LKL’s Blog

I’m obviously way too old to trick-or-treat, we never get any trick-or-treaters back in the boonies where we live, and I’m not a huge fan of costume parties, so to celebrate Halloween this year I’m going to see The Nightmare Before Christmas on IMAX. I’ve always loved this movie, and seeing it on a huge [...]

During my recent trip to California, my husband and I met with a group of adult students who use my French site. In addition to treating us to a lovely lunch (at Nora’s Café, in Palo Alto), they had thoughtfully printed out information about some of their favorite French restaurants in San Francisco. Unfortunately, we [...]

The happiest day of my life so far was either the day I paid off my student loans (which were so high that my then-boyfriend broke up with me, for fear that he would somehow end up having to help pay them) or the day I quit my “real” job and started freelancing full time [...]

A new study shows a correlation between consumption of vegetables and cognitive activity – according to the results, older people who eat lots of vegetables may have considerably less age-related mental decline than those who don’t. Interestingly, fruit consumption didn’t seem to have an effect one way or the other. But it’s still nice to [...]

This video was done by the City of Toulouse to encourage dog owners to clean up after their pets. Can you imagine a government-sponsored ad like this anywhere outside of France? I love it! Warning: this animated video contains gross-out material which some may find offensive. Pluie de crottes sur Toulouse I provided the transcript [...]

During my recent trip to San Francisco, I stayed at The Golden Gate Hotel on Bush Street, which was so lovely that I decided to blog about it. I found it online and chose it partly due to the location (I had two days of meetings near Union Square), partly due to price (it was [...]

No, I don’t have a sand fantasy (though I love the beach!) – sand fantasy is the name of the artwork done by sand animation artist Ilana Yahav. Take a look at her site and especially this video. Very cool!

My new Spanish books for kids are out: The Everything Kids’ Learning Spanish Book The Everything Kids’ First Spanish Puzzle and Activity Book They’re both aimed at ages 6-9 and can be used separately or together, though they really are a set. If you’d like to buy an autographed copy, please click here: Everything Kids’ [...]

Stands for Laura Kismet Lawless, of course! But what else? A quick search on Google reveals that “my” initals are used by quite a few people, places, and things: Laeko-Libuat (language of Papua New Guinea) Lakselv Airport, Banak (airport code) Lietuvos KrepÅ¡inio Lyga (Lithuanian Basketball League) Larry King Live London Knowledge Lab (social software) Loring, [...]

I’m not a big fan of inspirational quotes, but there is one that I really like: “Why not go out on a limb? That’s where all the fruit is.” I’d always thought this was by Mark Twain, but when I Googled it, I found a couple of sites that attribute the very similar “Why not [...]