Bright, beautiful day. It started with a shock – I had no idea what time it was when I woke up. Then my sleep addled brain computed the simple math and I realized I had woken up way too early. I relaxed with a couple of cups of coffee. Since it was about freezing with the windchill, I had to dress appropriately to walk Rosie. My dog walking outfit looks like something a homeless person would throw together – functional, warm and completely mismatched. We got to the park and I was surprised at how many people were out today seeing as it was freezing. The wind seemed to die down a bit, the sun warmed things up and by the time I got home it was about 42 degrees. Along the way home I came across a stack of wooden drawers minus the dresser on the street waiting for the garbage pickup. The hardware was all there and it looked pretty well made. I’ve been looking for drawer pulls for an old dresser we have and this looked like the ticket. I didn’t have a screwdriver with me, so a penny had to substitute. It took awhile but I got all ten screws off two and a half of the drawers. Of course, the last screw on the last drawer would not give way to my improvised screwdriver, so I had to carry the drawer home – about a mile. I got the offending screw out and – you guessed it – the hardware doesn’t fit our dresser. But I’m going to add it to the collection of oddball screws, nails and assorted hardware that I’ll probably never use, because you just never know, do you? I was hungry so I made a wrap using some leftover veggies – broccoli, potato slices, onion – some sliced cherry tomatoes and some tofu I’ve never tried before. It’s seasoned with garlic and pepper. I fried it up, threw it on the pile, wrapped everything in a tortilla and it tasted pretty good. I sat down and read the paper. The NY Times weekend edition requires a major time commitment – about two hours today. I save the magazine for future reading. And so, it’s just after 1 pm and I am waiting for Laurie to get home. She’s been away for a week and I miss her. I made a fish stew that I hope she likes. It’s a base of tomatoes, tomato paste, olive oil, onions, garlic, red pepper, clam juice, red wine, chipotle, bay leaves, fresh parsley, pepper and a tiny bit of salt. The shrimp, whiting, scallops and clams were added after the base cooked for about twenty minutes. It’s waiting in the fridge. UPDATE – Laurie just landed

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I found this on Gizmodo and it is amazing. Click on this link to Gizmodod to see a few more of Tom Lowe’s Timescapes videos. Apparently, this is coming out as some sort of a movie. I hope it’s in Imax format. Watch this in HD full screen if you can.

TimeScapes: Rapture from Tom Lowe @ Timescapes on Vimeo.

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Pls RT - Petition to @msnbc to reinstate @KeithOlbermann has*exploded* - have u signed? Help them get to 300,000 http://mmflint.me/aKOcwh

November 7, 2010 10:18 am via Twitter for BlackBerry®ReplyRetweetFavorite

@MMFlint

Michael Moore

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I just read about Luísa Maita in an article by Jon Pareles in the NY Times. I listened to her online and I had to download the album, “Lero-Lero”. It’s in Portuguese, so I don’t understand a word, but I love the music and her voice. Here’s a video of “Lero-Lero”.

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Carl just sent this to me. It’s titled “Our Banana Republic” by Nicholas Kristof. You can read the whole column here. It’s not that long, and it’s worthwhile reading. here’s an excerpt from the NY Times.

“That’s the backdrop for one of the first big postelection fights in Washington — how far to extend the Bush tax cuts to the most affluent 2 percent of Americans. Both parties agree on extending tax cuts on the first $250,000 of incomes, even for billionaires. Republicans would also cut taxes above that.

The richest 0.1 percent of taxpayers would get a tax cut of $61,000 from President Obama. They would get $370,000 from Republicans, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. And that provides only a modest economic stimulus, because the rich are less likely to spend their tax savings.

At a time of 9.6 percent unemployment, wouldn’t it make more sense to finance a jobs program? For example, the money could be used to avoid laying off teachers and undermining American schools.”

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