Kleine Bär

None shall pass!

2011-03-15T08:01:00.000-07:00

In celebration of one and a half years of job searching.

Cheers!

Why should you learn French?

2011-01-09T08:08:00.000-08:00

(Edit: replaced first paragraph and link which mysteriously disappeared upon first publish.)
This one's for Arbi-everything-sounds-good-in-French-trista. I heard this on the radio yesterday, and had to find it. It's David Bowie's Space Oddity covered --in French-- by Lucien Midnight. Not just French, but Quebecois French. Which is like three or four kinds of awesome, right there.

Tangentially, it took me a while to find, so I also came across a great 1999 cover of same by Natalie Merchant (sorry, but it's in English!):

But, even more interestingly, how, HOW?! did I teach foreign language classes for so many years without realizing that ABBA actually had French, Spanish and German versions of most of their own songs?!?!
I'm picturing language lab exercises, class dance-offs in costume and 70's hair....so many possibilities...

Who actually has access to the internet?

2010-11-16T08:36:00.000-08:00

Here's an interesting recent report on internet access in the US.

On page 9, there's an executive summary listing the main findings of the report. But the graphs and tables further on are worth scrolling down to.

In short: findings show that internet access correlates with education levels, income levels, race and ethnicity, geography, rurality of location, and disability of potential internet users. No big surprises, but for those of you who live on the internet, a good reminder that much of the world does not.

If you are interested in world-wide statistics on internet access, look here.

Learn to Sing Harmony

2010-11-12T16:10:00.000-08:00

(Squee alert)

I found my (early!) birthday present today.

A year or two ago, I found Susan Anders' great CD Harmony Singing By Ear
It's a fun and interesting way to play around with harmony, especially for someone with no musical training at all. She keeps the theory rather low-key, and then you can skip the theory/strategy tracks when/if you just want to practice your part.

Today I found that she has put out an iPhone app for learning harmony/parts. It only has three old chestnuts included for now, but there are indications that songs will be added in future versions. (Lean on Me; Proud Mary; Teach Your Children, all three in SATB arrangements) It sells for $2.99, and is more of a part-learning tool than anything else (no theory here). There are four parts, and a music track for each song. You can turn the music track off or on, and you can set each of the parts to either full loudness, half loudness, or off.

I love it! My kind musical friends who bear with my constant pleas for separately recorded parts of vocal arrangements will love it, too!

What would/will make it even better:
1) more songs;
2) a looping function;
3) a programmable looping function (i.e. I want the bass part alone 4 times, then add in the soprano for 3 repetitions, then add the background music for 5 repeats, etc.);
4) a slider control for volume of each part, or at least a volume level added between half loudness and full loudness;
5) more songs.

The only person who won't love it is LP, who will have to listen to me hum and sing along....but then again, now hu doesn't have to go birthday shopping for me, either! ;-)

(Disclaimer: I have no connection to to this product or its makers, other than that I am a happy customer.)

Community and Street Life

2010-11-02T12:50:00.000-07:00

Not so recent article from Treehugger.com regarding a not so recent but very interesting study. The gist of it (aka newsflash) is that more cars on your street means less personal interaction. But also: less awareness of details. Part of what is cool about this is how the data is visualized/drawn, and how people's visual memory/perception of their neighborhood is used to come up with quantifiable data, rather than just anecdotal evidence.

Revisiting Donald Appleyard's Livable Streets from Streetfilms on Vimeo.

Happy Birthday to the Most Powerful Woman in the Universe!

2010-10-29T06:49:00.000-07:00

She-Ra is 25.
I wish her (and all the other Princesses of Power with recent birthdays) many happy returns.

Online lessons

2010-09-27T09:19:00.000-07:00

Just came across this article on CNN.

The website for the organization.

Can't wait to check some of it out. Maybe I'll go back in time and actually 'beat' Chemistry... or Stats. hmm, is there Stats over there? /going to see/

I'm especially interested in watching some of the history lessons to see how well the format works for the humanities. I wonder if it's high school style history (i.e. 'facts', dates, etc.) or college-style history...

Might be fun to sling together a couple of lessons in random humanities fields. It would be a distraction from what I should be doing, but that hasn't stopped me from doing about a thousand other non-priority projects this month.

WOOOOOT!!!

2010-08-06T11:22:00.000-07:00

Comfortably Numb

2010-07-23T07:24:00.000-07:00

Came across this while looking for a different Dar Williams clip. DW and Ani DiFranco cover Pink Floyd. Enjoy!

Friday Cat Blogging

2010-06-25T15:39:00.001-07:00

Sooooo sleepy!

Don't forget: Earth Hour tonight at 8:30

2010-03-27T07:20:00.001-07:00

Fight Club

2010-01-12T09:54:00.000-08:00

I just sat in a 3 person meeting and listened to someone who committed a forgery last month insinuate that I am a liar. The issue at hand? I apparently didn't give enough information about why I was too busy to meet this person last week. Holy. shit.
/end vent/

Soaking it in

2009-03-15T07:01:00.000-07:00

I am loving:

1- the days that are long enough that there is both a) light when I go to work, and b) light when I leave work. Even on the long days.

2- the days with temperatures above freezing. (Not all of them yet, but several in a row at a time, now!)

3- watching little kitty enjoy the sunshine on more days each week.

4- hearing birds when I'm having morning coffee on the porch.

5- having finished my taxes in record time, earlier than ever!!!! woohoo! (Hint, if you are missing important tax docs still, most places are set up so that you can pick them up online, now. Let's hear it for the internets!) (Also hint: online tax prep is the bestest. Big thanks to pietro for suggesting Taxact to me a couple of years ago! It gets even easier the second year in. And, no, I'm not getting any consideration for that blurb. Not on my 4-people-actually-read-it-well-sometimes blog! I wish.)

6- the technology that allows me to work on a weekend day from home, rather than having to go back into the office, one. more. day. (Since there's just no getting around the extra hours at this point, anyway. Would I prefer a 35 hour work week? You bet. But this is the best I can do right now. My supervisor is calling my work group 'lean' and 'efficient' these days. uh huh. Nice way to say it, I guess.)

