Slightly More Refined

Slightly More Refined
Photo-A-Day #1275

First off, a Very Happy Anniversary to my sister Tara and her husband Erik. 5 years! Congratulations. So because of that here some bonus Photo-A-Day Images.

Interesting foliage Another look

Today was a day to accomplish things. With Allison and I both attacking the back room we were able to consolidate quite a bit. It doesn’t look it right now but we are making progress on clearing out some junk and making this a room that is both a guest room as well as an art room for Allison so that she can work on her projects and get her Etsy store up and running.

This morning I looked at all the things I have hanging around, stuff I just don’t need anymore but maybe someone else might want it. So I am going to be posting quite a bit to eBay soon. I have the 1st 27 issues of Nintendo Power Magazine to sell, some Transformers from Botcon 2003 or rather The Official Transformers Collectors Convention 2003. I have the 4 exclusives in their boxes and I also have Binatech Sideswipe because I have two of that one. I also have some technical items to sell as well. Time to get rid of some stuff.

We also put the new stove through its paces.

The new stove.

Allison made a delicious chili for dinner and also some tasty chocolate chip cookies. She even put in a few white chocolate chips for me. She used the Smart Balance 50% butter 50% Smart Balance butter and I couldn’t even tell the difference. That is saying something and it is saying something good. Believe me I had my doubts about that stuff.

This morning I decided to tell the world the origins of my loathing of that peel and eat fiend, the banana. Now that we have the DVR and HD cable and all those channels I was able to watch 80’s videos. I guess I got nostalgic for 1986.

We went for a walk tonight and saw this car with this bumper sticker.

... Film at Eleven!

It immediately made me think of The Kentucky Fried Movie. Thanks to Neil and Derek. Seeing them earlier this week for lunch was a real treat.

I Guess I Should Explain the Banana Thing.

God I hate bananasFor the longest time I have hated bananas. I wasn’t exactly sure why until my friend Neil explained it to me. This “banana issue” of mine started in 6th Grade. I was at Saint Mary Sacred Heart School. I remember that I sat towards the back of the room. Neil sat either in front of or behind me. I also sat next to Jenn. I can’t remember the exact exchange that prompted an incident.

I am known for being very quiet and then saying things at the precise moment, sometimes funny, sometimes witty and sometimes mean (back when I was younger of course). I think I said one of those mean things that I thought was funny (I’ve grown up since then, I swear) to Jenn. Jenn took offense to this and acted.

God I hate bananasLet me give you a little backstory about the school. It had two floors for classrooms. Grades 1-4 on the 1st floor and Grades 5-8 were on the top floor. Outside each room was a long set of hooks for coats and a shelf. This is where you would hang your coat (or Member’s Only jacket if you were cool) and your bookbag. In the winter you would would also leave your snowy boots on the floor. On the shelf you would put your lunch bag or lunchbox. Once a month we would have hot lunch or pizza from Rico’s. One time I left my sticker collection out there and it got stolen (a story for another time.)

God I hate bananasEach day at noon we would go to the hallway get our lunches and a milk. Remember getting cartons of milk with lunch? Then we would bring the lunches back to our desks. During lunch we were talking and laughing and eating. At the end of lunch we would put our trash in our brown paper bags or lunch boxes and talk while we waited for lunch to be over.

God I hate bananasThe Incident: I don’t remember the exact exchange that I had with Jenn, but I said something and thought it was funny. I turned around, still laughing. Then, WHOMP! Jenn took her lunch bag and smacked me right over the head. The bag exploded and her half eaten container of yogurt began running down my head to my face onto my school sweater. I was stunned, the whole class turned to see what was happening. It was then that I noticed the smell. The yogurt was Strawberry Banana. As it slowly covered my head face and shoulders it took on this completely putrid smell. I was told to go to the boy’s room to clean up.

God I hate bananasThere is only so much industrial powdered soap, lukewarm water and brown paper towel can do to clean off a young child in school. It could do nothing for the smell. So, for the rest of the day I sat there smelling like Strawberry Banana. It was gross I was self conscious enough as I had hit puberty early and already had a face full of zits. So here I was stinking of banana. Let’s face it the yogurt may have been “strawberry” Banana; however, when you add banana to anything banana becomes the dominant smell. I had to sit there stinking of it.

So that has made me hate bananas ever since. My disgust for nature’s “perfect” fruit has become more irrational and epic as the years have gone by.