Yay, my sister Amy's new business Carbolicious got featured on Cake Wrecks today! No, not because she made a wreck of cake. Rather, it's because she and her husband cranked out, like, 300 cake balls for the Petaluma book signing event. Way to go, guys! Monday, September 28, 2009
Weekend Update: It was a nice weekend of being away from the Internet, mostly. Saturday the Snook and I had a quick breakfast at Cafe Giulia before driving over to Reverse Garbage to pick up a new filing cabinet. (Only $15!) Then it was over to the Peace Park to pick up our weekly veggie box. (Another artichoke! Yum.) Then I walked over to CarriageWorks for the first session of their Kitchen Garden Project. It was PACKED OUT. I stayed for the speeches and the film, then left to catch a bus to Newtown for SSK. Eventually I made it home and managed to extradite the Snook from Azeroth so we could go to Lane Cove for Venks's birthday. It was a night of Persian food, belly dancing, cake, and laughter. We finally made it home at about midnight. Long day!
In contrast, yesterday I did very little. I finished some test socks for my Guild Camp class next weekend, and I baked Smitten Kitchen's Date Spice Loaf. We had it with the suggested orange-cream-cheese spread, and it was very nice. Good way to end a loooong week.
Garden Update: Man, the weather's been crazy lately! First it was hot, then we had that dust storm, and then this weekend it got really cold and windy. The plants are surviving, if not exactly thriving. There have been a few noticeable changes though. Our first petunia has bloomed! This pretty pink blossom appeared yesterday morning. I took a few other photos too. [more...]
Whoa! I nearly forgot that tonight is our long awaited Moon premiere screening. I can't wait to see it.
Congratulations to Clare and Emily, who've bought a lovely old coach house in England and have started a blog to document the renovations. Who knew Emily was so talented at destruction?! Friday, September 25, 2009
Speaking of Roald Dahl, this article about a major Anglo-Saxon treasure find in England reminded me immediately of Dahl's story about the Mildenhall Treasure. Exciting!
Portrait of the Blogger as a Young Woman Next week I've been invited to visit my nephew Kurt's school to talk to 120 year three students about Roald Dahl. I'm putting a little presentation together, mostly of photos from when the Snook and I visited Gipsy House in 2000. I thought it would be cute to include a picture of me when I was in third grade, since that's when my own interest in Dahl began. So I emailed my Mom today and she dug out my school pictures in her basement. This one was taken in the short window between when I got glasses in third grade and when we chopped my hair off (and spiral permed it) in fourth grade. See? I'm naturally a "dishwater blonde," as we say in Indiana. Wednesday, September 23, 2009
I don't think I'd ever go to a boxing match, but I'd go to a chess boxing match!
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All the Single Babies. Okay, that is just about the cutest thing I've ever seen. The sound of the Dad cracking up in the background is what makes it for me. (Link courtesy of my sister-in-law Kara's Facebook.)
FRA-GEE-LAY! I think this might just be the best Halloween decoration I've ever seen. You get Halloween plus Ralphie all in one!
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My pumpkin vine has finally sprouted! I do wish I could have a grand, sprawling pumpkin patch like Martha Stewart's though. Thirty different varieties! That is one sincere pumpkin patch. I bet the Great Pumpkin visits her place every year.
[1]
Red Dawn I woke up before the alarm this morning, and I could tell as soon as I opened my eyes that something weird was going on. Normally the sun is shining brightly through our bedroom window. Today all I could see was orangey-red, like the world had turned into a badly-faded photograph from the 70's. I grabbed my iPhone from the nightstand and took this picture. Then I jumped on Twitter and saw that everyone was talking about the dust storm (and making Dune jokes). It's eerie. The SMH has an article with lots of pictures. I think some schools are closed, and people with asthma are supposed to stay in. The Snook claimed that he was able to "smell" the dust, but I'm not getting anything. (Not unexpected considering my allergies are GOING NUTS right now.) I checked on the garden, and everything's doing all right in spite of the dust and the wind. The cats seem fascinated by it.