7- our shiny new president who is taking on really big issues and not flinching. About time, that.

Hope you all are hanging in there, and finding things to love.

What she was wearing

2009-02-27T16:03:00.000-08:00

I heard this poem earlier this week on The Writer's Almanac, and really liked it. I also thought Keillor read it very nicely.

What She Was Wearing

by Denver Butson

this is my suicide dress
she told him
I only wear it on days
when I'm afraid
I might kill myself
if I don't wear it

you've been wearing it
every day since we met
he said

and these are my arson gloves

so you don't set fire to something?
he asked

exactly

and this is my terrorism lipstick
my assault and battery eyeliner
my armed robbery boots

I'd like to undress you he said
but would that make me an accomplice?

and today she said I'm wearing
my infidelity underwear
so don't get any ideas

and she put on her nervous breakdown hat
and walked out the door

"What She Was Wearing" by Denver Butson from Illegible Address. © Luquer Street Press, 2004. (buy it from Amazon)

I've never had a suicide dress. Closest I've ever come is a PMS dress, some interview underwear, and a pair of lucky socks. How about you?

I'm definitely checking out more works by this poet.

Let's Hear it for Fair Pay!

2009-01-11T07:05:00.000-08:00

Woohoo!

"The Paycheck Fairness Act, passed by a vote of 256-163, requires employers to provide a legitimate reason for paying different salaries to men and women performing the same job."

Makes sense to me.

Oh my!

2008-12-13T06:17:00.001-08:00

Has it really been that long?
Well, not much happening here that is bloggable. Although I will add my own joy to the internets on a good overall election result. And also my regrets for the propensity of my fellow citizens to vote to limit other citizens' access to equal marriage and adoption rights.

Most of what's going on in the Minor household here is unbloggable. We are doing okay, but there is some stress, mostly work related, and not much sense of when the light at the end of the tunnel might be seen to actually be there. We are healthy, and well, otherwise, though, and I am thankful for these blessings. Tiny cat is doing well, too. Much less stressed than earlier in the fall, so: healthy and fine and furry.

My mother's kitty passed on recently, at 17. He was a real sweetie, and she misses him dearly. I know we do, though it's been a long time since he has been part of my daily life, other than via phone calls. I think her lap must feel very empty in the evening. And although she often complained about his being a bed hog at night, I think that must be a strange transition as well. He was a very good boy, and one of the first kitties we ever met with such a fine, gentle and open personality. He loved us all very well, and took good care of his humans for many years.
In other news, I have been tasked with coming up with 'fun' packaging for a paper gift to some of the family children at Christmas. (Think gift card in an envelope.) We want to make it more interesting to open than just an envelope. I have been looking at various papercraft objects online, and of course thinking of creating some bigger box to open, and perhaps smaller related items which might be packaged with said paper gift, and which might make a sound when shaken. Do any of you have good ideas for this? The kids opening the present (together?) will range in age from about 6-teen.

Pretty

2008-11-02T07:34:00.000-08:00

Not up to much. Trying to get into the fall/winter swing of things. We've turned on the heat. Looking into better winter driving tires and hesitating between snow tires and just better all-seasons. Hate this kind of shopping. (Hate most kinds.) We have had our first snow already, so the tire places have already had lines around the block.

Here's a pretty piece of ceramic art I came across online recently:

Lisa Larsson: Katt
found at Modcats.

Keeping fingers crossed for Tuesday. Please vote!

My Little .....Cthulhu?

2008-10-07T16:47:00.000-07:00

Hat tip to Cute Overload.
\
@

My Little Cthulhu by ~Spippo on deviant ART

Ahahahaaah!

I always knew those Little Ponies were really very scary!

Pleasant Valley Sunday

2008-10-05T08:48:00.000-07:00

I need a change of sceeee-ner-reeee--eeeee--eee.

So I've been watching some movies, reading a bit more. Some of it is good.

I've recently re-re-read some Jane Austen. Good for getting away from the real world. One of the few authors I voluntarily reread. Then I checked out the film from the library. Plugged it into the DVD player, and realized I had only checked out Volume 2. Drat.

Back to the library today, and some other poor sucker had checked out Volume 1. hah.

Found a VHS BBC version, and checked out part of that series. At least it's the first part! And, I've been trying to get the next episode I need for BSG season 1 for the past 2 weeks. Damn geeks keep checking it out. hmph.

Recently saw Brokeback Mountain, Pan's Labyrinth, a neat little Sundance prize-winner called The Station Agent (recommend it), and an old Cary Grant film (swoon).

Have also been cooking more (yay for comfort food), and finishing reading Kurlansky's Salt. It's an ok read. I had to order Chinese food a couple of nights ago after reading one of the passages on salt in China and the theories of what tastes make a real meal (particularly descriptions of the combos of ma-la and xian-la) I wish he would write more fiction again though.

Have you ever moved to a new region in the states and discovered a dish new to you that all the locals think is a world-known comfort food? I was talking with somebody the other day about having discovered shepherd's pie like that, years ago. I still don't really 'get' it, but I guess I have stuff like that I crave too, that they think well, not gross, but totally not distinctive or worth their while.

Fall is here. Cold has snapped, and I'm sitting around the house this weekend wearing LONG UNDERWEAR!!!! And we pulled out the winter duvet two nights ago. And there is no more summer fruit at the store, just apples and pears, now, so I guess that's official, even though I haven't turned on the heat yet.

Catching up

2008-09-21T12:14:00.000-07:00

Some updates:

Been to the beach and back. It was _great_. Beautiful sand and water, and super weather, and no crowds. I'm going to go again next year, I think/hope. Wish I could've stayed a month.

Also visited with some of our favorite people on the way home.

Got back and the cat had behaved badly again. This time? A cat-diarrhea covered bed and bedroom. augh! So I did what anyone would do, took everything washable outside, hosed it off, and then washed, several times, with lots of soap and some bleach too. Well, the wool blanket (originally a full/queen size) is now a throw, rather than a blanket. I guess I should be grateful we didn't have the winter duvet on yet...

She has been super snuggly since return: Probably some guilt and the cooler weather.

