- May 29, 2012 -

Yeah, it's gross ... but if I ever got a tattoo it'd probably be something like this. LOL! SO ... the holiday weekend was busy as heck. I didn't get too much of my normal stuff done, but the yard looks fabulous (compared to what it was) & I hope to improve on it now that's it's looking so much better. The gardening from seed thing didn't work for me at all. It's just not my forte, so next month I'm going to try buying potted plants & planting those. Wish me luck! RIP to all the poor little seeds I planted that sprouted (almost 100%) & then quickly died. I have one question ... how does the planet survive without people? I mean it does just fine ... it doesn't need us. Seeds fall, sprout, & grow to full-sized plants all the time. So why is it that 100% of the seeds I planted sprouted & then died? You'd think at least ONE of them would have ACCIDENTALLY survived like they do in the wild every day. Anyway, woke up to a med call this morning, came back, went back to bed, woke up & here I am! :-) This month's 5th Tuesday at LCFD has been cancelled so we can all recuperate from the long weekend. City Council Meeting next Tuesday.

Anytime you give someone money, you want to make sure it's causing them to move in a direction that helps them. If you give them money & they don't work & they stay disorganized & keep overspending, then you're giving a drunk a drink. But if you're giving someone money who's trying & struggling & heading toward the right thing, what you're doing is giving them a leg up.

Co-worker is pregnant:

Express your happiness, but don't pry into personal details. Refrain from giving advice unless it's asked for, & avoid giving any that may conflict with current medical opinion. Also, it's in poor taste to share details of your own labor & childbirth, or any horror stories that you've heard.

Danica Patrick becomes first woman to lead Indy 500 (2005):

On this day in 2005, 23-year-old Danica Patrick becomes the first female driver to take the lead in the storied Indianapolis 500.

Having previously distinguished herself in the Toyota Atlantic series, Patrick had qualified fourth--another best for a woman--for the 89th Indianapolis 500, only her fifth Indy Racing League event. (Toyota Atlantic served as a feeder system for the Champ Car Series, Indy's rival open-wheel racing circuit. Open-wheel cars are sophisticated vehicles built specifically for racing, with small, open cockpits and wheels located outside the car's main body.) Patrick entered the Indy 500 in a car co-owned by Bobby Rahal, winner of the Indy 500 in 1986, and David Letterman, the late-night talk show host. After a pit stop on the 79th lap of the 200-lap, 500-mile race, Patrick stalled her engine, falling from 4th to 16th place. She spent the next 70 laps climbing back into the top 10, then took the lead with 10 laps left in front of 300,000 screaming fans at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

When her team took a gamble that she could make it to the end without an additional pit stop, Patrick was forced to conserve fuel. With six laps left, British driver Dan Wheldon passed her. With his first Indy 500 win, Wheldon became the first Briton to claim victory at the event since Graham Hill in 1966. Patrick, meanwhile, finished in fourth place, behind Vitor Meira and Bryan Herta. Her stellar performance earned her Rookie of the Year honors and a place in the history books alongside Janet Guthrie, who exactly 28 years before--on May 29, 1977--had become the first woman to drive in the Indy 500. Three women before Patrick had driven in a combined 15 Indy 500 events; Guthrie was the previous top finisher, coming in ninth place in 1978.

Three years after Patrick's star-making turn at the Indy 500, she became the first woman to win an Indy Racing League event, defeating the two-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves by nearly six seconds in the Indy Japan 300. Having left her previous team a year earlier, Patrick had joined the team owned by Michael Andretti, son of the legendary driver Mario Andretti and a former racer himself. In a statement honoring Patrick's victory, fellow Indy driver Sarah Fisher linked the accomplishment with that of Guthrie and other trailblazing women: "Today marks the celebration for all of us who have chipped away at the barriers that many women have faced in fields that are dominated by men. To finally have a female win an open-wheel race is simply a progression of what Janet Guthrie started."

