I wanted to post a brief note about this great website I heard about today on the Colin McEnroe show, which is incidentally one of the best things on NPR. The website is CTmuseumquest.com, and it's literally full of great things to do, eat, and explore in Connecticut.
Now, to the bragging. I wrote an email to the man who runs this website, Stephen Wood, to let him in on the greatness that is the Auncient Oak tree in Bethlehem. For those of you who don't know, the Auncient Oak tree, located on Auncient Oak Road (crazy, right?) is supposedly the "second largest tree in CT!" I have no proof of this, but I mean, come on, the street's named after it, so it has to be true, right?
Anyway, if you drive down this road (where my friends the Crane family reside), and look into the woods as you're passing by houses, you will suddenly see this colossal oak tree. I'm not kidding, this tree stops you in your tracks. There is no posting that I'm aware of to indicate this tree, it's just sort of there.
I figured it was worth mentioning to Mr. Wood (it just hit me how appropriate it is that I emailed a Stephen WOOD about an OAK TREE), since he apparently lives for this stuff, and who am I kidding, so do I.
The following was his PERSONAL EMAIL RESPONSE! I sort of feel like I'm a tween getting a response from Justin Bieber right now.
From: ctmuseumquest@gmail.com
To: LFeller1@hotmail.com
This is great, thanks!
(And I do NOT mean to sound like a pompous jerk, but honestly, yours is the first email I've gotten in a long, long time telling me about something I had never heard about before.)
I wish I had a prize or something to give you.
thanks for reading,
Steve
~
There you have it folks, Steve wishes he could give me a prize. Well, guess what? He just did!
(Cue sappy sitcom music, and freeze a picture of me and Steve in a giddy chuckle).
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Lazy Autumn Breakfast
Today's weblog is about my favorite topic in the whole world, FOOD! I invented a delicious (and easy) breakfast dish that I wanted to share. Also, by writing it down, I won't forget how I made it, so when I go to do it again, I have something to refer to. So it's a selfish act, me doing this, but it's also nice of me to share, because this is REALLY GOOD.
Delicious and Easy Caramelized Apple French Toast
Ingredients:
2 Macintosh apples, peeled and thinly sliced
1 tablespoon butter
2 spoonfuls granulated sugar
1 spoonful dark brown sugar
splash pure vanilla extract
6 slices of white bread, preferably Arnold brand country white
4 eggs
2/3 cup low fat milk
In a large frying pan, heat up the butter on medium high heat until melted. Add the sugars, and mix around until you have a sugary paste. Add the splash of vanilla extract (the sugar will react VIOLENTLY, so be careful!), and stir again until you've made a caramel (you'll know, it will look like caramel, dummies!). Add the sliced apples to the caramel, and mix around until the apples are coated. Turn the heat down to medium, and let the apples cook, stirring occasionally, for ten minutes.
Meanwhile, In a large, shallow bowl, whisk the eggs and milk together. Remove the caramelized apples from the pan, place in a bowl, and put in a warmed oven. Using cooking spray, coat the pan for the french toast. Dip one slice of bread at a time in the egg and milk mixture, pressing the bread down to ensure it soaks up is much of the mixture as possible, and flip to make sure both sides are covered (I'd count ten Mississippi's per side). Fry up all french toast like this, adjusting temperature if too hot or cold on the pan. It should take a few minutes per side. Remove the french toast and place on plate into the warmed oven.
Nuke pure maple syrup so that it's warm. Brew fresh coffee! Serve french toast, with the caramelized apples and maple syrup in their own bowls, so everyone can use as much or as little as they prefer.
(Serves 2 hungry people, or 3 not-so-hungry people.)
-L
Delicious and Easy Caramelized Apple French Toast
Ingredients:
2 Macintosh apples, peeled and thinly sliced
1 tablespoon butter
2 spoonfuls granulated sugar
1 spoonful dark brown sugar
splash pure vanilla extract
6 slices of white bread, preferably Arnold brand country white
4 eggs
2/3 cup low fat milk
In a large frying pan, heat up the butter on medium high heat until melted. Add the sugars, and mix around until you have a sugary paste. Add the splash of vanilla extract (the sugar will react VIOLENTLY, so be careful!), and stir again until you've made a caramel (you'll know, it will look like caramel, dummies!). Add the sliced apples to the caramel, and mix around until the apples are coated. Turn the heat down to medium, and let the apples cook, stirring occasionally, for ten minutes.
Meanwhile, In a large, shallow bowl, whisk the eggs and milk together. Remove the caramelized apples from the pan, place in a bowl, and put in a warmed oven. Using cooking spray, coat the pan for the french toast. Dip one slice of bread at a time in the egg and milk mixture, pressing the bread down to ensure it soaks up is much of the mixture as possible, and flip to make sure both sides are covered (I'd count ten Mississippi's per side). Fry up all french toast like this, adjusting temperature if too hot or cold on the pan. It should take a few minutes per side. Remove the french toast and place on plate into the warmed oven.
