My Super Nerdiness has been Reiterated...

I know I am super nerdy. You do, too. We all know it...

Given that intro, you won't be surprised to know that I was almost doing back flips in excitement when I noticed Wednesday that Google Street View now includes our house. Woo hoo!!!






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You know I couldn't let my excitement stop there... Nope. No way. I had to call Mike on his cell phone right away. I took a screen shot. Then I analyzed exactly when the photo was taken.

If you examine the image closely, as only I can, you will see some clues:

1. Our mailbox (just off the screen but viewable in Google Maps) is the white one. We use this one for the winter season.
2. The driveway posts are still up. We remove them after cutting the lilies but before the first snow. This means we were in Fall or Spring.
3. The lilies have greenery. It must be late Fall because they'd be tiny at the point in the Spring when the first two situations would exist. The greenery is also a little yellowed.
4. The trees still have leaves and the leaves have not turned. That moves the time of year to late Sept or very early Oct.
   
5. The double-tipped spruce tree is still standing. I posted about losing 1/2 of it in June 2008. The remainder of the tree was removed in September 2008.

Given the 5 points above, I deduced that the street view imagery was collected late in Fall 2007. I have no idea when the imagery was posted to Google's public servers, but it had to have been recent. I use Google Maps for directions all the time and would have noticed.

There are other fun things to note.  Our truck is in the driveway, but Google kind of fuzzed it. The cones are up on the edge of the driveway, so it must have been rainy around then. Both the lilacs and the tree by the driveway look very small. The lilacs are almost touching the power lines now and that tree is huge. Could it have been 2006? But, if you look at the horse paddock it is pretty overgrown. In 2006, Finale would have still been around (Connor and Fiona would have been 2, and I know we were still feeding her then). The neighbor's old car is in front of their barn. The girls got rid of that and got new cars when they graduated college in May 2008. The section of Reservoir St between Castle Rd and Crawford was missing until very recently... Gosh. I know no one cares about this but us, but I am entranced!

Cool!!!

Fun Stuff

The first of my two fun stuff announcements is that I have changed to the August theme, days early, as usual. If you are reading this via email, check out the site online to see the changes.

The second fun stuff announcement -- drum roll please -- is that we have set up and installed our outdoor web cam!!! We purchased a Trendnet Wireless Internet Camera Server w/ Audio. We mounted it inside an Outdoor Camera Enclosure with Heater and Blower for protection from the elements. The setup is on the barn by the weather station.

Below is a close up.

It is setup to be viewed inside our firewall (using the software on board the device) and we are FTPing images at about 6 frames/minute to a web page for external viewing. Here's the view from 8:06 am:

Not too shabby! Of course the camera can be repositioned as needed.

Between the weather station and the web cam, we'll know what is going on at home no matter where we are! I'd love to get an indoor web cam to see Mattie during the day (especially when we're gone away longer than a work day), but Mike thinks that is silly. We'll see...

Have a happy day!

I love this...

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Tea Tasting with Harney & Sons at the International Culinary Center

Oh me, oh my. When I saw this in my reader my jaw just dropped. I would so love to go to a tea tasting like this!!!

Tea Tasting with Harney & Sons at the International Culinary Center

via Serious Eats by Allison Hemler on 7/27/09

From Serious Eats: New York

A sampling of the Harney & Sons tea leaf varieties throughout the evening.

What is the latest time you'll drink tea? If you don't have a problem with sipping black or oolong teas at 9 p.m., I'd recommend attending a tea tasting with Harney & Sons' lead tea buyer, Mike Harney, at the International Culinary Center. The first tea tasting ever at FCI began, in true chef-like form, with the deconstruction of traditional, complex Earl Grey, with Harney & Sons' version consisting of black teas Ceylon-Kenilworth, Assam, Kemmun, Formosa Oolong and bergamot oil.

We moved onto stripping tea down to its essence—the leaves of the camellia sinensis plant. Starting with white, then working through green, black, and oolong teas, a teaspoon (coincidence?) of loose tea was placed in a six-ounce mug, filled with hot water, capped, and timed for approximately two-and-a-half to three minutes. Once the tea-infused water was poured into a small white dish, we sipped and swallowed, and savored the numerous varieties of young and processed teas.

