July 23, 2006

It has been hot, here in Seattle. To us Pacific Northwesterners who often must don fleece coats and rain hats on the fourth of July, the temperatures have been hot. Africa-hot. Thank-god-we-got-air-conditioning-three-weeks-ago hot. Let’s-freeze-root-beer-in-ice-cubes hot.

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(Root Cubes! Add to massive serving of ice cream for optimal flavor.)

I bought this awful kiddie pool a while back, it took so much effort to inflate its various parts I completely gave up on it and so for the last few weeks we’ve had this deflated hunk of plastic in the backyard that JB loved to make fun of. But this weekend I redeemed myself by scissoring off the entire top “canopy” section, which left a perfectly decent pool base. When Saturday got muggy beyond all reason, we put Riley in:

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He was definitely a fan. Sadly, Dog had to be sequestered inside the house while the pool contained water, so badly did she want to splash and dig and rip it to pieces with her claws.

Today we made our first foray to a local beach. We’d lived here for what, four years now? And we’ve never gone to a beach to go swimming. I didn’t even think Lake Washington was swimmable, honestly. I thought people who actually got in the water and swam were wearing wetsuits, or were drunk, or had a seven-inch protective layer of blubber, or something.

I guess my own blubber finally worked in my favor today because that water felt amazing. It was just a knockout day, sunny and blue-skied and the lake sparkled and even the proximity of the I-90 overpass was sort of nice. We took Riley in the water and he went nuts, splashing and kicking and generally having a ball.

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(Once again the photogenic mother-child moment escapes me.)

Man. Summer, you know? It goes by way too fast, every year.

This was a crazy weekend in terms of keeping Riley out of various dangers, I wrote about his current stage here, but suffice to say the boy is constantly moving, curious, pulling himself up on various things, and turning me into a nervous wreck.

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A rare moment of sitting still.

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Peeking at me from behind the sofa.

On a final note, I’d like to ask you something. Actually, let me show you something first:

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Now let me recall for you a recent conversation I had with JB.

JB: I don’t like eating cereal out of these green bowls.
Me: Why?
JB: They’re too…fancy.
Me: I got them at Target for like three dollars. What do you mean, fancy.
JB: They’re too – I end up eating too much cereal when I use them.
Me: So put less cereal in.
JB: They’re just weird.
Me: They’re nicer than our plain white bowls, I think.
JB: I think most people would agree with me.
Me: That they’re…weird?
JB: Ask your journal readers.
Me: Fine.
JB (as an afterthought): But make sure to ask the guys.

W the proverbial F? Are the green glass bowls weird? Do you fear them? Would you be hesitant to fill one with cereal? If you’re a guy, does the white bowl reinforce your manhood in some inexplicable manner?

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Liz
Liz
18 years ago

You have air conditioning? I’m jealous.

Stir Fry Kitty
18 years ago

I definitely like deeper bowls when eating anything that also includes liquid. I’m maybe not so crazy about the color or style of the green ones, but I’d still choose them over the white for the anti-spill factor.

Also, everytime I visit your blog and see pictures of Riley I think surely he must be the cutest baby ever had. Pretty much. At least until I have one of my own someday. But for now, definitely the cutest.

Sunshyn
18 years ago

What blubber? I wouldn’t eat out of either of those bowls, especially the green one — there’s just something about it. I’d use it as a candy dish, though. We have Corelle (just try and break it — my mom did, and she had to throw that plate down THREE times in order to get it to break in half!). My boys would eat cereal out of a medium Rubbermaid container. A Cool Whip tub works nicely, too…

KJ
KJ
18 years ago

The Main Squeeze has voted and says that “you should never put milk in bowls that you can see through. it’s just weird.” so he’d agree with JB that the green bowl isn’t something that should be used for cereal. We both like the shape and “portion size” of the green bowl, but the see-through green-ness speaks more to salads (fruit, veggie, jell-o) and dribbly desserts than Froot Loops and Cap’n Cruch. Worthy to note that it’d be the same feeling if the bowl were seethrough blue, or red (egad!) or tan or anything else.

LOVE the shot of the little dude peeking around the couch.

Emily
Emily
18 years ago

I almost bought one of those green bowls for use as an ashtray at a barbecue. I don’t think they’re “weird”, but they don’t strike me as cereal bowls. They really remind me of candy dishes my grandpa had.

On another note, Riley is absolutely too cute for words. My fiance always knows when I’m looking at your site, because I start making playing-with-a-baby noises.

MRW
MRW
18 years ago

Well I tend to like deeper bowls, so I’d vote for the green, except that lately I’m on a use-the-shallower-bowls kick because I realized we were using our deep bowls for everything and that meant we filled up our dishwasher like every two days. We are a family of three – it just seemed ridiculous to be running the damned dishwasher every other day. Finally, realized it was the bowls. Sure, they are a pleasing depth etc, but damn do they take up room.

