I married into a loud, eating Hungarian Family who like to talk loudly and eat. This dear family, like all of Hungarian descent, do not care about cholesterol, portion size, fat content or vegetables.

My side brings the common Catholic Irish strain. Together Mr Woog and I have created a super-strain of Hungarian Irish boys.

My Dad was studying to be a catholic priest when Mum boom-chicka-bow-wowed in and stole him from Jesus. My grandmother had a hard time getting over it. My family's side concentrates on drinking, gambling and Sunday Roasts, with a bit of infidelity thrown in - like all good catholics. Hey, you can always say sorry and all is forgiven! Easy.

The Hungarian component just concentrates on eating. It is good to. Check out some of the dishes which , well I am not going to say were eaten - more like conquered, last night at the Cosmo Bondi.





They actually deep fry bread. And Cheese. Silence falls only when you are served and loud bellowing resumes the minute you finish. Topics of discussion focuses around the menu, whether you should have creamed spinach or the quality of the sour cream.

Passionate hungry Hungarians - go out to dinner with some if you get the chance.

Såhär har det sett ut sedan jag började regga min träning på funbeat. Linjen är kilometrar (Staplarna är tid) Klicka på bilden om du vill se lite bättre.

This is the lightning fast colored coloring guide for the kids who will paint the mural. Have a closer look on Flickr.

And the original sketch. Have a closer look on Flickr.

I've decided to start a new "feature" on American Cupcake. The one advantage of working in the City is there are a lot of small back roads that are home to independent sandwich bars, cafes and stores. It's refreshing to try somewhere new. I get depressed when I see so many Pret's on the high street (and I hate brown bread!).

This week it was a nice (ie not raining) so I took my Tuesday lunch break to wander around Fleet Street. On the way there (just past Paternoster Square) I passed a new candy store. Mr. Simms Old Fashioned Candy. I did some internet research and there are few of these stores around England (but it's still not a Pret!).

[Image: "Beamer Bees" by Liam Young and Anab Jain].

I had an interesting and long conversation last week with John Becker, one of my students at Columbia's GSAPP, about everything from the future of 3D printers, the possibility of permanently embedding such machines into the fabric of a building, and even the genetic manipulation of nonhuman species so that they could produce new, architecturally useful materials.

A few quick things about that conversation seem worth repeating here:

1) Famously, groups like Archigram proposed using construction cranes as permanent parts of their buildings. The crane could thus lift new modular rooms into place, add whole new floors to the perpetually incomplete structure, and otherwise act as a kind of functional ornament. The crane, "now considered part of the architectural ensemble," Archigram's Mike Webb wrote, would simply be embedded there, "lifting up and moving building components so as to alter the plan configuration, or replacing parts that had work out with a 'better' product."

[Image: Plug-In City by Archigram/Warren Chalk, Peter Cook, Dennis Crompton; courtesy University of Westminster].

But 3D printers are the new cranes.

For instance, what if Enrico Dini's sandstone-printing device—so interestingly profiled in Blueprint Magazine last month—could be installed somewhere at the heart of a building complex—or up on the roof, or ringed around the edge of a site—where it could left alone to print new rooms and corridors into existence, near-constantly, hooked up to massive piles of loose sand and liquid adhesives, creating infinite Knossic mazes? The building is never complete, because it's always printing itself new rooms.

In fact, I think we'll start to see more and more student projects featuring permanent 3D printers as part of the building envelope—and I can't wait. A room inside your building that prints more rooms. It sounds awesome.

2) Several months ago, the Canadian Centre for Architecture, as part of their exhibition Actions: What You Can Do With the City, put up #77 in its list of things "you can do with the city": they phrased it as Bees Make Concrete Honey.

My eyes practically fell out of my head when I saw that headline, imagining genetically modified bees that no longer produce honey, they produce concrete. They'd mix some strange new bio-aggregate inside their bellies. Instead of well-honeyed hives, you'd have apian knots of insectile concrete. Perhaps they could even print you readymade blocks of ornament: florid scrolls and gargoyle heads, printed into molds by a thousand bees buzzing full of concrete. Bee-printers.

Alas, it had nothing to do with apian concrete; it was simply a play on words: urban bees make urban honey... or concrete honey, if you want to be poetic. But no matter: using bees to create new forms of concrete—perhaps even new forms of sandstone (whole new geologies!)—is ethically horrific but absolutely extraordinary. After all, there are already bugs genetically modified to excrete oil, and even goats that have been made to produce spider silk.

