Coffee and Oranges Archives

The Cappuccino Kaleidacolor Inkpad

Rubberstampingideas.com has eighteen different cards using the Cappuccino Kaleidacolor Inkpad. Another article at the site discusses ways to use block stamps, also known as shadow stamps.

Name Statistics

Name Statistics tells me that my first name is 127th in popularity in the United States, and that my last name is very rare. I've always enjoyed having a unique name, especially one that is reasonably easy for people to spell and pronounce.

Lightning

Lightning almost seems to vibrate with energy, even when he is sitting still. Despite this, he is a very easy dog to have around, because he is so eager to please. His biggest drawback is that it takes quite a while to pick burrs out of his coat after I walk the dogs.

07/30/2003 18:42:00

I am beta testing the new TypePad application. TypePad is a new weblog host service based on Movable Type. Recently, I made the following posts to my Typepad weblog: Five Acres with a View.

• Dogs
• Riding Hap
• TypePad
• HTTrack Website Copier
• Coyote
• The New Deal Steed
• Farmer's Market
• APOD: 2003 July 22
• Fence fighting
• Bareback riding

07/30/2003 18:41:00

Please view some of my most recent photos in Fotolog: Mirror in the sky , Rain and shine , Morning Glory , Smoke, up close , Close up of mountain mahogany

Position is Everything

Position is Everything has the mission statement To explain some obtuse CSS bugs in modern browsers, provide demo examples of interesting CSS behaviors, and show how to 'make it work' without using tables for layout purposes. (via Simon Willison's Weblog )

Puppy Love

Puppy love: Lily, a golden retriever, gazes up at me as I stand on the deck above her. Our two guests, Lily and Lightning, a Sheltie, are settling in very well. We now have a full chorus: Lily's tenor and Lightning's soprano to join with Dudley's bass and Lody's alto. Perhaps I ought to tell the neighbors it is temporary.

Sunset Fotolog

One cool feature of fotolog is the way that various theme fotologs have sprung up. There are fotologs for dogs, cats and various states. This morning, I found one for sunsets. Zen's Fotolog Community List is trying to track the groups.

The Neon Nurse

The Neon Nurse's Charting is a weblog by someone I have known for twenty years, and have even met once. (We were joint members of the same APA , a pre-Internet communication device.) She also lives in Colorado in a semi-rural area.

All You Can Eat

The new field is not green like it was a month ago, but the horses still seem to enjoy going out in it. However, unlike a month ago, Rags will actually take breaks to go up to the barn and stand in the shade when the sun is at its height.

07/28/2003 09:30:00

I just checked my archives and discovered that I have been writing this weblog over a year now. I started on July 24th, 2002 as an experiment and started telling people about it around two weeks later. Initially, I wrote a fairly simple Perl script to format and post my entries, which became a lot more complicated as I added permalinks, comments, images and thumbnails. As time went on, I started to post photos taken with my digital camera and tried to make my posts more descriptive when I link to something. Now, I am experimenting with TypePad in Five Acres with A View to see if I like the approach to weblogging which uses server side software.

Smoke and Rags

Smoke and Rags seem to be enjoying the cooler weather as much as I am. Here, they are after I let them out of the barn yesterday. Although they are very bonded to one another, they don't usually stand so close together unless it is fly season.

Shrub Trees

I am not sure about the name of this shrub tree. Our horse pasture is full of them. A guy who helped build our fences told me they were mulberry trees, but I have been unable to confirm this. In any case, the berries are very red and brilliant this year, set off by the deep green of the foliage. Updated 2003-07-28 I've included a closeup photo of the fruit and leaf, and a photo of the whole tree. The fruit tastes quite tart and slightly lemony, but not bitter.

Google Alert

A few days ago, I signed up for Google Alert, a web service which is not affiliated with Google. The service allows you to track the top fifty items returned by Google for three items. For example, I am using it to track my name and the phrases "rubber stamping" and "clicker training." It will automatically send you email when something changes in the list that you track. It also allows you to create an RSS feed of the information.

Inkadinkadoo

My first rubber stamp was from Inkadinkadoo. I bought it from a kiosk at the Baltimore Harborplace, long before I started rubber stamping. For years, I didn't really know what to do with them, though they were handy for entertaining kids that visited. Although this website does not have a catalog, it does have some project guides and highlights of their new product lines.

Rose Sunrise

Usually, just before dawn, the time I took this photo, a cool wind starts and blows for several hours. With any luck, the house will be completely cool before it stops. Today looks as though it will be another very warm day. I walked the dogs early, and we were all hot when we got back to the house.

