You call that competition?

The ol' alma mater hosted a debate competition over the weekend at which its teams administered a whuppin' announced today in a smug press release. But check this out:

"Whitman 'closed out' the competition when two of its two-person teams won both semifinal debates. When that happens in a college debate tournament, the two semifinal winners are declared co-champions without a final debate taking place."

(Maybe we should do that with presidential debates, too.)

As it happens, one of the "winning" teams is ranked No. 12 in the country (now, I'm not sure if that's the ESPN poll or the coaches' poll or if that's the BCS ranking) and the other "winning" team is No. 17. How are you supposed to move up if you can't even play the higher-ranked team?

What a stupid fucking rule.

Hall of Fame junkies

I guess the only real question here is:

What makes Barry Bonds different from Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa?

I'd say not much. Plus, they all have the first-and-last-name-starts-with-the-same-letter thing going.

Not exactly a bake sale, but it'll do

There you are, sitting in your comfortable chair at the Woodland Park Zoo, trying to figure out how to raise some cash.

Then it hits you: "Holy crap, maybe we should sell some shit."

And so you send a photo (the one you're looking at) and a press release, which includes this:

"It's time for Woodland Park Zoo's annual Spring Fecal Fest! The pungent piles of poop have cooked away hot as ever through the cold winter, producing beautiful mounds of the richest, highly aromatic, most exotic compost in the Pacific Northwest.

"As usual, due to the ever-increasing poopularity, a drawing is held for this spring's sale. Dr. Doo is accepting entry cards from March 25 until April 8 only. Remember, you may submit one request only. Phone orders will not be taken. However, if you just need more information, be sure to call the poop line at 206.625.POOP."

yegods.

"Pick-up dates begin April 21 and continue through April 30. Dr. Doo will randomly select as many cards as supplies of Zoo Doo allow and will contact you only if your lucky card was selected. The Fecal Fests traditionally sell out. And remember, you load the Zoo Doo yourself, using shovels the zoo provides.

"Prices for pick-up trucks are 8x4 bed $60; 6x4 bed $45; 6x3 bed $35. Garbage cans are$8 to $10, and bags are $4 to $6 depending on size. Limit one full truck per person. Two-gallon and pint-sized buckets also are available in the ZooStore for $14.95 and $4.95, respectively."

best picture?

I haven't seen "Brokeback Mountain," so I can't judge whether it was more deserving than "Crash," but I've seen the latter and found it inferior to "Cinderella Man" and "Jarhead," just to name a pair.

This reminds me of an idea I had some years back to treat the awards like halls of fame and sainthood and make the voters pick what was best five years ago... But I can barely remember what came out five years ago, so maybe there's a small flaw :)

The Tyngsborough Bridge

So many bolts, so little time to count them all...

Still waiting for Joe Purdy to completely release his new album, which can be heard, apparently in its entirety, at his strangely designed site.

fast swim to nowhere

Thursday was not a keeper - definitely a day I should have taken off without dipping my toes in the water. At least the short distance I swam I did quickly, easily staying ahead of Gary (I don't know why I named him that), who usually gets to a mile at the same time I hit 1,200 meters.

Spent the evening working on a version of Jefferson's Wheel Cipher, which is very cool, and also trying out an AppleScript version of the cipher written by my father. Also very cool!

Here, by the way, is a mildly amusing problem set that includes inquiries about how to attack Jefferson's gizmo.

Keep it up, Smiling Bob!

If you think "male enhancement" commercials are no more than a cock-and-bull story, you've got a friend in Bellevue, Wash.

Washington state Attorney General Rob McKenna (pictured at left), who lives in the Seattle suburb, on Thursday announced a multistate settlement with the maker of Enzyte, a "male enhancement" pill known for its "Smiling Bob" commercials.

McKenna was among attorneys general to reach a deal with Steve Warshak of Cincinnati, Ohio, and his dietary supplement firms Berkeley Premium Nutraceuticals, Lifekey Inc., Boland Naturals Inc., Warner Health Care, and Wagner Nutraceuticals, according to a prepared statement.

The states claimed Berkeley failed to inform consumers taking advantage of Enzyte's 30-day free trial that they would be automatically opted in to subsequent monthly shipments costing $39, and that the company made cancellation and refunds difficult.

Also alleged: Enzyte's maker made unsubstantiated claims about the efficacy of its product.

According to McKenna's office, Berkeley and Warshak deny the allegations but agreed to:
Stop using the word "free" in advertising unless all the terms and conditions related to the free offer are disclosed to the consumer and comply with state and federal laws.
Not make any health claims about products that they cannot support with scientific evidence.
Disclose information about any automatic shipments, memberships, refunds and guarantee procedures prior to a sale.
Record all telemarketing calls and retain them for one year.
Provide consumer restitution for all consumers who file complaints with the Attorney General’s office, the Better Business Bureau, or Berkeley within 90 days of the date of the settlement.

In its prepared statement Thursday, McKenna's office touted the settlement as a $5 million deal, but the statement laid out the actual terms as that Berkeley will pay $2.5 million to the states for investigation and litigation costs, and the penalty could be doubled through a civil fine if the company refuses to pay.

The Evergreen State's share of the settlement? $25,000.

Ursus maritimus

Last month brought a small piece of good news for people like me who are sick of reading permit requests from fuckups who want to import sport-hunted polar bears after their brave and glorious forays in the North.

Whether a listing as threatened would mean jack shit for polar bears shot by U.S. residents on foreign soil, I have no idea. Because it isn't my beat anymore, I decline, fair reader(s??), to find out :)

salvage logging and other idiots

OK, I get that all these decades of fire suppression have changed the forests, but why not just let nature take its course after a big fire?

Forest fires and regeneration were going on a long time before 4004 B.C. Who crowned us king monkeys?

Just leave the damn forest the hell alone.

Speaking of idiots, how's this for an agency's mission statement:

"Curtailing the intemperate use of alcohol and controlling the sale of beverages exceeding 16% alcohol."

Yet another reason to stay the hell away from Idaho. I do like those candy bars, however.

What's the difference between physics and psychology?

When you drop rocks, they always falls at the same rate.
When you drop people, they always fall at the same rate, but they always say different shit when they hit the ground.

OK, that joke was funnier in my head. Maybe I should take all the words out...

up, up goes the yardage

"In the next couple weeks" - my previous plan - turned out to be three, but I added 200 meters to the main part of the workout yesterday to bring it to 1,800 meters and the whole banana to 2,400 meters. I'm not sure how soon I'll get to my goal of 2 miles overall in the hour, but I hope to make that happen this year.

a couple of pictures from Japan

I especially like these two photos, which I shot at a shrine in the space of 20 or 30 minutes a couple of years ago.

small and delicious burros

My darling wife and I made (OK, mostly I in this case, but that's an aberration (and aberration is a weird-looking word!)) enchiladas/burritos Saturday:

8 burrito-size flour tortillas (today's word is "aside" - flour or corn? wouldn't that be wheat or corn?)

Sauce:
One large yellow onion, chopped
Six or seven cloves garlic, chopped
A can of crushed tomatoes in puree (I used about half of a big can)
1 tablespoon freshly ground coriander seeds
1 tablespoon freshly ground cumin seeds
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt

Filling
1 can corn
1 can black beans
1 pound boring-style mozzarella
chicken or turkey breast, seasoned, pan-cooked and shredded

Assemble and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.
tasty!

Texas man comes up short

"My heart is bigger than anybody else out there. If another skater had felt like I did today, he wouldn't have been on the podium. That's just me refusing to lose." - Chad Hedrick

uh, yeah, dude. except for the part where you "won" a silver medal.

Basket weave, Finnish twills, Gothic cross

Some examples of the latest: One of these photos is of a Finnish twill and an 8-fold basket weave, another is a pair of Finnish Twills and the third is a Gothic cross. Not all of these have been washed, so...

where can I get that jacket?

don't get too excited, this is just an anomalous flurry of photos.

Pisten bully

whatever they thought that might mean...
if you can guess the locale, you win a zillion bucks!

