May I please be extinct?-Gillie, after finishing dinner.
We saw The National for our 3rd time tonight. They were at The Riverside theatre. This show was a bit mellower than previous outings, probably because the new material is a bit that way. It was still a good show, though, and they're always fun to see live. Here's the set list (or is it setlist):
Some things to read while you're Finding Jesus in Seitan...
It's been a while since our last posting but Kathy's been heading up a backyard playhouse project that's keeping everyone busy. Currently, a floor, walls, and un-shingled roof are in place. You can see photos of our progress in the photos section.
For a third year in a row, the girls entered Google's Doodle 4 Google contest. While they didn't become finalists this year, they each drew a creative Google logo. Gillie's logo involves a book themse whereas Carly's logo has a theme of being able to fly overhead and see the tops of things.
Our Vegetarian Restaurants in Milwaukee page continues to get nearly 400 visits a month. We've added a ratings system for each restaurant via PollDaddy.com.
No "Yanoff Family Green Tip" this time but instead check out this great infographic called a "visual guide to how small cutbacks lead to great savings".
The New Pornographers' latest album, Together, is a great bit of power-pop from the Indie super-group. We got to the Pabst Theatre early enough to get spots in the second row, towards the left-hand side where I knew Neko Case's microphone stand would be. I can't remember ever having to sit through two opening acts (The Duchess + The Duke and The Dodos), which meant that NP took the stage at 10:30 p.m., which matters if you have a 14-year-old sitter. In any case, every song was like the studio version on steroids. They had great energy and put on just a fun show. The set list (or is it setlist) is posted below.
![[Image: This raccoon visited at dusk and began digging in our garden. I went to scare him away but in typical raccoon fashion,
he stopped for a drink at the freshly-filled bird bath before climbing the fence to get away.]](http://yanoff.org/slideshows/2010/2010-04-18-RaccoonDrinking.jpg)
- We've been visited by quite a bit of wildlife lately. First, our hawks are back as you can see in this recent photo of one sitting on the telephone wire. Then, while watering the garden last week, Scott accidentally watered a female mallard who had built a nest in a corner of the garden. She had about 10 eggs beneath her and we were really excited about the prospect of marching ducklings in May to the nearby river as our next-door neighbors did for her last year. Unfortunately, less than a week into her nesting she was outnumbered by a pair of nighttime bandits and forced to abandon the nest. Those raccoons ate her eggs and she never returned. Lastly, one such visitor was caught digging in our garden the other night and decided to stop for a drink before climbing the fence to freedom.
- Kathy bought some spiles and plugged one into the sugar maple in our front yard to see if the sap could be collected. She crafted a make-shift milk jug to the spile and after a couple of fill-ups, the resulting sap yielded several ounces of sweet maple syrup. Starting earlier next year should make for a bigger yield.
- The girls participated in the school science fair. As a fifth-grader, Gillie had to partner with someone and perform the experiments outside of the classroom. I'm not even going to try to describe what's going on in this photo of Gillie from the Science Fair, so just decide for yourself.
- We've posted a video of Gillie playing "Playing Soldiers" from a recent piano recital.
Around here, we've become big fans of Google Reader. It's an online feed aggregator, which is a fancy way of saying that it lets you read your RSS feed online, which is a fancy way of saying that if you read a lot of blogs online, you can read the newest entries for each all in one shot with this reader. My cousin, David, turned us onto it and it's been an enjoyable way of keeping up with blogs.
If you are not familiar with RSS, it stands for Really Simple Syndication, and it is a way of broadcasting a website's or blog's articles and updates. We use it here on Yanoff.org (you can subscribe via the RSS link at the top of each page). Users can then subscribe to the updates that a web site designates. Most modern web browsers offer a way to read RSS feeds, and newer versions of MS Outlook offer this as well. In addition, there are separate programs that can be run on your PC to merely pull down subscriptions. By subscribing to your favorite blogs and website updates, you are essentially creating your own newspaper with just the information you care about.
The part I like about the Google Reader is that because it is web-based, I can read my subscriptions from any computer no matter where I am. The Google Reader allows me to see only new items because it keeps track of what I have read. Subscription management is a cinch as even if you cannot find the "RSS" link or icon on a blog you like, you can choose to "Add Subscription" on the Google Reader and just paste in the web address of the blog and the Google Reader figures out how to get the blog postings. If you are a former reader of Usenet newsgroups, you know that Google assumed ownership of them and with the Google Reader you can also see your Usenet newsgroup subscriptions combined with your other RSS feeds.
We've been subscribing to the blogs you see in the "Blogging" sidebar on the left-hand side of our home page. We really enjoy reading photo blogs, comic strip blogs, updates from bands and sports teams we follow, and much more. Scott even broadcasts his frequent reviews for Amazon.com via RSS.
