Mr. Rogers wouldn't hate his tires

This morning I drove past the soon-to-be furniture store I dreamed I was constructing. There was a hand-made sign (spray paint on plywood) advertizing their need for workers. This is too good to be true. Maybe they need a plasterer.

Later in my drive, I was behind a very dirty car. That may sound judgemental, and I'd hate to throw stones and all that, but I was not living in a glass house this morning. I had just come from the car wash. Wild Wednesday, you know.

Anyway, someone (the owner of the car, presumably) had written several phrases in the thick layer of dust on the back of this car. The back window said "F*ck Tires," and some nonsense about "Crown B*tch" was written across the trunk (Google just taught me that Crown is a brand of speakers).

I didn't get why tires were so offensive until I pulled up next to them and saw that the car had a donut on the front. I guess tires were a sore spot.

The funny part is that this car also had a bumper sticker that said "What would Mr. Rogers do?" I don't know him personally, but I feel quite certain that he would not scrawl profanity across the back of his car. And he would go to the car wash.

Is it something I ate?

Two dream tidbits from the weekend -

I was taking a standardized test, like the SAT. This might seem weird since I haven't had to take one of those for years, but I do teach test prep courses, so it's not that strange.

I had arrived late to the test, so I was already a little stressed. I hadn't really missed anything, though, because everyone was filling out the name, address, etc. page. I sat down in my desk, searched frantically for my pencils (you must have two #2 pencils, you know), and started filling out my form.

The stress only increased when I realized I didn't know the answer to the first question. You really shouldn't have a problem with the questions on the personal information page. This wasn't looking good.

The question? Hat size.


Moose have toes. Not only do they have toes, they grow additional toes as they age. Moose are born with three toes on each foot, and they grow more (I think in groups of two or three) throughout their life, ending up with eleven on each foot as adults.

Now you know.

Creepy-crawly Friday

I was sitting at a computer today. This computer is for community-use, not mine. This will be important to you in a moment.

As I was clicking away, I saw something shoot across the desk toward me from the direction of the CPU. My reaction was to push my chair back quickly. Luckily, I was in a chair with wheels on a hard floor. If I had been sitting in a non-wheeled chair or if the floor had provided more friction, I would likely have ended up on my back with my feet in the air.

So what was it? A spider the size of a dinner plate. I may be exaggerating, but it was huge. The size of a post-it at least. (That comparison is for G. A couple of weeks ago we heard a local weather guy describe hail as being the size of a penny. We thought maybe he should compare it to something actually spherical rather than just round. So while the spider was round, I thought it would be helpful to compare it to something square. Also, I'm not familiar with any coin large enough for comparison.)

I'm not a fan of spider-killing. Isn't it bad luck or something? Well, I went in the other room to get a big cup and a piece of paper to relocate it outside, and when I came back, it was gone. I finally located it under the CPU and chased it around for a little while. Under the desk, behind the monitor, under the desk, on top of the desk, where'd it go?

I gave up and finished my work on the computer. Before I left, I looked under the CPU, and there it was again. Again, I chased it. Again, it eluded me. A coworker later told me the spider was gone. I don't think that means it was relocated.

My desk is messy, but at least it doesn't have spiders. Or if it does have spiders, at least they stick to themselves.

In case this job doesn't work out

I'm still recovering from my cold. This is a really slow-moving illness. I haven't had any of the annoying body aches, but I'm ready to be done with all this nose-blowing.

The last dream I had before I woke up this morning (it was actually in the five minutes between the first and second alarm - my sleep skills are highly amazing) involved my work on a local construction project. The building in my dream is a real building in town. It will be a furniture store. (They heard how much we've been spending at Home Depot and thought we might want to be able to throw some money their way once we're ready for furniture. Good bet.) I pass this building every now and then, and evidently it has become embedded in my subconscious because there it was in my dream.

I was putting some plaster up on the walls in my dream. I'm not sure if I worked construction full time or if this was a sort-of freelance job. It seemed that I knew what I was doing. We (I was working with a large man who wore overalls) would reach down into one of the buckets or bowls of plaster at our feet. We would scoop up the plaster, which looked like dark grey pancake batter, with our bare hands and smear it on the carpet that had been applied to the walls. It was important to make sure the pattern of the carpet (red and black swirls, by the way) wasn't visible through the plaster. That's how you know the plaster is thick enough.

That's all there is to it. G will be so happy that I've learned another building skill.

A Dreamy Post

I've been under the weather the past couple of days. G had a cold last week, and he was kind enough to share it with me. I'm getting better little by little.

I'm an excellent sleeper, but my skills have been challenged the past few nights due to congestion and restlessness. The upside of this is that I've been having (or remembering) more dreams.

Last night I remembered something that had happened that would make a great story for my blog, so I made a mental note of it. Unfortunately, I was sleeping when I made this mental note, and also, the thing I was remembering never actually happened. I was remembering a previous dream in that dream.

So, no great story today. I'll see what I can dream up tonight.

The car wash

We have a new car wash in town. It's one of those drive-through ones where you don't have to even get out of the car unless you want to vacuum (which is free, by the way). It's pretty fancy. The most exciting part about this car wash is that they have Wild Wednesday*, when a basic car wash is only $3. What a deal!

I had never been to a drive-through car wash until a couple months ago when G and I took my car through. I was excited about finally having the experience of sitting in my car while it was being washed, and it lived up to the hype.

I have visited the car wash twice on my own now, and I must say that the experience has lost some of its glamour. In fact, I don't like it at all. As I was sitting in line waiting my turn yesterday (Wild Wednesday is popular, as you might expect), I realized my stomach was all in knots. I'm not usually a very nervous person.