What, though, are the architectural possibilities of concrete honey?

[Images: The Rosslyn Chapel hives; photos courtesy of the Times].

3) Last month, over at Scotland's Rosslyn Chapel, it was announced that "builders renovating the 600-year-old chapel have discovered two beehives carved within the stonework high on the pinnacles of the roof. They are thought to be the first man-made stone hives ever found."

It appears the hives were carved into the roof when the chapel was built, with the entrance for the bees formed, appropriately, through the centre of an intricately carved stone flower. The hives were found when builders were dismantling and rebuilding the pinnacles for the first time in centuries.

As the article goes on to point out, "Although human beings have collected honey from wild bee colonies since time immemorial, at some point they began to domesticate wild bees in artificial hives, made from hollow logs, pottery, or woven straw baskets. The Egyptians kept bees in cylindrical hives, and pictures in temples show workers blowing smoke into the hives, and removing honeycombs. Sealed pots of honey were found in Tutankhamun’s tomb."

But, combining all these stories, what about bees that make concrete honey, artificially bred and housed inside hives in the spires of buildings? Hives that they themselves have printed?

High up on the roof of St. John the Divine sit six symmetrical stone hives, inside of which special bees now grow, tended by an architecture student at Columbia University; the bees are preparing their concrete to fix any flaw the building might have. No longer must you call in repair personnel to do the job; you simply tap the sides of your concrete-mixing beehives and living 3D printers fly out in a buzzing cloud, caulking broken arches and fixing the most delicate statuary.

Nearby homeowners occasionally find lumps of concrete on their rooftops and under the eaves, as if new hives are beginning to form.



4) In the opening image of this post, you see the so-called "Beamer Bees" that Liam Young, Anab Jain, and collaborators created for Power of 8. The beamer bees were "formulated by a community of biologists and hired bio-hackers to service under-pollinated trees, plants and vegetables due to the disappearance of honey bees." And while the beamers don't actually have much to do with the idea of mobile 3D-printing swarms, any post about designing with bees would be incomplete without them...

(Thanks to Steve Silberman for the Rosslyn Chapel hives link, and to John Becker for the conversation these ideas came from).

Stylized illustrations for a magazine travel special.

You're invited to Sevensheaven.nl for an extended impression.

It was a beautiful spring day in Red Rock Canyon. I was overseeing the second day of an American Mountain Guides Association Single Pitch Instructor exam and all of the guide candidates were doing a great job. It was a great day to be in the mountains.

It was a great day until we saw a "runner."

People who are running to get help for an injured climber are often referred to as runners. In this particular instance it was a young woman running down the canyon. She yelled for help and told us she was trying to get a better cell signal...she kept losing 911.

Two SPI Candidates, Kevin and Brenden, and I grabbed our first aid kits and made our way up canyon. Kevin was a firefighter and Brenden was a nursing student. They were excellent people to have with me on a rescue.

When we finally discovered the injured climber, we found a man in his late fifties. His head was seriously lacerated and he had been knocked unconscious for two to three minutes before coming back. There was blood in his helmet and it appeared that the the tab on the back had perpetrated the laceration. The rear of helmet was also cracked. It looked like it had been pushed up under his scalp and then pulled back out as the helmet contracted around his skull.

The man's two college-aged daughters were both there as well. All of them, the man and his grown children, seemed to be rank beginners. A tote bag that was used to carry their gear sat next to the rocks.

We immediately held the man's head to keep him from moving it, providing C-spine. Clearly the fall could have caused a spinal injury and we didn't want to take any chances whatsoever. Kevin cleverly created a spinal collar out of coiled up rope and wrote the time of the accident on a piece of medical tape holding the rope in place.

Not long after we finished with the C-collar, a helicopter arrived. The Las Vegas Search and Rescue team is one of the best in the world. They packaged the man on a litter and were quickly able to extract him in the tight canyon. We assume that he safely made it to the hospital and is now back to his normal every day life...

Rescues can be extremely interesting to watch. There are helicopters, medical people, cool hauling systems, and often some blood. But they aren't that cool if you're the one that is getting rescued...so why did this individual need to be rescued...?


