Super Glue Can Keep Dirt Out from Under Fingernails

Super glue really can do this and having a coating of it on your fingertips makes keyboarding feel a little funky too. How do I know this you may wonder? Well I was rehanging four pretty cool jade and coral shadowbox art pieces from Marbo’s, a defunct Chinese restaurant that used to be on Fourth Street in St. Pete when I discovered the head and beak of one peacock was disconnected and in need of repair. Hence I proceeded to open the super glue and fortunately I got my fingers apart before they became permanently fused together. The peacock has regained his head too. I had no idea super glue came out so fast…from the tube that is, and I have a feeling I am going to have it on my fingers for quite a while.

Trip’s to St. Pete-Another Pleasant Surprise

Trip’s Diner had a big breakfast crowd on Saturday after my grand’s fun first T-Ball game and it is just one of the many things I find so pleasantly appealing about St. Pete. Happy places pop up all over and Trip’s Diner, located on 9^th Street near 22^nd Ave. N. (used to be Dave’s Diner) is one of them. A couple of things I should mention right off, they serve big strips of thick bacon cooked to perfection (for me that’s done well), and you can eat outside with the kids and/or your pet pooch. My husband’s father would have loved to have been able to bring his four legged friend, Lowdown, out for breakfast. There is extra parking across the side street at a closed garage and they needed it. The service was pleasant and fast. The prices and portions were reasonable. The wait staff use tablets of the electronic variety to take, send, and keep up with the orders and I liked that. I am also partial to the triangle shaped French toast especially with a dusting of powdered sugar and syrup. My over easy egg was perfectly fried and presented and the home fries were real potatoes sliced with the skins still on and onions cooked right in there with them. Okay I will admit to being a bit overly food focused but since I have been waiting to get the gas tank filled at the house this visit (and consequently making due with sandwiches and cereal) good hot food seemed even more appealing. They are open Monday through Friday 6 am to 9 pm and on Saturday 7 am to 9 pm and Sunday 7 am to 3 pm. 

Oh yeah, I’ll be going back. 

Friday and Saturday Night Lights - Football

So I was reading about how some Ole Miss (University of Mississippi) football players, about 20 of them, interrupted “The Laramie Project” a play about a town in Wyoming and its reaction to the murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard, who was tortured, pistol-whipped, tied to a fence and left to die 15 years ago with heckling, laughing, and homophobic slurs. Matthew’s mother had some words about how just when you hope there change for the good bullies, and that is what these football players are, spoil things. Theirs is the kind hatred and group mentality mix that leads to violence and requires a strong response from all of us, and especially the team’s leadership to end it. Where is that other coach that I read about, Matt Labrum when we need him (or more like him) to a stand for tolerance? This Utah coach found information indicating that multiple football players were using social media site ask.fm to bully another student. Unable to find out which specific players were involved led to him suspending all 80 and requiring them each to earn back their jerseys by completing a community service project. Their suspension lasted only a day but made a positive impact. Matt Labrum proved that there is more than just football at stake in a situation like this. Character counts and the players at the University of Mississippi could use some. Shame on them and the coaches if they leave this matter unanswered. Ole Miss, are you listening?  

Putting in Putin for a Nobel Peace Prize

Once again SKYPE comes to the rescue with a bloggable moment. Here’s a snippet of my conversation with my husband from the other evening about a group that wants to see Vladimir Putin nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

[9:02 PM] A Mount: I read in the Moscow Times that his supporters have put him in for the Nobel Peace prize for his actions in Syria.

[9:02 PM] Jo Mount: Now that might be a bloggable topic.

[9:04 PM] A Mount: Yep. It also said it was time to stop U.S. and European aggression. Every time something happens, the U.S. and Europe always answer with military action instead of seeking a peaceful process and that those powers don't recognize the right of independent states to decide their own destiny without interference from those who have some kind of political or economic interest.

[9:05 PM] Jo Mount: Good point…..unless their destiny includes annihilation of fellow humans, children included with chemical weapons or worse.

[9:05 PM] A Mount: Truly a propaganda article but one that I'm sure could easily alter the perception of people who don't think or believe everything that they read.

Ok, enough on Putin, Syria, and the Nobel Peace Prize. Here is where things really get interesting…

[9:06 PM] Jo Mount: Do you think people believe everything they read in my blog??

[9:07 PM] A Mount: I think your blog is thought provoking. That's what makes it so interesting.

[9:08 PM] Jo Mount: I was thinking about IF you had said YES I would cut and paste that into tomorrow’s blog! I haven't had any of our SKYPE conversations in there in a while.

[9:08 PM] A Mount: Ahhh. I think your blog provides enough cranial impetus to make someone consider the potential of its veracity.

