So If Not a Dog, How About a Skunk?

I'm afraid I will have to put to rest my desire to adopt a pooch, at least for the time being. I'm moving into my new apartment tonight, and a canine pal wasn't included in the lease.

But there is another option. When I went walking past my soon-to-be new apartment, I saw what appeared to be a cat rolling around on the sidewalk. Noting that something didn't seem quite right, I stopped for a moment until I realized that what I was actually watching was a skunk waddling away.

Upon recognizing it for what it was, my immediate thought was "Cool a skunk! Let's chase it." Fortunately that impulse was immediately squashed by the logic portion of my brain that quickly ran through the following fallacies with my plan:

1. If you chase a skunk, you will get sprayed.
2. You cannot remove the smell of skunk from your clothes, and I liked my current outfit.
3. Having never being sprayed before, I wasn't sure if and for how long the smell sticks to your skin.
   
4. Consider the embarrassment of having to call in "smelly" to work? "I can't come in to work today.......Oh no, I'm feeling fine. It's just that I was sprayed by a skunk last night.... Yeah right in front of my house.........It jumped out of nowhere......tomato juice? I'll have to give that a try........could you do me a favor and not mention this to my coworker?........Oh, I'm on speaker phone.......

All the way around, it was a good thing that I didn't chase the critter.

As I waited for it to meander its way under the shrubbery by the front stoop of my soon-to-be apartment, an idea crossed my mind. It may not be a dog, but if this stinker lives in or under my house, I could call it my pet. I sure ain't going to play fetch with it, but if I see it again, I'm going to start calling it my guard dog and name him "Socks." ;o)

Name that Religion

Who would have thought that finding out that I am Morman could inspire such an entertaining conversation:

Coworker 1 "You're Mormon? You don't meet that many of them."
Me "There aren't so many out this way, but there's quite a few out west."
Coworker 1 "Wait.....who are those people in Utah. Quakers?"
Me "Uh....Mormons."
Coworker 1 "Mormons, really? I met a Mormon once when I ran a B and B. He was real nice, but I really like the Quaker commercials."
Coworker 2 "You mean the oatmeal?"
Coworker 1 "No, these real nice commercials."
Me "The Mormons do a lot of commericials about families."
Coworker 1 "Oh that's it. You really do some great commercials."

And the conversation got worse as we moved to another coworker's desk.

Me to Coworker 3 "Did you know I'm a Quaker."
Coworker 3 "Aren't you Mormon?"
Coworker 1 "I get the Quakers and the Mormons mixed up."
Coworker 3 "Quakers do the furniture."
Me "The Quakers don't do furniture. You sure you're not thinking of the Amish?"
Coworker 3 "No, the Quakers make this furniture with a simple design."
Coworker 1 "You mean Shaker furniture?"
Coworker 3 "Shaker, Quaker, baker, whatever."

At this point I'm dying with laughter. Welcome to Religion 101, and it's going to be a tough course. ;o)

The Story of a Car

Once upon a time, in about 1970, Russia introduced the Lada, a snazzy, little vehicle that was economical and environmentally friendly.



It was so good for the environment that after a few years, it no longer needed gas or oil and began to biodegrade.



Sales for the Lada began to slump as Earth-savvy consumers selected transportation that was more reliable.



The Lada company hired the best engineer and designers to give the Lada a makeover for today’s consumer. It has taken almost a decade but the new Lada is about to be driven out of the factory. Behold, the New and Imporoved Lada!

Now it comes in blue and doesn't smell like soup.

pictures curtesy of englishrussia.com/?p=720

I Think I'll Walk

I just got this from a friend, and it's really hilarious.

Google maps will give you detailed instructions on how to drive from Boston, MA to Paris France. Check it out.

Follow these steps [in order of course]

1. go to www.google.com
2. click on maps
3. click on get directions
4. go from "Boston, MA" to "paris, france"
5. scroll down in the directions to number 9

and if you'd rather click on a link, here you go:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&saddr=Boston,+MA&daddr=Paris,+France&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=39.184175,92.373047&layer=&ie=UTF8&z=4&ll=46.255847,-34.365234&spn=34.292159,92.373047&om=1

Museum Ambush Ahead

As I was driving along the backroads from Maryland to Delaware, I noticed this sign.

Consider with me a moment. Decoys are used to lure some person or creature into an ambush. So what sort of a creature might be drawn to a museum and why the ambush? I can't say for sure, but it must be a devilish plot.

I know some of you must be thinking, "Aleigh, this is simply advertising a museum of decoys." And I might have agreed with you until I saw the name of the street. Giles? Like guile, as in beguile.

Although tempted to investigate this potentially dire situation further and perhaps reveal a plot by a dangerous rouge organization, I needed to get to a wedding dinner. So I simply snapped this picture and continued with my travels. But if you find yourself traveling between Delaware and Maryland please BEWARE of the Decoy museum. ;o)