Which Classic Movie Are You?

I'm a very cool movie!!

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Missing that sense of belonging?

Seen over at Savage Chickens today:

Time waster

I made it to level 34. How 'bout you?

Sunday night video fun

These people are raisin' their kid right, that's what.

R.I.P. Al Copeland

Al Copeland, founder of fast-food chain Popeye's Famous Fried Chicken, dies in Munich, Germany

I can't really eat the chicken anymore, but Popeye's Red Beans 'n Rice is pretty much the only thing I can reliably eat from any fast-food restaurant. Yummmmmmm.

And no, I won't now give you a scientific post about why beans have their own aromatic aftereffects. You know how to Google stuff as good as I do.

Mmmm... asparagus...

Tasty stuff, but why does it make such a strong, er, aftereffect? Here's what WebMD has to say about it:

It's the result of a simple chemical reaction. Asparagus contains a sulfur compound called mercaptan. (It's also found in rotten eggs, onions, garlic, and in the secretions of skunks.) When your digestive tract breaks down this substance, by-products are released that cause the funny scent. The process is so quick that your urine can develop the distinctive smell within 15 to 30 minutes of eating asparagus.

Don't know what I'm talking about? That's okay, you're not alone either:

But not everyone has this experience. Your genetic makeup may determine whether your urine has the odor -- or whether you can actually smell it. Only some people appear to have the gene for the enzyme that breaks down mercaptan into its more pungent parts. A study published in the May 1989 British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology found that 46% of 115 people tested produced the odor in one group of British citizens, while 100% of 103 people produced it in a group of French citizens. The ability to smell the by-products may also be genetic. Another study published in the same journal found that 10% of a group of 300 Israeli Jews could not detect the odor. In other words, a person's urine could smell, but he or she might not know it.

You wanted to know, didn't you?

You're welcome.

Stuff's bloomin'

The first bluebonnet of the season has sprung up in Mom's flowerbed!


And then there's a cascading fountain of Carolina jessamine on the side fence. Gorgeous, no?

Nutiva stuff

Tonight I mixed some of the hemp protein powder into some peach yogurt. By itself it was okay, but still needed something. I added a few sunflower seeds to the mixture, and it was actually quite good. And it gave me the satisfaction of crunching something even though it wasn't much. I really miss crunching down on salads and apples and broccoli and all that good stuff.

Some day. Soon, I hope.

On the recommendation of my beautiful and wonderful blogmommy SarahK, I have ordered some extra-virgin coconut oil as well as some of Nutiva's hempseed oil. Perhaps I won't have to keep taking the fish oil capsules, since they always give me nasty, fishy burps about thirty minutes after I take them. The hempseed oil has the Omega3s that I need, and I assume it will have a nutty flavor rather than a fishy one.

I don't guess I ever realized you could cook with coconut oil, but apparently it has a much higher smoke point than most other oils we cook with. I love coconut anyway, especially the fresh stuff, and adding coconut milk to hot curry dishes is ABSOLUTELY DIVINE.

I'll let y'all know what I think when I receive my order.

Memo

Do not get totally plastered in public anywhere near dubious friends with Sharpie markers.



Mugshot from The Smoking Gun.

Thought for the day

(seen at Internet Bumper Stickers)

Hooray!

I finally figured out how to get my old blog layout back, and it looks like *maybe* Haloscan got its bug worked out.

It's weird, but the way that new template looked -- it made me NOT want to post to my blog. It's like it wasn't MINE, and I just wasn't the least bit inspired.

I guess there are some things that need to remain the same in my life. There are so few things that have. :)

Yeah, I hate it too.

I don't like the temporary layout, either. I want my old one back. Hopefully tonight.

Sheesh.

Sometimes I read stuff on my students' MySpace updates that just breaks my heart. Seen tonight:

my mom is drunk

and alternately screaming and crying and randomly calling people

its pretty annoying

and she's mad because my dad wont let her drive his car and my older sister wont bring her pot

anyways

i'm going to go back to watching Invader Zim now

Yes, I'm going to mention this to the powers-that-be.

Post-Herpetic Neuralgia

A fancy way of referring to the weird stinging pains and itches that linger after a bout of shingles. My PHN isn't terribly severe, although I do catch myself scratching my head fairly frequently. But once in a while it'll feel like someone suddenly stabbed a hypodermic needle into my scalp where the lesions broke out over a month ago. From what I read about PHN, it's a good thing my healthcare provider prescribed Valtrex so quickly, because it can reduce the severity of PHN or even prevent it from occurring.

The nerve damage resulting from an attack of herpes zoster is the culprit behind PHN. Some researchers did MRIs on people with shingles and found that about half of them had visible lesions on nerve tissue after a HZ attack.

