PBJ Under Attack

Growing up, Linda only had two different sandwiches in her brown paper lunch bag. One was PBJ. The other was plain salami.  No mustard, cheese, mayo... just plain salami on Wonder Bread.  For some reason, she only liked the sandwich if it was smashed flat.  When no one was looking, she would sit on the baggie and smoosh it flat as a pancake. When she got to high school and there was a cafeteria, she still chose the PBJ, except it was even better because it was a triple-decker. (She stopped sitting on it by then.)  You may be wondering why this is relevant on my blog.  Well, Linda read a story this morning about PBJ's.  A grade school principal told a newspaper reporter that PBJ sandwiches might be "racially and culturally offensive." Quote:  “What about Somali or Hispanic students who might not eat sandwiches? Another way would be to say: Americans eat peanut butter and jelly, do you have anything like that?  Maybe they eat torta or pita.”  It's so hard to imagine how anyone, from any country, could be offended by seeing a PBJ sandwich listed on the schools cafeteria menu.  Maybe I'm wrong though.  Parents in the school district where we lived complained that teachers decorated their classrooms with the colors red and green around Christmas, even though no mention of the word "Christmas" was mentioned.  Red and Green were banned from the classroom.

The same newspaper reported that a special drum corps at the no PBJ school was set up for only black and Latino boys.  Parents complained that it discriminated against girls, whites and Asians, but the school has stood its ground. 

P.S.  There was way more to the story than just PBJ's being offensive.  It's all part of a cultural and sensitivity training the teachers must go through.  

Is That a Monkey in Your Pants?

Because Linda has metal in her fake knee, she can't just go through the airport metal detectors.  She sets off the alarm, so she has to be hand frisked every single time she takes a flight.  It's annoying, but totally understandable.  I bet those screeners can tell some pretty entertaining stories on people they've frisked.  Imagine the security guard who found these little guys stuffed into the underwear of three men traveling from Bangkok to Dubai! The men were trying to smuggle them illegally.  

"OH my gosh, that was so terrifying!"

 They are called Lorises.  The little primates have almost become extinct... but are becoming popular pets. Officials say the underwear Lorises were OK, but found in the nick of time.

Why Hello Little Penelope!

We had a surprise visitor today.  Penelope stopped in to give her Nana a big kiss.  I couldn't wait for my kiss too, but she didn't look very happy to see me.  I'm not sure she really understands the wonderfulness of puppies yet.  I'll be patient and give her some more time. Penelope won't be able to help but fall in love with me as soon as she spends a little more time at our house.  

Linda is really tired from teaching her classes tonight.  She really wants to stay awake to watch White Collar at 9:00 p.m., but it's not looking too good.  I think she'll be catching the repeat On Demand later this week.  Goodnight!

Whatever Floats Your Boat

Dogs love Barbie too

I can't remember the last time I did a post about Barbie. When I was a puppy, I loved my Barbie doll. Over the years, I lost interest in her and she went the way of the doll grave.  Its a good thing because if Chim got a hold of her, he would be pooping out Barbie limbs for days.  There have been lots of different stories over the years, but Barb has been out of the news until today.  It looks like she has staged a major comeback.  Shes had a dream car, over 100 amazing careers, a puppy, tons of shoes, and lots of variations on boyfriend Ken, and now Barbie has her very own cruise line!  Royal Caribbean is featuring the ultimate cruise vacation for girls that love Barbie!  You'll stay in a special pink stateroom, with Barbie Doll blankets, sheets, toothbrushes and clothes.  Stop by poolside for a Mermaid dance class.  Attend fashion designer workshops where you can be your own clothes designer and create your own fashion line. Of course you won't want to miss the Tiara and Teacup party either.

It's not something Linda could ever imagine doing, but hey.... whatever floats your boat!

When You Gotta Go

During our walk today, Linda snapped this picture of a Don Jon in her neighbors yard.  Not perfect grass/landscaping/lawn extraordinair' Paul's yard, but a few houses away from ours on the same side of the street.  It's just so random to put a toilet in your yard, don't you think?  Its for some landscapers doing work in her back yard, but she should have had them put it behind her fence. It's the same lady who once posted a hand written sign on her grass that said "If you don't clean up your dog poop off my grass (only she didn't write poop) you will be shot."  Now the exact same lady has this stinky thing in her own yard!  Ha-Ha... Linda thinks its pretty funny and is thinking of posting a her own little sign next to the Don Jon tonight during our walk. 

The Mysterious Dying Pine

For over 25 years, Linda has had a nice pine tree in front of our house.  Sometimes raking up the pine cones was a pain, but she loved looking at it out the living room window.  In the snow, the branches were just beautiful.  Suddenly, in under a month, the tree just died!  Linda did some research and found out a bunch of reasons it could have happened.  Weed killer and fertilizer from the lawn can get in the roots and kill the tree if its put down to close to the trunk, there are beetles that cause pine wilt, a scientific sounding fungus and some other wormy creatures.  Once the tree gets a disease, it attracts ants which take up residents in the dead wood.  Guess what the guys found when they cut it down?  Yep, a bunch of ants. Coincidentally, the neighbor in the house you can see in the right of the photo just hated the tree when it was alive and was after Linda to get it cut down.  Maybe he poisoned it dead so she would have no choice but to remove it.

Not looking so healthy

Half way down....

And the tree is no more.

Linda is sure going to miss it this winter, but it's for the best that Bob and Tom cut it down.  If there would have been a heavy snowfall, it most probably would have fallen down on the house. 

He's One Tough Mudder

Linda is super tired and she didn't even compete in the Tough Mudder event.  Getting up at 5 a.m. after a fitful night of sleep is part of it.  Trying to keep up with Taylor who ran at a blistering fast pace is most of it.  Even though Sarah and Linda did their best to keep up with him, Taylor still managed to be at the finish line for 20 minutes waiting around for them.  He did much better this year, beating his previous record by almost 30 minutes.  His official time was 1:42, about 45 seconds behind the first place finisher in his heat.