Friday Monday Cat Blogging

As promised, no red:

Raxi, curled up on my new comforter.

Photo of the Day

Courtesy of a friend of mine (via Facebook):
(seen in Alabama)

Sign of the Day

On a restaurant toilet in Sri Lanka:

(h/t to a cousin on Facebook)

Business Before Everything or All Hail Capitalism!!!

(click picture to sign petition)

We've rallied, we've sent messages to the EPA, and we've shown that Americans overwhelmingly support a clean energy economy that creates jobs and fights global warming. Now the US Chamber of Commerce wants to silence us by threatening to sue the EPA in an effort to put "the science of climate change on trial." This ridiculous and dangerous stunt is engineered to undermine the EPA's authority to fight global warming, which we fought so hard to support. Send a message to US Chamber of Commerce member companies telling them that this case is closed--responsible businesses know climate change is real and that we need to do something about it now. The Chamber of Commerce already had an opportunity to air any legitimate concerns when the EPA held a 60 day comment period on its finding that global warming poses a threat to our health and welfare. Where was the Chamber of Commerce then? The Chamber wants to pretend that the 41,000 comments we collected supporting the EPA were never written, that the 2,000 people who rallied at the hearing in Seattle never showed up, and that the people speaking out in favor of action to fight global warming at the hearing in Arlington, VA did not out number the skeptics by 9 to 1. It's time to tell responsible companies to stop letting a handful of polluters use the Chamber of Commerce to hold our Country hostage to last century's dirty energy technology--Sign the petition today! Earlier this year, a group of big companies like Nike and Johnson and Johnson sent a letter to the Chamber asking them to more accurately reflect the majority of American businesses who are well aware that the science of global warming is settled, and who want to move the U.S. into a cleaner energy future. But it seems the Chamber is siding with a minority of polluting energy companies, even though it is now clear that reducing global warming emissions is good for both the economy and the environment. Sign our petition to these responsible companies urging them to back up their words with action--the U.S. Chamber of Commerce needs to come to its senses and side with the majority of its members who support action on global warming, or these companies should resign their memberships. Thanks for all that you do to protect the environment. Mary Anne Hitt Sierra Club Big Picture Campaign

Friday Kitteh Blogging: Red Scare Edition

Those of you who know me on Facebook saw a similar photo yesterday, but I wanted to post this one, too:



We got a new cover for the couch (okay, it's actually a fitted sheet, but whatever), so there will be no more RED pictures. I hope you enjoyed them. :)

Hey Birthers, This One's For You!

(h/t to PZ Myers)

Ooh, Shiny!

Well, it's been two days, not one, but as promised, here are some photos of the continuing progress on the dining table.

First, a couple of shots after staining but before the finish coats (in this case, polyurethane):



(the sun came out from behind clouds between the first and second shot)

Then two photos taken after I had applied a coat of poly to the top and base. The sun was totally out at this point:



I'll put at least one more coat of poly on the top, which will make it really shiny. Just my personal preference here, but I don't understand painting wood. It's so beautiful as it is.

Sad News First Thing In The Morning

(image by Doug Mills/New York Times)

Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, a son of one of the most storied families in American politics, a man who knew triumph and tragedy in near-equal measure and who will be remembered as one of the most effective lawmakers in the history of the Senate, died late Tuesday night. He was 77. (link)

Farewell, Senator. You were one of the best.

Wherein I Don't Talk About Jen's Buns

There are a lot of things about living in Costa Rica that are different from living in the States -- or, at least, the part of the States from whence I came. The climate, the language, the entire culture.

Those are obvious differences. But there are also differences that are different without you even knowing they are different until they reach up and smack you in the (metaphorical) face.

Case in point -- remember this post? Wherein I told you of working on a new table for us? Well, I hadn't done anything more to the table since then, mainly because of Jen's dad's visit (we were using the table about every night, and so I couldn't disassemble it and have it in pieces all over the place while finishing and tweaking it).

Today though, we finished the sanding and began putting the finish on it. We picked out a "Honey" colored stain and set up shop in the garage to apply it. I don't know if you've ever stained any furniture, but it's not that complicated. Just put the stuff on as evenly as you can manage, and let it dry.

So, the stain comes in a little quart size can. Up in the States, I've always used MinWax (or other, very similar, stains), and it's very easy to work with. I've done large projects where we've used rollers and trays and the whole thing. And when you use anything for to apply stain, you've pretty much consigned that thing to the rubbish, because, well, it's stain. So, I've used those disposable plastic roller pans and li'l plastic paint buckets.

Imagine my surprise today when the li'l plastic tubs we poured the stain in (so Jen and I could both apply stain at the same time)... melted.

(click to embiggen for the full effect)


Luckily, we hadn't gone to the recycling place lately, and therefore had a ready supply of empty tuna cans.

It was going on dark when we finished, so I didn't get a photo of the table. I'll do so tomorrow, so's y'all can see it. :)

Be Careful What You Wish For

(or, grammatically correct, "Be Careful For What You Wish")

When Jen's dad was getting ready to come down for his recent visit, Jen and I came up with a list of things that aren't readily available or exorbitantly expensive here in Costa Rica to request that he bring.