Weird, weird virus.

I have no idea why, but

Every time I try to go to my blog site, it loads, then the browser's screen goes black.

UPDATE: As you may be able to see, I've completely removed the old layout. I think it had finally flown the coop. I'll leave it like this for a while, since this seems to have alleviated the blanking-out problem.

UPDATE 2: After some preliminary diddling with the template, it appears to be a Haloscan comments problem. Dunno what can be done about that... I've tried to reinstall Haloscan and it gets me the Dreaded Blank Screen again.

Ladies and gentlemen, start your sneezing!

I've seen lots of people out mowing this week, and although I don't really have major allergy problems, I can definitely tell that there's more stuff floating around in the air these days. AhCHOO! One of the very first telltale signs of spring, I'd say.

Take me out to the ball game...

I went to Ballyhoo's first baseball game of the season this afternoon to take some pictures and enjoy a little sunshine. We're not known for baseball; last year I think most of the games were double-digits to zero. We got a new baseball coach, however, and a fairly new crop of boys on the team. The game was still a shutout, but it was against the best team in the district AND we held them run-less for several innings in a row.

Hey, ya gotta start somewhere, no?

I sat next to the Athletic Director and another coach; they both seemed genuinely impressed that I showed up and made the comment that I have done a spectacular job of covering all the athletic events.

I know that the coaching staff is usually not hugely popular with the rest of the teachers, and I can understand why, but I'm not here to push any agendas. I'm here to teach art and I'm here to chronicle this school year as accurately as I can within the pages of the yearbook. The more supportive I can be to ALL the school's activites, the better the yearbook will be.

Hemp powder, part deux

Wow... I had read about Mr. Roulac and his work with hemp; what a surprise to hear from him in person.

I have really enjoyed mixing the Nutiva hemp protein powder into mashed potatoes. MPs are one of the few things I can eat nowadays without puking, but alone they don't have much protein. Mixed with hemp powder, they're not bad... and because I made a large quantity the other day, I can now say that the flavor and texture have definitely improved over a couple of days in the fridge. The grittiness is almost completely gone. In its place, a very distinctly nutty flavor has arisen, almost as if it just needed to "bloom" in the mixture for a couple of days first.

I will be trying the smoothie recipes that Mr. Roulac referred me to on Nutiva's web site, but truth be told, I'm just not that into the sweet stuff. I was glad to see that heating/cooking with the powder doesn't degrade the nutritional value; I will definitely start adding this powder to soup (since that's the other thing I can eat fairly safely). There's also a guacamole recipe and a pesto recipe on the site that sounded exceptionally tasty.

The one question I had about Nutiva that wasn't answered anywhere on the site that I could find: How is "Nutiva" pronounced? Is it "nuh TEE vuh" or "NEW tih vuh" or "new TEE vuh" or even "NUH tih vuh"?

I will very likely be ordering Nutiva's shelled hempseed, hemp oil, and even coconut oil in the near future. This stuff is very, very promising.

Product review

Just received in the mail today: Nutiva(tm) brand Organic Hemp Protein Powder.

I have tried many, many kinds of protein powders. I have hated them all, for one reason or another. Most of the time it's because they're pre-sweetened with aspartame or saccharine or even straight-up sugar. Don't get me wrong; sweet stuff is good and all, but not on a regular basis. And with protein shakes, you have to consume untenably massive amounts on a regular basis.

Blech.

I wanted to try this one because it also had a lot of other nutrients in it besides protein, and because all of these nutrients and protein were naturally-occurring, not chemically combined to form some alien mud substance.

Right away I noticed the difference. This stuff was powderized, but it's like powderized grass clippings -- olive-green in color, with a smell not unlike alfalfa hay.

The first thing I usually try is the make-or-break mixture: V8 juice. Since I drink a bottle of V8 every morning, it's a great candidate for a protein supplement... IF a suitable one can be found.

I swilled the V8/Hemp mixture. It did not dissolve, but that's typical of every protein supplement powder I've ever tried, so it wasn't a deal-breaker. The hemp powder is gritty, not hard like grains of dust or sand, but definitely noticeable. The grassy flavor didn't bother me too much, but I don't know if I'll be able to consume it on a daily basis yet.

I'll try. I have to. I definitely don't hate it as much as the last stuff I tried. And it doesn't get stuck and make me puke.

I tried something else this evening -- I mixed it into some mashed potatoes. And it's not bad at all. It's still got the gritty thing, and it turns the potatoes khaki-green, but I don't hate it.

This has potential. I'm not going to tell you it's the best, yummiest stuff I ever ate. But I've begun to conclude that a truly palatable protein powder just doesn't exist. And at least this stuff isn't artificial. Besides 11g of protein for every quarter-cup of powder, it also has Omega3 fatty acids in it, and a few other goodies.

