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Home Page → Custom Framed Art Prints for the Collectors → 2 Cowboys
Custom Framed Art Prints for the Collectors Art Prints "2 cowboys"
Quality custom framed art prints from re known artists in the USA. 100% all wood frames and they are shipped directly to you already with hangers on the back. So all you have to do is order and once your get your framed piece, just hang it up on the wall.
Each piece is handmade and shipped fully insured. We ask that you allow 10 working days to shipment.
In this Collection! 2 Bucks 2 Bucks with Horns 2 Cowboys 2 Cubs 2 Moose 2 Rams 3 Bucks 3 Bull Elk 3 Does 3 Phesants 3 Pictures 3 Wild Horses A Day Off A Good Day Afield A Good Feeling A Grand View A Kings Crown A Little Bit of Heaven A Matched Set A Pair A Violent Storm A Warm Winter View A Welcome Site Abandoned Absolutely Quiet Across River After the Rain After the Storm Aint I Cute Alaskan Gold Alert Alert for Prey Alert to Sounds Alerts Others All Male Deer Almost Home Alpine Alphas Amazing Image Ambush American Bison American Buffalo American Indian Amidst the Columbine Among the Aspens An Autumn Gentleman Ancient Lands Angels of Mercy Angels of Mercy Triple Angry Looks Animal Animal Artwork Animals Annual Rites Annuel Rites - 3 Piece Another Buck Antelope Arch Rocks Arched Rock Arctic Blast Arizona Armistice Around the Campfire Array of Color Art Art Gallery Artist artwork Artwork Custom Framed Aspen Forest Aspen Sanctuary Aspen Trees Aspens At Peace Atop Signal Mountain Attack Attentive Trio Autumn Autumn Alert Autumn Colored Trees Autumn Colors Autumn Glow Autumn in the Air Autumn Season Aware of Surroundings Baby Fox Back Tracking Background Bald Eagle Barbed Wire Fence Barn Barn Buddies Barn Dog Barry Hart Battle for Does Battletime Beach Beachside Reflections Beans and Bacon Bear Country Bear Cubs Bear Family Bear on Hind Legs Bears Beautiful Birds Beauty After Life Before Winter Below the Grand Big Cat Big Foot Big Game Big Game Triple Big Horns Big Skies Bird Bird Art Bird Artwork Bird Hunting Birds Birds Flying South Bison Bit Bit in Mouth Biting Lure Black Black and White Black Bear Black Bear with Cub Black Clouds Black Lab Puppy Black Mane Blankets Blind Sided Blowing in the Wind Blue Haven Blue Hills Blue Skies Blue Sky Bobcat Triple Boots Breaking Dawn Breaking Trail Brian Barlow Bridle and Hackamore Bridle and Reins Bright Blue Flowers Bringing Home the Bacon Broken Down Fencing Brown Brown Bear Brown Bear Foraging Brown Mane Brush Buck Buck Calling Buck with Horns Bucking Horse Bucking Horses Bucks Bucks with Horns Buckskin I Buffalo Bugling Bull Elk Bull Moose Bull Session Bulls Cactus Call of Autumn Calling Calm Waters Calves Campfire Canadian Geese Canadian Geese Flying Canvas Wall Art Canyon Canyon Compadres Carl Brenders Carved by River Carved Out Cascade Canyon Cat Catching Fish Cathedral Rock Cats Bath Cattle Cattle Drive Cattle Escaping House Cattle Roundup Cattle Running Cattle Thief Captured Cavern Challenging Charging Charging in Water Chasing Rainbows Checking his Surroundings Chuckwagon in Background Claim Jumper Claiming their Does Clark Kelle Price Clark Kelley Price Clark Kelly Price Claws Beared Cleaning Himself Cliff Cliffs Climbers Climbing a Hill Climbing a Tree Climbing Straight Up Closeup Closing the Distance Clouds Above Clouds Coming Cloudy Skies Cloudy Sky Cold Day Collector Art Colorado Fall Colorful Scene Colorful Sky Colors of Fall Coming Back Home Coming Sun Coming to the Challenge Corn Cobs Corral Cottonwood Buck Cougar Counting Cattle Covered with Yellow Leaves Cowboy Cowboy Falling Cowboy Gold Cowboy Heaven Cowboy Horseback Cowboy Named Bronco Cowboy on Bucking Horse Cowboy Roping Calf Cowboy Under Cover Cowboy with Rifle Cowboy Work Cowboys Cowboys Work Cowboys Working Creekside Crossing a River Crossing River Crossing Stream Crossing Water Crumpled Auto Cubs Custom Framed Cynthie Fisher Dads Helper Dallen Lambson Dan Ballard Daniel Smith Dark Skies Day Dreamer Dead Eye Or Hunger Dear Moose Deep Timber Sanctuary Deer Deer Up the Hill Definition of Beauty Delicate Light Den Mother Desert Desert King Desert Muleys Desert Scene Desert Shadows Desert Storm Desert Wonder Dinner Dinnertime Discounts Doe Doe Herd Does Dog Dog Art Dog Artwork Don't Look Down Double Check Double Take Double Take Triple Down and Dusty Down to the Wire Dream of Fire Drinking from Stream Ducks Dueces Wild Dust Dust on the Pahsimeroi Dusty Road Dusty Scene Dusty Trail Each Looking Different Ways Early to Rise Easy Big Fella Elk Elk - Triple Elk Alert Elk Calling Elk Charging Elk Grazing Elk Hunting Elm Omelette Enjoying Freedom Equine Art Escaping Herd Eternity Evening at the Top of the World Evening Encounter Evening Feed Evening Hatch Evening Reflections Evening Shadows Ever Wandering for Food Ever Watchful Evergreen Evergreen Trees Eviction Day Eyes Wide Open Facing Off Fade Into Light Fall Fall Colors Fall Flight Fall Foliage Fall Leaves Fall Reflections Fall Shadows Fallen Leaves Farm Farmland Philanderer Feeding Time Female Female Deer Fence Fence Mender Fence Mender 3 Piece Fencing Fifteen Feet Up Fighing Snow Trail Fighting Finding Home Fine Art First Look First Time Saddled Fish Fish Art Fishing Fixing Fence Floral Flower Flowers For the Elk Hunter Forest Forest Below Forest Covered Shore Forest Evergreens Forest of Trees Forest Scene Forest Sentinel Forest Setting Fox Foxes FREE Collectors Club Free Shipping From Otter Full Colors Full Horns Full Rack Full Rack Horns Full Rack of Horns Full Racks Gallery Wrapped Gallery4Collectors Galloping Gathering Light Giclee Canvas Giclee Canvas Paper Prints Giclee Cavnas Glad I Hired A Guide Going to High Country Golden Rays Gone in a Flash Good Old Days Good to Get Home Gorgeous Animal Gorgeous Colors Gorgeous Landscape Artwork Grand Meadows Grand Tetons Grass Grown Around Grazing Green Forest Green Grass Green Pasture Green River Green Trees Greg Beecham Grey Griz Country Grizzly Bear Grizzly Bear and Cub Grizzly Bear Hunting Grizzly Bear on Trail Grizzly Bear Overlooking Campground Grizzly Bears Grubbin For Lunch Harnessed Harvest Bouquet Hayden Lambson He Aint Heavy Heading Home Heading Home Western Artwork Heading Out at Dawn Heavens Backyard Heavens Fury Herd Herd of Does Herd Running Herding Does Herding Horses Hidden Settings Hide Hideout Hiding Hiding in Brush High Adventure High Cliff High Country Rendezvous High in Hills High on a Hill Hills Hillside Hittin It Hard Home D3cor Home Decor Home D'cor Home D'eor Home e'cor Home of the Pika Hoopin and Hollaring Hoping to Catch Fish Horns Horse Horse Artwork Horse Carrying Deer Horse Creek Muley Horse Creek Muleys Horse Equipment Horse Roundup Horse Saddle Horse Saddled Horse Saddled Waiting Horse Standing Still Horse with Deer Horseback Horseback Rounding Up Cattle Horses Horses Galloping Horses Grazing Horses Heading to the Barn Horses Nearby Horses Running Horses Saddled Huge Bear Huge Mountain Huge Mountains Hungry Hunkered Down Hunter Hunters Huntin' Cuttin' and Cuffin' Triple Hunting Hunting Dog Hunting Dogs Hunting Season In A Blanket In a Line In a Tree In At Sunset In Brush In Flight In Hollow of Rocks In River In Shadows In Streambed In the Barn In the Brush In Water Interlude Jagged Mountains Jenny Lake Sunset Just a Bit Just One More Step Kicking Up Heels King of the Hill Lake Lake Reflections Lake Shore Lakes View Landscape Landscape Artwork Lasoing Lasoo Lasoo in Hand Last Light Late Fall Late for Dinner Late Season Standoff Laying Down Laying in Grass Laying in Snow Laying Low III Laying on Overlook Laying Still Laying Together Leaves Falling Light From Above Light the Way Lighthouse Lightning Like Herding Cats Listening for Predators Living Room Artwork Lone Bison Longtime to Sunrise Looking at You Looking for Dinner Looking for Food Looking for Prey Looking Regal Looking Up Lookout Point Lost Canyon Cowboy Lost Canyon Roundup Lost in Fall Loyal Friend Lush Green Open Country Lush Greenery Lush Pasture Made in the USA Magnolia Male Deer Male Goat Males Man From the Far Blue Hills Maneuvering The Pines Manuel Mansanarez Markers Along Dirt Road Mending Fences Mending Fences Triple Middle of Field Midstream Scratch Mist Misty Morning Misty Scene Misty Sea Misty Skys Mitchell Mansanarez Moms Not Far Away Moose Morning Echoes Morning Glow Morning Reflections Mossy Remnants Mother Cow Charging Mother three cubs Moulton Barn Mountain Mountain Background Mountain Goat Mountain Goats Mountain Lion Mountain Magic Mountain Rams Mountain Settings Mountain side Mountainmen Mountains Mountains in Background Mountains with Snow Mountainside Mountainsside Mule Deer Triple Murphys Law My Hero Narrow Canyon Narrow Trail National Park Native American Indians Natural Wonders Nature Nature Art Natures Gift New Morning Night No Place Like Home No Sales Tax No Short Cuts No Ya Show Northern Reflections Oak Brush Muleys Ocean Off in the Distance Old Barn Old Farm House Old Fence Old Green Pickup Truck Old Trackter Old Trucks Old Wooden Fence Old Wooden House On Alert On Moose Back On the Move On the Run On Top of Mountains On Trail One Guards One Old One to One One Young Online Gallery Online Gallery of Art Open Country Open Field Open Ground Open Land Open Meadow Open Plains Open Prairie Open Range Orange Colored Fire Out of Hiding Out of Nowhere Out of the Blue Out of the Shadows Out the Back Door Over Rocks Over the Top Oxbow Bend 2 Pacific Breeze Pack Pack Horse Pack horses Pack of Wolves PackHorse Packhorse in Tow Packhorse Trailing Packhorses Packhorses in Tow Paint Paints Pair of Magnolias Paired Up Palomino Horse Palominos Paper Prints Parting Company Path Less Traveled Pathway Pawing at Ground Peace on the Range Peaceful Scene Peaceful Setting Peaceful Waters Peaks Pheasants Pick of the Pack Pinto Pintos Playing in Water Plow Horses Polar Bear Pond Poor Mans T-bone Portrait Powder River Puppies Nose to Nose Puppy Dog Puppy Dogs Puppy in Blanket Puppy on top of Puppy Puppy Smiling Quiet Lake Quiet Scene Rack of Horns Racks of Horns Raindrops Rainstorm Ram Portrait Rams Range Land Rawhide and Spurs Ray of Sunlight Ray of Sunshine Ready for the Animals Ready to Pull Rearing Reclamation Red Handed Red Reflections Reds and Grays of November Reflecting in Water Reflections Reins Remanents of Food Resting Riding Right Place Right Time River River Below River Kaleidoscope River Wild Rivers Edge Riverside Roaming the Mountains Roaring Water Rockin Right Along Rocks Rocky Mountains Rocky Terrain Rolling Hills Romeo and Juliet Room to Run Rope Rope in Hand Roping Roping Runaway Cow Rose Roundup Row of Boots Rowdy Boys Rugged Ground Rugged Mountains Rumbling Rams Running Running After Prey Running Downhill Running Free Rushing Stream Rutting Season Saddle Saddle 1 Saddle 2 Saddled Saddled Horse Saddling Horse Sagebrush Escape Saguaro Desert Saguaro Sunset Sand Sand Dune Saving Calf Scared Scared Horses Scratching Her Ear Sea Seascape Artwork Sedona Seeing Reflection in Water Seen Better Days Sepia Tone September Encounter Serious Business Settled for the Season Shallow Waters She Means Business Shotgun Shrouded Forest Side by Side Silhouette Single Ray Sunshine Sits on Hill Sitting in Snow Sitting Standing Cliffside Skyward Slight Breeze Small Birds Small Cacti Small Canyon Snow Snow Capped Snow Capped Mountains Snow Covered Ground Snow Covered Mountains Snow Covered Rocks Snow on Ground Snow on Mountains Snow Storm Snowing Solitude Some Blue Skies Sorrel I Souls Unwound Southern Magnolia Speed Goat Spiers Spooked Spring Flowers Spring Mare Spring Trees Springtime Spurs Stalking Prey Stampede Standing by Fence Standoff Staying Warm Stealing Fish Still Life Still Life Artwork Western Art Still Standing Strong Still Water Lake Still Waters Stilllife Stolen Kiss Stone Falls Storm Clouds Storm Clouds Above Streaks Skyward Stream Stream rolling over Rocks Streambed Striking Mountains Struttin Stuff Happens Stuff Happens 3 Piece Stuff Happens Triple Subtle Grandeau Summertime Blue Sunday Morning Mass Sundown Retreat Sunlight Highlighting Horse Sunrise Sunrise Colors Sunrise on Mountains Sunrise on the Moran Suns Ray Sunset Sunset Colors Sunset Corral Sunshine Colors Surprised Swans Table Rock Table Rock Mountains Tall Brush Tall Cactus Tall Mountain Trail Tall Mountains Tall Trees Tangled in old Pine Trees Taz Telling Tales Teton Majesty Teton Mountains Teton Roundup Texas Longhorns Thanksgiving Birds Thats Stretchin It The A Team The Brotherhood The Buddy System The Bulls Cometh The Chase The Contender The Fellowship of the Hoarfrost The Ford The Gathering The Great Escape The Higher You Go the More You See The Hitchhikers The Home Gate The Home Gate Triple The Home Place The Lights of Home The Marauders The Old Homestead at Merrys Point The Old Log The Providers The Ramshorn The Round Corral The Rustlers Trail The Talley The Telling Wind The Tracker The Uninvited The Wanderers Three Three Wolf Cubs Threes Company Through Evergreen Trees Through Moountains Through the Eye Through the Gate Through the Mist Thunder and Lightning Thunderstorm Timber Wolves Time in Stone Tom Mansanarez Towering Grace Track horses Running Tractor Trail Trail Count Trailer Tranquility Trap in the Jordan Narrows Tree Silhouette Trees Trees Loosing Leaves Tribute to Dad Trio of Work Horses Triple Triple Pictures Trout Two of a Kind Two Wooden Barns Unapproachable Underwater Scene Undivided Attention Up a Hill Utah Virgin River Crossing Waiting for Wind Waiting for Winter Walking the Line Wall Art Warm Springs Refuge Warm Winters Day Warming By Fire Watching Watching and Waiting Watching for Movement Watching for Predators Water Waterfall Waterside Weeds Surround Wester Artwork Western Western Art Western Artowrk. Paper Prints Western Artwork Whats Moving Where Horses Are Heros Where Poor Men are Rich White White Colors White Croses White Mountain Goats White on Face White Rams White Swans White Tail White Wovles Who's the Second Fox Whos Breaking Who Wide Blue Sky Wild Blue Yonder Wild Horses Wild Turkeys Wildlife Wildlife Artwork Windmill Window Jumping Winner Takes All Winter Winter Coming On Winter Hunters Winter Move Winter Scene Winter Snow Winterscene Wintertime Without a Net Wolf Wolf Pack Wolves Wood Fence Wooden Crosses Wooden Fences Wooden Gate Working Wrapped in Blanket Wyoming Yawning Puppy Dog Yellowstone Falls Young Boy Your Majesty


