Not just for last minute science fair projects

My bathroom sink has been draining rather slowly but instead of buying drain cleaner, I thought I would try a homemade (and more earth friendly) drain cleaner. I pour a 1/4 cup of baking soda down the sink followed by a 1/2 cup of vinegar and then pushed down the plunger so that none of mixture bubbled out of the drain. I let it sit for about 30 minutes and then poured about a cup of boiling water down the drain. And it actually worked pretty well, I still had a little bit of water left in the drain which I think reduced its effectiveness a little bit. But I was reading the comments for the post at website specializing in homemade cleaning products and pouring boiling water down the sink rather than cold or warm water is the best.

What exactly are you trying to do, Hank? Turn our school into some kind of bohemian Montessori lovefest? - Dale Gribble

That fancy internet machine

Over the winter break, I decided that I should go to the eye doctor to get a check-up (it was about 2 years since my last one). Instead of buying glasses from the eye doctor, Rachel talked me into buying my glasses online. So after a few days of looking at the sites and through all the frames, I ordered a pair of glasses from goggles4u.com a little more than a week ago. And today, they arrived in the mail:



Ordering the glasses was pretty easy. The site has a huge selection which can be overwhelming at first but you can narrow down the frames based on color or material. Most of the frames (including mine) cost about $13. The page for each frame lists the measurements of the frame, like the width of the frame, the height and width of the lens area and width of the bridge. And there are pretty good instructions for measuring your face (or your current pair). For some frames, you can try them on virtually. You upload a picture of yourself and the glasses are then superimposed on your face. The scale can be a little weird but I was able to shrink my picture and enlarge the frames enough to make it look slightly normal. There are a couple options for the lenses as well like thickness or made of glass or polycarbonate. They also have bifocal lenses but the frame size has to be large enough for the bifocal. I ordered the polycarbonate lenses that had anti-glare and UV coating and are scratch-resistant which cost about $30. Entering in your prescription is pretty easy but if you are concerned with it, the is an option to fax them a copy of your prescription to them to avoid any mistakes. I had a good experience ordering my glasses on-line, it was way cheaper and the selection was huge and varied (and it was kinda of fun to see myself in frames that I would never wear), but I did get lots input from my mom, Rachel and Lucy before I finally picked my frames.

PEGGY: You may not have noticed it, because I wear bold eyeglasses to draw the attention to my head, but your mother has exceptionally long and handsome feet.

I'll be your handy man (or woman)

I visited Rachel this weekend which means we (Rachel, mom, Lucy and I) went to IKEA. I've been needing a larger CD tower for a while now and I found a nice one at IKEA (even on sale!) so I put it together this evening after I got back from Ann Arbor.

Pod, Pod, Pod

I've missed the last couple weeks of book reviews, but I will try to make up for it. Before I left for the holidays, I read "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" by Jack Finney (first published in 1955 and adapted into a movie in 1956, 1978, 1993 and 2007). The novel opens with the small town doctor in California getting a call from an old girlfriend who is worried about her cousin. The cousin insists the uncle that raised her isn't her uncle. As more and more people in the town insists a friend or family member isn't his or her friend or family member. A local psychiatrist insists that it is all psychologically. Eventually, the townspeople not longer think someone they know isn't right. And then a friend (of the doctor) finds a body in his basement that resembles him (the friend). I have to say, even though I knew the basic plot of the book, it was still really suspenseful. I could definitely see how the novel inspired at lot of science fiction stories. And it was interesting to here the science portion as science was in 1955 (especially considering that the structure of DNA was determined only 2 years earlier). The novel is also the source of the term "pod person" (or people). I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys science fiction.

On the edge of Loonytown and taking the train to the city centre

It's been almost a month since my last post mostly because I was home at the farm during the holiday and there were lots of other things to occupy my time (and a majority of the people who read this blog saw me over the holiday season). And since I have to children, photo-based blog post are not as cute. Fortunately, the amount of snow that has fallen here at Ashland has motivated me to write some posts. Christmas at the farm was really nice (even though I didn't get to farm until 5pm on Christmas Eve) because everyone was there (including 4 children under 5). Deidre and her family (and grandpa) came up for Christmas dinner (and games) which is always fun. The little boys were pretty good but there were some moments between Silas and Ellis that lead to crying (one or both of them). My mom got all the little boys little plasma cars (which could be ridden by adults) which were appreciate most by Silas, Ellis, and Orrin (and by extension Emmet because often he was Orrin's passenger). Bridget and Orrin went to Orrin's parents for New Years so we didn't have a big party this year but we still had a good time singing songs after Ellis went to sleep. Trey and Rachel went home a few days after New Years and so I spent lots of time giggling and watching movies with Mom and Lucy and playing with Vaughn until I drove back to Ashland on Sunday afternoon. I was (of course) kinda bummed to go back to work (my apartment is so quite compared to the farm on Christmas) but work is going okay. I'm moving cubicles on Friday (to a better cubicle with more space) on Friday. Unfortunately, my new desk is at a slight incline so turning around can be a little annoying.

