Lovely way to spend a Friday afternoon....

Finished up a draft of the grant and sent it off to the PTBs and was waiting for my DH to get home so we can pack it off to the 'Rents for the weekend when I discovered a voice mail on my phone from this lovely and fabulous lady. I called her back and we chatted for about 30 minutes.

Isn't it funny how sometimes you just click with people, and then when you hear their voice it's almost like you know them already?

Looking forward to many more afternoon chats!

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Whaaa? Oh. Yeah. Sure. Well, It is Friday....

You Are Dublin Mudslide Ice Cream

You won't remember any of this in the morning

h/t brownie batter beth

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Grantsmanship be damned.

I have two grants going out for June 1, but I suppose I can take 5 minutes and post a yummy new recipe.

I just found this one, and it is yummy and summery, perfect for the holiday weekend!

Dill Pickle Potato Salad
3 pounds potatoes (about 8 medium sized)
6 hard cooked eggs, chopped
3 celery ribs, chopped
6 green onions, chopped
2 medium dill pickles, finely chopped
1.5 cups Mayonnaise
1/4 cup dill pickle juice
4.5 tsp prepared mustard
1 tsp celery seed
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Place potatoes in a dutch oven and cover with water.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes or until tender.  Drain and Cool.

Peel (if desired) and cube potatoes, place in a large bowl.  Add eggs, celery, onions, and pickles.

In a small bowl, combine mayonnaise, dill pickle juice, mustard, celery seed, salt, and pepper.  Pour over potato mixture and mix well.  Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

Yield: 8-10 servings

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Reality TV junkie: OD on finales

For once the guy who should have one DID WIN.

Make that for twice.  Congrats American Idol Taylor and Top Chef Harold.

And, BTW, no matter how many fancy edits you used, it was clear that Tiffani was SOOO not going to win.  Especially after she tried to claim Dave's dessert as her own....

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AI blogging: Kat Sucks edition

This is what all the fuss was about?  Katherine's rendition of Somewhere over the Rainbow?  PLEASE.  It blew ass.  She was on pitch, and that's about all it had to recommend it, regardless of whether she did it better this time or not.

Yes, when you do an iconic song you need to switch it up in order to own it, but SOtR is a CLASSIC.  You do not turn it into Britney Spears pop!

Also, you DUMB BITCH, you are a SINGER.  You should have that first note in your head.  BEFORE you start.  If you can hit NO other note on your own, you need to be able to hit the starting pitch.

And what's with the jewelery?  Sheesh.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 07:31 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Anyone else notice?

Thousands of Americans send get-well cards to a horse but ignore our fighting men and women who are wounded in their service?

Grr... Maybe if our soldiers were wounded on TV....

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So much to write, so little time....

I know I've been rather boring of late.  As usual, it's work getting in the way of blogging....

So here's what's on my mind (other than work):

AI:  Is it rigged for Katherine?  I love Taylor, and I hear he kicked her ass up between her shoulder blades tonight.  Will he win?

House:  Is it all a dream (a la Pam Ewing and Bobby) or does House really get shot and punch Wilson?

24:  Best moments of the night: 1) Marty's face as President Weasel was led away (there's a great line in the Count of Monte Cristo about Edouard smiling a "secret smile" as he "watched a scene that was truly comprehensible only to himself and two others".  Her look was exactly as I imagined his face...
2) Anyone notice the name of the Chinese freighter?  The "Shanghai" LMAO!!!!

Do I watch any other networks besides Fox?  Evidently not....

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Data Stolen from more than 25 MILLION US Veterans

Everyone discharged since 1975 (including my husband) has had their personal data compromised because some IDIOT took it home on a laptop without authorization.

Full story here.  Mike Hampton has more, including a letter that will be sent to affected veterans(h/t Jawa Howie)

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Blogger Exists! Film at 11.

Well, ok, no film, but I did have a nice breakfast with Dean this morning.

I can report that not only he is he kind and amusing, he is as entertaining in real life as he is in the blogworld.

And thanks for breakfast. The next one's on me!

Posted by: caltechgirl at 08:39 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Heil Ahmedinejad!

Sick. Just fucking sick.

h/t Jawa Howie

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Happy Birthday!

To all-around fabulous chickie, amazing photographer, and kick-ass blogger, and my friend: Joanie!

MWAH! Love Ya!

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No Cable!

The cable's out at the hotel, so somebody better liveblog the AI results show!

Elliott and Taylor RULE! </fangirl>

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On the road again....

I am finally here, ensconced in my lovely hotel room on the UM campus in Ann Arbor, MI.  I'm here for a conference until Friday.

So far so good.  First of all, let me say I "heart" Frontier Airlines.  Cheap, punctual, new planes, and TV.  Oh, and free headphones (with a standard jack).  You gotta love it.  And every plane has a name and a mascot (the animal painted on the tail).  Which is awesome.  The little girl 3 rows ahead kept telling her mom, "The plane's name is Trixie!" over and over between Denver and Detroit.    Trixie, BTW, is a Red Fox.

And they fed us Donuts and Sun Chips.  Excellent.

The hotel I'm staying in is actually the top floor of the building on campus where the conference is being held.  Free wireless (thanks U of M network) and hot beverages whenever I like (coffee, tea, cider, cocoa, etc.), and the conference folks are doing a tolerable job of feeding us.  Just hors d'oeuvres this evening, but it was fruit and veggies and a cheese tray, so I pigged out on healthy stuff!

