Linky Lurve
General linkage to others
Now relegated to Blogblivion...Thursday, February 10, 2005
125th Carnival of the Vanities
The 125th Carnival of the Vanities, inspiration for Carnival of the Capitalists and others, is up at Coyote Blog. You might find something new and interesting there.
Saturday, February 05, 2005
Look What I Started
There is a boom in shaveblogging.
In addition to Acidman, as mentioned here earlier, now we have Dax on the power of sample marketing and barber shaves, Eric (no, not that Eric) shows off an antique shaving kit, most impressive, and speaks of shaving while redheaded, and finally, Velocidude, who claims he was intending to shaveblog before seeing posts on the topic elsewhere, questions Gillette’s quality control, as have I many times.
When Asked About His Latest Post, The Blogger Said “Go Comment!”
Go leave Tiger a comment today. Show him the blogosphere isn’t totally inactive.
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Keira Knightly Is Making Sense
Keira Knightly is on the same page as Acidman, and one sensible girl. Having trade skills would serve better on an island, and definitely better for always finding employment.
It just makes sense to know some things that aren’t going to fail you if you need a backup skill or need to survive unglamorously. I doubt her acting career will fall so flat as that, but it shows she’s as sensible as they come, in that profession.
I can’t say that bricklaying would be my first choice, but hey.
Thursday, January 06, 2005
test
Just testing for Jen.
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
There Can Be Joy In Sad-Flavored Words
Some of the finest blog writing out there appears in poignant, tearjerker posts. I’d like to point out two of those that are worth reading, even if it does mean having the tissues handy.
The Cheerful Oncologist wrote a wonderful New Year’s post, remembering friends living and, especially, passed.
Varifrank writes of a colleague, a fellow road warrior, a friend, who died suddenly over holidays one year. It’s a moving tribute.
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Reading Recommendation
Aubrey Turner is back and also blogging up a storm.
Speaking of which, isn’t that kind of a strange expression? ”Blanking up a storm.” Should that kind of behavior be the reserve of cloud seeders and weather control dreamers?
I, too, am pretty compulsive about hand washing while preparing food. I can keep the most disastrously messy and even dirty house, but that counter will damn well be clean for food prep. I am sometimes compulsive in other little ways, just not enough for OCD. Deb can tell you how pleased with myself I was when I alphabetized the spices in my new spice rack. I gave up on doing that to my books. For now.
Which brings us to the urge to get organized. I have it in spades, seemingly in conjunction with the temporal change of venue. It’s annoying to have it frustrated by being sick. Which seems to have improved dramatically today, at least until I ate. What’s up with that? Eating leads to congestion and a scratchier throat and uncontrollable coughing? Sheesh.
Anyway, Aubrey, always a good read, is on a roll.
I Don’t Know, It’s A Mystery
Jeff Soyer has been blogging up a storm. Must be a New Year’s resolution to post more or something…
I must say, I have never been into reading mysteries. The most significant one I can remember reading are the Brains Benton Mysteries when I was a kid, gifts from my sister. Alas, I have only the sixth one still in my collection. The others long since were lost or destroyed in the course of life.
Anyway, Jeff almost makes me want to run out and read Agatha Christie, with his glowing ode to her books.
Saturday, January 01, 2005
Heard At Our House On Christmas
Me,while holding block for Deb to see:*
“Look, it’s Frank J.!”
* Sadie got a set of nine wooden alphabet blocks, and some of the sides of each one have the cutest critter pictures on them, one each of different types like domesticated, wild, insect, and sea. Santa tells me they can be purchased in one of the shops in the mercantile building in Stowe, Vermont for $15 the set.
Year End/Beginning Stuff and More
There’s some great stuff over at Hennessy’s View.
I enjoyed his predictions, and his year in review, but there’s more there as well
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Last Grand Rounds of 2004 Is Up
The last Grand Rounds of 2004 is up at CodeBlog. Lots of good reading on medical topics.
I noticed this entry relates to this excellent post by Caltechgirl on drug safety and responsibility. The latter not in Grand Rounds, but worth reading.
Sunday, December 26, 2004
The Global Is Local These Days
Kathy Kinsley has friends in the area affected by the tsunami, and is keeping a close eye on things. She has some interesting links.
Don’t Look Now…
But I am about to attempt my first turkey cooking. Well, in the sense that a “hotel style turkey breast” weighing almost 10 pounds counts as “a turkey.” It’s enough to give us plenty of sandwich leftovers. I’m probably going to do something approximating my friend Tom’s method. Seems like everyone is different! My uncle’s method is to put pats of butter or margerine under the skin liberally, tightly cover the whole thing with foil, put in the oven all night at 250, then cook the last while at 325 or so without the foil to crisp the skin. Tom’s method is to preheat to 500 and cook the first half hour uncovered at 400 or higher to crisp the skin and make it hold in the moisture. He says:
It crisps the outside of the bird and keeps the interior moist and yummy. When I do the bird project, I also baste at least once an hour. My basting mixture is about 1/4 cup soy sauce with some sesame oil, water, vinegar and seasoned with garlic, pepper, whatever you like best. As the bird juices flow, use that too. What is left in the pan when the bird is done will make a base for an unbeatable gravy.
