Flickr Meme

It has been ages since I did one of these, but it fell right in line with my recent interest in Flickr. I saw this recently on Sheasy's site, though I've elected to let the pictures just represent the answers (you may have to use your imagination in a few instances!) and not insert them below.



1. un Fiore ... per un Fiore: MAURA! Auguri, stellina!!!, 2. Gnocchi with Thyme Vinaigrette and Lemon Cashew Cream, 3. The bench, 4. Purple fingers, 5. Daniel Craig as JamesBond in QUANTUM OF SOLACE,009, 6. Ice Tea Splash, 7. An Irish Sunset, 8. Flourless Chocolate Cake with Espresso Whipped Cream, 9. don't worry be happy new year, 10. Alien-being or Mochi?, 11. Dependable, Loyal, Late and Lazy, 12. Father Daughter

The concept:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste the URL for each of the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your Flickr name

If you decide to give it a whirl, I'd enjoy it if you come back and leave a comment with a link to go see your results, too. (And I hope it takes you less time to do than it took me.)

Food Network Haiku

Throwdown with Bobby Flay

Bobby Flay comes by
Doughnut guy is a poor sport
Want a treat but not his now


Photo taken by roboppy

Happy 4th!

Just a quick post to wish you a happy holiday weekend for those of you in the States. We enjoyed a front-row seat to a local fireworks show that was really well-done. The finale lit up the sky so much that it seemed like daylight! I forgot to bring my good camera so I just snapped freely with my small camera. This was one of the few shots that came out well enough to use and even then it's pretty blurry, but I like it.

I also wanted to mention that Dara Torres is now my own personal hero. She is flippin' amazing. I'll be rooting her on during the Olympics, which are fast approaching.

Letting the dog have his day

I was out taking more pictures after work yesterday and this peppy little guy caught my eye. He was just so obviously having such a great time playing and running around. I figured it was a good time for a little canine love to balance out the kittyness that usually reigns.



If you click on it to make it bigger, you can really see his beautiful eyes. I think he's an Australian Shepherd, but I'm not sure. A lot of people take their dogs to play and exercise in this area, so I hope to go back and take more pictures sometime soon.

This started off as a banner week for visitors here at OPO after being part of Five Star Friday (a new edition will be up very soon, by the way, so go visit), and got only better after joining a merry band of other bloggers over at AllMediocre, which is all about blogs that may be "Mediocre in comment level and traffic stats, but NOT mediocre in content." There's a lot of good and interesting content over there, so I hope you'll drop by sometime and share some comment joy with the other members. As I saw over there, "Comments are the currency of the blogosphere," so go pay your bills!

Breath of Fresh Air

It was delightful to be part of Five Star Friday this past week and have so many new visitors stopping by! I hope to see some of you back again; I know I found a few new blogs to keep up with by visiting my fellow "stars." I want to thank the ever-charming Schmutzie for putting such a great idea together and coordinating it each week.

Since then, however, I've been coming up a little empty in the blogging tank. I bought a new camera late last week -- a digital SLR from Canon, the kind I've been wanting to get for ages and finally could -- so I've been spending time with that and playing with the pictures quite a bit.

It's been a while since I posted one of my Finn, actually, so here's one of the very first ones I took after I got it out of the box.



Of course, I'd like to say that the image is straight out of the camera, but I did do a tiny bit of work on it before posting. Not to Finn, he's a gorgeous boy no matter what. No, I did some touching up of the poor ottoman he's resting on. It has been unintentionally abused by cat claws and the marks show up horribly with a flash.

Adobe Photoshop Express is fantastic for this, even more so because it's free. It doesn't, by any means, do all that Photoshop can do, but it's a great tool for those of us just wanting to play around and do minor work. I highly recommend it -- you can do a lot more than you can with MS Office Picture Manager, which is what I've used in the past.

Mercy post...kind of

A certain someone complained that he kept getting reminded of the subject of my last post because I hadn't written anything since to push it down the page. So, here you go, it has now been demoted to "old news." However, that's probably the only part of this you're going to like, B.

Today is a celebration. It's a celebration of love, a celebration of equality, a celebration of hopefulness and a celebration of victory over discrimination.

Today was the first day of legal same-sex marriage in California, and it's a day that I feel quite happy and satisfied to be a Californian, a state that is making a stride forward. This is only one of thousands of articles on the event, but it covers all the bases pretty well, if you haven't heard it dozens of times already. And if you feel similarly, here is something you can do to share your thoughts with the governor of your state.

I don't know anyone at this point who is planning to tie the knot, same-sex or opposite-sex, but I'm celebrating each of the people who are taking that step in love, in hope, in a new era of equality, right here from my living room.

I tried to be a lot more personally involved. I volunteered to perfom civil wedding ceremonies for the county clerk's office here because they are expecting more of an increase than the current staff can handle. I got all the information I needed to become a deputy marriage commissioner, but they held the training and swearing-in on a day I couldn't get there, much to my disappointment. I'm hoping there'll be another chance if they continue to need people and the anticipated challenges aren't successful.

And challenges there will be.

I'm not about to dive deeply into the whys and wherefores and my thoughts on people who see this as some sort of threat to them, their lives, their religion or whatever other reasons they hold, and will seek to go backwards. I'm not a part of the gay and lesbian community, I can't speak about it in a meaningful way other than to say how I feel; there are many others you can look to for more than that.

But to those of you who will mount these challenges or seek to support them: I disagree with you, with all my heart, and will be here to rise to that challenge.

It's people like me who will be standing there on the other side of the line you'll draw, engaging in the fight you'll bring, making sure we're heard just as loudly, just as strongly in numbers, if perhaps with less vitriol. Because, to me, your reasons are about intolerance, inequality, unfounded fear and, because it's the opposite of love, hate. If standing against those things isn't worthwhile, I'm not sure exactly what is.

Did you know...

...that tomorrow is National Doughnut Day? If you're so inclined, Krispy Kreme will be offering customers a free doughnut of their choice in participating stores throughout the U.S. But I'm sure that your favorite local place will be happy to provide you with a tasty treat for a fair price.

Go forth and doughnut!

Odds 'n Ends

Though there are many sad stories about those who lost everything, the fire is contained and should be fully extinguished soon -- yay. Good job to the men and women who fought it; it was far from easy.

On a completely different note, I totally rocked this quiz about company mascots this morning. I challenge any of you to beat my score -- 19 out of 20 -- without cheating by looking up any of them in another window. A prize will be offered on two conditions: 1. You need to prove your score with a screen shot emailed to me; and 2. You have to look me in the eye and tell me you didn't cheat. Thus, by its nature, this is for people I know and see regularly. Everyone else is welcome to share your results in the comments (...you remember how those work right?), where I can offer only ridicule or kudos.

Switching gears again, I was sent a useful link today that I thought I'd share. It's a local gas price aggregator, which shows you the lowest reported gas prices in your area code. It may not be 100% accurate to the moment (it reflects overnight price reports) and I noticed that it doesn't include Costco gas stations, but it gives you a good idea of where you can expect to find lower prices compared to the rest of the area.

With apologies to Bob Seger

I awoke this morn to the smell of smoke
How far off I lay and wondered
Started closing windows, one then two
Ain't it funny how the smoke moves
When you just seem to have so much to lose
Strange how the smoke moves
With wildfire closing in

Not exactly what you're hoping for as you regain consciousness. Thankfully, no, our place wasn't on fire. Unfortunately, it's the result of a big wildfire not far from here.

I've mentioned before that I live in Silicon Valley. But, for those of you who don't already know it, I currently live in Los Gatos, which is at the base of the Santa Cruz mountains. This map shows really well where Los Gatos is in relation to the fire -- find where it says "17" to the left of the flames, then go up a bit. Not super-close, but it's a 3,400-acre fire at the moment, so it's plenty close enough.

