Mike is sleeping while I work, so I wear headphones. That way, I won’t wake him up. They are huge muthas that cover my entire ear. I feel like I stepped out of 1976 with these headphones.

These two articles show you how to make your own sandals from junk. I really liked the old tire sandals because they used to be a fad when I was in high school. Kids would come back from their trip to California and wear the tire sandals that they got from Tijuana. I remember them turning your feet black for the first few months that you wore them.

• MAKE: Blog: HOW TO – Make sandals made from old tires

I just don’t have any old tires to make sandals out of. Do you have a set of old tires lying around your house? I never have. Grocery bags, however. I’ve got tons of them.

• Crafster – Crocheted grocery bag shoes

I am really excited about these grocery bag sandals and they are the next crafty project on my list. I’m gathering the bags in anticipation.

I just finished reading a bunch of weblogs from people that I met at SXSW. They have been going for so many years that the conference is just a footnote in their lives now. They don’t seem to be dealing with the stomach crushing loneliness.

Maybe it’s because they live in San Francisco, where Web 2.0 is growing in hype a lot more than substance.

Maybe it’s because they have gone for so many years that they are jaded.

Maybe it’s because they aren’t Drama Queens.

Whatever…

I just am feeling lonely here in Salt Lake. I felt a little better when I made a list of the smartest and most engaging friends that we know here in the city. I feel a little better each time we go to dinner or lunch with people on my list. The only times this really hits me is when I realize how few people I saw while I was in SXSW. There were so many great people I could have met that I missed in the hallways.

Maybe it isn’t loneliness. Maybe it’s regret.

I regret going to bed early. I regret not talking to more people in the hallways. I regret not going out to lunch with more people. I regret not going to any of the parties.

I was bright and chipper for the panels, but I didn’t meet and get to know nearly as many people as I wanted to.

Well, next year, they’ll be no sleep. I’ll just keep meeting people all day and all night. They’ll be no stopping me because this regret sucks.

On Thursday, big snow flakes fell and covered my car and the lawn and everything inbetween. I’ve been running the humidifier to stave off a sinus headache. The drugs didn’t work, the bed buddy didn’t work, only the humidifier has been able to keep my headache away. It covers the cold window with condensation.

I’m angry right now, which is something I should never do. Angry blogging. Drunk blogging. Sick blogging. They’re all things that everyone should avoid. But, I’m still angry and I want to vent.

There is SO much talk about advertising, commercialization and monetization of websites. Not only do Jason Kottke’s fans think that they have a say whether he puts ads on his weblog (kottke.org), the important people in the videoblogging world have their say about things:

• MICHAEL VERDI » Experiment

• Momentshowing: VIDEO: A Videoblog circa 2006

• Ryanne’s Video Blog – Digital Bonnie and Clyde

They insist that the money changes the content and act as if advertising were a BAD thing. I just want to go on the record saying that advertising is a GOOD thing. If it weren’t for the advertising dollars that we make, I wouldn’t be able to be a full time writer. I would be trying to cram my writing into my free time after I got home from eight hours at work. I would be producing a lot LESS art if it wasn’t for advertising.

I just want to go on the record as saying that advertising is important.

To quote James Hetfield, of Metallica,

“Did we sellout? Hell Yeah! We sellout every concert we perform!”

Just in case you thought I was creating ART and this isn’t a commercial site, I’m here to tell you that this IS a commercial website and I AM creating art. They aren’t mutually exclusive. Insisting that they are just limits them both.

I found a new weblog that specializes in optical illusions. I have been enjoying it greatly.

• Mighty Optical Illusions

Thought you’d might like to take a look.

This was my first year at SXSW. Mike and I took a walk at lunch and at one point, he stopped.

“This is where the kickball game usually is.”

He sighed and looked at the empty field.

Anil Dash is the guy who usually sets up the kickball game and this is why there wasn’t one this year.

• Anil Dash: KICKless in Austin

Honestly, the kickball game is where a lot of people find out who’s there and who’s not. Because Anil Dash wasn’t there, a wrench was thrown into the whole works. Sure hope he’s able to attend next year. I never got to experience the joy that is kickball.

