Controlling two votes

Our conversation in the car tonight on the way to dinner at The Corbett Fish House.

Me: Would you vote for a woman president?
Darr: Sure.
Me: You would? Would you vote for Hillary Clinton?
Darr: Yes.
Me: Seriously?
Darr: I think it would be best for our marriage if I did.

Yes it would be, my love.

Joke

Christie and I were reading a lot on Wikipedia about Sikhism, Humanism, Rationalism, Atheism, Agnosticism, Materialism and (of course) Relativism, when we came across a joke from some random guy:

Q: What did the dyslexic agnostic ask himself?
A: Is there a dog?

hee hee.

My political compass

Lorenzo over at Propoganda Sifter posted a link to The Political Compass where you can take a test to determine where you land in the political spectrum. Here's where I fall. In pretty good company, if I do say so myself.

Little Miss Sunshine

Darr and I went to see Little Miss Sunshine last night at the local Moreland Theatre. It was excellent and is a must-see for anyone who enjoys black comedies. With an amazing cast including Steve Carell (from 40-Year Old Virgin fame), Toni Collette, Alan Arkin (as a drug-addicted grandpa), and introducing little Abigail Breslin as Olive. Okay, Greg Kinnear is in there also but he sort of annoys me so I don't list him with the others, even though in this part he is perfectly pathetically sad playing the father who is failing using his own 9 Steps to Success. My favorite part? The honking horn that won't quit. Go see and enjoy.

Pluto's demotion

I just finished reading Elizabeth Prata's blog entry "Goodbye cruel solar system" that contains the AP's transcript of Pluto's Concession speech. If you haven't been near any news you might not know that the farthest planet, at least that's what we learned in school, is no longer a planet. That's right. Pluto lost its planet status. Now there's talk that textbooks will need to be rewritten to account for the demotion. <tsk,tsk>

Here's Pluto's concession speech:

Just before coming down to speak with you, I called Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus and congratulated them on their success today. As I see it, in this campaign, we've just finished the first half and the Classical Planet team is ahead, but in the second half, our team -- Team Pluto -- is going to surge forward to victory.

I am, of course, disappointed by the results, but I am not discouraged. I am not disappointed because I lost my planetary status, but because the old politics of scholarship and intellectual integrity won today.

I expect my opponents will continue to do in the future what they have done today: Belittle me instead of coming up with ideas to avoid having to rewrite science textbooks.

I will continue to offer the astronomers a different path forward to make my Solar system and orbit a better place to live and work, and that's what I want to do for another six million more years.

I know a lot of people in this system, and not just "classical planets", are angry about the direction in which the Solar system is moving, and so am I.

Tomorrow morning, our campaign will file the necessary petition with the International Astronomical Union so that we can continue this campaign for a new astronomy of unity and purpose. I will always do what is right for my orbit and Solar system regardless of what the political consequences may be.

Tomorrow is a brand new day. Tomorrow we launch a new campaign -- Team Pluto -- Asteroids, non-conforming celestial objects and planets.

Dog Party One

The History:
We couldn't host a party in honor of our cats (see Cat Party 2006) and not throw a party for Beauty the wonder dog. (It just wouldn't be right. How could we live with ourselves as pet parents?) At 7am my day in the kitchen began. Darr and I finalized our menu and did our grocery shopping last night, much to his dismay as he had just spent the week busting ass in San Jose only to fly home and immediately be put to work. Other than that, there isn't much history to explore. We throw parties for our cats, and now, since we are dog owners, we throw parties for our dog. I can say that, as dogs are generally more accommodating, we were able to invite both humans and canines to Dog Party One. We had two four-legged friends (Rocco & Mikah) join us at the Sellwood Riverfront Park for a little play time before we returned to the Riverpark common room and patio to commence the eating and drinking portion of the evening.

The Menu:
Caprese Salad - Luscher Farm fresh basil & tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper
Seven Layer Salad - romaine lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, celery, bell peppers, corn and cucumbers (nothing but healthy here)
Cobb Salad - traditional fixings of romaine lettuce, tomatoes, broiled chicken, avocado, and eggs tossed in a vinaigrette sauce and sprinkled with bleu cheese and bacon
Roast Lamb - leg of lamb scored and seasoned with roasted garlic and parsley paste, pan-fried and roasted
Lemon Bars - good old summertime treat made with real lemons
Lime Bars - a crisp citrus flavor with cream cheese goodness
Summer Berry Pie - blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries - oh my!

