Pomegranate: A Fruit That Needs Some Choice Breeding

I love pomegranates.

But I have to say, I loved them a lot more when I was outside for lunch...

They're SO messy to eat!  And the seeds- lots of crunch, not a lot of juice.

I think about all of the other fruits and vegetables that have been engineered, either through breeding or through gene therapy, and I wonder why no one has tried making a seedless pomegranate.  I bet more people would eat them if there was lesser risk of dental damage.

No Food In The Bathroom

I'm a big fan of most of Yankee Candle's scent.  I love that they send out an actual scratch-n-sniff catalog.  It's got to be one of the best sales applications of science I've ever seen.

I especially love the coffee smells and the cookies...you know, like "Christmas Cookie".  Somehow, the chemists have gotten it to actually smell like cookies!

But yesterday, while I was decorating for Yuletide, putting out the knick-knacks and whatnot, I came upon my room deodorizer.  And as I placed that bottle of sprayable scent in the bathroom, it occurred to me:

Cookies in the bathroom?

Uhm....

You know, some places just aren't meant to smell like something you'd want to eat....and a bathroom is just one of those places.

And now that I've thought about this and have realized how odd it is, I will, of course, think about it every time I smell the candle or spray...because smell is one of those things that improves memory.

Eating Eagles

Well, you have to wonder:

If Ben Franklin had gotten his way and the turkey had become the national bird....would we still eat it at Thanksgiving?

Can You Say Cheese(less)?

It's an American tradition.

And it's on the rise.

It's cheese.

It's currently estimated that each American eats an average of 23 pounds of cheese per year, though in my house, I feel that's an under representation (hey, I'm Californian by birth, which means cheese and wine at as many meals as you can during the day).  It's even my daughter's favorite food and she demands every time she enters the kitchen.




Now, this is in contrast to the rest of the world, even Europe.  In fact, it's a common belief in Europe that Americans put cheese on everything...and that makes it "American".  

Well, think about the common foods in American and what don't we put cheese on?

Salads- nope, there's cheese in every salad bar I've ever been to.
Steak- nope, restaurants offer swiss on steak.
Mexican (of any kind)- cheese, cheese, cheese
Italian (of any kind) - cheese, cheese, cheese
Hot dogs- cheese
Omelets- cheese
Scrambled eggs- cheese (if you haven't tried it- use a low-moisture, potent flavored cheese)

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssssssssssseeeeeeeee


It's American.

So, why is it that the traditional Thanksgiving meal is completely without cheese OF ANY KIND?

Turkey- no cheese
Potatoes- no cheese
Cranberries- no cheese
Stuffing- no cheese
Green Bean Casserole (unfortunate as it might be- it's a tradition)- no cheese
Pumpkin pie- no cheese

How can we live with ourselves?!  A meal without the curd of life!?!  How did this happen?  Because, let's face it, those settlers would have had some moldy-old cheese that they brought along on the ships because it keeps.

Where's the cheese, people!?!

I'll just go sulk in the corner now.

Oven Doors

It's pie week this week, which means a likely boil-over in my oven...which means a hour cleaning the oven, having images of little gingerbread-eating children pushing me in to said oven.

At this point, I have to ask:

Why manufacturers changed from a side-hinged oven to a bottom-hinged oven?

The side-hinged oven would be easier to open in smaller kitchens- heck, it'd be just like a cabinet!  AND, I can only image how much easier it would be to reach in to the side-hinged oven instead of bodysurfing the oven door to reach the back of the bottom-hinged oven.

I did some looking around and I couldn't find one reason why manufacturers changed- only that it happened in the late 50s.

I did also find that Gaggenau still makes a side-hinged, wall oven....but at $3500, it's tad more than I want to spend.

Passe verus Pique

I recently enrolled my daughter in a ballet class.  You know, they look so cute wondering around in their little pink tights and ballet slippers.

But as I listened into the class, I was mortified to hear the incorrect use of the term "passe`".

