Coolest thing I’ve seen all week

Awesome.

Add comment March 8th, 2008

Current song in my head

“Holding Out for a Hero,” by Bonnie Tyler.
(off the fantastical “Footloose” soundtrack)

God help me.

Add comment March 7th, 2008

My brief stint stripping

Did I get your attention?
No, I’m currently not, and never have been, a stripper - but reading Diablo Cody’s autobiographical book Candy Girl is about as close to the real thing as I’m ever going to get. I just finished the book a couple nights ago. It’s a humorous “romp” (what ho, a pun?) with lots of juicy (literally) details about the secret life of stripping and working in the sex industry. And believe me, it’s not very glamorous, if you ever thought that rubbing yourself up and down a brass pole in front of a bunch of horny dudes was glamorous in the first place. Which it’s not.
However, the book has heart and finding out just what exactly goes in those sorts of places is pretty interesting. It’s a fast read - I recommend it. Plus, Diablo Cody is just super cool anyway, so how can you miss? Also, this book was written based on a blog she kept during her stripping career. You can read the blog HERE.

PS - if you’re the type that gets offended over the “p” word and other such colorful verbal embellishments, I highly recommend you neither visit Diablo’s blog NOR read her book. Both are chalk full.

Add comment March 5th, 2008

A uniquely confusing day

Happy Leap Year Day, everyone. I’m celebrating by…doing the exact same things I did yesterday. In other words, what’s the big deal, right? As pointless as Leap Year may seem, it’s actually keeping us in check, calendar-wise and season-wise. Here’s how it works:

Leap years are needed to keep our calendar in alignment with the earth’s revolutions around the sun.

Details

I can see my house from here!

The vernal equinox is the time when the sun is directly above the Earth’s equator, moving from the southern to the northern hemisphere.

The mean time between two successive vernal equinoxes is called a tropical year–also known as a solar year–and is about 365.2422 days long.

Using a calendar with 365 days every year would result in a loss of 0.2422 days, or almost six hours per year. After 100 years, this calendar would be more than 24 days ahead of the season (tropical year), which is not desirable or accurate. It is desirable to align the calendar with the seasons and to make any difference as insignificant as possible.

By adding a leap year approximately every fourth year, the difference between the calendar and the seasons can be reduced significantly, and the calendar will align with the seasons much more accurately.

(The term “day” is used to mean “solar day”–which is the mean time between two transits of the sun across the meridian of the observer.)

Which years are leap years?

In the Gregorian calendar, the calendar used by most modern countries, the following three criteria determine which years will be leap years:

1. Every year that is divisible by four is a leap year;
2. of those years, if it can be divided by 100, it is NOT a leap year, unless
3. the year is divisible by 400. Then it is a leap year.

According to the above criteria, that means that years 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200, 2300 and 2500 are NOT leap years, while year 2000 and 2400 are leap years.

It is interesting to note that 2000 was somewhat special as it was the first instance when the third criterion was used in most parts of the world.

In the Julian calendar–introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC and patterned after the Roman calendar–there was only one rule: any year divisible by four would be a leap year. This calendar was used before the Gregorian calendar was adopted.

— Got that? Good. Because now I’m even more confused.
This info courtesy of timeanddate.com

Add comment February 29th, 2008

What do you do with leeks?

You make soup, of course. Potato-leek soup. Easy to make, super tasty and good for you - well, if you made it without the butter and cream, that is. But why would you want to? This a conglomeration of a Martha Stewart recipe and an Emeril recipe:

Potato Leek Soup

• 1 small bay leaf
• 2 sprigs fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 10 whole black peppercorns
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 cup diced pancetta or proscuitto
• 3 leeks, white and light-green parts only, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 1 pound potatoes, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch dice (use New Potatoes for best texture)
• 1 quart homemade or low-sodium canned chicken stock
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• Coarse salt and freshly ground white pepper
• Boursin cheese (tbsp. dallop on each serving)
• Fresh chervil, for garnish

Add comment February 21st, 2008

How cool are these?

These have to be the coolest wall decals I’ve ever seen. They’re done in rough, decaying vintage style typography. I would love to get some of these for my red office wall at home. Trés chic! Additionally, the site that’s selling them, harmonie-interieure.com, is also quite nice - great design!

Add comment February 21st, 2008

Mid-century menagerie

Yesterday, while doing my monthly ebay “mid-century modern” search, I ran across a few listings of old Better Homes & Gardens decorating books from the 50s/60s. Lots of super cool photos. Just thought I’d share some with you. Yummy.

