My wife got a great shot of our cat Butterscotch in the Christmas tree. I know some amusing people. Let’s have a caption contest in the comments!
Caption this in the comments!
I got some funny ones too, but Bethany‘s shot takes the cake:
How cool is this?
Since the bean house was a bit of a bust, maybe this will be a hit. It looks like it can get as complicated or remain as simple as you’d like. I have pinned a bunch of ideas. I’d like to include an area for construction vehicles… maybe tiny pebbles, not sand. I hate sand. I like the use of the tire in the one… and the dirt road, and tunnels.
I hope to snag a bunch of ideas online, specifically Pinterest I guess. Looks super fun for both kids, and me!
Have you done anything like this?
Apparently the newest annoying word for some time away is Babymoon. It’s better than Daycation or Staycation, but still annoying. The word is annoying, but the actual time away isn’t. With the impending arrival getting closer and closer, many online pregnancy-related websites & email lists suggest taking a babymoon. This goes especially for first time parents, as a nice little last fling before all of your apparent freedoms disappear.
We decided a while ago that a nice little getaway to a cabin would be the way to go. We have been tent camping at Forest Ridge Cabins and Campgrounds before, but had never tried out the cabins. They always looked quite inviting. The campground itself is always clean, and the owners are quite hospitable. The prices are competitive with other places that we checked out online, and really quite affordable. Important for the babymoon aspect, it’s not that far away. Cabins are our thing now I guess… since we honeymooned in one in Gatlinburg, TN. It all just seemed to make sense.
We booked the date a while ago, assuming that since it was spring we’d have a nice warm weekend. It was a nice weekend, but there was about 5 inches of snow on the ground, and the temperature never got much above freezing.
We stayed in the Allegheny cabin, and it was warm & cozy inside. We brought along some DVD‘s, cooked some s’mores (with peanut butter cups) around the campfire, and just had a nice relaxing weekend. The kitchen was stocked with all kinds of cookware and utensils, we made a nice steak dinner on Saturday. I also made a friend in Oliver, one of the campground cats. He strolled up as I was waiting for the last log to burn out on the campfire, then followed me up on the porch to hang out a but on top of the hot tub cover. He liked to look in the window at us, then look away when he saw that we were looking at him.
I think we’ve decided that Forest Ridge is “our place” as far as camping when we’re not going camping at Living Waters.
Check out Forest Ridge on Facebook, Twitter, & Yelp, and check out some of our photos…
Rock Concert!
This topic was by my friend Laurel the other night at the Dropkick Murphys Shamrock-N-Roll tour. I know I’ve had this conversation before with others. I decided to take it & digitally run with it. Stereotypes are generally a bad idea, but they sure are funny. A punk rock show, or really any show… is full of them. I’ll start a list. You’ll contribute in the comments.
That’s my starter list.
I know I’m missing more than a few that I see regularly, but I’m hoping someone else will think of them too… so I’m not all alone here. What about the kid with headphones? The super-fan? The crying girl? The PDA couple?
Please, leave the name of your concert-going stereotype in the comments section below. If you’re feeling creative, how about a description too? If you have landed here via Facebook or Twitter & you’re still logged in there… you can comment below with no hassles. You can also just comment w/o logging in. WordPress just asks for a name & an email address to go along with your comments, with the option of a URL.
What stereotype are you? Which one do you love? Which one do you hate? Which one are you? Which one am I? Have any comments/additions/corrections to the ones I’ve already listed?
Perhaps I’ll compile another blog with all the results, perhaps they’ll just live in the comments section… but I need your help making the list!
I love wordplay, anagrams, and word origins. Sometimes, I imagine to myself that the subject of this post must be how some people see this sign:
NO DOGS IN PARK
At least, that’s maybe what I hope… that they have some learning disability, a reading comprehension problem, are from a foreign country, or are just flat-out illiterate. I’d rather believe any excuse over the probable truth; They just don’t care.
Before we get the animal lovers all riled up… I’d like to make it clear that I’m not arguing against dogs being allowed in the park. In fact, I think the paths in the park are a perfect place to walk your dog, and that animal lovers everywhere ought to band together to get this rule appealed.
Barring your (and my) personal opinion though, the rule still stands that our canine friends are prohibited from the park. I mean, that sign is pretty clear. There’s not really any way to misunderstand the message put forth, and there are plenty of them all around the park. (If you need to actually see it in writing from an authority, I have done you the favor of finding the Dormont Borough Code online, and you can see in Article I of Chapter 75 [The Animal Code] § 75-2, that animals are prohibited in the park areas.)
