(1) Not too many years ago now, the NBA team in Washington, D.C., was the Washington Bullets. I suppose they chose that name because they believed they moved as quickly as bullets on the court. As may be, there was a move to rename the Bullets because, as everyone knows, Washington, D.C., is a pretty violent place to be. Watch the local news one day and count how many homicide reports there are. It's pretty scary. The proponents of renaming the Bullets thought it would be a good idea to have something a little less violent so that people would look at D.C. a bit more favorably. Of course, having a cocaine addict for a mayor (and reelected more times that I can count even after it was known he was a coke head) could have been part of the problem, but anyhow. So now they are the Washington Wizards, a most retarded name, if you ask me. Which leads me to the random musing: If the Washington Bullets had to be renamed because of its association with guns and violence, shouldn't the Milwaukee Brewers be renamed because of its association with alcohol?
(2) I guess I'm on a baseball kick since my next musing also has to do with baseball. Nowadays public service announcements seek to demonize everything bad for a person, especially drugs, alcohol, and tobacco (which I'm not arguing against). You can't have ads on TV anymore for cigarettes, and supposedly smoking is supposed to occur less often in movies and TV shows than historically, although that's been proven false. The whole aim is to refute the idea that smoking is "cool" in the hopes that fewer kids will start to smoke. Why anyone in the world would choose to smoke is beyond me, but I digress once again. Since we have all these regulations against cigarettes and smoking, shouldn't we have the same regulations against chewing tobacco?? Just watch the next major league baseball game and count how many guys have dip in their mouths. The Mariners' catcher for the evening, Pat Borders, had such a big wad in his mouth I was surprised his catcher's mask fit over the bulge of his cheek. I've also seen the Mariners' second baseman Bret Boone lob a wad out of his mouth with his gloved finger as he reached first base. Chewing tobacco is actually more dangerous a form of tobacco, although there are no second-hand effects like there are with cigarettes, unless you accidentally pick up someone's spit cup and not realize what's in it. That in itself, that you have to have a spit cup, is just revolting. But holding the tobacco in your mouth, against your gums and inner cheek, causes very bad cases of mouth cancer that are usually disfiguring, if not deadly.
(3) This one is not original to my own thought processes, as the other two were. I watched Modern Marvels on the History Channel tonight, so this comes from that show. I'm sure, if you don't own one yourself, you know someone with a Swiss Army Knife. I never really thought about the name of the object, but I guess if I did stop to think, I always assumed that it was an army knife that just happened to be made in Switzerland, hence the name. Switzerland always being neutral, why would it even have an army? All I'd ever heard of were the Swiss guards who protect the Pope. On Modern Marvels, there was a man buying a Swiss Army Knife for a gift, and realized that the name implies there is indeed a Swiss Army. So he went home and called the Swiss Embassy, and sure enough, there is an army. For defensive purposes only, of course. It must be pretty boring to be a member of the Swiss Army, although it's a pretty darn safe place to be.
(4) Completely random and non-germane to the topic at hand (which I still haven't figured out), I am totally exhausted. And I have to get up again tomorrow in order to get everything done that I have to get done. So instead of going to bed, I get on the computer. How smart is that?? Today I went to J's daughter's end-of-the-schoolyear party, which was pretty cool. We went down to the beach at the Hood Canal, and of course, I forgot my camera so I couldn't take any photos of the gorgeous vistas of snow-covered mountains. Mt. Rainier was out and absolutely stunning in the clear air. After sitting in the sun for an hour or so down on the beach, we went to go set up lunch at a place with a pool, and the kids got to eat. Once lunch settled in their stomachs, they went swimming, at which point we sat out in the sun for a while longer. Then it was off to the teacher's home (which is huge, gorgeous, phenomenally decorated, and has a commanding view of the Hood Canal) for ice cream, which of course called for more sitting in the sun. All that sun and wind and fresh air and just generally gorgeous weather made me really exhausted by the time I got home -- and it also didn't help that I didn't sleep well the night before due to my paranoia that I would oversleep (another part of my OCD). Tomorrow I have another OB appointment, but before then I am getting the grand tour of what all I have to do to take care of J's house while she is away for the weekend to eastern Washington. So it's another day of getting up at a decent hour, coupled with the fact it's supposed to be 85 degrees tomorrow. Oh good Lord, save me now. It's still 74 degrees in the house from the heat this afternoon. I am so dreading summer. I desperately need shade trees.
(5) Did I mention I detest Jewel and Sarah McLachlan?
(6) Why is it that I can watch the movie "Bridget Jones's Diary" over and over and over again when there is nothing else on the massive quantity of channels I (over)pay for each month? It's completely derivative of the book "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen, down to the male lead being named Darcy and the fact that the mother of the heroine is described as being vulgar. I much prefer Jane Austen to Helen Fielding, but for some reason I never tire of seeing that damned movie. I guess some of it has to do with the fact that Renee Zellweger actually looks like a normal human being and not a survivor of the Holocaust like she does in "Chicago." She looks much better with breasts. Plus I can't resist either Colin Firth (who, coincidentally, played Darcy in the BBC version of "Pride and Prejudice") or Hugh Grant.
(7) Speaking of the heat, for some ungodly reason, I agreed to go see my father the first week of July for the holiday. Virginia in the heat of July, and I will be 6-7 months pregnant. And people say I'm a smart woman. Hmph. At least my parents have air conditioning, and fortunately they're the types who use it solely for removing the humidity out of the air, so it's never cold in their house. I can't stand it when people turn their air conditioning down into the 70s when it's hot outside. I freeze my tushy off!
(8) And speaking of the 'rents, mad props have to be given to them. As much as they argue, fume at one another, fight, scream, holler, and treat each other in a manner that one would normally associate with one's worst enemies, they have managed to stay together in a lawfully wedded state for nineteen years today. Frightening. It is given, of course, that they are far too stubborn to divorce, and somehow the relationship works for them. May they have nineteen years and more together in the future.
As it is now FAR past a reasonable bedtime, on that note, I sign off. G'night, all.