We'll see.

Shield your eyes, people

I have evidence here. Shocking evidence of an illicit relationship going on right under my nose:


Cats and dogs sleeping together... and here, in my house.

[sigh]

What is this world coming to?

Home sick

Not me, though. Miss Alice woke up with a temperature of 102. Since Rick has to run his postal route (neither hail, nor snow, nor sleet, nor kid with fever), the nurse duty fell to Mom today. Thanks to the Great Snow Day of 2008 last Friday, this means I have a four-day weekend... and right before Spring Break. I wish it wasn't at Allie's expense, however. Poor little kid; she never complains.

Wow. Just wow.

Okay, a note before I begin. I hate The Pioneer Woman. Not the statue, doofus. The blogger. I hate her for many reasons, most of which I won't go into, but one very significant reason I hate her is because she has the camera I want.

Yeah, it's pure, sin-filled envy. That's TWO of the seven deadlies. I freely admit it. I'd probably love her to pieces if I met her, but I don't want to meet her. I want to go on hating her.

Doesn't mean I don't read her blog regularly. Something has to feed the envy, dontcha know?

Speaking of feeding, she has a second blog (add insult to it, why don't you?) called The Pioneer Woman Cooks, and she posts recipes. Along with beautiful photographs of her recipes, taken with that spectacular camera that I can't have.

And she has posted a recipe today that I swear I'm going to inhale as soon as I am able to eat solid food again someday.

A Real Hero

Woman Earns Silver Star In Afghan War

Army Spc. Monica Lin Brown saved the lives of fellow soldiers after a roadside bomb tore through a convoy of Humvees in the eastern Paktia province in April 2007, the military said.

After the explosion, which wounded five soldiers in her unit, Brown ran through insurgent gunfire and used her body to shield wounded comrades as mortars fell less than 100 yards away, the military said.

"I did not really think about anything except for getting the guys to a safer location and getting them taken care of and getting them out of there," Brown told The Associated Press.

Monica Lin Brown is NINETEEN YEARS OLD. I am so proud of her... and of the thousands of others whose bravery goes unrecognized every single day in the battle to preserve liberty.

Che-worship in Hollywood

Humberto over at Babalu Blog makes a very good point:

This Raul Reyes who just got whacked in Ecuador was a leader of FARC-- who have fought for 40 years, control (tragically) a good portion of Colombia, and have recruited 10,000 fighters (narco/terrorist-murderers- kidnappers.)

Ernesto "Che" Guevara. never fought a guerrilla campaign, recruited fewer than 30 fighters in Bolivia, controlled no territory, wandered around lost for half a year, utterly lost and apparently unable to read a compass--then was captured and his force wiped out at their first genuine firefight.

So who gets a major Hollywood epic title "Guerrilla!" !!? (due out late this year)

There's nothing like having Fidel Castro as a publicity agent--with one drawback: he'll only crank up the "Star-Making Machinery" (as Joni Mitchell sang) after having sent you to "sleep with the fishes."

(Please don't misconstrue this to suggest I sympathize with the mass-murdering FARC. Just an observation.)

Hear, hear.

I WANT DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME TO GO AWAY

I'm willing to bet significant amounts of money (which I don't even have) that I'm not alone in this sentiment. In fact, I know this to be true -- even the guys over at National Review Online know it's bogus.

We're also informed that DST helps conserve energy, apparently because people arriving home when the sun is still up don't switch on their lights. Didn't it occur to anybody that maybe they compensate by switching them on earlier in the morning? Moreover, people who arrive home from work an hour earlier during the hot summer months are probably more prone to turning up their air conditioners. According to Downing, the petroleum industry once was "an ardent and generous supporter" of DST because it believed people would hop in their cars and drive for pleasure—and guzzle more gas. But the very worst thing about DST is that it's bad for your health. According to Stanley Coren, a sleep expert at the University of British Columbia, the number of traffic accidents and fatal industrial mishaps increase on the Monday after we spring forward. The reason, presumably, is because losing even a single hour of sleep over the weekend makes a lot of people a bit drowsier on what we might usefully call Black Monday. Unfortunately, there's no compensating effect of a super-safe Monday as we go off DST and "fall back" in the autumn.

Any suggestions on how we can get rid of DST forever? I really, really resent this nonsensical intrusion into my daily routine.

It's Caturday, and...

Snow Day!

The snow was so monstrous today, I knew there was no way we'd have school tomorrow. I've never seen so many cars in the ditches in my LIFE.

They let school out at 1PM but should've turned out two hours earlier. By the time 1PM rolled around, there was already six inches of deep wet snowball-snow.