Yesterday, the wind was moving south really fast and hard, which made it bad for the fire-fighting efforts, but it kept the smoke blowing in the opposite direction from us. During the night, though, the wind died and the smoke drifted back our way, so I woke up with it tickling my nose.

It's nothing, I realize, compared to what people in the area are dealing with right now, and I'm feeling for them and the incredible loss a fire like this brings. But everyone has to look out for their own well-being, so I'm planning on decamping for the weekend -- a time when I normally never travel -- to have, at the very least, a little better air quality for a few days.

So here's wishing everyone in the States (I say that because, remarkably, I get quite a number of overseas and northerly visitors...not that you'd know it!) a lovely Memorial Day Weekend. May all your barbecues be...contained.

Thank you

It's times like these that I am reminded what awesome friends I have. Thank you all for your support, I really, really appreciate it.

Turn Turn Turn

So much change, so little time. A lot going on, plus I'm grappling with the complete lack of feedback here and trying to decide what direction to go. While I decide what time it is for me, I'm going to pretend I'm in Vegas and keep Pogo-ing and sharpening my casino skills.

In the meantime, to all you mothers out there, I wish you a lovely Mother's Day on Sunday. And to those of us who aren't mothers (or fathers), do you ever wonder when we get to be celebrated for our choices? I do. Maybe we could have Saturday?

Favorite Things - New Takes

1. Voodoo Doll - This mini version of the classic was given to me as a gift and is soon to be used for a little retribution. Think of all the possible subjects: jerky CEOs, office frienemies, bitchy ex-bosses, insufferable co-workers...all on your list! You can only hope that you're not on my list at this point. And if you have to wonder, then yeah, it's probably you.

2. Lady Grey Tea - This I discovered on my fabulous trip to Australia, which reawakened my love of tea in general. I've always been a fan of Earl Grey; this adds a little citrus to the traditional flavor for a tasty twist.

3. America's Next Top Model - Cycle 10 - This one is the fault of VH1 and the writers' strike. When there was nothing new on, I got sucked into a few Saturday ANTM marathons and this is the result.

4. Oreo Cakesters - Good ole Oreo cookies gone puffy. Nothing but yum.

5. Word Riot - A new version of a game from Pogo. It's like being on the old game show, Password. A little scary at first but totally addictive. Like still up at 3am playing addictive.

Light My Fire

Ah, yes, the delightful Kindle I mentioned in an earlier post finally arrived yesterday. To my surprise, almost no one I know was aware of this ebook device and I've spent a good bit of time today demonstrating how it works. To no surprise at all, I spent a good two hours last night trying to decide what my first download would be! The winner was The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs.

You may notice that a picture of the cover of that book appears, for the time being, to the right of this post. Seems like a good time to mention the new widget I put over there recently, but hadn't gotten around to talking about yet. In case you don't know it, I'm a voracious reader. I've thought for quite a while that there should be a way to catalog easily all the books I've read, preferably online, but hadn't found it. I'd begun a clunky Excel spreadsheet (with the help of the very useful "My Reading History" feature that my library has online) of the books I could recall reading recently, but it wasn't exactly what I was hoping for and I wasn't all that enthusiastic about using it.

In the midst of that project, while visiting other blogs, I discovered that LibraryThing existed and did pretty much exactly what I'd envisioned. Not only that, but I could also do something else I'd hoped to do (but hadn't had the time or energy to figure out how to do on my own) -- put a short list up here of what I'm currently reading with just a few clicks. At any given time I'm reading at least two, if not three, different books and I plan to keep that list up to date by having whatever I'm reading show up there.

I'm not really a book club kind of girl. I don't like being told what to read. Throughout high school and college I probably read a couple thousand books, but very few of the ones that were assigned in English class. A personality flaw, to be sure, but it has gotten me this far. The point is, I'm not looking to turn this into a book blog, get a group going, have this turn into a Kindle discussion spot or anything like that, but I'm always interested in learning about new authors or books that someone thinks I might enjoy and sharing the same with others. I've checked out the discussion boards on Amazon for the Kindle and on LibraryThing and, frankly, some of those people are a little too nutso-passionate for my taste. But if you've read this far and I haven't already bored you to tears, maybe the same kinds of things appeal to you, too. So I hope you'll share some thoughts if something appears over there and it kindles your interest. :-)

Freedom to Choose Freedom

"Freedom is not merely the opportunity to do as one pleases; neither is it merely the opportunity to choose between set alternatives. Freedom is, first of all, the chance to formulate the available choices, to argue over them -- and then, the opportunity to choose." - C. Wright Mills

Not a terribly exciting quote, but I think it's an interesting one. Because, really, isn't an important part of true freedom the ability to decide what freedom means to you?

I'd never heard of Mr. Mills before, so I did a little looking before deciding to go with his words of wisdom here today. From what I read, I found that he was a social scientist who was often viewed as a Marxist. But in typical American fashion, he was also often viewed as an anti-Marxist. Kind of like how celebrity women can end up on both the best-dressed and worst-dressed lists in the same year, to use a rather more pedestrian analogy.

I found this article, written about him and one of his theories, which I enjoyed reading. The author makes a really good point about some of the insights Mills put forth in one of his lesser-known works, noting that "they might be as applicable today as they were [fifty] years ago." Given where we are politically right now, even more so when the article was written five years ago, I'd have to say "hell yeah."

Forgetting Thurgood Marshall

"Grave threats to liberty often come in times of urgency, when constitutional rights seem too extravagant to endure.”" -—Justice Thurgood Marshall

This one resonates pretty closely with the quote from yesterday and my thoughts about the negative impact of the Patriot Act. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you felt about the last post), I'm too tired to say much more about it today.

Instead I'll ask you how much you know about today's quotee, Justice Marshall. If the answer is "Not much," I invite you to read this article about one of the most influential Americans of the 20th century. Today's title is merely a play on the title of an upcoming movie (the billboards for which I've been seeing around a lot, so it came to mind quickly), by the way; Justice Marshall is someone we should most definitely not forget. He's someone we all owe a debt of gratitude to for shaping much of our current national identity. Others in the civil rights movement in America may have been more visible, but few had more lasting impact.

Paging the Fourth Amendment...Please pick up a white courtesy phone

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin

This one couldn't be more meaningful for today's America, could it? Fear has driven us to give up all sorts of liberty in the name of safety.

Patriot Act, anyone? That little gem of a legacy from the Bush Administration has stripped away much that I doubt we'll ever get back. It violates many tenets of the Bill of Rights, what I've always thought of as the shining star of American democracy; that thing which defined us as "The Land of Liberty." The Patriot Act's use, and misuse, has had the unfortunate but unmistakable consequence of virtually gutting the Fourth Amendment, in particular.

Really, it's our fault for letting this happen, though. We don't hear it as much anymore, but we've lived with the idea of "the terrorists have won" if we don't do something we'd normally do if not for 9/11 and its after-effects for the last seven years. But for us to have let our own government strip away things that were so fundamental to our identity as a country, in the name of our safety, certainly smacks of that to me. Maybe they've only won a battle in a larger war we hope they'll lose, but at what cost?

Quote Week: Freedom

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." - Thomas Jefferson

The hullabaloo surrounding the Olympic torch relay disruptions by demonstrators protesting China's tyranny over Tibet, and activities closer to home as pro-Tibet activists scaled the Golden Gate Bridge today and hung banners, made this quote jump out at me today. Because while I may not agree with all of the tactics being used, I understand why those fighting for the freedom of Tibet have seized upon this occasion to make their voices heard.

Right or wrong, those who feel passionately about the situation in Tibet have recognized that China, a country that has long abused the human rights of those under its rule, winning the right to host an international, high-profile event like the Olympics created a worldwide stage for their message. This powder keg has been brewing for decades; the decision of the Olympic selection committee to award China the Olympic games, when it has done nothing to change its treatment of minorities or put an end to its human rights abuses, was like handing those committed to protesting a lit match.

