RTT: Math. Yo.

 It's Tuesday.  Yo!

*I'm still riding the Yo train.  Yo.

*Back to the Future was almost a Disney film. However, due to the "inappropriate" scene with Marty and his mom kissing in the car, they thought it was "too extreme" so they wouldn't take it.

*Speaking of Disney, on June 14, 1969 then VP, Richard Nixon was the first passenger on the monorail.

*Pull up the calculator on your computer.  Go ahead.  Do it.  Okay, now think of any number and multiply it by 2, add 10, divide by 2, and subtract the original number. Was your answer 5?  If you did it right it was.  The answer will always be 5. Always. Math. Yo.

*How many times did you try it?  Were you surprised when it came out to 5 every time?  

*With all the Whitney Houston news stuff I was reminded of one of my college roommates.  My sophomore year I lived in a quad room with 3 other girls.  It was supposed to be 3 girls that I knew, but one didn't get her paperwork in on time (these are my friends, people)  so we got a roommate we didn't know.  Her name was Lucretia and she was a slice of awesome.  She was a huge fan of Whitney Houston and played "I will always love you" over and over and over (and over).  Dear heavens I grew to hate that song.  My other 2 roommates and I finally had to tell her that if she wanted to keep playing it, we would really, really appreciate it if she wore  head phones when she listed to it ad nauseum.  What we didn't count on was the fact that even with the head phones on she still sang it loudly and so off key it could make your eyes twitch and your face pucker (kind of like when you eat a piece of lemon).   I can never hear that song without thinking of her.  It's one of my fondest college roommate memories.  That and when we found one roommate's boyfriend naked in another roommate's closet.  That's a story for another day though.

*Have you seen the new Looney Tunes (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, etc) cartoons?  Good grief they are terrible.   I'll bet Chuck Jones, Tex Avery, Friz Freeling and Mel Blanc are turning in their graves.  Why not just show the original Looney Tunes?

*The stairwell of our building (we live in a closed stairwell on the 3rd floor) was smelling a bit skunky so I bought some eucalyptus (live) to put in a wine basket to make it smell better.  When I trimmed the bottom of it, I put the bits in with the flowers James Bond gave me for V-Day.  I later told him about it and boy did I stick my foot in it (unintentionally).
Me:  Hey, look I put bits of eucalyptus in with the flowers.  I think it makes them look even fancier and more expensive.
JB:  I feel as though that was a backhanded compliment.
Me: Huh?  No, no, I didn't mean it like that.  I meant it made them look even better.
JB:  Seriously?  Do you hear what you're saying?
Me:  No...I didn't...I just...um
JB:  Just stop talking, you're only making it worse.
Me:  But I was trying to...I'll just stop taking now.

Gah!

*BTW, Whitney Houston's funeral lasted 4 hours!  Four freaking hours.  I'm pretty sure neither Ronald Reagan nor Princess Diana had funerals that long and I'm betting that in the anals of  history they will be remembered far more than she will.  Just sayin.

*It is rumored that President Buchanan was gay. 

*The Skipper's name on Gilligan's Island (my favorite show when I was a kid) was Jonas Grumby.  The Professor's name was Roy Hinkley, Jr. and Mrs. Howell's name was Eunice (nee Wentworth) Howell.

*On October 3rd, 2010, World War One (ONE!) officially ended when Germany made it final reparations payment. This settled outstanding debt from the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. The sum was initially set at 269 billion gold marks, around 96,000 tons of gold, before being reduced to 112 billion gold marks by 1929, payable over a period of 59 years. In 1931, payments were suspended and then quietly resumed in 1953.

 *Giggle

Th-th-th-th-that's all folks!





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Happy Tuesday!

President Bad Ass

Happy President's Day! How many of you remember when we celebrated Lincoln and Washington's birthdays separately, thus have two holidays until someone decided it was a good idea to combine them into one day? Yeah, I'm that old too.

This is mostly a  repost of last year's president's day post.

George Washington was a big man.  He stood approximately 6'3" (some say 6'2") and weighed about 200 lbs.  He was a formidable opponent on and off the battle field.  Before the age of 30, he suffered from malaria, smallpox, pleurisy, and dysentery.  Those are some serious diseases back before modern medicine.  Did GW care? Nope, he beat them like he would eventually beat the British.  BTW, the bout of smallpox may have rendered him sterile and be the reason he and Martha had no children of their own (Martha had 2 from her first marriage).

