Caption Contest!

Scully has turned in a major, MASSIVE, life-changing project. Understandably, this means there's been some stress in the house. She turned it in yesterday with two minutes to spare. (I may have had something to do with this. She finished up her paper and asked me to email it to a friend for printing while she showered. I *may* have emailed an old draft accidentally. This was discovered when the friend, WHO SAVED OUR LIVES, called to report that the emailed copy had yellow highlighting all over it. We raced back to the house to resend. All this because there hadn't been enough drama, right?)

We both came home and broke into HOWLING SOBS.

All this is to say that I have nothing to contribute to the blogosphere except a caption contest. Another friend works at a religious hospital and gets emails with inspirational photos like this below. Um. . . Super Creepy, she says to me in an email. We can do better than that!

Got captions?

Eid Mubarak

I've started and deleted this post many times.

So Eid Mubarak.

A small, small glimmer of clarity

This interview on Fresh Air helped me out a bit. Especially coupled with the giant pool of money episode on TAL.

Moments of clarity include:

• Rather than investing in a basketball team, this is betting on whether the team will win or not

• Purposeful creation of a shadow market

• Phil Graham writing legislation around derivatives as "not insurance" so states cannot regulate them

• These were bets & someone has made money from these bets. Yes, there are winners in this. Should we have an economy based on whether people make good or bad bets? Or should it be based on sound investments and productivity. This economy is based on people sitting at their computers and making bets all day long.

• The undoing of depression-era legislation that protected people's savings accounts from risky investments by investment bank/depository institutions

• Ultimate irony: The more you argue for deregulation, the more you end up with government owned entities.

• Eliminate the ability for banks & lenders to make money even if the loan fails. It removes financial discipline from the market.

Also making me feel like this was helpful? It was recorded in April and foreshadows some of what's going on now. In plain language & he speaks slowly too, which I appreciate given the topic.

Some additional glimmers:

Feeling better about the rejection of the bailout bill on DN!

Don't let the market freak you out about the economy from Beat the Press

Where did the money go? from Planet Money

It is still pretty dark in here though. Send a glowstick, eh?

a taste of my romantic life

From: fruitfemme
Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2008 9:49 AM
To: Scully

Subject: a-mazing

I love you.

I cleaned my ears out today and nastiness came forth. Though I love to have clean inner ear canals it means that my ears have water in them the rest of the day. This was not a good idea with my already congested head. It means I hear every swallow AND every sniffle and especially every snort. It is amazing.

And I thought you’d want to know.
Love you sweetie!

A Missed Opportunity for Applied Physics

I woke up this morning at 4:30. When I was expecting Khubz I used to wake up every morning about 3 am. Sometimes I could get back to sleep, sometimes I couldn't. This morning I decided to give up trying and go downstairs.

The air is chilly. Scully was sleeping in her flannel pants. It is baking weather.

So I whip up some banana wheat germ muffins. A pan of regular muffins and a pan of mini-muffins. Mini muffins went in first. Use of applied physics would have spared me what followed. Burned muffins. Burned, burned, burned.

Goodbye lovely scent of baking banana bread. Hello stench of burned wheat germ. Hello crusted, burned out mini muffin pan that now has to soak and will require a delicate recovery period. Hello wasted morning. I should have just showered and gone downstairs to blog.

Mini muffins, of course, take less time to bake than regular muffins. This has something to do with surface area perhaps? Big sigh. On to the regular muffins. Which also burn. Not as badly--just enough that I shaved off the bottoms and will serve them with a side of sheepish apologies (but serve them anyway.)

As for the mini muffins? I scooped up what could be salvaged and served Khubz a bowl of "muffin guts." Why grimace? She ate them.

Devotion

Ciruela ñamñam
Originally uploaded by vomitando conejitos

It is almost October

And my mouth is watering

Is yours?

Picture Catch-Up

Our Ceiling

The upstairs leaky toilet has been fixed

But the evidence

Remains

Gender: It is what you make it!

A little mix & match

Mama's tennis shoe

and Mommy's cherished Oprah Bra

How exactly do you put this thing on?

Ramadhan Kareem!

Beloved friends bring beloved

fruity offerings