The Tremmpleton's Year in Review

The year is at an end and we have not been very good at keeping up with blog posts. While one of our resolutions for the new year is to post more, we will end/begin the year with a look back at what's gone on in our lives in 2019!

Just after the start of 2019 Carrie and Michael were headed back across the country while Michael attended a conference in Seattle. Of course while back home, we saw loads of family and friends (especially lucky to see friends from around the world attending the conference). As we tend to do, we crammed as much as we could into the time we had with everyone and enjoyed every minute. There was lots of eating, drinking, and, of course, some karaoke. By the time Carrie and Michael flew back to New Haven we needed a vacation from their trip, but there is no rest for the Tremmpletons.

Michael turned 30 and Carrie threw him an amazing super hero themed party with the help of some good friends. Beyond a fun time with great food (Carrie made deep dish pizza and a fantastic cake) it was an awesome reminder of the friends we've made here in New Haven since moving in 2017. The temporary nature of Michael's postdoc position at Yale has made it hard to feel truly at home in New Haven as we will likely be moving again soon, but indeed we have made great and lasting connections with people here. It was good to have a chance to reflect on this. 

Carrie turned 31 this year (so now we are both in our 30s! weird...) and enjoyed a quiet birthday in Illinois that included all-you-can-eat Brazilian barbecue and a manicure. Entering our 30s is a little scary to be honest. It can be hard to fight the feeling that your best years are behind you and focus on one's fear of the long road of adulthood. However, I'm confident that our best years are, in fact, ahead of us! I think our 30s will be fun and, just like 2019, filled with self improvement and new experiences!

2019 was a big year for Carrie's career and education. She graduated from Purdue with her Masters of Science in Education degree in Learning Design Technology after working through the two year program online. We traveled to Indiana for her graduation and were joined by some family to celebrate her success! At the beginning of 2019 Carrie also started a new career directly related to her new degree, after ending 2018 with a few months worth of grad school/internship/full time job chaos. After 16 years working in restaurants Carrie has transitioned to the role of Instructional Designer for Aware Recovery Care, a company that provides in-home addiction recovery treatment. While it has been a little daunting to start a new career, Carrie has learned a lot and has grown into her new role quite well. Beyond gaining crucial experience within her new field, this work has been incredibly rewarding.

Lawrence has good coffee, an important
 requirement

Michael has also had his share of career developments, though not as momentous. The beginning of 2019 saw Michael in his first shortlist interview for a faculty position at the University of Kansas. While he ultimately was not offered the job, making it that far was encouraging and the experience of going through the two-day interview process was invaluable. It also helped Michael become more open minded about job prospects, as he was initially very skeptical of the idea of living in Lawrence, Kansas. In part because of this uncertainty, Carrie traveled with him to Kansas and they stayed for an entire week exploring both Lawrence and nearby Kansas City, MO. We were extra lucky and got to spend some time with our oldest niece, Katlynn, who drove up to see us from where she goes to college in Springfield, MO! Both of us were very surprised by how much we enjoyed not only Kansas City, but Lawrence as well. While Carrie was more open minded to begin with, the experience helped Michael relax his expectations and realize there are many places we can be happy living.

In academia the future is often uncertain and job season approaches again. Michael is taking with him the lessons he learned at the beginning of the year and is allowing himself to be more flexible with his expectations of the future. This year is Michael's final one as a YCAA fellow at Yale. This means he is going "all out" on the market, applying for over 40 postdoc and faculty positions around the country (as well as some in Canada). There is a lot of stress that comes with applying for academic jobs, especially in years when you either find something or, well, you don't. The prospect of having to leave academia is terrifying for many reasons and challenges even one's concept of self image, which in Michael's case, as in many others, is tightly tied to one's work. The idea of being forced to leave that behind is difficult to handle to say the least and can feel like a very personal failure. So, for Michael at least the end of 2019 (and the beginning of 2020) happens with a certain level of anxiety. 

We clean up well for weddings

Michael has traveled a lot for work, especially in the last few months of 2019 which saw him visiting several institutes to give talks in support of his job applications. However, the Tremmpletons also did a lot of fun travel this year! We attended two friend weddings in the midwest (congrats Laura and Curtis, Wendy and Andy!) and a celebration in San Francisco/Oakland for our cousin Katie & her amazing partner Cassie! This was both Michael and Carrie's first time in San Francisco and it was super fun, especially since Michael's aunt, uncle, and sister were also there. Our favorite part was probably exploring Japan-town and (finally!) getting some good Udon outside of Seattle.

