Be The Rainbow!

My mood improved 80% when I put on these rainbow pants!

Hiya, Friends!

Well, ya know, there's this candy that has a tagline that says "Taste the Rainbow!"  It's a good candy.  I like it.  But that's not what I'm gonna talk about today.

Nope!

I'm here to talk about what to do when you're feelin' kinda drab and gray and rainy.  When ya need a rainbow, and there isn't one around, sometimes, you've gotta BE the rainbow!

Sometimes, this is easier said than done, and I get it, Big People.  I appreciate that.  So in those times, you've gotta be extra-kind to yourself.  Maybe treat yourself to a little something nice, or tasty, or maybe you gotta wear something that just makes ya smile.

That's where my rainbow pants I'm wearing in today's picture come in!  Friends, I've found that I just cannot be sad when my eyes are dancin', and these rainbow pants definitely make my eyes dance.  After a while of my eyes dancin', my feet start to dancin'. 

And here's the kicker.  When ya see a pair of legs all decked out in rainbow stripes, and they're DANCIN', and your eyes are dancin' and you see these crazy legs dancin'... well, long story short, you're pretty much gonna hafta wanna laugh, and I highly recommend goin' for it!

You'll start to feel better already.  I know I did!

Hey.  I love ya lots, Big People!  I really do!  I'm gonna letchya get on with your Saturday, and I'll come ketchup with ya tomorrow, mmmkay?  Muah!

It's Friday the Thirteenth!

You know what is definitely bad luck?  Ridin' your bike off the couch!

Hiya, Big People!  Happy Friday the Thirteenth to you!

Well, ya know, some people believe that Friday the Thirteenth is Bad Luck.  I just cannot subscribe to that.

Wanna know why?  It's because everything else people say is bad luck has turned out to not be bad luck. 

Black cats?  Well, my pal Buddy Cat is a black cat, and he has some of the best luck of anyone I know, and also, he shares his good luck!

Standin' underneath a ladder?  Please!  It isn't something smart to do, probably, especially if someone is paintin' up on toppa the ladder.  But it isn't bad luck.

Breakin' a mirror?  I'd say that happens because of bad luck, but that the breakin' of the mirror does not cause bad luck.  It's just an unfortunate thing that happens.

I can tell ya something that I experienced myself that IS truly, truly bad luck, but it was of my own doing.  That is ridin' a bike off the couch.  You do that, and you're gonna run yourself into some back luck.

So there ya go, Friends!  Just don't do stupid stuff, and Friday the Thirteenth won't bug ya!

I love ya lots, and I'll see ya tomorrow, mmmkay?  Muah!

Keep Your Head Warm!

Your head is the chimney to your body!  Keep that heat in with a HAT!

Hiya, Friends!  Happy Thursday to you!

Given that this is the warmest day we've had in a little while, you might find my subject matter a little odd, but bear with me, please!

You see, while it's warm and rainy today, tomorrow, we're s'posedta be right back into the icy cold wintry temperatures Winter is famous for, so I wanna hafta talk to ya today about a great way you can stay warmer this winter.

Put a lid on it!  Cap it off!  Wear a hat!

Did you even know that your head is the chimney for your body?  Well, maybe that isn't exactly true.  But think of your head like this.  You know how, in the winter, ya close up all the windows in your house, and make sure ya close up the doors when you leave or come into your house?  Ya might even put up draperies over windows and close up rooms ya don't use?  You know you you do all those things, Friends? 

Of course ya do!  Well, it's because it doesn't take much exposure to cold air to turn the warm air in your house to cold air, ya know?

So even though ya might not necessarily lose more heat through your head in the winter than ya do through other parts of your body, thing of it is, if you're all nice and covered up in boots, pants, mittens, coat, and scarf, and yet your head is uncovered, that's kinda like leavin' your bedroom window gaping open!  Your head's exposed to that cold air, and you bet it's gonna wick away your body heat out your head, whether you want it to or not!

So that's why I'm tellin' you to put a hat on!  It'll keep ya warmer.  It'll keep your hair from blowin' all over the place.  A hat is like a nicey warm hug for your head! 

Friends, even though it's warm and rainy today, tomorrow it will not be, so get crackalackin' on findin' a head-covering you like and will wear!  Zoe loves ya healthy!

I love ya lots, Friends!  I'll see ya tomorrow, when we're back to Winter!  Muah!

Dang Ol' Triple-Ones!

I think that Eleventy-One is one of my fravrite numbers!

Hiya, Big People!  Happy Wednesday to you!

Well, ya know, today is January Eleventh, or 01-11 if ya write your date in numbers insteadda words!

I like dates with catchy numbers such as today... the day of the dang ol' Triple-Ones! 

I think that if a person was to start up a ranch, they could call it the Triple-One Ranch and brand all their carrots they'd ranch with three vertical lines.  That way, if any of the carrots wandered away, they'd be easily identifiable from amongst all the other ranches' carrots, such as the Lazy River Ranch or the Sidewinder Ranch. 

Another way to say One-Eleven is by callin' it Eleventy-One, like the hobbits do.  This is my favorite way to talk about One-Eleven.  I think those hobbits have a pretty great outlook and philosophy for life, over-all, but that's a talk for another day.

Finally, what I find fascinating about the number 111 is that even though it looks as though the only way to multiply whole numbers and arrive at 111 is to use all ones (111x1), you actually can get to 111 by takin' three groups of 37 and makin' 'em all into one big group.  Isn't that fascinating?  Take a buncha bendy numbers like 3s and 7s, and ya come up with an elegant number like 111.

