Crackling Is What's Happening

I was watching conference in the Stake center on Saturday afternoon and making so much noise with the pop rocks I brought to snack on that I had to move away from all the other people to an isolated area in the last row so no one starts wondering, who's the jerk eating pop rocks?

I can't lie about this, I love pop rocks, I adore them.

Ben and Jerry's used to have a flavor of ice cream called Kaberry Kabam, it had pop rocks in it. I wish they still made it.

Recipe tip: try strawberry pop rocks sprinkled on top of a bowl of strawberry ice cream, it's amazingly delightful.

I've also tried them in hot chocolate, but that takes a die hard pop rocks fan to appreciate, not for the masses; stick with the ice cream.

High Calorie Friday Treat

I just bit into the most heavenly maple cruller. It is making my day. Happy Friday!
Sorry, no picture. It's gone now.

Here's a low calorie Friday treat. Although I would advise you to get your hands on a high calorie Friday treat right away.



This is just so lovely, I'd like to see this in person someday.

Breaking Up

Oh winter. I'm not going to lie, I loved those snow days off from school, but it's over between us. It's not you it's me. I'm sure somewhere in the southern hemisphere someone is excitedly unpacking their sweaters and knitted caps but I love the sun and you are coming between us. I'm sorry it had to end like this.

Nucleosynthesis

One night this week over my sixth or seventh slice of pie (happy pi day) one of my friends asked me about some of the heavier elements in the periodic table---just a typical party conversation. Which led to a lively discussion of science topics. Some of the things I told her were true; mostly I make stuff up. Here's something true though, and as true as it is cool.

Inside a star when atoms get moving, I mean REALLY moving they can smash into each other with such incredible force that they create a new kind of atom, a bigger one with a bigger nucleus. And here's another cool thing: Even bigger atoms form when stars explode. The coolest thing of all is that every atom inside of that pie I was eating from the glucose molecule to the long-chain carboxylic acids in the flakey crust (fancy science words for sugar and butter; and kids, there was quite a lot of both in that pie) were formed INSIDE A STAR OR A SUPERNOVA! Oh man, it's incredible. I love pie.

I found this video recently, I'm mostly posting it for my youngest brothers who both have big crushes on Neil DeGrasse Tyson. As a long time fan myself, it warms my heart a little to share this with them. Watching things we love together reminds me of those Saturday mornings years ago when the three of us would watch cartoons together. I was 17, they were 9 and 6. I don't know why out of all the sound asleep teenagers in the house, they used to come wake me up or why I even got out of bed, but they carefully explained the characters and the back story of the X-men to their inadequately educated older sister as we huddled under blankets and ate bowls of cereal. Thanks to them I rediscovered the delight that is only found in eating bowls of cocoroos in front of the TV. And thanks to me they discovered science, Weezer, and Death Cab for Cutie.

But now we've moved past the cartoons and there's some amazing stuff out there. So get yourself a bowl of cocoroos, enjoy the show, and call my brothers if you feel inadequately educated and need an explanation or a back story.

A Joke I've Waited My Whole Life to Tell

Science fair season is upon us. It has us in its icy grips and the only way out is through it.

Several days this week I have hidden in my classroom during lunch because I don't want to be attacked by one of my students in the hallway telling me their dumb science fair idea. And I have to tell them something positive and encouraging and then help them brainstorm a much better idea. I've brainstormed about 120 projects. It's exhausting but also secretly I love it.

Crazy paradox.

Today I was explaining that everyone needed to turn their posters in on one date but that the science fair is actually a few weeks later---on my birthday! Seriously. How cool is that. And one of my students named Luke yells out that that is his Dad's birthday!

So I turn to him and say " Luke, I am your father."

Hah! HA!

I'm going to laugh about this forEVER.