Now, I'm sure all of you have heard the term passe` used to describe something old- something that was cool but now it's not.

Well, the move in ballet is similar:  You start with the leg in front of you, and you move it to the back. In other words, "passing" the leg from front to back.

And I don't even speak French!

Well, this instructor (who will remain nameless to prevent her embarrassment), said that passe` was a  pique`, a position where one leg is straight and the other leg is bent up to it to form the #4. 

She was clearly wrong, as 20 years of dance will atest.  You can have a passe` in pique` position or a passe` in coupe`, which would be move the leg from front to back, either at the knee or at the ankle.  

Now, granted, this was a tiny tots class of ballet, but still, you kind of expect the teachers to know the difference. 

IV Glasses

So, what I want to know is this:

If I buy a pair of these and just bring them with me to the hospital when I go, can I get a single stick for my IVs?

Eeyore

Has anyone ever wondered why Eeyore is a male who wears a pink bow?

Holidays

So, here's a thought:

Why is the Friday after Thanksgiving still not a national holiday?

I mean, seriously.  Why doesn't the federal government make a holiday on this day?  Most companies give it off, but those that don't require parents to burn a PTO day just because schools are closed.

For that matter, why isn't the week between Christmas and New Years a week of national holidays?

The US has the fewest holidays of all industrialized countries and fewest PTO days.

The question I want to know is:  why?  Why do Americans put up with it?  We're a democracy, right?  Where's the bill to increase the number of mandatory vacation days?

And for that matter, companies should not be able to take away PTO days that employees have accrued.  It certainly doesn't seem that the American workers are protected at all.

Attempting to Remove Yourself From Pipl: Pointless

Ah, here's a great example of hiding behind the law.

www.pipl.com

Look yourself up.

When you've found yourself, make note of the "source" website for each datum, because Pipl claims absolutely no responsibility for posting this information correct, or incorrect about you.  In fact, when you click on the "Remove my information" link, there is a full page of hand-waving where they say that they take no responsibility for the information they post and refuse to remove it in any way.

Supposedly, this is because they are an indexing service (like Google- a search engine) are protected from having to address privacy issues because the don't "store" the information.  Now, this is where they get away with it, because they DO store your information- they temporarily store the results of their bots for a certain number of days.  For Google, it's 30 days on average.  They ARE storing the information- wouldn't it be great if they could/would be held in contempt of the law for continuing to perpetuate private information that has been removed from the source site?

Now, you can contact them via email at "Mail@pipl.com", but good luck.  It's probably a spam folder for them and they probably have an auto-generated message for each inquiry that they refuse to update or remove your information.

A Dream Dashed

When I was a girl, I used to love Sleeping Beauty.

The Disney animated version.

Since then, I have watched every behind-the-scenes documentary of the movie.

It's really quite something.

The illustrators put quite a lot of time developing the unique color palate and linear appearance of the film.  They hired a dancer and made a real costume to dance around during the famous forest dancing scene....

A LOT of time and effort, here.

But evidently, the script writers didn't spend the same quality time researching the schematics of a spinning wheel, because at no time could Sleeping Beauty prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel, as demonstrated by this diagram:

The spindle is actually the round part of the spinning wheel that holds the bobbin.

It's round.

There's no pointy bits.

Now, this is quite distressing.  I actually learned how to spin wool just because of this movie.  And during my lessons, I found that what Aurora actually touches is the distaff.  It's a wooden pole used to tie long strands of material for spinning- usually flax.

It's not metal, either.

It's not sharp.

sigh.

It's just so sad.

And I'm so mad because as much as I'd like to continue to delude myself with calling it a spindle as I did in my innocence, I know it's a distaff and I can't help but want to correct it.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You know, it's strikingly obvious to me which actors and actresses have talent (e.g. ACTING) vs. a good body (e.g. MOVIE STARS)

Angelina Jolie- well, she plays the same part in every movie- in other words, not an actress, but a movie star.