Talking to a camera is so much more difficult than typing on my keyboard. Sometimes I feel like the ideas come out of my fingers instead of my mouth.

We live down the street from Guthrie Bicycle. That won’t be the case for long because this fall they are moving to a new building on 800 East, but for now, we still live down the street from a bike store. The weather is getting nice. I can tell because people are testing bikes.

They ride up and down my street and I watch them from my window. The tags announcing the prices and features of the bike flutter in the air as they speed past me. Sometimes one person will test several bikes, but usually it’s a one ride affair. I see them ride north, turn around and ride south and disappear to the front of the building.

I never see them again and I never know if they bought the bike or not…

I was sitting on my chair in the bedroom when I noticed that Maggie was cleaning Linda. Usually these sessions end up with a cat fight, so I ran to get my camera. Three minutes later, Maggie casually jumped down from the bed and it was all over: no cat fight, just a quiet moment in my life captured on film.

It’s no wonder that Maggie pukes up huge white hairballs on a regular basis…

I’m reluctant to post anything serious on this day because I’m worried that people won’t take it seriously and will think that I’m just joking.

I HATE practical jokes. I don’t really care for April Fool’s Day either.

I did notice that they are having a bridal show at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake today. I wonder if that’s an April Fool’s Day joke…

The sad thing is we have so many bridal shows in the Salt Lake Valley (and Utah Valley) that it was inevitable that one would fall on April Fool’s Day.

A lot of people are talking about Apple’s Eminem commercial and how much it looks like the Lugz boots commercial:

• Is Imitation Flattery, Theft or Just Coincidence? – New York Times

• The iPod Observer – Now Playing – Lugz Boots Ad Creators Upset Over New iPod Spot

• Apple, The King of Orginal Design, Looks…Um…Like a Copycat In Its New Ad.

The only problem is that not very many of them have tracked down links to the two commercials so that you can compare yourself. Here they are:

• PSYOP::::::persuade::change::influence:::::::Lugz

• Apple – iTunes – TV Ad – Eminem

After creating the corresponding commercial clips and reducing them so much in size, they DO look very similar. After watching each commercial, however. the Eminem/Apple commercial is so much more inspiring. Do you want to know why?

Because of the music.

Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” is such an inspiring song that the similarity between the two commercials fades very quickly.

Isn’t that what Apple was trying to say anyway?

Let’s get serious, though. Can Lugz really make a claim on earth tones, breakdancing, and spray paint?

Via: Crossroads Dispatches: Sound Familiar? Apple’s Psychedelic Psychographics

As I walked past the NuCrisp Popcorn building, I noticed something different. Someone had cleaned up the clutter in the store. For the last few years, the NuCrisp Popcorn building has been used to store someone’s treasures. Of all the clutter, the only thing I remember is an original Strawberry Shortcake toy in its box. The other day, however, it was gone, along with much of the other clutter. Someone had arranged the wall with hooks and hung gift bags on them. A wide assortment of gift bags in many colors and sizes. I was struck with panic.

Someone was cleaning up the NuCrisp Popcorn building and were going to use it for something.

To me, it didn’t matter what the something was going to be. The sick feeling in my gut was telling me to hurry and take a picture of the NuCrisp sign because soon it would be gone and all that would be left is some bland store with a backlit awning.

So I grabbed my camera and took pictures…

Something about me truly loves the old neon and light bulb signs that were so popular in the late fifties and early sixties. Every marquee that is taken down is an ache in my heart. I suspect we’ll be losing the NuCrisp Popcorn sign soon and all that will be left are my photos.

Last week I took a walk around my neighborhood. On the corner of 900 East and 1300 South, I crossed paths with this person. I don’t know if you can tell, but he was holding one large doll and had three smaller baby dolls in his messenger bag, slung over his shoulder. He looked a little too clean to be homeless, but he had that air about him. I felt like I was walking through his living room.

