Frogs' Legs Aren't Funny

The download of my daily (almost) thoughts and ruminations.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

The End of Another Olympic Era

OK, not an era really but my guess is there are a number of gold/silver/bronze medal winners this year who will not be back. Still...good luck to anyone trying to beat Apolo Ohno's total medal record of 8! Good luck to anyone who thinks they are ever going to think up a new stunt before Shaun White does. Good luck to anyone trying to beat Norway in the Nordic events. Good luck to anyone who thinks they can out ski jump the Austrians.

Then, of course, there's the huge Curling event. Who would have ever thought there would be cheering for a bunch of people huddled around big round stones sliding down the ice slowly toward a stationary target? Sorry, I still can't bring myself to cheer for that one. Probably because the participants don't look like they are any more excited than someone who has to drink that foul-tasting crap prior to a colonoscopy.


Still, you get sort of addicted to watching people who are the best at something, with some obvious exceptions like tennis, golf and bowling. Then, when after a few weeks all of a sudden it's over, you feel lost. It seems like you've been cut loose, sort of like your toys have been taken away. You turn on the tv and there's nothing on, or at least nothing that compares to all that happens in an Olympic season. The miracles are always amazing.


So, enjoy the last 24 hours. Next stop, London, England from July 27th to August 12th, 2012.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Milestones - Landmarks - Celebrations

Tonight we watched Kara turn 30, technically at 4:36 PM. She was surrounded by family and friends, and after she got over the shock...it was all good. What does that make me, you ask? Older but who cares, every year I get older I get closer to retirement and that makes me happy. Could someone please speed up the clock? Please?

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Sunny Disposition

Every day when we wake up, we have the opportunity to make a choice to be pleasant/happy or to be difficult/depressed. This is based on the fact that "Man" is considered superior to animals due to our ability to reason.

In other words, YOU DECIDE PEOPLE, EVERYDAY!


When our cat gets up in the morning you can count on consistency in her behavior; she is simply happy to have you pet her, talk to her and feed her. This behavior never varies unless she is ill or in pain, which is completely understandable.


Yet when certain people get up in the morning, they are either always negative including every mannerism, comment, attitude or behavior that accompanies that, or they are of the Jekyll/Hyde mentality where you never know what you're going to get until you get blasted. It's enough to make you want to work in a glass bubble with no one else ever allowed in.


And these comments don't even venture into the world of human murderers, rapists, etc. because it's my post and I don't want to. But I will say, how common is it in the animal kingdom for one animal to simply hunt other animals for no other reason then just to kill them? I know I'm going down a slippery slope here because the males of some species will fight each other, sometimes to the death over the rights to a certain female (bad way to start a relationship to my way of thinking) or "ownership" of a specific geographic area. For the most part though, they are killing for survival, or at least due to their definition of survival.


There are no animal suicide bombers killing hundreds or thousands of others and there are no animals who get some kind of compensation for cold-blooded killing of other animals, except maybe for T-Rex who seemed to simply be angry all the time and intent upon killing (and eating for the most part) any animal form in his vicinity.


So, explain to me again how we are superior to anyone or anything? I'm just not getting it.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

A Weekend Full of Greats

What a fabulous weekend! We had a great time at the Tacoma Museum of Glass and saw some great glass blowing - they made it look ridiculously easy. We saw some amazingly great glass sculptures, including an entire gallery full of glass sculpture fashioned after the drawings of children. They select a new one each month and the child and their family is invited to come watch them create the the real thing from the child's drawing. In fact, the child has to approve what they do.


The main exhibit was glass based on the Native American heritage of the featured artist, Preston Singletary. I can't imagine how he made some of the pieces, they were like totems of glass, with the tallest probably about 7 feet tall. And for such a young man, he had at least a hundred pieces displayed. He must never sleep.

The hotel we stayed at, Hotel Murano, was really great. Every floor features a display of the glass art of a different artist along with photographs of their work in progress. There are 25 floors in the hotel. And of course, there is glass everywhere in the lobby and lounge, even at the front of the registration desk. Our room on the 16th floor (displaying a melted-looking glass bowling pin arched over a glass bowling ball) overlooked Puget Sound. Fabulous room, fabulous hotel.

