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!

Weep On

If "weasel" is pronounced correctly, then why is "weapon" "wep-on" instead of "weep-on?"

And, why don't "threat" and "treat" rhyme?

How is a five-year-old supposed to learn this language?