He scared me enough to slow my pace so that I wouldn’t be too close when he crossed, but not enough to keep me from clicking a picture of him after he passed. I realized uncomfortably that I would have been less scared of him if he had been carrying a rifle…

Last Friday, Mike and I went on a date, so I straightened my hair. It’s naturally curly, so the process takes about 30 minutes. I feel like a different person when I straighten my hair and I always vow that I’m going to do it every day when I see how shiny it looks.

Of course, the last time I straightened my hair, it was for Halloween. So much for hair styling vows…

I don’t know if you noticed or not, but I have uploaded a couple videos to YouTube. I didn’t read the Terms of Use, but I should have. According to them, YouTube can redistribute any video that I provide them. They could add it to a DVD and release it. They could sell it to a television station. They don’t have to pay me a penny to do it, either. Here is a quote from their Terms of Use:

“[B]y submitting the User Submissions to YouTube, you hereby grant YouTube a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the User Submissions in connection with the YouTube Website and YouTube’s (and its successor’s) business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the YouTube Website (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels.”

I didn’t know this when I started adding video to my weblog and it’s not like the couple of videos that I uploaded were worth anything more than a memory for me, but I wanted to spread the word. You should also check the terms for Google Video, Yahoo Video and AOL Video before using them also.

Now, how DO you add video to your weblog without letting big corporations own them?

Lucky for me, I attended the How To Add Video To Your Weblog panel at SXSW. Mike Verdi has an online tutorial about the nitty gritty of both starting a blog and uploading the video:

• Freevlog: Tutorial – A step-by-step guide to setting up a videoblog for free

There is also a script generator that will help you embed your video easily:

• embedthevideo.com – Video Pop-Up Link Maker

I found these tools very helpful to get me past the fear of putting my own video on my weblogs. Stay tuned for video glimpses into my life.

I just heard the news that the actor who played G’Kar on Babylon 5, Andrea Katsulas, died on February 13. He was only 59 years old and died of lung cancer.

• Blog of Death: Andreas Katsulas

Babylon 5 was a science fiction television series that I have a love/hate relationship with. I LOVE all the characters and I truly enjoyed watching for the first three seasons or so. After that, however, all the characters were so embedded in treachery and suffering that it was difficult for me to watch. When G’Kar lost his eye to torture, my heart ached.

I never finished watching the series, even though we had video taped them all. Our local station was so difficult to get a clear signal with an antenna that we subscribed to cable because of Babylon 5. My sister, Stacey, consumed the entire series over the course of a few months by borrowing all our old VHS tapes.

Now, we own the entire series on DVD and I STILL haven’t watched it all the way through. I guess I should pull out those discs and start watching because I just don’t want to accept that G’Kar died of lung cancer in the end…

Lisa Williams was one of the wittiest people I met at SXSW this year. I have been enjoying her weblog since then. Here is my favorite post so far:

• Learning The Lessons of Nixon » Happiness is a fresh clean library card

I still have my original library card.

I was in the fifth grade when I got it (ten years old). My name was printed in clear letters on the signature line, “Laura Lund.” I can tell it was fifth grade because I had changed over to the more formal style “a”, but I hadn’t learned how to write it easily yet. It’s funny how personal archaeology works.

The blue dot means that I can check out books at the Salt Lake City Library System as well as the county libraries. I use the Salt Lake County Libraries much more than the city system because their website is so darned convenient. I can look up books, DVDs and music online, put it on hold and the system will call my cell phone when they are at the library waiting for me. I hardly ever just peruse my local branch anymore. A visit to the library has become a quick run in, grab my items from the hold shelf and a check out.

I love this old card because it’s so easy to spot among the plethora of client loyalty cards that I am now required to cart around. Their new cards are plain, blue and white atrocities that look like a health insurance card. They are completely unremarkable and easily forgettable. I’ll keep my bright yellow card, even though it’s over 25 years old, for as long as they let me.

Another person I met at SXSW, Amy, writes MommyBrain. This entry really touched me.

