AIM + Neil Gaiman book + cats + kid = 2 hours sleep last night.

Crime just doesn’t pay.

I have always loved medieval Books of Hours, which are some of the most stunning examples of Western calligraphic art and illumination. Here are a few examples:

Bibliotheca Schoenbergensis: An Exhibition from the Collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg Books of Hours, A medieval French book of hours, Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, which is my personal favorite, Book of Hours, another Book of Hours.

You are wondering, I know, why Miguel is talking about medieval French books of hours. Well, something was familiar about the redesign D did for this site. So I went looking for his source of inspiration. And had to slap my forehead when I finally found it: “Presumptionis,” one of the most popular books of hours of the 13th century, although there is some disagreement between scholars over whether it should be considered a medieval or a pre-renaissance work, displaying as it does characteristics of both epochs. Go there now.

Eh, it seems the kilt-raise-on-MouseOver isn’t loading reliably yet. It’s being looked into; in the meantime try hitting “refresh”.

This girl is such a Unitarian.

Eh, D, my brilliant designer, could I have a word with you?

When I left the US about 20 years ago, you could get 1% milk in the stores. Normally we drank 2%, except my dad liked this 3.8% milk that my mother said would kill him sooner or later. He said it tasted better. What I’m saying, skim milk was the normal thing for us.

In Austria, it’s hard to find a cow that produces anything under 2%. I mean, low-fat here is 2%. And it’s gone through some process that makes it curdle faster, so if you’re shopping for the weekend, you have to buy normal milk as that stays good longer. And normal milk here has up to 4.5% fat, at least I’ve seen milk with that much; it was actually advertised as a positive selling point, being a richer product.

The fat thing hasn’t come to Austria yet. Mmm, 4.5%.