3,200 Hairballs and Counting

I waited all week to see if any of you Crazy Cat Ladies out there (you know who you are :) 

were going to profile this story... 

'My Strange Addiction'

15 years ago Lisa began eating her cat's hair as a way to feel closer to her pets. 

Every day she consumes the equivalent of 3 quarter-sized hairballs, which she gathers from around her apartment, including off the floor and the back of her sofa, but says "the best ones are right off the cat."

"Sometimes they do get stuck in your teeth..."

"Needless to say, I am not amewsed."

Nobody Told Me There'd Be Days Like These

"Strange days indeed -- most peculiar, mama"
~John Lennon

Seeing as today is 'Peculiar People Day,' I though I'd share a few pics from

Men's Fashion Week, which kicked off this past Monday in London!

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word peculiar as: 

Different from the usual or normal

Curious

Odd

Special

Eccentric

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Women's runway fashions have always been a bit peculiar and quite often unwearable ---

I think it's high time the designers started picking on the guys!

Weird or What?

Is it still 2012? 

Have I been watching too many X-Files re-runs...

or did I recently fall through a portal into Bizarro World? 

I still can't believe I actually read the following two stories in the news last week:

"In an announcement Friday that seems better suited for a fairy tale, a North Korean state news agency reported that archaeologists recently reconfirmed the lair of a unicorn once ridden by an ancient Korean king.

According to the Korean Central News Agency, the lair of the mythical creature is located 200 meters (about 219 yards) from the Yongmyong Temple in Pyongyang. A rock that sits in front of the lair contains carvings that some believe date back to the period of the Koryo Kingdom, the outlet notes." (Source)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

'Put garlic in your windows and crosses in your homes': Serbian council warns residents vampire is on the loose after his 'house' collapses

Pictured above is the notorious vampire Sava Savanovic

"Sales of garlic are booming in western Serbia today after the local council issued a public health warning that a vampire was on the loose. The official announcement came after an old ruined mill said to once have been the home of the country's most famous vampire collapsed.

Sava Savanovic was believed to have lived in the shack on the Rogacica river in Zarozje village in the municipality of Bajina Basta. It is said he drank the blood of anybody that came to mill their grain.

Local mayor Miodrag Vujetic admitted: 'People are worried, everybody knows the legend of this vampire and the thought that he is now homeless and looking for somewhere else and possibly other victims is terrifying people. We are all frightened.'

He added that it was all very well for people who didn't live in the area to laugh at their fears but he said nobody in the region was in any doubt that vampires do exist." (Source)

There you have it! It seems like the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Happy Monday :)

When Less Feels Like More

Monday Greetings!

I trust your weekend was a good one. We've had overnight frost three times in the past week and the ferns, like everything else in my yard, have just about had the biscuit. With winter right around the corner, I finally made it my mission this weekend to get ruthless with the clutter that has so stealthily snuck up on us. I usually do this at least once a year, but have been lax in the past few and it was beginning to take it's toll. Every closet in this house was FULL!

Streamlined :) 

The first spot I tackled on Saturday was my main closet. The week before last, I transferred my summer clothes to another closet, and the fall/winter ones over, but I really hadn't gone through everything with a critical eye. Everything that didn't fit properly, was getting dated, worn or I never liked in the first place (why do I buy belts? - I so seldom wear them!) was bagged up. Isn't it incredible how much stuff we end up with that we're always kind of meh about. I even went so far as to separate my out my summer jewelry, scarves and shoes. Now my closet currently houses 1/4 the amount it previously did and it feels GREAT! I know from past experience, that getting dressed will be much easier for the next while - I find I make better and quicker decisions when faced with less choices. I think it's human nature - for example, have you ever given your children too many options for what they could have for lunch? Or what movie to watch? A lot of humming and hawing and no one can seem to agree on the same thing.

On Sunday, I continued the de-hoarding throughout the rest of the house. We had more suitcases than Joan Rivers on an overnight stay at the Hilton! My dear husband (like a lot of men I suspect) doesn't like parting with anything, but he eventually gave in - or up hehe! Today I feel organized and got in a decent workout to boot :)

A few rules I find useful when organizing are:
~Tackle messes one room at a time.
~Ask yourself if you really need something. If you hesitate, you don't.
~If you haven't worn it in a year, (unless it's a special occasion outfit) you probably won't again.
~If you've replaced it, (ie: keyboard, coffee maker, suitcase, coat) get rid of it.
~Get everything you are parting with of out of the house - it's all in my car until my Goodwill run tomorrow - but allow yourself a cooling off period (a day or two) in case you are having second thoughts about a particular item.

Here are the two things I could never have too much of ...

In fact, I did take a quick look at my books, but couldn't do it!