1 comment February 1st, 2008

Idiocy pays another visit to the Behrenhausen household

A couple weeks ago, I discovered the sweet, toxic efficiency of Easy Off Oven Spray. My 1958 vintage Frigidaire wall oven was caked with charcoaled drippings of dinners past, and was beginning to add objectionable flavors to our multitudes of turkey meatloafs and eggplant parmesans. It was time to clean. After generous layers of Easy Off were sprayed onto the walls of my oven, stubborn remains of bygone meals began to ooze effortlessly downward. In twenty mintues, my crusty oven was spotless, and my coughing from the Easy Off fumes began to subside.

Last night, while putting dishes away and wiping crumbs off the kitchen countertops, I glanced over at my food-encrusted microwave and got a hair up my butt. I had tried everything to get that crap off the inside of the micro - glass cleaner, multi-purpose cleaners, baking powder. All organic, mind you. Nothing worked. And probably BECAUSE my cleaners are all organic. Immediately, images of the oven miracle that had happened weeks before popped into my head, and before I could say melting plastic, I was coating the inside of the microwave with Easy Off Oven Spray. Minutes later, I began wiping off the melting food goo, subconsciously congratulating myself on my shrewd idea. Suddenly, I noticed that not only was food coming off onto my sponge, but also white stuff. Specifically, melted plastic. I panicked. Frantically I drenched the sponge in water and tried to wipe off the toxic spray. Next, I sprayed some organic glass cleaner into the microwave, thinking that perhaps some alchemy would happen in the micro - natural ingredients meet toxic chemical ones. Satisfied with my cleanup, I decided to “dry” the remaining moisture in the microwave by running it for a few seconds. With nothing in it. A few beeps and a pressed start button later, flames began to shoot up inside of the microwave. “Oh shit!” Quickly I turned it off and began to panic. “Great, yet ANOTHER thing we’re going to have to spend money on,” I muttered to myself. Then, thoughts of my husband, Michael, and his reaction to my ultimate stupidity began to creep into my brain. “He’s going to kill me,” I thought. But, with no other alternative presenting itself, I made my way to the top of the basement stairs and called out for Michael, in that tone he hates that always means something is terribly, terribly wrong. I heard a heavy sigh from downstairs, some shuffling, then finally Michael appeared at the bottom of the stairs. He looked up at me, shook his head and made his way up the stairs.

At this point, I had realized what a complete idiot I had been and had a hard time not laughing when I told him what I’d done. “You used Easy Off in the microwave???!!” I tried earnestly to defend myself, saying I had tried everything but Easy Off before to get rid of the crap inside the microwave, but nothing had worked. After showing him the white goo on the sponge, and after describing the frightening flames that errupted when I turned on the microwave, Michael proceeded to do his own version of cleanup, repeating the EXACT same steps I had taken earlier, with the exception of him placing a cup full of water into the microwave to test it. No flames. It worked perfectly.

After a somewhat fatherly lecture and sighs of frustration, AND after going to EasyOff.com to check the FAQ’s to make sure we weren’t going to be poisoning ourselves every time we used the microwave, we settled back into our normal evening activities.

God help us.

Add comment January 29th, 2008

Today’s Soup

Spinach Egg Drop soup, from Green Fine Salad Co.

Breathtaking.

Add comment January 28th, 2008

The future leader of our nation

Lately, as I’m sure many people have, I’ve been thinking a lot about the forthcoming election. A big reason why it’s been on my mind is because we’re gearing up here at work to do a bunch of advertising components for the Democratic National Convention, which of course is being held this year here in Denver. (Awesome! But traffic is going to kill me.)

Honestly, I’m at a loss. I am stuck on both Obama and Edwards. Not a fan of Hillary, even with the possibility of having a woman lead our country. Basically, I just want someone who’s going to beat the Republican candidate. With that said, I find it difficult to put enough faith in this nation to elect a smart, talented, promising young African American man. There is still too much ignorance in this country (last Sunday’s article in The Denver Post solid proof) to allow it to happen. Which really, really sucks, to put it in teenspeak.

Edwards, while the most physically/emotionally unimpressive candidate, is very promising still. Edwards has specifically addressed policy issues in the debates, while Hillary and Obama have yet to disclose detailed plans. Edwards is also a very green candidate, which of course is very important to me. Unlike Obama, Edwards seems to have several specific plans and has charted out specific ways of dealing with them. Hillary also seems to have her stuff together a little bit more than Obama, but I just don’t want another political schmoozer candidate in the White House. I guess I should say, a BIG political schmoozer.

Anyway, my sincerest wish is for the right Democratic candidate to be chosen who can beat the Republican opposition.

Add comment January 28th, 2008