Nuke pure maple syrup so that it's warm. Brew fresh coffee! Serve french toast, with the caramelized apples and maple syrup in their own bowls, so everyone can use as much or as little as they prefer.
(Serves 2 hungry people, or 3 not-so-hungry people.)
-L
Thursday, July 8, 2010
The Responsibility of a College Professor
I received one of those "chain" emails today. Normally I delete them, or else quickly skim through them, and then delete them. Never email me one of those "send this to twenty people or you'll die a horrible death!" emails, or you yourself might be the one to die a horrible death.
But back to the email. I recently completed a graduate course on Legal and Ethical Issues in Higher Education, and this email really spoke to me, and brought up all sorts of thoughts.
The email went a little something like this (and bare with the length of this bologna, I feel it warrants some thought):
I am SOOOOO GLAD that the university is standing with the Professor. If Universities keep their heads on and don't let the Muslims bully them we just might start to make headway in this country. As long as we give in to them we are doomed!!!
'Bout Time Someone Stood Up To These Idiots!!
GO, MICHIGAN STATE !
Very interesting -- the University is standing by their professor and not bowing down to special interest groups!
http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/wichman.asp
Professor Wichman E-mail Claim: A Michigan professor sent an e-mail telling Muslim students to leave the country.
Status: True.
The story begins at Michigan State University with a mechanical engineering professor named Indred Wichman. Wichman sent an e-mail to the Muslim Student's Association. The e-mail was in response to the students' protest of the Danish cartoons that portrayed the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist. The group had complained the cartoons were 'hate speech.'
Enter Professor Wichman.
In his e-mail, he said the following:
Dear Muslim Association, As a professor of Mechanical Engineering here at MSU I intend to protest your protest. I am offended not by cartoons, but by more mundane things like beheadings of civilians, cowardly attacks on public buildings, suicide murders, murders of Catholic priests (the latest in Turkey), burnings of Christian churches, the continued persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt, the imposition of Sharia law on non-Muslims, the rapes of Scandinavian girls and women (called 'whores' in your culture), the murder of film directors in Holland, and the rioting and looting in Paris France. This is what offends me, a soft-spoken person and academic, and many, many of my colleagues. I counsel you dissatisfied, aggressive, brutal, and uncivilized slave-trading Muslims to be very aware of this as you proceed with your infantile 'protests.' If you do not like the values of the West - see the First Amendment - you are free to leave. I hope for God's sake that most of you choose that option. Please return to your ancestral homelands and build them up yourselves instead of troubling Americans.
Cordially, I. S. Wichman Professor of Mechanical Engineering
As you can imagine, The Muslim group at the university didn't like this too well. They're demanding that Wichman be reprimanded, that the university impose mandatory diversity training for faculty, And mandate a seminar on hate and discrimination for all freshmen. Now, the local chapter of CAIR has jumped into the fray. CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, apparently doesn't believe that the good professor Had the right to express his opinion.
For its part, the university is standing its ground in support of Professor Wichman, Saying the e-mail was private, and they don't intend to publicly condemn his remarks.
Send this to your friends, and ask them to do the same. Tell them to keep passing it around until the whole country gets it. We are in a war. This political correctness crap is getting old and killing us.
If you agree with this, Please send it to all your friends, If not, simply delete it. GO, MICHIGAN STATE !
~
I reiterate this email because, frankly, it pissed the hell out of me. I immediately responded, and after I clicked send, I thought I'd turn my response into a blog entry.
Here we go!
~
The professor has a right to express himself as an individual, but he also has a responsibility to not alienate any of the students of the institution that employs him. It is one thing to argue that no one is “pure” in this war, whether you be a Northern European drawing anti-Muslim cartoons, or a Middle Easterner burning the American flag… but we are all killing each other; no one is exempt from blame.
The students are justified in being upset, and have every right to protest peaceably (without knowing the full story I can only assume they were not disrupting the educational process at their school with these protests). The professor is also justified in juxtaposing their feelings with his own. It’s called debate. Perfectly acceptable on a college campus.
However, the professor frankly sounds like a narrow minded buffoon when he states “If you do not like the values of the West - see the First Amendment - you are free to leave. I hope for God's sake that most of you choose that option.” The First Amendment is an American amendment, yes, but certainly allows for any person in our country the right to express themselves freely, especially in an institution of higher education. As our own Declaration of Independence stated, “all men are created equal”. Not just Americans.
So they are both allowed to express their opinions, however bigoted they be, but for a college professor to attack a portion of his student body is unprofessional. Although Michigan State should not fire him for expressing his thoughts, they should certainly reconsider his ethics in regard to the students (who are supposed to be the most important aspect of any college or university.)
