A sofa that converts into a BUNK bed?

Quite a feat of engineering.

Real Estalker

A site that details the buying and selling of massive, extravagant houses by the rich and famous. Why do I suspect I'll be spending more time on this site than I'd like to admit?

via Shelteriffic

Tips for buying a humidifier

Might be handy as dry winter weather approaches.

College to offer homemaking course -- to women only

I wonder if this will be a controversial decision.

Where Is the World’s Highest Concentration of Millionaires?

I wouldn't have guessed it's in Singapore, with Qatar coming it at #2.

What happens if electoral college is tied on election night?

How it could happen, and what we'd have to do.

NYC Trade Center dig exposes Ice Age landscape

"Crews excavating the World Trade Center site this summer for the foundations of a new skyscraper have uncovered features carved into the bedrock by glaciers about 20,000 years ago, including a 40-foot-deep pothole."

How crayons are made

via Testosterhome

Shocking reality TV revelation!

I cannot tell you the amount of drama and exasperation that this post saved me (and my poor husband): blogger Y of Joy Unexpected, who has the home makeover show Trading Spaces filming on her street, reveals that the carpenter has a lot of help -- like a crew of three or four other guys -- to complete his elaborate carpentry projects.

This is VERY relevant information for me. Inspired by those shows, I was trying to convince my husband that we should undertake grand home makeover projects in which we, say, build an entire home entertainment center complete with sliding cabinets and nesting drawers in a weekend. "C'mon, how hard could it be?" I would say. "I saw that dude on Trading Spaces do it all by himself in like a day!" Oh, the naivete.

10 Stylish Ways for Displaying Kids' Art

Some good ideas.

Common pitfalls in fiction writing

Literary agent Rachelle Gardner shares some of the common errors she sees fiction writers make that turn her off as an agent.

Test your color IQ

How well do you know your hues?

via Geekpress

Thoughts from the desert (to those who may be there soon)

Abigail has a thoughtful post, as she imagines what it might be like for high-flying Wall Street folks who were hit hard by the recent downturn. As someone who has been in the throes of financial struggle for a long time, she writes:

Jesus has yanked all of us into the wilderness. Jesus has stripped away the illusion of financial security. It’s scary at first. You look around and only see 'lack'-- a lack of food, a lack of water and a lack of shelter.

Yet I’ve been hanging out in the desert of financial uncertainty for a while. Let me show you around.

It’s harsh here, but beautiful. Here’s a place to test an inner strength you never knew you had. The friends who see you in your humility, the ones who lend you diapers when your babies run out, or who whip up baked lasagna when their own husbands are unemployed, or who join their hearts in prayer when you just can take the collection calls anymore, those are the dear, dear friends. You can't make a single friend like that on a singles cruise in the Aegean Sea.

It is harsh here in the desert. Yet it is still. It is the perfect place to hear the soft, tender words of God.

Read the rest here.

Look Who's Irrational Now

An interesting article in the Wall Street Journal that points out that belief in God tends to make people less superstitious. Great quote from Chesterton at the end: "It's the first effect of not believing in God that you lose your common sense, and can't see things as they are."

via Thinking Christian

A great resource for helping friends in need

I just used Care Calendar to help schedule meals for a friend who just had a baby, and I'm very impressed. You can block out the dates where care is needed, and people can individually log in to note the days and times they'll be helping (meals, doing laundry, yard work, etc.) It's a great way to support families who just had babies, have a member recovering from surgery, are facing serious illness, lost a loved one, etc. Scroll down on the main page of their website to learn more.

The Art and Beauty of Microfluidics

A beautiful slide show.

via Geekpress

10 tips for a great (and cheap) date night

I loved this list, particularly since it's geared for couples with young children and limited budgets.

Sounding out

Danielle Bean has a nice article in which she analogizes the process of learning to read with the process of raising children. An excerpt:

I sometimes feel that my day-to-day life has a lot in common with the painful process of learning to read. It's easy for me to get lost in the tiny tasks that fill my days: Change this diaper. Fold these clothes. Chop these vegetables. Sweep this floor. Grade this math work. With my attention on these smaller tasks alone, though, I risk losing sight of the whole picture of my motherly vocation. All the little things a mother does in a day are necessary parts that make up a whole, just as learning letters and sounding out m-u-d was a necessary part of Stephen's first sentence.

Read the whole thing here.

What did the Neanderthals look like?