The Google Reader can even help you find new blogs similar to the ones you read if you visit the "explore" section. One last feature that we enjoy is the ability to star items for future reference, email them to a non-subscriber, or mark an article as worth sharing. If you have friends who use Google Reader, you can add them to the "people you follow" section, as my cousin and I have. Then, instead of emailing out every article or photo I find that I enjoy, I can just hit the "share" button on the article and know that it will be broadcast to those who follow me. I encourage you to view or subscribe to my shared items and let me know if you also share items so that I can follow you as well.
- Four photos have been added to the photos section, including the snow cave we made in early February.
![[Image: Gillie showing off the Totoro she knitted.]](http://yanoff.org/slideshows/2010/TotoroByGillie.jpg)
- The first video of the year is up. It's a minute-and-a-half video of Carly's flute recital captured with our new Flip video camera.
- The girls aren't mangling the English language as they did when they were younger, but there's actually a new quote by Carly in the quotes section.
- One of our favorite columnists/authors, Michael Pollan, solicited for questions for his interview with Time magazine. Scott submitted a challenging question and it not only appeared in both the print and online versions but it was also chosen to head the list.
- The girls continue to knit from time to time. Pictured is a Totoro that Gillie knitted.
Yanoff Family "Green" Tip(s):
It's been a while since we posted a "green" tip, and so we're close to posting a full-page list. We've written in the past about controlling consumption, especially when it comes to precious resources such as fuel and water. In fact, our last "green" tip was back in December, 2009, where we showed a break-down of the typical water usage in an American home.
We've written in the past about conserving energy, but we've probably not touched too much on gas itself. When Kathy's 1991 Toyota station wagon began to rust through on the sides several years ago, it was time for it to go. This was the same car that Kathy received $100 for on her birthday to appear in a TV ad for Potowatomi Bingo as the "before" car in the commercial. Anyway, Kathy challenged us to live with just a single car and while it seemed daunting at first, it's proven entirely possible. (We donated that old car, by the way, rather than selling it or trading it in.)
What helped is that the two of us carpool to work in the morning, and Scott's subsidized bus pass (thank you, NM), it used for his commute home. When the weather warrants it, riding a bike to work or the Shorewood Library makes for one less car trip, and with a grocery store, drug store, video store, bagel shop, and several other businesses within walking distance we force ourselves to use our car only when we're pressed for time, or we're in the deep part of the winter. It's surprising how often we are attending the same meeting, recreation department offering, or show that our neighbors do and we choose not to carpool. We're getting better at that, though, but it's definitely tough to get out of the "on-my-schedule and in-my-personal-bubble" mentality. We rarely take the car for a single-purpose trip, so at least once the car is warmed up we're using it for multiple destinations which makes for better fuel efficiency. (And, our lone car, Ruby the red Honda Fit, happens to be more of a gas-sipper than a gas-guzzler.)
In the long run, we saved not only gas by going to one car, but cash as well since we're insuring only one vehicle (still two drivers, though) and eliminating the maintenance (such as oil changes every 3 months) of the car. And with our narrow driveway, we also don't have to worry about which car gets the spot in the garage.
The rest of the 2009 postings have been moved to the archives as is customary. It's good to see a couple of comments being posted. We had to make them appear on an approval-basis only because there's a lot of spam that comes through. In response to our friend Sarah's comments from our last posting:
- The girls seem to enjoy other crossover-country when they hear it, but for now they're stockpiling Taylor Swift MP3s.
- "Human" by The Killers didn't make my all-decade list of best songs, but I do like the song and actually bought it.
- Last night, we watched the documentary called "It Might Get Loud" which features The Edge, Jimmy Page, and Jack White. We were mostly into it for The Edge's part, and the third-plus of the film dedicated to him is a treat to watch him explore his old haunts and dig out his working tapes for old hits. While Jack White is no doubt talented, the film portrays him as a bit of an outcast (but hey, maybe that's who make up most of rock-and-roll) but his guitar work just seemed to stray farther from The Edge's and Jimmy Page's enough that it was questionable why he's so highly regarded as a guitarist. At least, he must be if he was included with Edge and Page.
There are 2 comments to this post.
We would really like to have only one car. We lived that way briefly when Jeff's truck died in November. Unfortunately, Jeff works at 3 different locations and it left me in a lurch - especially when Aidan got sick and I didn't have a way to take him to the doctor. We are hoping if Jeff can get a job closer to where we live that we can get to one car.
My green tip this month is starting most of my garden seeds indoors. I'll start the flowers in March. I can't remember when to start the veggies yet. I've also started making newspaper starter pots for some of my vegetables.