The buses took three times longer than normal to do their routes, so lots of kids actually got home at the normal time anyway. That certainly happened to us; since Alice travels by bus to Seven-Miles-Away School, we had to wait for said Short Bus to arrive. We waited until FOUR O'CLOCK... which is exactly when I get to leave on a normal day.

Count that up -- it means we waited at school for three hours... me, my bipolar daughter who does not deal with unexpected situations well and who flies into hate-spewing rages at the slightest provocation, and my son with the Alex Trebek vocabulary who cannot be quiet to save his life.

I'm grateful for my iPod and for whoever invented audiobooks. We listened to part of a Harry Potter book (#3), which kept the grousing and/or pontificating to about once every two or three minutes.

It really is amazing to me how mostly normal individuals seem to lose their minds when it's snowy/icy out. They act as if the world is a completely different place, where the laws of physics no longer apply. "Umm, pardon me, but you can't stop on a hill or you won't get going again." Or how about "You need to tap the brakes a good ways away from the intersection before attempting to turn."

I'm thankful we made it safely home across the gazillion lake bridges this afternoon. I just got the official "School's cancelled tomorrow" phone call, which means No Alarm Clock Tomorrow Morning.

Wheee!!

PS: And the satellite's back on. This portends well for the morrow.

WTF?????

I have no words.

Okay, this isn't funny anymore

The local weatherguesser is predicting several inches of snow starting tomorrow evening. Just a few counties north, my Aunty Ada may get ten inches.

I'm scouring the travel deals like a crazy woman. I've got air-miles and I need to use them this year; I can't think of a better way than a few sick-leave days spent in some warm, sunny location.

Here, for example:


I don't actually even know where this photograph was taken. Does it matter? I thought not.

Human Tetris

Saw this over at Instapundit... I know most of you probably already read Insty, but for those who don't, I thought this vid was kewl (if a bit indicative of too much time on someone's hands):

Sure sign of the apocalypse

And, of course, it's happening AT NIGHT, which means they won't call off school. If it could've waited, say, twelve hours, they wouldn't have been able to get the buses onto all the little side roads, so they would've cancelled school.

Yeah, I know... pathetic... but this tiny amount of winter precipitation is crippling for these poor sods down here. Nobody has a clue how to drive in it, even if it isn't sticking to the pavement! A couple of flakes fall, and people drive into ditches and crash into one another. This means I'd much rather they call off school, just to protect me & the kids from all the goofballs who don't know how to drive in snow. I drive over at least ten lake bridges between here and Ballyhoo.

But because it's falling NOW, it will have melted off the pavement by morning. Nevermind the mud-pits it will make out of all the little back-roads Rick has to drive on his postal route.

Of course, it also means that I won't have to spend all day cooped up in the house with... well, I just won't go there. Trust me, it's probably better if we all go to school. Some things just can't be borne right now.

Thunder-Snow

After about a half-inch or so of snow, we're now getting thundersnow. Very weird weather for these here parts.

Confirmation of my assertions

Skwerls ARE terizts. Ask all the guys at Washington University in St. Louis.

Although Scheitler-Ring suffered no physical harm, her boots were not so lucky. "There are little bite marks on my Uggs," she said, "I had to wear my Vans today."

Not that that's a bad thing, of course... Vans are ever-so-much-better than Uggs, any day.

Snow way!

They're actually predicting SNOW for tomorrow.

I won't complain, seeing as how my BFF has had to suffer horribly through the Des Moines winter this year and I didn't.

But... SNOW?!?

HERE?!?

I need a vacation. To someplace sunshiny, with flowers and stuff.

Honk-shoo

I borrowed (okay, stole) the title and the idea from MaggieKatzen...


They're always so sweet-looking when they're asleep. Of course, Bijou is sweet most of the time anyway. Except when the Weird Cat pesters her, then she's rough-and-tumble, fighty-bitey, and barky-growly.

Oh, and if one of the kids ever tickles me or Rick, she attacks (in jest only, of course; she never bites down on one of us).

She's not very big, obviously, but she's just the best little doggy EVAR.

Bunday!

George W. Rabbit would like me to remind all of you that he remains vigilant and steadfast in the face of the evil occupation of the house by the terrorist kittycat. He doesn't believe the threat is as serious as one might believe, particularly since said kittycat seems much more fascinated by the toilet water than by stalking valiant bunnyrabbits:


Honest-to-goodness, Dude is PLAYING in the water, not getting a drink. The weirdo literally sits there and dips his paws and splashes in it. He does it with his regular water-bowl, also.

In like a lion!

Okay, maybe more like a leopard... at any rate, it's the first day of March AND it's Caturday, so here's the requisite kittypic:



A very lounge-y, stretchy, spotty, stripe-y Caturday, no?