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  • http://u.nu/3nf4f This has made my face smile at least twelve times. I can't move it out of my reader. Yes, mark as unread!
  • Happily devastated after finishing Atonement. The movie was wonderful, and the book was better.
  • Suddenly a heavy rain.
  • @stakethisclaim Our dinners were sisterwives. Mine also had a lot of mushrooms in the sauce. I believe in mushrooms wholeheartedly.
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• Reading:

  • The Demise of “Cathy”
  • cooked my first not-from-a-box pad thai!and i quote the...
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I laughed at this sort of orange-yellow-brown yarn I picked up in a grab bag somewhere. Its makers describe it as “antique gold,” and I kept it around in hopes I’d someday need to make a vintage-looking Cowardly Lion costume or something. Then by chance it fell into the big yarn bin next to this color I like terribly, what you’d probably call a raspberry — a deep, rich pink that could maybe not even be pink anymore.

HARMONIOUS COMPLEMENTARY SITUATION.

For visual interest I’m using a slightly off white and a nice neutral charcoal gray as well. It’s a basic feather-and-fan pattern which lends it the wavy shape. Do not adjust your television set.

p.s. Yes, that is a gold sweater clip holding my side spare yarns together — it is a family hand-me-down from my mom or one of her sisters, and I feel strongly that this new use outside of sweaters honors them all.

For you, I baked a double batch of big, soft cookies with whole wheat, oatmeal, flax, apple sauce, liqueur-soaked raisins. I won’t say wholesome, because that word is adopted by the food industry to mean “Filling but bad for you” or “Parents, feed this nutritionally valueless food to your children without guilt.” What’s wrong with us that we can’t simply eat what we want and describe it the way it is? Pasta that’s secretly good for your kids. Cookbooks describing how to include a quarter cup of vegetables in each serving of macaroni and cheese.

These are healthful, but still cookies.

When a customer asked me for a recommendation on which projector she should use for her very specific application, I asked one of our technicians for guidance. He explained that regular old brightness and contrast weren’t all we had to worry about, and then drew me a picture to clarify what he meant by native resolution.

I realized the best way to explain it back to my customer was the same way: with a picture. So I drew my own:

My friend and coworker Emily has a birthday today. She always has beautiful flowers from her garden in a vase on her desk and I thought some small tributes might be in order. I gave them to her in an envelope and she got them matted (!) and framed.

And a detail of each panel, clockwise from top left:

Kelly Slater is the most successful professional surfer in history. He won his first world championship at age 20, in 1992.

In 2006 he told GQ, “I’m just having fun, because I don’t have to win a title to be fulfilled.” He won that year and again in 2008.

between my high school graduation and new student days at beloit, i painted a room border for a friend of a friend. she is sweet and well-intentioned but one of the most neurotic people i’ve ever met, and even knowing this much didn’t prepare me for her house. each room had a different busy wallpaper pattern and coordinating EVERYTHING: pillow fabric, shower curtain designs, floral arrangements. it seems to me that at the point where your rooms become so customized, maybe things are getting a little bit overly precious. then again, i would be happy to wallpaper with newsprint.