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Since today is St. Patrick's Day, why not celebrate by gathering the kids in the kitchen and whipping up a loaf of traditional Irish brown soda bread? It's so easy to make—and so good—that I bet you'll find yourself making it more than just on March 17.

This dense, moist bread gets its leavening from baking soda and buttermilk, hence the name. I happen to like the brown kind, made with whole wheat flour, the best, but you're welcome to use all white flour if you so choose.

After over a month of happily swimming around his little tank—and eating all his fellow tankmates in the process—our lone surviving Aquasaur has finally shuffled off this mortal coil to the great vernal pool in the sky. He had a pretty good run, I guess. Most triops have a lifespan of between 14 and 50 days, so our guy was pretty much smack in the middle. Some Methuselahs of the triops world have been known to kick around for up to 90 days or so, but this one wasn't one of them. Regardless, they're not exactly the pets for those who get overly attached. They are, however, ideal for those who are afraid of long-term pet committment.

He was kind of gross, but he was ours, and we all miss him in a way—that is until we grow another batch of Aquasaurs with the rest of the eggs included in our kit by the generous Uncle Milton. Farewell, Aquasaur!

While there are a lot of parenting books out there, I haven't found too many that I really like—until now. Pregnant: a Field Guide to Fathering (134 pages, $10.95), by Marin County father and author Gary Kleiman, is exactly the parenting book I wish would have written. It's funny, comforting, useful, and profound, and if you're a hands-on, inquisitive dad or a dad to be, it should be required reading. (I only wish that Gary published it six years ago so I had it when my first child was born.)

Pregnant: A Field Guide to Fathering is divided into two sections. The first, "Getting Daddy Ready," deals with the preparations for parenthood that every father-to-be experiences, and offers sage advice on mentally and emotionally preparing yourself for your new role, as well as supporting the mother-to-be. The second section is titled "Field Guide to Your Child," and is relevant to parenting children of all ages. It features discourses on such topics as the finer points of choosing a diaper, crying and how to live with it, what to do when your child decided she wants a pet, the joy of undertaking art projects at home, and much more.

Some additional photos from Fort Point's annual Civil War Living History Days, January 30, 2010.

It's taking place again today until 2 pm at Fort Point in San Francisco, located just under the south end of the Golden Gate Bridge.

When last we checked in our formerly dehydrated Devonian friends, the Aquasaurs, a large number of them were swimming merrily around their small plastic tank.They were all either larvae—almost invisible to the naked eye—or babies back then, in what was to be in hindsight a better time. You can see (barely) three of the baby aquasaurs in the photo to the left. OK, it's an extremely craptacular photo, but the lighting and reflections from the tank make focusing and metering hard. And I guess a good macro lens for my Canon DSLR would be a great help, too (my birthday's coming up soon… hint, hint).

On cruddy, rainy, windy days like this, everyone loves a steaming cup of hot chocolate. It's a comforting way to warm up, and a nice treat for kids and grownups alike. Out of those little packets of Swiss Miss that hang out in the back of your kitchen cupboard (or used to)? Don't worry—making hot chocolate from scratch is way easier than it sounds, and uses only a few simple ingredients. In fact, we actually tried out a few different recipes in our kitchen as we searched for the best hot chocolate ever.

Did you know that chocolate, in its first form, was consumed as a drink? Spanish conquistador Cortés found chocolate being consumed at the court of Aztec emperor Moctezuma, and the Aztecs in turn adopted the custom of drinking chocoloate from their Maya neighbors to the south. The big difference was that the native Mexicans drank their chocolate cold, mixed with cornmeal and flavored with various herbs and hot chilis.

Today I got the call: "Daddy! There are all kinds of little baby Aquasaurs swimming around in the tank!" (In case you don't know, Aquasaurs are a kind of rehydratable insta-pet kind of prehistoric tadpole shrimp critters that you can raise as a science project. Like Sea Monkeys, but bigger and scarier and cruising the Earth since the Devonian period 350 million years ago. My son got some for Christmas. Get the scoop in my previous Aquasaur post here.)

Check out the fantastic short animated film Alma, which, as the title of this post suggests, concerns a creepy doll shop. The visuals are really amazing, and it's been described as a "Equal parts Pixar and The Twilight Zone." In fact, It's an independent film written and directed by Pixar animator Rodrigo Blaas, who took time off to make Alma in his native Spain.

I won't write any more about it—you'll just have to watch and find out what happens. Apparently it will only be viewable on the Web for a short while, so watch it while you can. You can view the film here, after the jump.