Waitwaitwait... The FDA has banned flavored tobacco? No more clove cigarettes; no more fruit-flavored Swisher Sweets? My disaffected inner college girl is, like, totally bummed. (Link courtesy of Kevin.) Tuesday, September 22, 2009
TO A TOP SCIENTIST This is great. In 1957, an Australian schoolboy named Denis Cox sent a letter "to a top scientist" at Woomera's Rocket Range with his design for an Australian rocket. My favorite part is "You put in other details." Ha! This blogger tracked him down earlier this year. Judging by the comments, it looks like Denis may finally get his reply. Monday, September 21, 2009
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A little stressed I've got three weeks til we go on holiday, and so so much to do.
Finish a mammoth spec at work so the guys have things to work on in my absence.
Prepare a presentation on Roald Dahl to give to 120 third-graders next week. (My nephew Kurt told his teacher about my website, so they invited me to speak.)
Get everything ready for knitting camp, including the syllabus for the sock class I'm teaching, the Internet presentation I'm giving, and the trivia quiz our group is providing.
Prepare and send out this year's Halloween Party invitation.
Get everything ready for Eileen's arrival. I cleaned my office (i.e. the guest room) yesterday and it was like tidying the psychic blockage in my own head. (I've also got to finish knitting the gift I'm making for her.)
Meet up with Erin the house/cat-sitter and make sure everything's in order for her.
Get everything ready for the October guild meeting, including finding us a secondhand filing cabinet and organising for the Food for the Future Fair.
Oh crap. When I write it out like that, there's even more than I realised. Saturday, September 19, 2009
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When I was a kid, every Sears catalog in my Grandma Veva's house had the Snoopy Sno-Cone Machine circled as a desirable Christmas gift. I never got one. And now, NOW, somebody is selling them? I can buy one for my very own? My inner 8-year-old is cheering. (Link courtesy of Gael, who rightly describes it as "the toy we all wanted, but never got.")
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Garden Update: I hope you guys don't mind that I've been a little garden-obsessed lately. It's just something about the increasing sunlight and warm weather, not to mention that my usual obsessions - knitting and running - have been off the boil for a while. Anyway, on Tuesday morning I put down mulch on all four beds. On two of them I used lucerne, and on the other two I tried out something new: dried coffee parchment. This is the papery membrane that surrounds the coffee cherries, and Michael was given bags of it from one of the local coffee roasters. So we're trying it out. Thursday we noticed tiny green specks in the square where we scattered rocket seed. Our first sprouting! Friday I spotted some slug trails on top of the mulch, so I put down Blitzem pellets. This morning I was gratified to find three slugs in their death throes (which I promptly squished on the pavement). Our cauliflower seeds have also sprouted! It's all happening. I took some macro pics to document the fecundity. (Some people post pictures of their kids. I post pictures of my garden.)
Rocket seedlings after three days. [more...] Friday, September 18, 2009
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Tree #3 I came around the corner tonight and stopped dead in my tracks. Remember the second tree, the one I planted after the first one was stolen? The one with the passionfruit vine and the grass planted with it? GONE. This time the culprit appears to have been the Council, who replaced it with an admittedly nice six-foot-high tree held up with sturdy stakes. I like Tree #3, but why couldn't they have done that nine months ago and saved me two trees and many hours of wasted effort?
My friend Anthony pointed me towards A Cupcake or Two, a newish Sydney food blog. It was done by his friend Katherine. Great design and photography...
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Dear Kyle Sandilands,
This is not the account of someone going to a weight-loss camp. I hope you read it; I hope you feel bad; and I hope you get fired.
Regards, Kris Howard
For those who don't get the reference... Wednesday, September 16, 2009
The £10 Breakfast. Holy crap! It's like an actual Skip's Scramble! (God bless the British breakfast.) Monday, September 14, 2009
For those Inner Westies inspired to start their own gardens, my friend Michael Mobbs (of Sustainable House fame) will be leading some community garden workshops at Carriageworks this spring. The first session is on Saturday 26 September from 1pm – 5pm. Sunday, September 13, 2009
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Garden Update: Planting weekend has arrived! The Snook and I started on Saturday by pruning the lilli pilli trees to create a bit more sun on our garden beds. Then today, we got up bright and early and headed - IN A UTE! - to Gardens R Us. We came away with about twenty punnets of seedlings, and handful of seed packets, potting soil and compost, a pot, and a couple trees. (I also got a very special little tree - shown here - which I'll tell you about in a minute.) We unpacked it all at home and set to work planting it out. We were guided by the plant density suggestions in Square Foot Gardening. Man, the "Mel's Mix" sure makes planting easy! We were just digging things in with our hands. It didn't take long to get everything in place. [more...]