Dig out your old hula hoop & slim down your hips without giving up a morsel of food.

Endomondo:

Use your mobile as a free personal trainer and fitness partner! Using the built-in GPS, Endomondo Sports Tracker tracks your fitness - running, cycling, walking and any other distance based sport. On top, you get audio feedback on your performance during your workout and your friends can follow you live and send you peptalks in real-time.
App features:
- Track any outdoor sport including duration, distance, speed and calories
- Get audio feedback for every mile or km while exercising
- Check out the newsfeed with recent workouts and other activities done by your friends
- Send peptalks to your friends in real-time from the newsfeed (you write a message that is played aloud to them a few seconds later) and comment on their workouts
- Track your heart rate (works with ANT+ heart rate monitors and requires a Fisica Sensor Key, more info at store.endomondo.com)
- Set a distance goal and have the audio coach speak to that as your target
- Study routes nearby and use the map to navigate your way around
- View history of workouts and study split times per km or mile
- Race against a friend's time and have the audio coach help you perform better
- Compete on a specific route nearby and Race against the route champion
- Set the app to pause automatically when you are not moving
- Enable countdown (customizable)
- Customize the main screen to show the information that you find most valuable
- Enter a workout manually, e.g., a treadmill run, spinning or weight training
- Sign up with your Facebook account
- Use Facebook and/or phone book to hook up with your friends on Endomondo
All data is sent automatically to your profile at www.endomondo.com, where you have a range of possibilities to both analyze your training, compete against your friends, follow them live and communicate with the vibrant community of active people throughout the world, no matter what other GPS phone or tracking device they are using. You can also set up automatic sharing to Facebook and Twitter from the website.
Time to free your endorphins!

How many steps are taken by the soldier guarding the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery each time he marches past the white marble sarcophagus?

21—symbolically matching the number of shots fired in a 21-gun salute.

Leaves off this curious plant from Brazil fall into 3 categories: those with brown blotches called rabbit tracks, which turn dark green with age; those with a herringbone pattern of prominent red veins; & those with black-green leaves & silvery veins. What is it?

Prayer plant. It got its name because each night, its broad, strikingly colored goliage golds upward in a prayerlike position, & there it stays until daybreak.

Although easily grown, the prayer plant has rather specific needs. Among these are protection from direct sunlight & cold winter drafts, soil that's evenly moist not sodden, & constant humidity. If you don't want it in your bathroom, keep it on top of pebbles in a shallow, water-filled tray.

Mordant:

1: Biting & caustic in thought, manner, or style : incisive. 2: Burning, pungent.

The newspaper columnist skewered the absurdities of the political scene with her acute insights & mordant wit.

The etymology of "mordant" certainly has some bite to it. That word came to modern English through Middle French & ultimately derives from the Latin verb mordere, which means "to bite." In modern parlance, "mordant" usually suggests a wit used with deadly effectiveness. Mordere adds bite to other English terms, too, such as the tasty "morsel" ("a tiny bite"). But nibble too many of those & you'll likely be hit by another mordere derivative: "remorse" ("guilt for past wrongs"), which comes from Latin remordere, meaning "to bite again."

Name at least 3 weeping plants that could grow well in a tub on your terrace. Weeping willow doesn't count: it grabs to much space.

Reusable microfiber cloths:

They attract & grip dust & dirt, so you only need to wipe surfaces once.

When making a donation be sure to get a stamped receipt with the charity's name. You can then write off your donation on your next tax return.

Where in North America is the largest freshwater island in the world?

Which animal type has the most, 2nd most, & 3rd most species?

A. Parrots

B. Bats

C. Cats

Which river contributes most, 2nd most, & 3rd most to the Mississippi?

A. The Missouri

B. The Arkansas

C. The Ohio

CAB. The Missouri river is actually longer than the Mighty Mississippi, despite being a tributary, but it's the Ohio River that's the big-volume supplier.