In June we had a big trip to Italy, the first time either of us have been to the country. The trip was initiated by a conference Michael went to at the Abbazia di Spineto in the middle of the mountains in Tuscany. The scenery was beautiful and all meals (including a bunch of wine!) was provided by the conference. Each morning Carrie and Michael went on a scenic mini hike, enjoying both the weather and the amazing views. Carrie worked remotely during the day while Michael was at the conference and in the evenings they dined and had fun with other conference attendees (with, again, plenty of wine!). 

Morning Tea at Spineto after a short hike

After the conference Carrie and Michael started their personal vacation in Tuscany, traveling to an agriturismo near San Gimignano. We relaxed, swam in a very scenic pool, and ate plenty of cheese and meat. The family that ran the agriturismo would make us dinner each night. The food was fantastic (including more wine, this time homemade!) and the company was great. We got to meet other vacationers also staying at the agriturismo; one couple was from Germany and another from England. We also explored the nearby city of San Gimignano, known for its medieval towers and amazing views. However, we made the mistake of not renting a car, traveling instead between cities via train and taxi. While the agriturismo was only 1.5 miles from San Gimignano, it was an entire 1.5 MILES from San Gimignano... up hill... under the Tuscan sun... in August. We were sweaty a lot of the time to say the least! It was a test of our endurance but still, it was a great, fun new experience. Did I mention the food was amazing?

Some views from Tuscany. San Gimignano from a distance
(top) and sunrise from our agriturismo (bottom)

After a bit of stress procuring a taxi to take us from our agriturismo back to the train station (~30 min away by car) we traveled to Rome, our last stop in Italy. Unsurprisingly, Rome was home to a lot of amazing history. We saw, among other things, the Colosseum which was spectacular. One of our favorite parts was finding random cats wandering around some newly excavated ruins! We were both a bit disappointed with our guided tour of the Vatican; it was incredibly crowded and stressful despite getting an "after hours" tour. Still, interesting history! We also, of course, ate a lot of amazing pizza and explored a small local market near our hotel. On the recommendation of an Italian friend, we went to a small restaurant well outside of the city center. Rather than a menu, the waiter TOLD us the menu (or rather, told Michael and mostly ignored Carrie). Michael got a little flustered and ordered a little hastily. The end result was that we got to try horse meat for the first time. It was.... not the best. 

Can't remember where this is... anyone have a clue?

Rose garden in Rome

Italy was overall a fantastic trip and, strangely enough, the very first time Carrie and I have taken a truly personal vacation since... EVER. After the trip, which included a ton of walking (as much as 10 miles/day in Rome!) Carrie became reinvigorated to bettering her health (she had joined a gym in March after moving to a desk job for the first time). This was in part also motivated by her mother's recent heart attack. Carrie got heavily involved in a local gym, started working with a personal trainer, and began eating healthier. You can read more about her journey and some of these new eating habits in Carrie's new blog Meticulous Macros that she just started! In short, since July Carrie has lost over 40 pounds and gained over a pound of muscle mass. This has involved a lot of lifestyle changes, including Carrie waking up at 5 am each morning to head to the gym. Michael has even gotten motivation to push harder at the gym (he's been a regular gym goer for the past 8 years or so but has gotten a bit complacent in his routine) and eat better (more mindful of portions, less sugary bullshit, sliiiiightly less pizza). He has lost a few pounds the last couple months, but Carrie's progress over the past six has been simply staggering. Michael finds Carrie's progress incredibly inspirational. Don't forget to check out Meticulous Macros when you get the chance!

Looking forward to 2020 we already have travel plans . Michael will start the year off in Hawaii at the 235th American Astronomical Society meeting while Carrie will be traveling for work to beautiful New Hampshire (admittedly not quite as well known for its weather, beaches, and beauty). Continuing our trend of the past few years of ALL THE WEDDINGS, we will be traveling back to Seattle in April for the marriage of two of our closest friends from New Haven and Carrie will be officiating the wedding! Michael also has a couple other conference trips he is excited about, which will have him traveling to the Itallian Dolomites as well as a castle (literally) in the Bavarian Alps. Michael is really excited about the castle. Michael really likes castles (and trains, there are lots of trains in Europe!!).

So, 2019 has been, well, a lot and there is going to be even more change, personal growth, and adventures in 2020! We want to end this post with a few Tremmpleton Family New Year's Resolutions.

