WhiskeyJack

10:54 pm - Best pen for leftys?

Anyone out there left-handed and want to offer an opinion?

04:57 pm - Star at the Opera

I don't think I posted this before. This is a link to an article with photos featuring 'my' horse in Gotterdammerung. Not her best angle but hey - she's on stage!

08:46 pm - Random Rant - "breaking in" shoes

Quick and to the point -- this is crap. The shoes either fit or they don't. There should be no 'breaking in' period which I think was invented by salesmen to sell you a pair. If the shoes are leather sometimes they can use their special shoe-tools to stretch it out until it fits right. You should not be using your feet to do the job. I do not have a standard size shoe yet I can somehow manage to find shoes and boots that fit the moment I buy them. If I can do it, so can you. Sometimes I screw up and I buy a pair that are later uncomfortable - I either find a way to fix them or eat the loss.

To ice skating mom: if your daughter tells you her feet hurt, you should not brush it off as 'breaking the skates in' - you should take them back to the pro shop and have them stretched, or I dunno, buy ones that fit right in the first place.

05:41 pm - Poop based humor

08:13 pm - Hummingbirds

There are at least 2 Anna's Hummingbirds hanging around the house. I saw one last week when I put up the sunflower seed feeder. She came to check it out and really looked it over for a while before flying off in a huff because it didn't have any sugar-water. (It really was a "huff" - I swear.) Since they were here anyway and I don't like to think about them dying because they don't have enough energy I went ahead and put out the hummingbird feeder. One of them found it and we've seen her regularly. The other one (I can't really tell them apart but I think there are two) keeps coming to the wrong feeder. She can't seem to find the right one because it's 10 feet away from where I hung it last year. I think she's mad at me.

04:28 pm - Mutant chickadee

There's a mutant chickadee hanging around. It's clearly a black-capped chickadee but he/she has broad white patches on his back and wings where they shouldn't be.

02:39 pm - Cooking with the bits and pieces

I'm making some odd things today. Whenever I buy a whole chicken I don't like to just toss the neck and livers so I've been saving those in the freezer along with the wing-tips and bones as I get them. I made stock with some of it last week and I'm going to use that along with some celery that's been in the fridge for too long to make cream of celery soup. I'm also making some chopped liver. This has the added benefit of clearing out some space in my freezer.

I'm going to use some of the cream of celery soup tonight with dinner but I'm probably the only one who will eat the chopped liver.

02:55 pm - One way my life now is like college

I never watch TV anymore. There is no time for it - most evenings we are reading/working/playing games with the kids. Sometimes we all watch a movie from Netflix. During the day I'm either working or driving kids around someplace. Sometimes I watch TV at the gym but I usually bring my ipod and listen to a podcast or music. We dropped our cable a while back and I can't say I'm missing it.

Also - I want to put in my plug for They Might Be Giants "Here Comes Science". We love it! I have a special fondness for "Why Does the Sun Really Shine?"

09:56 am - Local camera shop?

Does anyone know a good place for me to buy a used camera in the area? It turns out that it's not good for the camera if, for example, your toddler knocks it off the bleachers onto the wood floor 15' below. I'm looking for a point and shoot (nothing fancy) for $100 or less. I can find plenty online but I'd like to deal with a local company in case there is any sort of problem.

01:18 pm - Lookfar

(I already posted this on FB - I'll eventually get the app to crosspost automatically.)

I'm pretty sure that this is Sparrowhawk's boat.

It's for sale if anyone is interested.

03:57 pm - Oh Internet, I really do love you

Many years ago a very wise friend called the internet the "Misinformation Highway" but every now and then I come across gems like this and all is forgiven.

09:49 pm - Götterdämmerung

I'm riding Lenny this month because Star has a previous engagement. She had her regular shoes pulled and special black plastic ones put on so they would be quieter. By all accounts she's doing well and enjoys getting lots of treats. The previous horse was Blackie who was deemed not sound enough to participate this year. They are being filmed tonight for something being put together about the behind-the-scenes making of the opera. For the real performances she will have make-up to cover the white on her face - I gather it's supposed to be a black horse but I don't know if they are going to make all of her black (she's bay - brown with black legs, mane and tail).