And it makes me SO depressed that Disney Studios decided to not only make a live action film of Sleeping Beauty but have Ms. Jolie starring as Maleficent....which she seems to portray rather a lot like her rendition of Mrs. Smith.




Maleficent - Teaser Trailer on Disney Video


My esteem for the Disney Corp is plummeting.

Criminality of Decibel Levels

As we all have experienced, the decibel levels of music and movies in recent years has been on the rise.  Instead of public music and movies being presented at decibel levels equivalent to speaking to someone at arms-length, public places have been cranking the volume in an effort to gain the attention of the audience.  In fact, googling this problem results in 13 billion hits of articles on noise complaints for theatres.

Studies by the American Speech Language Hearing Association have shown that this is full of crap.  Loud noises make people restless and, in addition to causing long-term hearing loss, actually PREVENT people from paying attention.

Imagine that.  Movie theatres, by increasing the volume, are actually distracting us and making us want to talk more.  How wonderfully counterproductive.

Today, I found out that the noise pollution extends to children's dance classes, as well.

I got a bad feeling about where the class was going to lead when a tap class started in the next studio, with the music up so loud that you couldn't hear the taps on the shoes.

Uhm, dumb!?  The whole point of tap dancing is the, uhm, wait, let me think- the TAPS!  You have to pay and arm and a leg for the shoes; it would be nice if you could hear them.

With this preview what was in store for my daughter's new class, I shouldn't have been surprised- once my daughter got into her studio and went to stand on her tape and waited eagerly for class to start...dodging the older boy who was running around pushing people down (with the apparent approval of both parent and teacher, for they watched and did nothing) and managing not to trip over the buckled, taped floorboards...once we managed to get past all of these challenges, the teacher said some little spiel about the class following the instructions in the music (evidently, this was a book-on-tape class), walked over to the stereo...

...and turned on this noise that was so loud, I literally had an instant ringing noise in my ears.  I can only imagine the effect it had on my terrified daughter.

Now, I've been to my fair share of concerts and this BY FAR WAS LOUDER.

The place OUGHT TO BE SUED FOR CHILD ABUSE.  I mean, how is deafening the children any less abusive than hitting them?  You're just hitting them with sound waves which are just as physical and just as impacting....and just as damaging.

I just can't believe that the other parents did nothing.  They all continued with the class like nothing was wrong as I marched by daughter out to the car - nearly a building away- and could STILL hear the "music".

Where are the child protection laws for hearing!?    Where are the adult laws for hearing, for that matter!?  I mean, OSHA has a decibel limit of less than 60 decibels without ear protection.  How do theatres and dance classes get away with the deafening noise?!  There should be limits put on children's activities, at least, because they CAN'T choose to be exposed- they have no choice.    I foresee a time now, in the very near future, where there will be so many deaf people, it will rival diabetes as the most self-inflicted "disease" in adults.

Only, diabetes is treatable.

Deafness is permanent.

The Junker

In Minnesota, there is a necessity for a "junker" car...especially for starting drivers.

You know, something that is striped down to be little more than a rattling gas can with wheels.

Something cheap.

Something that is already on its deathbed.

Now, I've had a couple of cars turn into junkers.  It's sad, but I think fondly of the trips I've made in them and give them a good send off to compactor heaven.

I think most people are capable of making this break with their old reliable vehicle, as painful as it may be.

I wonder, then, why is it that these same people cannot admit when they have junker code- a "legacy" software product that is so out-dated that it will never be returned from the grave.

It's chassis (code base) is broken (unsupported).

It needs an engine overhaul (it doesn't integrate with any existing software)

It needs new wheels, as well as tires (it only runs on the legacy hardware box that you have, literally, running with duct tape and bailing wire).

At this point, it's quite obvious that you need a new car.

Why can't you admit you need new software at this point?  Your valiant efforts to resuscitate the code are not going to pay off.

5 Hour Sandwich

I was making my lunch this morning and feeling a bit reminiscent.

Thinking about how my mom used to draw little characters on my brown bags....brown bags containing bologne rolls or half a PB & J sandwich, that would, of course, be squished into some weird glob by lunch time.

