Harelipfrog

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Eggs, eggs, eggs.

In the fridge we have sitting 90 eggs ready to boil and pickle. Well technically not ready. My wife was informed that eggs that have sat in the fridge for a week peal faster after they are boiled.

so this week we will be boiling 90 eggs so we can bottle 9 jars full with 9 eggs each. We have three recipes that we will try for various reasons. My wife thought the vinegar taste was a bit harsh and I agreed it had a kick. So we have found three we like. The first uses malt vinegar and the second uses apple cider vinegar. Both should be milder and easier to swallow. The last is a vinegar water recipe at 2:1 ratio. That one involves garlic so it should offer a nice aroma.

So hopefully we will post three egg recipes and pictures for next weeks Carnival of the recipes.

Saturday, May 28, 2005

Strings and the Rutherford County School Board

Earlier this month I attended a stunning performance at Thurman Francis Arts Academy by their strings classes. I have been going to their performances for the last three years and have watched their strings program advance from purely marginal (totaly unison and minimal difficulty) to absolutely spectacular (parts, in-tune). This is especially true when you consider that the oldest students in the program there are 14 (this is a middle school).

My neice (cello) has been part of this program for some time and as a result has begun taking private lessons and is also involved with a prepatory strings group for the Murfreesboro Youth Orchestra.

I also found out that this program is totaly unsupported by the local school board. The regular band receives about $2000 a year from the school board for music and instruments. The strings program receives absolutely nothing, zip, zero, nadda. It is totally supported by the parents and fundraisers.

Why would the local school board not be willing to support a program like this? For that matter why were they unwilling to have an arts academy in the first place? TFAA routinely turns out good well rounded students who place well on their tests and will likely to go on and succeed later in life. It is an establised fact that kids who have opportunities like these do better than students who have minimal or no arts exposure.

I am just one person, but we all have voices that can be heard. Contact the local school board and let them know that we need programs like these in our schools and that they need the full support of their local school board.

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

I can't help myself

I have found that, for me at least, some of the fun of having a blog is playing with the HTML.

Hope you like the new look. ;)

Thursday, May 12, 2005

I am such a slug! (Pickled Eggs Part 2)

It has been over a month (actually almost two) since we made pickled eggs and I have not let you know how they came out.

Kind of grey. Actually very grey.

In doing a bit more research I have had a number of people suggest boiling the vinegar with the spices but not adding them to the jars themselves as they can turn the eggs a truely unappetizing shade of gray (blech).

However if you can get past the grey they are actually pretty good. The eggs have certainly kept well (unrefrigerated for over a month with one jar left to go) nobody has turned green and keeled over after eating them anyway.

I particularly like them in salads (so far we have tried them in tuna and chicken) and I suppose they would probably do nicely in anything you would normally add a boiled egg to. The pickled aspect gives them a nice kick.

We are going to be giving a couple of other recipes a try. We heard that if you stick a piece of raw brocoli in the jar it will turn the eggs a florescent green or a piece of beet to turn them purple.

Looks like we will be having fun with this over the next couple of weeks.

By the way, I did mention gas on my initial post.

OMG!

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

You have got to see this!!

My husband (Gunner of No Quarters) sent this to me, and it is just funny. Unfortunately he is not sure where he got it from, but if he remembers I will post it.

This is dial-up unfriendly, you will need a high speed connection.

Moonwalking Birdies!

Sunday, May 08, 2005

Hurrah

My youngest sister has just announced that she is pregnant. I will be an Aunt again!

Congratulations Sheila!!

Thursday, May 05, 2005

Precious Doe


I lived in Kansas City until about two years ago when I moved back to Nashville. When the body of the little girl who came to be known as Precious Doe was found I was living there and you could not go anywhere without seeing the drawing of what the police belived that she looked like. She was a beautiful little girl.

I was pleased to find out today that she has her own name back.

Erica Michelle Maria Green

Comics

There are a number of things I enjoy, and among them are a good book and humor. I am not overly particular about my books as long as the story is good and it is well written. I also enjoy humor, which is why I now have a new set of links to the left.

