Huh.

I'm waffling between being fascinated and horrified by this. I think I'll eventually land on horrified. I mean, what a terrible thing to do to a good book. And who really wants an awful book taking up space in one's home? But right now, I'm enjoying browsing the site and imagining just the right recipient for various books.... I really like the cover design on this one (and I think I know the person I would give it to, as well):


Speaking of books, have recently finished Only Approved Indians, Jack Forbes. (Short stories) Meh. Some of it is good, but somewhat repetitive-not surprising? I guess maybe especially if you already have considered some of the concepts/issues brought up. So maybe a good primer for someone just starting to delve into Indian issues? Well-written, though. Maybe I just shouldn't have read it straight through.

Also read Trans-sister Radio, Bohjalian. Again, meh. Such bitty baby steps to talk about (in a slow-moving novel with mostly likable characters) some of the issues an M2F transsexual in transition might encounter. Not altogether an unpleasant way to spend an afternoon, but nothing too special, either. But again, it seems written expressly to avoid shocking. Maybe that's the point, and perhaps that's its strength. Still, I can't imagine someone with really conservative views picking the book up and giving its ideas a good listen-to. I had heard good things about the author, so was a bit disappointed. Maybe I'll give hum one more try.

Having a better time with A Fabricated Mexican, Rick Rivera, which is also a collection of short stories, and has a bit more detail, personality, and punch.

Have also been hitting the SF bookshelf at Project Gutenberg, which is great for cheesy SF you would otherwise come across only in a used book store or library sale.

I'll be away from the computer for a while during the holidays, living in RL pretty much exclusively. See you in the new year!

Cats and trees

Here's a site I found years ago, but was thinking of again, as I browsed the Drs. Foster and Smith site looking at cat trees. The basic, mass market trees are so expensive, and I don't find them very aesthetically pleasing, for the most part. But these people have created an original, whimsical and in many ways beautiful home full of what is basically primitive (in the sense of untrained) art that is also cat-welcoming, and fun. Some day, if I get to tinkering, something similar might happen at our house. Or something like what Smith Industries does with natural trees for catteries.

Good night, bike!

We have put the bikes to bed for the winter, as I do not fancy riding on ice or snow. I have, however, managed to walk to work instead of driving a few days lately. It's cold walking in the dark, but I think sometimes it's even safer to walk than to drive, when there is ice, or that not-quite-slushy snow that is really granular and slidey.

Here are some fun bikes I recently came across, trying to find out more about Schwinn e-bike dealers in the US.

Giant Electric Bikes. Just very chrome-y cool.

Xtracycle Sports Utility Bikes. Do the shopping. Bring along the kids.

Baksfiet Cargo bike. The Dutch solution for shopping with kids.

ZEM. The swiss solution for bringing the whole damn family along. C'mon, wouldn't you rather see Ahnold and Maria in this than in the H-bomb?

Very cool new bike shop in the wrong part of the country for me!

Those of you who follow activist art probably already know about this one. Canadian artist Michel de Broin gets arrested for driving his motorless artwork/car in Toronto... apparently by a cop who called in a backup patrol of bike police! This trial should be fun to follow.

Mmmm

Sitting here surfing, eating soft-boiled eggs and toast and drinking coffee. Four layers of clothes, snow bonnet, extra socks, blanket and kitty. It's finally snapped cold this weekend, but I'm feeling pretty cozy. I'm trying not to keep being a greedy American, cranking up the heat every time I start to feel chilled. Hence the polartec hat. Seems to work pretty well. Yesterday, I was hatless, but decided I would get up off the couch and clean something every time I got cold enough to wish for more heat. I got a lot done! Plus, there was sunshine! yay.

Soft-boiled eggs are comfort food for me, but not one I wish for often. My mom used to make them for me if I were home sick. But every now and then, I get a yen for them. Even so, I rarely make them, since I am very particular about what the 'right' degree of done is. And I usually get it wrong, so then it's more of a disappointment than a comfort. Today, LP decided hu wanted soft-boiled eggs, so it was a marginal risk to tag along, I guess. Now, hu said hu had figured out the perfect time/method for soft-boiled eggs. And I know hu likes them way more runny than I can stand. Basically, according to hum, the yolk must be completely liquid. For me, there should only be enough liquid yolk to barely coat the firm whites when you put it all in a little bowl and chop it up to eat with a spoon (which is The Best Way to eat a 'sick' egg). It's good if there is some yolk that is not hard, but not liquid either. So, I put my eggs in with hus (at boiling, which is not the way I learned, but as mentioned above, I stink at this, so why not go with the flow?) and left them 2 minutes longer. 2 'large' (but these were on the small side for large eggs...) eggs, in at boiling, for 6.25 minutes, then run under cold water enough to handle, peel, chop, salt and pepper, whole wheat toast, mmm.

I'm writing this down so I don't forget!

testing

Hi. I''m about to start fiddling around with some widgets here. Please tell me if they are annoying. And, yes, I understand they won't make up for lack of content. But, I'm still playing by the " if you don't have something nice to say" rule. So.

In Very Exciting News, we moved stripey cat's litter box out of the bedroom today. And she has been sitting near or on us off and on throughout the day. And she just had a very nummy dinner. Ours, less so. Enh.

