I just got back inside after washing the cars. I learned a trick from Aaron to avoid swirl marks on the paint when he washed his Mini Cooper after trialing the foam cannon this past summer: I noticed he was drying the surface after hand washing in a straight up and down motion, rather than in a circular motion. I’ve tried it a few times since, and I can’t argue with the results. I hand wash that way now, too.

It’s a very satisfying thing, to learn something from your kids.

Snouts and Stouts Brewing in Hammonton, NJ

We had a family dinner at the excellent Rocco’s in Hammonton last night to celebrate Rhonda’s birthday, which is tomorrow. We left home early so that we could stop at Bagliani’s for some of their salami and cheese, as well as a few other things. We had some time to kill before our 6pm reservation, so we drove over to Snouts and Stouts Brewingto have a a beer. Rhonda had an Newfie IPA, which is a hazy brew made with Citra, Mosaic, and Nelson hops. I’m not familiar with Nelson hops, but we’re both big fans of Citra. Glasstown Brewery in Millville makes a unique brew called Mosaic Man, which is hopped exclusively using Mosaic hops and has endeared me to Mosaic. I had a hard time choosing which beer to try, as they had a kolsch, a German pilsner, and an Oktoberfest on tap. I ended up trying a Marzen, which had a great malt-to-hops balance. We can’t wait to go back.

Mochi Type

When I was in high school many years ago, the recommended sequence of courses for college-bound students was to take four years of a foreign language–in my case, French. Owing to the small size of my high school, taking four years of French was incompatible with taking a typing elective.

My mom, thoughtful person that she is, signed me up for eight weeks of typing lessons with a teacher from our local public high school after school. I drove to her house during the fall of my senior year, where she taught me the QWERTY keyboard layout and how to type on an electric typewriter. Due to this experience, I am able to touch type at a reasonable speed.

Learning how to type has come in decidedly more useful than French in the intervening years.

I found Mochi Type on the latest Bundlehunt sale, and it’s a gorgeous typing tutor. There are a plethora of color schemes, including the default Dracula-based theme. Mochi will teach you the basics, if you don’t know them already, but if you do, you can jump right in and practice. Error rate and words per minute are calculated after each one-minute practice session, and it shows your progress over time.

Colori

I’m not a designer, but I do like to view color palettes for setting up styles in applications like Ulysses and OmniOutliner. Colori offers 800 five-color palettes to inspire your design. It’s a satisfying digital version of the paint chips you’d find at a hardware store.