The candy bar that makes Idaho famous

is, of course, the frivolous and fun Idaho Spud. You can even get two dozen shipped anywhere in the United States (in the summer, shipped for a premium with dry ice - good for homemade bombs) for about 22 bucks.

Or just go to Apex, at the corner of Park and Alder streets...

iambic pentameter

is so 1600s. Yes, a plague on Sally Potter for nearly boring me to death.

less than speedy but more than slow

the usual suspect, 2,200 meters, ended at the same moment as lap-swim time, so that wasn't exactly the fastest swim on record. But last week was very poor (except for the probably foolish 7,500 meters Sunday afternoon), so I am wholly unconcerned.

well, my encouragement didn't result in Chad Hedrick entertaining me, but of course he came in third in the 1,500, so good job, jerkoff!

Hmmm. Hey, happy birthday, Chris! I should find a picture of you when you were younger (not a picture of you when you're older...), but too lazy :)

34 is super neat. I know this from vast (almost a whole month) experience. Just fantastic. Better than the alternative, at any rate.

long weekend's rest

Sometimes long weekends are just for chilling out... hung out with the dear, sweet wife, wove a bit, cooked a bit, watched a movie (The Aviator), played cards, bowled, had a beer. Yep, pretty heavy duty stuff.

All that, and filling out my first 1040x and a raft of other forms that head to Fresno today (fly like a bee!). No big deal.

Oh, and plus: Laughing at the Chad Hedrick/Shani Davis "feud." Sorry Chad, but you're really only here to entertain me, so get to it. :)

thinking video posts are out

on account of failing to post one. oh well, worth a try!

Fare thee well, Sammy Sosa

Slammin' Sammy has that Raffy McGwire look to him, like it's time to exit stage right and wait for The Call.

The talking heads are talking doping and how the ascension of apparent cleanskies Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn (gee, there's a guy who really grasped for the brass ring) might make Sosa's road to the Hall non-navigable.

Yeah, maybe.

But until doping came up a few years ago, nobody really talked about Cal Ripken's streak saving the game after the strike, or Tony Gwynn's golly-gee whiz-shucks crapola bringing the joy back to Mudville.

They talked about the Great Home Run Chase. Major League Baseball rode Sammy and Mark to riches, and the favor needs to be returned. In Sosa's case, in about five years.

blowverbod

The Dutch have a good handle on design, nee?

no great shakes, but swimming nonetheless

In a shortened session, put in a mile-plus at lunchtime... not wonderful because my neck was a little annoyed today, no doubt with how I slept on it.

Still, any swim is pretty nice!

Poachers and their bedfellows

Maybe Harry Whittington should have been on the other end of the shotgun, but at least he got his just desserts for being a God damn poacher: Neither he nor the vice president bothered to buy upland game bird stamps before they jumped in the car - the car, for Christ's sake - to drive around looking for quail to shoot.

Pathetic, but also funny.

Here's what the vice president (through his office) had to say about the whole matter:

"It has been brought to the Vice President's attention by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department this afternoon that, although he had acquired a 125 dollar Texas non-resident season hunting license, he lacked a 7 dollar stamp for hunting upland game birds. To address any questions about the licensing:

-- A member of the Vice President's staff wrote a check for 140 dollars understanding that this would purchase a Texas non-resident season hunting license that would permit the Vice President to hunt quail in Texas. It appears now that the license itself cost 125 dollars, and an extra 15 dollars covered the cost of a Federal migratory bird stamp. The Vice President did not need the Federal stamp, as he already possessed one.

-- The staff asked for all permits needed, but was not informed of the 7 dollar upland game bird stamp requirement.

-- Because the requirement is new, the Department has informed us that it is issuing warnings, and the Vice President expects to receive one. He will take whatever steps are needed to comply with applicable rules.

-- In the meantime, the Vice President has sent a 7 dollar check to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, which is the cost of an upland game bird stamp."

So pretty much it is OK to break the rules if you didn't stay up to date on them. Or, I should say, if your flunkies didn't stay up to date on them. I wonder if Cheney usually has someone else carry his gun (and yes, I am making a "Full Metal Jacket" reference).

I also notice the National Rifle Association shows no sign of issuing a safety-related statement on the matter. This is the best they could do.

Where's Eddie Eagle for such a great teaching moment?

Intelligence and so on

Spent a breezy three hours Monday at the Mother Ship, filling out forms and playing with pencils:

Timed tests:
ACER test of reasoning ability (I think, just some verbal and math reasoning stuff)
Raven Standard Progression Matrices, which is laid out pretty well here.

"Untimed" tests:
Kuder Preference Record (do you want to raise vegetables, write advertising copy for a typewriter manufacturer or keep the books for a bookkeeping service?)
a personal attitude questionnaire (MMPI Lite, more or less)

I enjoy standardized tests, so no big deal. The jury (aka the test interpreter) is out on results, however, so I'm left to be wicked curious as to how I did :)

Also, happy Valentine's Day!

two and change

Blew off swimming Friday and only played a bit of tennis Saturday, so I cashed in this afternoon (during the two-hour lap swim at the pool) and swam 3,800 meters. To my delight, I guess, the second mile was just as fast/slow as the first. What a deal.

I did actually get tired near the end, too. A good time, for certain!

snow tire idiots

Snow has fallen in our fair city a grand total of once this winter, but yet every day, many times a day, I hear cars equipped with studded tires drive by.

Not every day, but many times, I have also heard people whine and complain (whinge, even) about the poor quality of our streets. Indeed, the need for street repairs and road work has several times been cited as an argument against expensive municipal projects.

Gee, how might these two things be related? I want to follow city councilors - and peole who chime in during council meetings - around and see if any of them a) use studded tires; and b) whine about roads. I do, strangely believe it, have better things to do with my time.

Such as? Why, whinge about studded tires!

Liquor sales

Ah, the land of the free:

My pretty and youthful wife forgot her identification, so we were 86'd from Applebee's (OK, really we were just told we couldn't sit in the "bar area," but who would want to sit anywhere else in that establishment?).

The state Legislature is working on a bill that would allow out-of-state wineries and breweries to sell directly to retailers the same way in-state outfits do (no word on distilleries, because of course you can't buy spirits such as those at the market here). The legislation is essentially a court-ordered remedy to Washington's illegal system of discriminating against out-of-state (but in-country, for Christ's sake) businesses.

A fifth of Laphroiag costs $50 in Washington but $40 in New Hampshire. Maker's Mark has the same markup, $30 instead of $20.

So.

semi-intentional yardage increase

I have trouble keeping track of laps, so I try different tricks to keep count. Lately, I've been counting down instead of up and reminding myself at each lap whether the number is odd or even. For some reason, that seems to help.

Yesterday, I started my countdown for the main part of the swim at 30 (to do a 1,500), which is the distance I swam Monday to make sure I got in the full workout (I was running late and didn't think I'd have time to warm down for 100 meters).

I'd been doing 1,400 and hadn't planned to go up yet, but I found there was time for 1,500. But - yes, I'm a tad neurotic - I wanted to go up in 200-meter increments, just to push myself a little. So when I got to 19 on the countdown, I just did it three times, to get the main part of the swim to a mile.

And there I stand - 2,200 meters a day. Which is not tons, but I've really only got an hour unless I start swimming at 0530, which is certainly not in the cards. Or start swimming elsewhere, which I'm not going to do either.

I'm hoping to move up to 2,400 in the next couple of weeks. I'm also hoping my technique/fitness improve enough to make the yardage increases work in the alotted time. I could certainly swim much farther, but not much faster as of yet, so that's a small pickle. But hey, it's only been five months and a few days :)

woofs

are out of the woods in the northern Rocky Mountains, if you believe the Fish & Wildlife Service, which today published a proposed rule that would establish wolves in that area as a distinct population segment (any splitters out there want to claim they're a separate species?) and remove them from the endangered species list.

The population in 2004 had apparently reached 800-plus wolves in the region...