Edited to add: meh, nevermind. *I* don't like the look of the widgets I thought I wanted, They're much bigger than I thought. Anyone have a good source for teetiny widgets?

So much to think about

But not much to blog on, I'm afraid. Most of my musings of late stem from meeting new people, and not really 'getting' them. I wouldn't mind having your input, but I'm not sure it's right to blog about other people if you don't have something nice to say....

It's not so much that I have not-nice things to say, it's just clear that a number of recent contacts of mine and I are not on the same page for a number of items, and I don't want to be judgmental, but deep down I think: I am, oh, I am. So, better just to let folks have the room they need to do things the way they want/need to. Right? But, wow, it never ceases to amaze me how different we all are out there in the world, despite also sharing many dreams/experiences. So here's me, trying to let people be. Because I really hope they'll do the same for me. doo de doo...

KTD minus 2. Wednesday is the big Kitty Transfer Day. I picked up extra litter, lint rollers, litter box liners, and baby wipes for the new/old kitty people. I still need to pick up food. I wish I could buy a vet subscription for them to make the first year check-ups and all less onerous. Does anyone know how to do that? I was recently in a financial class where the teacher said absolutely do NOT buy pet insurance: as things stand now, there is not enough competition between animal insurers, so they don't have to worry about establishing good stats, like say, low number of policies dropped after claims made.... So anyone have any other ideas?

Hibernate

ZZZZZ
Every year, I do this. It's ok, I just slow down in general for the next few months. This is the first time my work cycle has lined up with my body's cycle, though, so I will discover how that feels. Maybe it's good not to have to fight for more energy, maybe having something you have to get jazzed up for was good. I don't know. I do know I just generally feel pretty low energy this time of year. yawn.

Here are a couple more photos from the fall safari (That will be all I will post of them, since they seem to take a while to load):


I took the horsey shot (super zoom) for my nephew, then forgot to send it.

The grass is *still* green, even now that the leaves are gone.

Look at the great scar in the trunk of the tree in the foreground.

A forest path.

I think it's interesting that the BBC and CNN news sites had conflicting stories run about women, fat and cancer on the same day earlier this week. And I might blog about it if I weren't hibernating. Or I might blog about Sarkozy's visit to congress, freedom fries, and what it takes for a French president to 'connect' with Americans and why that makes me sad. Or I might blog about how I am taking a 4-day weekend (yay, need it).

Or I might tell you how I had a chance recently to visit a windmill/electric power creating place and how that was so cool (I have pictures, but I'm not sure they're worth sharing...we'll see.)

Or I might tell you about how I am trying to get ready to give back a loaner/refugee kitty we have housed for the last two years, since the real kitty mama can now do the parenting. Trade-back date is Thanksgiving week, and there are kids involved, so the kitty must go home. But she really is a sweety-pie, and I will miss her. But not stripey kitty. Stripey kitty will not miss her. at all.
g'nite!

A treat, a treat!

So here are some of the photos I took on that safari I was telling you about. Not really sure how to present them, but having trouble narrowing the choice down. So let me start with some close-ups today, and I will post some of the mid and long views another day. Most of the leaves are gone now.














Also a couple of links:

For an easy way to help fund free mammograms, (free to you, too),

.

For an easy and fun way to donate rice, grain by grain, play Free Rice vocabulary challenge. It's a wee bit addictive so watch out! Thanks to the folks on the boards over at CHE for this one.

And for those of you who are happy only with extreme cuteness, may I recommend the Itty Bitty Kitty Committee for some really wonderful kitten photography? (via Cute Overload)

RBOC Monday

• We got rid of all the beets. People lined up for 'em. I swear! Only kept one four-pound beet for us. Had to toss 2 beets b/c suspicious gouges out of them. Shovel mark? Rodent mark? We finally roasted our beet tonight and ate part of it in a salad.
• Also cooked lasagna, one whole small sugar pumpkin (couldn't cut it raw! We'll see how that turns out...) some other squash and a huge sweet potato. Cause, hey, once the oven's on, you might as well bake something, right? So we're covered for non-green veggies for the week, I think. Which is good, b/c we are both apparently feeling lazy about cooking and cleaning these days.
• Our neighbor found hus cat who had come home to the yard to die. I am very sad for hum.
• Apparently, in order to move to limit non-custodial parental visitation to the supervised kind in some states, the parent has to have physically hurt the child, not a current partner, and not a household animal. This is sick.
• Today, I watched a tree crew cut down and chip an entire ginormous dead tree. I know with some tree sicknesses you can't reuse the wood, but this was really hard to watch, even though the tree was already dead long ago. I just kept thinking, well *that* 4 foot diameter part of the trunk is gorgeous, surely they'll keep *that* part. And then, they would slice it up with their huge chainsaws and huck it into the chipper. This tree could have provided wood for a small household of furniture. Or many days of heating. I don't know where it will go. Where do infected wood chips go? Anyone?
• This also added to the regular construction noises we have been listening to at work for the last few months.
• Listening to music really loud on earphones doesn't really make the other noise go away. You just have loud music and construction noise together.
• I went out on a photo safari yesterday, and found out I now suck pretty badly at taking pictures. (I don't think I used to.) In my defense, it is hard to frame a shot when the ambient sunlight keeps you from being able to see more than vague outlines on the back display screen thingy. I guess practice and editing (choosing of shots, not necessarily editing the shots themselves) would help. It was a fun thing to do, in any case. I might show you one of the better shots later this week, if I have the energy to upload anything. And I might try again.
• Been reading a bit more lately, since work is less consuming this season. Sucktastic: Ex Libris. Decent plot and awesome characters, but too much lovin': The Changeling of Finnistuath. Pretty Good: Flora's Suitcase, and Paul Park's A Princess of Roumania trilogy, although dude, where did the plot go in the third book, and did you know your antagonist took over like the last umpty-ump pages of this story? Without really doing anything? Rein that puppeh back in.

