We are getting a new car on Saturday, if all goes well.

I thought that we could handle two kids and a dog in the Civic for a while, but um...we can't. It's fine if it's just me and the kids, but when Dan comes along it's uncomfortable. Adrian's carseat is long, so the passenger seat is practically pulled up to the windshield. Unless the passenger is a legless human torso, the passenger is not happy.

And even less so with a dog on his/her lap, which is the only place for Bugs to ride when he comes along. Did I mention that Bugs is a terrible car dog? He insists on STANDING, first of all, so here is this dog who must STAND on your lap. And then he fidgets, and freaks out if the road is curvy. So just imagine being wedged into this seat with no legroom, your forehead practically resting against the windshield, and holding a wildly clawing dog on your lap who won't sit down. THAT'S why we need a new car.

We were going to wait for some kind of hybrid station wagon or minivan to come out, but who even knows when that will be. And I'm not settling for one of those "hybrid SUVs" that get like, 20 miles per gallon. What the hell's the point?

There is a beauty of a hybrid minivan out in Japan right now. It has tons of cargo space and gets fantastic gas mileage. But it will probably take forever to arrive here, and when it does it will be so beefed up that it will probably be a 25 MPG waste of time like all the others.

So in the meantime we are going for the best option currently available, which is the 2005 VW Passat Wagon. It's not hybrid, it's one of those new clean super-efficient diesels that get an average of 38 MPG, and we can run it on biodiesel. There is even a biodiesel filling station here in San Jose.

I'm trading in my Hybrid Civic. The dealership is all the way in Petaluma though, a 2 hour drive. With two kids in the car, one potentially screaming at high volume. Ugh. And then we have to sit at the dealership while they inspect my car and do the sale paperwork. Several hours. I'm considering just sending Dan, because this trip does not sound fun in the least.

But it will be nice to have a new car, especially one that sips gas. Bugs gets his own spot. And I get heated seats!

Posted by msLaura at 09:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Sorry, I *thought* that comments had been enabled, but apparently not. I had to set up an authentication system because I was getting about 50 spam comments a day on this blog about Viagra and casinos and growing huge penises. But then the login wasn't working, which I only just had pointed out to me. (Thanks Linda!)

Anyway, to comment you just have to register for free with TypeKey, and then you can comment all you like, not only on this blog but many others. And now you don't have to wait for me to manually approve your comment anymore. Once you're in, you're in.

So comment away!

Posted by msLaura at 07:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The nightmare of geek nightmares happened last week. I came home and had a Blue Screen of Death on my laptop. My hard drive had fried, irreparably.

Of course I freaked out. Me, without internet access? In the midst of the holiday season? Right when I was due to update my website with 4 new products? AAARRGGHHHH!

In the end I was able to resurrect my old desktop from it's buggy, barely-running state, and use that as a temporary solution until Dell could express a new hard drive to me. And it looks like I had most of my important files and data successfully saved onto my backup server.

The only thing that is sorely missing from the backup is my Outlook folder with all emails and attachments from the past, oh...8 months or so. That is bad. Very bad. All of my customer and vendor communications, addresses, phone numbers, emails to and from friends, deep thoughts, etc. PLUS all the faxes that I had just sent while in Southern CA dealing with my grandfather's death and grandmother's Alzheimer's or dementia or whatever it is that makes her not remember things from one moment to the next. Funeral paperwork, all that...gone.

I removed my Outlook files from the backup schedule because I always have Outlook open, and it can't back the file up when Outlook is open. And silly me, I never thought to close down Outlook every once in a while and back things up manually. So now I'm screwed. But not nearly as bad as I could be.

Well, I learned my lesson. Back up, back up, back up. EVERYTHING.

Posted by msLaura at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My new Solar Fly Trap KICKS ASS, originally uploaded by mslaura.

There must be a hundred flies in there. Jesus Christ, I didn't even know we had that many flies in the neighborhood! Totally gross.

I put in the nasty-smelling yeast bait that's been fermenting in a plastic gallon milk jug for the past week and they went NUTS this morning. They must have called up every relative for miles around to come and check out the new vile smelling brew in the Baker/Hamilton backyard.

I can't even find any flies in the chicken run now. I think they are *all* in the trap.

DIE SUCKERS! YES!

I am fighting this battle on another front too...I put the maggot-hunting gnat larvae in the soil around the run the other night (after Henrietta went to bed, so she wouldn't immediately dig them up and eat them).

So not only am I trapping every adult fly in a mile radius, I am going after their kids too.

Victory is mine, I can smell it.

