Round Up

I think I may have to make this sweet gum wreath this year for the holidays. Every year I try and make a new wreath and I think this might be this years craft.



















Library and Archival Collections on the Web-this is an excellent listing and one could spend hours perusing the various collections.

Oh goody-a Nancy Drew blog.

NPR journalists asked female musicians what it's like to be a musician today.

I have a very nice commute into DC every day. I go through a very nice part of DC to get to my boring job. I've noticed various historic markers on my way to work, but the problem is I can't read most of them as I whiz by on the bus. There is one particular marker that is driving me nuts, because it is on 16th street on the corner of an ordinary-looking home. All I can see is that there is a man's face on the marker. I also see various beautiful buildings and jot down there addresses so I can look them up on Internet when I get to work. I'm glad these gorgeous buildings don't readily announce what they are, but it just sparks my curiosity bug.

This happened this morning. I had noticed this building on a previous trek, but I kept forgetting to jot down the addess. This morning I remembered-2460 16th Street, NW. I found out that this is the Council for Professional Recognition. Yup, that's what I said. What do they do? Well, luckily they have a mission statement on the site.

But, that wasn't the cool part of my early morning detective work. I ended up clicking on a few more results from my address search and I ended up here at the Historical Marker Database. Who knew there was such a thing? Could this database possibly assist me in my quest to find out who my mystery man is on the marker in the yard? Yes, it did. This was Frank Reeves home and that is his nice fact that I almost see every morning. History Detectives watch out!!

I love that you can add your own photos of historical markers to the database. I am a maniac about reading markers every where I go. I used to drive my family crazy with it. Wait until I tell them it's not just me!

Register your bicycle at the National Bike Registry.

This is Blood Falls located in Antarctica. Here is the explanation for the red? You know you want to know.














1,000 Recordings to Listen to Before You Die. I haven't perused the entire list, but so far I haven't listened to very many of these. I better get busy. And lets face it, some of them I'm never going to listen to-ABBA-I simply can't.

Or what about 100 classic love songs.

Bring old rugs back to life with salt.

Have you heard of Maria Telkes? She was a Hungarian-American scientist who worked on solar energy technologies. She became known as the Sun Queen. I came across her name in a mystery I was reading and decided to find out more about her.

Science magazine has the Breakthrough of the Year Award. The award acknowledges the most significant scientific breakthrough of the that year. The award used to be called the Molecule of the Year Award. I think I like that better.

I like this poetry rug.


BRAVO!! 18 bookstores in Charlotte, North Carolina are donating money to help keep libraries open.


That's all for this week folks. Have a Happy Weekend.



"It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is, What are we busy about?" Henry David Thoreau

Round Up

R.I.P. Manute Bol-a gentle big man.

I think I would like to go to Solitude Farm.

Historical Currency Exchange Rates.

The Debt to the Penny.

NeighborGoods-kinda like Freecycle, kinda like Craigslist.

In my travels through the Internet and in various magazines I have been seeing quite a few owl-themed children's parties. This by far is the cutest owl party I have seen. I wish I had been invited. And I love the owl pinata (towards bottom of page). Here is another owl pinata.

Something else that I keep seeing are garlands-everywhere.

Now they have gourmet s'more kits. Good Grief!!! We made "gourmet" s'mores when I was a kid. We would have homemade marshmallows and white chocolate, store bought marshmallows and a Snickers or a Peppermint Pattie-all sorts of combinations. We were ahead of our time and didn't even know it.

Today, July 16, is National Corn Fritter Day.

This Cakewich baking pan cracks me up.

Finally a place to get nice kitchen twine.

I like these rings at Deka Ray.

I have found that I am now a breakfast person. For years and years I never ate breakfast. For the past 6 or 7 years I have been eating bad things for breakfast-brownies, cookies, carrot cake and various and sundry sugar-laden carbohydrates. I have found that if I go out for a nice breakfast, say a veggie omelet, some faux bacon or veggie sausage, maybe even some melon, I am a happy camper. I can enjoy this meal with my sweetie, other folk or even alone with something to read. Pure contentment.

If I ever visit Portland, Oregon I must have breakfast at The Tin Shed. If I ever get to retire, when I am traveling around taking factory tours, I can find cool places to have breakfast, and of course blog about both experiences.

The 20th century's most reclusive writers.

Best books of the year-so far-according to Amazon.

Bookshelf porn (I may have posted before, but so what. It's worth a second peep).

Really like this pink therma jug.

If you haven't watched The Choir (BBC America) you must. It is excellent.

That's all I have for this week. Have a nice weekend.




"The greatest gift we can give one another is rapt attention to one another's existence." Sue Atchley Ebaugh

Round Up

I just have a few items I found interesting for this post. The dog days of summer are taking their toll. 86 days until October.

This is a message to all of you folks who are raising children. Please teach them good manners. Please teach them that blowing your nose at the table is disgusting and rude, teach them to hold the door open for those that come behind them, teach them to be kind to animals, older folk and everyone in general and particular, teach them to have quiet voices, teach them not to dig at their private parts in public, teach them to eat with their mouths closed, teach them to be good listeners even if they are listening to the most boring drivel in the university, and the most important thing to teach them is to never judge books by their covers. Enough said.

A real life Dr. Greg House. Apparently Dr. Gahl doesn't like the comparison to the cantankerous, terrible rude television physician.

The Necklace: 13 Women and the Experiment that Transformed Their Lives by Cheryl Jarvis is like an adult version of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashears.

6 sudden savants.

We have a new Poet Laureate-W.S. Merwin.

Looking for some great Beach Reads.

Deletionpedia-deleting from Wikipedia

The Story of Stuff

A literary genre that I had never heard of before-Steampunk.

It is sick enough when people put cats and dogs into library book drops, but condiments.

Voyagers 1 and 2 Infinite Playlist.

London Lives gives free access to 240, 000 manuscripts.

Interesting podcast on the history of Supreme Court Nominations.

This photograph is of some of the bookshelving in the Stockholm Library. It makes me dizzy looking at it from this angle.

















Can't think of an interesting name for your new pooch? Perhaps Dog Names Woof or Fun Pet Names could be of assistance.

Wondrous, colorful kitchen gadgets-I'm in heaven.

Just in case you missed the incomparable David Suchet, in my opinion the best portrayer of fictional detective Hercule Poirot, in the Masterpiece special On the Orient Express-you can still watch it here. I adore trains and David Suchet is one of my favorite character actors so this was a wonderful treat for me.

10 ways to repurpose light bulbs.

That's all for this week. Have a good one, and try and keep cool. It's supposed to be 101 today.







"In winter I get up at night And dress by yellow candle-light. In summer quite the other way I have to go to bed by day."~Robert Louis Stevenson