April Fools

In the 16th century, France celebrated the New Year just like we do today, except they partied on April 1st. In 1562, Pope Gregory changed the calendar to the one we use today and from then on, the New Year began on January 1st. Those who didn't know about the new calendar, or ignored it and kept celebrating on April 1st were called April fools and everyone played tricks on them.

In France today, April 1st is called Poisson d'Avril, which means April Fish. Children tape paper fish to their friends' backs and when the young "fool" finds out, the prankster yells "Poisson d'Avril!" In England, tricks can only be played in the morning. If a trick is played on you, you are a "noodle." In Scotland, you are called an "April gowk," which is another name for a cuckoo bird. In Portugal, April Fools' is celebrated on the Sunday and Monday before Lent. Pranksters usually throw flour at their friends. Nice.

Here's some traditional April Fool's Day jokes

Got Milk? If your milk comes in a cardboard container, add a few drops of food coloring. It's harmless.

For a fruity April Fool's practical joke, get a few gummy worms and carefully poke them into fresh fruit, particularly apples. Mom will love this.

April Showers: Put a rubber band around the kitchen sink spray nozzle handle when nobody's looking. Make sure the nozzle is pointing up and outward. The next person to use the sink will get a splash! Too funny!

Here piggy piggy. Let three pigs loose in a high school hallway. Funny enough, but first, paint the numbers 1, 2, and 4 on them. They'll be caught quickly enough, but imagine the time spent hunting down number 3.

I won't be playing any April Fools jokes this year, mine's in the White House.

Green Thursday: Cool Globes

In 1999 Chicago plunked hundreds of life-size cow sculptures on its sidewalks, just for fun. This summer (June - September) the Windy City will showcase 100 five-foot globes, but with a purpose—each illustrating a different way to reduce global warming. A huge knitted sweater will cover a sphere called "Turn Down the Thermostat." Autographed shoes from athletes like Magic Johnson will add 'soul' to a "Use Your Feet" globe. "I didn't want to focus on the doom and gloom," says Cool Globes founder Wendy Abrams. "I wanted to focus on solutions."

Just like the cows, the globes will be auctioned off. The money raised will be used to expand environmental programs and conservation clubs in the Chicago public schools.

It's part of the Clinton Global Initiative, (Yes, President Clinton,) who's goal is to increase the benefits and reduce the burdens of global interdependence; to make a world of more partners and fewer enemies; and to give more people the tools they need to build a better future.

Book a trip on the train to Chicago (unless funding gets cut again,) and check it out.

Every Green Thursday, LipsYard will deal with an issue vital to our global environment.

Rodent in the house!

Maybe I embellished that a little bit, it was actually a Muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) in the garage. Here's how it happened. I pulled into the garage Friday night, and left the overhead door open (oops!) In the front of the garage, we had a bag nearly full of leaves and yard waste. Charmaine arrived home after me, and closed the overhead door. Next morning, when we left for the grocery store, I noticed that the bag had a hole torn in it, and some of the contents were spilled onto the floor. "Probably a mouse or chipmunk," I thought. I put the torn bag and contents into a new bag, and off we went. 45 minutes later, as we're unloading groceries, and leaving the door into the mudroom open, I notice that the 'double bagged' yard waste was now ripped open. "Bigger than a mouse," I surmised. That's when Charmaine noticed the foot-long beast with a foot-long skinny tail (that rules out a squirrel) huddled under the rototiller.

Unable to "frighten out" the poor critter, we moved to plan b, removing things from the garage so there would be no place to hide. Cars were backed out first, then the trash can and wheelbarrow. "We should call Mr. X (our neighbor)" "Yes!" we both screamed. Mr. X knows about everything, including critters.

In a flash he was in our garage, reaching for the muskrat with his bare hand. "Don't!" yelled Mrs. X, fearing a rabid bite or what not, so Mr. X grabs a broom and goes after it like he's on ice playing for the Stanley Cup. The poor thing waddled towards the door and was then whacked by Mr. X, slapshot style, down the sidewalk. Not being the brightest of beasts, or hell-bent on making a nest, she turned around and started towards the garage door again. I grabbed a snow shovel to block, Mr. X raised his broom, Charmaine closed the garage door. Under her car our Muskrat scampered, then prodded by the broom handle, took shelter under my car.