Last night we went to dinner at a funky little place right on the Sound called Harbor Lights. We got there around 5:15 and there was already a 15 minute wait. When we ate, we could see why. When we left, there were no parking spaces to be had and it was like an obstacle course just getting around people to leave. Yet another great experience.

We not only had tickets to the museum, we also bought tickets to blow our own glass at a nearby privately-owned studio called Tacoma Glass Blowing Studio. That experience was beyond great. We each made our own pieces this morning, both of which will be shipped to us thiscoming Thursday. It was so much fun we're trying to figure out when we could do it again and who we might invite to go along. I made a feather design while Mike made a twist design. In both cases you grab the hot glass with large tweezers and manipulate it to leave awesome designs inside the glass. We can't wait to get them.

Then we drove to Alderbrook Resort and Spa for a late breakfast. We were seated in a table looking out at Hood Canal and the sun came out while we were there. After breakfast/lunch, we walked out the pier to get closer to the water and look up and down the canal. We're hoping to be able to stay there over a weekend sometime in the not too distant future.

This entire Valentine's weekend was not just great...it was magic.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Visiting a Glass House


Tomorrow we'll be here...>


Watching artists do this...












To make these...>










Similar to the work of someone who became world famous at this very oven...



And if we're very lucky something lovely will follow us back home:)

Monday, February 08, 2010

Giving vs. Keeping

On my favorite CBS "Sunday Morning" show this week they included a segment about a family who sold their large, expensive home, moved into a more modest home, and donated their entire proceeds ($800,000) to a world hunger organization.

They had determined that if everyone in the world gave as much as they possibly could to this cause, it would literally solve the global dilemma of starvation.

This was a family with 2-3 kids who were teenager to middle school age and all of them felt very strongly about this. I consider this an example of putting your money where your mouth is, of the actions of one influencing many, as an act of supreme unselfishness.
It was very motivational and inspiring. I'm also curious to know how many it "influenced" to do something similar. I'm tempted to send CBS an e-mail asking for a follow-up on that in a few months. In the meantime, there are more than enough "causes" to go around, world hunger being just one of them.
This post could quickly become overwhelming just due to the scope of the subject matter so I'll end with this. I'm hopeful this will be the beginning of a very positive, widespread and beneficial movement for the betterment of our fellow human beings around the planet.

Saturday, February 06, 2010

Hallmark Holidays

I'm trying to think back to the holidays that actually existed, and were celebrated, before Hallmark was invented. Let's see. That would be New Year's, Christmas, Thanksgiving, 4th of July, Memorial Day, Labor Day and Veteran's Day I believe. All of which are centered around either war, religion or turning over a new leaf. I'm not counting the pseudo holidays only celebrated by the government and heavily regulated businesses like President's Day (the consolidation of two president's birthdays), Veteran's Day or MLK Day. Then there are the really lame holidays like Good Friday because that is strictly religious and mixing that with the "state" (government) is a big "no-no" you know.


Now to list all the holidays created solely for the purpose of spending money on cards, and maybe candy. Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter (ok, I admit I almost forgot there is a religious aspect to that one as long as you forego the baskets, chicks, rabbits and candy), Mother's Day, Father's Day and Halloween (is this considered religious?). I haven't even mentioned Boss's Day, Administrative Assistant Day, etc. I know I'm forgetting some but they must be even more far-fetched than those I do remember.


I wonder what it would take to create new holidays that would actually catch on? If you think about it, we don't really have any good holidays in either June or August, the rest of the months are pretty much covered. Why not have a Rose Holiday, that would fall sometime in June to celebrate thorny fragrance? Then for August it would have to be a Sun Holiday because that is the one month when you can pretty much count on having some regardless of where you are in the country.


I'm up for a better idea but if the goal is to have at least one holiday per month, we have fallen short by two months and someone had better get on it. No time like the present (no pun intended) to start a new trend. After all, I'm sure the Hallmark and Sees Candies people are hurting what with fewer holidays than there are months in the year. At least that is as good a reason as any to have to start inventing new card slogans. I'd rather name new nail polish any day. Who says I don't have lofty goals?