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I'm going to be too busy in November to do NaNoWriMo, so I wrote a novel in September instead.
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Internet time lives on, in Pebble form.
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New tricks for the watch I can write code for.
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I did NaNoWriMo again this year. Some thoughts and links to the novel.
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I got a watch I can write code for. So I did.
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When I moved away from WordPress, I didn't try too hard to bring over my old blog posts. I don't post that often and the interesting stuff (like recipes and stories) all have their own links anyway. But I felt like I was practicing revisionist history to remove all the old posts. True, they're probably out there somewhere, but no place where I could get to easily.
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I have finally given up on WordPress. It's big and powerful, but it's too big and powerful for my needs. I realized that the things I have to share with the world fall into a few categories, most of which are served by other services like Google+, Twitter, etc. There are only a few things where I really want to have my pages, with my links, and my style.
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I hear stories about a time when the measure of a successful life was to earn a good living and take care of your family. Period. There were no personal
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The story part: I wrote a short story about Bernadine Cart, one of the main characters from my novel "Farsighted". I have the story here:
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I've made a few of these bags to help replace plastic zip-top bags in my lunch. These are the instructions for a "snack" size bag, which is as wide as
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I like to find things that are elegant as well as functional. It makes me happy to see or use something that is both useful and easy to use, something
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I've thought a lot about why I do my job. In the beginning it was because being a full-time programmer didn't live up to my college expectations of what I'd
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I wrote a short story about Zannie, the adventurous pixie, and his friends. Links to the stories are
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I did
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I'm working with some folks who get really irritated at having extra blank spaces at the end of the line. To make them happy, I went looking for how to
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A while back, I started to wonder when the tradition of showering every day became common. Theories I read online were that it was advent of indoor plumbing, and particularly
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Here's another short story I wrote about Zannie, the adventurous pixie. This time he's exploring an open field in summer time.
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I need to eat more vegetables. I grew tired of raw, boiled, or grilled, so I started thinking of different ways to get my veggies. I thought, "I wish there
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A few weeks ago, Willie and I were discussing dishes we made in college because they were cheap and filling. I made Betty Crocker's Spanish Rice until I just couldn't
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Recently, I read
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I have never been accused of being stylish. In fact, anyone who wears a lab coat for their high school graduation picture automatically gets kicked out of every fashion club
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Since 2008, I have been keeping a daily diary. It has all the boring inane stuff like what I watched on TV, what computer game I played, and what the
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I tried a recipe for lentil salad yesterday. I was looking for a recipe that could be eaten cold, and had something more savory in mind, but this one caught
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I never thought of myself as an emotional eater. I don't really like ice cream all that much, so the stereotype of a distraught woman eating a pint of ice
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You might think I'm an Apple fangirl. I have used an Apple computer as my primary machine for about 10 years. I bought my first iBook in 2001. A few
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When I was in grade school, time was measured by school years. When I was in college, I measured time in semesters. When I started working full time, I felt
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One part of running for the fun of it, is there are no goals to achieve. With no goals, there is no motivation for me to improve. When it comes
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I've been trying some different recipes lately and here are two that I've really enjoyed. They're both good chilled, which is perfect for summer, and quick to make. The curried
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For the last two weeks, I've been trying an experiment. See, my feet hurt. Well, to be completely accurate, my right foot hurts. My amateur diagnosis is
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After three years, I have finally put a proper door on the garden! The fence helps keep the deer out. When I put up the fence, I thought I would
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Yesterday morning, I was thinking I'd like some exercise, but I wasn't sure I could run for long. I put aside a thought that if I couldn't run well, I
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I was a little late in getting started on my garden this year, but I think it worked out for the best. We had such a cold spring that it
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This morning, I really didn't want to go to the gym. I grumbled and groused and went anyway. For one reason and another, I didn't take my music with me,
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I double knot my shoe laces. I don't remember when I started doing so, but I'm guessing it was sometime in college. A single knot just doesn't keep my laces
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In early January, I read the book "Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen" by Christopher McDougall. Willie had read a
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I wrote a short story today. I was enjoying the sun coming in through my cold window and I thought about what the pixie from one of my other short
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Recently I read some articles about how good lentils are for you, so I started looking for recipes that used lentils. I found a recipe in our big vegetarian cookbook
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Around Thanksgiving, Costco sells giant bags of fresh cranberries for the same price or cheaper than the small bags in the grocery store. I really like the
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About this time each year, the new crop of seed catalogs arrives in the mailbox. For someone in my climate, it is far too early to start planting seedlings indoors.
