Look At Your Man, Now Back to Me....

Oh my goodness, I had to be sure you are not missing out on this funny commercial that seems to be the latest sensation.  When I was a teen one of the careers I was interested in was advertising so I always appreciate clever ads. Yes, they did have TV in those days.

Although we first saw this while watching American Idol this week, I understand that it was first shown during the Superbowl. That "look at your man, now back to me, now back to your man, now back to me!" is genius funny and I mentally congratulated the writers.  And come on, I did what he told me to do (looked pointedly at my man) and Leonard laughed--although maybe he was crying inside.  *LOOOOOL*

While on Twitter yesterday,I saw someone tweet about it and I thought, "Gee, so we're not the only ones to appreciate that commercial!" Well I found people talking about it all over the internet and there was even an LA Times online interview of Isaiah Mustafa, the actor in the commercial. The Tech Guy, Leo Laporte, who has a syndicated radio and internet show, interviewed the creative team, Craig Allen and Eric Kallman,about how the commercial was filmed. In this day and age of digital graphics, I think you'll be surprised.

Today Ellen showed the commercial in her "Funny Commercial" segment and after screening it, said she'd like to have Isaiah on her show. [At the end of her show she announced that they called him and he'll be on the show next week---cool!]

And as Ellen says:  "You're welcome!"

Excuses, Excuses!

Well so much for my resolution about posting more frequently on my blog.  Want to hear my excuses?  One reason is that even after telling people I'm not a Facebook addict, I got stuck playing "Jungle Jewels" for a few nights because I'm simply not able to make it beyond the third level....grrrrr.  Although I'm not into Farmville or Cafe World or any of those kind of games that are "virtual work" (planting, harvesting, cooking--are you kidding me?!), I do love jewels and chocolate, so I will play with virtual gems (Luxor, Bejeweled, Jungle Jewels) and accept virtual chocolate gifts.  Virtual jewels are free and virtual chocolate don't go to real hips...uhhh, be right back, I have to eat, I mean get something.

My second excuse is that my back got wrenched again somehow.  I'm not sure what did it: either bending down to unload our frontload washer or trying out my new BodyBlade [more on this later].  I must say, though, that I've become a veteran backache survivor.  The first time I hurt my back three years ago by overstretching, I spent the good part of the day on the floor---not by choice, but because I couldn't get up!  It cracks me up thinking of it because it taught me how peculiar the spine is.  For instance, I was on the floor unable to get up when the phone rang.  Luckily it was close enough for me to reach.  I lay on my back explaining my predicament to my then-78 year old mother (who is in better shape than I).  As I talked to her, I was suddenly able to stand up and walk around as though nothing happened!  Wow, a miracle wrought by my mommy!  "Wow, Mom, guess what!  I'm fine now! Amazing!  Yes, I'm fine, walking around the house!  Ok bye!"  Hung up the phone, sat down and yieeeeeeeeeeeee had another spasm and ended up on the floor again for another hour.

I recovered from that back injury in about 6 weeks and have twice since had similar problems, but now I've learned what to do (take anti-inflammatories and don't sit on a hard chair for too long) and what not to do (panic and fall to the floor).  I learned that even if you're only going to buy one item in a store, a shopping cart is your friend.  On the other hand, a "low-riding" car like our Toyota is not your friend since you need a half hour to extricate yourself from sitting at practically ground level and stand up, then straighten up because you're bent over like a 98-year-old lady!  I'm thinking a  monster truck would be ideal because you just have to open the door and fall straight down...making sure not to fall on your butt because that's another half hour again.

Now about the BodyBlade:  I have never been so excited to receive a piece of exercise equipment before! I ordered it from ShopNBC, who has the best price on it from what I found online. I was annoyed, of course, that Hawaii residents have to pay double the shipping, but my feathers were unruffled when the BodyBlade arrived by U.S. Mail in just two days! [I still don't get why businesses use UPS when USPS Priority Shipping costs less and arrives in two days.]

The BodyBlade is an amazing invention because it's deceptively simple in appearance and is simple to do. Perfect for people like me: lazy homebodies with no dedicated exercise space.  I read through dozens of customer reviews all over the internet and 99% of the reviews were 5 stars. Of course those who may have given it less glowing reviews are probably the lazy people who gave up after two days of trying and at least have the decency of being too lazy to write a bad review.  Or more likely don't want to admit they gave up after two days.

