Liloia.com

Hot blueberry pie

by taragl

Clay Lizard

Clay Lizard by taragl

Weeds

by taragl

UPDATE: $1.02 and 15 minutes

Wiener Working Hours

by taragl

Lake Champlain Islands

This past weekend we spent 2 days running around the islands of Lake Champlain. The overall intent of the trip was to checkout a house in the area, but we figured we would cram in some beach time and a little camping along the way.

As with the only other camping trip I took Tara on in our married life, it rained. I swear, she must think that I have bad mojo or something. The site was not ideal and since it was sloped downhill we were sliding in our sleeping bags all night long.

The islands of Lake Champlain are relatively rural with a few great tourist/town centers where you can find a little more (all of it) culture than most other spots can offer. Dining options were limited, but after some deep investigation (hours of driving) we started to get our footing and found a few nice choices and some future "must-trys".

North Hero State Park was phenomenal. With secluded camp sites (we are camping here next time) and a quiet beach we wanted to spend more time there than we had and almost missed our appointment with the realtor.

Overall for a 45 minute ride (or less depending on which island you are going to) from the Burlington area, the islands of Lake Champlain are a diamond in the rou.....well....pile of diamonds that make up Vermont.

On the lakeshore

by taragl

If This Was My House

I am so over apartment/condo living. There was a knock at our door bright and early this morning, and a man from the property management office asked to come in:

"Hi, I'm here to fix the faucet."
"I'm not having a problem with my faucet."
"Well, I got a call from you."
"It was neither me, nor my husband who has been in California most of the week. Our faucets are fine."
He was confused. I tried to help, "Was it a man or woman who called?"
"I don't know."
"When did they call?"
"I don't know."
"What's the problem with the faucet they reported?"
"I don't know."
We stood at this impasse for a long moment... me not letting him in, and him not wanting to abandon hope that my faucet was really broken and I was merely playing hard to get. He caved first.
"Maybe it was the outdoor faucet."
"Maybe."

I am so totally done with other people trying to get into my home. Let's remember fondly the repair men in Highland Park, who knocked once (sometimes), then used their key -- necessitating the use of the door chain at every waking moment because I was nursing Trevor.

Then let's reminisce about our landlords the Valeos, who decided one day that mini blinds were insufficient window treatments, and arrived in my apartment unannounced with lovely floor-to-ceiling Italian lace draperies, then hung them while ignoring my protests. Mr. Valeo stood on my computer desk and broke it while I shouted at him to get down. They got theirs when, as expected, gooey toddler handprints ended up all over the lovely floor-to-ceiling Italian lace draperies.

And, most recently, the gentleman who came to repair a bathroom sink base cabinet which became waterlogged due to a leak. He replaced the floor shelf most expertly, but nailed the new wood right into the soggy and mildewed sides of the cabinet. Um, thanks.

I'm really done with the "If This Was My House" game.

Blackberry Branding

As I sit here on the bus back to Vermont from Boston (finally coming home) I realized that I have been posting to the site more often because my Blackberry makes it easy.

Rather than sitting here playing BrickBreaker or Texas holdem, I have been trying to capture my thoughts as they occur in the most convenient manner. Even if it is just a title that will spark a reminder for me later on that's enough. Then, at a later time (like now) when I have lots of time to kill I can sit down and be with these thoughts which in turn did not get lost to the ether of what is often a maddening frenzy of activity.

While I can't claim that it is a total solution, the Blackberry actually calms my life down and centers me a little. Fun fun.

A world-class member experience

The Consumerist has an incredible recording of an AOL member attempting to unsubscribe from the service, all the while being stalled by a customer service rep named John. Listen and cringe.

Even more aggravating is a look at the AOL member retention manual, used to train reps how to
AOL executives should be mortified to hear that this is how their customers are being treated. That this treatment is written into the AOL training manual should strike fear into the hearts of AOL customers across the nation.

And when the customer says, "I don't need to hear the spiel, I don't want any of the extra offers", the rep counters with a petulant, I have to say it, you have to listen to it, so shut up and let me get through it.Jonathan Miller, do you like to be treated that way?

The training manual says, "Great consultants balance giving fantastic world-class member experiences with efficiency." I wonder what the not-quite-world-class member experience looks like.