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The Spy Kids actress shared the good news via Instagram, posting a photo of Pena with the caption "Hello fiancé."
Pena popped the question to Vega, who's been married once before, during a recent road trip. On Wednesday, he posted a photo of Vega sporting her massive engagement ring. "My angel!!! @vegaalexa awesome road trip so far!! Now we just need to get back," the Big Time Rush singer wrote.
Source: TV Guide

subset: commoncrawl


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I always find that "sitting next to someone new" is an interesting and revealing experience. I learn new things, they learn new things. Over the years I've accumulated a bunch of tricks about using the command line, using vi, and even using emacs. The thing I'm talking about are things can't really be learned in a formal context, they are too small and there are too many of them. Yet collectively they form part of the fabric of what it means to be a vi user or a shell programmer or whatever. Picking them up and passing them on by sitting next to someone is the only way I know to spread them. Well, maybe this blog post is a start.
Here's a few I've recently picked up or passed on:
cd -
It changes directory to the last directory that you changed from. It's /bin/bash not /bin/sh (so I personally would avoid writing it in scripts). I think someone alleged that this was undocumented, but in fact I recently checked and it is in fact documented in the builtins section of the /bin/bash man page, which is huge.
It's useful when you want to cd to some directory to run a command, but then cd back.
Line 25 of the runlocal script in ScraperWiki used to do just that in order to start a service from within a different current directory:
cd ../services/scriptmgr node ./scriptmgr.js & cd -
Because I don't like writing bash-specific scripts, I changed this to use a subshell, with round brackets:
( cd ../services/scriptmgr node ./scriptmgr.js & )
A subshell is used to run the code between the round brackets, and it is just a forked copy of the shell. It has exactly the same environment (environment variables, open files, and so on), but is in another process. Since the Current Working Directory is specific to the process, changing it in the subshell has no effect on the outer shell, which carries on unaffected after the subshell has returned. So that's something I've passed on recently.
cp foo.cnf{-inhg,}
This is the same as
cp foo.cnf-inhg foo.cnf. It copies a file by removing the -inhg extension from its name. ScraperWiki stores some config files in Mercurial (the -inhg versions), and they are copied so they can be edited locally (the versions without the -inhg suffix). I'm sure this has all sorts of evil uses.
sudo !!
Of the things I've picked up recently, this is my favourite. I like how some of these tips are a combination of things that I already knew individually but hadn't thought to combine. Of course I know that sudo thing runs thing as root, and I did once know that !! is the /bin/csh mechanism (stolen by /bin/bash) for executing the previously typed command. In combination, sudo !! runs the previously typed command as root. Which is perfect for when you typed pip install thinginator instead of sudo pip install thinginator.
The favourite thing I seem to have spread seems to be Ctrl-R. (in /bin/bash) you press Ctrl-R, start typing, and bash will search for what you type in your command history; press Return to execute the command or Ctrl-R to find the next older match. Press Ctrl-C if you didn't really want to do that.
One of the @pysheff crowd for sudo !!; can't remember whether it was @davbo or @dchetwynd.
Ross Jones for cd –;
Bitbucket user mammadori "{-ext,}".
If you enjoyed this post, you may also like Mark Dominus' semi-rant on the craptastic way to do calculation in shell scripts. Huh, now I feel compelled to that Mark gets it wrong about GNU Shell; arithmetic expansion is not a GNU innovation, it comes from POSIX, having been slightly mutated from an earlier Korn Shell feature. And if he had comments I would've said that on his "blag".


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Welcome to Watch List, where we identify five things on TV to watch while you stay at home and finish your French manicure. So classy, especially when you use acrylics. LET'S GO!
JERSEY SHORE – 10:00PM (MTV) I'm not ashamed to say it: I genuinely like The Situation. Sure, he wears awful clothes and has an idiotic nickname. But otherwise, he's a fairly charming and likable fellow. That's the dirty secret of "Jersey Shore." We may tune in as a guilty pleasure so we can laugh and mock these people. But frankly, they're about 90 times more likable than the morons MTV finds to populate the "Real World" house every season. I'd hang out with the Situation over Judd Winnick any day of the week. Tonight, Sammi reads the anonymous letter telling her Ronnie is macking on other chicks, and then she dumps him. NO! But what hope is there for the world if Rammi can't stay together? ANTICIPATION: CALL ME, SAMMI!
PROJECT RUNWAY – 9:00PM (Lifetime) Michael Costello won last week's challenge and went from charming to insufferable in the span of about three seconds. ACT LIKE YOU'VE BEEN THERE BEFORE, KIDDO. Elsewhere, Gretchen continued being that one girl in your English class who you couldn't stand, and cute little Val keeps getting in the Top 3 but never winning. So very unfair. Also, now that the show is 90 minutes long, we get to watch the contestants eat! They have free catering! That's not fair! I want them toiling in their little Parsons sweatshop without food, water, or adequate plumbing facilities. That would really dial up the urgency. Tonight, you get a team challenge. Ugh. Team challenges. I hate those. Who likes cooperating with other people? Not me! ANTICIPATION: FIERCE!
CEREAL: BEYOND THE BOWL – 8:00PM (Discovery) This Discovery Channel special focuses on cereal's impact on world events and culture. No, I'm not kidding. That's the gist of it. Did you know that Cap'n Crunch led the Spanish Armada to victory against Portugal in the Great Iberian War of 1793? Or that Tony the Tiger once campaigned for human rights in his native Nepal? That's all 100% true. ANTICIPATION: SUGAR BEAR WAS ONCE PRIME MINISTER OF SURINAM!
NIGHTLINEPRIME: SECRETS OF YOUR MIND – WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO – 10:00PM (ABC) Late WWE wrestler Chris Benoit killed himself after murdering his wife and only child. Tonight, ABC reporter Martin Bashir sits down and speaks with Benoit's father in this special about psychopathy and how killers' brains work. Or you can watch "Jersey Shore," which is totally just as deep. ANTICIPATION: SAD!
STAN LEE'S SUPERHUMANS – 10:00PM (History Channel) Meet Indian Spiderman, India's answer to Spiderman. He can shoot biryani directly out of his wrists! If he's anything like Italian Spiderman, I think we're all in for a treat. ANTICIPATION: ALOO POPYOURFACERI!
Thursday Watch List: The Situation Is Kind Of A Cool Dude
Welcome to Watch List, where we identify five things on TV to watch while you stay at home and finish your French manicure. So classy, especially when you use acrylics. LET'S GO!