The Music:
We brought Darr's Dell laptop and our external hard drive to the common room, attached it to some speakers, and hit play. Some artists/bands heard throughout the night include:
Mariah Carey (for which I apologize - it's a Christmas song)
Damien Rice
N.W.A.
Kenny Rogers (you got to know when to hold 'em)
Naughty by Nature
KT Tunstall

To those that came bearing gifts, Beauty the wonder dog sends her thanks. We look forward to seeing you all next year. Expect things to be done differently - earlier start time, more games in the park, food and libations from the get-go...

A special thanks to all of the guests who attended. The Arterberrys came after a busy day filled with two other parties - their kids are likely to appear next to the word "obedient" in the dictionary they were so good. The Bickels came with dog (i.e., Mikah) in tow even though baby Noodle wasn't feeling her party best. And the Herzings arrived early and stayed late, thereby getting suckered into both party prep and operation party cleanup. Did I mention we have photos of the event?

Another day in the life of me

I spent the day doing chores, meeting friends, and pampering my feet. I got up this morning and took Beauty the wonder dog to the dog park next door for a little exercise. We got home and then Beaut and I took the dog car (our Nissan Sentra) to the local do-it-yourself carwash. Eight minutes later, clean car. I dropped the dog and car at home, jumped in Sophie and took her up there for a bath. You don't even have to use the big brushes because they have a high pressure soap wash available, which means no scratching. Once home, I got the offensive Fish N' Chips car emblem I bought forever ago and finally attached it to our car.

I stopped off at home again, grabbed some paperwork that I had to deliver to our CPA, and went to Nordstrom Café to meet Trina for lunch. Trina had an interesting story about tapeworms. It's so gross I have to share. In underdeveloped countries, to extract a tapeworm out of a human body, they will sedate the person with the tapeworm and place a plate of food at the person's butt and head to coax the worm out. The worm will crawl out of one end or the other to get to the food. Sick.

I arrived home just in time to see Sara walking to the front door. We rode in her shiny new car (Volvo XC70) to the nail salon. The car is comfortable, definitely road trip worthy, and super quiet. Sara's already got music for the Noodle in the cd player. It was the Noodle's first nail salon experience so I grabbed the old camera and got a shot of her while mom was picking out polish for her toes.

I've got another hour plus before Darr's plane lands so I'm blogging and cleaning up a little so he doesn't think I'm a total slob when he's gone. (I'm not.) Tomorrow is the Dog Party One so we've got to figure out what we're making and put our grocery list together so we can get started prepping first thing tomorrow.

I'm still laughing

Conan O'Brien joke I just heard while watching his show:

"Yanni was arrested. Not to be outdone, John Tesh and Kenny G have gone on a killing spree."

Beauty and the beach

Beauty the wonder dog and I went to Cannon Beach today. Let me start off by saying that I think it should be legal to shoot every slow driver that decides to speed up when the passing lane opens up. Nothing is more irritating than being unable to pass that dillhole because he/she discovers the gas pedal every time there is a passing lane and immediately slows down once it merges and becomes one lane again. And it wasn't just me riding his ass...I was number three in line. There were seven cars behind me, all itching to go faster.

We finally arrived at the beach and Beaut got to play in the sand and waves. I was a little nervous taking her off the leash but there was no need to be. Once positioned in a people-free zone by the water with the Chuckit! and ball, Beaut was the picture of obedience. She received the usual compliments and a few new ones. Most people can't believe she is so old (approximately seven years) because she is one spry dog when a game of fetch is on. If you want to see the pics of our beach adventure, click here. One of my favorites shows a section of the beach where the sand is dry with a section of the beach where Beauty has been shaking the water off (see pic at right).

The dog and a farm called Luscher

Here's a shot of Beauty the wonder dog I snapped at Luscher Farms this afternoon. She had the place to herself for about fifteen minutes before a scrappy Jack Russell showed up and competed for her tennis balls.

