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Guessing at Christmas presents is somewhat alien to the Robinson’s.  We provide lists from which one chooses an item for another party.  Just guessing seems odd and barbaric akin to going to a restaurant and just guessing what the chef could prepare based on knowing it was a Greek restaurant.  I have found this is not how most people work and after asking a friend she replied “sunshine and rainbows”.  So, I purchased her a flash light and a prism.  While I was as it, I got myself a prism too having never messed with one.

Today the prism came and I took it out of the box, set it on the table and learned I have no idea how a prism works on any practical level.  I held it up to various lights with little effect and then held it up to various other focusing devices also with no effect.  I drew a little diagram of the prism a la dark side of the moon and realized I needed a beam of light.  I cobbled together a baffle from cardboard pieces and made a ghetto rainbow in our heater closet using the door and the lights from the rec room as my beam generator.  I have mastered optics circa 1600.

On a more victorious note, someone I sent cracker jacks to got them and responded with this:

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Yesterday’s victory was quickly followed by a return to earth when I tried to vacuum seal two things, both of which failed:

1) Potato chips – Vacuum sealing is not an effective way to re-use a potato chip bag.  Now if your goal is to create chip dust, you win.  Or, using vacuum rigidity, you can turn a potato chip bag into an very light hammer:

2) I made and vacuum-sealed a toffee peanut butter cracker jack which did not seal as well.  The toffee and peanut butter chip bits undercut the integrity of the cracker jack and the mixture simply crumbled under vacuum force.  I gave this failure to a Scout group who very much enjoyed it:

Me: How did you like the toffee cracker jacks?
Scout Leader: The kids devoured it.
Me: It came out like gravel.
Scout Leader: But the tastiest gravel the kids ever had.