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6 Bad Beauty Habits You Need to Break
We want to look our best at all times. That's why we buy and use various beauty and skincare products and spend a lot of time applying makeup. In fact, applying makeup or taking care of your skin, particularly face is a nice way to de-stress and do something nice for yourself. However, as much as we'd like to think we have learned everything there is about beauty and skincare, there are still some bad…Read More


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Wolfsburg Art Museum is a vibrant and dynamic centre showcasing modern and contemporary art.
As a cultural and social institution, it sets out to educate and enlighten through visual means. In line with its philosophy, the art museum provides a cosmopolitan stage for a programme rich in contrast and cadence. The most prominent themes in the museum's work also address aspects of the modern industrial city of Wolfsburg.
Opening times:
Tuesday-Sunday 11am-6pm
두 가지 유용한 조합(브라우저 확대/축소):
확대: +
축소: +
다음 아이콘을 클릭하여 브라우저 공급자에서 기타 도움말을 받으십시오:


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Make Your Defenses as Resilient as Your Digital Ambitions
As cybercriminals increasingly profit from brazen attacks, your cyber-risk strategy is under the microscope. With the Cisco 2016 Annual Security Report, which analyzes advances by security industry and criminals, see how your peers assess security preparedness in their organizations and gain insights into where to strengthen your defenses.
Learn how to become more resilient to new attacks and compete more safely in the digital age with this annual report.


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About Me
- 6060
- I am a mom of two. I love amigurumi and colorful yarns. I will try to help you as much as I can if you have questions about plastic safety eyes and noses. Have fun knitting and crocheting!! The HEART behind the Eyes - Clara
Blog Archive
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I am in Etsy Treasury!!!
Amigurumi Swap 2
Miss Piggy and Little Ghost
Wow.. I didn't notice I haven't been updated this blog for a long time! What a shame! XP
I actually got some problems in my family that I have to deal with, after that, my energy of writing just not there! My younger daughter got breathing problem and went in and out of the hospital a few times these 2 months. We have been sick worrying about her. In the mean time we are not feeling well too. Fortunately we all feel better and I even have a little time to finish a amigurumi swap! Nice! =)
I haven't been crochet for the last few months and I really want to get back into it. Crochet keeps me SANE! LOL With 2 girls yelling, screaming, dancing, smiling, having fun, destroying the whole house, picking up toys, cooking, selling in Etsy, I am happy that doing crochet is the one that keeps me happy and peace in mind! Don't you have that feeling? LOL
Last few weeks I have joined an amigurumi swap. Each person has to crochet 2 amis. I know my partner like undersea critter, but I am not a very good listener, I chose to crochet Miss Piggy. I like her because personally I think she is cute! I am thinking to crochet more for her later. I have so many projects in mind, geez... 24 hours just not enough! I also crochet a little ghost. I saw that one day in my email from Lion Brand yarn and I thought this could be a little something that she might enjoy! =)
Here is the picture of Miss Piggy and Little guy ghost! Miss Piggy pattern is from AmyGaines.etsy.com, This Ghost Pattern you can find it through Lion Brand Yarn website. The necklace brown bead is from Nspire.etsy.com. Safety Eyes I use 7.5mm clear eyes on little ghost, and 8mm black eyes on Miss Piggy. I think Miss Piggy is about 1 ft long. I hope my partner really like it. Here is the picture of what I have sent to her.
Shells and Chains Towel
Food Toy Swap
Below is the crochet goodies I sent to her. I hope she will like it too! =) I didn't take all the goodies in whole but only the one I handmade! I made 2 fish-shaped like tawashi / dish clothes, 2 coasters (patterns also from a tawashi design), a decor that I combined from a coffee cup and donut! What do you think? :)
All Etsy shops are invited to participate in the EXTRAVAGANZA! We welcome everyone who has a shop-handmade, supply and vintage sellers to join us! Announce that you are participating in your shop announcement and you're ready to get started! (I am participating in the FIRST WEEKEND SHOPPING EXTRAVAGANZA MAY 7TH-MAY 10TH)
This is the official thread to promote! Be creative and enjoy a fun FIRST WEEKEND SHOPPING EXTRAVAGANZA!
Those of you who blog or twitter can post and/or tweet about it and promote to people that are off Etsy to visit us.
For more information please check out our team blog: http://teamesst.blogspot.com/.
More Crochet Motifs
These patterns are from a book called "201 crochet motifs, blocks, projects and ideas" by "Melody Griffiths". I think the book is pretty good, the flowers, motifs and projects are beautiful. If you like to crochet flowers, you may consider to get this book.
Dreadful Wednesday
With a day like this, I will choose to crochet something or anything to make the day pass by even faster than normal days, like Monday! LOL
To crochet a motif, it won't take long, 15-20 minutes you will have one beautiful flower! I haven't decided how to use these, may be on a hat, or may be just like a decor or bookmark. Anyway I am happy to see crochet flowers anywhere in my house.
Have you seen this side of Potter?
I am a big Harry Potter fans! The first 2 books I read are written in Chinese. Then the 3rd book of Harry Potter I went ahead and read English version, I found that reading the English version is so much better. However, I have a hard time to understand all these English terms and names, so I went back to read the very first book "Soccer Stone" so that I can understand and related all these names. It's a lot better after that. Yes, I am totally addicted!! I can't wait for the movie "the half blood prince" to come out.
Recently I have a customer came to me and get this hand-painted pearl forest green eyes. Then one day she showed me this lovely Beary Potter! I am so amazed and instantly totally in love the bear! Beary Potter is made with love, you can tell, it amazing and stunning!! If you are Harry Potter's fans, you will like this "Beary Potter". This Beary Potter is made by Dawn. You can visit her shop DawnMilstrey.etsy.com
Miss Lady Kitty
April First Weekend Shopping Extravaganza
SALE - 9mm Black Safety Eyes 25 Pairs for $7 - limited time only
Happy Dance
New Hand Painted Eyes in my Etsy Store!!
Follow me on Twitter!
Hand Painted Eyes * Frosty Marble *
Old story: When I was in high school, at the time I need to choose what to study! It was many years ago. I like drawing, designs, I have been studying that in school for a few years, it's time to choose a main subject for the future, I wanted to follow my heart to get a diploma in design. However, I couldn't do that, my father told me the reality, the real world about designs, he told me nobody could make a living just doing design, not until a person is totally famous and a person totally famous may be happen 1 every 1000 of people. Result I took different course and listened to my father.
New Story: Since I have worked all these years, never touch my drawing since graduated of high school, then all the sudden, selling eyes in etsy, and all the sudden I started to paint these little eyes! Life is like a circle. Once I start to paint again, I can't stop, I ask myself to do a little more each time and I am loving it!
After these story, aren't we bored yet? So I am showing you these pictures of my newly creations! =) Drumroll please!!!
My new serious "FROSTY MARBLE", these I have to do it in 2 different days because of so many layers I have to paint to create frosty and marble effects, they shimmer too, it's really beautiful!


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Brad Pitt's Hair at SAG Awards 2014
Does a Half-Shaved Head Make Brad Pitt Any Less Sexy?
Brad Pitt may be the big 50, but that didn't stop him from getting a youthful, edgy hairstyle. At the SAG Awards, the actor sported shaved sides with a slicked-back top — which made it half punk rock, half Mad Men. He got the cut for his latest role in an untitled film by David Ayer. His skin seemed to have a luminous glow, his eyebrows were nicely groomed, and his jaw was cleanly shaved. Though his new crop was first spotted at LAX yesterday, this marks its red carpet debut.
Vote on all of our SAG Awards polls here!


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White Swan Reflection
White Swan Reflection wallpaper
Categories : Birds
Views : 686 Views
Downloads : 2
Tags : Reflection, Swan, White
Author : wallpapervip
Description : Download White Swan Reflection HD Wallpaper from the above resolutions inside the category Birds. Posted by wallpapervip on 14 August 2016. For the White Swan Reflection vip wallpaper you can find any size of wallpapers for your devices such as android wallpapers, ios wallpapers, mobile wallpapers, mobile phone wallpapers, laptop wallpapers, 4k wallpapers and so on. If you don't find the exact resolution you are looking for, then go for Original or higher resolution which may fits perfect to your device.Rate This Wallpaper:
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Supercomputing, The Cloud, Big Data, and NoSQL
If you count yourself among the informed members of the software and computing community, you're undoubtedly aware of NoSQL, "Big Data", cloud computing, and supercomputing. Sometimes technology that has become trendy is a branch on an evolutionary tree; other times it's a revolutionary departure from long-established status quo.
The arrival of new technology often rekindles the pervasive debate over the merits of "tried-and-true" versus "new and improved". The latter often introduces new words in our lexicon, with recent examples being Big Data, NoSQL, and cloud computing. Supercomputing has been with us for a while but there have been significant strides in 2011, including IBM Watson, Tianhe-1A, and an Amazon virtual supercomputer.
IBM Watson can process 200 million pages of text in 3 seconds. (How's that for having enough capacity for big data workloads?) China claimed the supercomputer crown with Tianhe-1A and its capacity to perform 2.5 thousand trillion calculations per second. Tianhe-1A is 50% faster than the XT5 Jaguar at Oak Ridge National Laboratories. One of the more interesting approaches to solving large-scale computing problems is the Amazon virtual supercomputer. This was an ad hoc solution for an Amazon EC2 user, a pharmaceutical company that spent $1,279 per hour to rent 30,000 cores. That virtual supercomputer had enough capacity to rank 42nd on the list of the top 500 supercomputers.
My previous Dr. Dobb's blog post discussed the surge of interest in the cloud and Big Data (Terabytes to Petabytes: Reflections on 1999-2009).
Having enormous computing and storage capabilities is undoubtedly a prime factor in the growing importance of Big Data. We have capacity for analytics and data visualization that was unheard of a decade ago, including the ability to process large data volumes from disparate sources. These data sources include SQL and other structured data (click streams, web logs, RFID and sensor data, high-speed, low-latency data feeds), and a host of unstructured data, such as Tweets.
The desire to build social networks and web-scale applications has led to being able to support millions of users, and store and process information about hundreds of millions. The availability of seemingly unlimited capacity has generated enthusiasm for Hadoop and other solutions for processing large data sets. The major players in the SQL database space, for example, are integrating Hadoop with their database product line.
These new computing and storage requirements have revived, in some circles, a debate over whether to supplant tried-and-true languages, architectures, and database solutions. Important topics in recent debates have concerned attributes and capabilities of different database solutions. The topics in focus have included horizontal scalability and sharding, ACID versus BASE properties (consistency), schemas and type support, granularity of encryption, and query methods.
One of the more interesting debates is about types, schemas, type-less programming, and schema-less databases. I'll take a closer look at these issues in an upcoming blog post.


