February 15, 2010

     When is a big snowstorm not a blizzard?

     We on the East Coast just had a big snowstorm. At our house we got about three feet, had a couple of days' break, then got another foot. Some people had a foot more than that. When Tivoli looked out the sliding glass door at the mountain of white, she was deeply impressed. For the first time she no longer felt it was beneath her dignity to use the kitty litter box Bill so kindly set up for her.

     We suffered some too. Bill had to do an immense amount of shoveling. The satellite dish was covered with snow, so we lost TV, and we also lost our Internet connection and the daily newspaper. We were, however, only without power for ten minutes. In Maryland next door, where they value their beautiful old trees more than they value their heat and light in winter, some people were without power for several days.

     But the newspapers had no business calling what we had a blizzard. I've recently read an amazing description of the real thing in Judy Blunt's book, Breaking Clean. She describes her experiences growing up in Eastern Montana, where the wind blows down unimpeded from the Arctic Circle. I grew up in the Bitterroot Valley, which is sheltered by mountains. It is, in fact, called the Banana Belt of Montana, and ranchers from Eastern Montana used to retire there to enjoy the balmy weather. (Yes, really!)

     Judy Blunt described the REAL blizzard of 1964. "When it hit," she says, "the house bent and shrieked, a sound like nails pulled from damp wood.... Stovepipes hummed, beams creaked, snow blasted against the north windows like birdshot. Overriding it all was the wind, an urgent moaning under the eaves that rose in sustained shrieks, like a cat fight."

     Local ranchers reported it was twenty-seven to thirty-five below zero, but no one calibrated the wind. Years later she asked her father, who was out in it trying and mostly failing to save his livestock, how powerful the wind was. Forty or fifty miles an hour? Sixty or seventy? "Sixty," he said, "seventy." She then tried to calculate the actual temperature including the wind chill factor. She got 116 degrees below zero. "Had to be at least that," he said. "Had to be."

     Every state has things it does best. Virginia, for example, has glorious springs. But for real blizzards and the gold medal for Best Blizzards, it's Montana and the Dakotas. Hands down.

     Janette Blackwell

----Table Of Contents----

1. Does Chocolate Addiction Exist?
2. Best Chocolate Recipes
3. Fiber, The Diet Workhorse
4. 6 Non-Chocolate Mood Boosts
5. How To Be Happy First Thing In The Morning
6. Cat Has Special Visitor Every Morning
7. National Wildlife Photo Contest Winners
8. Choose Photos National Geographic Uses
9. Lazarus Arise!
10. Restore Deleted Files Easily
11. Where Did My Stupid Computer Put That File?
12. How The Dinosaur Got In The Closet
13. Educational Websites Kids Will Love
14. Grow Your Salads In A Box
15. Garden In A Lightbulb

1. DOES CHOCOLATE ADDICTION EXIST?

     For a scientific analysis, try the following article:

http://www.everydayhealth.com/diet-nutrition/
food-and-mood/lifestyle-changes/
does-chocolate-addiction-exist.aspx

     THE SWEET SCIENCE OF CHOCOLATE. A good EXPLORATORIUM section to explore with a bar of your favorite chocolate in hand:

http://www.exploratorium.edu/exploring/
exploring_chocolate/index.html

2. BEST CHOCOLATE RECIPES

     Oh, man, are there a lot of them online. The following struck me as exceptional.

     MARTHA STEWART says these are her best:

http://www.marthastewart.com/photogallery/chocolate-indulgences

     CHOCOHOLIC.COM has a "best chocolate recipe of the month" contest. Submit yours and it may be featured.

http://www.chocoholic.com/chocoholic/recipes/recipe.html

     BEST MOIST CHOCOLATE CAKE RECIPE is actually the name of the site as well as a description of its entire content. It claims this cake will be the best chocolate cake you ever tasted:

http://www.bestmoistchocolatecakerecipe.com/

3. FIBER, THE DIET WORKHORSE

     Upping your fiber is a painless way to cut back on your weight, and a painless way for me to assuage my guilt at making chocolate the lead item. Most Februaries I resist, but sometimes I fall.

http://www.everydayhealth.com/diet-nutrition/101/
nutrition-basics/fiber-the-diet-workhorse.aspx

     HIGH FIBER RECIPES FROM MAYO CLINIC:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/high-fiber-recipes/RE00099

4. 6 NON-CHOCOLATE MOOD BOOSTS

     Find here a number of healthy ways to boost your mood:

http://www.everydayhealth.com/diet-nutrition
/food-and-mood/tips/boost-mood-and-metabolism.aspx

5. HOW TO BE HAPPY FIRST THING IN THE MORNING

     Okay, she's one of those irritating morning people who enjoy getting up early. But she's got some good ideas.

http://deadrooster.com/happiness/how-to-be
-happy-first-thing-in-the-morning

     MY CAT PUNKY IS A KLEPTOMANIAC. Same author, different subject.