The Iroquois Indians (who came up against GW in the French and Indian War) called him "Caunotaucarius,"which roughly translates to "Devourer of Villages" for the level of destruction he reigned down on them.  It has been said that he sent small pox infected blankets to Iroquois villages, but this has not been proven, either way.  Since he knew enough about inoculations to sponsor the first mass inoculation in US history at Valley Fore by having a live small pox virus rubbed into small open wounds (made by surgeons on the upper arms of soldiers), it's entirely possible that he did this.  

During the Battle of  the Monongahela, he distinguished himself.  He had 2 horses shot out from under him, and 4 bullets pierced his coat, yet he came away completely unscathed.  He was like an early Superman!

His temper was apparently a fierce thing to behold.  During bursts of anger, he was known to knock around aides and by standers.  He was equally quick to calm down though.  Perhaps he was bi-polar?  His soldiers called him Leonidas. Yeah, THAT Leonidas.  The one who led the 300 Spartans, and was a known serious bad ass.  

He once wrote that "Discipline is the soul of an army." At Valley Forge he issued orders that threatened to court martial (and execute) any officer who was caught relieving themselves anywhere but in the Latrine.  In Washington's command you could be shot for peeing in the wrong place.  I have to say, men are kind of gross and some think since they CAN pee anyway, they should, so I don't disagree with GW in principle, but I'm not sure I'd have someone shot for it.

In 1781, 200 New Jersey men of the Continental Army mutinied and deserted. Washington had them quickly rounded up. The ring leaders were separated and three names were drawn by lot. Washington then ordered their execution. He further ordered that the remaining ring leaders form the firing squad and shoot their friends.

Yikes!  Do not cross GW!

Speaking of crossings (nice segue there, huh?) we all know about Washington crossing the Delaware on a cold Christmas night.  You've seen the heroic painting.  GW is made to look noble and gentlemanly.  He was anything but.  GW liked to attack while his enemy was sleeping.  I have to say, this is not a bad strategy, but was not considered chivalrous.   During the preparations to cross the Delaware, GW stepped into a boat containing the 300 pound Col. Henry Knox.  GW gave Knox a nudge with his foot and said (much to the amusement of his weary troops) "Shift that fat ass Harry.  But slowly or you'll swamp the damn boat!"  

After the cold crossing, the soldiers had to march 10 miles in the snow (many without shoes) and damp.  It was so damp many of them couldn't fire their muskets (wet powder), so charged with their bayonets.   900 Hessians were taken prisoner.  Their commander, Col. Rall was mortally wounded.  When the surgeons cut away his clothes to treat his wounds, an unread note was found in his pocket warning of Washington's attack. 

Seriously, GW was a bad ass!  Lest you think he was all piss and vinegar though, he was an avid animal lover (especially of dogs) and showed extreme compassion in their treatment.  During the Battle of Germantown (which wasn't going well for the Americans), a small terrier was seen wandering between the British and American lines.  It turns out that the British commander, General Howe's little terrier had somehow gotten loose and had become lost on the battlefield. The dog was identified from its collar, and brought to GW. His officers suggested that he might want to keep the dog as a sort of trophy which might weaken the morale of the British general. Instead he took the dog into his tent, fed him and had him brushed and cleaned. Then, to the surprise of everyone, GW ordered a cease fire. The shooting stopped and soldiers on both sides watched as one of GW's aides formally returned a little dog to the British commander under a flag of truce.

So, how much of that did you know?  A lot of people when asked if they could meet any American president, pick GW, but I'll bet he'd be a lot different than what they'd expect.  If I were asked, I would totally want to meet GW because of his bad-assery.  How awesome would that be?  Sure, he did great things, but I respect that he was a real person (perhaps a slightly crazy one) rather than the perfect father of our country he's often made out to be.  My other choice of presidents to meet would be Teddy Roosevelt.  Why?  Teddy was a bad-ass supreme.  Perhaps he looked up to GW?  Not only was he a cattle rancher, a deputy sheriff, an explorer, a police commissioner, the assistant Secretary of the Navy, the governor of New York, and Rough Rider, but he carried a pistol on him at all times, even in the White House, held a black belt in jujitsu and was a championship boxer.  Whew!  Walk softly and carry a big stick indeed!  In 1912, Teddy was SHOT on the campaign trail, but instead of getting treated right away, gave his scheduled speech, with a bleeding bullet hole in his chest.   Oh, GW would have been proud!  Maybe next year I'll give Teddy his very own post.  If I don't his ghost might come and get all bad ass on me.  :)

RTT:Ticker Tape and Grammy's

 


Happy Valentine's Day gentle readers!  I thought about doing an all V-Day RTT, but how much can you write about that?  Not much. 