1) Write more, including these blog posts! Carrie is starting a new blog (see above!) and Michael hopes to get more into his creative writing hobby.

2) Take time to enjoy one another's company. Carrie surprised Michael with a Switch this Xmas and both of us are super excited for a year of more games (both video and physical) that we can enjoy together. Work and travel has made it harder to take time together, but both of us want to put more time an energy into appreciating one another and the things we do as a family.

3) Be more comfortable with change. 2020 promises a lot of changes for us as a family given Michael's career situation. Within this there are plenty of things that are out of our control, yet we often focus and stress about these things. Instead, we want to focus our energy toward aspects of our lives we CAN control while being more accepting of the changes that occur, allowing us to meet these new challenges head on and with an open heart.

4) Maintain lifestyle changes, while continuing to challenge ourselves to improve. We've both made lots of changes with food, exercise, and finances over the last year, which we are incredibly proud of; but now we strive to keep it up over the next year and beyond. As we continue to learn and grow into our best selves, it is really exciting to see all we can achieve together.

Tremmpleton Family Book Reviews: The Redemption of Time

Hi everyone! Here is another Tremmpleton Family book review! However, this time it is just Michael writing since he is the only one who read this.

The Redemption of Time by Baoshu is an "unofficial" fourth book in the Remembrance of Earth's Past series (or... the Three Body Problem series), which was a fantastic sci-fi epic that won many awards. The first book in the series was the first ever written by an Asian writer to win the Hugo Award for Best Novel. I read it and loved it, though the level of existential dread and/or loneliness it inspired did make it hard at times to get through (but really, it may sound odd but that's what makes it good in my opinion!). The original series definitely has serious problems, which I allude to in relation to the issues in the Redemption of time, which are mostly the same but, in my opinion, more damning.

If you haven't read the Three Body Problem books and you really love hard sci-fi, do it! If you don't like them, it should be pretty clear before you finish the first book. If you fall deep into the story like I did, pick up this book when you are done and give it a read. It doesn't match up to the original trilogy in any positive way, but it does add to it and make for an enjoyable read for anyone invested in this world.



I've tried to make the following review more digestible to someone who hasn't read the series (there are also some minor spoilers!) but this is probably most useful to someone who already knows the Three Body Problem books (and, as I said, this is really who I think should be reading this story anyway).

The Redemption of Time is both an extended epilogue to the Remembrance of Earth's Past Trilogy and also greatly expands on the details regarding the story of a secondary (though critically important) character, Yun Tianming, taking place concurrently with the original trilogy. In particular, it details his experience as a captor of the alien race called the Trisolarans. These details further contextualize several aspects of the original Trilogy, mostly for the better but sometimes I felt the details cheapened the original story (see below). The story picks up more or less where the original trilogy leaves off, with Yun and his soon-to-be lover, AA, marooned on "Planet Blue". Yun recants his past adventures to AA, and the reader learns about Yun's interaction with the mysterious "Spirit". It ends up that Yun is a part of a Universe-scale war waged since the beginning of time!

The core concept of this intergalactic shadow war waged since the Big Bang is very interesting and I really enjoyed the new perspectives it offers the reader on the ideas explored in the original trilogy (particularly the "Dark Forest" theory). Most of the additional details the reader learns about the adventures of Yun add to the original story positively, though I felt some details were superfluous and really took me out of the story. For example (spoiler here!), there is an alien artificial intelligence in the original story that takes the form of a woman. It is revealed that this form was taken from Yun Tianming's mind so she has the form of the porn star he was obsessed with in his youth. He doesn't say this specifically, but it is implied... and a quick google search shows that she is actually a real life person. I found this detail completely unnecessary and also pretty gross and weird (why did the author make it a real person!?). Details like this take the reader out of the story unnecessarily (as it did me!) and cheapens the overall experience.

The main issue with this story is that, unlike the original trilogy, it is very focused on two specific characters, Yun Tianming and AA. When reading the Remembrance Trilogy, I regarded character development as by far the weakest aspect of the story, but the nature of the story made that a minor grievance. To me, it was Humanity that was the main character and the reader regards their history through the eyes of a few characters. The characters were not dynamic, but that was ok because I felt more like I was reading a book recanting the future history of the Human race. I do not have this feeling about this story. Yun Tianming is clearly the main character, yet as a character he is quite weak. There is little personal development, nor does it feel as if his flaws or personal challenges are driving the narrative at all. Rather, he feels more like a plot device meant to drive the bigger story, which I grant is a very interesting one. Some of the more minor characters felt more developed and interesting by comparison, such as a couple of aliens responding to the destruction of their civilization.