Morning Walk

I took Dudley out for a walk around six this morning, and we both enjoyed the cooler temperatures at that time. This is my view of the mountains to the west as I climb up the trail to the mesa to the north of our house.

07/22/2003 11:50:00

I've added another duck!

Explanation

Mileage Year of 2003 Month of July Markers 351.18 35.71

Paleolithic Cave Art

I found this fabulous site about paleolithic art in France via Adrienne's Surfer's Picks. Some of the paintings look like they would make great soft-block carvings.

John Robb on Effect of Cheaper Computer Storage

In his newly moved weblog, John Robb writes about the effect of cheap computer storage on how we use computers. I find it amazing that I have a 128M CompactFlash that has six times the storage of our first non-Commodore PC, and things are getting even more compact.

He also asks people to link to him so that his new address gets propagated quickly.

July Sunrise

Rays of the rising sun appear behind the hill to the northeast of our house. While looking at some scripts in Paint Shop Pro, I learned how to add a drop shadow to my photos. Since I always have to go into PSP to resize my photos anyway, it adds hardly any extra time to add the shadow effect.

Morning Sky

The dawn sky was very dramatic yesterday morning. While I stood on the deck and took some photos, the hummingbirds fought at the feeder behind me. This photo was of the sky looking east.

Getting Photos Ready to Carve

Prepping Photos for Carving Using Adobe Photoshop by looks as though it would be useful with Paint Shop Pro as well. This site, Designedly Kristi, also has galleries and other tutorials.

07/20/2003 06:50:00

Please view some of my most recent photos in Fotolog: Colorado sunrise , Colorado barn , Yucca fruit , Trees and rock at Garden of the God , Sunrise.

07/20/2003 06:46:00

I am beta testing the new TypePad application. TypePad is a new weblog host service based on Movable Type. Recently, I made the following posts to my Typepad weblog: Five Acres with a View.

• Smoke
• Not a good day
• The Foundling
• Update

Duct Tape Prom

While looking for instructions for making a book out of duct tape yesterday, I found these incredible Duct Tape Prom costumes. I am totally awed.

Hay Creek

I walked along the road yesterday because I was tired of picking needle and thread grass from my clothes and shoes after walking the local trails. The trees in this photo screen the small creek that gives our valley its name. The meadow by the creek is a favorite of the local deer, and I always slow down before I get there in case a deer decides to cross the road.

AOL Journals

AOL Journals has a beta test site. The documentation indicates that it is a fairly comprehensive, basic weblog package. If anyone already has an AOL login, it might be worth checking out.

Rufous

The broadtailed hummingbirds at our feeders have been joined by at least one Rufous Hummingbird. This is bad news for the broadtailed hummingbirds, since the Rufous is even more intolerant of sharing a feeder than other broadtails. A few days ago, I saw a sign at a bird feed store in town that said "Bad boy Rufous is back."

Surfer's Picks

Surfer's Picks from Yahoo is another way of finding interesting new sites. Yahoo ought to give each of their surfers, who maintain the Yahoo directory, a weblog. (via A Whole Lot of Nothing ) He calls them the Web's Amish, doing a job by hand that has elsewhere been automated to be done by programs.

Making Hay

This photo does not capture the pastoral beauty of the Colorado bottom land where we picked up hay yesterday. We got an early start, to beat the heat, and it was still quite warm. I did the easy part, guiding the trucks as they crawled along in the granny gear.

Hot

Yesterday was a another very hot day. I took this photo when I walked the dogs early on, when it was already warm. Dudley chased two deer, but circled back to meet me with great enthusiasm: "Hey, I thought you got lost, but look, I found you!" Otherwise, although some good things happened, it was Not a good day. I wrote a long post about it in "Five Acres with a View."

Amber Waves

In America, The Beautiful, Katherine Lee Bates writes about the Colorado Front Range where I live. I have occasionally seen the purple mountains majesty, and this year I am seeing the amber waves of grain as well. Although I find this small meadow to the north of house very pretty, I will probably be cutting it soon, to provide a buffer between the wildlife and the base of the house.

Scenic Stamping Links

This site has scenic stamping links of interest to those who make scenes with rubber stamps. It includes a gallery of scenic art, links to rubber stamp companies with suitable images, and some tutorials. Unfortunately, it is a geocities site, so it take a while to load.

A Day In the Life

A Day In the Life is a photography website. Each week, a photographer from a different locations takes a photo each day. This week, a photographer from Harlam is contributing photographs. (via J-Walk Blog )

Moon Set

The waning moon sets behind the hills to the south west of our house. We have had a bit of a break in the heat with a storm yesterday afternoon. The air smells very fresh and clean right now.