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Chicago Cubs Charities harnesses the passion of Cubs fans and improves the lives of children and families across Chicago and beyond. Our goal is to provide increased access to sports opportunities and target improvements in health, fitness and education for those at risk. We partner with the most effective programs and organizations to achieve positive impact and demonstrated results.
Through the generosity of Cubs fans, corporate partners and our Cubs Care partner, the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, Chicago Cubs Charities is proud to help support the people and organizations that make our city a great place to live, work and play.
The 8th Annual Race to Wrigley 5K Run took place Saturday, May 11, 2013 and benefited Chicago Cubs Charities and Lurie Children's Hospital. The run started and finished at legendary Wrigley Field where runners ran through Wrigley Field's ground level concourse, finishing under the famed Wrigley Field Marquee at Clark and Addison.
Runners set up personal fundraising pages to benefit Lurie Children's Hospital. New this year, top fundraisers had the opportunity to finish the race with a lap over home plate.
On April 11, join the 2013 Chicago Cubs players, coaching staff, owners and front office management for the third annual Bricks and Ivy Ball to benefit Chicago Cubs Charities. Guests will enjoy an elegant dinner, music, silent and live auction at Navy Pier.
Fans enjoyed this special opportunity to play catch in the outfield grass of Wrigley Field at Catch in the Confines. Families, friends and fans of all ages had the opportunity to spend 50-minutes throwing the ball in the outfield, running the bases, visiting the batting cage and chatting in the dugouts of beautiful Wrigley Field. Participant tickets received a commemorative t-shirt, photograph, baseball and lunch.
This August, join fellow cyclists on a 100 mile ride from Wrigley Field to Kenosha and back. Riders finish with a picnic and a party on the outfield grass at Wrigley Field. Proceeds from the Wrigley Field Road Tour help purchase bicycles for those without transportation in Africa as well as fund local programs through Chicago Cubs Charities. For ride registration information, please call 773-404-CUBS.
One lucky fan at each Cubs home game will walk away as the winner of a significant cash prize in this split the pot raffle. Fans may purchase 50/50 raffle tickets from uniformed Chicago Cubs Charities raffle ticket sellers starting two hours before the game until the middle of the sixth inning. The winning ticket will be announced at the top of the eighth inning and the winner will receive a check for half of the net proceeds from the game's raffle ticket sales that day. The other half will benefit Chicago Cubs Charities. For more information please call the Raffle Hotline at (773) 404-4726.
Take home Chicago Cubs and baseball memorabilia through the online MLB Auction. Check every two weeks for a new collection of items. All proceeds benefit Chicago Cubs Charities.
Planning a special day at Wrigley Field? Personalize your visit by purchasing a special message on the Wrigley Field centerfield scoreboard. Messages are posted in the middle of the 5th inning. Each message will only be displayed once, so be sure to have your camera out and ready!
Space is limited! Messages are sold for $85 on a first-come, first-served basis. We recommend placing your order a minimum of five business days in advance of the requested game. Order your scoreboard message with an 8x10 photo for only $110, or with a downloadable file of your photo for $135! Proceeds benefit Chicago Cubs Charities.
To order a message, please call (773) 404-CUBS or place your order online following the link below.


