These are links from my del.icio.us feed for August 27th:

• FOOD: Crisp Rosemary Flatbread - There was a short time when I was completely addicted to a rosemary flatbread from Whole Foods, so I can't wait to attempt this. I've never made bread before, but really, this is more like a cracker. And if I mess it up, I bet Lucy and Buster will love it.
• HOME: Steel Magnet Kitchen Timer - We have all kinds of timers in our kitchen, so I don't NEED this, but I sure WANT it. It's pretty cool looking and who doesn't need one more reminder for when dinner is ready.
• PHOTO: SlideShowPro for Lightroom - "SlideShowPro for Lightroom is a gallery extension for Adobe Lightroom, the photo management desktop application for professional photographers. When installed, SlideShowPro for Lightroom is available in Lightroom's "Web" panel, and available for publishing slideshows containing all the imagery and documents necessary to upload online and display in a web browser." I saw a slideshow on someone's site made w/ this and it was pretty slick.

Categories: delicious

These are links from my del.icio.us feed for August 18th:

• RECIPE: Grits with Corn and Onion Greens - Mmmm… grits. Nom nom nom.
• MARKETING: Visa’s Exclusive Olympic Sponsorship Backfires - "Just about every Olympic traveller here in Beijing has a story to tell about one really annoying moment when they were trying to pay for something and learned that at all Olympic venues the only card they could use was a Visa and no other type of credit card. … The end result is lots of negative experiences and consumer anger against Visa, including several people I spoke to who even said they would NOT get a new Visa card because of this tactic." Doh!

Categories: delicious

We said farewell to two of our most beloved Bulldogs on Friday, Alvin and Emily, who are moving on to new adventures in their careers. What better way to say ‘good luck’ than with a bright, tropical happy hour at Fonda San Miguel.

(*The title of this post was crafted by a co-worker, I take no credit for it’s cleverness)

Categories: Friend-ish · Giggin' · Shutterbuggin'

She Craves played at Emo’s on Friday, kick ass show as always. Right before them was a ska band from Baton Rouge, complete with a 5-piece horn section. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a good, live ska show. They were absolutely brilliant.

Categories: Austin-ish · Friend-ish · Music to My Ears · Shutterbuggin'

These are links from my del.icio.us feed for August 9th through August 13th:

• PHOTO: Photographing Icons – They Matter (TWiP) - "Last week, Wall Arch in Arches National Park, Utah collapsed. This is one of those places photographers loved to visit." Just because "everyone has taken that photo" doesn't mean you shouldn't take one if it calls to you. One day that icon / building / bridge / etc. might be gone and you will wish you had that photo in your collection, not just the memory.
• DESIGN: Focus cuff with by re:vision - This is absolutely beautiful. I'm putting it on my wishlist as either a 'wanna' or 'get for myself' because it's just so damn cool.
• PHOTO: Where To Rent A Lens Online - I’ve heard great things about Zip Lens from a wedding and portrait photographer friend here in Austin, but I haven’t used them yet. I can’t wait for a project to come up that I’ll need to rent something fun!
• VIDEO: Slow Motion Video of Lightning - This is a damn cool 25 seconds.
• FOOD: Bacon: By-the-slice storage - This is so simple, let's put it under the "why didn't I think of that" category. We often buy bacon and there is NO need to cook the whole package, but when you freeze it, you have "block o' bacon".
• FOOD: Vegetarian Four Cheese Lasagna - I'm always on the lookout for a good vegetarian lasagna recipe, and the reviews on this look like it's a winner. But … pumpkin?! I want to trust it, but I also want to immediately substitute that for butternut squash or zucchini.
• FOOD - Split Pea Soup with Rosemary - The last time I made split pea soup the peas were a tad tough (it cooked for hours though, so I don't think it was undercooked. I'm not sure what I did wrong). I'll try it again though, this looks simple and I like the idea of rosemary.

Categories: delicious

K: Thank you for fixing the squeak on the bathroom door.
J: How did you know I did that?
K: Because I opened it this morning when you were asleep, and anticipating that terrible squeak, but it was gone. You clearly put some WD-40 on it, so thank you.
J: That’s crazy. If that had happened to me, I never would have assumed you had fixed it. I would have thought the squeak just went away.
K: I don’t know if I should be insulted that you don’t think I would fix something like that… or think it’s cute that you still believe in magic.

Categories: Home Sweet Home · Jef · R-R-Rambling

As I was watching the opening ceremonies for the Olympic games in Beijing tonight, I found myself reminiscing to 20 years ago. I was 9 years old when the 1988 games were happening in Korea and Roger was there with a skydiving team to jump into the opening ceremony. They built the Olympic rings in freefall, then landing in the stadium under canopy and were part of a flag ceremony before walking off the field. Do you remember that? I remember we watched for hours for that one short segment to air. When it came on we were over the moon excited.

Roger always jumps barefoot, but the dress code for this jump was rigid. Of course everyone had to look the same, down to the shoes. Roger wasn’t thrilled with that, and said as soon as he left the stadium he traded those shoes for trinkets for us - little ceramic dishes and pins with the Olympic rings.

We have a massive photo of the rings from the wonderful and talented arial photographer, Norman Kent, in our living room at home. I’ve looked for a digital copy online a few times, but never found much. I searched again tonight, and imagine my surprise tonight when a good photo on his site (credited to him below) and a VIDEO on YouTube of the full skydiving segment. It’s the first time I’ve seen this in twenty years. I totally cried, it’s just that beautiful to me.

On a side note, my niece, Kayla, made her first tandem skydive today with my mom and Roger at an event up in Canada. What a day!

Roger is in the blue ring at “10 o’clock”

Photo by Norman Kent, the one and only

Categories: Skydiving · The Fam · Video

My friend’s son told me I HAD to download the Light Saber app for my iPhone so we could duel. Then he proceeded to school me on all the different saber colors, and then he killed me.

Categories: Friend-ish · Giggin' · Tech-ish · Video