Predictably, China has condemned the actions of the protesters but, in my opinion, hasn't got a shred of high moral ground to stand on. And, predictably, the U.S. is too much in debt to China for the government to try to take a real stand. If anyone really thinks the U.S. will be boycotting the Olympics (and I'm not saying that we should), or even that Bush won't attend the opening ceremonies, they need to take a cold, hard, clear-eyed look at the realities of our economy and the financial position we've gotten ourselves into with respect to China.

But the fact that we can see what's happening on TV, in papers and across the Web, and express our opinions about it like this, unfettered by worries that someone is going to throw us into jail for doing so, brings home what the freedom Tibet is asking for is all about. We have it. They don't. They want it. We (as I count myself among them...though I won't be scaling anything anytime soon) believe they should have it.

So this week is going to be about freedom and what wiser people than me have said about it throughout history. Because what we're seeing is nothing new; oppression and rebellion are as old as time.

Death Becomes Her

When thinking about a post for today, I'd planned to write about candy. I mean, why not? But then, as I do most days, I popped over to dooce to read her latest post. What I ended up reading, and the hours after, changed that. A lot.

Now, if you go over, please read what she says about the site she features before you go clicking on it, lest you be a "Mimi," too. "This somber series of portraits [was] taken of people before and after they had died..." I did read, and decided it was something that I didn't want to be looking at during work. Instead, I started reading the comments since she'd opened them, and those were moving enough. When I started reading there were about 141 comments; at the time of writing this, there are 901. By about number 44, I was already fighting tears and I hadn't even gone to see the pictures under discussion. Clearly, the subject of death, and our reactions to it, touched a nerve.

I decided I was going to wait until I got home to go view the gallery, and went to lunch not too long thereafter. I didn't have a lot of time, so I went to a nearby falafel place that I enjoy. There is a large TV in one corner that's usually tuned to Al Jazeera in English....which I don't generally watch. But when I glanced up at one point, mouth full o' falafel, I was startled to see a man in a coffin on the screen, quite dead, being made up prior to his viewing. I still have no idea what the story was about because I couldn't hear it and it didn't really matter -- the visual from it, on top of what I'd just been reading and thinking about, was enough to boggle my mind a bit and mull over how differently news is presented elsewhere in the world.

On the drive back and for a while after that I was thinking about death and its place in our society, our lexicon and my own life. Many of the commenters at dooce mentioned our fear of death and how it plays into the reactions people have to the photos. That made me think about how, on the other hand, we use the concepts of death and dying in our language so easily and perhaps carelessly. I realized that, a bit earlier in the day, I'd written an IM to someone wherein I'd said, "She is absolutely killing me today," without a second thought, the way we all do. Hmm, I'm pretty sure I'd said essentially the same thing...about the same person...just the day before. And here I am, still alive.

Think about it. "I'm dying of hunger." "This will be the death of me." "My head is killing me." "He's rolling over in his grave." "That is a dead end." Those are just the first few that come to mind, I'm certain you can think of many more. Why is it we're so comfortable referring to death in these offhand, casual manners, but the thought of death itself freaks us out?

As I've been thinking about this for so much of the day, I eventually realized something about my own reaction to the idea of death and dying: It's not the idea of my own death that bothers me, or thinking about people in my life who have died, it's contemplating the death of friends, family and loved ones in my life now that makes my own internal wig-out meter go bonkers.

So, let's see, here I am, seven paragraphs into this post and I still haven't gone to see the photos that started all this. I'm not actually procrastinating, as I don't have any true hesitation in viewing them. I just wanted to be done here because, if they're as haunting and beautiful as people said, I think I'm going to want some tissues instead of a keyboard afterwards. Now, however, as a friend of mine says, it's time to pull on my big girl panties and deal with it.

'tis Spring

Randomness

- On my drive home tonight, I saw two cars in traffic with the license plates IBM GUY and INTL LADY. You wouldn't guess that I live in Silicon Valley, would you?

- There's nothing quite as odd as your mother telling you, apropos of nothing, "They got rid of Chikezie last night."

- You can make a damn fine frittata out of a bunch of leftovers. Correction: I can make a damn fine frittata out of a bunch of leftovers!

- I started as new book today, the second in a relatively new series from an author I enjoy, Victoria Laurie. I've read all of the books in her Abby Cooper, Psychic Eye, series. I like her style and they're entertaining. If you're not into psychic "mumbo jumbo," you probably wouldn't go for her work. If you're a fan of the show Medium, though, you probably would.

- Speaking of books, I'm anxiously waiting for my Kindle to arrive. I've pretty much stopped buying paper books in anticipation of downloading them wirelessly.

- Yahoo! has really improved its search functionality with the addition of Search Assist. I find myself using it more and Google somewhat less recently.

Case. In. Point.

Is this wreckage left behind by giant carpenter ants? The unfortunate result of a diaper-less toddler run amok? A Tibetan sand mandala...in my living room?

None of the above. This is the work of my beloved cat and should be titled "Finn vs. the Flaxseed."

Yesterday, he discovered a bag of flaxseed I'd left in the hallway and he dragged it more than 20 feet to the middle of the living area. He then apparently took it to task, ripping a nice hole in it before shaking it vigorously to make sure he'd conquered it. But I guess it didn't make a tasty treat because it didn't look like he consumed any and never disturbed his "work" for the rest of the day.

It's almost like Finn wanted to prove that he's as much of a troublemaker as I alluded to in my last post. I'm such a lucky girl...with, thankfully, a good vacuum!

The Return of Phineus Fog

It occurred to me recently that I haven't posted a single picture of Finn since I came back from hiatus. Time to rectify that.



There's my boy! He's not quite as, um, wraithlike as he was as a kitten when he earned his full name but he's definitely still Huck Finn-esque in personality. Not a day goes by where he doesn't get in trouble somehow.

"Does that make me a whore?"

"...well then it's your own damned fault!"

Interesting how snippets of two different conversations at two different tables, overheard at lunch today in just that way, make you sit up and take notice. It never fails to amaze me how people have these loud, personal conversations when they're sitting out on the patio of a restaurant.

It really reminds me of one of the first blogs I ever got hooked on, inpassing.org. (I'd link to it but it looks like it's not working, and hasn't been for a while.) It was a great site run by Eve, who posted these bits of conversation she overheard while living in NYC.

I sometimes wonder if people are so saturated by reality TV that a little part of them believes that they're fascinating enough to be the star of their own show, so they might as well make it easy for the mics to pick up every word.

That, or they're just completely oblivious. You decide. But I'm voting for the latter.

They won't make a slinkity sound, exactly

"Some people are like Slinkies...largely useless, but they can still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs."

Today's quote is from a commenter on Dooce where, in her most recent post, Heather shares some of the unbelievable hate mail she gets, as well as her response to it.

Everything I could think to say about the people who take the time to send ugly mail like that to someone, anyone, has been said five times over in the comments so I won't waste our time rehashing it.

I'll just say that I'm glad to toil on in obscurity if that is what you have to look forward to when you become an award-winning, financially successful and influential blogger.

And that I may be getting a Slinky soon, since the law tends to frown on pushing people down stairs.

Confession

I have something that I feel the need to confess here. Doing this has been on my mind for a while and I think it's time to put it out there.

But I'm worried.

I'm worried that you're going to think poorly of me, that you'll lose some respect for me after I come clean. Because once it's said, let's face it, you can't go back and be the person someone thought you were moments before.

It's time, though; I've held back too long and I feel like a fraud. I'll just have to deal with any fallout and hold my head up high, as I know my real friends will stand behind me, regardless.

So here goes: I don't like the works of Dr. Seuss. I don't like the books, I don't like the artwork from them, I don't like the movies made based on them. I don't wax nostalgic about his impact on my childhood, reading The Cat in the Hat for the first time, or the deeper meaning of the Lorax. I don't get giddy when Christmas approaches and the Grinch is referenced every five minutes or so. Never have, never will.

