Happy Birthday to . . .

This is a work of art called Happy Birthday to Ed. It's a sealed off room with industrial fans that blow bits of paper from the Wall Street Journal stock pages (the size of U.S. currency) around the room. It blows 1971 pieces of paper. You can view the bits flying around in the top 3 1/2 feet and through the window in an adjacent courtyard. There is also a peephole to see into the room. This "piece" is part of a five piece collection for the 'Happy Birthday' exhibition at Winkelman Gallery.

Settling In

Flavorful Delivery is a Texas-based gift basket company. The gift basket pictured is the "Settling In" basket, appropriate for any house warming. It has macadamia nut cookies, Columbian coffee, Earl Grey tea, almond roca, Ghirardelli chocolate, key lime white chocolate cookies, Holland cookies, yogurt pretzels, cheese spread, and pesto & parmesan cheese wafers, all in a "unique House Gift Box." Do real estate agents send this kind of stuff to their clients after closing? Only $44.99.

One Year Ago

No comment on this photo--just thought it was interesting.

Savers

Getting past the screen savers and Life Savers, I found the Seed Savers Exchange. This is one initiative of seven focused on environmental issues that affect life on this Earth. The fund considers "deteriorating quantities of genetic seed stock, a greatly depleted farmable soil base, insufficient regional food stocks for world populations, a greatly lessened per capita water supply, and a greatly lessened forestry base."
The Seed Savers Exchange specifically works to promote diversity in seeds and plants. They have more than 20,000 cultivars (varieties of plants that have been cultivated). They have also saved thousands of endangered species around the world.

Another eBay coincidence

This picture is part of a man's chronicle of his recreation of the railroad in New Woodstock during his early childhood in 1944-45. What does this have to do with eBay? He bought some old model RR magazines on eBay, of course!

Happy Birthday, Abby!

Besides lots of pictures of people named Abby celebrating their birthday, I found a picture of this pretty cake. It was made by Cakes by Darcy out of Georgia. I always wonder if cakes like this taste as good as they look.

Have you ever seen Ace of Cakes on Food Network? They're amazingly detailed in their work. Here are a few examples of their work from the Charm City Cakes website.

Water Water Everywhere

The cartoon above was part of this NY Times article published in August 2007 about the overuse of water bottles. The argument put out there centers not so much on the actual water, but on the amount of oil it takes to produce the plastic bottles, transport them, and refrigerate them.
While I do occasionally buy bottled water simply because it's convenient, I've gotten into the habit of refilling gallons jugs at the grocery store (the tap water here does not taste good). I reuse the gallon jugs (good for the environment) and it's only 39 cents/gallon for refills (good for the pocket book).