I had discovered that corn meal is unheard of here. There's corn everything else, but not corn meal. So I asked for some, and he brought a 5# bag of it for me.

Today I tried a new recipe for hush puppies, using the corn meal. They were really good, light and not dense like you will find a lot of times, and I enjoyed them a bunch... at first. Then the oil in which they were fried asserted itself and my tum-tum got all queasy. For several hours.

Next time I'll try something different.

Sunday Night Kitteh Blogging

And Raxi continues to grow*...


*as one would expect, I suppose, but still........

Anál Nathrach, Orth’ Bháis ’s Bethad, Do Chél Dénmha

Via Brian (over at Incertus), I find out that Bryan Singer wants to remake Excalibur, and, as Brian points out, this is part of the continuing trend to attempt to strike gold a second time. All Hollywood seems totally enamored with remakes, and they rarely even approach the quality of the originals.

Anyway, whilst reading through the comments on the post Brian links, I saw this:

My dad took me to see [Excalibur] AND 'Conan the Barbarian'--my first two R-rated movies--when I was like nine years old. Now I can't have sex without having a sword in the room.

and laughed my ass off.

On a related(ish) note, myself and three friends spent a couple of days in the library at NC State one weekend long ago, trying to find the translation of the quote I used for a post title. It's the "charm of making" that Merlin uses in the movie. We weren't very successful, as I recall, probably because none of us knew Gaelic (Welsh?) from Maori.

Also that title reads (roughly) "aNAL NATHrak, ooth vas BETHud, do kyel deeeYENvey" in case any of you aren't familiar with the movie in question.

Slogan Of The Day

(nipped from Dusty)

Wherein I Begin To Understand Why Some People Aren't Lovers Of The Bagpipes

Yeah, that's pretty harsh (and quite funny).




That is just plain funny.



Just to finish it out with some Uilleann (elbow) Pipes, the great Davy Spillane.

It Makes It Look Friendly!

Conversations With A Table

I was going to post about something else entirely, but I saw this clip (h/t) and was reminded, once again, that a) the people protesting against health care reform are clueless sheep who do whatever Faux Noise and Hate Talk Radio tell them to do -- sans any relation to reality -- and, b) I wish Barney Frank was my Congressman.



From the YouTube page:

At a Barney Frank town hall meeting in Dartmouth, MA, a constituent asks, "Why are you supporting this Nazi policy?" Frank responds: "On what planet do you spend most of your time?" He then calls her approach "vile, contemptible nonsense." He closes by saying: "Trying to have a conversation with you would be like arguing with a dining room table."

Old -v- New

I've been using one of Jen's old Spanish/English dictionaries for my classes (both learning and teaching):







But, as you can see, it's... well-broken-in.

Jen's dad is visiting, and brought me this:






Thanks, Dick!

In Case You Want To Try It

I fixed dinner tonight for all of us (including Jen's dad, who's in town for a visit), preparing one of my favorite dishes, tuna casserole.

Now, I suspect many of you have had tuna casserole (or "hot dish", for some of you), but I doubt you've had it the way I fix it -- which I learned from my mom. So here you go....


(Bob's) Mom's Tuna Casserole

1 medium onion
2 T butter
1 1½ cups uncooked rice
3 cups water
1 cube (or equivalent) bouillon -- I use beef, but others would work
1 can Cream o' Mushroom soup
2 cans tuna, drained (save "juice")
As much Colby Cheddar as you can stand (or a 12 oz. package)

Preheat oven to 325°F (170°C)

Melt butter in sauce pot, chop onion and lightly sauté in the butter. Add rice and stir. Add water, tuna "juice" and bouillon and bring to a boil. Cook rice until done (approx 15-20 minutes, depending on location and altitude).

In casserole dish, layer rice, tuna, cream o' mushroom and cheese -- twice. I like to mix the tuna and cream o' together for ease of layering.

Bake for 30 minutes*, serve, and enjoy.

*You want to have a lightly browned top layer of cheese in the final product, so in an electric oven, place rack at bottom of oven, and use both top and bottom element. In a gas stove, put dish in broiler for a couple of minutes at the end -- but make sure you don't burn the cheese.


I would have included a photo of the finished product, but I didn't think about it before we ate.

The New Nexus of Computationing

As Jen has said, we now have a new blogging ops (h/t to Lisa) downstairs.

First, I had to learn how to use Google SketchUp, which, with a li'l help from Jen, I think I managed alright, and came up with this layout:


Then it was get all the stuff in there and set up. It's still a bit of a pile of stuff right now, but we'll get it all smoothed out and arranged to our liking soon, I'm sure.




Also, sorry about the poor quality of these pics, they were taken after dark and my camera isn't the best.




I had to stop taking pictures then. As you can (sort of) see, Raxi was giving me the laser eye from the chair in the lower photo. I've learned it's best not to push teh kitteh.

Yes, Another Sunset Post

This was Wednesday evening. Jen and I were sitting at the new table playing cards and fixing dinner, and I looked out the window to see....