Mike's Blog (pending snappy title)

Chocolaterie Henders Christmas 2008

mike@hendersfamily.com — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 23:27:00 GMT

26 man-hours and 30 pounds of ingredients later we're finished with our 2008 Christmas production run. Nicole and I did the chocolate making while Angela played an important role by taking the kids out to the farm. Last year I figured out that making four trays of molded chocolates takes little more time than making two trays so I expanded my collection of molds so that I have four of everything. Unfortunately two of my favourite shapes, the pyramid and geodesic-style dome, were back ordered so I'll have them for Easter.

A few photos in the gallery and a complete description of this year's sweets with a photo in the full blog entry.

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New Photo Calendar

mike@hendersfamily.com — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 23:05:00 GMT

Wow! Two blog entries in one day!

This weekend I spent 13 hours organizing my digital photos using Adobe's fantastic Lightroom 2 software. 6700 photos catalogued and tagged so far. Over the next few months I'll be uploading the good shots from the archive to the website. One way to look at them is using the new Photo Calendar module (located beneath the Photo Gallery) to view photos by the date on which they were taken. As I publish more photos you'll be able to enter the Way Back Machine and see everything all the way back to the ultrasound taken the day before I was born.

Speaking of which, my next major project is scanning in all the film negatives, slides, and prints. I've been digging around the Internet for reviews but the professionals don't seem to like anything under $1000 which is way out of my price range. I'm looking at the Epson Perfection V700 Photo scanner for $500 from Costco. Does anyone have any experience doing this?

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Preschool milestones

mike@hendersfamily.com — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:29:00 GMT

This morning before school the kids were playing the board game Candyland. They got it for their birthday and have requested we play it several times the past few days. Then in school my mom and I chaperoned a field trip to the local Silver Springs fire station. Three firemen did a great job of keeping the preschoolers attention. The boys were eager to try every piece of equipment on offer: oxygen mask (with flowing oxygen), respirator, suit, hose and nozzle, lights, etc. They wanted to slide down the pole too but the city's insurance company says that is a no-no.

Board games and cool school field trips. Two more milestones on the road to when they can play board games and XBox with me. And, though I prefer not to dwell on it, two more milestones to when they can beat me at board games and XBox.

Some pictures from the field trip are in the Recent Pictures album in the Photo Gallery.

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Rock Band Halloween Party 2008

mike@hendersfamily.com — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 16:49:00 GMT

This year Angela came up with the idea of hosting a Rock Band Halloween Party where everyone was invited to come dressed up as their in-game avatar. Everyone looked great and it was obvious that much time was invested into making their costumes. Angela went so far as to dye her hair permanently red. We had two copies of Rock Band 2 - one on Mike's XBox 360 downstairs and another on Kevin's PS3 upstairs - so nobody had to stand around for very long and people could play until their wrists hurt. Check out some photos from the event in our Gallery. One photo I wish I had is a shot of the TV showing us completing Metallica's Battery witMore...

If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging.

mike@hendersfamily.com — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 16:43:00 GMT

I realized a few months ago while organizing my external drives the extent of my uncatalogued collection of photos and videos. Thousands of photos and tens of gigabytes of standard and high definition video all sitting unused, undisplayed, and collecting the digital equivalentof a thick layer of dust. Our Rock Band Halloween party (more on this in a minute) and the kids' upcoming fourth birthday both mean more photos and more video.

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Prototype wedding cake

mike@hendersfamily.com — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 00:32:00 GMT

With four weeks to go until Nicole's wedding I have completed an 8" prototype tier of her wedding cake. The real thing will have three separated tiers (14", 10", and 6") designed to feed 140 guests. Things are so busy right now that I'm tempted to just call this the finished cake and recommend the caterer cut the pieces really small. :)

The 25 daisies on top are made of royal icing with yellow sanding sugar centers. The first, and ugliest, 25 daisies produced were used for the prototype. Since then I've refined my technique on the other 105 daisies I've made. Approximately 100 to go. The icing is French buttercream and the center is four layers white butter cake with fresh lemon curd filling.

Chocolaterie Chez Henders 2006

mike@hendersfamily.com — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 15:51:00 GMT

Continuing with our annual tradition of giving handmade chocolates for Christmas, I present the 2006 line from Chocolaterie Chez Henders. For 2006 we invested in several professional polycarbonate molds and got a little more adventurous with the flavourings.

Clockwise from top:

Almond Rochers
Roasted slivered almonds, bittersweet couverture, and a hint of Kirschwasser
Ginger Bites (squares)
Ginger infused cream, crystalized ginger, and bittersweet couverture
Mocha Diamonds
Espresso, bittersweet and milk couverture, lightly dusted with cocoa powder
Caramel Rum Drops (tear drop shells)
Dry caramel shards, dark rum, and bittersweet couverture
Gianduja Nougat Logs
Gianduja and milk couverture on a honey nougat base
Blood Orange Jewels
Blood orange puree, Grand Marnier, and bittersweet couverture
Whiskey Points (cones)
Aged Canadian whiskey and milk couverture
Saronno Truffles
Amaretto di Saronno, bittersweet and milk couverture, and espresso in an Amaretti cookie coating
Pistachio Shells (round shells)
Pistachio paste, roasted pistachios, Kirschwasser, and bittersweet couverture

Here come the two's, times two.

mike@hendersfamily.com — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 02:28:00 GMT

Only one week past the kids' second birthday and we seem to have already seen a dramatic increase in the number of tantrums per day. I'm not sure if the kids have some sort of biological switch that just turned on or if I'm counting more carefully now that we've reached this fateful landmark.

This picture of Matthew, taken this evening, gives me something else to wonder about while counting down the days until their next birthday. His future profession: skyscraper architect, ICBM engineer, urologist?

Matt & Calvin's Birthday

mike@hendersfamily.com — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 01:02:00 GMT

Matthew and Calvin celebrated their second birthdays on Saturday with their friends in the afternoon at the Southland Leisure Centre and with their family in the evening. Thank you to everyone who attended and provided such wonderful gifts for the kids.

While managing the logistics I had little time to take pictures. I will post what I do have as soon as I run them through Photoshop. If anyone else snapped some great photos please email me and I'll give you instructions to send them to me. Until then you can download a short video from the party.

Salvaging Halloween

mike@hendersfamily.com — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 19:05:00 GMT

Our plans for Halloween involved 150km of driving and secret visits to three grandparent's houses and an aunt's house to show off our Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion, but Scarecrow hasn't been feeling well so we shelved those plans and spent a quiet evening at home. The kids looked so cute in their costumes that we had to take some pictures anyway.


Not-so-cowardly Matt giving a big roar	Scarecrow saying "Boo!"