Okay .. so I’m a bit of a paper hoarder. Sarah has worked on beating this tendency out of me. Its been having an effect.
We’ve been working at it a long while. With the help of the Fujitsu Scansnap S300 I’ve made a ton of progress. This scanner allows me to scan anything that I’d like to save, file it electronically and toss the paper copy. This has made a huge difference. No more stacks of receipts, utilities bills, etc. Now they are scanned, recorded and tossed. Awesome.
Today we took 4 totes of paper to the community paper shred day event. Lots o’clutter. Decluttered.
Sarah is happy
Pretty cool stuff. Sarah and I both were awakened this morning by a 5.4 earthquake at around 5:40am local time (4:40 real time .. because DST is dumb .. thanks Abdul). It lasted 10–15 seconds and definitely rattled the place. It appears the epicenter was around 135 miles to the southwest of us.
Here’s the scoop:
Local Blogs i follow:
The last one that i recall was in the late ‘80s. I was in a car at the time so i didn’t feel that one but i remember everyone talking about it.
Update: looks like the USGS is saying it was a 5.2 now.
Sarah and I were quite the cooks this weekend. On Saturday, I constructed a Lasagna that i think turned out pretty darn well. It should be plenty of food to eat for lunch through the week.
Here are some shots:
Sarah is a better cook than me and a bit more ambitious. 
And likes to indulge in the sweet tooth when her allergies allow. To help to this end i recently found and purchased what i thought would be the perfect cookbook, Vegan Cupcakes take over the world. The first shot at a vegan cupcake would be:
I won’t make reference to the fact that Sarah went straight for a cupcake with tequila in it 
. Here’s a shot of the finished product
Taste wise they were fantastic and the icing very much tasted like a Margartia. Successful implementation to specifications.
On Sunday we whipped out a Vegetarian Chili:
Very meaty for having no meat in it.
Way back in Aug 2005 i posted a map of the places in the world that i’ve visited. Here is a refresher:
Most of these were pass thru-visits on the way to other places. I do need to see more of the country, particularly out west. Continue reading »
I have food allergies that relegate me to a vegan diet with a preference for wheat-free meals. I can eat wheat occasionally, but not too often. When I learned of my allergies five years ago, I thought I’d never get to eat at a restaurant again. I mean, I live in Indy, not known for its vegan-type-people community, so there was no way I could get along. Well, luckily I was wrong, and there apparently are some vegans around. It’s taken some time, but I’ve found quite a good set of restaurants where I can eat.
- Thai One On. Great Thai food in Avon.
- Thai Cafe
- Jasmine Thai
- Pretty much any other Thai place
- Shalimar
- India Palace
- Udupi Cafe
- The Indian restaurant at 96th & Allisonville
- Three Sisters Cafe
- The Parthenon
- The little Mediterranean cafe south of Broad Ripple and the cafe next to it
- Baja Fresh
- Chipotles
- Qdoba
- Moe’s Southwestern Grill
- Viet Bistro
- WB Pizza. The owner’s wife is vegan, so they have a good selection of vegan options. Vegan garlic bread! Stromboli! Pizza!! Very tasty stuff.
- The Abbey. A large percentage of their menu is vegan – including dessert.
- PF Changs
- Olive Garden. A couple of decent pasta dishes.
- Cheesecake Factory. A few options and good drinks.
- Ruby Tuesday. Good salad bar.
- Subway. Of course.
- Chilis. The Chilis in Plainfield was one of the first places I found that would cater to me (’cause I’m so special). The servers were very considerate and careful when I told them of my allergies. For a while they would make me a veggie fajita that was really tasty. Unfortunately, their menu changed and they no longer carried the veggie mix (I don’t know if they have it back or not), but the black bean burger is also safe so I get that now.
There are probably others, but I can’t think of them now. I can usually get a some kind of salad at some places, but that’s usually no fun.
One area I avoid is hotel banquets. I’ve learned not to trust them…ever…no matter what they say. The reason for this is the Westin downtown, which nearly put me in the hospital after they served me a dish they assured me was vegan. I don’t like them. The Marriott handles it much better, but you still can’t be certain they’ll get it right. I don’t want to use my EpiPen, so I prefer not to take the risk at all.