http://deadrooster.com/cats/my-cat-punky-is-a-kleptomaniac<</a>/p>

6. CAT HAS SPECIAL VISITOR EVERY MORNING

     If you enjoy animal pictures, this is an excellent site to explore:

http://www.animaltalk.us/for/
Animals/cat-has-a-special-visitor-every-morning/

     Find many more delightful animal videos and pictures by clicking on ANIMALS, PETS in the 1000 BEST SITES column at the left:

http://tourthesites.com/

7. NATIONAL WILDLIFE PHOTO CONTEST WINNERS

     They have a contest every year, with some spectacular photos resulting:

http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/PhotoZone.aspx

     ENTER 2010 WILDLIFE PHOTO CONTEST, which has more than $30,000 in cash prizes:

http://takethef.com/2010/01/call-for
-entries-national-wildlife-announces
-40th-annual-photo-contest-2010/

8. CHOOSE PHOTOS NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC USES

     Not only can you send your photos for use by NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, every month the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC features two photos: one chosen by its editors and one chosen by readers through an online vote. Learn all about it here:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/your-shot/

9. LAZARUS ARISE!

     Every now and then I hear a roar of agony from Bill's office, where he has spent a half hour tip-tapping at his computer to create an email ... and then hit the wrong key and the whole thing disappeared. He should have had LAZARUS. Unfortunately there's a catch: LAZARUS is a FIREFOX add-on, and Bill is devoted to INTERNET EXPLORER as browser. Let me say, though, that FIREFOX is free, the vast majority of techies prefer it to INTERNET EXPLORER, and it has dozens of free add-ons that will make your computer perform wonders just short of the miraculous.

     Find information on LAZARUS here:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/lazarus
-%E2%80%93-a-must-have-firefox-add
-on-to-save-your-form-data/

     Come here to learn about the juicy, free add-ons you can get if you download FIREFOX:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/

     And read about and download FIREFOX here. If I could do it, anyone can.

http://www.firefoxdownload.com/

10. RESTORE DELETED FILES EASILY

     RECOVA is said to be a program that "even a computer moron could use," which I found cheering. It will restore files that have been accidentally deleted from your computer:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/restore-your
-deleted-files-easily-with-recuva/

     And then there's UNDELETE PLUS, which not only enables you to recover lost files but makes the search easy:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/recover-lost-
computer-files-with-undelete-plus/

11. WHERE DID MY SUPID COMPUTER PUT THAT FILE?

     Sometimes you haven't deleted the file at all. It's on your computer, along with hundreds of other files with strange sounding names, but where? MAKEUSEOF gives you several ways to find out:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/
top-4-ways-to-find-that-elusive-file/

12. HOW THE DINOSAUR GOT IN THE CLOSET

     When parents fantasize and their kids suffer:

http://www.dadcentric.com/2010/01/
the-dreaded-backfire.html

     PARENTING TIPS THAT WORK. Tips from the people who know: parents. They've got some remarkable suggestions here:

http://www.parenthacks.com/

     And for more remarkable suggestions, click on PARENTING in the column at left.

http://tourthesites.com/

13. EDUCATIONAL WEBSITES KIDS WILL LOVE

     I wish they'd had these when I was growing up. They sound like so much fun.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-educational
-websites-for-children-that-are-fun/

     COOL GAMES TO MAKE THEM LOVE MATH. You know what got me when I was a kid? The teacher already knew the answers to the arithmetic problems she assigned. What was the point? Now I do see the point: those stupid problems are the reason I can still do basic arithmetic. But, oh, if there'd only been a program that made it all fun.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-cool-
games-to-get-your-kids-interested-in-mathematics/

     Let your kids have more good, clean fun - a lot of it educational too - by telling them about the KIDS' FUN section in the lefthand column.

http://tourthesites.com/

14. GROW YOUR SALADS IN A BOX

     You makes the box and then you plants the salad. And this clever salad-grower is small enough to pull into the garage on frosty nights, enabling you to start the salad earlier in the spring. (And let me add that, if you're not handy, you could start your salad in a ready-made window box and do the same. And, if you had something like an old steno chair, you could wheel the thing in and out of the garage.)

http://www.sunset.com/garden/fruits-veggies/
small-space-salad-box-00400000011785/

     INTENSIVE GARDENING IN SMALL SPACES. So many yards are surrounded by shade trees, and, unfortunately, virtually all vegetables want at least a half day's sun, preferably more. But, if you can find a small sunny patch, you can use these techniques to grow big crops there.

http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf643291.tip.html

     FIRE ESCAPE GARDENING. I do think your local fire department will want you to leave a free path on that fire escape, though.

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/
veggies-fire-escape-gardeners.html?smid=FBPLG-FBS-ART

15. GARDEN IN A LIGHT BULB

     The tiniest garden of all: a terrarium in a light bulb.

http://thehipsterho.me/2010/01/
how-to-make-a-tiny-terrarium-in-a-light-bulb/