Hey, I’m not ignoring you, I swear! I’ve been without my trusty laptop for a few days and am eagerly awaiting its return from the Apple Store. Hoping today is the day… I feel so naked without it.
Archive for the ‘randomness’ Category
sad trombone
Friday, February 10th, 2012plants + math, the big finale
Monday, February 6th, 2012A few weeks back, I posted the first two Doodling in Math videos — a fascinating look at spirals and Fibonacci numbers in nature. This time we finally get an answer for why plants grow the way they do. (If you haven’t seen these yet, I recommend starting with Part 1)…
PART 3
I should have doodled more in math class.
nothing much to report
Friday, January 27th, 2012Not much going on the last two days. Remodeling paused but hopefully picking up again on Monday. Did I mention we’re just days away from the one year anniversary of getting our building permit?
In the meantime, I went outside and tested that macro lens I got David for his iPhone. Wow…
Super closeup of the seeds on my Miscanthus sinensis ‘Morning Light’ — in the wind, no less. Nifty. Looks like I’ll be stealing that lens from David frequently.
plants + math = wow
Wednesday, January 11th, 2012Have you seen these videos yet? Mind-boggling!
PART 1
PART 2
Pretty cool, right? I’ll post the third when it makes its premiere.
cuz that’s how we roll
Friday, December 30th, 2011Why is there a Nelson Saucer Lamp hanging from our oak tree?
It’s just the reflection of the pendant light on our picture window as the sun was setting. Shot in January of 2011. (Snow!)
conspiracy theory
Thursday, November 3rd, 2011I’ve noticed something this year. Every time an interior design magazine arrives in the mail, there it is again…
Sunset magazine, pg 53 | October 2011
That tree in the corner. It’s a Fiddle Leaf Fig. And it’s everywhere. Usually near the window…
House Beautiful | June 2011
Sometimes there’s not just one but two…
Elle Decor | June 2011
Occasionally, they are monstrous…
Elle Decor, pg 217 | September 2011
So my question is, is there some conspiracy going on here? Maybe a botanical PR/lobbyist type at work behind the scenes trying to get this tree more press?
Elle Decor, pg 184 | November 2011
Is this the “It” plant of 2011? Or is every shelter mag’s set stylist just a little heavy handed with this plant?
new vacation home!
Monday, October 24th, 2011The first-grader announced that whoever wins a game of…
… will win this fabulous vacation home he has recently constructed in California…
It has a modernist sensibility, dontcha think?
View of the back. (The 7-year-old architect informs me that the green and red blocks just inside the back door are the stove)…
How about that sweet upper deck?
I am so gonna win this game! Afterwards, you’ll find me on the lounger…
In my Luke Skywalker clothes and random blue helmet. The furrowed brow? I must be waiting for my icy cold margarita.
back at it
Tuesday, July 26th, 2011I know, I know… I’ve been ignoring you. Sorry, I let my crazy summer schedule intervene. That and I was hoping that things might actually get moving downstairs again. Pleased to report that progress has resumed on all fronts. Expect to read more about it.
scenes from a plumbing
Thursday, May 26th, 2011Okay, I don’t know a whole lot about this pond plumbing stuff but I’ll try to show you the setup. Exciting, no?
So there’s the skimmer/reservoir for the pump…
Who makes it? These folks…
Water flows through these brushes, then into the reservoir…
Where the submersible pump goes to work…
Where water gets pumped to this sci-fi contraption on the far side of the pond…
It’s supposed to be some super easy-to-clean filter setup. It’s all the rage with the kids, I hear…
Pipes and whatnot got hooked up to it. Inside the filter, dirty water goes through a series of biological filters and gets blasted with UV light to kill algae. Then it completes a series of complicated quadratic equations and satellites are launched into space. I made that part up…
Two hoses that run from the filter to the pond got mortared into the wall…
Then the capstone went back on…
Two hoses ensure that clean water re-enters the pond in two places to keep the water moving water down both Ls so that we have no stagnant spots. And this air compressor will go into the pond to aerate the water so the fish don’t suffocate…
Then there’s some business about a backwash hose from the filter and the overflow filter — both still to be dealt with. More on those another time. Like on a morning when there’s coffee in the house.
oops, not gneiss?
Thursday, May 5th, 2011You may or may not find this amusing. Remember how late last year David and I deliberated over the choice of stone for the patios and pond surround? We went with a very light, clean-looking granite…
At the time, we just assumed it hailed from somewhere nearby. Perhaps The Granite State, New Hampshire? It could also have come from Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, Vermont and New York, which all have granite quarries.
Igneousramuses, we should have thought to ask.
So would you like to venture where our very affordable granite was born? Go ahead, click to biggify…
CHINA. Doh! It was shipped from the other side of the planet and it’s still more affordable than local granite. How do they do that? Argh.
Will it look fabulous when the patio’s all done? Yup. Will we feel just a little bit guilty for being planet killers? Yup. At least until we polish off the first pitcher of celebratory margaritas. Schistheads.
Here, listen to this with me and maybe we’ll both feel better. (circa 1961 and part of the COMPLETELY GENIUS Ballads for the Age of Science record collection I found for Bix)