Canadian cousins, eh?

Darr's dad, uncle, aunt, and cousins came over for a brief visit this evening to see our home, chat, and eat some ice cream. These folks are Canadian Christians and are very pleasant and respectful and nice and I am not. While I try to tone down the language, I inevitably tap into my normal everyday vernacular and words like "Jesus" and "fuck" creep into the conversation. I can't figure out which word is more offensive but I'm sure they'd prefer their kids didn't get bombarded with either when visiting relatives. Later when discussing this very issue with Darr, he relates a conversation he had with his cousin Danny who noticed we have a photo of his older brother Stephen, with his wife Leah and their new baby Parker, on the kitchen cabinet and no photos of anyone else in the family. So Darr says to Danny..."Have yourself a goddamn baby and I'll put you up there."

Recipe Corner: Berry Muffins

Darr picked fresh blackberries this morning so I had to bake muffins. We've made this recipe a bunch of times with a variety of berries (blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries) and it is always tasty. You can find this recipe and a bunch of other wonderful and fairly easy to prepare dishes in the cookbook Back to the Table: The Reunion of Food and Family from Oprah's chef Art Smith.

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 1/3 cups fresh berries

Directions:
Center the rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter muffin pan.

Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Make a well in the center and set aside. In another bowl, whisk the milk, vegetable oil, and eggs in a bowl and pour into the well. Stir until blended, batter will be lumpy. Gently fold in the berries. Spoon equal amounts of the batter into the muffin cups, filling each cup three-fourths full.

Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, approximately 15-20 minutes. Cool muffins in the pan for 5 minutes. Remove the muffins and serve warm or cool on a wire rack.

Makes 12-24 muffins depending on muffin pan size

My glass is empty

Darr and I are watching 28 Days - the one where Sandra Bullock is an addict in a rehab center. Our conversation goes something like this:

Darren: Is it wrong to watch 28 Days when I'm drunk?
<insert drunken giggles here>
Christie: I gotta blog this.
<insert more drunken giggles here>

Beowulf

Beowulf is not for everyone but if you want to read a fundamental piece of English Literature (composed sometime between the middle of the seventh and the end of the tenth century in a language we now call Old English) this is the book to read. No worries for those of you not fluent in Old English, Seamus Heaney translated it for us. And he's good. (He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995.) The poem is fantastic and had me fondly reminiscing the time I spent reading Chretien de Troyes for my French Literature class. Beyond that, the poem is a narrative of Beowulf, a Scandinavian hero, who is the only person able to take on the ferocious monster Grendel (and later Grendel's mother) that has been terrorizing the Danes. It follows Beowulf through the harrowing monster encounter and continues to explore the life of the hero after success. The text is laden with biblical references and laments, which at times is almost stifling, but I figure if I can slog through it, anyone can.

The countdown continues

26 days. This is how many days there are until our European vacation. Our journey begins with a four night stay in Prague (Praha), down to Vienna (Wien) for two nights, over to Salzburg for one, to the Lake Como region to stay for three nights at the small lakeside town of Varenna, and then to Milan (Milano) for a few days before heading home. I'm still working to secure lodgings for a couple of the places but at least now we know where we'll be, deciding that can sometimes be the most difficult part. Of course packing will be a trial given the current restrictions. Because we're moving around so much, we'd like to leave with one backpack per person. This means cutting down our gear to the bare minimum. I figure clean underwear and camera are of equal importance and everything else falls into the 'maybe I don't need this' category. Since toiletries are suspect as far as the airports are concerned, I've got to pick up some Olay daily facial cloths and find some bar of soap shampoo, which I know I've seen somewhere but can't recall exactly where. I saw a cute wool skirt at Banana Republic I might have to force myself to buy because it won't wrinkle and will be nice enough with a light sweater to wear for an evening out. A shopping day for vacation clothing is clearly in order.

