Saturday, March 31, 2007

buyafriendabook.com

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Friday, March 30, 2007

Scrapblog

Now this looks quite interesting! You can make a Scrap Blog and keep or give your creations as photo books, DVD's, etc. There's a video tour to teach you the basics. Check it out! I'm wondering how I might be able to use this in conjunction with my Hobson Family History.

Update: I jumped right in and tried it out myself. It's a little intimidating, and it'll likely take me a good long time to figure it out. You definitely need to look at the video tour. I hope I'll be able to catch on to this because it looks absolutely amazing!

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Springtime in Victoria



Gas Prices

It's just six days ago that I posted about an increase in the price of gas here. It's gone up again today, the equivalent of another twenty-five cents U.S. a gallon. We're now paying $1.145 a litre, which is the equivalent of $4.47 for a U.S. gallon, or $3.86 a gallon in U.S. dollars.

Thursday - Indian Food

I'm making curried chicken on rice tonight. I love curry! The rest of the household has been subjected to it for enough years that they can tolerate it now too. I make a very mild version, but the lovely flavour is still there.

What are you having?

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Leftovers!

We've got a 'fridge full of bits and pieces of meals, so that's what we're having tonight. Jon gets the pizza and Peter and I will eat whatever else strikes our fancy. I hope you have a more dedicated cook in your house!

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Tonight's Dinner

Takeout pizza for us tonight - one Hawaiian and one regular. What did you have?

Monday, March 26, 2007

Sending Good Wishes to Tom!

Tom's got a medical procedure tomorrow. Sounds a little unpleasant. We're all wishing you well, Tom!

What Are We Eating?

Kind of boring tonight. We had pork chops, potatoes, and frozen peas. What did you have?

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Indian Photograph


Peter's grandparents were photographers back in the time when there were no 'amateur' photographers. Gus and Margaret Maves worked together and produced some wonderful Canadiana. We've got a book that calls Gus 'one of the finest colourists in Canada'. Actually, I believe that it was Margaret who did the colour work, but in those days the husband always got the credit. Before coming to Victoria - around 1918 - Gus and Margaret worked for at least seventeen years in the Ontario area. I suspect that this picture was likely taken there. Some day perhaps we'll try to get more information on the subject. In the meantime, his is one of the few Maves pictures we still have. Peter's mother donated most of her parents' photographs to the Archives.


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What's For Dinner?

What are you having for dinner tonight? I don't know what we'll end up eating. I was planning to do shrimp scampi on rice, with broccoli and carrots, but Peter favours McDonald's chicken burgers.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

What's For Dinner Tonight?

I'm taking a page from Kimmy's menu. (Take a look at her comment on Friday's dinner.) The salad topped with bacon, cheese, chunks of chicken, olives, etc. sounds perfect. I've got Romaine in the house, so I'll use that. I buy huge quantities of bacon at Costco and pre-cook it (400 degrees in the oven for ten minutes) then wrap it in packages of four strips and freeze. So the bacon is easy - it justs needs a minute or two on the skillet from a frozen state. Chicken's easy too. Sounds like a very nice meal for this time of the year.

That was so good, Kimmy! The olives and bacon really improved the flavours and the boys loved it.

Friday, March 23, 2007

How Are Your Gas Prices?

A litre of gas costs $1.105 in Victoria today. One American gallon is the equivalent of 3.79 litres, so our price is the equivalent of $4.19 Canadian or $3.61 American per gallon.

buyafriendabook.com

BAFAB week comes around again in only eight days. Check out Debra's explanation of BAFAB week here. Of course, all you really need to know is that it's time to send me a free book!

buyafriendabook.com

Ex-Wife's Flying Career

Date: Tue, 06 Mar 2007 09:40:29 -0800

G'day,

My ex-wife started taking flying lessons about the time our divorce started and she got her license shortly before our divorce was final, later that same year. Yesterday afternoon, she narrowly escaped injury in the aircraft she was piloting when she was forced to make an emergency landing in South Burnaby because of bad weather.

