11-11-11

In honor of the most joyous impromptu holiday that was November 11th of the 2011 year (11-11-11), FrogN set out with Squishy and their aunt in tow. They had breakfast at an interesting little French bakery, took a tour of a cathedral, traversed several antique stores, went horseback riding, walked through a botanical garden, went on a picnic (FrogN for the very first time), saw Puss in Boots at a drive in, and purchased the last Harry Potter movie! Of course, as with any family outing, there were several moments of interesting conversation.

The first, while at the botanical gardens in front of a tree with yellow-gold leaves.
Aunt: "You two should stand under the tree so I can take your picture!"
Squishy: "Nah."
FrogN: "Don't want to."
Aunt: "Come on! Pretty things should be stood under!"
Squishy: "Yeah, that's what happened to the Wicked Witch of the East. She was probably house hunting and went, 'What a pretty house! I should stand directly underneath it!' and then BAM!"

The second, while having a picnic in a small park by a swing set.
FrogN: (to Squishy) "Hey, do you wanna seesaw?"
Squishy: "No!"
FrogN: (?) "Oh...okay..."
Squishy: "Oh, you mean "seesaw"! I thought you meant "see Saw"! I was gonna say, that's a horrible movie! Why on earth would you wanna watch it?!"
FrogN: "Oh. Hah." (starts to walk back to car)
Squishy: "Hey, wait...I wanna seesaw."

FrogN hits New England

So...FrogN has visited the New England portion of the U.S. in order to see her beloved friend Six-Eyes and has now returned! For a quick rundown of what FrogN did while in New England for a week, continue reading. Arrived in the Manchester airport at about 1:10 on Monday, drove into Massachusetts and ate at Uno's (great pizza), crashed at Six-Eyes apartment, purchased a subway pass, took subway, visited the Skywalk in Boston in order to see many wonderful historic buildings, including the church where Paul Revere hung the lanterns, ate at Fire and Ice (a very innovative buffet which cooks your food on a grill in front of you after you've selected what you want), took subway back to the apartment of Six-Eyes, had pizza from Two Brothers (great cheese bread), slept, took subway, visited the New England Aquarium (penguins, penguins everywhere!), ate Boston Style Clam "Chowda" at a Cheers replica restaurant in the Quincy, saw an imax 3D show on sharks, had cannoli from Mike's Pastry (in the North End, and is totally worth visiting), took subway back and crashed, had Dunkin' Donuts (which are EVERYWHERE in New England), went on a whale watch and saw oodles of Humpback whales (if you've never been on a whale watch, FrogN highly recommends going on one), ate at Krueger's Flatbread (even MORE pizza), went to Six-Eyes' and crashed, took subway and bus to the Boston Museum of Science which is just...incredible, took bus and subway back to the apartment, went to Vermont and took a factory tour of the Ben and Jerry's IceCream Factory (FrogN had pizza, Chunky Monkey IceCream and lemonade for lunch), drove three hours back to Mass. and ate at Denny's (because there AREN'T any where FrogN lives yet she still sees commercials for them), and flew out of Manchester at 6:10 on Sunday morning. Whew...FrogN is tired, but had an awesome time!

To Drive or Not to Drive

One of FrogN's most favorite of worldly possessions is her car. FrogN has named her car Dreamchild. Today has been a rather traumatic day for Dreamchild. First, on FrogN's way to school, the truck in front of her lost something...that something being a large metal wheelbarrow...headed straight for Dreamchild! Luckily, FrogN was able to steer Dreamchild away from the impending doom and the two drove away unharmed.

Driving home from school, quite close to home in fact, Dreamchild started to make jerky movements whilst in the process of stopping and then refused to drive forward when the acceleration was pressed. FrogN cranked Dreamchild up and she (FrogN feels that Dreamchild is a girl car) proceeded to drive as expected...but FrogN noticed a strange noise followed by a burning smell. FrogN managed to make it home and popped the lock on Dreamchild's hood. After scrounging on the ground to check to make sure she had not hit anything/one (she did not), FrogN noticed something most alarming...Dreamchild was smoking!!! Of course being the calm professional that FrogN was, she ran into the house calling for her mother, "Mom! MOM!! Time to get up! Mmmooommm! Mom, my car's smoking!!!! What am I supposed to do?!?!!!" FrogN was most thankful that her maternal unit had chosen this day to take off from work.

Almost the End

Last Saturday, the world was supposedly coming to an end. Since FrogN is posting, that proved not to be the case. Of course, this was probably for the best as one of FrogN's third cousins (also known as a "first cousin twice removed") had a wedding. FrogN did not go to the wedding; however, her mother and aunt did. The two of them, FrogN and Squishy went out to eat post wedding and had the following conversation.

FrogN: "So, I guess the world didn't end today."
Mom: "Looks like."
Aunt: "Hey, you know what else was today?"
Mom, FrogN: "What?"
Aunt: "Doo Dah Day!"
Mom: "Oh! Oh! Doo Dah Doomsday!"
Squishy: "No...wait...Dooms Dah Day!"
Mom: "That's it! Dooms Dah Day!"

As all of FrogN's readers can tell, FrogN takes the end of the world very seriously.

Now, FrogN has heard of individuals who, while preparing for the end, gave away all of their wordly possessions. FrogN wonders, though, what was the point? If the world is coming to an end, what is the point of getting rid of or acquiring a hoard of worldly possessions. They would be left behind, regardless of where they are in the world. Just something to contemplate.