Using DNA from 43,000-year-old bones, National Geographic recreates the face of a Neanderthal woman (they think she had red hair!)

via Presurfer

A couple drove from Argentina to Alaska in a 1928 car

And wrote a book about it. (via Geekpress.) That's nothin'. This family is biking from Alaska to Argentina with their two kids. (Right now they're in Montana.)

The United States ranked according to economic freedom

Interesting chart. Here's more info.

via Geekpress

The Onion hacks Obama's Gmail account

Here's what they found. (Warning: some heavy profanity).

via Geekpress

As social networking searches increase, porn searches decrease

Interesting.

The layman's financial crisis glossary

A helpful guide with clear definitions of important-to-know terms like "credit crunch," "derivatives," "short selling"...and even "recissionista."

A fascinating look inside North Korea

Some riveting pictures -- and don't miss the captions.

The short but eventful life of Ike

Some stunning pictures of the Houston-area hurricane damage.

Fix for a t-shirt that's too tight

For those of you with sewing skills.

via Simple Mom

Amazing shadow dancing

From the Oscars a while back:

Before and after room pics

Inspiring. (Although unfortunately all the "before" pics look better than my house is on its best day.)

via Simple Mom

John Cleese on the "God gene" - hilarious

via Inside Catholic

10 Richest People of All Time and How They Made Their Fortunes

Very interesting -- and Bill Gates didn't even make the cut!

Why is it So Hard to Wake Up in the Morning?

I ask myself this question every day.

The lovely life of the Poor Clares

The Anchoress has a great post about the life of the order of nuns called the Poor Clares, who live in cloistered convents and have little contact with the outside world. Don't miss this biography of an accountant who became a Poor Clare -- you wouldn't guess from those early pictures that she'd end up being a cloistered nun! What a great story.

"What vintage fiction taught me about homemaking"

This is a great post.

via Betty Beguiles

Hasidic Jews to New Yorkers - Put on some clothes!

A refreshing article.

How to organize preschoolers' toys

These are great tips.

Playstands for creative play

I'd never heard of Waldorf Playstands, but these look great.

via the Wine Dark Sea

Doctor worries that Trig Palin will mean that fewer Down Syndrome babies are aborted

Dispatches from the culture of death:

A senior Canadian doctor is now expressing concerns that such a prominent public role model as the governor of Alaska and potential vice president of the United States completing a Down syndrome pregnancy may prompt other women to make the same decision against abortion because of that genetic abnormality. And thereby reduce the number of abortions.

Published reports in Canada say about 9 out of 10 women given a diagnosis of Down syndrome choose to terminate the pregnancy through abortion.

Dr. Andre Lalonde, executive vice president of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in Ottawa, worries that Palin’s now renowned decision may cause abortions in Canada to decline as other women there and elsewhere opt to follow suit.

via Cartago Delenda Est

Pictures of hurricanes from space

Wow!

Large Hadron Collider updates

For those who worry that the Large Hadron Collider will destroy the earth by creating a black hole, here's a site with updates on the situation.

via Leave the Lights On

Disney motto helped dad, autistic son survive at sea

Get your kleenex ready for this one.

How to Shuffle and Cut a Deck of Cards One Handed

Important information.

51 Things You Aren't Allowed to See on Google Maps

A list of some of the locations that Google has been asked to blur out. Interesting!

40 Days for Life begins Wednesday, September 24

Here's how you can get involved.

Scorpions in the house? You need this.

Who knew that there was actually a product that keeps scorpions from getting into beds? First of all, I feel vindicated since I have long held that scorpions have a horrifying tendency to gravitate to beds. Anyone who's read this series of posts on my other blog knows I'll be getting some of these.

The woman who smiled

A mom who takes young children to Mass writes about the power of a simple smile from a fellow parishioner. Anyone who has ever felt like their children weren't welcome at a church service will be able to relate.

Watered-down juice selling at the same price as regular juice

Interesting:

Here's a perfect example of why you should always approach "healthy" labeling on food products with a skeptical eye. Summer did a quick side-by-side comparison of regular Mott's apple juice with new Mott's Plus Light. What she found was that except for a few added vitamins, the Light product was just Mott's juice diluted by 50% with water—but selling for the same price as the 100% juice.

Dolphins creating bubble rings - amazing

The evolution of national flags

Interesting.