Drinking the Kool Aid

Does the phrase "Drinking the Kool-Aid" have a better or more perfect real world example than this? (Aside from the original reference!)

Tainted juice sickens Conn. churchgoers

Have your TV and watch it too.

On Rudd Sound Bites, Stephanie Feldman writes:

Recently in AlterNet, Sandra Steinberger of the Center for Ecoliteracy described accidentally subjecting her children to a "food experiment." Her two children grew up without exposure to food industry advertisements, thanks to a television-free household and the family's choice to buy groceries exclusively from a co-op and a nearby organic farm. Now that they are school-aged, her children's preference for healthy food emphasizes the strong effect that advertisements have on children's tastes—and adults' expectations...

Steinberger's idyllic version of Ithaca, New York didn't quite convince me, and her experiment is, to say the least, difficult to repeat. Her story does, however, attest to the expansive possibilities for children's palates.

I wasn't quite convinced by her story either. I don't believe the preference has to do with advertising as much as what they're fed and taught on a regular basis at home.

Trevor enjoys Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and the Disney Channel just as much as his peers, so he's exposed to just as many ads for Lucky Charms, McDonald's and Push Pops as most other kids his age. But this week at the local pizza place, out of everything on the menu, he chose chicken ceasar salad with croutons. No promtping from me (in fact, I was hoping to take a nibble from his slice of pizza)...

Just yesterday in the car, he gave me a 5-minute monologue on the many ways he likes to eat asparagus. Apparently, he would even eat it dried. (Who knew?) Trevor's everyday foods include capers, salmon and stuffed grape leaves. We never avoid a food at dinnertime just because Trevor says he doesn't like it, because nine times out of ten he'll like it just fine. If he doesn't, the rule at our house is "eat the dinner or make your own." Mom doesn't make more than one dinner a night. Some nights he'll eat grilled tuna steaks and some nights (now that he has suddenly decided he doesn't like spanakopita) he'll make himself a mustard, capers and hot sauce sandwich.

And I'd like to note that as a mom, I'm getting tired of the holier-than-thou attitude of the "No TV" moms. Television is a means of communicating information, just as much as it's entertainment, and it's a parent's job to ensure a useful balance of each element. Would these moms be as proud to say they don't allow newspapers? Or magazines?

Sure Trevor watches Spongebob, Drake & Josh and Jimmy Neutron. He also enjoys Dirty Jobs, Iron Chef and Good Eats. Last week I read Capote's In Cold Blood, this week I'm reading Jennifer Weiner's Good in Bed. There's a place for everything.

OMG, if they don't watch teevee, then how do they... like, know which American Idol to vote for!!!11!!

A Scanner Darkly

I just finished 'A Scanner Darkly' by Phillip K. Dick, and if you read my SMS post from a few days ago, you understand the impact one of his novels can have on a rational or semi-rational person.

As always, his books are perfect in almost every sense. They have all been re-released in trade paperback format (I don't know why anyone prints in any other way), are around 200 pages and screw with your head so much that by the end of each book, you think your neighbors are sleeper agents, your spouse is a robot and your mind is unraveling like the sweater you got last Christmas.

Almost all of Dicks' novels infuse the rebellious nature of questioning the establishment, the confusion of defining self with a touch of the question as to whether or not we have any real impact or interaction with the physical universe around us. Oh, and most of his work is futurist or at least somewhat techy in nature.

Most people don't know that he was responsible for 'Minority Report', 'Paycheck', 'Bladerunner' and 'Marathon Man'. Once more one of his books is being made into a movie, starring Keanu Reaves (spelling).

The only problem was that as I read this entire book, the text kept coming out in Ted Theodore Logans voice and some sentences ended themselves in "whoa". :)

Lollipop Jones

Cory Doctorow pointed to MCM's anti-DRM kids story, The Pig and the Box, and I road-tested it with Trevor this morning, because a story with a lesson is no good at all if there isn't an appreciative audience to hear it.

Of course, the part where Pig "was so happy he nearly peed his pants" was predictably the most well-received line in the book—eliciting bubbly giggles of joy at something so scandalous as urination coming up as a topic before breakfast. I think Pig's brush with an accident set the positive tone for Trevor's entire day.