The French Culinary Institute's version of the Taiwanese tea egg.

Generally, tea tastings will lack the acidity, bitterness, and slurping and spitting associated with coffee and wine tastings, and according to an endless number of studies, you'll probably better your health in the process. You'll also get to pair tea with much more unique foods than offerings at a wine tasting. We paired Taiwanese tea eggs with oolong tea, crunchy nori rolls with green sencha, Marie Belle chocolates with iced green matcha, and scones and gravlax sandwiches with black British legacy teas.

While tasting through the least processed tea leaves, white and green, then progressing to the "death of the tea leaf" with oolong and black, we discovered it's possible that all teas have roughly the same amount of caffeine. (It's impossible to measure consistently since caffeine levels depend on the variety of tea, size of tea leaf, and length of brewing time.)

However, we're at a culinary school, and we're here for the taste.

The best flavor extraction depends on appropriate water temperature. Black and oolong teas should be infused at around boiling temperature, while white and green teas should wait for a dip of about 30° F. Kettle and burner enthusiasts can estimate this by letting boiling water sit for a bit before infusing leaves. If you have an electric water boiler, you're in better shape. Three minutes is all most loose tea leaves need, as anything longer will produce bitterness.

From left: Wenshan Baozhong and Taiping Houkui tea leaves. Images from harney.com

There's nothing negative I can say about the way Harney & Sons tea tastes. The best of the best that evening were: Wenshan Baozhong, an oolong with green characteristics and hints of honey and gardenia, Taiping Houkui, a long-leafed green tea on the sweeter side, and Bai Mu Dan, a delicate white tea which will remind you of picking dandelions and running through freshly-cut grass. These are high-quality loose teas at a high price. For special occasions and presents, I will gladly buy a few tins—for the everyday brew, I'll most likely stick with a tea less than $15 for 2 ounces. In time, my wallet may give in, since not much on the market shelves will compare.

Though the class was scheduled to start at 6 p.m. and last for only three hours, in order to get through 75 percent of the ambitious tea list, we stayed until around 9:45 p.m. In typical FCI fashion, a team of students (and Mike Harney's son), assisted with every minute of the learning experience, pouring and timing water, and serving and clearing dishes. The evening ended with a tea-infused cocktail conjured up by FCI professor and class attendee Dave Arnold. While I couldn't handle vodka after a serene three hours of antioxidants, Arnold clearly had a blast with his creation. In fact, as I left I walked through a giddy group of students, knee-deep, literally, in liquid nitrogen with the cocktail genius.

Keep an eye on the International Culinary Center's course list for the next session of the tea tasting.

My Awesome Train Case

Back in May I told you about my new love affair with Bare Escentuals. I've been adding to my collection -- sale items of course -- since then. I've gotten a face set on deep sale over at Sephora that I totally love. Anyway, the little buggers are a little tough since they have the slotted lids. If you turn the makeup over, those puppies spill into the little area where no makeup really should be (sorry, don't have a photo -- I'll try to take one later).

So, me being me, I wanted to organize my beauty stuff a little better. I got this fabulous train case from BE that has acrylic trays to store my minerals and slots for my brushes at the top. Check it out...

 

I just love the little trays and how I can be all organized now. As you can see, I've pretty much filled it up!

And the fabric on the outside is very cute.

I don't actually use this for travel (I don't take that much makeup on a trip), but it is great for at home.

Have a happy day!

Share Photos on Facebook by Emailing Them (via Facebook Blog)

Share Photos and Videos Anywhere You Have Email

via Facebook Blog by Sameer Moidu on 7/22/09

After you snap a great photo of friends or shoot a fun video on vacation, you want to be able to share it immediately. We've been working on providing more ways to publish those photos and videos whether you're on Facebook.com or not.

You already can upload photos from your mobile phone via MMS or through Facebook applications on your iPhone, Blackberry and other devices. Now we recently added the ability to upload photos and videos by e-mailing them to your Facebook account.

Visit the Facebook Mobile page to get your personal upload email. This is a unique email address where you can send photos and videos from anywhere you have email access.



