francaisejolie's Profile

It's not the Salvation Army and this wasn't a email rumor. Reported in a number of local and national news outlets: Target donated a lot of money to a local org in MN which took the money to publicly back local politician, Tom Emmer, who is very right-wing and very anti-gay. Over the summer 2011.

I disagree. To continue the TV example, I have a hand-me-down TV from my parents purchased mid-90s. It is ridiculously heavy and a pain to move around, but it's still going. I can't justify spending $500 for a new fancy flat screen when I have a perfectly good TV already. However, when you look at the number of people who have splurged and gotten new ones, it is amazing to see how many have problems. The set turns on, but screen doesn't come on; the whole thing doesn't work; weird coloration/pixelation; etc. And of course, you can't find anyone who will fix a TV anymore. And surely I'm not the only who one wears clothes out no? One of the commenters pointed out underwear-Hanes falls apart so quickly these days.

It's a great book. One of my siblings received it for Christmas last year and we all took turns reading it that week. Great stories!

my kitchen is so small if I didn't at least throw everything in the sink as I went along, I'd have no space left to work! *note to self, get new house with huge kitchen island

A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle was another good French travel food(ish) book.
Looking forward to reading Shark's Fin...

I'll have to try this out. I've been doing a lot of reading about SE Asian snacks lately.
I made some klepons (glutinous rice powder, water and pandan paste formed into balls; stuffed with palm sugar; cooked in hot water for a couple of minutes; rolled in flaky coconut dusted with salt) and they were amazing. That same outer sticky texture as mochis, but the palm sugar on the inside melts and oozes when eaten. and so easy!

580sqftofbliss mentioned HI-affiliation. This is key. I've stayed in all sorts of hostels all over Europe. Toward the end of trips, running out of money, I steered away from my knowledge that Hostelling International ones are the only ones to go with and I got bugged. Literally.
Go with HI affiliation and you will be secure in knowing that your hostel will be clean and secure and free of insects (even if it costs a bit more).
The people that you meet in hostels are full of great traveling stories and often, the people who run the hostels are willing to show you the best places in town.
The one in Killarney, IRE was great: in an old castle on great, huge grounds.

i understand folks who need to get the fastest stuff for work projects or for those who do gaming, music, etc. but for those of us who basically surf the net, do word processing, a little music stuff, etc why bother? I have a 2004 ibook at home which won't run the latest OS. I'd personally rather buy the medium-low end computer and update when my computer will no longer run the OS.

when i was in high school about 10 years ago, we had a requirement to take some kind of practical skills course for 2 semesters. It could be woodworking, auto skills, sewing, foods, or I'm sure there were others (though all things technology related were in another category) and the problem was just as natalieparisi pointed out. Those of us (I'll admit it-I was one of them) who were going for the high GPA from weighted credit classes like AP, didn't want to take these classes because they dropped our GPA.

Looking back, I really wish I would have taken more of them rather than the silly time I spent sitting in the AP classes. I'd use sewing skills a lot more now than the advanced calculus... This competition for grades and especially for core classes for scholarships holds some high schoolers back though. Can't see that far ahead.

rhammons - are you going to eat on top of the little windows in that door? I'd imagine that would be a disaster. Glasses set 1/2 on wood 1/2 on the window.
Set a full length piece of glass on top?

Though, that is an awesome door and I love how you are repurposing it.