look at these pretty pictures

The intersection of the art and science of everyday objects. Beautiful.

more lovely

It is not every day that the author of one of your favorite books offers to call you and sing you a lullaby...but if they do, you should take them up on it. Here's the story. On Wednesday, Amy Krouse Rosenthal (see my related posts here and here) used her Facebook status to offer up a lullaby-by-phone. We messaged back and forth, I gave her my number, and last night at around 10:45 she called me. We chit-chatted briefly, and then she offered me a choice of 2 songs -- "Love is a Song that You Sing in Your Heart" or "Shalom." I chose the former, and settled back for the lullaby (feeling only slightly awkward -- I did offer Amy the chance NOT to sing, but she insisted that a promise is a promise). So Amy sang. And lovely was beckoned.....

please visit...

...Lucy's new blog (so far, it's a little less racy than the old one).

i want to make these

from photojojo, by way of designsponge. isn't this a clever way to display photos? (and by the way, my photo jars might have as many gays in them as the photo jars in this picture....)

creative envy

This is exactly the kind of project that gives me creative envy....quirky, mixed-media, used to tell a compelling story. While I do have a creative side (and a craft table!), I definitely don't consider myself to be artistic in a paint-y or draw-y way, and my overly active left-brain (and my half-assed-ness) often gets in my way.

a blog post for lucy

Since Lucy has ceased blogging (she actually asked me awhile ago if she could shut her old blog down because it is embarrassing...imagine...to be nine and have all of your eight-year-old thoughts on the internet...the horror! maybe I should scan and post my sixth grade diary where I spend pages writing Kevin Bacon's name in various handwriting styles)....I thought I would share this great poem she wrote at school as part of a biography project.

Frederick Douglass

Frederick was strong
Frederick was smart
Frederick was a slave
Frederick decided he needed to be, needed to be free
So off he went on a mysterious ship
To embark on a trip to the north, to the north
And once he was there he lived as a free man
A free man
Once he was there he lived as a free man.

LBJO, 2/19/09

platanos, puerto rican style

I was perusing Mark Bittman's Bitten blog, which is one of my new favorites, and found a recipe for Platanos Maduros (sauteed ripe plantains), which gave me a craving for a slightly different take on this tropical banana cousin. During my senior year in college, and the summer after I graduated, I worked at an afterschool/summer camp program at a local public school in Hartford, CT, with a student body that was 75% Puerto Rican. Whenever we would have a picnic or potluck, someone was bound to bring Puerto Rican-style platanos, which are double-fried unripe platains (known as tostones in other places). I instantly fell in love, and had one of the Puerto Rican staff members teach me how to make them. It's been years since I've made them, and the only part I could remember had something to do with smashing the slices in the plaintain peel, so I had to google a reminder recipe (please click this link so you can see the majesty of the platano). I will definitely be picking up unripe plantains the next time I see them, along with some adobo seasoning, and maybe some queso fresco, so I can fry up a batch. Muy delicioso!