Take Five

Random lists.

5 food items you will almost always find in my lunchbox at work:

1. instant oatmeal
2. vanilla yogurt
3. granola bar or Pop-Tart
4. couple hard candies or mints
5. Gatorade, juice, or water

5 non-food items in same lunchbox:

1. chapstick
2. set of Allen wrenches
3. pencil stub
4. loose change
5. emu oil hand lotion

5 work items I couldn't do without:

1. slip-joint pliers
2. pocketknife
3. sunscreen (SPF 15 at the very least)
4. pencils
5. Micro$oft Excel

5 things I found in my coat pockets today:

1. leather gloves
2. custard-flavored "Peanuts" lip balm
3. tin of Orbitz mints
4. half a roll of wintergreen LifeSavers
5. Fireball wrapper

5 things I will eat too much of, given the opportunity:

1. Mom's potato salad
2. Ellen's cheesecake
3. any cake (except chocolate) with cream cheese frosting
4. avocados/guacamole
5. rice and gravy

5 celebrities I think are overrated:

1. Paris Hilton
2. Jessica Simpson
3. Brad Pitt
4. Tom Cruise
5. any reality-show actor/actress

5 modern (last 10 years) automobiles I like*:

1. Toyota Tacoma TRD
2. Subaru Baja
3. That boxy-looking Scion thing
4. Cadillac DTS or STS, Luxury Performance packages
5. Pontiac Ram Air Firebird (black, of course)

*Off the top of my head. I will own one of the first two in a year's time! Yay!

5 classic automobiles I like:

BWAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!! Yeah right, like I could narrow it down to 5. Easier to say "almost anything built before 1973." I don't think I could pick 5 I don't like. Sheesh.

BlogHopping

You know you've done it... clicked the "next blog" button at the top of the screen to see what comes up. (This is not really a good thing, as a lot of faux blogs contain spyware and/or try to get you to download stuff you don't want.) Most likely you've bloghopped like I do: you're on a friend's blog, click a link to another, then another, etc. It's 6 Degrees of Blogs, or more in my case... once I kept clicking one link on each new site until I'd been through about 30 or so, wound up on a blog from Singapore that I ended up bookmarking. THIS is how you find stuff you weren't looking for that is often interesting and inspiring.

Here's some of the sites I found while bloghopping:

http://ridetheamericas.blogspot.com/
No new posts, but read the blog from the beginning if you're so inclined... it's an on-the-road journal from a man who rode from New York City to Alaska (with pit stops in the southern states for BBQ) on a motorcycle. I read this daily while it was happening and received a nice email reply from Mathew when he got home. (Warning: some profanity.)

http://amishelectricpublications.blogspot.com/
With tongue firmly in cheek, Elijah Yoder shows the lighter side of being Amish. Some jokes I've read before but his spin is quite amusing. Be sure to click on some of the links on his blog, too, for more humor and some (factual) Amish history. Funny stuff!

http://pcjm.blogspot.com/
Pop Culture Junk Mail is the title, which pretty much sums it up. Gael (the author and entertainment editor for MSNBC.com) is always blogging about the comic strip "For Better or For Worse", one of my favorites, so it's amusing to read what snarky comments she's come up with. She also manages to find some of the weirdest commercial products available... Luke and Leia wedding cake topper, anyone?

http://sprinkler5.blogspot.com/
Randomness at its most simplistic. Mostly a collection of links to really odd stuff.

http://trent.blogspot.com/
Total and complete celebrity snarkiness. If you absolutely need to know what Britney Spears is wearing (white trash couture), how skinny Nicole Richie has gotten (very) or what's up with Brad & Angelina or Jake Gyllenhall, visit Pink. It's there. (Some mild profanity on occasion.)

http://members.aol.com/immurdoc/a-team/stuff.htm
"A-Team Oddities." I think I had some of that stuff. Other pages on the site as well, great for nostalgic A-Team fans. Includes a link to Dwight Schultz (Murdock) website. (Note: this isn't a blog, but it was a link on one, so it counts!)

There's more but this is enough for now. I have to go try to recover from the flu so I can work this weekend. Nappy time!

Spring has.... recoiled.

