Have yourself a very fratboy Christmas

A friend from home was visiting and she told me about a date she went on with this frat-boy type dude (who, by the way, works for my favorite store Target. No, no, silly goose, not as the cashier on Register #5. He does something corporate-ish. Unfortunately, the discount is only 10%. I would have expected more...) Anyways, it was around the holiday season and she went over to his condo. He had a fully decorated Christmas tree. With presents under it. Makes sense, right? Well, Christmas was already over, but apparently he had wrapped some empty boxes all pretty and put them under the tree for the full holiday effect.

This just doesn't quite sit well with me. Could be endearing, could be totally creepy.

I asked her if he also busted out the homemade, decorated Christmas cookies, but she said no.

Inquiring minds want to know

So last week on my way home I walked by a blind woman with a seeing-eye dog. This triggered several questions:

1. When does the seeing-eye dog go to the bathroom? It's not like he can just poop or pee anywhere like other dogs--that runs the risk of the blind lady stepping in it and I think that would be a big no-no.

2. And if allowed to go on the street, is the blind person responsible for picking up after the dog? That seems like a potential disaster. Does the dog help with that?

So then I thought perhaps he was trained to go at specific times. Which generated the next question:

3. How does a blind person tell time? Are the watches for the blind in braille? Audio? Does she just listen to 1010WINS all the time since they tell you what time it is every goddamn minute?

A friend of mine found a site online that sells braille watches. Which leads me to ask, (4) how is a blind person gonna find that thing online? And if so, what kind of computers do blind people use?

So many questions, so few answers. Neither Google nor Wikipedia were much help. What's a Cookie to do?

I was posing all of these questions to another friend last night. He didn't have any answers for me but instead says, "Those questions never would have crossed my mind if I walked by a blind person & seeing-eye dog." He seemed amazed at my thought processes. At least I choose to interpret it that way.

SOOOOO, if anyone has reasonable answers to the above questions, please share.

Addendum to the Big-Balled Bunny

This is a better pic of Stewart's stuff. I'm not sure why it looks so lop-sided. You get the idea though.

Puzzle madness!

First off, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Secondly, a happy birthday to me!!! Teehee.

Okay, back to the good stuff:

So I sometimes find myself going through phases of activity where I read a lot, do logic puzzles all the time, bake goodies every day, etc. Now I've moved onto jigsaw puzzles. They totally rock. But more so when done with friends. And perhaps while drinking. It is good fun and good quality time, while still working the brain. I highly recommend. Here's what I've been working on the past 6 weeks or so...

Puzzle #1 was done at Second Thanksgiving dinner at my house:














Puzzle #2 was done on New Year's Eve after a fantastic beef tenderloin meal, while drinking whiskey. Note: Not only was it extra challenging because it was a 3D puzzle, but we had to know our geography too!














And for my birthday trip this past weekend, not one, but TWO puzzles were done:
















I was doing a little post-birthday shopping with the family and the toy store had all puzzles on sale. I bought 3 boxes of them.

I might need a puzzle intervention.