Posted by msLaura at 02:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I just fixed the email notification feature at right. I didn't realize it wasn't working, but apparently I forgot to configure something or add in some random line of code to turn it on when I was setting up this blog.

Anyway, all fixed now. If you want to receive notifications, then have at it!

Posted by msLaura at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Major Geek Alert!

I just found out about the coolest Periodic Table of the Elements ever:

Theodore Gray is one of the founders of Wolfram Research, the company behind Mathematica. In his spare time he has a passion for creating unusual and quite beautiful representations of the periodic table of the elements.

Every element has a pretty side, and in this poster I have tried to give each one a chance to show off what makes it unique and beautiful.

For example the noble gases are represented by discharge tubes that display their characteristic colors in an electric arc. Iodine was photographed while being heated from below to bring out the distinctive and lovely purple vapor it gives off at elevated temperatures. Niobium is represented by an ultra-high purity crystal ribbon, an attractive form that few people have ever seen. Silicon, in contrast, is represented by a relatively low-purity sample, but one that is just plain good-looking.

I was always fascinated by the Periodic Table. I spent quite a bit of time in Chemistry classes poring over the various elements on the big wall chart, especially when the lecture was rather boring that day. I always found it interesting to see photographs of the elements in their pure form, but I didn't come across them too often. Besides, the textbooks aren't too good at depicting elements that are gaseous, or that only exist in laboratories for a fraction of a second.

Of course, I like to read the dictionary too.

But hey, even if you don't personally find this too interesting, it would be nice to order one for your child's science classroom, or for a geeky friend. It would make a sweet gift for young budding geeks. Theodore offers several different sizes and some are quite cheap. I'm going to put a big one in Julian's room. Um, mostly for me. ;-)

Posted by msLaura at 07:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've officially moved into the Super Spaz phase of pregnancy. Not a day passes that I don't trip over the ends of my shoes, or fail to lift my foot high enough to clear a step. It's driving me mad.

Today Julian and I went hiking. I started off the hike by somehow managing to get a yellow jacket *inside* my hiking sandal, where it stung me with full force right on the tender arch of my foot. I got it out and brutally squashed the shit out of it, then I pulled the stinger out of my foot. I thought yellow jackets didn't leave stingers? Anyway, this one did.

I've been stung before, and it usually feels better after a few minutes, so I kept on trudging along, trying to walk on the side of my foot to give my arch a break. It DID feel better shortly, and I finished the hike just fine, but tonight my foot is swollen and painful. No doubt due to the location. Stung in the arch of my foot! Jesus, might as well sting my armpit or my lip or something. But I don't have to *walk* on those.

Last week I was working on building the chicken run and I managed to slip while using a tool and drive it deep into the pad of my hand. Ouch! It hurt badly for a few days, but I did not develop tetanus, for which I'm profoundly grateful, because I think my vaccination has expired, now that I think about it. Anyway, it has finally healed up now.

Last week I also walked into the edge of our bedframe in the dark on my way out to the hot tub and barked my shin pretty badly. It hurt like hell, but I didn't realize until a DAY later (when I thought to actually look at it) that I had neatly carved a chunk out of my shin, and I now had a big bloody hole in my leg where the chunk no longer was. I just thought that there was some blood that had crusted over, but then I saw that actually the skin was missing in a big chunk. I didn't even realize it until it started really hurting and I figured that I had better put some peroxide and antibiotic ointment and a bandage on it.

This afternoon I tripped over the step to the garage again and *almost* wiped out badly, but earlier today was the real doozy.

I was coming downhill while hiking, with Julian on my back. I navigated the dry slippery trail itself just fine, but when I got to a paved road it was covered with fine gravel right at the edge. I stepped out onto the road and immediately did a cartoonish roller-skates-on-a-banana-peel type slip. BOTH my feet were up in the air at one point, and I was SURE that I was going to go down, and go down HARD.

Somehow, miraculously, I regained my balance. I still don't know how, because not only were both feet in the air, I think they were both above my head at one point too. And then I scambled and pedaled in the air like crazy and my feet went back on the ground. TOTAL adrenaline rush!

I yelled 'HOLY CRAP! THAT WAS CLOSE!" to no one in particular and Julian asked me calmly and completely unfazed, "What happened Mama?"

"I almost FELL DOWN AND HURT BOTH OF US, that's what happened! Whoa!"

"Oh." And he went back to singing some nonsense song.

Of course, I havve been known to spaz out even when not pregnant. Last winter I was coming up the two steps from our backyard into our bedroom and tripped on the first step. I reached out to steady myself as I started to fall, but with such force that instead I *punched* the drainpipe like I was going for a TKO. Right on my pinkie knuckle, and I smashed it in and badly sprained it. That sucker hurt for two months, and every time it was almost healed I would reach out for some random item, miscalculate, and end up punching with my knuckle right in the same spot.

