Misc.

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Uncle Pookie's One-line Review of Scary Movie 4: "I gave up staying home, doing the taxes, and giving the government money for this?"

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FYI, something I discovered when making my Easter dessert: Milled flax seed, mixed with melted butter and a bit of cinnamon, makes a decent substitute for a graham cracker crust for cheesecake; I mostly prefer crustless cheesecake, pies, and quiche myself, but I found this tasty.

I also tried a new (to me) product called Altern. It's an artificial sweetener for cooking made of maltodextrin and sucralose. I got it because the store was out of Splenda in the bag, and it seems to work as well as the Splenda. It's probably worming itself into my cells and killing me even as I type, but then I figure all the artificial sweeteners are killing me, just doing it differently and (it is to be hoped) a mite more gradually than the white sugar would.

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I found this site months ago, and I can't remember if I linked it back then. It's too big for most of us to be interested in all of it, but I especially like the Insane Projects page; I think it represents what would happen if you combined Auntie Suzanne and Uncle Pookie into one person and gave that person more energy than either of us has.


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I blogged a while back on the coming revolution in bra technology. Here's something sort of related--a post about the effect of chest shape on bra fit. Do check out the link to the breast augmentation site. It shows why, even with good-sized breasts, some women don't have impressive cleavage.

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Funny product siting: Sugarfree Honey. Obviously this is imitation honey, but they put the word "imitation" in smaller letters than the rest, so you're apt not to see it until you've already said "what?"

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Of interest only to people who like looking at old and/or exotic clothes: Oriental Costumes Their Designs and Colors. Lots of plates of traditional clothes; in most instances, you can see the structure of the garments really well.

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Someone posted this list of quilting acronyms on PatternReview:

FIUF: finish it up frenzy
WOMBAT: waste of money, brains, and timeS
EX: stash enhancement excursion
FART: fabric acquisition road trip
PIGS: projects in grocery sacks
PHIB: projects hiding in boxes
STABLE: stash accumulation beyond life expectancy
HSY (pronounced "hussy"): Haven't started yet
Brazen HSY: years-old HSY

The applications go far beyond quilting. Let "stash" refer to something other than fabric--say, gaming modules or DVDs--and we could be talking about many different hobbies, and WOMBAT, of course, refers to many management decisions I've encountered over the years.

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I have some "serious" sewing projects planned (not to mention the ongoing PIGS and PHIBs), but what's a to-do list for if not constant expansion. So here's a couple of possible "silly" projects (possible meaning I may possibly think about getting around to doing them one day) I've found.

A free penguin pattern. Uncle Pookie likes penguins and the example ones are awfully cute.

Tea-cozy, with or without irony. I've been trying to wean myself off drinking so much iced tea and, as a tea-free life is out of the question, I'm trying to up my consumption of hot tea; admittedly this plan has not faced a Mississippi summer yet. Maybe a tea-cozy would lend a certain something to the whole tea-sipping experience? If I can come up with a theme that isn't too terribly twee. I remember Sarah Kellerman (one of Charlotte MacLeod's series characters) once made fancy tea-cozies, so maybe a convivial codfish or something in homage?

(Actually, what I really need for my cute little metal pot is a handle cosy. When I asked the clerk wouldn't the handle conduct too much heat, she claimed it was made of a special spage age alloy that doesn't conduct heat well. She may have believed that, but t'aint true.)

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This isn't exactly a miscellanous, but HAPPY EASTER!