Also, here in Oregon it was hot as hell this week-end and I came to work this morning to an email from the building administrating telling us the cooling system had gone out over the week-end. It’s about 90 degrees in my office. I’m giving them until 10:00 to fix it and then I’m going home. We are just not prepared to handle nasty heat in the NW. Make it stop…

Wendi
18 years ago

I just asked my husband and he immediately agreed with JB. He doesn’t like the fact that they are green, and that they are clear glass.

Personally I think the green bowl is very cool, although it doesn’t look like a cereal bowl (I thought of a salad when I saw it). I *love* the depth…and I would probably eat too much cereal from it as well. LOL

Zoot
Zoot
18 years ago

I will say this: The green bowl is too small to survive cereal feasts in my home. Our bowls are bigger than the green one, therefore the white one is weird to me b/c it seems so SMALL.

SalGal
SalGal
18 years ago

I gotta go with Claudia. While I like the green bowl, I wouldn’t want to eat cereal out of it for fear it would make the milk look green. But, what do I know? We registered for this really cool set of dishes when we got married and the bowls, while attractive, are borderline useless b/c they have this wide flat rim that sticks out about an inch from the bowl. (Does that make sense? It looks just like this – only smaller http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000CCY2G/103-5130117-6267817) They are easy to hold and carry but impossible to slurp milk out of. We eat cereal out of oversized coffee mugs . . .

Dana
Dana
18 years ago

I think the green bowl less attractive than the white one, but, when preparing to eat cereal, I would go with the green. The white bowl isn’t deep enough and my milk will go all over the place in that thing. The white bowl is the martini glass of cereal bowls, if you ask me.

Dana
Dana
18 years ago

Oh, and also, now I know why you guys are so thin out there. The green bowl holds TOO MUCH CEREAL? What are you, nuts?! I eat about four times the amount of cereal that the green bowl holds for a snack! Geez Louise, JB’s quite a pansy, huh?

Cara
Cara
18 years ago

Sorry but I have to side with the man this time. The green bowl is just not ceral friendly. The white one is much more user friendly for the ceral. The green bowl has its uses. Think of it this way the green bowl is SQL, surely you would rather use access for a smaller project! Ok … don’t listen to that analogy, heres a better one, it is too deep. Even putting less ceral in it, the spoon won’t set right.
Riley is getting so big! He’s beautiful! I am sure he will eat ceral from the green bowls!

Megan
18 years ago

Comments from my fiance: “The green one looks better for salsa and reheating macaroni. The other one is the right shape for cereal.”

Then, upon sending him the link (I didn’t want to bias his results so I just emailed the picture with no explanation) he said: “He’s right, I wouldn’t put cereal in those. I don’t want a clear cereal bowl. Nobody needs to see an underwater view of soggy corn flakes.”

Mimi
Mimi
18 years ago

Bowls are mostly for wet foods.

Wet foods spill.

Therefore, depth and tall edges are exactly what make a bowl a “good” bowl.

I think JB’s real problem might come with the color. Green is not a color normally associated with grown-up cereals (I know, it’s a big assumption on my part to think JB is past the fruitloop stage) – but if they were white or clear, but the same size/shape – I bet it would have taken at least twice as long for him to notice.

Personally, I’d chose the green bowls you have over the white ones any day of the week and twice on Sundays.

Gabriel
Gabriel
18 years ago

The green bowl is strange and off-putting. The white bowl looks like a candy dish, but at it doesn’t seem too odd to have cereal in it. Someone eating cereal out of the green bowl, on the other hand, would seem like a displaced scene from Harold & Maude.

kali
kali
18 years ago

oh bosh. a bowl is a bowl. functionality is key, and the green one is safer to eat out of. sloppage, as said how many times before.
and seriously. it’s a bowl.

kali
kali
18 years ago

oh yea, and also, FANTASTIC idea with the rootbeer cubes. my mouth waters even now, just thinking of it. mmmmm.

CartwheelsAtMidnight
18 years ago

Green Bowl = Perfect

White Bowl = Too Shallow and not Cerealy

(Shut up. That’s a word.)

AmyW
AmyW
18 years ago

I love the pictures of Riley!! Esp. the one of him peeking around the sofa. SO CUTE!!!