Had a really bad acupuncture session earlier in the week, and then a better one yesterday. I think it's helping my energy level, but that's not what I went in for. So sad.

Talked like a pirate on Friday, paid bills yesterday, did laundry and kitchen clean-up today. Am currently snuggling w/kitty, and cooking some kidney beans for chili later. We have again had a bounty of farm fare bestowed upon us, and I have tried to redistribute as much as I can't use for us, but we are sorely behind on the stack of potatoes. We never made it entirely through the last batch, and had another huge box show up this weekend. Still, we are making headway on the beans and beets.

Best easy way to cook beets that I've found? Wash and remove tips, leaving skin. Leave whole or cut so that the various beets are roughly same size and spread on aluminum foil on a cookie sheet. Cover with foil and fold the edges together. Put in oven at 350-400, and let them cook. For smaller pieces 45 minutes is fine, but I left them in for 2 hours yesterday because I fell asleep (kitty hypnotized me- wasn't my fault) and they were fine. Peel (the skin should slip off easily), cut smaller, and throw still warm into a large storage container and toss with red vinegar, salt, pepper. Yum.

Here we go again

2008-08-31T17:17:00.000-07:00

Well, I haven't been very productive today. I've gotten some laundry done, and a couple of boxes flattened (and we did get rid of the sofa yesterday). But mostly, I've just been glued to the computer watching the train wreck in slow motion that is Gustav. We still haven't heard from friends, but I am assuming that none of the folks we're close to are stubborn enough to stay. Folks, remember to post somewhere online that you made it out okay! And remind your friends. I can't even begin to wonder what the world will look like down in LA tomorrow and this next week. I see some colleges are currently stating they'll be open for business next week. I don't think so.

Ewww!

2008-08-29T12:19:00.000-07:00

Ok, that's one job just got a lot easier and more expensive.
Here's what is apparently in most of the sofa cushions, and therefore unscrubbable/ unwashable even if I could get the smell out out the cushion fabric:
So the stuffing can't be kept, and the cushion fabric isn't really worth keeping, and likely won't wash well. So now I guess my choices are: keep the couch frame, find or make new cushions/ pillows; ditch the sofa, do not replace; ditch the sofa, replace with new sofa. Anyone want to make an argument for any of these options or another I have not yet considered?

You need to know that:
1) I got this sofa for free about 8 years ago and moved it once.
2) I am exceedingly cheap and like to use things until they are all used up.
3) We might change living quarters sometime in the next 2 or 3 years.
4) I have not yet ascertained if the cat stank is isolated to the pillows/cushions.
5) Despite being cheap, I like to window shop for furniture.
6) Every piece of furniture in our house is hand-me-downs, except for our bed and the futon in the guest room, which has seen better days, too, frankly.
7) Having learned more about the wonderful world of bed bugs since we acquired said furniture (all second hand knowledge, knock on wood!), I am now not too into the idea of second-hand upholstered furniture.

That is all.

Long Weekend- yay!

2008-08-29T05:48:00.000-07:00

Woohoo. A long weekend. And I've started an ambitious to-do list. Mostly involving cleaning and de-cluttering. Which have been on my mind for months. So that will be really good. Today, I have an outing with a friend I have neglected too much (that could be just about anyone, but oh well, I can only get to one of you at a time, sorry, if you know me, you know I suck like that, and it's really nothing personal.) I am going to bike over to a nearby museum, then we will tour whatever part we feel like seeing, and then we will have lunch. Very civilized. Then I will hopefully be full of energy and get started chipping away at said list.

Mostly, I am determined to redeem myself in the eyes of relatives coming to visit next weekend, who have seen the Mess of Summer. And also, deal with the cat smell coming from strange places the cat decided to mark/pee on post-visit from another cat earlier in the summer, in hopes that the next cat visit will not see an escalation of the turf wars. Not that this will dispel our reputation as the family slobs, but it will make the place nicer for us all, in any case. Here's to beating back the squalor, and happy, cozy, somewhat clean living!

Projects include basic cleaning, clearing and wiping of hard surfaces, laundry, vacuuming, detoxing of the fridge, and also dismantling of an old sofa, with an attempt to wash any removable parts, and figuring out what to do with the rest, then reassembling of the washed parts, if they haven't shrunk past that point. It will take a while. And then I may need to figure out what to do with the sofa if it isn't salvageable. So it will certainly be a big project, one way or the other. Wish me luck!

I've also started acupuncture, to deal with a number of things, mainly neck and back pain, and migraines, and will continue with that this weekend. And I can say to any of you contemplating it: really NOT scary! Which surprised me. People aren't joshing when they say you really can't feel much at all when those needles go in. But also? Damn. Pretty expensive. And no help from the insurance. So part of today's list is to figure out if at least I can put this on the FSA card, and thus pay in pre-tax dollars. Because the treatment for chronic type things apparently takes a while, and quite a few sessions.

In other fascinating news, I will also be tackling our budget to get us back on track with new savings goals, clearing out some boxes left from materials we received months ago, which are sitting stacked in the LR corner, right where we opened them, and finding a couple of piddly little bills that are certainly lying around somewhere close by, under a stack of Very Important Papers Which Must Not Be Thrown Out. And pay them.

I've been reading folks lists of 101 things to do in 1001 days. I really like lists. But I don't think this kind of set-up would work for me. And I wonder how the publication of such a list might skew people's choice of items for it. And I wonder how the hell people who have put "learn X language, learn Y language, learn to knit, etc. times 4" think they are going to do that in a couple of years, if they have to also check off all the little chore-like repetitive stuff that is on some of those lists, and also go to the gym 5 times a week for 5 months.

It cracks me up that things as small as "eat a vegetarian meal" take up as much space as "learn X language" on a list like this. I have seen people break up their fitness goals into somewhat smaller chunks, but nobody seems to break up some of the other HUGE learning projects into smaller, spread over time, do-able chunks. It's not going to happen by osmosis, folks.

