Aw, I forgot! We get GL in the mornings, here. How's the new apartment coming together? What did you decide to do about the cat(s)?

BUT, in speaking of fireworks this company, a sort of SoCal local company, is a family-run, fifth generation outfit that does a ton of the big shows around the country

I did a few shows with Pyro Spectaculars back in the late '90's. Pretty fun stuff. I was working on my Pyro Certification for California at the time but decided not to pursue it after my 4th or 5th show. There just isn't any hearing protection good enough to really protect you at close range when the mortars are firing and my hearing to my career.

When we were in Romania, I had the job of organizing the ambassador's official July 4th celebration. He wanted fireworks. He had a lot of trees in his yard, though, so I called THE fireworks company and asked for someone to come do a walk-through to make sure we could safely have fireworks.

The guy shows up, and we walk the property. He brought a jacket, I guess against possible air conditioning. Anyway, he takes a quick look, assures me that the trees aren't a problem and it will be perfectly safe. I thank him, and extend my hand. He switches the jacket from where it was draped over his right arm and extends an ORANGE PLASTIC HAND for me to shake. For some reason this shook my confidence in his safety assessment.

We had a balloon release instead.

Cash, Credit, Card or Cell Phone?

The article is WAY overhyping - but the "virtual wallet" is still interesting technology.

[link]

Raquel, that might give me pause as well. And this

then your soul that you outran will catch up and find you and you'll be okay.

Is such a lovely description of jetlag. And that is so how it feels when you really really want to sleep and shouldn't. Psychosis, whee! For me, it doesn't help that I'm coming BACK from some exciting adventure. Going east, I've been all nervous and excited and so it is easy to push through the sleepies. Coming back, loooook, it's my beeeed...

My brother has sent me an email that is STILL DOWNLOADING. Sheesh.

I don't think I'm gonna try to see fireworks tonight. I like them a lot, but...crowds. Traffic. It doesn't start until 9:30.

I LOVE firecrackers and sparklers and bottlerockets(arson in a small package!) and groundflowers, but I recognize the inherent danger in them so can't complain too much about restrictions. Especially in kindling country. Where I grew up, the neighbors would get together in the middle of the street and fire them off, with hoses running in the gutters. Fun. Fire! Bang!

then your soul that you outran will catch up and find you and you'll be okay.

This is kind of how William Gibson described jet lag in Pattern Recognition. I thought it was very apt.

Is there anyone around that can tell me -- if I swap sour cream for yoghurt in a recipe, will one to one volumes be okay for the leavening?

It should be about the same, ita, except that you might want to throw in an additional pinch of baking soda.

I always sub yogurt/sour cream 1:1, never noticed any problems.

Either my neighbors are setting off fireworks, or they're jumping on the world's biggest sheet of bubble wrap...

I sub 1/1 but then usually in nonbaking things so I am not to be trusted.

Hugh O'Conor is nummy. How did I never notice him before?

jumping on the world's biggest sheet of bubble wrap...