He also generally uses strips of bacon on top for flavor and some self-basting. One of the best turkeys I ever had was done that way by him, so I thought I would try the bacon trick.
Sadie’s cold seems to have improved, and she doesn’t seem to mind it much as long as it doesn’t keep her from breathing. She slept quite well after all. She’s also becoming quite talented with her baby gym, hitting the dangly things hard enough to make the musical play regularly. It’s like night and day over about a week ago.
I’m still keeping an eye on the news from South Asia. Glenn has some good links to bloggers in the region, some of which I’d read earlier but not followed up with a mention. I immediately thought to check the Asia resources listed in Blogs Around the World. Mostly I have continued to check back at Command Post periodically.
Okay, Turkey now, perhaps some pictures will be posted later. Ooooh… pictures.
Thursday, December 23, 2004
Mapchic Returns
One of my favorite bloggers was once Mapchic, at a blog called Geographica.
Her last post was March 13 this year, then nothing. I’ve been back there periodically, and happened to check again today. She’s back!
In her comeback post, she explains what a horrid year it’s been, which had much to do with the complete lack of blogging.
She plans to post at a soon to be launched group blog, but for now will continue posting at her old digs as the urge strikes. It’s well worth keeping an eye on her. What blogging she did was some of the best written, most interesting stuff I have encountered. Plus I love maps.
Christmas Plans and Traditions Poll/Discussion
Ith has a Christmas poll for you. Whether you go out for Chinese and a movie on Christmas, or traverse lots of rivers and woods to get to Grandma’s house, she’s looking for your answers in her comments or in a post of your own.
This is one such post.
I traditionally spend the day somewhere else. This year will be a mix of here, obviously, where we have actual presents and an actual family to open them here, and the usual going elsewhere. Lately that has been my sister’s most years. In the past it had been my grandmother’s. It has changed over the years. For my sister it has gotten hard, with the MS (for which the drugs are $1500 a month, so the new insurance company has started jerking her around), so a lot of the cooking will be done by my mother and grandmother. But she has more room for a bunch of us. As in at least twelve.
When we have more kids and they are enough older to make it matter, we may stay home, have dinner at home, or someday actually host dinner for the multitudes that are my family.
I am not sure what’s on the menu. Probably turkey and something, which will most likely be ham. Sometimes there’s roast beef or pork as one of two meats. If there’s one, it’s usually turkey and sometimes ham. One of the most wonderful things ever is ham with my late grandfather’s raisin sauce.
For dessert, which is the main thing my sister is making, there will probably be pumpkin pie, another kind or two, including likely lemon meringue that one of her kids is crazy about, and date nut bars for me because I mentioned how much I liked them last Sunday. My mother always made them and I haven’t had them for years. Want the recipe. We will probably bring the cobbler-like cranberry pie, which will be something different.
We will probably eat about 1:00, which means probably by 2:00. Which means “early,” to folks who have evening dinners.
Favorite gift when I was a child? I can’t remember offhand. Is that sad or what? Not sure I remember or if one stands out as an adult either. There are gifts I could expound upon as memorable, or praise in some way or another, but favorite… well, as an adult perhaps the pocket computer I got in 1983 would count. As opposed to the winter coat I got in 1982 and am still wearing 22 years later, which was an excellent gift, but notable more for its longevity and extended usefulness.
I have nothing intensely specific on my wish list. I wouldn’t mind Spiderman, Spiderman 2, and some other videos, but I hadn’t given it much thought, and gifts from relatives this year will be for the baby, now that I have one. And that is gift enough for me.
Unique tradition? Not really. Until my uncle moved to Maine, it was traditional to go to his place on Christmas eve. We tend to be into stockings even for adults. It hasn’t been that long since my mother last did one for me, and around the time I was in my teens we started doing a stocking for her, which lasted many years.
Deb and I are at the start of making new traditions and Sadie’s memories. We’ve declared Christmas eve to be “ours” to balance the running off elsewhere on Christmas itself.
We recently talked about when to open presents, and a tradition her family had of opening a single present the night before, which for the kids took the edge off waiting. Maybe I’ll let Deb open one of hers tomorrow night. In a sense we got that by going to my uncle’s and getting a present from him, and some years we’d get to open something else too. I always thought it was weird to open everything before morning. Unless maybe there’s a practical reason, like traveling on Christmas itself.
Anyway, help Ith out; go comment, or write a post on the topic and link her Christmas post.
Sunday, December 19, 2004
As Frosty Would Say…
May your “answer year” be as superb as mine was, before I turned unanswerable in April.
Sunday, March 28, 2004
The Truth About Cats And Jeff
Jeff Soyer has a new blog called Tarazet, not to be confused with Target, and certainly not Wal-Mart.
You could say it’s kind of like blogging meets The Truth About Cats and Dogs. But you probably won’t.
Don’t miss the post where he asks what dog breeds Bush and Kerry would be, if they were dogs. It’s great fun, even though someone beat me to the toy poodle answer.