In honor of the 1-year anniversary of receiving this piece of yellow fabric from Miss Bee's friend's mother, we have finally put it to use, framing the entry way to the kitchen. We also managed to finally hang up the fruit basket we picked up at the "refused by Walgreens and Target" store - it only took $1.48 and about 20 minutes at Home Depot to pick the right screw.

Other questions about decor must be submitted in writing.

In the basket we've got some lovely avocadoes, pears, bananas, and apples (Braeburn and Honey Crisp).

I've emailed a "Form" to most of the people who read the Stare I think. I have left a link to the survey in the top menu, which always appears right above the posts. Other links: Miss Bee's website, my Picasa web photo albums, and my google site bretsbeer101. Thanks for participating in my survey.

Also available as a salad with pine nuts and Goddess dressing.

I think I'm cool with the new template now. It took some fiddling for a while, and I couldn't remember how to put all the things back on the sidebar. But here it is - I think it looks reasonably slick. It's called Genesis, available on the website at the very bottom of the page - Cool Blogger Templates or something some such. Hope you like the new look!

New things:
The site is now a three-column affair, with the main posts on the left and two sidebars on the right. The first of the two sidebars is "me" stuff: my profile, a doohickey to chat with me if I'm signed into Gmail, my Shared Items from Google Reader, and my DailyLit book list (see my DailyLit post). Oh, and the world's wimpiest Blogroll: One! Hi, Miss Bee!

The second column is "blog" stuff, and gives you the option to subscribe using various services, shows the most recent comments, and has the Archives of The Stare. Fascinating.

Ok, well hope everyone likes the new look. Sound off in the comments.

-Bret

...but there’s no doubt that low pay also keeps a lot of well-educated, talented Americans out of the classroom.

That's Christine Gralow on Freakonomics.