Columbia PTA Website

Finito!  whoo-hoo!  I am so glad to get this website up and running, and just in time for school to start!  If you are interested, you can check it out here: Columbia PTA

Hopefully now, it will be easy to maintain, and will not requie lots of hours on my part!  I think it is going to be a wonderful tool for the PTA to communicate with the parents.  But, we just need to get them to go there now!  The PTA is going to try to talk it up big at the Open Houses coming up soon.  So, that should help.

Another Mind Trick

It’s simple enough. Try this one for yourself.  Then try it out on your friends.

Ask these questions ensuring that they answer quickly.

• What is two plus four?

• What is three plus three?

• What is five plus one?

• What is two plus two plus two?

Now repeat saying the number 6 to yourself as fast as you can for 10 seconds. Then scroll down.

Now, QUICK!!

• Name a vegetable.

Did you say A CARROT?

If not….
you’re among the minority of the population whose minds are warped enough to think of something else. Most people will answer ‘carrot’ when given this exercise.

If you are interested in finding out why the popular answer is carrot, read on for the explanation.

Experiments carried out by university lecturers on students, psychologists on colleagues and teachers on pupils have shown that between 66% and 90% come up with the answer Carrot!!

Readers of the “New Scientist” are puzzling over why this should be. Random tests simply asking to name a vegetable came up with random answers. What is further intriguing is that many other answers when not carrot were orange or something orange!

Favoured hypotheses:
So why is that people say “carrot” when they are asked to name a vegetable after doing simple mental arithmetic. Here are some suggestions:

1. “Carrot” sounds like “count/counting”.
2. The series of ever increasing numbers resembles a continuously increasing shape – like a carrot – although the “equals six” experiment would seem to discount this.
3. The conceptual image of a carrot is the simplest mathematical/geometrical vegetable: a rotated triangle.
4. “Carrot” is the most common vegetable, and therefore the one that most people are likely to think of when they’re asked the question: “Name a vegetable.”
5. A “carrot” is the most distinctive vegetable because of its colour and shape, and it is what is scientifically known as a “cool” vegetable.
6. The subjects are making an association of sounds between the vowel sound “a” in the word “maths”, and the vowel sound “a” in the word “carrot”. This would seem to be very logical because the word “cabbage”, which was the second most popular choice of vegetable, also has the same vowel sound “a”.
7. There is some connection between the conceptual image of a carrot, and the geometrical shape formed by the sums. The ever-increasing series of numbers form a shape in the subjects’ mind, which resembles a pyramid-type geometrical form, which is similar to a carrot.
8. Carrots are also suggestive of a particular anatomical feature of the human body; and perhaps this is a case of the subconscious thought being expressed without censorship.

When the Wife Doesn’t Listen

A very funny video!

when-the-wife-doesnt-listen

Caeden Lost a Tooth

It finally happened. Lots of Caeden and Lael’s friends have been losing teeth over the past year. Caeden discovered he had a loose tooth about a week ago. Todd and I were joking that at least it was gonna come out naturally and not knocked out with Lael’s fist or something. Welllll, turns out she did have a little to do with it coming out.
Somehow, some way, for some reason, Caeden had his mouth on Lael’s shoe, biting it or pretending to, or something. Anyway, again, the story goes astray depending on who you talk to, but Lael’s shoe and Caeden’s tooth came together, and the tooth came out. No tears, double YAY, and the tooth fairy came to visit, bringing Caeden a golden dollar. That is one excited boy!

Popcorn + Cell Phones = Unbelievable Results

I simply must try this for myself!

Make popcorn by ringing your cell phone

EDITED TO ADD:

yep, not true, Snopes.com has the facts:

Basically the story is that this video is from a marketing scheme by Cardo Systems, Inc. (a provider of Bluetooth Headset solutions). The popcorn effect was acheived by dropping already popped corn into the scene during filming, then using digital editing to remove the kernels from the table.

