http://unusual-architecture.com/

Many unusual buildings, 3 pages of thumbnails with links to larger images.

From the 1960 collaboration by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn did, well, this.


 This is a performance by the US Army Blues last year at the Kennedy Center. They suck not.

When I took my computer to the shop on Dec. 3, they said I would hear from them in a week.
Dec. 21, they called and said they had done their diagnostic, and determined I had a faulty power supply and a stick of dead DRAM. I asked them to fix it, but they said I had to come in to buy the parts and wait for them to install them. I relucantly complied. They figured out that their diagnostic was wrong. Either the Motherboard or Processor was dead, and that flavor of processor is unavailable. I'm stripping out the details of how they wasted my time from noon to 5pm, but I will say that Zachary was a good sport, and spent a majority of that time sleeping in a shopping cart while I wandered around, killing time between the promises from the service desk. They should know that my hourly rate would have earned me a new computer with all the time of mine they wasted.

Ah well, I wasn't planning on a new computer, but I guess it was time.

Tomorrow, we drive to my in-laws in Tempe AZ. I hope the Grapewine lets us pass without delay. I'll be back home before new year's and the wife and kid will fly back on the 2nd.

I had to go to the mall yesterday, so I picked up a chicken shawerma at one of the food court places. All was fine until about 11:00pm. Sick all night, sick all day. I'm still too weak to swing a cat (and hit a peer). Just entering this because I feel so pitiful, and maybe someone will feel sorry for me. :)

We'll be seeing her in a couple-three hours for dinner and a movie ... with friends ...

Happy happy birthday

xoxoxoxo!

I had lunch with a friend today at the Palimino on Spear Street. The restaurant was nice, the view of the harbor good.

Today I had their paella. I would definitely have that again.

http://kenalbala.blogspot.com/2009/12/olive-experiment.html

What do you know? I had serious doubts, but apparently it is indeed as simple as throwing some ripe olives into sea salt. After a couple of weeks on the counter in a bowl, I brushed off the salt, and they are lovely, chewy, prune like in complexity, and only a hint of bitterness. I am astounded actually. I'm almost tempted to cook with them, or throw them in olive oil and herbs to see what happens.

I don't know what it is about this season, maybe it's free time, but I am going a little berserk with food projects. I've got wild duck parts under fat for confit - only it's cured, so I'm thinking will come out red and chewy - and another fresh domestic duck I'm trying to decide what to do with right now. I put up a barrel of kim chee this morning, which I intend to bury over the winter in a clay crock, just to see what happens. The last sauerkraut batch turned out incredible - Ethan is munching on it now, and here was the key, don't squash the shredded cabbage, just add water if it isn't submerged by its own liquid. It stays very crunchy.

I also tried to make crab apple jelly yesterday, which tastes exquisite but never set up. Though it does go very nicely with rye. (Whisky that is). I also cooked up a slow pot of beans with the smoked cured turkey wings from Thanksgiving. 8 hours in the oven. Gottenu! Went perfectly with the tamales Brett brought to a Secret Santa Party last night. Actually I got a gorgeous turned wooden salt cellar made by Steve, which is one of the best Christmas presents I have ever received.

What else? Oh, a jerky experiment, what would happen if it were cured and then dried? We'll see. The fun never ends.

...a NYT op-ed piece about Multiculturalism and Christmas Music.

This is very interesting indeed. I may try it after the new year, although I am very happy with what comes out of our bread machine.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/Artisan-Bread-In-Five-Minutes-A-Day.aspx

This is highly excerpted from the introduction, so you'll know the basic idea:

Five Minutes a Day for Fresh-Baked Bread

I was trained as a scientist, not as a chef. That helped in developing a new process for homemade bread, but I never could have brought the recipes to this level without the rigorous standards of a professional. We found how to subtract the various steps that make the classic technique so time-consuming, and identified a few that couldn’t be omitted.



By pre-mixing high-moisture dough (without kneading) and then refrigerating it, daily bread baking becomes easy; the only steps you do every day are shaping and baking. As the dough ages, it takes on sourdough notes reminiscent of great starters.

