Heidi? Is that you?

Searching for "elle journal on low carb"? From a Comcast IP in Corona, California? How's the court case going?

I got a screenshot ;)

Elle

The post in which I indulge in a bit of politcal ranting ...

I should be an Obama supporter. I fit his demographics. White, over-educated, listen to NPR religiously, socially moderate to liberal, fiscally moderate, friend to people from all races and lover to an Indigenous American. And I'm from Massachusetts!

But I'm not an Obama supporter. I'm not supporting any of the candidates. I'll vote, mind you, but I'll write in the name of a lucky Red Sox player as my choice for president, as I always do when I don't like the available choices.

But I will not vote for Obama, under any circumstances. He's a political child, he's all talk and precious little substance, he's just as bad a panderer as Clinton except he's more subtle, and he is the biggest mistake this country is about to make.

Barack Obama is just a more articulate, more appealing, more charismatic, younger version of George W. Bush. Nothing more.

Elle

Mmm, shoes!

Infinity Shoes!

That is the name of what has just become my new favorite website. They have a huge selection of shoes and boots, from styles which range from casual to dressy and the prices are quite good. I've spent the better part of an hour looking through this site and I'm still not done.

As I mentioned, they have a huge range of styles. I really like the seychelles shoes, particularly the "Drive a Hybrid" boots. I love the pattern on those! The minnetonka boots are very cool as well, especially "Sail Fish." But, my favorite style may well be the tsubo shoes. These are just gorgeous, especially "Celini" and "Kiva."

Shoes, believe it or not, make a great gift for someone, though it's not always the first thing that comes to mind. However, I had a birthday recently and got a great pair of boots from a friend, so trust me -- if you know the recipient' shoe size, shoes may very well be the way to go in terms of a gift.

Infinity Shoes offers free shipping on all orders over $59.98 (at least they do right now, it's a limited offer) which is very nice, as shipping charges add up. Quickly. I'd like to mention, too, that Infinity Shoes also has physical store locations, so if you happen to be in New York City, you might want to drop by. The rest of us will have to make do with the website. Give them a look, you won't be sorry you did!

Elle

Godspeed, Eight Belles

I hope, beautiful thing, that at the very moment you were put out of your pain, you opened your eyes, got up from the dirt where you lay, and began to run. That you ran towards a burst of light, which led to a beautiful pasture, filled with smooth green grass free from rocks and holes. A pasture where there are other horses to commune with, where you can do whatever you like, whenever you like. A place where you will not be forced to run your over-bred, fragile body for the profit of those who owned small pieces of you on Earth. A place where you will never be hurt so over-dressed women wearing too much make-up accompanied by men who could benefit from a few laps around a track themselves can spend an afternoon drinking and staring at all the funny hats.

Elle

Ecco Bella -- Here is Beauty!

There's a trend towards organic everything nowadays. Ecco Bella (which means "here is beauty" in Italian) is a line of cosmetics that offers Mineral Makeup and other organic beauty products, such as shampoos, body lotions and skin care.

Not only are these products formulated from organic ingredients, they are cruelty-free, never tested on animals. Whether or not you care if your beauty products are organic, I think most people would agree that cruelty-free is always the way to go when it comes to personal care products.

Ecco Bella has a very wide range of products, something for everyone, and I use some of them myself and I love them. Give them a try, or give them to someone else -- Mother's Day is coming up!

Elle

Breakfast Burrito

So, I'm heading back to Albuquerque on May 17, for a second interview with that company, scheduled for May 19. Think good thoughts for me, please!

One of the things I love about Albuquerque, aside from seeing the love of my life, is the food. One thing I must always, always have when I'm out there is a breakfast burrito from The Frontier. Oh, how I love them. These are one of my "planned cheat" items, as they are made with white-flour tortillas and potatoes.

This morning I woke up with a powerful craving for a breakfast burrito, and was sad that I could not have one. They are a "cheat" item, after all, and it is not time to cheat. And then, I realized the following:

1.) I have eggs
2.) I have bacon
3.) I have Hatch chilies (canned, thanks to Dancing in Socks Guy who brought a case with him the last time he was here)
4.) I have cheese
5.) I have low-carb tortillas

Thus, with my muscular intellect, honed to razor-sharpness by years in higher education, I came to the conclusion that I could, in fact, have a legal breakfast burrito and that all that would be missing was the potatoes.

So I did. About 6 g total. And it was good!

Elle

Mother's Day Gifts

What are you doing for Mother's Day?

Many people decry Mother's Day as a holiday created by commercial interests. However, while its status as an organized holiday in the United States is relatively recent (1908 or so) the concept of a special day to honor mothers is actually quite a bit older than that. The US holiday has its genesis in "Mothering Sunday," a UK tradition that dates back to the 16th century. On Mothering Sunday, individuals would visit their "home church" (aka their "mother church"), meaning the church they attended as children and would presumably be reunited on that day with their parents, assuming they were still alive and belonging to the same parish.

Even if I felt Mother's Day was a cheap commercial holiday, there is no way I could skip it because it would break my own mother's heart. Mom lives for this kind of thing, and who am I to disappoint her? So, I capitulate. My own taste in cards, for example, runs to the quirky and funny but on Mother's Day I pick out the biggest, rose-covered card I can find, one which preferable has something like "What is a Mother?" on the front because I know that's what Mom likes.

She also adores flowers, so thank goodness for 1800Flowers and their wide selection of mothers day flowers and gift ideas. There's something there for all tastes and they have a handy Mother's Day Gift Guide for those of you not lucky enough to have a mother who is very specific about what she does and does not like by way of a Mother's Day gift. Like mine.

