So I saw a few clever people were playing with this “yourname needs” meme. Simply plug in “yourname needs” into your search engine of choice and find out what you need.

Here is what google thinks “Tim needs”.

1. theme music
2. your help
3. a shirt
4. to know that his actions are going to land him in the gutter…
5. to succeed
6. an elevated stage with a minimum
   size of 8 feet & a patch into the main or house system …
7. to enable javascript
8. approving by Sheralee
9. to remain as Majority Leader
10. to climb out of
    his VW bus and build a house in Honduras… or Pakistan

I can’t wait to find out what yahoo and msn think I need.

Here is a link to a great little essay on distractions both wide and narrow. I totally agree with the writer, Paul Ford. Sitting with my moleskine, the antithesis of technology, is often much more productive than the fully featured desktop where items are constantly popping out of the corner threatening to distract me. (BTW, I have to say I love the design of his website even if the navigation is a little odd.)

My last remaining great-aunt died last week. You can see her obituary online at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

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Feast of Soups

by Jacqueline Heriteau

I’ve been cooking more than usual lately. I’ve had a few successes and one failure.

The success came while making home made beef-stock and cabbage soup. Both recipes came from “Feast of Soups” by Jacqueline Heriteau. Both recipes were easy to follow and tasted great. Making stock from scratch really seems to be worth the effort.

The failure today was spectacular. I was making “Sweet Potato Pie”. It’s a recipe I’ve made before. The failure was one of technique. I was blending the pie filling while scraping the mixture from the sides of the blender. My hand slipped and the spatula got stuck in the blades. The last half inch of the spatula was shredded. Then for reasons I can’t quite determine, smoke and black bits started coming out of the blender. Since I couldn’t seem to get the spatula bits out of the filling I eventually gave up and tossed the whole mess. I hate making such a dumb mistake.

I’ve thrown a lot of clothes out in the last year. I was sad to see these boxers go. I got these for Christmas a few years ago from the kids. Everyone laughed while watching me open up the package. I blushed profusely, since my in-laws were at my house for Christmas that year. They were comfy, so much to my wife’s chagrin I wore them. Between being the wrong size and the rips they had to be retired. I’m sad to see them go. Tossing these reminded me how my son aged 14-15 months or so found the idea that an animal was named “Pooh” to be hilarious. He hung his head and laughed with a “you have got to be kidding me” look on his face.

File this under, “Things I would buy if I had a place to put it.” I love this chair that bends the notion of a claw foot chair significantly. There is more crazy wood furniture to check out on the artists gallery.

[Link Courtesy of boing^2]

The weather was too nice and the leaves too inviting not to take a roll in a leaf pile.

I just finished watching “The Devil’s Playground” a documentary about how Amish kids get the chance to experiment with living in the modern world before the are baptized as an adult. This period of time called “rumspringa” and is supposed to allow the teenager to come to their faith as an adult.

The movie was an interesting snapshot of Amish culture. The movie made me think a lot about the way I grew up. I was raised in a fairly conservative insular church; seeing these kids growing up in a culture that made my own upbringing seem libertine by comparision was eye opening. I was shocked that the film reported that some 90% of kids end up joining the amish church after they had spent gone through their wild period. I suppose that having your entire family shun you if you decide to walk away from church is a pretty strong incentive to stay amish.

I like the rumspringa concept a little. It might be wise to apply it sparingly to avoid lifelong consequences, but it is an interesting concept.

I liked the movie. It was thought provoking. I give it three and a half stars out of a possible five.

It’s time for the annual Fall Trip with the kids. This year since Matthew is in school we went on MEA weekend. That meant whole trip was a little later than usual and we missed the peak of the fall colors.

We spent the first night on Lake Vermillion. Fall is my favorite time on the lake. It’s quiet. You might see a boater every few hours. The weather is chilly at night but comfortable for a tramp through the woods during the day.

The children and I picked the remaining wild rose hips along the shoreline. Some animal, maybe a deer had beaten us to most of them, but walking along the shoreline I was able to find quite a few. I am planning on drying them and using them in tea.

Then we drove to Ely for lunch at The Northern Grounds which is right next door to Piragis. Piragis was having a pretty good sale in their outlet area and we managed to get an old aluminium canoe for a great price.

We drove down a few old forest service roads and didn’t see another car for hours. We finally caught Highway 1 and zoomed up the north shore to our destination at Lutsen. We stayed at a lodge at Lutsen that Jeannie found last year. Unfortunately, they remodeled all the rooms with kitchenettes removing the kitchenettes in the process. To make matters worse, they gave us a room with only one bed. This wasn’t what we had reserved so we were a little dissapointed. They did manage to find us a room with a futon which converted into a bed. Given the popularity of the weekend I thought that was pretty good.

During our first and only night at Lutsen the lodge next door had a fire. Based on the lousy weather and the less than ideal lodgings we decided to leave a day early. The management was glad to have the extra room to accomodate the people who had to flee their smoke and water filled rooms.

The alpine slide is the big reason we go to Lutsen, but we were rained out this year. While the kids were splashing in the pool I took the tram across the valley and hiked on the Superior Hiking trail for a mile or so. I can’t wait to get back on the trail in the spring.

You might think the response to the headline would be something like, “Yes Tim, we’ve all known you have been overweight for some time, we just didn’t think it was polite to bring it to your attention.” Instead for me, being overweight is a cause celebre because I’m no longer obese.

According to the BMI calculator on the CDC‘s web site I’ve just crossed the threshold from obese to overweight today. You can kvetch about how much a person should weigh, the definition of obesity and whether the BMI is a good measure of fitness, but the simple truth for me is that I am much healthier now by any measurement system.

I would like to especially thank everyone who helped me get to where I am right now, most of you know who you are. Special thanks to the phenomenal cooks at my office who make great soups and salads for me and the co-workers who walk with me at lunch.

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