On a side note, the service wants to delist even though Wyoming, a recalcitrant jerkwater if ever there was one, hasn't coughed up an acceptable state law that the service says is needed to make the delisting a reality. The upshot is that the federal action would be contingent on state action. The service is more diplomatic than I am:

"However, we have determined that Wyoming State law and its wolf management plan do not provide the necessary regulatory mechanism to assure that Wyoming's share of a recovered NRM wolf population will be conserved if the ESA's protections were removed."

aka Wyoming is full of the same fuckups who shoot coyotes in southeast Washington, but in Wyoming, they put those fuckups in the Legislature.

sweet.

houses of worship

I oppose solemnity in churches. In the same way, I oppose the pomp and circumstance and obsequious applause attendant to speeches by presidents.

I guess that's nothing new. Churches remind me of a Mitch Hedberg joke:

I was reading a magazine at the 7-Eleven and the clerk said, "Hey man, this isn't a library."
I said, "OK, I'll talk louder."

backpacking pigeons and other odd ducks

My pretty comparative psychologist wife spotted this amusing story about smog-blogging pigeons carrying pollution detectors in their backpacks... most pigeons I know only carry crampons and clif bars.

Speaking of birds, here's a place to go as an antidote to late-night infomercials for Ionic Breezes (too bad they aren't Ionian breezes :) and Supreme Greens. But don't stay too long or you'll turn into a severe weirdo.

hurry-up offense

something Seattle could have used Sunday, and also something I had to use Monday to get 2,000 meters into 50 minutes. I guess the upshot is that I could go up in yardage again and not run out of time. food for thought.

Looking for a way to blow your hard-earned money on other people's junk? Here's an option.

sp continued

Well, as you might guess, the soup, while delicious, was a bit sweet...
Not in a change-the-recipe way, but in a serve-with-spicy/salty food way.

The Superb Owl and its mostly boring ads didn't move me, so I wove two scarves instead, Nos. 6 and 7 in the eight-fold basket weave. I also tinkered with a couple of variations in that weave, but one didn't work and the other, which was pretty, promised to be far too time-consuming.

So, on to a modified twill genus. If I get my act together, photos to follow.

sp

but not chicken noodle...

1 acorn squash
1 large yam (the orange sweet potato, not a real yam)
2 onions
6 cloves garlic
1 inch-and-a-half cube ginger
beef - a pound or pound and a half, I think
1 cup barley
3 large blops of yogurt, about the same of crushed tomatoes.
coriander, cumin, turmeric, fenugreek, cayenne, salt, pepper, paprika, fennel seed, caraway.
2 32-ounce yogurt container's worth of homemade chicken stock

makes TONS. Tasty? Should be but it is still on the stove, so who knows?

hopefully a good tonic for a night of over-indulgence (Friday). Demon rum!

2,000 and counting

I raised the yardage - to 500, 1,400, 100 - again Tuesday, thinking that the first of the month would be a good day to go up and that I might as well get a head start. The result was fine, but I ran low on time (the pool is only open to lap swimmers for an hour at the time I swim).

You can do the math: 2,000 meters in an hour is not exactly flying :) But I've only been at it for five months and I'm 62.5 percent of the way to my arbitrary goal of two miles a day.

The main body of yesterday's workout was 1,400 meters and took about 33 minutes, and a good (ok, really good!) 1,500 is 15 minutes. I think I need to pull my time down to the low-20-minute range to get the main body to 2,600 in the time I've got.

This is all a far cry from running, damn it. But I love the water!

When is your medical information everybody's business?

When you want to drive a commercial vehicle across state lines.

I can understand the reasons, but I'm not sure that I personally need to know that Johnny W. Bradford has a prosthetic eye...

Himalayan lamb barley soup

My father came for a visit, and one of the meals we had was from a recipe he found while looking for soups.

I tinkered, of course, and wound up using less butter (2 tablespoons, not 4) more onion (1 onion, not 1 cup), more ginger (a 1-inch cube, not 1 teaspoon) and chicken stock instead of lamb (but I used lamb shanks and stewed the meat-stripped bones with the lot, so I think it was plenty lamb-y). The soy sauce, which seems like an unusual soup ingredient to me, is indeed unusual, but also very good.

The soup - which was more like a stew - was even better on day two.

outstanding product recall notice!

The CPSC and L.L. Bean "together" announced recall Tuesday of a genus of products that include a no-battery flashlight and a compass. Here's the reason:

The products have a flashlight that relies on a powerful magnet and copper coil for manual recharging. The magnet adversely affects the polarity of the compass rendering it unreliable.

:)

on a less funny note, the flashlight could also, the notice suggests, interfere with an implantable cardiac defibrillator. but still...

Do people really read jumps?

Another thought that drifted in while counting the bolts on the Tyngsborough Bridge:

Do enough people really turn to Page A7 to make it worth the trouble?

I know some people will read the paper word for word regardless, but I'm not one of them. I think my jump percentage in 2005 was at least 60 percent, way over our stated goal of 25 percent but low if you consider that a previous employer assumes all A1 stories will jump and even has a designated page with no ads - "superjump" - for the A1 runover.

If you browse through front pages on any given day, you'll see a LOT of jumps. And if you listen to the tinny voices that squeak reason, you'll hear a lot about how readers don't like jumps.

Jumps are sometimes credited with allowing for more in-depth coverage than you get if you cut the hell out of everything. Maybe, but why not just run a non-jumped story with a refer to all the in-depth stuff on an inside page.

Hey, most stories aren't worth jumping, even if there's good information in them. A diligent reader won't expect the newspaper to be her only source of news and information and would just surf for the uncut versions online anyway.

So I've cut back. This month, I'm a little over our annual goal of 33 percent - 25 for 71 with two layout days (Monday and Tuesday) left to go. I'm not the page designer on Sundays or holidays, so I can't control every front page, but I can keep score, and this is a fairly fun challenge...

Odwalla v. Clif

I think Clif wins, but I like the occasional variety of the Odwalla. I'd really rather have biscuits and gravy over either one...

get to know your government

You pay for it, so you might as well know what it does, right?

While trolling through the Government Printing Office's offerings, I found this handy manual on the federal government.

The manual covers all the branches and agencies, as well as quasi-official outfits like the Smithsonian. First surprise? The legislative branch includes the U.S. Botanic Garden.

Alas, there's also plenty to bore you to tears.

Burns Supper - tasty!

The recipes came from Rampant Scotland's recipe section, and the menu was, indeed:

Chicken in the heather
Potato scones
Cauliflower cheese and whisky

and a bottle of Speyburn's 10-year old single-malt Scotch

The chicken was quite delicately flavored, which came as something of a surprise considering the ingredients. The sauce for the cauliflower - also a delicate dish - made a nice gravy for the chicken and potatoes, too. Quite good food, if I do say so myself, and it really only took about two hours from scratch to table.

Readings were read, of course, including a hilarious rendition by Dave of "Nine Inch Will Please a Lady."

I'm still leery of manufacturing haggis, but I think the supper's a keeper :)

"natural quiet" in the Grand Canyon

The Federal Aviation Administration and National Park Service published notice in the Federal Register today that indicates they're planning to get the ball rolling in an effort to cut down on aircraft noise at the Grand Canyon.

This "scoping process" comes prior to publication of a draft EIS. This means that if you've ever thought "those all suck" about the alternatives presented during the rule-making process, you should speak up now.

Want to comment? Send your thoughts by April 27 to Docket Management
System, Doc No. FAA-2005-23402, U.S. Department of Transportation, Room
Plaza 401, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC 20590-0001.

Happy Burns Day

I'm sure I should say something in Scottish (uh, so to speak), but instead I'll just say this, to my lovely wife:

As down the burn they took their way,
And thro' the flowery dale;
His cheek to hers he aft did lay,
And love was aye the tale:

With "Mary, when shall we return,
Sic pleasure to renew?"
Quoth Mary - "Love, I like the burn,
And aye shall follow you."