The hullaballoo and media blitz surrounding the release of the Horton Hears a Who! was a little overwhelming and I held out long as I could. Now it's said and I feel better. Oh, and while I'm at it, I don't like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, apple cider, reading newspapers, saying the Pledge of Allegiance, iPods, or Everybody Loves Raymond. Come to terms with it.

Did you know...

...that this is National Problem Gambling Awareness Week? Neither did I. But apparently it is.

Is says so right on the 15 lottery tickets I bought for this evening's drawing.

Mo Site: Candy Blog

One of my goals in coming back from my hiatus was to get back to what I'd originally intended this blog to be: a place to share the various sites, stories and other items I come across online, in lieu of emailing them to my friends and family...sometimes to their disinterest or annoyance or inattention due to just general busyness. Granted, the blog may garner those same reactions, but at least it amuses me more than sending emails off into the vast, silent cavern of the Internet.

I haven't done as much of it as I'd planned, though the list of Mo Sites off there to the right has grown a bit to include those I've talked about since I started up again. My hope is to have it serve as an index for the sites I find and feature here; the ones that I find myself visiting often and telling people about...or trying to tell people about when I can get them to pay attention long enough!

So let's get down to it, shall we?

With Easter just down the bunny trail, this is pretty timely. Candy Blog is the place to go to get a review of new and interesting chocolate and other candies from all over the world. Cybele (who I think of as The Candymeister) covers a huge variety of candy, from what can be found in the dollar store to what's found in the high-end, designer shops. She takes the most compelling pictures of the goodies and has a very concise and consistent way of reviewing them, from where they can be found to how much they cost, with a rating system and links to other related reviews.

I have discovered quite a few new, delicious favorites (chief among them, Sweetriot nibs) since I've been reading her blog and I can't get enough of it. I stop by frequently and find myself looking for new items on store shelves in anticipation of her take on them. Our tastes aren't entirely on par (she adores licorice and I can't abide it) but they're similar enough in other ways (neither of us likes cherry-flavored items much) to make me look forward to the next review.

This was Egg Week, where she reviewed all sorts of chocolate eggs that are out now for the Easter season. Last week was Hollow Chocolate Rabbit Week, replete with bitten-off ears! So if you're looking for something tasty for that special someone's basket this year, go check it out.

Goals are a good thing

As a sports fan, I have a wish list of things I'd like to do, places I'd like to go and events I'd like to attend. It's not quite a "Bucket List" but is more a less a running tally of "Some day I'm going to go there" kind of things.

Some are pretty standard and some are in pipe-dream territory. I've been fortunate enough to do quite a few of the top-of-list ones over the years: the US Open (golf), the US Open (tennis), opening day for the SF Giants, the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the Australia Open, the last Giants game at Candlestick Park, a US Figure Skating Championship, a SF 49ers Monday Night game, and seeing a game from a luxury suite at AT&T Park.

Last night I got to tick another one off the list: see a Sharks game from a luxury suite. As April will tell you, I like hockey well enough but I'm not a huge fan. We've gone to a number of games and so far I've managed to: a) not fall asleep; b) not embarrass either one of us; and c) learn enough of the rules to keep up. But what I'd spend the most time thinking about during the less-fascinating games and long intermissions was "I really want to get up in one of those suites."

It was a very good game, the Sharks won and watching from the suite was pretty much exactly what I'd hoped it would be. The food could have been better, but it was plentiful and gratis, so I can't complain. The only thing that could have made it a 100% great experience was if I could have brought someone with me. It was a work-related opportunity, however, and sometimes you don't have a lot of latitude with that kind of thing.

So, the next goal for Maura the Spectator? A Formula 1 race!

Ah, Elbert, we hardly knew ye

"An ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness." - Elbert Hubbard

Personally, I think there's a lot to be said for cleverness. But loyalty, that's an animal of another, far more rare, color.

I've always wondered why that is; why it's so difficult for people, friends in particular, to be loyal for the long haul. I don't mean friends of mine necessarily -- I think I've lucked out in that department and I would hope they might feel the same way -- but in the stories I've heard people tell about how so-called friends have back-stabbed, bad-mouthed, sold-out or otherwise been awful to someone close to them.

I've got no answers, but as we wrap up our little week of quotes from Mr. Hubbard, lets take a moment to be thankful for the loyal people we do have in our lives.

Then go borrow twenty bucks from them.

Briefly

"Don't take life too seriously. You'll never get out of it alive." - Elbert Hubbard


Okay, the cynical little cloud over my head has dispersed, so I'm ready to lighten up and listen to today's words of wisdom. Do you see what I mean about his quotes so not seeming early 1900s?

What? You've got a problem with cynical?

"Life is just one damned thing after another." - Elbert Hubbard

I noticed that many of the quotes attributed to Mr. Hubbard on The Quotations Page are from a list of cynical quotations. Yep, sounds about right. Cynicism is like catnip to me. Maybe because a cynical outlook can be so wonderfully apt and on the mark, even if your more optimistic types don't see it that way.

Because, really, life is just one damned thing after another, isn't it? A whole bunch of damned boring, annoying, uninspiring, humdrum, unpalatable and sometimes downright bad things in a row, broken up once in a while, briefly, by a few bright moments.

But then, if we didn't have the unpleasant things coming at us all the time, we wouldn't appreciate those bright moments enough, would we?

If a quote falls on deaf ears in the Internet, is it really a quote at all?

"Get happiness out of your work or you may never know what happiness is." - Elbert Hubbard

I have a feeling this is going to be a long week, dear readers. All five of you. You're either as busy as I am or you're not feeling Quote Week here. Well, you'll just have to suck it up and deal...or let me know you don't like it then suck it up and deal.

I have only one thing to say about the above quote after a day like today, and it's the reason I picked it: If it's true, then I will not know what happiness is for a while yet.

Get your quote on, Elbert

I don't know exactly why this idea appealed to me so much today when I came up with it earlier today, but it did.

A little explanation: I have an iGoogle page with couple of different tabs and a bunch of various gadgets and widgets, mostly to amuse myself during the day when I don't have time to surf the Web but need a bit of a break. One of the gadgets is "Quotes of the Day" that, not surprisingly, has new quotes each day.

The quote that caught my eye today was: "No man needs a vacation so much as the man who has just had one." - Elbert Hubbard

It got my attention primarily because I usually feel that way after a vacation, never more so than after getting back from Australia. What kept my attention was actually clicking on The Quotations Page for Elbert Hubbard. I'd never heard of Mr. Hubbard before (though I had heard of his most well-known essay, "A Message to Garcia") and I was surprised to see that he died in 1915 because many of the 17 quotes they have for him seem so current and relevant.

All that leads us to *drum roll, please* Elbert Hubbard Quote Week here at OPO. I'm going to pick one of the quotes each day this week, throw it up against the wall and see what sticks.

I'd be interested to know if you feel that same way after a real vacation, where it almost, almost doesn't seem worth having had the time off, when you know what's waiting for you upon your return.

I think in the era of e-mail it's even worse. It's not like people called and left a couple voicemails, or talked to your assistant or co-worker and found out you weren't there and will call back sometime once you're back, or there's a stack of envelopes on your desk, half of which you can pitch out without a second thought. No, I think many of know that there are going to be 100+ emails waiting for us in our inbox, and every one of those people wanted to hear from you yesterday. And a least a dozen will have the ! next to it saying "Pick me, pick me, pick me first, I'm important!" I spend at least an entire day dealing with email after being gone from work for a week or longer. That doesn't even take into consideration all the work I had to do before leaving just to get ready to be gone because everything is nownownownow-I need it now-this is urgent and there's just no one else to do two-thirds of it in my absence.