Petunia

My petunias are doing well. I suppose that is the whole point of petunias. The herbs look quite healthy as well. The cinqfoil, on the other hand, does not look good, and I wonder if it will survive. Everything else looks reasonable.

Sun Touched

On my early morning walk Friday, I took this photo from the north as the first rays of the sun touched our property. This time of the year, the sun is blocked as it rises by the hill to the northeast of us. Our buildings are very plain, but here they turn golden. First light is the best light.

CSS Wiki

CSS-discuss is a Wiki discussing Cascading Style Sheet issues. It has pages on CSS Hacks, how to avoid using hacks, browser statistics, and other topics.

07/13/2003 07:35:00

Please view some of my most recent photos in Fotolog: Morning on the mesa , Garden of the Gods in the morning , Because you can never have too many sunsets... , Earth mover , Wild geraniums

07/13/2003 07:15:00

I am beta testing the new TypePad application. TypePad is a new weblog host service based on Movable Type. These are my most recent posts in my Typepad weblog: Five Acres with a View.

• Clicker Training
• Differences
• Garden of the Gods
• Vanity publishing
• The Importance of the Interface
• Zempt
• Swat!

Meadow

Yesterday morning, I managed to get myself and the dogs out of the house so we could walk while it was still cool. I took this photo of the meadow on the plateau to the north of our house. I love the various shades of green and gold this time of year.

Watcher

Last night, as I took the camera out to take a photo of the sunset, I looked up to see this young buck watching me. He was grazing in the field across the road from us to the west.

Early in the Garden of the Gods

Jack and I had to take the truck for some service this morning, so after I dropped him off at work I took Dudley for a walk in the Garden of the Gods. It was already warm, but not yet crowded, and I enjoyed seeing the park emptier than usual. Dudley was a very good boy, though he did get a little excited when he saw the local equivalent of chipmunks. I don't think his intentions were benevolent. In this photo, the sun is still low enough in the sky to be blocked by some of the massive red stones.

Mozilla

I have been using Mozilla 1.4 for quite a while now. I had been using Popfile, a Bayesian spam filter for even longer. I started using the Mozilla mail client because of the promised Bayesian spam filter but the original implementation didn't work too well for me, so I went back to using Popfile. However, the Mozilla mail client had enough features that I found useful that I kept it around.

A week ago, I decided to try Mozilla's spam filters again. I deleted the file that contained the old spam filter entries to start fresh, did some additional setup work in Mozilla mail preferences, and turned off Popfile. The first three days or so, I left my preferences set so that Mozilla would mark the junk, but not move it to the junk folder. I also set up my preference so Mozilla deletes anything that I mark junk. After a few days, I changed my preferences so that Mozilla automatically moves what it considers junk to the junk folder. I still carefully watch that file, but am getting very few false positives.Most of the junk is getting marked now, though it is hard to say the exact percentage. One drawback to the Mozilla approach as opposed to Popfile is that Mozilla doesn't seem to keep statistics of how things get marked.

Hummingbrids

I took this photo a few minutes ago of a hummingbird landing on our deck feeder. Our neighbor to the north reports that she is seeing fewer hummingbirds at her feeders this year, and Jack agrees. I don't know whether to blame the West Nile virus or last year's drought.

Free and Cheap Art Projects

Dindrane's Disiecta Membra is a website with a list of Free and Cheap Art Projects. This site also has art journal pages and artiststamps. Included on the list are origami, zen sand painting, and fairy furniture. Another page has quotes on writing and books.

Silhouette

The house on the ridge to the northwest of us is silhouetted against the sunset sky.

Solar System

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is an artist's rendering of a newly described solar system that is thought to be closer to our own than any found before. I have a weakness for astonomical paintings with several celestial objects in the same sky.

07/08/2003 20:32:00

I am beta testing the new TypePad application. TypePad is a new weblog host service based on Movable Type. Recently, I made the following posts to my Typepad weblog: Five Acres with a View.

• Too Hot
• From the north
• First post

Rags

I took a camera down to the fence line last night to snap photos of the sunset sky. Rags couldn't quite believe that I wasn't down there to do something useful like let him into the new field with its grass.

Five Acres With a View

For some time, I have been interested in Movable Type, but didn't feel like installing it myself. When Typepad was announced I put my name down for more information. As a result, after filling out a questionnaire, and promising not to discuss the details, I was given the information to become a beta tester. Here is my Typepad weblog Five Acres with a View. I will probably be posting both places for a while, and will put reminders here.

