Interesting things I've learned this week

I think it's important to learn something new every day, if possible. This week I've learned some odd things. What have you learned? Here are some of my lessons.

1. If you have an old wooden picnic table in your back yard, it may seem sensible to turn the benches up on top of the table when you're mowing. However, this is not a good plan for long-term storage, especially when it rains most of a month in Oklahoma. I learned that it can be difficult to remove a bench after a six-foot-long fungus fuses the bench to the table. EWWWW! I've never seen anything like it.

2. Sometimes friends ask strange questions. One friend's question to me (left on my answering machine) was this: How can I get rid of the stickiness on my plastic food storage containers? Maybe I should explain that all of her kitchen items have been boxed up since she moved to a nearby town more than a year and a half ago. She has no kitchen -- didn't get around to having anything installed in the space before she moved. Meanwhile, the house has been stacked full of boxes all this time. I'm not quite sure why she has now unpacked the plastic containers. I suggested that she might just want to get a few new Gladware containers since plastic deteriorates over time.

3. I can squander a lot of time, sometimes. I had a good bit of time free this afternoon and had every intention of using it in Domestic Divatude. I got started by doing a load of laundry and a load of dishes. There's more of each to do and I hope to lather, rinse and repeat at least once more tonight with all the household appliances. I had such dreams of vacuuming most of the house and scrubbing the floors in the bath and kitchen. I'm not quite sure what happened to evaporate the plan. Does that happen to anyone else? Time just goes POOF!

4. E-bayers are interesting. A good friend of mine posted a couple of quirky questions on one of my items to be funny. Nice thing is he also bid on it. So I enjoyed a laugh as well as a sale. Later this evening I got an e-mail from another potential customer (cough) asking why my prices are 50 percent above retail. Say what??? They are not. Oh well. I guess if you don't like the price, you don't have to bid. If you want the item I have for sale, decide if you want to pay the price. If you don't, maybe you'll find it for sale less somewhere else. I know it took me a couple of sales to learn to take into account all the e-Bay fees and such, so I actually LOST money on a couple of things. Who can afford to do that? Not I.

5. CarbWatch ice cream at Braum's is mighty tasty, but it is not always our friend. 'Nuff said. Splenda and I do not get along. I had such hopes that I could enjoy an occasional treat from there, but I will have to do something different.

6. Listening to bluegrass music in an amphitheater is a great way to spend a Sunday evening. The Bonham Revue, a top-notch bluegrass group, played at the Mitch Park Activities Center amphitheater in Edmond last night. The bass player is a friend of mine and several of my buddies like to see them whenever they perform close to Oklahoma City. The guys are from all over the state -- Muskogee, Okarche, Oklahoma City. And they usually play venues equally scattered. Check out their schedule on their web site, The Bonham Revue. These guys are all also in a country music band called City Moon. There's a link to the City Moon schedule on the web site as well. They'll be playing at the Cleveland County Fair Sept. 10, and then at the International Bluegrass Festival in Guthrie in October. Don't miss them! Guthrie is perhaps one of the finest Bluegrass Festivals in the world, so if you like the music, you have to be there. This will be the 9th year. It truly is a "star studded" event. Suzy Bogguss is the headline act this year. Check out the web site: Oklahoma International Bluegrass Festival. If you like the music of the people, it is more than worth the drive to Guthrie to hear it.

Well, I know I learned more than this so far this week, but this is about all I can think of at the moment. ... remember, fungus will fuse picnic benches to tables, sometimes you need to toss plastic containers, and bluegrass is good music.

See y'all later -- gotta do the Mt. Washmore laundry flip-flop dance now!