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Cherry 2000 I've been watching way too much Mad Men, really. (And I just realised that I now look a lot more like my header portrait drawn by Matt!)
Whaddaya think? (The Snook is a big fan.) Saturday, September 12, 2009
RunningBlog:
"Happy, Healthy, and Heavy." It's a Newsweek photo slideshow of overweight people being healthy and athletic and doing sporty things. LOVE IT. No, you don't have to be skinny to run a marathon or ride a horse or attend a yoga class. Friday, September 11, 2009
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Is the uber-trendy cupcake industry bubble about to burst? (Hey Sis, pretty much required reading for you!)
I am 100% behind the Rescue Marriage initiative to pass the "2010 California Marriage Protection Act." It's a motion to ban divorce. After all, if preventing gays from marrying is essential to protecting traditional marriage, so is banning divorce. (It's actually way more important, since Jesus himself made it clear that divorce is a sin yet was curiously silent on the topic of the gays.) Here's a great interview with the author of the bill, who plans to set up tables outside Wal-Mart to get signatures from all those Prop 8 supporters. HA! Let's see if they like it when it's their own rights being curtailed.
Over on MetaFilter they're discussing Amish romance novels. No, really. The comments that most amused me were from people who'd eaten in "Amish" restaurants and who expressed surprise at the "Amish" girls wearing bonnets, dresses, and incongruous New Balance sneakers. I had to break it to them that they're probably not Amish.
I just telephoned the offices of Congressman Donnelly and Congressman Souder to urge them to support President Obama's health care reform bill. I told them that I'm a proud Hoosier but - having lived in countries where the government provides health care for all - I couldn't imagine moving back to a place where my family's survival and financial solvency are dependent on whether or not we get sick.
Whoa, very cool! Brigita is quoted in the New York Times blog! It's an interesting little discussion, too. Wednesday, September 9, 2009
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Bacon Cake. No, it isn't a cake flavoured with bacon. It's a cake that LOOKS LIKE bacon, and the whole thing is edible including the cutting board. (I still think our meat cake would've been tastier.)
WOW. Must get over to Buppa's Bakehouse in Newtown. "American-style" baked goods including real boiled bagels, oatmeal sandwiches, and even the uber-trendy cake balls. (Man, what's with Newtown getting all these great new bakeries? I also spotted Polka Dot Cookies and Cakes recently down the far end of King Street.)
Frank Herbert's Dune... in Lego. Aren't the eyes of the minifigs supposed to be all creepy blue?
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Hey Sis, you might need to make the Snook a World of Warcraft cake someday. I can get you a picture of his character so you can start designing giant fondant axes and such.
Hotel Toilet-Paper Folding. Our cleaner always folds down the end of the toilet paper in the bathroom, and it's always a happy surprise when I see it. Makes me feel all special. (Incidentally, if you're looking for a cleaner in the Inner West, let me know. Ours are terrific and they've already got a few more clients from us.)
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MoveOn and R.E.M.: We Can't Afford to Wait
I actually got attacked on Facebook the other day just for saying I didn't think people should go bankrupt because they got sick. A doctor - doctor! - told me that nobody died in America because they were poor, and because he did free stuff for some patients, then obviously the ones complaining were just lazy cheapskates. (I defriended him, so please keep that in mind if you plan to post anything similar. I have had a family member in the hospital recently so this is less of an academic discussion for me.) Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Garden Update: We put in a solid five hours of labor today out in the garden. We pulled out loads of weeds, trimmed back the palm, and cleaned up a few of our growing areas. Then it was time to build our four beds for our experiment with Square Foot Gardening. We used four lengths of 3m Ezy Edge to define each bed. (This was a compromise, as we were unsuccessful at finding untreated wood that didn't cost a fortune and I flatly refused to use plastic.) Our main garden bed is 4' x 5', and we also have a long 2' x 5' bed along the back fence. We also made two 2' x 3' beds under the bottlebrush tree and along the side wall. Once we'd weeded and levelled each space, we put down the edging and then lined it with weed matting. (We used bamboo stakes to hold the edging in place.) Then it was time to make the "Mel's Mix."
