m.o.M - mother of Michael

Too Big to be a Man, Too Small to be a Horse

I sure wouldn't want to piss this guy off!

Fact IS Stranger Than Fiction

Have You Measured Yours Lately?

Today is National Measure Your Feet Day and to mark this momentous occasion, I bring you:

My Feet

Born in 1962, these feet were terribly abused until approximately 1975 when an inexperienced shoe salesman inadvertently measured the left foot instead of the more commonly measured right. It was this  little known and now largely forgotten shoe salesman who discovered that while these feet had been coexisting for thirteen years, they were not, in fact, a matching pair. It turned out that although the apparatus used for foot measurements was compatible for both feet, only the right foot had ever been measured and all shoes purchased based on that measurement fit only the right foot while the left foot was left to live the life of the stepsister's foot in a tiny glass slipper.

Upon this discovery, the left foot was sprung from it's captivity and it's toes allowed to wiggle in wild abandon. The right foot, so long accustomed to tailored surroundings, was left to flap about with the wind whistling between it and the walls of it's chamber.

Today, these feet are largely left to their own devices in sneakers and hand knit socks. It is a comfortable arrangement, not completely unlike that of an old married couple; too tired to argue any longer and happy to coexist in relative silence.

As of this writing, the left foot is 9 inches long and 9 inches around while the right is 8.75 inches long and 8.75 inches around.

What Color is Your Soul Painted

What color is your soul painted? Purple Your soul is painted the color purple, which embodies the characteristics of sensuality, spirituality, creativity, wealth, royalty, nobility, mystery, enlightenment, arrogance, gaudiness, mourning, confusion, pride, delicacy, power, meditation, religion, and ambition. Purple falls under the element of Earth, and was once a European symbol of royalty; today it symbolizes the divine.

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

A Bumper Crop

I'm Going Platnum!

While cruising some of my favorite blogs, I found this gem from Kwizgiver on what if this is as good as it gets? Thanks Kwizgiver! While my band name sucks, my album name rocks! You try it!

Here are the instructions: You are about to have your own band’s CD cover. Follow these directions to the letter. You can see my result below . Now, go to these links and start creating your totally awesome band cover!

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first article title on the page is the name of your band.

2. http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.

3. http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4. Use your graphics program of choice to throw them together, and post the result as a comment in this post. Also, post it in your own blog and see what other people can come up with!

You Can Say That Again!

Ya Gotta Love the Directions!

Note to self: Santa reads blogs.

Remember way back when, when I asked Santa for the umbrella swift and ball winder? Well, he read that post! Pity he didn't read my later letter. Now, that would a Christmas gift for the books, huh?

Well, the umbrella swift and winder were under the tree almost as if I had ordered them for myself. (Really, I didn't...I bought myself something completely different!) Actually, Santa said they were a gift for the family as the whole family is tired of having to hold the hanks of yarn between their arms as I wind balls. They all agreed! Can you imagine that?

The dust didn't even have a chance to settle on these beauties before they were called into service. Patti sent up the bat signal indicating that she had lace yarn that needed to be wound. With promises of booze and dinner, we headed over with swift and winder in hand.

Following the instructions for the winder, we read:

1. For Setting Yarn Guide Up: Thrust it in over a boss positioned at the reverse side of the base until clicking.
2. For Fitting Bobbin into Bobbin Holder: Fit bobbin in bobbin holder in a right position. Keeping bobbin holder by hand, turn bobbin to left by another hand as far as it goes.

It took a lot of hands, but finally we were up and running. I can see why some people wind all their hanks at one time. Those cute little balls are quite appealing and even the kids can do it.

Family gift, my eye. I'm going to have all the fun.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

I try to be a good citizen of the earth and do all I can to protect her.

We compost and recycle like it's a religion. Heck, I even have composting worms in their own special can in the garage. They eat my lint and old phone books and I harvest the castings and worm tea (read pee) that my plants love so very much. When one of my large koi died, I turned him into fertilizer and now have a rosebush with the biggest leaves I've ever seen on a rosebush. (A little too much fertilizer...all leaves and no flowers.)

So, as soon as I learned about compact flourescent lightbulbs and their impact on the environment, I started replacing burnt out incandescent ones with CFLs. I do miss the healthy, pink hue of the old lightbulbs, but it's a small price to pay.

Today, as I reached for a new bulb, this thought occured to me. Why do we need so much packaging? It's just crazy! What happened to those nice, little cardboard boxes? They were compostable and no larger than the bulb they contained! Now everythings packaged in this rigid plastic clamshell stuff that no one can get into without tearing themselves to shreds! It's nuts!

This led me to doing a quick bit of research on the topic. Here's what I found:

The percentage of all landfilled waste that is just packaging material. - 33%
The amount of packaging that each American disposes of each year. - 440 pounds.
The percentage of all plastic packaging and plastic containers made in 2000 that were recycled. - 9%

Frightening, isn't it.

On the flip-side, however, I found the following:

If every one of 110 million American households bought just one CFL, took it home, and screwed it in the place of an ordinary 60-watt bulb, the energy saved would be enough to power a city of 1.5 million people.
They use so little power compared with old reliable bulbs, a $3 swirl pays for itself in lower electric bills in about five months.
Compact fluorescents emit the same light as classic incandescents but use 75% or 80% less electricity.

Ironic, isn't it. We can save money and save electricity, but the cost is more landfills to contain the excessive packaging from the very items that will help to save us from ourselves.

Is there any hope of getting it together enough to really make a difference?

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/108/open_lightbulbs.html

http://www.co.douglas.or.us/recycle/JeopardyQs.htm

The Good News is: It's Lead Free...