Posted on

The Search

I didn't want to write this, largely because I was hopping it would be over by now, but a member of my family has been missing in the mountains since Saturday.

Michelle and a hiking partner took off on a (long) day hike near Vail, CO. When she got too tired to continue, she encouraged him to go on. They were to meet up after he had summited the mountain. She has not been seen since then.

Yesterday, a load of volunteers including my Dad and Matt and two great people I work with went up to join the rescue. They had at least four dog teams on the ground and at least two helicopters in the sky. They had so many volunteers that they had to get extra maps. Still, at the end of the day, little had been found. Found or not, it was moving and encouraging that people can be so great. You've got to believe that humanity is more good than bad.

Of course, this is all very personal to me. She is not in my immediate family (she is my third cousin), but I probably know her at least as well as most people know their cousins. She used to babysit for my sister and I and taught some of my other cousins how to swim. More recently, I've seen her with her beautiful family.

We're all still hoping for a happy ending. We look for all the good thoughts and prayers (as your religion or non-religion allows) that we will find her safe and well.

Posted on

USB Ducks

A while back, I posted an entry about craving sushi and posted a photo of sushi with it. I liked the photo, but I was in a bit of a hurry and failed to realize that these were very special sushis. They had USB plugs attached to them. As I looked back to the entry over time, I was kerflummoxed. What the hell were USB plugs doing on sushi?

Luckily, my old friend Google was able to help me out. I googled “usb sushi” and came up with this site they make all kinds of crazy looking usb thumb drives including the little friend up there to the left and some other colorful duckie thumb-drive bretheren. Check it out. You have to see some of these to believe them …

Posted on

PodCasting

I have to share my latest interest/obsession with you all: podcasting. I had a small sliver of my brain interested in it for a while now, slowly gathering data about it and this weekend, it finally hit critical mass. I couldn't tell you why. But I found myself on Fri night downloading iPodder and subscribing to 10 different podcasts.

What, you may ask, am I blathering about? Well, my friend, I am blathering about the latest and greatest (well prolly not, but it rhymes) form of entertainment. By now we're all aware of site feeds, little xml-formatted pages that allow aggregators to get the latest headlines from our sites (jesser.org's is here in case you want to see it). And we all know about mp3s. Basically, podcasting merges the two. Folks make podcasts, record them in mp3 format and then syndicate them using an XML feed. Podcast software allows you to subscribe to these feeds and will then download them to your computer for you when they're updated. Continue reading “PodCasting”

Posted on

Happy Birthdays

I have two birthdays to celebrate today. The first is our friend Dan who went thru Vandy with us. He had recently graduated from Tulane Law and was working at a New Orleans firm when Katrina hit. We heard he evacuated to Baton Rouge, but we still haven't gotten to talk to him. I hope it's a nice 26th birthday for him, despite the obvious.

We're looking forward to may more New Years' Eves with you, Dan. Happiest of happy birthdays. Hope the next year is a little less eventful. Continue reading “Happy Birthdays”

Posted on

Pottery Products


Even though I've been taking pottery classes off and on for almost 8 months, these are the first pieces to really come out. I had some snafus with timing, when I'd let a piece dry too long and crack because I didn't come back to class for too long and I had some snafus with clay when we accidentally bought the wrong type. Plus, I just don't work that fast. Anyhoo, the piece on the left is my fave. It's likely to be a candle holder and I really like the glaze I used. What it was though, I don't know. I'll have to ask my teacher. The one on the right I like as well and technically, it's the better piece all symmetrical and whatnot, but I don't like the glaze as well.

But last night, I felt like I sort of turned a corner. I made two pieces in one evening that I was really happy with… and I did it deliberately (instead of just letting they clay take whatever shape it liked). The first is a smallish bowl with a nice shape and the second is a small vase, sort of milk-juggy in shape. I can't wait to see them glazed and finished in a few weeks!!

Posted on

I Dream of Bed


This is pretty atypical for me. I've been up for three hours and at work for two and I'm still yawning and stretching and longing for my warm bed. Perhaps it's that I know that my Matty (who stayed up very late, working) is still snuggled up in bed. Perhaps its that I didn't sleep in at all this weekend. Perhaps it's that I woke up in the middle of the night when Matt came to bed and wiggled around. Perhaps its just that for whatever little reason I need a bit more sleep right now…

… but whatever the reason, I'd give almost anything to be back in bed.

Posted on

Fancy Grilled Cheese

from: the food labs of Jesser.org

Ingredients
bread (various varieties)
cheese (various varieties)
spreadable butter
ham (optional)
apples (optional)
anything else you can dream up

Directions
Choose your fixings carefully. Butter two slices of bread and make a sandwich of them, buttered sides facing out. Put whatever you like in the middle. Jess loves jack cheese and thinly sliced apples on raisin bread. Matt loves ham and cheddar on wheat bread.

Heat a non-stick skillet to medium-high heat. You don't want it too hot, because then the bread toasts before the cheese melts. You don't want it too cool because then the bread gets soggy instead of toasty.

Put your made up sandwich in the skillet and let it brown up. Flip it over and repeat on the opposite site. Pull it off and enjoy cheesy gooey yumminess.