did you think

a few things you thought i might not have noticed

1) that the amazing race 10 started? (TAR10). tres naughty of me not to have commented but my heart has been a little bit crushed this last week and weekend. but let's start simply by saying:

a) i am tired of "model" teams. wouldn't one suffice?

b) sarah, a contestant who has a prosthetic leg, told people ahead of her in the taxi queue that she needed to take their taxi because of a medical emergency. in fact, she just wanted to get to the pitstop faster. was this wrong? my friends and i are divided in this camp. some people say

NO - she has been handed a tough course in life, let her take advantage of her disability where she can. the race is tough enough for her.

YES -it was a lie.

i fall into the second camp. also, this girl is an ironman athlete. she has achieved incredible things despite of her physical disability. lying about it just cheapens her accomplishments somehow.

c) i predict the top four finishers will be:

team model/rehab

team chobros

team ironman (aforementioned sarah and greg)

and this team that reminds me of team kelly and ron

tonight is episode two and i am trembling to watch.

2) item two

yesterday i had just finished eating cold indian food and suddenly i threw my volunteer science experiment away. am i digressing back into grade eight you inquire? possibly. it was more like i came home from summer vacation and found that even though i had THOUGHT i had secured the top of the cannister i keep the flour in VERY TIGHTLY, some renegade weevil had weasled its way in there. looking at the patterns it made in the flour, wondering why the tunnels didn't collapse, watching the clear pupae (Where are the internal organs?) turn into sullen teens and then full fledged tunnel digging adults, waching the colony multiply, seeing the corpses of the adam and eve of the flour cannister and their offspring slowly pile up and the uncaring great grandkids stumble uncaringly over them fascinated me.

for the past two weeks i have kept the cannister right beside the water dispenser so the little critters can get maximum sunshine and so i can watch them frequently. when they were in the cupboard i wasn't getting enough viewing time. it was my own little truman show. but suddenly last night i thought of them bursting out of the cannister and that combined with the cold curry made me shrug my shoulders and pitch the whole thing. charles wanted me to make a souffle of the flour, but i didn't let him. i took a picture and will post it soon, it was the coolest thing. unfortunately, i was the only one that thought so. sebastian didn't care about them the way i thought he might have.

3) the other day we were walking on bowen road. i was having a sad day and then i saw something that didn't make me feel better but sure did a lot to make me smile, i saw a MASSIVE spider. really huge. i lifted up sebastian so he could get a better look at the arachnoid, and seb was totally impressed, if a little wary. i am usually not skittish about spiders, but even i, when raising my hand so we could get a good scale on the picture we took, was a little apprehensive. his web was so thick and stringy.

if we ask charles nicely he might post the pix soon.

4) am i the only person who doesn't think tom cruise is crazy for not prostituting his child to the media? let me amend that statement. i think jumping couch tom is a few sandwiches short of a picnic but not because of the hiding the child from the paparazzi. i would have probably done the same thing. knowing the trash media, who would want to read that their child was ugly, or, as they're doing now, resembles and ex-boyfriend? tom cruise def. gets my sympathy on this one.

whew, feel much better.

only six hours until tar10ep2.

ps - if any of you internet spies know which one of my kids drew on our monitor with a pen, please let me know. Oh, and Charles posted more video on his blog.

Comments

[Boulder]

1) Monitor - have you tried alcohol wipes on it? Sometimes pen comes off with alcohol.

2) Sorry your heart has been blue - can we do something to make it better?

3) Spider tale of my own. Went to grab cup (plastic multi-ounce like from a convenience store) to scoop food for our dogs early one morning in Tucson a few years back. Nearly died on the spot because the BIGGEST tarantula was hibernating behind cup on the ledge of a window. All I could think of at the time was where were the friends of world's largest spider in plain view, and thank goodness it was outside!

4) TAR10 - Am thinking I may need to start taking a sedative prior to race viewing. My heart rate goes up during the pre-show credits!

5) Your top 4 intrigues me - yet I have to ask, are you counting out the father/daughter duo? Youthful endurance seems like it would be important, yet, I wonder if they won't go to the top 4 despite not being 2 youthful contenders, but 2 generations.

6) I disklike the tactics that Peter & Sarah are using, but I guess I get that ultimately it is a game, and strategy plays a role in the match. This is their strategy. It rubs me the wrong way on almost every level, and they won't find support coming from me if it continues to be a theme. I, in fact, find myself shaking my head at how quickly they toss out their "best" move (her handicap), how it didn't really seem to benefit them (and even alienated them to other racers) and how weak their play was otherwise - in episode 1 alone.

xoxo

[Boulder]

(PS - TC thing - I liked what they wound up doing very much. I think Suri will be really pleased at how awesome her parents' choice was when she's older.)

[Auntie Pammie]

I think OLivia did it.....

[knobody]

i love the science project. maybe i should do something like that for sagan. but then he would probably appreciate it as much as seb. if it's not on the computer, he really could care less.

yeah, tom cruise has completely lost it. he's gone over the edge. but i agree, it has nothing to do with wanting your baby to be kept out of the limelight. i suppose the media would be happier if he held his baby up for all to see from a hotel balcony?

[Tammy]

Can I admit that I am already totally addicted to Charles' YouTube videos? I've only watched Sebbie jump like a gazillion times today. So in awe of his carefree spirit. LOVE that kid.

Oh....as for the monitor...I think it was the butler....

[Auntie Pammie]

OK that spider is way too big, even my skin was crawling from looking at it.. Yech.

[knobody]

ya know, you had me sold on going to hk until you showed me that spider picture.

spiders. it had to be spiders.

[Louise M]

Ok, that's a Harry Potter 2 size spider... A complete yuck from me. Applaude TC for not caving to the media on Suri's photos. Haven't gotten hooked on TAR this year. Love the youtube videos...

[joeinvegas]

Weevil eggs come in the flour. They eat the grain and get ground up with it, leaving tiny tiny eggs behind. Eventually these eggs hatch and voila! You have what you have.
Yes, you are eating weevils and bugs in flour and other foods - the US Health Department publishes how much stuff is allowed in food, how many ounces of rat droppings per ton, how many bugs, etc. (eeewwww)