Mother's Day is coming up soon, guys, a week from this Sunday. If you're still trying to think of a nice gift for mom, visit 1800Flowers and see what they have for mothers day flowers and gifts!

Elle

Elegy for my clutch

Well, here we are. The end of the road. For you, anyway as I am now driving about with your replacement. Your very expensive replacement, but truly, as much as I hate parting with that much money in one go, clutch, I know you guys don't come cheap and, hey, the car isn't going anywhere without you.

I will say this, the pain I felt in seeing the repair bill was pretty well offset by the fact that I made one clutch last for over 155,000 miles. Oh, the guys in the shop were pretty impressed with that too. One even went so far as to say, "I can't believe a woman got 155,568 miles out of one clutch!"

Yes, you slack-jawed mouth-breathing jackass, a woman did just that. And the credit for that goes to another woman, Mom, who taught me how to drive a standard in the first place. Mom, a lot of the advice you've given me over the years has ranged from good to whacky, but there was one invaluable bit of maternal guidance I am forever grateful for, and that is this.

"Don't ride the clutch!!!"

Adieu and Godspeed, clutch. Thank you for the many years of service.

Elle

Use Vista Print for All Your Printing Needs!

I've mentioned Vista Print before -- it's a really cool website where you can take care of all of your printing needs. They offer services such as rubber stamps, marketing materials, car magnets, business cards, checks, and window signs. The window signs are a really nice product, and great for small businesses. They are very reasonably priced, and you can tailor them to your specifications, just as with all the other Vista Print products. Even if you're not a small business they could come in handy -- schools, for instance, could use them for educational materials.

As I mentioned, you can customize these products to meet your specific needs, which is always a very useful thing, and what's more, their prices are very reasonable and they offer -- wait for it! --- FREE STUFF! You can get free business cards, stamps, checks, and a bunch of other things. Come to think of it, I actually need new checks. I'm just about done with the ones I ordered oh, two bank mergers or so ago, and it might be nice to have the actual bank name on my checks even though it doesn't matter, they can still be used. I may have to spend a little more time on Vista Print and see what I want. I'd suggest you all do the same. Just check out their website and see what they have to offer -- you won't be sorry you did!

Elle

Biochemists and Engineers: Scientific Colleagues or Natural Enemies in the Wild?

My money's on the latter.

One of the projects I'm working on involves two teams: Team Biochemistry and Team Electrical Engineering. Up until recently, it has been a very pleasant collaboration but today's excitement involved some procedural things which beautifully demonstrate just how differently our brains are wired.

Electrical Engineer: Procedure Alpha didn't work. We have to take it in a different direction.

Me: But it worked the first three times you did it, including that data set we sent off to big important grant agency. What changed?

Electrical Engineer: Nothing.

Me: So, you did XYZ? Like the first time?

Electrical Engineer: Yes, XYZ.

Me: So you started with (enumerates all the steps)?

Electrical Engineer: Oh, no, we did (enumerates all the things that were done differently).

Me: Then that's not XYZ. It's more like XPQ. I don't suppose the reason why it didn't work like it did the first three times is because you did something entirely different this time?

Electrical Engineer: Oh. I didn't think of that. Maybe if we do XYZ again it will work.

You think?

Elle

Have you looked into Lifelock?

If not, you should.

Seriously now. Everyone knows it's a good idea to protect your personal information. Yet how many of us actually do anything about it? How many people, for example, make sure their mail is shredded before it goes into the trash? Carefully check bank and credit card statements? Know where their ID is at all time?

The sad thing is, you can do all that and STILL get your identity stolen. Identity thieves are pretty smart, and if someone really wants to, they can get hold of your personal information, such as a social security number, and make your life really, really difficult. That's why a service like lifelock is so useful. Lifelock guarantees your good name by protecting your identity. They contact credit bureaus for you, and ensure that fraud alerts are set up. They make sure those fraud alerts are renewed every ninety days or so (if you request), and also get you off all those "pre-approved" credit offer lists. Those, by the way, are an excellent way to get your identity stolen. Most people just throw them out, and they often contain enough information about you for a clever thief to take advantage of the situation. Lifelock does a bunch of other things as well to protect your identity and keep you from being the victim of fraud. And they back it up with with a $1,000,000 guarantee! It's definitely worth checking out!

Elle

Blame the adults, not the kid.

That whole Miley Cyrus thing. WTH?

My niece LOVES Hannah Montana, and by extension, Miley Cyrus. There's been an awful lot of loose talk lately as to those unfortunate pictures and how could she, what kind of a role model is she, is this what we want young girls to look up to and blah blah blah.

How could she?

She's fifteen years old, people.

Yeah, the bra pix were a stupid, childish move ... the kind of thing you do when you're fifteen years old. I saw them, they weren't that bad, certainly no worse than anything most of us have done at that age. The blame for the "topless" Vanity Fair pic, however, falls squarely in the lap of the adults involved.

An adult took that picture, adult minders were present when the picture was taken, adults presumably reviewed whatever contracts were involved and either looked at the contact sheets and approved them, or waived their right to do so.

Maybe Miley Cyrus thought it was a good idea at the time. Clearly it was not, and that, folks, is why we generally do not let children of her age vote, drive, or enter into legal contracts. Because they are still kids and they do not yet have the experience or judgment or length of years to decide whether or not appearing in nothing but a sheet in a major magazine is a good idea.

For what it's worth, my niece still loves her, thinks it was a silly mistake and that Miley is "really sorry she did it." I happen to agree.

Elle