Burns Supper rough draft

to be revised at game time, but here's the general scheme:

Besides whisky, readings and song:

Chicken in the heather
Potato scones
Cauliflower cheese and whisky

OK, there's not a lot of leafy greens here, but there's not a lot of haggis, either :)

Also, the upped yardage worked OK on day three, but I still get that feeling I'll run out of gas during the warmpup. Which is weird, because even when I swim hard, I don't get that feeling after the warmup. Well, whatever.

A sign of the coming Apocalypse

While trolling the wires for a front page story this morning, I stumbled on a good first-person piece on the Fat Economy, in which the writer, who reports himself to be overweight, expounds on the goods and bads of the contribution of the over-heavy to the national piggy bank.

He also mentions, in passing, this business.

I especially like their use of a quotation from Isaiah. Nothing says "let's make a buck!" like Scripture.

increased yardage

Figuring that a plateau is not a good thing, I decided to step up my baseline workout from 1,600 meters to 1,800. No big deal, but I'm wondering if I can pick up enough speed to run it up to 2,000 (and beyond) and still have time in the generous 60 minutes (minus the slowpokes who run over and the pressure to get out early at the end to accomodate the next helping of pool users) alloted by the Facility Operations Cabal.

Also, awaiting audio gear that is alleged to be en route (or "in rout" if you work at an emergency services dispatch center) so as to carry out the podcast strategy. More on that to come...

Suitable word

is me.

Eight-fold basket weave, illustrated

So, here's what such animals look like. The patterns come from Marguerite Davison's "A Handweaver's Pattern Book," of which I have my mother's 1970s copy. It is also available new, amazingly enough.

For what it's worth, these are varieties II and III of the eight-fold basket weave, woven using four colors of a lambswool/silk blend, one of which is the borders in the warp and also the weft. I've also tinkered a little with using the other warp yarns as wefts, but I'm still mulling how to use them. The latter are quite subtle.

new to science

are a bunch of critters found in caves in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.

Pretty neat! I've always seen the ocean as the undiscovered country, but I think caves fit that bill, too.

a little weak

But still a mile in the water, so I suppose that is OK.

Having wound on a chocolate/cappucino warp, I started a scarf in an 8-fold basket weave, which would be easier to show than describe, of course. I think there's a saying about procrastination I'm supposed to insert here.

That link, by the way, is way better than this one.

Talk about the difference between night and day!

ok, cheesy, but I couldn't resist. Idioms are fun. So are scarves in 8-fold basket weave!

sandwiches

like pizza and the English language, sandwiches are easily done, but also easily done badly.

These guys make a very good one. A half sandwich - salami on eight-grain with dijon - makes a nice lunch (and no, you don't have to get a loaf of bread and some more people to go with it). A cookie, a soda and a friendly smile are nice, too!

callaloo

Having had callaloo soup once before, I decided to try to make it. It seems to be like so many other good foods, an item without a single recipe. This one looked good, so I fooled with it and got this:

saute for a few minutes in 2 T olive oil:

1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 jalapeno, finely chopped (see a theme here?)
2 tablespoons fresh thyme, finely chopped
3/4 stalk celery, finely chopped
4 green onion stalks (I just used the green part, but I'm sure the whole shebang would be great), chopped

then add and saute for a couple of minutes

1 box chopped frozen spinach, thawed out

stir in:
6 cups chicken broth (homemade, of course!)
1 can coconut milk
2 teaspoons salt
juice of a lime
meat from 2 dungeness crabs (these were about 4 pounds to start out, so I'm guessing a pound of meat?)
1 scotch bonnet, whole

raise to a boil, then lower heat and simmer about 45 minutes, then remove scotch bonnet and serve. Makes plenty, but not so much when you consider the cost of the ingredients.

Possible amendments: Add fresh grated ginger and maybe sea vegetable.

Oh, and it is delicious.

stuff arrives!

goggles (now assembled!) and trunks (no speedo yet :) and pants (that actually fit!), oh my.

hurray for shipping finally coming through.

I don't know that I'm done, but that makes 25 pounds or so and 2 pant sizes since August or so. Most of that was done early, but the second pant size is recent.

thank goodness.

nose clips needed?

perhaps so, thinks I. Although I don't have any problems in the pool, and very few at home, the next day from about 8:30 a.m. to at least lunchtime is runny nose city.

Unlucky? I guess so, but I didn't notice this problem until the venue switch, and even then it has only recently become a real nuisance. Maybe they've altered the chemistry... I've thought, too, of OTC remedies because my breathing rhythm involves exhaling through my snoot. I suppose it doesn't have to, so I'll experiment, and maybe ante up for clippies.

well, so it goes.

A national emergency

Lock the doors and hide the children!

Today's federal register includes the following presidential document:

Continuation of the National Emergency Relating
to Cuba and of the Emergency Authority Relating to the
Regulation of the Anchorage and Movement of Vessels

On March 1, 1996, by Proclamation 6867, a national
emergency was declared to address the disturbance or
threatened disturbance of international relations
caused by the February 24, 1996, destruction by the
Cuban government of two unarmed U.S.-registered
civilian aircraft in international airspace north of
Cuba. In July 1996 and on subsequent occasions, the
Cuban government stated its intent to forcefully defend
its sovereignty against any U.S.-registered vessels or
aircraft that might enter Cuban territorial waters or
airspace while involved in a flotilla or peaceful
protest. Since these events, the Cuban government has
not demonstrated that it will refrain from the future
use of reckless and excessive force against U.S.
vessels or aircraft that may engage in memorial
activities or peaceful protest north of Cuba. On
February 26, 2004, by Proclamation 7757, the scope of
the national emergency was expanded in order to deny
monetary and material support to the repressive Cuban
government, which had taken a series of steps to
destabilize relations with the United States, including
threatening to abrogate the Migration Accords with the
United States and to close the United States Interests
Section.

Therefore, in accordance with section 202(d) of the
National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I am
continuing for 1 year the national emergency with
respect to Cuba and the emergency authority relating to
the regulation of the anchorage and movement of vessels
set out in Proclamation 6687, as amended and expanded
by Proclamation 7757.

To which I say: Rubbish and horseshit. But thanks for keeping us safe, big guy.

need more time/more speed

probably the latter more than the former. Wednesday's swim was a 500 meter and a mile and according to the pool authorities ran 12 seconds over the alotted time for lap swimmers. drat.

I could see the heat coming, so the last 100 or 150 was pretty quick. Which shows I now have more than two speeds (sink & swim).

On a related note, swim gear I ordered Friday shipped (not arrived, damn it) yesterday. Yegods, I didn't order a swimming POOL, just some regular stuff. Maybe they had to manufacture each item first. By hand.

In an unrelated development, the last scarf of warp II is on deck, which means a flurry of warping over the weekend. And a coincidental flurry of forgetting to post images of the stock so far. :)

In pursuit of the American dream

The National Taxpayer Advocate, Nina E. Olson, issued her annual report today , the highlight of which - if you are a wire service - is red-flagging the Internal Revenue Service for delaying tens or even hundreds of thousands of tax refunds each year because of alleged impropriety on taxpayers' parts. The evil of the delays, Olson writes, is compounded by their disproportionate effect on poor people and failure by the IRS to notify folks they're suspected of being brigands and thieves.

The advocate is charged with outlining the top 20 problems facing American taxpayers each year, and this year she found 21 top nuisances. The top problem is so boring you would fall asleep if I copied it from her report, the No. 2 problem is the above and the No. 3 problem (I remind you, facing the American taxpayer) is "The Cash Economy."

According to the advocate, unreported income in this arena adds up to $100 billion or more each year, and her bizarre logic concludes that self-employed tax cheaters (she saddles this group with the majority of the blame in this category) cost law-abiding taxpayers $2,000 each per year.

Right, so if all cash economy earnings were reported, the IRS would reduce each taxpayer's bill by $2,000? Um, Earth to Ogden?

Besides which, the advocate's Top 21 didn't even throw a bone to the self-employed, who enjoy the advantage of plenty of special treatment from the IRS and our excellent tax code.