After you attach your photos or videos to an email, you can include a subject line that will be used as the caption for the photos or videos you upload. If you're uploading more than one photo or video in the email, the captions will be the same for all of them. You can always edit the captions later by logging into your Facebook account.

You can send as many photos or videos as you want in a single email, within the file size limits of your email provider. After you send an email, the time it takes for an upload to be completed will vary depending on how long it takes for your email to reach us.

The photos you send to us via email will go to the "Mobile Upload" photo album by default and follow that album's privacy settings. We hope that with this new email option, you will be able to more easily share photos and videos anytime you want.


Sameer, an engineer on the mobile team, is up, up and away!

More of Philly

Last night the NCSL held an event celebrating Philadelphia. There was a reception on Independence Mall with food, drinks and music. The food ended up being pretty bad (hamburgs, hot dogs, bad Philly cheese steaks, and salads) and the music was really loud. We hung out for a while, then made our way over to the Liberty Bell.

It was pretty neat. A quick walk into Liberty Hall and we called it a "fine" night. I'm glad I got to see the bell!

Back home tonight!

Smiles

Exploring Philly

Yesterday began a new business trip to Philadelphia for me (Puerto Rico for Mike). I was greeted for the Philly leg from JFK by a special stewardess... It was the funniest thing. If you can't see, it is a little bird.

I arrived in in the afternoon for the NCSL Legislative Summit. The expected attendance is 7,000 people and name tags abounded all around the convention center.

I met up with my co-worker and friend, Howie Monday  afternoon. We both had the evening free, so he generously showed me around the area. We are in a nice part of town and were able to walk almost 2 miles (yes, I measured on a map when we got back). Howie showed me around Reading Terminal Market, home to bunches of restaurants and food purveyors. It will be a spot I return to for lunch on Wed... There are so many places to choose from it is overwhelming.

Next, we walked down 12th St to Pine and discovered Mixto, a Cuban/Colombian/Latin bar. We stopped for drinks and Ensalada del Pulpo (chopped Pacific octopus, peppers, onions, garlic and olives tossed in olive oil and vinegar). It was fantastic.

We continued our exploration and found Philadelphia's Magic Gardens. The garden is a huge mosaic display that is both junky and intriguing all at once.

The place was closed by the time we arrived, but still interesting.

We made our way to South St looking for a good place for dinner. Near the end of our search we found FEZ, a Moroccan restaurant. Belly dancing is part of the atmosphere Thurs-Sat, but the was really fun even without that. We each tried the lamb couscous with hot mint tea. It was interesting. I wouldn't put the meal on my list of must haves, but it was fun to try something new. While we were there, I asked the waiter to take our picture.

So many of you have heard of Howie but not met him. Now you can put a face with the name!

We ended our night after dinner, with thoughts of today already pressing in. Bill Gates is the keynote speaker at 8:30... Maybe I'll make it, or maybe I'll just start the day out slow!

I hope to have more tomorrow! Smiles

Happy Birthday, Mattie!

Today Mattie turns 10 years old. He's been with us since September, 2006. We adopted him from a family who was moving to a place that didn't allow outdoor kitties.

Our time with Mattie was an adventure from the very beginning. He ran away the moment he arrived here to live with us. I searched for him for 3 days -- taking time off work, making phone calls, and posting signs everywhere. We finally found him, thanks to a helpful neighbor. We all had to get used to one another. Mostly, we had to get used to his rather vocal nature. We adopted him and his pal Wilde but Wilde got hit in December 2006. Mattie became the only cat in the house and glowed in that position.

We were pretty much used to each other and settled into a routine by summer 2007. That July we found him under a bush with a huge laceration in his leg. The vet patched him up and we spent the better part of a month taking him in for bandage changes. He was doing much better. Due to some uncontrollable circumstances, we spent a large part of August away from home. Mattie was displeased by that and decided to spray a huge pile of Mike's clothes to let us know. I thought for sure he would meet his end after that.

Fortunately, we stuck things out. He is the most loving cat we've ever had. He follows us like a dog, loves to cuddle, and has a very patient and forgiving personality. He is a very important part of our family, to us and to the rest of the family (especially Connor and Fiona).