That is all.

Holy Cow

That's a lot of beets!

We have a neighbor who is friends with a local farmer, who occasionally drops off excess produce. Most of it, they use, and happily. The beets, not so much. This is where we come in. We love beets. But, 40 pounds?!? And some of these suckers are almost as big as my head.

Well, my work is cut out for me. Last time, I'd guess we had maybe fifteen lbs. to dispatch. We had borscht, we had salads, we had beets in vinegar, we had vegetable soup with beets. All we could eat for about 2 weeks, until they were coming out our ears, and then there were still a couple that made it into the trash when we could eat no more and they had sat a respectable time in the fridge....

So, holy cow. What do I do? I guess tomorrow, I'll make the rounds of office workers and neighbors, to see if anyone else likes beets, although I'm doubtful I'll find anyone with as much commitment as us. Still, waste not, want not, right?

Wish me luck, and send your favorite beet recipes!

MIT's cool solar house

So here is a short blog action post about the environment:
As you know, I've been geeking out, following the Solar Decathlon (see links below) this week and last. MIT's team has made a house that is specifically designed for weather typical of the Northeast. So, yes, that's an entirely solar house that runs through the snowy winter, for those of you who think it isn't possible.

To meet decathlon requirements, the house must be "powered exclusively by the sun.... attractive and easy to live in. They must maintain a comfortable temperature, provide attractive and adequate lighting, power household appliances for cooking and cleaning, power home electronics, and provide hot water. These houses must also power an electric vehicle to meet household transportation needs." Sounds pretty good to me.

Here is the MIT team site, with CAD models.
Here is the page with photo tours of the final build of each of the teams.
Here's the link to current scores and standings, which update frequently. (MIT's not doing so well as of this posting, but hey, that was an ambitious project.)
Here's the page for video tours. They're pretty short, yet took a while to download for me, so I'm going back to reading specs and checking out the pretty pictures.

I wish they held this competition every year, instead of every two! And I wish they would give me one of the houses to live in and blog about! They're so cute!

Offsetting Books

Huh.
Boy, we would be seriously in debt if we did this.

Faith in Humanity

http://torontoist.com/2007/08/you_give_me_fai.php


a) I would love to see if any of you have a good similar true story you would be willing to write up in similar form in the comments. And then I would keep them all and have faith in humanity.

b) failing this, I would like to see people invent good stories in the same vein and paste them around the world, send them in to newspapers, and take pictures of them, as a collaborative art project.

c) failing this, I would like to see Aunt B. (or hey, any of you creative writers!) write a play with this roll of characters, not necessarily about a bike accident: Larissa, Gus (?), Nurse with Ice Cream Cone, Man with Cell Phone, Woman from the Hacienda with Wet Towels.

Pleeez?

Solar Decathlon is this week!

Check it out. Most of the house exteriors are up and solar panels are getting installed. There are new pictures every day. There are also webcam views that hint at some pretty cool architecture: look at the first house on the right in the webcam shot facing the Washington memorial. Can't wait to see what it looks like finished!
/squee

Kitties and other

Today I took both kitties to the vet. I thought it was a good idea to schedule them for the same day. Maybe not so much. It's much harder to get two cats into carriers for an appointment than just one. And it also makes for an expensive visit. Tally: one ear infection, two shots, 'suspicious' signs of fleas, enough for the vet to want flea treatment, not enough for me to feel sure it's worth putting poison on the cats, but who am I to argue. And an unsatisfying answer to my question below about cats and toilets (see the comments for my previous questions). Sigh.

I haven't ridden the bike yet this week, and am not likely to tomorrow, given how crummy I still feel. Also not good. I just want to curl up and sleep, and not have to go to work. My boss is sweet, and suggests I take another day, but I feel guilty.

A while ago, a couple of friends and I started a support group for people moving into my area. It's a place that is wonderful, but isolating. The support group is large, but not being used much at all. I find this disheartening. I don't know why folks are so shy about reaching out, but I also don't want to hound people, so I don't. But I wish it would 'take off' and get some momentum. I feel like people are so insular. When people talk to me one-on-one, they mention how hard it is, but nobody seems to have the time? impetus? courage? to really make that effort to connect. I am the same way, much of the time, so I don't judge, but do wish things would magically improve.

Thanks for the photo!

Oh, and thanks to my good friend Pietro for the new title bar photo.