The NTSB issued a preliminary report, citing pilot error: she was flying a single engine aircraft in IFR (instrument flight rating) conditions while only having obtained a VFR (visual flight rating). The absence of a post-crash fire was likely due to insufficient fuel on board. No one on the ground was injured.

The attached photograph was taken at the scene and shows the extent of damage to her aircraft. She was very lucky.















Cheers,
Moses


Martha sent me this link - note the interesting clothing label.


Marie at Deep Thinker always finds fun stuff. You can go here to get your own band name. Here's mine -

Your Band Name is:
The Fried Eyedrops

Friday's Dinner

Spaghettini tonight, with Afredo and sundried tomato sauce and a side salad. What did you have?

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Here's an interesting article on how damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex - an area in the front of the brain, below the eyes - affects difficult moral judgments. Mark my words, this is a study that's going to be embraced by defense attorneys. I think a half-decent lawyer could get anybody acquitted with this one.

In case I forget to mention this later....Pear blossoms absolutely STINK. Who'd'a thought it? I have a German friend who told me that it's common practice in Germany to bring branches from freshly pruned fruit trees into the house. Put them in water and after a few days you have a house full of blossoms. They are lovely, no question about it. But I wouldn't recommend using pear tree prunings. The boys around here were complaining about the smell in the house. (You know it's got to be bad when the boys complain! ) We all suspected the cute little dog who visits us, especially since he's not properly house-trained. So, sniff, sniff, sniff....I found the area of greatest stench but couldn't find any sign of dog. Stuck my nose in the blossoms and nearly gagged!

What's For Dinner Tonight?

We're having leftover Mexican Skillet Rice. That's another thing I like about Mexican Skillet Rice - there's always enough for two meals.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Tuesday's Menus!

I love hearing about what you're eating for dinner! I'm going to make Mexican Skillet Rice tonight, which is a mix of seasoned (with chili and cumin) ground meat (I use pork), with chopped onion, already-cooked brown rice, beans and two tins of green chili peppers. We top it with shredded cheddar cheese, waaaay too much sour cream and chopped fresh tomatoes. It's the very definition of 'comfort food'.

What's on your menu for tonight?

Monday, March 19, 2007

What Are You Eating?

I've recently been introduced to "Twitter", an instantly-addictive site which asks simply "What are you doing right now?" Taking the lead from them, I'm asking another question: What are you eating?

I'm cooking dinner right now - Chicken, marinated in a nice garlic-y homemade teriyaki sauce to serve over Caesar salad. What's on your menu?

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Are You a Democrat, A Republican, or a Texan?

A friend sent this to my husband.

Are you a Democrat, a Republican , or a Texan? Here is a little test that will help you decide. The answer can be found by posing the following question:


You're walking down a deserted street with your wife and two small children. Suddenly, a man with a huge knife comes around the corner, locks eyes with you, screams obscenities, raises the knife, and charges at you. You are carrying a Glock cal. 40, and you are an expert shot. You have mere seconds before he reaches you and your family. What do you do? .......................................................


THINK CAREFULLY AND THEN SCROLL DOWN



Democrat's Answer:

Well, that's not enough information to answer the question!

Does the man look poor or oppressed?

Have I ever done anything to him that would inspire him to attack?

Could we run away?

What does my wife think?

What about the kids?

Could I possibly swing the gun like a club and knock the knife out of his hand?

What does the law say about this situation?

Does the Glock have appropriate safety built into it?

Why am I carrying a loaded gun anyway, and what kind of message does this send to society and to my children?

Is it possible he'd be happy with just killing me?

Does he definitely want to kill me, or would he be content just to wound me?

If I were to grab his knees and hold on, could my family get away while he was stabbing me?

Should I call 9-1-1?

Why is this street so deserted?

