Odds & Ends

Do you know what the strongest bonding agent in the world is? Fruity Pebbles.

I enjoyed eating Fruity Pebbles as a kid. My mom used to buy them for me all the time. Even today, when I pretty much shun all cold cereal, I still like a bowl of Fruity Pebbles. However, I didn't discover the unique bonding characteristics of this wholesome, sweetened rice cereal until my own children started to eat them.

Dry and out of the box, Fruity Pebbles are fairly harmless. Just crunchy little flakes that fly everywhere when you drop a spoon into a dry bowl full of them. However, add a little milk (or water) and these seemingly harmless little rice flakes turn into a compound that approaches military grade in its ability to adhere to surfaces. I have scrubbed and scrapped for hours to remove caked on Fruity Pebbles from tables, chairs, floors, and sinks. It's quite remarkable what these little guys can do.

When Ian accidentally broke one of our Christmas ornaments last month, I was tempted to get out the box of Fruity Pebbles, apply a little water, and see what restoration I could manage. In the end I opted for plain old epoxy cement. Though I still believe a red Fruity Pebble would have held as well, and would have supplied a little festive coloring to the ornament.

I always pick out books for the kids at Christmas. It something that my dad still does for me and my brother and sister, and it's a tradition that I would like to keep alive. Plus, I just love books and it's another excuse for me to spend time in Borders.

The year I got Emma a book called Do Princesses Wear Hiking Boots?. It's a cute little story in which a young girl keeps asking her mom if princesses play in the dirt, follow rules, eat vegetables, wear hiking boots, snore - stuff like that. The lesson of the book is that a princess is a place in your heart, not something that you do. Real sweet. Emma (and Heather) really likes it.

What's funny is that Emma has a pair of hiking boots. After reading the book a few times she's taken to referring to them as her "Princess Boots" and wants to wear them all the time. Even though they are now about a half-size too small. It's really cute and makes me want to go out to buy her another pair that fits so that she can continue to clomp around in her "Princess Boots."

Ian has gone from 0 to 60 in the GameBoy department. He got a GameBoy for his birthday this past summer. Since then he has played with it often, but he was known to go days, maybe even weeks, without picking it up. However, since he received two new games at Christmas - including a Power Ranger-themed game - his playing time has gone up dramatically. Almost so much that I'm starting to be a little concerned with how much he is playing. I'm not super concerned yet, because I remember him being pretty hard core after he got the game back in July, and then things normalized. So maybe that will happen here again. Or at least that's what I hope. Luckily now he's in full-day school, so he doesn't have access to it from 7am to 3:30pm. Heather and I will have to keep an eye on his usage.

This is really cool and I wanted to mention it earlier this week when I became aware of it. The Library of Congress has made a whole bunch of maps from the Civil War available online. All sorts of stuff showing troop movement and positioning. Some of the maps even have handwritten notes from the generals in battle. I'm not sure what to do with it or even where to start looking, but for someone interested in the Civil War having access to this stuff is kinda exciting.

Chrysler is on this tear where they want to revamp or introduce new a whole bunch of vehicles. The most recent one to be announced was a revamp of the Dodge Charger.

Now the new design doesn't do anything for me. It's looks pretty bland, in my opinion. But looking at this photo of the new Charger got me to thinking. In the old Duke of Hazzard show, the General Lee was an old 1969 (?) Charger. Now I know that there is a Dukes of Hazzard movie in the works starring Johnny Knoxville, Seann William Scott, Jessica Simpson, and Burt Reynolds. So thoughts went to, "Will the producers of this flick opt for the classic Charger design, or will they use the new Charger look, possibly in conjunction with some deal with Chrysler?" It would be a shame if they did, because the new Charger doesn't look half as sleek and powerful as the original.

Actually, who really gives a rat's ass? The "Dukes of Hazzard" with Johnny Knoxville, Seann William Scott, Jessica Simpson? The movie's gonna suck donkey balls. I don't care what frickin' version of the car they use.

Jeeze. Somebody stop me next time before I waste space writing about Johnny Knoxville and Jessica Simpson.

Only in Chicago. Last week four to eight inches of snow was dumped on the area (we got four out by us). Then it warmed up a bit before getting typical January cold. Last night we had thunder and lightening and today it's in the lower 50s. Tomorrow it's supposed to be around 8 degrees during the day.

If you hear a large noise coming from the Chicagoland area next week, that would be the sound of a couple million people all blowing their nose. You just know everyone is going to get sick with temperature flipping and flopping about like that.

Saw this in Sports Illustrated: the Tampa Bay Storm won the Arena Bowl in 2003. After the season was over, a number of players signed with other teams. When championship rings were handed out, the guys who jumped teams got rings with cubic zirconia - not diamonds - in the settings. The players who got the tin rings have filed a grievance through the players' union. I just thought this was funny.

In last week's Newsweek they ran a short piece about how the uber-talented Uma Thurman is replacing Nicole Kidman in The Producers, the movie adaptation of the Broadway musical starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, which was based on the movie starring Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder. Goofy, I know.

Anyway, the photo they ran of Ms. Thurman was similar to one I had run in this blog back in April 2004. Seeing it in Newsweek made me think it was time to run the photo of Ms. Thurman again.

Just like I said back then, If Uma is six feet tall, then she's five feet six inches of leg. Va-va-voom!