herbiehancock

I worked at the library all day today as I do every Saturday. It was for the most part a usual day there, but I did have one particularly memorable library patron visit. An older gentleman brought a couple books up to the desk to check out. I got his card and his items scanned for him and handed him back the books and the date due slip. As he took the books from me, he leaned over the desk and suddenly and unexpectedly gave me a very awkward bear hug across the counter. Mind you, I know this man's name but only because it pops up when I scan his library card. I did recognize him because he does come to the library occasionally although not as frequently as many of our patrons do. I don't know him personally. I certainly wasn't expecting him to suddenly give me a hug. Noticing my reaction, he laughed and said, "I always told myself when I was a young man that I wanted to get shot by a jealous husband before I turned the age of 80. Well, I've only got two year...

Friday night, we drove to my son's college to watch him pole vault at his indoor track meet. I had never been to an indoor track meet before. All the track meets before this that I have attended have been outdoor events. The sports arena was a busy place with events happening at different times and in different areas on the track floor. From where we were sitting in the stands, I couldn't really take very good photos with the camera that I have, but that didn't stop me from trying, of course. I took a few to show the size of the arena and so that you could see all the different events going on. Click on the pictures to get a close up view of things. This is my younger son (closest to the camera), his girlfriend, and a neighbor friend of my sons sitting on the right side of me. My husband was sitting on the left side of me. Front and center and holding a pole for pole vaulting is my son talking to one of his former coaches. You can see him a little better in the second...

Thomas took pictures http://picasaweb.google.fr/t.gouel/BostonFeb2009Thomas?authkey=Gv1sRgCLCr_fTG7fO9Ew#

I was very happy to receive a preview copy of Gloria Chadwick's Foods and Flavors of San Antonio , a collection of over 250 Tex-Mex recipes! Just a few of the recipes included in this book are: Beef Chimichangas, Pico de Gallo, Pork Enchiladas with Tomatillo Sauce, Chicken Enchiladas Rancheras, Chocolate-Kahlua Flan, Frozen Margarita Pie, Tequila Salmon, and Chilaquiles Calabacitas. Yummy! Using a recipe from Gloria's book, I whipped out some big, fluffy, perfectly browned tortillas for breakfast this morning! Flour Tortillas 3 cups all-purpose flour 3 tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt 4 T vegetable oil 1 cup warm water Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large mixing bowl. Add the vegetable oil and water. Mix with your fingers until well blended. Turn the mixture out onto a floured surface and knead for 3 to 5 minutes or until the dough is soft and no longer sticky. Cover with a damp kitchen towel and set aside for 20 to 30 minutes. Divide the dough into 18 balls about 1...

A preacher goes to a nursing home to meet an elderly parishioner. As he is sitting there he notices this bowl of peanuts beside her bed and takes one. As they talk, he can't help himself and eats one after another. By the time they are through talking, the bowl is empty. He says, "Ma'am, I'm sorry, but I seem to have eaten all of your peanuts." "That's okay," she says. "They would have just sat there. Without my teeth, all I can do is suck the chocolate off and put them back."

Once again, Miley Cyrus recorded a remake version of a classic Disney song to the DisneyMania fifth edition. This time, Cyrus covered "Part of Your World", from 1989 film The Little Mermaid, written and composed by the songwriting duo Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. Miley Cyrus's album debuted on the Billboard 200 at number fourteen w/ a sales of 44,000 units, becoming the highest debut for a DisneyMania album to date.

Carmi's theme this week for Thematic Photographic is winter . Check out other entries at written, inc . This shovel appears to be somewhat of a threat to the winterized plant. "Bloom or be dug up!" No fear... come Summer, this plant will bloom with beautiful purple flowers that will last until Fall. For the Birds

Chris from the blog, At Home At Last , recently wrote about her first memory. I thought it was an interesting thing to blog about, so I thought I would write about mine here. * * * * * Until I was around the age of three, I lived with my family in a house in the town of Marion, Ohio. I have two main memories from that long ago time in my life. The first memory was of a fire that we had there. My mom was cooking something on the stove in the kitchen in a big iron skillet. I don't remember what she was making, but she must have been frying something in the skillet in oil. The oil got too hot and caught on fire. (With three children all under the age of five at the time, I imagine she had gotten distracted by one of us which kept her away from the stove too long.) I was in the living room and heard my mother let out a sort of half scream, half yelp kind of noise in the kitchen. I wandered in there to see what was going on. My brother and sister showed up there, from w...