I thought spring was well on its way... all the signs were there... it was above 50 degrees, there were two roadkilled skunks on the way to work, I could see terra firma instead of slush and frozen puddles. Alas, 'twas not to be...

It was pretty windy the last few days, enough that we were all making sure the greenhouse roofs were staying attached and having to open the outside door by bracing a foot against the frame and pulling with both hands. An exhaust stack cover took off like a Frisbee and smacked the back of my car (glad nobody was in the path of that thing! We're talking sharp spinning metal at high velocity.) In spite of the wind, the temps were still fairly reasonable until Friday night. Then it dropped 40 degrees or more. Saturday morning was deceptive... there was every indication that the sun would be out, but by noon there was snow blowing everywhere and causing whiteouts. Didn't last long, maybe an hour, and the wind blew most of it away afterwards. But last night... single digit temperature. The air was crackly-cold, the kind where you can feel the air going into your lungs like tiny little icicles. NOT that I'm complaining, mind you. I love cold weather. But I fell asleep early and missed most of it, and I'm looking out the window right now and the sun is out bright. Only going to be in the 20s today and around 9 tonight, but two days ago it was 60...

I had every intention of going outside to watch the sunrise this morning, hoping the icy air would lend itself to some more halos. But it was shiver-inducing cold in our place, more suited to hiding under the blankets for another hour. If we ever have a house with steady heat we won't know what to do. I've switched from flannel pajamas, wool socks, and a robe to a t-shirt and shorts, and back, in the space of an hour on more occasions than I can count. Anyway I'll try to catch the sunset later, as long as there isn't anything super-interesting going on with the Daytona race.

Yes, it's Daytona Day! The most over-hyped race of the year, the one Dale Earnhardt lost on the last lap in every way imagineable (including hitting a seagull, running out of gas, and even dying... sadly, he's done it all). At least he got one win in there. Since my long-time driver Rusty Wallace retired, I had to find a new driver to cheer for the first time in a decade. Mark Martin will be my guy this year. Always did like him. It's his last year so I hope he wins it all.

Here's a great halo photo from Atmospheric Optics :
The site has technical explanations and diagrams for various optics, plus photography tips. Very extensive submitted image galleries... check it out!

Weekend Highlights!

Well, Harrisburg area got 5-6 inches of snow... not too bad, and in fact it was quite beautiful. There were intermittent flurries in between squalls. Harrisburg crews seem to be much better about clearing the roads than they are up here so driving, while a bit slower, wasn't as much of a hazard as it would have been at home.

More about the trip later... I HAVE to share what I saw Sunday! The cold air lent itself to some incredible atmospheric optics. About 4-4:30 we were walking across a store parking lot when I saw a rainbow sundog. I should have gone back to the truck for the camera right then, but it was cold... bad excuse, I know... but it started fading not long after I saw it, and by the time we were inside it was gone. That's event #1. We were leaving the same parking lot a while later and of course I was trying to see the sunset through the back window... something caught my eye and I asked hubby to pull into the lot behind the store where there was a better view. Events #2 and #3 not long apart... a beautiful upper sun pillar and my first viewing of what I believed to be a weak, but still awesome, circumzenithal arc! (That's an upside-down rainbow over the sun.) I scrambled for the camera, which I'd foolishly stashed in a bag... I managed to get a few shots of the sun pillar before it went away completely, though my photos were too late for the full effect. Missed the arc entirely, drat it! Here's the tail end of the pillar, as it was fading:

Winter is the best time for seeing halos and anything caused by ice crystals in the air. Pillars can happen any time, I believe, but seeing 3 optics in one day really had me stoked.

On to the rest of the weekend... Saturday, as we were cruising through Hershey, we saw a sign for the Antique Automobile Collector's Association museum. Having a fondness for spontaneous detours, and especially for ones involving old cars, we turned left instead of right and went to check it out. It looked small at first... we were a bit disappointed, and didn't want to pay a lot to see just a dozen or so cars, but when we rode by the main window a 1987 Buick Grand National on display changed MY mind. After drooling over the GN we paid eight dollars each for admission (dollar off with AAA, by the way) and went to see what else was inside. The museum turned out to be huge and chock-full of not just autos but memorabilia, including a service-station diorama and a complete (!) mobile diner from the 50s that you could walk into. There was an antique bus display and part of the Nicola Bulgari car collection. As it turns out, Bulgari (of watch and jewelry fame) just happens to be a Buick aficionado... yay!... And like I am (or would be, if I could afford it) he doesn't buy cars just to show off, he actually drives them! I was pleased. And he owns a GN... *sigh*

Onward... to the Eastern Outdoor Expo... where within 5 minutes I fell in love with a pontoon boat. And a minute later was trying (halfheartedly) to convince my husband to move down South, move into my great-grandfather's empty house, and haul that boat out to my cousin's dock. He actually thought about it for a good 30 seconds before laughing.

