Monthly Archives: October 2016

A Couple of Things…

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With my mom and dad1. Happy 82nd birthday to my father, Gilbert.  This is one of my favorites.  He was around 26 years old in this photo.

lettuce2. Yeah, this is happening on my window sill.  It works!  I’ll get back to you on whether the regrown lettuce is tasty or not.

See original post, item #3

3. I’m leaning towards naming my car either Janet, Mabel, Beverly or Floyd.

candy-corn-facts4. It’s candy corn season again!  I totally get candy corn haters (haters gonna hate), they say it’s nothing but sugar wax, but I totally disagree. You don’t need a bunch to satisfy a sweet tooth, and there’s only about 7 1/2 calories per piece.  Brachs candy’s nutritional facts state there’s 140 calories in a serving (about 19 pieces).
My favorite way to enjoy candy corn involves nibbling on them in combination with a small bag of movie-popped buttered popcorn.  I’m sure that increases the calorie count somewhat. 😉

5. Jealousy, envy, resentment are very close first cousins all of them bad.

Mike Strahler6. There are a few items over the course of my life that I could never bear to throw away including this baseball card.  It was given to me by Mike Strahler when I was a waitress at Bob’s Big Boy on Beach Blvd in La Habra, CA. I came across it while sorting through some stuff and decided to Google him; sadly, Mike passed away this past July.  I did a little research and learned that a non-signed card is going for $1.25 on Amazon and a signed card sold for $24.99 on Ebay.

7. The worst:  Having someone sit next to you at a bar and it slowly – and painfully – becomes apparent they have a bad case of gas.  Do they think you don’t notice?  Or do they just not care?

8. Have you ever feared being killed by a shark?  I hope this helps to put things in perspective:
(average annual animal-caused fatalities in the US 2001 to 2013)

Animals most likely to kill you…per year:
  1 – Shark
  1- Alligator
  6 – venomous snakes/lizards
  7 – spiders
  9 – non-venomous arthropods (various ants & other bugs)
  20 – cows
  28 – dogs
  52 – other mammels (horses, pigs, deer, raccoons, etc.) RACCOONS????
  58 – bees, wasps and hornets

Source article

Mauna Kea Road

Mauna Kea Road

9. Did you know it snows in Hawaii?  It actually snows there every year on their three tallest volcanoes (Mauna Loa, Mauna Kea and Haleakala).  This totally blew my mind!

10. Geek Alert:  When I was in grade school, I loved school so much I would make up homework to do at home.

11. Do you know anyone who is perpetuating a culture that promotes violence against women? Is there any chance that you help to perpetuate it, without realizing it?

Please do the women that you love a solid, and take a look at this video.  I love his honesty when he says, “I don’t know what her ass has to do with my hamburger, but I’m gonna drive thru the very next day.”   Perhaps you have friends who might benefit from viewing it.

12. From my favorite quotes file:  “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” – Leo Tolstoy

Thanks for listening.

A Couple of Things…

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1. My last post spoke of the use of the word “pussy” and the one way that word offends me.  I thought it prudent to also state for the record I find Trump’s statement as a whole offensive; he stated in graphic terms that he gropes women without their permission. I didn’t go there for two reasons.
A. I didn’t want to debate whether Trump is suited to hold the office of POTUS, I’ve done my best to be non-political.
B. I took it for granted everyone thought it offensive.
I believe no one should have to endure an assault, be it male, female, sexual, physical or verbal.  Of course some acts are more egregious than others, but no act of assault should ever be condoned.

2. My co-worker posted recently on social media a blog regarding “The Dutch Reach.”  Sure it sounds like something Donald Trump might do when nobody’s looking, but it’s actually a potential life-saving technique everyone should use before they open the driver’s side door while parked on a street.

According to the article, “The Dutch Reach is a practice where instead of using your near hand — usually the driver’s left hand — to open your car door, you use your far hand. Your right hand. In doing that, you automatically swivel your body. And you position your head and shoulders so you are looking directly out. First, past the rearview mirror. And then, you are very easily able to look back and see if there are oncoming bicycles or cars or whatever.”
door-zone-illustration

Use The Dutch Reach to avoid this scenario.

3.  I have some words of advice for those struggling on what life is all about: “Be kind, help where you can and don’t look inward…look outward. See your environment, and truly see the person in front of you.”

Start by making this planet better by enhancing another’s life, one person at a time.

4. I can’t express how much I miss my dog Sammy, and so I’m allowing the possibility of adopting another pound puppy.  Yes, we got Candy last Spring for my dad, but she rarely Lost puppyvisits me, so I started perusing pet adoption sites of the local animal shelters.  It didn’t take long before I came across this photo and I had to go see if we were a match.
How sweet is she?  9 pounds and about 2 years old (a little younger than I want, but look at that face!)
Well I drove directly to the Camarillo shelter after work just in time to see her owner get reunited with her.  She was so happy; it was a bittersweet moment.  When I was leaving I saw her and her owner walking away, it appears he is homeless, which is sad, but they made a lovely couple, and hopefully he won’t let her get away again.

Fast Food Coupons5.  I’ve mentioned before how stores rarely cater to single people and if they do, it’s more expensive; but now I have another pet peeve and it has to do with fast food coupons. All of a sudden, they’re two for one!  WTF!!  I don’t need two burgers.  I need a discount on the one meal I want to buy.

And what PR firm decided I’ll fall for “Free Burger” then in a much smaller font “with the purchase of another burger”  instead of “Two for One?”