Time for some new players in our drama. Neighbors from down the street were walking their giant golden retriever. "A-ha!" I exclaimed, "the hunt is afoot." Sam, the dog, had other things on his mind, and took no interest what-so-ever in the rodent, not even giving us the satisfaction of a 'bark bark' or two.

To break this impasse, Charmaine backs her car out into the street, leaving the Muskrat stranded under my ride. Slowly I backed out, not wanting a squashed road-kill mess to clean up, slowly the creature backed up with me. Once in the street, Muskrat still under me, I accelerated away, with our new friend waddling down the curb, prodded by Mr. X's broom (he's unrelenting.)

Muskrat Susie, or Sam, took shelter under another neighbor's van, and so we headed back to our domicile, needing to replace all the contents now on the driveway. It was at this point I realized I should have grabbed my camera first, and captured the entire event for posterity, or at least You-Tube, but alas, all I can muster is the drawing above. Here is a nice video of the song Muskrat Love, acted out by "Star Wars" characters.

Postcards from the edge

Over Christmas, our family headed to the Riviera Maya, south of Cancun, Mexico. It was a wonderful respite from Winter in Wisconsin. Mexico is an annual vacation destination, and every year, while sitting on the beach, I write Christmas greetings postcards to a handful of friends. Once finished, I drop them off in the mail slot in the hotel lobby and hope for the best. Three months later, they're starting to show up in people's mailboxes!

Some years they arrive within a week or so, some years, never. I've always suspected Mexican Postal workers of steaming the stamps off ($1.05 each, American) and reselling them, tossing the hapless tourista cards in the trash. This year, when the card to ourselves (also a tradition, and a test of the postal system) didn't arrive within a reasonable time (8 weeks) I assumed the worst.

(local Mexican Post Office)

Here's what an un-named multi-national company advises on the "Servicio Postal Mexicano." ...there is an open debate about its effectiveness. No self-respecting business that places much importance on the timely distribution of its correspondence would rely on it for anything other than mass-mailings. Companies tend to have "propios", in-house messengers, for the delivery of important correspondence and paperwork of any kind. Invitations for important functions are also hand delivered, although usually by a specialized delivery company.

Make all the jokes you want about the US Postal Service, but they get the job done. Even with the impending rate increase May 19th to $.41 1st class and $.26 for postcards, it's still a bargain.

What Color is your Ride?

Each year, DuPont Automotive releases its Color Popularity Report, a study analyzing and predicting color trends by model type and world region. In 2006, silver was the most popular color in North America, making up 19 percent of all vehicles. White, gray, black and blue rounded out the top five. My "Bamboo Pearl" (light metalic green) didn't even make the list. My wife's gray ride made the list, along with my parent's blue. My neighbor just bought a new silver SUV. He's always had a silver vehicle.

Colormatters.com has a survey that a car's color tells about the personalities of the people who drive them. Black reflects an aggressive personality and is the color car most likely to be in an accident (no doubt a favorite at the White House.) Silver means someone is cool, calm and slightly aloof. Green indicates hysterical tendencies. (Not sure where my "Bamboo" fits in, maybe mildly hysterical) Yellow reflects idealism, and white is for status-seeking extroverts. Cream is self-contained, controlled and least likely to be in an accident.

Want to know what car colors will be "in?" This article from ADAMM spells it out

Dispenser protection

For my birthday, I received a big bag of the new Dark Chocolate m&ms. Yummy! Mom and Dad also gave me a squirrel-proof bird feeder for the LipsYard. We have a problem with the adorable fuzzy-tailed rats hanging upside down on our tube feeders and hoovering the bird seed. The feeder is from the "Fundamentals" line at Wild Birds Unlimited, and it has a wire cage spring-loaded over the tube, so when a fat squirrel hangs on it, the feeding holes are covered.

In an effort to aid in my weight-loss program, my adoring wife decided to combine the two gifts...
Keeping me from eating them all at once. Boo hoo.
Perhaps we should install something like this in Washington to keep our elected officials away from all the money the lobbyists are dispensing.