I know some companies have instituted "E-mail-free Fridays" and I think there's some merit to it. However, even more than that, I'd like to see e-mail amnesty. Where we cut people a break after getting that ubiquitous "Out Of Office" auto-reply that says they're out for some longer period of time. Where we don't expect them to answer your e-mail the moment they get back to their desk...you and the other few dozen people who are clamoring for attention. Let the poor soul ease back into the hectic workaday world so that vacation actually meant something!

Nah. Never gonna happen. Next quote?

Shift my what?

My first car was a Datsun 280Z. It was a great car and I was heavy-hearted when it fell victim to northeast winters while I was in college. Most of my subsequent cars were Hondas, and I haven't really looked much at the Datsun/Nissan family of cars since then. No particular reason other than that none really sustained my interest during that "Hmm, what should I get?" phase of car shopping.

Not that you haven't already guessed where this is going, but I got myself a new car today. And yes, it's a Nissan. Thanks to the Best Brother in the Whole Wide World, who pointed me in a new direction when I found myself uninspired by the cars I'd decided to look at, I fell head over heels for the Altima. The way I described it after test driving it is that it gave me that "Yes!" feeling that the other cars hadn't.

For the more curious among you, it's dark slate, pretty much exactly like my last car. What can I say? I like gray cats, gray dogs and gray cars!

None of this is terribly relevant to anyone else, I know. However, the car search is what's been occupying my attention for the last several days so instead of just going another few days and falling out of the habit of checking in periodically, there you have it. The line for rides starts right below.

Why myrrh on her?

I've enjoyed watching the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show the last two nights. I was excited tonight to see one of my favorite breeds, the Weimeraner, win its group and advance to the Best of Show competition, and sorry to see it lose to the Beagle. Don't get me wrong, I don't really dislike beagles. I'm just not as fond of them as many, many other breeds. Snoopy may be the most famous beagle, and I love him, but in my experience the actual dog has very little in common with that venerable icon.

I know that some people (brother-type people) didn't think watching a dog show was a worthwhile to spend an evening. But while I haven't owned a dog in a very long time, I enjoy watching all those beautifully groomed dogs each year. Dogs I don't have to walk, brush, wash, feed or pick up after!

You'll also have people who think these shows are an elitist bunch of crap that don't serve any purpose, blah blah blah. (If that's you, go away. I'm sure you can find a forum for your views, it's just not here.) But aside from the weird styles of grooming for certain dogs, it's all good. Woof, as they say.

To whom it may concern: Read this or you'll be sorry

The days keep slipping by again. Plus, I haven't had much to say. A few fleeting ideas that haven't coalesced into anything worthwhile. So I'll share a site that I found during my little hiatus and that I've made a habit of visiting.

Passive-Aggressive Notes is a collection of notes people see out in the world and send in, often with a backstory. As the site says, it's all about "painfully polite and hilariously hostile writings from shared spaces the world over." Whether they're truly passive-aggressive or not is open for debate, but some of the notes are just classic. The commentary for each note, or set of notes, by the person who runs the site is witty and insightful but usually it's the comments that make me laugh...or grimace...the most. The regular commenters are a smart but rather cutting group and can be merciless when someone makes a gaffe or poorly worded comment, to the point where I've personally never joined the fray because I don't need that kind of pressure, but it makes for good reading.

Leaving notes for people in lieu of personal confrontation has become such a way of life that I think there'll be enough fodder to keep this going for quite a while. Goodness knows I see enough of them around and, admittedly, have written a few in my day. They usually represent the tipping point for someone's frustration, and emotional writing is usually not someone's finest. The "spelling and grammar police" aspect to it alone is worth the price of admission, but then that's a pet peeve of mine and these kinds of notes are a gold mine for that.

Check it out if you're so inclined and let me know what you think.

Rain, I love ya, but please, please go away already

Really, I do like the rain. Many others get down when it's gray and drizzly, especially when it goes on for a few days, and I usually love it. I enjoy the bite to the wind, the anticipation of a crack of thunder (though that happens quite rarely around here), I don't mind getting rained on, and get a kick out of seeing other people's umbrellas get blown inside out.

This happens to remind me of another picture from Australia that I wanted to post, by the way. This picture was taken a second before I caught a streak of lightning out of the corner of my eye and we were treated to a wonderful storm in Sydney.



It's not as impressive as I was hoping for -- Texas April and a picture she posted recently was my inspiration and it fell far, far short -- but it reminds me so much of that moment when I knew we were in for a storm, and how great it was to have the weather cool down so dramatically that day.

Later that day I took what turned out to be my favorite picture of the Sydney Opera House, after the rain had stopped and we were waiting for a ferry, as the light in the sky was turning to dusk and the lights on the building were just winking on:



But I digress. Now, rain has become my electronic nemesis. For some reason, whenever we get a lot of rain, my DSL goes wonky and I have no Internet connection at home. That has been the case for the last few days. Very frustrating, though B²W³ came to my rescue this evening (again) and got me all fixed back up, so the online world is once again my oyster.

I'd planned to do a more in-depth post about the trip on the 26th, since that's Australia Day and it just seemed so appropriate, but the rain put the kibosh on that. Now it's a little late and this is just about all I've got time for tonight.

There's still more time for a couple more cute animal pictures, though! (All were taken at the Mansfield Zoo.)


White kangaroo (which I was mistakenly calling a wallaby because I couldn't look it up online to check)


Grey kangaroo (waiting to see if I was going to put out with some food)


Agile wallaby (I love how his little mouth was open like he was saying "Hey! Get on with it already!")

If I weren't so tired, I'd have a much snappier title here

I have so much to say about the trip and pictures to post, but I'm just not able to focus my mind quite enough yet to do it. I had almost zero jet lag from the trip over there -- I'm happy to say that my technique for circumventing it worked beautifully -- but I couldn't do the same thing on the way home and I have been a bit of a mush-head since my return.

That's right, I said mush-head.

Now, holding my mushy head up high, I'm going to go and be unsuccessful in getting to sleep. Again.

Don't bite the hand that feeds you

The silence in here is kind of resounding, but I'm going to be undeterred and forge on. I'm still in Australia and having a great time. As promised, here's a picture of a true highlight of this trip:



Yep, that's me, feeding kangaroos. I did it by hand without the little plastic spade, too, but it was hard to get them to stay still long enough to take a picture that way. After you satisfied their tummies, they'd let you pet them, which was pretty damned neat.

The ostrich was another favorite:



This guy and his emu pals followed us around as we circled their huge enclosure, hoping we'd show them some more love and ignore the camels.

One animal you couldn't really pet was the dingo, which looks adorable and innocent in this picture:



...but we all knew he'd take a hand off if he got the chance. (Go ahead, get the dingo jokes out of your system, we did.) Though one of our group, who shall remain nameless, was bold enough to touch one of them on its doggy nose. She still has her finger, however, so there's no gory story to relate.

All this took place at the Mansfield Zoo, which is the coolest, most casual zoo I've ever been to. You could feed the majority of the animals, and watch the carnivores being fed, but it's no mere petting zoo. They have a pair of lion brothers who were very anxious to get their dinner, and you can be sure we didn't actually get to help with that!

I'm having trouble keeping a connection, so I'm going to wrap this up. Just a few more days here in Oz, and still so much to see! We're back in Melbourne and we're hoping to get in to the Australian Open for at least a few hours, and go to the Melbourne Zoo, as well, so we can finally see a koala.

No Worries (and yes, they really do say that a lot)

Greetings from Australia! I'm sure this is going to show that I'm writing this on Friday night, but it's actually Saturday evening here in Victoria. We've left Melbourne for a little while and we're rusticating in the country for some R&R.

Right now I'm atop Mt. Buller, attending a beer festival. The beer I tried was good, but the arm wrestling competitions were far better! They have music and some comedy, as well, and everyone is having a fine time. The only fly in the ointment is the bloody flies. They're E V E R Y W H E R E, CONSTANTLY!!! It really gets annoying quite quickly -- I'm thinking about buying a mosquito netting for my hat, which I saw in a store here earlier. I thought they were bad in Melbourne along the river, but so far the Mansfield area is definitely holding its own.