Here's a quote for MCM's dust jacket:

"That was good! If I had a magic box like that I'd be like "Woo!" and jump into it right away so there'd be twenty-seven of me!" —Trevor Liloia, Age 7 - Book connoisseur and reader of 45 pages of text a day

Trevor never asked what Lollipop Jones means... I think he already knows.

Great Plane Tree

The other night after spending some time in the courtyard for the Ely Cathedral (built in 1100 and awesome in its own right), I wandered over to the bishops castle/residence (now a retirement home) to check out their gardens which are apparently worth seeing.

Most of the gardens were nice and hosted a few traditional English garden beds, but one element took me by surprise. In the center of the garden was a London Plane Tree (also very common in the US). This Platarus acerifolia, was amazing for one particular reason.

This tree is over 300 years old.

It is 144 feet tall, 26 feet in diameter and is considered to be on of the 20 greatest trees in all of the United Kingdom (as designated by the queen).

Think about it. How far back in our families would we need to go to reach back 300 years? Nothing that anyone we have ever known, or even anyone that their recent generations experienced, witnessed, etc. has known as much as this tree.

Then I started thinking, this one tree is older than the United States. The advances, the changes and just plain growth in the US over the last 200 years seems like a blink when you think that this tree sat by and watched it all happen.

Platarus acerifolia
144 feet high
26 feet girth
Planted in 17th century
Greatest London Plane tree in all of Britain

That's hardcore.

Hair Product

Americans are far underusing their hair. Mostly men. And definitely all the young ones.

I felt woefully under-quaffed as I walked the streets of Brussels and England this week even though I had a fair amount of "product" applied to my increasingly drafty dome.

In Belgium most of the men sported spikes, swirls and dancing ridges that begged the question: "How and if so with what mechanical device?"

In England, liberal use of both the mowhawk and faux-hawk as well as a fair bit of highlights ran rampant even in the workplace. As expected they looked pretty cool accompanied by a tie and poorly tucked dress shirts.

In response I stuck my head inside of a cement mixer on high, and died the tips the color of the british flag. From all the attention I am getting I must have become their hair king, their hair master or hair apparent.

Seriously, put the gel down. You'll hurt someone while tying your shoes.

Circumventing Palm Desktop Lameness

One of the nice features of a Palm product (like a Treo) is that you can use your PC to make updates, then synch them to your device.

Or so they say.

In reality, if you work on a computer which has an administrator/user combination, Palm Desktop will only work for the administrator. Not so good for the user. Of which I am one.

But a quick google found Matthew Clapp at the top of the list for People Who Can Fix This. He says:

"Palm Desktop is a really lame program, but unfortunately the best simple program to synch your palm pilot to your windows desktop. One of its most moronic features is the inability to install easily on windows for multiple users (other than the Administrator.) Here's how to get it to work for regular users."

And that it did. Whuffie to Matthew for making my morning.

How not to cross-sell.

I was on the phone with my bank tonight... or rather, I was on the phone with a woman in Bangalore who sat in front of a computer screen which told her what to say to make it sound like she was from my bank... when I had a most unpleasant experience. You be the judge:

Mary: (as we concluded my banking business) So since you're one of our valued customers, we can offer you twelve free months of life insurance! Who would you like to cover, you or Dave?

Tara: How much is it after the first year?

Mary: It's free for twelve months!

Tara: After the first twelve months?

Mary: We'll send you a bill!

Tara: And how much will the bill be?

Mary: You can write "cancel" on the bill and pay nothing?

Tara: If I didn't cancel, how much would it cost?

Mary: We'll notify you at least a month in advance so you can cancel!

Tara: How much does it cost?! (Note: This is the fifth time I've asked the cost.)

Mary: *mumbles* Ninety-five.

Tara: Ninety-five dollars annually?

Mary: A month.

Tara: No, thank you.

Mary: *stricken sigh* I don't understand... it's free.

Tara: It's not free. It's ninety-five dollars a month.

Mary: All right, if you don't want free life insurance....

Bank of America, this was not a fun conversation. This was an Abbot and Costello routine. And no, I don't expect banking to be a state fair, but I do expect as little jerking around and wasting of my time as possible. Cut it out.

i am moving to Europe

...From an SMS conversation Tara and I had while I was in Brussels...

