Wascally Wabbit (Or Something)

I went out to inspect my tiny vegetable garden today that consists of four pots on my driveway - two with lettuce, one with cucumbers, and one with tomatoes. And lo and behold, SOMETHING had chewed my romaine lettuce down to their stumps. They were just getting to be about 5 inches high too. Stupidssfsddlfjljagldglkjfsfjlsfj;jgajgga! I will have my revenge! (yeah, right) The good news is that the cucumbers and tomatoes appeared to be unmolested. Hopefully they won't be murdered tonight by some rabbit or groundhog or raccoon.

Mo, FYI - I only have like 5 or 6 cans of mushrooms in my cupboard. And because I have enough cupboard space to keep everything separate, I like to stack my mushrooms together. But I do remember when we were growing up that we used the "smaller can on top of a larger can" strategy because of the limited cupboard space.

Specialness

What makes mushrooms so special? Have you ever noticed how at the grocery store, most of the canned vegetables come in the type of can where the bottom is curved in so that one can easily stacks on top of another one? Like green beans and corn and soups. But for some reason, mushroom cans (I think in all brands I've seen) don't stack nice, and they have to put a layer of cardboard in between each layer. Why is this? Is it because of equipment overhead costs that they can't buy new can making machines? Has nothing in the process ever changed and they don't want to mess with a good thing (not likely)? Maybe because of the stuff that's in the juice they have to use a special metal that doesn't form as well? I think mandarin oranges sometimes come in this type of inconvenient can too. Think of all the cardboard they could save if they started forming the bottoms differently. And, I would be much happier because I could easily stack my mushroom cans in the cupboard.

Man's Laser Show

It's not really a laser show, and it was obscured by God's weather (fog)......here's what the fireworks show looked like this weekend. It was for the festival going on in town here. After about three minutes, they decided not to waste any more money and make next year's fireworks twice as big instead. Good choice in my opinion.




Part of the festival is that they have a concert every day, so I caught a few of those. Check out one of the die-hard hair band fans who showed up at one of the concerts.

Hello, Kitty

I am kitty sitting Tumbleweed again. He did his usual disappearing act the first day. I never did find his hiding place this time, but eventually he showed up. Now he's at the point where he shows himself when he hears me clanging dishes around getting supper ready, and he'll come out of hiding in the morning. I even got a couple seconds of purring out of him tonight. That's all that's new around here (except that I'm actually staying home this weekend).

Speaking of travels, for those curious ones who are wondering, I went back to ND last weekend. There were a multitude of reasons, two of them relating to weddings. One was a cousin's reception, and the other was preparing for my sister's upcoming wedding. It was also time for a class reunion (we won't say how many years for fear of revealing how young I am). I'm not sure how I feel about the class reunion. Some people were doing about what you'd expect, some of them weren't. One guy was barely recognizable with a scraggly goatee and long hair when he used to be very clean cut. Some were married, some brought their boyfriend/girlfriend, some had kids, some didn't have any kids and weren't married. It was kind of fun to see all those people again, but I wouldn't necessarily hang out with many of them in my daily routine I don't think. There was also quite a lot of alcohol consumption involved, which isn't my scene either.

On Saturday my parents were working on a big bridge project in their backyard for the upcoming wedding. I'll wait until it's completely finished to show the sequence of construction and how cool it is. For now, here's a picture of the great ND sky and crops that I always appreciate. Not bad for being taken from a 70 mph moving vehicle.

God's Laser Show

On one of my plane flights over the weekend, I had the pleasure of watching a thunderstorm while being above it and many miles away as the sun set. This video doesn't really do it justice, but you kind of get the idea. I think this was one of the coolest things I've ever seen out a plane window. It was good enough for me to put down my book for awhile. Sorry it's so long, but I'm still an amateur at my video editing software and didn't get this edited like I would have liked to.

