Doomsday Vault

Today was the grand opening of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault otherwise known as the doomsday vault. This project is harvesting and preserving as many seeds as possible before they become extinct and will serve as a botanical Noah's Ark in the event of a global disaster. You can see pictures and watch the opening ceremony here.

Felt Farmers Market

My crafty snow holiday continues and today I've returned to felt food, this time with a twist. My previous projects used felt from Ben Franklin, and I used some of that felt for this project as well, but I also have been experimenting with felting wool sweaters, and one of those made up the body of the carrots. I used a divorced sock for the beet. Nora's kitchen is filling up, but I wish I could figure out how to make a decent felt cupcake for her to match the real ones...

I had used the carrot sweater earlier this winter when I made this French press cozy to keep Jason's coffee warm during this icy winter. The buttons I had gotten from last year's alternative craft fair. I'm so glad I finally found a use for them. Too often I buy stuff like this and then never do anything with them.

So friends, before you toss that wool sweater that shrunk in the wash or the moths got to, please save it for me. Nora needs some eggplant, asparagus, and squash for summer and who knows what else I might decide to make.

crappy day turns into crafty day

Today began with lots of sleet hitting the window pane at 5 am and continuing until we hauled ourselves out of bed. I didn't expect our university to call since they never do, and the TV confirmed this hypothesis. It didn't matter anyway since I had a meeting downtown that unless it was terribly dreadful, I felt like I couldn't miss. So Nora and Jason got bundled out the door (SLU hadn't called either) and off to Grammy's and I slithered down the alley and took the city streets into downtown since the TV did tell me that all of the highways were a mess and to keep off of them if we could. The city streets weren't all that great either. As I rode the escalator up to the meeting at the hotel, I checked my cell phone thinking I might need to call and find out where the meeting was (they change it all the time) and I realized that I had a text message. I never get text messages. So I checked it. The university closed at 9:30 and day and evening classes were canceled. Well, that meant that I technically didn't have to be here, but since I was already and the meeting was sort of important, I thought I'd stay. Needless to say I soon came to regret that. Most of the local people didn't show or came late, the folks who had come in from the other side of the state the night before and stayed at the hotel were there and bizarrely, one of our Illinois folks decided to brave the bridge and came in too. So I guess I was happy that I at least showed up for them. We spent too much time re-hashing old business that we've covered for the past several meetings and then we moved on to ego enhancement and micromanaging of other people's project areas. All the while we are meeting in a cavernous ballroom with windows all around showing us the continued sleeting snow-scape outside. Um, folks if you just shut up we could all go home! Oh, and did I mention that the room is freezing! Half of us have on our coats and gloves. It just goes on and on. Finally we break for lunch at 1:00 and I excuse myself claiming the need to pick up Nora early. Our chair understands but I think wishes I'd take her with me....

After a white knuckle drive out to mom and dads, during which I continue to mentally rail at my colleagues and and then proceed to verbally continue my rant once I get inside, I get some lunch and calm down. Nora is asleep so I decide to set up the sewing machine and start on of the projects I've been meaning to get to since I bought this retro, cute, bunny fabric the other week. This is normally a very bad idea. If I'm in a bad mood, the last thing I should usually do is attempt something like sewing. But today it turns out great. Mom helps me finish off the project, mainly because she thinks that they need to be a little more neatly done, but I am very happy with them, even is she isn't. So without further ado, BEHOLD, Nora's new potholders for her kitchen. You can't tell here, but they are filled with a cute quilted fabric on the inside so they feel like actual potholders and not flat one-layer mittens, although I don't actually think that they are fat enough to serve in actual hot pot-holding but Nora is too young to use the stove anyway. The mitts were actually more difficult than I anticipated especially without a pattern and I just drew around my hand, although in the completed form they are size of children's mittens.

Techfrustration

Okay, I know that the world has changed dramatically since I was daisychaining Macs together with telephone cord back at the ACORN office in the 90's, but how did it happen that I now have NO IDEA about how anything works with my computer.

Backstory: Our music & audio files are getting to big and at the same time our stereo has about bit the dust (it's only 5-6 years old - my last one was still working when we downsized and I got it in '89, but that's another rant). I'm thinking it's time to get a big i-pod (we've somehow managed to figure out this Nano thing) and digitize all of our CD's. Great, but then I need an external hard drive and the reality is that I have no idea what to look for.

Upshot: Every time I try to figure out what's what I realize I don't even have the proper vocabulary anymore. And then there are the mind-numbing details that lead into wormholes of paranoia ( Don't get me started on net-neutrality and privacy concerns with internet access not to mention the googlization of our lives). Can someone point me in the direction of a resource that is a step above: "this is a mouse, here's how to use it" but will not lead me into a spiral of technospeak that results in me: 1. screaming 2. curling up into a ball and wondering how old have I really gotten and where did all this grey hair come from 3. ready to move to the hills and live off the grid?

Counting down

Peter Russell was "Eco-Philosopher Extraordinaire" of the year in 1993. And this is his World Clock. Already today there are 48 species extinct, 192,578 bicycles produced and 236,988 babies born. The clock on the left is not his World Clock, it's Prague's. It was built somewhere around 1490.

Brain Game

I'm addicted to this new game. And when you play you donate rice to end world hunger!

Changes

Yes, I'm monkeying with the blog.... Thanks to Kat for the template link!

Super Tuesday

Usually I go into the voting booth with a decision made. Today I went into the booth with a decision made. I had made up my mind to vote my heart's choice, since I knew that I would be compromising in the general. Mike Gravel was more in tune with my beliefs and where I stood on issues of immigration, terrorism, choice, third party politics, and well just about everything. And then I balked when I saw the names on the electronic screen. To have the opportunity to vote for a women on a presidential ballot was more emotional than I ever suspected. I caved. Happy Valentines Day, Hillary.