Obviously we weren't there, but there were clues. The group was climbing at the Cut Your Teeth Crag in Calico Basin. This is a beginner crag, but it is also a very young crag. It was developed in 2006 by Mike McGlynn and Todd Lane. The route that the party was on is a bolted 5.7 called Introproximal Stripper. The importance of knowing the age of the crag is that on sandstone, holds can sometimes crumble or even break on newer routes...

The lead rope ran through draws on the first two bolts. The girls claimed that their dad was trying to clip the third bolt when he fell. The dad was tall, at least six-feet four inches tall, and probably weighed around 200 lbs. The girls were both small and probably didn't weigh more than 120 lbs each.

So looking at the situation, there are a lot of possible factors. Following are some speculations based on the story that the girls told.

Rope behind the Leg:

It's unfortunately quite common for climbers to lead with a rope running behind their leg.  If this is not something that you are constantly paying attention to, it is an element that could easily cause you to fall, catch your leg and flip upside down. 

Both of the man's daughters claimed that he flipped upside down in the fall.  This could have been from the rope running behind his leg and it could have been from his feet hitting something and flipping him.  However, since he had no obvious injuries to his feet, heels or ankles, it seems more likely that he was flipped by the rope.

Over the Head Clipping:

It's very dangerous to clip over your head. This is because when you pull slack to clip the rope, you are also putting a lot of extra slack into the system. If you are close to the ground and take a fall at this time, it is likely that you will "crater."

Some people put the slack rope in their mouth when they are getting ready to clip. It is not uncommon for those who take leader falls in such a situation to have teeth pulled out by the rope. While this didn't happen in this case, it is definitely something to be worried about.

The safest way to clip a rope is to wait. Wait until the draw is at your waist to clip it. That way, you will take the smallest possible fall. Unfortunately, this can feel very unstable. It's always more satisfactory to have the rope clipped than not to. And indeed, many routes are designed to clip the rope above the head...but we should be very aware of the dangers implicit in the action.

It is quite possible that the individual in this accident was trying to clip over his head when he fell.

Weight Differences

When weight differences are small, sometimes its nice to have a situation where a person can be pulled off the ground a little bit. This provides a soft catch. But when weight differences are large, it's important to make sure that the belayer is tied to the ground. This will limit the distance that the person falls.

The Cut Your Teeth Crag is a short crag and the weight differences between the two individuals was large. It's likely that the young woman who was belaying was pulled significantly off the ground as her dad landed. I did not confirm this at the time, but I did ask if she was tied down.

Slack in the Belay

Lastly, it's possible that the lead belay had additional slack. Sometimes belayers allow the lead line to sit on the ground in front of them. The line going from the device to the wall should have a mild smile to it. It should not hang down on the ground.

As we were not there, we don't know what the belay looked like and this may not have been an issue. But clearly one or more of the factors described contributed to the accident.

Accident Avoidance

The best way to avoid an accident is to avoid climbing all together. But for most of us, that isn't a possibility. So instead of avoiding the sport we love, we have to constantly study how accidents take place and learn from them.

Every year the American Alpine Club produces a book of accident analysis entitled, Accidents in North American Mountaineering. It is a grim read, but it also provides us with many many opportunities to see what not to do.

--Jason D. Martin

Just back from a lovely meeting with the smooth Professor Stretch (yes really) to discuss the possibility of shrinking up my chesticals a bit... you know in time for bikini season and all.

They are taking on a life of their own and need professional help. I was hoping to get them done before my upcoming sojourn to Bali - next week would be fine. But oh no dear reader, things are not as simple as they seem.

Professor Stretch and I nutted out the pros and cons. Pros - smaller boobs. Cons being a whole lotta recovery time - but when life hands you lemons, I intend to make Mojitos - so my enormous boobs will be on that plane to Bali with me in a fortnight.

During what I would describe as a thorough feeling up, I pointed out my stretch marks to Professor Stretch and inserted what I thought might be a cheap shot for a quick giggle but he said "Yes Mrs Woog, I have heard that one a few times before."

This brings me back to the last time I was mammary-handled by a doctor.

This time, I was giving myself a good feel up in the shower when I found a little lump. God knows how I found it amongst all that boob - but there it was. Off to to the GP where she confirmed my thoughts and also made me have a pap-smear. Is this getting too much?

This was a lovely local GP who is about my age who I now see every afternoon picking the kids up from school - MORTIFYING.