No 358 - Russkiy Kovcheg (Russian Ark) Director - Alexandr Sokurov Wow. This film somewhat hurt my brain. It is different from anything I have ever seen and there are parts that I thought were revolutionary and astounding, there are also parts that I really didn't like. For those of you that don't know anything about this film (and I'm not judging you, I'd never heard of the film until Empire stuck it in their list) let me try and explain. The film is a sort of tour. You, the viewer, are an unnamed unseen figure, apparently from modern times who finds himself in 18 th Century Russia following the last days of the Russian aristocracy before the communists take over. You are joined by the Marquis . A 19 th century Frenchman with somewhat scathing views of Russia and the Russians. Together, the film moves through St Petersburg's Russian State Hermitage Museum , examining the architecture , the art and allowing 200 years of Russian history to flit from room to r...

Download Grant Goforth - Vx Ad I wrote and read this ad for my radio production class. Just a test to see if the hosting software works. Anyone recognize the song?

Inspired by Christina; Here's my list of Albums I simply always need to have on hand. This is a pretty different type of music list, as I discovered while brainstorming. It's steeped in nostalgia and growing increasingly archaic as the single grows to reign over our musical sensibilities. I mean, I could make a list 1,000 entries long of songs I couldn't live without, but albums have to have near perfect structure. The wording of the list is rather hyperbolic, too. I couldn't bring myself to list any bands that I've been into recently because I'm not sure yet whether or not I could live without them. So sorry Thermals, Kings of Leon, Mae Shi, Los Campesinos, Mississippi Fred McDowell and Yelle. It's too soon. Anyway: Weezer Blue album . Christina put 'Pinkerton' which is the shit too (although I don't think it's under-rated, I think it's under-recognized), but Blue will always rule my heart. Green Day Dookie . The best album a 7th grader...

Meagan "Mego" Gonzaga! (the crowd goes apeshit!) Congratulations Meagan! You correctly guessed 15 of the 25 categories, effectively blowing the competition out of the water. Most impressive. You also got 6 of 7 of the so-called major awards, only missing Lead Actor. Your prize will be in the mail soon!

No 396 - The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford Director - Andrew Dominik At last. At long bloody last. I have been trying to watch this film for a very very long time. Admittedly, not enough to actually BUY the film but it is something that I have been investigating. I took it out at the library a few weeks ago.... but the disc was scratched and would skip and jump and dance around. Like a gallivanting school child before they become jaded and tired with life. That made the disc suitable for analogies. But not so suitable for watching. So with great joy, I saw that the film flopped through the letter box. God bless LoveFilm . I can finally write up about the bloody thing. I have always been of the opinion that Mr Brad Pitt is an excellent actor, and whilst I've not really seen him in much I have heard exceptional things about Mr Casey Affleck . So it was nice to see them outside of Danny Ocean's little gang . What I instantly noticed in watching this is.....

Many purists bemoan modern games as being too easy. Sometimes they're right, but most game companies have added difficulty settings so that each game has a varying degree of difficulty, depending on how expert you are. Not so with old games, where the punishing difficulty level would send you enraged or crying to the solace of a comforting teddy (or blanket or whatever you sissies used). The above picture is a perfect example. It's from Crystal Caves, one of many Apogee games from the era that defined scrolling shooters for PC's. If you study the picture you can see a multitude of actions occurring. You must shoot the bad guys, but never let a bullet hit the air machine or else you die immediately. These air machines are conveniently place every 6 pixels, or so. You have keys, switches, eggs, elevators and enemies coming at you with a jumping mechanism that requires no error. I can't believe the patience that I had as such a young kid playing these games. The difficulty...