But as I closed up the jam jar today, I got to thinking about the 5 hours, or so, that my lunches would be at room temperature before eating them.

And that, of course, made me think:  wow, would I eat jam that's been out on the counter for 5 hours?  What about a slice of lunchmeat?

That that resulted in a contortion of my face followed by a nearly audible gagging noise.

But, again, my thoughts continued:  thinking about how nowadays, kids go to lunch with these expensive Lunchables and whatnot that are in the-wait- REFRIGERATED section of the supermarket.

And what is stamped clearly on the packages:

KEEP REFRIGERATED

So, why do we not provide refrigeration for our kids' lunches?

It's a bit ironic, really, but those kids that choose (or have to eat) the hot lunch at school are getting a healthier lunch than what we send our kids in brown bags, because the healthiest food is the food that spoils the quickest at room temperature.

Enjoy that BLT today...

Knitting With Fiberglass

Ever gotten a fiberglass splinter in your hand?

That memorable burning sensation and trying in vain to find the glass to get it out of your suffering paw?

Well, if you thought THAT was a treat, then I highly recommend you give the Caron Simply Soft Party yarns a go!

All of you masochists out there will surely enjoy the feeling of your fingers being sliced by the hidden mylar foil buried in the yarn- that same burning irritation as you pull the yarn through your fingers- at first deceptively soft, only to be minced by sparkling metal shards.

And I'm sure that the dryer is going to love the metal, as well, which means that it's going to be a joyous handwashing event that will allow you to relive each glorious moment of creating your garment with this yarn.

Amazon Rules Your Life

Just another panel in your glass house...

Females in Children's Books

My daughter received Emily's Balloon as a hand-me-down book from her dad.  And it's weird.

It turns out that it's a translated book, so I can forgive some of the awkwardness and lack of flow.

But as I was sitting and listening to my husband read it to her, the thought came to me:  This isn't a book for little boys.

And that sexist thought made me pause.

Why would I think that?  What's wrong with a little boy having a book starring a little girl?

And that made me look at the rest of the books in my daughter's library...

• Spot's Christmas- about a little male puppy
• Corduroy books- about a little male bear
• Paddington's- about a little bear
• Clifford- about a large red, male dog
• The Giving Tree- the life of a boy
• Curious George- about a male monkey
• Barney- annoyingly creepy male dinosaur
• Dr. Suess books (like Big Dog, Little Dog or Mr. Brown Can Moo)- about men and males.
• Sesame Street books- Oscar, Elmo, Big Bird, Kermit...all little male monsters.   

All starring boys except two:  Emily's Balloon and Baby Bob's Book of Counting (which I'm not sure counts because she's a spin-off character from Barney- not a leading character in her own right).

I expanded my thinking to include children shows:

• Timmy Time- about a little, male lamb
• Shaun the Sheep- about a whole herd of sheep that is led by the clever Shaun
• Dora the Explorer- about a little Mexican girl who has only male companions.  
• Muppets- all little male monsters except the questionable-gendered guitar player in the band and Miss Piggy.

What is this really telling our children?  It seems pretty obvious when you look at it:

Women don't have leading roles unless they have all male-friends.

and

Women (like Miss Piggy) are shallow, obsessed with love, and high-maintenance.

It seems to give a lot of credence to the new feminist rating system for movies.  And it made me really sad that there isn't a better example of females than Disney Princesses where women are constantly being saved by a man in power.

Because we all know, that's NOT how it happens.

Guess I Spoke Too Soon...

As luck would have it, I decided to watch Disney's Atlantis movie last night.

You know, the animated one that is (sadly) pretty much a copy of the plot from Stargate?

Well, Kida is a princess.

But she's not listed among the Disney Princesses.

So, this made me actually look through the list of Disney animated movies.

Disney Princesses also have overlooked Princess Eilonwy from the Black Cauldron (granted, an oft-forgotten movie since it was the last one animated completely by hand in the old Disney style)

And let's not overlook the co-branded Studio Ghibli films that Walt Disney distributed in the US, which is ironic since the Japanese love Disney Princesses.

