Local news clip

Jerry was flipping through the TV channels yesterday morning when he landed on a local PBS station's report on the new bicycle and skateboard regulations at Cal State Fullerton. He hung around to watch the segment, since both boys are now at CSUF, and are currently riding their bikes to school. Imagine his surprise when he saw Michael right there on TV!

Michael is at the very end of the clip, in freeze frame.

This report aired on Friday. We're lucky that they re-broadcast Friday's news a few times over the weekend, so we were able to catch it again.

The end of a comic strip, sort of.

I've been reading For Better or For Worse for about 20 years. The characters aged in real time, some of them even died, and the stories could have been those of any "real" people. So it's sad to see the strip as it has been come to an end. Today was the last one. Cartoonist Lynn Johnston will go now back to the beginning, re-printing old strips and stories, expanding on some a little bit, but bottom line is, it just won't be the same any more.

OK, so I'm a little paranoid

I got an email this morning telling me that I had received an "e-greeting card". I was instructed to either click on the link, or cut and paste the address into my web browser. Closer scrutiny of the initial email made me suspicious:

It had been addressed to "dear friend", not to me by name.

It didn't say who was sending the e-card.

The address was weird. [http://faunarium*dot*net*slash*e-card*dot*exe] (here rendered barely readable by a person, but not an actual link)

The last virus I got was from an exe file.

Jerry looked at it, and said it doesn't look like the typical e-card announcement, and it's probably not from anyone I know. He looked at just the "Faunarium*dot*net" address, and found it appeared to be dog-related, but in another language (Russian, maybe?)

Anyway, I'm not going to open the e-card. And just on the outside chance this was a legitimate message from a "real person", I apologize for my paranoia. I just feel I have to be careful.

The lemon cucumber

I just recently joined a local CSA, and this past week, I got my first basket of produce. There were some interesting things in there, including a couple of lemon cucumbers, which I'd never seen before.


I would have never guessed this was a cucumber by looking at the outside.


The first slice revealed a beautiful star pattern.



Subsequent slices got a little scary looking, though.

And it tasted just like a cucumber.

School starts Monday

Here's what I spent way too much time creating today. It will be my new desktop page. Oh sure, I could have just jotted the kids' schedules on a scrap of paper and magneted it onto the fridge, but isn't this cooler?

Bah - Plumbing!

There's a clog somewhere between the garage and the kitchen.

Jerry came home at lunch and tried to snake it, but his snake was too short. He'll bring home a 50 footer on his way home from work later. Meanwhile:

Can't use the kitchen sink. Can't do laundry.

The good news:
We can still flush the toilets!
Most of my dishes are clean (for now)
I don't have to cook tonight!

Big Red Sun

I found a link to this wonderful, artsy-planty-designy place on Gennine's blog, where she was inspired to make her own exquisite succulent arrangement.

Click on the picture to get to their website, then click "explore" to see all their stuff. In particular, I liked the "vessels" section. It's got a rather long slideshow, but they're very beautiful arrangements, well worth it if you have the time. Very inspirational indeed.

In support of marriage for gays and lesbians

Why on earth shouldn't they be allowed to marry? Perhaps it's my lack of a religious upbringing that leaves me with no feeling that being homosexual is wrong. (although, to be fair, homosexuality is just another thing that my parents actually never discussed with me. As with religion, I was left to learn about it on my own and form my own opinions.)

To me, it's just different. And the only thing that's different is the sex part. But marriage is so much more than sex. It's not simply the union of a penis and a vagina. It's the union of two people who care so deeply for each other, they want to share their lives, for better or worse, in sickness and health, and all that stuff. To be a family. I totally don't get the "protect marriage" dogma. What exactly is the threat that gay/lesbian marriage poses to the rest of us? What do we need to be protected from?

Anyway:


Their TV commercial really touched me.

Bummer

Bernie Mac died. I liked him.