Rumor Has It.....

When I was in the Navy, we used to pass a lot of our time onboard the ship arguing for hours on end about the truth behind urban legends. Sometimes we would even write down the legend in question and research it on the internet once we got back to land. I found a really great website that is particularly helpful in figuring out whether those crazy emails that everbody forwards around are true or not. You know, the ones that start like this "To all of my friends, I do not usually forward messages, But this is from my good friend Pearlas Sandborn and she really is an attorney." I found a very useful web page to help separate the fact from the fiction....

Some of my all-time favorites:

- Soda and Pop Rocks will make your stomach explode(a classic)
- The nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence" originated as a coded message used for recruiting pirates.
- Chewing gum takes seven years to pass through the human digestive system.
- Those who go swimming less than one hour after eating will be taken by a cramp and drown.
- The Marlboro Man died of lung cancer.
- The "Dell Dude" lost his job because of a drug bust.
- Mr. Rogers served as a sniper during the Vietnam War and had the highest amount of confirmed kills.
- Chocolate is toxic to dogs....
- "Dogs and sailors: Keep off the grass" admonishments were commonly displayed in U.S. naval towns.

Especially useful is this page that has links to all those crazy photographs you get in the email prtraying sharks jumping out of the water to eat rescue divers and such....

Hope everybody has a GREAT Friday and a wonderful weekend, I'm off for a morning run on the beach (one of the perks of living in West Seattle)......

Next week we'll play "Top Ten Most Wanted: What'd they do?"

Arrrr....

My pirate name is:

Mad Tom Bonney

Every pirate is a little bit crazy. You, though, are more than just a little bit. You can be a little bit unpredictable, but a pirate's life is far from full of certainties, so that fits in pretty well. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.

Funny that it should select Bonney as my pirate last name.....Anne Bonny is one of my favorite real-life pirates to read about. She was a saucy irish (possibly lesbian, see Mary Read) pirate who looted, plundered and pillaged all over the Caribbean with her buddies Rackham and Read.

What?

Somebody explain to me what exactly the "Church of the Subgenius" is.....this video is one of their productions. They call themselves the "anti-cult cult" and worship this pipe-toting guy smily they call the "Slack master and Sex God J. R. "Bob" Dobbs" or just Bob. This video was entirely too bizarre to belong to the videos of the week.....I think....the animation is pretty awesome though, they sombined some CGI, some stop-motion and some live footage to create the video for a cool effect......even if they are a bunch o' wackos.

T...H...U..R..S...D..A..Y........NIGHT!!

Thursdays are my new favorite! I only have Chemistry class on Fridays and it doesn't start until 1100 so Friday mornings have replaced Saturdays as my Waffle, eggs, bacon and coffee mornings.

I'm nearly settled in at Rach's place now, we are throwing a birthday party for her brother up here tomorrow night, including taking him to a really cool thing that I've wanted to see all my life but can't say what it is because it's supposed to be a surprise and he might read this post. I'll give my full review of said cool thing on Saturday.

Rach started her new job this week after leaving a company she's been with for nine years. We FINALLY began staining the deck that we built at her house (see January posts). Staining a deck is tough work. I've been running around her basement like a madman for a couple days now, installing coaxial cable, setting up a weight room, throwing away stuff I don't need. I had a program containing the schedule for the 1968 Nebraska Turfgrass Conference in Omaha. How does this stuff accumulate?!?! Oh, I also found a stash of notes from girls in high school, that was fun......

So, recently I wrote a post asking about the effectiveness of those ultrasonic pest repellers for the spider metropolis we have thriving in our garage. I managed to catch one of the little buggers after I heard(yes, heard) him skittering across the floor behind me, it was like he was wearing tiny tap shoes. I think it is probably a European House Spider but I'm not sure, any arachnologists out there want to verify it for me??

Check it:

A Salute to Olive Loaf

Who invented this stuff? I love it and am having it for lunch, it is so delightfully bizarre. I'm realatively certain that it contains meat and other....ummm....products......from not less than 16 animals(including the North American Badger). This is probably one of those discoveries that was found by accident. You know, like penicillin, somebody was probably researching a polio vaccine while enjoying a tasty snack of pimento-stuffed olives and the jar toppled into their experiment giving birth to what I call "The Olive Loaf Age." It would be a great candidate for one of those "true men of genius" Budweiser commercials........"Hats off to you Mr. Olive loaf inventor guy."

The Dark Side

That's right........I've succumbed to the overwhelming influence of the MySpace phenomenon.........pretty cool service, HTML is easier but less flexible......I think. Check out my new page at http://www.myspace.com/whiskeytree be warned though, the site has music on it so careful at work mmkay?

For those of you who don't know, I've packed up my things and moved into Rach's house. We decided it would be a good idea on the drive back to Omaha.

Rach: "Wanna move into my house?"
Joe: "okay."

As you can see a lot of thought went into it, we are both excited about the upcoming summer though. Alki Beach is walking distance from here and we plan on taking advantage of the fire pits and sand. ANy of you Seattle folks down for a beach bonfire this summer just give us a ring.

Other than that, spent the day trying to organize the garage a bit. Spent most of my time chasing the spiders with a WD-40 can turned flame thrower but it looks pretty good now. I sent Rach a text after a spider scared me nearly to death, and I am pretty cool with spiders. I thought this one was a mouse at first, that's how big it was, it was even furry like a mouse!!! Has anybody ever used those sonic pest repellents? The kind that plug into the wall and emit noise to scare off spiders. I was going to go get a couple of those heavy duty "bug bombs" at the hardware store but Rach recommended the sonic approach, more humane.......Does anybody know if those things work?

I got a fever.....and the only cure...is more cowbell!!!!

Hello all! My month of traveling and rambling is finished. I visited nine states in the month of March and am happy now because I was getting close to having to take the word "Wanderlust" out of my blog title since I wasn't really doing it justice anymore. My most recent trip was over spring break. Rach and I drove to Omaha and back to surprise my friends and family. Here is the month of March by the numbers:

miles traveled: 9,476
states visited: 9
Wall-Drug signs in S.D.: 1 billion
coolness of Wall-drug (1 to 10) 2
hours driven: 62
Diet Dr. Peppers consumed in the car: 22
Old cow pokes hitting on Rach: 1
Old cow pokes hitting on Joe: 6
times I farted in the crowded
glass tunnel at the Georgia aquarium:3
miles on rental car at start: 26
miles on rental car, seven days later: 3,923
hate emails received due to lack of
video updates on my blog: 3
mullet wigs: 2
guys from high school that are now
pro wrestlers: 1
times I was hit with a purse: 17

Here are a few pics from the Omaha trip, again taken from Rach's phone because I am a slacker and forgot my battery charger for my camera........again.

The Sibs:

Katie and Joe:

Can YOU do the ninja rap?:

A handome bunch o' guys:
Ya feelin' lucky.....punk?

Anonymous Midwest People:

Mmmmm.......corny.....

Mt. Rushmore's newest addition:

Weary travelers:

Thanks to all you Oregonians and Omaha.....um.......Omahaians?.......for all your hospitality we had a great month of travel and adventure!!!