~
And scene.
But back to the email. I recently completed a graduate course on Legal and Ethical Issues in Higher Education, and this email really spoke to me, and brought up all sorts of thoughts.
The email went a little something like this (and bare with the length of this bologna, I feel it warrants some thought):
I am SOOOOO GLAD that the university is standing with the Professor. If Universities keep their heads on and don't let the Muslims bully them we just might start to make headway in this country. As long as we give in to them we are doomed!!!
'Bout Time Someone Stood Up To These Idiots!!
GO, MICHIGAN STATE !
Very interesting -- the University is standing by their professor and not bowing down to special interest groups!
http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/wichman.asp
Professor Wichman E-mail Claim: A Michigan professor sent an e-mail telling Muslim students to leave the country.
Status: True.
The story begins at Michigan State University with a mechanical engineering professor named Indred Wichman. Wichman sent an e-mail to the Muslim Student's Association. The e-mail was in response to the students' protest of the Danish cartoons that portrayed the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist. The group had complained the cartoons were 'hate speech.'
Enter Professor Wichman.
In his e-mail, he said the following:
Dear Muslim Association, As a professor of Mechanical Engineering here at MSU I intend to protest your protest. I am offended not by cartoons, but by more mundane things like beheadings of civilians, cowardly attacks on public buildings, suicide murders, murders of Catholic priests (the latest in Turkey), burnings of Christian churches, the continued persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt, the imposition of Sharia law on non-Muslims, the rapes of Scandinavian girls and women (called 'whores' in your culture), the murder of film directors in Holland, and the rioting and looting in Paris France. This is what offends me, a soft-spoken person and academic, and many, many of my colleagues. I counsel you dissatisfied, aggressive, brutal, and uncivilized slave-trading Muslims to be very aware of this as you proceed with your infantile 'protests.' If you do not like the values of the West - see the First Amendment - you are free to leave. I hope for God's sake that most of you choose that option. Please return to your ancestral homelands and build them up yourselves instead of troubling Americans.
Cordially, I. S. Wichman Professor of Mechanical Engineering
As you can imagine, The Muslim group at the university didn't like this too well. They're demanding that Wichman be reprimanded, that the university impose mandatory diversity training for faculty, And mandate a seminar on hate and discrimination for all freshmen. Now, the local chapter of CAIR has jumped into the fray. CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, apparently doesn't believe that the good professor Had the right to express his opinion.
For its part, the university is standing its ground in support of Professor Wichman, Saying the e-mail was private, and they don't intend to publicly condemn his remarks.
Send this to your friends, and ask them to do the same. Tell them to keep passing it around until the whole country gets it. We are in a war. This political correctness crap is getting old and killing us.
If you agree with this, Please send it to all your friends, If not, simply delete it. GO, MICHIGAN STATE !
~
I reiterate this email because, frankly, it pissed the hell out of me. I immediately responded, and after I clicked send, I thought I'd turn my response into a blog entry.
Here we go!
~
The professor has a right to express himself as an individual, but he also has a responsibility to not alienate any of the students of the institution that employs him. It is one thing to argue that no one is “pure” in this war, whether you be a Northern European drawing anti-Muslim cartoons, or a Middle Easterner burning the American flag… but we are all killing each other; no one is exempt from blame.
The students are justified in being upset, and have every right to protest peaceably (without knowing the full story I can only assume they were not disrupting the educational process at their school with these protests). The professor is also justified in juxtaposing their feelings with his own. It’s called debate. Perfectly acceptable on a college campus.
However, the professor frankly sounds like a narrow minded buffoon when he states “If you do not like the values of the West - see the First Amendment - you are free to leave. I hope for God's sake that most of you choose that option.” The First Amendment is an American amendment, yes, but certainly allows for any person in our country the right to express themselves freely, especially in an institution of higher education. As our own Declaration of Independence stated, “all men are created equal”. Not just Americans.
So they are both allowed to express their opinions, however bigoted they be, but for a college professor to attack a portion of his student body is unprofessional. Although Michigan State should not fire him for expressing his thoughts, they should certainly reconsider his ethics in regard to the students (who are supposed to be the most important aspect of any college or university.)
~
And scene.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Women with long nails are probably not good at anything
Nails are funny things. I'm talking of course about the ones on the ends of our fingers, and not the ones you might find yourself needing a hammer for. They come in handy for scratching, but really, I can't think of one good reason why a person would need their nails to be anything more than simple, short tools, with perhaps the occasional fun shade of polish to jazz your hands up.
That said, in the past few months I've begun keeping my nails long and manicured. It all started innocently enough. I took my younger sister Sarah to get mani-pedis for a graduation/birthday present, and decided I might as well get the spa treatment too. Sarah's manicurist was a jovial woman named Young, who quickly won our hearts with her abrupt personal questions (i.e. This new boy you are seeing, is it serious? Are you sleeping with him?), and afterwords, I knew I'd be back. I mean, has your manicurist ever given you a hug at the end of your appointment? How could I not become a repeat customer?
