1. It first began with the concept sketch.  It was important to emulate the slicing action of a kitchen chef’s knife, which comprised a strong forward rocking motion.  With the sketch, critical mechanical movements / parts were identified; one would be a large swinging arm which would bear the main weight of the knife close to its centre of gravity (usually near the handle / blade joint) while the other would guide the front tip in a smaller swinging action.

2. There was plenty of trial and error and in the end, Daddy settled on a simple mechanism which could convert the rotating motion of the servo motors to the swinging patterns needed.  The mechanism also had to be flexible to accomodate different types of knives which had different dimensions, centres of gravity and blade geometry.  The servo motor was placed above the knife to lend additional weight to the strokes.  Oh, and since this was exploratory, Daddy just used binder clips to attach the knife!  The mechanism was tested directly on a servo motor and hooked to the computer to generate a simple NXT command to repeatedly rotate a little bit each way, with stronger action on the downward stroke:

3. Next, with the mechanism settled, a structure was needed.  Basically, Daddy wanted an adjustable system which could fit different knives and chopping blocks.  It was a simple structure consisting of a truss frame which used the NXT brick as a counterweight.  The mechanism could be easily attached at different heights.

4.  Here’s the completed dicer with Daddy’s favourite santoku knife.  You can notice that part of the structure includes simple tension stuts, and of course, the cables are tucked away:

5.  And, in action:

6. Evaluation.  For an exploratory project, it worked pretty well, beyond expectations.  But there are a few areas for improvement:

• A good feeding system is needed to guide assorted vegetables; the sweeping arm just didn’t work and the diced veg was flying around;
• A robust attachment is needed as the knife was slipping out of the binder clip;
• A third arm or pivot may be needed at the heel of the handle to better guide the knife and to support the weight, and possibly lifting it higher to deal with large vegetables;
• The structure was too shaky as the dicing action was pretty strong (needed for tough vegetables like carrots); and
• An Android app can be written to control the strength of the dicing action.

Proof of concept done!  It’ll definitely go into the Home Innovations Award as an entry but will Daddy go on to perfect this machine?  Chances are not!  While impressive, it is not entirely useful and besides, what Daddy and the kids really really want with the Mindstorms kit is an interactive transformable robot!

To hear the pitter-patter of raindrops against the window pane while the kids’ and I gaze into each others’ eyes, bodies snug under a sleeping bag (don’t ask me why.. oh well, I pulled it out to nap in their bedroom).

To kiss their faces, to be kissed by them and watch them kiss each other’s cheeks.. again and again… …

And when the cuddly moments were gone, to hear both squealing and laughing, chasing each other around their self made obstacle course (run to window, jump onto heater, balance on it and walk sideways to other end of the room while behind the curtains, jump off heater onto soft pillows below, jump to bed 1, climb onto bed 2, jump off bed 2, roll over mummy and run to window). You get the idea.. I am against monkeys jumping on beds but I really couldn’t bear to stop the fun!

We played silly, laughed ourselves crazy the whole afternoon…  did puzzles, played with play doh (without any fighting or crying or snatching or screaming) until daddy came home for dinner.

Dear God, can it be like this everyday please? :)

For Nana, I have been teaching her about the human body – the respiratory, digestive, urinary, circulatory and nervous systems.  Used a human body parts torso with organs that can be taken apart (how gross).  After that, I stuck to lifesize body charts!   Her follow up question was, what about animals????

Sigh, so mummy had to do homework again and I tied it to a lesson I taught months ago about vertebrates (animals with backbones) and invertebrates (animals without backbones).  The focus was more on identifying which animals belonged to the appropriate category, but she had fun highlighting words she recognised :)

Next was to cut and paste the categories!

In the end, even mummy had fun learning!  Never knew that the mouth and anus of the jellyfish were the same!  Yelch!  And of course nana mucked around after her ‘lesson’ :)

1. Take a large box, line it with strong bin liners.

2. Line the box in the other direction to make sure it’s well protected as it needs to be splashproof.

3. Next, line it with another set of bin liners, but a lighter set this time.

4. What? Is Daddy & Mummy going to throw away the high chair?  What’s it doing in the box?

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Here’s why!