Anyway went to the specialists. A kind and quirky nurse-type lady squished my boob into a cold sandwich press. The word dense was mentioned more than once. Just when I thought she could not squish anymore, she squished a bit more. FFAAAARRRRRK!!!

Next stop Hot Doctor Radiographer.

Close your eyes Mr Woog.

Ladies this guy was a 9. Seriously cute. I again was MORTIFIED about having to take my top off. When I get nervous I tend to talk a lot, crack stupid jokes or discuss the ridiculousness of Kristina Keneally's hair. Hot Doctor Radiographer put the gel on and started radiographering away at Lefty Chesty.

"Here it is, Looks Quite small. I will just check the other side." He informs me.

So I ask.

"Is it too early to tell whether it is a boy or a girl?"

And he says ............. nothing. Just looks at me like I am a total idiot and finishes up. Good news it turned out to be nothing. Bad news was Hot Doctor Radiographer went from a 9 to a 5. Slightly above Nerdy Nice ENT.

Will let you know (because I am sure you are that interested) in how things go with Professor Stretch.

Lite skugga innan start på förra årets mara..

Årets stora mål närmar sig med stormsteg. På onsdag är det bara en månad kvar och det börjar bli dags att påbörja formtoppningen. Innan maran ska jag persa på halvmaran. (Jo jag skriver ska, för gör jag inte det blir jag väldigt sur. Nuvarande pers på 1:45:08 är från förra årets gbgvarv då jag, eftersom det ligger endast två veckor innan maran, inte maxade.) Det blir den 8:e maj och därför drar jag nu ner lite på träningen för att förhoppningsvis få till en liten formtopp redan då. Min kropp brukar svara ganska bra på detta och jag brukar känna mig väldigt mycket starkare efter bara ett par dagar med lugnare träning och vila. När perset är fixat (sub 1:43 är målet) blir det sedan två tuffa veckor innan det är dags för två veckor med riktigt lätt träning och mycket vila. Lite kolhydratsladdning på det och sedan är det visst dags. Ojojoj.

The hand must be soft but firm. The light must shine down from highlights above. Each seed is unique and nurtured.  Its the battle between Nature and Man, both counting and depending on each other......

Northwest:

--A snowmobiler is believed to be dead after being trapped in a B.C. avalanche Sunday. RCMP say the man was buried in a slide as he snowmobiled with a group of people in a remote mountainous area south of Chetwynd, north of Prince George, just before 2:30 p.m. All other snowmobilers in the group have been accounted for. The B.C. Coroners Service, search and rescue and an avalanche technician were called to the scene. Due to the danger of further avalanches, no attempts to retrieve the victim were to be made until the avalanche technician deemed the area safe. To read more, click here.

--Two climbers who tumbled into a 75-foot crevasse on Mount Rainier Monday evening said they spent the night shoveling snow off their tent to keep from being buried alive by a blizzard that enveloped the mountain."I think that we were lucky that they found us," Geneviev Morand told KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reporter Chris Legeros. "We couldn't pass another night there."Morand and Simon Brunet were said they were hiking up to Camp Muir when they strayed off a snowfield. Morand fell into the crevasse and Brunet fell in after her. To read more, click here.

--Supertopo.com has a very cool thread where an individual scanned pages of the original 1965 Leavenworth guidebook by Fred Beckey and Eric Bjornstad. To see these pages, please click here.

--A woman was attacked Saturday on the Tiger Mountain Trail near Issaquah, and sheriff's deputies are searching for her attacker. The 24-year-old was able to fight off her attacker, who was armed with a stun-gun or Taser. She suffered only minor injuries. The victim, a Seattle resident, was on a work crew and is employed by the Department of Natural Resources and a member of their Washington Conservation Corp. She was alone at 10:40 a.m. when the attacked happened. "The victim was about 100 yards up the Tiger Mountain Trail when she was accosted by man in running attire," King County sheriff's spokesman John Urquhart said. "He engaged her in small talk, and when her back was turned he grabbed her, shocked her with an electrical device and pushed her to the ground. To read more, click here.

--Federal agents arrested four Canadian men on a Forest Service road near Glacier on suspicion of smuggling more than 133 pounds of marijuana into the U.S. from Canada through the North Cascades. A fifth man was later arrested at a hotel on East McLeod Road. All five men have admitted to smuggling marijuana and made their first appearance in U.S. District Court in Seattle on Tuesday, April 27, according to a complaint filed in that court. To read more, click here.