If you look through the other 18 "top problems" you'll see the taxpayer advocate is maybe not looking out for the little guy as much as her refund-delay spiel suggests.

Color me unimpressed.

sunday swimming

just a typical workout - 500 meters, then 1,000, then 100 to cool down. That's turned out to be the baseline. so, nothing much to report :)

let it be resolved...

I don't know about how other people do it, but I usually wind up making my new year's resolutions well into the new year. Say, about Burns Day.

Besides private resolutions, I'm not sure what to shoot for this year except for one thing: Become an active podcaster (and soon!). I see Comedy Central almost has the idea, but shows yet again - by streaming its video on only one platform - that big media doesn't have all the answers.

there's a fly in my soup!

In the form of this guy, also a regular at the pool, who apparently hasn't figured out that the Monkey Playing Soldier (yeah, yeah, Plane) puts his arms in other people's space. If you're going to do a backstroke, keep your damn hands out of my lane.

There's plenty of room because the pool is configured for the lap swim with only two lane dividers instead of five. In each of these three boulevards the establishment seems to believe belong three swimmers, so their ingenious configuration increases turbulence while reducing the number of swimmers. Super!

Mostly, though, I'm annoyed with backstroke guy, who swims close to the lane barrier and swipes at passers-by, who include me. Well, whatever. He stayed the hell away from me Thursday, to swim about 2,200 meters unmolested.

A folk song archive

While shopping for White Stripes music at the iTunes Music Store, I found the band's cool rendition of Black Jack Davey, a song I hadn't heard before. I listened to the other versions available at the store, but they did nothing for me. So I went out a-huntin'.

And found this

As the site - and others - notes, Max Hunter was a traveling salesman in the Ozarks (based near my sometimes old stomping grounds in Springfield, Mo.) and recorded about 1,600 songs from 1956-1976. What a feat he performed! You can access all these recordings for free, and with ease, bro.

I particulary like Black Jack Davey (and Black Jack Davy, respectively) sung by Wise Jones and Sara Jo Bell...

It's always nice to find these treasures :)

fundamental attribution error

No, I'm not talking about psychology: When is attribution necessary? Only when the news is bad? Obviously, the answer is no. But check out these three wire services stories (and the two write-thrus that followed):

By ALLEN G. BREED
of The Associated Press
TALLMANSVILLE, W.Va. _ Twelve of the 13 miners trapped in an explosion in a coal mine were found alive late Tuesday after more than 41 hours underground, turning a community's worst fears to unbridled joy. Family members streamed from the church where they had kept vigil, shouting "Praise the Lord!"
Bells at the church rang out as family members ran out screaming in jubilation. Relatives yelled "They're alive!"
"They told us they have 12 alive," said Gov. Joe Manchin, leader of the nation's No. 2 coal-producing state. "We have some people that are going to need some medical attention."

By Jonathan Peterson and Stephen Braun
of the Los Angeles Times
TALLMANSVILLE, W.Va. -- In a dramatic end to two days of desperation in the West Virginia hollows, rescuers late Tuesday found
12 exhausted coal miners alive deep inside a remote mineshaft, threatened by rising concentrations of deadly carbon monoxide gas.
The body of a 13th miner was found earlier in the night by searchers, leading to grim speculation that the other men missing since an explosion in the mine Monday were also likely dead. But just before midnight, the roar of jubilant shouts from rescue crews near the mine entrance signaled that searchers proceeding cautiously 260 feet below ground had found all the remaining miners.

By Ann Scott Tyson
of The Washington Post
SAGO, W.Va. _ A dozen miners trapped 12,000 feet into a mountainside since early Monday were found alive Tuesday night just hours after rescuers found the body of a 13th man, who died in an explosion in an adjacent coal mine that was sealed off in early December.
The bells at the Sago Baptist Church pealed, and joyous relatives rushed outside to celebrate their miracle: Miners surfacing after being underground in the cold, damp chamber for 41 hours. Gov. Joe Manchin III said some would need medical attention.
"Everybody ran from the church screaming, `They're alive! They're coming!'" said Loretta Ables, whose fiance, Fred Ware, was among the missing miners. She had lost hope when she learned about the dangerously high levels of carbon monoxide in the mine, but she was elated as she waited outside the church. "I feel great, very great."

Now, check out these:

By ALLEN G. BREED
of The Associated Press
TALLMANSVILLE, W.Va. _ Family members learned early Wednesday that 11 of the 12 coal miners who were initially thought to have survived an explosion in a coal mine have died.
Families learned of the deaths from mine officials more than three hours after Gov. Joe Manchin said he had been told 12 of the miners survived the disaster. The sole survivor of the disaster was hospitalized, a doctor said.

By Jonathan Peterson and Stephen Braun
of the Los Angeles Times
TALLMANSVILLE, W.Va. -- Only hours after family members were told that 12 coal miners had been found alive, officials announced Wednesday morning that in fact only one had survived Monday morning's explosion.
Jubilation had broken out when word that rescuers near the mine entrance signaled that they had found a dozen men 41 hours after the deadly explosion. But three hours later, families learned that only one person, Ronald McCloy, had been transported alive to the hospital.


The back story, revealed in some of the reports to varying degrees, is that miscommunication sparked a rumor, which led to cell-phone conversations that were overheard, which propagated the rumor, that these guys had made it (or something like that). If you drop by www.newseum.org, you will see widespread complicity by recipients of the wire stories, who to be fair wouldn't have been able to ferret out reasons for skepticism from the stories as they arrived over the wires - because those stories contained no attribution for the key statement. That should have been a signal, of course, of trouble.

The mistakes of media are no tragedy here, but are silly and embarassing. One can only hope the hand wringing about the erroneous report isn't louder than the hand wringing about the 12 miners who never made it home.

out of the holidaze

which means, I hope, a good stretch of routine in the pool. I still haven't resolved what to resolve as far as that goes. I'd like to pick something hard but reachable, naturally...

Closing in on the end of a warp, which opens up the possibilities again, and my plan is to put on a couple more this weekend. The selling hour draws near. :)

fishy times

Wednesday was benchmark day for one of the less-serious new year's resolutions, which is to swim faster than before (should be doable, eh?). So I swam a mile in 37 minutes, which is, I see to my amusement, extremely s l o w.

But you have to start somewhere. Or, I was actually swimming faster and couldn't read the clock. I seriously doubt that, however.

So that leaves a big question, which is what to set as a goal. I'm thinking that maybe not the 2008 cutoff of 15:53 or whatever it is. TBD, I suppose.

in stagnum quies est

back in the pool

for a very lonely workout.

convergent features reporting

Random thoughts collected while pondering the number of bolts in the Tyngsborough Bridge.

With all the yip-yap (I think that's also a brand of dog treats) about convergence, I think it's time to get on board. I don't have audio gear, I'm not sure the camcorder I've got is up to the struggle and there're only 24 hours in a day, but hey, ya works with whats ya have.

That said, I've come up with a couple of subjects that can be handled with relative ease:

One is strolls in the city, which was the idea behind this blog in the first place. The print piece would be cake - a map, a photo or two and a short feature, maybe focusing on one piece of the walk. The podcast could be an edited, voiced-over video stroll. It could be a slide show, I guess, but zzzzzzz. I suppose it would be possible to have audio-only, too, but that seems passe.

Another would serve as partial culimination of a long-term project that involves cooking, and would be essentially a TV show writ small. Its print potential is high, too. Ironically, or maybe just coincidentally, I think the model for production of print & video of the cooking show is the same as what cooking shows get compared to all the time these days.

Of course, for a full-time features reporter, the possibilities are at least as great for converged reporting as they are for traditional work.

just clunking along

Well, the water seems normal - rather than too warm - at the Y, so I'm wondering what's in store when the school's back in session - brrrrrr.