Stunning pictures of dew droplets

Some amazing closeup photography!

via Neatorama

The new Titanic

The pictures of this luxury cruise ship are unbelievable.

The truth about hot dogs

The point of this article is that hot dogs aren't quite as bad as some say...but after seeing that graphic of what parts of the pig are allowed in hot dogs (stomach? lips? windpipe??), I think I'll be skipping the Oscar Mayer section of the grocery store for a while.

10 Free Dates That Your Wife Will Love

A good list.

UPDATE: I just read #9 -- terrible, terrible idea. Clearly a man wrote this list. Or at least a man who is married to someone very unlike me. Other than that, it is a good list. ;)


via Simple Mom

Making Sunday a day of rest

Kelly has an inspiring quote about making Sunday a day of rest from Christian scholar Eugene Peterson:

DJ: What spiritual practice has most shaped your walk with God?

Eugene: Keeping a weekly Sabbath -- a day my wife and I define as "praying and laying." A day we don't do anything that has to be done.

When we realized that the command to keep a Sabbath is one of the most repeated in Scripture and yet the most ignored in our culture, we had to readjust radically the way we were living. No other decision has made as much difference to our lives across the board. It has impacted our marriage, children, church life, friendships, writing ... the works.

Sabbath-keeping shifted our attention from what we were doing for God to what God was doing for us. Our work became subsumed in His.

Read the rest of her post about the subject here.

What does your taste in music say about your personality?

I thought the chart at the bottom was funny, although I'm not sure if it's supposed to be.

via Random Reflective Rantings

Tip: consider starting your Christmas shopping now

A super-organized friend of mine says she's going to start her Christmas shopping in a couple of weeks. Not a bad idea! Here are Dave Ramsey's tips for Christmas shopping, and here's a handy chart that lists Amazon discounts by category.

Baby advice from a mom of seven

A friend and mom of seven wrote this in an email after hearing of my new pregnancy:

Here is my one piece of unsolicited advise that I give EVERY expectant mom: Get a Miracle Blanket so that you and baby can SLEEP. www.miracleblanket.com (I get no kickbacks, but I tout this thing on every corner!!!)

Seriously, I wish I had discovered it for my first five children. I found out about it for my sixth, and I was NEVER sleep deprived! And even though my seventh had colic and was much fussier than the sixth, it worked for him, too, and they are the happiest healthiest little guys. I never lost sleep with either one, because of that blanket. My four-year-old still sleeps with his blanket next to him.

Sold!

What to do when you feel angry at God

Some good tips.

On being "free" of kids

Antique Mommy has a nice post about how she's not counting the days until her son goes to college.

Baby carrier comparison chart

A helpful chart for understanding the differences between different types of baby slings and wraps.

Ringing the bells

A sweet post at Creative Minority Report about his first crisis of faith and why he blogs.

The FedEx box from the movie Castaway

Very amusing, especially if you saw the Tom Hanks movie Castaway.

7 Cool Household Science Experiments

Sounds like fun.

Catholic Media House

I just got an email announcing the new site Catholic Media House, and I think it looks great. It has all sorts of multimedia resources for Catholics. This video called The Gift of Worship is particularly good.

Crazy optical illusion

Check out this optical illusion. Stare at the + and you'll see a green dot that isn't really there, whereas if you follow the moving dot with your eyes they will all be pink. Then, if you stare at the + long enough, all the pink dots disappear.

Inspiration for writers and artists

I loved this anecdote from Finslippy's latest post, which she found in the book Art and Fear:

A ceramics class is divided into two groups. The first group is graded on quantity: it doesn't matter how good their stuff is, just how many pounds of work they end up with. The second group is graded on quality: it didn't matter how few pots they create, just how perfect the final product is. Can you guess who ends up doing the best work? It's the quantity group: the students who churned out work day after day and learned from their mistakes. Meanwhile, the quality group had wasted time mulling over how they could achieve perfection, so by the end of the class they had "little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay."

It's all about working and working and working some more, no matter how crappy you think it is. You are never the best judge of your work, so shut up and work and don't stop to wonder why it's not a masterpiece.

Read the rest here.

A volcano eruption in a lighting storm

Breathtaking must-see photos.

The God Defense

The National Review has a Q&A that has an excellent response to modern atheists' claims. Very good.

A baby moose plays in the sprinkler

Blog by an 85-year-old lady

A lady left a comment on my other site mentioning that she is 85 and has a blog. That gets an automatic link.