Bike Log

Biked three days to work this week. Stayed home one day, but ordered pizza, since too sick to shop/cook. So I won't count that fourth day. So we did better this week than the previous two.

Tag saled this a.m. Problem is, once something is junk to me, it pretty much is by everyone else's definition, too. Made enough to pay for the pizza we had earlier in the week. But, we haven't made much progress in decluttering, although our catsitter for last weekend reflected that the place seemed cleaner than it had in a while. If only it were still as clean now as it was then! Guests are coming tomorrow, and I still don't really have much energy to put into spiffying up the place. Sitting out in the sun at the tag sale was about my speed for today.

LP did get the trash out this morning, and did some dishes, but it's still pretty grim here. If only my mental level of acceptable clean matched what we are willing to do on a regular basis. Unfortunately, some of my mom's mad cleaning skills rubbed off on me, at least enough for me to feel ashamed when people actually see how we live. Not enough to really do the weekly cleaning to avoid that feeling, though. Sad.

Have been enjoying a book discussion on CHE recently, and now have a short list of books to look for next time at library. Am looking forward to having some leisure reading time this fall.

Cyber Car Trials in UK

How cool is this?
"A driverless car which is controlled by computer and uses lasers to avoid obstacles is being demonstrated in a Northamptonshire town.

Daventry is investigating ways to increase the use of public transport and reduce reliance on cars.

The town council believes the Cybercars, which are called by pressing a button on the route and go direct to their destination, could be the answer."

Also, have a look at this site if you are interested in supporting renewable energy and changing your lifestyle to prove it.

" Begin by learning about our four key action areas. Then use our MyWatts^TM Renewables Estimator to evaluate your own renewable energy potential. Finally, take action by changing behavior and adopting renewable energy technology."

Lastly, if you blog, think about how you might contribute to Blog Action Day on October 15.
"On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future."

Spread the word!

Sunday cat blogging

Hi. I have an important question. Sorry, no fun pictures. We are trying to be green, as you may have guessed with my recent posts on biking and car use. We also have cats. Two for now, maybe outsourcing one soonish. I just cleaned out the litter boxes. We have resolved to try to do this more often (we often make this resolution).

In any case, here's the deal: currently we use plastic bags from the market, but sometimes recently we get low on these, as we are trying to bring our own reusable bags. Someone recently suggested on CAP that folks use smaller bags from grocery purchases for this: bags from bread or other products, not the bag you put groceries in at the checkout. I like this idea, and I think it will work for us as we do unfortunately buy a number of processed foods that come in a plastic bag of one sort or another. And, it seems to me that if we clean the litter boxes more often, the size of the bags is less of an issue.

We have friends who use something like a diaper genie for cats to control odors once the box has been scooped. This seems like a great idea for apartment living, and hey, even in a house, who wants the place to smell like cat? But it doesn't seem very green. Currently our back porch is the stinky poop warehouse where scooped, bagged litter waits for the biweekly trash pick up. ew. So, we are going to try bagging the prizes and putting them in a big plastic container while they wait. But, I am still looking for a better way: less stinky, and greener. We currently use Arm and Hammer, which comes in a big, heavy weight cardboard box. We have tried greener litter, and the cats don't like it, plus the odor control is an issue, even with frequent scooping.

a) Is there a litter that is similar to Arm & Hammer Multi Cat, but that comes in a paper bag?
b) What do you know about other options for cat waste? I like the idea of the cat learning to use the toilet, but I've heard that in some states (CA?) this is illegal, for environmental reasons. What are those reasons? Is it better to go this route and thereby avoid the good/bad litter debate? Or would we just be polluting the sewage system by doing this?

Seems to me that training the cat to use the toilet would help us avoid having to use the plastic bags at all, help with the odor problem, help with the never-ending resolution to keep the boxes nicer for the cats. But. I don't want to be the person putting something toxic into the system, if it won't work with current sewage treatment methods....

Oh. yeah.

Rode my bike two days last week, one day this week. Driving too much this weekend. I suck.

The Princess and the Goblin

Recently on CHE forums, folks were discussing appropriate ages for reading certain types of books. Someone was asking whether they should tell a fairly conservative neighbor what exactly was in the book their 6th? grader was reading, and the general consensus was STFU. But, it got me thinking about stuff I read at various ages, and whether or not I felt I had been scarred. And, I generally thought 'not.' For example, I remember reading "Sophie's Choice" when my mom had, which must have been around fourth grade. There were just a lot of parts for which I had no reference, and therefore read through in a bit of a haze. Not the concentration camp part. I had been to Dachau with my family when I was 7. I knew about that. But, the sex and drugs? Not a clue what was happening there. And, although it's a terrible story, I don't think it hurt me to read it then. Although, and this was a point some folks made, I certainly didn't get out of it what I might have if I read it at a later age.

So, even more recently, I was browsing through a localish library site, and came upon some links to books you can check out digitally. I clicked through, and browsed for a while to see what type of books were available in ebook, audio book, etc., formats. And I came upon this.

