Cerebrate Good Times

I’ve seen the “25 things about yourself” blog post on quite a number of friends’ blogs, but I had resisted posting my own because I thought it was unoriginal. But I guess nothing else about my blog is that original anyway, so here we go. Oh, and just for fun five of these things are going to be a total lie. See if you can guess which ones. 1. I like to drink milk when I eat pickles. 2. I have no nail on my right pinky toe. 3. I know from personal experience that fried chicken intestine tastes like bacon. 4. I always carry a couple tissues in my pocket. 5. My favorite Bugs Bunny character growing up was Marvin the Martian. 6. I am a cat person (not that I would put them on nanny-cam or anything). 7. When I was about 5, I stole a pack of gum from the supermarket. I didn’t get caught. 8. I once flew a kite from inside a moving car. 9. My favorite drinks are milk, grape juice, and ginger ale. 10. I once dug up a coprolite . 11. I received two black eyes in a f...

Last night I mowed the lawn at our new place for the first time. It had been a long time, but that was how I made money in the summer growing up, so it brought back a lot of memories. Of course, the memories just involved walking around on the grass with a lawnmower, but still. I really like the smell of fresh-cut grass. I was also remembering a couple of lawn-mowing terms I picked up from my parents as a kid. Mowhawks occur when you leave a little strip of crass uncut in the middle of the lawn. And when you use a setting on the lawnmower that's too short, we called that scalping. Why we used these terms related to American Indians, I have no idea. And that's probably the worst post title I've ever come up with.

On Friday after work I was in a hurry to pack because we were going to southern Utah for the weekend. I decided to bring my black suit for Sunday. When I put it on Sunday morning, somewhere in the back of my mind I thought that something seemed off, but I forgot about it. It wasn't until this morning that I realized what had happened. I had packed some black work slacks with my black suit coat instead of the pants that actually match the suit. I'm not sure if it was noticeable, but I still felt kind of stupid in retrospect.

A few months ago I wrote a post about how it gets a little tiring to hear so much about breast cancer when there are plenty of other things out there that can kill you. And some of you were at least mildly offended by that. So, to make peace with all of you, I am going to run in the Race for the cure on May 9. The website does a marvelous job of making you seem like a terrible person if you don't set a donation goal for yourself when you register. While I'm not big on passing the guilt buck, it's time to see if the rest of you are to this cause beyond questioning my sense of ethics. Visit the website to make a donation to the cause through me, so I don't seem like a misogynistic slacker. That link should take you to a page where you can search for a participant. I'm on a team called Hope Hunters (I had nothing to do with that name).

I have never considered myself a perfectionist, but I guess I'm a little unusual in how I use a microwave. First of all, I think it’s wrong to use a microwave when you could use an oven or toaster oven (I love my toaster oven), but there are times when there’s no choice. So when I have to use one, I very carefully consider the cooking time and the power. I thought everyone did this until someone at work told me he heats it on high for a while and the just stirs it around. But I would rather heat my food on a lower power for longer, which makes it more even. (Also, if you spread the food in a ring around the outer portion of the plate so there’s nothing in the middle, you won’t have a cold portion in the middle to deal with.) And once I figure out how to microwave something perfectly, I remember it so I can repeat it the next time. So, as far as neuroses go, is this one a low/defrost, medium, or high?

We had been having a rather cold and wet spring, with snow falling up to last week. Then, starting Sunday, we've had truly gorgeous weather. So naturally, on the first beautiful commute day of the spring, with nary a cloud in the sky, I found myself in a traffic jam as soon as I hit the freeway on-ramp yesterday afternoon. Then after finally navigating around that accident, I was treated to two more on the way home, so my 20-minute commute turned into 50 minutes. Then this morning I heard about two more accidents yesterday with multiple fatalities. I understand that these things happen. What puzzles me is that we had weeks of horrible, wet weather with nary an accident, and now on the first work day after the weather turned everybody was so busy staring up at that puzzling (yet vaguely familiar) blue-colored sky that they got themselves killed.

They say you shouldn't eat raw eggs because there's a potential for salmonella poisoning. But think about how many people eat raw cookie dough by the pint. I'm sure someone started that guideline in order to avoid being sued, but have you ever known anyone who has gotten sick from raw eggs? I certainly don't. In fact, I'm pretty sure you stand a better chance of food poisoning from random produce items, given recent food recalls. On the advice of my attorney, I should state here that I'm not that I'm endorsing the consumption of raw eggs.