Though I honestly can't see anyone in the US wanting to dress up like Princess Mononoke...

Disney Princesses

My daughter has fallen in love with a couple of Disney Princesses.

You know.  It's the gowns and the singing and the magic sparkles.

Every night we look at the front cover of one of her books and we name all the Disney Princesses:

Snow White
Sleeping Beauty/Aurora/Briar Rose (well, the most important get the most names, right?)
Cinderella
Jasmine
Belle
and Ariel

I checked the publication date and it was after Pocahontas and Mulan came out.

I was ready to be very outraged by the fact that these two are not recognized as "princess" worthy, but I guess the latest collection of Disney Princesses do have both of them pictured....

...in the back.

Guess it just kind of follows when people change Cinderella's dress color to blue instead of white because they don't want it to look like a wedding dress, even though it's not accurate.

And Aurora's dress should be blue.  It's blue the whole movie.

It's Time When...

So, I was going to write about how companies really need to list their rates on their job listings because it just wastes everyone's time when they don't.

But instead, I'm going to write about neighbors who set their dogs upon me.  

This has now happened three times- twice by the psychopaths across from the mailbox.

Now, I'm an animal lover.   But I also respect animals.  Having grown up with a K9 dog taught me one thing:

Never approach an unknown dog.

So, when a large setter comes charging me at night and chases me... well, the experience is quite terrifying,

When the neighbor screams "psych ward!" while they laughingly watch their dog attack, you just have to think that it's time to move.

But the what REALLY  brings to focus this desire to move is this:  when you call the police to report the attack and the police don't want to file the report and tell you to mace the dog next time.

Honest.

And that's exactly what happened to me.

And my advice to you, reader, is this:  NEVER mace a dog.  Not only is this inhumane, it's almost certainly guaranteed to end in at least one bite from the pissed off the animal....not to mention the follow-up police report by the owners of you macing the dog.

What is wrong with people!

If You're Looking For a Great Toddler Skirt..

I highly recommend this one.

It's quite easy and if you need to increase the size, just add 12 stitches per size (e.g. 336 stitches for a 2T, 348 stitches for a 3T, etc).

It really does turn out like the picture, too, if you buy that yarn....but it's cute either way.  And my daughter LOVES the flounce because it spins like a "princess dress".

I would warn though- do make sure that your cast on row is not twisted before you join.

Girl Talk

So, this was an interesting article about a group of women in Sweden who are tired of movies where men have all the lines and women only talk about boys or have sex.

And while I never really thought about movies like that, I have to agree that I want my daughter to know be stunted by Hollywood's examples of what a "woman" should be.

Job Hunting

Well, I'm back at looking for a job and I have to say that I'm done looking solely for "permanent" positions.  My last two positions were "permanent".

They each lasted 8 months before the company downsized because they were unprofitable.

So, after taking a cut in pay to be at a "safe" job and working tons of overtime to proven how invaluable I am, I get cut- both times- because of "economics".

It just goes to show you that there are no more "permanent" jobs anymore.  You're going to lose that job at some point.  Contract jobs, you just know when and can plan accordingly.

What Country Is This?

I read an article recently about government officials in an unnamed country that want to arm students in case of attack.  The reasoning is that they need to be able to fight back.

This was juxtaposed an article about refuges from the Taliban coming to America- the headline mentioning how the family was glad to be "safe at last".

I find this to be a rather blatant example of propaganda, since the country in the first news item wasn't Syria or Israel or Iraq or any country that the US has recently invaded to prevent students from killing each other.  The country in the first story WAS the US- Madison, Wisconsin public schools, as a matter of fact.

Now, I ask you, what are you smoking to think that arming students is a GOOD IDEA!?!  Are you really trying to replicate Kuwaiti conditions?  Because it sounds like you're at the first step of making a bad decision to teach students it's better to blow away anyone than to resolve conflicts like humans.
When I told a friend about this, my friend said, "Yeah, but it's just that school district".