We made him special birthday treats to celebrate his 11th birthday, but the finicky eater he is, he rejected them. Maybe he'll like them better later. We are all still going to celebrate him.

Have a happy day!

Scheduling Facebook Posts

I set a lot of things to happen automatically in my life: appointment reminders on my calendar, bill payments, donations, e-cards, and even this blog post (written on Thurs and scheduled to post on Friday). I almost always remember events are coming up, but in the busy-ness of life I sometimes forget the day when events actually happen! Of course, today's technology is an  enabler to my forgetfulness -- but -- it is also an aid.

So, where am I going with this? I get weekly Facebook reminders of upcoming birthdays. It is nice to have people remember your events on Facebook, so want to remember theirs, too. The problem is that my up-tick in travel leaves me with less certainty of having an internet connection. You just don't know for sure.

Last week I did some looking around and found a free service called Sendible (you know I'm all about free or cheap). Sendible can connect with social networks, blogs, and email accounts and send messages on a scheduled basis.

Once you have connected with one or more service, you can schedule a message:

Facebook messages can be sent as a wall post or as a private message.

I tried it this week for a couple of Happy Birthday notes and it worked like a charm. What tools make your life easier?

Smiles

Cake Wrecks: Hello Kitty

The Cake Wrecks blog has an awesome post on Hello Kitty cakes today. If you have a minute, check it out: http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2009/07/hello-kitty.html

First Time in LA

Monday afternoon I arrived in Los Angeles for a business trip. I've flown through LAX before, but have never had Los Angeles as the final destination.

My first glimpse of the city from the air was pretty unimpressive. I mean, it is impressive to see all the houses and built up land, but it just looked like urban sprawl. I got on my van shuttle from the airport and we were immediately stuck in traffic. The 35 mile trip from the airport to Pacific Palms Resort took over an hour.

Pacific Palms is located in La Puente east of LA. You will see from the [embedded] map below that I am in the middle of the big green golf course.

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No restaurants are nearby, though I understand a shopping center is beyond the Pomona Freeway overpass. Being that I do not have a car, I'm effectively a prisoner of the resort. At least there are a couple of restaurants on-site to choose from.

The view out my hotel room window is very pretty. You can see the mountains in the distance, as well as the urban expanse. I took some photos Wednesday morning in "stitch assist" mode. They came out looking like this (photo pile created using Picasa 3).

I wanted to create a cool panorama. A quick search on Lifehacker revealed AutoStitch as the user favorite -- free -- tool. AutoStitch took the photos above and automatically stitched them into this:

A quick crop using Gimp and voila:

So, now I bring a small part of the Los Angeles suburbs to you!!! Wish I could tell you more, but as Porky Pig says, "That's All Folks!"

Have a happy day!

Quick Update on Books...

I have fallen behind on my consistent blogging on books. I just finished a couple of quickies, and thought I'd share!

Last week I read Death and Honesty by Cynthia Riggs. It is set on the Vineyard and features octogenarian Victoria Trumball investigating murder and real estate hijinks. It was a quick and easy read with the best part being all those scenes from the Vineyard.

Next I read Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich. It, too, is a quick read with the usual Stephanie Plum antics. So far she has blown up four cars -- really four -- and gotten her apartment firebombed. It is an easy read..

I will be back to my Kindle for traveling over the next two weeks. I have Shatter by Michael Robotham on tap for sure, along with several free books.

Have a happy day

Remembering Reggie

We lost our dear cat-friend Reggie almost three years ago. Today is his birthday and is a fitting time to remember all the fun times we shared together.

If you didn't know Reggie, his story is below...

We adopted Reggie on July 14, 2002 after losing our cat Scrumpy (be sure to read about him, too!).  Reggie came from Second Chance for Animal Welfare, a local shelter, where he was placed after an unhappy situation with his old family.

Reggie came to us a nervous boy who was more likely to bite or scratch (and he did) than to cuddle with us.  We attempted to keep him in the house for a few days so he could get him acclimated to us before going outdoors.  He, however, had other plans.  We had him locked up in our second floor and first floor foyer when he enacted the plan.  It was simple, really.  All he had to know was how the first floor screen window was attached, where the hook was, and how to unhook it.  Genius-boy did the deed, then hid outside in fear of his life change.

