Just as I was getting ready for bed last night, I noticed something odd right next to my pillow. I flipped on the lights to find this little guy punching the air:

More mantis!

My dear readers, I’d like to introduce you to the Great Pumpkin Experiment of 2007. This all started a few weeks ago when Aaron found a cookbook at the store. Little did I know, Aaron is quite the fan of pumpkin confections, and this book was certainly full of recipes for them. With the help of Todd , we selected the appropriately named recipe for Great Pumpkin Cookies to launch the experiment. With our (mostly organic) ingredients purchased, and Aaron manning the camera, we set took the plunge.

Of course, a project of this magnitude can’t go anywhere without coffee. Or tea, if that’s your choice.

Way to look excited there, Todd. You’ll definitely want to read more

Last week, I made my first-ever batch of what I nicknamed “devil cookies.” The name was originally inspired by the sheer number of processes involved: making the dough, making the filling, chilling each, then rolling out the dough, adding the filling, rolling all that up and freezing, then slicing and finally baking. Around six hours, start-to-finish.

Well, the first set came out of the oven, and each of the three cookies in the center row was in the shape of the number 6. Galletas del diablo!

And now that they’re almost all gone (just two left), I can at least say that they were totally worth the effort. Galletas del diablo will definitely be repeated.

Recipe (PDF|MacGourmet)

It seems that Dr. Phillips over at Science@NASA was feeling particularly inspired by the upcoming lunar eclipse.

A breeze touches the back of your neck, and you turn to see a pale full Moon rising into the night. Hmmm. The Moon could use a dash more color. You reach out, grab a handful of sunset, and drape the Moon with phantasmic light. Much better.

Via DoseNation

Welcome!

I’ve finally managed to get enough done with my WordPress customizations that I’m ready to make this site live to the big bad world, so here it is. I still have a few things I plan on tweaking, so don’t be surprised if you see some changes over the next few weeks. And maybe (just maybe), I’ll actually write some posts, too.

This site/blog/whatever isn’t even live yet, and I’m already very happy with WordPress. I’ve played with a few blogging systems in the past, and was never happy with any of them. Living in a Windows world, and running my own server, I never seemed to find any options I was really happy with. After buying the Xserve with Aaron, I started playing around with WordPress.

Despite my complete inexperience with PHP, and my relative inexperience with Apache, it’s been a wonderful experience. I haven’t run into a single complication or any instance where I can’t easily accomplish what I’d like. A far cry from what I’m used to (*cough* Community Server *cough*), to be sure. Right now, I’m in the process of putting together the theme that will soon grace these pages, and it couldn’t be easier. In fact, with some excellent guidance, it’s been an absolute breeze.

Slowdive’s Pygmalion certainly isn’t their most accessible album (not that I claim to know what that would be), but for those willing to brave the wall of sound, it can be quite rewarding. It’s easy to get lost in the acoustics and be lifted to another world. It’s as if Pygmalion is what you would hear if you could simplify each of the band’s members down to their musical essence.

“Blue Skied An’ Clear”, in particular, is an amazing track. It was actually my first introduction to the album, years before I ever heard any of the others. While at times it becomes a pure cacophony, it retains a euphonious purity throughout. The mix is nothing but perfect; you can get lost in the whole, or pick out each tiny little piece from the puzzle with ease. It’s so easy to get lost, in fact, that you can forget that Neil Halstead is actually singing. And if you take the time to really listen, the cacophony turns to deliberate bliss. Every listen to this track is different, revealing something new, and every listen is equally incredible.

Dear Amazon order 102-8547978-0520157,
Why have you not shipped yet? I would have you already if I wasn’t too cheap to pay for shipping. Please ship today.
Love,
Mike

Today’s bad idea: buying a 3 pound bag of Skittles.

As a surprise for Jeremy this weekend, I made (with his assistance) a very nice recipe given to me by my boss.

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