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Tuesday, November 30, 2010
From Rebecca - Let's Shoot Someone
Monday, November 29, 2010
Question from Lois - Reality vs. Fiction
Lisa, we all know that forensic investigation is nothing like it's portrayed on TV and in the movies. Hollywood takes huge liberties for the sake of pacing and drama. Have you ever felt the need, for the sake of the story, to compromise the reality of the forensics process in your writing?
Since I feel that my claim to meager fame is my adherence to reality, I have tried very hard not to do this. In a book I'm working on now, I seriously fudge some chemistry, but a) since I'm not a chemist I don't feel obligated to be perfectly factual in that particular case and b) I have no desire to teach people how to make a bomb. Nothing I've used so far has been all that complicated, so the issue hasn't come up.
Mostly I compromise reality in the non-science-oriented areas of the plot. In reality, Theresa would not have the TV-like luxury of six or seven days to work on one homicide. In reality she would be having serious conniptions about her workload; there would be ten other cases she needs to finish, and more would arrive in the meantime. Theresa would occasionally have to drop everything to go to court to testify about a crime that occurred a year or two previously, after scrambling around the lab to get her report and the victim's clothing and change into a conservative skirt and jacket. Her boss would be in a snit about something and she'd have things to file and reports to revise and some stupid meeting about something or other to attend.
But we're not writing reality, we're writing fiction, which means I get to edit all that boring stuff out. I am not, I have to remind myself when describing forensic procedures, writing a textbook, so I summarize, allude to, or completely skip certain mechanics. I have no problem with a novel glossing over the mundane facts of life, of technically letting the heroine go 48 hours with eating, sleeping, paying bills, picking up the dry cleaning, going to the bathroom or even—gasp—checking her e-mail. Never mind that unless given a dose of meth, I would have collapsed in hypoglycemic exhaustion by that point. Novels are supposed to leave all that out.
I just wish I could do that in real life.
Lisa Black is a full time latent print examiner/CSI and the NYT bestselling author of the Theresa MacLean series, including Takeover, Evidence of Murder and the recently released Trail of Blood. Please visit her website at http://www.lisa-black.com/.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
The Anti-Thanksgiving
by Hilary Davidson
I'm excited to be joining Criminal Minds. Normally, my standard line is that I wouldn't join any club that would have me for a member (thank you, Groucho Marx), but Criminal Minds is more like a pirate ship. If I were planning a heist, these are the people I'd want staking out the target, donning the bunny masks, and driving the getaway car. I'll be sharing Sundays with Sue Ann Jaffarian, which means, as the old song says, Sunday will never be the same.
When my first novel, THE DAMAGE DONE, was published — exactly two months ago today — the terrific Rebecca Cantrell invited me to visit Criminal Minds. The question I had to answer was "What fictional character would you leave your partner for?" Aside from having to shield my husband's eyes from the answer, the question wasn't anywhere near as tough as this week's. That's because my main character, Lily Moore, hasn't had anything approaching a family Thanksgiving dinner since she was 13 years old, when her father died. Her mother, already unstable and a drinker, uprooted Lily and her sister, Claudia, and moved them from town to town while they were teenagers. There was no extended family, and while Lily tried to take care of her sister when they were growing up, they ended up on very different paths. Lily was the good girl who did well in school and escaped reality by watching old films, especially ones featuring her idol, Ava Gardner. Claudia played truant, falling in with a rough crowd and developing a heroin habit.
In THE DAMAGE DONE, Lily is called home to New York when she's told her sister has died, only to discover at the morgue that the corpse belongs to a woman who'd stolen Claudia's identity, and that her sister is missing. The fact that the two have been estranged for some time makes it tough for Lily to know where to begin searching for Claudia. The tradition of getting together with family on Thanksgiving is one that they've ignored in their adult lives, and it's something Lily comes to regret as she searches for her sister.
To say that Lily hates family holidays would be an understatement. Part of the reason she became a travel writer was so she would never have to sit at home alone through another lonely holiday while other people are with their loved ones. On Thanksgiving, she's somewhere else in the world—it could be Buenos Aires, or Tokyo, or Istanbul—but the main thing is that it's a place where people aren't celebrating the holiday.
I have to confess, it's a stark contrast with my own family Thanksgiving. I'm originally from Canada, where Thanksgiving falls in October, and it's not quite the sacred tradition it is in the U.S. By that, I mean that while my mother cooks a turkey dinner that day, I think jealous thoughts in New York about the feast that my dad and my brothers are enjoying… though it's never occurred to me to visit for that occasion. For my husband's family, Thanksgiving is a sacred holiday marked by an annual pilgrimage to Philadelphia. It's notable for greatness on three fronts: company (it's rare for fewer than 25 people to show up), food and wine. And if I could invite Lily along for it, I would.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
A Russian Mafiya Thanksgiving
First of all, thanks to the criminally gifted Kelli Stanley for extending the invitation to join this talented bunch of writers as a blogger. This week's assignment is to describe my protagonist's family Thanksgiving, complete with dysfunction. Because I'm a lawyer who writes about lawyers, I consider dysfunction my stock in trade.
The protagonist of my debut legal thriller The Insider is Will Connelly, a young corporate attorney who has recently made partner in a big San Francisco law firm. Throughout much of the book, Will is terrorized by a pair of wannabe Russian mobsters, Yuri and Nikolai, who are seeking inside information about a pending technology company merger. At one point, they deliver a thinly veiled threat to Will's mother Anne, who lives in an assisted living facility called Lullwater Commons. Anne is Will's only living relative, so let's imagine that he visits his mother for Thanksgiving dinner … only to discover that Yuri and Nikolai are joining them for Thanksgiving.
Yuri and Nikolai are sitting on either side of Anne at a table in the facility's cafeteria when Will arrives.
ANNE: Will, honey, it was so nice of you to invite your friends to Thanksgiving dinner.
WILL: Yeah, well, friends might be putting it a bit strongly.
YURI (motioning): Sit, sit, Will. Your mother was just telling us about your childhood. She says you cried like a little girl when she put you on the school bus for the first time.
NIKOLAI: Sweet woman, your mother.
YURI: Okay, now that Will's finally here, let's eat.
ANNE: Isn't anyone going to say grace first?
YURI: Please, I would be honored. Vorovoskoi mir. It's an old Russian prayer.
ANNE: It's very … concise.
Will knew that what Yuri had delivered was a toast favored by the Russian mafiya. It meant "To the thieves' world."
They began to pass around the dishes. Yuri took a dish of corn on the cob and removed one of the metal prongs used to hold the corn. He pointed his finger at Will and then made the motion of plunging the prong into his neck, similar to the gesture employed by Viggo Mortenson's character in Eastern Promises. Then he made a spraying motion with his fingers to indicate spurting blood. Anne, who was sitting next to Yuri, was oblivious, fiddling with her napkin.
ANNE: I think the food here is very good here, don't you?
WILL: Delicious.
Next, a platter with drumsticks made the rounds. Yuri picked up a drumstick. Once again, he pointed a finger at Will, then pantomimed shoving the bone of the drumstick into his eye socket. Yuri extended his hands in front of him, pretending to grope around blindly, then once more gestured to indicate spurting blood and eye matter.
ANNE (in response to Yuri's gesturing): Can I get you something?
YURI: Yes, salt please. Thank you, Anne.
A bowl filled with a gelatinous tower of canned cranberry sauce was shared. Yuri looked at the bowl for a long moment, but seemed stymied when it came to imagining the cranberry sauce as an instrument of death. Finally, he made do, directing a glare and a menacing finger at Will.
ANNE: So much to be thankful for.
YURI: That is so true, Anne. We should all just be thankful to be alive. And to have our health. (Yuri holds a hand in front of his face and opens and closes a fist.) We sometimes forget how lucky we are just to have the simple things in life ... like a hand with all five fingers on it .. or a working kneecap. I think sometimes your son Will forgets just how lucky he is.
ANNE: I've never really thought about it quite that way, but you're right.
YURI: Are you thankful, Will?
NIKOLAI: He doesn't seem very thankful to me.
WILL (pushing back from the table): This has been really great, but I think I've had enough.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Giving Thanks That They're Not Together Everyday
My amateur sleuth, Lydia McKenzie, loves her parents. They're kind, funny and they truly love her. But there's a reason that she left Dayton, Ohio and moved to New York City. She wanted to become her own person. She wanted to be an artist and live on the East Coast. And she did not want to have to endure another McKenzie Thanksgiving.
Although her family isn't large, it is opinionated and loud. They don't suffer fools quietly. So Thanksgiving is always quite an event, with all the traditional trimmings. Since Lydia favors Pad Thai over turkey, and dark chocolate over pumpkin pie, it isn't her favorite. But she's willing to overeat once a year when she must.
Now the joke is on Lydia, though. Her parents refused to stay put in Ohio themselves. As soon as their retirement became official, they hit the road in an RV to explore the country. They send regular postcards from the weirdest and wackiest places they find.
Lydia's parents are so much fun, I had to have them come for a visit in my third book (MURDER UNDER DEVELOPMENT, release date TBA). They arrive in Brooklyn in their RV searching for a missing girl. Through the book, they drive Lydia crazy. But she also learns to appreciate their wackiness a bit more.
So Thanksgiving this year... Now that there isn't a home to go back to it or a traditional Thanksgiving with all the trimmings, Lydia misses the celebration. Just a little. In order for the McKenzie clan to celebrate, the holiday would go something like this: Meet up in whatever part of the country they're exploring that week. Iowa? Kansas? Arkansas? Find a restaurant that's serving a Thanksgiving feast. The funnier the outside decor the better. Book a table and show up. Points go to the person in the family that's willing to try all the local variations of the dishes for the T-giving feast. Sweet potato pie with miniature marshmallows, etc.
After eating their fill, and arguing about what tasted the best, the family would then return to the campsite. Lydia's father would insist that they all play Hearts until they couldn't keep their eyes open any longer. And when the holiday was over, and Lydia got back on her plane home, they would all feel a little thankful that it was over. And then they would start missing each other again.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
In Which Skin Gets Stuffed
by Bill
In Chasing Smoke, Skin mentions his family life only in passing: "[My father], Martin Kadash is little more than a name to me, a faceless Jew whom my Catholic mother felt compelled to honor by lighting a menorah on Christmas morning and making BLTs with bologna instead of bacon."
As an adult, he spent his Thanksgivings with long-time friend Andy Suszko. They'd eat turkey pot pies and bitch about the fact it always had to be the damned Dallas Cowboys and the useless Detroit Lions for the Thanksgiving Day football games.
After he met Peter and Ruby Jane in Lost Dog, his holiday meals got more elaborate. They forced Skin and Andy to participate in actual cooking and sit-down eating. Madness! Skin was resistant at first, but then he got some of Ruby Jane's stuffing and, well, turns out he really likes Thanksgiving! Though the Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions can still go rot.
By the time you're reading this, you've either already started cooking your stuffing or, if you're Canadian, have already eaten it. Even so, here is Ruby Jane's approach to stuffing (perfectly yummy for other upcoming holiday meals) (or, hell, just make stuffing) (because it's good) (anytime):
She makes two pans of stuffing, one sweet and one savory. Per 9x13 dish of stuffing....
Bread (same for both sweet and savory):
Loaf of Sourdough
Loaf of Multigrain
Cube and dry. If you're in a hurry, dry in the oven at about 200° for a couple of hours.
2 diced apples
Raisins (RJ adds them to the mixed stuffing until it looks right, so so she doesn't know how many.)
Chopped walnuts (same, though probably about a cup)
Dried cranberries (optional, but yummy)
One great big sweet onion, diced
Sausage. She usually gets a 1/2 pound of turkey-apple sausage at New Sleazons. (Called New Sleazons because, at least for a while, it had a reputation for being where all the employees have sex with each other and then commit acts of public drama in the aftermath of said sex.)
A few strips of sweet cured bacon crisped and chopped are good too.
1-2 tablespoons Cinnamon
1 teaspoon Allspice
1 teaspoon Nutmeg
(Or so. Spices are to taste, and these measurements are estimated based on the size of Ruby Jane's cupped hand.)
Liquid (probably about 3 or so total cups):
1/2 chicken or vegetable broth
1/2 orange juice
You'll add the liquid to the mixed stuffing until it's moist but not drenched, probably about a cup or two of each. If you use more of one than the other, better to use more broth. Probably.
Use the drippings from the cooked sausage, plus added butter until you have about a 1/4 cup of fat (may not need butter, though turkey sausage won't have much fat so definitely have some on hand.)
Can of sliced water chestnuts (If you're a glutton for punishment, you can roast your own chestnuts, but Ruby Jane isn't crazy.)
4-5 stalks diced celery
3-4 carrots diced (optional, some people find carrots weird in stuffing)
One great big white onion, diced
Dried cranberries also work in savory if you like. (Ruby Jane likes.)
Mushrooms, sliced (one of those small containers, however much that is.)
Sausage: 1/2 pound savory sage pork sausage
1 tablespoonish Parsley
1 tablespoonish Sage
1 tablespoonish Thyme
Handful of chopped chives
Liquid: Chicken or vegetable broth, 3 or so cups, plus or minus. Hell, you decide.
Fat: Pork sausage will probably give you plenty, but what the hell. Keep some button on hand just in case.
Prep for both:
Cook sausage, (and bacon, if including) and set aside but leave drippings in pan. Nosh on a few bites of sausage and bacon, but not too much.
Drink some wine or beer. This doesn't have anything to do with the actual cooking, but is an important step nonetheless.
Add chopped veggies/fruits/onions and cook until they start to soften on mediumish heat (6-8 minutes, probably). (Or, who knows? Ten minutes?) (Remember, Ruby Jane is drinking wine while making this, so it's not like she's putting a lot of thought into such matters as the passing seconds.)
By the way ... Drink.
In a big bowl, turn in the dry seasonings with the bread cubes, then add a cup or so of liquid and toss. Continue adding liquid until the bread/seasoning mix is moist. Then mix in veggie/fruits and meat, followed by dried fruits and nuts.
This is a good time to nosh and decide if you need a little more seasonings, or salt and pepper. Also, drink.
Put in a big, oiled or buttered baking dish and bake at 375° for about half an hour. I often put pats of butter on the top of the stuffing, because I want to kill my beating heart with buttery deliciousness. Ruby Jane is a bit more circumspect, but she secretly likes the butter too. While it's cooking, have some wine.
Eat. Turkey and other foodstuffs are optional, though Ruby Jane pretty much insists on mashed potatoes. Oh, and by the way, instead of milk or cream in the mashed potatoes, use sour cream. That's another Ruby Jane tip.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Diary of A Thanksgiving Survivor
The following is an excerpt from the private diary of Elizabeth Parker. Distribution without the written consent of major league baseball is strictly prohibited.
November 25, 2010
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Thanksgiving would be much more enjoyable if valium was injected in the turkey.
1.45 p.m. I have arrived at my childhood home, now the place of abode of my mother and her live-in boyfriend, George. My father passed away a few years ago and in a fit of loneliness my mother hooked up with George. He's not a bad guy, but he's one of those people who need to be watered every few weeks. My mother greets me at the door and tells me that I look "tired." George grunts at me from his seat in front of the television where he is absorbed in watching a football game.
2.00 p.m. At the second commercial (the first was for a car that George thinks is "the balls" and required silence so he could watch it), George informs me that he has taken over the cooking of the turkey. This is somewhat surprising as my mom is an accomplished chief. However, George tells me in a hushed voice that the secret to his recipe is the soy sauce in which the bird has apparently been soaking in for three days. In a large bucket. In the garage.
2.30 p.m. My sister Kit, her husband Paul, and their son five-year-old son, Pauly, arrive. Kit is pregnant with their second child. From the way she has detailed every aspect of this pregnancy, I suspect that the Bible may have erred in suggesting that there is only one Messiah as Kit is batting two for two. Pauly is something of a terror mainly because my sister has trouble with following through with discipline. She believes that time-outs are ineffectual because the "child isn't made to understand the reasoning behind the problem." So far, this way of parenting has gotten Pauly kicked out of three day-care centers.
2.33 p.m. Pauly is intent on climbing onto the dining room table. Kit tells him that if he doesn't behave they will not get a Christmas tree. Surprisingly, Pauly seems unaffected by a fate that may (or may not) happen a month from now and ignores Kit.
2.37 p.m. Pauly has tried to flush a napkin down the toilet. Kit has now upped the threat to cancelling Christmas outright. Pauly flushes a second napkin down the toilet.
2.45 p.m. Thank God. Aunt Winnie (technically my great Aunt Winnie, but she gets peevish when I call her that) arrives. With her is her boyfriend, Randy. Upon hearing about the state of the turkey, Aunt Winnie claps her hands and cries "capital, capital!" Only I know what she means.
3.00 p.m. George puts on "The Game." None of us know who is playing or why it is important. However, George, who would watch paint dry if it were a nationalized sport, is enthralled for the next few hours. By enthralled, I mean catatonic. The rest of us are hushed into silence by George.
3.15 - 5.24 p.m. Kit ignores George's request for silence and explains to all of us in excruciating detail why she has decided for natural childbirth. I stop listening at the word "crowning" and begin to drink more than I should and wish George would enforce his rule of silence.
5.25 pm. My mother's suggestion that George check on the turkey is dismissed by George who claims that the soy sauce "adds moisture" and so "needs to cook longer."
5.35 p.m. Aunt Winnie and I, now starving, raid the pantry for stale crackers.
5.36 p.m. My mother asks me – for the 36th time - why my boyfriend, Peter, couldn't join us. I explain- for the 36th time – that he is with his family in San Diego. Kit rolls her eyes at this and scoffs saying that "if it were serious, he'd be here." I restrain myself from throwing my glass at her.
5.45 p.m. Pauly tries to flush the cat down the toilet. Kit threatens to cancel Easter.
6.13 p.m. The game now over, George announces that the "bird is done". He takes it out of the oven with great fan fare.
6.14 p.m. There is a hiss and a faint popping sound after which the legs of the dried out bird fall off. I studiously do not make eye contact with Aunt Winnie.
6.23 p.m. George shuns the carving set claiming that the metal on the knife leaves a residue on the meat. He thus uses his bare hands and commences acts of carnage that are so unspeakable that decorum prevents me from recording them here.
6.27 p.m. In some countries, I believe that George and the bird are now engaged.
6.56 p.m. The gravy boat is empty. I have a headache. Pauly in under the table with his dinner and there will apparently be no Fourth of July at Kit's house. George wanders off to watch to post-game wrap up. My mother asks what "was the real reason that Peter didn't come".
7.20 p.m. I leave. Next year –somehow – I will be in London where I understand they don't celebrate this holiday.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Thanksgiving with the "spy" family
Okay so you want me to describe my protagonists thanksgiving dinner??? Can't do it - I mean I could but then I'd have to kill you. Or spam your computer to death anyway.
You see the thing is - I don't know if my protagonist even has a family. I know I know - you're supposed to have this big list of everything about your characters from what kind of drink they like to what side of the bed they sleep on to whether they wear boxers or briefs. I don't know those things either. And I think that's a good thing.
So instead I will imagine a mythical family, made out of various famous spies and heroes. It goes something like this.
A beautiful house in suburban America. Cars in the driveway - except they're not your normal cars. There's an Austin Martin, a black Trans Am from the 80's with a red dot swishing back and forth like the Ceylon's eye in the original Battlestar Galactica. There is also a 80's Charger with a Confederate flag painted on the roof and 70's Firebird with that awesome giant decal.
Note to this decade - come up with some iconic cars already - I mean what are we supposed to remember about these years - the Prius?
Inside we find a bucolic scene (not really sure what bucolic means but it's one of those words that sounds like it should be here - if it has something to do with farmland, sorry that's what copy editors are for and we don't have one at Criminal Minds just yet)
Anyway - there we have the big table; turkey, mashed potatoes, sodas beer, a medium dry vodka martini, shaken not stirred. A guy with big hair and a black leather jacket looks at the Vodka Martini. "What is that?" he says.
"This is a civilized drink," the tall, rugged, slightly older British sounding man replies.
Be careful Michael, it could be a trap. Leather jacket man snaps to attention.
"Are you alright?" British man says.
"Yeah," Leather jacket replies. "Just inhaled a little too much hairspray this morning. I start hearing voices, even when I'm not in the car." He blinks. "I'm going to go get some Yams."
As Leather jacket walks off British guy looks across the table. There, serving little dinner rolls is a gorgeous woman with dark hair. 36/24/26 in tight little cutoff shorts and a plaid top tied off at the bust. She notices British guy staring.
"Can I help you sugar?"
"I certainly hope so."
British guy moves across the room. Picking up a bottle of Champagne. He walks smoothly up to the beauty in tight cutoffs. "This is Dom Peringnon 1983. that was a heck of a year."
Tight shorts cocks her head. "83?"
"Yes," British guy says. "Fantastic year. A little movie called Moonraker came out..."
"Sorry," tight shorts says. "I was five."
At just that moment a blond haired man and darker haired man come racing in from the kitchen. Instead of jumping into their chairs, they launch themselves onto the table, sliding across its polished surface in their impossibly tight jeans. Belt buckles catch the light, blinding onlookers as the Turkey, Stuffing and Potatoes go flying off onto to the floor. The two tight jeans wearing men land solidly onto their appointed chairs.
"I beat you," blond man says.
"The hell you did," dark haired man says.
"Best three out of five?"
"Lets go."
They race off crashing through the kitchen door. An older woman dodges them and pirouettes with a plate of cookies in her hand.
"That was close, Moma," tight shorts says.
"Yes," the older lady says. "Those boys are a lot more active then Bobby and J.R. were at dinner. The most we ever did there was talk about the oil barrons ball. Cookie?"
As British guy takes a cookie and dunks it in his martini, tight shorts bites into one and the crumbs fall down on her cleavage. She starts to brush them off. "Well, I might just have to take this shirt right off now."
"Let me help you with that," British guy says.
Before he can do anything A tall guy with a mustache stands up. He has sunglasses on, a terrific grin and his cowboy hat is perfect.