*I am obsessed with Faberge Easter Eggs. You know, the ones commissioned by the Russian royal family in the late 1800-early 1900's? I could look at them all day. Last week I spent the better part of a day looking at them online.

*Last week NYC threw a ticker tape parade for the NY Giants. Do you think they used real ticker tape? If so, where did they get it? How many people even know what ticker tape is anymore? FTR, I do.

*The term 'bug', when referring to computers or software, dates back to when computers were huge, hulking machines that took up entire rooms. Moths and other flying insects would wander into the machinery and get caught in sensitive parts, causing errors.

*I saw these boots on Amazon.  They frighten me:

BTW, they are ON SALE for a mere $206.  Down from $268.  If you buy these boots I'm afraid we can no longer be friends.

*I will be writing the makers of IcyHot a strongly worded letter.  I pulled a muscle in my back the other day (that makes me feel so old!) and got an IcyHot patch to put on it.  It was cool at first, then it got so cold it was like needles.  It never got warm though.  Never.  IcyHOT.  Where is the hot????

*While I do think it's horrible that Whitney Houston died, I can't believe how many people were "shocked" by it.  Really?  She was a drug addict who weighed 12 pounds.  Sadly, it was kind of inevitable.

*Have you watched Once Upon a Time?  I am totally obsessed with this show.  I like the whole fairy tale back story.  It's not what we have has traditional fairy tales and it's a little bit awesome.  Plus, Snow White is kick ass.  Yo.

*I don't say Yo enough.  Neither do you, I'm sure.  Let's start a revolution.  Yo.

*The Grammy's would have been better if Neil Patrick Harris hosted them.  In fact, all award shows would be better if NPH hosted them.  Something to think about award shows.  'Cause you know they totally come to my blog for answers to who should host the show. 

*Adele.  That is all.

*Oh, Sir Paul.  you know how I love you and how James Bond Worships you, but your voice is not what it once was.  Golden Slumber is one of my absolute favorite songs (it's JB's favorite behind the Long and Winding Road), but your voice could not carry it.  It made me sad.  Of course, what the hell do I know?  You're freaking Paul McCartney.  Carry on.~~~Once there was a way to get back homeward, once there was a way to get back home, sleep pretty darling do not cry, and I will sing you a lullaby.~~~

*The McDonald's in Sedona, AZ has turquoise arches.  It is the only one in the world.  Why does it have turquoise arches you may ask?  Well, I'll tell you.  I'm generous like that.
The city felt that the golden arches would not "mesh" with the surrounding red rocks.  McDonald's offered turquoise arches and the city agreed.  Good for you Sedona!

*Yesterday, I wore a darker colored lipstick.  Being whiter than paper relatively fair, I normally wear something in the pinks or nudes, but yesterday I decided to mix it up and wear more of a red color.  I had to mail some packages and the guy at the PO looked at me when I came up to the counter and said "That's a different color on you."  I looked at him confused.  He made a vague circle around his mouth and said, "Your lipstick.  It's darker than you normally wear."  I'm not sure if I should be flattered that he noticed or squicked out at the fact that he noticed.  What say you?

*Last night we were watching CNN and they were yakking about Santorum saying that women should not be in combat because they would be too emotional, or something like that.  There was a news commentator, whose name I did not catch (I so wish he had) who said (speaking of all candidates for president) he wished people who made the decisions regarding the military spent more than one weekend in Iraq or Afghanistan.  I thought James Bond was going to stand up and cheer.

*Okay, I'm off to have V-Day dinner.  We're cracking open a bottle of Moet and Chandon Imperial champagne.  Like real champagne, you guys.  From France and all.  Huzzah! (Yo) I'll leave you with this funny sign, cause it's so true:

I'm also linking up to TTUT. 




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Cruise: Corsica

Did you enjoy the photos from Pisa? I hope so!

The day after Pisa, we sailed to Corsica, just off the coast of France. Corsica is of course most famous for being the birth place of Napoleon.

The weather was simply gorgeous. We were incredibly lucky to have had perfect weather on our entire cruise.

This is the view of the port from our room.  If you ever cruise, try to get a room on the port side of the ship.  You will have amazing views.