We need to raise taxes, have paint and weed day and make this a happier, healthier street that would discourage such behaviour.

This is all so confusing! I need to debate this with some friends for few days and try to come to a consensus.
.......................................................


Republican's Answer:

BANG!


.......................................................

Texan's Answer:


BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! Click..... (Sounds of reloading) BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! Click

Daughter: "Nice grouping, Daddy! Were those the Winchester Silver Tips or Hollow Points?"

Son: "Can I shoot the next one!"

Wife: " You're not taking that to the Taxidermist!

The Origins of the British

My daughter pointed me to a very interesting article in the New York Times. It discusses a theory presented by Stephen Oppenheimer, a medical geneticist at the University of Oxford. In his book "The Origins of the British: A Genetic Detective Story" (Carroll & Graf, 2006), he speculates that all the people of the British Isles have fundamentally identical origins. Very simply put, everyone was driven south by the Ice Age. The ancestors of the British, Scots, Irish and Welsh were one people who sheltered in the area of Spain, etc. during the Ice Age. When the ice receded, they returned north and crossed existing land bridges to the Isles. The genes of these people still dominate in the British Isles today. There is reasonable speculation that the later addition of Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and various other mixes had very small effect on the original population.

Do read the article! It's fascinating. I'll certainly be ordering the Oppenheimer book. ...Unless it's priced by the same people who are selling that Pope book I'd like...

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Edjucatin' the Boy

My husband isn't really the moron this would suggest, but I quite enjoyed his summary of the United States' population: "All the smart people are on the East coast, the morons are down the middle and the 'flakes' are on the West coast. " Works for me.

A Game

I'm sure y'all will beat me at this, a hand-eye coordination test. On the bright side, I beat my husband first time out. His time was 64 seconds, mine 50.

The screen is filled with little blocks, numbered from one to 33. When you hit start, the blocks go into motion, zig zagging over the screen. The object is to touch each block with the mouse pointer, which causes the block to pop and disappear. It's not necessary to click the mouse. You begin with block 1 and get them in order through all 33 blocks. If you don't catch the block within a few seconds, it gets larger, which makes it easier to find. However, that takes up time. When you pop the last block (number 33), the end screen comes up with the number of seconds it took to go through all 33 blocks.

Monday, March 05, 2007

Jon brought home a wonderful little book from the university library today - "Alexander Pope, the evolution of a poet", by Netta Murray Goldsmith. I read a bit of it and was so smitten that I clicked onto Debra's blog and over to Amazon via her A-store-Canada link. I thought I'd put in my order right away. The book costs a hundred, seventy-nine dollars in Canada! $179!! I really want that book but it's kind of hard to justify a hundred, seventy-nine dollars. Or ninety-nine U.S. Fifty, I wouldn't quibble. If anyone hears of a second-hand copy, I'm in the market.

Technical Support

INSTALLING HUSBAND 1.0

Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slowdown in overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0. In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, and then installed undesirable programs such as NFL 5.0, NBA 3.0. and Golf Clubs 4.1. Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system. I've tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail. What can I do?

Signed,
Desperate
=========================
Dear Desperate:

First keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an Operating System. Please enter the command: "http: I Thought You Loved Me.htm" and try to download Tears 6.2 and don't forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update. If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5. But remember, over-use of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5. Whatever you do, DO NOT install Mother-in-law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources). Also, do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0.


In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend Hot Food 3.0 and Lingerie 7.7.


Good Luck,
Tech Support

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Family History

I've been working on my Hobson Family History for the last few days. Thanks to my fourth-cousin-once-removed, Nick Anderson, I have an amazing amount of new data on the family. It's quite interesting -- to me anyway -- and highlights the wonders of the Internet. I'd certainly recommend that everyone consider creating similar family records for future generations.

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Didn't want to take a chance on you missing this..

I 'borrowed' this from Tom who in turn stole it from MyLeftNutmeg.com