Sierra:

--The second edition of Bishop Bouldering will be available early in May of 2010. This long anticipated tome by Wills Young weighs in at 428 pages and will be the premier guide to the world class bouldering the Eastern Sierra. To read more, click here.

Desert Southwest:

--The body of a male was found in the North Fork of the Virgin River near the Gateway to the Zion Narrows at approximately 9 a.m. on Monday, April 26, 2010. Park Rangers were immediately dispatched to the location. The identity of the man is not yet known. The Washington County Sheriff’s Office was notified and a medical examiner and investigator were dispatched to the scene. It is standard procedure that the Sheriff’s Office, in cooperation with the National Park Service, investigates all fatalities in the park. To read more, click here.

--Christmas Tree Pass, a beautiful but obscure climbing area in Southern Nevada, is under serious threat. It appears that the National Park Service may implement a draconian plan to remove all fixed anchors. To read more, click here.

--In the aftermath of the devastating vote for developers and against Red Rock Canyon, Nevada locals are slowly coming together to vote the county commissioners out of office who supported this measure. To learn more about this movement, click here.

--The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announces its intent to write an environmental assessment to consider improvements of the camping area in the Sawtooth Limited Use area of Stoddard Valley about eight miles south of Barstow. This proposed project would enhance the existing recreation opportunities for rock climbers and remote campers with the addition of 12 camp sites, one new restroom, a new kiosk, a picnic area and a host site. Each camp site would have a shade ramada, picnic table, fire pit and grill, and a barbecue. To read more, click here.

--Those who have spent a lot of time driving between climbing areas like Red Rocks, Joshua Tree and Christmas Tree Pass might find this story interesting... The Supreme Court said Wednesday that a federal court went too far in ordering the removal of a congressionally endorsed war memorial cross from its longtime home in California. In ruling the cross could stay, the justices said federal judges in California did not take sufficient notice of the government's decision to transfer the land in a remote area of California to private ownership. The move was designed to eliminate any constitutional concern about a religious symbol on public land. To read more, click here.

Alaska:

--The seventh meeting of the Denali National Park Aircraft Overflights Advisory Council will be held on Thursday, May 6 at the Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge in Talkeetna, Alaska. The Denali National Park Aircraft Overflights Advisory Council advises the Superintendent, through the Secretary of the Interior, on mitigation efforts that should be made to reduce the impacts from aircraft overflights at Denali National Park and Preserve. To read more, click here.

--The American Alpine Institute Alaska and Denali season started this week. AAI Guide Mike Pond entered the range this morning with a climber for an Alaska Range Mountaineering and Denali Prep trip. This weekend, AAI Guide Forest McBrian will lead the first Denali trip for the season on the mountain.

Himalaya:

--A 44-year-old South Korean became the first woman to ascend the world's 14 highest mountains, crawling on all fours Tuesday as she reached the peak of Annapurna in the Himalayas. The Associated Press reported that Oh Eun-sun arrived at the final stretch of the climb approximately 13 hours after leaving basecamp. At the summit, she planted a South Korean flag, and while weeping raised her arms to yell, "Victory!" To read more, click here and here and here.

--Spanish climber Edurne Pasaban on Tuesday reaffirmed her doubts over her South Korean rival's claim to have become the first woman to scale the world's 14 highest peaks. Contacted by satellite telephone at her camp on another mountain, Pasaban said she continues to doubt that Oh Eun-Sun reached the top of Mount Kanchenjunga on the Nepal-Tibet in May 2009 as claimed. "It is a doubt which we already had last year, because when she climbed Kanchenjunga we were already there and we climbed it after her. Our doubts emerged when she presented some photos, and other climbers shared them," she told public radio from the 8,027-meter Shisha Pangma in Tibet. To read more, click here. It is quite possible that these doubts are due to "sour grapes."

--One of the two climbers who went missing in the Himalayas has been found dead, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Tuesday. A Nepalese search team aboard a helicopter found the body and took a picture of it, a ministry official said. They cannot confirm who the dead person is at the moment as it will take a day at least to identify the body, the official said. Bad weather conditions made it difficult for them to conduct the mission, according to the ministry. The discovery of the body came a day after two South Korean climbers, Yoon Chi-won, 40 and Park Haeng-soo, 27, went missing, while descending from a Himalayan peak. To read more, click here.