Another shortcoming, which is shared by the original trilogy, is how the story handles female characters (and the concept of femininity all together). Femininity is stereotypically associated with love, caring, and overall weakness. This was a recurring theme in the Remembrance Trilogy and, while it is actually less of an issue all together in Redemption of Time, it is made blatantly obvious. For example, AA has a PhD in astronomy and yet one would ever know this by the way her character behaves. Were it not for a few direct reminders put in for the reader, it really would never have come up. The first half of this story is meant to not only expand on Yun's past adventures, but to develop the relationship between him and AA. Not only does it fail to do this because of poor character development and dialog, but AA as a character feels flat and pointless to the story. Her only role, it seems, is to provide a companion for Yun to be naked with on the lonely Planet Blue, a fact that the reader is repeatedly reminded of for little reason. Many of the interactions between Yun and AA, particularly the intimate ones, ended up taking me out of the story and feeling as if I were reading the fan fiction of a horny college boy (which, given that this was originally fan fiction is probably not entirely untrue). At best these details were unnecessary and at worst they further betray the misogyny inherent in the book and really the entire series.

Overall, I enjoyed this book for the creative concept it put forth for the origin and future of the Universe, and because I was already heavily invested in the world developed in the original Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy. Yet there are seriously flaws in the story that definitely hindered my overall experience and would, I think, make it pretty unpalatable to any reader not already invested in the series.

Tremmpleton Family Book Reviews: Becoming by Michelle Obama

Hi Everyone! For this post we will be doing another book review for Becoming, the memoir from Michelle Obama, whom we are going to assume needs little introduction.

We read this book together on Audible, read by Michelle Obama herself. It took us a while (to Carrie's frustration... remember she's been reading >100 books per year lately! She is used to going fast...) because we primarily listen in the car. Without a big trip happening, our listening was confined mostly to the drive to/from work (~15-20 minutes per day) and to/from the grocery story (~30 min total each weekend). Michael also is not quite as good at listening to audiobooks as Carrie, who can go at 1.75x speed or even faster on her own. For this, Michael convinced Carrie to keep it at 1.5x speed, which was still a bit fast for him. The difference in speed preference aside, we do enjoy listening to audiobooks together and will probably be posting about some more in the future!

Keeping in mind that both of us are pretty liberal and fans of the Obama's, we really enjoyed the book, which told the story of Michelle's upbringing on the south side of Chicago through her time as First Lady of the United States and everything in between.  There were a lot of things neither of us knew about both Obamas and things that occurred in the background of President Obama's Senate and Presidential campaigns. Overall it was an incredibly interesting read!

Michelle grew up in a working class family and attended a prestigious high school and college (Princeton). While her educational path does feel somewhat normal for someone of such social stature, her perspective is refreshing, as literally no one writing from her position as a former First Lady also understand first hand the struggles of middle and lower class families of color. The challenges she faced, both externally and internally, are something we all need to recognize (and attempt to empathize) more, particularly those of us coming from positions of more privilege... white people, and white men in particular.


A fascinating aspect of this book is that the reader gets to see Michelle Obama develop and grow as a person. Such a sense of growth can be difficult to achieve in a book about a person like this, but Michelle accomplishes the task with great success, in part probably because of her unique trajectory compared with many other prominent politicians and first ladies. 

Around the middle of the book, after Michelle has become a successful lawyer and has just begun her relationship with President Obama, she faces an internal struggle to align her true interests with her career. This was a part that was particularly interesting to Michael who, similar to Michelle, always had a planed trajectory for his education and career path. In part because of the contrast with how President Obama planned (or didn't plan) his own career path, Michelle questions whether she is truly happy doing what she is doing. The fact that she was able to question this, and even decided to make a huge career shift, was really interesting to Michael, who often finds it difficult to really evaluate such things or even consider a deviation from "the plan". This is something that Michael is constantly trying to be better about and, while he is happy with his career as it is currently, the fact that people like Michelle Obama have had to face similar questions and overcome their own preconceived notions of success was really powerful to read about. 

Another very interesting aspect to Michelle's story is her perspective on Barack's presidential campaigns. The reader gets a look at the role of a (potential) First Lady in the campaign process and the specific challenges Michelle faces because of her race. We often discuss how Barack faced specific challenges and different levels of scrutiny because he is black, but Michelle also faced the specter of racism and in a different way because she is also a women. The challenges and very real fears around raising black children as such a prominent family was also really interesting and not often discussed.

