Talking to Myself

11:58:54 PM CST

John's question: Have you ever gotten that ambitious with a cake? Do you have photographic evidence? If so, you should post it and leave a link.

This is the Train Cake that I baked for my twin sons, Mike & Chris, for their 4th birthday.  I baked the cake in small loaf pans to make each of the cars, and I made the cake with two engines (one for Mike and one for Chris).  I used non-pareils for the wheels and licorice for the tracks, and although I've made a lot of interesting birthday cakes over the years, this was hands down the boys' favorite cake, ever.

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12:10:29 AM CST

OK, I've started to figure it out at blogspot, and for now, this is where you'll find me: http://emmapeeldallas.blogspot.com/

Please come by and say hello.

Judi

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10:35:29 PM CST
Feeling Sad I'm here via AIM, so I've been seeing a variety of pop ups and ads for some time now, and didn't realize that this was a change for most of you.  Don't get me started on AOL; I'm here via AIM because AOL wasn't offering me anything I wouldn't rather buy somewhere else, and this confirms it.

I'm figuring out what I'm going to do, and when I decide, I'll post. Andi's maintaining a guestbook for new journal addresses here, so click on the link (it's listed in numerous other journals including Judith Heartsong's) and leave your new addy.

I'll be seeing you
In all the old familiar places...

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5:48:15 PM CST
Feeling Happy

Scalzi's Monday Photo Shoot: Display a picture you've taken of a famous man-made landmark. Significant buildings, big statues, great walls (particularly in China) -- if people put it together, it counts.

Here are Mike & Chris, age 12, in the garden of the Musee Rodin in Paris in July 1998, beneath one of Rodin's most famous pieces of sculpture, The Thinker.  This pic was taken by their Dad, with whom they were traveling.




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1:25:08 AM CST
Feeling Mischievous

I'm not making this up.  I found this story on Yahoo News, and I've cut and pasted it here:

TOKYO (AFP) - For the woman who wants to stay both warm and environmentally conscious this winter -- and isn't bothered by extra bulk under her shirt -- a lingerie maker unveiled a thick bra that can be heated in a microwave.

Triumph International modeled the bra in Japan which has launched a "Warm Biz" campaign urging people to bundle up to save on heating.

The bra pads are filled with an eco-friendly, reusable gel that can be heated up in a microwave or with hot water. For good measure, a pendant of a hot pepper dangles from the front.

But the bra isn't for those favoring understated attire. A long strap flows down from the back, which is meant to be wrapped around like a boa to keep one's neck warm.

"We hope this will not only help prevent global warming but also provide a little fashion chic to the office," Triumph's Japan branch said in a statement.

But for the time being, the bra, which comes with matching shorts, won't be in stores, with the lingerie maker instead using the technology to develop other warm clothing.

Japan, the land of the Kyoto Protocol, is encouraging people to set their heating at no more than 20 degrees Celsius (68 Fahrenheit) this winter to save energy.

It follows a "Cool Biz" casual-dress campaign promoted by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who eschewed his tie for most of the summer, to reduce air-conditioner use and therefore greenhouse gas emissions. The drive is estimated to have saved enough energy to supply 240,000 households for a month.

Wow...I won't be buying one of these.  I'll just smile, thinking of the money I'm saving, every time I have a hot flash. 

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12:45:38 AM CST
Feeling Happy

This is making the rounds in J-Land, so I thought I’d play too:

1.   What sign are you?    Virgo, of course...could there be any doubt? All my spices are in alphabetical order, for heaven’s sake!

My kitchen spices and inside a cupboard door

2.   What's your favorite color?   Overall, I’d say blue, but I also love the drab colors...browns and greys and greens.

3. How many waffles could you eat in one sitting?  Two is about my limit on waffles.

4. Can you touch your tounge to your nose?  Yes I can, and I can tie a cherry stem in a knot with my tongue, too.

5. If you had to choose between cats and dogs, which would it be? Cats...and here's my Mia, who wouldn't hesitate to go for my jugular while I'm sleeping if I said otherwise.

6. What's something you've learned recently?  I learned how to make fire by rubbing sticks together (by first constructing a bow drill), in a desert survival skills course that I took with Chris.

7. What's your favorite quote?  One of my favorite quotes, which I first read when I was 17, is from LaRochfoucauld: Only the truly firm are truly gentle; in the rest, it is only weakness, which is readily converted into harshness.

