Friday Miscellany

Someone needs to invent a smoke alarm that won't let the battery wear down and start chirping incessantly at four-thirty in the morning.

Crockpot potato soup does not freeze well. I thawed out the bit I saved from my Crockpot Experiment. It wasn't so good. The potatoes turned kind of gritty :(

My two cents on chickens and farming in the city:

I say let the Stevens' buy the lots in the city of Buffalo. An urban farm is a great idea for the area. I think it will be a great inspiration for an area that has a reputation for being a scary part of town. If it doesn't work out, the Stevens' had said that they would give the city the first option to buy the property back. How can the city lose? From what I can tell, there isn't even a definite plan or time frame for development of the land. My prediction? They will deny the Stevens' the chance to farm the property and it will remain vacant for at least five years.

As for city chickens - I think it's also a great idea. Before The Disaster, I had chickens for over a year and I have replacement chicks coming next month (I can't wait!). I think that as long as there are clear rules in place, there is no reason for people not to be able to own a few chickens. They are very entertaining, very easy to care for and they lay eggs. I love animals, but I moved from my last house because the neighbors that moved in next door let their dogs bark outside 24 hours a day. Animal control didn't do anything about it and I couldn't take it anymore. I won't even talk about my other neighbor's cat, who liked to use my garden as it's litter box - ugh. Presently my next door neighbors have chickens as well as many people in my area. Chickens don't bother anyone (I'm talking about hens... roosters are on the noisy side - but I like the crowing). If people can't have chickens, they shouldn't be allowed to have dogs or cats either. Here is an excellent article that examines residential urban chicken keeping.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail is in the top 5 of my all-time favorite movies. I thought this was absolutely brilliant:





Camelot - what a silly place!

Trivia Weekend

The University of Wisconsin at Steven's Point is home to the World's Largest Trivia Contest. Fifty-four hours of trivia, music, food and fun. I used to belong to a team, but it got to the point that I couldn't put the time into preparing for the game anymore. It takes a *lot* of time to collect notes during the year. Even tho' I don't play anymore, I still like to listen the game every year. I thought I wouldn't be able to today - I was having problems connecting to the station on my computer. I was persistent, and was finally able to get through - yay! I like the music and I like to see how many questions I can answer on my own. I've been able to find a bunch, but none of the ones I found were really hard questions. The team I was on is usually in the top twenty. When I first checked the scores, they were down in the sixties somewhere, but now I see that they are in 31rst place - which is still very respectable considering that there are over 400 teams playing. I'm just used to them being near the top. There is still a long way to go, so there is still hope! The Trivia home page here for more information on the game.

Last night I got to watch one of my Top-Ten-Favorite-Movies-of-All-Time on the big screen. The Riviera Theater showed Monty Python and the Holy Grail - it was a lot of fun. As much as I like watching the movie at home on TV, I love the atmosphere of sitting in a theater full of people who like the show as much as I do. The show also included 24 seconds of not-seen-before footage. It was pretty easy to pick out and pretty funny.

I've watched Survivor since the first season. I am the first to admit that it's not as fun to watch as it used to be... the challenges always seem to be the same and the people that they pick don't seem to be as interesting as they used to be. I still watch every season, tho' - probably more out of habit than anything. But I am glad I watched this past Thursday. The moment when Jason tried to convince Eliza that the fake Immunity Idol he found - the one that Ozzy made - was the real thing was absolutely priceless. He was supposed to give it to Eliza to save her from being voted out.

"This isn't the Idol - It's just a stick!"
"Yes it is."
"No it's not - It's just a stick!"
"It is the Idol... It's got a face on it - see?"
"No it doesn't - it's just a stick!"
"Bummer."

I haven't laughed that hard in a looong time.

And for the record, I was glad to see Eliza go - I didn't like her the first time around, either. I'm rooting for Ozzy.

On a more serious note, I couldn't agree more with this post from BUFFALOg. I can't stand the politicians in New York. Ugh.