Which is a book I must have read in 1st or 2nd grade, since I had recurring, well, not really nightmares, more like stress/anxiety dreams based on it for the next 6 or 7 years. Until about 7th grade, when I told someone out loud about it and they laughed. Okay, I told the story to my entire class after prompting from the teacher, and the teacher laughed and made several pointed jokes about it... but that's another story about a whole different kind of scarring. Maybe for another time. I knew the dreams were based on a book I had read, but I had long forgotten (even by 7th grade) which book that was, although I remembered the basic storyline. Now I know.

So, I am now re-reading it. Read along if you like. Beats me how the entire text can be online, and yet if you check out the digital book, there's DRM to deal with.... Mysteries of the technological age!

This just in...

Heat? Makes people cranky. Honestly. And, no. No, that is _not_ what crosswalks are _for_. (re: crossing traffic on a bike.) Really. Crosswalks are for teh pedestrians.

To do list update, since I know you are dying to know:
Biked over to the libraries (both) to return DVDs, and was able to carry maybe a third of the give-away books with me. Was yelled at by cranky lady as making a left turn in hairy traffic (well, ok, hairy for this town). Oh, wait, that wasn't on my to do list. huh. Well, I want credit for it anyway. Subtract health points for the ice cream I stopped for since it was so darned hot, and hey, I wouldn't want to get cranky, right? Called friend en route to stop by and take care of internet thingy, and friend-spouse put the kabosh on those plans, so we rescheduled.

Figured I had some extra time to burn, so rode down to the hardware store to see if they had any of these. They didn't, but said hey, the other hardware store (the one that is like 20 miles away) has them. Ughh, guess that project is not for today, as I was already farther out than I had planned. Picked up some allergy and headache medicine at the nearby drugstore, hit the bike shop on the way to the grocery store to see if they had a nut for my fender, which has been rattling around. They did. Yay, bike shop. Was screamed at by rowdy younguns out of passing car on way to store. (darn near had a heart attack, too. /shakes fist at bad young drivers/ Kids these days!) Stopped at grocery store for milk, veggies, yogurt and some quick fix basic dinner-like fare. Bumped into a friend who was surprised we were back in town (We _have_ been. For months. How sad a commentary is that on how low profile we have been this year?)

Oh, and did I mention that I 'found' a cool little doohickey/set of hooks on my back bike rack that means I can use a freebie bag I got recently as a sorta kinda pannier? Cool. Except I think I hurt the zipper on the bag by stuffing it so full at the store. Bummer.

Folks, please be nice to people on the road. Yelling makes it more dangerous for everyone involved. I know you're just frustrated/young & stupid, but I assume you would be even more inconvenienced if I ended up under your tires.

And so would I.

Bike v. car

Oh, forgot to say: biked to work 3 days out of 5 last week. (Trying to keep myself accountable here.) This weekend, drove a couple of hours (each way) for family visit, so 'undid' all the good biking I've done, and probably then some. On the up side, the car does get much better mileage long distance than on short in-town drives. Still.

Back in town with a summer cold (boo) as of Tuesday, home sleeping it away since then. Off this afternoon to go do errands on bike. Well, I'm hesitating.... could I get the extra books to a donation site today if I took the car? Well, maybe I'll set out on bike to do the first few items on my list, and then see. I'm not really sure how fit I feel after sleeping two days straight, anyhow. To do: help friend uninstall internet service; return DVDs to library; pick up milk and maybe something good to eat for dinner; take stacks of unwanted books to other library for book sale.

Mmmm, brownies!

Vacation, yay! Visited with family last weekend to kick things off. We had watermelon, an afternoon at the lake, general hanging out, and..... brownies! We brought brownies to the cookout, and since I thought one pan wouldn't be enough, we made two.

So I got to experiment. One made according to the recipe on the box. (You didn't think I'd make them from scratch, did you?) One made substituting apple sauce for the oil. Interesting. The applesauce not only changes the texture (rubbery), but affects the taste (less chocolatey). Too bad. So we were trying to imagine what would fix this. I think, cooking less long than the directions suggest would be a good start. And, I would add some chocolate/cacao to compensate.

So I stopped at the store on the way home and picked up two more boxes of the same mix. I'm such a scientist at heart, really. Has nothing to do with chocolate. And I made a batch two days ago. Not very brownie-like, but a yummy dessert! I put in a full cup of applesauce (that's 1/3 cup more than the oil required), about two cups of cocoa mix (a high end version, with cane sugar, cinnamon and a bit of chile), and cooked it at the same temp, but for only 21 minutes in a 9x11 pan. The body of the brownie has a better texture, and the very top layer is sticky, almost fondant-like. Very chocolatey! We ate them with a thick Greek yogurt that tastes a bit like fromage blanc. A little sugar on top of the yogurt made it even better the second night. So, not a great solution for a healthy brownie! But, a pretty yummy variant.

How about a living wage?

Does $400 a week sound good to you? How about $400 a week for a week of 14-hour days? With no health care?

hmmm. Didn't think so.

Hi there!

Sorry I've been MIA, but work got busy there for a while. And now I am just trying to switch gears back to normal. I've been trying to commute by bike* as much as possible, for one thing. 3 days two weeks ago, and 4 out of 5 last week. Mood: smug. Music: Bicycle race, Queen.

