October 2007

My main computer hobby these days is creating "lenses," or single-page mini-sites, over at Squidoo. These lenses are great for me, because I like lots of different things, and the lens-building interface is very easy to use. I can delve into whatever my subject du jour is, organize everything I find, and share it almost instantly. I have been doing a few lenses per week lately, and I have to say I think I'm addicted. But that's my problem, not yours. :-) I've lost count of my lenses, but I think I have about 25 active ones right now, [edit: I counted, and it's 41 as of today. My habit is worse than I thought!] with more on the back burner. I'm very excited that one of them, the Pumpkin Carving Video Showcase (doesn't that sound fancy?) was awarded the coveted "Lens of the Day," by the Squidoo gods on October 29, 2007. It's a collection of the best and most popular pumpkin carving and other pumpkin-related videos on YouTube. It's truly amazing what some people can do with a simple gourd. One guy carved Princess Diana's face into a pumpkin. Seriously, that's art. I can manage some triangles for the eyes and nose, and a zig-zaggy mouth, but that's about it. And for people who are more about pumpkin destruction than pumpkin art, there's a section on pumpkin trebuchet (punkin chunkin) videos. Fun, fun!

I know it's not even Halloween yet, but with the kids' school "fall" parties (they don't call it "Halloween" anymore, apparently) finished up and Christmas merchandise already showing up at Target, I can't help but think ahead a bit. I've been putting together a page on Thanksgiving recipes over at Squidoo. It's been a lot of fun researching the various ways of preparing turkey, carving turkey, mashing potatoes, etc. It has me reminiscing about my first Thanksgiving with my husband, and that always makes me laugh. So in the interest of sharing a smile today, here is my personal, embarrassing turkey misadventure story. Enjoy! We'd been married about six months by our first Thanksgiving together as a married couple. We lived in an apartment with a small electric oven. I was so excited! You know... "Look at me! I'm such the little wife cooking for my new hubby..." I roasted a turkey, fixed up the trimmings, complete with cranberries from a can and Stove Top stuffing. When it was finished, he carved up the bird, my manly husband, and discovered something strange inside the breast. What the heck?! Did we get a defective turkey?! We examined the pale, wrinkled, alien membrane, and figured out that I had forgotten to remove the bag of neck and giblets before I cooked the turkey. Yes, the bag of turkey guts was still inside, like an unexpected prize inside a cereal box. But instead of a super secret spy decoder ring, it was a baked bag of neck, gizzard, liver, and heart. Now, I'm sure that lots of people love to eat those parts, but we are not those people. I was quite embarrassed, especially when he told his mother about it. Fortunately, I have an excellent sense of humor. ;-) We still laugh about it! And in case you're wondering, the rest of the turkey was fine. We still ate it, we're still married, and we're still laughing about it, twelve years later!

I got this in an e-mail from my mom, who got it from her sister... Isn't that how it always goes with these lists? Anyway, I thought this was funny, so I'm putting it here, so you can laugh too. Heaven knows we need more chances to laugh!

19 Ways to Maintain a Healthy Level of Insanity1. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point a Hair Dryer At Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down. 2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don't Disguise Your Voice. 3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, Ask If They Want Fries with that. 4.. Put Your Garbage Can On Your Desk And Label It "In." 5. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks. Once Everyone has Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch to Espresso. 6. In The Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write "For Smuggling Diamonds" 7. Finish All Your sentences with "In Accordance With The Prophecy." 8. Don t use any punctuation 9. As Often As Possible, Skip Rather Than Walk. 10. Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat with a serious face. 11. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is "To Go." 12. Sing Along At The Opera 13. Go To A Poetry Recital And Ask Why The Poems Don't Rhyme 14. Put Mosquito Netting Around Your Work Area And Play tropical Sounds All Day. 15. Five Days In Advance, Tell Your Friends You Can't Attend Their Party Because You're Not In The Mood. 16. Have Your Co-workers Address You By Your Wrestling Name, Rock Bottom. 17. When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream "I Won!, I Won!" 18. When Leaving The Zoo, Start Running Towards The Parking lot, Yelling "Run For Your Lives, They're Loose!!" 19. Tell Your Children Over Dinner. "Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go."