As mentioned in the previous post, Mel's Mix is the key ingredient with square foot gardening. We did the maths and worked out that we were going to need approximately 600L of mix to fill our four beds. This meant 200L each of vermiculite (coarse horticultural grade), peat moss, and compost. (We followed the book's advice and used five different types of compost: cow manure, mushroom compost, chicken manure, general compost, and special organic compost.) Mixing and transporting the Mel's Mix took up the better part of the day, and I decided I'd document it for future Googlers. [more...]
Spring has sprung, and the Snook and I have been busy making plans for our garden. This year we're going to give Square Foot Gardening a try. The idea is that instead of trying to condition our poor soil, we simply build raised beds and use "Mel's Mix" to fill them. Mel's Mix is the magic. It's composed of 1/3 compost, 1/3 vermiculite, and 1/3 peat moss. So last weekend we headed out to check prices at Bunnings and the Annandale Garden Center. We came away pretty disappointed. Neither of them had vermiculite in bags greater than 5L, and we couldn't find any peat moss at all. (We calculated we'd need about 200L of each.) This was going to be difficult.
I spent the week trying to track down the bulk materials. Vermiculite was easier; it gets used in hydroponics so I found it at a few places. But man, I had the hardest time finding peat moss. I must've rung every garden center in Sydney and none of them had it in quantities greater than 5L bags (at ridiculous prices). We toyed with the idea of substituting Cocopeat, which is more readily available and is arguably more environmentally sustainable. I didn't want to stray too far from Mel's recipe though if we didn't have to. Friday the Snook found Garden City Plastics, who supply big 235L bags of peat and 100L bags of vermiculite. So I called them up to find out how we could get our hands on some. Unfortunately they're only open on weekdays, and their warehouse is in Rouse Hill (way, way far away). We could pay for delivery, but one of us would have to stay home to meet them here. Again, it seemed we were at an impasse. Then the salesman had a brainwave. GCP supply Ace Ohlsson, who have a permanent stall at Flemington Markets. We could drive out there and buy it from them!
So that's what we did. For the benefit of future Googlers, when you drive through the main Market entrance and come to the roundabout, turn right and drive past the Flower Market. Keep going straight and you'll find Ace Ohlsson down on the right. We were able to get two bags of vermiculite and a big 220L bag of NZ Peat Moss for $80 less than it was going to cost us to have it delivered. I'd recommend them for anybody in Sydney who needs bulk garden products at cheap prices. Friday, September 4, 2009
Kel's Pitch Remember how my friend Kel was trying to win a contest to throw out a first pitch at Wrigley Field? Well she won, and her game was yesterday. Way to go, Kel!
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The latest edition of Wuthering Heights has a special new cover... BWAHAHAHAHA! "Bella and Edward's favorite book." BRILLIANT. I don't get why the literature fans are so upset. The thought of tween vampire fans getting tricked into reading Bronte gives me great delight. (Kate Bush should be cashing in on this too!) Thursday, September 3, 2009
Just saw that Popcorn Taxi are screening The Nutty Professor with a LIVE Q&A ONSTAGE with Jerry Lewis afterwards! That's pretty neat. On one hand I'm not a huge Jerry Lewis fan or anything. But the guy is pretty much a living legend, and I'm sure he has amazing stories to tell...
Also for Halloween: How to make the Scariest Pumpkin Ever. HA! I love it. Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Hubby Hubby. Oh Ben and Jerry, you can't get here soon enough! Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Tradie Endorsement: Thomson Plumbing Several weeks ago I noticed that the hot water in the master bathroom was coming out orange. That bathroom has its own small hot water heater in the closet, so we figured it was probably that. Eventually I got around to calling some plumbers for quotes. First was Thomson Plumbing, which I found through the extremely scientific method of seeing their van parked on our street one day and writing down the phone number. Lee Thomson was super helpful, and he told me that if I could email him the details off the water heater, he could give me a quote on replacing it. He also suggested I attach a digital photo of the heater so he could verify there was enough space around it for the new one. I thought this was very cool, since I was expecting to have to pay for a service call. I emailed him the relevant info, and he wrote back the same day with his extremely reasonable quote. Then I called Chiswick Plumbing, who advertise everywhere and who always leave fridge magnets and bookmarks in our mailbox. They said they'd send a guy over to quote in person, but since he was already doing a job in the neighbourhood, they'd waive the callout fee. So he came in and had a look, and gave us a quote that was fully 50% more than Thomson Plumbing. That settled it. The guys from Thomson even offered to come out at 7am so we wouldn't miss work. They came on Friday and installed our new heater, and they even replaced some tap washers for free. Later in the day, the Snook got a call from their office letting him know that our initial quote had been INCLUDING GST, so the grand total was actually even less than we thought. All in all, a completely excellent plumbing experience. I'll be using Thomson plumbing in the future.