BOBBY: I'm gonna cross the track and bring Mr. Witchard a soda.
HANK: That's crazy! Why would you do that?
BOBBY: I'm giving 110 percent, Dad.
JIMMY: Go to here, go-to boy! I want a soda! Go to now!

Suprises!

For more proof that my mom is awesome (and psychic), I was having a bad day at work on Friday and when I got home a package was sitting on my doorstep which contained this:

It's a rosemary tree!

And then today, a package containing some little ornaments (and some garland) arrived. So I decorated my little tree listening to some Christmas music (so I'm getting a little more into the Christmas spirit)



It smells so good! And it really lifted my spirits.

DALE: I can't keep this up. It's not in my nature to care about others.


HANK: Uh-uh, this is too much. In high school you blocked for me, but I did my job too. I ran through the hole, setting Arlen High School's single-season rushing record, as you recall. But here I am blocking for you, and you're not even trying! I don't even know what game you're playing -- some kind of crazy tennis!

Back and Forth

The book for this week's review (which I read today in fact) is 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. The book is a collection of letters between Helene, a writer living in New York searching for obscure book and famous titles of British literature, and the workers of Marks and Co., a secondhand bookshop, with most of the correspondence between Helene and Frank Doel (as well as Doel family). The letters were quite moving especially since Helene would spend some of her meager salary sending packages of food to the employees of the store (as well as a neighbor of the Doels) during the heavy rationing period of the post World War II. The correspondence occurs over the course of about 20 years. The letters are quite lovely, a times humorous or sad but always with an obvious passion for literature. The book has been adapted into a TV miniseries, the stage, and a movie starring Anthony Hopkins and Anne Bancroft (and Judi Dench as Frank's wife). I'm planning on watching the movie sometime (through Netflix) since the book is still very fresh in my mind.

How is a raven like a writing desk?

Because Poe wrote on both of them! The book for this week's review (and the source of the answer to the riddle from Alice in Wonderland) is "The Eyre Affair" by Jasper Fforde. This is the first book in a series about literary detective Thursday Next. Fforde creates an alternate universe where the entire population of England takes their literature very serious (there are groups that maintain the Francis Bacon wrote the plays of Shakespeare and thousands of people have legally changed their name to John Milton). Crimes of a literary nature (like forgeries of great works) are investigated by literary detectives like Thursday Next. The novel opens with the theft of the original manuscript of Dickens' "Martin Chuzzlewit". Determining the thief of manuscript leads to Thursday chasing a criminal mastermind who later steals the original manuscript of "Jane Eyre". As those who know me well, you can imagine that I love this book (and the rest in the series). The books are full of references to the classics (for example in the second book, Thursday become the protege of Miss Havisham from "Great Expectations"). The world that Fforde created is a good mix of quirky and serious that it isn't too outlandish and crazy. I discovered the second book in the series ("Lost in a Good Book") at a used bookstore in West Virginia (it is a publishing company's in house copy, I'm not sure how it ended up in a used bookstore in a small town in West Virginia). I have all the books in the series (there are 5 all together) but there was a bit a space between the second and the third one so I am planning on rereading the 2nd one before I start the third one (and the fourth and fifth).

Bent as a two bob watch

I had a great trip to Ireland and I got a chance to catch up on some reading so I can finally do a book review after skipping the last couple weeks. Lucy got me the book "Not All Tarts Are Apples" by Pip Granger for Christmas which I read on the plane (and the during the bus ride from Dublin to Clonmel). The book is about an little girl Rosie during 1953 London living with her aunt and uncle above there cafe. Rosie learns that a local "tart" is actually her mother when the owners of the cafe (who are not related to her) want to adopt her. But the family of her mother has some plans for Rosie which may require involvement by all her adopted family to make sure that Rosie is happy. I thought this book was very charming and full of interesting 1950s London slang (which I really want to incorporate into my lexicon!). And it really explored the idea of a non-traditional family in that most of Rosie family was not directly related to her, but lived in her building, were regular customers at the cafe, or people in the neighborhood that cared for her. There is a sequel (and 2 prequels) for this novel, but since Pip Granger is a British author, the paperback is not available through Paperspine yet, so I will have to wait for the prequels to be in paperback form.

