Category: General

We got back from our camping trip at Brazos Bend State Park with the Webelos of our Cub Scout troop. We had a really great time. I could have done without the 38 degree temps in the middle of the night, but fortunately it was snuggly warm in my sleeping bag. As I said before I left, one of the perks to Texas is being able to camp in the winter time, where you can wear jeans and a shirt with a turtleneck underneath and be nice and cozy during the day – and the additions of a few layers make it comfy at night. We went for a nice nature hike in the morning, where we had a guide who pointed out many interesting things about the habitat. After lunch, we went for another hike to look for the alligators, but we didn’t see any. We cooked dinner in a Dutch Oven, and then after dark headed over to the George Observatory to check out the night sky. It was *gorgeous* – it’s so easy to forget how many stars there are when you live in a big city. We got to see Saturn through the large telescope there, and there are lots of amatuers who come and set up their scopes too and they will let you look through them plus teach you interesting information about the night sky. We got to see Jupiter too through one of those telescopes. It was pretty cool to see the planets. After we got back we had a campfire and then headed off to bed. My neck is sore & stiff and my throat is all icky feeling thanks to allergy drainage – but I still got a good’s night sleep. A good time was had by all!

You can go camping in January. I like camping when it’s cold – at least you don’t melt from the heat! So we are off to camp. Back tomorrow. It will be fun!

Dad is always sending me e-mails. This tidbit of information just had to be shared…

In the heyday of sailing ships, all war ships and many freighters carried iron cannons. Those cannon fired round iron cannon balls. It was necessary to keep a good supply near the cannon, but prevent them from rolling about the deck.

The best storage method devised was a square based pyramid with one ball on top, resting on four resting on nine which rested on sixteen. Thus, a supply of thirty cannon balls could be stacked in a small area right next to the cannon.

There was only one problem – how to prevent the bottom layer from sliding/rolling from under the others. The solution was a metal plate called a, “Monkey,” with sixteen round indentations. If this plate was made of iron, the iron balls would quickly rust to it. The solution to the rusting problem was to make “Brass Monkeys.”

Few landlubbers realize that brass contracts much more and much faster than iron when chilled. Consequently, when the temperature dropped too far, the brass indentations would shrink so much that the cannon balls would come right off the monkey. Thus, it was quite literally, “Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey!”

(And all this time, you have had dirty thoughts, haven’t you?)

I love, absolutely LOVE the New York tourism promo commercials. They are absolutely hysterical. Earlier I saw the one with Barbara Walters trying to sing for an audition. I love it when she says “I can do Cats!” and makes the claw motions in the air. Then the restaurant one was just on. The customer asks the waiter, “They all look so wonderful … how is the Ben Stiller?” The waiter says that it is very popular, so she says she will have the Stiller with a side of Bacon. The waiter then yells out “Stiller!” and Ben stands up. Then he yells “with Bacon!” and Kevin Bacon stands up. Fast forward, the customer is sitting, quite happily, at her table with the guys beside her and she asks the waiter “Waiter! Can I have a doggie bag?” with the most delightful pure evil grin. It just cracks me up every time I see it! Thank goodness for Tivo, I watch them a couple of extra times whenever I catch them on the air!

After seeing it mentioned in many other places, I had to try the Yahoo! Online Palm Reading. I had my palm read once a few years ago and it was spooky how accurate it was that time. I did it just for fun, but she had me pegged to the letter! I don’t think this one is quite as “accurate” (I didn’t expect it to be since I thought it was hard to understand what I was supposed to be looking for without samples.) So here are my results from the online version…