Excerpt from “Hanging Versus Folding”:

“After washing, you have two choices: to hang or to fold. Which is best for a particular item depends on several factors…Deciding when to hang and when to fold is only part of the job, however. On the following pages we show you the best ways to do both, so your clothes are ready when you are.”

4:48 p.m.

The best headlines from the April edition of Martha Stewart Living:

• The Finest Seasalt
• Painting a Window
• Ruffles: They are much more than a dressmaker’s detail.
• Ironing Ruffles and Pleats

Bonus points for an article on how to spend several hours hand fashioning and sugaring the marshmallow Peeps that you can purchase at your local grocery store for 40 cents per package. I didn’t even know it was possible to make marshmallows at home. Can you see, dear reader, how I’m becoming just a little more enlightened with each passing month?

10:37 a.m.

Yesterday we got to go home early because of the power shortage. Rolling blackouts are the Californian equivalent of snow days.

2:01 p.m.

The best headlines from this month’s Martha Stewart Living:

• Putting Baking Stones to Use
• Why Scald Milk?
• Arrangement of the Month: Forsythia Fan

11:52 a.m.

Gratuitous Blogger/Web Techniques Plug: Have I mentioned I love my job, and my boss? The magazine I work for just donated a new server to Blogger, the exceptional and free service I use to update my page. Here’s the announcement from the Blogger home page:

Woohoo! Remember I mentioned there would be more good news about the Server Fund? It’s this: on top of the huge contributions you all made, WebTechniques magazine bought us another server. That brings our total Server Fund contributions over $15,000 and gives us enough fire power to last a long time — or enough to hurt ourselves, we’ll see.
Here’s the official press release. Yay! WebTechniques rocks.

-Ev. [1/23/2001 10:43:23 AM]

10:58 a.m.

The best headlines from this month’s Martha Stuart Living:

• Collecting Pincushions
• Remembering Brioche
• Finger-Puppet Master
• Crocus: A little flower packed with big surprises.
• President’s Day Pretzel Log Cabin

10:19 a.m.

I’ve become so accustomed to sardonic blog titles that I cheerfully clicked on Not So Manic Now expecting some witty little coed and a few snippets of his favorite Eminem lyrics. After reading a few posts, including one mention of a suicide attempt, I realized it was a “support blog” of sorts for people with bipolar disorders. Right. Not. So. Manic. Now. Have I mentioned I’m a bad person?

3:17 p.m.

The best headlines from this month’s Martha Stewart Living:

• The Proper Way to Load Your Dishwasher
• Folding Fitted Sheets and Bath Towels (complete with photo diagrams)
• Smoothing a Table Cloth
• Pistachio Valentine
• Gourd Bird House
• Drying Decanters

That said, I’m off to carve some “natural sake cups” out of cucumbers.

2:30 p.m.

EMAIL MOMENT!

Character: Friend who’s spending the holidays with family in Virginia.

Subject: What’d you get for Christmas?

Excerpt:

My parents bought me a leather jacket last night, and, despite the obvious
conservation of animals issue, I look pretty hot in it. I will probably be
wearing said jacket on my return flight as my mother thinks the airline people
know which bags have the expensive coats in them.

12:54 p.m.

Top three headlines from the November issue of Martha Stewart Living:

“Organizing Pots and Pans.”

“Ironing a Table Cloth”

“Pantries of Maine”

2:42 p.m.