annoying

the food annoyances continue - here's an ad i saw:

this ad implies that it's dumb to call a beer by a fancy name when you can just call it beer.



but grape nuts, as it says right there in the URL you're supposed to click on, contains neither grapes nor nuts.



by their logic, the cereal should be called "whole grains", not grape-nuts.


or are they trying to be funny, or ironic? perhaps i'm being too literal.


back to their original point, i am not going to spend a lot of time writing down how dumb it is to suggest that all beer should just be called beer without any adjectives or helpful descriptive text. that would be really confusing, you wouldn't know what you were buying, it would be a TERRIBLE WORLD TO LIVE IN and that's all i'm going to say about it.*

nice going, grape nuts.

*obviously this applies to any product, not just beer.

gross

i am writing to warn you about something gross that you might see at the grocery store.

gross!

i would also argue that banana split flavor should include strawberry and maybe even nuts, marshmallow and/or pineapple. presuming that there's a bit of vanilla flavor involved in the banana creme filling, to represent both the vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. see, i am being generous here, letting them have the creme stand for 3 different things -- even though this is disgusting.

oreo is getting desperate!

when i saw this last night all i felt was that it's gross. now i am feeling angry about it too. i am obviously over-edgy this afternoon and should probably take a chill pill.

if you were to see me right now you'd see i have a big frowny face.

Getting to know you - and your phobias

Pete and I are taking a class called "Bringing Baby Home" that teaches you about how not to be a-holes to each other after the baby enters the household. I'm kidding, it's about having good couple communication to lower stress, etc. to keep the whole family happier. So far it's a really good class.

Anyway one of the exercises we did was a sort of "how well do you know your partner" deal where we had to answer a bunch of questions the way we thought our partners would answer them. So, things like, What's their favorite color, What are their hobbies, etc.

My favorite one was "What are your partner's phobias?"

Pete answered for me: 1. Sea creatures 2. Getting killed

I answered for Pete: Republicans

We both guessed right and I thought it was funny how different our answers were. I guess that's part of why we're a good pair - if we were both super-worried about the same thing we probably wouldn't ever get anything done.

I should note that I don't fear getting killed by sea creatures - these are two completely different phobias. I fear sea creatures touching my leg or biting or pincing me. KWW just sent me an NPR article about a spa where fish nibble the dead skin off your feet - this is very gross and because she's such a good friend she prefaced the article with "We won't go here!!!".

The "getting killed" one is very general and applies to pretty much any time or place.

footloose

A lot of people think Pete looks like Kenny Loggins, including me, up to a point. (The other day he was at the pharmacy and the pharmacist was whispering to a customer and the customer said really loud "I love Loggins & Messina!" and the pharmacist was really embarassed, as if he had been whispering either, "that guy looks like Kenny Loggins" or "there's Kenny Loggins!".)



Well, I just saw Kenny Loggins on TV and I am here to tell you that Pete may look like the Kenny Loggins of the 80's but not of the 00's. Here is the 80's Kenny (add glasses and remove hair highlights):




There was a Footloose reunion on the Today Show and Kenny sang the title track. Here he is:

Here are Lori Singer and Kevin Bacon (with Al Roker) enjoying the show.

One thing I learned from today's performance is the truth about some mysterious lyrics I've always wondered about (but not enough to look them up on the Internet). Towards the end of the song, when they're sort of wrapping it up, someone sings, "Now take a hold of your soul." I never knew that was what they were saying. I thought they were saying something like "Now take a hole ay hole" which is weird.

If you are interested in the Footloose reunion (Kevin Bacon, Lori Singer and John Lithgow), read the related article - you can watch the interview too. It's sad that Chris Penn could not be there.

fill it to the rim

i have been thinking a lot about this commercial lately:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWoVpY2aczo

i love this commercial!

i tricked pete last week by saying "oh i'd only like half a cup" after he brought me a (full) cup of (decaf) tea. for a second he was alarmed, but then he laughed. the key to tricking your friends and partners in this way is to keep a straight face and pretend you're just saying something regular. this often works with pete! he's fun to trick, and a good sport about it too!

also, i was watching "the facts of life" last week and on one episode mrs. garrett imitated mrs. oleson and said something about her mountain-grown coffee. i watched a couple of the old folger's / mrs. oleson commercials on youtube but i don't remember these secondary characters, some of whom are kind of jerks! like the snotty husband featured here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed3vswxJKgI

i must have blocked those dumb characters out of my fond memories.