Last night was the first night in a week when I haven't woken up at 2am for a coughing fit. It was bliss. I haven't coughed much today at all. I think I'm on the mend. There's no way that whooping cough test will be positive.
The new Fall-Winter line up of Queen Bee bags is available! I still use my Truckette I bought four years ago and that bag has gotten more compliments and started more conversations than any other accessory I own. I really like the large Rita "Sprout" in green-on-green...
Moon Sweeeeet. I've been waiting ages for this movie (called the best hard science fiction film in recent years) to come out in Australia. I've just found out that Popcorn Taxi are hosting the first Australian screening along with a live satellite Q&A with the director afterwards. We're booked in. If you're thinking of going, DON'T READ ANYTHING ABOUT THE MOVIE. I've probably read too much already, but I'm making sure the Snook goes in unspoiled. You should too.
Happy birthday to Lyn! I'm sorry I had to miss the party on Sunday. Hopefully I'll be well enough to celebrate with her at SnB Thursday night...
Weekend Update: It was a nice weekend of being away from the Internet, mostly. Saturday the Snook and I had a quick breakfast at Cafe Giulia before driving over to Reverse Garbage to pick up a new filing cabinet. (Only $15!) Then it was over to the Peace Park to pick up our weekly veggie box. (Another artichoke! Yum.) Then I walked over to CarriageWorks for the first session of their Kitchen Garden Project. It was PACKED OUT. I stayed for the speeches and the film, then left to catch a bus to Newtown for SSK. Eventually I made it home and managed to extradite the Snook from Azeroth so we could go to Lane Cove for Venks's birthday. It was a night of Persian food, belly dancing, cake, and laughter. We finally made it home at about midnight. Long day!
Garden Update: Man, the weather's been crazy lately! First it was hot, then we had that dust storm, and then this weekend it got really cold and windy. The plants are surviving, if not exactly thriving. There have been a few noticeable changes though. Our first petunia has bloomed! This pretty pink blossom appeared yesterday morning. I took a few other photos too. [more...]
Portrait of the Blogger as a Young Woman
Red Dawn
Garden Update: Planting weekend has arrived! The Snook and I started on Saturday by pruning the lilli pilli trees to create a bit more sun on our garden beds. Then today, we got up bright and early and headed - IN A UTE! - to Gardens R Us. We came away with about twenty punnets of seedlings, and handful of seed packets, potting soil and compost, a pot, and a couple trees. (I also got a very special little tree - shown here - which I'll tell you about in a minute.) We unpacked it all at home and set to work planting it out. We were guided by the plant density suggestions in Square Foot Gardening. Man, the "Mel's Mix" sure makes planting easy! We were just digging things in with our hands. It didn't take long to get everything in place. [more...]
Garden Update: We put in a solid five hours of labor today out in the garden. We pulled out loads of weeds, trimmed back the palm, and cleaned up a few of our growing areas. Then it was time to build our four beds for our experiment with Square Foot Gardening. We used four lengths of 3m Ezy Edge to define each bed. (This was a compromise, as we were unsuccessful at finding untreated wood that didn't cost a fortune and I flatly refused to use plastic.) Our main garden bed is 4' x 5', and we also have a long 2' x 5' bed along the back fence. We also made two 2' x 3' beds under the bottlebrush tree and along the side wall. Once we'd weeded and levelled each space, we put down the edging and then lined it with weed matting. (We used bamboo stakes to hold the edging in place.) Then it was time to make the "Mel's Mix."