Thus started my journey into the life of a female with long nails. By salon standards my nails are still on the short side, perhaps measuring a centimeter or so from the top of my finger outward, but I realized after a few weeks of this that a fundamental change was occuring deep inside me. First it was the little things; avoiding chores that might muss up my polish (although to be honest, is it really all that difficult to avoid doing the dishes or scrubbing the bathtub?), and certain pastimes became tricky, such as playing my guitar, as holding down chords with long nails is just a nuisance.
It was when they started interfering with my day-to-day routine that I began to realize having long nails was stupid. Sure, one can manage to type out a few words on a keyboard with clicking clacking nails, but try writing an essay, or a long email to someone of importance at your job, and then tell me how practical having long protrusions on the ends of your fingers really is.
Simple tasks became annoying, and then there was the truly dreaded "I broke a nail" scenerio, which isn't really about the negative aesthetics of a jagged nail, so much as the excrutiating pain of your skin being tugged off underneath the nail bed, bringing about days, nay weeks of discomfort.
So I come to the point of this introspective, which is that if I ever want to be taken seriously in this world, if I ever want to accomplish anything of value, I cannot wear my nails long. I can't think of a single person making a marked difference in this world, who also has unnaturally long nails. I mean, do you think that our cavewoman ansestors worried about this sort of thing? "Oh no, the sabertooth tiger is about to eat my babies, and I haven't had my nails done yet!"
Nail polish, whch is also pointless, I could still defend because it's pretty, and doesn't get in anyone's way. But these women, with nails so long they hold a pencil like someone who recently had a stroke and has lost motor function in their hands, cannot aspire to be anything more than a caricature of the stereotypical useless female.
In conclusion, keep your nails short, but your wit sharp.
That said, in the past few months I've begun keeping my nails long and manicured. It all started innocently enough. I took my younger sister Sarah to get mani-pedis for a graduation/birthday present, and decided I might as well get the spa treatment too. Sarah's manicurist was a jovial woman named Young, who quickly won our hearts with her abrupt personal questions (i.e. This new boy you are seeing, is it serious? Are you sleeping with him?), and afterwords, I knew I'd be back. I mean, has your manicurist ever given you a hug at the end of your appointment? How could I not become a repeat customer?
Thus started my journey into the life of a female with long nails. By salon standards my nails are still on the short side, perhaps measuring a centimeter or so from the top of my finger outward, but I realized after a few weeks of this that a fundamental change was occuring deep inside me. First it was the little things; avoiding chores that might muss up my polish (although to be honest, is it really all that difficult to avoid doing the dishes or scrubbing the bathtub?), and certain pastimes became tricky, such as playing my guitar, as holding down chords with long nails is just a nuisance.
It was when they started interfering with my day-to-day routine that I began to realize having long nails was stupid. Sure, one can manage to type out a few words on a keyboard with clicking clacking nails, but try writing an essay, or a long email to someone of importance at your job, and then tell me how practical having long protrusions on the ends of your fingers really is.
Simple tasks became annoying, and then there was the truly dreaded "I broke a nail" scenerio, which isn't really about the negative aesthetics of a jagged nail, so much as the excrutiating pain of your skin being tugged off underneath the nail bed, bringing about days, nay weeks of discomfort.
So I come to the point of this introspective, which is that if I ever want to be taken seriously in this world, if I ever want to accomplish anything of value, I cannot wear my nails long. I can't think of a single person making a marked difference in this world, who also has unnaturally long nails. I mean, do you think that our cavewoman ansestors worried about this sort of thing? "Oh no, the sabertooth tiger is about to eat my babies, and I haven't had my nails done yet!"
Nail polish, whch is also pointless, I could still defend because it's pretty, and doesn't get in anyone's way. But these women, with nails so long they hold a pencil like someone who recently had a stroke and has lost motor function in their hands, cannot aspire to be anything more than a caricature of the stereotypical useless female.
In conclusion, keep your nails short, but your wit sharp.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Boldly going where many have gone before...
On this overcast Friday in June, with a sick cat to babysit, and a house to clean, I thought there might not be a more perfect day to begin a blog. Or, I should say, weblog. I think that sounds a bit fancier.
Cat Status Update: Darla has gone from catatonic (no pun intended) to slightly mobile, having managed to make it on our bed. She doesn't look well.
I'm being summoned to cleaning duty. More tidbits to come.
Cat Status Update: Darla has gone from catatonic (no pun intended) to slightly mobile, having managed to make it on our bed. She doesn't look well.
I'm being summoned to cleaning duty. More tidbits to come.
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