Maxwell

I think Maxwell as a name for the new car is appropriate.

This is what I've been doing while driving my car.

Wheee! Wee-wee-weee! Wheeeeee!!

It's rather amusing that this post, months after the last one, is about the same thing -- went to test drive the John Cooper Works Mini Coupe...and drove home in a brand-new, super-spiffy car!

This is not an actual photograph yet (too dark to actually take one), but it's just what my car looks like. Adorable, no? And plenty speedy, to boot.

Now it just needs a name, apparently (according to the Mini dealer, everyone names their car). Something suitably British, I think. Clive? Bertram? Reginald? NIgel? Ian? Make a suggestion, we'll see what sticks!

Good news? Bad news?

Is it good news that the Very Tall husband fits into the car that I want?

Best Science Class Evah

Poached shamelessly from Pharyngula-- wouldn't science class be way more fun if all the lectures were like this? Brilliant!!

Just checking in

I'm out in Vegas staying with my dad for the week, while Pat has a much-needed vacation. We're doing well, although I've managed to get sick and sound like a deranged squeaky chipmunk.

But I ran across this cartoon this morning, and it made me laugh until I wheezed.

A little perspective

Ran across this today, and though it might put this ridiculous posturing about the debt ceiling in perspective:

Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) displayed a chart on the Senate Floor that shows each president, starting with John F. Kenne­­dy, and their respective raises of the debt ceiling. The informatio­­n is quite telling.

Kennedy raised the debt ceiling 4 times
for a total increase of 5%.

Johnson raised the debt ceiling 7 times
for a total increase of 18%.

Nixon raised the debt ceiling 9 times
for a total increase of 36%.

Ford raised the debt ceiling 5 times
for a total increase of 41%.

Carter raised the debt ceiling 9 times
for total increase of 59%.

Reagan raised the debt ceiling 18 times
for a total increase of 199%.

George H. W.Bush raised the debt ceiling 9 times
for a total increase of 48%.

Clinton raised the debt ceiling 4 times
for a total increase of 44%.

Georg W. Bush raised the debt ceiling 7 times
for a total increase of 90%.

Obama has raised the debt ceiling 3 times
for a total increase of 26%.

Not quite a ...bad idea, but...

I'm married to a man who has,in the past, cooked frozen chicken patties in the toaster. No, not a toaster oven, the toaster. Just dropped them in the slots and heated them up.

(I should point out, of course, that he's not the only one who has thought of this, and in fact there is a toaster-bag sort of thing to make grilled cheese in the toaster -- you can get them from Amazon). However, I do try to draw the line at cooking meat in a toaster slot. It's a fire hazard, at the very least.

Which is why I laughed my butt off when I came across this old ad on the web.

I mean, sure, it's bacon, which make sit good almost no matter what. And I've been known to buy pre-cooked bacon on occassion from the grocery, or cook a pound at a time in the microwave, so I know that bacon is a pretty versatile kind of food. But in the toaster? I can only imagine that the Adorable Husband will think it's a grand idea! I wonder if they are still making it somewhere...

IN the next house...

Yes, stairs are too difficult, and since you can't usually get a house with one of those fire-poles to slide down, this will be the option we install in our next house. Besides, doesn't it look fun?


I think it will go perfectly in the Scottish castle I intend to buy when we finally win the lottery. What else are those round towers for?

Lovely Norway

How predictable

Oh, look! The half-term governor has quit yet another high-profile gig. Apparently, the "lame-stream" media that she complained were always following her around and not focusing on all that important stuff in Washington...stopped following her around.

Amid diminishing media interest, Sarah Palin has quit her high-profile bus tour halfway through and returned to Alaska with her family, according to RealClearPolitics.

The move puts a damper on widespread speculations that Palin’s “One Nation” bus tour, which launched on Memorial Day, was a potential precursor to a potential White House bid for 2012. Palin never made it to her scheduled stops in the key primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire.

Without an audience and media attention, she simply can't be bothered. And people actually considered her a viable candidate for president?

Don't worry, I'm sure we haven't heard the last of her. This next election season is going to be a treasure trove for the comedians, I bet.

Hardanger Lefse

Oy! I almost forgot. Here's the recipe for the "sweet" lefse that we had at the Oslo Folk Museum, which we were told was common in the Hallingdal area.

Norwegian "mørlefse" (soft and sweet)
2 eggs
250 g sugar
125 g melted butter/margarine
1/2 liter buttermilk
1 ts baking powder
approx. 1 kg wheat flour

barley flour
butter, sugar, cinnamon

Mix eggs with sugar and butter, and stir into the milk. Mix the baking powder with some flour and stir into the blend. Mix with so much flour that the dough is easy to roll. Barley flour makes it easier to roll out the lefse. Bake the the lefse on a griddle or in a dry frying pan.

Lefse are fine to put in the freezer. Serve with butter, sugar, and cinnamon on top.

(Just a note, in the whole recipe, the word "lefse" was always in quotes. Not sure why. Also, the recipe is not clear, the barley flour is used to flour the worksurface and the rolling pin.)

This was very tasty, indeed, but very unlike the potato lefse that we are used to making. It it much thicker, for one thing, just shy of 1/4" thick, and was much more like a pancake in texture. Very, very tasty with butter, though!