JT

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This is a funny article

"The dog must have smelled a tasty dinner in his pants," said a police spokesman, taking the opportunity to utter a sentence he will never be able to use again in his lifetime.

but it raises an interesting question: why is a police dog sniff routine not a search? If the police use an X-ray on luggage, or a heat-sensor to survey your house from the street, is that a search? Because it looks to me like the same thing -- it's just the dog is a live, er, machine and the X-ray is not.

Here's the whole article: http://www.loweringthebar.net/2009/12/police-dog-the-meat-smugglers-nemesis.html

A friend-of-a-friend is a single man and has a child; the mom and the child live together, and he has his own apartment elsewhere. He sees the child once a week for a few hours.

The problem is this: he is convinced that no woman will want to date him because he has a child.

I think there are other reasons why he can't get a date, but at any rate, I said I'd ask my friends on LJ if they know of organizations where single men who have children can get support* or dating sites that focus on single male fathers, or something, anything, to be a resource and reassurance for this fellow.

Any ideas?



*Distinct from the men's rights/custody-decrees-suck groups, which, while valid, are not what I am looking for here.

I know I was supposed to save you a pig in the blanket from SoA night. But... well I have a shameful confession to make... with only 1 more semester of Culinary Arts school to get my degree... and an exhaustive knowledge of many higher cooking techniques... I utterly... totally... and completely... burned the pigs in a blanket. Eireanach will most likely confirm this sorry state of affairs tomorrow via her LJ. They were so burned that we even tried to just eat the tops... and they were still (by popular vote) inedible.

Yes... I can make a bechamel that will make you moan like a... really happy moaning person... and my meatballs are a thing of beauty... but pigs-in-a-blanket... are a culinary mystery.

I should go up into the highest reaches of the Appalachians to study under the pig-in-a-blanket Master and learn the ancient (like from the 70's) secrets of Pillsbury dough rolled around a juicy Lit'l Smokie.

Love,
Rachael... who shall wear a mark of shame until she can make ONE (1) decent cookie sheet of the vaunted pigs-in-a-blanket.

My heart goes out to all my friends who are mourning the loss of Alex.

If I can help anyone, well, you know where to find me.

My computer is running extremely slow.

Even the virus scans rans very slowly and came back clean.

I'm since this computer is about 8 years old, I am begining to suspect hardware.

Don't rely on the internet to reach me until I get this figured out....

I'm almost ALWAYS in my right side channel.
Dammit!!!

<3 zZzZzZzZzZz... Wha? What? Huh? It's December? ALREADY?! AUGH! (faints.) zZzZzZzZzZz... --Kaja <3

When I got home from work this evening I found awaiting me a very-well-wrapped parcel containing a dozen CD albums of an English folk group called Strawhead. This is going to be seriously fun. The last album I previously had of their was pressed in 1984 so I have 25 years of songs I have never heard to get caught up on.

Strawhead is a group from the north of England that specializes in English popular songs from the 15th-19th C. and songs about the history of that period. If you have ever heard me sing Madre de Dios, that is one of theirs. Their website is at: http://www.strawhead.org.uk/ So if you will excuse me, I am going to be grinning for the next few days.

fatshionista changed the OOTD rules. Now anyone who is only a US 16 or over can post outfits of the day (OOTD). But it gets better! If you are maybe 5'4" or shorter, it might be approved because short 14s are somehow more fat than a 5'8" 14! What the hell?

Yes, there is inbetweenies but I was just actively defatted by a size acceptance community which is great. Really. I can shop at most of the stores listed by inbetweenies. I still have to buy Lane Bryant Right Fit jeans to fit my hip to waist ratio, but I can wear an XL at the gap in stretch top and a cardigan if I maybe don't button it, SO HEY NOT FAT. I can't remember being unfat. Ever. Remember that time I was in high school and oinked at as I walked by? I guess I was unfat then.

It seems weird that I struggle to be identified as fat when I am trying to lose weight, but I think it's an important part of who I am. I think I do it because it normalizes fat in a way. Yes, I am at the smaller end of the spectrum but I am still sometimes mocked by people who think I cannot hear them. And it hurts. But I can't post pictures of my fatshions on the FA community because I'm not fat enough?

God.

(because I'm perverse that way)
( Tues, Mon and Sun )
Sat
The entertaining day. I made brunch, testing out dishes I intend to serve for a future brunch party. A couple of friends sampled the items. The chilaquiles casserole (tortilla wedges baked with green sauce, chorizo and cheese, topped with avocado slices and cilantro sprigs) was delicious but looked appallingly bad once a serving spoon lifted out portions. O ye who entertain: is this a deal-breaker?( Sat, Fri and Turkey Day )

Alex, known on LJ as dancingshaman, died this evening.

The world is a poorer place for his loss.

I almost grabbed the bacon cheese wiz. Have I mentioned that I am SO not a food snob?