The Descent

Hooray for women! The Descent is not a movie to be missed. It's got cave dwelling crawlers (i.e., humans evolved to live deep underground), girls kicking ass, one spectacular Carrie meets Laura Croft: Tomb Raider moment. It's awesome and had us (i.e., me, Jen, and everyone else in the theatre) screaming in our seats. Word about this movie must be getting out as we noticed there were pockets of women in the theatre. And now it's time for another installment of helpful tidbits I gleaned from a scary movie...

The Descent Lessons Learned

1. When spelunking, don't tell your friends you're exploring a well-known cave and have a map as a guide when you're actually spelunking in an unknown cave filled with human-killing crawlers and you've left the map in the glove compartment of the car.

2. Split the rope amongst all members of the group so that when one person gets stuck in a particularly narrow section of the cave and panics when the cave begins collapsing, the person isn't so involved with getting unstuck they leave behind all of the rope, thereby screwing the rest of you when you need rope to escape the crawlers later on.

3. Make sure one of the members of your party is almost a doctor or an actual doctor. This comes in handy when you've got severe rope burns on your hand, bones protruding through skin, and need quick evaluations of a new species of subhumans (i.e., crawlers) to find weaknesses you can exploit to survive.

4. Do not sneak up on a fellow spelunker who is wielding an axe and has just killed two crawlers in self defense. She might mistake you for one of them and that would be bad for you. Very, very bad.

5. When you learn crawlers hunt by sound shut the fuck up, and for God's sake ditch the punk ass ugly watch your boyfriend gave you that sounds an alarm and alerts the crawlers to your hiding place.

6. Human-killing crawlers are anatomically correct so keep this in mind when combating the males of the species. (This is also known as the 'kick them in the balls' lesson.)

7. Bone up on how to kill a suffering human as you might be asked to perform this by friends who are too badly injured to survive the crawler hellhole you've stuck them in.

8. A blood bath can do wonders for knocking the sanity right out of your head, and once that is gone your chances for survival increase dramatically - even crawlers don't like dealing with crazy people.

9. If you don't see a crawler in front of your or beside you, be prepared for one to spring on you from above.

We go up, we come down

Darr and I headed over to The Circuit Gym this evening for our first attempt at bouldering action. It totally rocks! I can't express how much fun it was. Tough but fun. We worked on the B and 1 level climbs and sort of stumbled into the 2 level climbs when we couldn't find the right path. I don't even have enough of the lingo down to write about it intelligently. The gist is that you go up and you come down. Sometimes you come down measured and controlled, other times you just let go and try not to hit the wall as you fall. The place is totally cool, with lots of areas for inexperienced folks like us. Darr was able to successfully complete this one over-the-top climb three times before I could heave my butt up over the ledge and onto the top. The gym was kind enough to provide a ladder for climbers to use to get down. (Gym people, we thank you for the ladder.) We plan on taking the intro class to learn some of the techniques climbers use so we have a better understanding of what we're supposed to do and how we're supposed to do it. For my friend Jess - we're totally going here next time you're in town. :)

Finally, it's %$#@!* worth something

Do you know how long I've waited for this? And it only took a mere 242 entries written over half a year and 6 links from outside sites. Finally. I pass the test. I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel. Whoops. Sorry. I was overtaken by a LOTR moment. It happens.

My blog is worth $2,258.16.
How much is your blog worth?

Okay, so yeah, I'm evil. Whatever. I considered for a short period of time just changing the glaringly ugly $0.00 in the code that stood for the nothingness my blog was worth. But I didn't. I waited. And you know what I learned. Good things do come to those who wait. Clearly, my blog now having worth is evidence of that. So if you know other bloggers and you think they might be looking for strangers to link to, give 'em my name. What the hell. Let's see if we can get this blog baby of mine up to a cool three thousand by the end of the year.

American Woman

American Woman earns a 3. A woman in hiding for radical actions taken against the government is called upon to help others fleeing persecution. Verbose but poignant, we learn of the good intentions that lead to ill deeds when those that feel righteous or neglected demand to be listened to. It is suprisingly relevant given today's climate, where so many feel an unjust war is being fought to obtain riches for a select few. What is it like to be on the other side? To feel as if the only resource you have to give is your life, and the only actions that will garner any attention are of the most extreme nature? A good read. Stick with it through the first few chapters, the story becomes intensely more interesting with the introduction of a few more characters and further plot formation.

