Some of My Favorite Websites

http://www.weirdomatic.com/everyone-needs-a-hobby.html

http://www.foodnetwork.com/search/French+Fries/results.do?fnSearchType=recipe

http://www.doityourself.com/

http://www.etsy.com/

http://www.worldfolkart.org/

http://www.pandora.com/

http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/lange/index.html

Not really all that unusual, but 20 years ago we would have thought it unusual that we could look up some much information just sitting in front of machines!

Does anyone have some sites he or she wants to share with me?

Unusual Musical Instruments

http://windworld.com/features/gallery/guitar-like-instruments-with-specially-made-pickup-systems/

Click on the link to hear what these instruments sound like.

Vaux Swifts

In honor of seeing my first Vaux Swift roost last night, here is some info about the Vaux Swifts. Turns out Portland is the scene of the largest roost in the world--over 30,000 birds. The one I saw last night in Eugene surely had at least 15,000. Turns out not all of them could fit into the chimney and had to fly away (to find another roosting site?) ~Karol

Like film footage of a smoking chimney played in reverse, the Vaux’s Swifts begin to descend, first one, then a few more, then dozens, then hundreds in a continuous swirl. Each bird drops into the chimney with its wings held high, parachuting feet first, to catch the rough interior, where it will hang by its claws, upright for the night.These small, dark, streamlined birds are summer visitors from Central America. At first glance, they look something like small, dark swallows. One of the largest known Vaux’s Swift roosts in the world – over 30,000 birds – can be seen each September in Portland, Oregon, in a chimney at Chapman Elementary School. http://www.birdnote.org/birdnote-transcript.cfm?id=1680

Eugene, Oregon: While there are a number of sites (one previously reported) in the Eugene Area, the granddaddy and most likely second largest in the state is Agate Hall on the University of Oregon campus. The Lane County Audubon has been involved here for years. With the arrival of Nicole Nielson-Pinus and the guidance of Maeve Sowles this huge braced brick chimney should be in good hands.A serious and important estimate of 4000-6000 swifts on 9/13 was provided by UO Biology Professor Peter Wetherwax

OREGON STATE 2008 VAUX'S HAPPENING ROOST SITES

Portland, Oregon: Chapman Elementary School is likely the largest Vaux's Swift roost site in NA. Portland Audubon has developed and promoted this site into a month long September wildlife spectacle. Their 9/13/08 count was a conservative 10,500. Website athttp://www.audubonportland.org/local-birding/swiftwatch

Board Games

In honor of Apples to Apples, played yesterday at Andrea's house, I'm listing my favorite board games today and introducing a few new ones--unusual ones, of course--to the mix.

My top 10 personal faves:

1. Scrabble

2. Boggle

3. Stategories

4. Monopoly

5. Cranium

6. Apples to Apples

7. Backgammon

8. Trivial Pursuit

9. Puremco Mexican Train

10. Candy Land--for sentimental reasons (played it a lot with LeeAnn once upon a time)

What are your favorite games?

The kind-of-unusual games I found online are in the photos for this post.

All About Parades

In honor of the Eugene Celebration Parade, today's blog entry will feature misc. info about parades.

from wikipedia: The longest parade in the world is the Marksmen's Parade that takes place in Hanover every year during the Schützenfest. The parade is 12 kilometres long with more than 12,000 participants from all over the world, among them more than 100 bands and around 70 floats and carriages.

Parade floats were first introduced in the Middle Ages when churches used pageant wagons as movable scenery for passion plays. Artisan guilds were responsible for building the pageant wagons for their specified craft. The wagons were pulled throughout the town, most notably during Corpus Christi in which up to 48 wagons were used, one for each play in the Corpus Christi cycle. The name is derived from the first floats, which were decorated barges that were towed along canals with ropes held by parade marchers on the shore.

Macy's Thanksgiving Parade: Macy's is the world's second largest consumer of helium. The United States government is the first. Due to a helium shortage in 1958, the balloons are brought down Broadway on cranes. Santa Claus has ended the parade every year except 1933, the only year in which he led the parade. The parade was cancelled in 1942, 1943, and 1944 due to World War II. (http://www.nyctrip.com/Pages/index.aspx?PageID=161)

The Tournament of Roses Parade: The first Tournament of Roses was stagedin 1890 by members of Pasadena'sValley Hunt Club, former residentsof the East and Midwest eager toshowcase their new home's mild winter weather. In 1902, the Tournament of Roses decided to enhance the day’s festivities by adding a football game – the first post season college football game ever held.