One Wedding and a Rafting

I suppose that I should post my 4th of July summary. You may not be aware, but this is the summer of weddings - at least in my social sphere. I had the 3rd and 4th of July off from work, so I went to the lovely state of Idaho for the four-day weekend. I went to see my friend from college, Avis, get married. She met her husband as a result of my snowboard trip to Idaho a year and a half ago, so I can claim partial responsibility for that event. In addition to the wedding, I hung out with my cousin Beth (mentioned previously in my Chiner post). We did some sedate white water rafting, shopping (they had an REI store!), saw an outdoor Shakespeare play, watched some fireworks, and just took it easy (not all in the same day). As my trip summary custom is, I present my "list" for Idaho:

1. It's nice and hot. I am not being sarcastic. With the cool summer we've been having here, it was nice to go there and just bake in the sun.
2. It's nice and dry. (Read here: No mosquitoes or other pesky bugs. This allows you to sit on the patio every night and sometimes at lunch time. Watch out for the snakes though.)
3. It's nice and sunny. I've mentioned it before and will mention it again. There's nothing quite like a sunny day regardless of whether it's -20 or +100 degrees F.
4. Cool people. (Especially when I'm there. :-P ) Really this should be #1, but you all know the number in the list does not indicate the order of importance. Not only did I see Avis, but I also saw Mildred.

That's all, folks. I'm a little disappointed in how short and weather focused my list is, but sadly it's all I can think of right now. Nothing all that unusual happened while I was there. I will redeem myself by posting a few pictures below.




But wait, I thought of a better list! Some of my most memorable moments of Avis:

1. Trading shoes with her (on purpose - do not let her tell you differently) when I was leaving her apartment just to see how long it would take her to notice that I did that. I think it was less than 24 hours but more than 8.
2. Trouncing her soundly at Rook (unless she was on my team of course). To be more accurate, I just like playing Rook with her no matter what.
3. Attending "Boot Camp" aerobics with her at the Hyslop.
   
4. Going to her family's lake cabin for the weekend with Melanie the summer I lived in Wahpeton.
5. Hanging out with her and a bunch of other people at her apartment the night before I graduated from college. It was kind of a partial impromptu bachelorette party for Melanie too. I distinctly remember the wicker chair/love seat with the blue seat pad and showing off my Bob the Builder walkie talkies.
6. Eating at the dining center (usually Wilkerson, but sometimes Squires or Swanson). Yes, I ate slow then too.
   
7. Going to "visit" so we could use the pool at the apartment complex.
8. Getting a great picture of Avis with her safety glasses from her job sorting sugar beets.
9. How she got the nickname Avis.
10. Of course, the infamous snowboarding trip where she met Blair. I think it might have been the skirt she bought at Target the night before Sunday AM meeting that did the trick.
11. Always getting a different perspective on the world from her - whether in person or from her blog.
    

Well, Duh.....

A few weeks ago this sign showed up on each end of the row of cubes that my cubicle is along. Not only did they feel the need to state the obvious, they're not so good with their homophones, so I had to correct them.



It is a bit of a narrow aisle where two skinny people could pass uncomfortably or else only one larger individual could walk through. But I have been walking up and down it for five years successfully without the aid of a sign (and without any major mishaps). It's probably one of those silly OSHA rules or something. It has provided some entertainment for us at least.

Wii!

This post is one of those soul searching kind of ones. Have you heard of the Wii video game system? It's that one from Nintendo where the game controllers and such make you move while you play the video games. One of the programs on the Wii is called Wii Fit, and basically you can use the controller to do exercises or play balancing games, yoga, practice your ski jumping, etc. I've tried it once and it's pretty cool. One of the exercise activities is to do the hula hoop. This video is a picture a guy took of his girlfriend doing the Wii Fit hula hoop game in her underwear unbeknownst to her until she heard the Wii Fit music playing at work and saw somebody (her boss) watching HER on YouTube at work. The video now has more than four million hits.

That's the history. The question is, on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the most steaming mad you could be, what would you rate your anger level if this happened to you? And would this end your relationship with the person who posted it? The bonus question is - would you ever think about doing something like this to someone else?

P.S. The one time I played on the Wii Fit, I did NOT do the hula hoop, but I did see someone try it. If you want to try, maybe check out your local Best Buy and see if they have a demo system.