I learned several things this past week.
:pencil: The people who work at Kinkos at 7am on Monday are a lot friendlier, more helpful, and less creepy than the people who work at Kinkos at 7pm on Thursday.
:pencil: Parents are more likely to sign a form if it looks like a letter from a teacher rather than a letter from a lawyer.
:pencil: I can donate blood from my left arm (99% of the time they use my right), but it’s probably best if an experienced phlebotomist sticks me on that arm rather than a newbie rooting around in my vein for a minute. Did not instill me with confidence. Ouch.
:pencil: You can get bubonic plague in Northeast Arizona currently.
:pencil: The state song of Maryland is sung to the tune of “O Christmas Tree” and is really quite weird. They tried to propose a “State Song for Children” in 2009 but it doesn’t look like it went through.
:pencil: Organizing our garage made a HUGE difference. I really only threw out one thing, the cover for the soft top on Brett’s convertible that he traded in in 2008 (probably should’ve included it with the trade in, oops). Yet we have a TON more space in the garage now. It’s all swept real pretty like too now. And it didn’t take that long.
:pencil: And just today I learned how to put a favicon (the little picture up in the address bar, for this site it looks like my black-eyed susan flower) in a subfolder. So now my book blog has its very own favicon (an apple!). And nobody would notice if I didn’t tell you, so I’m telling you.
What did you learn? :apple:
I am an educator and PhD. I quilt, belly dance, run, read, and try to grow things. I am a Mormon. I am infertile. I am a daughter, sister, aunt, grand-daughter, friend, wife, and mom.
Brett L. Dennis
Mama g
Giggles
AmandaStretch
The Bubonic Plagues is actually endemic to the western United States. It will never go away because it has an animal host–fleas. So you’re pretty safe if you don’t get wild fleas.
We had a Plague survivor from Spanish Fork come in and talk to us in my BYU microbiology class. He got the Plague from the fleas on a squirrel he shot. He was out with his buddies on a “hunting trip” (he was a teenager) and they didn’t shoot anything worthwhile, so when they shot a squirrel, the felt bad and figured they shouldn’t waste it, so they skinned it and tried to cook it. While he was skinning it, he got a little flea bite, and bam, he got The Plague. A few days later, he wasn’t feeling so good. His dad is is a doctor, and was alarmed by the strange and severe symptoms his son was having. His sister was in Microbiology at BYU at the time and when you’re in that class, you tend to think that you have everything you are studying (like when you get a sore throat, you suddenly freak out that you have somehow contracted diphtheria). But she recognized the symptoms and told her dad. He thought she was delusional, but looked it up in his big ol’ medical book. He checked the boy’s armpit and sure enough, there was a bubos (big purple spot), so he rushed him to the hospital.
The kid got his own room (solitary confinement!)
I know it’s around here. There was a missionary in our area when I was in high school who was upset he was serving in the United States. We’d just had an outbreak of bubonic plague and when we told him about it, it seemed to brighten his day. Made it seem a bit more exotic. He was weird.
They’ve just had some confirmed human cases of it up in Northeast Arizona. I’ve had fleas once before, I don’t need them again, especially if they’re going to make me sick.
And I’m guessing you learned about the Maryland song by watching the Preakness. Totally weird song. Nothing as endearing as “My Old Kentucky Home” that they sing before the Derby.
There are kangaroos that live in trees! http://www.arkinspace.com/2011/05/kangaroo-that-went-back-to-trees.html
Fascinating!
We also learned that it is unwise to make comments about how easy it would be to rob a place while you are at the actual place. The security monitor at our local pizza establishment is so washed out you can’t make out any identifying features. Something we noticed. And commented on. And made the guy in front of us very uncomfortable. Which made us laugh.
As long as you are talking about state songs on your blog…
1) Arizona has the gayest state song from the “flaming” sun and “sons of men” “blazing” all the way to Arizona being a “Goddess” and a “Queen.” We just can’t get the idea of a tranny named Arizona walking about in kinky boots and a huge Adam’s apple out of our heads.
2) Indiana has the most incestuous state song being that “I long to see my mother in the doorway, As she stood there years ago, her boy to greet.” and then the second verse it seems like “Mary” might be his wife but it could still be his mother which just makes that verse creepy. Hoosiers are an inbreed of their own.