It was like when you keep biting that same bitten spot on your cheek, over and over and over again. Maddening.

The most embarrassing spaz I have ever done though, was with my brother-in-law Mike. I was holding a Big Gulp sized Coke, truly enormous. I don't even know why I had it, because normally I don't drink Coke, especially not that much Coke at once! But I guess I was thirsty, or especially hot, I don't know.

Anyway, I had this Big Gulp drink and I was sitting at the table at my in-laws house, chatting with Mike. I went to bring the drink to my mouth and I inexplicably spazzed out all of a sudden and lost my grip on it.

In slow motion I saw the drink fumbling in my hand, then I gripped it again, then it slipped again...the thing was suddenly ALIVE! It was like holding a cobra!

In slow-mo horror I saw the drink finally leap out of my hand in the direction of Mike, and literally DRENCH him from head to toe. He sat there completely astounded. I just threw an ENTIRE Big Gulp on him in his mother's kitchen, with no provocation or warning, in the middle of a normal conversation. Had I gone insane?

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry Mike! I don't know what happened, it slipped out of my hand. I just spazzed out for some reason! Ugh, let me help you clean up."

Sticky Coke all over the floor. All over everything. Ugh. Thank goodness he had a sense of humor about it. Both he and Dan will rib me about it from time to time. Usually Dan will say something like, "Watch out, or she'll throw a giant Coke on you. She's been known to do that."

Luckily I've only been doing physical damage to myself lately, and not others.But still, the whole Super Spaz thing is getting really, really old.

Posted by msLaura at 08:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Oh me oh my. I found the greatest website.

http://www.metaefficient.com

This is a geek girl (or guy)'s wet dream come true. It is "a Guide to the Most Efficient Things in the World", which means products that are often times revolutionary, sometimes just interesting, but in some way completely different from what you're used to seeing out there.

Bamboo socks anyone? After reading that bamboo fabric is silky, light, breathable, and one of the softest textiles in the world, I'm ready! Plus, it requires zero pesticides for cultivation.

How about a solar and biodiesel-powered RV? I also found some fully biodegradable diapers on this site too, and they are very cool. I like them a lot.

There are too many cool things to list on this site, but they even have a guide to the best indoor plants for removing common toxic household gases (like formaldehyde) from the air.

Check it out!

Posted by msLaura at 12:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm sitting on a giant bouncy ball in front of my computer right now, wearing a pair of ankle socks, a sundress I bought in Kauai, and a flannel pajama top. I have a cold, and I haven't really slept all that well for the past few days, except for the night before last, when I fell asleep curled up in front of the fireplace in the dog's bed at 9:15pm. Hey, it was available, it was soft, it was warm, and I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. Besides, he's been sleeping in *my* bed for many years now, so it's payback time.

Julian is in my arms semi-asleep. He woke up a few minutes ago screaming his lungs out...apparently he slept on his arm and it got pins-and-needles and freaked him out. So here I am in my crazy get-up, rocking him back to sleep (maybe) while I manually copy and paste each of my 180+ posts into the new blog system. Tiresome. My index finger is killing me from clicking so much, and now one-handed hunting and pecking on the keyboard.

I am brokenhearted. My pate en brioche bit the dust yesterday. Two bad things happened.

ONE: I used salted butter when I should have used unsalted butter. I would blame Julia for this, because she just said "butter" in the recipe. I should have known better, but it would have helped if she had specified. Maybe they only had unsalted butter back in the day when she wrote "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", I don't know. This made the brioche part a tad salty, which would have been OK, except then...

TWO: I added the aspic into the hole in the top of the brioche, to fill the space between that and the settled pate inside. I stirred it over a bowl of cracked ice, as specified, but I didn't boil it first to dissolve the gelatin powder. Julia didn't say anything about that! I'm guessing that's where I went wrong though.

Anyway, the gelatin liquid was nice and savory with beef broth and port, and it looked and felt syrupy, so I poured it in, but then it didn't gell up. Instead, it soaked my entire brioche base, and made a sodden mess. Ugh. It still looked nice, but tasted icky and wet. I saw that it wasn't gelling, so I added in some super-gelatiny aspic on top (that I had boiled and chilled first), but by that point it was too late. The damage was done.

This all happened about 45 minutes before I was supposed to be at the party with my creation. Luckily I decided to cut it open and test it first, which was when I discovered the soddenness of the brioche base. Taste test revealed that cold, mushy, broth-soaked brioche is not tasty at all.

