Random Pictures: Snowy egrets in the Bay Area

Ooh, that's very nice. I'm going to take a moment to pimp a magazine of nature photography, called Nature's Best. [link] The quality of the pictures is superb. Just astounding. And their Fall edition each year is dedicated to the best pics in their worldwide photography competition. Superlatives fail me here. It's just heartstoppingly beautiful. I have to get it sent out from the US, not cheap for a magazine, but there's no way I'd cancel this subscription.

All it takes is the arrival of a pizza stone.

Never had one. Instead of spending $15 on a pizza stone I spent $1.50 on an 12" unglazed terra cotta tile. Does the same thing for whole lot less.

It's very chi-chi tile because it's handmade by Mexican peasants and baked in the sun using some timeless method taught to them by some long extinct First Nations people, then lovingly hugged and loved and hand-packed for shipment to your sensitive cultural bobo types who just want lovingly made unglazed terra cotta on their terrazzo where they drink their $30 pinot noir and listen to their faux-jazz records.

I go in once a year, buy two of them, put one in the oven, then replace it with the other one six months later. And every time I do, I get the oddest looks from the bobos trying to decide how many boxes of tiles they need.

I completely accidentally left my pizza stone in our old apartment (it lived in the oven, and it never occured to me to pack the damn thing until we'd lived here a month and I wanted to bake on it, and it wasn't there). I must replace it at some point.

The Stones have always admired classic Blues players, and they tend to work until they are ancient and/or die, so I can see them wanting to tour forever.

On the other hand, they've also been giving "this is our last tour!" interviews since the mid-70's. One of these days they might mean it.

And okay, up until recently my gaming group included several other women, one of whom was a Playboy model and exotic dancer.

OK, so the wedding I was at a few weeks ago had what I figured were the nicest-looking couple to ever meet from LARP, but damn, that might trump it.

Eventually, some state is going to get fed up and implement it on its own. The state will be mocked and openly attacked by every conservative pundit in the country. But when it turns out that it actually works, it will go national.

Except a lot of people would move to that state, wouldn't they? And then it wouldn't work, so well.

But MoH went about everything completely wrong, and, has been ripped a new one from Bride, as I just found out from Bride

Well, that's good to hear at least!

Close family friend, Drew. I can understand not attending the evening reception, but I got the impression that they won't be attending the 2 pm wedding

Um, that's a little weird, to say the least.

Never had one. Instead of spending $15 on a pizza stone I spent $1.50 on an 12" unglazed terra cotta tile. Does the same thing for whole lot less.

I've had my stone for almost 6 years. Assuming $3.00 a year on the tiles ($1.50 x 2), my pizza stone paid for itself last year.

Or would have, had it not been a wedding gift. Well, I think it was a wedding gift. I'm actually unclear on where it came from. Hmm. You know, it's possible that we bought it ourselves the year I made pizza a lot, in which case, it's been 7 years since we got it.

In any event, worth it for the metal stand alone.

How long do you have to preheat an oven with a pizza stone?

My poor brain is not doing a good job of sorting out posts about Rolling Stones and posts about pizza stones. Right now I have the pizza stones touring forever.

My poor brain is not doing a good job of sorting out posts about Rolling Stones and posts about pizza stones. Right now I have the pizza stones touring forever.

You'll find that you're no closer to distinguishing between a pizza stone and Mick Jagger when we start talking about topping.

We have achieved climbing. I looked away for five seconds while she was on the love seat and found her standing on the back of it, leaning against the window.

Heart. In. Throat.

From the diary of Virginia lawyer and politician William Byrd, revealing a keen ability to prioritise:

Sept 26, 1712: "Rogered my wife, but I forgot to say my prayers."

Phrase of the day, from Capt. Francis Grose's Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1796.:

Take a flourish:- "To enjoy a woman in a hasty manner... To enjoy a woman with her clothes on, or without going to bed."