Comics

These are the online comics I read every day. Some of them for the good story, others for the humor, and others because sometimes I just don't know when to stop. If you wander over to take a look, I would recommend starting from the beginning. I believe that all of them have easy links to the beginnings of their stories.

Like everything else, I will update the list as I find ones I enjoy.

Bruno the Bandit - Updates Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
A strange story, sometimes really good and sometimes not, but funny enough to keep me coming back.

Dominic Deegan - Now updating seven days a week
This is one of my favorites. I have a weak spot for fantasy storylines anyway, and this one is really good. My all-time favorite single strip is this one from almost the very beginning. The ladies in my family are all well endowed and this just tickled my fancy to no end.
The author of this particular strip has just recently taken the full-time comic plunge. I wish him all the best and hope it is successful. Particularly since I would start going into withdrawal if I had to go back to just Monday thru Friday.

General Protection Fault - Updates seven days a week
Another one of my favorites. The story of a guy and his friends who work at a software company called "General Protection Fault". The author of this particular strip just had to start back to work since the comic was not bringing in enough alone. In consideration of his many fans he has not dropped his update schedule, but they are now published in B&W during the week and color just on Sundays.
An excellent story line, well written, and always a good read. You will definitely need to go back to the beginning and start from there or you will not understand what it going on.

Kevin and Kell - Updates seven days a week
An excellent story about a "mixed family". A wolf and her son, and rabbit and his adopted hedgehog daughter, and their rabbit/wolf infant daughter (she looks like a rabbit, but is carnivorous).

Schlock Mercenary - Updates seven days a week
The main character in this story resembles an oversized pile of dung. He is a member of a mercenary company that for a time he was the majority stockholder. Its a good story, nice aliens, and an imaginative storyline.
If you go back to the beginning you will notice that the art has definitely improved with time.

Sluggy Freelance - Updates seven days a week, though you get frequent filler
It has been a good story, and while I am not overly fond of the current storyline it has been pretty good. Currently I would only give it a ho hum, but I've been sticking with it in the hopes that it will get better. I want more bun-bun!

Something Positive - Updates a lot (check the banner) usually in the afternoon
The subject matter tends to be adult, I would rate this at a PG-13 (Gunner said he would rate it as R). The humor is good, but the subject matter is frequently adult. It may be warped, but I love PeeJee and Aubrey's outlook on life.

Wapsi Square - Updates Monday thru Friday
I happened across this particular comic once, and after reading a couple of strips went back to the beginning. The main character is a busty curator for the museum and along with her dog and a small incan god lives a very exciting life. Humorous, friendly, and well written.

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

My Birthday Present

Gunner found something for my birthday, but before I tell you what it is I need to give you a bit of background first.

Gunner and I met in 1988. He was attending college and had access to the university's computer labs. Old monochrome screened beasts with (by today's standard) almost no RAM and 5 1/2 floppies.

He got me to go with him and play games. One that we both enjoyed was a game called Larn. A D&D style game. It was great fun and we both enjoyed playing it. It had no graphics and required 2 5 1/2 inch floppies, one for the program and one for the saved file (if you had not died last time).

Time passed, and as computers became more advanced I began having problems playing the game until eventually (Windows 98) the computer could no longer properly interpret the programs code.

Since then he has been looking for an updated copy of it for me (I was a true addict).

The beginning of April he happened across Julian's ULarn Page. He claimed to have a graphics version of our old favorite (graphics!!!!). Gunner figured that it would not work as nothing else had so far, but downloaded it and gave it a try.

IT WORKS!!! (thunder in the background and they cry of the mad scientist "It Lives ... It Lives").

he he

Unfortunately it is still just as addicting as it was in 1988, and I have been spending a couple of hours every night trying to win the game (you have to get the potion to heal your dying daughter).

The guy who put it together has made it a challenge even for an old hand at Larn like myself (I had it to the point where I could win the first level in as little as 90 minutes) and I still have not managed it. However I have reached the point where it is not consuming every spare minute I can wring out of a day, and I am back to catching up on my reading and such.

Anyway, if you are so inclined, give it a shot. Have fun!

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Another New Link

This is one you really need to go by and read.

PostSecret