Green Thursday: World Water Day

Will you have your 8 glasses of water today, you ARE drinking that much water, aren't you?

Some aren't so lucky. Water scarcity already affects every continent and more than 40 percent of the people on our planet. The situation is being made worse by population growth, urbanization and the increases in domestic and industrial water use by people who live in more
developed areas.

As we take showers, wash our cars, and frolic in waterparks, consider that by 2025, more than 2.8 billion people worldwide will be living in water-stressed countries or regions.

In much of the world, the issue is not so much a lack of water, as gaining access to it. In many cases, it is a question of funding shortages, poor management and governance, unfair distribution and pricing of water, and the lack of political will to change the way in which we use and share water.

What can You do? Actively support governments, non-governmental organizations, private foundations and companies which make it a priority to conserve, recycle and protect water
resources, and deliver affordable water to people at every level of the community. Do your part to use water more efficiently, reduce pollution and protect the environment. Support funding initiatives that help to make these objectives possible. Everyone needs water and everyone needs to take responsibility.

The international observance of World Water Day grew out of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. Click HERE to learn more.

Every Green Thursday, LipsYard will deal with an issue vital to our global environment.

Snack Missing in Action

We take so many things for granted in life:

• Stuff in the Miller Park toilets goes into the sanitary sewer


• Which lane to use through the Marquette Interchange project


• There's nothing political about the Justice Department (just ask the White House)


• and Your favorite vending machine snacks

Here at Radio City, the loading dock vending machine choice D-9 has always been Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies. They used to be $0.60, then $0.65, then $0.75, and now they're gone! Replaced by Grandma's Vanilla Creme mini-cookie bites.

They're OK, but for a choco-holic like me, it's no comparison. I want my Amos. I'm never around in the early morning when the vending guy refills the machine, so I can't ask him where they went. The person in our building responsible for the machines has been transferred out of the building, so there's no one to report a missing cookie snack to. Who is this Grandma, and what has she done with Amos?


Every afternoon, when I take a stroll out back for a Diet Coke (if the machine is taking dollars) and a comfort food snack, it hits me like a ton of bricks; No Famous Amos cookies! For now, I'm taking it as a kick in the pants for my weight-loss plan, but when I hit my target weight, I'm expecting my good friend "Amos" back in D-9 for an "all things in moderation" snack.

Spring be Sprung, Eggs be stood on end!

Tonight (March 20, 2007,) at precisely 7:07 P.M. Spring arrives! This is known as the Vernal Equinox. On the equinox, either spring or fall, the sun rises exactly due east and sets exactly due west. These are the only two days of the year this happens. The sun also crosses our daytime sky along the equator of the earth as seen in space. I love the longer daylight hours, and the increase in the sun’s intensity.

This year is also the very last time the equinox will fall on March 21st in our lifetimes. Astronomical events are measured in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) which is 5 hours ahead of us. With President Bush's advancement of Daylight Saving, time there will not be another spring starting on the 21 in this century. It will be either the 19th or 20th of March for a very long time.

Modern astronomy aside, people have recognized the vernal equinox for thousands of years. There is no shortage of rituals and traditions surrounding the coming of spring. Many early peoples celebrated for the basic reason that their food supplies would soon be restored. The date is significant in Christianity because Easter always falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. It's no coincidence that early Egyptians built the Great Sphinx so that it points directly toward the rising Sun on the day of the vernal equinox.

The egg is one of the most literal and obvious of all fertility symbols, ancient eggish customs survive not only in the form of Easter eggs, but also in the belief that you can stand a raw egg on end during the equinox. This comes from the notion that, due to the sun's equidistant position between the poles of the earth on the first day of spring, special gravitational forces apply.
It can be done (on any day of the year,) with lots of patience (it also helps to secretly shaking the egg, so the yolk breaks, lowering the center of gravity, but that's cheating.)