One challenge that Michael faced while reading was his own cynicism. Given that Michelle is involved in politics, though not running for any office herself, it is easy to assume that some things are written in order to develop particular optics for Barack, Michelle, and even the Democratic Party as a whole. While reading Michael often find himself questioning the authenticity of statements, or the motivation behind telling certain anecdotes. In the end, and even as he was thinking these things, Michael believes his cynicism was largely uncalled for, but good to be aware of. If the reader is not careful, such cynicism can ruin the possibility of getting anything out of Michelle's story, and there is a lot to get out of it!

Similar to Carrie and Michael, Michelle and President Obama's relationship seems to thrive in a balance between compromise and determination. We could relate in many ways to the strong willed choices and thoughtful choices made by the Obamas over the years. It was eye opening and quite enjoyable to be able to see the former president and his wife as relatable people, who lived a normal (aka not easy) life before walking through the doors of the White House. 

This book gets a high recommendation from both of us. For learning more about different cultures. for American (recent) history, and for self reflection. The story of the Obama's journey is what so closely connects them to the American people. Life doesn't have to be easy to help you in Becoming something great. 

Tremmpleton Family Book Reviews: Recursion by Blake Crouch

This is exciting! Our first book review on this blog... this is something we hope to do more regularly. Just a bit of an intro, since this is our first one... Over the last couple years Carrie has gotten back into reading voraciously. That means that between audio books, normal books, and graphic novels, she has read 165 books over the course of 2018. But it has been a progression. The year before she read 52 and before that, well, she didn't really keep track. Reading wasn't really a part of either of our routine any more, but a couple years ago between a good friend adding her to an amazing bookish community on Facebook and Michael's encouragement, she dove head first back between the pages of book after book. She warned him that once she started, she may not be able to stop!

Carrie's tenacity for reading is (slowly) rubbing off on Michael. While previously Michael would have been lucky to have read 10 books in a year (obviously we don't count academic journal articles here... but even those Michael admits he often just reads the abstracts and looks at figures!), last year he read 30 books and this year so far he has read 7! No, before you ask, Michael is definitely not jealous of Carrie's ability to read so much so quickly....

You can also find both Carrie and Michael on Goodreads, an awesome site to keep track of your own reading and to find new books to enjoy. You can also follow what Carrie is reading (on a less consistent basis on her Instagram page @booksbrewsandbanjocat!

And this brings us here to our first book review blog post! We hope you enjoy! Any and all feedback is welcome (as it always is). We hope to provide a unique viewpoint on books we read and hopefully give you some ideas for books you want to read yourself!

The Book: Recursion

For this first post we are reviewing a book we both read from one of our favorite thriller/suspense authors, Blake Crouch, best known probably for his Wayward Pines series (recently adapted to a TV show that neither of us has watched). Pines is a fantastic series that we both highly recommend. Another book he has written that we both like is Dark Matter (which we read during our 5 day journey from Seattle to Connecticut a year and a half ago).

So, we have a history with Crouch's work. When Crown Publishing granted Carrie access to an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of his newest book, Recursion, set to be released June 11, 2019, we were super excited! A quick side note about ARCs... Carrie and Michael both have accounts on NetGalley, a site that publishing companies use to distribute ARCs of upcoming books for free in order to generate buzz about them (through, e.g. Amazon and Goodreads reviews) prior to release. Michael is only just getting into NetGalley, but Carrie has been working on building a reputation for herself as a reader and reviewer of ARCs. So, she requested an ARC of Recursion, she got lucky and Crown Publishing accepted the request! Thanks to both Net Galley and Crown Publishing for making this early review possible!

Recursion tells the story of Helena, a seasoned scientist trying to cure Alzheimer’s with a novel invention she has developed over years of research. When on the precipice of losing funding and forced to leave her work behind, Helena finds herself bankrolled by a mysterious, wealthy business mogul, Marcus Slade. Of course, things are not as they appear and it becomes clear that Slade has his own plans and that there are aspects to Helena's work that even she doesn't understand. A parallel story is told about Barry, a divorced and lonely NYC detective, still grieving for a long dead daughter. The stories told side-by-side helps to steady the pace of the story while drawing the reader into the world, as Barry’s story starts out more than 10 years later than Helena’s. Crouch shifts between telling us the origins of the story’s central mechanic/mystery/threat and its effect on the world, which is brilliantly done. To put it simply (and avoid spoilers), the central theme of the book surrounds memories and their connection with our perception of reality. In the book, characters experience false memories of an entirely different life they never lived. The main characters are trying to figure out where these false memories are coming from and put an end to them. Of course, the plot gets much thicker from there, but we will avoid spoilers for now.