Indy and James Bond on the pier.  This was the closest we ported to any actual town.  We walked right off the ship and into the town!  The others were all at least a 10 minute walk from the pier to the edge of town, so this was nice.

A lot of the people we knew on the cruise (several of our friends were there, which made it nice) decided to spend the day at the beach on a different part of the island, but we'd spent most of the day before lounging around the pool so we decided to check out the town of Ajaccio.  We wandered around for a while as there was a huge market going on just off the pier  and eventually ended up at the house where Napoleon was born and grew up.  Unfortunately, by the time we got there, they were closing for a 2 hour lunch  (how can you not love a place that closes almost everything down for a 2 hour lunch?), but "Napoleon" was still out front.

After we walked away, Indy said "He was kind of tall to pretend to be Napoleon, don't you think?"  Always thinking.

We opted to go back to the ship for lunch but found some interesting stuff on the way back, including and bakery with pastries so good they made me want to weep. I may have had 1 or 12.  We ate them as we walked around and looked at the lovely buildings and enjoyed the sunshine.  Indy was sad this fountain wasn't running.  He thought it was pretty and like the statue of Napoleon on top.  Look at the trees and the buildings around it.  Aren't they lovely?

We passed by a poissonnerie and Indy HAD to go in.  Okay.

I'm not quite sure what the fascination was, but he would have stayed all day if we'd let him.  He asked the incredibly patient workers a million questions about the fish and what they were called and where they came from which they answered kindly and with great humor.

When we finally drug him away we headed back to the ship for a very late lunch (excellent, as always) and then I went off alone back to tour Napoleon's house.  James Bond had been listening to a band play until really late the night before and wanted a nap and Indy was anxious to get back to the Oceaneers Club and do whatever insanely fun things they had planned for the day.

The inside of Napoleon's house had some rooms that had been redone, but many of them were still relatively the same as they had been when he lived there.  They had loads of artifacts from him and his family.

Cool, huh?  Our next stop was Ville Franche, France, which led me to a serious moral dilemma that may or may not have to do with Johnny Depp.  You want to know about that, right?

If you missed any of the previous cruise posts you can find them here:

Malta

Tunisia

Naples and Pompeii

Rome

LaSpezia and Pisa

Cruise Day 6: At Sea and Day 7: Pisa and the Pirate Dinner

This post has been in the works forever. We actually took this cruise in May 2010 and this poor draft languished, forgotten. Sadness over!   Back to the Disney Cruise!

After we left Rome, we had a day at sea. Thank goodness! All the go, go, go had us completely exhausted. We needed a down day. I thought we'd be bored just staying on the ship, but it wasn't! 

The next day dawned bright and beautiful and we docked at La Spezia, Italy.  Actually, this was the first dock where we didn't actually dock, but weighed anchor and had to take tenders to shore (listen to me talking all sailor stuff!).  Indy loved taking the tender to shore.  After exploring La Spezia for a little while (it was lovely) we headed off to Pisa. Since both Pisa and Florence were at least 1-2 hours away, we opted for an excursion to make sure we made it back in time. We decided we wanted to see the Leaning Tower off to Pisa we went. The bus ride was really long (a little over an hour), but the tour guide was funny and engaging, and pointed out some neat stuff, so it wasn't so bad. Pisa was...dull to be perfectly honest. Once you saw the Tower (which had a 2 hour line to get in, so that wasn't going to happen) and the church that was next to it, there wasn't much to do. Indy cleverly said, "I know why Galileo dropped those balls of the tower.  There was nothing else to do!"  Hehe. It turned into a hot day, so we got a gelato and sat in the shade while we waited for the bus to take us back to the ship.  While seeing the Tower and getting the requisite photos of us holding it up were fun, that was about it.   Ah well, still we had a good time.

La Spezia from the ship:

Here's the aft of our ship.  See Goofy painting?  Disney thinks of everything!

Riding in on the tender:

On the tender.  That's not our ship in the background.  There were 3 or 4 other ships docked.

Indy on the "biggest" compass rose in "the whole world" (his words) in La Spezia:

Holding up the tower:

James Bond:

Sitting with the pigeons near the tower:

Since there wasn't much to do, I people watched and found some interesting "fashions."  You know you want to see that.

I'm trying to figure this one out.  Is she a salsa dancer?  Trekking through the jungle looking for the mate of that blouse?

85 degrees.  Leg warmers, boots and a jacket?  Oh, wait, she's wearing shorts.  It's all good.