There's a lot to share, but it's going to have to wait until I have a little more time. Finding an Internet connection out here isn't the easiest thing, though we've had good success at public libraries. The terminal I'm on now is in the middle of a ski resort (of all things) and you pay in 20 minute chunks. But there's beer to be had and music to be enjoyed before we head back down the mountain, continuing our search for koalas. We've spotted some kangaroo and tons of wild cockatoos, but thus far the koalas and wombats have kept themselves hidden. Next time I post, hopefully I'll be able to share some pictures.

Buck up, buttercup, you're going to Oz!

So, at long last, all the elements are in place so I can tell you about our big plans. Believe it or not, April and I are going to Australia tomorrow!

She tells the story about how we came to this unexpected adventure, but I want to take a moment to thank Al myself for this amazing opportunity. Unfortunately, his plans fell through and he won't be making the trip with us; I was hoping to thank him personally. I'd also like to thank April for asking me along. Maybe if this goes really well I can talk her into trying out for the Amazing Race with me, since I've been trying and failing for years to get B²W³ to go for it.

We cleared some mighty hurdles to get to this point, but tomorrow we head to LAX to meet up with a planeload of poker players and assorted folks. Twenty-four hours from now we'll be winging our way to Melbourne for a two-week vacation. We've made plans to stay in places with Internet connections, so hopefully we'll be able to provide updates while we're away. But if we can't, just know that we're having a heck of a good time Down Under, where it's summer right now -- a far cry from the wet, gray, winter weather we're currently experiencing here in NorCal.

A few answers to questions in advance: 1. I don't plan to. 2. No, we're not flying on Oceanic Air. 3. Yes, we're going to the zoo so there will be kangaroo sightings. 4. About 17 hours. 5. I certainly hope so!

Wish us Bon Voyage -- I've got to go pack my ruby slippers now to make sure I get back.

Busy busy still busy

Busy. And tired. Planning takes it out of me. But I can hear that wind getting louder - literally and figuratively. We're having stormy weather here with high winds. Hope it doesn't stay bad for long; y'know, in case someone were going to be traveling soon. (I don't know about you, but the suspense is killing me. Should know more tomorrow...if we don't, I'm going to be a nervous wreck this weekend!)

So, let's see, how about a quick link? If you watched "The Next Iron Chef America," this blog's author will be familiar to you. Michael Ruhlman was the judge who gave runner-up John Besh a hard time because his "consomme" wasn't actually consomme. (Also known as "the blond guy" if you weren't paying quite that much attention.) While not a chef himself, he's a writer about all things cooking and chef-related, including his new book The Elements of Cooking, which B²W³ so kindly gave me for Christmas. I've been enjoying his blog since I found it. He even inspired me to make my own stock, which was a lot easier than I anticipated. Bon appéblog.

Wherein I'm far too busy to trifle with this posting nonsense

This is going to be a short one because I'm rather occupied with intense planning for something I've got brewing with California April. (Yes, I'm blessed with an abundance of Aprils in my life.) Neither of us wants to say too much yet because there are some variables at work and the "j-word" could rear its ugly head.

There doesn't seem to be much interest in commenting recently, so I'm not too worried about someone who does know what's in the air saying something prematurely. (And if you do, just don't.) I know people are coming by and reading because I can "see" you are -- yeah, I'm talking to you, Ohio -- so I'm not that discouraged. Anyway, hopefully all the pieces will come together shortly and we can both share more. I'll just say that, at the moment, I feel a little bit like Dorothy listening to the wind stir.

To keep you entertained while I'm busy, go read Dooce. She's back after being sick for a couple weeks and she has an adorable Christmas present to share. If you aren't already reading her, you should be.

Truer words...

Big Chocolate Maura.

Enter a word for your own slogan:

Generated by the Advertising Slogan Generator, for all your slogan needs. Get more Maura slogans.

It has been ages since I did a meme, but I couldn't resist this one that I found over at Texas April's place. You know, this probably should've been the name of my blog; wish I'd thought of it. Though someone is going to make innuendo of it and imply something that shouldn't be implied, I just know it. For that reason, I'm not going to add "you are what you eat."

I hope you'll share your favorite slogan here in the comments if you try it for yourself.

2008 has been canceled

"Due to the writers' strike, 2008 has been canceled. Next year will be a rerun of last year."
- Headline on Metro a local weekly newspaper.

As far as TV goes, sadly, that might actually be close to the truth. But in terms of life, it had better not be a repeat!

My evening celebration will consist of pink sparkling wine and chocolate, so I'll be feeling just fine. I hope your ringing in of the New Year is equally festive and that 2008 is good to you all.

Happy New Year!

19 hours in LA

It was a mission of mercy. B²W³ (my brother -- I'm tired of writing out "Best Brother in the Whole Wide World") had driven to SoCal for work, days before, and was coming back Sunday. It's a long, boring drive and we'd tossed around the idea of my driving there with him then flying back, but it hadn't worked out. But the reverse would work and, really, I had nothing better to do.

Saturday I left cold, drizzly NorCal and flew to cold, sunny SoCal, landing at the Bob Hope Airport in next to no time. (I had waited in the San Jose airport for my departure time about twice as long as the duration of the flight. Of course, since I'd gotten there early, the security checkpoint was a breeze.) B²W³ picked me up and we were off to beautiful downtown Burbank, which was my only condition of going -- hey, I grew up on Laugh-In.

My evidence (click to enlarge):


We found a place to watch the big Patriots-Giants game over dinner and I got to immerse myself in LA culture. I know I was sitting next to someone in "the biz" at the bar, but I still have no idea what he did. Later, while driving around soaking up still more culture, I was astonished to see that they have CVS pharmacies down there -- I had no idea there were any on the west coast. Growing up in New York, CVS was just about my favorite place to shop (this was pre-Target, people) so I had to visit for old times' sake. We went to one later that night and luckily we didn't pick a 24-hour one, since B²W³ almost had to physically drag me out at closing as it was. Good times.

Speaking of shopping, where else can one truly observe and absorb the culture of a place more than in its malls and shopping centers? After the game ended, I had a nice time walking around the Valencia Town Center for a while, wishing more stores were open but glad that some were open that late. It definitely didn't feel like home, but I couldn't say whether it was better or worse, or exactly how it was different; it just was. The only observation I have to share is that some of the store personnel seem even more indifferent to their customers there than they do here.

The most notable thing on the mall directory was something that it hadn't occurred to me I'd be able to indulge in, though it probably should have: Pinkberry. This is yet another place I've heard a lot about but which I'd never been to since I hadn't been to LA in years. It was on my mind because I've seen the AmEx Plum Card commercial featuring them almost every day for the past two weeks or so. I have to admit, I like the phrase "swirly goodness." That shop was closed by then, but we decided we'd get there this morning. While looking up their hours, I came across a blog wherein the blogger makes it very clear how she feels about Pinkberry's product. I'm not one to just go on one person's opinion, though, so I was still determined to sample it.

I tried a smidgen of each of the two flavors to see which I preferred, and I went with the green tea. I don't agree with that blogger - it was definitely a very different, very tart, very yogurt-y taste, but it wasn't bitter. At $4.50 a pop with a topping, I probably won't be a regular customer when they finally get here...as I'm sure they will...but it was definitely a refreshing treat.

All my goals and shopping needs being met, we headed back north in the B²W³mobile, gratefully. There's really only so much new culture a person can take, and 19 hours was just about enough.

The oxymoron drink of the gods

I enjoy trying new recipes, especially when they involve chocolate, and tonight I made something fun and different.

Perhaps you've heard of Serendipity 3, the somewhat infamous and recently troubled restaurant in NYC. It was known to me for its frozen hot chocolate (or, as they call it, Frrrozen Hot Chocolate) that I'd heard about many times over the years (even before Ms. Oprah brought it to the masses), but which I'd never had. Of course, I'd puzzled over how they could call it hot chocolate and make it frozen, but I consigned it to that part of my mind where jumbo shrimp resides and went on with my life.