Erin goes and goes

I drove home from Ashland on Friday night and mom kindly helped me re-pack my bag to include all the birthday goodies for Emmet's party and drove me to the airport for my Aer Lingus flight on Saturday afternoon. After a pretty good flight (only on screaming baby and I was able to get some sleep), my met my high school roommate Sarah (and her sister) at the airport in Dublin and we took a bus (and the subway) back to her house for an episode of Father Ted and a short nap before walking around her neighborhood. Then she took me to the bus that would take me to Clonmel (she even packed me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for the trip with lots of black currant jam). The bus ride was good (and I got to sleep for a little while). I was worried (only a little) about meeting Bridget in Clonmel but as luck would have it, she and Orrin (and the boys) were only their way back home and were right behind my bus! On Monday, Bridget and I visited Cahair castle and then returned home to decorate for Emmet's birthday party. I think that everyone had a good time (there were about 30+ kids!). So after unwinding a bit on Monday night (and watching a few episodes of The Office). Bridget dropped off Orrin at work and went to the Rock of Cashel (where I saw St. Patrick's Cross) and to Kilkenny castle (which was updated during the Victorian period so it really only looks like a castle from the outside, the only way you can really tell is the thickness of the windows). And today we went to Blarney Castle were Bridget, Silas, Emmet and I climbed the 127 steps to the top and Bridget and I kissed the Blarney stone! We also walked around the gardens of the castle (which were beautiful) and stopped for some gelato (and a patch for my bag) before heading to Cobh on the coast. Cobh was the last stop of the Titanic before it crossed the ocean (and sank) and an emigration point during the Great Famine. There is statue commemorating the first person to immigrate through Ellis Island who left from Cobh. This sounds like a lot, but we don't have too much planned for tomorrow morning, so we will relax a little bit.

And Bridget will be posting pictures soon!!

T- minus 3 days

In three days, I will be on my way to Ireland to visit my roommate from the Academy and Bridget (and family). I am really excited about going. I will be really busy at work for the rest of week so it will be really good to get a break from work (and not think about work or dream about it). I'm mostly packed (most importantly I've picked out the few books that I would bring with me). I even went to the post office to hold my mail while I'll be gone. I totally feel like such an adult now, you know making lots of preparations and making sure that I won't be behind at work when I get back. Add to that the fact that it is time for re-enroll in the benefits program at work and I am definitely not a student anymore.

HANK: I know I'll never love your feet as much as they do, but the way I look at it, you're like a fully loaded truck. The big tires are part of the package. You pay extra to get those really big tires. Now, why are you crying? You know how much I want a new truck.

Baby you can drive my car

This ad from the UK make me want cake and be really impressed at the same time:

Colorization

For the past few days, I have been watching a lot a black and white movies. I saw Harper (with Paul Newman) on Saturday (which is in color) but then I caught the last (really suspenseful) 15 minutes of the black and white thriller "The Spiral Staircase" with Dorthy Maguire and Ethel Barrymore. After that I watched "The Enchanted Cottage" with Dorthy Maguire. I have never heard of this movie prior to seeing it on TCM on Saturday night. It's about a scarred World War II veteran who finds love with a plain house maid. The play the movie was based on was commissioned by the British government after the end of World War I to create compassion for returning soldiers. And then on Sunday, I watched "Mildred Pierce" with Joan Crawford. I mostly just yelled got annoyed at the daughter Veda. And then Tuesday and Wednesday, I watched "Lady Eve" with Barbra Stanwyck and Henry Fonda and "To Have and Have Not" with Lauren Bacall and Humprey Bogart. And for this weekend (while I work on a baby quilt) I have "Dark Victory" (Bette Davis), "Kiss Me Deadly" (Mike Hammer film noir) and "I'll Be Seeing You" (with one my very favorite actors: Joseph Cotten).

HANK: We used to make movies all the time. Dale, you practically slept with that little camcorder.
DALE: "Practically?" I was going to be the next Zapruder. Except nobody shot a president after that. Nobody that knew what he was doing.

Laughter for one

I heard an interview with the guy who created Father Ted and he talked about his new show called the IT Crowd and I've been watching the show for the past week. This episode is my favorite and since the show is about 24 minutes long, I'll just post the funniest part. The show is about a woman (Jen) with no computer experience become the head of the IT department. In this episode, Jen has her period (for which she uses the euphemism Aunt Irma is visiting) which causes the two IT guys (Moss and Roy) to think that they share her symptoms. Moss sends out a email to every IT person he knows to see if someone else has this symptoms. And hilarity ensures.

