Go for Baroque, that’s what I always say

This article from Reuters tells of a student who bought a second-hand sofa bed at a flea market, and found a baroque painting that sold for 19,200 euros. 

PEOPLE PEOPLE PEOPLE, clean out your old crap before putting it in the yard sale. 

Student finds baroque painting inside old sofa

BERLIN (Reuters) – A Berlin student who bought a second-hand sofa bed at a flea market learned she had been sitting on a small fortune when she found a baroque painting hidden inside the couch.

The artwork fetched 19,200 euros ($27,660) in Hamburg after the student discovered it stashed between the folding sections of the couch she had paid 150 euros for last year, the auctioneers said Tuesday.

“She used the sofa bed for a while before realizing the painting was in there,” said Michaela Derra, spokeswoman for the auction house Ketterer Kunst, adding she did not know how the oil painting had wound up inside the sofa.

The student got about 16,000 euros from the sale.

Experts believe the work, titled “Preparations for the flight to Egypt,” was painted between 1605 and 1610 by an unknown artist with ties to Venetian painter Carlo Saraceni.

An “Alexander” Day

Today, I went on a field trip with Princess and her fellow first graders to see a play based on the book … 

Now, for those of you that do not now (or have not recently) have 6 year olds in your house, Alexander is a young boy that has a bad day — he wakes up with gum in his hair, trips over his skateboard, and drops his sweater in the sink — and this all before he even brushes his teeth.  The day ends with lima beans and (even worse) kissing on TV, with all sorts of other disasters in between, and he wants to move to Australia.  His mom does let him know that all people have Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad days, even in Australia.  After having read this book to Chip, I have often referred to bad days as “Alexander Days,” and know the desire to move to Australia. 

So, after getting back to school, I made a run to Target (where I didn’t find a number of things), and went to grab some lunch.  When I turned off my car at Target and later at Al’s Beef the car did something that made me think there was some kind of problem somewhere in the electrical system (it also did the same thing on Saturday).  I had called and sent text messages to both Spouse and Crem, and then when I was driving home (where I was going to do some Internet research to try to figure out what MIGHT be the problem with my car) suddenly my car lurched and all the warning lights flashed for a moment.  At that time the direction my car was heading suddenly (and very intentionally) changed from “home” to “dealer” where my car now sits.  That was 3 hours ago, and I’m really glad I didn’t wait at the dealer for the “hour” that it would take to find out what the problem with my car was.  Now, 3 hours later I discover that the battery was shot but the alternator tested out well so HOPEFULLY that will fix the problem. 

Now, if I knew then what I know now (I always get Die Hard batteries for the vehicle) I’d just have driven straight to Sears to get a new battery — but when the car jerks and acts like it might die in the middle of the street, I take that as a repair emergency and go to the dealer. 

I wonder what else will happen today??  Is it time to move to Australia??

Had I only known

Had I only known, I’d have planned a celebration today in honour of
World Pasta Day. 

Who knew?

Missing Chip

Last week and this week we had parent/teacher conferences at school.  Last week we met with Princess’ classroom teacher and her reading teacher, we also met with Chip’s classroom teacher and his honors math teacher.  Now that Chip is in the 5th grade, I’ve gotten rather used to his teachers telling me what a wonderful charming brilliant child he is, and I’m no longer tempted to do a DNA test when I get home to find out if he actually is my kid or if someone snuck in a clone (which actually would still have the same DNA if it was a clone so what good would that do).  I’ve even allowed myself to be convinced that I must be doing something right if my children are well behaved and with the program at school I mean, seriously if they’re going to be angelic someplace, I’d really rather it be in public.   For 6 years we’ve been hearing the same things about Chip: bright, well organized, well behaved, but doesn’t participate in class.  We know he knows the stuff, he’s just too shy to share.  Well, yesterday I was about to order up the DNA kit again.  We met with Chip’s PI teacher (sort of an honors literacy thing).  When she was telling us all the usual wonderful things about my child (did I mention that we live in Lake Wobegon, where all of the children are “above average”), when she mentioned that, during the discussion of one particular book, MY son, my boy child  was constantlyin the center of classroom discussion. So two messages I’d like to put out in the cosmos. To William Pene du Bois “Thank you thank you, I gravel at your feet” (even though he’s been dead 14 years) and to Chip’s PI teacher

WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY SON???

Update on Ain’t too proud

I posted about an animal hoarding case in Illinois in this post.  The good news from today is that the woman has relinquished custody of all the animals to Tails Humane Society so Tails can now go about finding good homes for all the animals. Now the other good new$ is that Tails Humane Society will be bringing all the animals up to full health, including making sure all the animals are up to date on their shots and are spayed and neutered. 

If you’re in the mood, please feel free to click on the main page of the Tails Humane Society website, and scroll down to the bottom and click on the donate button which will send you to a way to make contributions.  For some reason I can’t seem to get that link directly on my blog. 

If you’re interested there are many cute photos on this page.  I am just totally smitten with the collie puppy. 

 HEY CREM — you need a new friend right??

sometimes I get confuzzled

I was reading this article from the Chicago Tribune and (as often happens when I read news articles) I have some (rhetorical) questions, and I have some excerpts below. 

Chalk gets out emergency message at U. of. I.

