Meridian, Idaho
I received a wonderful little love gift yesterday!
Rich’s cousin’s wife, Renee, sent me some lavender sachets.
She grew the lavender in her yard, harvested the lavender after the bees had finished their pollination, removed the flower buds from the stems, and placed them in pretty gauze bags.
So thoughtful and so welcomed.
Just lovely!
(And perfect to help make my car smell better because it gets so stinky after I am done playing pickleball. 🙂 )
Meridian, Idaho
After dinner last night, Sophie looked forlornly into my eyes…
…indicating that she would love to go for a walk!
Apparently, going for a drive in the mountains, taking a nap together, and playing a rousing game of fetch weren’t quite enough for a day’s entertainment.
So off we went for a short walk around our subdivision.
Didn’t try this, but I might next time. 🙂
Anyway, I like to listen to music as we walk and last night I listened to Robert Palmer’s Riptide CD.
Most of the songs have the perfect beat for taking long strides while walking, especially Palmer’s signature song: Addicted to Love.
It’s a great song that is most famous for its video.
Many people probably thought of Addicted to Love subconsciously if they were watching a particular portion of the final awards ceremony of the FIFA Women’s World Cup Soccer gold medal match last week — young women carried the medals in wearing black dresses and high heels.
What an odd way to honor and celebrate a group of women’s athletic victory–with sexist stereotypes…
Take a look at Palmer’s quintessential Addicted to Love video to see what I’m talking about:
Meridian, Idaho
I hate to be completely unsocial, but I don’t want any soliciters knocking on our door.
This has become a problem for us since moving into the city. When we lived 20 miles out of town, we got a few. But living in town has exponentially increased the number of soliciters we have knocking on our door.
I finally decided to put up a “No Soliciting” sign.
I was shocked at how many different signs there are. Obviously others feel the same way…
From the polite:
To the assertive:
To the pro Girl Scouts:
And the humorous:
I decided finally on this sign:
And I bought some extras. If you want one, please either send me an email or submit a comment on this post.
I’ll send you one as a free gift in the hopes that you don’t get any door-to-door soliciters during the upcoming election season. 🙂
Meridian, Idaho
I’ve been playing hours and hours of pickleball lately.
I’m learning lots. I’m sweating lots. And I’m having a blast.
There’s nothing new with all that…
But something new happened a few days ago:
My playing partner slapped my butt with his paddle and said, “Good shot, Kathy!”
(When you see a butt slap happen, it doesn’t look nearly as awkward as it does in still photo shots. 🙂 )
It’s only happened once, and I’m sure I don’t want him to continue the practice. It might lead me to play less effectively in order to avoid getting a butt slap as shown in this funny scene from The Office.
Meridian, Idaho
Periodically, I wonder about stupid things.
These are questions that don’t really have an answer, but still the questions keep popping up in my head.
So starting today, I’ll share some of my questions with you, dear gentle blog reader.
Ready?
Here’s one of the questions that pops up often:
Are there enough cemeteries in the world do take care of all of the people who have died?
It sure doesn’t look like it to me.
Think about it…
As you’re driving around a city and look at all the people in their cars, walking along the sidewalks, playing in the park…
Could they all fit in the cemetery you just passed?
Nope.
Now way, no how.
There’s just not enough graves to take care of all the people who have died over the last, say, 100 years. And that’s even factoring in the fact that many people opt for cremation over burial.
According to an article from NBC News, in 2011 42% of the 2.5 million people who died in America were cremated. That’s higher than I thought it would be.
Interestingly, that rate is double what it was fifteen years earlier.
Even more interestingly, cremation rates are higher in the west (where there’s more space) than in the eastern states. In Nevada 74% of its population are cremated (with a population density of 25 people per square mile). In Mississippi (where 64 people live per square mile) just under 16% of people are cremated.
Regardless of cremation rates, there still doesn’t seem to be enough cemetery plots to take care of all the people who have died…
Meridian, Idaho
We both tied and broke a record on July 4th here in the Treasure Valley.
Tied Record:
Nine consecutive days of triple temperatures.
We tied the record for the number of consecutive days (nine) which happened in 2003 and 2006.
Broke Record:
And we broke the record for those nine consecutive days happening the earliest in the year.
Normally the really hot weather doesn’t come here until late July and August.
Guess we’ve got a head start on heat this year.
That’s not really a record I’d vote to break. 😐 I’d rather break good records, not bad ones…
How about a record for the most consecutive days with total cloud cover? Heaven on earth for us cloud lovers… 🙂
Meridian, Idaho
Both of our kids are in Vancouver, Canada to watch the gold medal match in Women’s World Cup Soccer today: USA vs Japan.
They have been planning to go for years and are so excited to watch the USA team compete for the gold!
Oddly, they are sitting in the same numbered seats, one row apart from one another even though their tickets were bought at different times. 🙂
What’s interesting to me is that they watch the game in totally different ways…
Melissa has been playing soccer in a women’s league for many years. She didn’t play soccer in high school, but she’s a fan and player now.
Richie didn’t start watching soccer until about six years ago. He watches not only for the athletic competition, but he’s intrigued by how countries’ different cultures come through on their different playing styles and coaching strategies.
Rich and I have started watching the games because of our kids’ interest in it. Slowly, ever so slowly, we are starting to understand it.
But tonight we won’t be able to text them to ask what something means because I’m sure they won’t respond during the match. 🙂
Go USWNT! (United States Women’s National Team)
PS Here’s a short video about true ‘soccer moms’ — players on the team who are actually moms!
Meridian, Idaho
Wishing you and yours a happy, safe, and patriotic 4th of July!
Meridian, Idaho
Crud. I can’t sleep and am writing this post just after midnight.
Insomnia, for me, often visits during and just after the full moon.
The July full moon situation is rather unique this year.
From space.com:
Wednesday, July 1, 10:20 p.m. EDT. The Full Moon of July is known as the “Hay Moon,” “Buck Moon,” or “Thunder Moon.” It rises around sunset and sets around sunrise; this is the only night in the month when the moon is in the sky all night long. The rest of the month, the moon spends at least some time in the daytime sky. This is the first of two Full Moons this month.
A blue moon is an additional full moon that appears in one of two situations:
I didn’t realize that each month’s full moon has a name. From the Farmer’s Almanac:
The Full Buck Moon – July is normally the month when the new antlers of buck deer push out of their foreheads in coatings of velvety fur. It was also often called the Full Thunder Moon, for the reason that thunderstorms are most frequent during this time. Another name for this month’s Moon was the Full Hay Moon.
It’s amazing what one can find out during a bout of insomnia.
And yippee skippee for me! I get two find lots of things because of this month’s two full moons… 🙂
PS Stayed up a bit later and found this amazing photo of the International Space Station passing between the earth and the moon taken in Australia. Wow!
Read the story of the photo at http://deography.com/.
Meridian, Idaho
The advertising campaign “Always #Likeagirl: Turning an Insight Into a Confidence Moment.” recently won the Public Relations Grand Prix prize at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
Watching this really struck me. Too often I’m quiet when my pickleball male partners criticize another male with a comment about ‘playing like a girl’ and the comment is intended to be the ultimate insult to another male.
I won’t be quiet any longer…
From now on I’m going to say, “Well, ain’t that a compliment! I know some AMAZING female players!”
And I’ll say it to both the male making the comment and the male recipient of the ‘compliment’.
Thanks to my sister Carol for posting this on Facebook yesterday. 🙂 Watching it helped me find my voice…