Post-implementation review: this simple device saves 2-3 Mummy-hours per week, and is in the shortlist for our home innovation awards!  (along with the unimplemented Android-Lego Mindstorms blue-tooth vegetable dicing machine)

The National Zoo in DC has a good range of animals (no giraffes though) and Tuan liked the layout of the zoo.  Exhibits are spread over a hill and there is open access throughout the zoo (as there are ZERO admission fees).  There are no animal shows but ‘enrichment programmes’ where volunteers talk about a particular animal and its behaviour, sometimes in the animals’ compound. Pretty educational!

The kids’ favourite?  The Panda Bear, which is really cute :)

Followed by the elephants

The Giant Pacific Octopus, where the volunteer told us it is NOT Tentacles but arms.  It was interesting to watch a feeding session.

And ‘RRRRRRRRR’.. the lions.. :)

Of course, as with everything, there is a downside to it.. the mess, water and colours all over (read: paint on toilet bowl lid (????), safety gate, table cloth…).  Cleaning up keeps mummy busy for more than the time of peaceful bliss.. the price we pay :P  But to see them this happy? Priceless :)

It was a simple craft, the library cut out the middle portions in a paper plate and stapled foam bowls over to make the hat.  The kids simply had to peel foam pictures and stick them onto the hats for decoration.  A craft definitely suitable for young toddlers like Didi!

Guess who made which hat?

No prizes guessing!  Nana and flower & butterfly decorated hat:

And Didi with his hat, which he promptly crushed with his fist a few seconds after it was completed:

Next activity in the library?  Free demonstration of live owls! :)

Nana as lovely and sweet as the flowers :)

Here is Didi with the flowers.. we were so scared he would crush them!

And here are Nana’s pictures of the flowers :)  Not bad right, her photography? :)

Click here if you missed our entry on cherry blossoms!

Here are the more respectful shots:

Peek-a-boo out of the blue!

And my all american boy? :) Don’t you think he looks good and “top-gun-ish’? :)

Win 8 uses bold colours, which look great on a large touchscreen (this one here is 21.5 inches).  After signing in as a user or with a Live account, you’ll come to the start screen.  There are ‘charms’ which you can swipe from the left or right.  For example, you can swipe between apps from the left.  There’s also a ribbon interface in the Windows Explorer.

Apps can be installed from the app store, and there’re a number of free ones available.  For example, Physamajig looks really fun!  And there was Cut The Rope, but no Angry Birds (yet)…

Internet Explorer feels fast.  Bing Maps has a plus over Google Maps as it supports two-finger touch!  Again, swiping across the webpages allows us to navigate and there is native pinch-zoom.

The only gripe I had was that to work the ‘charms’ – i.e. slide in from the left or right – the finger had to be right at the edge.  Initially, this didn’t work for my touchscreen as there was a thick bevel and my finger just couldn’t reach the edge.  I had to fiddle with the graphics display and display it as an “underscan”, i.e. in a smaller area than the entire display, with black borders all round.  For tablets, this may not be an isse, but for makers or users of touch monitors, please take note.

First, put the column into the base.  Tighten the screw from the bottom to ensure that the column is secure.

2.Second, afix the head onto the top of the column.

3. Slot in the back cover, screwing it tightly with the cap.

4. Screw in the plasstic blades and tighten the final plastic cap.  This tightens in the opposite direction, which makes sense for fans and other rotation devices.

5. Finally, clip on the plastic front cage.  For additional security, I fastened the cage with zip ties.  Viola!

When we realised that the Cherry Blossom Festival surrounding the entire Tidal Basin in nearby Washington D.C coincided with Tuan’s spring break, we immediately made plans!  But alas, the weather turned warm and the blossoms peaked a few days before our arrival. Click here to see what the Basin is supposed to look like!

Nonetheless, here are some of the blossoms we managed to ‘capture’ around the area :)  Love love love the flowers against the bright blue sky:

The blossoms in Tidal Basin with the Jefferson Memorial in the background:

With the Capitol Building in the background:

Other Blossoms spotted :)

Attempted a family shot :)

More close-ups!  Think this in another variety… still very pretty nonetheless with the entire tree covered in pink blooms :)

White blooms!

And to end it off, here is nana with a tree and a photo she took of it herself :