Archive for the ‘General’ Category.
In November I visited a very good friend in Virginia. At one point she mentioned how she was unhappy that her ex made off with the waffle iron. I thought pensively and sadly to myself how the utter lack of home made waffles in her life was only multiplied by the loss of the iron itself. Thus began a search for a great waffle iron. It was a surprisingly long road.
I had bought a Villaware model 2001 from Williams Sonoma in 2001 that I am very happy with. But it’s a Belgian iron and she said she didn’t like such big crusty waffles. Besides, they don’t make the model any more, the replacement isn’t that well rated.
I stood in the San Francisco Williams Sonoma googling their waffle irons; starting at $180, you would think the All-Clad machines would be well rated, but “eh”. Surly Table was about the same. Standing in the basement at Macy’s, the Cuisinart $30 iron got good recommendations; and then I realized it would cost almost as much to ship it as it cost. Finally, I got a trial subscription to Cooks Illustrated online to look at reviews. They liked the M840 Wafflepro Express. I read a gazillion reviews. Many love, some hate. It was good to see that most of the hates were things like “It doesn’t make my mom’s traditional recipe the way I want it to!”
So here’s what I got her from Amazon: Chef’s Choice M840 WafflePro Express Waffle Maker, Traditional Five of Hearts
Is it a good waffle maker? Late one evening, about 2 weeks after mailing the machine, I got the following text:
Im drunk and i have been eating waffles all night. You are amazing
This is about the greatest text I have ever received.
Each month AAA’s magazine “Via” has segment where they ask readers to contribute tips. Here’s one I submitted and they published in the west coast March 2011 edition, with great help from Charlotte! It’s neat that they illustrated the idea as well :-) Illustration by Michael Klein.
They sent me a AAA T-Shirt and a $25 check :-)
The House voted to bar Planned Parenthood from federal funding on 2-17-11. They cut funding for HIV tests, cancer screenings, birth control, and more, putting millions of women and families at risk. We can’t let it go unanswered. It’s time for you and me to stand with Planned Parenthood. Sign the open letter to the reps who voted for this bill — and to the senators who still have a chance to stop it.
http://www.istandwithplannedparenthood.org/
Yes, this is real. The National Right to Life Committee and StopTheAbortionAgenda.com is strongly in favor of this amendment. Nuff said. I signed the Planned Parenthood petition.
Though it’s doubtful the bill can really stand… Here’s some snippets from OpenCongress Blog. Read the whole article there.
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First, the Senate, which is still controlled by Democrats, will never agree to this. Some Republicans – namely Sen. Olympia Snowe [R, ME] and Sen. Susan Collins [R, ME] – have even said that they would oppose an attempt to block Planned Parenthood from receiving funding. Senate Democrats are confident they have the votes to block this.
The second problem is that it is clearly unconstitutional. Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution forbids Congress from passing bills of attainder, i.e. laws that punish a specific individual or group that have not been given a judicial trial. The Republicans passed a similar bill of attainder last year against the community organizing group ACORN that resulted in the federal government being sued. The Republicans may want to repeat that, but nobody else does.
One more thing to be clear on here. Planned Parenthood does not receive federal funding for abortion services. That has been against the law since 1974. They currently receive funds for other health care services, like cancer screening and family planning. But abortion services are subsidized exclusively by private donors. This amendment is about killing Planned Parenthood, not about blocking public abortion funding. That’s already blocked.
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I just sent this email to info at crimespotting dot org.
I’ve noticed that very few murders are reported on http://sanfrancisco.crimespotting.org. From May 2010 to today I only see 3 murders, all in November. The San Francisco Police reported 50 murders in 2010 (http://informant.kalwnews.org/2011/01/san-francisco-sees-murder-spike-despite-crime-drop-in-2010/). http://oakland.crimespotting.org doesn’t seem to have the problem of underreporting murders.
Do you know why this is? It would be good if something could be done about it. I’d appreciate a response.
Thanks
For a while I thought that San Francisco’s murder rate was MUCH lower than Oakland’s, like 10 to 1. It appears that the Oakland murder rate is twice San Francisco’s (.21 murders per thousand vs .11 murders per thousand)
I’ll keep you, fair reader informed as to the results of my query.
I’m on a plane back to the mainland. That was a whirlwind, exhausting trip! Jumping on cars for 6 hrs a day in 87 degree, humid and no wind never felt so… umm.
That said, the night hike (almost) to Manoa Falls was pretty awesome. Discovering a 100 ft tall wall of a tree by spotlight is pretty awesome and spooky! And at one spot, right near the entrance t the park, the trees above looked like the sillouette of an incredible circulatory system, wow!
I have 2 tickets to see Robert Ballard in San Mateo Wednesday night. Want to join me?
Undersea robots, adventure and Leonardo Dicaprio!
Call or email. More about Robert Ballard.
Computer running slow. Virus? New Android drivers? Jury is still out.
New girlfriend maybe not girlfriend.
Fancy Android phone still a PITA… though getting better.
Boss yelled (yes, yelled) at me for no good reason.
Feeling very ungrounded.
I’ve still got my friends though.
This is a followup to my first and second posts: Nonyx Nail Gel and Nonyx Nail Gel: Part 2. It’s gotten so many comments that it’s hard to sort through these older posts.
Please make followup comments here.
And don’t forget to read the original post and other related posts including Fungal Nail Infection Treatment and Zetaclear.
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There are many discussions about nail fungus going on on my blog. Search my blog for the word “fungus” for more.
Let it be known that on this day and hour, one D-Nice Hill has registered with the Emoticon Registration Authority a new, novel and unique emoticon design. It has been certified to pass each of the tests of this authority and is hereby granted status of “awesome”.
The meaning of this emoticon as registered in this office is:
Rock on
The emoticon appears below
\oo/ x_x \oo/
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