Jackpot!

Wow! I knew that some universities in the US have made courses available online (via video or mp3, class notes, etc) but I didn't realize the sheer number of classes out there. Yale University, Berkeley, NYU, Oxford, tons of others -- all consolidated at a website called Academic Earth.

Jackpot! Tons of interesting classes by the top universities and colleges -- free.

Damn, I love the interwebs.

Dog Training

Most of the time when I go downstairs to plod along on the treadmill, both dogs follow me. They tend to follow me everywhere (if I let them), of course. I can't figure out what they find so fascinating about me walking in place, but it's cool down there and they like to lounge about while I exercise.

But now, when I announce that "I'm going downstairs to walk..." they both RUN to the basement door and then thunder downstairs to stand expectantly by the storage room door, tails wagging. Why? Because I -- ONCE -- went into the storage room where the dog biscuits are stored to give them a cookie before I started on the treadmill.

Once is apparently enough to convince them this is what 'going to walk' means. It means: run downstairs and we'll get a biscuit! Yeah!.

So, unlike every other dog on the planet, the word 'walk' has nothing to do with outside or a leash or sniffing every shrub for four blocks...it means 'go in the basement'

That's somehow every embarrassing.

Happy Wine Day

We are now in possession of two cases of new 2009 Mollydooker wines -- including seven bottles of the absolutely perfect Velvet Glove. I'm going to have to start inventing important celebratory holidays to warrant drinking them.

Let's see... the anniversary of our first toaster purchase. Yup! Dog's birthday. Sounds good! No rain on Tuesday, that'll do.

We tend to hoard this just a bit, since it's so good. Plan to be at our house for a major anniversary or birthday and we'll probably share.

Probably.

For Booklovers

You know you're a bookish, geekish sort when....you can name all but one of the covers pictured in this little quiz.

Ok, I really did miss 2, I knew what the book was but it was picky about the exact wording. They are mostly american covers, and not always new ones, at that.

Extra points if you can name the author for each of them....

Virtual Climbing

Well, real climbing, but a virtual hill, I guess!

According to my treadmill, I have walked 272 miles, and climbed over 38,000 feet. Woot!

Artistic Artichokes

Someone had too much time on their hands (and hopefully is not in trouble for misuse of an MRI machine), but the images of vegetables and fruits in the MRI are very interesting!!

Food Porn

We've been trying to eat better here at Chez Phouka, more fresh veggies, cooking at home more often, just trying to do a bit better.

I've also been watching a lot of Food Channel and Cooking Channel shows as I huddle in the living room cross stitching, so I've been trolling the internet for recipes and new ideas. There are only so many ways to cook zucchini, you know?

And I discovered a blog that is a collection of the "foodie" sites -- TasteSpotting. It's just food porn, really -- beautiful pictures of fabulous food, descriptions of meals, and some really interesting recipes. It's just fun to browse.

The Grass is Greener

I was thinking about this today, after a conversation with a friend over kids vs dogs.

One of the few times I wish that my dogs were actually human children is when they wake me up urgently at 3am.

With a human child (at least a verbal one) they could tell me if the urgency is "hurry up I'm bored and you should play with me" or "I forgot to pee before I went to bed can I go now?" or "Imminent butt-splosion from all the bacon I ate! Defcon four! 911! HELP!"

That would be helpful. With the dogs, it's all the same facial expression, and "I just want to go outside to bark" has the same urgency as "I think I'm gonna barf now".

Most often, it's the former--they sleep all day and want to go out. One benefit, though, I can just close the door, leave them outside, and go back to bed. Probably not a good idea with children, right?

I wonder if she'll do it

Back in February, a facebook page went up:
MY SISTER SAID IF I GET ONE MILLION FANS SHE WILL NAME HER BABY MEGATRON

It took 13 days. Do not mess with the power of the interwebs!