Where's the rest of the black shirt?  What's with the white socks and flats?

That's right, Baroness von Jungenstein is here.


Having fun is exhausting:

Back at La Spezia on the water front:

Did you see all those sail boats back there?  Gorgeous!
While Pisa was a bit of a let down, we can check it off our "to see" list

That night on the ship was pirate night!  Indy had been looking forward to this since the day we first set sail.  Everyone was issued pirate bandanas upon arrival at the restaurants.  We were eating in the animation restaurant that night.
 
Me and our assistant server, Willie, with his pirate hook.  Man do we miss Willie!

Indy and James Bond at the pirate limbo.

Before going on deck to the party, we headed back to our room for a few minutes.  James Bond did not leave his drink behind.  He's looking a bit "happy" don't you think?

There was a massive party on deck.  Singing, dancing, swashbuckling, brawling; all the good pirate stuff.  Indy loved it.

Here is with a pirate.  I should note that he fought and killed this pirate mere moments after this photo was taken.  :)

Micky even swung in dressed as a pirate.  I would not have wanted to be Mickey that night.  He went from one "smoke stack" to the next.  These things are HIGH.

After the party, they played the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie on the HUGE screen you can see just below Micky in the photo.  Of course we had to watch that.  Indy loves PoC and I wasn't going to miss the opportunity to see my beloved 20 feet tall.
And so ended our day in LaSpezia, Pisa and at the pirate party.

If you missed any of the previous entries from our cruise, you can find them here:


Day 1 and Malta

Tunis, Tunisia This is a good one. A guy tried to buy me.

Naples and Pompeii

Rome

And if you want to see photos of all the towel animals that appeared on our bed at night (and who wouldn't?) you can click here.

Next up:  Corsica!

RTT: Jedi Bob

 


Tuesday!!!  Today is going to be fairly short compared to the usually Tuesday blah, blah, blah.  Okay, not too short, but still.

*Indy recently got a Lego Star Wars Visual Dictionary.  On pages 16 and 17 it lists some of the Jedi.  The last one is a Jedi that has a murky history, what with Anakin killing all the Jedi and pretty much destroying the temple and all its records.  This Jedi's name may have been Bob.  Mace Windu, Kit Fistu, Qui-Gon-Jin, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda and Bob.  Bob.  Seriously George Lucas?  Bob?

*Last week James Bond and I saw the movie War Horse.  You won't believe this:

JB: What's the movie about?
Me:What?
JB: The movie.  What's it about?
Me: It's about a horse!
JB: A horse?  Seriously?
Me: Hello! It has horse in the title.
JB: I thought it was a war movie.
Me: It is. War. Horse. It's about a horse in WWI.
JB: A horse? In a war?
Me: What on earth did you think it was about?
JB: I don't know. I thought war horse was like a code name or something.
Me: No. It's about a horse. In a war. Hence the title War Horse.
JB: Huh. I didn't know it was really about a horse.
Me: War. Horse. In the title.

Honestly.  Is that crazy?  It's a really great movie BTW.

*Han Solo is crawling.  Every day is an exercise in patience.  I'm not one for putting things away just because I have a baby.  I never did with Indy and I won't with Han Solo.  I don't leave dangerous things out, but I don't put every single item away or on a high shelf.  I merely tell him no (a million times) and move him away from whatever it is he's after.  It takes a while, but if he's anything like Indy, he'll get it eventually.

*Every time I tell Han Solo no, he tilts his head to the side and gives me a big grin.  It's ridiculously cute.  Cheeky little bugger.

*The Super Bowl came on at 12:30 am here.  I did not watch.  Han Solo wouldn't care that it was on until the wee hours.  He'd get up at 8am whether it went over at 1am or 5am.  No thanks.  James Bond woke Indy up and they had "guy time."  I asked Indy how it was the next day and he said it was awesome because I would never let him eat that much junk food.  :)

*I snapped a photo yesterday that I've been dying to get for weeks.  I've always had a car behind me though and couldn't stop to get a clear one.  Yesterday, there was no one around, so I stopped and snapped it.  This would not go over well in the States.

Not so short after all.  I do have one of our cruise posts ready to go and will post it tomorrow so my blog is really about more than RTT.  Come back if you want to see our adventures (I use that term loosely) in Pisa.

I'm also linking to TTUT:




Click on the button at the top and/or the one just above to do your own linking.  Happy RTT!