Other than lovely swims, pretty scarves and the usual collection of activities, I whipped up a batch of Christmas cookies. Sugar cookies is what the recipe claimed they are, but I think they could be called butter cookies or maybe just less-leavened, cream-free scones. Delish for sure!

three and a half cups flour, one teaspoon baking powder and a quarter teaspoon salt, mixed.

two sticks (a cup) unsalted butter, a cup and a half white sugar, two eggs and a teaspoon and a half vanilla extract, creamed.

the dry added to the damp and worked until the dough is smooth (takes a little bit, but not too long or it'll be tough). The dough's scent reminded me of Christmases past.

The recipes says divide the dough and refrigerate, then roll out and cut. I say phooey and rolled and cut the cookies, then refrigerated for 10 minutes on the cookie sheets before baking at 375 for about 12 minutes, just until the cookies' edges brown.

Cool 'em off for a while on the sheet so they don't break when you try to remove them, then cool and decorate. I opted for homemade mint icing (two cups powdered sugar and three tablespoons of hot whipping cream whisked until homogenized, then heated in a bowl over hot water for 10 minutes to eliminate the corn starch flavor - I used half for mint icing, with a capful of extract and half was used for almond), and decorated with blue and pink sparkly sprinkles.

Tasty!

seal the cookies up in an airtight container - waxed paper may be used to separate layers of cookies.

the recipe above made 20 good-size (three and a half inch rounds) cookies, but could have been stretched to two dozen or maybe thirty smaller cookies. Which is what I'd do next time.

multi-front progress

Well, after a much better swim than some in recent memory (not a record breaker, but a 500, 1000 and cooldown - and that's meters, baby), I sat down to the penultimate scarf in Warp I. After toying with chenile vs. other wefts, I opted for other and I'm quite pleased so far. I'm too much of a slacker to have photos posted, but maybe I'll get on that someday soon...

I have high hopes for the next warp, too :)

the new venue

the local Y, which turns out to be all right.
The water is a bit warm, and there are only two lane dividers, so the going's a little rougher, and the pool is 25 meters (rather than yards, at the school pool). But hey, no big deal.
So I did a couple of 500s, plus the usual cool-down routine. Not great, but better than nothing and something to build on. The revision to my turns is still a little bit of a work in progress, but that's no big deal either. I mean, it is all just swimming :)

On a weaving note, I'm near the end of Warp I, a plum-to-purple warp with shots of green and off-white. I tried a variegated chenile from Webs that runs red, green and blue (roughly, they're definitely gem colors, not namby-pamby types), and it is quite nice - at least for someone who likes horizontal stripes!
In general, I'm torn: The chenile is really quite nice in terms of color and softness but I also have good results from silk/cotton combos.
Well, I guess that's why people put on lots of different warps. Hmm. Maybe I should add an image sometime.

an observation on my trade

So, I work at a newspaper.

I saw this Steve Klein piece at Poynter (poynter.org/column.asp?id=71&aid=93527), in which he tackles the changing face of print journalism. He makes good points, a lot of them. We do need to change how we do business. But I don't think that journalism schools are the best place to look for tomorrow's pathfinders.

I can agree, from the safety of the armchair, that a good journalism school is a place where the hardened vets can instill in young journos certain values that we all hold dear. And no doubt Klein's simple trio of journalism basics - having an ethical compass, knowing your audience and clarity in communication (yegods, he doesn't use consistent bullets) - can be handed down in such places.

But after 11 years of hanging around newspapers, I have to say our system is broken. What do we really get from journalism schools? A mixed bag. Sometimes you get gems, other times you get plagiarists. Worst of all, you (OK, I) often get people who got into journalism in part because they "don't like numbers," people who will tell you: "hey, you know about science, right? I have a question" - people who aren't epistemologists. I hate to say it Minnesota, but I think journalism programs tend to attract these non-detectives, and what could possibly be worse? Even if all you want to write are god damn features, you need to be a detective, a news hound.

And that's first, not second.

Look: Who really broke the story of Oregon's former governor being a fundamentally awful human being? Not the Statesman Journal and not the Oregonian, but Willamette Week. In other words, not the establishment - with its horde of dyed-in-the-wool journos, but the upstart, with its trader-turned-writer.

What's that say about the establishment? Not much, but what could you expect from a machine that believes the best way to go forward is to select its front-line workers on the basis of a decision they made when they were in their late teens or early 20s.

Good reporters don't learn the craft in college. Hell, they don't even learn AP style there. They learn it on the job.

If you want better or better yet transformed print journalism, make the case to newspapers that they need to become the J school, that they need to invest (and I do mean that literally) in assignment editors who are teachers, not just middle-management thugs charged with squeezing an ever-smaller collection of turnips for the daily blood.

Make the case that the responsibility for journalism's future lies with the executives whose companies stand to go broke if they don't figure out how to change with the times.

That being a journalist is a career-long learning process that doesn't end when the W-2s are filled out but requires a long-term commitment from management AND employee.

Enough of this. Time to swim.

sick pools, alternative venues

Grrr.

Chemical troubles plague the pool; wonder if this is part of the justification routine for the cool new pool in the works at the college. Scuttlebutt is that the big cash headed toward a rumored 50-meter pool is making waves amongst some factions on campus, who think the money should be used in some other way. Of course, same scuttlebutt is that a donor anted up the dough for the pool, so there you have it.

I'm thinking the ruffled types would not have used the money for need-based scholarships, so I can't say they cut a lot of ice with me. Besides, if the school plans to be "a national liberal arts college" - the dean of faculty's bullshitty press release statement, not mine - then I guess a good pool is a start.

What rubbish. I didn't go there to attend "a national liberal arts college," I went for a good education, which the dean in his former life as a calculus prof. certainly helped provide. But he and the "dean of admissions" have since decided the best way to achieve their peculiar goal of improving the school's standing in the national magazine rankings is to further Mercer Island-ize the place, not that it needed any help in that arena.

Enough of that. I need a good swim. At least.

happy to be part of this club

Saw this study referenced at Al's Morning Meeting (at poynter.org):

http://www.ce.org/Press/CurrentNews/press_release_detail.asp?id=10887

which claims 17 percent of people who bought wireless phones in the last 90 days do not use a landline.

My concern, I guess, is that some idiot push will be on to make cell numbers part of directories and direct-marketing rosters. Which of course isn't really a big deal b/c you don't have to answer the thing but would be annoying. I like my anonymity just the way it is...

fleepin' super

A kind observer helped me refine the ol' flip turn, so naturally everything was harder for a couple of 500s on Wednesday (pool was "sick" on Tuesday, the lifeguards said in a prepared statement - aka a sign outside the lockers). The turn fix ought to pay off once I get it fully integrated... hopefully soon!

Busy times at work have kept me off the loom bench, but I'm optimistic that the weekend's full slate of freezing fog will give me plenty of time to crank away. Must get a head of steam soon!

What else? Nothing much. Wishing the steak fairy would drop by my desk...

solid, squared away, and also a-ok

Well, after the post-Thanksgiving week of slow & inefficient, today was just fine. Not that it wasn't slow in the objective reality sense - I think it always is, from that point of view - but got in a 500 and 2,000, so I'd say things are back to normal. thank goodness.

also, both warps are on (only about 4 hours, really, on Saturday), so now all that's left is to git ur done :)

Uh, what else? Not much to report...

out of the blue

and into the pool!

If you had asked me three months ago, I would never have guessed I'd miss swimming so much. But I did, and I'm also now feeling out of shape, which is ridiculous because it was only a week and change off. Monday and Tuesday's swims went fine, however. Short, but fine.

