Thanks, Scola. Marked and printed out and likely to be used several times.

Uncanny Valley! Or, rather, Uncanny Canal!

Heh. Did you hear any of the gondeliers singing? It echoes very strangely of off the walls.

Did you look at the rare book store? When I was there in April, I was drooling over the window display of the first edition of Helen Keller's My Life autographed by her. I wanted that soooo much, but didn't have a spare $12,000 on me at the time.

OMG, the comments on that thing.

A universal response to blog posts.

I *love* pony play. LOVE.

Did I ever send you a link or have you seen Unmata's ode to pony play?

I don't think so. It doesn't sound familiar.

A universal response to blog posts.

Yeah, I'm not sure what came over me. I'm usually so good about not reading them!

If you have not already, call your Congresscritter and ask for a "No" vote on the deal. Almost no chance of it not passing, but if it could be stopped (and Aimee gets a camel while we are at it) then Obama would face the choice of letting his banker buddies suffer along with the rest of us, or using some those options he hates so much cause they are not dignified: 14th amendment, platinum coins, treasury forgiving U.S. debt to it and so on. All but the first are also mild stimulus which in major recession with significant deflationary risk is a feature, not a bug.

I've already hit my Congresspersons up today. Blowin' in the wind.

Maybe if I start sending checks made out to Congressperson X for $500, with a huge VOID scrawled across it...

ION, anyone have a good smoothie recipe for a kid who like berries and might be mildly lactose-intolerant? (I say "might be" cause Mom said he is, but he's had cheese, alfredo sauce and ice cream here, in limited amounts, with no problems.)

Maybe if I start sending checks made out to Congressperson X for $500, with a huge VOID scrawled across it...

This made me laugh in delight.

ION, anyone have a good smoothie recipe for a kid who like berries and might be mildly lactose-intolerant? (I say "might be" cause Mom said he is, but he's had cheese, alfredo sauce and ice cream here, in limited amounts, with no problems.)

I've never really used a recipe for smoothies. I just use frozen fruit -- they make bags with a mixture of strawberries, bananas, and mangoes that I really like -- and some sort of non-dairy milk, usually almond. About a cup of fruit and a cup of milk, put in blender, and then add more milk if it's too thick.

A lot of people who are lactose intolerant are OK with cheese but not with plain milk.

Also, frozen yogurt is lower in lactose than ice cream, is my possibly-mistaken understanding.