Desert Bloom

After the drought last year, I feel as though I am watching the desert bloom this year. Although my wild flower walks are wonderful, I have to spend ten minutes when I get home picking the burrs and stickers that I and the dogs accumulate without even trying.

Skins

I am finding Cascading Style Sheets addictive, once I got past the sticking point that they don't do layout like html tables. I spent much of yesterday playing with the possibilities, and still just scratching the surface. I have created several style sheets for my weblog based on my original model. If your browser is set up to use them, you can try them out by checking on the items under Change the look of this weblog in my sidebar. I am using the style switching approach documented by this A List Apart article.

Sunflowers

The plateau where I walk is covered with sunflowers now. I have always been fascinated the flowers that turn to face the sun in its progress across the sky. This Rocky Mountain news article talks about the wild flower season .

Text Style Sampler

This text style sampler, from Small Initiatives, allows you to try out the effect of various text changes on the appearance of a document. This site has other tip sheets and web design articles, as well as links to additional design web sites.

Butter and Eggs

Sometimes the prettiest flowers have the strangest common names. This member of the figwort family is known as butter and eggs , or the equally odd toadflax.

Redesign

Things look a little different here because I decided to redesign my weblog to use Cascading Style Sheets. Please let me know if the results look particularly strange in your browser. I've checked the new format in Mozilla 1.4, MSIE 6.1, and Opera.

Salsify

This is another flower that my botanist friend helped me identify. Right now, there is a lot of salsify blooming on and around our property. This member of the sunflower family has a very distinctive seed head.

Mountain Mahogany and other finds

I had vaguely known that there was something known as mountain mahogany , but I didn't know how much of it was on the hills around our house until I went on a walk with my botanist friend. Here is a closeup of the leaves and odd flower of this tree. I haven't yet been through the horse field to see if we have any in the shrubs there. Over on my photolog, I just posted a flower photo that I took this morning. I think I have identified it as the Mariposa Lily. It is quite spectacular.

SoBig

I don't usually pay much attention to computer virus or trojan horse scares, but I received several emails with the SoBig attachment today. One subject said "Your Application" and the other subject said "Returned mail." I unzipped the file and when I noticed that the extension on the unzipped file was ".pif" deleted the whole thing and went looking for details. I wish the people who wrote these things would get a life.

Merry Stamper

The Merry Stamper is a Colorado rubber stamp company that sells themed plates of images, including one with coffee images.

Shelley's Trip

Shelley, of Burning Bird, is documenting her trip to San Francisco on her weblog. I especially enjoyed her photos on July 1st, since I recently drove the same route across I-70 through Colorado in reverse.

Harry Potter

The Neon Nurse has put a photo of the versions of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on her web site. I think of the three, I like the cover art of the version (in the center) that I read the least. I enjoyed the book, but hope the next one isn't any longer than this one. From left to right, the versions are: UK adult version, USA version, and UK children's version.

LangaList

LangaList is an email newsletter sent out twice a week most weeks, with a variety of tips, software solutions, and other technical discussion. Most of the information is for Windows users, though there is some information about dual boot systems.

Font Garden

The Font Garden Archive has a lot of cool quotes, using even cooler quotes to illustrate. (via Anything but Ordinary )

07/02/2003 07:27:00

Please view some of my most recent photos in Fotolog: Looking west last night , Clouds over Garden of the Gods , Flower pot detail , Another from Garden of the Gods , Idyllic

The View

I took this photo looking east from our bedroom last night. It was a lovely evening: 72F degrees and soft breezes blowing the wind chimes. I could occasionally hear the chirps of the hummingbirds at the feeder. As usual, I had to get up and close the slider in the middle of the night because it had become a little too cool to keep it open.

Wired News reports on a

Wired News reports on a census in Central Park called BioBlitz. The report intrigued me because a botanist friend just went with me on a walk on a hillside behind our house, and I was amazed about how many different things she identified for me, some of which I still remember. We saw vetches, cacti, mountain mahogany, many types of grasses, mullein, yarrow, wild geranium, wild roses, mulberry trees, shrub oaks, thistle, penstemon, correopsis, choke cherry and even a dessicated puff fungi. We did not, to my relief, find locoweed or noxious weeds, though we did find some things that were less than completely desirable, like cheat grass. And over and over, we found DYC, which my friend says is short hand for damned yellow composite flower. The variety of plants in just an acre was amazing. (Comments on correct spelling are appreciated for this post. (Mullein corrected due to Anita's comment.)

Alyssum

My alyssum is starting to grow. For quite a while after I first planted them, the little plants just sat there and looked quite feeble. The herbs are mostly doing well, though the apple mint is attacking the parsley. I have been thinking of digging the mints up and putting them in a barrel.