Do you know how happy this makes me?

When you move it takes you a while to warm up to a place, at least in my experience.  Just ask my parents.  I spent longer than I care to admit claiming not to have any friends just to make them feel guilty about making me move to Tennessee right before I started high school.

But things like this help.

Problem solving at our house

What do these

have to do with this?

Creative uses for cooling racks. And, my husband would have you believe, the only good use for cooling racks. Apparently he doesn't appreciate cakes that are in one piece or cookies with crisp bottoms.

Two Christmas Dinners

Since A. and I got married, we've spent Christmas with his family. Both of his extended families are in the area, so we get to spend time with both sides of the family. Conveniently enough, one family has their big dinner and celebration on Christmas Eve, and one on Christmas day. And their culinary traditions are divergent enough that it doesn't feel like duplication (except to one's stomach, which is exhausted from the deliciousness).

The Christmas Eve menu: pork, black beans and rice, yucca, flan.




Christmas Day: lasagna, twice baked potatoes, brijole/braciole (beef wrapped around eggs and bacon), etc. Only problem is, I forgot to take pictures, so you'll have to make do with a picture of someone else's brijole. Apparently what you fill it with is personal preference, or at least varies by region.


Hope everyone is having an enjoyable Boxing Day!

Nerdy Movie Review: Fermat's Room

While I was waiting for A. to finish checking out at the grocery store this evening (the essentials--ice cream and ingredients for french toast), I started to browse the movies available in the Redbox. On the first page, after all of the "Coming Soon" movies, was one called "Fermat's Room." Well, that was certainly intriguing. And then the description itself had me from go--

Four mathematicians who do not know each other are invited by a mysterious host on the pretext of resolving a great enigma. The room in which they find themselves turns out to be a shrinking room that will crush them if they do not discover in time what connects them all and why someone might wish to murder them.

My husband, being the generous soul that he is, agreed that we could watch it this evening. And it was everything one could have wished for. A grown-up Clue or Mathnet with some classic brainteasers thrown in for good measure. It made me want to host a murder mystery party weekend.

Bike Dancing

This is just crazy!


Hat tip: The Common Room

Side Note: LibraryThing

Library Parabola,
originally uploaded by Sifter.

After plugging LibraryThing twice this weekend and mentioning that it would be even more awesome when Collections was released, I was excited to find out today that it was rolled out to all members yesterday.

LibraryThing is, by its own description, "a home for your books." It's a book cataloging site that makes it possible for you to keep track of the books you own, the books you want to own, the books you have read, and the books you want to read. Essentially, any kind of list or grouping of books you can imagine, you can track using LibraryThing. In fact, the site is so great at what it does that it's been adopted by, guess what, libraries!

It also has a social networking aspect, allowing you to browse the catalogues of members who have public libraries, and showing you what books you have in common. There are even efforts underway to catalog the books of famous individuals, so you can find out what books you have in common with C.S. Lewis or John Adams.

I suggested it to my mom as a way her sewing guild members could let each other know what craft books they have. I think it would be great for a church library (my church runs a school, so I think they're set...). I also think sharing your catalog with friends or family could be a great opportunity to obtain some of the books you're looking for. It's like a less crass version of sharing your Amazon wishlist, at least for those of us whose wishes are shelves and shelves of books.

A little more beauty in my life

And now in the category of "not spending the inheritance of your firstborn," free entertainment for many this Saturday: Museum Day 2008

Sponsored by the Smithsonian Museum, there are a bunch of participating museums. I'm thinking about surprising Adam* with a trip to the art museum, which we haven't visited yet. Admittedly, we're spoiled by the museums in Boston, but it should be a good way to celebrate his first Saturday at home in three weeks.

*he actually knows this blog exists, and is subscribed to it in Google Reader, but I don't think he ever checks, so I think I'm safe.

Love it

Great Video

I kind of want to subtitle it "Joy to the World."

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.