I just got myself a shiny new iPhone 3GS and I was spending some time the other night tricking it out. I decided I wanted some nice wallpaper images beyond my usual family photos, and as I expected there’s lots to choose from out there. I started by doing a Google Image search for iPhone wallpaper and by perusing a flickr group of IPhone wallpaper images. They both had some nice stuff and different strengths — for instance if you’re looking for just that perfect texture of gravel, dirt, rocks, or candy, flickr user StevenBrisson has you covered! — but I ended up feeling like I was looking for that proverbial needle in a haystack. After going through many pages of images, and far too many bikini babes, I had only found a couple wallpapers I liked so I decided to go back to google and this time I hit paydirt with Poolga.

If you’re into arty iPhone stuff you probably already know about this site, but I had never seen it and it blew me away. Poolga offers a sprawling and unique collection of iPhone wallpaper images created by designers from all around the world. I found many images that I liked, enough to put an end to my searching. If you’re looking for a way to add a little pizazz to your iPhone or iPod Touch I recommend checking Poolga out.

Remember that bit in my opening post about using this blog to build a pile of evidence for our kids’ future therapy sessions? Might as well get started with that. Here’s Arlo starring in the first video taken with my new iPhone 3GS.

This article from News-Medical.Net about a study using honey in place of antibiotics is fascinating to me. Researchers in Sydney found that certain kinds of honey can actually be more effective in treating surface wounds and infections than traditional antibiotics. If that sounds too good to be true, there is a small catch…it has to be honey from bees that feed on tea trees (Leptospermum), which are only found in Australian and New Zealand. I remember when we lived in New Zealand, they used tea tree oil to treat all kinds of ailments.

Definitely silly, but there is also something revealing about these photos that have father and infant sons faces reversed with Photoshop. Manbabies.com.

I love this video that cousin Bree sent me. My friend Sam and I were recently discussing the short memories of those who were mean to us in high school. We know who you are and you should too, dammit!

I was happy to read that this lovely garden shed featured on the Inhabitat blog was built in Petaluma. Inhabitat’s posts have been striking my fancy lately; the coffin shelves they’ve written about a couple of times are ingenious as well!

Our internet friend John Wells in Turlingua, Texas, posted this funny photo and accompanying speculation on how the longhorn got the bird nest on her horn.

Well, in about a month anyway. But I’m very excited because we finally just pressed the Buy button on the tickets for our family summer vacation in Europe. We’ll be going to Germany, France, and England, and visiting several friends and some family members along the way. Arlo can’t wait to see the Catacombs in Paris and some castles, Shawn is excited about seeing family and old friends and and also about spending time in Paris, Kindy wants to check out some European girls, and I’m looking forward to exploring the Rhine area in Germany. Woohoo!

How about a lamp-garden? These light-up terrariums by Alexis Tricoire really appeal to me. Tricoire was one of the many gardener/artists to exhibit at this year’s Jardins Jardin in Paris. We’re planning a trip to Paris this summer, and we’ll definitely be checking out some of the amazing gardens there.

I discovered two fantastic photo sets of Texas today. First I came across David Zaitz’s positively haunting images of desolate and empty scenes he encountered on a recent 4-day road trip through Texas. These images paint a bleak and almost surreal picture of rural Texas, but I find Zaitz’s images beautiful and gripping. He has a knack for getting a real “ghost town” feel in his photos.

Then I found Venezuelan architect and photographer Beatrice Ardila’s delightful flickr set of images shot around Paris, Texas, where she now lives. Ardila has a more whimsical and upbeat style than Zaitz, but in both cases you get a sense of the scale of this massive state and a look at some of its empty spaces through striking photography.

I’m not sure which set I like better, but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed perusing through both today.