Cool It

I love this book.
I also love this planet.
But I refuse to be swept up in all of the environmental hysteria that is promoted by media and Hollywood types and, dare I say it, liberals.
This book is the least hysterical, most rational consideration of the topic of global warming that I have come across.
I am now about to plagiarize the Google Book summary:

A startling book that reshapes the debate about global warming and offers a moderate approach to meeting its challenges.

Bjorn Lomborg argues that many of the elaborate and expensive actions now being considered—the Kyoto Protocol, for example—have a staggering potential cost of hundreds of billions of dollars, but, ultimately, will have little impact on the world's temperature. He suggests that rather than institutionalizing these programs to “cool” the earth's temperature 100 years from now, we should focus our resources on some of the world's most pressing immediate concerns, such as: fighting malaria and HIV/AIDS, and maintaining a safe, fresh water supply. And he considers why and how this debate has developed an atmosphere in which dissenters are immediately demonized.

Bjorn Lomberg has been named on numerous "most influential" lists and is a political scientist and statistician. Almost half of this book is dedicated to source citations. His arguments make so much common sense, no matter where you stand on the issue. If you care at all about this big blue planet, I highly recommend you check this book out of your local library. It is thoroughly readable; the section on Polar bears alone is worth the effort.

Tell them your friend Sue sent you.

P.S. I just discovered that you can preview the book (as in "read almost the whole thing) here.

You're welcome.

The Weekend is here

Charlie has gone back to Camp Pendleton.
With Jeff's truck, which is now Charlie's truck.
It's pimped out to the max.
If one could call a Chevy S10 4-cylinder "pimped out"!
It has a new stereo, cool bullet hole decals on the rear, and all kinds of nifty organizers on the inside.
Still no air conditioning.

Daniel spent Tuesday night here and the boys got some bonding time.


Jeff is home from New England.
The airline lost his bag.
Then they found it.
It got here this afternoon.
Jeff cleaned out the shed today.
Hooray!
He ate out three times a day while he was gone and put on at least 5 lbs.


Mum has been weeding in the raspberry patch.


She's wearing my "Marine's Mom" cap.

Joshua slept over last night.
He fell asleep on the way here and didn't wake up until 9 o'clock this morning.
I love this boy.
Have I mentioned that before?
Here he is on the computer


and eating some gluten-free oatmeal cookies made by Joshua and Nana this morning.


I, as blogger, do not have to post embarrassing photos of myself.

So that's all there is.

Jeff's kisses

No, not that one.
He's out of town on the East Coast somewhere.

Little Jeff.

His birthday party was on Sunday.
Jenny is a real party girl.
The theme was Sesame Street, complete with Cookie Monster cake


and Sponge Bob pinata.


Sponge Bob, you say?
Yes, well, Jenny dumpster dove at the local elementary school and came up with three damaged SBob pinatas. A little repair work later and, viola, one serviceable pinata.
My kind of girl.
Except the body was a cardboard box and took FOREVER to break.

Anyway, kisses from little Jeff are always multidimensional.
Think, slobbery lips and runny nose.
He gives them obediently when directed by his Mama.
Here are a few of us sharing the love.
And the germs.



After seeing this photo, I've decided it's time for a haircut.
Or something.


A good time was had by all.




Some more than others.

Boring but helpful?

I don't know about you, but sometimes my computer just gets bogged down in unidentified junk, and our supposed anti-virus software just isn't doing its job.
I was listening to Clark Howard yesterday as I drove from one music therapy client to another.

HE IS MY HERO.

If you don't know of him, go to his website and find out which station carries his talk show. I learn something useful from him every time I listen. He is, possibly, MORE FRUGAL THAN I.
I know, hard to believe, right?
Anyway, yesterday he was talking about scareware. Go look on his website if you want the whole story, but the short version is this. Pop-up boxes are coming up on people's computers, telling them that they have gotten a virus and to click on the box to get rid of it. It looks like an official anti-virus notification.

But DO NOT CLICK ON THE BOX.

It will download a virus and shut down your computer.
He also recommended Spybot, which I have used in the past but forgotten about. It is a free download that will Search and Destroy all those nasty little buggers that slow down your computer. I ran it last night and it completely fixed all the little freezing and slowing problems that I was having. One word of warning: it takes a long time to run the programme, like at least an hour. This page will lead you to several other "clean-up" programmes recommended by Clark.

Another handy hint from Clark was that you should have more than one search engine on your computer, so that if a virus shuts down one of them, you can still get on the net to fix it. No problem at our house, as I use Firefox and everybody else hates it!

There.
I posted.
Maybe it was even useful.

Lisa Hannigan

A few months ago I took my girls to see Jason Mraz.
I decided I could live without Jason.
A little too gleefully Obama-fied for me.
But I loved his opening act.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is Lisa Hannigan, an Irish colleen with a hauntingly beautiful voice and songs to match.



She has several songs on YouTube and her own website.

If I were you I would download her album.

Oh, that's right.

I already did.

The Search for Perfection

No, silly, I don't mean ME!
I am having too much fun to be anywhere close to perfection.
I have had, however, a long-standing search for two things:
The perfect pizza dough
and
the perfect chocolate chip cookie.


I think I have found the pizza dough, thanks to this blogger, who has a pretty fun blog for young moms or anyone interested in living frugally and fantastically.

Here it is:

Pizza Hut Style Pizza Dough

1 1/3 cups water
2 tsp sugar
1 1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp cornmeal
3 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1 1/2 tsp yeast

Add ingredients to bread machine, according to manufacturer's settings, and run dough setting. After the machine beeps, roll out the dough. You can roll the dough into two 9x13" pizzas (great for kid's lunches!) or into two medium pizzas or a large pizza and an order of breadsticks. Parbake the crust with a drizzle of olive oil on it at 450 degrees for ten minutes. Remove the crust and add sauce and toppings. If making breadsticks, add your breadsticks at this time. Place into the oven for another ten to fifteen minutes or until golden and bubbly. Enjoy!
Note: one variation of the recipe has you sprinkle the cornmeal on the pan, not mix it into the dough. I kind of liked it mixed in. Also, if you mix the dough in your bread machine, make sure you use bread flour.
Check out the blog for more hints on using this recipe.

Well, that covers pizza dough.

Enough excitement for one day.

Chocolate chip cookies hover on the horizon.

Chicks and the Marine

My friend Julie raises chickens for eggs and for fun. She generously shares her multi-coloured eggs with her friends. Of which, did I mention, I am one? We are chick-sitting for Julie this weekend. Seven adorable chicks of varied breeds. They are cheeping in their box in the family room. Charlie got all GOOEY when he saw them. And, of course, he couldn't help being GOOFY too. I told him I would post the photo if he pulled a funny face! Here are some chick pictures for your enjoyment. Someday, when I'm more motivated, I will tell you the story of Attila the Hen.