As usual...more randomness.

It is what you have come to expect from me, so I shall stand and deliver. Or, rather, sit and deliver. Hum. Deliver. De-liver. De-live-r.

Weird word.

Oh well. Anyway.

My mother just dumped a bunch of shredded potatoes into a pan for supper and it reminded me of my recent foray into cooking with Potato Pancakes, apparently termed Doodlebugs in some regions of the country. They were...different. Kind of hard to cook all the way through. They reminded me of the time I tried to make gnocchi.

*hack, cough, gag, sputter*

Blech!!!

That is the last time I try to make a food item simply because the entirely fictional father of an entirely fictional TV character stated that it was his favourite food. So much for impressing people.

In case you were wondering, not that you were, the fictional character and his fictional father were Gary and Bernie Hobson of Early Edition. I loved that show! Kyle Chandler is so cute! *squee* His new fall show is Friday Night Lights, which I may have to check out even though I hate all sports except figure skating and equine events.

OK, I'll stop now.

In other news...hmm, I should give you the Mumford Report. It is the very same thing as last year except that I didn't spend as much time on my feet and there was no weird kid at the ball to force me into a schottische. Are you ready? Here goes.

IT WAS HOT!!!!!!!!!!

There you have it. The heat index last year was at least in the 140s Fahrenheit, and this year at times it felt as if it should have been even more than that. Now I know what my brother-in-law went through during his tour in Kuwait and Iraq when temps over there were in the 160s Fahrenheit.

It was 90 today and quite humid, and at my workplace we had a picnic outside. Everyone else was wilting in the heat and complaining about how sticky they were. Usually I would be the first to join them -- nay, the first to START the complaining! -- but this time I have to say that without a corset, lace-up boots, and 6 layers of clothing, I really didn't feel that hot. I brought my trusty palmetto fan and peppermint extract, and soon had all the other females in the immediate vicinity dabbing peppermint on their necks, ears, and various other body parts. Heheheheheh. I love introducing people to new things.

Bit of randomness approaching: Today I saw a bloke with a tat that said "Honour above all" in German. I don't remember how to spell it, since he was moving about a lot and wouldn't hold still long enough for me to read it. Then how did I find out what it said? Guess what! No, you'll never guess. I asked him!

Speaking of tats, now I am reminded of Abby Sciuto from NCIS. I saw an episode the other day in which every member of the team except Gibbs bought her black roses for her birthday. She had an entire cooler full of black roses! I was thinking...what would one get Abby for a birthday present? Not black roses, that's for sure. And without being Goth myself (though I love black clothes and eyeliner and mitts and spiky heels and black hair and...) I really don't know much about purchasing studded dog collars -- especially since she already has such an extensive collection of them.

That question was idly lurking in the back of my mind when I went eBay-surfing the other day. Then, as I was searching for antique glass Native American beads, I found it -- the Perfect Present For Abby. What do you think? For the Goth who has everything:
















It's a necklace of hand-carved bone beads depicting skulls. Isn't that neat? Heh! xD

...There is a ladybug crawling on the desk in front of me! How cool! OK, now I've taken it outside and set it free. It had a cat hair stuck to its hard outer wings -- which are called something scientific but for which I cannot remember the name -- and that was why it couldn't fly off the tip of my finger every time I gave it a chance to do so. I removed the cat hair and it flew off happily! Yay!

That also reminds me of Abby. There's this one part in the episode called Bloodbath in which Abby is being stalked and has to stay the night at McGee's place. She can't find her toothbrush at one point.

"Oh, I can't find my toothbrush! It must have fallen out in your car."

"That's OK. I still have your old one."

"You still have my old toothbrush? That's kinda creepy, McGee." (She goes to get it, then comes out of the bathroom holding it up.)

"What?"

"This is not my toothbrush."

"OK, well, I must have bought another one and forgotten about it."

"It's a ladybug toothbrush, McGee! This is for cute girls named Gina Marie who bake cookies and wear J.Lo Glow! Not for a quasi-manly federal agent who...carries a gun!"

"Are you gonna use it or not?"

"An anonymous toothbrush? I would rather remove my own tonsils with Typhoid Mary's straight razor!"

Ha, ha. Pretty funny scene. All right, I'll stop now. Except for one last thing: it always annoys me that nobody can ever spell Abby's last name correctly when they're writing fanfiction. It's spelt S-c-i-u-t-o, people! Not Scuito! Gah!!

Speaking of spelling, I read this email forward the other day...

"If you can read this, your brain is 50% faster than those who can't. fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid, too. Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe tuo fo 100 anc. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!"

Apparently the people who wrote this were so concerned with spelling that they forgot all about capitalisation, grammar, syntax, and sentence structure.

The fourth sentence reads, "The phenomenal power of the human mind, according to a research at Cambridge University, it doesn't matter in what order the letters in a word are, the only important thing is that the first and last letter be in the right place."

There are several different ways to correct this sentence...here is one:

"According to research carried out at Cambridge University, the phenomenal power of the human mind is such that it doesn't matter in what order the letters in a word occur; the only important thing is that the first and last letters be in the correct place."

*sighs with relief*

There, now I feel much better. And I promise that I will stop being annoying. Honestly, sometimes I even annoy myself!

Before I annoy myself or anyone else further in this post, I should sign off now. House search updates coming soon!! I promise!

Oh yes...and congratulations to Russell and Dani on the birth of their second son, Tennyson Spencer Crowe! And congrats to Charlie because he is now a big brother!!! :D