The Life we call ‘Ithaca’

Today I received an email from Cornell promoting the following competition:

Annual Bacon Eating Contest- TODAY, March 1st–High Noon in the Atrium
Don’t forget to come cheer on your favorites today, March 1st at 12 noon in the Atrium! Who will eat the most bacon? Who will finish the fastest? Some of last year’s winners will be returning to defend their titles.

I thought the invitation was a bit odd since it came from a Veterinary College – but that’s beside the point.  The point is: what is it about bacon that so many people love?

I’d agree that the majority of meat-eaters enjoy the meat, because it’s a solid combination of crispy and salty.  Forget that you’re eating a pig’s solar plexus: as long as it goes well with pancakes, bring it on.  But why doesn’t it stop there?  Over the years I’ve seen bacon flavored syrup, bacon flavored lip gloss, bacon flavored whiskey, bacon flavored lollipops…and now, bacon flavored diet coke.  Seriously.  And there are people buying this stuff, otherwise it wouldn’t be around.  Here are some other noteworthy mentions:

Bacon toothpicks.  Another ironic thought: toothpicks are used to remove bacon, not put it between teeth.

Bacon briefcase.  Of course.

Bacon apple pie.  Sort of an off-putting thought, but I’m still listening.

A bacon bra.  I can’t imagine this is too supportive.

And lastly, a faux-fur bacon scarf.  Where does this lie on the PETA offensive scale?

So there isn’t much more to post about on the topic, but rather I’m welcoming our readers to contribute their thoughts on bacon.  Please, a bit more than “bacon’s the best” – use adjectives and describe why it’s the sole meat that has been infused into cola.

And clearly, I need to go to bed.  Off to dream about bacon.

Citing a topic that most of us can relate to, this weekend we got to experience a bit more snow which blanketed everything in sight.  Fortunately, there was no wind this time, so rather than the drifts we experienced on Friday we got a beautiful coating of white everywhere.

See larger image here.

I try my best to avoid talking about the weather (it’s a bland substitution for discussing topics of substance), but pictures of it seem to occur rather frequently in our website.  I suppose when sleep costs a premium these days it’s easy to let the pictures do the talking.

And trees covered with snow have a rather interesting story to tell:

See larger image here.

More non-weather related items to discuss in the near future.  For now, time to go to bed and be glad that we’re indoors.

I guess it does pay to follow the weather every now and again, because when I woke up Friday morning I was greeted with a comforter (no blanket here) of snow:

This was on top of the six inches we’d already received over Thursday during the daytime…good thing I covered the grill!

There were rumors of quite a bit more snow to arrive this weekend…and that might still be the case…but before then I devoted Friday morning to shoveling us out of the mess.

I’d estimate we got somewhere in the neighborhood of a foot and a half, but with the strong winds some areas were off the charts – like our front yard.

This proved quite challenging for our trusty little snowthrower, which historically has been able to fight off mother nature handily.  Still, an hour later and the driveway once again resembled, you guessed it: a driveway.

Hopefully this ranks as one of the last snowstorms that Ithaca will bring to us for 2010 – however, being Ithaca, anything is game for late Spring snowstorms.

Well this is frustrating.

Merely one month after buying it – just over 1000 pictures taken – and I already need to send in our new Canon SLR for repairs.  The problem this time (remember only a few months ago I needed to send in the Canon G9 for dust on the CCD) is the LCD on the back of the camera has developed a nice permanent line that goes straight across the field of view:

Sure, I get it: the transistors that control this strip of LCD pixels has gone out, and these things happen…but Canon is getting a bad name with me since I’ve had to now send two cameras in within nearly so many months.  Luckily the problem doesn’t affect the images that are on the card – however I still need to send it in to be fixed.

Fortunately, this time it is covered under warranty, and hopefully the turnaround time will be as good as it was last time so we can be up and running in short order.  Still, now that I’ve become accustomed to the perks of SLR photography it will be tough to rely solely on the trusty G9.  Likewise, I’m holding my breath that there won’t be as many newsworthy happenings that need to be documented – or I’ll be even more annoyed with Canon.

So fingers crossed on all accounts.