A few things

I'm well aware of my absence of late, and will explain all in a few days.  In the meantime, a few things have caught my attention that I thought I'd share with you:

- When I went to Google Books this morning, my "random subject" was "Existential Phenomenology".  Anybody even know what that is???

- I received a flyer as "invitation" to attend an industry conference, and was struck by their "Unparalled Learning Opportunities" offered as courses during the week-long event.  Some seem far too specific for a general chemistry conference to offer as an Unparalled Learning Experience (Art Conservation, Spectroscopy in Space Exploration).  Aren't there multi-year university degrees for this stuff? Or hasa NASA started using industry conferences for its training program?  And others seem too...I don't know...creepy?  (Bioterrorism Detection Technology)  Yeah, let's show them everything we know, so they can do something else, instead!

-  An old cat, who is slowly losing his teeth one by one, will bite.  Apparently he blames me for his problems.   He might be right, though, since I've been feeding him dry cat food all his life, and the more I read, the more I discover that  you can't get much further from the natural diet of a cat than dry cat food.  I won't go into the details here, but I'll be happy to share if you want more info, but my cats are now both on a "simulated mouse" diet.  Yeah - the vegetarian-almost-vegan feeds her cats raw meat.

- Happy New Year!  (For those celebrating Rosh Hashanah and/or the beginning of a new federal fiscal year).  The federal folks are funded through March 2009 (half the year) on a Congressional Continuing Resolution (again).

- Leeks and lentils with a little vegetable bouillon simmered all day in the crockpot makes a fabulous soup even the Kiddo enjoys!

- Sailing season is almost over, and the Never-Ending Torso Sock (aka Bill's Gansey) is not yet complete.  I finished the ribbed turtleneck, though, and have started both sleeves simultaneously.  Making sure they match each other - one of the downsides of designing on the fly is making sure you can repeat what you've done!

As I tell the kids in carpool, right before I drop them off every morning: Have a fantastic day!