It’s become a kind of tradition as of late for me to venture downtown on early Saturday/Sunday afternoons to grab something to eat before starting work on those days. Usually, I walk up the bike path, making my way downtown. But yesterday, the weather sucked. It was cold, with a biting wind blowing out of the north. I decided to cut my walk short and just pick up some food from somewhere close to home. I turned ’round and trudged up the hill at the top of Orcutt Road. I was thinking about picking up a sandwich at Cool Cat Cafe, but it turned out that they were closed. I decided to check out nearby Le Ciel Crepe Cafe instead.
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Podcast/beauty salon (full-service), gain pumping, milkshakes, Nabaztag accessorizing, WordPress upgrades, shed upgrade update, Craigslist/Freecycle etiquette, electioneering (vote for Farris!), Craigslist looters, Pakistan is next, Paris is dumb, more.

Links:

• Fresno Famous (on the right-hand side, click “Podcast” and vote for FreeThought Fresno)
• Hyper Nonsense bunnyfund
• “Oregon man stripped by Craigslist looters”
• “Hilltop monument to Reagan being dedicated at Vandenberg AFB”
• “Can she find Paris?”
• Help us promote Hyper Nonsense
• Podcast promo: Nobilis Erotica
• Music heard on this episode:
  • the unXpektd
  • Slower But… Faster

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Show length: 1:15:40
File size: 52.5 MB
File type: 96 kbps stereo mp3

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I’m starting a new feature here at Shawnogram called “Photo Fridays.” It’s pretty simple. On Fridays, I’ll be posting some of the photos I’ve uploaded to Flickr during the previous week. Unfortunately, some pressing website maintenance issues took over my time yesterday, so I wasn’t able to get to it until today. That means the inaugural Photo Friday post is actually happening on Saturday, thus making it “Photo Fraturday.” Kinda has a ring to it, eh?

Jen goes exploring the rocks and tide pools of Montana de Oro State Park. See the rest of this set here.

Vanya the wi-fi bunny received an unexpected gift this week from another member of rabbit kind. The red bow came as part of the packaging from a milk-chocolate Easter bunny. That bunny is no longer with us (because Jen ate it!) but its memory lives on.
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Ursula Maki is two years old, blond, and adorable in both physical appearance and personality. Her parents, Annie and Justin, love her to pieces, and the three make up an exceptionally happy family. Then, one day, the three go on a picnic somewhere in the woods of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and Ursula accidently falls down a disused mine shaft. Just like that, she is gone.

Of course, this sends both Annie and Justin into a frenzy. Annie stays by the mine shaft, praying and worrying, while Justin frantically goes off in search of help. As the story goes on, more and more people become connected to Ursula. Either they are part of the group helping to get her out of the mine shaft, or they are reporting about it, or they are watching it all unfold on their television screen.

In between the chapters that describe Ursula’s plight, are chapters that describe Ursula’s ancestry. We learn why Annie needs a cane to walk, why Justin plays harmonica, why Ursula hasn’t met all her grandparents. We learn just how important Ursula is to everyone in her family, and why. In addition to being wonderful, she is the last of the line.

Hill goes even further back, detailing the lives of Ursula’s ancestors. Justin has an ancestor from the third century B.C., in China, who was an alchemist. Annie has an ancestor who was the abandoned playmate of a Swedish Queen in the seventeenth century. There are many more for the reader to meet. One of Ursula’s ancestors died in a mine shaft. Will Ursula have the same fate?

This story emphasizes how we all are connected to each other. Ancestors from hundreds of years ago who a person never even knows the existence of still directly affect a person’s life. Perhaps that is where you got your special eye color, or the shape of your nose? Personality traits of Ursula’s ancestors show up in Annie, and in Justin, and also in Ursula. In many ways, a person’s ancestors are still alive, still influencing events, still coloring how people see the world.

Readers who enjoyed The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger, will love this book. (Read my review of The Time Traveler’s Wife here.) Both jump around in time, but not in exactly the same way. Both writers do a great job of describing the scenes for the reader. It’s like you can see it all in front of you as you read. Readers who, like me, find stories about ancestors to be interesting will also enjoy this book.

I saw this in an e-mail I received yesterday from the website SLOjobs:

I find it amusing that the job description in the highlighted section reads “Retail Clerk/Retail Buyer/??.” I’m sure it’s just some bad web code that caused it to display like that. Still, it’s probably a good idea to avoid any job where “??” is a potential job-related duty.

(Not the actual soda fountain in the entry.)

I had lunch today at a favorite local Mexican place. I ordered the usual: Carne asada burrito, side of chips and a small fountain soda. I paid the cashier and took the Styrofoam cup I received in return. I walked over to the restaurant’s Coca-Cola fountain, pushed the cup against the ice lever, and filled the cup to the correct level (there is only ONE correct level) with ice and then moved the cup over to the fountain’s Coke dispenser. Immediately after pressing the cup against the cola-release switch, I knew there was a problem. What should’ve been a steady stream of Mr. Pemberton’s sweet syrupy concoction was punctured by the dreaded chugging sound that, all too often these days, plagues the soda fountains of America. I wasn’t surprised to see that, as the cup began to fill, there was very little carbonation in the soda. I knew I was in for disappointment. Sure enough, upon my first gulp of the (not-so) fizzy drink, the beverage’s shortcomings were revealed. It seemed as though the Tacos de Acapulco soda fountain had failed me. Now, it wasn’t the worst fountain Coke I had ever had. There was still enough Coke-y magic in there to keep it mildly flavorful. I drank that first cup of soda while eating, and once I finished the beverage, I returned to the soda fountain. I dumped the ice and remaining drops of soda out of the cup and into the fountain’s recycle grate (or whatever that is). I added some fresh ice (once again, only the correct amount) and decided to go for a different drink. This time, I chose the venerable Dr. Pepper. You see, Dr. Pepper is almost always a safe bet from the soda fountain. There’s something about the good Dr.’s bite that usually overpowers even the weakest fountain mixtures. Well today, it seems that the Dr. was NOT in. My auxiliary beverage choice turned out to be even less satisfying than my first. Like the Coke, the Pepper was flat. It had just enough of that famous Dr Pepper zing! though that I knew there was no turning back. Had I just abandoned the D.P. to the fountain’s recycle grate and then refilled my cup with Coke, the cola would’ve certainly taken on odd twinges of Pepper-y badness, and that would’ve just made everything lousy. I continued on with my eatings, and gulped down the soda only when absolutely necessary. I’d say better than half of that second cup’s worth of soda went unconsumed. I’ve decided that, while I will continue to enjoy the excellent victuals prepared with loving care by the Tacos de Acapulco staff, I’ll be getting my beverages elsewhere.

(Here’s some photos I took at the place, by the way:)

Baby chicken sings a song