Review

Between ourselves and Carrie's fellow bookish community admins, we had pretty extensive conversation surrounding Recursion. Put very simply, we were both completely enthralled VERY quickly and had a hard time getting much else done while reading Recursion, as per usual for us with Crouch's books. Suffice to say, the Tremmpleton's highly recommend Recursion for sci-fi/thriller lovers. If you struggle with reading (or being able to skim) science jargon, you may struggle with this one a bit. Michael enjoyed that science was used to give substance to the plot, but Crouch (mostly) avoided trying too hard to explain things in detail, which often leads to poor representation of science in fiction.  He hates it when people just throw out random quantum mechanics terms used incorrectly. Crouch does just enough to make things believable to the reader.

One of our bookish friends compared Recursion's plot to Chutes and Ladders, which we found to be both amusing and accurate. Each time you might feel confident you know what's about to happen in this plot, you are sent shooting down another course of memory. Told in part from both Barry and Helena's perspectives, you find yourself both jumping through timelines and narrations throughout the 300+ pages of the book. The shifts are subtle at first, then all of a sudden you are grasping to the dates at the top of each subsection to try to orient yourself in the story. It is a literary roller coaster ride through memories, possibly a way to mimic with the whiplash one might feel trying to keep up with someone suffering with Alzheimer's. The research Helena is developing is part of a perceived manic need to help her mother who is an Alzheimer's patient herself. While you work your way through Crouch's various stems of memory for Barry and Helena, you being to realize that something here is not quite right.

One thing Crouch has done in Recursion that was largely missing from his previous books was include a female main character that was not only strong and independent, but also interesting and flawed. Importantly, Helena's character is not only central to the story, but changes and grows as the story progresses. These are the characters we need more of in fiction (and science fiction in particular). Stories need to have women not only in positions of power and with strong, independent personalities, the also need women to be realistic and interesting to read about. So often (as is true in many of Crouch's other works) women characters are two dimensional. They are not developed as much and, even when they are, they are not given flaws or personal challenges to overcome. This was a nice departure from this and the fact that it comes from a male writer is important.

Now, let's get into the good stuff, be prepared if you read past this point, there may be spoilers, so stop now to hold onto your bookish innocence about Recursion.

We felt all of the feels for Barry throughout Recursion, going from his original tortured timeline to eventually growing with Helena to become a brilliant scientist and saving the day. This aspect of the story felt very cookie cutter for Crouch. Despite his work creating a female character determined to first meet her goal, then discover how to counteract her own work, Crouch did not enable Helena to finish what she started. Through discussion and further exploration of the book, we came to believe that this aspect may be an inexplicit reference back to the Alzheimers existent in Helena's family. A "que sera sera" moment to show why messing with time and memories is a bad idea, but come on Crouch. Why couldn't you let Helena figure out how to tie up the mess she made on her own?!

One other aspect of the story that didn't sit well with Carrie was the inclusion of two characters portrayed as drug users (implying they are both addicted). When traveling between timelines and memories, they all of a sudden without any support or treatment were able to live lives independent of their addictions. Now, don't get us wrong, we know that a time-traveling memory chair is not realistic, but in an otherwise realistic world, this felt like a massive plot hole. Slade going from being a self-aware addict in the first timeline, to going back and choosing to build an empire for himself instead is a sorely misguided idea. Addiction is a disease, not a choice. This could have given Crouch a great opportunity to stress the importance of support and treatment for addiction, but instead it is glossed over as something that can simply be corrected with a choice and force of will. In a very small percentage of people with substance use addictions this might be possible but for most it is just not realistic.

Final Thoughts:

 Both Carrie and Michael really liked this book. The story was gripping, the characters were interesting, and the concepts were creative and new. The inclusion of a fully fleshed out female main character was a welcome improvement over Crouch's other books, but still fell into the same old routine of letting the man save the day in the end. There were also some problematic representations of drug addiction that, while trivial to the overall plot, ended up misrepresenting the nature of addiction. Still, despite these problems, Recursion is a great read by an author who has become one of our family's favorites. A solid 5 stars from each of us. We highly recommend picking this book up when it hits shelves in June!

Tremmpleton Family Update

Hi! Wow, its been a while.... but the Tremmpleton Family is back at blogging after a long hiatus! As this is our first post in a while, we wanted to give you all a brief update on our life!

