store, and I ask the waiter about them when I order food. If I can’t eat one item on the menu, I look for another dish that I can.

Even so, sometimes something slips through (most recently: this past Saturday) and I have to spend an anxious couple of hours hoping that the medication I’ve taken will be enough, that I’ll keep breathing and won’t have to jab myself with an auto-injector (or have someone else do it) and go to the ER. Thankfully, it’s been years since I’ve had a reaction bad enough to send me to the hospital.

I’ve also got a not-quite-one-year-old son. I’d like to spare him from having to deal with all that, if I can. And if I can’t, and he develops serious allergies like I have, I’d like to help smooth the path for him as he learns how to live with them — or, better yet, help find a cure.

So I’m participating in the FAAN Walk for Food Allergy to raise money for research and education, and I hope you’ll sponsor me.

Modern medicine understands how allergic reactions work, but we still don’t have a good handle on why some people have allergies and others don’t, or why some people react to one food and some react to another. And since the causes are so poorly understood, parenting advice is all over the map: Keep your house as clean as possible. No, keep it somewhat clean, but not too clean. Introduce risky foods early. Introduce them late.

Raising money for research? Great idea!

Then there’s awareness and education. If you’ve ever read the comments on an article about people with allergies — or worse, people with allergies who have the gall to leave the house and visit a restaurant once in a while — you know that there’s a lot of misinformation and just plain lack of consideration out there.

A lot of people don’t understand that food allergies can be serious. Some don’t even believe they’re real, just the actions of a bunch of hypochondriacs looking for attention. (It doesn’t help that there are people out there who do lie about having allergies because they’re afraid people won’t honor their preferences, which just convinces that group that they’re right.) Or they get hung up on whether a condition is an allergy, an intolerance, or some other condition.

And finally there are the people who get it…sort of. They understand that food allergies can be serious and life-threatening…then proclaim loudly that you have no business taking part in society, and should just stay at home all the time, and how dare you expect some sort of accommodation like making the cook use a separate spoon for the kung pao chicken and the beef with broccoli, you entitled jackass.

Yes, those people are out there. And very vocal. I’d like to change their minds.

Please support my fundraising efforts with a donation. Your tax-deductible gift will make a difference in the lives of the estimated 12 million Americans with food allergies and their families. You can make your secure credit card donation by selecting the Support Me Button on my profile page for the walk.

Any amount helps me reach my fundraising goal. I greatly appreciate your support!

Apple Pi

Kelson — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 06:31:23 +0000

Katie baked this chai spice apple pie in honor of Pi Day. We ate it for dessert after shepherd’s pie for dinner.

You Know You Need Coffee When… (Volume 2)

Kelson — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 02:00:42 +0000

Continued from volume one…

You put a filter in the coffee maker, then go back to get…a filter for the coffee maker. And then put the bag of coffee back in the fridge…where you’ve never kept coffee. Ever. (Yeah, I was batting 1,000 that day.)
You get halfway up the stairs before realizing you left your travel mug in the car. (I’ve done this several times.)
You get impatient with the pour rate while filling your mug.
You pour cereal into your coffee mug instead of a bowl. (Well, almost.)
You come up with a great item to add to your “You know you need coffee when…” list and can’t remember what it was.

The Office Barista: Simple Drinks For Your Coffee Break

Kelson — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 22:48:18 +0000

Don’t have time to go to Starbucks, but want something more than plain coffee? Here are some simple drinks you can make with ingredients that might be in your lunch room, or that you can easily keep at your desk.

Coffee + hot chocolate mix = mocha

Coffee + hot chocolate mix + cinnamon

Hot chocolate mix + mint-flavored black tea

Hot chocolate mix + cinnamon-flavored black tea

Hot chocolate mix + masala chai tea

Since I realized that this was more of a list of what you can do with hot chocolate mix, I’ve been meaning to fill in more detail for…well, months now. Apparently today is National Coffee Break Day, so I figured rather than letting it sit in the drafts folder forever, I’d post what I had in observance!

Starbucks’ new Trenta Coffee: Big Deal

Kelson — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 17:11:14 +0000

I can’t get worked up about Starbucks’ new super-size for iced drinks, the 31-ounce Trenta. Here’s why:

It’s only on iced drinks. Iced tea, lemonade, iced lattes, etc. Unless you’re getting plain iced coffee, you’re not getting 31 ounces of fully-caffeinated coffee.
Even then, there’s ice taking up a lot of that space. So you’re still not getting 31 ounces of coffee.
You can get a 32-ounce drink in any fast food place in America. Sometimes it’s called a large. Sometimes it’s called a medium.

A 31-ounce Frappucino might be a bit much…but how much do you typically get in a milkshake at a restaurant that specializes in them? I’m going to guess it’s 12-16 ounces in the glass, plus about the same in the metal mixing cup that they usually deliver to your table at places like Ruby’s or Johnny Rockets. That brings it to 24-32 ounces — in other words, about the same.

So, a little perspective. Is the Trenta bigger than any other Starbucks drink size? Sure. But compared to a Big Gulp? No one would think twice if you picked up a 32-ounce iced tea or lemonade at McDonald’s (except to ask why you weren’t getting a soda), or refilled your 12-ounce glass twice at a sit-down restaurant.

Links: Paper, Flickr, D&D Advice, LEGO Firefox, etc.

Kelson — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 07:16:42 +0000

Some interesting links I’ve encountered over the past week or two.

Help! My Half-Elf is Pregnant! – The 11 strangest Dungeons and Dragons questions from the “Sage Advice” Column
15 things worth knowing about coffee by The Oatmeal.
Photos: When Niagra Falls Ran Dry

And now some techie stuff:

Interesting idea: Paper.li extracts links posted by Twitter and Facebook accounts you follow, then creates a daily newspaper page featuring headlines, links and excerpts from the top stories.
Who Came Up With Computer Symbols?
Thomas Hawk’s Open Letter to Carol Bartz, CEO Yahoo Inc. on why Yahoo! should consider Flickr a core product.
Firefox made of LEGO

Edit: Not a link, but I should mention: between a bug in Akismet and me not having time to go through it, I ended up with more than 2,000 comments in the spam folder just from the last 3 weeks. I don’t have time to look through that many items for false positives, so I just cleared it all out. If you left a legitimate comment that hasn’t shown up on the site, I apologize.