Deck the HALLS (tm)

I have the beginnings of a sore throat (boo! Hiss!) so I started poppin’ my HALLS brand throat lozenges today at work. While the first one was slowly dissolving in my mouth, the rush of menthol hit my sinuses and I found my inside-my-head voice sighing “aaah, Christmas.”

What?

Yes, you heard it. Halls cough drops remind me of Christmas. It all goes back to one year when my mom… er, Santa… included a pack of cherry-flavored Halls cough drops with the rest of our stocking stuffers. (My great-grandma had knitted all of us these ridiculously huge stockings and Santa had to resort to putting things like pencils, erasers, sticks of gum, pocket-sized Kleenex packs, Post-It notes, and… cough drops in them just to fill up the space.) Anyway, it was also the year that my sister and I both got our beloved Cabbage Patch Kids bed tents (I even found an old photo of us putting them up!)

The rectangular sticks of 9 square-shaped cough drops. Don’t you all remember them?
I swear those things tasted like candy when I was a kid. So, that night, I hid my pack of cherry Halls in the secret pocket of my Cabbage Patch Kids tent and ate one.
And then another.
And another.
Until I found myself eating the whole pack that night.

Mmmm... candyyyyyy.
In the years that followed, I would be mocked for my love of cherry-flavored cough drops.
But I have found some redemption in that, after searching on the web for a photo of HALLS cough drops, I should find them on a website called www.candyfavorites.com

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a soothed throat!

7 Wonders: By the People and for the People

It's true - everyday folk like us can vote on The NEW 7 Wonders of the World. I didn't even know that the list could change.

"Candidates for the new list have been narrowed down to 21, including the Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty, Taj Mahal and Peru's Machu Picchu. The public can vote until July 6, 2007, by Internet or phone. The seven winners will be announced July 7 in Lisbon, Portugal."

A spokewoman for the campaign spoke about Bernard Weber, a Swiss who started the campaign in 1999, saying he "felt it is time for something new to bring the world together" and to "symbolize a common pride in the global cultural heritage."

I think that's something we can all get behind.
But somehow it just feels wrong to put the Sydney Opera House on the same list as the pyramids or the Colosseum. But maybe it's just that it's still shiny and new, and I've always thought of the Seven Wonders as places and things that have been around forever - like the pyramids.

So let's get out there and vote, everyone!

Read the article on CNN


p.s. UNESCO is fun to say. UN-ES-CO!

Word of the Day: Oligarchy

(Note: This is actually a post I wrote back on October 9th, but it somehow got sucked back into Draftland, never to be seen again... until today)

ol‧i‧gar‧chy
1. a form of government in which all power is vested in a few persons or in a dominant class or clique; government by the few.
2. a state or organization so ruled.
3. the persons or class so ruling.

I don't know why this word popped into my head this morning. I don't know the last time I read it, but I think the last time I said it was in my 11th grade history class.
However, upon reflection I find that it does have remarkable relevence in my life. Our neighborhood's Architectural (something something) Committee recently felt the need to mention in their newsletter that the committee is, in fact, "not a dictatorship."


Now I can say with confidence that
they are an oligarchy.


If they had claimed that title themselves, I would have at least admired them for that. As it stands, however, our household remains embittered by the group's endless chiding for letting grass grow too long or not seeding our yards enough. Apparently, there has been significant ill will between the committee, er, oligarchy, and some of the residents. Enough so that they had to write a letter to everyone saying they didn't mean to cause anger or resentment. They ended the letter by saying that they'd be sending another letter soon and asked us to not chuck it in the trash without reading it.
I think they actually said "chuck it".

P.S. Zoe went to town on the letter the other night and chewed pieces of it off.
Good kitty.

Oh, the things I've seen

Yesterday, I went to Jiffy Lube for a last-minute oil change before my Thanksgiving trip. The TV in the lobby was playing a BBC soap/drama program, complete with the classic "I need to tell you something... I'm pregnant" storyline. The Jiffy Lube just seems like more of a WB than a BBC sort of place.

On the drive in to work this morning I passed a field where a horse was rolling around on the ground.

Walking across campus this morning - a very cold morning, with a bitter wind - I saw a student wearing, not a long coat, but a long cape. I stared at him, just to be sure. Yes, it was a cape. Not only that, but I think I could make out a clasp that resembled those worn by hobbits.

11.16.06 News of the Day

1) F-15 fighter jets flew over campus this afternoon as practice for a fly-over they're doing at a football game this weekend. I'd heard they were going to be doing it, but it didn't stop my adrenalin from rushing when they did. It really sounded like they were skimming over the building I was in.
2) I was going to buy a few books at the campus bookstore's 25% off sale for all staff tomorrow but I just looked on Amazon.com and their prices are even cheaper that the sale prices would be.
3) My roommate Sarah is sitting next to me on the couch working on her laptop and quietly started humming the Death March from "Star Wars".
4) Tonight I ate some peppermint ice cream - the seasonal Christmassy kind that's vanilla with little bits of pink peppermint sticks in it. I love that ice cream and I think I'm going to stock up on a bunch of cartons before the season ends so I'll still be able to enjoy it months later.
5) I just sent in my bio for my high school 10-year reunion booklet they're making and I realized I'd handled it much like a school assignment: left it to the absolute last-minute and stressed over my writing.
6) I've decided to get bottles of different kinds of German beer so I can try them in the next few weeks to see if I'll want to order any of them while I'm in Germany.
7) Daniel, Sarah and I are sitting in the living room trying, unsuccessfully, to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit in our heads. It makes me want to read "Fahrenheit 451" again. Or watch the 1966 movie version.
9) M " " ke is still sticking on m ke board.

Deutschland!

December 8-17, 2006

Beanbags... minus the beans

My housemate is getting her degree in early childhood education and always has stories to share with us.
She recently informed us, while she was making projects for her class, that in her training she has been told that teachers are no longer supposed to use beans in beanbags or macaroni in art projects. The logic behind it is that with such a diverse population in preschools, etc. teachers need to be sensitive to those children whose families are economically disadvantaged. If a kid's family is scraping by, wasting beans or macaroni on an art project is offensive and hard to handle.
Sometimes kids will have an assignment to take some beans or some dry noodles home to make something out of them and they come back the next day not having done the projects. The reason: their family cooked the food for dinner.
I never would have thought of that being an issue.

Are you for real?

Delusion of the Day: Capgras syndrome:

"The belief that those you love are imposters, played by actors or robots"

Happy Halloween!

Yes, it's that time of year again...
My kitties got all dressed up for Halloween, and their cousins Tucker and Carolina got in on the fun, too. Fun? Well, that's my word, not theirs.

Carolina was Cinderella first, but her skirt kept falling off.

So Zoe was Cinderella, but eventually shed all but her neck ribbon and one puffed sleeve.





Tucker wasn't too keen to be in the Superman costume, but I think the utility belt was an excellent touch.

Applejack was surprisingly calm in his Batman costume (despite the unruly cowl).
He even kept it on long enough for Sarah S. to come home and see him in it.


Until next year!