The Tech Museum of Innovation publishes the monthly Tech Ten, ten websites that deliver high technology to teachers, students, and families. They’re on a year-long hiatus right now, looking for a new editor (I nominate Mike Gunderloy) but December 1999’s list still looks worth browsing.

For months I’ve been asking people if there existed something to turn ordinary speakers into wireless speakers. Because I’ve got plenty of speakers, but I didn’t want to run wires all over my farmhouse. There’s just no good way to hide all the wires like I’ve done in other houses. People all said they thought there was, but no one could actually show me one. Not at the stores, not on the web. Even the Radio Shack wasn’t any help. So imagine my glee when X10 announced they had a new “turn regular speakers into wireless speakers” kit. A bit pricey, but I had enough X10 gift certificates saved up (thanks to their crazy frequent customer rewards program) that it was cheap enough to order two.

I heard on the radio as I drove home tonight that the national guard unit in my hometown of St. Clair, Missouri, is being sent to Kosovo. My high school sweetheart was (is?) a member of that unit. [ I haven’t had contact with her in about ten years. I sometimes wonder what she’s up to. I know she’s had some hard times since we last spoke, and I hope that, wherever she is, she’s doing OK.] I wonder how many people I know are being sent.

Over Christmas, an Athens columnist accidentally ingested a half cup of methanol. Four teaspoons are fatal. The doctor gave her five minutes to say goodbye to her family. She came out OK, and wrote about those five minutes.

Dragon eats moon, thousands riot.

It’s been a very nice morning thus far. I filed my taxes, and $1400 are coming back to me, thanks to my interest-free loan to the federal and state governments. I ordered some chickens -- a mix of rare heirloom breeds that will lay several colors of eggs. And, I had Jamaican ox tail for lunch. Mmmmm-mmmmm!

A Year ago, Mike at LarkFarm logged Walton Feed’s Old Timer’s Page, with lots of stories and how-to’s from the old days of farming. Making butter, hand harvesting wheat, knowing where to dog a well – those kinds of things. Walton feed has changed to URL in the last year, so Mike’s link doesn’t work anymore. Here’s the correct address.

Meanwhile, in New Mexico, 17 are hurt in a massive propane explosion.

I’m OK. The house hasn’t blown up. A gas company person finally came by. He tested the tank for leaks and found nothing. When asked about the hissing, he said that that was just the sound of gas going through the pipes. When asked about the smell, he said he couldn’t smell anything, but admitted that his nose (well past the age of retirement) was desensitized to the smell of propane. The smell’s not as strong as it once once, and the pressure guage is now holding steady. Perhaps the tank had some of that sealant goop in it like the stuff you put in bicycle tires, and the leak sealed itself. I’ll focus my worries on something else now, I suppose.

A loved the Happy Hollisters when I was in early grade school. I think I read every one of the books while in second grade. I was such a nerd even then that I would hide from my teacher (behind a bookshelf, no less) while she rounded the class up for recess. They went out to play, I came out of hiding to read in the library. When I think about it now, she had to have known I was hiding from her, but she let me get away with it anyway.