Eurovision Song Contest on Yahoo! News Photos OH, dear. Joey, AKA the Accordion Guy, may need to know he’s got competition in the “Hot Accordion Player” category. Via Manolo the Shoeblogger. The horror of the Eurovision Song Contest has come for your soul.
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Yes, well, my husband David rescued me again. He sent a spare power supply via next day delivery, so I was able to keep using the laptop on my trip. It did come in handy yesterday, having the laptop and at least a dialup connection, because there was some community information and other stuff to look up for Mom. Also, I was able to fire off an email to the local newspaper’s circulation department to ask them to continue to put her paper on her porch, and not halfway down the driveway as they recently announced. They put a flyer…
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So. Off into the blue tomorrow on a fact-finding trip. It’s just a short weekend trip on my own – my husband David and my cat Riley will be batching it while I’m gadding around the urban wilderness of Salt Lake. Books and Stuff To Read Another Country Sudoku Easy by Will Shortz Large type copies of several Sudoku puzzles Moleskine notebook (or knockoff of same)((nearly full) Moleskine notebook (the real thing)((empty)) Pens, pencils, highlighter Deciding whether to bring more books Techery Laptop Case Logic case Wireless mouse (I know, but it’s so damn handy) AC/DC adapter phone cable for occasional dialup access…
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London Underground Tube Diary – Going Underground’s Blog Yesterday when coming home, I noticed there was something weird about the people coming up the escalators at Leicester Square (they weren’t dressed as Santas – that’s the best escalator picture I could find for this chilly time of year in London – I was freezing at work yesterday!). No-one on the up escalator was actually moving. It was as though someone had pressed a pause button on a video. After a few seconds of surprise and looking around at each other, they realised the escalator had just stopped and as there…
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Hey, I’m no rocket scientist, but I found the thought of candy-powered model rocketry pretty appealing: Rocket Food – Popular Science But you can liberate the same amount of energy in much less time by mixing the Snickers with a more concentrated source of oxygen—say, the potent oxidizer potassium perchlorate. The result is basically rocket fuel. Ig?nited on an open fireproof table, it burns vigorously, consuming an entire candy bar in a few seconds with a rushing tower of fire. If you could bottle the energy of kids playing and turn it into a Molotov cocktail, this is what it…
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David and I were talking about today’s big march, and kicking around ideas that could get both sides moving toward a solution somewhere in the middle. It appears ***Dave is of much the same opinion as we are: amnesty, easily obtainable worker visas and a clean slate, and then serious penalties for overstaying the term of the visa. ***Dave :: Immigration Day Stuff 1. Devise a guest worker program that is easily applied for (including from within the country, initially), is quickly processed, has a very high quota, has strong protections for workers and strict penalties for overstaying one’s welcome.…
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If you only knew how many fogless shower mirrors we’ve bought over the years, and Chad Everett reminds us of the perfectly simple solution that was… staring my husband David in the face the whole time. That’s right. Spit. I know, it isn’t pretty. It works. When I was learning how to scuba dive, the instructor told us not to buy the de-fogging stuff for our masks because a: it didn’t work very well and b: it cost money. Instead, we should just spit in the mask, then spread it around and rinse. What do you know? It worked. I…
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Through the power of the Internet, I’ve been able to get a copy of a picture of a lovely young thing named Marella Stockdale. She’s the second from the left – that’s my mama. I will be working on this image a bit to clean up the edges – but I wanted to get this up. When I called Mom tonight we were talking about old friends and long-ago family memories. She told me the tale of the allegedly “hot” turkey that wandered up the alley behind the family home in Colorado Springs, and how she and her sister Ginny…
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Saw an item at Tennessee Guerilla Women about the upcoming Easter Egg Roll at the White House. It seems this year that Laura Bush invited all families – even gay ones. Goodness. Wish I could be there to see the fun when the kids are squabbling over the last chocolate egg and the nice white right Christian parents are edging away from the pairs of mommieses and daddieses. By the way, I’m more inclined to think this might be Rumsfeld’s next career move. UPDATE: It seems the event was a success in spite of rain – no hitches, very low-key,…
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Another Country: Navigating the Emotional Terrain of Our Elders This is the last paragraph of the first chapter: Freud taught our generation the importance of parental love. We know that parental love is formative, but no one has taught us about the importance of grandparental love. Especially as we get older, the bonding and nurturing go both ways. Connections help our children, our parents, and us, now and in the future. Only by caring for our parents will we be able to ask our children for help later. And only because of our children’s love of the old will they…