Also, who puts "buy X number of fancy panties" on a public list? Really? I don't need to know that. And what kind of goal is that, anyway? Do you really need to plan ahead to work that into your schedule? Are you worried that you might actually forget to buy panties sometime in the next two years? Or that you might forget, once you are in the store, and buy plain white granny panties by mistake, when you really wanted something sexier? Oh well, list away, if it makes you feel good. I know I like my lists, too, so whatever works for ya. Cheers.

Hey!

2008-08-15T19:33:00.001-07:00

What happened to my Google Analytics? I really like to see the one or two of you who stop by. Now I feel like I'm out here all alone!

Hopefully I will have more to post soon. Right now I thought I'd test to see if I made it go away by not posting enough.

Work is getting progressively smoother, and I will even have some time off next month. I'm going to a beach! I've been really hankering after some ocean air, so I'm looking forward to it. I hope the weather will be ok, but if it's cold, I'll bring some good books and enjoy the air anyway.

Stuff I'm looking at online

2008-07-29T05:29:00.000-07:00

Not so much news. Work is still super crazy, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. At least for now.

I've been looking at some things online that please me. No real reason, and I'm not a big spender, so no purchases in sight, but I thought you might like to surf vicariously.

Tiles. I love certain tiles. Isn't this beautiful?And how about this?

And then, pedicabs and peditrucks with (and some without) electrical assist have me wishing for one, too!
Here is my current favorite design. I would totally drive this to work and the store.
And New Balance is putting out some less sporty looking shoes that promise to be comfy, too, This is good, and more companies need to pursue this 'niche'.

And really randomly and not at all commercial: here's a blog that is neat for its reflection on spirituality and ritual, within the framework of Judaism.

What are you finding that's good online?

Awesome

2008-07-26T15:48:00.000-07:00

Hat tip to LuckyBuzz, and to The Lazy Bloggers Post Generator.

"OMG! I just climbed out from under my rock and realised I have not updated this since people stopped clapping and Tinkerbell died... You would not believe how heavy that rock really is. Apologies to my regular readers! Even the little blue ones!

I am totally and utterly flat out with an awfully big adventure, waiting for the onshore winds, just generally being a pain to anyone unfortunate to cross my path. My day is a magical flight from crawling out of bed at 6.30 to way past dusk. I am wondering if I paid my electricity bill, but who cares?

I will try to remember I promised you I will write something that makes sense soon. No, really! What do you mean you don't believe me?"

Mmmm, summer

2008-07-19T15:52:00.000-07:00

I love this point of summer, when friends' gardens get out of hand and the zucchini start to take over the world. Then, sometimes, I get a call: " Would you like to come help pick X?" Um, yeah! So after work today, I got to pick fresh peas, and also got some zukes and salad, too. I had such a yummy dinner! Plus it got me outside a bit after a pretty hectic day. Life is alright.

Going nuts

2008-07-17T05:51:00.000-07:00

So, work has been pretty killer of late: distressed customers, things going wrong (or sometimes just not perfectly), days 'off' that turn into days 'on.' Yesterday I got to leave work early (one of those days 'off'), and got to go to the mall for emergency supplies... one of my least favorite places.

I get home at 8, and try to unwind a bit. At 2am this morning, as I am (still) lying awake, I flash on an email I had sent. (Backstory: one of the upset customers this week had gotten hold of a colleague's personal cell number, and we had met earlier in the day and were wondering where hu had gotten it from. And, I had exclaimed: certainly NOT this office! We would NEVER do that!) So, anyway, this email flashes into my mind, and I realize that *I* was the leak. I feel horrible, as I realize that I can clearly remember typing a 7 digit contact number for this customer to reach the colleague (instead of just an extension).

So, I spend the night tossing and turning and trying to figure out the best way to mitigate the damage, and make it up to the colleague. And I wake up this morning with it still on my mind. (Two nights ago, I had actually dreamt about the situation, and we were all stuck in an endless meeting where we tried six ways to Sunday to explain to the client why things could just not happen the way *hu* wanted....) So this is two nights' sleep lost to this client. Not that I am counting. Because I am not like that. So... I _just_ now logged on to email to look at the offending email and compose an apology to the colleague.....

Folks, here's the punchline: I did *not* leak the phone number.

By this morning, I was absolutely sure that I had. I am going nuts. I really wish I had gotten up at 2am to check, but I was so. sure. that I figured booting up the computer wasn't worth it, since I knew I wouldn't be able to try to 'fix' the error until today. Gack!

Today, I am really 'off.' This is good.

Yay

2008-07-03T06:21:00.000-07:00

I am very pleased that this has been turned around.

And, now,
"New Solar Energy Applications Will Continue to Be Accepted by BLM"

Because that? was just the stupidest thing I had heard in a long, long time.

Anti-Schlock Steering

2008-06-27T17:09:00.000-07:00

So to make up for that last post, I offer you my all-time favorite Robert Frost poem. I do not remember the title.

Where my imaginary line
Bends square in woods an iron spine
And pile of real rocks have been founded.
And off this corner in the wild,
Where these are driven in and piled,
One tree, by being deeply wounded,
Has been impressed as Witness Tree
And made commit to memory
My proof of being not unbounded.
Thus truth's established and borne out,
Though circumstanced with dark and doubt
Though by a world of doubt surrounded.

Subconcious schlock

2008-06-26T05:33:00.000-07:00

So I guess I've been dreaming a lot lately. I don't remember any of the dreams to tell you. But, I've woken up two days this week with something running through my head.

Exhibit A:

Which I (of course) had to sing pedaling to work that day, and hum under my breath for the next 36 hours.

Exhibit B:
Nothing Gold Can Stay
Robert Frost
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day
Nothing gold can stay.

And this? This is inextricably tied in my head to Ponyboy, and the young Matt Dillon and Emilio Estevez, and all the budding ESL students I ever taught "The Outsiders".... What a crowd to wake up to! Sheesh.

Conclusion?
My word, is my head really that full of schlock?

I want!

2008-06-25T18:35:00.000-07:00

A solar/gas hybrid with pedals!!!

I can name that bird in 0 flaps

2008-06-23T14:52:00.000-07:00

It's a Cedar Waxwing. Here's a picture from wikipedia.I especially love the little sunglasses. And the yellow ruffle on the tail. I'm happy to meet you, Cedar Waxwing!