To pass the time - a survey of little interest to anyone

What is your...
ringtone? -- One of the ring options provided by Cingular.
middle name? -- Marie.
sign? -- Aries.
pet's name? -- I have more than one. Ellie & Mabel (cats) and Beauty the wonder dog (dog).

What color...
is your hair? -- Brown.
are your eyes? -- Brown.
are your nails? -- Fingers are pink, toes are lilac.
is your shirt? -- Light pink.

Right now...
what's in your pockets? -- Lint.
are you thirsty? -- Yes. <chugs water>
what are you sitting on? -- My butt, which is on a chair in the office.
where are you? -- Sunday job (a.k.a. Spoiled Rotten).
what song are you listening to? Not sure.

One or the other...
kiss or hug? -- Kiss.
school or work? -- School.
apple or banana? -- Banana.
shower or bath? -- Bath, with bubbles, lit candles, glass of wine, laptop on the bench and Dr. McDreamy on the screen. (To my friend who doesn't like the cooling water, you can reheat by turning the hot water back on.)
cingular or verizon? -- Cingular. Although this was a recent change from T-Mobile.

Random...
what do you wish you were doing right now? -- Writing a Pulitzer Prize winning piece of literature.
what was the last thing you bought with your money? -- Dinner for Darr and I at Noodles.
are you wearing a belt? -- No.

Last...
drink? -- Alcoholic? Fat Tire beer. Yum.

Thanks to Jen, whom I will not link to for fear of bringing the dogs to her doorstep, for the hour of entertainment this survey provided.

Grey's Anatomy girls day & more

Sara, the Noodle (i.e., Alexandra), Tanya, and Ann came over this afternoon for a late lunch and some good old fashioned t.v. viewing. An afternoon of baby holding and watching Dr. McDreamy is a good thing, let me assure you. Tan, Ann, and I did our best to share the little bundle, who was hardly fussy at all. Alexandra spent most of her time making the cutest of baby noises and sleeping peacefully while she was passed from one pair of waiting arms to the next. I thought it best to post a couple of the digital photos from our day since it is fun to have your picture taken with a baby.

Ann and the Noodle

Tan and the Noodle

Darr and the Noodle

Mom sans Noodle

The Noodle looking at me. The grainy texture of the photo is from the auto correction in iPhoto because I didn't use a flash.

After the girls left, Darr and I went for a very short kayak journey on the river. The sea was angry, my friends. Holy crap, were we ever getting tossed around, having to paddle hard to keep from getting pushed back to our starting point. I think the highlight <insert sarcasm here> of our time out on the river was the naked lady we saw unexpectedly pop out of the forest along our route. No joke. Naked lady. She scampered off before we passed by again on our way home. Thank God.

We lugged the kayaks up to the garage, had a bite to eat (that we snagged from the folks throwing a party on the common patio of the condominiums), and hopped in the car with Beauty the wonder dog (Btwd) to hit R.E.I. and walk around the Pearl and NW. It was a fantastic evening filled with shopping (for Christmas), cupcakes (from Saint Cupcake), a fountain and park, treats for Btwd from strangers, and a car ride home. I think I've almost got Darren convinced we should sell our place, buy some property far out in the wilderness (e.g., Canby) and buy a trailer to live in nature - so we can have a McLife like McDreamy.

What the hell is bouldering anyway?

Darr and I are checking into gyms and I came across The Circuit Gym right across the river, a mere five minutes from our condo. My friend Jessica is a rock climber/boulderer (is that a word?) and from checking out her photos, I've learned that much of this involves holding your weight with your fingers and toes, which works fine for her, she's tiny. I'm not, hence the conversation that took place in the previous blog entry. It should be noted that losing 15 pounds isn't going to get me anywhere near the tiny size but it would put 15 pounds less pressure on my poor fingers and toes.

Weight conversation

Christie: I'll try bouldering with you when I lose 15 pounds.
Darren: Well, hurry up and lose 15 pounds.
Darren: Don't tell people I said that.

A pic of Mabel we didn't take

Petar took a bunch of photos when he and Svetla were over last weekend for breakfast and this one of Mabel is so awesome I had to steal it and throw it up on our blog. Damn our cats are cute.

