Lost Geographer

Test - August 2007

Scarf

This scarf idea came from the book Last Minuted Knitted Gifts. I used Manos wool, which has a lot of varigation in width, in a burnt orange color, and a mohair in a lighter, almost coral color, knit in a single rib. It's a tad scratchy, but very warm.

scarf

Done Gone Home

A day in the life:

1. Wake up to three cats and dog in bed.
2. Shower, dress, and head down to favorite coffee shop in the world to get caffinated.
3. Trek with mother to drug store and then to yarn shop (also of favorite-in-world variety). Discover on drive that mother expects me to make entire T-giving day dinner. Have never done this before - not even remotely.
4. Head home, yank out Dad's old Fanny Farmer cookbook. Write down things I think I can make that sound Thanksgiving-ish. Yell and mother and brother to shut the hell up while I try to think.

]]> 5. Google 'How to cook turkey'.
6. Go with brother to grocery. Buy stuff.
7. Return home. Brother suggests an episode of Firefly, which I bought him on DVD in attempt to hook him in.
8. Watch not one but two episodes. Heh.
9. Run to barn to visit horse. Clean stall, chat with friends.
10. Drive by friends' place to say him. End up staying for dinner. Mmmm, pot roast. I never appreciated it properly when Dad was here to make it.
11. Home to try to thaw turkey in sink, seeing as how there's not enough time to thaw it in the fridge before T-giving. Must rotate water every 30 minutes.
12. Firefly
13. Firefly. Heh again. That's hook #2; should get new toaster in mail any day now.
14. From here through rest of night: thawing turkey.

Fish and webpage annoyances

Is there anyway to annotate style sheets or other web publishing system templates? When I wrote more AML (Arc Macro Language - a GIS thing), I could add things like '/*This piece of code sends the map to the plotter. You'd think after years of doing this you'd remember that, wouldn't you?', but when I tried something like that for this page's style sheet so that I can remember just what bits things like '#content h2' modify, it freaked and hid under the bed until I took it out. Am I just using the wrong characters to start?

So I don't have my links back, and I've yet to generate photo albums (Mo, I like yours - are you using the same program you used when you were on MT?), but it's a start. I do really like that you can categorize posts, and once it's set up I know I'll like it better than Blogger. I'd like to figure out how to turn off commenting on the Live Journal feed so that all comments end up here (I'm not a paid LJ member - do I need to do that? Would that be an annoying thing to do? Have I asked enough questions yet this morning?), but it's a start.

Anyway, this is my fish, Ollie. Marie picked him out; Sue gave me the tank. I tried to get him to stay still for better photos, but he refused.

Starting From Scratch (sort of) - plea for feedback

In migrating from Blogger to Movable Type, I've run into a few problems, so I decided to backtrack to MT's basic template. If you have a moment to do so, please comment, and if you have problems, let me know at kristin at lostgeographer dot net (if you're viewing this through Live Journal, you're looking at the site via a syndication feed - instead of hitting the 'comment' link in LJ, please click on through to to the actual website at www.lostgeographer.net and comment there). If all works, then I'll start adding in the design elements again.

Thanks!

More Canoeing Shots

I really like how the water floated on the surface of the lillies.

Canoeing

Chris bought a 17' Wenonah, and we took it out one day last week on Lake Glendale, which is tiny as lakes go, but is quiet and calm and beautiful.

More to follow.

Cha$ching

I was paying for chocolate truffles at the Chocolate Factory (across from Dixon Springs State Park, where my mom and uncle both once worked, and on the way to Golconda) when the cashier noticed the penny I gave her had a strange look, and offered it back. It's a 1919 wheat penny. It's only worth about $1, but still, it feels like a windfall.

Q: Lisa writes to ask: Does Starbucks really burn their coffee?

A: A former Starbucks roaster who had opened his own coffee shop once ranted to a friend and me for the entire time it took us to down our coffee about how Starbucks intentionally burns their beans. According to him, it makes the taste stays consistent longer (burnt beans don't taste stale, they just taste burnt), and that's played havoc with many Americans' coffee taste buds, who think good coffee is supposed to taste that way (and apparently with the Brits now too; the last time I was in London, everyone was carrying around the white and green logo'd paper cups).

I don't know if the story's true, although I've always thought it tasted burnt, too.

Hospital Food

Starbucks has come to my hometown.

My grandmother has been in the hospital for several weeks, a combination of a stroke, pneumonia, and old age. I'm in town to be with her. Mom and I went to visit Saturday after my flight got in, and she told me I'd have to see the new lounge area in the hospital. "They've got a Subway. And a Starbucks."

I thought she meant maybe that Subway served Starbucks coffee, but no, it's an actual Starbucks, in the hospital. I hate Starbucks coffee, but they make decent espresso, and I needed caffeine, so we went in and ordered Americanos. Turns out the barristas had just made two up for practice, so they gave them to us for free. They told us it's the only Starbucks for 100 miles. There are five parking spaces in the hospital lot particularly reserved, with 'for Starbucks customers only' signs.

My favorite coffee shop in the world is in downtown Paducah, and I don't want them to lose out on any business, but I have to admit that I'm sort of delighted by the hospital Starbucks. Even though they burn their coffee.

Riding

Marie came out and took photos while I was riding Poppy, and this was the best one.

Poppy is a 17 hand, 17 (18?) year old thoroughbred who went through serious hock surgery. She's very fronthand-heavy - it's hard for her to really use her back legs - so the side reins help. She's a dollbaby.

Sock!

I finished knitting a SOCK! Just ONE! And BAD PHOTO! But GO, ME!

Volunteer last night

I've helped the same little boy, a nine or ten year old with pale red hair, just about every Monday night since volunteer started in April. He has an attention problem, but otherwise seems quite bright. He's never bothered, however, to learn my name.

At the end of our session, the instructor always has the riders thank the horses and the volunteers. She stood by my shoulder and asked him to thank me - 'and what's your helper's name'?

'Thank you, Miss...' he regarded me critically for a second. 'Thank you, Miss Boobs'.

I'm glad Pep is such a patient pony; she didn't mind when the coordinator and I bent over double and howled.

British

I'm out of space temporarily, so no new pictures. In the meantime, a good link:

The American Guide to Speaking British

U.S. Military Clears A-Team of Charges.

Finally.