"I gotta go," Cowboy hat says.
"Well you just got here," the older woman says.
He shrugs. "Snowman's eastbound and down, loaded up and truckin. I got to go do what they say can't be done."
They all know what that means. "grab your keys."
And with that, the game of musical cars in the one lane driveway begins.
Thanks for stopping by - hope your Thanksgiving dinner is far better than this one.
Graham Brown
Thanksgiving with the Stuarts
Monday, November 22, 2010
Our cast of characters includes:
Anastasia Pollack, recently widowed magazine crafts editor turned reluctant amateur sleuth. Not only does she need to clear her name as the number one suspect in the murder of the magazine's fashion editor, but she's got to figure out a way to hold onto her house. You see, dead hubby had a bit of a gambling problem she didn't know about, and before he permanently cashed in his chips, he wiped out their savings and got into hock with a loan shark.
Nick and Alex Pollack, Anastasia's totally normal teenage sons. Given where they get their DNA, "normal" is a huge accomplishment. However, given what's befallen them, neither is feeling very thankful this Thanksgiving.
Lucille Pollack, Anastasia's curmudgeonly semi-invalid, communist mother-in-law. She arrived at Casa Pollack to recuperate from a hit and run but has become a permanent resident due to circumstances you can find out if you read ASSAULT WITH A DEADLY GLUE GUN when it's released in January.
Flora Sudberry Periwinkle Ramirez Scoffield Goldberg O'Keefe, Anastasia's mother. She claims to descend from Russian royalty (which makes her Lucille's arch nemesis) and uses Casa Pollack as her home base whenever she's between husbands, which she currently is.
Ralph, the Shakespeare quoting parrot. Anastasia inherited him from Great-aunt Penelope Periwinkle. Too bad Great-aunt Penelope didn't leave her any money to care for the bird.
Manifesto, Lucille's bulldog. He's as much a curmudgeon as she is. Anastasia and the rest of the family call him Mephisto the Devil Dog.
Catherine the Great, Flora's corpulent white Persian cat and a pampered prima donna.
With a cast of characters like that, do I really need to describe what it's going to be like around the Thanksgiving dinner table? Norman Rockwell it ain't. Much closer to The Simpsons. Besides, with holding down a full-time job, trying to find a killer to prove her innocence, and dodging assorted bill collectors and Ricardo the loan shark, Anastasia didn't exactly have time to prepare a turkey with all the fixings. Not that she's got the money to buy a turkey and the ingredients for all the fixings right now. So instead of turkey and stuffing, dinner is turkey dogs and beans. And forget all those football games on TV. Anastasia had to cancel the cable. You can imagine the totally normal reaction her sons had to that!
ASSAULT WITH A DEADLY GLUE GUN, the first book in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries series will be released in January and will be available at bookstores and all online venues. In the meantime, if you'd like to learn more about Anastasia and her motley crew, you can read the first chapter at http://www.loiswinston.com.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Going With My Gut
I want to thank them for inviting me to join this impressive gang (or is that gaggle?) of crime writers. I will be sharing Sundays with Hilary Davidson.
|6th Odelia - out 6/11
Sue Ann Jaffarian
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Saturday, November 20, 2010
Finding inspiration
What artist would I want to collaborate with on my covers and web design? I feel a little like this question was written for me. My books are set in the Williamsburg, Brooklyn arts scene. I lived there for ten years, and I'm married to an artist—so I had lots to say about it, good and bad. Lydia McKenzie, my amateur sleuth, is an artist and photographer who is struggling with her identity and goals. Her art career isn't going well. She's misunderstood. She has a hard time keeping up with her art when no one wants to show her art.
If you're a struggling writer, some of Lydia's struggles may sound eerily familiar to you. That's no accident. I filled a drawer with scripts for years. I had to ask why am I doing this? Does anyone care? But I kept writing. And as I did so, I got better at it. And eventually other people did want to read it, and even pay money to read it.
Back to the point of the blog, though. I made Lydia a photographer, which I'm not, because I thought a photographer would be an interesting and unique sleuth. Photographers see the world in interesting ways. They notice details that others ignore. And my inspiration for the first book, POSED FOR MURDER, was a photographer named Cindy Sherman.
Unlike my sleuth, Cindy Sherman does not photograph historic murder scenes, but she is inspired by the past and occasionally by death. She did photographs called "Untitled Film Stills" starting in the 1970's, always using herself as the model. The photographs were very much about female identity, power, and the "gaze." She was inspired by movies and their portrayals of women. She is almost completely unrecognizable from photograph to photograph. I decided Lydia would not only use herself but her friends to tell the story of the murders. She would attempt to find the truth in the deaths, but use her knowledge of clothing, her friend Georgia's knowledge of make-up and setting the scene to portray the deaths of women who were voiceless and had died nameless on the streets of Brooklyn.
My covers have been wonderful, but if Cindy Sherman was available to collaborate on future covers I would be ecstatic. It's just the sort of artistic collaboration that Lydia would love, and it would be so perfect for the series...
Starting next week, I'll be moving from Saturday to Friday (and sharing with the fabulous Gabi). Hope you'll swing by and visit us every Friday.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Catnapped and Doggone
TGIF. This is my first Friday blog and I can only hope I can fill the mighty Keds of the wonderful Shane. I know Meredith the magnificent, my co-Friday blogge,r will hold up her end. Now, I just need to step up.
I loved the artist who did my first two books and I never met him or her. I don't even know her name to thank her for rendering my beloved Koko so closely based solely on a description. I don't want her to think I didn't appreciate her choice of color or font or never suggesting I go with a pseudonym instead of the eleven letters and one space in my given name. She was a perfect fit for my first series which was light and a little Lucy Show meets Columbo. And her covers invited readers to the party.
But the new series is darker. Set in Los Angeles, the protagonist, a new detective named Michael Morrow and his tainted by the Rampart scandal partner are suddenly on the task force for a serial rapist turned murderer. It's a red ball. By that, I mean it is a media case. The victims, from good neighborhoods and families, are young, beautiful and ruined. For this, a different ascetic is needed. Something that reflects the darkness of the crime and the spotlights of the location.
At first, I though a crime scene photographer would be a perfect selection. I'm not sure why, but actual photographs as the cover of a book is rare except in the true crime section. Ann Rule has used mug shots on several of her books to great impact. I took my new video camera to the actual spot where my imaginary victim was found and walked the crime scene the same way I think the detective would. I added some crime scene tape, flags for evidence spotting and a chalk outline for the body (she is remarkable similar in shape to me). Maybe one of the stills would work. Done by someone with actual skill at this sort of thing since my five minute movie had a Blair Witch Project shake to it and an audio track that included me explaining to several homeless men what I was doing and no I didn't want to earn a quick ten dollars. I didn't know audio was automatic with the start button.
So who? Most crime scene photographers are just techs who take pictures as part of their jobs. There usually aren't dedicated photographers. But there are others who could get that picture. Too bad Arthur Fellig or Weegee isn't available. Considered the master of getting the first shot, he was a journalist whose has had some of his work bought and hung by the Museum of Modern Art. He'd be good. If I could convince the publishing house that a crime scene photo (staged, of course) would make for a good cover, Weegee would be my guy if he were still around.
Maybe my cover should be a newspaper front page. The Los Angeles Daily News. It always feels more local to me than the times. Or even the Los Angeles weekly could run a cover story. It would make sense. The serial rapist has been dubbed the Club Kid Rapist and the weekly includes all the bands and events at all the clubs plus an article or two. To belay fears, the club venues could include parking lot escorts, mandatory valets and subsidized rides home. It's colorful with headlines and multiple stories. Too many? Would they be a distraction from the title and the plot? Maybe.
What about something completely different? While on vacation recently, I fell in love with a sculptor named Tolla. All of her work have multiple meanings. My favorite, Give and Take, not only tells a tale about balance in the universe but both the title and the underlying meaning might work for my new book. Give and Take? A good title? One person Michael Morrow, fighting to find the killer, the other, a killer one step ahead and forever shifting the case? Would it work for you? Or am I just talking myself into spending like crazy on a piece that speaks to me? Isn't that what the cover is supposed to do? To speak to the reader? To whisper, pick me up and take me home? Yep, that's what it's supposed to do.
Thanks for reading and letting me know why you choose the books you do. Is it the cover? What about the cover?
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Cover Magic
This is a tough question for me.
First, because I feel like I've won the lottery of cover design for both CITY OF DRAGONS and THE CURSE-MAKER ... the brilliant David Rotstein in both cases! David's the Senior Art Director at SMP, amazingly, incredibly versatile, and can completely convey the feeling and themes of a book in visual terms. He was nominated for three Anthony Awards at Bouchercon 2009, for books which were wildly different in look.
Secondly, I think in film reels rather than static images when I visualize my books. It would be much easier for me to film a ten minute video than to come up with a cover image for CITY OF DRAGONS.
Thirdly, I've got sinusitis, and I can't be held responsible for what the antibiotics make me do ...
However, in an effort to justify the BA in Art History on my wall, I'll talk about art. Let's use CITY OF DRAGONS as an example, though actually both my series are faced with the same overall challenge: how to make the past recognizable but still immediate and contemporary.
I don't think of history--or write historical fiction--as though it were "history" and therefore separate from my contemporary life. I think of it as a living thing, not something closed, dusty and forgotten. So my input on covers is always "Please don't make it look "old" or "vintage". Give a nod to the period, but make it look alive and now."
That's not the only apparent contradiction I face. Take CoD ... a thriller, a noir, a historical, a PI tale, with a bit of epic San Francisco thrown in. Miranda spends time by herself and in a flurry of activity. The city is beautiful, gleaming, vibrant--and at the same time, ugly, corrupt and decayed. Spaces are empty and full, people are both good and bad, and in essence, life itself is a masterpiece of contradictory impressions and actions. So how the hell to get all this in a cover?
We could start with Archibald Motley--one of my favorite painters from the Harlem Renaissance. His "Bronzeville by Night" conveys the urban energy I'd want.
But what about Edward Hopper? "Nighthawks" is quintessential American existential noir, and a superb illustration of alienation in a big city.
Then there's Tamara de Lempicka, a Polish Art Deco artist who conveys motion and action beautifully, her figures as robust and earthy as Michelangelo's.
But what about photography? This was the era of the great photographers--Life Magazine debuted in 1937, and chronicled American life for nearly the rest of the century. There are elements of George Hurrell in CoD--as in this photo of Rita Hayworth--but also Dorothea Lange, who ennobled the plight of Depression era down-and-outs.
And at the same time, we need a contemporary artist, someone who could wed these styles to a distinctly "now" presentation ...
So there you have it. I simply can't come up with one artist who can do all of the above. So, if we were living in Harry Potter's universe, I might want one of those magic moving covers, with all of this art flashing by. Until then, of course, I'm happy--and very lucky-- to leave it in David's hands. :)
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Wanted: Crminal Employment Agency
"What do you mean?"
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
My Fantasy Cover
What artist, living or dead, would you want to do your cover design?
By Rebecca Cantrell
I was walking through a little gallery in Kona the other day. Usually the paintings they carry have tropical themes—whales, flowers, waves, cottages in the moonlight—and often I come across something truly beautiful. This day they had a series of koi in clear water across multiple canvasses that my mother quite liked. Every year she seems to have a different configuration of favorite colors and this year it is a bamboo green, a deeper forest green, and a bright orange. It sounds hideous but actually looked gorgeous on the fish paintings.
After admiring them I turned a corner and saw the kind of painting one rarely sees in a small Hawaiian town, although I later learned that the artist lives in Honolulu. The painting was called "Night Street" and the artist is John Pitre. He says it represents "A collage of my memories from New York, London, Tokyo, and Honolulu. The essence of the moods and the action on the street of any big city at night."
At the time I knew none of that. I stopped and stared at it. The colors are wonderful, the textures are mesmerizing, and the woman in front is haunting. She faces us so seriously. To me, she looks like she's stepped out of the late 1920s decadence of Berlin. She wears long gloves, her hair is covered as if by a cloche hat. Behind her some of the women are unclothed. It's definitely not a staid beer garden in the background. She reminded me so strongly of Hannah Vogel, my heroine that I stopped and stared so long the gallery owner brought the painting to a private room with clever lighting.
It would make the perfect cover for "A Trace of Smoke." I looked John Pitre up and found him described as "the most bankable living American surrealist," which put the painting right out of my price range. But they still have it, it's still lovely, and I still stop by every so often to gaze at Hannah and wonder what she's up to there, in her world on the other side of the canvas.
Monday, November 15, 2010
A Girl Can Dream
Our current topic is "What artist, living or dead, would you want to do your covers and web design?" This is a no-brainer. I want Larry Elmore.
If you aren't familiar with Larry's work, you've been missing out on a true visual experience. Larry began working as an illustrator for TSR, Inc. (publishers of the Dungeons & Dragons – D&D to RPGers) in the 1980s and quickly set the bar for gaming genre art. Since leaving TSR, Larry has worked freelance and created amazing covers for publishers such as BAEN books, Bantam, Warner Books, ACE/Berkley, and others. He's also worked for White Wolf, D.C. Comics, Wizard Press, Mattel, and Lucas Films…just to name a few.
I've been a fan of Larry's work for years, ever since I began playing D&D in 1983. I would go to my local bookstore, dream the day I'd see my name on those shelves, and drool over the beautiful covers with the characteristic "Elmore" signature. Gorgeous elves, ferocious dragons, epic landscapes – everything a reader could love about the fantasy genre is embodied in Larry's work.
Now that I've achieved one dream – being published – it's still my dream to have Larry Elmore's work grace the cover. Don't misunderstand me. I love the covers for my books and wouldn't trade them for anything. But...I do still love Larry's work. Perhaps one day, when I get around to writing that epic fantasy that's been brewing in my head for twenty years.
A girl can dream, right?
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Life on the Lam
Despite writing murder mysteries, I'd rather be a thief than a killer. In fact, I intend, oops, I imagine, I would be so smooth as a thief that no one would ever get hurt much less killed. But of course, if I am going to be that elegant (go with me here, especially those who know how unelegant I actually am), I'd need to steal something as interesting and sophisticated as I am. There won't be any 7-11 stick up jobs for me. And no robbing the post office – jeez, don't people realize they don't have any cash and it's a federal rap? No, I am going to liberate the talismans of my new, sophisticated (and unafraid of the big house) self – art and jewels.
Art makes sense because the value of certain pieces makes the risk worth it. Also, why quit a winner? I don't know why but it seems that truly valuable paintings go on regular walkabouts. Granted, in this economy, the buying pool might be more limited than before but then again we're talking about the truly wealthy who aren't afraid of a little receiving stolen goods arrest. They're probably the people making money out of the current crisis.
What would I target? In 1911, a workman stole the Mona Lisa off the wall of the Louvre. Just took it off the wall and picked up his lunch box and went home. For two years, people lined up to stare at the blank spot on the wall. No gun. Not even any breaking or entering. Just reached up and took it. Now that was 1911 but I like the calm cool of his approach. You'd think that security would get better and I'd have more trouble with my new occupation.
Maybe not.
Maybe I'll go with the Stewart Gardner Museum ploy. Wear a police uniform, walk into the museum and tell everyone you are responding to a burglar alarm. Then, handcuff the "suspects" who happen to be the security staff. Help yourself to $300 million and wave on your way out the door. Never caught despite being seen by the security personnel. Reminds me a little of helping myself to a water buffalo during a prisoner of war exercise at military school. Act like you belong and people assume you do. Plus a uniform tends to blur the facial recognition of witnesses. All they see is blue. Added bonus – rule followers take instruction from police without question including, in the case of the poor security guys, putting your hands behind your back and letting the "cops" cuff you. Hard to live that one down for them but for the thief, maximum style points and $300 million is nothing to sneeze at provided you have a buyer lined up. Even at fifty cents on the dollar, that's quite a day's pay. I could see myself doing that.
Unlike art, which has to be sold whole, a jewel theft leaves you with options. The jewels won't be worth as much cut up but they are much harder to trace and still very valuable. Plus, jewel thieves can be oh so cool. I'll use the same technique seen at a 2002 heist at the Museum of Science in the Hague. The thieves got away with $108 million in gems plus several royal pieces deemed priceless. They came in on a Saturday night or Sunday during a three-day weekend. The theft wasn't discovered until Monday. Despite 24-hour surveillance and security guards, the thieves are not on any tape nor were they spotted by the guards. $108 million plus and a three day head start with no one to identify them. Maybe this particular thief started as a writer? Yep, I can see this lifestyle. Now, to plan…
Thanks for reading and if anyone asks, I was here all the time. Except starting next week when you can find my blog on Fridays, alternating weeks with the amazing Meredith Cole. Trying to ameliorate Shane withdrawal will not be easy, even my Mom is mourning, but we'll do our best.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Making Mischief
If I were a criminal, I would carry no weapons and would hurt no one. I would steal nothing and destroy no property of any value. If confronted in my criminal wrongdoing, I would run away. The tools of my trade? A magic marker, a bottle of glue, and some scissors. I would commit acts of . . . criminal mischief. The emphasis would be on the mischief. My victims, if you could call them that, would be people who do annoying things.
For example, if I had a neighbor – even a very nice neighbor, with whom I liked to talk and who once brought a whole cake to my family when we invited him over for drinks – if this neighbor were to post, say, an obnoxious "Do Not Poop" sign in his front yard (such signs being, to my thinking, as much of a nuisance as dog poop), I might, if pressed (and if I'd drunk a couple of glasses of wine), get out my marker, glue, and scissors, and make certain alterations that (I would argue) beautified the sign. If the "Do Not Poop" sign had a picture of a dog, I might, for example, add antlers to its head and wings to its back. If the sign had a picture of poop, I might glue a picture of an Easter egg over it.
If I were a criminal, this is the kind of thing I might do. But, thank goodness, I have no such neighbor and I'm no criminal. (The picture below is a product of your imagination, not my mischief.)
And why stop at the annoying things people do? How about animals? How about (to be specific) Chinese Dwarf Hamsters that Your Children's Teacher Sends Home With Them For You To Babysit? Not that this has ever happened to me, but if it did and if the Chinese Dwarf Hamster had a little clattering metal wheel that it liked to spin every night all night long, I might be inclined to perform some mischief. That is, if I were a criminal.
If that were the case, I might run out and buy a weather balloon – the kind that rises twenty or thirty thousand feet, carrying light-weight meteorological sensors or Chinese Dwarf Hamsters, before exploding and dropping the payload back to earth. I might rush home with the weather balloon, put the hamster in a little cage, tie the cage to the balloon, and set it loose, yelling, "Goodbye, Moses!" or "So long, Balloon Boy!" or something of that nature.
I should say that I do love
Friday, November 12, 2010
"Shane! Shane! Come back, Shane!"
Hey, it's for your own good. If I don't ride into that sunset right now, I'm gonna drag your Mom into the barn and do her. You're too young to know what that means, but trust me, when you're 40, you're not gonna wanna be telling your shrink that Mom was shrieking "Shane! Shane! Come, Shane!" at the top of her lungs for hours and hours and when she floated out of the barn all flustered and smiley, she wouldn't tell you why, just smiled sweetly and murmured, "Go play in traffic, kid."
Criminal Minds has been a joy to write, and you've been a most tolerant audience, for which I thank you profusely. I've written the "Fridays With Shane" essays since the beginning, when Kelli Stanley, Praised Be Her Name, asked me to join a new writers-writing-about-writing blog she was starting. I'm glad I agreed. I couldn't have asked for a better fearless leader, or for smarter pack-mates than The Seven and Friends.
I'll still be reading CM and commenting when someone writes something cool--with this group, that's a guarantee, that someone will write something cool--so you'll see me here time to time. And, I'll be doodling over at my personal blog, "Shaneville," which you can find on my website, http://www.shanegericke.com
Nice thing for me is that "Shaneville: Shane Gericke Comments On, Well, Everything" isn't on a fixed schedule; whenever I have something useful to say, I'll say it. Might be twice a day, might be once a week, might be only when the sky is full and the moon is mellow. (Or whenever Sarah Palin says something particularly stupid, which means I'll be writing twice a day.) I'll also be scribbling on Facebook.
The question I've gotten most often in this year of writing dangerously--right after "Good God, I can't believe you wrote that! Were you dropped on your head as a child?"--is: "Were you named after the cowboy movie?"
Answer: Yes. I was named after the cowboy movie starring Alan Ladd as the reformed gunslinger Shane, with Brandon deWilde as the annoying little kid who wears a nightgown to bed and yells "Shane! Shane! Come back, Shane!" at the conclusion of the film, a phrase I heard waaaay too often in high school, particularly from coaches and English teachers, so I couldn't give them the finger as I could my friends and peers. "Shane" came out in '53, I came out in '56. (Yeah, so what if Dad was a little slow on the draw? He plunged in to Git 'Er Done, didn't he? Good going, Pops.)
A little hazy on movie details because it's been so many years? I hear your pain, and I'm here to help. Because so much of "Fridays With Shane" is video-based, I thought I'd end this essay with that tradition:
Thanks for hanging out with me on Fridays. It was a privilege doing you.


