Photo Friday: Play

This week's PhotoFriday.com topic is "play." Here's my entry:

Spyware

I am using SpywareBlaster and love it. Very few "evil" cookies get through, but there's a few.

I run Ad-Aware daily and Bazooka and Spybot occasionally. Being online seemed a little extra slow today so I reinstalled Spy Sweeper (the program is very thorough but nags everyone to death after 30 days -- so it has to be removed).

After running all of the other programs, Spy Sweeper found an additional 24 "evil" cookies. I wonder if the program goes overboard in what it decides is spyware, but I examined each cookie and they really seemed to be bad stuff. SpySweeper offers a link to learn more about each cookie, what program uses them, etc - very helpful.

Eat a Raw Potato?

... So says a Korean friend that I walked with this morning. She claims that eating a fresh, small, raw, peeled potato will do wonders for helping digestion. It worked for her, she told me. (I had told her that my husband has a little difficulty with raw onions such as those in salsa.) My problem is that I have no problem digesting anything which then causes other health problems - ha!

Cinco de Applebee's

That's where my daughter wanted to go, so we took off. I like Applebee's because they offer good low-calorie dishes. I don't care if it is low carb or not -- just low calorie and nutritious. (That's today's thinking. Tomorrow will be candy bars and donuts.)

I ordered broiled fish and steamed vegetables with a glass of tap water. I wish I liked vegetables because everyone says to eat them more often. I don't hate vegetables -- its just that other things taste more satisfying. Better yet, I wish chocolate was a vegetable.

My much-skinnier daughter ordered their appetizer (pictured) with buffalo chicken, tortilla chips, spinach dip, fried cheese sticks, quesadilla wedges and three sauces to dip all of this into. On top of that, she ordered an Oreo shake -- and she does not gain weight from this. Life is not fair.

She earns it, though. She's on her feet all day as a nurse and puts in a lot of physical labor while I sit at a computer. Near the end of this month, she begins in her new work area as a trauma nurse. She wanted more of a challenge. I imagine the physical labor will continue.

In addition to that, on her days off, she works out in a gym. I walk 5 miles a day, 6 days a week, but that's about it for me. I know it is not a perfect program, but its better than I used to do.

My husband walks, too. In addition, he does a tremendous amount of gardening -- finding something to do with the garden almost all year around -- and he checked out superb in his last physical exam. His tiller broke long ago and he tills by hand, for one thing.

Cinco de Mayo in San Diego

While I can not find anyone seriously celebrating this day except restaurants and radio stations, in my family it seems like a good day to go out and eat Mexican. I asked an Argentinean friend if they celebrated it and she said no. Then I did a Google search and learned what it was all about -- not Mexican Independence as a few folks mistakenly believe.

I remember being in San Diego several years ago over this holiday. I was staying in a downtown hotel. My coworkers and I went up to the roof and watched the noisy streets around us. It looked like a lot of partying went on. The next evening, we did the same thing and found the partying was still going on. Again the next night, we saw a repeat of it all. Seems like folks in downtown San Diego party every night. With all the good weather they have, I can understand. Flowers bloom all year around, low humidity and perfect weather make up for other problems in the city.

My daughter and I going out today -- maybe we'll look for a good Mexican place.

P.S. This month marks one year of keeping a blog faithfully. I've enjoyed it very much. Thanks go to all of you who stop by and post a comment now and then.

The Planet Neptune

When walking this morning, I found myself about 2/3 of a mile from the local elementary/middle school. A sign was stuck into the ground beside the sidewalk. On it were written statistics about Neptune.

There's probably a classroom in the school set up with our solar system and showing how far away each planet is from the sun. I had to laugh when I figured it out. I hope nobody bothers this sign stuck in the ground so far from the school. I imagine a class may be walking out here later today.

I wonder where Pluto ended up.

Recycling Myth

... watched a TV show about recycling myths concerning landfills and recycling paper, plastic, cans, etc. The show proved that only aluminum cans are worth the trouble to recycle. Trying to make paper and plastic back into useable material wastes more resources than it helps.

Not only that, but it costs 3 times more money for a city to run a recycling program than a trash program.

They also proved that "landfills running out of space" was a myth started by a specific person (whom they interviewed) with incorrect information. There is a LOT of landfill space and the country is nowhere near having a problem with them. Many negative statements made about landfills are false.

I was convinced. Cans are the only basic household item appropriate for recycling. Everything else is just a "feel good" myth that could be hurting the environment. It shows how easy people can get carried away with a concept because it sounds good -- even though it is wrong. Once it begins to get political, it can take off. For more information, here's the link to the show with clips --> Penn & Teller - Recycling. They are atheists and I am Christian, so I don't agree with all of their other shows and beliefs (or lack thereof), but this episode on recycling made many good points as did the one on P.E.T.A. and Safety Hysteria.

Another note - we compost the food part of our garbage (not mentioned on the show, though). That is another matter all together because it is good for the garden and does help the environment.

Maybe in China, but NOT Here

A cricket is good luck in China, but here in Alabama, it's a pest --- or fish bait. (I was in Wal-Mart last week and heard a chorus of crickets in the sports department where they sell live fish bait.) (It's also the name of the dog in the entry below -- good name for that tiny dog, too.)

Hey folks, there's no need to buy your crickets at Wal-Mart. Just come to my house, particularly the corner of our bedroom where crickets seem to congregate. I wonder if the house foundation is off just a tiny fraction of an inch -- enough to let in a cricket or two.

Those little guys are LOUD! It drives us crazy at night. Its worse than the neighbor's dogs barking or their gigantic subwoofers shaking the homes nearby. I can't understand why anybody would want one of those "nature noise" machines that do cricket sounds. I'd buy one to drown out the cricket sounds if it could.

Our cats would love to chase the crickets, but they hide out of reach, just under the carpet in the house. At least they can catch the ones in the garage. We get a lot of satisfaction when finding a beat-up cricket. My cats had fun.

I usually end up waking in the middle of the night, feeling around for the bug spray and soaking the carpet in that corner. It works for a few days, then the darn bugs come back and we get tired of smelling bug spray when we go to bed. Where's DDT when you need it?

Teacup Chihuahua

When I went to the airport to pick up my husband (he had been in Utah for a few days for his job), the person sitting next to me was holding a blue towel. At first, I thought she had a baby. It was a teacup chihuahua named Cricket and she's 3 years old. She was adorable. The woman said that her husband was coming back from a trip, too, and this was their dog who missed him very much.

Other people at the airport enjoyed the dog amd stopped to chat. One person told us that these dogs are highly prized in Japan, costing around $1800 each. (The woman later told me that they are selling for about $800 right now here in this area.)

I liked watching the childrens' faces as they walked by the dog. They were delighted. When my husband got off the plane, I persuaded him to sit down and wait. I wanted to see the reaction of the dog when her owner came home. Actually, the owner was pretty interesting himself, a tall skinny guy wearing an extra large Texan hat (the flight was coming from Houston). He was happy to see his dog and took the little shivering thing in his arms as soon as he got back - such an interesting picture. I wished I had been brave enough to take another photo.

Continued on the NEXT PAGE -->

<--  Previous Page | Topic List for this Page | Back to Top | Next Page -->