Sam, You Missed the Boat

A few months ago, there was a news release about Sam, a Dorito stealing seagull. He helps himself to bags of Doritos from a party store. Customers continue to pay for them, enabling Sam to continue his life of crime.

Now where was he when a ship lost a cargo container carrying bags of Doritos and they washed ashore the Outer Banks of North Carolina?

And in other news:

Sunshine, the bearer of buttons, has struck again. She was kind enough to give me a "You Make Me Smile" award ... along with her latest button "Internet Entertainment without Porn". Thank you Sonia ... I'm wearing them right over there <---- along with the rest of the bling.

Signs: Good-bye

Washoe passed away October 30, 2007

She was 42 years old, on borrowed time as far as chimpanzees go. She lived out her final days in The Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute at Central Washington University.

Washoe was the first non-human to learn human sign language. She had a confirmed vocabulary of 250 signs. Washoe had to understand and use each word in the right context before it could be added to her list .



Washoe had an adopted son Loulis. She was able to teach him to sign also. Louis is the first chimp to learn to sign by other chimps, rather than by humans.



To read more about Washoe and other signing chimps, look here:
http://www.friendsofwashoe.org/

*** Update ***
See my post of Nov. 5th ...Patrick found the Girl of his Dreams

Googles and Lurkers and Linky's Oh My

I have a site meter on here. I look at it, but I don't Lord over it in hopes of becoming the next Dooce. Highly impossible anyway. I don't have enough constipation, depression, ex-Mormon, Worlds Best Avon Sales Lady stories to write about that would generate 6 figures. (I mean that in a complimentary way Heather)

I do find some things odd about the traffic that comes by here.

For example the things people google that directs them here on a regular basis:

President in crocs ... why do people really care about that?

Constipation nothing works ... this one is almost daily, what's that tell you?

1-3-5- Bathroom Rule ... men? Is it really that much of a question?

On Line Whores ... I understand the search, but in finding me, I'll blame Sunshine!


The linky's that direct here on a regular basis, are probably pure accident:

Confessions of a Pioneer Woman had asked her readers to send her a photo so she could place a face on the name of her readers. (Ree? How ya doing in the memory department?) She has a gazillion readers. But indeed, ask and she received ... hundreds of them. She posted them on her flicker site. I sent her this picture:


But it is posted like this:

Since she is kind enough to put a link to each photo, I am thinking most click it to see what kind of technically challenged nut doesn't know how to send a photo with the right amount of pixels to fit into the reader set.

Technorati ... OK, so I have that little widget on my sidebar. When I first started blogging, I saw most everyone had it. I went to the site and saw it as way to fit yourself into a like minded blogging community. Crap, where do I fit in when there are millions of people all over the world signed up with millions of topics? I have no idea how people find me in that melting pot, but they do. Maybe someone can explain it to me.

And finally the lurkers:

RockStarMommy has never been to my site that I am aware of. She's not on my blogroll of daily reads, but I do go over there and leave comments. She is young and married to what seems like a patient cool husband, and has produced two offspring. She is talented in the arts. An amateur photographer and musician, but still with bragging rights. She dresses cool and funky, no mom jeans for that girl. She bakes awesome cakes and reins creative play time with her kids. I get more traffic from her than any other site. Her readers are either scratching their heads over my quirky comments, or wondering why plain white bread hangs out amongst them.

You Had to Be There

This morning, a newscaster was trying to relate a story, through tears, that was funny, but I realized "you had to be there". It made me think of two such stories.

Years ago, my friend Dee recruited me to "spy" on her boyfriend. She was sure he was cheating on her. We waited until dark, drove to his house and parked down the street. We were walking to his house with the intention of hiding until he came home. She needed to see if he arrived alone or not. We were just about to his house when I noticed car lights coming and I knew it was him. As I dove behind the hedge to hide, I yelled to Dee to take cover. I was well hidden, but as he pulled up into the driveway, headlights scanned the front yard during the turn. As if in a spotlight, there stood 5'9" 135 lb. Dee, eyes closed, arms tight to her body, scrunched behind a tree. Nope, not the huge old oak tree, the newly planted, 4' tree with about a 3" trunk. Dee would never make a good Bond Girl.


My other "you had to be there" moment was when I worked for a bank. It was Christmas time and the bank ordered piggy banks to sell. They displayed them on the shelf in front of the tellers, pretty much at eye level. There were hundreds of them. I was sitting at my desk, off to the side of the tellers, when I noticed a good looking guy come in and get in my friend Kathy's line. The bank was busy and every line was full. I picked up the phone and called Kathy.

Me: "Kathy, see that guy sixth from the front in your line? Pull his signature card and see if he's single."

Kathy: "What? Who?"

Me: "The guy in your line, sixth from the front."

Kathy: (way too loud) "I can't see a thing with all these pigs in front of me."

Everyone standing in line looked at each other and started laughing as Kathy back peddled and tried to explain she was referring to the piggy banks. When Mr. 6th got in front of her, he said "Hi, I'm Porky" ... and darn it, he was married.