I’m not suggesting that the Dormont police patrol the park to hand out pointless citations, as they most certainly have better things to do with their time.
I mean, I get that we were brought up with Fred Rogers telling us all that we’re special and different. Somehow that may have translated to the belief that rules that you don’t like simply don’t apply to you. I also get that to a certain extent. I mean, it’s got to be some kind of inherent human nature to question authority. When you’re told do do something, you recoil a little bit with an internal “excuse me?” At least, I do. The reaction is stronger and longer if it’s something that you don’t want to do or something that you don’t agree with. Perhaps I have just listened to too much anarchy-themed punk rock over the years.
How this translates to the “laws don’t apply to me” mentality, I just don’t get it. This is just another take on my shopping cart rant, I guess. The main difference being that that only applied to general guidelines of polite and decent behavior, and this applies to an actual law… however trivial that law may be.
I’m not saying I’m better than you, or that I never break any laws. I had a problem a long time ago with collecting speeding tickets, and barring my recent Illinois interstate relapse, it’s common knowledge among my friends and family that I pretty much drive like someone’s grandma these days. We generally all go faster than 25 MPH in 25 MPH zones (unless we’re on a school campus, busy city intersection, or in front of a police station). Living in Pennsylvania, I remember the collective sigh of state-wide relief when the speed limit was raised from 55 MPH to 65 MPH. People didn’t like the law, so they wrote, campaigned, and things were changed.
Perhaps it’s a risk thing? If I’m speeding, I’m generally thinking the probability of being caught is low… so it’s rationalized as OK with me somehow. If you bring your dog to the park, are you thinking that there’s never really a police presence in the park, and no one’s going to turn you in so you’re safe?
Is it the classic “well, other people are doing it”? I can see this one working in someone’s head too. My wife & I walk in the park probably 5 days out of the week most weeks. On any given day, we see at least one dog in the park, sometimes as many as 5 or so at a time. If I were a dog owner in an urban area with access to a beautiful nearby park where other people are walking their dogs, I’m sure I’d bring my dog out too. Rationale being that all the other dogs are out, so it must be OK.
In fact, not to long ago, we helped a lady corral her unleashed little beagle mix. He was clearly not ready to go home, and she was in no condition to run after her dog. Standing and yelling “come here, Casey!” apparently doesn’t work all that well with small excitable furry friends. He was quite eager to romp over to us ready for more play. Unfortunately his unconditional offer of puppy playtime was betrayed by us turning him over to his owner.
When I started out, this was going to be another “what’s wrong with you people”* blog with a “what is wrong with a society that stops paying attention to the little rules” tone. I think the latter has taken precedent, with myself included.
I have just realized that I too would probably be an ass that ignores the sign, and brings my dog to the park until I got that 1st citation.
This leaves me still with the questions of what makes one think that the rules don’t apply to them? Is it a belief of being “above” the rules? No fear of penalty? The thought that if the next person is doing it, it’s OK for you? The general disagreement with the rule in the first place? Lack of a presented penalty? (ie., if the sign also said “$300 fine for violations,” would it deter you?) Is it an aggregate of all the smaller rationalizations?
We’re (arguably) a country founded on breaking the rules… but have we gotten to a point where fighting for a rule change is beneath us, or are we just too lazy to change it?
I’m guessing the NO DOGS IN PARK rule is in place mainly because people don’t pick up the pooch poop once it’s dropped, closely followed by a certain amount of fear of the angry biting dog. This rule was probably enacted because people weren’t controlling their animals in the first place out of laziness or an “I’m better than you” attitude. Wow. It’s just a vicious circle, isn’t it?
As someone who suffers from a severe food allergy, and only somewhat irrational fear of all things shellfish… I can imagine that someone coming to the park with a dog allergy and/or a fear of dogs might have a heightened sense of anger and betrayal at the appearance of a giant hairy dog walking right by the “NO DOGS IN PARK” sign.
Perhaps people ought to get together to create pet-friendly and pet-free sections of the park? Perhaps the rule could be changed to “pets only on leashes & pickup poop or it’s a $___ fine” rule?
I guess I’d just like to hear everyone’s thoughts on rules like this.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts…
(*Note: Comma omitted per the advice of my grammatical advisory panel, Dave and Kristin!)
World (and Lunar) Domination 