This is a marvelous day to be alive and a marvelous day to contemplate the wonders and mysterious mysteries of mathematics, Friends!  I love ya lots, and I'll ketchup with ya tomorrow, mmmkay?  Muah!

If Ya Don't Have a Brown Swiss Cow...

When you're talkin' about chocolate in milk, more is better!

Hiya, Big People!  Happy Tuesday to ya!

Well, ya know, since I've been rantin' about beverages and the cups they come in, today I wanna talk to ya about how to make the best chocolate milk.

This, of course, is assuming that you don't have access to a herd of Brown Swiss Cows, which everybody knows is the gold-standard source of chocolate milk.  Brown Swiss Cows just naturally produce the BEST chocolate milk, without any human intervention.  It's just the right amount of creamy, with the proper amount of chocolate whipped in.  And, as everyone also knows about Brown Swiss Cows, you can separate the heaviest cream offa the toppa the milk, churn it, and have yourself a block of cocoa-butter.

Anyways, not everybody has access to a herd of Brown Swiss Cows.  You might only have access to cows that give plain ol' white milk, and that's okay, because it's easy to make chocolate milk at home, with plain ol' white milk and some chocolate syrup.  The only time you should use powdered chocolate to make chocolate milk is if you're campin' or something, or are otherwise hard-up for chocolate syrup.  Because the worst thing ever is chuggin' along on your chocolate milk and comin' across a powdery pocket of NesQuik that didn't get mixed in good enough!

So whatchya do is pour some two-percent or full-octane milk, how ever much ya want, and then squirt in a whole big globba chocolate syrup.  More is better.  Use a blender or a shaker-bottle and blend it until there's a whole buncha little bubbles on top.  Then you can drink it out of the shaker-bottle or put it in a glass.

Here's where I wanna address a chocolate milk memory I treasure.  When I went to the dang ol' Red Lobster recently, I ordered chocolate milk, and I'm sure they followed the above-referenced instructions for makin' the chocolate milk.  But then they went a coupla miles farther on the Milky Way and lined my glass with chocolate syrup swizzles before they poured in my perfectly-blended chocolate milk!

I was in Milk Chocolate Heaven, Friends!

When you're talkin' about chocolate in chocolate milk, more is always better!  Write it down!  Live it!

I'll see ya tomorrow, Friends!  I sure love ya lots!  Muah!

No Lint in My Juice!

Orange juice that's smooth and juicy is my favorite!

And while we're on the topic of beverages, Big People, lemme wanna hafta use this Monday to talk to you about the controversial topic of lint in orange juice!

You know what lint is!  It's that stuff that floats around in your orange juice.  It's just the worst stuff.  It's like pieces of orange-flavored rice floating around in your beverage.  And no amount of filtering it through your teeth is gonna help it, because it doesn't change the fact that there's LINT IN THE ORANGE JUICE!!!

Needless to say, I hate lint in my orange juice. 

Thing of it is, when I order orange juice in restaurants, it's a tossup, whether or not there'll be lint in the orange juice they trot out.  Sometimes, it's nice and smooth and juicy, which is the way I like it!  And other times, the juice is thick with lint!  BLAHHH! 

Sometimes, this variation occurs from visit to visit at the same restaurant!

Friends, there's no place for lint in orange juice!  It's my belief that all lint should be strained out before it's served!  And the proof is that if they bring ya the orange juice in a sippy cup with those little tiny holes in the top for drinking through, the lint will plug up those little tiny sippin' holes in the sippy cup.  And then there's no drinkin' the juice!

Stand with me, Friends, and just say NO WAY to lint in your orange juice!

I Am Not A Sippy Cup Kinda Gal

Gettin' a sippy cup in the restaurant made me feel like less of a grownup.

Hiya, Big People!  Happy Sunday, Sunday, Sunday to you!

Well, ya know, I pride myself on my grown-upness, and it makes me feel like a Big Cheese when grownups notice how grown-up I am.

On a recent trip to a dining establishment with my Big People, I was given chocolate milk... in a sippy cup.  A sippy cup with a lion on the side and a sippy lid and everything.

Now, there was a day when gettin' a sippy cup woulda been a huge compliment to me, but as it turns out this time, it was not a huge compliment.

You see, it made me feel like less of a grownup, receiving that sippy cup.  I thought maybe if they'd brought me one with an elephant on the side, I woulda been okay, but if I'm bein' honest with myself and you, it's not the picture on the side of the sippy cup.  It's the sippy cup itself.  Just the whole thing.  It's hard to take someone seriously when they're drinkin' out of a sippy lid.

I guess what really hurt me most is that I ordered my chocolate milk myself, and looked the waitress right in the eye when I did, and I said please and thank-you.  Does a Little Kid who drinks from a sippy cup do that?!

Okay, maybe I did do just that, when I was in the sippy cup stage.  But I'll tell ya what.  When I got to the Texas Hot in Downtown Wellsville, they've brought me a real big person glass of chocolate milk for a while now.  With a straw and glass glass.  They know how to make a Little Kid feel like a grown-up Big Cheese there!

Oh well, Friends.  What choice do I have but to rise above this sippy cup slight?  I think therein lies the proof that I have left the Sippy Cup Set far, far behind me in my rearview mirror.

I love ya lots, Friends, and I'll see ya tomorrow. You're the best.  Muah!