Recently, my mom bought a cookbook that has a recipe for frozen hot chocolate I wanted to try. While checking the Web to see what ingredients I'd need before coming home to make it, however, I saw that Serendipity had made their recipe public amid much fanfare and it sounded better than the one we had. Apparently it's not the actual recipe the restaurant uses (which makes sense to me; these sort of things are often adapted for public consumption because much of America wouldn't know Callebaut or Valrhona if it reached up and bit them on the butt) but it's accessible and easy enough to make. It was a really delicious dessert treat, served up in a cozy-looking mug with a mound of whipped cream and a dusting of chocolate sprinkles, even with it as cold here as it was tonight.

Next time...and there will be a next time...I'll use better chocolate (I used what we had on hand and it was pretty pedestrian stuff) and make sure more people are around to share its generous portions.

So grab a blender and make someone happy with a cup of frozen chocolate goodness.

The simple things make me happy

I was out on the town kind of late last night and was too tired to post when I got home. A dear friend of mine is in town for the holiday and we indulged in some of our favorite activity -- shopping! We went out late enough for the wackiness of the day-after-Christmas bargain hunters to have died down, thankfully.

If you know me, you will not be at all surprised to hear that, while we were shopping after dinner, I needed to find a ladies' room. We ended up in Nordstrom's and, as it's someplace I don't shop often, I hadn't been in their loo recently. I'll be sure to stop back there next time I'm in the area and in need, though, because it held a delightful surprise!

Public bathrooms are always a crap shoot (pun only semi-intended), aren't they? I generally dread using them but have no choice, so it's always lovely to find a decent one, let alone one that actually brings a smile to my face. But that's what happened last night.

Before I tell you why, though, allow me to digress for a moment. All this talk of public restrooms reminds me that there's a site devoted to this very subject. According to their homepage, "MizPee finds the closest, cleanest toilets in your area," and it's accessible by your mobile phone for those desperate, "there's gotta be one around here somewhere" moments. I haven't had occasion to use it yet, but you can believe it's going to be marked as a favorite on my phone! I checked and can't find this Nordstrom's restroom (it's the Valley Fair one, if anyone local is wondering) on MizPee, but I'm going to submit it as soon as I'm more familiar with the site.

So, what was the surprising factor, already? The hand dryers have been replaced by what at first I thought were Dyson Airblade dryers (which excited me to no end, because I've seen the commercial for them and I'm already half in love with James Dyson because he's so freaking brilliant and has a great voice), but were actually Mitsubishi Jet Towel, high-speed hand dryers. Same concept, same wonderful result. These things are awesome! Exactly as Dyson says in his commercial, there's no giving up and wiping your still-wet hands on your pants; the air moves the water off your hands in a matter of seconds and takes it down into a collection area, not in a puddle on the floor underneath the dryer -- something that annoyed me about traditional, ineffectual "hot" air hand dryers almost as much as their inability to actually dry my hands -- and there wasn't a carelessly discarded paper towel in sight. It just seemed so sanitary and efficient and environmentally sound.

I left with clean, dry, un-chapped hands and I was a happy, happy girl.

Merry Christmas!

Original title, huh?

Well, it has been a lovely holiday here in clear and sunny, but cold, Northern California. Santa visited in full effect and I have some wonderful new toys to play with while I enjoy the rest of my vacation time.

It was also a day of good food and drink, and I have a new favorite drink to make at home. Pomegranate martinis are very in vogue right now so perhaps they're almost a cliché, but they're red and Christmas-y so who cares? While I've had them while out, though, I've never made them myself. I got some nifty new martini glasses and a shaker as a gift -- I'd needed one at Thanksgiving and didn't have one, so my wish was granted by Santa Mom -- so I whipped up a few batches.

If you do a Google search for pomegranate martinis, the first result you get is courtesy of the Oprah juggernaut, with a side helping of Rachel Ray mania. But you know what? The damn recipe is so good that I don't care. I rimmed the glasses with red sugar for that extra touch (and substituted orange Curaçao for the Cointreau, as I found I didn't have the latter) and they were a big hit. I probably had a few more of them than might be deemed seemly, but hey, I wasn't going anywhere!

Now that I've got the shaker and glasses, I may be a martini-making machine. I don't like gin, so I'll only do the vodka-based kind, but if anyone has any suggestions of some to try for New Year's, perhaps, please do share.

Next time won't you sing with me?

Thought I'd go for something light, fluffy and brief tonight. Bembo's Zoo is a site I came across this year that really caught my interest (Flash required). It is an animated version of a book that creates animals out of the letters making up its name -- a lion is made up of the letters l-i-o-n -- in Bembo font.

Trust me, it will make more sense if you just check it out. Once you click on the orange "O," the gates swing open and you can visit the denizens of this fantastical zoo. I think the Best Brother in the Whole Wide World will like the "D" selection. I'm partial to the "M" one, with "Q" as a close runner-up.

If you decide to visit the zoo, please don't feed the animals and come back to share your favorites.

Are you there, Santa? It's me, Maura.

Are you feeling it yet? That Christmas feeling? It has taken me a while -- work kept me feeling a little Scrooge-like -- but I think I'm almost there. Here's my recipe:

1. Visit the Gävle Christmas Goat webcam from Sweden each night. This giant straw goat is something I stumbled on last year and I get a kick out of it. The webcam is there to protect the goat from would-be vandals -- he has been burned down 22 times over the last 41 years; check out the history for details -- so you kind of watch it to see if any pyros are lurking about, though I'm not sure exactly what one could do if someone were actually spotted. Last night I sat here and watched the sun come up over the square; really enjoyed that.

2. Keep the all-Christmas radio station here on in the car. Some songs just really take you there. As a close friend said to me today, "It's officially Christmas now. I heard Burl Ives sing 'Holly Jolly Christmas.'" The funny thing is that I hadn't heard it yet this year and not 15 minutes later, when I turned on the car, it was playing on the radio. And you know what? He was right.

3. Be done Christmas shopping and remove that stress.

4. Listen to holiday CDs while decorating the tree. Terribly original, I know, but it works.

5. Watch White Christmas every time it comes on TV. Love that movie. Much preferable to It's a Wonderful Life in my book, even with the weird, unChristmas-y production numbers.

And voilà! I'm ready for Christmas. Hey Santa, where's my gifts?

The More Things Change...

I spent a good part of this morning reacquainting myself with the blog. It was a little weird. I went through all the links to the right; I took out any that were gone or changed into something I didn't recognize, visited those that were still alive and kicking, and thought about the new ones I've found and want to add as I share them with you here. The phrase that kept coming to mind was one I find myself using often: ebb and flow. In some ways, the Internet is static -- you create something, put it out there and it will just sit there, a forgotten fragment. In some ways it's ever-changing, different from second to second. In still other ways it's a constant and something you don't see for over a year is not exactly the same but it's so familiar that you can fall right back into it. It occurred to me finally that, really, all of it is okay just like that.

At first, I was a little sad to see that some sites had gone away. Then comforted by the constancy of what some people are putting out there. Then annoyed that some people have taken over others' sites, keeping the name but having no ties to what initially attracted me to them. Then a little resigned to what I was seeing as I went from site to site, noting the ones that had transitioned to MySpace or Facebook and the like, which hold little interest for me.

As I got done going through them, though, I realized that it's all a part of the whole. Those people who abandoned or shut down their sites had moved on to something else, many of them struggling to keep it going for a while, like I did here. Until just a short while ago, I hadn't read back that far in my "recent" entries, and I didn't remember how many times I'd gone through my same cycle of ebbing and flowing interest in posting. I keep coming back to it; others don't. But each one of them had something to offer, some to a larger degree than others, and for their own reasons they left it in the past. Others stride forward with a consistency I find enviable. Between those two poles is just about everything in between and for every person who closed the door on their blog, there's at least one more who found the handle to their own door.