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Last night, the Wellington City Council backed away from the controversial Basin Reserve Flyover, instead commissioning a study of other options. NZTA's response? Threaten to cut off funding for other projects:
Moves to renege on support for the Basin Flyover could see cash pulled from other capital transport projects, the New Zealand Transport Agency has told the Wellington City Council.
In a letter to the council, NZTA chief executive Geoff Dangerfield warned that a last-ditch move to withdraw support for the flyover could mean other projects, including work on the Public Transport Spine Study, could be scrapped.
"Council needs to be aware that its withdrawal of its support for the bridge proposal at this late stage may have significant implications for investment in Wellington's wider transport network and ultimately on the growth and prosperity of the city," the letter obtained by The Dominion Post said.
The message is clear: its NZTA's way or the highway. And Wellington's transport infrastructure will be held hostage to enforce that.
This makes a mockery of any pretence that NZTA funds projects on merit. Instead, they're funding them for political reasons to enforce obedience. I doubt that that sits well with their governing Act - the legal criteria for approving projects do not include "political bullying", for example. Neither does it sit well with basic democratic principles.
NZTA has overstepped the mark and needs to learn its place. Decisions on what Wellington's transport infrastructure should look like are properly the domain of its people's elected representatives - not unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats.


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Dr. John Pope reviews medical content for Healthwise, a nonprofit organization with a mission to help people make better health decisions. Dr. Pope is a pediatrician in Phoenix, Arizona. He is Medical Director of Pediatric Inpatient
and Hospitalist Services
for the Scottsdale Healthcare Hospital System
in Scottsdale, Arizona. He serves as a Clinical Assistant Professor at the Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine in Glendale, Arizona, and at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Phoenix, Arizona.
MD: Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, NH, 1989
Internship in Pediatrics: Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, 1989–1990
Residency in Pediatrics: Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, 1990–1992
MPH: University of Arizona, Mel and Enid Zuckerman School of Public Health, Tucson, AZ, 2005
American Board of Pediatrics
Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Arizona Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Phoenix, AZ, 2008–present
Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine, Clinical Education, Phoenix, AZ, 2008–present
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, NH, 1995–1999
Clinical Instructor of Pediatrics, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, 1992–1995
Dr. Pope reported no financial conflicts.
Last Revised:
January 27, 2010
Healthwise Staff
This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise, Incorporated disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information. Your use of this information means that you agree to the Terms of Use. How this information was developed to help you make better health decisions.
To learn more visit Healthwise.org
© 1995-2012 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated.


