Musings

Whenever you have the chance, attend a multicultural, multiethnic holiday party, and if you are very, very lucky, you will see a cake as lucky and as artistic as this one.

Thank you, Xander. And everyone else.

Posted at 7:50 PM | Comments Off on More hugs…

Once upon a time…reflective glass balls…pretty much summed up the (Western/Christian) world. At this time of the year.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Wunce (= once)

Carol, the wonderous baker, made her superb muffins today—buttermilk, flax, walnuts, oat bran, and a huge variety of other nutritious ingredients lovingly blended to create the tastiest moooofins.

Posted at 8:16 PM | 2 Comments »

The brilliant sun this morning made short work of the overnight heavy frost.

We took a bit of a wander climbing away from the Ohio River, and stopped for lunch at a friendly looking restaurant in Brookville (that’s Indiana—we skipped Ohio on this run). And, indeed, everyone we met in town was friendly, and The Gallery Cafe’s food was tasty. I had spicy chicken chili—no beans. JCB had a breakfast platter with this interesting German-style “sausage” called goetta (the meat is mixed with steel-cut oats and fried in a very thin patty; goetta is a Cincinnati area specialty). We dined happily under walls covered with art by local artists, mostly paintings and photographs, all for sale.

Posted at 7:07 PM | 3 Comments »

Since I spent my afternoon at a lovely party chock-full of fascinating people, you’d think I’d have taken at least one picture. But no.

Heavy traffic coming out of Atlanta….

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Brain brain brain (semi-drained?)

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I continue to be amazed at the insect life I capture in close-up or close-in photos I take—critters I am only sometimes aware of when I capture the image.

If the resolution’s too hammered for you to spot “him,” “he’s” off to the right of the bloom. Why are bees “he” in my reflexive linguistic brain?

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Where he be?

Third day in a row I found it non-December warm. Pleasant, but I walked to the lib thinking we’re going to pay for this great weather. But I hope not.

Posted at 7:58 PM | Comments Off on Spiky and fluffy (plants)

View from Alston overlook, Atlanta Botanical Garden, as clouds assemble.

A sunny morning turned into a cloudy late afternoon while we perambulated in Piedmont Park and the Bot Garden. We hear the festival of the lights at the latter is worthwhile (it’s extra $$, even with an ABG membership), but that was difficult to discern in daylight.

If you are tempted by Fukuyama’s Origins of Political Order (it’s already on year-end book lists), I say: skip it; don’t waste your time. The theoretical premises he outlines are drawn heavily from the field of anthropology…of 30 years ago. Hrrrumph. Stanford can do better. So can his publisher.

Moving on….

Bread recipe here.

Posted at 5:44 PM | Comments Off on I smell bread baking

Mower and willow tree (I think) posing today in Piedmont Park.

Yesterday’s relatively early post managed to miss the big news of the day under this roof. Or, actually, the news was aborning, but I/we hadn’t realized it.

Some time around 5:30PM, shortly before I blogged, we had a power hit. Then, when I tried to restart my desktop, it…um…didn’t restart, but tried, and finally, appeared to be almost there.

Long story short, the Guru made a rescue mission to a computery big box store out in Gwinnett Cobb, and came back with a solid state hard drive. Or something.

Shortly thereafter, I fell asleep on the couch while the Guru performed drive-replacement surgery on my machine.

Angst reigned as it…um…wasn’t enough.

Early afternoon today, the Guru had a lightning bolt idea, updated Safari to the latest version, and all is now well. And my machine is faster, quieter, and, well, working properly!

Time Machine did its thing, I want to report. If you don’t have a leetle hard drive sitting next to your Mac with Time Machine running, well, you’ll get what you deserve. I lost maybe five minutes worth of work. And that’s all.

Posted at 7:12 PM | Comments Off on Love love love Time Machine (and the Guru’s diagnostic skills)

Yes, we’re in the off season for plants, but today turned into plant day. I really enjoyed the sunlight streaming in the window on the white poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) NT sent over—just gorgeous. And then, on the way back from the library, I strolled into our fav&#8209or&#8209ite neighborhood hardware store, which has a decent plant section, and picked up a few paperwhite bulbs, ready to be planted.

So, now I have a (fun!) chore for tomorrow!

Posted at 6:44 PM | Comments Off on Plant day (among other things)