Sam and I had a great time camping this weekend— after a fair amount of misadventure. We did, though, find this great spot for our next, fee-free camping adventure.
Sorry I screwed the quote up, Milhouse. “Perfectly level flying is the supreme challenge of the scale-model pilot!”
That’s what I thought to myself when I saw the headline “Fungus hits Afghan opium poppies” on the BBC News site tonight.
I wasn’t particularly surprised, then, to have “British and US accused of poppy plague warfare” be the other result in Google News.
Today, in the Southern County, I shared a bus stop with, I think, three generations of one family. The daughter— twenty, 350 pounds, manic and eye-darty, wearing revealing clothing (revealing, of course, tramp stamp-esque body art). Swearing about how “fine, they’ll get fucking frozen pizzas if (her Mom)’s sick of macaroni and cheese!” The mom— I thought a sister at first (I thought the daughter older and the Mom younger) but later guessed thirty-five, heavily make-uped, matching body art, matching weight, huge (twenty centimeter wide) bruises on her lower legs. Wearing sunglasses; couldn’t figure out how to get her Mom onto the bus wheelchair ramp. The grandmother— sheen of dementia, smiling at nothing, mid-sixties, wheelchair, right leg in a cast (at a twenty degree angle towards her starboard side), top inexplicably buttoned down to reveal Victoria’s Secret-style push-up bra. It was a definite Stare At The Ground kind of situation.
Today in Shamelessly Stolen, we are proud to bring you (via reddit) “Kenny Strasser,” a phony “yo-yo champion” who managed to dupe multiple Midwestern television stations into having him on the air.
“I got really dizzy.” Make sure to check out the accompanying news story, where you’ll see such other gems as him forgetting his string at home (leading to a bizarre yo-yo free conversation with a yo-yo master) and him answering his phone, live on the air. Move over, Muntadhar al Zaidi— it’s time for a new Personal Hero.
I’ve had an unfortunate little flurry of half-skulledness and noticed that all the recent episodes have occurred in close proximity to cheese. Being a good scientist, I’m going to start running experiments in removing things from my diet for a week. Hence: no cheese. It’s already impinging on my lifestyle; I’ve been standing in the kitchen trying to decide what to add to my turkey and mushroom tortilla roll-up for lunch.
I came to the computer for a) inspiration and b) to see if youtube had any videos of scintillating scotoma, so I can stop trying to describe it to people. It does— of varying quality. I think the two below come the closest to capturing mine (monochrome, usually a thin line surrounded by a sort of oscillating fan pattern— that second video is close enough to make me distinctly uncomfortable watching it).
Here’s a handy chart I found on FitSugar (who stole it from Here) and want to print to carry with me to the grocery store. I remembered to buy organic apples after seeing it the other day- the idea of the weeping fruit was emblazoned in my mind.
This post is officially dedicated to my mother and mother-in-law both of whom I love a lot, and think of when I purchase produce. Must be something about nutrition vs. nurture or whatever that argument is about…
You should go to Teddy Bear Cove and gaze upon the water and chase lizards and find purple starfish the size of your head and hunt for crabs that turn out to be dead and squeeze between big rocks. At least that’s what we did today, here’s proof!
(if you click on the pictures, it makes them bigger)
On the way to Teddy Bear Cove.
Into a magical forest filled with horses.
This one and I had a moment.
Teddy Bear Cove view.
Lovely.
See, we’re not vampires.
Dead crap. RIP.
Squeeze-Through-Rock
Starfish!
Another view.
I swear there is a lizard in this picture somewhere.
The Professor.
Arroyo Park.
Boy and big fallen tree.
After our big day of outside fun, we ventured to the Food Pavilion which I had never before had the pleasure of shopping in since their big remodel a while back. It being Saturday and all, we were bombarded by delicious samples on all fronts- the bakery, specialty cheese section, random chips and candies, and dairy. I thoroughly enjoyed our experience but this is no surprise considering my love for grocery stores. Devin successfully made it an entire lap PLUS a double back through produce which is a huge deal because of his disdain for long, dawdling store trips. We’re a pretty good team since I could seriously spend hours going around and around making sure I didn’t miss anything, he helps keep me in check. Overall analysis of today’s events: Very, very good.
This is what happens when I ride my bike to work.
If I take the tiny amount of extra energy it takes to check the air in my tires and grab my bike lock instead of my car keys, I get to swing by Elizabeth Park on the way to work and catch up on my reading. With tennis courts, a fountain, multiple benches, a gazebo and a fine exhibit of local flora and some fauna, it is by far one of my favorite spots around. Next time I’ll take more pictures of the park but I felt a little creepy since it was cold and sunny so I had my hood up and sunglasses on slightly resembling the Unabomber.
P.s. Devin and I are simultaneously preparing blog posts. It’s so cute I can hardly stand it.
Sam and Devin dot com 