There were a million and one things to look at there... we managed to get through about 3/4 of a million... saw a booth for the charter-boat guy who took us striper-fishing on our honeymoon. He wasn't there but it was nice to have that bit of memory pop up unexpectedly.

Had to check out the 4x4 section too. Decided I liked the Toyota Highlander almost as much as the Tacoma. B found a hybrid Chevy fullsize pickup. I could go with or without the hybrid option. Nice idea, but I think it will be a while yet before the technology is streamlined and fine-tuned.

Saw an accessorized van that we decided NEEDS to be in any A-Team remake from here on out. Mr. T would have traded his gold bling for this van:

I also learned why I rarely see red foxes around, and why I've never seen a wild cat (bobcat, lynx, etc). They're all dead, stuffed, and mounted, and put on display at the Expo. Seems like every booth had some kind of mounted critter hanging around. One booth had a revolving rack full of fox pelts. *Shudder* Yes, I hunt. But I eat what I kill, and I don't agree with animals suffering in traps... I hate the idea of trapping them just so their pelts can be sold at flea markets and sports shows. Does anyone really eat fox, mink, or bobcat? I don't think so. And we're long beyond the age where fur clothing is necessary for survival, at least in the majority of the world today. (If you all want to sell critter skins, find a use for groundhog hides and leave the foxes alone, okay? And come up with a few woodchuck recipes while you're at it.)

Off my soapbox now... we bought a new deer drag harness, a really neat one. Hope it works. Got a few samples here and there, crawled in, under, around and through a bunch of boats and trucks... watched two Grizzly bear cubs playing at the animal exhibit, which also had a young grey wolf, tigers, a black bear and a coatimundi... watched the log-rolling and chainsaw show... I recommend the Expo to anyone who likes that sort of thing because it's a lot of fun. Just leave your credit cards at home!

So... between the snow, sky, cars, and Expo, and a couple of ostrich burgers at Fuddruckers, we had a great time. Left with a lingering urge to go fishing and camping but what we need to do first is go wash the salt off the truck. ;-P

Dashing Through the Snow

Okay, more like negotiating highway through the snow... supposed to get more white stuff coming up from the south tomorrow. And naturally, we're driving south, right into it. Hopefully we'll be in the Harrisburg area before it gets bad (preferably before it hits at all).

I seriously thought about canceling this trip, but my husband was incredulous when I said that. He doesn't see a few inches of snow as a deterrent from anything. Crazy northerners...
I'm thinking about Rte 15, which is full of insane drivers on a good day, and city traffic once we get there. I'm not keen on being in either place in snow. The good news is that it isn't supposed to start until after lunch, by which time I hope to be safely inside the Farm Show Complex, drooling over pontoon boats and custom rifle stocks and Alaska sightseeing excursions. The other good news (?) is that we're only supposed to get a few inches... this can be good or bad. On one hand, that's enough to either be a nuisance or make the roads slippery as all-get-out. On the other hand, our local weather forecasters have a lower accurate prediction rate than Punxsutawney Phil (who is at, I believe, 30-35%). Meaning, we could get anywhere from zero to twelve inches in localspeak.

I wish I'd gone to weather person school. Meteorologists have it made... they study scientific weather phenomena, learn a bunch of technical terms, spend a lot of time on TV pointing out said phenomena using the terms that no one else understands, and get paid beaucoup bucks... and they're wrong half the time and DON'T get fired! What a sweet job that must be.