Galapagos Pictures

I've posted a quick set of pictures from the Galapagos Islands on Flickr. Just a quick run through - there are tons more! I'm working on it!

I'm not dead! Really!

Busy, busy, busy, though. I missed an entire month of posting. Oy. You must all think I've crawled under a rock or fled the country or something.

Well, I did sort of flee the country -- spent two weeks in Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands with our family (wow! just wow!), celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary, my birthday (for an undisclosed number of years), and have been helping my sister plan her wedding. Apparently posting to the interwebs fell by the wayside.

No worries, we're alive! I promise.

Am I nuts?

Probably. I love doing counted cross stitch -- something about the precision, detail, and twiddly stitching really appeals to me; I find it calming, really (despite the fact that it makes the Adorable Husband twitch to watch me stitch).

I realized that I haven't stitched anything in almost two years. Not sure why - too much going on, not enough leisure time, always something else to do instead of plopping down for a bit of zen-like focus on a blank piece of fabric, a printed chart, and a photo of what it will eventually look like.

So I spent some time web-surfing and looking for what sorts of patterns are out there now. I've always like the huge charts from Mirabilia and the extremely detailed architectural charts that I've found. I tend to not like the "crafty" sort of charts that abound -- kittens and teddy bears and amish-style samplers aren't my style.

And then I discovered that, in the last few years the 'fine art' style of cross stitch has simply exploded. Scarlet Quince and Heaven and Earth Designs have page after page of absolutely stunning charts -- huge, detailed, multi-year projects. I'm in heaven. My wish list at both sites is embarassingly huge.

So, I've resolved to start a project - -and picked a piece designed by John Godward called 'Pompeiian Lady', which just leapt out at me on the site when I saw it. I ordered it immediately and expect it to arrive this weekend.

The chart that is. I still need to figure out what I'm going to stitch it on and collect the whole 'kit', which is at least part of the fun.

At my normal 'resolution', this thing is 22" x 47". I'm going to have to work smaller than I'm used to, or I won't be able to actually hang it anywhere, it will be too huge. 334,400 stitches.

I'm insane, aren't I?

And now I'm going to have to get the other charts for this artist from HaED, or risk them disappearing/being retired before I can finish. (hm, possibly a birthday gift? Must tell the Adorable Husband...)

Definitely insane. Possibly certifiable.

Balloooooooons!

Yesterday was the Erie Town Fair, and there is usually a huge air balloon launch in the morning to kick off the festivities -- but Saturday dawned gray and cloudy, so no balloons.

Today, though, is gorgeous, and I was woken up by the hiss and pop of balloons heading over the house -- sometimes very, very close!.

Yes, it's done!

The Adorable Husband reminded me this morning that I had not posted evidentiary pictures of the "finished' garage door trim job. Yes, it's done -- primed, waiting for the painters to come and do the rest of the trim, but it really did only take one day to get all the new trim planed and put up.

Ta-da!

Surprise!

I woke up this morning, a lovely Sunday morning, to THIS....The Husband is dismantling the garage!


We're having the trim painted again this summer (dark colors + mile-high-city-sunshine = peeling paint) and as we looked around at the house, we realized that the trim on the garage -- just one corner, on the header over my garage door -- was a bit water damaged. Should be easy enough to replace, right?

So, the Adorable Husband got up early this morning to pull down the damaged piece and replace it.

Apparently it was a bit more troublesome than we imagined. Now there is a pile of red-painted ex-trim in the driveway, holes in the garage, and two carloads of new lumber.

I spent the afternoon helping him plane 2 x 8s into 1" x 6" headers and 2 x 6s into 1" x 4" frames. Seriously - nothing is nominal size lumber. It's all weird "exact" sizes that apparently don't exist at a regular Home Depot! Luckily the garage includes tools, including a planer. It is a most inefficient way to create eighteen bazillion cubic feet of sawdust, I promise!