In the end, maybe that's exactly how it's supposed to be.

She's alive!

I've been mulling over how to jump back into posting here, having written dozens of posts in my head that never made it to the computer. But when even your mother (who was an infrequent visitor, at best) is asking if you're ever going to blog again, it's time to consider it.

To jumpstart me, I visited the page to re-read my last post and was astonished to see that people were still coming by and two people had commented in the last week! So, yes, Joe, I am alive and I'm back. Thank you for asking; it was just the impetus I needed.

Consider the ice broken. A year is a long time to be gone, and I'm going to have to re-learn the very little I knew about HTML and making things work here. Like that blog list over there, "Mo Pings." I have a feeling half of them probably don't work, and it will take me time to go through it and update it. So be patient, because I've found a bunch of new links to add that I hope will make it worth your while. And labels; I assume those are the same as "tags" and I can add them, though I have no idea what purpose it will serve here. I've popped some in there for the heck of it. I'm terribly behind on what Blogger can now do, but it will be fun to figure it out.

I don't have a really good reason for why I've been M.I.A., other than I've realized I'm a very cyclical person. (Not cynical, though I may be that too; cyclical as in I do things in cycles.) I do things a lot when I'm interested in them, then I need a break and I hibernate from the thing I really still do enjoy. Cross-stitching is a good example of this. I'll go at it like there's no tomorrow, and there's nothing else I'd rather be doing, then I don't pick up a project for months or even years at a time.

What has been occupying much of my free time lately is playing games on Pogo. I really enjoy the challenge of playing for badges (check out the site if you don't know what I mean, and if you like it and want a guest pass, let me know) and the games are generally relaxing to me, which is often exactly what I need at the end of the workday. But I suppose it's time to exercise a different part of my brain for a little while.

Things are going to be a little different, however. This post feels just like old times, me running off at the keyboard with whatever's in my head, but sometimes the pressure I put on myself to post something complete and well thought-out and meaningful sidetracks the intention. So I think that most posts are going to be shorter and more about what on the Web is interesting me right now. I don't feel very behind any "cause" right now and there's nothing I feel passionate about sharing with the world. That may change, of course, but for the time being that's where I am.

I hope a few old friends will see that this blog has been revived from the near-dead and will pop in to say hi. I will do the same as I work my way through that list of links to see who's still around. And new friends, please feel free to say hi, too, and I'll stop by for a visit when I can. In between games of Lottso, that is.

Holiday Eavesdropping

"Guys don't buy clothes for other guys as gifts."
- A guy talking to his girlfriend, overheard at Target while Christmas shopping this weekend.

I never really thought about that, but I suppose it's true. Gentlemen? Is there a reason for this? Are there exceptions? Do tell!

Fear not!

The drive to post is still there, I haven't forgotten or fallen back into my malaise of non-posting days. No, it's just the upcoming holiday. The last several nights have been so occupied making this and wrapping that, that I just haven't been able to keep my eyes open long enough to be coherent. I would tell you in more detail what that has involved, but that would surely take some of the fun out of it for the intended recipients, so you're just going to have to wait...just like they do!

The good news is that I'm on vacation now through the New Year (and a few days into it) so hopefully there will be more hours in the day to accomplish the kinds of things that have been keeping me up too late.

Before I seek sanctuary in the comfort of my bed for the night, I wanted to share with you a story that caught my attention on the news today, which you may have already seen. It was revealed today that a woman "accidentally" put her month-old grandson through the x-ray machine at LAX this past Saturday. What can you say about something like that? One official claimed it "was was an innocent mistake by an obviously inexperienced traveler," while another (more accurately, in my opinion) said that "there's an obligation on the traveler to use some common sense." There's the crux of it, really, isn't it? People have abandoned common sense at the same rate that they've abandoned common courtesy in the last decade or so. Guess they're not really so "common" anymore.

Person of the Year: Me?

I'd like to thank the members of the editorial staff at Time who decided that my contribution to the Information Age via the Internet warranted naming me Person of the Year.

Wow. Didn't see that coming and I don't really have a speech prepared. But, in addition to the editors, I'd like to thank my mom (because I think it's required or something), the aforementioned five of you who still come around, and all the other people who used to stop by before I took a temporary powder. All those late nights of searching for synonyms for "neat" and "delicious" were totally worth it, in retrospect.

I would appreciate it if Bill Gates would take my calls now, seeing as how this is an honor we share that makes us part of a rather elite group. Well, it did until they invited the rest of you riffraff along for the ride.

Part of me wonders if they didn't cook this one up because there wasn't any single person worth honoring this year, while another part thinks they did it just to stir debate. Then the really cynical part of me pipes up to opine that they did it to sell more issues because we're a narcissistic society that won't be able to resist claiming a piece of the collaborative pie.

Damned if this isn't going to make me go out and actually pay for an issue of Time, though! That mirror on the cover could come in really handy for reapplying my lipstick before I'm interviewed by Oprah and Larry King.

My new favorite quote

Exercise is a dirty word. Every time I hear it, I wash my mouth out with chocolate. *
- Charles Schultz

*Seen on the wall at the Ethel M Chocolate Factory. Sadly, site of the least-best part of the trip. Heaven -- gorgeous, delicious, wonderful chocolate all around -- one minute, Hell --April's painful solo flight -- the next. The only silver lining (not counting all the chocolate that I had, fortunately, already purchased before the trip to the hospital): Las Vegas has just the nicest all-male paramedic team I've ever met!

Step One*

Admitting you have a problem. Wait, no, wrong set of steps. (From a staircase that, fortunately, I've never needed to climb.)

We need to talk. Or, more precisely, I need to talk. No talky, no bloggy, right? I guess the last several months have left me a bit mute, so to speak, and it may take me some time to find my Internet voice again.

Lucky for you, it will take me less time to develop that once more than it will ever take for me to develop my singing voice. Lucky for me, there are maybe only five people still coming here and asking me when I'm going to blog again so it's a small stage upon which I may stumble.

I don't really intend to go into the whys and wherefores of what has been keeping me from posting. It would be boring and pointless, from my perspective, so let's let bygones be bywent and just move forward.

Having something to actually say or talk about would be a really great follow-up to that sentiment, I bet. But I've got nothing. Tonight was more an exercise in babysteps; getting back into the habit of actually sitting here more than once a month and letting my fingers wreak what havoc they may. Someone sent me an article last week that initially stirred those twinges of interest in once again putting words to post, so perhaps I'll run with that next time.

Hmm, I'm actually looking forward to tuning in for that. On to Step Two...


*With apologies to The Fray. It's one of April's favorite songs and since she took me along to Vegas and that jump-started the whole return to blogging thing, it seemed only fitting. I would have expressed this apology yesterday, when it might have made more sense, but I went off on a tangent and forgot. We hoes tend to do that sometimes.

How to Save a Blog

How? Hang out with a bunch of really great poker bloggers, which is how I spent the last five days in fabulous Las Vegas. They so inspired me that I actually played poker at one of the casinos (on what I thought would be my last night there, but wasn't), something I had resisted doing the last trip, out of fear. I not only survived, but enjoyed it and felt pretty energized by it. Following that, I felt the only thing I could do was to revive the blog from its near-death experience.

And what do I find upon my return but someone dissing me in the comments of my last post. I've never been referred to as a garden implement before, and certainly not a hoe. I always thought of myself as more of a scythe, actually, but I suppose a case could be made.

Hey, smartass -- the article, which isn't even available anymore, wasn't about the burger or the establishment you referred to at all. If it had been about some Irish pub, I would have mentioned it. It was some golf or country club and it sure as hell didn't come with a bottle of champagne, or there would have been no post at all. Do a double-check on whose facts are skewed before you go name-calling around here next time...especially if you're going to misspell the insult.

Ah, it's good to be back.