The first thing... We got married! We tied the knot May 14, 2016 (almost three years ago now... yikes! Time flies!). To all of our friends, this is of course old news, but if you only know us from this blog it is news to you! So... Yay! We accept your (belated) congratulations ;)

On the work front, Michael got his PhD in astronomy from the University of Washington in the summer of 2017 and the Tremmpleton's moved across the country to New Haven, Connecticut so that he could start a postdoc at Yale. He is still working on simulating galaxies and studying supermassive black holes, so not much has changed in that regard except for location and quite a bit more travel.

Carrie is working on (and nearly done!) getting her Master's degree in Learning Design & Technology, which she is doing online through Purdue. Carrie has also made a big career change, moving from managing restaurants to full time instructional designer, combining her passion for training and teaching with her design skills. She is working for Aware Recovery Care, an in-home addiction recovery service (or ARC for short) based in Connecticut. ARC is a small, but rapidly expanding company and Carrie has been an integral part of their team these past few months, helping revamp their training materials.

Banjo is happy, healthy, and has a recent addition to his wardrobe: a super handsome bowtie!

With so much going on in our lives these past few years, we sort of let this blog go by the wayside... but no more! We are back! Expect more posts about boardgames, as well as book reviews, recipes, travels, and whatever fun stuff/projects we get into. Hope you'll join us!

Feather Pancakes- So Easy, So Good

Carrie here, to share some yumminess with you! 

Yesterday was Michael's birthday and in our home, we do special birthday breakfasts, which pretty much always feature Feather Pancakes! This is a recipe that I discovered about 2 years ago and has been a staple in our special breakfasts ever since. The recipe does not come from the internet, but from my old school Better Homes and Gardens, "New Cook Book." If you ask me, it is the only cook book you will ever need, but I digress, onto the actual food!

Best cook book ever written/compiled (?).

They start with a "Favorite Pancakes" recipe, which consists of the basics: All-purpose flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, an egg, milk, and salad oil (I use canola oil). There there are three variant options: Blueberry Pancakes, Buttermilk Pancakes, and our favorite, Feather Pancakes! 

Recipe directly from
"Better Homes and Gardens."

The Feather Pancakes call for more sugar and baking powder (thus the crazy fluffiness), and less flour. When I started making them this morning, I realized we only had Half & Half, no milk. I was a little worried it would turn our fluffy little treats into more dense pancakes, but good news! Using Half & Half gave the Feather Pancakes the same fluffy nature with a rich, creamier taste! 

When adding the ingredients, as shown on the right, I start with all of my liquids in the bottom of the mixing bowl. Give it a nice whisk to combine, then start heating my griddle (medium-high heat) so its nice and hot when the batter is finished. Then start adding my dry ingredients one at a time, whisking with each addition. The recipe says to "beat smooth," but I do this recipe entirely by hand. As an avid bread baker, I always worry about over working my product, so trust my hands a bit more than my 

mixer. When the batter is mostly smooth and free of clumps, 

you are ready to start cooking!

This started as Mickey, and turned
into a golden brown BB8!

Unfortunately, I started photographing after I cooked my batch off, but the keys that we have learned to really awesome pancakes are: 

• Size is not everything, a smaller pancake will taste just as good and usually turn out more consistent than one the size of your head.
• Heat is SUPER important, if your griddle isn't preheated your pancakes will not fluff and brown quickly and evenly.
• Trust the bubbles; when cooking off pancakes you will see top side start to bubble in the corners let it bubble near all sides before flipping! 

Super fluffy!

On to the actual cooking, as I mentioned before, medium-high (on the higher side) heat, get it nice and hot so you get a really nice consistent brown on each side. I typically make my pancakes about 4-5 inches across and get 5-6 per batch using this recipe. We have a small 10 inch griddle, so I do two pancakes at a time in the pan. I pour, then wait for bubbling on top, once it has worked its way around the outside of the surface, I know the bottom is cooked evenly and ready to flip! Flip, watch in amazement as it fluffs (on this batch a few of these about 3/4 of an inch tall once cooked), after about a minute flip and check for nice golden brown! 

Honey and butter. 'Nuff said.

I keep a plate and paper towel on the stove with me, then as I finish pancakes, I stack on the plate and cover with the paper towel to retain heat while I finish the batch! Then we move to the dining room table to eat, drink and be merry! We keep our pancakes really simple and dress with just butter and honey, but everything from syrup, to berries, to peanut butter (which we may need to share our recipe for soon!) to finish these fluffy breakfast treats! 