Fortunately, he adjusted.  He tried to find ways to get in the house with us rather than ways to escape.  He was a fabulous hunter that kept our yard clear of any "unwanted" guests.  He has went from being nearly impossible to pet, to allowing us to hold him on his back like a baby.  He was still a bit moody from time to time, but we all are.

Most importantly, Reggie was an integral part of our family. He spent winters with us in front of the pellet stove. Summers with us in the yard. He was a bright spot with a complex personality that added a smile to each day. Reggie was diagnosed with a mass in his abdomen and liver failure on September 5, 2006. We stroked and talked to him as he crossed the Rainbow Bridge that night. Surely, he will look down on us and purr and meow until we join him.

Some photos of Reggie are embedded below. There are so many other memories are not there, but remain in our mind... Reggie walking up and down the driveway with Pat and Mike to get our mail... Reggie laying by infants Connor and Fiona getting petted and being a pure angel... Him cuddling with me during afternoon naps...

Sometimes you don't know how strongly you've loved a pet until you lose them. Let us all appreciate our pets -- and our people -- while we can.

Eee Yuck!

Image from Herpnet 

Does  that picture look nice to you? It sure as heck didn't look nice to me... It is pretty much what I saw on our porch yesterday when I stepped outside. The ugly thing was all curled up sleeping between Mattie's water bowl and the house on the back stoop.


UMass Amherst describes the snake this way:

Milk Snake

Lampropeltis triangulum (24-36", up to 52")
A boldly patterned snake, the milk snake has a light gray to tan body covered with reddish-brown blotches bordered in black. Larger blotches on the back alternate with smaller ones on each side. The head is patterned, usually with a light colored "Y" or "V" within a reddish-brown patch. Smooth scales give this attractive snake a shiny or glossy appearance. The belly is patterned with an irregular checkerboard of black on white. Similarity of patterns causes some to confuse it with the copperhead; however, the copperhead lacks any pattern on the head. Tail rattling may also lead some to mistake it for a rattlesnake, although the two species look quite different.

Mating generally occurs in May, with females depositing 3-24 eggs in June and July. Eggs are deposited under rocks, boards or other debris, in rotting vegetation, stumps or logs, or small mammal burrows, and usually hatch in August and September.

Woodlands, fields, rocky hillsides and borders of wetlands provide natural habitat for milk snakes. They are also commonly found around houses, barns and outbuildings. Small mammals are the preferred prey of milk snakes, who are able to enter burrows and consume young in their nests. Milk snakes routinely eat other snakes, and may also take birds and bird eggs, frogs, fish, earthworms, slugs and insects. Primarily nocturnal, milk snakes can be found during the day under rocks, logs, or other cover. Although they are not very aggressive, milk snakes will bite and spray musk if handled.

I describe it as "Eeew!" You might not be surprised by my strong negative reaction upon seeing this thing. I back into the house and started a low keen-scream mix which crescendoed in vibrance and volume as I backed into the kitchen over by the stove. Mike was standing by the cocktail table repeatedly asking, "What's wrong?! What's wrong?!" I stiltedly replied, "There's a snake by the door!" He went out and poked it with a broom. The icky specimen was so sleepy it didn't really react. It finally crawled itself under the stoop to hide. I wish we would have killed the stinking thing.

All in all, my reaction was pretty funny. Mike and I were cracking up as we thought about it later...

So, welcome to our animal kingdom. We are rich in woodchucks this year (we seem to have a whole family living in the stone walls and our barn), birds, deer (or deer parts), and now snakes. I have been giving Mattie a hard time because he isn't bring in any dead mice. I guess the snake has dibs? In hindsight, we've had nary a mole or vole either... I guess we know why.

Have a snake-free day!

Fun at Fenway

We had a great time at Fenway last night. Rain seemed imminent -- and we did get a few drops around 4:30 pm, but they only lasted a few minutes.

