Obama Foodorama: The Obamas Make History With Homebrewed White House Honey Ale

Obama Foodorama: The Obamas Make History With Homebrewed White House Honey Ale

5 Amazing Things Invented by Donald Duck (Seriously) | Cracked.com

I loved Donal Duck as a kid, and then loved watching the Scrooge McDuck cartoons. Who says you can learn anything from a cartoon?

5 Amazing Things Invented by Donald Duck (Seriously) | Cracked.com

KT Tunstall tickets, concerts and tour dates. Official Ticketmaster site.

KT Tunstall tickets, concerts and tour dates. Official Ticketmaster site.

Oopps I just realized I used Elmer's Ultimate glue, not gorilla glue

I think it's basically the same stuff, but I should give credit where credit is due. This Ultimate Glue sure did the trick with the floor lamp bases. Now, I will go back and correct my past entries.

Floor lamps with bases fixed!

Floor lamp base fixed by gluing top of base with gorilla glue, bolts to attach lamp pole tightened, now one lamp or torchiere as (I've learned they are probably called) is good as new and the other just needs replacement glass; which I ordered today. Progress!

Fixing our wobbly floor lamps

If there is glass in the house, most likely I will break it. To John's dismay I've broken several drinking glasses. But on Friday I was rushing around trying to get out the door and make it to a yoga class when I realized I left my phone charging on the living room end table. Stupidly I walked over there with my gym bag and yoga mat in tow. I felt the lamp sway a little but I figured I could still grab my phone and steady the lamp at the same time. Wrong. The lamp come crashing to the floor and the glass lamp shade exploded in a million tiny pieces.

We considered just getting new lamps, especially since after we moved in 2005 with "professional"* movers (Moishe's) somehow our floor lamps were never quite the same. They wobbled and were very tipsy. But since they are on the floor and are very rarely moved it didn't seem like a big deal. We took the better part of Saturday to shop all around the Lighting District, but didn't quite find what we were looking for and plus the prices were a bit high.

Since I had to at least get a new lamp shade, I called around and asked if anyone could repair the lamp base. One place recommended that I email a picture or two and they would let me know if they could repair it. Well, once I actually took a look at it, I realized it would be a (fingers crossed) fairly easy fix. The base is some kind of cement or ceramic material that was encased with black plastic. The problem was that the top part of the base broke off, the lamp was not attached to the base at all since the bolt only attached it to the top portion. I thought a heavy duty glue would do the trick.

I have a bottle of gorilla -correction used Elmer's Ultimate- glue that I couldn't use any more because somehow the bottle glued itself shut. I kept it around since it was an almost full bottle, and I figured if I was really desperate I could some how cut the top off and use the glue then throw the rest away. I tried jabbing a hole with a small pair of scissors, until I realized that my electric drill would do the trick. I don't get a lot of opportunity to use the drill, so I relish the times that I do. I held the glue bottle in one hand and just drilled a few holes with the other. I rinsed and wiped off the drill bit immediately after since I didn't want to ruin my drill bit with glue. And eureka I'm back in business.

The following our pics of my handiwork. I recommend taking pictures whenever attempting to fix things, not only to make long drawn out, rambling blog posts; but to also serve as guide when it comes time to put the thing (what ever you are fixing) back together again.

*The movers at Moishe's also managed to break a $200 dollar light fixture in our old building. And they crushed my very expensive hat we got in Paris for a hat wedding.

The King's Speech

Months ago in early Fall, our friends Karin and Paul invited us to a special screening of a movie, we couldn't remember the name of the movie but we knew it had Collin Firth (who's name I always get confused with Collin Farrel) so we decided to go, mainly because we wanted to see and hang out with our friends, and also because it was free. Karin is a member of the Producers Guild of America. She gets a to invite a few guests per showing. My expectations were pretty low, remember at the time I wasn't exactly sure which Collin I was going to be seeing, and if it was Farrel it probably wasn't going to be the best movie ever. But as the screen lit up with images of England, I was glad it was Firth but also a little skeptical....another English royalty movie really???

But within the first scene of the movie, I knew this was a British royalty movie of a different sort. Who hasn't met someone with a stuttering problem, or even have had a touch of this speech impediment themselves. It's horrifying to watch and even more so to go through, couple that with being public speaking royalty and it makes for good cinema. Even better that it's all based on a true story, a story that many still remember. I remember really liking this movie, at the end there was even a Q and A with Collin, Helena, the Director and a Producer. I was sorry that the screen writer and that Geoffrey Rush were absent. Because to me the screen writing and Geoffrey Rush made the film.

It was a great film, and over the next few months I got to view many other of the soon to be Oscar contenders from The Fighter, to True Grit, to Black Swan. And although I believe Black Swan should have had more recognition in many areas, for make up and costume at the least. I do think that The King's Speech was the best picture this year. But that's just my two cents.