(http://www.tournamentofroses.com/history/floatwinners.asp) photos from this here website

Making Pancakes

Did you know that some methods of cooking are so easy now they will remind you of a Wallace and Gromit invention?

Check out the Chefstack Automatic Pancake Machine, which can make 4-inch size pancakes from no-mess batter pouches. And it only takes about 30 seconds as the flapjacks get cooked and stacked assembly style while you’re off doing something else. The machine is about the size of microwave oven and has already been proven quite popular with coffee shops, cafeterias, convenience stores, and other small businesses in Australia and New Zealand.

As if making pancakes was difficult, seeing as how we have so many great mixes in the grocery store. Even making it from scratch isn't that labor intensive. But cleaning up isn't fun!

So, in my research for this blog, I also came across a bit of information about pancakes from around the world. Pancakes take many more forms than we may think: they're really just cakes cooked on the grill rather than in the oven. Here are a few from Cooks.com

INTERNATIONAL PANCAKES COLLECTION — From the COOKS.COM Culinary Archive.
INTERNATIONAL PANCAKES COLLECTION
CONTENTS
1. Banh Xeo -- Vietnam
2. Beghrirs -- Morocco
3. Blinis -- Russia
4. Bricks -- Tunisia
5. Buckwheat Potato Galettes -- France
6. Chapatis -- India
7. Cheese Blintzes -- Russia
8. Crespelle -- Italy
9. Kartoflane Placki (Potato Pancakes) -- Poland
10 Lefse -- Sweden
11 Okonomiyaki -- Japan
12 Palatschinken -- Austria
13. Pancakes -- USA
14. Pikelets -- England
15. Spring Rolls -- Asia
16. Sweet Crepes -- France
17. Tortillas -- Mexico

The mixes I use and recommend are in the photos above. I must go now. I haven't eaten breakfast yet and my stomach is growling. Hmmm...pancakes sound delish!

Calder's Circus

A

Alexander Calder (1898-1976) Calder's Circus, 1926-31Mixed media: wire, wood, metal, cloth, yarn, paper, cardboard, leather, string, rubber tubing, corks, buttons, rhinestones, pipe cleaners, and bottle caps, 54 x 94 1/4 x 94 1/4 in. (137.2 x 239.4 x 239.4 cm)

Karol's note: Calder is one of my favorite artists. I only learned about his circus creation a few years ago from my friend Susan. Since then, I've read the book about why and how he created it. I'm inspired by his creative vision. Maybe it's because I still feel like a kid at heart oftentimes that this kind of performance art appeals to me. Or maybe it's that he uses everyday objects to create a miniturized version of an iconic American event. Or maybe I don't even need a reason!

Adam Weinberg from the Whitney Museum: Alexander Calder magically breathed life into inanimate objects, using wire and recycled materials to create this army of circus characters. Beginning in 1927, Calder performed the Circus in Paris, New York, and elsewhere. He would issue invitations to his guests, who would sit on makeshift bleachers munching peanuts, just like the real circus. With the crash of cymbals and music from an old gramophone, the circus would begin. Many of the individual circus animals and performers include mechanized parts—Calder was originally trained as a mechanical engineer. It wasn't the tricks or gimmicks of the circus that appealed to Calder, but the dynamic movement of bodies in space. He first went to the Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey circus in 1925. He was inspired by the mechanics of the circus and made hundreds of drawings of the equipment and the ropes and the guy wires for the tents. Later in his career, Calder turned his attention to more abstract work. In 1930, he visited the studio of artist Piet Mondrian. He was delighted with Mondrian's work, and later recalled, "I thought at the time how fine it would be if everything there moved." He went on to invent the mobile and other works of moving sculpture. http://www.whitney.org/www/american_voices/540/index.html

Alexander Calder (22 July 1898 – 11 November 1976), also known as Sandy Calder, was an American sculptor and artist most famous for inventing the mobile. In addition to mobile and stabile sculpture, Alexander Calder also created paintings, lithographs, toys, tapestry and jewelry. wikipedia.com