Amphibians Rule

Now that we're no longer using the pool nature has taken over...

Sometimes...

Ready for a little bit of Belgium? Come on, you know you are. It's a grainy video but the tune gets into your brain and before you know it you are singing
"Sometimes
We've got to sing this song
Sometimes
It takes us way too long
Sometimes
We've got to sing out of key"
Hooverphonic, 2002

My Good Deed

It was a good job I was home, and that I listened to the barking dogs instead of telling them to SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP. When I went out to see what all the commotion was about I found the oil guy just about to fill my tank.
What's wrong with that?
1) He wasn't my oil guy, he was one house away from his destination. He was new and unsurprisingly, he found the whole road name and numbering system confusing. It is but we do have house number all over the property now.
2) I had my tank filled last month.
What is the protocol when you get next door's oil delivered to your tank? Who sucks up that mistake? Just wondering....
File under: Incorporated Village, an alternate universe.

Beware Beauty

It was a few hours before the storm hit that the awesome designer called me over to see this handsome beauty hanging around the eaves


She had woven her web from overhang to overhang and trapped more than a few biting bugs in the process


Not far away another spider was patiently awaiting its prey. A reminder to us all to beware of beautiful, ruthless hunters - they have only their own interests at heart.

TV Table Hack

In an effort to ensure maximal viewing pleasure we executed a nifty TV table hack from a spare shelf in the corner unit and three legs left over from a previous hack.


The TV in the space before. A brilliant picture but a little low for us.


We used a redundant shelf that had just been resting on another shelf in the bookcase, three of the four spare desk legs we'd stored in the garage until we found a use for them and a few tools. As the shelf is the same laminate as the doors on the media center it isn't obtrusive.


Et voila, picture perfect. Time: 10 minutes. Cost: $0. Satisfaction: immeasurable.

Summer surprise

It's not been the best summer here on Long Island. It was too cold to swim in the pool on Memorial Day, too rainy on July 4th and and not warm enough for us on Labor Day either. Three summer holidays and not one swim party, that hasn't happened before. In fact we added it up and The Guy has only been in the pool seven times this season. I've done a little better but we just haven't used it as much as normal. Nor have we barbecued. Rain, hail, cold days, whatever. We look forward to summer all winter and then it's gone in a flash. This year it went in a flash of lightning and earth-moving crashes of thunder.
And yet, some things almost make up for it; like this annual impatiens from last summer that somehow managed to survive the winter (and my weeding and planting efforts in this corner of the yard). I walked out of the back door and saw this blossom amongst the dark glossy leaves of the holly. I guess it's protected back there and with luck, like the hibiscus on the other side of the yard, it will keep flowering until the first frost.

Playing Nice

Today's cute photo - Sadie and Cassis sharing a quiet moment.

Flat screen convert

We did it, we drank the Kool-Aid, followed the pack, joined the 21st century, whatever you want to call it - we bought a flat screen HDTV small enough to fit in the media center. In our fantasy world it looks something like this photo.
In the real world we don't sit staring at a blank screen so let me tell you this thing ROCKS. The sound is awesome, I can read the titles from across the room and the colors are so dynamic I sat and watched two movies back-to-back before I could get my open jaw to close. So this is what the digital revolution is all about.

Global warming?

Proof, if any were needed, that 2007-2008 has been a weird weather year on Long Island. This hibiscus, usually treated as an annual here, was in a pot last year but still blooming in November. I couldn't bear to just throw it out so I planted it on a southwest wall and ignored it. It did nothing except throw up some green leaves that got shredded in the various hailstorms we suffered in early August. This morning though something pretty caught my eye, three gorgeous pink tinged flowers on an otherwise scrappy plant.
I guess what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

Labor Day 2008

So this is where summer has been hiding.

Sadie the Stoic

We're having a quiet Labor Day weekend. Poor Sadie had another cyst removed on Friday, this time from her ear. Not that you can tell from this photo but she is back to her normal bounding self. She should also be wearing a cone (not a cone of silence, nor the cone of uncertainty but a regular old dog cone) but she looked so pathetic we just took it off. Polly would have scratched at the stitches until her ear fell off, but not Sadie the stoic. She knows that it would be foolish to touch the stitches, that it would hurt, so she will just suck it up as she always does. Brave puppy.