Family Visits are the Best

Traci and Mayson came back to visit for a few days. It is so fun having a baby in the house again. Mayson is such a doll, and I guess I can’t really classify her as a baby, she is definitely more toddler than baby! Man, that girl is on the move all the time. She had not been here long at all, and I was scrambling to ‘baby proof’ stuff. Last time they visited, we had our marble chess set out, which in retrospect was not smart! But, of course nearly all of the pieces have been broken already from Chace or the twins. Anyway, we had put all the pieces away in a decorative box that stays on the trunk we use for a coffee table. (It is supposed to hold the dozens of remote controls our TV requires, which is baffling to me and is fodder for an entire post on its own) Mayson found them almost immediately, it was like she had stored that location in her brain the whole time. She reminds me of Lael when she was younger. They are both quite headstrong and know exactly what they want. Stand clear when Mayson has her sights on getting something or doing something! One of her fave things to do here was jump on the trampoline. She wanted to be out there all the time. Unfortunately, it is summer in Alabama – and it is blazing hot 12 more more hours out of the day. One day, we had the water slide set up to help with the heat, but Mayson was more interested in the trampoline. Chace was under it playing with Bailey, and he started talking to Mayson from underneath. She grinned and laughed and kept looking all around then down, but she couldn’t see him. Then he started bouncing the balls from underneath and making them pop up all around her. She thought that was a riot. This is one of the pics I snapped. 

Lael’s New Earrings

Lael's New Earrings

For the second time now, and hopefully the last for a long time, we got Lael’s ears pierced.  I guess it will be the last time until she starts begging to get them double pierced, or triple pierced –yikes!  Better the ears than other body parts, I suppose!!

She is so very proud of her new earrings, but is counting down the days until she can change them!  She has gobs of earrings and keeps changing her mind about which ones she wants to wear first after her six week period is up.

She was every bit the big girl when the lady at Claire’s pierced them.  She did not cry, did not do anything beyond make a face!  I was so proud.  There was a small crowd watching outside the window.  After it was done, one of the ladies came inside and complimented her on how brave she was.  Of course Lael had to inform her that this was the second time she had them pierced.  The first time she was only 4!

Dinner with Friends

Some of our good friends and neighbors had a teeny problem with their freezer which resulted in lots of food that needed to be cooked and eaten or else it would ruin. We were glad to oblige them and help, wouldn’t want good food to go to waste!! We had a wonderful time, they are fabulous hosts, our entire family enjoys spending time with them. I believe that their children are the best behaved children I have ever encountered!! They have the most impeccable manners, and ALWAYS use them. The children are also kind and considerate to each other, something I wish my twins would do more of!! If you guys are reading this, kudos to you both on raising them right! There was another couple there, whom we had not previously met. That is always fun, to meet new people. After a most delicious dinner our conversation turned to musical instruments which prompted Catherine to bring out her 2 didgeridoos. Of course I have no idea what the thing is, but once she played it – the sound was familiar. Here is a hint from Wikipedia if you want to be ‘in the know’:

The didgeridoo (also known as a didjeridu or didge) is a wind instrument of the Indigenous Australians of northern Australia. It is sometimes described as a natural wooden trumpet or “drone pipe”. Musicologists classify it as an aerophone.

A didgeridoo is usually cylindrical or conical in shape and can measure anywhere from 1 to 3 m (3.2 ft to 9.8 ft) in length with most instruments measuring around 1.2 metres (3.9 ft). Generally, the longer the instrument, the lower the pitch or key of the instrument. Keys from D to F? are the preferred pitch of traditional Aboriginal players.

There are no reliable sources stating the didgeridoo’s exact age, though it is commonly claimed to be the world’s oldest wind instrument. Archaeological studies of rock art in Northern Australia suggests that the Aboriginal people of the Kakadu region of the Northern Territory have been using the didgeridoo for about 1500 years, based on the dating of paintings on cave walls and shelters from this period. A clear rock painting in Ginga Wardelirrhmeng from the freshwater period (1500 years ago until the present)^[1] shows a didgeridoo player and two songmen.^[2] In some Aboriginal cultures, only men are permitted to play it, and women can only use clapsticks.

ok, so there you have it – my neighbor plays the didgeridoo, and it is really a very cool sound. You could almost close your eyes while she played it and imagine yourself in some far-off exotic location. Cool Beans!

Other conversation turned to Google Maps, specifically Street View. I am very familiar with Google Maps, and Google Earth, but had never checked out the Street View portion. hmmmm, it is kind of strange! If you put in your address at Google Maps, then click on Street View in the little bubble that pops up, you can see a clear picture of your house! I wish I had known about it when I was scouring the internet for pictures of houses here in Madison before we moved. BTW, the picture of our house is obviously old, there is a For Sale sign out front!

Amazing Card Trick. Performed by YOU!!

Pick one of the following cards. Don’t click on it; just keep it in your head.


scroll down when you have your card,

Think about your card for a second in front of “The Great CROZ”.
 
CROZ will attempt to read your mind!
Scroll down after about 2 Seconds.

The Great CROZ Has Removed Your Card!

True Sportsmanship

This is very cool video.  Shows that some kids have character and their parents are doing a good job raising them.

Check it out.

http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?videoId=3380875