Most of the time, when I write about an obscure holiday, Google doesn’t have much to contribute. Not so for National Ice Cream Day. It seems that every news outlet and website is celebrating ice cream. The Short Wave podcast even did an ice cream episode. Apparently, everyone loves ice cream.
But is that true?
I enjoy ice cream with birthday cake, or when vacationing and we stop and get a scoop, but I don’t eat ice cream every day. Until we had our heatwave, I never kept ice cream in our freezer. Partly, this is because I don’t need the sugar and calories, but mainly, I just don’t think about eating ice cream for no reason.
How do you feel about ice cream? Is it necessary for life? Is it your favorite dessert? Do you keep some in your freezer at all times? Are you planning to celebrate National Ice Cream Day? Let me know if I am in the minority or not.
I will be walking today because one of my challenges is to walk on National Ice Cream Day. I’m supposed to walk somewhere and get ice cream. If I were home, that would be easy because Napavine has a lovely convenience store on my route. However, I’m in Oregon visiting friends, and their house is nowhere near town. Perhaps we’ll stop at Dairy Queen on the way home and get a chocolate-dipped swirl ice cream cone to share.
Recently, I got a box from my mom. I was told it had a quilt that she had made for me in it. I couldn’t remember Mom ever making me a quilt, so I was quite curious. I opened the box, and indeed there was a quilt from my mom. It was the bedspread I’d used when I was little. I remembered it well.
I went looking through my photo albums for a picture of my childhood bedroom. I couldn’t remember when my room decor switched from this homemade bedspread to my Holly Hobbie (you know, the little girls with the big bonnets) phase.
(Somewhere around nine years old, we painted my room mint green, put up Holly Hobbie accent wallpaper, and I got a white bedroom ensemble, complete with a Holly Hobbie canopy bed. For anyone who can’t see me living in a Holly Hobbie room, I did cover all the walls with Disney posters.)
To my dismay, I had no pictures of my bedroom with either Mom’s quilt or my Holly Hobbie bedspread. The first photo I found still had the green walls and wallpaper, but it had a rainbow sherbert bedspread (which I don’t remember at all.) I had a couple more pictures of my room in high school when the Holly Hobbie decor finally disappeared, and we painted my walls blue. (At that point, posters of military helicopters joined the Disney ones.)
What I found strange was that I was sure I had taken photos of my room – lots of photos. I got my first camera in the fifth grade, and I have pictures of our family room, dining room, kitchen, front street, backyard, and pool, along with a ton of Disneyland and vacation shots. But I never thought to take pictures of my bedroom. That’s a shame because I had an awesome room. (I included a couple of photos below to show you how awesome it was.)
Now, that was back in the 80s when film had to be developed, so I did have to be selective, but that isn’t true anymore. So, in honor of my childhood bedroom that only lives in memories, grab your phone and take pictures of all the rooms in your house, even the bathroom.
It may seem like decor never changes, but at least for me, that wasn’t true. I wish I had those photos. You may not appreciate the pictures of your home today, but when you receive a mysterious package from the past, you’ll be glad you have them.
Oh, and Mom, if you have any pictures of this cute bedspread that you made me in my room, I’d love to see them. Happy birthday!!!
This was my room in 1995. I guess I had other rainbow sherbert decor.Another photo from 1995. The bedspread and bed belonged to my grandparents and I bought the poster of the universe at the college bookstore for my dorm room. I had an awesome stuffed animal collection.
Since we now have a deadline for moving, I’ve been packing the house. This has led me to ask some questions.
If I can pack something a month before I’m leaving, do I really need it, and if I don’t, why am I packing it?
I decluttered about 60% of my hanging clothes; why do I keep clothes I’m never going to wear?
As I look at rooms that are now half empty, I love how they look, so why am I bringing stuff to fill our new place?
These questions sound a little depressing, but sometimes the only way to learn something is to ask questions that open your eyes. My eyes have certainly been opened, and I’m going to think hard about anything that goes into my new home.
We’ve had some really hot days this summer, and for a lot of the country, the heat is sticking around. Our house got rather warm, so we cooled off with popsicles. However, I’ve been trying to reduce my added sugar, so I wanted a cool treat that wouldn’t ruin my health goals.
This was not easy to find. Even healthy, and sometimes organic, fruit bars can have up to 12 grams of added sugar. What was I to do?
In my search of the frozen aisle, I found one bar by one company that only had one gram of added sugar. This company has other frozen fruit bars but they have around 5 grams of added sugar. I was so grateful to find anything that I bought a box right away. It’s a good thing I did because when I went back to Walmart a few days later, those bars were sold out. Maybe other people are trying to reduce their sugar, too, while staying cool.
Okay, enough suspense. Which frozen fruit bars are healthy, tasty, and cooling?
They are by Enlightened. It’s their Mango + Boost Fruit Infusion. They have other flavors, but this is the only one with almost no added sugar. If you don’t like mangos, this won’t be for you since it has a very strong flavor. I don’t have any opinion, good or bad, about mangos, so I enjoyed these popsicles.
Even if you aren’t reducing your added sugars, I recommend these bars. They are great if you want to cool off on a hot day.