Ahhhhhh!

2008-06-18T06:02:00.001-07:00

A day off! Here it is! yay.

I've already gotten... well, not ahead on housework, but a bit less behind. Just knowing I had today off gave me a burst of energy yesterday after coming home from work. Toilet: scrubbed! Sink: clean! First load of dishwasher: washed and put away! We still live in what most of you would consider an absolute sty, but I feel good about the progress. And I have energy today, too. So, I am feeling pretty good.

I will have clean clothes to wear to work again on Friday. And it looks like there will be at least some sunshine today. And, the terrible humidity and heat of last week now feel like a distant memory.

OMG

2008-06-15T17:31:00.000-07:00

What freakishly long, effed up day. ugh. I need a day off so badly! One that's really a day off, not a day where I go in to work for half or more of the day because there is just too much damn work to be done. Today, so many little things went wrong for so many people I answer to. I just put out fires all day long. And then, an hour after the work day should have ended, I biked home, had a shower, and got in the car and drove back to work for more of the same.

I just had dinner (at work) at 7:45, and that's pretty darn late for me, and then I did a couple more things, and now I am home, hallelujah. Still, my colleagues and crew are doing really great work and working as hard as I am. So, in that sense, I can't (and won't) complain. But I am really yearning both for time off and for a sense that I am finally a bit more ahead of schedule/less on the spot. And those may be contradictory wishes, at least in some senses.

And yes, you heard right, I biked to work (at least for the first stretch of it!) today, and that's the 3rd time in the last week. So, yay for that. And yay for my sweet LP who saved dinner for me at home, just in case, and for my sweet little kitty who is singing to me and giving me kitty hugs.

Melting...

2008-06-08T06:47:00.000-07:00

In which I am an eco-weenie.

I had hopes of not putting in the AC window unit until, say, late July. But it's ho-ot. We sweltered yesterday, and gave in this morning. We both have too much work on our desks to lose another day to fanning ourselves lethargically on the porch. And fitful sleep.

The cat is hiding under the bed. I think I freaked her out with the cleaning of the air-conditioner, which involved her arch-nemesis, the vacuum cleaner. But, I also think she is pouting about the windows all being closed again, so soon. She was actually sitting in the sunniest window yesterday, in between the curtain we had pulled and the glass. Sorry, little one!

And, I'll probably drive to work again, most of the week. I *have* biked a few times without reporting it here, but not enough to merit any good eco-karma, really.

Do you think I can get some points for not flying anywhere this summer?

Ugh.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

2008-06-06T06:33:00.000-07:00

To my other very dear friend from way, way back. You are our rock, and I love you very much!

Week of good news

2008-06-04T16:14:00.000-07:00

Well, LuckyBuzz had a bay-bee!

And the group I am training this week is absolutely teh awesome. They are so good to each other, and attentive, and hard-working!

And one of my best friends ever going many, many years back, who has been looking for work, landed a real live teaching job, right in the very school hu wanted most to work in!!!! I am so, so very proud of hum!

Go Universe!

Why don't you write me?

2008-06-01T07:57:00.000-07:00

Here.
Couldn't find a video, but here's a link to listen, if you can identify!

Gearing up for a busy season. Looking forward to running around like a crazy next week, and already had a taste of that last week. I love that my current work is very seasonal. I like the gearing up and gearing down: I always have one or the other to look forward to!

I've been craving a bit more human contact, so this is good timing. Next week should be entirely people-tastic.

Some of the plants I put in last week are ok, but the saddest ones are still pretty beat, and I think that a couple of them are true 'goners'. So now I'm dithering about whether to pull them out and plant something new to work out the whole 'live plants are better than dying ones' feng shui issue, or letting them give it their best shot. I feel like I owe them a chance...

A friend of mine mentioned to me that one of the local women's shelters is in great need of money to keep functioning. I also know the food banks have been really low all year. I've been reading much about saving money and being frugal on the innernets lately, and I imagine we are all scrabbling a bit to cover fuel costs, etc., but I'll just take this opportunity to remind you: sharing what you've got feels really good. And, it's the right thing to do. Please remember all the folks who need your time and dollars, and give what you can!

Sad little garden

2008-05-26T09:52:00.000-07:00

Please grow!

I jumped the gun a few weeks ago and bought a bunch of plants and herbs for the balcony. And then all my neighbors talked sense into me and I held off on planting many of them. Now they are a sad set of root-bound, dried-out planties.

I will plant you and water you today: pretty please don't die!

Books, unread (a meme)

