Sounds of Spring

Now you can listen to birds all day and night -- in stereo! Check out Birdsong Radio for, well...singing birds! It's nice to listen to at work when you're trapped in a cubicle. Kind of makes me crave sunflower seeds though...

Bagelicious

I found a bread machine recipe for bagels, so we decided to try it. Basically, you let the machine mix and rise the dough for 20 minutes, then you shape them, let them sit for 20 minutes, boil them for a minute or so, and bake them at 550 for 8 minutes. The end results were delicious. Here are a few photos to document the process. Mmmmm.

Lenore Wins

Lenore came up with the winning name for my pencil sharpener:
Meet Rowena Tina!


I actually suggested this name for her coworker's new baby, but I don't think he's going to go with it. I'm not sure why. Whatever. I'm happy to reclaim it.

I Felt the Earth Move...

Isn't that a song?
So the earthquake we had at 4:37 this morning in Illinois actually woke me up. Sometimes I wonder if my house is haunted (I’m always hearing strange noises...though it’s probably just my house slowly collapsing around me), so, in my groggy state, I thought it was an uprising amongst the ghosts, because it felt like my bed was shaking. I’m pretty crabby when woken up, so I actually yelled, "KNOCK IT OFF!!!" and it stopped, so I went back to sleep! There have been a few more quakes to follow, but none that we've felt. I didn't realize there were so many earthquakes all over the world. Lenore's co worker sent her this link. My co worker said her dog went a little nuts this morning and wanted to be let out at 4 a.m. If Hoops detected anything, she didn't let on. Then again, her attention span isn't the most reliable.

A New Generation Potholder

I finally had some time to try weaving the new yarn-like substance that I got from Fishbed Knits. I'm not sure what it's made of. It's stretchy and springy, yet I think it's got wool in it. I think the birds would like it for nests. It works nicely in a potholder loom too! This one became a get well potholder for Lenore. Hopefully Xena won't find it -- she likes to deconstruct potholders.

Hot!

I was saving these pictures for such a time as this -- when news is lacking because, in this case, I was sick all week with a series of maladies that I hope are now behind me. (Though I still sound pretty tubucular, so don't get too close.)

Lenore and I took Roland and Amy out for some birthday Thai food and possibly the best present ever.



Lynda also got a PP Apron and immediately put it to good use cooking a steak. She said she was so busy posing, she almost overcooked it, to which Lenore replied, "Overcooked? What does that mean?"



I just noticed how much shorter this apron looks on Lynda than it does on me. I guess we should have ordered the "tall" version, aye?


Also found in my "pictures I still need to post" folder, this is a snow fort Lenore spotted in Carpentersville:

Did I mention it's been a slow news week? Fear not, something exciting is coming soon.

And it Only Took 17 Hours!

A while back I embedded a funny YouTube clip from Shrek to further illustrate a Starbucks scandal I was reporting about on this here blog. But, alas, the clip got pulled from YouTube. Thus began my quest to convert and upload my own film clip, which, it turns out, is no easy feat (unless of course you're 12 and know what you're doing). After a series of technical support e-mails with Laura, a couple of queries to teenage YouTubers, 3 shareware downloads, a DVD from Elke and about 17 hours of conversion time (really, it took most of a Saturday!) I actually figured it out. All this effort so I could repair an old blog posting that no one will probably ever read again (hint, it's in January '07). But it's the principle of the thing I tell you! In the interest of "fair use," which allows for the use of short excerpts in parody and/or critique, I present said clip, which still makes me giggle (that's my critique). Notice how the customers flee from the "Farbucks" under attack to another one directly across the street. One guy is still drinking his coffee as he's running.

Pastry Satire @ Yahoo! Video

Another cute detail I noticed after watching this clip several times is the patch job on Gingy's legs. Those familiar with this movie will recall that in an earlier scene, Gingy's legs got broken during a brutal interrogation. Here you can see they've been repaired with some additional decorative white frosting stripes. It also dawned on me that little Gingy looking huge in proportion to the tiny castle in the distance provide's Shrek's inspiration to have the Muffin Man create Mongo.

It's Alive! @ Yahoo! Video