And Elsewhere…
Posted on 9 February 2010 | No responses
Make your own candy bars (!!!) at Chow via David Levowitz on Facebook). I feel a cavity coming on. And speaking of cavities, check out David’s Twitter page background. The cookies, he told me, are from his new cookbook that isn’t being released until April 6th. I can’t wait!
So I can indulge my type A tendencies first thing in the morning, Waterproof Notepad & pencil (via NotMartha, I think)
One of my favorite TED talks – Elizabeth Gilbert, on nurturing creativity. She is so calming that it makes me want to take up yoga.
And another TED talk from Amy Tan on Creativity. She’s funny and earnest. And who knew that she has had seizures?
Sade dropped her first album in ten years today. It is divine. Welcome back.
An online Kitchen Garden Planting Map tool – Does all of the math and planning for you.
Superhuman Tape Measure Skills. Be still my heart.
My food hero, Michael Pollen talking about his new book, Food Rules (on Epicurious). Love!
I’m Curating My Own Show
Posted on 2 February 2010 | 1 response
At home. Here are a few photos that I am putting into frames around the house this next week. The photos all have sentimental value to me.
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
Pink is My New Girl Crush
Posted on 1 February 2010 | 2 responses
My favorite part of the Grammys last night: Pink.
To spin in the air, sideways, and sing at the same time is a massive physical feat. And she sounded a lot better than some of the artists that just stood still with a guitar. Beat THAT, Taylor Swift!
Bravo, Pink!
Catching Up
Posted on 30 January 2010 | 2 responses
I have been absent for a while and therefore have just screwed up on this NaBloPoMo thing. Better luck next month, right? I am just going to get back on the horse, but I will update y’all.
When I stopped blogging, I fell ill (the hot/cold/hot/cold/burningeyes/headinafishbowl/sinuspain type of thing) and just needed to stay home for some rest and peace. So, I thought I would take the day off – but I should have gone to work. El Diablo started terrorizing the gentle giant early in the morning and JUST. WOULD. NOT. STOP. We let Becker, the Giant, escape into the Master bedroom closet to hide. Becker only tolerates him for so long and I can’t say I blame him.
I did get back to sleep after barracading the door but not an hour later, I heard a huge crash. Upon inspection I found that Becker had attempted to climb up onto the highest shelves in the closet. These shelves are secured to the wall, complete with anchors and screws and braced with metal brackets – One would assume that they are relatively sturdy, but I am one of those people who, if given space, take it as a moral imperative to fill it, but do so with as much stuff as physically possible, weight be damned.
Becker managed to pull two of the biggest shelves straight out of the wall and collapsed the ones below it. Everything was on the ground and the far end of the closet looked like a bomb had detonated. I just left it. It was taken care of this weekend after a strategic trip to Home Depot. Fixing that sort of mess takes time.
Shortly after that, the one of the cats threw up. I didn’t know which one it was, but I have to say that whichever cat it was that did it was most considerate, because when I finished finding the cleaning solution for the carpet in the living room, it was GONE. Queue gag reflex. Despite that ‘help’, I still had to clean the carpet and rid the room of chuck odor so my dainty senses would stop being offended.
So I found and lit a three wick candle, which proceeded to pop, crackle and send little sparks in every which direction from the odd mushroom-like formations at the end of each wick. I am not an experienced candle person, but this didn’t seem safe, so I blew out the candle and rushed it to our bathroom, dumping the mushroom-y bits into the trash bin.
The problem with this is that in my panic, I forgot that I had removed my nail polish the night before. In the trash bin that I dumped those hot embers, was a bunch of cotton puffs with nail polish remover. Instant fire. Luckily, the shower was conveniently located next to me, so I didn’t set off any alarms.
But, holy cow, people, I just wanted a freakin day off for some rest and peace. Did I mention that I was not feeling well? After that, I just shut off all of the lights, kicked the cats out of the room, and pulled the covers over my head before anything else happened.
Since this stellar day, I have been trying to feel better by cutting out all of the extra stuff that I dabble in. Like cooking and cleaning. But seriously, I have been playing hell to catch up and just stay on top of things. When you have to schedule things like sleep, you know it’s getting bad. Other than crawling out of bed to go to work, the last two weeks felt like I was trying to run in mud, but it’s a new day. Things are going to change starting today.
It’s Finally Melting
Posted on 19 January 2010 | No responses
Thank god. I don’t know if I am still not feeling well. I think a trip to a deserted island is in order.
Facebook Abuse
Posted on 18 January 2010 | 1 response
This is perfect. I am getting a bit sick of Facebook. It’s starting to feel a bit like MySpace to me. Anybody else feel that way?
Facebook Abuse – Watch more Man In The Box
Yes, I Am An Animal, But I’m Not CRAZY
Posted on 17 January 2010 | 1 response
Rohan and I talk about becoming vegetarian once in a while until we smell bacon. Yesterday, we watched an HBO documentary on Peta and one of it’s founder’s Ingrid Newkirk, called I Am An Animal.
In parts, it was very sad, obviously. What was interesting was how Newkirk was profiled. She came across as a very sad, almost mentally ill woman that had isolated herself from almost everything except her mission to save all animals. She even sacrificed her ‘very lovely’ marriage because in her own words, she didn’t have time for it. She was seen several times almost berating staff members and talking into almost a frenzy when discussing company plans.