2008-05-18T08:52:00.000-07:00

From LuckyBuzz:
"The top 100 or so books most often marked as “unread” by LibraryThing’s users. Bold the books you have read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn’t finish."
I also put asterisks next to the ones I really liked. And I put a hyphen in front of the bolded titles (read) since my font doesn't currently bold very well.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
-Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
-One hundred years of solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez *
-_Crime and punishment_ by Fyodor Dostoyevsky *
-Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte *
-_Catch-22_ a novel by Joseph Heller *
The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien
Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
The Odyssey by Homer
-_The brothers Karamazov_ by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Ulysses by James Joyce
War and peace by Leo Tolstoy
-Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
A tale of two cities by Charles Dickens
-Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte *
-The name of the rose by Umberto Eco
-_Moby Dick_ by Herman Melville
-Emma by Jane Austen
The Iliad by Homer
-Vanity fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
-Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez *
-The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood *
-Pride and prejudice by Jane Austen *
The historian : a novel by Elizabeth Kostova
-The Canterbury tales by Geoffrey Chaucer *
The kite runner by Khaled Hosseini
-Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
-Life of Pi : a novel by Yann Martel *
The time traveler's wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies by Jared Diamond
-Atlas shrugged by Ayn Rand
-Foucault's pendulum by Umberto Eco
Dracula by Bram Stoker
-_The grapes of wrath_ by John Steinbeck
Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
A heartbreaking work of staggering genius by Dave Eggers
-Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
-Sense and sensibility by Jane Austen *
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books by Azar Nafisi
-The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas *
The sound and the fury by William Faulkner
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
-Brave New World by Aldous Huxley *
Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson
American gods : a novel by Neil Gaiman
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
-The poisonwood Bible : a novel by Barbara Kingsolver *
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West… by Gregory Maguire
-_The picture of Dorian Gray_ by Oscar Wilde *
Dune by Frank Herbert
-A portrait of the artist as a young man by James Joyce
The satanic verses by Salman Rushdie
-Mansfield Park by Jane Austen *
-_Gulliver's travels_ by Jonathan Swift
-The three musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
The inferno by Dante Alighieri
The corrections by Jonathan Franzen
The amazing adventures of Kavalier and Clay : a novel by Michael Chabon
-The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
-Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
To the lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
A clockwork orange by Anthony Burgess
-Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
-Persuasion by Jane Austen *
-_The scarlet letter_ by Nathaniel Hawthorne
One flew over the cuckoo's nest by Ken Kesey
-The once and future king by T. H. White *
Anansi boys : a novel by Neil Gaiman
Atonement: A Novel by Ian McEwan
The god of small things by Arundhati Roy
A short history of nearly everything by Bill Bryson
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
Dubliners by James Joyce
-Oryx and Crake : a novel by Margaret Atwood
-Angela's ashes : a memoir by Frank McCourt
-Beloved : a novel by Toni Morrison
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed by Jared Diamond
The hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
In cold blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its… by Truman Capote
-Lady Chatterley's lover by D.H. Lawrence
A confederacy of dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Les misérables by Victor Hugo
-The amber spyglass by Philip Pullman *
_The prince_ by Niccolo Machiavelli
Watership Down by Richard Adams (started it as a young child and it was too violent for me.)
Beowulf : a new verse translation by Anonymous
The Aeneid by Virgil
A farewell to arms by Ernest Hemingway
Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance : an inquiry into… by Robert M. Pirsig
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
The personal history of David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Sons and lovers by D.H. Lawrence
-Possession : a romance by A.S. Byatt
The book thief by Markus Zusak
The history of Tom Jones, a foundling by Henry Fielding
The road by Cormac McCarthy
Tender is the night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
-The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells

So, if that gives you any indication of my taste in reading, please feel free to recommend a book!

A puzzle for you

2008-05-13T16:32:00.000-07:00

Shh, don't tell anyone, but...

2008-04-13T07:18:00.000-07:00

... I think Spring is here!
Taxes due, new birds in the yard, no snow currently on the ground or even predicted for any time in the next ten days, tree pollen, ants, people starting to bike to work, and glorious, glorious SUNSHINE!!!!

Yep, I'm pretty sure. Least until the next snow storm!
Houston, we have spring!

Blood Diamonds, redux

2008-03-30T07:52:00.000-07:00

So, you think dying for mining coal is outrageous? Here's yet another reason not to buy gemstones:
75 Miners presumed dead in Tanzanian Gem Mine.

Seriously, people.

Come, labor on!

2008-03-26T18:36:00.000-07:00

I went back to work today after a few really well-needed days off.... and it felt great. I really like my job, I like the folks I work with, much got done, and laughing happened. Amazing what a little holiday can do!

Tonight I found myself humming a tune: at first I didn't recognize it until I had hummed it through enough times to have a google-able phrase, and even then I googled "Come linger on." Which it is not, of course. It is "Come, labor on!"

"Come, labor on!
Who dares stand idle, on the harvest plain
While all around him waves the golden grain?
And to each servant does the Master say,
“Go work today.”

Come, labor on!
Claim the high calling angels cannot share—" etc.

Wow, guess that counts as a good day at work, huh?

Flipper

2008-03-12T14:37:00.000-07:00

Okay, so that was kind of conversation killer. Sorry! If you have ideas, you can always bring it up later, or, hey, maybe I will.

To make it up to you, here's a feel-good story about a dolphin who saved a couple of whales from beaching in New Zealand. He just came right up, and helped them find their way back out to sea! It made me shiver to read it. Very cool.

Stranger in a Known Land, or Frontier Living

2008-03-08T08:38:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking a lot lately about liminal space and construction of identity. Mine and LPs, mostly. It seems pretty complicated to me, and I'm not sure I've fully formed my ideas about it, but it's a theme I seem to cycle around to from time to time, so I figured I'd share the short version, and maybe cycle back here to expand next time I'm thinking about it.

Most of you know LP and I are an international, bilingual couple. That's one/ two? borders. We have each lived in each other's country of origin for significant periods of time. What we have noticed, and have confirmed as a pretty common experience with other bicultural folks, is that once you have truly crossed a border and lived in that other culture to the point of comfortably accepting many of the societal constructions of that place, you can't really ever completely come back home. That is, when you come back to the place you originally called home, it doesn't feel completely natural either. You have done irreparable 'damage' to your default world view. You can see why certain 'givens' in your culture seem silly/shocking/obscene to foreigners, because they now seem silly, etc. to you, too.

This can be a good thing, of course, but right now I am trying to get a feel for the size of the impact on a human psyche over a lifetime of not being able to go 'home'. Or maybe trying to figure out what two people can do in such a frontierland to create their own home(land?). But also, right now we are living in a few other significant liminal spaces as well, so it is perhaps more on my mind than usual. And I don't mean to say that it's horrible: it's just different, I think, from what I perceive most other peoples' experience to be.

So, if you feel like it, please tell me about your experience of being 'other' or of being caught between two worlds. Can people who share a similar experience meet up and be citizens of some combined no-man's land, even if their original border crossing happened on a different kind of threshold? What do you think? I have a practical/objective hunch that our situation is not as exceptional as I subjectively feel it to be, yet that assumption doesn't make it feel less real to me. Why should that be?

Open Letter to the Sun

2008-03-05T16:09:00.000-08:00

Dear Sun.
Please come back. I hear from my friends in other places that you are doing well. I miss you very much and hope you will visit me again sometime soon.
Very sincerely yours,
Ursa

Learning to Lie

2008-02-16T08:29:00.000-08:00

Neat article in NY magazine about how kids learn to lie. Interesting tidbit: the GW/cherry tree story works better for dissuading lying than the Peter and the Wolf story! huh.

