grateful.

20 mile bike ride along the beach with my mum and da'

+

getting soaked on the road in a summer rainstorm

+

returning home and calling my brother in denver

+

giggling through the grocers' with mum

+

cooking dinner for my folks

+

tinkering with my da' on my bike and fixing its first flat tire

+

spending the whole day with my fam

=

the most beautiful holiday

why i love my laurabeautifulsoultallestangelsentinelwhitedove. or seeing eye friends are the best.

laura [via text]: u wanna come over for masala tea and cookies?

me [via text]: awww, i was just gonna text you two! i wanted you to know even if i had been up to [dancing] tonight, i've been at emergency care 'til now. i scratched my cornea, and i am definitely home for the night.

laura [via text]: that sucks. are u ok? if u need anything let us know, leisy and i are just hanging out.

me [at the same time via text]: i miss you both. can we do that soon?

laura [via text]: well, if u need two seeing eye friends, we're here.

cistern, will you remember?

[sur cette ancienne colline passé le domaine de l'oublier quand votre esprit est libre dernier dans la connaissance de l'être aimé]

...ou allez-vous lancer à jamais ne plus se souvenir?

la neuvième semaine - 20e chose. [youtube]

une merveille!

[one of my absolute favorites; this always fills me with wonder]

Carrots to Moskowitz. Sticks to Publix lobbyists and the Florida Legislature.

Plastic bags consumed this year:

Parkland: Vice mayor delays talk of plastic bag ban
July 3, 2008

Wednesday night's planned discussion about outlawing business use of plastic bags was shelved.At Wednesday's city commission meeting, Vice Mayor Jared Moskowitz was going to ask the city attorney to draft an ordinance to keep restaurants and businesses such as CVS and Publix from using plastic bags. He wanted to encourage the use of cloth or paper bags to protect the environment.

But activists who have tried to pass similar proposals in Miami-Dade County told Moskowitz that in April, legislators decided no place in Florida could ban plastic bags until at least February 2010.

Lobbyists for Publix and other retailers had pushed the Legislature for the protection, fearing local regulation of plastic bags.

Moskowitz decided to hold off on his plan for now. He asked city staff to set up plastic bag-recycling bins.

originally reported in the Sun Sentinel

For more on this issue see here.

To voice your approval or thanks to Vice Mayor Moskowitz, please contact him here.

How to take personal action wherever you live.

Global action taking aim at plastic bags:

San Fran yay for the first American city.

Australia

Modbury in Devon, UK

Taiwan

Leaf Rapids, Manitoba, Canada

Bombay

More Points to Ponder:

Paper vs. Plastic? survey says: bring your own.

la huitième semaine - 18e chose.web-based apps. zoho and google docs.

alrighty, cruising right along on my list of 23 things. this is actually my 2nd post using the publish option of zoho writer. [the first was le bon mot: hazrat inayat khan] and i have to say, i lurve the concept of a web-based, software-less word processing site. i can see this coming in great handy when i go back to school in the fall.

there.

i said it.

now i'm committed to making it happen.

ahhh-men.

ps. it helps when publishing from zoho to know how your website font is formatted. i'm a stickler for the details.

le bon mot du jour: hazrat inayat khan.

The warmth of the lover's atmosphere, the piercing effect of his voice, the appeal of his words, all come from the pain of his heart.

- Hazrat Inayat Khan -

la septième semaine - 17e chose. PBCLS sandbox wiki.

well then, i've been to the PBCLSwiki sandbox, and left my footprints firmly planted there. it was interesting to see what all of my co-workers favorite favorites were...as instructed, i posted my blog. and found the other 2 easiest sections to post in were favorite restaurants [i love to eat] and animals. *a disclaimer: if i had attempted favorite music, i fear i would have derailed the whole train...my list would have been ex-ten-sive.*

feel free to take a visit and see what i - and my coworkers - are up to when we are not at work. people who know me will automatically know which favorites are mine. care to take a guess?

s’il vous plaît m'accorder l'attente, la sagesse et discernement pour reconnaître le tisserand.

There are different wells within your heart.
Some fill with each good rain,
Others are far too deep for that.
In one well
You have just a few precious cups of water,
That "love" is literally something of yourself,
It can grow as slow as a diamond
If it is lost.

Your love
Should never be offered to the mouth of a
Stranger,
Only to someone
Who has the valor and daring
To cut pieces of their soul off with a knife
Then weave them into a blanket
To protect you.

There are different wells within us.
Some fill with each good rain,
Others are far, far too deep
For that.