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When I think of "sweet potato casserole", I think of that sickly-sweet marshmallow topped dish made around Thanksgiving. This casserole is nothing like that casserole. I was drawn into trying
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I admit it. I liked Graffiti on the Palm Pilot. I thought it was easy to learn and faster than hunt and peck on a tiny keyboard. But for one
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Recently, I was playing around with the Kindle app for the Mac. I was curious how the syncing worked, so I wanted an eBook to practice with. But since I
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This morning I got up ridiculously early to get on a plane. Powered flight still amazes me at times, as does the nonchalant way we experience it. I got to
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Willie and I visited some friends on Sunday and I made a blueberry buckle to take for dessert. I couldn't decide between a cobbler and a coffee cake and Willie
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This year, I had grand plans for building a garden gate and a garden shed. I was going to do all that
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For the first time in a while, I want to buy a book. Specifically, I'm looking for an operating systems book to brush up on the underlying concepts. And I'd
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A while back,
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Arguably, I already know how to swim. I can keep myself afloat. I can kick and paddle my arms in unison enough to get me where I'm going. I feel
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Now that I have a shiny new car, I'd like to keep it running well for a long time. The manual has the recommended maintenance in the difficult format of
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For the rest of the vacation, we became tourists in Ludington. We climbed the lighthouse, swam in the lake, floated down the river in the state park, made dribble sandcastles,
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Last Saturday, Willie and I drove to Ludington, MI for vacation. We stopped in Lansing for lunch at the Michigan Brewing Company. I had two varieties of IPA and enjoyed
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Friday, I went to Cedar Point with the interns from work. My company arranged the whole thing, including a nice big bus to take us there and drive us home.
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Every once in a while, I decide that I want to have style. I don't mean that I want to be fashionable, I mean I want to have my own
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When I joined the class at the Y which included a competitive weight loss element, I wasn't sure how I was going to react to the peer pressure. I'm competitive,
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On my drive from Florida to home, I listened to "Changes" by Jim Butcher. I had already read the book, but it's fun to have stories read to you. Plus,
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Last week, I was on vacation in Florida. Because I am paranoid (or sensible) I didn't want to tell the world that I was away from the house. But, I
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As part of my YMCA class, I got a punch card that lets me drop in to other classes for a session and try them out. Tonight I tried out
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Ouch. I thought I was in fairly good shape when I went to the gym on Saturday morning. Overweight, yes, but I exercise regularly and garden on the weekends. A
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I joined a "summer slimdown" class at the YMCA. It's a weekly class with instructor led exercises, weigh-ins, recipes, motivation, and so forth. I don't usually go in for the
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Between work and the weather, I haven't done as much gardening as I'd like, but I think that's true every year. It was getting to be time for new gardening
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The rhubarb in the garden was ready last weekend. We were going out to my father-in-law's house for a visit, so I asked if it was okay to bring along
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Last year, I was lamenting my lack of labeling in the garden. Then I read something online that suggested using big popsicle sticks for labels: they're cheap, easy, and non-toxic!
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Last year, when I got my new digital camera, I was wishing for geotagging of the pictures. So, Willie got me an
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Through the application of a little money and a skilled mechanic, the Contour is up and running again. It seems to be behaving better than it was last year, so
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Ah spring! While the last frost date in our area is still three weeks away, there is a lot of activity on the garden front. It hurts me to trim
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I discovered this recipe while looking around for healthy, interesting dishes to make for dinner. [recipe-show recipe=tuna-salad-with-olives-orange-and-bell-pepper]
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I put in some edging between the front garden and the rest of the yard. Here's a picture of it half done with the digging. [singlepic id=308] Flowers! From now
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Lately I’ve been perusing the home floor-plan websites, dreaming. I really like
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Lately I've been thinking about short-term and long-term happiness. I'm going through a project at work that's quite stressful and time consuming. But, there's an end in sight, so I'm
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Today I read a blog post by a woman lamenting the loss of her outdoorsy ways. She waxed poetic about how her life had been, how it had been simpler,
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When I was in high school, I used the Weird Al song
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A silent, frozen mist settled on the road hours ago. That moment, trapped in time, are diamonds in my headlights. Laughing like tiny chimes, my car's passing lets them dance
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I woke up to a beautiful snowy day today. Here are some pictures: [nggallery id=36]
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Now that I've
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In all the years I've been alive, I've learned a few things. Usually, it takes some particularly painful lesson for me to really grasp something. For example, I can't tend
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Or, as my dad would counter, "you have an idea. I'll decide whether it's great or not." The great idea: virtual caroling. Now, hear me out. I was thinking that
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Here's the award winning garlic kale recipe from Mark Bittman in "How to Cook Everything", which is a fantastic cookbook. I use the prechopped garlic from Costco. I also don't
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About two years ago, Willie and I started going to a chiropractor. I had never been to one before, so I did all the reading about the dangers, the benefits,
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Whenever I don't have a place to put something, I think "I have too much stuff". This has been a particular challenge in this house. While the square footage is
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I usually use TextEdit for writing my
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(That sounds dirtier than I really intended.) The recipe for the squash quiche I made last weekend is as follows. I used all zucchini since I had a ton of
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I engaged in two cooking experiments this weekend, one more daring than the other. First, the daring one. I wanted to make a coffee cake on Saturday, but I couldn't
