1- My daughter has an owl nightlight. It's charged by USB so it doesn't have to be plugged into the wall. The owl shape is a soft plastic that squeezes nicely when pressed. If you tap it hard enough, it changes color. It also has a remote to cycle through the colors. After the requisite bedtime stories, I turn out the light and M gives Birdie her ( Read more... )

Did you know that the Soviets built a ridiculously huge statue of Mother Russia as a war memorial at Stalingrad? It's 279 feet tall, or more than 120 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty.

I've read a great many books this year, but rather oddly a sports novel by John Grisham is one of the ones that I'll remember the longest. Playing for Pizza ( Read more... )

At my job I have a list of projects that I'd love to get done if I had my way, but are extremely unlikely due to time constraints and other considerations. I did not previously have a metric unit to describe the effort and likelihood of getting a particular project approved and completed. That lack has now been met. Ladies & gentlemen, I introduce ( Read more... )

[1] Further attempts to diagnose my laptop or at least find part numbers for the CMOS battery have been futile. I plan to go buy a large USB drive this weekend in the hopes that tygerdsebat or another hardware oriented friend can at least salvage my files. After that major surgery will be attempted, and if the patient dies on the table I will go buy a cheap ( Read more... )

My long-time friend and occasional lurker Kendra was in town for Mother's Day. We were supposed to catch the Tribe on Friday, but given that it rained almost all day on Friday we decided to get dinner at Tommys and then to have a quick drink. A good time was had by all. Well, I can't actually speak for Kendra, but given that I am supposed to visit ( Read more... )

"Bacon wrapped filet mignon" - the greatest party snack ever. Ate many of them at the party that my cohost Ron threw for his wife Emily's birthday. Oh my. It even tops the slow cooked pork and the brisket that darlox has made at past occasions. Ron's friends agreed that my idea for bacon wrapped chicken wings was sheer genius ( Read more... )

Apparently my journaling style is to have everything build up in my head until it explodes in one huge burst, after which I ignore it for 2 weeks. Oh well. Here are a few odds & ends ( Read more... )