Panicked and already late for the party, I decided to go to Trader Joe's and get some baguettes and pate there. No go, they were completely out of baguettes! So I picked up 5 of their new Tartes d'Alsace, which are spectacular, and three bottles of beaujolais nouveau, parce qu'il est arrive! Still panicky, I headed off to my party.

Well, the francais there couldn't have been more kind. This American woman shows up 30 minutes late to the dinner party, a complete stranger, all flustered, without the food that she was supposed to bring, and they were absolutely welcoming, courteous, and friendly. Complimented me on my excellent French (*blush*), offered me the tray of appetizers, mixed me up a kir, and put me at my ease right away. Anyone with derision for the French, you can kiss my ass. They are NICE PEOPLE. So put away those snide remarks, at least around me.

There were about 5 kids there, playing quietly in the next room. They were big fans of the TJ Tartes, which were as delicious as I anticipated, so at least that wasn't a bust. We had excellent food, wine and conversation around the dinner table on a range of interesting topics until midnight, when the party finally broke up.

Shockingly, the common American conversational topics of shopping, TV shows and recent movies did not come up once. I didn't even realize it until I was on my way home. Instead, we talked about cultural differences, food, travel , parenting, and politics (French, mostly). The usual (and yet quite unusual) conversational courtesies were extended...people posed questions about interesting subjects, listened intently to the answers, and refrained from prattling on ad nauseum about their own opinions and experiences unasked.

I must say, it was very refreshing to be in that company. It was a slight strain on my brain to comprehend everything after not really speaking French for 7+ years, but I did OK, considering. I'm always amazed at how it comes back so quickly.

Well, my butt and back are killing me, and I should wake this baby up, put on some non-pajama clothing, and eat some lunch. No more geeking for now. Oh, new pics are up, check 'em out.

Posted by msLaura at 01:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

OK, I've switched over from Blogger to Moveable Type, and it looks like MT is going to work much better. It's even free! BUT I still have to transfer over all 180+ of my old posts, and get my template back looking like it was before.

I've been troubleshooting for Julian's entire nap today, and I finally got a few old posts to show up, but I will have to manually open and change code in each one to get it to transfer. Haven't even started working on the look and feel stuff yet. I'm still publishing with the lame, generic Moveable Type template, which is why this page looks like this, if you're looking at a drab, blue, semi-ugly page right now.

This would be a fun challenge, if I weren't a busy mom with nearly zero free time for geeking out. And now that Julian's up from his nap, my geek time today is over. Sigh.

Now on to finishing up the VERY last step in my Pate en brioche....adding the port-and-beef-flavored aspic to fill in the space between the pate and the brioche. I have to chill it to almost solid, then pour it in through the tiny hole in the top of my creation. So far so good, I think. I hope I don't blow it at this point. Yikes.

Posted by msLaura at 01:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

Yeah! I love this story! A smart, studious girl saved 100 people from being killed or injured by the tsunmai in Thailand by, get this...her knowledge of geography!

Best quotes:
Bill Clinton: "Tilly's story is a simple reminder that education can make a difference between life and death."

Tilly: "I like geography."

Get the whole story here: Tsunami Hero Girl Sees U.N., Meets Clinton

Posted by msLaura at 07:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I haven't been able to check my email all day long, and my website has been MIA. D

Damn that Verio! I sent them an email asking what happened to my server, it was obviously down ALL MORNING and what the hell, people! Then I got no response, so I escalated it to the managment and sent them an email too.

Finally I called and got a recorded message saying that, because of Wilma, only emergency personnel were on site. Everyone else had been evacuated.

Oh. Oops. That's riiiiiiiiiiight. Verio has my server housed in Boca Raton, Florida. They have a hidden status update several layers down on their website (why is it not on the front page...duh!) that explains why the servers are all down. Apparently they have generator backup, but the generators that were tested and working just FOUR hours before the power went out, are not working now. You could *hear* the frustration in this update. God DAMN those generators!

Well, they hope to have them working by tomorrow morning sometime. For now my site is down, and going there I just get a 404, which is sad. But not having email is kind of restful, I must say.

Posted by msLaura at 12:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I just checked my site stats and was both amused and horrified to find out that the number one search engine keyword that led people to my site for the past zillion weeks in a row was FREEBALLING.

I assume the reason was the photo you see at left, which was on my old blog sans censorship, and which was titled, "Baby J freeballing in the grass in Mexico". Well, to all you freeballing Googlers out there, suck it!

Posted by msLaura at 04:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)