Those of you in "flyover territory,"  I was thinking of you as I was flying over!  Especially this guy, as the map said I went right over his neck of the woods

I'm planning on seeing these folks while I'm in town, so hopefully that will work out, unlike the last time I went to a conference and got food poisoning so I didn't get to meet up with Rob.

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Just an incubator?

New Federal guidlines ask health care professionals to treat all women capable of conceiving a baby as "pre-pregnant" from menarche through menopause.

"Among other things, this means all women between first menstrual period and menopause should take folic acid supplements, refrain from smoking, maintain a healthy weight and keep chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes under control."

All women, huh?

I have soooo many problems with this one:

First: We should encourage EVERYONE to be as healthy as possible.  Men and women alike.  FOR THEIR OWN WELL BEING.

Second:  I find this utterly demeaning.  As if the SOLE purpose of my body is to carry around my uterus and anything that ends up growing inside it.

Third, and related:  So, basically you're saying that if I choose not to have children or I can't have children, I should be preparing my body to have kids anyway?  That's insulting on so many levels I don't have room here to go into it.  I can just see some poor soul fighting infertility, finally resigning herself to being unable to bear children, and then being told by some twit doctor that she should take prenatal vites and avoid smoking for the sake of her potential children.....

h/t ilyka, who also uses a 4-letter word.

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Of Note:

First, there's a new Milblog in town. New Blog, Old Bloggers! Check out Milblogs a group blog featuring the contributions of some of the most amazing people you'd ever wish to know.

Second, for those of you who are interested, Polipundit suffered a major malfunction yesterday and autocratically cut off the group blog...
Lorie Byrd says:

"The fact is that I believe this is the last time I will be blogging at Polipundit.

I received a lengthy email from Polipundit tonight alerting us to an editorial policy change that included the following: "From now on, every blogger at PoliPundit.com will either agree with me completely on the immigration issue, or not blog at PoliPundit.com." I would provide additional context, but Polipundit has asked that the contents of our emails not be disclosed publicly and I think that is a fair request. There has been plenty written in the posts over the past week alone to let readers figure out what happened. Polipundit ended a later email with this: "It's over. The group-blogging experiment was nice while it lasted, but we have different priorities now. It's time to go our own separate ways."...

It would have been nice to have been able to tell friends and family before publicly saying goodbye, but things just didn't work out that way."

Weird. Especially for people like me who haven't read PoliPundit in quite a while.

Beth of MVRWC has some choice words for PP, and The Anchoress has some very thoughtful words on blogging, dissent, and immigration. There are many more TB's at Lorie's site too, for other people's takes on the issue.

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Took the weekend off

Of course I missed you all terribly, but sometimes a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, right?

And especially after a day like Friday....

Friday morning, I got up (late as usual) and realized that I needed to get gas.  So I dressed quickly and ran out to the car.  I get in the car, get it started and realize my sunglasses are upstairs in my bedroom.  As anyone who has ever lived in a town house will realize, that means two flights.  So I said fuck it and dug in the console for an old pair of hubby's.  Which were servicable despite huge scratches.  Then I go to back out of the garage, and as I hang the garage door clicker on the sunshade, somehow I hit the button as I am backing out.

Crash.  Car, meet door.  Door, meet car.

Thank God it stopped and rolled up on its tracks.  No Damage.

So I make it to Costco without incident for gas.  The whole way, praying that I have enough to make it....and wait in the line.

When I get there, the line fills the entire gas area (which is about 1/3 of the parking lot)... MUCH more traffic than usual, especially for the time of day.  Turns out only half the pumps are working for some unknown reason....  Sheesh.

Finally, I get out of there, get on the freeway and make it to work.  Our department took one of my colleagues out to lunch for his birthday (and to celebrate his new US Citizenship!), and while we were waiting for him to meet us, the birthday boy got a Jaywalking ticket crossing between his building and ours.  Sheesh.

**In CA, jaywalking is defined as crossing the street between two signal controlled intersections not in a crosswalk** (for those USC students on the corner of Hoover and Jeff.)

So the lunch that was supposed to start at 12 didn't start unti 1:30.

And traffic home was a nightmare.  When I got on the freeway, I saw the Goodyear Blimp rising from its hangar south of me in Carson, CA.  When I transitioned to the 110 freeway, the Blimp flew directly OVER me.  As I was passing through Downtown, the blimp was in front of me.  That sucks.  Photographic evidence when I get it uploaded later!

So I spent the last 2 days curled up with a good book (The Count of Monte Cristo, my favorite)

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The new and improved Hamster dance

Aaron has a gift for the bastards that hacked his site....

and if it's down there, you can see it here!

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The Cotillion is back!

With a linkfest dedicated to United 93. Reviews, thoughts, and why some of us (including yours truly) aren't going to see it.

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So long, and thanks for all the fish!

Turns out Dolphins may really be that smart after all......

Dolphins create a signature whistle for themselves that researchers believe is comparable to a human name, suggests a new study.

The study, published in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, focused on bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus. But the researchers believe other dolphin species, including the common dolphin and the Pacific white-sided dolphin, also possess the signature whistles.

Dolphins now join spectacled parrotlets as the only animals other than humans known to name themselves, though researchers think there may be others.

Read the entire article!

Posted by: caltechgirl at 09:10 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Like...Totally.... Dood...Like....

My "stoner" name is: Finger Lickin' THC

found here

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