Random Thoughts

Bougainvillea.  Thats just too dang many syllables for one word.

PS.  Assuming of course it’s pronounced like I think it is, and it’s probably not.

What the heck is with all the video games out now with Lego® people in them?  Star Wars®, Raiders of the Lost Ark®, now Batman®…

Does playing with Lego® versions of the characters instead of, I dunno…the characters, somehow make them more fun?

Seriously.  I wanna know.  If you’ve played these and they are just amazingly more fun than their non-Lego® counterparts, I want to know about it.

Not much of a post here, but I do enjoy putting the ® symbol next to things.

We were sitting in a restaurant at the beach, most of my family and me.  We were having a nice meal. 

We were having probably the nicest meal we’d had the whole trip, because frankly a lot of the restaurants sucked:

Amos Mosquito’s obviously considered itself a fine restaurant, but apparently their definition of a fine restaurant is a restaurant at which the prices are ridculously high.  But my understanding has always been that in exchange for ludicrously high prices, one should reasonably expect some sort of proportionally improved service…like a luxurious atmosphere, or VIP treatment, or say for the sake of argument, really great-tasting food.  But this is apparently not the case.  Twelve dollars for a hamburger which would’ve been overpriced at $5.  And from there your choices mushroomed up to the $20-and-up tier (lucky for me I don’t like seafood).  But if high prices equal a fine restaurant, it was truly a fine restaurant. 

To make matters worse, the waitress refused to serve me a hamburger served medium well because it was, and I quote, ”against the law”.  This is a waitress who’d been there at least a year, because some of us remembered her, so who do you think ought to know Restaurant Law better?  Her, right?  But this is apparently not the case. 

Add to that a fairly unsettling creepy mosquito/swamp theme, and you’ve got a memorable dining experience.

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#2.
We said to Mom, “So, Mom, what do you think of Sarah Palin?”

Mom looked confused for a minute, then said hesitantly, “As a baby name?!?  Er…well…I’m not…I…”

And the number one Funniest Thing I’ve Heard on Vacation:

#1.
My sister Kathleen was talking about how much she hates and fears and is terrified of bugs (all bugs, any bugs… butterflies, ants, moths, tarantulas, scorpions, houseflies, ladybugs, any of the bugs in A Bug’s Life, doesn’t matter).  She told us that she was teaching our two nieces (Maryssa & Mellany, whom you’ve met before) about bugs.

Her husband Luke said, “Kathleen teaching people about bugs.  That’s like Hitler teaching people about Jews.”

_{Note to Canadian readers:  Sarah Palin is the Republican nominee for Vice-President of the US.  You may know this already but you’re not required to.  In fact I advise you to pay as little attention as possible to American politics.}

If you planted hope today
in any hopeless heart,

If someone’s burden was lighter
because you did your part,

If you caused a laugh
that chased a tear away,

If tonight your name is mentioned
when someone kneels to pray,

Then your day was well spent.

Aww this is nice.  From a novelty catalog, no less!

Sherrill’s brother Cliff and cousin Becky came down to visit us—-why I’ll never know-—over the Labor Day weekend.  Everything went fine until we started playing Scattergories.

The game started out like any other; I was playing my usual impressive game, like for the Games That Begin With F category I was coming up with things like ‘Final Fantasy Four, Five, Fourteen, and Fifteen’ (+6) , while everyone else thought up things like ‘Fun’ or ‘Fishing’.

And even when I was stuck, I managed to argue a few nonexistent answers into points.  Like for Diseases.  I had only written the letter M, but after a little fast talking I had managed to convince everyone of the existence of deadly M disease (+1), and in a concerned tone of voice encouraged everyone to ask their doctor about M vaccinations, because no one could remember the last time they’d had one.

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So I’m sitting here writing in the middle of the night and the TV’s on in the background and a commercial for Lysol comes on, in which this woman is standing in her kitchen, with a serene smiling look on her face that makes it clear that standing in her kitchen is her dream, and she is living it. 

But happiness on this scale can never last very long, and sure enough, a horrible green cartoon animated cloud suddenly appears, and the woman’s expression changes to one of confusion and disbelief.  Oh no.  A green cloud of odor is coming from the litterbox.  It winds its way around the kitchen until it spies the woman, then it moves towards her and invades her personal space, which I guess is what green odor clouds do all day. 

Sadly, noxious cartoon clouds are apparently not uncommon in the woman’s otherwise ideal world—-she reaches down to a belt clip and sprays the thick sentient cloud with Lysol and it fades away, and everything is paradisical again.  But then, another cartoon cloud, brown this time, attacks from the kitchen trash can. 

I don’t know what happens next, I’m sure that Lysol is more than capable of dealing with this other huge noxious cloud of visible odor, but I’m no longer paying attention (if I ever really was) because I notice that while all this is going on, superimposed on the scene in small white lettering is the word

Dramatization.

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