As with pork and beef, the tenderloin (aka filet mignon) of wild game is the most succulent and tender portion of meat. It is located under the backbone of the animal (from the rump to halfway along the back). Did you know that the most tender cuts of meat, whether it be beef, pork or wild game is the meat that is least involved in movement of the animal? The tenderloin just lays along the spine and doesn't do much! Contrast that with the shoulder and neck muscles which do a lot of work and have a lot of movement... this is the "chuck" steak part of the animal, which is much tougher than the tenderloin. Another interesting tidbit I have for you (which has nothing to do with four-legged animals) is that how light or dark the meat of birds are is dependent on how far they fly. Dove, geese and wild ducks are mostly dark meat because they migrate, traveling long distances. Quail, on the other hand don't migrate and search for their food on ground so the meat from quail is...

Rachael mentioned breaking the internet in a cavalier way earlier, but I can tell you it's a very real; threat to our nation. Especially if you're a net addict. I know you are. Please watch this. And stay informed people!

Lyrics | Snow Patrol Lyrics | Chasing Cars Lyrics Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. One simple rule, leave ONLY the actual post link here. You can grab this code at LJL Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.

This is a photo from a few years ago of my Mom holding a birthday cake so that one of my nephews could blow out the candles. This is my brother's oldest child. With both my Mom and nephew dressed in yellow and the yellow walls of my kitchen, I thought it seemed like an appropriate choice for Mellow Yellow Monday. To visit other bloggers posting for Mellow Yellow Mondays, click on the butterfly badge below.

It was a snowy Sunday. Here are a few pictures from my house today. Great big flakes of fluffy snow fell giving us about three inches of new cover. It's a bit too early to be thinking about planting any morning glory seeds out here yet. Weather like this isn't very conducive to walking outside, so I have to take my walk inside. I took some pictures of the YMCA where I go to walk on the indoor track. The indoor track is on the second floor and looks out over a large gymnasium area that holds two basketball courts. There is a second basketball court on the other side of the large blue and white curtain you see here. In addition to basketball, this gymnasium is also used for volleyball games and for aerobic and step classes. Twelve laps around the track equals one mile. I try to walk 24 laps to total a two mile walk when I come here, but sometimes it is a little more or a little less. You can see some of the exercise equipment here on one side of the track. There is more ...

Oh man, Rasket struck gold with that post. It also reminds me of the Games Of Our Lives feature on AVClub, though I'm not sure they really do that any more. Anyway, this is for all the kids whose parents wouldn't allow console games. We had to get our kicks on computer games and I still believe it was the golden age of PC gaming (Mac too, if there exists a golden age of mac gaming). Adventure games ruled and best of the era was LOOM. You can torrent it still and it's truly amazing. the depth of the story and the feel of the world and its guilds seriously influenced my world outlook. It was a little hard for me at the age I was playing; I remember my Dad had to help a lot because the mechanic for casting spells was by matching notes and playing on a musical clef. Tricky shit for an 8-year-old. Definitely a spark in my gaming life.

Miley Cyrus says she's irritated by people who think that Miley Cyrus and her father, singer Billy Ray Cyrus, are "too close or too cuddly." According to The Associated Press, which obtained a copy of the book, Miley Cyrus says that negative reactions to Cyrus' bond with Cyrus' father hurt Cyrus' feelings. ...

It's Friday night! Here's some dancing music to get you up on your feet and ready for the weekend. Oh come on, you know you want to. Get up from your chair from behind the computer and move! You know I'll be dancing here.

If my pantry could talk, it would tell you that I should have been Italian. I love pasta and I love how the different shapes are named: Orzo (barley), d'angelo (angel hair), farfalle (bow tie), penne (quills), fettuccine (ribbons), linguine (little tongues), and probably my favorite, radiatore (radiators). There are more than 600 pasta shapes produced worldwide and I wish I could have every one of them in my pantry! Tonite I took a package of conchiglie (shells) and stuffed them with a delicious mixture of cheeses: ricotta, parmesan and mozarella. Add to that a mixture of chopped spinach, shallot and garlic with your favorite sauce and you've got a meal fit for a regina (queen). 15 large pasta shells 1 jar spaghetti sauce 1 box frozen spinach 2 tsp olive oil 3T finely chopped shallot 3 cloves garlic, minced 2 eggs 15 oz. Ricotta cheese 1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated 2 cups Mozarella cheese, grated (divided use) Boil pasta shells until al dente (to the tooth). Run under cold wat...