you, too, can wear woolly mammoth!

I admit I'm fascinated by this jewelry setting of a piece of fossilized woolly mammoth by Monique Pean.

pretty music

My yoga teacher has this song in the mix for class sometimes. It's really pretty and soothing. I looked it up and someone made this video for it which I thought I'd share. It also seems to have been used in one of the McEclipse productions. Anyway, I hope you like it. :)

Sunday, Puppy Sunday: technical difficulties

I've tried several times to no avail. Maybe this post will work.

NOT uploaded from my iPhone, btw.

First responder.

I probably shouldn't admit this, but I actually was the first responder to a poll online, to my utter shock. I was looking up roadkill, because sometimes I'll see a dead fox on the road and I was looking up stuff you could do to salvage the fur and whatnot and a whole bunch of links came up, and there was this poll, see?

Anyway, I didn't really give it a lot of thought or I would have realized that I HAVE eaten venison harvested by dad's Mercury some thirty-some years ago. Anyway. If something's freshly dead and not ruined and is perfectly good meat you would have eaten anyhow, why not eat it, right? I admit I drooled a bit at the sight of the glorious backstrap harvested from the buck that killed AD's radiator, that time, so why not, right?

Anyway, here it is:

I'm not proud, but there you have it. A dubious distinction, at best. Guess how I answered??? :P

So I was talking to my friend Lin. I told her about seeing the fox on the road and how it's a shame the fur will go to waste and that I wondered about curing the hide. She said she came across a freshly dead skunk for a relative once, and she called up a leather worker she knew who specialized in chaps and gear for motorcyclists and she asked him about how to, er, harvest the hide without disrupting the unholy stink that lay within. The friend, a Frenchman, said "yoo 'ave to cot arrround zee asshoule."

I said "those are words to live by." Seriously. Asshole in your path? Cut around the asshole. Skinning out a dead, musky varmint? Cut around the asshole. Rinse, lather, repeat.

If you are a comic book fan...

...you'll want to do yourself a favor and check out Covered, a blog featuring modern artists re-imagining comic book covers, both modern and classic.

Good stuff!

breakthrough yoga moment #1:

During a stretch, my nose nearly touched my right knee tonight.

Then I squoze my boob in another direction and my nose touched my knee.

YAYS!

good friends, good times and warm fuzzy feelings.

This region of Texas has been freakishly hot this year, and thus my Great American Hovel has been pretty hot as well. We had our first 110 degree day in early May, and I think we've more than 50 in a row at this point of days over 100 degrees. I'd resigned myself to trying to be happy if the house was a mere 20 or 25 degrees cooler than the outside. Dear friend Matt G declared this would not stand. He knew a way to make it not so.

Last weekend, Matt G and AEPilotJim came to town and helped insulate the attic. They got into town Friday night and they and Himself sat up talking into the wee hours and I finally dragged myself and the pups off to bed about 1:30 or so. I don't know how late the fellows stayed up, but they got up about 5:30 to start working on the house. Coffee was made. I wanted to stay in bed, but decided it would be weasely of me to have a lie-in while they were doing all that hot, sweaty work in the attic. I went to fetch breakfast burritos, and they were good and done with the insulation task well before 8:00 AM.

Matt actually said the attic was pretty cool, because there was an attic fan and no proper ventilation to do anything except pull all my lovely conditioned air from the house's interior into the attic. I was impressed by how quiet the machine was, and it was amazing to see the long, intestine-like ropes of tubing with the fluffy bits pulsing through like some big vascular system as it wended its way into the attic. I should have taken a video of that-- it was really neat.

Himself and Jim manned the insulation hopper and Matt was up in the attic blasting away. The first 16 bags took less than 1.5 hours to install. Mind, Matt's done this a few times before. After the insulation was installed, Matt installed some gable vents so some air could flow in and out without being hoovered up from the house's interior. Then he put together a very nice little plug for the spider hole into the attic.

I started a brisket out front in the morning and made a cake, because I figured the least I could do would be to provide some rib-tickling eats. Despite sweating buckets, I think no one lost weight, and I'm okay with that. :)

I'd bought 16 bundles of Atticat insulation at Homedespot(buy more than 10 and the blower rental is free), and I ended up buying a few more. I have gone from about 1"-3" of insulation throughout the attic, to a uniform 16". They all worked tirelessly and now my house is actually cool.

But the coolest thing of all is when a good friend does something unexpectedly that is extremely kind and helpful, asking nothing in return. I confess I'm amazed these folks would come all this way, take time to do this for the mere sake of helping a friend. I'm humbled, truly I am.

Thanks so much, guys. You are dear, golden friends, and I love you!

I think the puppies want me to have these shoes.

Seriously. Don't they look incredibly sensible?

I knew you'd agree.

When I think of all the odd colour combinations I have in the shoe collection, I can honestly say I don't have a single pair of gray/yellow/green shoes. Don't you think it's time we correct that gap in the collection?

How very wise of you to say so. I commend your exquisite taste, darling!

Fluevog.

Oh, and for the fellows with Steampunk tastes without the bespoke budget - Fluevog has some incredible shoes that would look right smart on a dandy fellow catching the next dirigible out of town. Just sayin'.

miles and miles of silk!

...hmm... most excellent threadbanging fodder!

from the unintentionally funny files...

Goofing off as one does, I was looking at RVs on ebay Monday and saw a thumbnail of this camper. The house in the background looked like it was part of the camper. I glanced down the column of photos and my eyes were drawn back up to that one, as I wondered how they fit all that mess under overpasses and such.

Hyuk!

Happy July 4th!

Sunday, Puppy Sunday: more puppy sofa action

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

I can't remember where I found this, but I LOVE it.

I think it was posted on a conservative blog, but not one I visit very often. If it's yours, drop me a comment and I'll give credit where it's due. This is simply too delectable not to pass along.

Adam Savage does a Gollum turn on "I Will Survive"




Brilliant!

Amusez vos amis

MMM mm. I have a new favorite.

They say not to judge a book by its cover, but I was completely charmed by the product, bonus carafe and packaging of this St-Germain Summer Soiree set, featuring this lovely elder-flower liqueur from France. Himself remarked that elder-flower was a very nice flavor and he bought the set for me. *squee* The pretty flavors are not attended by the cloying over-sweetness one usually associates with liqueurs. I can't wait to put this in desert sauces and other things. This is definitely the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

Truly, the taste is extraordinary, and is indeed floral, but there's a lot of fruit in there, too. The carafe is pre-marked with measures for a champagne/tonic (or sparkling water)/St-Germain cocktail. YUM! Beautiful, vintage-style packaging.

There's also a St-Germain twist on the classic margarita, called a St-Rita. Sounds like a cocktail with my name on it, don't you think? Suspect I'll be running through a fair bit of this stuff during my workaholic grind, this summer.

à votre santé!