Cave Cuniculum...

Latin. Means "beware the rabbit."

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Al, you're doin' a heckuva job...

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, my wife and I watched An Inconvenient Truth.

Damn. Definately a movie worth seeing. Al Gore is actually a likeable kinda guy, and knows how to present his information clearly and concisely.

There is information that we've all heard before - global warming; greenhouse gases; etc. - but what makes this different is the way the information is presented. In addition to charts, graphs, and scientific information, there's also footage of the effects of global warming in places like Greenland. Seeing a chart is one thing, but being able to visibly see the impact in a real-world setting drives the point home.

The DVD itself was produced with green energy, and is packaged in an eco-friendly "jacket" created from 100% post-consumer waste. Everything from the labeling to the DVD cover is completely biodegradable and/or recyclable. They went out of their way to ensure that the packaging was in complete harmony with the message of the movie. After all, it wouldn't have made sense to distribute a movie about global warming in packaging - plastic case made from oil; non-recylable plastics and paper - that contributes to global warming, would it?

The inside of the DVD jacket contains information on how individuals can reduce the impact of global warming. Happily, my wife and I already do several of these - recycling; buying fresh food; eating no meat; buying recycled products; etc. - and are looking into doing more. Yes, we're environmentalists. Not extreme ones, mind you, but we are well aware of the impact we leave on the world and do what we can to reduce our environmental footprint.

I'm not going to tell you to buy this movie; that's entirely your decision. I am strongly encouraging you to at least rent it, or borrow it from a friend. Watch it with an open mind, and you may be surprised at what you learn.

Monday, November 27, 2006

I need a vacation...

So how did you spend your Thanksgiving holiday? Mine was spent fighting my body and working.

Wednesday night I got home from work; made a few calls, and sat down to relax for a minute. The next thing I knew, I was lying on the couch with a cat comfortably curled up on my legs and it was dark outside. Apparently my body had decided to take some down-time without consulting me first.

Thursday was spent cooking and attempting to relax. Much food was consumed, resulting in coma-bunny. Went to bed early to rest up for the 6am wake-up for work.

Friday morning I awoke with a small headache that became gradually worse throughout the day. When I arrived at work, it was a mere nuisance. When I left in the afternoon, it was much worse; so bad that I downed several aspirin and hid in a quiet darkened room when I got home. When my wife got home, we discovered that we had matching headaches and - after some deliberation - decided to try to drown them in homebrew. This was a novel idea and allowed us to get some sleep, but there was a bit of a problem the next morning.

We woke on Saturday; headaches had returned, and - apparently pissed of at the attempted drowning - brought reinforcements. Most of the day was spent sitting fairly still, and trying to get rid of the migraines.

Sunday was a little better, but most of the day was spent cleaning and baking bread (I'll throw up a recipe if anyone's interested). Then, it was off to bed to get ready for Monday morning.

So, I apologize if I didn't return calls or seemed like I was avoiding people. Between the lack of sleep and the migraines I didn't feel very social - and probably wouldn't have been very good company, anyhow.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Gastric bypass, anyone?

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, arguably the biggest eating day of the year. Turkeys and turduckens abound. Good for those of you who eat meat, but what about the vegetarians? What do we eat on Thanksgiving?

Well, if we're visiting non-vegetarians, usually it's limited to potatoes (sans gravy), cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, and green-been casserole. Definately enough to eat, even without the meat. However, not everyone has these at their holiday gathering. Often we're reduced to "grazing," or eating before we head to relatives so we don't go hungry.

This year, my wife and I will be home - both of us are working early on Friday, and driving back and forth in one day isn't feasible. So, we're having our own smorgasboard of food. What's on the menu?
Soy chicken
Yes, it's real.
Cooked in a vegetable broth marinade with a bit of butter and fresh herbs.

Potatoes w/ mushroom gravy
Truly the staple of dinner.
Cooked with a bit of garlic, and served with mushroom gravy. LOTS of it.

