Today one of my colleagues was telling me about a restaurant that he insists I must try - and the photo on their homepage is taken from a terrace on the island of Capri, about two feet over from the very spot where I took a photo that I used as my desktop for a long while. Love it when that happens.

One of my favorite photographers I've worked with created this simple, elegant, beautiful, stunning film of Joshua Tree National Monument. I love me some time lapse and simple, subtle movement.

Beloved from John Early on Vimeo.

"This is a film I made that started out as just a trip out to Joshua Tree to test some new equipment. It's still not final, but I am growing tired of not having the time to finish the final tweaks so here it is - in progress."

His blog, where he talks about different shots and gear.

A friend and her husband are going through the fight of their lives - her husband is battling an aggressive leukemia. This involves "rotisserie beds," 24/7 chemo, draining the fluid off his heart and constant crisis where they don't know if he'll live long enough to get stabilized. He's at City of Hope now, finally making some progress. The place is named appropriately.

But they're going to have a financial impact and the worries are starting to pile on. She's recently unemployed and can't even manage to get her EDD checks yet (and I know that's a process fraught with incompetence) and his paid leave will run out in 8 weeks - his battle will likely go on longer than that.

I'd like to start collecting donations for them. I'm putting in a chunk of money to keep their worries about this one thing at bay so they both focus ONLY on his health and put all their fight into that. Any amount you can contribute will help. And if it turns out they don't end up needing the money for some reason, I'll refund it to all.

I'm not going to tell her about the donations just yet, hence the filtered post that she can't see. But I will let her know money is not going to be one of her worries through this mess.

Leave a comment here or include a comment with your donation (if I won't recognize your name when you donate) so I can eventually tell her the people that are pulling for her in whatever way you can.

It'd also be great of So Cal people could get screened for platelet/marrow donations at CoH. Her husband is AB+, but even if you're not a match for him, there's someone else there in dire straights that you may be a match for.

Cake:
½ cup Crisco Shortening
1½ cup Sugar
2 Eggs (beaten)
2 cups Flour
1 tbsp Cocoa
1½ tsp Baking Soda
1 cup Buttermilk
1 tsp Vanilla
1 oz Red Food Coloring
1 Tbsp Vinegar

Icing:
1 cup Milk
Dash of Salt
¼ cup Flour
½ cup Crisco Shortening
1 stick (½ cup) Margerine or Butter
1 cup Sugar (granulated)
1 tsp Vanilla

Cake:

Preheat oven to 350°

Cream well shortening and sugar. Add well-beaten eggs and mix.

Sift together flour, cocoa, and ½ tsp baking soda in separate bowl.

Mix together buttermilk, vanilla and food coloring in separate bowl.

Alternate portions of flour mixture and buttermilk mixture into creamed mixture. Start with flour mixture and end with flour mixture. Blend well with electric mixer.

In a separate dish, mix vinegar and 1 tsp baking soda and stir well. Pour into larger mixture and mix.

Put batter in pans for whichever type of cake you'd like to make (3 round pans for a 3-layer cake or about 18-24 cupcakes). Bake for 25 minutes (cake) or 18 minutes (cupcakes) or until you can insert a toothpick and it comes out clean.

Icing:

In saucepan cook milk, salt and flour until thickened. Let cool COMPLETELY (I put in refrigerator until cool).

Add shortening, margarine, sugar and vanilla to cooled milk mixture and beat at high speed with electric mixer until smooth and fluffy.

When cake is cooled, spread icing between layers and on top or on top of each cupcake.

From The Cook's Encyclopedia of Pasta.

Yeah. It's decadent. Prepare yourself.

2-1/4 cups short-cut macaroni
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2-1/2 cups milk
scant 1/2 cup panna da cucina or heavy cream
scant 1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup grated gruyère or emmental cheese
2 ounces fontina cheese, diced small
2 ounces gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
salt & ground black pepper

Serves 4

1 Preheat the oven to 350°. Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the package.

2 Meanwhile, gently melt the butter in a medium saucepan, add the flour and cook, stirring for 1-2 minutes. Add the milk a little at a time, whisking vigorously after each addition. Stir in the cream, followed by the dry white wine. Bring to a boil. Cook, stirring constantly until the sauce thickens, then remove the sauce from heat.

3 Add the gruyère or emmental, fontina and gorgonzola and about a third of the grated parmesan to the sauce. Stir well to mix in the cheeses, then taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper if necessary.

4 Drain the pasta well and turn it into a baking pan. Pour the sauce over the pasta and mix well, then sprinkle the remaining parmesan over the top. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Serve hot.

Tonight I used pasta and parmesan reggiano my brother brought from Italy.

The Visual Miscellaneum: A Colorful Guide to the World's Most Consequential Trivia

A lovely book from the author of informationisbeautiful.net. Satisfies my love for infographics in tangible, practical application that even Tufte left me hungry.