Author: Heather Meadows

I feel nauseated and bloated, and like I have indigestion.

You never think about how nausea and indigestion are different until you have them both at the same time. Or at least I don’t!

A throwaway line in this post by Xeni Jardin of BoingBoing interested me. I’ve emphasized it below:

Self-portrait in a French press coffee pot (“freedom press,” for patriots) by blogger and artist Kamala.

The non-hilarity of the joke aside, this brings up a question.

You see, I always got the impression that the liberal stance was “I love my country, including the part that says I have the right to question our government.” This line makes me think that the stance is now–or at least Jardin’s stance is–“I am not loyal to my country whatsoever.”

I’m not going to suggest that “If you don’t like it, get out”, but I do wonder whether someone who is so detached from his country should have any influence over that country’s policies.

Of course, Jardin is a commentator, not a politician…but her words do reach many people.

Look at this adorable kokeshi Brooke brought me back from England!

Her name is Hohoemi, according to the packaging and the little sign that came with her and the label stuck to her bottom. Ho ho ho!

Brooke told me she and David specifically looked for one of these because they knew I’d lost my original in the fire. Apparently they are very popular in England.

In the picture above, Hohoemi is sitting with the tray I bought at the oriental market on Dean’s Bridge, the chopstick rests I bought at that same market and at Hibari Market in Lexington, and a pair of chopsticks from the Dean’s Bridge market. All of these are sitting on the beautiful bar table Mom and Dad got for us:

They actually sent us two of these, due to a problem with the online ordering, and they said we could keep the second one too. Originally I was going to put them in the dining room, but after building the first one, I didn’t think it looked right, so I put it in the living room. We’ll have to see where the other one ends up.

As you can see, Sean has set up shop on the kotatsu. He loves it. As I have taken much delight in telling everyone, he keeps it on in 80 degree weather.

Originally he was disappointed by the size; we both expected it to be a little bigger. But then I remembered that it is a Japanese piece of furniture :>

I want a low black shelf to go on the wall where the TV is, to hold our books and DVDs. And then I want to get some rice paper accent lights. After that, the living room should be pretty much done, other than curtains and wall hangings.

You’ll note that I have moved the chairs out. One of them is in the office, serving as my desk chair. I put the other one in the bedroom yesterday. I think that works pretty well.

The rest of the bedroom needs serious work. Our new king-sized bed should be arriving soon, at which point we’ll pick a mattress. We’re thinking about TempurPedic, but we’re going to check out other options too. I’ve always been intrigued by the one with the “cells” that don’t distribute movement, so you can jump up and down on the bed without spilling a glass of red wine. We’ll just have to see what’s comfortable.

Other than the new bed, I’d like a chest of drawers and two night stands. The gold lamps from the living room will probably end up in the bedroom, since they don’t match the sleek style I’m going for, so the night stands will need to be large enough to accomodate them.

I’m thinking about putting the bed we have now in the office, so people can stay over, and to perhaps encourage Sean to come in here and be near me (he likes computing in bed). It just depends; there will need to be something, a small table or shelf or desk, on that wall to hold the router and modem, and Sean might decide he wants a desk after all…so there might not be room for the bed.

I still want a noren (or two!) for the kitchen. And depending on how I end up arranging the bar tables, we might need some sort of dining room table, too. We’ll see. I also still need a shelf for my bathroom.

In all, though, things are really coming together. I’m happy with our space and the things we’ve chosen to fill it :)

That’s right, kids; I used my Magic Bullet for the first time today.

After reading through the instructions and the sample recipes, I threw together some ingredients I had on hand and came up with a pretty darn good smoothie. Here’s the recipe, with nutritional info (because I love you).

Choco-Blackberry-Banana Smoothie (1 serving)

4 oz blackberry yogurt (Dannon Light ‘n Fit)
1 banana (mine happened to be very ripe)
1/2 of 1.61 oz. Almond Joy bar
1 cup ice
3 T skim milk

I recommend spacing the ingredients out; what I did was put them in in the order listed above, which caused the ice to block the blades. I had to shake the cup and even stir the ingredients to get the Magic Bullet to process them.