• Mommybrain » If I’d Used It, It Would Be Gone

When my grandma died, Stacey and I cleaned out her personal items because it was too hard on my grandpa to do it.

At one point, I opened a drawer full of silky and lacy underwear. Every item still had the tag on them. I knew that my grandma had been saving those beautiful underthings for a special occasion. She never got to wear them.

I burst into tears…

Since that day, I have been the kind of person to use all my pretty Post-It Notes, fancy soaps and smelly candles. I never want to have someone else clean out my drawers and find that I never got to use my best stuff.

This boat is older than I am, so I can’t claim she was named after me. I do hold a page of Google search entries before her, though, so I can’t be jealous.

• Nelsons Boats – Donaghadee – Laura Moncur

Apparently, she’s for sale. This is what they say about her:

“Laura Moncur” the former Buckie Lifeboat, built 1961 and sold by the RNLI 1988. with 4berth cabin forward accessed through engine room or from maindeck. Galley / saloon aft. Central wheelhouse with radar, radio and navigation equipment. Twin Gardner 5LW diesels with all the usual lifeboat refinements. This boat has been excellently maintained by its owner and has had annual out of water re-fit, June 2005. including complete repaint.

Most of that description doesn’t really mean much to me. I like a boat with a saloon. Of all the descriptions that they use to make her sound appealing, I’m most uneasy with this one…

She is ready to be enjoyed by the next discerning owner.

Michael Verdi was another person I saw at SXSW. This short video, Wishbone, is genius. Michael’s father, Jerry, was coming off of the drugs after his open heart surgery and he was waxing philisophical about wishbones. Michael was able to capture it on video.

This is why I love technology. If Michael hadn’t had his tiny Sanyo camera in his pocket when his dad started talking, he wouldn’t have been able to capture this moment. I’m just so grateful for the technology that is available right now. I have the same features on my Panasonic and have used it to capture video that has meant something to me. I’m so glad that Michael Verdi was willing to share this with us all.

Every day I write in my personal journal. Sometimes I write before I do any work. Sometimes I write after all the work of the day is done. Other times, I write when I can’t think of anything else to write.

When I was at SXSW, I attended a panel with the fellows responsible for skinnyCorp. They are the Threadless guys who make the cool t-shirts that all those hipster kids are wearing these days.

Hipster t-shirts aside, these guys have written a great little plugin that makes reading long websites like Boing Boing or Engadget MUCH easier. It’s called skinnyScroller and you can get it here:

• skinnyCorp creates communities – skinnyScroller

I am always amazed at the willingness of people to create things to solve their own problems and then share them with the world. I have been bothered many times because of needing to scroll a website, but I never once thought of writing some code to solve that problem. My answer was to get a scrolling mouse, which doesn’t really make things easier for me, just one-handed.

Thanks, guys!

I’m sitting at Sugarhouse Coffee. I’m here because I’m grieving the loss of all the cool people I met at SXSW. When I woke up in my hotel on Wednesday morning, I had this feeling of sadness. I was sad that the conference was over and that I had to go home. I have felt this feeling before at the end of a good vacation, but this was different. I didn’t want to stay a couple extra days in Austin. What I was grieving was leaving the city. I was grieving every cool person I had met over the previous few days. They were all going home or had already gone home. Austin felt like an empty shell.

I sat on the hotel bed next to Mike while he snored away. I pulled out my journal and wrote about the empty feeling in the pit of my stomach. I tried to brainstorm ideas.

• Maybe I could organize a SXSW meetup in Salt Lake City. Sadly only 20 people in the entire state of Utah attended. There weren’t enough in SLC to organize a proper meetup.

• Maybe I could go to another conference soon. Are there any other conferences as creatively stimulating as SXSW? I had no idea.

• Maybe I could find a tribe of creative people who are just as interesting as the people at SXSW. I have been trying to do this for years and I don’t really have hope for this.