Spring Cleanup

Sunday was a beautiful day in the mid-40's.Time to bust out the bamboo lawn rake and have at the Winter snow mold and plowing-tossed debris on the front yard.
My arms and shoulders are going to be sore tomorrow!
Ta-Da! Front LipsYard done. (back LipsYard still has snow piles in the shade)
Debris put in the compost bin in the LipsYard garden. Now that the long Republican Congressional Winter is over, there's a little cleaning up going on in Washington.
Congressional Hearings are popping up all over. Iraq, Veterans' Hospitals, that pesky Dick Cheney CIA leak...
The Fired Federal Prosecutors (Karl Rove, it's hammer time) the Federal Communications Commission, heck, we're ready to have a hearing for just about everybody. It's about time.

White Deer on the loose

White White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus)

My parents have been talking about a 'white deer' roaming through their neighborhood, and we all thought they had been hitting the Mogen David or needed their meds adjusted, but they finally have captured the beast with a camera, and it's real!

In the Arthurian legends, the white hart or white stag is a mystical beast pursued by the Knights of the Round Table.
Sir Sagremor pursues a white hart in Les Merveilles de Rigomer, another is hunted in the Forest of Adventure in Chrétien's Erec and Enid, Floriant chases one to the castle of his foster mother Morgan Le Fay in Floriant et Florete, Percival cuts off the head of a white stag in the Didot Perceval, and Sir Gawain quests afer the white hart in book three of Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur.
It has been conjectured that the White Hart of Arthurian lore may have been drawn from Celtic myths, in which the stag was considered a sacred animal, or may be related to ancient Celtic stag cults known to have existed in early Britain.

Click here if this kind of thing excites you and you want to know more


In doing a Google search on white deer, I was amazed at the bandwidth devoted to these creatures. Here's a site the explains how white deer get to be white deer. It claims that 1 in 30,000 deer are absent of color.

Wisconsin seems to have a perpensity towards white beasts of lore, as shown in this photo of "Miracle" the white Buffalo, born in Janesville in 2006.


White Buffalo (Syncerus Caffer)

Any way you look at it, a white deer is good luck, so we'll take what we can get and leave it at that.

Green Thursday: Oh Poo!

Dye confirms problem with ballpark sewers (from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

"At least one sanitary sewer pipe from bathrooms at Miller Park could be misconnected to a storm sewer draining a stadium parking lot, allowing human fecal bacteria to flow into the Menomonee River...Colored dye poured into sinks inside the stadium was observed in a storm sewer about 10:21 a.m. Tuesday, said Peter R. Topczewski, water quality protection manager for the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District. Prior to that time, bathrooms inside a Milwaukee Police Department office in the basement of the stadium and a private suite on an upper level had been tested. By noon, the dye was seen flowing out of a storm sewer pipe that discharges to the river east of the stadium and south of I-94."

If they don't get this fixed by Brewers Opening Day (April 2) it'll mean porta potties at Miller Park.

Aren't there inspectors on these construction projects that sign-off on different stages? Is this my tax money hard at work? We had to have several inspections on our house remodel. Heck, the guy wouldn't even let us move back in because we didn't have locks on the bathroom doors.

You can do some testing yourself, check out this website.

Just pour the color down the toilet and wait for it to show up 'who knows where?' You can also dye test the rain run-off from your gutters.

Every Green Thursday, LipsYard will deal with an issue vital to our global environment.

March Madness

I'm missing the sports gene. Nothing could interest me less than plopping down on the couch for 36 holes of golf, or 2 halves of basketball, or however many innings they play in baseball. NASCAR? It's WWE wrasslin on wheels to me.

I do peruse the front page of the sports section so I can hold my own in cocktail conversation that may turn to sports (but I do need to move to someone else after two sentences.)

March Madness is upon us, and I can't think of another sporting event (it lasts HOW LONG?) that permeates all levels of society, especially in the workplace. "Have you made your picks?" "Do you want in on this pool?" "You put them in the final four?"

The cost to employers in lost productivity could exceed $1.2 billion over the course of the 19-day event, as they circulate pool entries, speculate around the water cooler, and watch games on-demand online. Lord knows how much will be wagered around the world.

Not to be a party pooper, I usually submit my entry fee and willy-nilly selected brackets, only to check back after round one to find out I'm dead last. One year I was beat by a housecat.

A couple of years ago, I tried a new strategy, mascots. Could a Badger beat a Razorback? How about a Blue Devil? My system provided better results than in the past! One time I used the numeric value of the letters in the team's nickname, the higher the better: A = 1, B = 2, C=3 etc BADGERS = 56. Not very accurate.