--Air Zermatt, a helicopter service based in Switzerland, will join Nepal's Fishtail Air this season to provide a standby emergency helicopter. Thiswill be the first time this service has been offered in the Himalaya. To read more, click here.

Notes from All Over:

--On a remote wooded path in North Carolina on Friday, a 65-year-old woman took a solitary hike. Little did she know she'd meet President Barack Obama and the first lady along the way. The chance encounter happened when Westerville, Ohio, resident Karen Russell was hiking the Mountains-to-Sea Trail just off the Blue Ridge Parkway, Asheville's Citizen-Times newspaper reported. "It was just a little nondescript trail that I was on," Russell told the Citizen-Times, "and I didn't expect to find anybody there really, let alone the president." The Obamas had landed in Asheville that same day to catch a weekend vacation. The presidential motorcade had driven the Blue Ridge Parkway for about 15 minutes when the first couple decided to get out and take an hourlong hike. To read more, click here.

Jag älskar verkligen min nya kompis (Garmin) men det finns ett par saker jag inte gillar. Eller egtligen tre. Den första är att det tar lite väl lång tid för honom (ja, det känns som en hane) att hitta satelliter. Jag börjar undra om jag bor i nån slags radioskugga för jag har även skitkass mottagning på både telefon och mobilt bredband. Lite irriterande, men det är väl bara att acceptera att det är så antar jag. Och jag ska väl förhoppningsvis inte bo här för all framtid..

Det andra problemet jag har är att själva klockan "slår"/trycker mot knölen på utsidan av handleden. Vet inte om jag har onormalt knotiga handleder eller om detta är ett normalt fenomen? Jag har försökt att sätta klockan högre upp, men den glider ner och eftersom den då är lösare spänd "slår" den ännu mera på den stackars knölen. Är nog bara att godta detta också kanske?

Och så var det en tredje grej också. Det är den som är mest irriterande men också den som jag tror att det är lättast att göra något om. Pulsbandet. Alltså, jag är kanske inte världens bredaste person men jag är definitivt inte onormalt smal, snarare ganska "normal" skulle jag vilja påstå. Jag har resårbandet ihopdragen det mesta som går men ändå glider bandet ner precis hela tiden. Fruktansvärt irriterande! Och inte verkar det gå att köra lösa band i mindre storlekar heller, så det är väl bara att ta fram symaskinen och försöka få till nån lösning som inte orsakar skav. Eller har du något annat tips?

[Image: Theater for One by Christine Jones and LOT-EK].

LOT-EK and set designer Christine Jones will be premiering their project Theater for One in Times Square, two weeks from now. It "will be up for 10 days, with performances open to the general public"—but, as the architects point out, the public is only invited "one at a time."

[Image: Theater for One by Christine Jones and LOT-EK].

Specifically, the petite space is "a theater for one actor and one audience member. Inspired by small one-to-one spaces—such as the confessional or the sex peep-booth—Theater for One explores the intense emotion of live theater through the direct and intimate one-to-one interaction of actor and audience."

[Images: Theater for One by Christine Jones and LOT-EK].

In many ways, I'm reminded of the dramatic intensity of Nancy Bannon's Pod Project, which consisted of "13 private, one-on-one performances housed within 13 sculpted spaces." In Bannon's work, "the viewer actually enters the performance environment and experiences a one-on-one exchange in unconventional proximity. The interiors of the sculptures/pods are personalized"—but this also means that each pod has been architecturally stylized so as to fit the dramas involved.

[Image: Theater for One by Christine Jones and LOT-EK].

What I like about the LOT-EK/Christine Jones project is the blank architecturalization of this dramatic experience; portable, easily deployed, and externally neutral, the Theater for One could just as easily be reused as an interviewing station, a place for personal confrontation, or even a writing lab. It could be a dressing room, private cinema, or staging ground for psychedelic self-actualization—and I would actually love to see this thing hit the road someday, popping up all over the U.S. and abroad, to see what flexibly subjective uses people wish to put it to. NPR meets Storycorps, by way of a one-actor play.

A chance remark yesterday led me to decide to hit the "publish" button on this post. Thank you Naomi. The sense of shame and anxiety associated with this time clearly runs deep.
So I have taken a deep breath and I hope it helps someone, or confirms to you your suspicion that my mothering skills still need work!
....

