Moments of Randomness

Sometimes I get little ideas, but they're not worth a post of their own. So they sit on the back burner until I forget them.

But today, because my bills are paid, my office is (mostly) tidy, the boys are outside, and Kerry is busily mowing, I have a few more moments than usual, so I give you these tidbits of randomness:

1. The Maldives.













Off the tip of India, near the equator.

Your google is as good as mine, so if you investigate, you'll see the sizzle may be better than the steak, (like a Muslim government and an average elevation of about 3 feet above sea level), but seriously, does that picture not make you think, "Is this what heaven is like?"

Or, "That water is so blue, if I swim in it will it stain my skin?"

Or, "Would I care if it did?!"

2. Weeds and boys.

We were weeding the flower beds. I have to give the boys credit, they wanted to help. Of course, their enthusiasm often overrides their good sense, like when they continued to pull "weeds" and fling them right over my head into the wheel-barrow, without first shaking the dirt off the roots.

Thank you. I really needed a dirt bath.

Then, of course, there's the whole problem with plant identification. They were amazed to discover that a "weed" is not one specific plant, like a poppy or a clematis, but there are, indeed, a variety of weeds.

3. Warm weather.

Because it's so warm here today (you know, maybe 60F) the boys felt the need to have a squirt gun fight. Nobody came to me crying or bleeding, so we'll assume it went well.

4. Joe.

After an hour or more of playing with the lizards again, the boys have informed me that it was Joe, and not Quartz, who lost his tail.

I knew you'd need this information.

5. The Leap Pad and sound effects

Why, oh why, do the manufacturers of kids' toys include an incessant stream of sound effects?

This drives me crazy.

When the boys were smaller we got a couple of Leap Pads, and even now we could use them for educational purposes.

Except for Tate. It's hard enough for him to decode what a recorded voice is saying with no visual cues, but then throw in a layer of loud, useless, bee-boppy sound effects and it becomes an exercise in frustration.

Wouldn't it be nice if they made separate volume controls for the sound effects? Or you could turn them off? Like a sing-a-long CD with a separate track for the vocals and the accompaniment.

I'm just saying.