Author Archive
Posted on January 9, 2010 - by Slade
Quadrillia Mania
When we first moved to Atlanta, The Estate Manager dragged us out to this really cool toy and kids store in a part of town I still can’t find. They had lots really interesting toys and kids decor items. The one thing that stuck out was that they had a HUGE wooden-marble-set-up-gizmo-thing. The Bird was a bit too young at the time to get any use out if it, and it would have looked suspect if I would have bought it for myself, so I had to file it away as “we’ll get that later”. Later turned out to be me telling Santa that The Bird would love this “marble thing” I saw, but the hard part was telling Santa where to get it. Turns out, after a bit of research on the interwebs, its called Quadrilla, and its made by Hape Toys. I mentioned to The Estate Manager that Santa was looking to get it for The Bird this Christmas, and she was very stoked.
Christmas morning after all the toys were unwrapped, food was eaten, and Meebs was put down for a nap, The Bird and I got a chance to crack it open and start building. The fun thing is that each wooden block has multiple uses for it: some have a single path that the marble can go through, others have a couple of paths in each block, but all can be used as either structural or functional elements, or both, as you build.
Today, the 3 of us (Meebs was again taking her nap) built a giant “city” in the office, and we incorporated a few household items to switch it up. This easily has a Rube Goldberg aspect to it, and I can see us having Quadrilla set ups that launch over a sleeping Tiki, change channels on the remote, and ring the neighbors doorbell.
Posted on December 25, 2008 - by Slade
Roast Pork Tenderloin
I will fully admit this… I am only putting this in here to serve as a placeholder for the Recipes category. I like pork tenderloin, but I am not sure if it warrants its own blog post. Oh well… here’s the info:
Ingredients:
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Directions:
Position a rack near the bottom of the oven and preheat to 500°. Mince together the garlic, salt, sage and pepper. In a small bowl, combine with the oil. Rub all over the meat and place the tenderloins side by side but not touching in the smallest roasting pan that will hold them. Roast for 10 minutes. Flip over and roast again until the internal temperature registers 155° on an instant-read thermometer, about 8 minutes more. Let rest for about 10 minutes (the internal temperature should reach 160°). Slice into 1/2-inch-thick slices.
Posted on December 25, 2008 - by Slade
Palm Springs at The Parker
One great thing about 2008 was the birth of Anora, who’s the baby daughter of Neil & Quirine. What’s that have to do with Palm Springs, you ask? Lots. We went out to Palm Springs for the second time back in the Spring of 2007 and it was amazing. All of us stayed at the Parker Palm Springs and it was amazing. We didn’t do anything but sit around the pool all day, go eat dinner and then sit around the fire all night drinking wine (or root beer in my case) and just chatted and looked up at the stars.
I can’t wait to go back with the girls in the near future. Its nice to look back at these photos when its cold and gloomy outside and think that its warm and sunny somewhere, and we just need to carve out the time to get there and relax.
Posted on December 24, 2008 - by Slade
Monkey Party!
Julie made these great party favors and sign for our friend Mandy a month or so ago. Little Drew’s party theme was Monkeys, so it was a great little project, and lots of fun. Mandy loved it, and everyone at the party had a great time. The best part was that FedEx delivered them the day before, so nobody freaked out and the party went off with a hitch. We’ve known Mandy for over 12 years and she’s a great friend. We’re hoping that she and her family move out here to Atlanta soon, as they’re a lot of fun.
Posted on December 24, 2008 - by Slade
Geeky Christmas Wreath
So I, Slade, started a new job last week, and somehow I ran my mouth within the first few hours at how amazing my wife was at decorating and design, so surprise, they ask me/us to do the company Christmas wreath for the office park Christmas Wreath Contest. Normally, a project like this would involve multiple sketches, a few heated arguments over items we could/could not get a Target, and a couple of nights working on it. We managed to get it put together in a few hours…
We took some old cds, a hard drive controller board, some old cables, a busted mouse and slapped that on a fresh wreath, along with some Orange Cat-5 Cable, and some wonky tube lights. I think we took third. I am not even going to show you what won, you’d just be mad. The other offerings in the office park were shoddy at best, and I truly think that we were looked at as “ringers” as we have a dedicated team of designers, so I am going to just chalk it up as being too good, and that’s why we didn’t win.
Posted on December 24, 2008 - by Slade
David Hicks
David Hicks (1929-98) has emerged as the most influential interior designer of his generation. His style, known through his own books and now through his son Ashley’s 2003 book David Hicks: Designer, has inspired contemporary designers of both fashion and home.
Hicks was born in the English country village of Coggeshall, Essex. After public school at Charterhouse and studies in art and design at the Central School in London, he launched his design career with the decoration of his own house in London in 1954.
Early clients mixed aristocracy, media and fashion (Vidal Sassoon, Helena Rubinstein, the Duchess of Rutland and Mrs Condé Nast). Hicks married Lady Pamela Mountbatten in 1960 and was soon making carpets for Windsor Castle and decorating the Prince of Wales’ first apartment at Buckingham Palace.
Posted on December 20, 2008 - by Slade
Merry Christmas, Julie.
I like the fact that I can make you things. Its pretty neat. Its a lot more fun when I actually think of these ideas with far more than enough time to execute them to my expectation, but I am really happy that we get to sit around and geek out. You with your laptop and design blogs, me with the imac learning weird things in the Apple iPhone software development plan.
This is going to be a lot of fun, you getting to learn more about what I do each day, and me getting to show you how to publish things, link to new content and make new friends on the internet. I hope you like this as much as I loved making it for you.
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