They lightly touched on and interviewed Alex Pacheco, who was a Peta co-founder that left the organization years ago. They didn’t explain why, so I did a little research and found that they basically had different methods in mind for accomplishing their goal. It was obvious that Newkirk is the extremist who will stop at almost nothing, and Pacheco was not.
One thing that Newkirk couldn’t seem to grasp is that her methods undermined the cause. I haven’t and I won’t be supporting Peta. My money and time would be better spent helping local no-kill shelters and working at a grass roots level to change legislation.
Man, I am hitting on some of the biggies – Global Warming, Animal Rights… Gotta go get the rest of my laundry done because Big Love is on tonight and I can’t wait!
This Kid’s Life Is SET
Posted on 16 January 2010 | 1 response
I see a LOT of money in this kid’s future. It’s a YouTube video (embedding has been disabled, so you will need to click through) of a FIVE year old drumming prodigy playing System of a Down’s ‘Toxicity’. He’s got the head bob down and has a grin that tells you he is absolutely doing the thing he loves most in the world. Go watch.
I LOVE a Good Arguement – The Voodoo of Global Warming?
Posted on 15 January 2010 | 2 responses
We have scientists in our family who believe in Global Warming, and then there are others that do not believe in it and think it’s a bunch of hooey. My brother and father are those of the latter camp. But I can’t say which side I am on yet.
My Dad had a lunch date this week with a professor emeritus for the large university that resides in our city. This professor is a well known geologist and went public with some controversial views recently about the concept of global warming. My Dad, being the social butterfly that he is (NOT) called the guy up and asked him to lunch to pick his brain. When my Mom told me this, I had to get support to lift my jaw off the ground. My dad is an engineer that would rather take on the finite element analysis of a complex rail car design than make small talk with some yahoo about the ‘Voodoo’ (his words) of global warming.
My brother is a die-hard republican who rails against the Liberals and absolutely foams at the mouth when people talk about the environment. Funny enough, I just learned that my brother is going to a conference in the near future where Al Gore is a featured speaker and the conference has nothing to do with the environment AT ALL. I think we will need to supply him with a muzzle before he goes…
Anyhoo, what’s interesting is that my brother backs a lot of what he says up with facts and has some pretty persuasive arguments. I am in the Liberal camp in a lot of ways, so you could say that our conversations can get a little bit lively and he hasn’t swayed me on much. However, he sent me this recently – A link to a video made by John Coleman, a Meteorologist and the founder of the Weather Channel, and I have to say, it’s pretty interesting:
So, what do you think? Is Global Warming all a bunch of Voodoo? And what do you think about the Climatic Research Unit hacking incident referenced in the video? Are people cashing in and making a mint off of the concept of Global Warming (Hello, Al Gore!) and shafting the public or is this a real threat? If not, please say why. If so, what makes you think that way? We need both sides to be heard. And I LOVE a good argument.
Trainwrecks
Posted on 14 January 2010 | 3 responses
Things have been extremely difficult for me this week at work and at home so I haven’t been writing a lot. The stress has left me totally exhausted and I end up doing nothing but coming home, making dinner, doing only what I must do, and trying to get some sleep. To make matters worse, Rohan threw out his back and has not been feeling well. We have both been wrecks.
I have a hair appointment Saturday morning and I may just fall asleep in the chair. It’s an Aveda salon so it always smells lovely and every time you turn around they are massaging various body parts, so it’s one of my most favoritest things in the world to do. Pampering refreshes the soul. Or at least my hair color. Since going red (which has now faded to a lovely caramely auburn) I have the privilege of getting a good look at the many gray hairs that have seemed to land atop my crowning glory. And since the last time I went dark (2002) apparently I have (GASP) aged. Yes, aged. As in gotten older. Lord help me.
When you go blond or have blond highlights, grays don’t show as much and I wasn’t really aware of the sheer magnitude – I can’t just yank them out anymore. Now, I don’t have anything against gray hair, but I don’t think I am prepared to go grey before I bear children, because your SPAWN are supposed to cause the gray. Just saying.
The other thing we do when we are stressed is watch bad TV, which is not hard to do. All you have to do is turn on the boob tube.
I have been enjoying the trainwreck that is the American Idol tryouts. I was more impressed than I thought I would be with Posh as a judge. She had some thoughtful comments and seemed to have the contestants best interests at heart. I was not, however, impressed AT ALL with Mary J. Blige. She acted like a 13 year old kid and did nothing but snicker, roll her eyes and laugh at some, while making zero constructive comments. Not a fan. Idol, however, is always a good time. These tryout weeks are just candy.
Project Runway started tonight and it seems that there are some extremely talented people with great experience this year. There aren’t any candidates from Kansas City like there were last year, which is so surprising, since KC is such a bastion of fashion and all. Cough, cough. I love Tim Gunn but Rohan cannot stand his accent and spends half the show repeating his phrases over and over and over and over and over, until I take a pillow and try to smother him. We really take advantage of our couple time together.
So, to compensate for not having a lot that I can say, I have been digging through some of my photos and posting them. It’s nice that people seem to like them, so the trend will continue until things calm down a bit. Or until the season of really, really, ridiculously bad, trainwreck television is over.