Baby vidspam: [link]

I love my baby. Who is rapidly becoming a big boy.

Laura, sautee onion until soft. Add mushrooms (mix of cremini, portobello, oyster, porcini... if you used dried, then soak the dry in boiling water with a splash of port... retain that juice) and salt and cook mushrooms for about 10-12 minutes. Add garlic and any other aromatic. I like shallots. Stir in stock, any retained liquid from the rehydrating of mushrooms, thyme, barley and a bit of salt and port to taste. Cook until barley is tender.

That video is the perfect illustration of "you can't have your cake and eat it too."

hypnotize the baby with a sandwich!

How much do I adore the loving and slightly maniacal way in which he repeats, "Mine..." as he turns the bread around and around? Thiiiiiiiiisssss much. Adorable.

That video is adorable.

Anyone know enough about old clothes and/or hairstyles to help me identify these photos with anything more exact than "sometime in the twenties"? [link] I'm almost certain they were taken in Vienna, though it's possible they're from Budapest.

Hey, anyone here have a Roomba? They've come to Australia, I need a new vacuum cleaner, and I'm considering getting one. Are they up to the job of a 3-bedroom house?

I forget if it's here or in Bitches where folks have talked about how slactivist is blogging about the Left Behind novels (or one of them, anyway):

I had expected Left Behind would, like most "Christian novels," ("Christian" there being a marketing term) include long, preachy, didactic sections -- whole chapters of sermonizing. I suppose I'm grateful to have been spared that, but it turns out there's something even worse. Here in Left Behind we're constantly being told about such sermons, and about how passionate, persuasive, honest and sincere they are, but we never learn what was actually said.

Here's how LaHaye & Jenkins' account of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount would have read:

Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them. When Jesus had finished, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority.

Come to think of it, that's also how they seem to read this passage themselves.

[link]

Wiy o wiy are we getting more wintry mix tomorrow night?? I wish it would just be colder and snow!

Stir in stock, any retained liquid from the rehydrating of mushrooms

tip: you might want to strain the stock. sometimes there is dirt in the dehydrated mushrooms, so watch the last bit in the bowl.