I think this is funny every time I think about it.

06:05 pm - New nerd skills

I didn't think this day would ever come and I have made fun of this in the past, but I was putting color names onto swatches for my work today and I rejected 3 fonts because I didn't like the kerning.

Also I keep seeing "Papyrus" and it's starting to get on my nerves.

04:09 pm - Amazon reviews

I find that I learn a lot more about books I'm thinking about buying from the 1 and 2 star reviews than from the favorable reviews. A 5 star review always says, essentially, "I loved it, it was everything I wanted." The negative reviews frequently reveal a lot more about the reviewer: sometimes it is just "this stinks" but they usually stop to tell you why. An intelligent, insightful criticism can turn me off of something no matter how many favorable reviews it has. OTOH - if all the 1-star reviewers are a bunch of kooks I can't wait to buy it.

08:29 am - Cross Training for Moms

One of the nice benefits of riding horses is that I have to become very aware of exactly what my body is doing. When the horse pulls against my hand I have a tendency to first pull back slightly but then give her more rein. I wasn't aware of doing it - the instructor had to point it out. It's a bad habit because the slack rein is a reward for the horse so I am effectively training her to pull on my hand. This led to a conversation about how you are always training the horse. Sometimes people will ride on an off day and do something really wrong so she would correct them and they say, "Oh - well my lesson isn't until tomorrow." It doesn't matter - the horse doesn't make a distinction between lesson/not lesson so it's always important that you be aware of what you are teaching.

It is, of course, the same with dogs and also with children. You are always teaching them something - what are you teaching? I need to be aware.

We talked some about how to ride on a trail - you don't want to spend 2-4 hours constantly asking for perfection from the horse. The solution: don't ask. If you ask the horse to do something you need to make sure that it happens but if you know you won't have the time/ability to enforce it in the novel environment, make sure you don't ask. I learned the same things with dogs. When you teach a dog "come" at first you make sure that the dog is on a leash so if he doesn't understand or comply you can pull him over yourself. You move up to asking for it in a quiet place (no distractions) when you have a treat. Eventually you move up to asking in places where there are more and more distractions until, you hope, you can call your dog away from chasing a rabbit into a busy road and he will come because the response has become so automatic. If you rush the process and try to call him away from, say, playing with other dogs before he is ready you wind up saying "Come. Come! Come!" and you've just taught him that your words are meaningless.

I realize this is also true with kids but for some reason I find it much harder to apply. I remember when my son was running naked through the JCPenney I felt a lot of social pressure to 'discipline' - which is to say I felt like the other adults expected me to yell or say "Now cut that out!" in a stern voice. I didn't that time, but I have done it at other times. The kids are wild, I know I can't really get them to settle down but people are watching so I feel like I need to make the useless gesture. I need to stop that because it doesn't help me at all.

09:45 am - Help with handouts?

I'm looking for handouts to use while teaching 9 year olds geocaching. Does anyone know of anything good about maps, latitude-longitude or orienteering?

08:17 pm - Geocaching

I logged my first geocache finds today. I've found 2 before now but I hadn't bothered getting set up. Squirrel really liked it and was upset that we only looked for 3 when there were clearly 8 in the park. We now have something to do the next time we head out there.

We had the dog with us and that wasn't so great after all. He's really weak. In the off-leash area he went down a steep hill and then couldn't get back up again. The kids tried to lead him up to no avail and finally Dad had do climb down and carry him out in stages (he doesn't like being carried). We kept him on leash after that and he didn't fall but he did take every opportunity to rest. He'll be 15 this summer.

01:03 pm - Old Photos

I made copies of these while I was visiting my mother:
( Read more... )

09:08 pm - Gardening Day

I went to the Master Gardener Plant Sale today and got a vine maple, a japanese maple seedling and 5 tomato plants: Sungold, Super Sweet 100, Sun Cherry, Big Beef and Bloody Butcher. Then I played around in the yard and forgot to watch the Derby.

I also found this cute link.

02:40 pm - I don't want to do anything

I don't want to work, I don't want to clean. I'd like to sit out on the deck and drink margaritas and watch the kids play. Preferably without moving. And I don't want to cook dinner.