photo: kapungo

Back when Ronni and I knew everything, we'd sit around reflecting on our vast real-world experience. We were old and wise. I mean, seriously - we were legal. So after classes and our minimum-wage jobs wrapped up for the day, we'd take our 21 year-old selves to the bar to talk philosophy.

Sometimes we'd engage in healthy debate.

I argued, essentially, that we were currently living the renaissance of our lives. As we entered the workforce after graduation, our careers would give us increasingly specialized knowledge.

Splat...<< MORE >>

Photo: smaedli

I've got things cooking today — figuratively and literally — so I haven't made time to write. I was tempted to just order a pizza, but instead I put on a box of Cajun rice. It's on the stove now, and the smell of it reminds me of a story I'll tell quickly:

The day I moved in to my little New Orleans cottage, I tried to order a pizza for dinner. We were starved — as you might imagine — after a day of hauling boxes, and I sure wasn't in the mood to unpack dishes.

I called a chain delivery place. They did not service my new address...<< MORE >>

Photo: Anirudh Koul

Which tuxedo and sequin-clad Hollywood buzz-makers will get to publicly thank their Moms and The Academy tonight? I make no predictions. I've only actually seen one of this year's Best Picture nominees, if you can believe it. Better to leave any prognosticating to the real insiders.

What I do know about is a different kind of picture: snap shots that become the coveted mementos of any trip. Thanks to artists and travelers who share their travel photos on Flickr, we can all see unique perspectives of places we know and love...<< MORE >>

It's a nice day out today, so I've brought my computer outside for a bit. I'm sitting in "The Magical Forest." That's what we call our second-story apartment balcony, because half the space is occupied by trees.

See, Rufus likes to grow things. He's got citrus fruits going in every variety. Never mind that neither of us particularly like kumquats — that's not the point. What's important to him is the fact that the plant that produces them is thriving.

It's one of about eight potted trees....

on a balcony...

in a city...

in the desert...<< MORE >>

My new Twitter friend @meganhilll2 got a screaming deal on lodging in Moab thanks to Delta Skymiles, so I offered public congratulations. She asked if I were there for a day, what I would do or recommend. This is not an easy question.

Answering it in 140 characters is almost as hard as imagining that area with a one day limit, because it's near impossible to take it all in with a week. In my opinion, Utah canyon country is one of the most incredible places in the American southwest...<< MORE >>

Photo: Shabibi

Kermit the Frog sang about how it ain't easy being green, but I bet Jim Henson couldn't have imagined having to perform it in soprano.

And what about Miss Piggy? She certainly couldn't have imagined something like this. Somebody somewhere is in line for a karate-chop if it happened to the frog of her life

No, it definitely ain't easy being green — Not with contaminants like Atrazine in the water. It's a common herbicide used all over the world. And according to researchers, it causes male frogs to grow lady parts...<< MORE >>

Great balls of fire! Don't bother me anymore, and don't call me Sugar. (Cue music).

I have been auditioning for the role of Scarlett O'Hara around here lately. Even the littlest ol' things can command Academy award-winning performances if you add the right amount of drama. It's exhausting, but makes things more interesting...<< MORE >>

Photo: danmachold

Why would Sir-Mix-A-Lot need to clarify that he's not lying about his affinity for big butts? It's not as if "Baby Got Back" — his 1993 Grammy award-winning anthem for women with curves — is so ambiguous we might not otherwise know he's sincere.

"I like big butts," he states firmly as the song's thesis. We know his point of view practically before the music starts...<< MORE >>

I spent most of my life within a thirty minute drive from one of the continent's oldest known Native American archeological sites, and never saw it until recently. I didn't know it was there. This astounds me because I even attended middle-school camp at the adjacent property named for it. If there was a nature walk over to this treasure, I must have opted for crafts instead.

Eagle Rock in Eatonton, Georgia is an effigy mound estimated to be some 3,000 years old. Believed to be a burial site, It depicts a bird, measuring a third of a football field's length from head to tail and nearly as far from from wingtip to wingtip. That's no craft project. Near the chest, it measures up to eight feet in height...<< MORE >>

Photo: Bala

Tom Kelly was an accordion player and owner of an old west saloon. I suppose it's possible he threw a few punches in his day, but I'd bet he never threw stones.

He shouldn't have anyway - the man lived in a glass house. Built it himself out of bottles. Some 50,000 beer, soda and whiskey empties became its walls. In 1906, this kind of recycling program was simply called resourcefulness....<< MORE >>