Googleshare! Everybody's doing it. You want to do it too.

Ugh. Today was a doozy. It started off with a massage, which was nice as my back still bothers me plenty, and ended with a mad hunt for Stacey's wallet. But before I can tell you where the wallet was found, you must understand a primary concept of the illusionist's art. It's called 'blackspace' or the use of the color black to fool the mind into thinking a space is smaller than it is. Illusionists use this when sawing a person in half, putting blades through a box, making a person disappear or reappear, and even making a bunny come out of a hat. It's a pretty standard trick. The presense of a black band between two solids (like the frame of a box) is interpreted by the mind to be smaller than it actually is. Sneaking a 3 inch gap between two 2 inch frames gives you enough space to hide a slender sexy assistant (sometimes two!).

So...... we knew Stacey last had her wallet with her in the Escalade (she removed it from her pocket because it was uncomfortable). So the search centered around the truck, the garage, and the store. I searched the truck three times and found nothing, called the store twice and no one had turned in the wallet, and tossed the house (twice for good measure) in case Stacey's memory was foggy, still I found nothing. At this point we assumed the wallet was lost forever. We called to order new credit cards, started planning for a mad dash to the DMV to get a new license for Stacey (who is flying to Indiana on Sunday), and figuring out exactly what else would have to be replaced.

Then it was time to go pick Stacey up from work. We made it all the way home before I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. A little piece of black between two beige pieces of car molding. I didn't notice it before because the black space there looked like a normal shadow effect where two pieces of molding would come together. But at some point during the drive, the wallet had slid around and a corner of it poked out from the shadow. I cried "Eureka!" and immediately the two gorillas that had been hanging on our backs ran off down the street.

The lesson, of course, is never remove your wallet from your pants pocket (well unless you need to get money or i.d. (eye-dee?) or something out of it) and remember the secrets you saw when watching Fox's Secrets of Magic Revealed III.

It looks like I'll be So Cal next week. The driver that hit us in July has another court date and I'm going to be there to make sure the D.A. and the Court understands that we're taking this case seriously. Plus, if he's convicted and sentenced, I'll be able to make a victim impact statement. It may be his first drunk driving conviction, but it is with injury, and it is with two uninsured accidents in his recent past.

A list of net.art sites from a German site. Just becareful, once you start poking around here, you'll find your free time very rare.

Sometimes you find an artists whose work just clicks with your tastes. Here is the work of one artist that I find absolutely wonderful.

BlogChalking is an effort to link all blogs together via one searchable engine and to find blogs from geographically and topically close locations to you. This post is my reminder to go back and add the code when I get a chance.

I need to write something here. At least so says my brother. So, I'm sitting here waiting for my ebay auctions to close and Stacey to get off work and I have a few moments, so let's see what comes to mind.

The holidays seem particularly short this year with Hanakah coming so close after Thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to doing some cooking (as I mentioned before), seeing friends and family, and seeing Disneyland this holiday season. LaughingPlace.com has some great photos of the decorations up right now.

Speaking of holidays, with a great coupon and a sale, we just bought our first fake christmas tree at Sears. I did have to wait over an hour to pick it up while they fumbled around with which store would get the credit for the sale. But now it's waiting for us to set it up and hope everything is okay (unlike last year when we had to return the tree because of lights being out). Over the next few years, we hope to buy a few more trees so we can have all our ornaments out on display at Christmas.

We've also been dining room table shopping (thanks to a generous wedding gift from Stacey's Mom Rhoda) and found the table we want at a price we want. However, getting it delivered in time for Thanksgiving may be a problem. We've also found a bedroom (alas no link on WalkerFurniture.com) set that is a close enough match to our existing chest to complete the set.

Finally, I'm trying to start writing seriously again. I'll post some story ideas later.