Kings and Queen

I didn't do a book review last week because I was up in Ann Arbor helping Rachel prepare for her awesome Halloween party. But this week I do have a review of "The New Kings of Nonfiction" which is a collection of essays/articles edited by Ira Glass from "This American Life". I will admit that I skipped over some of the essays (I couldn't get into the essay and skipped the rest). But the articles that I did, I enjoyed a lot. The topics were quite varied from the SEC charged a 13-year old to 6 degrees of separation to an interview with Val Kilmer. I think my favorite essay was one by Susan Orleans about her interview with a 10 year old boy. Although the one about Val Kilmer was pretty good, Val comes off as both completely wacky at times but also totally normal. I really enjoyed Ira Glass' preface on why he chose some of the essays or more specifically the authors of the article. When I was younger, I would also skip the preface to book until I read this incredible preface to "Persuasion" written by Margret Drabble and since then I always read the preface (although sometimes after the book in case part of the plot is discussed in the preface). What I love with a good preface is an insight to the author frame of mind which often makes me enjoy the book more.

You have won a tiny Dundee

I was reading the NPR pop culture blog, Monkey See, about the upcoming Oscar nominations and how there is a possibility that more "popular" (read made a huge amount of money) movies may get nominated this year like "The Dark Knight" and "Wall-E" or as a super long shot "Iron Man". The blog linked to a couple other stories like on a the New York Times that pointed out that ratings for the past few years Oscar shows have been done and the highest ratings were in 1997 when Titanic won. And that the combined box office for the last five Best Picture winners (Babel, Crash, The Departed, No Country for Old Men and Million Dollar Baby) is was less that the last big box office movie to win Best Picture (The Return of the King in 2003). I think I would be more interested in the results of the Oscars if there wasn't so dependent on when the picture is release since a majority of movies hoping to vie for Oscar nominations are released between October to December. And since, apparently, members of the Academy have short term memory, at lot of performances and movies get overlooked that are released earlier in the year. Two examples of this in the past couple of years in Chris Cooper excellent role in "Breach" and David Fincher's "Zodiac", not to mention the great performances of Robert Downey Jr, Mark Ruffalo, Jake Gyllenhaall and Anthony Edwards in that movie. And there have been some movies that I didn't like that were nominated for Best Picture (i.e. Ghost).

"We are going to see 'The Flowers of Time' with Charlton Heston and Ethan Hawke. This is their third movie together. The first two went straight to video." - Peggy Hill

Quality of Life

This week's review (finally) will be about Lush Life by Richard Price (finally). It took me a while to finish the book mostly due to time rather that the quality of the book. It details the aftermath of the shooting of a young man on the East Side in New York City. The book examines the reactions of police, the other victims of the crime, the perpetrator, and the family of murdered man. It also touches on the politics associated with solving the crime (like timing a meeting with the press to get the best reaction). I really liked to book because it looked at the crime from so many different points of view. Richard Price wrote for the show "The Wire", which was written in a similar style. I think that this style of writing really sets him apart from other writers in this genre. I also liked Price's examination of the history of the East Side of New York City. Apparently, a good portion of immigrants lived in that area until recently when a larger majority of upper class people began moving to the East Side. Anyone who enjoys crime novels would enjoy this book (even though you know who did it from the onset).

Free Pass to Kooky town

I recently mentioned to my mom that I'm looking forward to when I can be completely inflexible and then it can be chalked up to : "I'm old to change" or "I'm just eccentric". Which has made me think about quirky famous people who make the weirdest things and no one seems to care. The video below is an example of 3 people who totally have a free pass to kooky town:

If you have seen any Coen brothers film, you know that they can really throw something from left field into a movie. Gwen Stefani is perhaps that best example of a person that is really eccentric (in music, dress, and influences) and people really don't care, probably because she is so confident in herself.

"Which is why so many people are suddenly allergic to peanuts. The peanuts are emitting toxins as an evolutionary defense mechanism. They're tired of being eaten, and now they're fighting back." - Dale

We let down the funky bunch

This guy at work looks a little like Andy Samburg (including the hair), so from now on, I'm going to be reminded of this clip every time I talk to him.




or this (watch Andy Samburg run away, it's hilarious):

I have feelings of ennui

Work has been really hectic (and stressful) for the last week and as a side effect, I have been neglecting my blog a lot. I haven't posted in about two weeks, so I'm going to try and post more often and do a book review this week. I will try to be better about posting. I think that I will let Andy Bernard express my feelings