La la la LAA!!

Listen to this song by Owl City in the sidebar located left if you haven't heard it on the radio already. I'm sharing because I can, and because it's a fun song! Check around for more periodically. Update: Unfortunately the music service I was using to play the song (lala.com) is disconinuted. Sorryz!

Calling Shotgun

    Calling "Shotgun" is not unusual today, nor is texting "lol," neither of which I have ever felt the need to participate in adding to my vocabulary. But that's just me.

    I don't remember when I first heard someone "calling shotgun" but eventually I deduced it meant sitting in the front of the car (though at first I thought it applied solely to sitting in the front middle seat, which is not present in all cars), which puzzled me. Why "call shotgun" when you could simply say, "I wanna sit in the front?" Which I guess has more syllables but who ever came up with this phrase? And why have I never felt the need to participate in saying it?

    The answer to the latter question I believe is because my parents were never caught up in the phrase and neither were any of my friends growing up. So the phrase was foreign to me until early high school therefore not entering my vocabulary early enough to stick.

    As for where it came from, there is actually an answer to that that I would like to share with you. The simple answer is located at WikiAnswers.com which says, "Riding shotgun refers to stagecoaches. One person handled the reins, the other handled the shotgun."

    Wikipedia offers a more detailed explanation stating that the earliest reference in print was in 1905 in the book "The Sunset Trail" by Alfred Henry Lewis. (I would not suggest reading the Wikipedia entry as it is weird). It also states: "The expression was used to refer to riding as an armed guard in the front of a stagecoach, next to the driver (this would usually have been on the left, as stage drivers traditionally sat on the right, near the brake). An earlier term for the same duty was "shotgun messenger." The use of the phrase in print to refer to automobiles occurred in 1954 simultaneously with the TV series Gunsmoke, which became extremely popular, and used the terminology of riding shotgun nearly weekly."

    So there you have it. Next time you're driving and some one calls shotgun think carefully about accepting that person as your bodyguard and/or cohort in crime for they are responsible for your safety!




Coming soon....

Lazy susan... who was she? Was she really lazy enough to have a spinning disk named after her? Tune in next week for the answer to this preeminent question and and more!

Comics

Our Sunday comics are slowly going down hill. The only time there was an improvement was when they stopped running "Ziggy." Bleah.

As far as good strips there's "Foxtrot" and "Pearls Before Swine." And most of the rest are tolerable. And then there are the intolerable too but I read them anyways because they are there and they are comics.

But Ali and I have found a solution to most of our problems! Comics.com where we get a whole pile of any comics we want daily for free!

And I wanted to share 3 strips from "Liberty Meadows" that show the true nature of dachshunds. Just of like Rolf, our local dachshund. And so you can see what I live with... cute, but

brainless.

If it's too small to read just right-click and open it in a new tab to see it bigger. Sorry, but it's just the page formating.

Enjoy!

Not that Rolf ever plays fetch but if he did:

Help!

We started getting the basement ready tonight for painting. I'm moving down there a.s.a.p. on account of Ali and Adam getting married and taking over the upstairs. Colors are dark blue on the bottom half, a nice copper penny color orange-ish stripe in the middle, and a lighter blue on top.

Here is my dilemma and I need help, quick! Before we start painting! There are two... anomalies in the room. One is a hot pipe that runs from ceiling to heater and is wrapped in foam, as you can see below:

Any ideas on how to make this look nicer? It might be hidden behind my desk a little but any ideas would be greatly appreciated!! Same with the big white box below sticking out of the wall here:

I think I will continue the paint around this box, painting the top half blue bottom dark blue and stripe in middle.

One last question, should I paint the large white strip up top also? Or leave it?

Please leave your comments and opinions! I'm counting on you, thanks!!

Ciao!

Welcome! Thanks for visiting!

I just got back from Italy and boy was it different! The three main areas we visited were Rome, Florence, and Sorrento; in order from largest to smallest as far as cities go. Rome and Florence were surprisingly covered from head to toe in graffiti. We didn't really take pictures of it but I did like this specific one so I took a picture of it.

But Sorrento, which was probably my favorite was BEAUTIFUL. It's located in southern Italy on the coast. It's a little ways down from Pompeii, about half and hour by tram. At the edge of the city are beautiful cliffs and we could see Mount Vesuvius looming in the distance. There were lots of street vendors selling all kinds of things, sometimes guys would approach us on the street trying to sell umbrellas when it was raining out, which was pretty much the whole trip. We went to museums and saw famous paintings and statues like "David" which was really amazing. It's 20 ft. tall!

We went to a Sunday meeting though it took forever to get there and we missed most of the talk but the people there were all so different and from so many different cultures. We walked everywhere and by the end of each night we were beat! But I got to try all sorts of different drinks which was really fun. Champagne, wine, mixers etc. The best wine I had was actually flying from Naples to Paris on an AirFrance plane. They gave us kuskus and scallops (can't believe I actually loved it!) a small bottle of white wine, a beget and cheese. It was to die for. I was so happy!

I bought a lot of different things, a watch, bracelet, wallet, shirt, boots (with heels!!) and lots of chocolate. Gelatos were AMAZING. Had pear, yogurt and Nutella, strawberry, and some other ones I forget.

Here's a picture of some brothers who were standing outside the train station at 7 a.m. handing out the Watchtower and Awake in all different languages.

I really enjoyed saying the little Italian phrases I learned. I didn't know "Ciao" means hello and goodbye. It was so similar to Spanish too that it was easier to understand than other foreign languages, like Norwegian. It sounded like a cross between Spanish and French.

Famous places we visited:

Trevi Fountain

Colosseum

Museo Nazionale Romano

Mouth of Truth (from "Roman Holiday")

Ancient City of Pompeii

Statue of David

And we had a 19hr layover in Paris too so Dad and I climbed the Eiffel tower. It was only 4 euro to use the stairs! (about 7$) It was 2 to 3 times more for the elevator. It was freezing cold that night in Paris and we walked about 5 miles seeing famous sites. I think all our faces had wind burn the next day. We started at Notre Dame and walked the whole way down to the Eiffel Tower. We passed the Conciergerie, Palais de Justice, Louvre (where the Mona Lisa is at), Invalides, the Grand Palais and finally the Eiffel Tower. We never made it to the Arc de Triomphe. It got way too late. All the buildings were beautiful and the courtyard of the Louvre was stunning. Everything looked beautiful at night time and the Hotel de Ville had bright flashing lights all over it. So did the Eiffel at the top of the hour.

I'll post a link to view more photos later, but for now, ciao everyone!