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Join us on Tuesday, October 8th for our 42nd birthday! We're celebrating with $1.99 small The Original sandwiches all day long at participating Schlotzsky's restaurants nationwide. Stop by anytime on October 8 and enjoy our famous sandwich. No coupon required. And don't forget to sign up for our Bun & Fun eClub now or while you're at the restaurant – you'll receive birthday specials and other coupons and discounts as a member.
Tell your mom! Tell your dad! Tell your friends! Tell your coworkers! Don't miss this great deal!
PS – No coupon necessary. There's no official limit on the number of sandwiches you can get, though some restaurants may set limits depending on demand. If you're curious, contact them before you go. Vegetarian options may be available – again, depends on the location so ask in advance. Most options include Cheese Original or The Original with no meat.
Filed under: National News | Tagged: 1.99, anniversary, birthday, celebration, Original, sandwich, Schlotsky's, schlotzky's, Schlotzsky's | 2 Comments »


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Ohio Line of Duty Death Response
Ohio Line of Duty Death Response
Mission Statement
To provide necessary assistance and support to families and fire departments of fallen firefighters as requested. The primary mission of the team is to provide assistance and comfort to the family and department and help with filing Department of Justice-Public Safety Officer's Benefits, state and local benefits. All other aspects of team functionality are secondary, but are made available because of the possible needs of the families and the fire service throughout Ohio during this difficult time.
To Honor With Dignity
Notification: In the event of a Line of Duty Death and at the request of the agency sustaining the loss, the team would be deployed immediately. The team serves in a behind-the-scene capacity and offers suggestions based on what the departments needs are as well as the needs of the firefighter family.
To Activate The Response Team, call 1-866-736-5868. The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation in Emmetsburg, Maryland will answer your call 24 hours a day. Just tell them you are requesting the Ohio Line-of-Duty Death Response Team for assistance. They will ask a few general questions and promptly contact our team members with your request.
If requested by the agency, the Response Team usually stays in place until the funeral services are completed. The duties of the team do not end there; they provide information to the department on an as needed basis to assist the family and department beyond the funeral services. The team will respond with the ability to secure resources that will support the family and department for a firefighter's funeral. Departments will not be burdened with acquiring these items; they will be assisted in providing them for the department's use.
Funeral Service Assistance: A funeral service guide and protocols have been established to assist the family and department in choosing options to fit the services they desire. Our team utilizes the incident command system and has pre-determined duties assigned to the sector officers. Once again, our team members serve in a behind-the-scene capacity, leaving the members of the stricken department as the "front" people for the services.
Why Should I Call? Did you know that under some circumstances, heart attacks and strokes that occur within 24 hours of a strenuous duty related event might qualify for federal benefits? Currently this federal benefit is over $311,810.00. These are just some of the items we can provide to you. And all of our services are provided to you AT NO COST!


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Looking for a fun night out? Unleash your creative side with Painting with a Twist! Bring your favorite beverage, possibly a snack, and relax. Our talented team of instructors guides you step by step through the night's featured painting. Our classes are $35 for 2 hour paintings and $45 for 3 hour paintings, so there's something for everyone!
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