So, with no ideas, I just wandered around the hotel room. I packed up our dirty clothes. I checked my email. I read some online comics. I waited for Mike to wake up until I couldn’t wait anymore. I held back the tears as I tried to describe to him the sense of loss I was feeling. His advice helped a little bit.

It gets better next year.

So, I’m here at Sugarhouse Coffee. I’m writing my entries. I have been able to do a full day’s worth of work in a few hours by typing my entries to the beat of the indie music. There are noisy people around me and they wear hipster t-shirts, but there is also an autistic guy in the corner rocking back and forth. It’s raining outside, so the kids are all crammed into the shop. I’ve paid for a month of Internet access here, so I can work in the noise and pretend that these people are my tribe. Maybe I’ll collect a group of Salt Lake people just as interesting and energetic as the people I met at SXSW, but until then, I’ll distract myself.

Grocery shopping started out with a bang yesterday. I parked toward the back of the parking lot because the lot was full. The lot is almost always full at Harmon’s, so I tend to just park in the back by habit rather than trying to search for a spot up close. As I pulled the key out of the ignition, I saw a minivan full of girls with balloons and signs. They were cheering and jumping. I thought it must be a birthday party.

By the time we walked to the front door, I realized that I was wrong. It wasn’t a birthday party. It’s Girl Scout Cookie Time. Mike looked at me and asked, “How much cash do you have?” I chuckled to myself and offered him all the bills in my purse. We had enough to buy seven boxes. That is basically an infinite amount of cookies in Mike’s mind. I let him choose to his heart’s content and he bought four boxes. As we were paying, I heard a guy come up and ask a question.

“You guys giving a discount if I buy a bunch of these?”

I laughed to myself and decided to give the guy a hard time.

“Did I just hear you trying to rip off some Girl Scouts?”

His face reddened and he immediately back-pedaled, trying to spin his question positively,

“No, I was just asking about their marketing. I was just wondering if they were marketing well, you know… If I buy a lot of these, can I get a discount?”

The Girl Scout mother answered, ending my amusement at his discomfort,

“Tell ya what. You buy a case and it will cost you forty bucks instead of forty-two.”

I laughed and took our boxes back to the car.

Later, Mike mentioned the incident,

“You know, that guy wasn’t trying to rip off those Girl Scouts.”

“He wasn’t?”

“No, he was trying to find an excuse to buy a lot of boxes.”

I chuckled, “Yeah, I bet you’re right.”

Gene is back and has posted a series of photos taken with a Bessa Camera. I love the photo above, but sizing it to fit on my site has ruined it. See the full size photo here:

• Gene McSweeney Photography – BESSA

I love Gene’s photographs. He takes me to a place that is so different from my wintery dessert.

Mike was driving south on 9th East in the rain. All the lights were reflecting on the car and the street, so I took the camera and caught as much of it as I could.

This was less than a minute out of my life, but I wanted to remember it. I was so happy and the lights were so beautiful. How can such a short time feel so long?

Awhile back, Boing Boing linked to a web site that showed you how to make tiny oranges with polymer clay.

• Boing Boing: How to make miniature modelling clay oranges

They were so realistic looking, that I have been tempted to jump into another hobby. I tried to find the site again, but it is gone. Fortunately, the Way Back Machine has an archive of it.

• The Way Back Machine – Intro – Angie Scarr – Oranges Project

There are a bunch of books that give you step-by-step instructions on how to make realistic looking food. I think people do this for doll houses, but it looks so interesting that I spent 45 minutes in the art store the other day just looking through the books.

I went home empty-handed. It looks fun and interesting, but I am full of hobbies. Playing with polymer clay looks like it would be entertaining, but the simple fact is I was fully entertained just by reading the books without touching any clay.

I was taught that if you’re not fifteen minutes early, you’re late.

I arrived early and waited for the panel to start. Ever since Dooce’s Keynote, I’ve worried about my appreciation for all the people here. Does it push me into stalker status if I went to this panel just because Maggie Mason was the moderator? Does it assuage my guilt if I actually enjoyed and learned alot from the panel?

By the way, I need to learn how to click the camera one-handed without moving my hand.

