Skip to content

Monthly Archives: December 2009

What do cats do all day?

A recent experiment, which involved putting cat cams on 50 cats, found that indoor cats spend 22 percent of their time looking out windows and only 6 percent of their time sleeping. That’s consistent with what my cat, Lily, does during the day if the weather is rainy and she wants to stay in. However, […]

A milestone for eBooks

What the Apple tablet is rumored to look like Clearly lots of people got Kindles for Christmas. Amazon reported that on Christmas day, for the first time ever, they sold more eBooks than printed books. So we see which way the money is going, and it’s clear why Apple needs to be in this market.

'Lassy cookies

I guess there’s no such thing as truly healthy sweets. But one can at least do what one can to minimize the damage. I did a Google search for “vegan molasses cookies” and modified a recipe I found. The cookies I made this evening were made with olive oil, raw sugar, King Arthur whole wheat […]

After Rome fell, brutal hardship

Hans Holbein the Younger, “Death and the Plough” Part of getting older, I think, is to increasingly wonder how the world came to be the way we found it. To answer some questions, to try to get to the roots of culture, one must go back a very long time. Just now I’m trying to […]

One more…

It’s still not quite the photo I want, but I’ve been eagerly awaiting an opportunity to photograph the abbey on a snowy evening.

The snow commences…

It started snowing today around 1 p.m. I think the snow has just begun, though. Ten to twelve inches is forecast.

The hens won't quit

My best layer December 16: 3 eggs My four hens have barely slowed down for the winter. I’m still getting three and sometimes four eggs a day, faster than I can give them away, since I try to limit myself to eating four eggs a week. I have one Golden Comet hen and three Barred […]

Sprout farming

If you’re not already a sprout farmer, and you’ve been thinking about getting started, winter is a good time to start. During the summer produce season, I don’t think much about sprouts. But during the winter, there’s no better and cheaper source of little vegetables. The best source I’ve found for seeds and such is […]

Audiophilia on a budget

Infinity SM 152 speakers, made around 1994 Pioneer SX-3500, made in 1980 The Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network opened its radio season today with Puccini’s Il Trittico. It’s the 79th season of Metropolitan Opera broadcasts, and it’s the longest running classical program in radio history. Lucky for me, I have a new sound system on […]

Vegan green bean casserole

While watching the ABC Evening News (not one of my normal news sources), I saw a commercial for green bean casserole. Once you get something like that in your head, you’ve got to have it. I wanted to make a high-protein, reasonably low fat, vegan version. I just happened to have some leftover cashew gravy. […]