Neighbor's indoor kitty got out yesterday and was nowhere to be found. Today we went kitty-searching. Located her under a nearby building, but no dice: she was too freaked out to come out. And we honestly? probably made things scarier for her for a while. We called the local shelters and animal control to see if anyone had any advice, but also not much luck on that front. I made some suggestions, but the thing is, they have other indoor-only animals, so leaving the door open is not an option. I'm hoping they can lure her onto the porch in the next couple of days. In any case, please cross your paws.

I've been keeping up on blog reading if not writing. Laurie just made an amazing home improvement. And even though we already have wood floors, I still feel envious. I've been reading her tales of getting organized and decluttered, and it just makes me tired. Tired and envious. I did motivate enough to return some library books, and I made a pile of about 20 other books I could live without. And I vacuumed the front room for the first time in, oh, let's just not say. And I tried to watch the British show on nasty, dirty houses to get motivated, but all I could get was excerpts online. And the 20 books I sorted out? Have been sitting in a pile on that rug for the last week.

And, (re: blogs) does anyone know where Shrinky has gone?

Next week starts a quieter time in the office. For the next couple of months, all my projects are more nebulous and have a less specific due-date than what I've been working on for the last few months. I'm a little nervous about this, as it's not my best kind of operating atmosphere. I really need to get a project schedule in place, or I'm afraid I won't accomplish anything. I have a week to get myself organized, before I take a little comp time at the beginning of next month. Woohoo comp time!

* These people are so hard-core about biking to work, it shamed me into riding more this week. There's info about what kind of change of clothes to bring, biking in the dark, biking in the rain, panniers appropriate for carrying a laptop, getting back in shape to bike after getting hit by a truck.... you name it. I have no excuse. Really.

An old friend

Here's a neat website I had forgotten existed. A bunch of colleagues and I used to have all our office computers set to this as a home page. Then I moved and changed jobs, and didn't have computer access for a long time, and lo, I forgot.

The Hunger Site.

You click, they give money. That easy. And you can probably get some good fair trade holiday shopping done there, besides.

Friday cat blogging

Here is the little kitty playing with her toys.










Here is the stripey claw!


Cheeez!

And here is the big fluffy kitty lurking outside the little kitty's room, hoping for a chance to JUMP ON HER!!!!!


And here's a cheesy blogthing to boot:

The Movie Of Your Life Is An Indie Flick

You do things your own way - and it's made for colorful times. Your life hasn't turned out how anyone expected, thank goodness! If Your Life Was a Movie, What Genre Would It Be?

Oh, puhleez.

HP? Two chapters and an epilogue too long.

That is all.

Bicycles in Paris

This is so cool. Could it happen in a major city here? Seattle? Boston? Bueller?

Basically, the company that does bus stop shelters and the accompanying ads, as well as public toilets in Paris has just launched a community bike program. Yes, the bikes have ads all over them. But, now Paris has "20,000 heavy-duty bicycles in 750 or so special racks around the city and anyone who wants one simply swipes his or her ordinary travel card and pedals off wherever they want to go."

This was something that would never have happened with government funds, even in the land of lefty subsidies.

And in mostly unrelated un-news, here is one of my favorite de-motivators.

Vive la France!

Things look like things

For those of you interested in design and/or photography, I have a linkalicious entry for you today!

First, a blogger pick from a few days ago which I enjoyed browsing, despite some repetition of -cupcakes-, uh, I mean themes. The idea is to juxtapose unrelated photos which share a common element. Sometimes there is a story created, other times, not.

Then, Ianqui has links to hus photo archive, including hus 365 photos project. I was enjoying going through them a day or two ago. Many NYC shots, a good eye for urban shots as well as color and beauty shots. One of the things that stood out to me as I went back later and looked at some of the 365 project as a thumbnail 'collage' was that there is also some interesting work there on motion and shape, and I couldn't help (sans doute influenced by my recent visit to TLLT) but connect some of the photos with similar shapes or directions of movement to each other during my viewing. This was interesting to me, as the format allowed me to appreciate certain shots that hadn't caught my eye in slideshow format, and also because I enjoyed the alchemy of sorting photos together in my mind: sometimes a photo ends up being about something completely different, just because of what you put it next to. Fun!

Also recently blew a couple of hours poking around this site: Open Architecture Network. Really neat to see what at least a handful of architects and builders are up to around the world. Some of the projects are ho-hum, but some are pretty cool. Everything from straw bale cottages, to hurricane relief work, to hexayurts (ok, maybe just one), and balloon buildings. You can search by region, location, theme, degree of completion of project.

And I went window shopping online, to a number of fun, modern furnishings stores, led mostly by a link to easily buildable/unbuildable furniture that was pretty. (Thanks Treehugger!) Also check out Design Life Now, if you didn't already discover it a year ago, since the triennial was in 2006... Browsing by designers is fun, and can suck up a couple more hours of your life.

So there you go: now you have the weekend ahead of you. Enjoy!

Oh, and does anyone know how to cross out a word in a post?