- hafiz -

la septième semaine - 16e chose. wikis.

i like wikis. i like saying wikis. but if i had to laud my most favorite thing about wikis, it'd be how downright egalitarian they are.

again. mr. thomas paine comes to mind with his ideal of a society in which people have a right to express their own opinions, even if they incite controversy...in his perfect world, the presses would be the voice of the populace...his is an argument for free speech, and the web certainly helps the reality of such exchange to happen.

but back to our wiki assignment: i like the prospect of using wikis as an interactive database. it's a brilliant forum for reader's advisory. see: library goddesses. i also liked that some of the libraries had different wikis for use in customer service: like the memphis public library's "staff language skills" for non-english speaking patrons. what a great way for staff/patrons alike to compile any individual expertise in different hobby wikis like this one for cooking found on the St. Joseph County Public Library's wiki. i know, i for one, can't wait to contribute to a section on my favorite sport: extreme ironing

from the hallowed hall of irony: my favorite absurd news story of the week.

"Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition."

at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Science Center was closed Wednesday

due to flooding from a broken water main.


my favorite commentary on this unfortunate incident was from peter sagal, host of
NPR's Wait Wait, Don't tell Me...

...it went somethin' somethin' like this:

"Museum officials were tipped off to the situation when a frozen Leonard Dicaprio went floating by."

refrigerator roundup, or what to do with those summer vegetables.

[okay, i think an awful lot about food...and for those of you who know me...when i appear to be staring off into space, chances are i'm concocting some meal in my head with what i know to be in my refrigerator, soo, i just have to share this tasty, little vegetarian better-than-fast food i scared up in the kitchen sunday night...round up all those languishing summer vegetables in your fridge...taco bell ain't got nuthin' on this Mexican pizza]

2 limed corn tostadas
1 cup freshly made, or canned chipotle refried beans

[note the chipotle is verrry important. the smokiness is incomparable]
1 zucchini, diced
1 red pepper cored, diced
1 spanish onion, diced
[feel free to come up with your own combination of vegetables, but these worked especially nicely]
1 pinch cumin
1 pinch powered chili
1 ounce queso blanco or other Mexican cheese
1 small bunch cilantro, chopped
1 small avocado, slivered [optional]
2 tbs grapeseed oil, divided [can substitute olive oil, or some other vegetable oil]

Heat 1 tbs the grapeseed oil in a skillet over medium high heat

Flash sauté the zucchini, onion, and red pepperSeason with the cumin and chili

Remove from heat and set aside warm

Return the skillet to the burner
Heat the second tbs. of oil until warmed.

When thoroughly warmed, press one tostada into the pan evenly with your fingertips
Allow to cook for approximately 30 seconds or until it begins to golden

Spoon the refried beans on top of the tostada as it continues to crisp

Spoon the zuke/onion/pepper mixture as a second layer

Top with the cheese
Finish with Avocado and Cilantro

Place the second tostada on top and [masterfully] flip

Wait as patiently as possible [important…it's in the details] until the second side is crisp and golden.

Remove to dinner plate, and mind your manners as you devour.

* if you must indulge in something akin to sour cream, try plain fat-free yogurt.
it's full of protein and healthy probiotics

[yum]

speaking of keeping unusual collections.

[and here's why i love my friend leisy - aka luna - aka "the" baba ganouch]

leisy [via email]: ...interesting fact of the day.

Somehow I thought you'd appreciate the following; while flipping through the classifieds yesterday afternoon, Laura happened upon the "Arts & Crafts" section.

There were two things listed.

1) Amish Quilt. Meh.

2) Mannequins. Dressed to resemble movie stars. $50.

Dare me to call that number?

me [via email]: yowsa.

how norman bates-ish.

i'm very frightened-cum-intrigued.

double dog dare.

[and the thing is, she's just the kind of sport who will call]

la sixième semaine - 15e chose. Web 2.0.

okay. i must admit.
i've been mired for a small bit in reading our assignments for

week 6 - thing 15 - web 2.0.


and it's difficult for me to adequately express the complexity of issues that rise to the forefront when i consider all that a concept of library 2.0 could comprise.

it's interesting that within our own system, the range of opinions can be downright polarizing: from the static, predictable, staid caution of "wait and see" to the more progressive awareness that if we do not change with the times, then we will cease to become relevant to mainstream culture.

while the purist in me has a hard time envisioning moving away from building a physical collection of items as presented in OCLC's 'Away from Icebergs' article...[of course, that concept would make a girl shudder who owns nearly 4,000 cds and almost 2 thousand books]...i know the trend towards information [our stock and trade] is virtual and digital...i subsequently found rather amusing the thoughts presented by Dr. Wendy Schulz in her article "To a Temporary Place in Time" as she imagines the pendulum swing through library 2.0 through 3.0 to the nostalgia of a library 4.0 as a reprieve from the technohustle and a place that functions more like a salon and knowledge spa.

i think some interesting watermarks of change with regards to an awareness of how emerging technology is altering our time-honored traditions is the recent Obama-McCain Twitter presidential debate on technology and government. could it be the the blogosphere is finally bringing about the hope for equanimity in society that Thomas Paine envisioned? it was his championing of free access to printing presses and subsequent pamphleteering that helped inspire our own American Revolution after all.