UNSTOPPABLE!

Who needs lanky arms?

With some pluck and grabby claws,

the world can be ours!

thanks for both the t-shirt and inspiration for tyranny. Suzanne

but, whyyyyyyyy?

It is no secret that i love gummi.
It is also no secret that i am cheap, so i am forever trying different types of fruit snacks that are on sale.
Which is how i ended up owning:

Why would you put sharks and dinos together?
One lives in the sea, the other on land.
One is still around, the other is extinct.
I pondered this for a while, but then decided that i didn't care about the reasoning because they were darn good fruit snacks. They had nice texture, good flavor, different shapes in different colors, nice variety...
wait... what is that?

Why is there an astronaut/old-time deep sea diver in here?
What could he possibly have to do with dinos and sharks?
I thought it might have been an accident, but no in subsequent packs i found more of these guys in various colors.
Then, i found some treasure chests.
I was too baffled to even take its picture.
Are the sharks in an aquarium and these are the bubbler shapes?
If so, where do the dinos come into the picture?
Not to mention that pterodactyls weren't actually dinosaurs so what are they doing here?
I'm so confused...
(but full of delicious gummi)

do thwart-hogs naturally migrate or just stalk me?

When i visit my parents in Florida i try to take one day to see some friends.
This trip i figured i wouldn't be able to see David and Kaaren as David's family was coming down so i figured instead of going all the way into Orlando, I'd see if Douglas would meet me part way.
You see, i wanted to go to Dinosaur Land in Plant City (not related to Dinosaurland in Winchester, VA which i have visited). I have driven by it hundreds of time, but have never been there.
How is that possible? you ask; giant Concrete dinosaurs right off the highway and you never stopped?
I know. I know.
 But finally, finally i was going to rectify that situation, plus slide one more new thing into December.
80 miles into the journey, right before the I-4 exit from I-75 outside of Tampa, my tire blew.
YIKES!
I was in the right-hand lane cause i was getting ready to exit so i was able to safely get off of the highway. AAA came to change the tire and make sure i hadn't bent the rim or damaged anything else with a high speed blowout.
When the Nice Tow Truck Driver, Steve, went to take off the blown tire, it came off in 2 pieces:
Yes, that is the tread in one complete circle at the bottom and the inner tire at the top.
Take a look at that devastation.
Steve tested the spare and declared it sound before putting it on.
 I was all ready to carry on with the adventure once the repair was done, but there was a teeny, little voice in the back of my head, Should you really drive without a spare? What if another tire blew? What if you are in the middle of nowhere and you end up having to buy a tire? A new tire is not in your budget.
sigh... stupid, reasonable, responsible voice.
Man, i hate that voice.  Sometimes i long for the days when i drank too much and went out dancing on work nights.
As much as i wanted to see Douglas and finally, finally go to Dinosaur Land, once Steve declared the car drivable i turned around and headed home.
Well, at least i can stop at Sonic now and get some tots, i cheered myself.
You see there is a Sonic right next to Mom's park and we always get tots at least once when i visit. That is, there was a Sonic right next to my mom's. It suddenly closed overnight with no warning, about a month before i got there so i hadn't had any Sonic tots on my Florida trip yet.
 I remembered passing a sign for a Sonic a few exits earlier so i was gonna ease my disappointment with some deep fried nuggets of pressed potato joy.
Except that it was also closed!
Come on now, thwart-hog. I'm on dang vacation here, 1000 miles away from home. Why are you here, too?
At that point there was nothing to do but grab a Checkers Champ with Cheese and get myself back to mom's. To stave off the dejection i reminded myself that i had bought a new travel CD ($3 at Beall's outlet) and listened to one of my all time favorite songs -Dobie Gray's Drift Away- several times on repeat at rather high decibels. I also saw two Mr. Snuffles Magees (armadillos) along the way, which always makes me smile.
It was sad not to see Douglas, but we'll find some way to visit each other and i will find a way to get to Dinosaur Land some day.
Mark my words, thwart-hog, i will.

keeping the team happy

If you are the leader of any group of people it behooves you to keep them happy. Most bosses can do this with monetary incentives, but i work in non-profit education so i have to use pretzels and dinosaurs. On a sunny day last month the whole team packed up into one van and drove to Lititz, PA to visit the Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery Located on a quiet street in a lovely little town, my first impression was that this is the kind of place where people sweep the sidewalks. I love that. But immediately my attention was pulled toward the big honking pretzel out front and the burning need i felt to have a team photo with it. [Lindsey, Sam, Amy, Mike, Elise and Megan] After perusing the gift shop and deciding what wares we would be purchasing ( i got a hot soft pretzel and chocolate covered pretzels with peanut butter!), i paid the $3 tour fee and Marianne showed us the historic equipment used to make the dough and the ovens and giant peels then used in the first cooking step for hard pretzels. [they were then sent upstairs to dry and harden for 24 hours] We each had the chance to learn how to roll and twist a pretzel (nice job, Miss Megan) while also learning about the history and symbolism of the pretzel. Though the FDA doesn't allow people to then cook and eat their sample pretzel, we did get a certificate of completion and a fun afternoon spent with each other- it's team building! Another way i try to work on morale is to make work purchases of new equipment as fun as possible. We needed a new remote controlled thing for our show about the scientific method, so why not go with a big dinosaur, especially if he is on sale? Spike the ULTRA Dinosaur needed some assembly after undoing 90000 twist ties to get the pieces out of the box. But once he was charged up it was time to rampage! We may not get paid much, but we get paid to do this. I'm kinda in love with him.