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These guys need a big bonus
And probably a Silkwood Shower, if you know what I mean. They’re working to stop raw and partially treated sewage from spewing into the San Francisco Bay. Way too gross. I cannot even imagine what a nasty, disgusting job that was. And they said the fix was temporary, so I don’t know if someone is going to have to go down into the filthy water again or not. Blech. How do you think they decided which one has to get his mouth and face down near that filth? Short straw? Flip a coin? RoShamBo?
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My First Bike
I remember the exact day that I received my first bicycle, a hand me down from my older brother. The training wheels were long since lost, which didn’t stop me from wanting to learn to ride it. I would practice every day in the courtyard of the church next door to our house. Eventually I did learn to ride, but not without many scrapes and bruises, the worst of which was when my finger was smashed between the handle bars and a railing in the courtyard. My mom iced it and that was it, until the next morning I woke up with it swollen like a sausage, and it had…
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Roasted Crab and Garlic Noodles, ala Thanh Long and Crustacean
If you’ve ever had Thanh Long/Crustacean roast crab and garlic noodles, you know that they are heaven on a plate, totally yummy, artery clogging, butter and garlic and crab deliciousness. Amazing. The problem is that the crab is upwards of $40, and the noodles another $10 or so, so dinner here isn’t cheap at the best of times. For Valentine’s day, we decided we would try to make some Thanh Long inspired crab and noodles at home. We found this recipe (also the source for the beautiful and drool inspiring photo, above) online. This is not the official restaurant recipe, but the recipe of someone trying to duplicate the ‘super…
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Blonde No More
I’ve been blonde most of my life. I was what is known as a tow head as a child, meaning I had that really light blonde hair, which got darker and darker over the years, until I was about 19 and started coloring it. I liked my blonde, as wasn’t ready to give it up. When Ted lost his job in June, I started thinking of ways to pinch a few pennies, and one expensive indulgence I have is the hair salon. I won’t even tell you how much it costs to go into a good salon and get your hair weaved with two or three shades of blonde. It’s…
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Happy Birthday, Galileo
(Galileo and the Pope, found here) Today is the birthday of Galileo Galilei, born in Pisa, Italy, in 1564. He is considered by many to be the father of modern science, and caused quite a rukus in the Catholic church with his claims that the Earth travels around the sun, contradicting the accepted belief that the Earth was stationary, and the heavens traveled around it. From wikipedia: In 1610 Galileo published an account of his telescopic observations of the moons of Jupiter, using this observation to argue in favor of the sun-centered, Copernican theory of the universe against the dominant earth-centered Ptolemaic and Aristotelian theories. The next year Galileo visited…
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The Member of The Wedding
“A last difference about that morning was the way her world seemed layered in three different parts, all the twelve years of the old Frankie, the present day itself, and the future ahead when the three of them would be together in all the many distant places.” Frankie Addams is the bored twelve-year-old protagonist of Carson McCullers’ novel, The Member of the Wedding. Frankie’s boredom comes from the invisible prison walls that she feels trap her in her mundane existence. Though World War II rages on in the world outside, there is no part in it for her. She cannot go overseas and fight, she cannot even donate blood in…
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Happy 200th Birthday, Charles Darwin & Abraham Lincoln
Today is the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin, the famous naturalist who proved the theory of Evolution and Natural Selection. Perhaps the most clear and concise book that I’ve ever read on how Natural Selection works is Life on Earth: The Story of Evolution, by Steve Jenkins. That this is a children’s picture book is immaterial. I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to understand Natural Selection, or especially to anyone wanting to explain it to a child. The SF Chronicle had a book review the other day for what looks to be another great book on Evolution, Why Evolution is True, by Jerry A Coyne. This book is for…
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So Far…