Took last night off, to wind bombs (my mom, who also weaves, taught me to call the carboard tubes that) for one of the warps I plan to put on the loom Saturday. These warps - a pair of 30-yarders for scarves - will be my first, which after weaving on and off for 28 years seems a little long in the making :)

Here's to snow (which it is doing right now)!

not a bad job of parallel parking

Of course, everyone! has already gone to the break.com link (formerly big-boys and still listed that way b/c I haven't changed it), but if you haven't lately, check out the parallel parking video. I'd be curious to know how many times it didn't work in practice...

no corn pudding, but yummy menu

changed my mind on the corn pudding b/c ran out of energy, but all else worked just fine.

still, however, missing the pool, gol durn it.

happy t-day, y'all, such as it is.

p.s. the pumpkin pie was malformed but yummy.

on the menu

no swimming, for crying out loud. but a day off of weaving, today & tomorrow.
So, for turkey day:

roasted chicken with stuffing
mashed potatoes
Swedish meatballs
corn pudding
pumpkin pie
cranberry relish (made that ahead & still have some)

&

a helping of glum.
so it goes.
^^
--
__
not sure what that means :)

no swimming... no fun.

missing the pool.
which is closed for break. The Y, which seemed like an OK option, has silly hours and charges $10 per visit (or $40 per month, sign here for automatic debit...).
and weaving's not much of a workout, although I am sore.
so.
going for a run later.
d
r
a
t

yes, foiled

Curses! As I feared, a dearth of lifeguards puts the school pool out of reach for the break. But as Chase so kindly points out, the Y only charges $5 a pop; not bad for a fill-in-the-gaps scene.

note to self: if ever I am swimming in cash, I will endow a lifeguardianship at the pool so there is 24-7-365 coverage. that pays well. :)

foiled?

rats, pool appears to be shut for thanksgiving break, but maybe not. mostly, pool hours appear to be a secret. annoying.
I guess this means lots of swimming in the river. Fantastic!

thanksgiving dinner for one, Tunisian style

How about this for a good-size sandwich. And I do mean good size, maybe pig-out size.

Roast a Cornish game hen. (About.com sez "roast the hens at 375 degrees F. for about 1 hour, or until the juices run clear when a thigh is pierced with a knife and a meat thermometer registers 170 degrees F.") Strip off meat.
Halve and boil a medium potato. (uh, duh. Just until tender. Then mash with 1 T butter and 2 T cream)
Make a small loaf of plain ol' bread (I think the sticky-bun bread would work, with the sugar severely reduced and some savory - thyme, sage, rosemary - added. This doesn't take long to bake, so I guess chopped celery could be added as well. The idea here is to make the bread the equivalent of stuffing.)
Make a single serving of cranberry relish. (In the blender, chop 1/4 C washed, sorted cranberries. Peel, section and cut into chunks a tangerine, clementine or mikan. Combine oranges and cranberries, add sugar to taste.)

When the bread's baked, slit it open, butter it lightly, and stuff in meat, potatoes and relish, then eat. An all-in-one meal. People will either love it or hate it, or think it is OK. :)

long swims, happy times!

Took a day off Tuesday - back at the loom - but did 2,500-plus, including 2,000 in a row, Wednesday. I think I could have gone much farther, but am highly aware of the danger. Plus, I'm a teensy bit sore today, so I'm thinking that a seriously long haul might not be totally wise.
Wondering what the pool hours will be during T-day break...

Speaking of sticky buns, by the way, here's the recipe from the Culinary Institute of America (with my amendments noted):

For the buns:

2 and 1/4 t active dry yeast (one of those little foil packets)
3/4 C warm milk (110 degrees F)
4 C bread flour (I use King Arthur all-purpose)
1/4 C sugar
1/4 C butter (a half-stick)
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon salt
egg wash (unnecessary, but an egg whisked with 2 T cream or milk)
2 cups "pan smear" (below)
1 cup "cinammon smear" (below)

(((They say use a stand mixer, I don't have one. A bowl works just fine))) Place the yeast and warm milk in the bowl of a mixer and stir to
dissolve; let stand about 5 minutes. Combine 2 and 1/2 cups of the flour
with the sugar, butter, eggs and salt. Mix on low speed using the
dough hook just until the dough comes together. Add as much of
the remaining flour to the mixture as needed so dough is no
longer sticky. Increase speed to medium-high and mix until dough
is soft, smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes.
Shape dough into a ball and place in a lightly greased bowl.
Cover with plastic wrap and let dough rise in a warm place until
doubled in size, about 2 hours. Fold the dough gently over on
itself in three or four places. Cover and let rise until doubled,
about 1 hour. While dough rises, toast and chop the pecans, and
set aside; prepare pan smear and cinnamon smear, and set aside.
Preheat oven to 400 F. Prepare two 9-inch square baking pans
by pouring 1 cup of pan smear into each of them; sprinkle with
the toasted, chopped pecans. Roll dough into a rectangle 8-by-14
inches and about a quarter-inch thick. Dust dough and rolling pin with
flour to prevent dough from sticking. Brush a 1-inch-wide strip of
egg wash along the long side of the dough closest to you. (((Yeah, if you want a mess. I've made these twice. Without the egg wash works much better. I don't know what they were thinking))) Spread
the cinnamon smear evenly over the remaining dough. Roll the
dough to form a log, starting with the edge opposite the egg-
washed strip. Pinch the dough together to seal the seam. Slice into
12 equal pieces. (((I only got nine, but I like larger rolls, and I used a big pan and cooked them all at once.)))
Place 6 rolls in each of the prepared pans. (You can refrigerate
the rolls at this point for up to 24 hours, or freeze up to 1 month.)
Cover the rolls and let them rise until they have nearly doubled,
about 30 minutes. Brush lightly with egg wash (((whatever))).
If sticky buns have been prepared in advance, remove them
from the refrigerator and allow them to warm to room tempera
ture before baking. Bake rolls until baked through and crust is
golden brown, about 30 minutes. As soon as you remove the pans
from the oven, turn each pan over onto a plate. Lift the pan away
and cool rolls before serving.
Makes 12 sticky buns.
Nutrition information per bun: 470 cal., 9 g protein, 79 g
carbohydrates, 15 g fat, 280 mg sodium, 40 mg cholesterol, 2 g
fiber.

The "pan smear"
1 C light brown sugar
3/4 C dark corn syrup
1 C heavy cream

(Note: A candy thermometer is essential for preparation)
Combine the brown sugar, corn syrup and heavy cream in a
saucepan and heat to 220 degrees F, stirring frequently to prevent
scorching. Cool to room temperature before using. (The smear
will be caramel-colored and syrupy.) Makes 2 cups.
(((I don't like corn syrup. So I supersaturated 1 C water with brown sugar and made a sort of simple syrup by heating it - no thermometer needed - then added the 1 C sugar and 1 C cream. This didn't work out all that sticky, but it was fine by me and tasted super)))

The "cinammon smear"
1/2 C bread flour
1/3 C sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons butter
3 large egg whites

Mix together flour, sugar and cinnamon in the bowl of a mixer.
Add the butter. (((are you kidding? have you read the nutritional information? 470 calories? I ditched this butter))) Using the paddle attachment, mix on medium
speed for 1 minute, or until it looks like coarse meal and there are
no visible chunks of butter.
With the mixer on medium speed, add the egg whites one at a
time. Continue to mix until fully combined, scraping down the
bowl as necessary. (The smear will be a kind of granular paste.)
Makes 1 cup.

long haul

Hurray! If I do say so myself.
After an easy breezy Sunday night, did a 500 and a 2,000-plus (maybe 2,100?). No big deal, really, which is weird but nice. I guess my revised goal should be two miles without a break, but the goggles start feeling annoying after about 30 laps and two miles would be, what, 75 laps or so? Had an amusing non-mathematical conversation with someone who averred that 1,650 yards is a mile. Uh, yeah, when a mile is 4,950 feet, I guess.
That would make a lot of stuff faster :)

Also on Sunday, the Sticky Bun Council held a special session, at which it authorized prodcution of very excellent treats. Still not very sticky (I'm sure that's to do with the omission of corn syrup), but now that I used a larger pan they weren't a nine-headed cinammon roll but more like what you'd expect. Very tasty!
Unfortunately, the council reconvened this afternoon and - while acknowledging the sticky buns were good - demanded the associated dirty dishes be squared away by the Sticky Bun Production Task Force. A task I am currently blowing off.