[9:09 PM] Jo Mount: That’s as close to a yes as I’m getting??

I’m thinking this is as close as I’m getting to my husband agreeing that I’m always right also, even in a roundabout way. He always goes for the big vocabulary when he thinks he might be quoted. This strategy gives him a rebuttable position if necessary. He definitely doesn't believe everything he reads in my blog or anywhere else. Neither should the Nobel Peace Prize election committee!  

What is it about bad things coming in threes?

If bad things do come in threes Jacksonville, FL needs to watch out. They have already had the first two things. First the Matthews Bridge was taken out of commission due to a collision with a ship taking out a major structural support causing major long term roadway traffic complications and delays. Second the Jacksonville International Airport had to be evacuated due to what ended up being a false alarm suspicious package, a purported bomb, and all air traffic ground to a halt. I have no idea what the third thing might be but I think the folks in Jacksonville have had enough so I hope instead of the third thing being charmed, it bypasses them all together. I am very happy the bridge is fixable and no one was harmed in the collision. From what the engineers said the city was very lucky because the Matthews could have gone the way of London Bridge and gone tumbling down. The airport evacuation was a major headache for travelers but at best we now have a better handle on the logistics of completing an evacuation in the future. It may have been an unhappy ‘drill’ but I was really glad that the ‘device’ wasn't a viable bomb even if the parts were there. Jacksonville got lucky and dodged a bullet with both of these transportation calamities because in both cases things could have been a lot worse.

As I write this blog post I am in St. Petersburg, FL listening to the radio keeping an ear out for how the Rays are doing in their quest for a wild card spot. So far they are up by three (there’s that number again) in the sixth inning.

Maybe the Jacksonville Jaguars will turn their losing streak around. It’s time because the way things are going for them, well, it can’t get much worse!

It’s Dog and Buds, Dude

This is not a post about dogs and their best friends (us), well not exactly. It’s more about how the legalization of medical marijuana in the Pacific Northwest has an added side effect, a problem vets are seeing more of these days, dogs on drugs. Apparently dogs are ingesting discarded joints, blunts, or buds during their walks in local parks and ending up lethargic, shaky, and disoriented and sometimes close to death. The result is often an expensive emergency visit to the veterinarian. An emergency vet tech at an Eagle Rock, California clinic claims to have been treating two or three stoner dogs a night as a result of these sorts of incidents. Cat owners get a pass here because cats appear to be more discerning and consequently less often poisoned by ingesting marijuana. It would seem that pet owners and other humans are the ones that should really be more discerning… about where they stash their stash (or trash). That or teach the pooches to just say no.  

Ear Wax

Maybe it seems like our Congressmen have an ear wax overload. They sure don’t seem to be listening to anyone, the people they were elected to represent or each other. But the ear wax I’m waxing on about comes from whales. The plugs of wax found in the ears of whales formed in layers tell the story of the whale’s life like the rings inside the trunks of trees. Ear wax plugs found in blue whales’ ears can weigh up to 250 grams and be 25 centimeters long. During the six-month feeding season, wax is light-colored, filled with fat from the whale’s rich diet. As it fasts during migration, a darker layer forms. Studying these layers help researchers determine how old whales were during necropsies.

One ear wax plug from a whale studied also helped researchers with recording ocean contaminants because traces of these contaminants, like DDT, flame retardants, and mercury were all there embedded in the layers. The plug studied by Sascha Usenko and Stephen Trumble of Baylor University, Waco, Texas, came from a 12-year-old male blue whale killed in a 2007 boating accident off the coast of California. The ear wax also contained a record of fluctuations in stress hormones throughout the animal's life. And that, in combination with the chemical pollution data, may in the future provide better insight into the potential impacts of these chemicals on whales. Usenko and his team identified the whale as a male aged about 12 years. During his brief life he came into contact with 16 persistent organic pollutants, including pesticides and flame retardants. Exposure to the most persistent chemicals was greatest in the first year, and accounted for one-fifth of his total lifetime contact, suggesting a transfer of contaminants from his mother in the womb and during nursing.

Maternal transfer of pollutants is known to happen in other mammals, such as seals and humans. Once these compounds enter the food chain, they are passed on and accumulate. Some of these chemicals are no longer in use, such as flame retardants that were outlawed in 2005, but they can stick around for 50 or 60 years. Other toxins uncovered from the earwax were probably picked up along the way. Mercury, which can cause brain damage, spiked twice in the sample, at around five and ten years.

I wonder if mercury might be found in the ear wax of some of our politicians in Washington. Brain damage might be a better excuse than plain stubborn mule headedness.