U. of I. officials use a low-tech approach to boost high-tech emergency alerts

By Jodi S. Cohen | Tribune higher education reporter

9:03 PM CDT, October 22, 2007

Administrator Robin Kaler needed students to register for the University of Illinois’ new high-tech emergency communication system, which will use cell phone text messaging and e-mail to get the word out in the case of an urgent situation like the April shooting at Virginia Tech.

Okay — contacting students, good.

But students do not always pay attention to official mailings and postings in dorms.

No news there

So Monday morning, Kaler, dressed in a suit and heels, crouched down on the campus Quad and went to work with a piece of purple chalk, scrawling this message on the sidewalk: “Sign up now!!! emergency.illinois.edu.”

Sounds like a plan to me.  

On some campuses, administrators have banned the practice, calling it ugly and damaging graffiti. But for all the sophisticated technology at their fingertips, officials at Illinois recognized that a message works only if people pay attention.

Okay — slightly impressed with the Illinois administration for figuring out what works, and as Univ. of Illinois is a state school, it is my tax dollars, so it’s always good to see them at work.

“It’s funny to see someone in a suit chalking on the Quad,” said senior Sally Yoon, 21, who was competing for attention as she passed out fliers about homecoming. “It’s kind of a messy job.”

Guerilla marketing.  Get their attention.   

But the idea wouldn’t fly at some campuses.

University of Iowa officials last month told student leaders that if they chalk the sidewalks, they could be fined the cost to clean it up, according to The Daily Iowan student newspaper.

Ummm — fined the cost to clean it up?????  Let’s continue to look at this article. 

Rain that afternoon washed away all their hard work. But Kaler, undaunted, said they would be back at it in a few days.

I often have children drawing with chalk on my sidewalks (perhaps they are preparing to be future Illini students.  Cleaning it up has never been an issue.  I guess that the University of Iowa officials don’t know the basic chalk cleaning techniques.  It’s called WATER guys – it falls from the sky.  (No wonder Illinois is a superior school)   

“I love it. I think it’s a great idea,” said Randall of Naperville. “Students will see it because everyone walks through the Quad.”

Not “everyone.”  I wonder if they did similar chalking on the Engineering Quad?  (OH — they actually READ their email).  

Between noon and 4 p.m. Monday, 203 students, faculty and staff signed up—well above the 50 a day the program had been averaging. That brought the total to 2,680; officials hope to get at least 50 percent of the 60,000-plus community members registered.

Cheap effective marketing.   

Robin Kaler, left, associate chancellor for public affairs at the University of Illinois and Bridget Jamieson, coordinator of marketing, write messages with chalk as students head to class Monday in Champaign, Ill. (Tribune photo/Heather Stone / October 22, 2007)

rhetorical question

Question for squib and lecil is there a mercy rule in MLB??  (note timestamp — going into top of 9th)

Just wondering.

Fun and Functional

FreeRice is completely addicting.  You get a vocabulary word and four choices (just like the word thing in Reader’s Digest).  If you get the correct word, 10 grains of rice are donated.  It automagically (which is NOT a word in the game) works with your level so it challenges you and you might learn something. 

WARNING: This game may make you smarter. It may improve your speaking, writing, thinking, grades, job performance..

grabbed from elizabear

Ain’t too proud to beg sweet darling.

Look at this picture. 

 

Isn’t he just the cutest thing?? 

 Now, look at this shot.

 

Looks like it could be setting up for a dog show or something, doesn’t it.  A bunch of crates and towels and such. 

This, my readers and friends is actually an airplane hangar.  It’s not a dog show at an airplane hangar, it’s actually a hoarding rescue.   A woman was living in a house with over 250 live animals, they are not quite sure exactly how many dead animals because some of the carcasses were so decomposed it was difficult to tell whether you were looking at 4 or 10 dead animals. 

Here’s a quote from one news article.

300 animals were alive on the property with 160 cats, 105 dogs, and 35 birds. There were also 200 other dead cats and two dead dogs found.

Whitcombe stressed that the numbers were an estimate as a lot of the dead animals “deteriorated to the point where it was hard to tell whether you were looking at two, three, four or 10.”

The home was searched on Thursday after she failed to bring 35 of her dogs for rabies vaccination. The animals were found kept in cars, many were dehydrated and malnourished.

If you click on  this link (same as above) you will see pictures from the house that held the animals. The pictures are very difficult to look at. Makes me almost want to throw up. The house may be condemned (I don’t think I’d want to live there) and the woman may be comitted (ya think).

I’ve been following this story and while there’s clearly been a lot of work done by many dedicated volunteers (and of them all I truly applaud the groomers from both Petsmart and Petco — I’ve GIVEN cats baths — never a fun job let me tell you) there is still much more that needs to be done. 

Now, for some reason my blog tends to get a lot of hits when I talk about animals.  I’m not sure why that is but I figure — if you got it go for it.  SOOOOOO if for some reason this story has moved you and you feel the need to do something and you live quite far from DeKalb, Illinois, you can do one of the following

1. Send something from the Wishlist to Tails Humane Society
2. Click here to donate by paypal
3. Send a check to
   TAILS Humane Society
   2250 Barber Greene Road
   DeKalb, IL 60115
   (815) 75.TAILS (758-2457)
4. Next time your life seems too quiet or too mundane, head to your local animal rescue and get yourself a new best friend. 

Ain’t too proud to beg, you know it sweet darlin’
Please don’t leave me girl, don’t you go
Ain’t to proud to plead, baby, baby
Please don’t leave me girl, don’t you go
Baby, baby, baby, baby (sweet darling)

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