Photo credit - Petar Karafezov

Sit, Ellie, sit. Good cat.

Our cat Ellie always wants attention. It doesn't matter to her that you're talking on the phone or washing dishes or peeing. It's a me, me, me universe where Ellie lives. I think that's how it is with most animals, which explains why you are hit the with "poor me, I'm so abused" look everytime you fail to immediately address the wants and needs of your pet. Not that long ago it occurred to me that it might be possible to train a cat. Cats are intelligent creatures and it turns out I can use Ellie's need for affection as a training device.

In her quest for love from her humans, Ellie often joins me at the bathroom counter while I apply the minimal amount of makeup that I wear on a daily basis. She has always been fascinated by my brushes, the big one I use for my MAC Studio Fix in particular. I bought her a brush for Christmas a few years back so I wouldn't have cat saliva all over the brush I use. Ellie loves her brush. She loves to be pet with her brush, to play with her brush, to flick the brush off the counter, leap to the floor, stand over it and eat her brush. You might call it brush love.

We're in the bathroom one morning and I bring the brush out. (She even knows what drawer I keep it in.) And I command her to sit. She looks at me like she's heard the word before but also with of "Homey, don't play dat" kind of expression. Cats have their pride. But Ellie is weak with the brush love and I have been standing there a few seconds, brush in hand, NOT petting her. This has her confused. She paces on the counter, glancing at me, at the brush, at herself in the mirror. I commmand her to sit again. She stops pacing, thinks about what I've said for a split second, and sits her butt down. I immediately reward her with access to the brush. We continue this for about three minutes. I have since been able to recreate this for Darr, who was skeptical at first but now thinks we should take a movie of it as proof. Our cat can sit on command. I haven't tried it yet without the brush as an assistant in the process but I'm hoping, with time, she'll learn the word well enough to do it on command with no brush present. Expect great tricks at next year's cat party.

How I am defined in the dictionary

christie -- [adjective]: Sexually stunning 'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Recipe Corner: Lemon Granita

Welcome to our second installment of Recipe Corner. Today's recipe is perfect for hot weather. If it is hot in your area, gather the necessary ingredients and make it immediately. You'll thank me for it when you take your first bite.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups fresh lemon juice (juice of 8-9 lemons)
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water

Directions:
Combine ingredients in a medium bowl and mix with a wooden spoon until the sugar is dissolved. Pour the lemon juice mixture into a medium baking dish and place in the freezer. Stir the mixture every 30 minutes with a fork, scraping the edges and breaking up any chunks as the mixture freezes, until the granita is slushy and frozen (about four hours). Serve in individual serving glasses or transfer to a plastic container, cover and freeze for up to four days.

Serves 4-6

The proof is in the play program

You might have heard me talk about this one play Darr and I both participated in during our high school years. I joke about it because at the cast party I signed Darr's program with a rather risque message. Today, while searching through some boxes for other papers, I ran across the program. For a fifteen year old, I sure was forward (i.e., slutty McWannabewhore). Darr didn't take me up on the offer, though, as I never did get a phone call. Bastard! It should be stated that I went through a weird phase of writing the first letter of my name backwards. I can't remember how or why this came about, and I no longer do this, but it does explain why my name looks like it is misspelled.
My message is at the top on the left and says the following:

Darren,
You did an 'x job and it was really fun! Next year it will be even better. Remember if you need help getting dressed give me a call! 538-5187.
Love always, Christie Glynn

Changing the banner in Blogger

Since a couple folks have asked about this recently I decided to make an entry and list out the steps. Darr set this up originally and I haven't experimented with other blog hosting sites (e.g., TypePad, WordPress, etc.) so I don't know if it is the same process to change banners for those blogs.

1. Create an appropriately sized banner. The standard for modern computers is a fixed 72 pixels-per-inch for everything except text, which is why text often appears larger when viewed on a PC than it does on a Mac. To give you an idea of size the current banner on our blog is 710 x 144 pixels.