Rob Amen of the Pittsburg Trib has some other creative choice systems, including:

Graduation rates: Every year, Richard Lapchick of the University of Central Florida compiles the graduation rates of teams competing in the tournament. The schools with the worst rates? Pick 'em.

Party on: Texas tops the Princeton Review's list of best party schools. The Longhorns know how to celebrate, which means they must win a lot. Other notables: WVU, Wisconsin, Florida, Indiana, Arizona and Maryland.

The Big Dance: Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa and BYU all have solid dance programs. Coincidence? Not likely.

Considering this is LipsYard, I should take the state flower of each team and figure out a way for them to compete. Too much work, and flowers don't fight much.

Perhaps with Greendale's Police chief on a gambling crackdown (remember the small prize bingo bust?) I should just skip the NCAA this year.

Hey, who jacked up gas prices?

While we weren’t looking, there’s been a slow, steady climb in the price at the pump. The latest Lundberg Survey reports the average price of a gallon of regular unleaded, nationally, is now $2.55 a gallon. That's up 20 cents a gallon over just the last two weeks, and is the highest prices we’ve seen since September. Sadly, we have become complacent and desensitized to high prices and have gotten used to paying more for gas. Even $3 a gallon would be palatable, as long as we don’t get there too fast. That’s why the slow bleed method of rising prices (up 20 cents, down 15, up another 20, down 15, lather-rinse-repeat) is a winner for Big Oil.

Milwaukee gas prices are in a stable pattern right now, but are predicted to keep rising into summer. These price increases have been made a part of the spring ritual, as predictable as the emergence of crocuses.

(Crocus imperati)

Here’s a website to help you find the lowest prices around our area

Supply and demand drive the price of any commodity, and there’s always more than one reason given for a limited gasoline supply: Planned maintenance and repairs to refineries, blend switchovers, a refinery fire, overseas political unrest disturbing crude supply, and the Bush administration’s answer for an energy policy, longer Daylight Savings Time. (Yes, it is actually raising demand.) It’s like there’s a rolodex of reasons that just keep getting thumbed through.

What we need is more refining capacity, but it’s been 30 years since a new refinery was built. The oil companies say they want to, but are held back by environmentalists. As long as that standoff continues, gas prices will be vulnerable to any little ripple in the supply chain. When a huge disruption, like Hurricane Katrina, comes around, we really see the weakness of the system. All of this is just fine with Big Oil. Too much supply and the price would drop.

While unemployment is up, wages are down and benefits are nonexistent. The gas prices are killing the lower and middle class that are making lower wages. This shouldn’t be a shock to anyone. We elected (sort-of: don’t get me started on that rant,) oil men for president and vice president for eight years.

Why we really changed the time early

Did all your Daylight Savings Time changes work, or were you late for church? Here in the LipsYard household, 15 clocks (including 2 cars) had to be changed manually, 2 clocks have DST buttons on them, and our computer running Windows XP made the jump thanks to a patch sent out by Microsoft last week.

Congress and the Bush administration would have us believe the early change now, and the late switch back in November, will save the country lots of energy. Michael Downing, author of Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time believes the extension of daylight-savings time is designed to help manufacturers and retailers.

Over the years, Congress has repeatedly studied the effects of Daylight Savings Time, and every time it turns out we haven’t saved anything. The best study is from the Nixon era when he went on a desperate attempt of year round Daylight Savings as a result of the Opec oil embargo and he came up with no savings at all.

Downing says that Daylight Savings pushes Americans out of the house at the end of the day. We go to the ballpark, or the mall, but we don’t walk there, we get in our cars and drive. The oil industry has known since 1930 that Daylight Savings increases gasoline consumption.

When Americans go out of the house they spend money. Daylight Savings may not be an effective energy policy, but it is a tremendously effective spending policy. The first and most persistent lobby for Daylight Savings is the chamber of commerce. In the 1986 Congressional hearings (which gave us an extra month back then,) the Golf industry reported that one additional month of Daylight Savings was worth $200 million in additional sales of equipment and greens fees. The BBQ industry earned $100 million in additional sales of grills and briquettes.