Kitties-in-law

Friday cat blogging. Yay. Here are two of my kitties-in-law. Yep, the whole family is cat persons. The stripey cat in this picture is a torbi: that's a combination torti and tabby. Maybe you can see the sweet orange blaze on her forehead? I'll have to look for a better shot of that: it's very pretty. They are just recently full grown, and still very soft, and I don't get to visit them enough, but their people are thankfully much better than I am at taking pictures regularly.

Wait, that wasn't a _closet_ door!

It's a sad commentary on the lack of organization in my home that I was injured this morning while opening the freezer door. A leaping ice pack (among other volunteer items). Yup. I know: I too thought their purpose was to heal, not harm. Well, the square, hard type, not so much. Maybe they're more about leaping out of the freezer and going on a picnic. Bit me in the ankle, it did. So I put an ice pack on it....

Been walking around limping all day, but close inspection after first look showed I had not after all severed a major artery, just a vein, and that swelling and bruising and such, while indeed spectacular, did not warrant a trip to the emergency room. Because, even as I screamed "OW" in my head (funny, but I don't tend to do this out loud), I immediately thought: damn, now I am going to have to spend the day in the emergency room waiting for help. Because what doctor in their right mind would take this injury ahead of anything else, right? So, was v. glad to be able to stay at home and make some little progress on the crazy big 'to do' list. Laundry is on its way to the dryer. This is good, as my weekend ends tonight.

Found this while looking for a picture of the ice pack that bit me. I love some of these lifehack type sites. There's a parenthack site that's pretty good out there, for those of you w/little ones. I'll find it and link someday.

Friday cat blogging

In honor of Dr. Hussy and Arbitrista's new family member, I present my first very own Friday cat blog entry. This is our stripey baby. She's not really a baby anymore, since she is close on to 4 or five years. But, she still only weighs about 5.5-6 pounds, soaking wet with change in her pockets. Sorry for the bad pic. I'm not so much on the photo skilz. Hope you can see her sweet forward-reaching whiskers! Right now she is singing to me from the bedroom. (She's a very airy soprano 2.) Well, now she has stopped, as the fluffy cat has gone to check on things. Make sure they're under control, you know.

May I have a word?

Ooh. I would *so* go to this if I lived in Chicago. Just to spectate.

Out of the mouths of babes...

I attended a 9 year-old's birthday party yesterday. It was great fun. Many pink dresses were present, and much froufrou crafty activity and exclusion of little boys were done. Oh, the social structure of third grade... aie aie aie!

Anyway, we had a group of kids who were pretty into being active, once the craft activities were over. (a pleasant surprise) So we went for a bit if a nature walk. Little girl A saw some pretty flowers, so we approached to have a closer look.

Ahh, I say. I believe those are asters, and they are indeed quite pretty, don't you all think so? Little girl B says 'asters?' that's a funny name, why are they called that? Being an amateur linguist (and this girl is bilingual by the way, so I figure perhaps she'll find this interesting, even as a third grader...), I respond, well, it's because they look like stars, and that's where the word comes from, see: it's like the word blahblah in blahblah language....... And so we walk on, two beats of silence, and littlegirl B blurts:'it has the A-word in it!' Stunned silence and raised eyebrows of other adult chaperone, and I try not to trip as I reply, uhhh. yes. yes, it does. Well, it's not *really* that word, because it's spelled differently, but it sure sounds like it, huh? And the hike goes on.

It was a pretty entertaining day, all in all.

Friendship. And bread.

What could be better, right? Except that it's really a thinly disguised chain-letter-as-food. A friend brought me some recently (a slurpy-gross-looking ziploc bag full of starter, that is), and I let it sit on the counter for days without doing anything*. And by that I mean without either committing myself to throw it out, or to nurture, feed, and then cook it. I'm talking about "Amish Friendship Bread", dontcha know. If you've ever received a starter for this and are at all like me, you have also thought "must be named that because if they're still your friends after you gift it, well..."

Chain letters and bad email jokes sent out to long lists of people whose personal email address you never wanted to know.... wait a minute! MY address is on that group email list, too! humbug. It just doesn't seem like fun to me. And this starter thing? Reminds me way too much of those terrible predictions of d00m coming YOUR way soon if you don't do the right thing and pass it all along.

So. I was not so into this concept. And then, I caved. Well, the slurpy looking bag came along with a sample of the bread, which was indeed yummy (but. Amish?? really??) It's also really hard for me to throw away something that is food... something about Biafran waifs and children starving in Ethiopia. I know, I know...

I changed up the recipe a bit: less oil, more applesauce (Thanks, Moosewood!) add cardamom, etc. And then I set about finding 3 more victims uh, friends to whom to pass along the left over starter to. I did it. And they seemed pleased, strangely enough. Will wonders never cease? I even kept some starter so I can make coffee cake for the next office breakfast meeting. Then, that's it, I promise. And that means I "will have to wait until someone gives [me] one back."

At least it's better than having all my future plans come to dust! Cheers!

*Turns out this is exactly what you are supposed to do with the stuff...

Tomatoes, sage, strawberries and thyme!

Today I started my garden. It's a container garden. I have to laugh at myself: I have such a hard time waiting for the nights to get warm enough here, and then I go and plant stuff that will never, ever, really grow in this climate: tomatoes, eucalyptus (wtf!?), thyme, sage, strawberries. It's like I think that by planting them, I might cause there to be enough sunny days for them to grow. Climate change aside, it ain't happening!