Fingerprint Design

Cutting edge technology takes designer Dan Yeffet's fingerprint and turns it into the Detail.MGX lamp. Originally offered in a limited edition of 30 large spheres, it's now available as a more affordable series of three mini pendant lamps. The lamps are produced using Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), a 3-D printing technique that is becoming more widely seen in lighting, furniture and textile design. Detail.MGX will be one of the products on view at 100% Design in London next month.

Soko

OK, I tried to resist but this song is now firmly in my head. So I'm passing it on to you. Enjoy!

Siren

Words fail me, so go here for the story. I await your comments.

Inspired by James Bond

Gadgets and gimmicks ex-Formula 1 racing driver, Sir Stirling Moss, calls the super amazing, ahead-of-their-time features of his early 60s home in Mayfair, London. Need to relax? Sit in the den and access the TV behind the paneled wall. Hungry? Press a button and a table descends in front of you with dinner laid out. Want a relaxing bath? Another button fills your tub while you finish watching that TV programme. Too tired to climb the stairs? Step into the carbon-fiber elevator designed by the Williams racing team and be whisked to your destination. Super-efficient and super cool, too.

Pulverise It

When we were at the MoMA recently I professed interest in one of these and instantly I had two people fighting to buy it for me. Isn't that nice?
I'm usually a "smack a couple of cloves with the blade of a knife, then finely chop" girl but I loved the shape of this Garlic Crusher from Dutch designer Ineke Hans, and the weight, too. Seriously, this thing is heavy. Were you to drop it on your bare toe or bring it down upon the head of your loved one during the course of a disagreement over, for example, the best way boil pasta, you could inflict some major damage. Use with caution, that's all I'm saying.
Anyway, I've been cooking with garlic a lot this week, Spanish food, pasta with garlic and olive oil and Thai Prawn and Noodle Soup, and I've found this crusher much easier on the hands than the back of knife when dealing with 6-8 cloves of garlic at a time. Bash, peel, roll and voila pulverised garlic. And the handles, when rinsed, really do absorb the smell.
I hesitate to call something this simple and good-looking a gadget but it's proving very useful and I'm glad I made room in the kitchen drawer for it. $25 from The MoMA Store.

Iris

There are hundreds of species of Iris and they one of the most recognised garden plants. Not only beautiful but useful too, the dried rhizomes, orris root, are used in medicine, perfume, gin and as an ingredient in the Moroccan spice mix Ras el hanout.
Iris was the Greek Goddess of the rainbow and the iris comes in hues of blue and yellow, red and even white. The yellow flower is the symbol of Brussels, you see it everywhere there, on public transport, outside hospitals, they even held La fête de l'Iris at the start of May this year, while the fleur-de-lis was the symbol of the French monarchy until the Revolution put an end to that. And the government of Quebec has Iris Linné as its emblem.
These gorgeous blue Iris (Iris Germanica?) came from Trader Joe's on Long Island. They are The Guy's favorite flower, but we don't buy them often because they fade so fast. Luckily, we have this photo and a blog on which to post it, so enjoy!

New rules

A little snippet of conversation after the accident yesterday:
The Guy: I thought you were holding the ladder
Me: You told me to let go
The Guy: Oh, you should never do anything I say

New rules for The Cool House, nay for our whole relationship from now on:
I will ignore all instructions and advice that The Guy offers and he will DO EVERYTHING I SAY. The world will be a safer place this way, trust me.

What's Your Name?

For those who want to know a little more about me - like my real first name, check out One Project Closer today. You should go visit anyway because they have lots of helpful tips. I'm sure if they'd had one on ladder etiquette I wouldn't be bruised right now...

The Guy's Revenge

There have been a few comments - not on the blog - to the effect that The Guy is treated quite badly at The Cool House. His supporters say he's always gardening, or up a ladder or even banished to the roof but he never gets to do any of the cool stuff like mix cocktails or choose the music. Poor Guy. Well, fans of The Guy, today he got his revenge.
We were filling the carpenter bee holes when he had to adjust the 16' ladder, which he accidently let slip onto my head.
There's a reason you aren't supposed to walk beneath a ladder. Or stand under it for that matter. Posting will be resumed when my head stops hurting.