(album cover art found here) I know it’s soon to say, and I know I’ll change my mind in a few minutes, but right now? I don’t mind being unemployed in the least. I mean, I haven’t even started receiving Unemployment benefits yet. I don’t want it to go on too long, and with most of the people I know saying their companies have hiring freezes, it’s worrying. But still. Not a bit of urgency in me yet. I’m going to give myself a few days, in which I only work connections, email people I know, that sort of thing. I’ll start the grunt work later this week, the searching…
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Ebelskiver ~ Filled pancakes
(my final picture came out very blurry, so I took this one from the Williams-Sonoma website, here) One of our Christmas gifts was this cool ebelskiver pan from Williams-Sonoma (click the link and watch a video of how to make them!). Ebelskiver are light, fluffy, filled pancakes, originating in Denmark. I was a little bit afraid that they would be difficult, and they were more difficult than regular pancakes, but they were very good, and I’d like to try some different fillings to see what’s what. We used it for the first time this morning, using a Williams-Sonoma pancake mix, strawberry and raspberry jams, and powdered sugar. Mix your favorite…
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First Born Meme
Maya, Easter Sunday, 1996…I week old First born meme My baby cousin Jenny’s BFF Ana, who has become my online friend, though I’ve never met her in person, tagged me for this. I must admit, with my only child coming up on 13 in a matter of weeks (like, 6 or 7), I’m not as interested in this subject as I was when she was younger. BUT, Ana asked, and Ana shall have her answers. 😉 Because Ana rocks. 1. WAS YOUR FIRST PREGNANCY PLANNED? Perhaps. Meaning, we wanted to start trying, and I had gone off the pill, but I was still very irregular, and did not at all…
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Day 1
(pretty image found here) Day 1 of being unemployed. I don’t mind not working so much, it’s the not getting paid that sucks. 😉 I’m going to return my new bike to REI in the next day or two. I called today, and they’ll give me a full refund. That’s good news. I like the bike, but I can’t see spending the money on it when I am going to need interview clothes and clothes for a job that doesn’t occur in my bedroom. Sigh. I like shopping for clothes, though, so it’s not all bad. Spent today packing up my work computers and sending them to the company headquarters. …
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Carp.
(image found here) Carp…that’s a joke, because Cherry typo’d ‘crap’ in an IM once, and it came out CARP, and I’ve always liked that better. Anyway, CARP. Just got laid off from my job. I was only there for just under 8 years. Thankfully, Ted is starting his new job on the 18th, and there’s unemployment insurance, right? But man, this economy sucks, and being out of work sucks, and looking for work sucks. A rainy Friday morning. Think I’m going to go read my book and watch some 90210 on Soap Net. CARP.
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Friday Randomness
Is Facebook destined to be the death of blogging? So easy to go there and post a quick snippet, without the commitment and time that it takes to write a blog post. So easy to go there and read your friend’s updates, without the commitment of clicking around or using a reader. I’ll admit, I like it a lot more than I thought I would. That I have reconnected there with people I didn’t expect to ever see or hear from again is a bonus indeed. Is it wrong to come home from yoga class and be thrilled to find KFC for dinner? (If you are a facebook friend, you…
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Sleepless Thoughts…
The other night, I was starting to drift off to sleep, and for some reason, the thought popped into my head, that Maya is going to be a teenager soon. 13, on March 29th. Not that I haven’t realized this for awhile, but still, somehow, the idea that she is going to be 13 suddenly made me feel OLD. I mean, the teen years…who doesn’t remember the teen years? Some of the best and the worst in your life, with friendships that change, young love that opens your heart like a flower and crushes you at the same time, cruel jests from bullies, school getting harder when it has always…
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Felled by Migraine
(image found here) Yesterday started innocently enough with my regular routine…exercise, breakfast, shower, work…but soon after starting work, I started experiencing what is called a migraine aura, which for me is blurry vision, which seems like maybe there’s some lotion on my contact lens or something. If I ignore the aura, I then suffer nausea and vomiting, and of course, a headache (which feels mostly like a bad sinus headache). If I nip it in the bud by taking some migraine meds, get off of the computer/tv/book, lay down with a sleep mask over my eyes, it rarely gets worse than slight nausea and slight headache. I think I’ve had…