Check this out: If playing defense was really such an important part of the AL MVP puzzle, as A-Rod suggests, why did Ortiz get more votes than Manny, let alone The Impaler? Make all the jokes you want about Ramirez, but he's not bad in left and that is a challenging place to play the position. Surely his presence in the field should have tipped the scales in his favor. And Vlad? Good lord, he's no liability in the field. Yeah, he only played 140 games or so, but surely that D is key.

or.

defense is just a b.s. excuse that writers use to justify choices they couldn't justify any other way.

Yet another important debate, down the tubes :)

Sp - but not chicken noodle

In the south, they say, y'all. They leave out the o and the u.
Because of this, I was forced to make soup tonight. Clam chowder, to be more revealing, and as usual it is lovely sp.

Also, put in about 1,900 or 2,000 yards - 550, 1,300-1,400, about 300 of kickboard and the usual warm-down fun.

On a side note (another potential name for this blog - side note), I downloaded Black Jack Davey from iTunes. In the commission of this crime, I also found some interesting places to go:

http://www.missouristate.edu/folksong/maxhunter/

this is an MSU sub-site, which has tons of fleeping awesome downloads (and the usual crowd of not-so-awe-sum ones), incl. at least two good Black Jack Daveys. I recommend Mr. Wise Jones and Sara Jo Bell among the group. What MSU says about the collection:

The Max Hunter Collection is an archive of almost 1600 Ozark Mountain folk songs, recorded between 1956 and 1976. A traveling salesman from Springfield, Missouri, Hunter took his reel-to-reel tape recorder into the hills and backwoods of the Ozarks, preserving the heritage of the region by recording the songs and stories of many generations of Ozark history. As important as the songs themselves are the voices of the Missouri and Arkansas folks who shared their talents and recollections with Hunter. Designed to give increased public access to this unique and invaluable resource, this site is a joint project of the Missouri State University Department of Music and the Springfield-Greene County Library in Springfield, Missouri, where the permanent collection is housed.

So I guess Sprang-field isn't just a place to hit the Bass Pro. Although that is a nice place to go. Plus, there's a lady who makes truly fantastic apple crisp there.

What else have I learned? Uh, check back later.

on foot

second run this week, another two-miler (or so; it felt short) at l o w speed. whatever. But no pain at all, so that's a very, very big plus.
Hmmmm, however. I think I might like swimming a bit more, esp. now that it is cold out. Let's see, 80-degree pool or 27 degrees and a breeze in your face? Gee.
OK, it isn't that simple.
all in all, a good day.

Oh, and baked a batch of sticky buns. The b.s. recipe was like, "hey, these are handy because you can make them ahead and throw the unbaked buns in the fridge or freezer. How handy! Then you only need to take them out until they reach room temperature (2 hours?) before baking them. Who wants to get up with me at 04:30 to move buns from fridges to counters?

the buns are, however, delish. And only 470 calories each! So, I had a scrap from the corner of one. I think that total assumed the use of high fructose corn syrup in part of the recipe, but I ditched it in favor of homemade syrup. hfcs is gross. Oh, I left out some gratuitous butter, too. I mean, it's in the dough, does it really need to be in the cinammon frosting that goes inside, too? Maybe I could have some butter in my glass of water, too!

Election Day, long swims & such

Well, so much has happened! OK, not soooo much.
But:

An interesting Election Day unfolded; the forces of anti-development took a hit in the Port of Walla Walla commission race, the gas tax rollback appears doomed, the indoor smoking ban passed, as did Eyman's performance audit brainchild.
Something for everyone, I think.
My faves: Both of the heavily campaigned initiatives aimed at protecting the rich from the poor failed. Talk about a failure to communicate: I still can't tell you what the point of either initiative really is.
I think that if you spend millions of dollars on advertising for your "citizen" initiatives and you can't get out a message more involved than "uh, huge awards for non-economic damages are bad!" or "bad doctors are bad!" you pretty much get what you deserve when your special-interest initiative fails. I guess doctors and lawyers don't have anything better to spend their money on than contributing to my paycheck :)

Also, sandwiched a 2,300-yard (including 1,800 straight) workout Monday between a couple of lightweight days. So I guess that accomplishes my early goal of a mile without a break. Must devise new goals...

Also also, got pointed at this: www.bricktestament.com. A bit creepy, a bit silly, plenty fun...

just gliding along

Well, easier days (1,000 on Tuesday) make harder ones (2,100-plus on Wednesday) easier, I think.
And I finally figured out why reaching with the lead arm is good: It makes the trailing arm work harder. Which also makes the swimming speedier. Yay!
Also, had a chance to plot Tunisian for 20; we'll see how that turns out. On the menu: couscous with seven vegetables (the ordinary variety with chicken and a vegetarian version, too); bread & harissa, hummus (OK, not sure that's really Tunisian, but definitely tasty and I had to make chickpeas anyway) and I guess "Tunisian stew," an excellent beef, honey and almond dish that doesn't smack of tradition but sure schmeckt gut.
Who knows? Maybe it is a specialty of Carthage or some other cosmopolitan suburb. Whatever. I'm sure it will all be lovely!

the sunny side, part II

plus, Happy Halloween! The trick-or-treaters are not out in force on our busy street. They all seem to be downtown. Oh, I remember the days...
Yeah, so anyway, good swim but rainy outside, so I'm thinking no on the jog through the grass bit. I guess that's a plus to a pool - always damp.

This will blow my cover, but here's a funny page:
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mitch_Hedberg

the sunny side

Took Sunday off... not just because of good advice to take it easy but more on account of the pool being closed (mechanical problems. rats. Not rats in the pool. Rats, the pool was closed.).
Made up for the closure with dog walking and baking molasses/ginger gorilla cookies. Tasty!

slow - ugh

Must be getting sick or something - swam 2,000 yards Sun & Mon but decreased over the week to 1,000 on Fri. harumph, I say.
But I feel better today so I'm going to give a good workout a whirl. And try to run Monday or so, too. :)

side benefit to swimming

which started Sept. 6 with, what, a whopping 400 or 450 yards? (in 25-yard increments, so as to avoid drowning): Minus 20 pounds (or is it 18), plus some cardio conditioning.
I guess I also need to credit Clif bars, which have made the assault on the scales much more palatable/possible. I especially like the peanut toffee buzz species.
So, lighter and maybe mended, I must soon see if land activity can resume.

feeling fishy

I wonder if it is normal to ditch the original plan for a blog. ugh, too lazy to get a new name. Besides, this is a much stealthier way to post my fantastic accomplishments!
Hmmm, now doing about 2,000 yards a day, usually as a 500, 1000, 500, but last night warmed up with a 750 or 800 (MUST learn to count more accurately), then did a 1,000 and was tired. Also, needed more than 30 seconds to swim a length underwater. So, not so speedy :)

improvement

Swam Friday & Saturday, to make up for the pool-closed nonsense on Columbus Day, and made progress on not-so-awful flip turns. Saturday being better in that respect than Friday, thanks to tips from an alert viewer. :)
So, I guess this should have been swimww instead, but maybe I'll get some decent road work in some time, too.

more swimming

Four days off turns out to suck. Couldn't flip turn properly more than, oh, twice. At the shallow end I kept flopping over sideways and getting disoriented. It probably is a sign something is awry when you "turn" and see people in other lanes in front of you. Very weird & disconcerting.
But a very nice dude in the next lane said howdy while I was in the depths of despair about the workout, which helped take my mind off the turns. Never had this problem on foot.
Which makes me think I should rename this the swimming log. Alas.

not quite a hike

Sooo, thought I'd start running again about two months ago. So as to see more of WW on any given hike (yeah, right). But that lasted about, oh, a couple of weeks until the inevitable haven't-run-five-miles-a-day-in-years ligament strain. Ugh.
This time, unlike previous bouts with tendinitis and that sort of crapola, I hit the pool with a vengeance - 400-450 yards on Day 1 (Sept. 6) in 25-yard increments up to 1200 yards in 150- to 250-yard increments. Much better.
Should've been a swimmer?
Hmmm.
However: Pool's closed for Columbus Day and even the Y is closed, too. Give me a break. Must try swimming in the new bird-bath fountain at Whitman :)