Another big industry that gets a push is candy manufacturers. This year, for the first time, Halloween will have an extra hour of daylight, and they figure that small kids will stay out longer, thus collecting more candy, which we have to buy.

Congress has set aside $150 million to study the effects of this latest change, and I’m sure they’ll find out (again!) that Daylight Savings Time is good for business, not so much for energy savings.

Wow, I share a birthday with whom?

Saturday, March 10 is my birthday, and it's always fun to see who shares your special day.

American Idol Carrie Underwood-24

Actress Sharon Stone-49

(oops) Terrorist on the run Osama bin Laden-50

Martial arts star Chuck Norris-67

Click here to find out who share's your birthday

Click here for perhaps the best version of Happy Birthday ever

Green Thursday: Turn down the heat and up your savings

Winter's not over yet, so there's still time to dial down your home's thermostat and save big money. The LipsYard home is currently at 64. Sound too cold? Put on a sweater Not only does this reduce the amount of fuel we're using, its cutting greenhouse gas emisions. Not buying into the global warming thing? There's also the greed factor, so popular with the conservative movement. We're saving money like mad. In fact, our energy bill monthly payment plan just took a dip for the coming year. Seems obvious, doesn't it? Check out the chart to see how much you can save.

Here's another reason to lower your thermostat setting: Your plants are healthier in the cooler air. You'll be healthier in the cooler air, too. Your body will burn a few more calories keeping you warm, helping you to lose weight and improve your general health.

Every Green Thursday, LipsYard will deal with an issue vital to our global environment.

What's in a Nickname?

Mine is "Lips," and I've had it since I attended Luther College. When people ask how I got mine, I reply "It's a college thing" and leave it at that, because it's really a boring story. It stems from a guy I was working with at KWLC radio, Ted Jacobsen, not understanding me when I introduced myself. He though I said "Lips" instead of "Jim."

Nicknames go back as far as the middle ages, orginating with the Vikings. Don't even ask about "Thor!"

Nicknames for people can fall into many categories:
Sarcastic, or simply ironic; like "Curly" for someone with straight hair (or no hair at all.
Physical characteristics; such as "Stretch" for a tall person.
A nickname can also originate from your real name; "Dubya" for President George W. Bush.
They can also reflect your personality or talents; "Einstein" for someone who's intelligent.
Or for the way you act; "Scooter" for someone who moved quickly around their crib.

Now where have we heard that name before? Oh, that's right, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who has been found guilty of trying to block a CIA leak investigation, one of the highest-ranking White House officials ever to stand criminal trial. He faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in a federal facility where he would almost certainly be given a new nickname.

He was enmeshed in the inquiry into the leaking of the identity of a CIA operative - who happened to be the wife of a prominent critic of White House Iraq policy.

As chief aide to Vice-President Dick Cheney, Mr Libby had been involved in almost every major decision made by the Bush administration.

"Scooter" played a key role in compiling the White House's allegations over Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Critics eyebrows were also raised after reports that he had met Pentagon officials before a substantial contract to repair Iraq's oil fields was awarded to Halliburton - Mr Cheney's old firm.

So where did his nickname, "Scooter," come from?

One story tells us his father watched him crawling in his crib and joked, "He's a scooter!"
Another story traces the moniker to New York Yankees shortstop Phil "Scooter" Rizzuto, but Libby intimated to an interviewer that "I had the range, but not the arm."

In one of the first questions at the March 5, 2004 grand jury session, special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald asked Libby to explain how he had received his nickname "Scooter." Libby replied with a small joke: "Are we classified in here? It's--my family is from the South and it's less uncommon than it is up here." That was all he said--he didn't answer the question. You can listen to the actual testimony by clicking HERE!

The President even screws up the time

On August 8, 2005, President George W. Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005. This Act changed the time change dates for Daylight Savings Time in the U.S. Beginning this year, DST will begin on the second Sunday in March (this coming weekend) and end the first Sunday in November. (unless you live in Arizona, or Indiana, or Hawaii, who think it's a bunch of hooey.)

The Secretary of Energy is going to conduct a study of the impact of this change to Congress, who can then decide (Ha! Like they can decide anything) to keep the new dates, or go back to the old.

