The Wild Life and Times of a Botanical Geek

Today we were driving along a road near the house--not a horrendously busy road, but it does see its share of traffic. As we were traveling down this road, we came upon a small pack of teenage boys on skateboards. Now, this road we were traveling on didn't have much in the way of sidewalks, seeing as rows of sycamore trees were pretty much occupying the area where a sidewalk would be. In fact, it was pretty much a non-car-or-bike-friendly road. So what was the logical thing for these boys to do? Skateboard in the middle of the friggin' road, of course! Not only that, but they were doing their Joe Cool skateboard impression in the opposite lane--yet going in the same direction of us. So they were skateboarding in the middle of oncoming traffic, with no real escape routes. Yeah. You're cool, guys.

I guess the god-this-is-really-stupid protrusion of the common sense center of their collective brains hasn't fully developed yet. Alternatively, if they're not careful, they're going to be bucking to be the poster boys for Darwinism at work.

On a different note, I was feeling particularly hormonal and grouchy today, so I decided a good cure (since there was no chocolate to be had) would be to go to some of the bath shops at the mall. After all, I was thinking about stocking up on soap, and nice smelling things might help me to not be quite so arrrg-ish. It turned out to be a bad idea. For one, I was not in the mood to interact with people, so of course this prompted salespeople to gravitate towards me--seriously, if I need your help, I'll come find you. Don't worry! Second, while walking into one of the stores I was hit with a deliciously lovely whiff of what smelled like cinnamon and pumpkin. Mmm. Now that could be worth buying soap, even bath bubbly stuff of. Now that in and of itself wasn't bad. The fact that I decided to try and discern the sourse of this lovely scent was. Since they had a fall display out, I thought maybe I would find it there. Exploring it, I found something that appeared to be pumpkin-pie scented.

They had a sample bottle out for it, so I tried the tried and true method of open-the-bottle-and-sniff. This, bizarrely, didn't quite give me an indication of what it smelled like. So, I decided the next best thing would be to put the lotion on and see. So I squirted some on my hands, rubbed, and, well, all I have to say is: ew. It had the greasy consistency of butter that's been sitting out for way too long, and smelled the same too. I tried to wash it off and put on one of the more inoffensive lotions, but I can still smell the rancid butter smell on my hand, even several hours later. Maybe I needed to shake it or something, but I was turned off by the whole experience.

In retrospect, it might've been a good idea to try getting an idea of some of the other scents on the fall display before moving onto the actual sampling part, but ah well. Live and learn.

It was not the first time they had confronted each other. They had fought before on Tatooine, many years ago, before one tracked the other to this tiny planet, to this tinier suburban complex. One had stayed true to the Force, had followed the teachings of his master and had served the forces of good. The other had forsaken the light, turning to the dark side, seeking power above all else. Why this quest had brought him here is a mystery, unless he wished to have power over the local bicycle population.

They ran into each other on the hot asphalt of the road, drawing their lightsabers. The local boys noted what was about to go on, and moved the hockey goal they had set up in the street until the fight had passed. The air was soon thick with ozone as the Jedi and the Sith fought, their lightsabers clashing in a spectactular display that brought the neighborhood kids out to watch and go "Ooooh" and "Aaaaaah". Soon, the battle was over, with only one leaving the scene of the fight. The only remnants of the loser were his robe sprawled out onto the ground, his lightsaber resting nearby. The kids, with the excitement over, shrugged and went inside to play Super Mario Bros.

Or, at least, that's what I think would be the most interesting explanation as to why there was a lightsaber and a Jedi robe abandoned on our driveway.

Holy frig. Adult Swim is airing old eps of Pee Wee's Playhouse. Seriously. I'm kinda in shock. It used to be a part of my Saturday morning lineup when I was wee, so I'm watching it now and feeling all nostalgic and marveling at the copious amounts of fun with blue screen effects and stop motion animation and whatnot.

I'm a little surprised that they're actually showing it, though. I'm not really sure what would be the motivation to put it on Adult Swim, except for those who need a nostalgia fix. Oh well, I'm not gonna complain too loudly.

Now, if only someone would start airing old eps of The Muppet Show and Batman and Robin. <3 <3 <3

OMGBLUEBIRDBLUEBIRDBLUEBIRD!!!

I was taking my walk and saw a streak of blue flash in front of me. It piqued my curiosity, so I looked to see where it landed, and saw that it was a bluebird! It has been EONS since I saw a bluebird around here, and I'm so so happy to know they haven't all been driven out of this area. I love bluebirds. What made this even awesomer was that the bluebird I saw was perching on the hole of a birdhouse, and I heard peeps coming from inside. BLUEBIRD WITH FAMILY!! YAYAYAYAYBONUS!

This has totally made my day. <3 <3 <3 <3