jlong’s Neighborhood

My daughter took this picture of me cooking with my phone.

Ever Wonder What the Emergency Lights Look Like?

I had a major mess last night.

One of the things on my to-do list that never seems to get any closer to completion is "clean my desk." I'm putting in a dent this morning. One thing I found was a binder of business cards. Most were over ten years old, so I doubt they would be valid. A few were interesting.

For instance, here is the business card from my the group I danced with when I did Irish dancing. This evolved into the group my wife is still with.

We took a trip to Seattle and Portland. In the latter, we went to Powell's Books, a wonderful store! Actually, the store was spread among several locations. The technical book store had a cat named Fup, who also was prominent in their newsletters. She passed away a few years ago (at like 16 or 17), but I still have her card.
I found a card of another pen collector. On the back was a reproduction of an advertisement for a Parker Lucky Curve pen.
One other thing I found was an old, forgotten CD case. At my old job, we had a group of us who liked working together--we called ourselves "Aardvark Labs." Inside, I found a disk we made as our "toolbox"--a collection of random software and drivers we would take around with us. Doing this today, it would all be on a USB flash drive.

How have technology and the Internet changed the way your family spends time together?
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We've always been an online family--computers played a large part of my wife and I meeting/getting together, and we've had broadband almost as long as we've been married. The internet replaces our paper, reference materials, and, with Hulu, starting to take over TV.

One is amazing to me is how my daughter takes it for granted. She's amazed to learn some people, like her great grandmother, doesn't have a computer. If I forget my iPod, she doesn't quite understand I don't have all my music with me. These kids of the twenty-first century.

Perhaps the biggest change has been how we relate to our extended family--my wife's and my brothers, sisters, and parents. For instance, we will video-conference over Skype. With the younger set (like when my daughter was much younger), it beats a phone call hand down. It is perhaps one of the most SciFi things I do.

And my daughter takes it for granted.

On Seventh between Main and Walnut. So happy--I don't do donuts often, and hate Dunken.

My daughter and I made biscuits this morning.

They were from the old Junior League of Lake Charles cookbook, Pirate's Pantry.
They have a new cookbook out, Marshes to Mansions. My sister has a few recipes in that one. It's odd that my sisters are in Junior League--it seems like such a grown up thing to do...then I remember that we are grown ups!