The Adorable Husband is outside finishing up the caulking now, and I'm trying to snort out the sixty pounds of sawdust I inhaled. Not quite how I envisioned my Sunday!

Oooh, Retro!

I totally forgot to post this, and I really should have!

The Adorable Husband wears Gargoyle sunglasses -- remember Terminator? -- and has for twenty years or so. He likes them, and hasn't found anything else that blocks enough light and that don't make him look like a deranged bug.

So he was up skiing with my nephew last month, and one of the lift operators thought they were pretty cool -- "Really neat, man -- totally retro!"

I don't think you can be considered fashionably "retro" if you have been wearing the style the whole time. I'm not sure what that is, exactly, but retro it ain't! The Adorable Husband disagrees, of course, and he's feeling quite fashionable and stylish.

Only 2166 Chickens

Senate hopeful Sue Lowden’s plan for Healthcare reform is to barter for medical procedures. It's eminently mockable, not because the barter system is a bad idea (it's honestly not), but because she simply doesn't seem to grasp that the same people who don't have money for health care, have little to barter, and continues to repeat it. People bartered chickens for medical care becuase they couldn't afford to pay. That is not a solution to healthcare - bartering won't "Bring down prices in a hurry", unless, perhaps, you're a car dealer, it is a desperate, last-ditch attempt to get care and it turns medical care into a 'maybe you'll get it, maybe you won't" proposition. That's not acceptable.

Sue Lowden (R), the leading Republican Senate candidate in Nevada, recently articulated her vision of how the American health-care system should work. At a local candidate forum, Lowden, a former state senator and chair of the Nevada Republican Party, encouraged Nevadans to "go ahead and barter with your doctor." It would, she insisted, "get get prices down in a hurry."

"I'm telling you that this works," the Republican candidate explained. "You know, before we all started having health care, in the olden days, our grandparents, they would bring a chicken to the doctor. They would say, 'I'll paint your house.' I mean, that's the old days of what people would do to get health care with your doctors. Doctors are very sympathetic people. I'm not backing down from that system."

I would point out that "Before we all started having health care", people died of simple things that we can now prevent, and people with easily treatable diseases got no treatment at all because they couldn't pay for it. It just wasn't an option. The reason why people paid with chickens was because they were broke. Not because it was some idyllic time when things were simpler. It was because it was a horrid time when there were more poor people and there was no social safety net.

But, I really posted this because the following website made me laugh. A lot.

Some enterprising person has put up the Sue Lowden Chicken for Checkups web page, which just make me laugh uproariously.

Double Standards

Apparently bra- and panty-clad women prancing around in Victoria Secret ads are ok becuase the women are thin and have a-cup breasts. But try airing an ad for plus-sized lingerie, and the networks balk. Lane Bryant has a new Cacique lingerie ad that the networks didn't like, and apparently didn't want to air. The only reason I can see? Because the women aren't thin.

It appears that ABC and Fox have made the decision to define beauty for you by denying our new, groundbreaking Cacique commercial from airing freely on their networks.

ABC refused to show the commercial during “Dancing with the Stars” without restricting our airtime to the final moments of the show. Fox demanded excessive re-edits and rebuffed it three times before relenting to air it during the final 10 minutes of “American Idol,” but only after we threatened to pull the ad buy.

These are the same networks that run Victoria Secret ads. What was their complaint? "Too much cleavage". Well, yeah, when you look at real women and not coat-hangers and they tend to have breasts. Real women look like this -- far more than look like the airbrushed version of beauty that the fashion mags would have us believe. Talk about a double standard.

Cool Science Badges

Just popping in to link to Cool Science Merit Badges.

"I work with way too much radioactivity, and yet still no discernable superpowers yet” is my favorite!

I can't believe you said that....

I can't believe that they actually used the name. I can't. It's just too damn funny. I'm laughing so hard I nearly ruptured something. Yup. I'm twelve.

Duluth Trading Company Ballroom Jeans. Yup. Ball Room.