I am with Zoot in the white bowl seeming small. I don’t think I could put cereal in the green bowl b/c it is GREEN. I foresee salad in the green bowls, fruit in the white bowls, and new bowls for cereal. :)

Stephanie
18 years ago

A bowl is a bowl is a bowl… but I will say, I’ve always thought bigger is better to keep my cereal from jumping out the side. I have a certain way I like to dunk my cereal before I take a bite and well, bigger is better is all I’m saying. But my husband, being a man and all, would probably have some weird reason for choosing one over the other. But this is the man that doesn’t like a certain ice cream place in town because they give him too much ice cream. Too much ice cream? huh? I didn’t know that was possible.

Gregg
Gregg
18 years ago

I couldnt agree more with JB. I would borderline refuse to eat from the green bowls

Pagne
18 years ago

As a gal who hangs out with guys too much, I have to agree with JB. That green bowl threatens the “man” in me, I’m scared we might have to talk about our “feelings” after I eat from that. When I look at that bowl, I think “Flowers (or potpourri mix) go in there and not food.” It’s not that it’s too huge, the cereal bowls I prefer are twice that size with thick porcelain walls and weigh about 500lbs each. The other white bowl is still a bit frilly, but it’s definitely the “prefered” choice from the two.

disclaimer: I’m can’t say I’m a bowl expert from the girly sense, when I go backpacking I bring a titanium bowl that honestly looks like a DOG food bowl – but I love the stupid thing.

Gosh, I’m so happy for you that Riley is finally showing appreciation for your loss of brain cells from blowing up that thing. His brow furrowing skill is unbeatable.

KD
KD
18 years ago

I would prefer the green bowl, for it’s depth. I hate a wide, shallow bowl.

Niki
Niki
18 years ago

I’m going to agree with HollowSquirrel, Michelle and KJ here…texture and the lack of opacity are both at issue.

It would skeeve me out a bit to eat cereal with the green bowl, or anything that I had to use a spoon with. In scooping up the last of the milk, my spoon would scrape against the ridges, and I’d cringe.

It’s hard to tell, also, what the, er, sound would be. If it’s glass instead of ceramic (or, china, or whatever), that’d also stress me out. Bumping a metal spoon against a glass bowl would get to me. I think it’s that, the glass-ness, which makes people thing ‘fancy’ (or, ‘candy dish’).

It really depends on what aspect of the bowl you pay attention to. (And clearly, some folks are willing to eat cereal from anything that’ll hold the milk in.) Personally, I’m all about deep bowls; the practically would outweigh the aesthetics. So if you forced me to choose between the two, I’d take the green. The shallower bowl seems good for…um…well, a small snack, really. (Though maybe I’m misreading the scale of the bowls and they’re both larger than they seem?)

S
S
18 years ago

I love deep bowls for cereal…but I am a girl and therefore understand that my opinion doesn’t matter much here. I think the translucence of the green bowl would throw me off though, cereal belongs in non-see through bowls as far as I’m concerned.

Christy
Christy
18 years ago

Seriously, who knew that a question about bowls would become a hot controversial topic? “Too green!” “Too glass!” “Too 70’s!” “Not pure enough!” and my favorite, “too underwear view!” I would love to make fun of you all, but I totally understand because I, too, am a freak. Linda, *I* love those bowls and I would totally eat cereal out of them – and I would totally spill milk out of the shorter bowl. Mornings are not for, you know, paying attention to things like keeping a bowl UPRIGHT, but rather for coffee and stubbing one’s toes.

Lesley
Lesley
18 years ago

I’m with JB, only for me it’s the colour. I couldn’t eat food out of something wholly green. I have sheer glass bowls that have leaves embossed on them and have no trouble eating of those.

Amy
Amy
18 years ago

I totally love the green bowl. I eat cheerios with a banana cut in there also and always end up filling the bowl up with too much milk and cheerios always spill over the sides and on the floor. My husband is always finding wayward cheereos everywhere. So, I eat out of my own special deep bowl and have solved the wayward cheerio issue.

P.S. – for the life of me, I don’t know if it’s cheereos or cheerios! I’ve been eating this cereal all of my life.

P.S.S. – My husband, the guy, is totally for the deeper bowl also.

kristiface
18 years ago

The dimensions of the green bowl are IDEAL for cereal in my opinion (both Jared and I use target bowls of similar proportions for our cereal eating. I think, however, that it’s the colored, ridged glass that might be throwing him off. They seem more like candy bowls, dessert bowls or something else along those lines.

veralynn
18 years ago

One more vote for deep bowls over shallow due to potential spillage. I freak a little when I go to my mom’s because their bowls are super-shallow (and she’s super-anal *cough*) so I would rather eat cereal out of a tupperware container than their shallow bowls.

When my ex-hub and I were picking out our dishes we had to get ones with a plain (preferably white) center, even if there was a design on the rim, because designs and/or colors with his food were really unappealing to him. Ask if he’d feel the same were the bowl clear.

