Amazon's no fool

You know, for the frequency with which I buy stuff on Amazon - like, maybe once a year - it's surprising how often I end up casting about for some additional $5 item so I can round my purchase up to $25 and get the free Super Saver shipping.

So, of course I added a $7 item to save $5 in shipping. Which, if you look at it in just the right light, is kind of like getting that last item for two bucks, even though I wasn't originally going to buy it at all.

The upshot of it is, now in addition to The Gods Must Be Crazy (1 and 2) on DVD and Harry Potter 7 (paperback), my kids also get Ghostbusters on DVD.

I figure, I raise my kids in Central America, I have a responsibility to provide them with at least some pop culture.

Hey, remember this?

Good on you, ColorVision

That billboard only sat vacant for a few days. It's been replaced with a different sign...advertising the same product.

I would conclude that it was removed due to complaints, and that Detektor was prevailed upon to come up with some way of advertising their "Lo-Jack" GPS products that didn't make light of international terrorism.

I know, right? Some people with their demands and expectations.

A kitty by any other name

Raxacoricofallapatorius.
Rastafarian Phallic Pretorius.
Surrender the Portico, Parrots Vainglorious.
Lavender Calico Batter Fried Platypus.
Clom.

St. John puts his two cents in

Wow, I totally forgot about this.

Costa Rica gets a brief dry spell called El Veranillo de San Juan ("The Little Summer of San Juan") every year, and we're having it now. I had noticed it wasn't raining as regularly - not driving home in it was my first clue. But I forgot it was a regularly scheduled two week dry spell in July of any given year.

I guess it's almost over, and once it goes we have rainy season back until it begins to taper off in mid November. I'm certainly not opposed to the reduced rainfall - it's still been raining a bit, but it tends to be lighter and after I'm home for the day, which is nice.

But today was SO HOT it's got me thinking I could put up with some afternoon rain if it would just cool off a bit.

Good riddance

I am happy to report that the billboard for "Detektor"--some sort of presumably GPS-based car tracking device--which I pass on my way to work every day and can see from about four blocks away right up until I pass it, was removed last week. It wasn't even replaced, just pulled down and the space left blank.

I hope it wasn't just that its run was up and nothing has been booked to replace it, but that it was removed because the billboard agency realized how inappropriate it was.

The entire right half of the thing was a picture of Osama Bin Laden. The left half said simply, "Detektor would already have found [him]." I can't even muster the will to parse all the layers of wrong in that.

Today in things you think you'd be told

Less impressive than last week's, but still.

You'd think, when the mechanic says it'll take half a day to drain the brake fluid, purge and refill the system, and you drop the car off at 10:00 on Saturday morning and the mechanic says they close at 6:00 and to call at 4:00, and you call at 4:30 but can't reach them on the phone, so you walk over and find out they ran into a delay and it's still not ready, but they are, as noted, closing at 6:00 and closed on Sundays so they'll definitely be finishing it that day...I say, in a situation such as that, you'd think someone would also mention that when they have to stay late to finish a car, they simply leave the keys in the gas station office and the customer can, in fact, pick the car up the following day.

Because if they didn't mention a thing like that, a person could walk back over to the shop at 6:00 (with a child in tow both times) so as to arrive at closing time, and end up waiting nearly two hours while they finish the working on the car.

And nobody wants that.

New tradition

I felt like making a cake today. When I told the girls, in addition to the obligatory "Yay!", they also asked what the occasion was. Forgetting that today was, in fact, a national holiday, I decided that finishing Harry Potter 3, the book, and watching Harry Potter 3, the movie was a worthy reason to make a cake.

So that's what we did. Robin and I had a math lesson figuring out how to half-again-as-much Sue (then) Benbow's mocha cake recipe, then Julia got to be all Competent With Hot Things On The Stove helping with Beth Oney's Texas Sheet Cake frosting.

The frosting recipe is like four ingredients and two steps, but it still managed to go wrong. Who ever heard of milk, butter and cocoa curdling when you bring it to a boil? But I beat it into submission with a wisk and all was well.

Tomorrow, on to Book 4.

Overheard or, How I know that voices carry

[Upstairs]

Me: /Sip/ *CoughCoughCoughGagChokeSputterGasp*

Julia: Are you okay, Mommy?

Me: *CoughCoughCough* Yes. But apparently I'm not very good at drinking water.

[Downstairs, 10 minutes later]

Me: *CoughCoughAhem*

Bob: You should get a drink of water.

Me: Hmmph.

Men don't have this issue

Tonight is the solar presentation at the university and I'm getting ready to go - shower, iron the blouse, grab a snack, etc. I have to say, the preparations involve rather more attention to my toenails than I would have thought.