Magnet Monday: Tropical Dreams

Cheesy Refrigerator Magnet for Monday, February 23, 2015
"Hawaii", Hula dancer and musician, 3D resin, circa 1998

Because somewhere it is still warm outside.  

An acquaintance of mine visiting family in Hawaii picked this up for me a number of years ago. Her mother was spending a few post-retirement years teaching elementary school, and she went to visit. As magnets go, they don't get much cheesier than this. 


Magnet Monday features a selection from our semi-vast and ever growing collection of cheesy refrigerator magnets. Without doubt the perfect souvenir. Only slightly less cheesy than collecting snow globes but maybe a lot easier to smuggle in your bra. If need be. Which I hope it never is. Unless it's really worth it.

Weekly Randomness for Friday, February 20, 2015

News that made me stop what I was doing to look it up.

• NAFLD in the news (it's a big deal to me: researching NAFLD in kids is my day job. Seriously.)
• Sigh...  and sigh... 
• Bee-youtifully cool! I would consider it if I thought I could keep the raccoons out of it... 

Weekly Shits n' Giggles

• It's Legos!! Mondrian looks good in lots of colors :)
• Backstage at the greatest show on earth
• The hidden talents of pork
• My Pinteresting Randomness

Weekend Aims

• Still tax time...
• Someone we know is turning 18 - it's a dinner date!
• As part of tax time, it's also time to organize our file cabinets (yes, you can actually hear the hubbie sighing from all the way over there...)

Not to mention thawing out... What is it with this cold?!

The Linen Closet: Hanky for February 18, 2015

Another piece in the Hanky Project. 

In keeping with the theme of the last hanky that also had appliqued details. 

Impressive handwork. 

I don't know that I would have the patience for it. But we have so many more distractions, such as TV, Pinterest, blogging... (wait a minute...)

Magnet Monday: Gecko Gecko

Cheesy Refrigerator Magnet for Monday, February 16, 2015
"Untitled", enameled metal, circa 2011

A friend of ours recently decided to make some radical changes in her life (love can do that), one of which involves relocating to an exotic Polynesian island sporting palm trees and volcanos (seriously). For her, relocating means a beach front home, and geckos galore. One particularly large gecko has a predictable dumping ground, from the rafters. She hasn't named him. Yet.   

This gecko is based on the petroglyphs in the American Southwest, which makes sense that we found it in Arizona on one of our trips there. In Native American lore, lizards indicate transformation, dreams, and renewal. I think our friend on her island would agree. 


Magnet Monday features a selection from our semi-vast and ever growing collection of cheesy refrigerator magnets. Without doubt the perfect souvenir. Only slightly less cheesy than collecting snow globes but maybe a lot easier to smuggle in your bra. If need be. Which I hope it never is. Unless it's really worth it.

Weekly Randomness for Friday, February 13, 2015

News that made me stop what I was doing to look it up.

• Because giving it a more sciency sounding name somehow makes the symptoms more believable. Call it what you will: it can be awful. 
• This may be more legit than blood type love compatibility. 
• Seriously. Huh. Never saw that coming (she drawls, drenched in sarcasm). 

Weekly Shits n' Giggles

• Sometimes the heavens align and generate amazing unbelievableness.  
• Beautiful and a little dark. Perfect. 
• Smile! You're on Hubble Camera!
• My Pinteresting Randomness

Weekend Aims

• Guess what boys & girls?! It's TAX TIME!!!  
• I started a specialization course in Data Science, starting to learn my way round using Git and GitHub (part work related, part perpetual student syndrome)...
• Cleaning target: master bedroom (have you seen the dust behind the bed?! gack!!! )

Service, Interrupted

UPDATED: I am pleasantly impressed to say that the service guys were very capable. Polite and efficient even. The one guy who initially arrived had a "whao dude!" moment after checking out the tree and did call in back-up, but they had everything repaired and service up in about two hours on the Monday after. 

It's a relief to be able to say something nice, which is actually a sad statement about our expectations of service calls. It's also the other side of the damn-skippy-I-pay-enough-every-month coin. 

At any rate: well done chaps. 

_____________________________________________________________

We've been offline. Actually, we still are. I'm posting this out here during my lunchtime at "the day-job"... 

It's a drawback associated with large, old, largely dead trees. 

This one fell in the ravine behind our house. Thankfully it fell in the only way it could without damaging anything around it. Except for our internet/phone/TV service. I would guess the raccoon that was living up in it is also not happy about the free circus ride. 

Well... there's yer PROBLEM!!

Boy, the teenagers were not amused. Although without XBOX, we Wii-ed. Which was actually a lot of fun. 

Quick fix? I hope so...  I would really like to walk away from this feeling good about giving so much of our money to our service provider every month...

Rather than feeling, oh, I dunno, so unsupported. Disconnected even...

Magnet Monday: Underground

Cheesy Refrigerator Magnet for Monday, February 2, 2015
"Kartchner Caverns State Park", Enamel on metal, 3D sproingy bat, circa 2009

In honor or Groundhog Day, an homage to another subterrainian denizen. Kartchner Caverns has been meticulously managed to ensure the long-term health of the underground ecosystem. Entry is through a series of air locks because the only open-air entrance is large enough only for the bats. 

This is one of my favorite magnets. The 3D aspect with the bat out on a sproingy spring is great fun :)  

Experimenting with video. The focus fade out at the end was an artistic choice made by the HD camera on my phone... not sure why...

We visited the caverns on a family trip; would love to visit again. 

Kartchner Caverns, Arizona State Parks 

Magnet Monday features a selection from our semi-vast and ever growing collection of cheesy refrigerator magnets. Without doubt the perfect souvenir. Only slightly less cheesy than collecting snow globes but maybe a lot easier to smuggle in your bra. If need be. Which I hope it never is. Unless it's really worth it.

Snow Day = Soup!!

Snowing here in the Milwaukee area. Our home is close enough to Lake Michigan (not even 600 yards as the crow flies) for lake effect snow as well. We have 5-6in so far, another maybe 7in yet to come...

If you're observant, you will notice we did not get the de-decorating done yesterday...

Speaking of soup: time for a good warm-your-bones soup like Split Pea with Ham. Ours is a pretty basic sort from America's Test Kitchen, but I like to use Julia's method of making ham stock, and we're using leftover ham roast (that's where the meaty-jointy bits came from for the stock). Add a batch of biscuits warm from the oven, and we are good to go!

Stay warm!!