Today I took my notes on my laptop all day. I have two batteries and they lasted all day for me. They would have gotten even better time if I had remembered to turn off the wireless. I don’t know why, but I was reluctant to cart around my laptop and take notes on it all day long. I felt more comfortable with the paper notes that I took on Saturday than pulling out my laptop and typing. I wish I understood this. My laptop is my sole source of writing when I’m out of town. Why would I be reluctant to take notes on it?

Sink or Swim: (left to right) Michael Lopp, Joel Spolsky, Cabel Sasser, Evan Wiliams, Joshua Schachter

The Sink or Swim panel was really helpful to me. Since it’s just Mike and me working on all our websites it was interesting to hear about other startup companies and what they have done that worked and what didn’t.

Us and Them: A Blog Conversation Survival Guide: (left to right) Nancy White, Jimmy Bise Jr., Grace Davis, Bill Anderson, Tisha Grier

This was a panel that discussed weblogs and enforcing civility on our comments so that the readers are civil to us and each other. They recommended a book in this panel called Choosing Civility. It’s a book of twenty-five rules of how we should deal with each other. I wish everyone on the Internet would adhere to these rules of civility. Civilization doesn’t just happen. We have to enforce it. I don’t require that you wear white gloves when you comment on my website, but you do have to be nice.

SXSW Keynote: (left to right) Jason Kottke and Heather Armstrong

I’ve linked to Heather’s website (www.dooce.com) several times because of the wonderful glimpses into her life that she has written. When she talks about her fans and how passionate and angry they get at her, I begin to worry about myself. Am I too much of a fan just because I read her site every day and make sure I attend her keynote speech? Am I a stalker? I live in the same city. Does that make me an obsessed fan? Considering how many other weblogs I also read, I guess not. It sounds like her stalker fans need a lesson in civility.

Bloggers in Love: Intimacy and Mask Making: (left to right) Lisa Williams, Julie Leung, Chris Pirillo, Ponzi Indharasophang, George Sessum, Jeneane Sessum, Heather Champ, Derek Powazek

When I am writing, there are many times when I say too much. I reveal something to the world that other people might not want revealed. This panel talked about dealing with those issues with your significant other. They had three sets of couples that could answer the questions about how much revelation is too much.

Serious Games for Learning: (left to right) Dr. Jim Bower, Michael Whalen, Erwin Kaplan, Jim Brazell

The most interesting person on this panel was Dr. Jim Bower, who has run Whyville.net since May 1999. It is a game site online that teaches math and science to children. He shared the statistics of his sites and how it was set up to teach math and science to children 8-15 years old. It has become a popular site for girls ages 10-18, which just goes to show the world how wrong it is about girls. They have their own newspaper that the children submit articles. It was amazing and I could have listened to Dr. Bower talk the whole hour, but he only was able to talk for about ten minutes.

Yesterday’s sessions were busy and I didn’t feel like going to the outdoor parties or the weblog awards. We had an enjoyable dinner with a bunch of wonderful people. I have enjoyed this conference so much. I have so many ideas and book recommendations that I can’t wait to get home and start reading.

Mike said that my head would be full of new ideas. My brain isn’t quite FULL, but I have a bunch of new ideas and, even better, I have a list of books to read. I don’t know why, but I took a picture of the people at some of the panels I attended.

Better Blogging Brainstorming: (left to right: Tony Pierce, Min Kim, Helen Hearn, Cam Barett, and Liza Sabater)

We Got Naked, Now What?: (left to right: Alisa Camahort, Evelyn Rodriguez, Lena Dawes, Jory Des Jardines and Elaine Liner)

The Wisdom of Crowds: James Surowiecki

I also attended the keynote speech with Jason Fried and Jim Coudal and a presentation from Kathy Sierra (How To Create Passionate Users), but for some reason I didn’t take pictures. I hadn’t heard of any of these people before I came here today, so it’s not like they are celebrities to me, but I did find everything they said interesting and worth listening to.