Picture This

The creation of the cellular phone has allowed for many wonderful opportunities: readily available communication with a loved one, internet access to the world wide web, awkwardly clever little emoticons to which one may reply "lol." The list goes on! However, by far, FrogN's favorite use of her cellular device is the camera attachment. "Why?" some may ask. Why, because a camera located upon a cellular phone allows the owner of the phone to take pictures of things that are not really worth taking a picture of! Brilliant, FrogN tells you, simply brilliant!

Does anyone know what is fun to read? Lists. Everyone loves to read lists. Lists are easily read, numbered, and make one feel as if they have read considerably more than they actually have. Allow FrogN to create a list, now, of the pictures on her cellular phone.

• (1) A printout advertising "ANIME NIGHT!!" on October 29 from 2:00p.m.-6:00p.m. at Suncoast...does anyone remember Suncoast? The "store for movie lovers"? They were in collaboration with Sam Goody and went bankrupt long enough ago for the owners who bought them out, F.Y.E., to be going through their own financial problems...yeah, Suncoast


• (2) Two friends from FrogN's junior year of high school making strange faces...


• (3) The front door to a really tiny library FrogN stumbled across


• (4 & 5) A little green lizard purched atop the handle of the library's (yes, the one where FrogN works) door...yes, it was worthy of two cellular pictures


• (6) The front of a box of Trix cereal with advertising "Swirls: 2 fruity colors in every puff!"


• (7) ...a yellow, squarish patterned...something...with a glare...no clue what that is...


• (8) The bus that the homeless people drive around in near the airport where FrogN lives...tis green and covered in bumper stickers...


• (9) The sushi from when FrogN's school first began selling sushi


• (10) A single, mini cupcake that one of the teacher's offered FrogN while FrogN was observing in her classroom (makes you feel all warm and fuzzy, doesn't it?)


• (11) The sky...because it was raining really hard all the way to school and the sky directly over the parking lot was really really blue with puffy white clouds


• (12) A snake wrapped around FrogN's wrist...FrogN went to see a friend who was/is pregnant and FrogN found that she had also come into the possession of three small pythons, so FrogN had her friend drape one over her arm...


• (13) An old woman with purple hair...FrogN went out shopping on Black Friday; at Target, in line behind her, at about 4:00a.m., was an elderly woman purchasing about seven 2 liters of coke, 1 16oz coke, and 1 16 oz sprite...and she had purple hair...


• (14) A camel from a living nativity that FrogN went to see...the camel had its picture in the paper!


• (15) The sign from Zoolight Safari


• (16) A button found in the elevator of the parking deck at FrogN's school...it is suspiciously labeled "restricted floor," made all the more suspicious by the fact that every floor is a parking level with no buildings above it...can FrogN's readers say "secret underground conspiracy?!"


• (17) Someone from Kami-Con who was dressed in a kilt and flipflops...FrogN is not sure if they were cosplaying or not...


• (18-21) Johnny Yong Bosch's rock band at Kami-con...he was a mighty morphin power ranger! (the green one) ...plus he voices characters in popular animes! ...and now he's in a rock band! ...living the dream, people, living the dream...


• (22) A really, really wrecked car in the parking lot...held together with an assortment of bits of metal wiring and several kinds of tape

...and that is what is on FrogN's phone! FrogN hopes her readers enjoyed the (surprisingly long) list.

Birthdays, Elvis, and a Hybrid

Over the weekend, FrogN and her family celebrated the 80th birthday of Rockin' Gramps (his birthday was much earlier in February, but it took three weeks to get everyone together at once). With his most recent of birthdays, he has officially made it possible for FrogN to state that her grandparents are in their "early eighties" instead of their "late seventies." Of course, as with all familial gatherings, there were some interesting conversations.

The original conversation began with FrogN's mother somehow coming to the conclusion that Home Alone does, in fact, provide irrefutable evidence that Elvis. Is. Alive. In the scene with the mother frantically trying to acquire plane tickets, there is a man standing behind her and to the right. FrogN's mother has decided that that man looks far too much like Elvis to be anyone other than the king himself. She said that she found it on some kind of youtube video. How she came across this video to begin with is beyond FrogN, but at least now FrogN knows what, if not whom, to blame.

Elvis led to the discussion of strange sightings, the look up of the nefarious video in question (which can be found by searching for Home Alone and Elvis courtesy of youtube, should anyone be interested), and the eventual age-old story of "the cat-rabbit."

"It had the face of a cat, and the legs of a rabbit!" voiced FrogN's aunt. "Sitting right there on the side of the road!" continued FrogN's mother.

FrogN loves her family dearly; she also loves that she is not alone in her eccentric-isms.

Discovering PORN

So, FrogN was looking up information on different sight related disorders and stumbled upon a disease that assures FrogN that those in the medical profession do, in fact, have a sense of humor. There is a disease called "Progressive Outer Retinal Necrosis." Can anyone spell what the acronym for this ailment is? That is correct; the acronym is PORN. FrogN had never heard of this disease before and could not help laughing even though the full description sounds utterly horrible. (Retinal Necrosis...ouch). FrogN found it on http//www.wrongdiagnosis.com/medical/porn.htm. Go have a look if you so choose.
...FrogN would hate to have this disease and try to research it.

Oh yeah, Happy Valentine's Day.