Breakfast essentials.

Along with them, we had our normal coconut water and juice mix, as well as a new Starbucks Reserve Coffee Roast, which we received as an engagement gift! Michael says the coffee has "hints of Ethopian people," but I think he was still in Zombie Dice mode...really it has a delightful balance of sweetness with peppery hints. Thanks to Brett for introducing us to it and explaining just enough for Michael to get REALLY excited about it! 

Well, friends, I must be getting back to birthday party preparations- I'm making enough pizza to feed 20 tonight, birthday boy's favorite! I'll share recipe details below as we prefer our Feather Pancakes! Give it a try and let us know what you think! Happy weekend!

Last fluffy, buttery bite.

Feather Pancakes

2 tbsp Canola Oil

1 Large Egg

1 Cup Half & Half

.5 tsp Salt

1 tbsp Sugar

2 tbsp Baking Powder

1 Cup All-Purpose Flour

Pour all liquids, including egg, into the bottom of a mixing bowl. 

Whisk until combined. 

Then add each dry ingredient individually and whisk after each addition, finishing with the flour. Once all ingredients have been added and batter is smooth, you are ready to cook on a medium-high pre-heated griddle! 

Zombie Dice!

Long time no post because:
Carrie opened a new restaurant location for her company, which is super successful and awesome.
The holidays happened and we all know how time consuming that is.
We visited Chicago- both for work, Carrie at a conference and Michael giving Astro talks.
Then some family time and we got engaged!

But we're back and as nerdy as ever!

Zombie Dice is an insanely simple, fun game that's quick to play and great with 2 or several people.

Zombie Dice, with bonus Banjo!

In this game, you are a zombie searching for brains and the dice are potential prey. The goal in each round is to gobble up as many brains as possible without getting shotgunned to death (er. . . re-death?). Your turn ends when you pass or you get shot three times.

Shotgun, BRAINSSS, Footprints!

To play, you place all 13 dice in the fancy zombie cup that comes with the game. Shake it around and pick three random dice to roll. Each basic die (I'll get to "hero" dice from the expansion in a second) has three symbols: footprints, a brain, and a shotgun blast. After you roll, place the brains to one side and the shotgun blasts to the other. Keep any footprints in front of you. The Brains represent victims (and points for you) and the shotgun blasts represent you getting shot in the face with a shotgun. The dice have colors that represent their difficulty: green, yellow, and red = easy, medium, and hard respectively. An "easy" dice is one with less shotguns and more brains.

Two shots and footsteps, not so bueno.

You might have a chance here...

Now that you've separated your dice, you can decide to re-roll. There is no limit to how many rolls you take and each roll has the chance of letting you accumulate more points in the form of brains. On the re-roll, take any footprints (i.e. escaped victims) and then pull more random dice from the cup so that you have three dice to roll. There is no limit to how many rolls you take and each roll has the chance of letting you accumulate more points in the form of brains.

Save that brain and roll those feet!

There are those rotten shots again!

However, each roll also risks more shotgun blasts. If you hit three blasts, your turn is over and you loose all your brains. Do you want to take the risk? When your turn is up (either through getting shot in the face or through passing) you tally up your brain-points and put all dice back in the cup for the next player. The game ends when a player surpasses 13 brains. When this happens, you finish the round and then the game is over. 

The one with the most brains wins.

This is Michael, he likes BRAINSSSSSS!

Along with the base game, we also got an expansion that includes three "hero" dice: The Hottie, The Hunk, and Santa Clause (the most seasoned of all zombie hunters). Think of these as special characters in the game represented by special dice colors (pink, white, and red/white respectively). With these new dice come some new effects and symbols. The Hunk has a double brain (double points!) as well as a double shotgun (double hits). Santa comes with presents! Instead of brains he can drop items that you keep in front of you as power ups: an energy drink (this lets you count each green footprints as a brain.... no running from the fast zombie!) and a football helmet (now you can take four shotgun hits before dying!).

Santa Double Brains!

"Special Santa Helmet"

Here come SANTA!

The Hottie and The Hunk some brains

There is one more twist with the heroes. They can save one another! If you roll a hero's brain (or have one in your brain pile) during your turn and you roll another hero's shotgun, that brain gets taken from you and the dice goes back into the cup. Oh, this doesn't count for santa's double brain item, since in his case this counts as a present!
HO HO HO!