“We have a map of the piano” in Sashamd’s Flickr stream.
Licensed via the Creative Commons.

Lessons from the Garden
Richard Newman
This morning little mushroom heads,
like rusted dimes on toothpick stalks,
sprang up in our flower box.
An hour later they were dead,
withered in the summer heat.
Each spore stretched out its mortal coil
through dried-up peat and city soil
to die upon [...]

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Inspired by a post on the Letter Writer’s Alliance, today I present two spaces– one space I’m seriously jealous of and one space I’m really excited about. First, how cool is The Papered Parlour (pictured above via Don’t Panic Magazine)?!  The more I learn about London the more I’m convinced I should move 3,600 [...]

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This, ladies and gentlemen, is why I make my own deodorant and wash my hair with baking soda and vinegar.  The incredible team behind “The Story of Stuff” just released a new video, “The Story of Cosmetics: The Ugly Truth of ‘Toxins In: Toxins Out.”
Perhaps more surprising than the fact that there are carcinogens in [...]

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Friends, this is a semi-urgent matter.
I love, love the theme song to Deadwood.  Please recommend another band/group/genre I would like.  I simply refuse to be one of those people who listens to a TV theme song… although, I have thought about setting it as my cell phone ring tone.  Don’t judge– Deadwood is a great [...]

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So sorry about that absence being longer than a week.  Came down with a nasty bout of food poisoning after my trip.  Though I’m feeling much better now, it was not the most pleasant week.  Anyway, let’s get back into it shall we?
Jon and I just bottled our 4th homebrew batch.  Did I ever tell [...]

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Things will be a big quiet around here for a bit.  I’ve got some work travel this week (so, actually it’s hardly a break…) and it’s my birthday.  Let’s pick back up on the 19th or so, shall we?  For now, here are a few things I’ve been ogling or reading lately:

Budget Raygun: honestly, do [...]

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The Back Yard by Twilight
Doug Van Gundy
These are the hours I love the best:
when the golden light of summer has climbed
to the top of the abandoned building next door
and all of the neighborhood
cats have slinked from inside
the woodpile beneath the back porch
and the cicadas and katydids
and grey tree frogs begin advertising
in the cacophonous personals section [...]

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I spend a lot of time on my computer (at work and at home) and on the phone.  These two items have gotten me thinking about the possibilities for an incredible home office/studio/desk/base.  First, (pictured above) the iRetrophone Classic Black by Free Land Studios, $195 via Etsy.  Wouldn’t it also look great on my bedside [...]

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My coworker who shared the postcards from Africa also passed along this one from Russia– postmarked 1984.  When doing my sleuthing about the background for these stamps I got stuck.  I assumed, in my post-Cold War reality, that they were Olympic commemorative stamps.  Of course, I’d forgotten that the Russians, and other Communist countries, boycotted [...]

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These stamps, issued by the USPS in 1981 (before I was even born!), celebrate America’s space achievements.  They look great (super saturated color is a thing with me right now), and I especially love Mr. Zip up in the left corner.  Many thanks to a few friends who found these somewhere at an antique show/flea [...]

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