Look at Jordan here "working out". That's not a ski, that's the BodyBlade and all you do, basically, is shake it! I'm hoping to build core strength and balance and maybe even get to see my abs-- as opposed to flabs--again. I'll let you know in a few weeks if it did me any good...or if you'll see it at my next garage sale.

Speaking of skis, the last excuse for neglecting my blog is the Winter Olympics.  For a person whose only snow experience was driving through a late spring snowfall in the Alps and getting out of the tour bus for a quick romp in patches of snow, I sure love watching people flipping about on ice and snow.  The opening ceremony, incidentally, was amazing and despite having a budget of one-tenth that of Beijing's, I actually thought it was just as remarkable.  Interesting that while Beijing's was more  people-powered, Vancouver's was able to deliver with technology...and k.d. lang, of course, who is one of my favorite singers.  If you missed her performance, click on her name to see what many called the highlight of the ceremony.

As a proponent of global peace, I think it's getting to be more and more unrealistic to call the Olympics a competition between countries.  If a Russian is training in the U.S. with a Japanese coach, how can this be representing Russia?  This type of international teamwork is producing champions and I find that uplifting, but at the same time, I think if someone is representing a country, shouldn't they be using their own country's resources?  Maybe it's time we quit tallying medals by country because at this point it's getting irrelevant.  And that's a good thing!

Lucky We Live Kauai!

My cousin Al read my "Soap on the Ground" post and commented that apparently nothing much is happening on Kauai.  He added that possibly the homeless soap bandit, after using our hose to shower, stole our newspaper and made a clean getaway.  [Well if so, the guy hopefully read the newspaper want ads and found a job and a place to live, far far away from us.] 

Getting back to "not much happening on Kauai":  Funny enough, I opened today's Garden Island newspaper and on the front page there were five stories.  Out of the five, one was about McGruff the Crime Dog---tracking down soap thieves, no doubt---and another was about a chicken roosting in some band's tip bowl at the beach. 

Now you non-Kauaians may be snickering out there, but I say "Wow!  Lucky we live Kauai!"  As they say, "No news is good news!"  

Because of my very mellow life here, I'm able to bring to my three readers bits of info you may have missed as you live your fast-paced lives.

Check out these 3D photos taken in the early 1900's in Japan. To see more of them in 3D, click here.  Pretty darn cool!  Remember the Viewmasters we used to look at as kids?  Well these photos were done with the same "stereoview" method.

Next, FYI, KITV news is having a segment tonight on Facebook Games.  I'm mentioning this because possibly you haven't seen the promo since you've been busy playing Facebook Games instead of doing the more important thing: watching TV.   I have a Facebook account, but I mostly just use it to tell my friends that I've posted to my blog.  My farm has gone to weeds, sadly. 

And now, potatoes!  Check out this video about an easier way to peel potatoes.  Try it!  It seems to work, but I had a few duds for some reason.  This should help when you try the potato salad recipe I posted earlier. 

Lastly, some health alerts from Dr. Oz, Dr. Mercola, et al (not my cousin):

1)  It's a myth that you can catch up on sleep.  Sleep lost during the week is just that, lost and gone forever, and it's not good for your health.  Dr. Oz recommends 7 1/2 hours a night.  Our ayurvedic doctor was more specific:  Be sure you're asleep during the hours from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. because this is when your body is best able to heal itself.  Also, from Dr. Mercola:  Make sure the room is DARK.

2)  A study has linked drinking 2 or more soft drinks a week to pancreatic cancer.  Uh oh!!!  Looks like we have to go back to hard drinks then!

Remember, everyone, if you have a health issue that you're struggling with, try consulting a naturopathic doctor.  In my experience, although naturopathic services aren't covered by our insurance, it usually just takes one visit.  [We still see our medical docs, too.]  I think if more of us went this route we wouldn't be having the healthcare crisis we're experiencing now. 

Signs of the Times--Is This YOU?

I got this in my email box today and it gave me a laugh.  [Thanks Farmer Karen!]  I revised it a teeny bit:

SIGNS OF THE TIMES--Yikes!!

1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.  Ok, I'm not that bad!

2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.  I think I sold them at the garage sale. 

3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of three.  Aw, come on!

4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.  If I worked in an office I would!

