In Honor of Heyzeus & KtothaC's Trip

This just came up on my Yahoo News from Reuters, about teenage sexual practices in England:

"LONDON (Reuters) - Even the few British teenagers who wear condoms do not use them effectively, a study published on Thursday said. The study said several of the teens admitted putting the condom on too late or taking it off too early.

The three most common reasons for condom use were to prevent pregnancy, avoid making a mess and prolonging sex -- avoiding sexually transmitted diseases was barely mentioned."

English people are hilarious.

Missouri's New State Motto

Container gardens rock

We rent our little house in the sticks, so I really wanted to grow some herbs and veggies this year but did not want to tear up the backyard that is not really ours to do it. So I got some cool tin containers from some antique stores and supplemented with some plastic pots and now mid-summer I have some pretty sweet plants growing on the back deck. I did not plant most of it according to the directions because I had never started plants from seed before (except maybe 2nd grade science class) and I had to battle some pesky aby squirrels early in the spring, but despite my renegade-ness and the rats-with-tails, the plants are doing well. The marigolds are blooming, we've had great fresh spearmint, cilantro, basil, and chives for salads, and we are going to have tomatoes and then hot peppers shortly.

The gigantic zucchini you see below came from our town's farmer's market (held weekly on Wednesdays and Saturdays) and cost a whopping $1 for the biggest zucchini I have ever seen. You could seriously use this thing as a baseball bat. I also got some locally made honey (not pictured) that tastes better than any honey I have ever tasted. My old roomie told me once that eating locally made honey can really help your allergies, since it's like an allergy shot of most of the flowering local things that make you sneeze, so we shall see.

My sister is famous

From the SUNY-Stony Brook web site, where my sister played Division 1 Softball (you have to click on the image to read the article):

My mom is not exactly thrilled that my sister will likely be in Israel for 2 weeks this winter and then at some point would have to apply for dual citizenship (fyi, if you're Jewish you are eligible for Israeli citizenship--the law is called "The Right of Return"). But my parents already promised that if they qualify for the 2008 Olympics then we are going to China which would be very awesome.

Songs that don't make sense

Everyone is familiar with the "classic" Alanis Morissette song "Ironic", which was very catchy (for awhile) but did not actually include irony--it was just a song about various stuff that sucks. [side note: do you remember in "Reality Bites" when Winona Ryder can't get a job at the Houston Chronicle because she can't define irony? And Ethan Hawke totally can even though he is the 'slacker'? I couldn't define it either until Ethan Hawke taught me]

Anyway, I have a new submission for songs that don't make sense: Beyonce's (featuring Jay-Z) song "Deja Vu." I double checked the dictionary definition of deja vu because it was bugging me so much: "the illusion of remembering scenes and events when experienced for the first time." The dumb song is about seeing an ex-boyfriend everywhere she goes because she's not over him. That's not deja vu, that's hallucination or delusion. But I guess it's not as catchy to sing "it's like i'm hallucinatin' over you."