I remember being stuck at work last year while Mike was at SXSW and seeing pictures of the panels on other people’s websites. I remember feeling incredibly left out and wondering what the people were saying behind those tables and name cards. Now, I’ve been to the panels and I know what they said. I took eight pages of notes and I write small. I probably should have brought my laptop and typed my notes. Maybe that’s what I’ll do tomorrow.

After the conference, we went to find some good local food, but first Mike needed his picture with the Podcast Pickle.

The Podcast Pickle seems to be a popular fellow:

• David, would you pose with the Podcast Pickle? on Flickr – Photo Sharing!

• In Austin… on Flickr – Photo Sharing!

• Podcast Pickle? on Flickr – Photo Sharing!

Scott, another attendee of the last session, came with us in the search for food. We tried to go to Stubb’s BBQ, but the place was packed and had a wait of over an hour, so we walked back toward the Hilton. On the way, we found a Korean restaurant and had an enjoyable conversation about sci-fi and streaming radio. I love to get a new recommendation for sci-fi authors and Scott gave me one: Elizabeth Moon. She has 26 titles at the Salt Lake County Library. That should keep me busy for a while. Thanks, Scott!

As I looked out the small window of the plane, I saw big blue and green tents near the airport. “They must be having a party or something,” I thought to myself and tried to imagine what a picture of the tents would look like. By the time we drove past them in the taxi, I was already drunk on the warm and humid air. I could smell flowers and it felt like late spring in Utah. The big blue and green tents were for airport parking, by the way. I guess they protect the cars from the Texas sun.

After we got our badges for the conference, we stood in line for the free canvas bag of goodies. I noticed a girl peeking behind the curtain and had this vision of the Wizard of Oz being angered at her impertinence. When I took my turn peeking behind the curtain, I saw the rows upon rows of canvas bags waiting for the attendees.

We took the trolley to the local grocery store (HEB) and ate at Ironworks. After my plane-sick stomach was full of beef barbeque, we took a twilight walk around the area. The air was full of a thousand bird calls. Every bird call you have heard was coming from the trees behind the Austin Convention Center. They were full of grackles. The flocks flew past us, singing their stolen songs. We didn’t dare stand under the trees.

I don’t know the name of this building yet, but as soon as I do, I will change the description. Right now, it’s called the most impressive building in Austin, Texas.

Tired from travelling, we sat on the benches outside of the Hilton Hotel, listening to the music coming in from the steak and sushi restaurant. I called my mom to tell her that I had made it safely to Austin and we talked about the conference. “Don’t trust everyone there. Conferences tend to attract scum bums.” I don’t know exactly what she was trying to protect me from, but I thanked her for her advice. Mike finished his call with his parents and we sat at the bench, staring at the manhole cover.

“Brown Eyed Girl” started playing at the restaurant and the two of us kissed.

A visit to the art store can be as refreshing as a hot tub in the winter.

I worked so late the other day that I could see the sunset reflected on my neighbor’s house.

A special thanks to Wil Wheaton for directing me to Re-Imagineering. It’s a weblog written by Pixar employees on how they would re-imagineer Disneyland and Disney World. The Disney World stuff is lost on me since I’ve never been there, but I love to read about what they would like to do with Disneyland since it’s such a fixture for me.

I particularly liked this entry about how they would love to bring back Adventure through Inner Space.

• Re-Imagineering: Revisiting Inner Space

They planned on putting it where Honey, I Shrunk the Audience is currently located. Just like Captain Eo before it, this attraction was passable when it was new and unbearable as the years have gone on. I would love to see the return of ATIS. An updated version that is more accurate scientifically and less psychedelic would be really appreciated.

Until then, we’ll have to just watch the Adventure Through Inner Space DVD over and over.

Via: WWdN: In Exile: down the rabbit hole, into tomorrowland and beyond

I work barefooted almost every day and then wonder why I feel cold all the time. You’d think I’d learn to put on a pair of slippers or socks.