8. What's your favorite entry in your own journal? I like my Lady of Shalott, or Why I Blog entry.

9. What color is your bedroom? Off-white.

10. Where is your favorite place to visit? Savannah, and I like to stay at the Hamilton-Turner Inn.

11. What is one thing you want to accomplish this year? I’d love to find a job.

12. Why do you write in a journal? I’m attempting to re-acquire a little self-discipline.

13. What's your favorite joke? I love anything that makes me or someone else laugh, but I can’t remember jokes, and I hate questions like that.

14. Do you like the city or the country? It depends on whether I’m in the mood to hike or to experience some culture.

15. What style is your house decorated? Early Pottery Barn.

16. Who's your favorite artist? Matisse...he knocks my socks off every time.

17. Can you pat your tummy and rub your head at the same time? Yep.

18. Are you a nightowl? Yep.

19. What's something you love in your house? (If you have a picture you get extra credit!) Here you are: this is in my bedroom; it’s a lithograph by Yvonne Thomas, and I love it.

20. Do you believe in God? I’m a cheerful agnostic.

21. What hobby could you never give up? Photography, so long as I have my eyes.

22. What color makes you think of Hope? Dove grey.

23. What color makes you think of Love? Blood red...oh my luves like a red red rose...(Burns)

24. What's your favorite flower? Any of a zillion orchids...and they last forever!  Here's a pic I took of one that was blooming in my kitchen recently:

25. If you had one wish for the world, what would it be? That we could live in peace.

26. Whats the best surprise you have ever recieved? Learning that I was pregnant with Mike and Chris.

27. What can you cook like no-one else? I make a pastasalad with spinach pesto that my kids love, and I make a pretty palatable apple pie, too.

28. What do you think about most?  My kids.

29. Who is your favorite poet?   Yeats.

30. And last but not least, if you could wrap yourself up in one word...what would that word be?   Happy.

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11:14:09 PM CST
Feeling Happy

Patrick's Saturday Six: Episode #83

1. You are invited to spend a night, alone, in a large house that is believed to be haunted. A close friend of yours whom you trust tells you of his or her own experience, and you have sufficient reason to believe that there may be a genuine haunting going on there. Without promise of any kind of reward for staying the night, would you agree to do so? Probably not. I don't believe in ghosts, but...having said that...I've been in places where I've gotten a "vibe", and if it's not a pleasant vibe, there's no way I'd hang around. I don't enjoy being scared.

2. What do you most enjoy about your job? I'm currently unemployed and the thing I enjoy the most is not having a boss. When I was working in child psychiatry, the thing I liked best about my job was that I got to work with kids. I love kids, and I truly enjoyed working with them.

3. Who was the last person you had a conversation with? What was the main topic of the conversation? I just had dinner (pizza and beer) with my daughter Katharine, and Xander was the main topic of our conversation.

4. Take this quiz: What kind of "smart" are you? All-Around Smart: You are all-around smart. Essentially, that means that you are a good combination of your own knowledge and experience, along with having learned through instruction - and you are equally as good with theoretical things as you are with real-world, applied things. You have a well-rounded brain.

20% theoretical intelligence
20% natural intelligence

Ummm- OK, I said I wasn't good at math, but even I can see that 20% + 20% only adds up to 40%...meaning that maybe this quiz is sort of a DUD.

5. What was the last food that you totally ruined -- to the point that it was inedible -- when trying to cook? I don't have a clue. Although I don't cook as much as I once did, I enjoy cooking, and I'd have to be pretty distracted to ruin something to the point it was inedible. I made black bean burritos for dinner last night, and topped them with a sprinkle of grated extra sharp cheddar, a dollop of sour cream, and some jalapeno jelly. They were great, and served with an ice cold Corona with lime...yum...that's a good dinner, and it takes about half an hour.

6. STRANGELY-OBSCURE QUESTION #1: If you had to do over again, would you change anything? The only thing I'd do differently is I'd go to medical school. I would have been a terrific doctor, and I regret that I didn't do that when I had the energy.

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11:47:55 PM CST
Feeling Happy

What magazines do you subscribe to and why?  If you don't have any current subscriptions, you can list some of your most recent subscriptions or magazines you want to subscribe to.

Extra Credit: What was your first magazine subscription?

Currently I have just 2 magazine subscriptions: Texas Monthly and Saveur.  But I buy a lot of others almost every month.  Here are some of them (and I've included hyperlinks to the websites):

Bitch (feminist response to pop culture): OK, for starters I admit I'd love this magazine for the name alone...it's so in your face...but there are plenty of other reasons to love it, starting with the articles. Bitch is published quarterly and not carried everywhere; I buy it at B&N. Also you can go to Bitch on the Web (no, that's not a hyperlink back to my blog).

