Madame Brewer

I'm sure the comparison has been made. I mean, it has to have been made. Just sayin'.

Arizona Biltmore Hotel, Phoenix, AZ

We took a weekend to go up to Phoenix to stay at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel with our friends Ken and Marie. We had a great time and I managed to take a whopping three photos the whole time we were there. I guess that means we were having too much fun. We ate way too much (the "all inclusive" package turns out to be a smoking deal, by the way) and probably could have drunk way more, but certainly had our share. We only left the resort one time on a shopping venture. We checked out The Container Store, which was actually kind of cool. If you need a container for something, they probably have it. They are apparently the IKEA of storage. We actually bought a bungie office chair there. It's neon green. Then Joan and Marie went to a store called Last Chance, which is like a big Nordstrom bargain bin. Or so I'm told. Ken and I went into Lonestar and had a beer.

Sunday morning Joan and Marie signed up for a pedicure before we left so we met up at the little "cafe" and had a quick bite to hold us over till lunch. Then Ken and I broke out my petanque game for the first time. Petanque is a boules game similar to bocce. I guess you could say it's the French take on bocce. I like it--it moves quickly. Of course, Ken soundly whomped me two games in a row.

Once the girls were done with their beautification procedures we used the last of our food vouchers and had another fantastic meal before hitting the road. I have no complaints about The Biltmore. It's a great resort. But above all else, they have fantastic food. I enjoyed everything we had there. It was a lot of fun.

On the way back we stopped off to spend a small fortune at IKEA. A few weeks ago Joan and I went up there and purchased a desk for the office room we recently refinished. This time we picked up a matching tall bookcase and a low shelf for under the window. It should look pretty good but I'm not looking forward to putting it all together. Those Danish drawings can be confusing...

SunChips Go Compostable, Week 20/12 (Progress???)

It appears that the bags are finally showing some signs of breaking down. The adhesive or heat sealing or welding or whatever method they use to create the seams and closures of the bags has given up the ghost and the bags are no longer bag-like structures! The original bag is also showing further signs of breaking down, showing small holes and other translucent areas. Next week I'll take more detailed photos of that bag's progress.

You will also notice that the "staked" bag--the one meant to mimic the breakdown process of roadside litter--has bleached out significantly in the summer sun of Tucson, Arizona. Compared to the other "older" bags that spend their days in a very dark environment, the difference is striking. Even though we have hit the monsoon season we have actually received very little rain here at the house. I'd like to see the effects of some heavy rains on the bag. Cross your fingers and break out the drums, we need a rain dance!

I thought that Quizno's cup would have all but dissolved by now, but it's holding together pretty well. I doubt it would hold water for long and you certainly wouldn't want to drink from it, but it still looks like a cup. A crushed and disgustingly discolored cup, but a cup nonetheless. You wouldn't mistake it for some other bit of trash.

In a Word, Tedious [A Review of E. O. Wilson's Anthill]

Anthill by Edward O. Wilson, a review

I wanted to like this book. I really did. E. O. Wilson is a fine science writer and certainly knows his stuff, and maybe that's the problem with this book. Have you ever had a conversation with someone who feels the need to include every single detail and every possible bit of knowledge surrounding a subject even if none of it has much to do with the story? That's Wilson's Anthill. The overly detailed narrative and lack of action is like trudging through mud in heavy boots. Even when he gets around to writing about sex I found myself saying, "OK, yeah, I get it. Move on already!"

The first forty percent of the story reads like a transcript to an uninteresting PBS documentary on post-antebellum society where the most exciting aspect of the documentary is the word post-antebellum. The narrative picks up slightly when Wilson pens the Anthill Chronicles section, but not much. This section reads like the voice over for a Discovery Channel series following an ant colony. This is the section I kept reading for and I was, unfortunately, disappointed. The narrative falls victim to the same over-attention to tedious detail and also suffers from a fair amount of anthropomorphism--see, Wilson wants to make sure we get the part where ants and humans share many parallels so he frequently makes "just like humans" references. And guess what? Turns out people are like ant gods! That's right. The ants view our big shadowy tree-like selves as gods who like to leave manna from heaven behind for the ants to find.

The are plenty of problems with the basic storyline--believability, character consistency, etc. But any of those problems are overshadowed by the drudgery of the prose. I had to take a few breaks and read some other things in order to prevent my brain from solidifying. I can't think of anyone I would recommend this book to. Like I said, I really wanted to like this book but just ended up wondering why I stuck with it to the end.

SunChips Go Compostable, Week 09 (or is it 17?)

It has been a few weeks since I did an update on this project. I've been having some fun and so the photo tracking of the bag compost project has taken a back seat to play time.

I have to say, there's still not a lot of change going on here. The two bags in the tumbler don't look too much different from each other. I would have expected some greater progress by now. Like I have said before, this is a small composter. It's not going to generate the kind of heat a large or commercial compost pile will create. I get that. But I still think it's taking an awful long time.

The "roadside ditch bag" is still intact, but it is definitely starting to bleach out and lose its color. That is a pretty good indication that the bag is starting to break down as well. Once the rain starts (oh, monsoons, where art though?), it should really get going. I wouldn't be surprised if this bag breaks down before the ones in the composter!

How about that Quiznos cup? It's progressing. Slowly. But it's ugly and I don't think it would be functional at this point.

And guess what? I threw some biodegradable spoons into my other bin several days ago. I'm not going to bother tracking them because I'm sure it will take a long time. But they are out there.