2. Create a new entry and upload the banner like you would any other picture or photo.

3. Click the Edit Html tab.

4. Scroll through the entry until you locate the hypertext reference for the picture or photo, which will look like this: href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/902/2050/1600/
Example.jpg".

5. Highlight and copy the url (i.e., the section in quotes). It will look like this: http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/902/2050/1600/
Example.jpg.

6. Click Publish Post.

7. Click Template.

8. Scroll through the code until you find a string that looks like this: background-image:url("http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/
902/2050/1600/OldBanner.jpg")

9. Delete the old url and paste the new one in its place. If you accidentally delete the quotes during the process, add them to the front and back of the url.

10. Click Save Template Changes.

11. Republish your blog to view the changes.

Bon chance, mes amis!

Food, food, and more food

We had the busiest of social calendars today. You'd think we would learn to space these things out but we haven't, which is why we spent the majority of today in the kitchen and the rest of the time eating and chatting with friends. Our day began when friends Petar and Svetla, from over at The Princess Bloggeries, stopped by for breakfast around 9am. We tried a new zucchini and tomato frittata recipe and an old favorite, Belgian waffles. Of course breakfast wouldn't be complete without mimosas. Petar and Svetla arrived with some gorgeous sunflowers (yea flowers!), olive bread, and Havarti with dill. Yum! They also brought a Milan travel guide book - I've really got to sit down and figure out the rest of our trip. It's a mere 37 days away.

Immediately after they left, we were in the kitchen prepping the meal to take to Sara and Josh's place. It was Darr's turn to meet the Noodle (a.k.a. Alexandra) of Noodle's Adventures. We made pesto (click here for the recipe) and shopska salad (cucumbers, tomatoes, feta, olive oil, salt, pepper) and arrived in time to catch the Noodle sleeping in her mom's sling. Damn if I didn't forget the camera though so I have no pics to share. I got to hold the baby. Darr got to hold the baby. And then the baby was carefully deposited into her swing so we could eat. I love talking movies with Josh because he has a vast repository of movie clips at his disposal and most of them Darr and I can identify. Most. Oh, I was right, Ally Sheedy played Matthew Broderick's love interest in War Games. Damn I'm good. We left their place when baby Noodle decided she wasn't tired anymore but hungry, hitting the Wilsonville Costco before trying the new route home. Thanks for the tip, Bickels. It is much faster on Stafford Road.

It was back to the kitchen when we returned to the condo. Darr started the process of making granitas, the tastiest of all frozen lemon treats, and I started working on my blueberry buckle. Darr's best friend's parents, Sandy and Dick, were expected for dinner, along with my former coworker and friend Emily. Darr left at some point to take Beauty the wonder dog for a walk but came back shortly after his departure to get a bowl and ask me for assistance in a berry picking scheme. The path that runs in front of the Riverpark townhomes are loaded with blackberry bushes and as a result they are also loaded with blackberries, some of which are ripe for the picking. The catch is that the bushes hang out over a cliff and we had no way to grasp the vines to bring them closer to get the berries. Thank God my husband is brainy as he fashioned a vine-retriever tool from a hanger and we had a bowl full of tasty, ripe blackberries in no time.

Our dinner was less inspired than it might have been had we not already spent so much time in the kitchen but everything turned out tasty - grilled steak and asparagus with fried potatoes. Sandy enjoyed her granitas with a little vodka, which we would recommend but be sure to add the vodka only after you've frozen the dessert or it won't work. Since the weather is still pretty hot and it will likely be hot for another month, I'll try to get that granitas recipe up on the web.

Beauty the wonder dog update

Beauty and I made our last trip to the vet's today to get her stitches removed and then we went right over to the doggie salon so she could have a bath. Now, we've got a dog without a hole in her side that smells clean. She's sportin' a shiny new collar from The Pearl Retriever and an ultra cool Shrinky Dink id tag. All is right in the world.

Me & Emma

Me & Emma earns a 4. The subject matter is uncomfortable coming from eight year old narrator, Carrie, who is busy trying to understand the world in which she has landed. Mom is tired, worn down by the tragedies of her life. Stepfather Richard is the epitome of all shitty, abusive, alcoholic fathers who can't hold a job and blame everyone else for their problems. Younger sister Emma is Carrie's only friend, strong but naive.