Cottage Living: I love decorating magazines, and this one is a favorite.  It has good photography and great ideas; nothing too fancy.

Discover: I've loved this magazine since it first came out, 25 years ago.  With articles on everything from prehistoric pasta to stoneage beer to the physics of bras...what's not to love?

This Old House: I'm a dweeb in some ways, and this is one of them.  I loved this show on PBS in the old days, when Bob Vila was still on the air with Nawm, and I STILL love the show on cable, and I love the magazine.  What I'd like to know though, is, why do I get the carpenters with missing fingers?  Why can't I find a carpenter like Nawm???

More (celebrating women 40+): "Celebrating women 40+" *sigh*...that has a nice ring to it. There's lots to celebrate re women over age 40 (and a certain 41-year-old, red-headed, blue-eyed, hairy chested guy with no tan lines whom I know, um, rather well, would agree) ;p       And this magazine does a good job of pointing that out...I mean, that there's much to celebrate generally, in all women over 40...oh, nevermind...just take my word that it's a good magazine.

Oprah: I tried to not like this magazine.  You've got to admit, there's something a little...uh...narcissistic about having a magazine with your name and picture on the cover EVERY MONTH, year in and year out, but...it's Oprah...and she's...likeable.  And the magazine is interesting to me, year in and year out. 

Real Simple: I like the "Problem: yada yada yada. Solution: yada yada yada" pages, and I like the recipes.

Saveur: Kath gave me a subscription to this cool cooking magazine, which has some great recipes and interesting articles.

Texas Monthly: I subscribed to Texas Monthly last spring, when Chris and Alex were coming from Chicago to visit for spring break and I was planning our road trip in which, among other things, we did the Lockhart Barbecue Circuit (yes, there is such a thing in Texas).  

There are four BBQ restaurants in Lockhart: Black's, Chisholm Trail (no website), Kreuz Barbecue, and  Smitty's Market. It's estimated that about 5,000 people visit these 4 restaurants each week, meaning about 250,000 people each year eat BBQ in Lockhart (dunno if that's accurate, but it's what it says on the web).  We sampled at all 4 restaurants and agreed that Black's was the best, but...be that as it may...while planning our road trip, I read detailed accounts of trips to the Texas Barbecue Circuit at Texas Monthly online, after subscribing to gain access to the archives on the website, and subscribing resulted in my receiving the magazine in the mail each month.  It was well worth the $15; in addition to great recipes, it has great articles on various road trips around Texas.

Weekend: This magazine is published every other month, and it's a laid-back magazine with good photography, good recipes and travel ideas, and quite a few good, relatively inexpensive decorating ideas in most of the issues.  Check it out. 

EXTRA CREDIT: What was your first magazine subscription?  That would be Stereo Review, back in my audiophile days, when I was 19 and the world was young and so was I...I told you I'm a dweeb sometimes - but not all the time...(just ask the redheaded guy...)

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12:10:30 PM CST
Feeling Sad

In 2003, the State of Texas enacted a law banning gay marriage. To date, that law has not been challenged in Texas courts. Nevertheless, conservatives voiced fears that "liberal activist judges" might recognize gay unions in spite of the law. For the record, even if the law were challenged and some "liberal activist judges" did recognize gay unions, it’s unlikely that the all-Republican Texas State Supreme Court would do anything to overturn the 2003 law.

But that wasn’t enough for conservative Texans, who proceeded to draft a poorly worded constitutional amendment, Proposition 2, to "defend marriage as a vital societal institution that should not be changed" and to "guarantee that state courts won’t be able to force Texas into recognizing gay unions".

Yesterday, I voted against Proposition 2, but I was in the minority; conservative Texans voted overwhelmingly for it, approximately 70% to 30%.

Katie bar the door.

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.

Pastor Martin Niemöller

 

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11:33:03 PM CST
Feeling Happy

We had a house fire in October, 2002, when a small fan, left running, shorted out.  We were out to dinner when it happened, so luckily, no one was hurt, but we had major damage to the house and in fact came close to losing it.  The photo on the left was taken in my front hall, looking into my dining room, on the day after the fire.  The photo on the right was taken this evening.  It's a dramatic difference, huh?  The stairs still aren't finished, in part because I've been trying to decide whether to tile them or put in hardwood (they were previously carpeted).

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