My least favorite part of the car wash is when I can't see out of the windows because of the soap and/or cleaning cloths. Even though I know the conveyor is pushing me along at the same speed as it is every other car, I have the feeling that I am going to run into the car in front of me. I also get a little claustrophobic.

The good part about the car wash is that it's quick. My claustrophobia and general discomfort only last a couple of minutes, and then I get to enjoy my nice clean car. It's a good reward.

* Not to be confused with Wacky Wednesday. In college, Wacky Wednesday was the day you could get a large pizza (with one topping maybe, although that seems too good to be true) from Hungry Howies for $3.99. Or was it $2.99? It was ridiculously cheap. And delicious.

You don't say

Writing about the aquarium the other day reminded me of a funny story.

A few years ago, I took my neice M to an aquarium. As a side note, she insisted on wearing a pink leotard that had an attached skirt, but it was cold outside. No problem. She wore jeans over the leotard, with the skirt out over the jeans.

Anyway, one of the exhibits at the aquarium was a touch tank that had various animals in it - crabs, shells, small fish. There was a high school volunteer at the tank to offer guidance and information on the creatures.

M and I were the only ones at the tank, so we had the volunteer all to ourselves. Which meant that I had to try very hard not to laugh out loud when she talked about how cool the anemones were. It wasn't that I didn't agree with her about their coolness. It was her pronunciation.

Instead of a-NEM-o-nee, she said AN-i-moan.

I say it like that in my head now. It makes me smile.

Not just for clotheslines anymore

The last time I saw Florida Aunt P and Granny (I don't think I need to be anonymous here, right? Lots of people have a Granny. Plus, I already have a G.), they were gearing up for a new creative endeavor. I am embarrassed to say that I can't remember what it's called. Oh, wait, I remember - Fantasy Animals. These are small animals (of modeling clay, for instance) that are, as you would imagine, not altogether realistic. So maybe a polka-dotted cat wearing high heels and angel wings. You get the picture.

I saw this today and immediately thought of my family. (If you don't have the patience to click on the link, it's a series of pictures of clothespin people - figures made with clothespins.) My favorite is this one.

My mom and I (and other members of my family) used to make clothespin angels, but I must say that we were not nearly as creative. I sense a new project coming on.

Girls weekend, anyone?

Agorophobia

G and I went to Atlanta last weekend. I had a work thing there, and G tagged along. For the fun portion of our visit, we visited the Georgia Aquarium and IKEA. Both were quite amazing.

The Georgia Aquarium opened recently, and it's the largest aquarium in the world. It was mighty impressive. It was jam-packed with people - half could have left, and it still would have been crowded. This is especially noteworthy since they limit the number of tickets they sell per day.

It was neat to see all the animals there (including otters, reef fish, jellyfish, sea lions, beluga whales, and whale sharks). The exhibits were beautiful. Our only complaint was the lack of education. There were some tanks where guests could touch animals (shrimp, anemones, horseshoe crabs), and there were staff at each exhibit to answer questions, but that was just about the extent of the education.

I would recommend the aquarium for its asthetic beauty alone, but I would also recommend going on a weekday. Maybe it would be less crowded.

So then, IKEA. We had never been to an IKEA before. Someone told G to be sure to visit when we were in Atlanta since we are renovating our house and might find some great stuff there. So I dutifully visited the website to do some research. They seemed to have some things we might be interested in, so we put it on our list for Atlanta.

IKEA is quite a phenomenon. This place is huge. It has a day care (which looked very fun), a snack bar, and a restaurant all inside. And the whole store was packed with people! Unbelievable.

We had a limited amount of time to spend at the store, and I'm kind of glad, because it is a place you could wander around for days. The organization of the store leads you on a path through all the departments. The upside is that you don't have to worry about missing anything. The downside is that it is almost impossible to take shortcuts.

The result of the path and all the people made me feel a little like cattle. And guess what happens at the end of the cattle herding? They milk you. For your money. Hee hee. I couldn't resist.

Anyway, we bought a couple of small items, and we will likely order some more stuff online. It was a fun store.

Thinking back, we probably should have skipped the IKEA visit and just ordered everything online. We probably spent more on the cab than we would have on shipping. But I guess we paid for the experience. It was worth it.

Tiny peas

I like vegetables. Of course, fresh is best, but I always like to keep my freezer stocked, too. As with many products, I know what I like when it comes to frozen veggies. I usually buy corn and peas in big bags (Publix brand), and spinach, lima beans, and broccoli in boxes (Green Giant).

The Green Giant boxes are a bit of a splurge, but so worth it. The veggies come in a bag inside the box, designed to be cooked in the microwave. I don't know how they do it, but those veggies are the most flavorful! Hence the splurging.

Sometimes the Green Giant boxes are on sale, and then I stock up. The last time this happened, they were really cheap, so I branched out of my usual selections and got a box of peas, too.

I thought the Green Giant peas would be similar to bagged peas. But I guess I hadn't noticed they were "baby" peas. Or if I noticed, I didn't realize this would be a whole new culinary experience.

Have you had these? They're so tiny! I couldn't stop talking about them over dinner. They are so much tinier than regular green peas that it's like eating a different food. Amazing. That said, I'm not sure I like them better. I think I'd have to get used to them.

If they can harvest the peas that early (I assume that the peas are just harvested earlier and not bred for smaller size. If not, then they shouldn't really call them babies.), then why not harvest them even earlier. I'm envisioning peas the size of the orange flying fish eggs on top of sushi. Now wouldn't that be a taste sensation?

The problem would be the name. If they were younger than baby peas, then I guess they would be fetal peas or embryonic peas. That doesn't sound as appetizing. I'll keep working on it.