I was watching a video about the corpse flower, and I learned something new. This surprised me because I’m not unfamiliar with this stinking flower. I knew that it smelled like rotting animals to attract beetles and flesh flies, and I knew that it took years to bloom the first time, and after that, it may be two to five years before it blooms again.
However, I never thought about how big it is, and when I saw a picture of it, I was shocked. That is one big flower. It’s scientific name is amorphophallus titanum which comes from Ancient Greek. It translates as:
amorphos – without form, misshapen
phallos – phallus
titan – giant
So this plant is a giant misshapen phallus. Graphic, but oddly accurate. The corpse flower can grow to be ten feet tall.
Holy smokes!
I’ve never seen one in person, but over 160 public gardens around the country have corpse flowers, so I just need to figure out when one is blooming. Sounds like a fun trip.
Let’s get this out of the way first. French fries are not French and do not come from France. They are called french fries because they are cut french-style.
When french fries are hot, fresh, and lightly salted, they are a perfect food. Their perfection is short-lived, but that doesn’t stop Americans from eating 4.5 billion pounds of french fries a year, half of that from fast food restaurants.
Speaking of fast food restaurants, McDonald’s has the best french fries. If you don’t agree, defend your favorite fry place in the comments.
Have some fries today and tell them that you want them fresh. Enjoy them with ketchup (the best option) or with mayonnaise if you prefer to do things like Europeans.
Between Loki* and Black Widow, I am still immersed in the MCU, which is a nice place to be. The above meme is from 2015, but I think it has a good message. You may not want to dress up like a superhero, but there may be something you want to do, and people tell you that you are too old.
Ignore them.
I have read amazing books written by first-time authors in their seventies. What if they had believed they were too old to write a book? Age has nothing to do with what you can do, so if you want to do something, go do it. Learn a new instrument. Start a YouTube or TikTok channel. Pick up a hobby that all the Gen Z kids are doing. The multiverse is the limit, and your age has nothing to do with it.
*If you are not watching Loki, you should be. Episode 5 was awesome!
I don’t say finally because I waited. I went to the opening show on Thursday night. I say finally because it was supposed to come out in May of 2020 and then July of 2020.
Stupid pandemic.
But the wait is over. I won’t say the wait was worth it because I would have preferred to NOT WAIT. But it is a movie worth waiting for.
Black Widow is my favorite Marvel superhero, so I’m biased, but this movie was everything it was supposed to be. There was a lot that could have gone wrong, but it didn’t.
If you enjoy the Sherlock Holmes books, you know that after his supposed death, Holmes went to Tibet. This is a throwaway line in one of Doyle’s stories, but many authors have written books about what Holmes did in Tibet.
Black Widow followed the same idea. We know that she wasn’t captured at the end of Captain America: Civil War, and we know she comes back in Avengers: Infinity War as a blonde. What happened in between was anyone’s guess. Until now.
I was worried about some of the casting choices. I just couldn’t see certain actors in this movie. I was wrong. Every character was perfect. The plot was solid, and the personal conflict understandable and relatable. I might call this movie “How to Fix a Black Widow.”
Marvel movies are known for their internal and external conflict. It’s not just about kicking bad-guy butt. To borrow a line from the Fast and Furious movies, it’s about family.
Should you see it in the theater or buy it on Disney+?
Yes.
We went into a theater for the first time in sixteen months, and the smell of movie popcorn almost made me cry. It was awesome to see a movie on the big screen.
However, it was expensive. If you have a family of four, you will save money buying it on Disney+. I watch Disney+ on my computer, so it was worth it to go to the movies. (I also have a ton of Regal gift cards I was saving until the end of the pandemic, so thank you to everyone who paid for my movie.)
Okay, enough rambling. Go see this movie. If you have seen all the Marvel movies, you’ll love how this one fits into the timeline. If you haven’t seen any Marvel movies, this is a great stand-alone story.
When listing the cutest animals in the world, kittens are definitely in the top five. Depending on how you feel about cats, they might be number one. My three cats were extremely cute kittens. Now they are extremely cute cats. (I took about twenty pictures of Chewie sleeping today because he was too cute.)
I know there are a lot of cats in the world, but I wondered how many, so today we’re going to explore cat statistics. Kitten cuteness might be why so many people have cats. Who could refuse that face? Not me.
It’s time for more fun space facts. Some of these I knew, and some I didn’t. How many of these facts were new to you? Who knew our solar system was so hot, silent, and big.
Facts about our Solar System
Space is completely silent since there is no atmosphere for sound waves to travel through.
Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system at 842°F. Surprisingly, Mercury is closer to the sun than Venus, but since Mercury has no atmosphere, its temperature has a wide range of hot and cold.
The sun’s mass makes up 99.86% of the solar system.
960,000 spherical Earths would fit inside the sun. I don’t know where you’d find all these Earths, but you’d need a lot.
One day on Venus is longer than a Venus year. Venus spins so slowly that it takes 243 Earth Days to complete one Venus day, but it only takes 225 Earth Days for Venus to orbit the sun. I guess all Venusians share the same birthday.
