avablog

It doesn’t seem possible we’re coming up on another Thanksgiving already. Why should the presence of a baby suddenly make time accelerate so drastically? Anyway. The schedule for this year is going to be the same as last. Wednesday I’ll roast a turkey and make a sweet potato dish with a streusel topping that was […]

[Read more →]

Halloween just ain’t what it used to be. It’d be great to have the kind of time I used to have to put together a nice elaborate costume, but that just isn’t going to happen these days. The good news is that we only live a couple blocks from one of the greatest stores ever: […]

[Read more →]

I’ve always enjoyed Webcams. No, no, not THOSE Webcams. Just regular ol’ Webcams pointed at stuff like cubicles or busy intersections or someone’s Halloween decorations. They’re a great combination of technology and voyeurism. I bought an iSight camera not too long after they were introduced. At the time, I wasn’t sure of much more than […]

[Read more →]

I’m not the most popular guy in the world (couldn’t guess from all the comments on the blog, eh?). It’s one thing to know that and to have fully internalized every aspect of that reality. But it’s another thing to have my Gmail account constantly slapping me in the face with these 100 invites. “Send […]

[Read more →]

From today’s news: A woman who said she heard voices in her head tossed her three young children off a pier into the San Francisco Bay, authorities said. Rescuers had found one body, and the other two children were feared dead. The mother, Lashaun Harris, 23, of Oakland, was booked on three counts of murder, […]

[Read more →]

The Seagate HD I ordered for the ministack arrived yesterday, so I was able to get that installed and running last evening. I moved my g2data directory again, so it now resides on the new drive. Speed seems OK this morning. Tonight I plan to connect my keyboard to the mini so I can restart […]

[Read more →]

I’ve been trying to figure out how to serve images to the blog now that I’m running Gallery2, which stores its sized images in .dat files rather than as scaled jpegs. I think I’ve figured out a method. So, here goes. The downside is that the images aren’t stored locally, although I do have copies […]

[Read more →]

Leah’s been beefing about the performance of the gallery since nicheplayer was moved over to the mini. From what I can determine, the slowdown is probably twofold. First, Gallery2 is a bit of a pig. It’s just slower than the 1.x versions. Second, the mini has a notebook drive in it, which runs at 5400RPM. […]

[Read more →]

Marcia made these this past weekend; they sound great. Time: 30 minutes 1¾ cups flour 2 teaspoons baking powder ¾ cup sugar ½ cup (packed) plus 2 tablespoons light brown sugar 1 teaspoon ground ginger 2/3 cup sour cream ½ cup vegetable oil 1 tablespoon honey 2 large eggs 1½ cups peeled, cored and finely […]

[Read more →]

I finally let my .Mac membership expire. Really, I never used my .mac e-mail address anymore, which was the only real benefit to the service for me. Now that I’m hosting all my sites and calendars from the mini, there’s no point in shelling out $100/yr for .Mac. Letting go, however, hasn’t been as easy […]

[Read more →]

I just sold my Cube last night on eBay. The auction price jumped $90 in the last 30 seconds, which is always a welcome turn of events when you’re a seller. As I was getting the Cube backed up and ready for sale, I was looking for information on how to give a buyer that […]

[Read more →]

Marcia sent this along today; it sure does look tasty. She suggests I up the onion a little to make up for eliminating the garlic. Maybe “eliminating” isn’t the best word to use in this context…. SQUASH BISQUE WITH MAPLE AND BOURBON Kurt Friese Here’s a simple soup that can be made using any winter […]

[Read more →]

I try to get in at least one long-ish bike ride every year. Last summer I rode a 100-mile loop down to Wapello and back. It was fun, but I ran into some bad weather on the way home and got pretty soaked. It was sunny and warm by the time I got home, though. […]

[Read more →]

Send me an e-mail that asks me to send it along to (x#) other people. I’m sure that something really cool happens if I add my name to the list and pester 10 of my friends to do the same, but on the chance that even one of these people finds these kinds of things […]

[Read more →]