5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses.  Well who wants to keep in touch with such Neanderthals anyway?!  (Aunty Gladys won't see this will she?)

6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries.   Hmmm, great idea!!

7. Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen.  Well of course!

8. You either answer your remote control or try to change TV channels with your cordless phone.  I wrote this one in cuz I did this!

10. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.  Oh yeh, because if I don't that's the day I'll get a flat tire or engine trouble!

11. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your coffee.  Only if the stock market is down significantly.

12. You have online friends from 8000 miles across the globe, but you don't know the people across the street.   Oui, oui, c'est moi!

13. You start tilting your head sideways to smile... : )   Now this is just silly!

14. You're reading this and nodding and laughing.  True that.

15. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.  Of course not, I'm posting it on my blog instead!

16. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.  Really?

17. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 on this list.  Did NOT!!

Wow, life has certainly changed in the past 20 years and we're headed somewhere---not sure where---at breakneck speed!  Keep those seatbelts fastened. 

Be prepared!  Not like this guy:

Gratuitous funny kitten pic!

 

 

Soap on the Ground!

This morning my husband went to get the Garden Island newspaper from our driveway as usual.  He came back into the house saying, "Are you up to date with our Garden Island payment?  There's no paper."  To my affirmative reply, he added, "No paper, but there's a bar of soap."

I blinked.  "Bar of SOAP?!?"  
"Yeh, on the driveway...near the pipe."
"Pipe...you mean the hose pipe?"
"Yeh."  He seemed puzzled, but yet oddly unphased. "Maybe the newspaper guy's trying to tell us something."
"New bar or used??"
"Used, but pretty big." 
"Whoa!! Maybe somebody was using our hose to take a shower!"  Well heck, in today's bad economy and a growing homeless population, somehow that was the first explanation that popped into my head!
"I'm sure we would've heard the pipe."
"But we were SLEEPING!  Wow, this is disturbing, why aren't you disturbed?"

A few minutes later he went out again, getting ready to leave for work.  I couldn't stand it, so I changed out of my nightgown into my t-shirt and shorts and went outside to look at the soap.

Sure enough, it was lying there on the driveway at the corner of our carport near the hose: a golden yellow bar, used, but quite big.  I stared at it and then at the hose, then back to the soap on the ground.  I watch a lot of detective shows, so hey, I figured I may have absorbed some investigative skills.  I looked to see if it was wet, but even though it was, that was inconclusive since it was probably morning dew.

Just then I heard the neighbor's garage door open and I looked over, hoping someone would come out to help the investigation.  Our neighbor Debbie stepped out, bidding us good morning.  I'm sure she was surprised to see me outside so early in the morning.  I motioned to her,  "Hey Debbie, come look at THIS!"

She walked over to the low hedge that separates our houses.  "Look!" I said pointing to the ground. "Someone left a bar of soap here! Weird!!"

"Huh?" She squinted in the early morning light. "MY SOAP!!!!!  I've been looking all over for that!! That's my soap for removing laundry stains, from Kojima Store! That JONATHAN probably threw it there!  I'm so sorrrry!!"

SORRY!??!  No need to be sorry for giving us a hilarious mystery!!  Hoooo boy that was funny!  Especially how I hurried to change my clothes to go look at the soap.

I will say now that Leonard did figure that one out, although I didn't want to mention it earlier in the story.  After I gave my "someone used our hose to take a shower in the middle of the night" theory, he said, "Nah, maybe Jonathan threw it there."  I somehow thought that was more farfetched than my homeless person theory.  What would seven-year-old Jonathan be doing with a bar of soap and why would he toss it into our driveway?!  (He's never thrown anything other than a ball and that was into our backyard.) Ah well, looks like Leonard's a better detective than I am even though he never reads murder mysteries and tries not to watch those CSI shows if he can avoid them. [More likely it's because he's a guy and knows little boys way better than I do!]

Heard of that silly song from American Idol, "Pants on the Ground"?  Well how's this, General Larry Platt?

"Soap on the ground, soap on the ground

Staring like a fool at the soap on the ground!"

Anyway, it sure gave us a good laugh early in the morning and it's good to know nobody's sneaking into our yard to shower.

But what if the homeless person somehow got into Debbie's locked garage, stole their soap--and maybe even a TOWEL--then came to our yard to use our hose!?