Happy Black (Bean) Friday!

To celebrate the day after Thanksgiving, I boiled up some dried beans and put them into 1/2 cup portions in the freezer.  Happy Black (Turtle Bean) Friday ya'll.

Suburban Fence Mirror

The other day I was watching as two two kids were playing together -- but each one of them was on their side of the chain link fence.  What amazed me most was that each kid had exactly the same toys.  Every time one of them switched toys, the other one had a matching copy.  It was a freaky Twilight Zone Suburban Wire Fence Mirror.

a strange and bizarre wellington plant

here are the six stages of a "wellington pinecone" (no idea what it's really called... but i've never seen a plant like it before)

cadbury drinking chocolate change

you may not think people notice, cadbury, but it's pretty obvious you've started to stuff your drinking chocolate with "starch (maize or tapioca)"... that also explains why your drinks suddenly have fewer calories...

this explains govt

this "government bookshop" explains a lot about the state of our country...

you can never have enough

you can never have enough "bargain" at a garage sale...

wii fit: outdoors

they had this along the wellington harbor.... it's not quite a wii, but it probably gives you a better workout.

nightmare: wedding fruitcake

i was up for an hour last night after waking up in a panic because my wedding cake was a fruitcake.

i've always vowed not to tackily smoosh cake into my bride's mouth, but a fruitcake could change my mind.... i would rather crumble and smoosh a piece of fruitcake to death than know it's sitting out there for someone to eat.

starfish

This is the first star fish I have ever seen living naturally in the sea.

It is the 741st duck.

window display

Even twisted mass murderers need glasses from somewhere.

This window display suggests "OPSM" is their primary supplier.

Eyjafjallajökull: 1, Wedding: 0

We bought New Zealand Wedding Invites from a New Zealand webpage with New Zealand dollars -- but they actually ship from the UK.

And it turns out they're "stranded somewhere in the backlog caused from Eyjafjallajökull"

Eyjafjallajökull: 1
Wedding: 0

awe

we spend all day in front of computers, all night in front of tvs and iphone in between. do people even have contact with awe-inspiring things any more -- like mountains, meteor showers and sunsets?

leyden cheese

leyden cheese with whole cumin seeds tastes like nachos -- but without all the calories of onions, tomatoes peppers and beans.

afternoon tea

in new zealand, they have "morning tea" at 10:30 and "afternoon tea" at 3:30. literally the whole country shuts down. adults eat biscuits together at work. kids pack morning tea for school. it's a "for real" snack time the whole country partakes in.

i can't think of anything like that in america. sure, people eat snacks. but there's no set "morning snack" or "afternoon snack" time.... and lots of people don't snack.

am i mistaken? do we have a national snack time?

tears for nummi

listening to this american life (my new radio kick), tears came to my eyes when i heard stories about how the lean, teamwork-based toyota techniques turned a plant and the worker's lives around.

did i really shed a tear for efficiency or are they misplaced wedding nerves?

open doors

even in windy, rainy, 45-55 degree weather almost all wellington shops keep their doors wide open.

perhaps i don't mind opening doors because i grew up between blizzards.... but either way, it makes me thankful i work from home....

"It's so easy to communicate these days that there's no reason to communicate anything of interest." (This American Life)

That pretty much sums up facebook status updates versus hand-written letters 100 years ago.

happy place

i didn't sleep well last night and i was tired (read: CRABBY) today. but the alphabet of nations always lifts my spirits. (usually after 2 or 3 viewings).

everyone needs a happy place to believe in: mine is west xylophone.

easter hangman

this weekend i overhead two kids playing "easter hangman". the "easter word" was "christ"....

"christ? as in jesus christ? what's he got to do with easter?"

happy easter everyone.

dreams

i have lots of dreams that start with peeps like this.... but where's the cream egg forest???