Have we told you about our magazine covers? We haven’t? Well, we shall have to rectify that! To date, our photos have appeared on the covers of TWO magazines. Yes, that’s right – TWO, which is two more than zero.

The first cover was the summer 2008 issue of Slow Food USA’s The Snail. Here’s the cover:

Ours is the sheep photo, not the fish thing.

The second cover is out now, and it’s the Spring 2009 issue of Mystery Scene, starring Laurie King:

That’s simply a screenshot from their website, but as you can see, the interview offers a bit of “Subversive Fun” with Laurie King. Intriguing! I also like how the “Y”s in their title font look a bit stabby.

Finally, I’m not sure if you’re all aware of this, but I’m kind of a big deal in Masonic Imposter circles:

I’m not sure what I’m doing with my hand there, but you can read more about faux Masons at the National Heritage Museum’s blog.

I don’t know if you can really see it in this cellphone pic, but this cat is kind of cross-eyed. Cross-eyed, stripey and very cute.

It was nice to meet you, cat. I hope we pass each other again someday.

Hello, the Internet!  I am feverishly working on a SECRET PROJECT (which will be revealed shortly), but in the meantime, I need to post some photos!  In keeping with the recent theme of travel, the first photo is one of my favorite travel photos.  It was taken in Scotland in 2006 on the Isle of Lewis.

The Isle of Lewis is off the western coast of Scotland, is a 2 hour ferry ride from Scotland proper, and is the last bit of land between the UK and Iceland.  Also, it’s cold and windy.  But very, very beautiful!  The photo below was taken in a black house.  You can read more about black houses here, and even see the same room I photographed.

The second photo is of the back of a duck’s head.  Because I like ducks.

This is the time of year that I start thinking about Mammoth Lakes, California. Mammoth is a little ski town up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains about 60 miles from Yosemite National Park. My grandparents have had a little cabin there since the 70’s, and I’ve been lucky enough to be able to go up there just about every year since then.

They’re getting a little older now, so I help them open the cabin in May or June, once the snow melts enough so we’re actually able to get at it. It’s a summer cabin, which means that in the winter it’s covered by up to 20 feet of snow. All of that snow is pretty heavy, so when we close the for the winter, we need to shutter the windows with inch-thick pine shutters to keep the windows from breaking, and we need to reinforce the roof with metal poles at strategic locations to keep the roof from caving in. We also need to do fun things like remove the chimney so it doesn’t get crushed and warped by the snow. And of course, opening it is the same thing in reverse, plus cleaning. And dusting. Lots and lots of dusting.

It’s a lot of work, but it’s a beautiful little cabin, and it’s worth the effort. It’s one of my favorite places on earth, and since the snow is starting to melt, I thought I’d share a little bit of it with you.

(The lake photos are of Mono Lake, and the structures are tufa).