Nutritional Info

Nutrient Amt %DV Calories 314 15.7 Fat g 6.86 10.55 Saturated g 4.35 21.75 Polyunsat. g 0.147 0.65 Monounsat. g 0.087 0 Cholesterol mg 4.13 1.38 Sodium mg 117 4.88 Potassium mg 867 24.77 Carbohydrate g 60.2 20.07 Dietary Fiber g 4.88 19.52 Sugars g 15.7 26.17		Nutrient Amt %DV Protein g 7.51 15.02 Vitamin A mcg 107 2.14 Vitamin C mg 15.1 25.17 Calcium mg 212 21.2 Iron mg 0.72 4 Vitamin D IU 53.3 13.32 Vitamin E IU 0.613 2.04 Thiamin mcg 129 8.6 Riboflavin mcg 450 26.47 Niacin mg 0.912 4.56 Vitamin B6 mcg 1000 50		Nutrient Amt %DV Folate mcg 33.2 8.3 Vitamin B12 mcg 0.568 9.47 Panto. Acid mg 0.966 9.66 Phosphorus mg 177 17.7 Magnesium mg 64.7 16.18 Zinc mg 0.9 6 Copper mcg 186 9.3 Manganese mg 0.249 12.45 Selenium mcg 2.71 3.87 Water fl oz 12.6 11.67 Alcohol fl oz 0 0

Nutrition info generated by DietPower, based on my (possibly inaccurate) input.

Check out my new car!

Just kidding.

Come on, you should know that I want the liftback, not the sedan. And in cobalt blue!

I did test-drive the sedan today, though.

It’s a very small car, which I like. The gas mileage is fabulous. The bucket seat is comfortable, though not as big as the seats in Sean’s Corolla (something I noticed when I was driving the Corolla home). One weird thing was how the console was laid out–absolutely nothing in front of the steering wheel.

It took me awhile to get used to looking to my right to see my speed.

The view out the rear window seemed small and limited, but the car is so small itself that it’s not as big an issue as it was, say, in those crazy Tauruses from a few years ago. Plus, the side mirrors help.

The sedan I drove did not have power locks and windows. The door locks were kind of funky, and they do not automatically unlock when you open the door from the inside. Also, the Yaris does not have daytime running lights. (This doesn’t bother me, but Sean loves him some running light goodness.)

There was no cup holder immediately between the two front seats, but there was one dangling off the back of the center cubby. A little inconvenient, but at least it’s there–the Subaru has no cup holders.

Driving the sedan hasn’t given me an idea of what the liftback will be like, because the two were designed by completely different teams. I’m hoping that the brakes will be more responsive in the liftback; the sedan seemed to want to keep moving, despite my efforts to stop it. Maybe I’m spoiled by the very nice brakes in Sean’s Corolla.

I’m also hoping that rear visibility will be improved by having a hatch rather than a trunk, but I honestly don’t know how that will be. Since the car is so small, the headrests of the front seats actually obscure the view! I doubt that will be much different in the liftback.

The center console and controls are all pretty easy to navigate. Turn signals, wipers, and lights are all in the same place as the Corolla. The hazard lights are a button on the top of the console–fortunately, this button is positioned a good distance from other controls. In the Corolla, I’m always hitting the hazard lights every time I go to turn on the air conditioning.

The handling was great. Being a small car, it has a tiny turning radius, which is faboo. The steering was comfortable, too.

I had plenty of room, but I’m short. I don’t know how my taller friends will react. Then again, Brooke can fit in the Subaru (with a little crouching, I think), so it might be okay.

In all, I was more pleased with the sedan than I thought I would be. It is much cuter in person than it is on the website.

However, I am still waiting for the liftback. Toyota of Augusta should be getting one in on April 21. I have my name down for a test drive already :D

Obviously this guy has a very powerful mind.

A chiropractor who claims he can treat anyone by reaching back in time to when an injury occurred has attracted the attention of state regulators.

[…]

Burda denied that he is mentally ill. He said he possesses a skill he discovered by accident while driving six years ago.

[…]

The Web site describes the treatment as “a long-distance healing service (not a product) to help increase the quality of your life that can be performed in the privacy of your home or other personal space. There is no need to come to my office.”

The treatment is not telepathic because the patient does not have to believe in what he’s doing, Burda said.