A good read for all of you who are waiting to babies to get here. And just plain interesting for the rest of us.

Say something.

2008-01-08T14:52:00.000-08:00

oh. /waves/ Hi. I've hit the deep winter phase of my hibernation, I guess. Although I *am* indeed noticing and pleased about the extra minute.some of sunlight each day.
(Yay.)

Let's see.... man, where are the bullets?

- needless snafus costing time and money during holiday trip? Check.
- utterly confused body clock, requesting more sleep please? Check.
- squicky icky winter cold, run out of Kleenex, nose rubbed raw? Ub,Cheg.
- icky picky work project-to-make-one-ready-to-spork-out-own-eyeballs? Check.
- stress dream about election fraud? Check.

Seriously. I think I had a dream about election fraud. Or you tell me. Maybe it was about sex. Hard to say.

The premise (but not the majority of the action) in the dream was that the government had decided that 10 states were no longer worth keeping. So, they were going to be burned up. Completely. Like, on a map there would just be a hole. And the earth would fall away of you crossed the wrong state line. But, my mom and I found out ahead of time. (They weren't going to tell anyone ahead of time to avoid the riots and mass exodus...) Anyway, most of the dream consisted of unpacking gewgaws and tchotchkes we don't have from a kitchen storage wall we also don't have, and trying to decide what should be brought along even though in this dream we had apparently also ceded the entire back seat of the hatchback (we don't have!) to a couple of friends, and maybe their baby? dog? stuff? we were going to help escape.

Friends, *everything* was tchotchkes. And every tchotchke had a story, of personal significance or historical/cultural worth. And so we, LP and I (where did my mother go?) and occasionally a neighbor, or really polite looter-- there were 3 or 4, passing through the kitchen had to consider the importance of bringing or leaving behind each item. Was it too big? too heavy? could it be used for something practical as well? was worth bringing anyway? What other items would it prevent us from bringing? And where oh where were the ziploc bags?

I can't even begin to unpack most of this dream. But, I am pretty sure that the background situation in it relates to the primaries going on RIGHT NOW! And, the fact that we still have not figured out the electronic voting/reliable system thing yet, and hey, elections are only NINE MONTHS AWAY! Are you concerned? I am.

If you are, and if you don't get email from MoveOn, go to Moveon.org to sign the current petition to light a fire under your representatives, so that maybe, maybe, we can trust the voting outcome this time around.

The right foot?

2008-01-01T05:26:00.000-08:00

Ok, I think that the fact that I am doing this at early in the morning on New Years Day pretty much supports the geekitude theory. I hope this doesn't mean I'll spend the year doing stupid bloggy quizzes, but I couldn't resist.

Big surprise, right?

Huh.

2007-12-17T16:34:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-12T16:08:00.000-08:00

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!

2007-12-06T14:54:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-02T07:26:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-01T16:02:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-19T17:11:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-08T15:15:00.000-08:00

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!

2007-10-31T18:21:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-22T18:19:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-15T17:29:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-15T16:25:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-11T16:23:00.000-07:00

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

Faith in Humanity

2007-10-09T15:48:00.001-07:00

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!

2007-10-07T07:28:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-03T16:03:00.001-07:00

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!

2007-09-29T11:58:00.001-07:00

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

Bike Log

2007-09-29T11:30:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-27T06:25:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-23T17:58:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-09-20T16:40:00.000-07:00

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

The Princess and the Goblin

2007-09-12T14:42:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-09-07T13:40:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-07T08:48:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-09-06T06:09:00.000-07:00

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?

2007-08-26T09:16:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-08-25T17:07:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-31T12:06:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-27T15:41:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-07-23T07:41:00.000-07:00

HP? Two chapters and an epilogue too long.

That is all.

Bicycles in Paris

2007-07-17T07:07:00.000-07:00

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

2007-06-29T16:02:00.001-07:00

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

2007-06-29T08:32:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-06-16T16:02:00.000-07:00

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

2007-06-15T18:01:00.000-07:00

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?

2007-06-13T17:16:00.001-07:00

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

Out of the mouths of babes...

2007-06-03T08:10:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-05-25T18:40:00.001-07:00

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!

2007-05-07T17:25:00.000-07:00

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

2007-05-06T13:07:00.000-07:00

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

2007-05-04T17:00:00.000-07:00

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

2007-04-23T15:23:00.000-07:00

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

2007-02-18T15:53:00.000-08:00

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.

I heart John Patrick

2006-12-03T06:16:00.000-08:00

Ok. I have a blogger crush. First, who can not adore a "*former* superhero?" And, the motto line. Perfect. You should definitely check out this guy's blog. It's my current favorite, and he has some great food blogging of late. Makes you want to go straight to lunch! And read back.

I first found JP via his guest blogging on Bitch, PhD, where he had some nifty comments about , I think, decorating cookies, and brown/white issues. Plus, the language teachers, they always can use a little extra love. Go, read, tell him he's awesome.

JohnPatrick'sblog

A new post

2006-12-02T13:56:00.000-08:00

Well, I made it through another migraine. Boy, they really stink. I was trying to explain at work this week that although I had managed to get out of bed, get dressed and come in, I couldn't actually *do* any complicated thinking. It's really hard to explain, even when you're not right in the middle of it, and of course especially hard for someone who doesn't have migraines to understand. This one was my usual one day of pain (tbtg), but preceded by unusually long (several days) and severe pre-symptoms: fogginess, lack of focus (visual and other), sensitivity to light and sound, major difficulty reasoning. ugh.

One of the hard thing about these headaches to me is that they put me out of commission. Being productive is pretty much impossible. But I can't just take off X days a month either. I feel like I risk being percieved as a sloth if I don't go to work, and as a blithering idiot if I do.

hmph.

Well, at least the kitties have their jobs down really well, and have taken good purry care of me the last couple of afternoons, when I came home after work beat my behind. Kitty kisses and snuggles are the best.