The idea behind this is that we'll save energy by not needing lights on in the evening, the rub comes that it's going to be darker in the morning for an extra 3 weeks, so if you get up early, you have to turn on a light. Duh.

However, the Fire Department still wants you to change the batteries in your smoke detectors and your carbon monoxide detectors. They suggest that every time we change our clocks, we change our batteries.

This time change reeks havoc on automated systems that do the time change themselves. Microsoft warns that for the three weeks this March and April, users of its calendar programs "should view any appointments ... as suspect until they communicate with all meeting invitees." Actually, it's a potential problem in any software that was programmed before the 2005 law was passed. The result is a glitch reminiscent of the Y2K bug, when cataclysmic crashes were feared if computers interpreted the year 2000 as 1900 and couldn't reconcile time appearing to move backward. This is much less threatening, but could cause head-scratching episodes when some computers are an hour off.

Make sure you have the latest updates for Microsoft Windows and for your computer, PDA and smart phone. And if you have a Macintosh make sure you have the Apple updates. I'm told you should also have your security software up to date because the change in your computer could open you up to identity theft and financial losses.

The problem won't show up only in computers, of course. It will affect plenty of non-networked devices that store the time and automatically adjust for daylight saving, like some digital watches and clocks. It could force financial transactions occurring within one hour of midnight to be recorded on the wrong day.

The idea of daylight saving was first conceived by Benjamin Franklin during his sojourn as an American delegate in Paris in 1784, in an essay, "An Economical Project."

Cookie Mania

It's a sure sign that Spring's just around the corner when you get your Girl Scout Cookies. My personal favorite has always been the 'Thin Mint,' (especially frozen!) with 'Shortbreads' right behind. I can do without all the other flavors. I recently found a box in my desk of some kind of cookie that had odd strawberry flavored goo in them. No wonder they lasted so long, they were horrible. This year all those cookies come nearly free of harmful trans fats.

For 90 years they've been selling them, although recently, I think more are sold by parents pressuring their co-workers, or putting order forms up in the office, than by the actual girls themselves. I've bought thin mints from girls I've never even met, and probably never will, which is too bad.

Here comes the lefty in me; It's not just the amount you sell, part of the process should be on developing good interpersonal skills, expecially with adults. Kids are aloof enough, here's a great chance to bridge that divide. I've decided that next year, I'm only going to buy cookies when solicitied and delivered by an actual Girl Scout.

Here's a link to get more cookies

Happy Birthday to One Cool Cat

In the late 50’s, the "Dick and Jane" books used to teach reading were considered dull and uninspiring. Challenged by a publishing executive to write a story that "first-graders wouldn't be able to put down," Theodore Geisel, “Dr. Seuss,” created "The Cat in the Hat." It’s the tale of a crazy cat who brings a cheerful, exotic and exuberant form of chaos to a household of two young children one rainy day while their mother is out.

From a writers standpoint, the book is a feat of skill, simultaneously maintaining a strict triple meter (anapestic tetrameter a style common to Dr. Seuss,) uses a tiny vocabulary ( only 236 different easy-to-read words,) and tells an entertaining tale.

While the world’s problems swirl around us this weekend, literally here with blowing snow, and in global hot-spots ignited by neo-con bravado, take some time to escape reality and have a little fun reading.

Here’s the official website with everything you need

Green Thursday: Build a Better Tomorrow

One of my favorite Saturday morning indulgences is making pancakes and watching "This Old House." (See my other TV addictions in the list in the left column of LipsYard.)

Master Carpenter Norm Abram and the gang are in Austin, TX adding a second floor to a bungalow. The twist is, they're doing as much "Green Renovation" as they can, that is, using as many renewable products and procedures as possible.

Am I the only one who sees the irony of using President Bush's back yard to move the "Green Movement" forward, when his administration barely recognizes global warming?

How can we build green for a better tomorrow here in Wisconsin? Check out the Wisconsin Green Building Alliance website to access a database containing information about green building, a resource directory, with members, services and materials, and case studies showcasing a variety of green building ideas and techniques.

Every Green Thursday, LipsYard will deal with an issue vital to our global environment.