We started our adventure with a trip to Filene's Basement. We wanted to see if they had any good Vineyard Vines wear. We struck gold and found a great vest for me. Mike got it for me as a little present (he's so sweet!). You'll see it pictured below. We had dinner at McCormick and Schmicks before the game. I had monkfish wrapped in prosciutto and Mike had haddock stuffed with lobster. Both were excellent.

We got to the park around 6 pm and located our seats. They were in the right field grandstand (Section 9, Row 15, Seats 11 & 12 for you Sox fans). The view was slightly obstructed -- we couldn't see left-handed batters at the plate -- but hey, we were at the game. The best part was the overhead in the grandstand held the heat in and kept us warm through the game.

Wakefield was on the mound and made it through most of the 7th inning. Manny DelCarmen -- not one of my favorite pitchers -- was up next for about 3 batters until he gave up a run. Hideki Okajima was up next and held steady until the end of the 8th. Jonathan Papelbon closed the game. It was by no means a shoe-in since he gave up a run and had two on base before the final strike out. Whew! We were on the edge of our seats.

Another highlight was getting to meet up with our friend Art during the game. He has season tickets (that he has graciously sold us in years past) and was there with a client. We had a beer and chatted during the pivotal 6th inning when the Red Sox scored 4 runs.

We have some photos of our night below (embedded). If you are getting this message by email, hop over to the blog to see them.

Lets Go, Red Sox!!!

We have tickets to Fenway Park tonight to watch the Red Sox vs. the Oakland Athletics. We'll be in the right field grandstands hoping and praying for NO RAIN!!! The A's shut out the Sox on Monday night, and the Sox neatly won last night... We can't wait to see Wakefield pitch :)

Have a happy day!

Le Tour de France 2009

Saturday marked the first stage of the 2009 Tour de France. Lance Armstrong has rejoined the race as part of team Astana along with many other top riders including Alberto Contador, Andres Kloden, Levi Leipheimer, Daniel Navarro, and Yaroslov Popovych. Team Astana leads the tour after stage 3 in overall rankings, followed by Team Columbia-HTC, who is 1'46" back. Mark Cavendish is part of Team Columbia-HTC and, according to Armstrong, is someone to watch. Cavendish is currently ranked at 142, but won stages 2 and 3. George Hincapie is also on Team Columbia-HTC. Hincapie began riding with Lance Armstrong in 1997 and continued through Lance's first step away from the tour. Hincapie is renowned in the cycling world and one of the longest riding cyclists in the Tour de France and the only cyclist to have been on 8 tour-winning teams.

Lance Armstrong returned to cycling in large part to bring attention to the thousands battling cancer each year. His Livestrong Foundation is very active. You can support cancer with a donation to Livestrong (I recently made donations in support of my stepfather John and a friend, Claude). If you are on Twitter, you can add a Livestrong band to your profile photo to show support, too.

One last thing, there is a great cycling website if you have kids interested in the tour. Check out Mike and the Bike for easy to access kid orientation tour information.

Have a great day!

Look at my honey

Well, I like to look at him anyway :) He spoke at a press conference (coverage here and here) last week and I forced him to let me photograph him before he left the house.

Doesn't he look handsome in his suit? What a lucky girl I am!

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Independence Day to everyone! We hope your day is full of celebration and good times!

Rain, Rain, GO AWAY!

It seems like June was a month full of rainy days (23 of 30 or something like that, only 3 completely sunny)... Someone must have transported us to Seattle without telling us. Hmmpf!

July has not been an improvement yet, though Sunday looks slightly better. Cross your fingers that I don't have to use my little webbed toes to swim my way out of this!

Stay dry :)

New Blog Design and more

Today we launched our July blog design. It was fun to make and tested my Gimp skills... The embellishments and paper are from Scrapadelic ($3.99). Of course I made the header myself (from plain white to fill in fade and texture), along with assembling and adding the embellishments. It turned out summery and fun and was well worth the small price to Scrapadelic.

I don't think I'll have a June books entry... I haven't had much time to read. Anything from last month will be combined with this month. I am sure you couldn't care less!

And last but not least, this came across my reader right before I began this post. The kitty looks so much like Mattie that it really cracked me up...




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Have a great day!