I och med att jag ska börja ett nytt jobb med nya arbetstider (9:45-18:15) har jag blivit tvungen att säga upp min cykelklass. Tyvärr! Jag kommer verkligen sakna mina underbara deltagare! De är så grymt fokuserade och genuint intresserade av träning och de gillar till och med min musik! Idag hade jag nytt upplägg igen, sista 4 veckors blocket innan finalen sista veckan, och flera stycken kom fram och tackade för bra musik! Sådant värmer faktiskt mer än kommentarer om bra upplägg etc, för jag spelar trots allt mestadels "alternativ" musik som kanske inte hörs så ofta på cykelpass eller på gym överhuvudtaget. Visserligen är den uppblandad med mer välkänd och "vanlig" musik, men grunden består allt som oftast av synth och annan elektronisk musik. Och musik betyder mycket för mig så det är extra roligt att få kommentarer om detta!

Eftersom det är färre klasser under sommaren är det inte säkert att jag lyckas få någon fast klass nu på ett tag, men förhoppningsvis får jag en i höst igen. Helst vill jag ha en morgonklass för jag tycker det är skönare på något sätt. Jag är trots allt en morgonmänniska och jag gillar att starta dagen med endorfinpåfyllning. Visserligen finns en nackdel och det är att man kanske inte kan köra riktigt lika hårda pass. För även om jag tjatar så äter inte alla innan morgonträning. Ta dagens pass exempelvis. Ett pyramidpass bestående av tre pyramider med tre olika pulsnivåer. 4min på 75%, 3min på 85%, 2min på 95%, 3min på 85%, 4min på 75% och så vidare. Tre vändor, riktigt jobbigt! Själv var jag helt slut efteråt och jag tror nog de andra kände det samma. Men så är det också sista upplägget innan finalen. Det ska vara tufft! Men kanske ingen man kör klockan sju på morgonen? Eller jo, jag gör det gärna, men jag äter ju å andra sidan alltid innan. Men frågan är om deltagarna kan lära sig? Hm, tål att funderas på. Om jag nu får någon morgonklass till mitt förfogande vill säga. Time will tell.

[Images: Photos by Lawrence Looi/newsteam.co.uk].

A bored family in Shropshire, England, after having a few too many drinks one night, started playing around with an air grate in their living room floor—which they managed to lift up and out of its grid, crawl through and under the house, and there discover an entire church sitting in the darkness where a basement should be. It was a "dark chapel complete with a large wooden cross on the floor."

Even better, after continuing to search, they found "a staircase in the chapel [that] came out of a cupboard in the dining room." Hidden topologies surround us.

After posting this link on Twitter, meanwhile, Patrick Smith chimed in, asking: "I wonder if stuff in their house moves around?" A poltergeist, turning strange devices on an altarpiece below ground, with a whole family on remote control above.

(Via Tim Maly. Related: The Horrible Secret of Number 6 Whitten Street, Sounding Rooms, Architectural Dissimulation, and many more).

-- A fantastic trip report for Red Rock can be found here, with some good pictures of Cat in the Hat (5.6). "Wednesday and Thursday the weather was winter-like: temps in the mid-40's, windy and showers in the Canyon..."

--Forecast and average temperatures for Red Rock Canyon.

--Webcam for Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.

--The late exit and overnight permit number for Red Rock Canyon is 702-515-5050. If there is any chance that you will be inside the park after closing, be sure to call this number so that you don't get a ticket.--The entrance to the scenic drive had a parking area for those who wanted to carpool up until approximately April of 2009. That lot has now become employee parking and people who want to carpool are required to park at the lot outside the Scenic Drive exit.
--The scenic drive currently opens its gates at 6 in the morning.

JOSHUA TREE:

-- Certain areas of J Tree are closed due to Raptor nesting season. Check out Friends of Joshua Tree for more information.

--Forecast and average temperatures for Joshua Tree National Park.

--Webcam for Joshua Tree National Park.

-- For an update on Hwy 20, click here. (Last time I checked, it was open.) Recent Washington Pass pictures can be found here.

--Forecast for the West Slope of the Cascades.

--Forecast for the East Slope of the Cascades.

--Webcam for Leavenworth and the Stuart Range.

--Sno-Park permits are available for purchase in Washington State. To purchase a permit and/or read more about them click here.

--Forecast for Mount Rainier.

--Forest Service Road Report for Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.

--Mount Saint Helens, Mount Adams conditions and recreation report.

--Webcams for Mount Rainier National Park, North Cascades National Park, Leavenworth.