LLL
LLL
18 years ago

I like the green bowls, they are more attractive and stylish, whithour being fancy. I forced my husband to look at them too. His man-perspective was that the green bowls were better becuase the hold more cereal, he says he hates wimpy bowls that must be filled up more than once. JB likes wimpy bowls – something must be wrong with his manhood. My husband didnt think the greens ones were fancy, he described them as “forresty” not sure exactly what that meant, but he thought the white ones were more girly as the swirling inside looked like “flowers”. Hey – its the oxymoron of man-logic….

Shana
Shana
18 years ago

I dislike the green bowls, sorry. I like the white bowls better for cereal but I honestly don’t like them much either.

Now Riley, he’s good enough to eat. :)

Donna
Donna
18 years ago

to me it seems that the green bowl, although my favorite color would make the milk green and funky looking, as well as looking like it is textured on the outside, and I wouldn’t like that.

Lisa
Lisa
18 years ago

personally, i would MUCH prefer eating my cereal out of the green glass bowl (not that there is anything wrong with the white bowl at all). the green bowl looks like it would be perfect to balance in my hand as i sit on the sofa and eat my cereal while watching tv (which is (pathetically, where i eat most of my meals).

fifi
fifi
18 years ago

Hmm, I’d use the green bowls for fruit salad. use the white ones for cereal. Does that make me masculine? Hope not!!

Marie
Marie
18 years ago

I would choose the green bowl. I think the white bowl is too shallow for cereal.

Dawna
Dawna
18 years ago

I’m not a huge fan of either bowl (sorry), but if I had to choose, I’d pick the green one because it would hold more cereal -_-

stormy
stormy
18 years ago

my hubby says, “green bowl, it holds more cereal”. heh. men.

kalisah
18 years ago

I much prefer a deep bowl than a wide bowl for soup or cereal. As a woman and a mom, I imagine that relates to less spillage which equals less mess for me to clean.

Janet
Janet
18 years ago

I just asked my husband, without telling him why, to tell me which bowl he would eat cereal from. His vote is for the green bowl. He says the white one is too shallow and wouldn’t hold enough cereal!

Jem
Jem
18 years ago

I’d also prefer the white bowl – I don’t like liquids out of unnaturally coloured bowls. God I’m strange.

Jen
Jen
18 years ago

I think it is funny as all get out that 91 people so far have an opinion on this and that there is a surprising amount of people who maintain that its about the fact that the green bowl is see through and the milk is opaque.

Personally I like the deep green one as the milk to cereal ratio is quite good and I would be able to have enough milk in there for TWO bowls. But then again, I maintain that cereal is a dinner food, so what the hell do I know?

Carl
Carl
18 years ago

As a bonafide male person I have to agree with JB. I would go for the white bowl for cereal every time. Sadly I don’t think that I can give a rational reason for it…

-c

Mimi
Mimi
18 years ago

I replied earlier, but just had my husband look at them and he picked the white one immediately. When I asked why, he pulled a face and said he didn’t know why, but he just doesn’t like the green one.

Yet another fascinating sociological experiment by Linda!

Christine
Christine
18 years ago

My husband eats all bowl-appropriate food out of enourmous white round coffee cups with handles–the type intended for a latte or such. Cereal, soup, ice cream, you name it. You can find them at Pier One or Cost Plus-type stores. Give one a try.

Donna
Donna
18 years ago

You know, at this point, you really need to do some kind of serious study on this. Not, as we might think, the bowl color, but instead, why we are all so opinionated about this. Jeeze, this is like the most comments ever, and on something as obscure as the color of your cereal bowl. There must be some kind of social import pertaining to all this.
*sorry, I just went out to dinner and am a little buzzed from drinks and tend to pontificatedue to the buzz*.

Amanda
18 years ago

My brother thinks that the clanging sound of spoon on green glass would not be right, whereas with the white ceramic one, the sound would be more pleasing in the morning.

My husband is not capable of putting food into or onto correctly sized dishes. His food is always falling off the edge of the plates, and his soup spashing out of too-small containers. Right now he is sitting on the floor in front of the tv eating an enourmous piece of lasagna off of a teacup saucer. So I’m not asking him about your green bowl.

Brad
Brad
18 years ago

The green bowl clearly has an atypical aspect ratio. It is too deep for the small diameter of both the rim and bottom. Also the sides are too strait. they should be rounder.

Jennifer
Jennifer
18 years ago

The Walrus eats cereal out of a KitchenAid mixing bowl, so the green bowls are totally normal and socially acceptable to me.

Kate
18 years ago

Sorry, I have to agree with your husband.
The green bowl is way too weird to eat cereal out of. You’d have to fill it, like, only half way, and dip your spoon in really deep…
Yeah.
The white bowl all the way! :P