A one- or two-week supply of dough is made in advance and refrigerated. Mixing it takes less than 15 minutes. Every day, cut off a hunk of dough and quickly shape it without kneading. Allow it to rest briefly on the counter and then toss it in the oven.

The link has the whole process, recipes, and so on. The recipes are: basic boule, pizza dough, whole wheat sandwich bread, pecan caramel rolls, naan, onion & herb dinner rolls.

While looking for info on a recent issue, I went looking to find out how much of the USA watches PBS, with an interest in how many people watch what PBS is calling "news and information." (NOVA, news programs, etc.)

That figure is something you can argue about, because although 53% say they are "familiar" or "somewhat familiar" with such programming, only 17% could name specific programs. My guess would be that 17% actually watch such programs fairly regularly and the remaining 36% think they should do so, or that it would be a good idea, but don't really do so.

Also I was interested to note that although more than half identified themselves as "conservative," a small percentage thought that PBS had a "liberal bias." "Just 24% of those surveyed say that PBS news and information programming has a liberal bias, a score that is markedly lower than those garnered by the major television networks. What’s more, just 22% of the population would say that the news and information programming on public radio has a liberal bias."

Here's the report I have been reading; this is the "quick look" view of a PDF.

Today was the official first day of my vacation, so of course I had to work, but it is at home and didn't take too long, so yay.

I was feeling super lazy and cozy at home with my dogs and I just didn't want to leave the house, so I didn't. Until about 7:30pm when I decided I would run out to try to get some gifts at Macys in Sunnyvale, figuring it would be far less crowded than a mall and I had 90 minutes to shop.

Well, turns out Macys is open till midnight this week, as is Target next door. So I spent a good 2 hours at both places and got almost everyone on the list taken care of. The sales at Macys are crazy right now, so if you need anything, head to one - everything I bought was at least 20% off, and most was 40-50% off.

Then I got home to discover my dogs had tried to help with the present wrapping by spreading a box of gifts all over the house. My fault since I left it where they could get it but still, grrr.

Now I am dyeing my hair and wrapping some prezzies and playing on fb and listening to xmas music.
Why did my productivity kick in at 7 pm?

The shutters protest
An onslaught of winter winds
Blasting off the bay.
Even the moon has set and
Neighbors' lights seem far away.

This damp cold afternoon I gave each kitten the opportunity to go outside. Cuddles stood there and decided not to put one single paw out on the concrete. Later Tabitha had her chance to go out and spent about 2 minutes exploring before she ran back to get inside.

At this point I will not allow them outside at the same time, as capturing one kitten will be difficult enough. Eventually they will be allowed in the back yard in the daytime, but not for a while.

This at least gives a little bit of an idea what this fabric is like. (Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiineeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)  Final paint touch-ups are in progress and should be completed this evening, then I can start dealing with the lining, which is red habotai.


OK, gotta do some Big Band. Glenn Miller and his orchestra swingin' on "Jingle Bells," in glorious 78 rpm.

( Weekend Fun )

( And I learned something new about my body and weight management )

Still no PC at work. I'm going to burn that thing up when I finally get it - after reviewing docs for 2+ weeks now I know EXACTLY what needs to be done when I have it!

Two of my students took the Microsoft Certification for Word today (I just got an email), and both of them passed ... that's really cool. I have an offer to my students that I discuss day 1 of the quarter (and reiterate a couple of times): If you pass the MCAS before I administer the Final Exam, you don't have to take the Final, AND you get a perfect score in the gradebook for it.

The reasoning is that if they can get the MCAS, then they've learned things pretty well, and we're sort of teaching "at" the MCAS. At least, I am. I am not sure all the instructors are ...

I've made the offer for most of the time I've taught Word at the school (nearly 2 years). This is the first quarter anyone's taken me up on it. There are least two more who have purchased vouchers to take the MCAS, too ... so ... that's pretty spiffy.