The mint roots I had started to give up on coming back to life? When I started to hack them out, they smelled really good, so I left them in, just in case. Maybe they are a little wick, maybe I'm just imagining things. I don't think they'd smell that strongly if they were really all dried up and dead. I hope they are alive, because I'm really ashamed if I'm the only one in the world who can actually kill mint. But, maybe that's a marketable skill... I *did* overhear someone at the nursery asking about how to get rid of bamboo...

Boy, is it fun to dig in dirt! Oh, and there's a flowering plant a friend gave me last summer from her garden, which was supposed to come back, but wasn't and wasn't.... Today, I saw the first little sprouty pieces coming up from the old plant. Don't remember the name of the plant. Hmmm. Still need sweet potatoes and petunias. Also tried to plant some cuttings I have had sitting in water for many months. And some new ones as well, with a first attempt to use rooting hormone. Angel wing begonia (had this plant for 5 years before I knew what it was....Thank you teh internets!) and some housey plant thing, and a baby from the spider plant. Yeah, I'm a real horticulturist. What can I say?

Speaking of climate change: have recently discovered that with short short hair, I now can wash it quickly in sink. Am v. pleased to find a way to save water easily and also feel less guilty on the days I do take a long shower. Unforseen benefit. Yay.

Current Blogger Crush

Ok, here's my most recent blogger crush: Crazy Aunt Purl.
Even if you are not a knitter. (I am not, although I do really admire folks who make things.) She's funny. And, she's just published her first book. She blogs about her life, knitting, getting things together post-divorce, her cats, her garden adventures, her neighbors... Be prepared for it to be a major time sink if you read the comments: she gets hundreds per post, it seems like(unlike some people!). But, honestly? Her posts are usually the best part anyway. Except every now and then you come across a gem of a topic in the comments... Stuff you just don't see every day. I like the lightness of her voice.

Hold your breath

This weekend the second tour of the French presidential elections will take place. Hold your breath. This is an important one. Hopefully Sarkozy will not get the vote, as he has already begun dismantling many social programs as part of the current administration. In Bercy last week, he even said:
« Dans cette élection, il s'agit de savoir si l'héritage de mai 68 doit être perpétué ou s'il doit être liquidé une bonne fois pour toutes ».

Ouf. I predict major social upheaval if he 'wins'. Which he might. After all, apparently many of the new electronic voting machines (made by a company which supports him) have recently been 'updated.'

Mmmm

Well, I was going to do this really complex entry linking a bunch of things I've noticed lately, and including a handful of recent events. I woke up in the middle of the night with a perfect idea of how it would all fit together.... and didn't write it down, of course.

So this will now be a short review/list of things I have discovered to be good of late.

• Palapa Azul ice cream. Bought the coconut sorbet recently for LP (Lifetime Partner), who had a terrible sore throat. I don't know how it is though, since I didn't get to try any! However, today I brought home the Corn flavor. Wait, wait, it is reeeeally good. Reminds me of the frozen corn souffle my mom used to umm... defrost and heat? But in ice cream. Yum. texture is sort of like you would think: like a ice cream with some polenta or maizena in it. Here's the site, and a review, although still v. basic: site; Review
• Brett Dennen is what I'm listening to. Here's his myspace page, with some samples. His songs are naive and trite, and yet I am fascinated by his voice and guitar playing. And some of his trite lyrics are still somehow right-on. From Ain't No Reason, "You can spend your whole life working for something, just to have it taken away."
• And on that note, may I recommend the documentary One More River: The Deal That Split the Cree? short description And also, though I have not yet seen it, have heard it's good and recently met one of the main folks involved in the film Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action. So, check that one out, too, if you can find it.
  

Pet names

Ok, here's one I've been mulling over for a bit: recently, an acquaintance of ours adopted a new dog from a rescue group. They were told that it would not have been adopted in its region of the country (southeast), because.... it's a *black* dog. (Well, black and white, but the color mentioned as the problem was black, and it *is* mostly black.) Whatever. Hard to say if that's like black cats (a superstition thing) or a carry-over from human racist ideas, or just not practical in the heat.

*Then* I hear the dog's name is Kobe. Huh. So the friend is going, like maybe he likes beef, do you think? And I (cynical I) am thinking: why is it ok to name a dog after a basketball player? When the trait they share is coloring? So, after a while, I ask the adopter if hu is going to change the name when the dog comes home. And I say why I'm asking: mainly, if I ever have to walk that dog, I won't be calling it Kobe. And hu says, "omigosh I never thought it might be for that reason! But you know what? I have a friend at work whose dog is named Tiger, after the golfer, because (and here hu quotes hu's friend)"the dog is half white, half black, and half something else."

So, math aside, what do you know of this phenomenon, if it is one? Are sports players of color the only ones to be honored in this way? I never met a dog named after Joe Namath. We have often given our animals human names, but never after a specific human. I suppose I've seen names of philosophers and such, but never people who are alive, and never having the reason given to be the looks of the animal.

I don't like it.

Oh, and the dog's name did get changed.