Heck, I'm more accurate than that... if my husband's hip aches, it's going to be cold. If my hair's frizzy, the air is dry. If I can hear birds outside the window, it's warm. And if it's humid inside, it's raining out. We have a great system at work, too... if we want to know what the weather's like, we go outside and look around. ;-P

Seriously, being a meteorologist would be fun, I think. For me, the best part would be learning and fieldwork. I love studying the sky... am fascinated by storms... have been known to run outside with a camera during a lightning storm or tornado warning... one day last year, as I was leaving work, I heard on the radio that there was a funnel cloud forming not a mile from the road I was on. Anyone who knows me knows exactly what I did... pulled over to watch! I actually wanted to be one of those kamikaze idiot reporters who were on location during hurricanes, yelling into the microphones over the wind and rain and fighting to keep from blowing out of camera range. I wanted to be on the crew that launched "Dorothy" during the movie Twister (up until the end, that is... you can keep the flying cows, thanks!).

That's my alternate-life dream, right there... in a nutshell, I wanna be a stormchaser. How odd, from someone who doesn't even want to drive two hours south because it might snow three inches. *eyeroll* The biggest risks I take nowadays involve driving in the dark through deer territory and the above-mentioned tornado/lightning watching. The latter is because I'm determined to catch one or the other on camera. I WILL get an awesome lightning shot, you just wait and see!

Return of the Sta-Puft Marshmallow Girl!

I got called back in to work a few weeks early, along with a dozen others. Apparently the potting schedule has been changed so much and on such short notice that they're now a week behind. So I got the call yesterday to come in today... no warning, just like the sudden layoffs a month ago, just "Come in." Had I not been half-asleep at the time, I might not have answered the phone and thus gotten in a "readjustment" day. Meaning, now I have to be awake and mentally functioning enough to drive only three hours after I've *been* going to bed. Yeah, this morning sucked.

But I was only on the potting line until 11:00... then my regular supervisor called me back to my usual stomping grounds to prep bays for new plants... Spent the rest of the day in a white suit, boots, and gloves, slinging chemicals around. It actually felt good to be "home." I had to break into my own office, though. Before Christmas, someone ran into the doorframe (twice) with the sweeper (not a vacuum, but a propane-powered industrial sweeper with tires and a seatbelt). The frame was knocked out of whack and the deadbolt wouldn't line up. I didn't have anything in there worth stealing, and probably would have laughed at anyone who stole my prehistoric computer anyway, so I never locked the door. Well, someone decided that computer *needed* to be secured, wedged the door shut, and locked it. My key wouldn't open it because of the pressure against the bolt... couldn't get in the inner door because the knob is on backwards... I'm going to fix that. I got locked in the middle office right after it was switched, since the door locks were on the other sides of both doors. Dumb dumb dumb! First time I ever had to break OUT of the office.

The reversed doorknob sums up the site management. Nobody has any idea why they do things the way they do, and even if something is obviously bass-ackwards to everyone else, there will be ONE person who insists that it needs to be done that way. That person will be in upper management. And after the problem is recognized no one will go out of their way to fix it until it inconveniences upper management. I still don't know why that knob was turned around with the keyhole on the inside. I'm sure someone at some point had a reason for it; they just neglected to tell anyone else what it was. Maybe they were waiting for the radio help call from a hapless grower locked in the middle room, so they could have a laugh. As long as I have a pocketknife on me, it ain't gonna be me making that call.

Back on the potting line tomorrow... it's fun, really. Hard on the legs and back, but fun. Tough to get out of the growing mindset though. We were potting New Guinea impatiens this morning and I kept looking for diseased spots and anything else that might be of concern to a grower. Someone finally said "Look, you don't have to think today. Just pot the plants." Gave me a chuckle! For the first time ever, I felt like I was overpaid for what I was doing instead of the other way around. What a nice (and strange) feeling that was!

Heather V. Graham Harden!

I can't read your email on the website you sent it through, and I haven't been able to get to you on IM. Email me through this blog PLEASE! Or look for me on Yahoo... you know who I am... or even join the LHS Alumni site (it's free), I'm on there too. LHS site

I posted this in case you or someone you knew happened to be Googling your name for whatever reason. I just want to know how you're doing, what you've been up to... just to catch up with an old friend. So buzz me already! :-)

Soy Dung Chow,
Me

It's The Hoff!

I really have no words. I was laughing too hard. Who knew David Hasselhoff was such a comedian? (I think the ooga-chakkas did it for me. I always liked those.)