Thursday 13-Really Random Thoughts

1.  The "burquini" scandal-good grief, let people wear what they want to wear.  Insist, if you must, that they not be worn anywhere but the pool, and that the person shower before entering the pool-just like everyone else. I've seen a lot of people who would benefit from a good burquini, and maybe using them will make people realize they don't have to bare all to have a swim.

2. Today is Aug. 13-Thursday thirteen on the thirteenth-the lisping alliteration is mesmerizing.

3.  This is not Oliver the parrot, but I love this picture.  It really illustrates how a monotone bird can still be gorgeous and fascinating to watch.

4. At some point in our history, maybe in the 70's, every restaurant in the United States of America got the idea of substituting rice pilaf for baked potatoes.  It was a good idea, suitably bland, but easier to prepare and store.  Nobody ever eats it though-so why bother?  Charge me a dollar less and keep your pilaf.  Pilaf. Pilaf. Pilaf.....even the word annoys me at times.

5. According to Wikepedia   fart is one of the oldest words in the English language, and "Teachers in American schools have been encouraged to use books about farts to make children more comfortable with the word.^[15]"  

Trust me, kids already LOVE the word.  I suppose it's one those full circle things-where we were too uptight and now we have to embrace farting in our educational system.  Some people will do anything to avoid teaching our kids to READ.

6.  I ordered a   

The BBB never got back to me about the other, inferior and shoddy product I ordered and am apparently stuck with.  I went to Sears and Roebuck to buy a gas mower, but they assured me if I didn't like the Neuton I could return it at the store, no problemo.  Sucker that I am-I decided not to give up on my quest for green mowing.  

Actually, it's not the green-so much as I like the noise level or lack thereof, and the lack of smelly gas slopping everywhere.  That said, I WOULD like the damn thing to cut grass.

7. I am training for a 50 mile road ride  

in September.  In my entire life I've never ridden more than 40, but that was on such a windy day that the last 10 miles (people were blowing over it was so windy) probably equated to at least 20 on the fear factor alone.  That was the one and only time I ever rode my road bike in a tour.  Now I'm happily rolling a hybrid and I feel a lot more secure.  My center of balance and power is in my ass-and stretching out too far away from that is not fun.

8. I wish I had more upper body strength, but apparently not enough to do much about it.

9.  I did not go look at the boa yesterday as Oliver reported.  I am going today.  Boas give live birth as opposed to laying eggs like pythons do.  That kind of blows my mind a bit-I would expect all snakes to do one or the other.  I guess fish and sharks do that too-some giving live birth and some laying eggs.  Oh well, it still blows my mind.

10.  Meet Fluffy.

 Fluffy(I believe this one is Fluffy 2) used to live in Oklahoma City but now lives in Columbus, Ohio.  She's big, isn't she?  None of my kiddos will get this big unless something goes terribly wrong.

11.  I did not boycott shark week.  I'm too weak.  But I do disagree with the programming choices, all shark attacks and gore.  Why not do a little gore with a little education too?  Sorry Discovery-when you ran the save the seas ads, people were taking leaks or had recorded past the commercials.  Get savvy-you have to put your message in the body of what is being recorded.  And the whole rehashing of Matawan Creek again-yes, people were attacked by a shark in a river and that was the FIRST time in AMERICA we knew about it.  Michael Jackson is still dead-is that on next week's line up?

12. This guy   annoys the shit out of me.  The whole whale wars thing-I can't watch it because the ego and the nonsense outweighs the message for me, and the amount of money spent on what amounts to a stupid publicity stunt is staggering.

13. Low Carb ice cream makes you fart like a rhino.  Ok, it makes ME fart like a rhino, and other people have told me they experience similar results.  It happens fairly quickly too-so don't eat it on a first date with someone you want to see again.  Hey, maybe teachers can start serving it in school as part of the fart enrichment program!

This really isn't tasteless enough to warrant a warning at the top of the post.  I wish I could just rip off really tasteless stuff at the drop of a hat-but, such is not the case.  I do think I nailed the random part though-don't you?