--An up-to-date ski and snow report for the Northwest may be found here.
--Up-to-date Pacific Northwest ice conditions may be found here.

SIERRA:

-- A Tioga road plowing report can be found here.

-- Mt. Whitney lottery info can be found here.

--For up-to-date avalanche and weather reports in the Eastern Sierra, click here.
--Webcams for Bishop, June Lake, Mammoth Mountain, Mono Lake, Tioga Pass.

ALPS:

--Chamonix and Mont Blanc Regional Forecasts may be found here.

--Webcams for Chamonix Valley, Zermatt and the Matterhorn.

ALASKA RANGE:

--The American Alpine Institute is now accepting applications for the 2010 climbing season. Please call our office at 360-671-1505 for more information.

--Forecast for Denali.

Scruffy atmospherics and hazy colours, that's what this Fur is made of.

It's called "Clears Throat".

Where I live, a time- honoured tradition is to pick your kid up from the school bus and be engaged in the following discussions with the puffa-vest brigade*.

"Did you do anything nice on the weekend?"

"Did Hugo/Isabella enjoy rugby/drama this week?"

"My neighbours place went for 2.1 million dollars!"

"Where are you going skiing this year?"

"I just use sunscreen everyday."

"He just could not get away from the office, I thought screw you. So I am taking the kids to Fiji for Easter."

And then there is my Waterloo. My absolute chestnut.

"So, where are you sending your boys to school?"

Considering H is 6 and J is 4, I would welcome them making it to our local public school everyday with their lunch. Nevertheless, this question seems to be one of the most important posed - jump in here now and agree with me!?? Seriously!??

When I was pregnant with H, my panic button got stuck and I was concerned with everything. So I projected my anxiety fast forward by .... lets say 12 years... and I filled out waiting list forms for fancy private schools. Mr Woog begrudgingly attached a cheque to them at the birth on H and sent them off.

Then we waited.

J came along a few years later. We again filled out the forms, attached the cheques. Australia Post.

And waited.

A few years later, I was starting to wonder about my investment. Especially when my good friend Mrs Finlay received a confirmation letter for her son, who was a year younger than my youngest.

The beast was unleashed and I called the bursar at this particular school which rhymes with SNORE, situated in North Sydney.

According to my research, Bursa is a Latin word meaning "purse". Billing of student tuition accounts are the responsibility of the Office of the Bursar. This involves sending bills and making payment plans with the ultimate goal of getting the student accounts paid off. Bursars are not necessarily involved in the financial aid process.

My personal definition of Bursar is somewhat different.

"Hi Mrs Bursar. It is Mrs Woog here. I was just following up on the application forms for my two kids I sent in a few years ago."

"What are their names?"

"H Woog and J Woog. We sent in our wait list application and fee within a week of their birth and I have not heard anything since.... So thought I would give you an buzz and see how the whole wait list is coming along. I know you must get hounded all the time. You must dread when the phone rings and I am so sorry to bother you, you see I think it is better to have options at......"

"Mrs Woog, we give preference to sons of old boys and beneficiaries. I am looking at your file now and can say you may be disappointed in your children's case, as you and your family is neither."

I will not go into detail regarding the next exchange, but will share these phrases "you can stick your wait list" and "ass" and "fascist factory" with you. You could probably get my drift.

As we then acknowledged our differences during our farewells, I could distinctly hear in the background the big red pen go through our names on that bloody wait list.

SO when the question came up today of "where are your sons going to school?" I said J was going to get a scholarship to the Fame Academy and H was going to go to Bible College after I home school him from the age of 12 till 16. I was in good company so was met with a few giggles. And even more giggles after a mother who had a kid at SNORE told us about a note they received from the school. It requested that mothers do not drop of or collect their sons wearing gym attire or track suit pants.

So I was never going to fit in, it would seem. It was a sign.

* Approximates roughly 79% of bus pickup mums. The rest of us are in trackies.

4. In another big pan pour a few tablespoons of olive oil and turn the heat to medium-low and add the garlic and onions and cook for a few minutes until soft.


Leave a small amount of stick unabsorbed but make sure the risotto is still soft enough to eat. This method is good if you plan on having leftovers or if you want to dip your bread in something. When it heats in the microwave there is a small amount of stock to keep the risotto moist. If you want the risotto to be to have a small amount of stock left simmer for about 5-10 minutes less.