Stuffing
From scratch, and will never see the inside of a bird.
Homemade bread turned into croutons, seasoned with sage, garlic, fresh ground pepper, and salt, and cooked with a hint of butter and some of the marinade from the soy chicken.

Cranberry sauce
Nothing special here. Just your ordinary, everyday, run-of-the-mill log of cranberries. Open can; slurp onto a plate; serve.

Baby carrots with butter and brown sugar
Very simple, but very tasty.
Baby carrots simmered with butter and brown sugar.

Pumpkin pie
What good Thanksgiving dinner - vegetarian or otherwise - would be complete without the traditional pumpkin pie?
Home-made, but using some pre-assembled ingredients.

Beverages include (but are not limited to) beer and perhaps an after-dinner snifter of single-malt whisky whilst relaxing in front of a roaring fire.

All in all, I'm looking forward to relaxing tomorrow - both for the sleep factor, and for the "holy $%@&, I'm stuffed!" factor.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

We live in [moderately] exciting times

Last night was an exciting one.

My wife and I went grocery shopping - that's not the exciting part, although a pineapple did give me a lewd look. The exciting bit was when we returned home. Normally this is fairly uneventful - park on street; pop the trunk; remove groceries; put groceries in house. Last night, however, went something like this: turn onto street; see cop. Assume cop has pulled someone over; proceed past cop to house. Notice more cops. Count cops. Four. Four cop cars in our neighborhood. It was here that we assumed something was, as they say, up.

My wife took the keys and started to unload the car whilst I walked over to ask one of the officers what was going on. After giving me the emotionless cop-stare, he told me that there was a shooting two blocks over. Two blocks over. Two blocks away from the place I live.

Exciting? Yes. A bit scary? Definately. It's not every day somebody gets shot close to where you live. I'm not worried about the street I live on, but go a street or two over and things start to take a downward turn. Not horrible, but I doubt I'd go walking down those streets alone at night.

It hasn't been confirmed, but my money is on gang activity. There's starting to be a bit more of a presence here; and an unsavory one at that. I don't want to sound cold here, but if you decide to join a gang and get yourself shot or killed, what's the loss? If you can't do something better with your life then to be involved with thugs that promote violence and shoot/kill each other over minor squabbles, then you deserve what you get. Just leave us out of it.

You're not a productive member of society. You're not doing anything to better yourself. Why should I care? You're nothing more than a boil on the ass of society; creating more problems instead of finding ways to solve them.

Like I said, leave us out of it. We've better things to do than to be caught in the crossfire of your stupidity.

Monday, November 20, 2006

Things and doings...

As Jerry Garcia once said, "...what a long strange trip it's been."

It's been over a month since I last posted. That's a fairly long time, but this is one of the first opportunities I've had to post in a long, long time. Lots of driving and lots of overtime tend to take away from one's ability to blog - or blog coherently, for that matter.

My wife is looking into graduate schools, so we've been trekking to universities to check out the faculty, programs, and locations. The basic M.O. is to drive to the university, spend a couple of hours talking to the faculty and checking out the school and city, then driving back home. Definately tiring, both from the driving and absorbing information standpoints. It'll all pay off in the end, when we're settled in. I'm sure my wife will be happier when she's done with all the application/interview procedures, and can get back to what she enjoys most - making art. I'll be happier when we're settled, and I'm - hopefully - working somewhere in my field doing what I enjoy - bonding with a Mac, turning type and images into printed/electronic works of art.

Work has been chaotic. A client is requesting completion of a project on an accelerated deadline. This means that for the past couple of weeks I've been working ten-hour days during the week, and a weekend shift here and there. Currently it looks like Thanksgiving may be spent at work.

Some free time would be handy right about now. I've holiday cards to design/produce/send, holiday artwork to do, gifts to buy/create, and sleep to have.

In my next life, I'm coming back as a housecat.