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The next in my line of sewing experiments was to make a padded bag for Willie's Netbook. (For the uninitiated, Netbooks are little tiny laptop computers, usually around 7-inches by
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For Willie's birthday, we took a class on brewing your own beer. We got to participate and taste samples of home brew that the store owners made. Making my own
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It became clear several weeks ago that our garage can no longer contain the garden tools. So, Willie and I went looking at the local big box hardware stores for
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I take my lunch to work almost every day. At work, we have several refrigerators for keeping lunches, cream cheese for the bagels, and milk for the latte machine. There
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The company I work for has this awesome program where we get five days a year to volunteer in the community and still get paid. They even arrange a bunch
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Recently, I’ve heard an interesting pattern in the usage of English: using a verb in the progressive tense that is not normally used that way, or even to use a
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Rain-darkened trees sprinkled with pale, eager leaves whispered as I passed. Awed by their beauty and wonder, I stared. Then like giddy schoolgirls with a secret, the silent moment passed
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This past weekend Willie and I visited
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Some of the seeds I planted two weeks ago are coming up. The spinach, lettuce, and collards all seem to be sprouting. If I recall correctly, the carrots took a
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Last year I had an
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I have been an outspoken proponent of proper English for a while now, mostly because among computer people, spelling and grammar are usually not a priority. I think that how
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Today, I was listening to the
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I finished reading
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This morning at the gym, I was listening to a Podcast episode of
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I heard two owls outside last night, calling to each other. It was really neat. I tried to find them with my binoculars with all the lights out, but they're
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Today I made a small leopard print pouch because it matches my purse better than the
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I got a new digital camera for my birthday. After asking friends for recommendations and reading
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After my
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Well, I'm finally all moved over and consolidated in one place. Now I just have to figure out how to backup all the content I put into WordPress, in case
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I sometimes write techno songs under the band name "The Pure Virtual Method". The few I have finished are here.
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I've mostly setup this account, now I'll just have to finish putting up my picture albums and point everything else to it. With luck, this WordPress framework will hold me
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Today I made "Shirley's Even Greater American Pound Cake" from the book
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After coming up with the list of things I wanted my to-do list software to do or not do, I started looking at
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I had the fortune of working on user interfaces for the last several years. During that time, I got to work closely with a usability/human-computer interaction (HCI) expert. I have
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For the last few years I've been making a honey-raisin-spice quick bread for Imbolc. It was always tasty, but I had the hardest time getting the center to finish cooking
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The morning commute was a
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I have always liked bags, backpacks, pouches, and the like. This did not turn me into a purse junkie because most purses are 1) expensive, and 2) butt ugly. Over
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Copyright 2009 by Laura
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I've been told that it's a good idea to track the miles per gallon that your car gets over time. That way, if you suddenly start getting terrible gas mileage,
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I've been told I'm a fairly competitive person. And, like most people, I think I do more work around the house because I notice all the chores I do, but
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While I love obsessing over my garden, and while I will have some plants this year, the focus of the coming year is, sadly, not the garden.  Our old farmhouse
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Aphids have wrought complete havoc on my poor squash plants. I got some pumpkins from the garden and enough zucchini to last me, but the honey dew melons and cantaloupe
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I have some pictures of the garden here:
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Plants are doing very well with all the recent rain. So are the weeds, but that's
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We mowed the yard today and I got all the grass clippings I'll need for a while. I mulched around the squash, to help keep the grass and weeds down
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While I was on vacation, I had nightmares about my seedlings drying out and dying. They didn't! In fact, they seemed to grow really fast (probably because I wasn't checking
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It frosted again last night. It's almost freakin' June! What is up with that? At least this time I saw the frost warning and was able to cover my plants
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I got the rest of my corn planted. The only things left that I wanted to plant and haven't for some reason are kale, collards, broccoli, herbs, and string beans.
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I planted most of the seedlings outside today and mulched around the front flowers. My lack of volumetric judgment kicks my ass sometimes. I guessed that one bag of mulch
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I planted some of the tomato seedlings, the green beans, the cucumbers, and some of the sunflowers. I'll try to get the rest of the seedlings in the ground and
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We had snow flurries a full week after the supposed last frost date, but no frost. Go
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Here's a couple of pictures of the flowers in the yard right now. The tulip was there when we moved in and I moved all the other flowers out of
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The plants in the garden survived the slightly sub-zero temperatures this past week, even though I wasn't here to cover them. (Well, sub-zero if you're trying to learn Celsius like
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So, since the whole sheets of paper as weed control mat weren't working, I got to thinking about why grass clippings make pretty good mulch. Here's a picture of the
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Try to disguise yourself as a desirable plant. For example, here is common mallow next to mint and lemon balm. In these pictures it maybe easy to tell them apart,
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First, the garden related photos, since that's the primary purpose of this rambling
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I'm not even sure I'll have much to say. But what the heck.
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