Put on the Glasses

My cat Leela loves to sit around and knead blankets. She only does it with certain blankets, but when she starts she does this for unbelievably long periods of time. That's a whole lot of adorable right there.

I firmly believe that PowerPoint is overused in the workplace. Many people seem to use it as a crutch or -- and this is really a pet peeve of mine -- simply read off the slides.  Edward R. Tufte's essay  The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within reinforced many of my beliefs: Slides were not meant for large amounts of data. You either lose something by cramming it into a slide or the slide so packed with numbers it is not useful. PowerPoint presentations are not meant to be read later nor should they be posted on your internal corporate website. It is a presentation and something should be lost without a speaker to clarify the content of the slides.  Bullet lists dilute thought through unnecessary categorization. Yes, I know that I am using a list right now. However, not all data or information should be presented with bullet points. The book gives a great example of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address being broken down into a slideshow with grap

Thanksgiving was great this year. Gathered at my sister's house in the morning, where I cooked a turkey using the Cook's Illustrated recipe for Old Fashioned Stuffed Turkey . That recipe always works like a charm. Here is the bird after it came out of the oven: The picture doesn't do the bird justice. Here is a picture of my brother-in-law, Paul, carving up the turkey (my sister Vanessa is in the background): Here is a shot of my husband with a brew as I snapped pictures of the bird: And here is my sister's dog, Jackson, who was very shy and ran away every time I tried to take a picture of him until my niece helped me out: It was a good time. Later in the day, I went with my husband to our second Thanksgiving dinner at the Copeland house. Another round of turkey and stuffing was consumed. Here are the pies I made for dessert: The pumpkin is just a straight up version of Libby's Pumpkin Pie recipe with a homemade crust. The other is my Mom&