I’ve noticed that I don’t hold my mouse the way they’re designed to be held. My hand goes over it kind of sideways, so that my pointer finger rests on the scroll wheel. That’s the most comfortable position for me. When I go to click on something, I slide my pointer finger over, which is awkward. I feel the stress running through the rest of my hand when I do it.

They should redesign the mouse to fit the hand’s actual resting shape.

In Fib format.

Who
rings
the bell
at this time
of the damn morning?
Bah, it’s just the maintenance guy.

(Well,
I
guess that
9 a.m.
isn’t that early;
even so, it was surprising.)

[Edited 4/9 because the second one wasn’t correct…I left out the two syllable line originally. Bah!]

As are we all.

But Koizumi made a gaffe:

During the brief, jocular meeting at Koizumi’s office, the 64-year-old prime minister also told Hanks, 49, that he looked much younger in his films.

Hanks grimaced but quickly replied, “My children are constantly reminding me what an old man I am.”

Come on, Jun-Jun; we Americans are blunt and all, but we’re also horribly self-conscious about our ages :>

Yes, I am trying to create horrible load times on my front page.

Here’s today’s lunch.

I went out to the park next to the station and had lunch on the lone picnic table. Then I went back and forth about climbing the tree next to me. I went so far as to take my shoes off and try to get a leg up on the tree. Then I decided I didn’t want to try it in a skirt while there were people around, so I gave up and headed back to the table. It was at that point that I noticed my feet were covered with pine sap.

After that, I stepped back into my sandals (effectively gluing my feet to them) and wandered around for pictures.

Mom had told me she wanted to see a particular tree up close, so I strolled down the street to get a picture of it. The tree is in front of a house two or three doors down from the Always Christmas house.

After that I got my best picture of a dandelion EVAR.

Yes.

This is one of the coolest things I have ever seen.

(Via the fabulous Japundit.)

I keep receiving MySpace messages from people I don’t know who want me to listen to their band’s music. Does this tactic work? I usually just ignore the messages.

Poor kids.

Three Singaporeans were found safe on Thursday after getting lost on what they said was a mission to find a legendary karate expert on a snowy mountainside in Japan.

One of the three men told police in Hirosaki, near the northern tip of Japan’s main island, that they had come to Japan after his dying father, a martial arts expert, had ordered them to seek out the karate teacher, TV Asahi said on its Web site.

“Japan looked so small on the world map that we thought we would be able to find him straight away,” one of the group, aged between 25 and 50, was quoted as saying.

All three were dressed in light clothing and huddling in an abandoned car when they were rescued from the slopes of 1,600-metre (5,249-ft) Mount Iwaki in the early hours of the morning after calling for help on a mobile phone, a police spokesman said. “Neither police nor local people know of anyone running karate classes in this area,” the spokesman added.

Here, in case you’re interested, is a size-comparison picture of Singapore and Japan (thanks be to MultiMap).

Obviously, the child died.

My first reaction upon hearing this story was to growl, “Death penalty!” I think I scared my coworker.

According to the Chronicle, the woman’s coworker said she was having trouble finding a babysitter. There needs to be a solution for this. I’m tired of hearing about children dying due to neglect, and I’m tired of hearing excuses. I can understand feeling trapped, needing to make money to feed the kid and so being afraid to call in to work to stay home with the kid…but honestly, leaving the child in the car all day? The stupidity here is mind-boggling. Parents need to be smarter.

And there needs to be a community solution that helps single parents or parents who both have to work to have decent childcare during the day. Because regardless of how well we try to educate people, there are always going to be morons. We need to have systems in place to protect our children from them.

I posted more pictures last night and forgot to mention it. (Or was too tired to mention it, whatever.)

The first group is a small set from Monday’s lunch, when I had Sean’s car. I went to Wife Saver and got some catfish strips, then went to the North Augusta boat dock (and dropped my tea, spilling it all over the parking lot. Alas).

I also finally got some decent shots of the WBBQ radio towers. They dominate the skyline in certain parts of North Augusta, so I’m always taking pictures of them, but rarely are they ever, you know, not washed out.

Well, I like it, anyway.

The next set is from yesterday, when I walked to Burger King.

People haven’t been commenting on my pictures, and no one (except Mom) ever goes to my actual gallery and posts comments, so I have to come to the conclusion that my pictures are terrible.

I’ll keep posting them anyway. :P