serendipity

Landslide

W-80 @ pinole

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Bird's nest & bougainvillea

Just outside my kitchen window.

Bird's nest

Back? Or to the Future?

I rarely ever want to go back or forward in time very far. My dreams of time travel are usually pretty utilitarian: go back in time (say, just before lunch) before I said or did the thing that was incredibly naive, heartless, short-sighted or just plain dumb, or forward in time to the point where I won't feel regret, embarassment or guilt for the things I did or said. And while I don't feel this way often, it would be extremely useful on those occasions.

I think I would use time travel the same way I use television: a way to watch something interesting, for as long as it is interesting, with the ability to change the channel/time zone at my whim.

I changed my mind...

I'm a woman. It's my prerogative to change it any time I want. There. I just did it again.

My (least) favorite candy...

I am suddenly reminded of my worst candy experience ever (even worse than pop rocks which I thought would make my head explode): we were driving back to New Jersey from Florida and stopped to get snacks. My mom let us buy Paydays, because they were full of peanuts and kind of good for us (at this time she was also making us eat wheat germ). We opened the wrappers, took big bites and discovered that the candy was full of live WORMS.

Cut to lots of spitting and throwing the candy bars out the window.

I still can't eat them today.

PAYDAY

Static electricity is not welcome here

 

Label on the gas pump

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Or what?

My favorite candy when I was a kid...

When I grew up there was penny candy. Ok, by that time inflation had turned it into 3 and 5 cent candy, but still, dirt cheap. I would stock up on handfuls of tootsie rolls, mary janes, jaw breakers and bazooka gum. I loved the fortunes and the really bad jokes in the bazooka gum. Do they still have that?

 

Video games Rx

From March, so the story is a little dated, but since it's new to me, maybe it's new to you too

and since you asked, no, I'm not goofing off - I'm doing RESEARCH ;-)

 

Video Games May Help Relieve Pain

By Catherine Clarke Fox

National Geographic News

March 10, 2006

 

A lot of grown-ups worry that spending too much time playing video games isn't good for a kid's health.

But some doctors have noticed that kids who bring their handheld game players to the hospital seem less worried about being there. These patients also seem to experience less pain when they are concentrating on a superhero adventure or a car race.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/kids/2006/03/videogames.html

My name is karen, and i'm a shoeoholic

I've got to stop!

This is madness!

But oh yummy, I just got these today

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What's so great about Krispy Kreme?

I confess I am not a donut aficionado. I mean, I like them just fine, but I like the powdered sugar donuts you can buy at the gas station just as much as any I have found at high-end donut shops. The only exception to this were these donuts we used to get when I was 11. They were handmade by a family in New Jersey farm country - don't laugh there really is a lot of farming out there - and these donuts tasted sweet like apples. They were called apple cider donuts and they were divine.

But I digress.

Today I bought donuts for my team meeting as a way of saying "I'm sorry for holding an all-hands meeting on a Monday morning. Here have a donut." The only donut shop close to my office is the legendary Krispy Kreme .

Until today I had never eaten a Krispy Kreme donut. It was on my list of things to do (not very high, but on the list nonetheless) and since today is also my gym day and I can work off, as penance, anything bad I eat (no I'm not Catholic, but I have a periodic need for absolution), I decided that today would be the day.

I have heard that the best possible way to "experience" a Krispy Kreme donut is to get it fresh off the line so it's hot. I bought two dozen for my team and one hot-off-the-line donut for me.

I ate the warm, glazed donut right there in the store, expecting something to happen, I really don't know what. The beginning of a new craving perhaps, or at least a sense of satisfaction worthy of all the hype. There was nothing wrong with the donut, but neither was there anything particularly special about it. It was certainly not the orgasmically decadent feeling I had been led by others to believe would follow. (mmm, Ok, this last part may be a slight exaggeration of my expectations.)

What a let down. Am I missing something?