Anyway, it just goes to show that even a non-hippy town like Indy still has good dining options for those of us who eat like hippies.
She’s always lived up to the name. Queen of the house. Not very fast, she’d get there someday. I remember that she would sleep with her paws crossed (2nd from the bottom picture). Kinda cute .. for a cat that is
Sarah rescued her from the pound. We had her since before we were married (aquired during the ‘dating’ phase). This weekend her kidneys gave out and she succumbed today. The vet said she was pushing 15 years old. That’s pretty good for a cat. We’ll miss ya Deva.
Joe
The world of the nonprofit organization is very complicated. Serving the community on usually very limited funding is quite enough, but the current Internal Revenue Code compounds this complexity with extensive and confusing regulations. The missions of these nonprofits can suffer as a result. The FairTax alleviates this burden.
Under the FairTax, the 34 pages of code that currently comprise Section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code that defines tax exempt organizations is reduced to five sentences with a narrower, simpler definition. Nonprofits are no longer classified under one of 28 types of tax-exempt entities (under Section 501(c)) with different rules for each. A qualified nonprofit organization is a qualified nonprofit organization, and the rules are the same for all.
Donations to any nonprofit are tax exempt under the FairTax; whereas they are only exempt (deductible) when given to 501(c)(3) charitable, religious and educational organizations under the current laws. Donations to a 501(c)(4), such as FairTax.org, or other 501(c) nonprofit organizations are not deductible under current law.
Another very important change for nonprofits is that the FairTax repeals prohibitions on political activity. The nonprofit organization will no longer have to go through the significant trouble of setting up a sister organization to provide the lobbying efforts needed to further the company’s mission. The nonprofit will no longer have to worry about losing its tax status, and therefore much of its funding opportunity, if it chooses to become politically involved or support an organization that is, such as a business association.
The world of the nonprofit organization is very complicated, and will probably always be. There will always be funding concerns. There will always be need to figure out how to maximize resources to best fulfill the organizations mission. But under the FairTax, the Internal Revenue Code is no longer adding to the complexity. Nonprofit organizations and their benefactors will be free to focus on serving their communities however they deem most appropriate.
just a little…
You Are 56% Evil |
 You are evil, but you haven’t yet mastered the dark side.Fear not though – you are on your way to world domination. |
A few shots from Christmas 2005
More pictures after the link Continue reading »
Sarah coping with auditors. You take a drink every time they ask for a new piece of documentation.
another disaster relief organization for pets: Noah’s Wish
Help our four-legged disaster victims, too: Humane Society Disaster Relief Fund – 2005
Donate here:
The Salvation Army National Headquarters
Here’s where I’ve been. Plus Toronto.
create your own personalized map of the USA
or check out ourCalifornia travel guide
Support the FairTax
Americans for Fair Tax
Images from our first trip to WB Pizza:
Wow .. i can order right off the menu!
I can’t believe i ate the whole thing.
Yummy!
Having animal protein allergies really limits where one can eat. Last weekend Sarah found a place that caters to this with vegan friendly fare. Its great to be able to go to a place and order normally without worrying about what is in the ingredients that’ll cause problems.
We’ve rewarded BK Pizza on 56th and Allisonville with repeated business since a week ago Saturday (4 visits in 8 days!). Here’s a few pictures of the menu:
Cheese Breadsticks in the foreground (for me) and garlic breadsticks in the background (for Sarah). The garlic butter is animal protein free.
Pepperoni, Onion, Extra Cheese for me
Weird vegetables and stuff for Sarah
On April 16, Sarah and i took a class on Thai cooking. It was mostly a watch the cook make stuff kinda thing but we did learn a couple of techniques that have proven useful and a couple of recipes. The cucumber salad is awesome!
Here’s a fuzzy picture of the teacher: 
nifty tool
These are great products for web designers.
VisiBone
yes, I know. I’m a dork.