Knitting has gotten a lot of attention lately. There are lots of knitting magazines at the grocery store, whereas two years ago, there was only one. Crochet is still ignored, but knitting is enjoying a comeback right now.

I crochet. I’ve talked about this before, but I have never crocheted vindictive vegetables.

• Veggie Liberation Army

You can download a pattern for the Psychotic Tomato on this website and they are selling a beautiful pattern for a jellyfish.

These are some mad crocheting skillz here!

Via: gadgetgirl: The Good, The Bad and the Veggie

I should have taken a picture of it. My words are not nearly descriptive enough to fully illustrate the purple fondue.

Mike and I first made it months and months ago. We decided to make fondue at the last minute and the only wine we had was a tiny individual serving bottle of cabernet sauvignon. The fondue was purple. Not burgundy, or a healthy color of a dark wine, the fondue turned out grapety purple. It looked like Play-Doh, but it tasted delicious. The peppery undertones of the wine accented the cheese and garlic beautifully. Mike and I ate the whole thing happily despite the color.

We kind of forgot about the purple fondue for the next few months, but when Mike asked me what I wanted for Valentine’s Day, I told him I wanted to stay home and make purple fondue. We used the leftover half of bottle of cabernet sauvignon from the Halloween party and it was perfect. It was so good, we decided to have Stacey and Dan over to feed them purple fondue.

“You weren’t joking about the Play-Doh.”

That was the only negative thing that was said because after they tasted it, we kept eating until it was gone. Carrots, cauliflower, apples and three types of bread all happily dipped into the purple goo. The house smelled like garlic, wine, onions and cheese. We talked and enjoyed the food.

I don’t know why this hasn’t caught on. I found one recipe (Red Wine Fondue Recipe) online that calls for a red wine, but the cabernet sauvignon is the best to use with cheese and there is nothing out there. I guess it’s because the color of the fondue looks far too much like purple Play-Doh.

I should have taken a picture…

Update 04-14-08: Mike made Purple Fondue for my birthday this year and we finally took photos of it.

Update 02-02-12: I swear I wrote the recipe down, but when I searched for the words, Purple Fondue, all I got was this entry. Here is the recipe we usually use.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1 cup cabernet sauvignon (we use the Yellow Tail brand because that’s what we used the first time and it worked so well)
• 1 tablespoon flour (we use tapioca flour because I’m gluten sensitive, but wheat and rice flour work as well)
• 1 cup Gruyere cheese, shredded
• 1 cup sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1 cup Emmentaler cheese, shredded
• 1/2 cup chopped green onions
• Cracked pepper to taste

Directions

• On medium heat, melt the butter in the electric fondue pot and add the garlic and onions. Brown the onions until they turn clear and leave lots of brown bits at the bottom of the fondue pot.
• Increase the setting to high and add the wine to the pot. Stir it around until it sops up all the brown bits on the bottom of the fondue pot (lots of good flavor there). Bring the wine to a boil.
• While the wine is coming to a boil, add the flour to the cheeses in a large ziploc bag and shake them around until all the shreds of cheese are coated with a fine dusting of flour.
• Decrease the setting to medium and add the cheese to the boiling wine mixture in small handfuls, stirring with a fork. Keep adding the cheese until you get a thick consistency that bubbles like a Yellowstone paint pot.
• It will be QUITE purple. Don’t let that stop you. I promise. It doesn’t taste like a grape Jolly Rancher.
• Once the fondue is thick and bubbling, adjust the temperature so that it keeps warm, but doesn’t burn. Add the green onions and cracked pepper on top and you’re ready to dip in!

Fondue Dippers

• Cut green apples
• Bite-sized pieces of celery
• Baby carrots
• Stale bread chunks (gluten-free bread is ALWAYS stale, so that’s easy for me)
• Small broccoli bites
• Cauliflower

Purple Fondue has become our traditional Valentine’s Dinner. For the last six years, we’ve had Purple Fondue every year, even when we were in San Diego, visiting Matt and Christy Strebe. We all enjoyed Mike’s lovely concoction. I can’t wait for Valentine’s Day this year!