I blinked.

No, it's not just that school district.  That school district is the one that made it into the newspaper but ALL schools have the same problems.

ALL schools.

The only difference between the "good" or "safe" schools is that they deny that their students do drugs and have gangs and carry guns to school, while the "bad" schools KNOW that their students do drugs and have gangs and carry guns to school AND they do something to help keep everyone safe.

I find it ironic that you're less likely to get shot in a "bad" school because of the protections put in place than in a good school.

And if you think I'm wrong, then check history.  Where have all the major school shootings taken place?  "Good" suburban schools or "bad" inner city schools?

Thank you, Mr. Representative, for making the decision to home school my daughter absolute.

And the Purpose of a Tea Bag Is....

I saw this advertised today in the newspaper


Now, first off, what the hell?!?  Uhm, why do you need to have a K-Cup for tea?  Isn't that the whole point of a single-serve tea bag?  Actually, it's even more wasteful, because everyone knows you can get up to three cups of tea out of one tea bag...and a K-Cup, you get one.

And you get a wasteful little plastic cup with a foil lid.  What really pissed me off about this ad was that Celestial Seasonings has printed, SINCE ITS INCEPTION, that the whole reason that they don't put the little string on the bag is because it's wasteful.

Well, what the hell happened?

A little cotton string and paper label is wasteful, but a whole K-Cup with foil lid isn't?

It really makes you rethink wanting to buy from them.

Cheater's Curry Chicken

If you like authentic curries, but don't have the patience to make the good stuff, here's a cheater's curry chicken that I came up with when I had too much hummus left over from a party.

Cheater's Curry Chicken

1 huge tub hummus (the BIG COSTCO SIZE)
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into large chunks (e.g palm-sized)
Penzey's curry powder (I like the Vindaloo for this one, but the Balti is also ok)
Salt, to taste
Olive oil (1/2 to 1 C)

Heat oven to 275*F

1. Mix the hummus, salt, and spices together.  Because this is a large container, it will take more spices that you're used to putting.  I recommend starting with 3T and tasting; adding more as needed.  Do this BEFORE you put it on the chicken because you won't be able to sample at that point.  Be sure to check if your curry powder or hummus has salt in it, as this will change how much you want to add.
2. Add olive oil to thin down the hummus.  You'll need about 1/2 a cup, depending on how thin you like your sauce.
3. Put all of the sauce in a roasting pan.  If you don't have a covered roasting pan, use a round casserole dish.  The important thing is that it's covered and, preferably, that you have the fluted edge to the crock- it cooks different than the flat edged ones.
4. Put your chicken in the sauce- squish it down and roll it around in it.
5. Cover and bake at 275*F for 2 -3 hours, or until the sauce is boiling in the middle.  The chicken is done when it is white in the middle, however, it's exceptionally yummy when it just falls apart.

Telecommute vs. "Field"

Employers:

When we say we want to telecommute, it means work from home.

It does not mean that we want to travel.

That would be a "field" or "traveling" job.

You're just wasting everyone's time by not using the correct terminology.

Happy Halloween

We don't get many trick-or-treaters where I live.

For years, actually, I bought candy and waited for the cute little munchkins to arrive.

And every year, I was stuck with tons of candy.

Well, this year, I decided not to buy candy.   Working at home, I figured, why bother?  I didn't have anywhere to dump it when people don't show up at the door.

So, Halloween night, the door light is off and I'm sitting down with my daughter to feed her dinner, when I hear the door right.

What happened to the rule of not ringing doors that don't have their light on?


The ringing kept up.

And in between scraping food off my daughter's face, I had to turn off all the lights in the house, which resulted in some rather loud obscenities yelled at us.

I'm sorry, kids, but how do I know that you're not going to rob or kill me when I open the door?

I know it seems a bit alarmist to say, but I don't know any kids in the neighborhood- they don't know me- so, who's ringing the bell?