Month: January 2008 | Ain't Complicated

Chips, Dips, Lips

I know this is New York Times reporting, but still . . . .

Professor Dawson told me that he had expected to find little or no microbial transfer from mouth to chip to dip….

The team of nine students instructed volunteers to take a bite of a wheat cracker and dip the cracker for three seconds into about a tablespoon of a test dip. They then repeated the process with new crackers, for a total of either three or six double dips per dip sample. The team then analyzed the remaining dip and counted the number of aerobic bacteria in it.

[…]

On average, the students found that three to six double dips transferred about 10,000 bacteria from the eater’s mouth to the remaining dip.

Each cracker picked up between one and two grams of dip. That means that sporadic double dipping in a cup of dip would transfer at least 50 to 100 bacteria from one mouth to another with every bite.

[…]

“The way I would put it is, before you have some dip at a party, look around and ask yourself, would I be willing to kiss everyone here? Because you don’t know who might be double dipping, and those who do are sharing their saliva with you.”

😯

Choosing a President

There for quite a while, Hillary Clinton was considered the inevitable Democrat nominee.

No more.

And for quite a while, RudyG (I’m stumped on spelling his last name) was an apparent shoo-in for the Republicans.

Today he’s out.

And Fred Thompson supposedly could have the nomination for the taking.

He finally reached out for it. It eluded him. And he’s been out for a few days now.

Then there’s Mitt Romney, who really seemed to have something going for him.

That effort seems to have stalled out.

And John McCain had supposedly reached the end of his rope this past summer.

Now he’s the Republican front-runner.

For now?

I’m looking forward to seeing who God has picked out to set up as President.

And how will Christians react to His decision?

Generating Goodwill Generously

Or something like that.

Or this:

Cody Young parked his bike in the wrong place at the Goodwill store, where the rule is anything on the floor goes.

He didn’t have a lock and friends said they’d parked inside the store before. But this time, the black BMX bike was sold.

Goodwill officials say the youngster is going to get his bike back though, because the buyer saw a story in Salem Statesman Journal about the mix-up and called to make things right.

The buyer got the bike for $6.99 but Goodwill is giving them a $100 gift certificate for coming forth.

It’s not the first such sale mix up in Goodwill’s busy stores, officials said. Once, a janitor left a bucket and mop on the sales floor, and a store sold them the next day.

😯

Or maybe I mean this: 🙄

For sure this: 😀

Breakfast: Madras, Oregon

Wow, we had a “super duper good” breakfast here:

I’m telling you, Apple Peddlers feeds you well and feeds you big.

I ordered their Denver Omelet:

What you see of the omelet is half of what I got! I didn’t move it from where the “remains” sit…and what I ate went clear over to the edge of the plate nearest you.

I didn’t have room for quite all the omelet. The pancakes were left over, except I peeled off the crispy edge of the top one. I like crispy pancake edges.

For only $8.55 — Delicious!

Updated at 7:33 am on January 29: I should have said, we were driving that red Ford Explorer. It belongs to Luke and LaVay. But it could belong to you. It’s for sale.

Weather: Madras, Oregon

Well, we came over yesterday morning.

And we were hoping to go home this afternoon.

But we’ve got this:

The forecast this morning was for 1-2 inches of snow here. 🙄 Lo and behold, we have 4-6 inches here at Luke and LaVay’s…with more falling.

And there’s bound to be more on Highway 26 past Mount Hood.

What’s it going to be like there! 😯

I definitely don’t want to drive in this…and I certainly don’t want to drive on this:

I like snow. Especially when I’m at home. And especially when I don’t have to drive in it…especially if I have to chain up…and chains are required in the Mt. Hood area.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! 😥

Oh well. 😀

Remember: click the images for a larger version

Overcoming Worry

I posted this earlier this morning at Anabaptists and just now got done referencing it at Panting Hart. (Yes, I rarely crosspost like that.)

Overcoming Worry

Do you believe what God says? I mean, can you — do you — accept at face value what He has to say…and believe it, and live it? Or are you like most humans — selective, doubtful, logical?

I believe one of the “good” reasons we struggle with covetousness is our need for security for the future. We don’t want some calamity to catch us totally unawares and unprepared. Neither do we wish to have holes in our roofs, clothes and stomachs. The problem is, we tend to anchor our security in stuff instead of in the Stuff Giver. And when our stuff is in short supply, we worry.

God orders us to give sacrificially, that is, of our sustenance. In return, He says He will never leave us nor forsake us. He assures us He is aware of our need for the basic things of life. He promises to provide all we need if we will give our lives to His kingdom and righteousness. He tells us not to worry about tomorrow.

To read the rest, click the Panting Hart link above.

(Written originally in August 1994)

[If then God so clothe the grass... (Luke 12:28)]

from Luke 12:28

Got Dirt?

Alternate post titles:

Where Does Dirt Come From?
Global Dedirting
Never Mind Global Warming
Save That Dirt!

It seems dirt must be an unreplenishable resource. I wonder where it goes. And how long it has been going there. And why I have to keep dusting it off slow-to-sell books and scrubbing it out from between my toes.

Nevertheless, as a public service, here’s the beginning of the article:

The lowdown on topsoil: It’s disappearing

The planet is getting skinned.

While many worry about the potential consequences of atmospheric warming, a few experts are trying to call attention to another global crisis quietly taking place under our feet.

Call it the thin brown line. Dirt. On average, the planet is covered with little more than 3 feet of topsoil — the shallow skin of nutrient-rich matter that sustains most of our food and appears to play a critical role in supporting life on Earth.

“We’re losing more and more of it every day,” said David Montgomery, a geologist at the University of Washington. “The estimate is that we are now losing about 1 percent of our topsoil every year to erosion, most of this caused by agriculture.”

Agriculture, eh?

Maybe we should quit eating.

I think that would solve the man-caused global warming issue as well.

Now I’ve got to figure out in what category to place this post . . . .