Flock does an adequate job of establishing the characters of the novel, lending them a sense of authenticity so that you can almost hear the drawls in the accents of the folks in Toast, North Carolina as you read the dialogue. But the end is strangely abrupt - in one chapter all is resolved and seemingly better - ruining the pace of the book and the expectations of the reader.

Time to update the ol' banner

Mabel McMabelson has reached great heights of fame being the banner cat for the past six months but now it is time for Ellie Macpherson to have her cute catness exposed to the world.

Quiz time

I don't know what I like best - the photos of the computer geeks that look like serial killers or the sound effects you hear when taking the quiz. Click here to take the quiz and be sure to leave your score. Mine was 9/10 and this means that I'd "spot Hannibal Lector in seconds at an Open Source conference. My liver's safe." Thank God my husband is one of the sexy computer geeks, eh?

My problem with taxes

Okay, the story is breaking all over - The Rolling Stones made approximately $196 million dollars last year and they paid ... wait for it ... 1.6% in taxes on their earnings. Are you f---ing kidding me? They do it by using offshore trusts and companies in an incredibly creative manner. Yeah, I'm going to bitch even though these folks are from the U.K. because you can bet your sweet ass the same thing happens here. The über-rich peoples are able to use methods to protect their money that are not open - because us regular Joes are not über-rich - to the rest of us. And that is so frickin' unfair. They need to close loopholes that allow gazillionaires to pay less in taxes than everyone else.

Meeting the Noodle

Yea! I got to meet Noodle (a.k.a. Alexandra Madison Steenhuis Bickel) today when Sara brought her over for a short visit. Mom and baby arrived just as the fire alarm was tripped so we had to wait outside while the firemen traipsed through the building searching for fires. Alexandra is totally cute and patiently waited with mom, me, Beauty the wonder dog, and Mabel and Ellie but started to get fussy before we could retire to the condo so Sara had to borrow one of our neighbor's patio chairs to sit down and nurse her. I was on the lookout for hot firemen for Sara to flash her mom-breasts at but alas none appeared.

Once her belly was full, the firemen shut off the alarm and drove away, and we were able to access the condo, the Noodle settled into the land of baby-sleepdom while I went camera crazy before mom handed her over. Did I mention she's super cute? The Noodle has a variety of adorable squeaks and grunts and is a joy to hold. Although it should be said that I'm the type of person to immediately return babies to their owners when they appear to be heading toward fussy behavior so I find most babies to be pleasant and enjoyable because they are usually out of my arms the second they show the remotest sign of impending distress.

Mabel seemed the most interested in exploring the baby bundle on my lap. Thankfully she did not try to climb on as she would have been pissy if I had turned her away. Beauty the wonder dog started snoring (probably dreaming about the park) and Ellie laid on the floor in the position Darr and I have dubbed "shameless" since she's on her back with legs and arms akimbo.

As Darr has once again been sucked down to San Jose, we've got plans to head over to the Bickels Saturday morning so he can meet the Noodle. Ah babies...they are fucking cute.

Drinks with the womenfolk

I met some of my former coworkers for drinks at Stanford's tonight. It was nice to chat and catch up with everyone. We're all so different it's kind of crazy. I guess that is why we enjoy each other's company. Thankfully, Jen is a scary movie freak like me so we've already discussed meeting to see The Descent. And hopefully Trina and her husband will be able to join us for dinner one of these nights. (For shame - we missed the first proposed dinner date. Whoops!)

It's weird when you leave a place. On the days leading up to your last day, you make these pledges that you'll keep in touch and blah, blah, blah. Before you know it, Christmas rolls around and you open your address book and think "Wow. I should send so-and-so a card." But you haven't seen or heard from this person in over six months. You opt to send the card. Of course you then receive the obligatory return Christmas card from so-and-so, thereby making it into so-and-so's address book for the following year. This tradition is maintained for a period of three to five years before you scrub your address book and effectively "lose" so-and-so's contact information. This seems to be the pattern. Until you happen to bump into so-and-so again.

But as long as we can all find time to get together and share a few drinks over some $1.95 appetizers, I'm game.