And speaking of coupons…

6.  From my Grammar Nerd file:
If the majority of people mispronounce a word, does that then make it correct?  One of my pet peeves has always been the coo-pon vs cue-pon debate. I’ve always sided with the coo-pon camp, so I was surprised when I stumbled upon a blog on this very topic.  They said that Coupon.com commissioned a nationwide poll and found that 57 percent of the people polled pronounce the word as cue-pon.
Furthermore, if you look up the word on Dictionary.com (Random House Dictionary) they give both pronunciations.
Source Article
I investigated further and found a Pronunciation Note on Dictionary. com explaining the origin of the difference which gives understanding:
“Coupon, related to copeand coup,is of French origin. It has developed an American pronunciation variant [kyoo-pon] with an unhistorical y -sound not justified by the spelling. This pronunciation is used by educated speakers and is well-established as perfectly standard, although it is sometimes criticized. Its development may have been encouraged by analogy with words like curious, cupid,and cute,where c is followed by a “long u” and the [y] is mandatory.”
Source page

Grammar police7. Apparently you can push semi-illiterate people too far.

8. A quick of word of advice, don’t text questions, unless the question can be a five-word-or-less response.

Downton Abbey9.  I have a confession, In less than a month I got through the entire PBS Masterpiece Theater series, “Downton Abby.” It’s just soooo good!  I now understand the term “binge-watching.”

10. I saw a headline recently which read, “Why ex-KKK leader’s son fled the movement.”  Do we really need to ask why?

11. Have you ever walked into a bar or music venue and thought to yourself, “These are not my people”?

12.  From my favorite quotes file: “Good manners are appreciated as much as bad manners are abhorred.” – Bryant H. McGill

Thanks for listening!

A Couple of Things…

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1. There are few words that offend me, but one that does most likely has to do with my feminism, and I’ll even allow for generational gap ideology,  but I don’t like when women are refer to as “pussy”.  I’m not offended when this word is used as a noun (in a loving committed relationship, wink-wink), I don’t even mind the word being used when stating someone has no backbone, or they’re being a coward, but just referring to women as a whole as “pussy”, TOTALLY offensive.

See, Donald Trump’s use of the word didn’t actually offend me. I’m certain other presidents have used the word in a lewd manner before in private and it’s Trump’s lot in life that he’ll always be known for saying stupid things…caught on tape intentionally or not; but I used to have the biggest rock star crush on Bush’s lead man Gavin Rossdale (pre-cheating days on Gwen Stefani)…that is until the day he responded live on Las Vegas radio when asked if he would be getting call girls for his crew again this tour, and he said, and I quote, “No, they get enough pussy already.”

And like that, I was over my crush.

2. Little did my daughter know when she named her new kitten Molly that a  female cat is  referred to as a “queen” or a “molly.”  So not only is she called Molly, but she actually is a molly.
It’s pretty appropo too, a “queen” is when the cat is currently raising kittens or is a soon-to-be mother, but female cats that aren’t nursing or pregnant are typically referred to as a “molly”, which connotes less of a motherly feel.

You couldn’t get any less motherly than this terrorist of a cat Molly.   Just sayin’.

3. One of these days when I have nothing better to do, I’m going to try to regrow Romaine lettuce.  Did you even know this was possible?  Just cut off the bottom (which you don’t eat anyways) and place in a half an inch of water in a container (like a cleaned out cottage cheese container), place near sunlight and wa la.. the lettuce will start to grow new leaves and you have perpetual lettuce!
Source article

4. Speaking of being “green”, food waste has become a hot topic the last few years, I’m glad because I honestly hate wasting food.  At a restaurant I take my leftovers home for additional meals which is very economical for me. But I find shopping at the grocery store is extremely difficult for a single person. And if you do find single-person items, they’re typically more expensive!  A loaf of bread rarely gets eaten before mold starts growing and I never use up a whole can of beans, or pasta sauce or anything.  I’m sure I should be freezing and then defrost to use the remaining product, but I’m just not that industrious when it comes to cooking!  I would rather have economically fair single person portions available.

5. I find that it’s easier for me to help than to accept help.  Probably because it’s easier just to figure out and do something myself.

6. I guess I am a Type-A personality when it comes to certain areas of my life, it would be those areas where I have a strong commitment (i.e., VenturaRocks.com). But other areas?  Not so much. I can create or un-create at will.

7. It was a brilliant idea whoever came up with the Nicotine patch to help people stop smoking; that is until someone came up with an even more brilliant idea to wear the patch to get them through those periods where they were not allowed to smoke and they couldn’t wait for their break, or worst yet, they wear the patch in addition to smoking.

Creative thinking, yes. Self-destructive behavior, absolutely!

8. Sometimes I feel like I’m the only person who has never seen Game of Thrones…and I’m alright with that.

9. I love endorphin rushes!

10. It always blows my mind when I come across someone who does not value music, and to a lesser degree someone who does not like to read. I can understand people being so busy they don’t have time to read a book or the paper, but music?  That’s just sad.

11. Here’s a quick car update, I still haven’t named her, but I have established that my car is female, so I’m getting there.

12. I came across this blog called “How to ruin your band name.”  It’s really funny.  My favorite way to ruin your band, “Band Names with Unfortunate Acronyms.”  Jimmy Eat World, Saves the Day.  They recommend, “Before you settle on your band name, do a quick check: do the letters spell out something potentially embarrassing like POO or ASS or KKK?”

Source article

From my favorite quotes file, “Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.” – Plato

Thanks for listening.