In other news (this will surprise you) I've had a hard time writing here. I knew it would be a challenge, but I thought I'd be able to whip off a short note weekly, whatever. I guess it's hard to pick a topic. The interesting ones still seem too personal to share out in the ether. That is, some things I just really don't want to speak out loud anywhere, other things just seem too self-focused to be anything other than egotistical pollution of the web. I do realize that other bloggers' personal stories have been meaningful to me. Just can't seem to keep that 'share' toggle on.

Question about age difference in partners

2006-10-14T09:51:00.000-07:00

On Any Given Day...: Answer me this...

Ragey asks what age differences folks would consider ok in a significant other.

This is something I've thought about a bit: not for me (we're 2 years apart), but because I've had really different reactions to similar age differences in different couples. (both hetero)

Couple 1: She is 20 yrs younger than he is. They found each other to be true soul mates, married, had kid... 15 yrs later they are still madly in love. But, some issues are coming up: she's terrified of what it will do to her to see him pass before she does (as is likely). Also, age/health issues loom, as does just the practicality of how to pace life when he is retired and she is in the prime of her career. Still, I don't think they ever considered there was another option, once they had met and fallen in love. They have a really beautiful relationship, and it has never struck me as weird.

Couple 2: girlfriend married a man 15 years her senior. Felt weird to me from the git-go. Since the other couple *doesn't* seem odd to me, I am guessing that my reaction to this one has more to do with how I see the power dynamic of the relationship. (There's also something odd about the balance of what I perceive them each bringing to the couple. He comes across to me as a fellow with less than she to offer.) He also seems to be the one with decision making power in the couple-- which probably hits a sensitive nerve for me in terms of men/women and power. In any case, their relationship has made me feel not-so-comfortable at times.

More generally: if it's true love, and there are no strange mommy/daddy vibes, age differences can work. If not, run the other way. But, in any case, even if the relationship is right, there can still definitely be (big) issues, if not at present, then later. I see a number of comments that point out that age differences get less problematic as one gets older... and I think this is true if you are talking about the potential weirdness of 15 years difference when one is a teen vs. when one is 30-something. However, other major issues do arise at the other end of the age spectrum as well. (See couple #1) Potential issues may or may not be a reason to avoid a relationship, though, right? I mean, all couples have some issue or another. Many issues can't be anticipated. As long as you realize that life isn't meant to be perfect, and you're both ready to try to make it as beautiful as you can, regardless, I figure you're in pretty good shape.

Good luck in love!

"Naturally" stick-like. Right.

2006-09-17T19:32:00.000-07:00

Finally!

I'm so pleased with the decision by the Spanish Association of Fashion Designers. (This news is about a week old now... sorry!)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5341202.stm?ls

"Madrid bans waifs from catwalks

Madrid fashion week, one of Spain's most prestigious shows, is banning underweight models on the basis of their body mass index (BMI).

UN health experts recommend a BMI of between 18.5 and about 25, and some models may fall well below the minimum.

The Spanish Association of Fashion Designers has decided to ban models who have a BMI of less than 18.

Unhealthily skinny models at last year's fashion shows led to protests from doctors and women's rights groups.

The association agreed to use the BMI - a calculation based on height and weight - in response to local government pressure....."

Now, if only NYC and Paris would get on board. Ooh, and can you imagine a world with fashion magazines having pictures of realisitically sized people?

Boo, hiss Cathy Gould:

"Cathy Gould, of New York's Elite modelling agency, said the fashion industry was being used as a scapegoat for weight-related illnesses.

"I understand they want to set this tone of healthy beautiful women but what about discrimination against the model and what about the freedom of the designer?" she asked, adding that the careers of naturally "gazelle-like" models could be damaged."

(My bolding.)

WTF!?!?!

Books for free

2006-08-30T18:50:00.000-07:00

What could be better, right? Well, it's not as much fun as the town library book sale, when everyone comes out in droves, and you have the thrill of a good find and good people-watching besides, but I recently was pointed to Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page) by a friend. Not sure what the difference in titles/canon is between this project and, say, Google Book Search mentioned in Language Log today (http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/).

Still, cool!

It's a really random collection of texts with outdated copyrights, so you can have them legally. Seems like a good idea. Here's what I don't get: you can volunteer to be a proofreader for Distributed Proofreaders, an organization which helps produce these online texts. I guess someone scans the book in, then it's read by a OCR program, then real people proofread and format the text, then it gets published online. Good. But, the aim of the game is supposedly to make as many texts available to the world as possible. So, why not just put up the scanned texts? Then we'd also get to see the text/page as published. Is it about searchability or file size? Does anyone here know?

A Gripe of One's Own

2006-08-19T11:45:00.000-07:00

Been traveling lately, putting my usual carry-on in the checked luggage, as required. Baggage claim? Clearly part of "Why I Don't Check Luggage." They should paint a yellow line about 5 feet back from the carousel. And you know those recordings they used to run: "the white zone is for loading and unloading of passengers only!"? They need one of those for the baggage claim area.

"Please stay behind the yellow line until you see your bag arrive. Please vacate the carousel zone immediately upon claiming your bag. Please do not line up with 3 other members of your family to block the view of other passengers who would also like to claim their bags, especially if they, unlike you, fuckwit, did not pack 3/4 of their worldly belongings to go on a 2-week trip."

And this should be played repeatedly, until passengers of the world become less stupid, or for eternity, whichever comes first.

Rules for kittehs

2006-08-17T19:28:00.000-07:00

From Shrinkykitten.

Especially these.

"5. When mama wants to cuddle, you must cuddle. If Mama wants to kiss your tummy (see above photo for cutest tummy ever), Mama needs to kiss your tummy. Seriously, is this too much to ask?

6. When mama doesn't want to cuddle, please to amuse yourself for a while. Don't sit on what she is trying to work on. Don't climb onto the laptop. Don't swat at her. Which leads us to #7.

7. Please somehow make it through the night without kisses. I know you love to have your little head kissed. But, mama is just not in the mood at 3am. No, smacking mama in the face or headbutting her face will not make her more amenable to this. She needs to sleep so she can go to school/work so she can earn enough money to keep you in kitty food, catnip, and kitty grass. Until you get yourself a job and make some money, no more waking Mama! "

Did you get that, girls?