An Irish Blessing

Take time to work,
It is the price of success.

Take time to meditate,
It is the source of power.

Take time to play,
It is the secret of perpetual youth.

Take time to read,
It is the way to knowledge.

Take time to be friendly,
It is the road to happiness.

Take time to laugh,
It is the music of the soul.

And take time to love and be loved,
It is what matters most!

Polar Bears

The temperature in my area has dipped for several days of a raw 50 degrees (okay, so we're not much into cold weather, but that's what passes for cold around here), and we're pulling out our long-sleeved shirts and light jackets. In some idle hope that we might have snow again this winter, my thoughts turned to polar bears, and I learned some interesting things:

1. Polar bear fur is not white. It's colorless, but the bear's skin is black.

2. The polar bear is considered to be a marine mammal. It's feet are partially webbed, and it's fur is oily so that it can repel water.

3. "Ursulus maritimus" is the scientific name for the polar bear, which in Greek means "Sea Bear."

4. To tell how old a polar bear is, you have to do tree-ring testing on its teeth. The polar bear grows a new layer of cementum every year. (I'm not volunteering for that job.)

5. When a polar bear swims under water, it's nose closes so that water won't get in.

Well, I'll keep dreaming of a white winter -- just not so white that I'll actually see any polar bears.

SPAM

Passengers on the stranded Carnival Cruise Splendor are currently receiving supplies brought in by U.S. Navy Seahawk helicopters including crab meat, croissants, Pop Tarts, and SPAM. SPAM? I wonder how humble SPAM made the list with crab meat and croissants.

In honor of the timeless processed meat, here are a few SPAM randoms:

1. SPAM was invented in 1937 by Jay Hormel.

2. Over 100 million cans of SPAM are sold in the United States each year.

3. There's a SPAM Museum in Austin, Minnesota.

Have you SPAMMED lately? Recipes are available on the SPAM website at www.spam.com.

Enjoy.

Would you like a straw?

Every morning, I have an iced tea, consumed with a drinking straw. I am grateful for those straws. So, in honor of the little helpers, here are a few drinking straw randoms:

1. Nature first invented the drinking straw. Some folks used rye straws, but they were breakable and often unclean.

2. The first manufactured straw was invented by Chester Stone, who wrapped parafinned manila paper around a pencil and received a patent for his invention on January 3, 1888.

3. In 1908, the first machine-made straws were successfully manufactured by the Marvin C. Stone Estate.

4. In 1938, Joseph B. Friedman obtained a patent for the first flexible straw after watching his daughter become frustrated bending her straw over the rim of her glass of soda.

5. Mr. Friedman also invented a straw that could be used with either hot or cold liquids and be bent to any angle.

Whew knew?

Imagine That

Imagination has brought mankind through the dark ages to its present state of civilization. Imagination lead Columbus to discover America. Imagination lead Franklin to discover electricity. Imagination has given us the steam engine, the telephone, the talking-machine, and the automobile, for these things had to be dreamed of before they became reality. So I believe that dreams -- daydreams, you know, with your eyes wide open and your brain machinery whizzing -- are likely to lead to the betterment of the world. The imaginative child will become the imaginative man or woman, most apt to invent, and therefore to foster, civilization.

~ L. Frank Baum

Jumping Rope

I decided that with all of my recent travel, I needed to find a way to exercise that wouldn't involve running in a strange city. So, I started jumping rope with a goal of jumping a total of ten minutes. Sounds simple enough.

1) Get a rope.

2) Jump over the rope.

3) Repeat #2 until ten minutes have passed.

Here's how things go in reality:

1) Get a rope.

2) Jump over the rope until heart feels like it's going to leap out of chest.

3) Stop jumping. Suck air like a vacuum cleaner. Gulp water.

4) Check watch.

5) Repeat ##2-4 until a minute has passed.

Needless to say, I've also learned a few things along the way:

1) Jumping rope doesn't lend itself to making adjustments to eye glasses on the fly. If they start slipping down the nose, they're just going to have to slip until the next break.

2) The kids learn quickly that it's hard for Mommy to yell at them and jump rope, so Mom's jump rope time is chaos time.

3) The dog thinks that it's his mission in life to get as close to the jump rope as possible without actually getting hit thereby making me paranoid about hitting him and causing me to jump around the patio like some sort of intoxicated bumble bee.

Travel

Since the beginning of August, I've travelled to Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma (twice), and Colorado as well as cities around Texas. Today, I head to Missouri.

Along the way, I've learned a few things:

1. If the outside hangar thingy on your suit bag comes loose while on the conveyor belt in the baggage claim area, it can hook onto a corner, forming a block that knocks all following luggage off of the belt. (Yeah, I was popular for that one.)

2. If you hear a popping noise and the parts of your hair dryer come apart in your hands, the hair dryer really is broken.

3. If you bang your head once on the overhead compartment, that's an accident. If you bang your head twice during a single flight, that's carelessness. If you bang your head three times, you must be me.

Happy landings!