Dliloia: Hey by the way....we are moving to Europe because here....here no one mispronounces our last name...not even the first time. Cab drivers and chambermaids get it right.

Tliloia: why?

Dliloia: Are you kidding me? Liloia? Italian! Eye-tahl-yan! These people...nay....my people get me!!!

I am also reading "A Scanner Darkly" right now which is pretty trippy

Tliloia: hah. Hey that is coming out in the movies soon! We should go see it!

Dliloia: Yeah, but I will have to wait a few months to see it. Do you know why? Do you know why? Because I will be living in Europe.

The Art of the Smoothie

Smoothies are neat because they're so flexible. They generally consist of:

1) Wet stuff
2) Fruity stuff
3) Ice

The wet stuff can run the gamut of half-and-half (not necessarily for the health-conscious) to soymilk (mmm, nutty). The fruity stuff can be anything vaguely resembling a fruit. You'll usually see smoothies for dessert in our house when the bananas are looking a little brown and the strawberries are starting to wither. No one knows the sell-by date when you've ground it up at 1,000 RPMs. I've used canned peaches in a pinch, and though I've eyed the apples suspiciously a few times, I don't think it would work.

And ice, is ice.

You'll notice that wheat germ and volcanic clay don't fit anywhere on this list. If you're adding things like flaxseed and cod liver oil to your smoothie, I don't know what you're making, but it's not a smoothie. It's a bad, bad thing and you probably use yogurt for activities other than what it was intended for.

Tonight's combination was:

1) Yogurt and soymilk
2) Blueberries and strawberries
3) Ice

Dessert for boy and I + using fruit that was looking less um... plump... after four days in the fridge = Smoothies!

Am I ready to live on five deserted acres of land on an island in the middle of Lake Champlain, or what?! *ahem*

Rustic Plum Tart

Rustic Plum Tart by taragl

Brussels

This week I am traveling on business in Frankfurt, Brussels and London. Since the meeting I had in Germany ended on a Friday afternoon I had the opportunity to stay in Europe over this weekend.

Yesterday I headed down to the Grote Markt in downtown Brussels where I was able to have breakfast and then take myself on a walking tour of the city.

Brussels is a fantastic place, filled with classic architecture and a wide variety of people. It was really nice to hear so many different languages and see so many different faces all in one place. I spent most of the day walking from church to cathedral to agora enjoying the sights and even taking a few minutes to relax in the royal gardens for lunch.

I have three more days here in Brussels and then I am off to London for two days. Unfortunately I am not staying in London, but instead 47 miles north of the city. I hope to catch a few glimpses of the city while I am there.

Backstreet Boys Bath Bar

Yesterday, I browsed Rolling Stone while waiting at the dentist and I discovered a little schadenfreude-filled article on top musical acts like Ashley Simpson and Mariah Carey being unable to fill venues on their summer tours. And, once again, the soaring cost of ticket prices made an appearance in the piece. As if it was a bad thing.

As recorded music prices go down (file sharing, anyone?), ticket prices go up. If the music is virtually free, you'll pay for the privilege of seeing the artist live. It might take time for a shift in listeners' habits, but we'll eventually see people vying for those $300-a-pop tickets to Billy Joel. If listening to music is reduced to the mundane act of buying and listening to a song while you're standing in line at the bank, it becomes all the more cherished when you can get into an intimate venue with the artist herself.

Artists need to start thinking bigger... as big as the planet, in fact. When South African singer Mfana Barras' hot new tune catches on in Chicago via iTunes, his management company should be following right behind with package deals, (airfare, hotel and concerts), to see Mfana in his home country.

If I have to pay $350 to see Madonna amidst thousands screaming fans at Madison Square Garden, I might just consider upping my payout to $1,000 for a package that includes a smaller-venue concert, hotel and airfare from any U.S. city. Think of all the merchandising opportunities when you've got a few hundred data-mined, die-hard fans trapped in a hotel together overnight. Bon Jovi shower gel, anyone?

Dragon Boy

Photo_070206_002

Originally uploaded by taragl.

Mint Lime Pop Soda

Mint Lime Pop Soda

Originally uploaded by taragl.