I had a marvelous day having lunch with Ascelin and Etaine over at this nice little French place in Berkeley, then toddled over to Stone Mountain and Daughter to flirt with Masae and found the awesome wool for Brion's An Tir 12th Night Norse stuff (it is a surprise for him for Xmas) for like $8 a yard. Etaine has something perfect in her stash for Algefyu so I am all set there. Next week... the projects commence!

Then we hit Laci's and I got some fine linen thread. I am going to weave the ties for the Etaine's underwear in the chevron pattern like they have in JA4, just to see if it looks right. I will card weave it, which is not what they did, but it will look right I am guessing.

I love LOVE Laci's. The proprietor of the museum was there and asked me if I wanted the guided tour of the current offering which was bobbin lace. Well YES, thank you!

Check it OUT.... REAL gold!



Ok... time to go fondle the little brown men with d_salie and Phoebes and Joe! I hope they brought their 40's of Budwieser! Pups in a blanket, here we come!!!

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I've been so busy unpacking that I haven't really posted an update lately.

The POD with all of our goods arrived last Wednesday and we had it unloaded in 4 hours! Since then cathyn and I have been busily unpacking and thinking up new ways to store our things in the space we have. We've acquired two wardrobe cabinets for the garage which is where our SCA-type clothes will live. Cody is still in the garage as we are awaiting arrival of the special hardware that will allow us to put a kitty door in a wall instead of a door. There was some misdirection regarding how long it would take to ship, where the Amazon page promised 3 days. Had I known when I ordered it that it would take more than a week to arrive and that the 3 days was referring to how long it would take for the reseller to put it in the mail, NOT how long delivery would take, I would have found another option. I'm extremely frustrated that Amazon didn't make this clear when I ordered it, because I did check as it's important to me, and will likely not purchase from them when dealing with a reseller again. Anyway, it's on it's way now and should be here on Thursday. It can't get here soon enough, as far as I'm concerned.

Thanksgiving was very nice and low-key with the usual suspects at the home of rachaelfleury and family. Cathyn has promised to teach me cribbage soon so I will know a period 16th C. game.

Saturday night we went to dinner and a show. Dinner was at The Greek in Santa Cruz, my first time there. Great food, and awesome company including freewaydiva all the way from Seattle, kaar_insurance, mad_duchess and a friend, d_monchick, sirst, and catagon3. We all walked to The Catalyst afterwards to see The Red Elvises where we were joined by learnteach, rebecca_barbee, shutt3rg33k and her guy (Troy?) - our little group WAS the audience, definitely a majority of it for the opening act! The Pyronauts opened, very good surf rock but a little bit too loud for the venue - you know the mix is off when it's distorted and blat-y even through the earplugs.

This is the first time I've seen The Red Elvises with the new line-up - Oleg, the usual bass and balalaika player is taking a break from the band, and they've replaced the keyboard player with a rhythm guitarist. Surprisingly, they were MUCH tighter, more focused and all-around better sounding than the last few times I saw them with the old lineup. I suspect that the constant touring schedule they maintain must have been wearing on some members, and with a new infusion there's an energy and excitement they'd been lacking for a while. In a nutshell it was an awesome show, probably the best I've ever seen from them!

Back on the home front: The master bathroom painting is almost done. I'm going to try to hit the trim once tonight and again tomorrow and then it will be finished. We should be able to use the shower starting tomorrow evening, so that will be nice. I am otherwise bored bored BORED with unpacking and organizing. I don't want to do it again, ever. We still have the other bathroom to paint, then eventually the kitchen due to a touchup paint mismatch error, but that's a lower priority than getting unpacked and settled in.

Work: It's now looking like I'll be starting the new gig in Pleasanton on Monday, this time for sure! I had to switch to a different contracting company to finally get it done. I went in for my drug test today, and they don't send you for a drug test unless it's for real, right? Right. So I should be starting on Monday. And I already got a raise - through some miscommunication between the company who located me and failed to bring me on board and the company that's actually bringing me on-board I got a raise of $.25! That's right, a quarter! 25 CENTS IZ SRS BZNS!!

Heh. I think that's all for now.

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/12/01/2139419.aspx

"More than 300 teams have signed up for this weekend's DARPA Network Challenge, a $40,000 balloon hunt organized by the Pentagon's think tank to study how social networking works. And one of the things that has come out of the experiment is that you could earn some of the prize money yourself, just by being in the right place at the right time.

The idea is simple: The first team to report the locations of 10 weather balloons put up across the nation on Saturday wins the prize. But the social-networking strategy can get devilishly complex ... or just plain devilish."

Lots more at the link

Oh lord, grant me the serenity to accept the projects I cannot dodge,
the courage to stand up to fools who oppose me
and the wisdom to keep my name out of it.

Anyone have a low-fat tamale recipe that they love? I found two online which seem to be fairly authentic, but I recall one from the early 90s in Sunset magazine which was pretty good. Of course I didn't save it....

I want as historic/authentic as possible with the lower fat modification. It's ok if it's labor intensive.

The two I found are:
http://www.goodhealth.com/articles/2006/12/04/taming_tamales_traditional_mexican_american_holiday_treat
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1216/is_n3_v192/ai_15203384/?tag=content;col1