The less is more principle can follow through in so many areas of our lives. We've been dieting; really just eating smaller, simpler meals.  As a result we weigh less, yet have way more energy and more of our clothes fit properly! I'm also spending less time in the kitchen - so now I have more time...

This Monster, weighing in at 1,486.6 pounds, is not an example of less is more!

The squash, grown in St. Thomas, Ontario, has easily flattened all previous world records.
You might think something this size would be inedible, but Mr. Jarvis states
he and his wife made delicious soup out of another giant last year.
 The full story here.

That's all for today, if you have any organizing tips you'd like to share, I'm love to hear them.
I think it's a constant battle for all of us :)

Cheers!

Lost and Co(r)nfused

Spooky Greetings!

I know that Halloween is still two weeks away, but seeing as it's my favorite holiday, I plan to celebrate until it arrives :) All coincidences, strange bumps in the night and premonitions will be duly noted and shared! The above display is around the corner from my home. There's a grade school directly across the street - I like that this family goes all out every year (in fact their house is decked from top to bottom) - I'm sure the little goblins love it.

To begin our Halloween theme of the strange, odd and downright weird, I'll share with you the odd effect I appear to have on red lights: I attract them! I've noticed (and if you have ever driven anywhere with me, as either the driver or passenger, you will have also noted) that I seem to end up as the first car at a red light, more often than not. Intersection after intersection; day upon day! I'm not sure how long this has been happening, I only started noticing it a couple of years ago on my way to and from work and then began pointing it out to fellow passengers. Weird or what.

Then there are the moments I have perfect timing. Here is another piece of Frankoma I fortuitously stumbled across. As I had mentioned in this post last week, I seldom to never come across Prairie Green, in fact I rarely see Frankoma pottery of any kind. However, this past Wednesday I was just about to head out empty-handed after scouring Goodwill for close to an hour and a little voice (no, I kid you not) said to me "Don't forget about Frankoma, Jane" - I took two more steps, turned my head to the right and this piece jumped out at me. It was in amongst a jumble of mish-mash; in perfect condition. I literally had chills...

Here's a new field for you: Unicornomics. 

I had good look through this amusing book on Friday; very detailed and totally hilarious! 

And lastly, speaking of corn and fields, did you hear about the family who got so lost inside this 7-acre cornfield maze in Massachusetts that they had to call police to rescue them?  It was getting dark, the mosquitoes were attacking and they had a three-week old baby with them. I wonder if they're blonde?

What Do You See?

I spotted the ever elusive 'Devil-Moose' yesterday...

The Fur-Bearing Trout

The mystery of the bizarre fish from February 3rd  (originally spotted at Rocky Mountain Antiques) has been solved. A sharp-eyed reader has kindly sent me a very enlightening article which I've posted below. Thanks Lorene :)

The Elusive Fur-Bearing Trout

The Fur-Bearing Trout is a species of fish that possesses a thick coat of fur to keep itself warm in the cold waters where it lives. These furry fish are primarily found in the northern regions of North America, but particularly in Canada, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. The species is also sometimes referred to as the Beaver Trout, or (incorrectly) as the Sabled Salmon.

A number of theories have arisen to explain this creature's luxuriant coat:

• Some say that the creature evolved its thick coat to protect itself from the extreme cold of northern waters.
  
• According to another lesser-known theory, this species of trout owes its fur to four jugs of hair tonic that were accidentally spilled into the Arkansas River (in Colorado) sometime during the 1870s.

A few researchers suggest that as the weather grows warmer during the spring the fur-bearing trout sheds its fur, only to regrow its coat as winter returns. This may help explain why trout with full coats of fur are so seldom encountered.

According to legend, the fur-bearing trout was first encountered by Europeans when Scottish settlers emigrated to Canada during the seventeenth century. One of them wrote home remarking about the abundance of "furried animals and fish" in the new land. Asked to provide more information about the furried fish, the settler duly sent home a specimen. If true, this legend would pretty much discredit the Colorado hair-tonic theory of the creature's origin.

Fur-Bearing trouts mounted as trophies can be found hanging on walls throughout the Great Lakes region of North America.

And Now For Something Completely Different

Seen (needless to say, not purchased) at Rocky Mountain Antiques 

I really enjoy 'weird' news stories and thought I'd pass on the most recent ones I've stumbled across:

Did you know your car may one day be made of mushrooms?

Potty training porkers may help to solve some of our pollution and global warming concerns?

Caffeine makes women smarter and men dumber? Not sure how accurate a study of only 64 people could possibly be, but it made me chuckle nonetheless.

Here's a use for dryer lint that you may not have thought of yet...

10 am Tuesday is the most stressful time of the week.

Woman Lays Claim to the Sun

It's not the heat; it's the humidity!

(Dec. 1) -- Would you want to own a property that's older than the dinosaurs? Along the lines of billions of years old? Well, a woman in Spain has laid claim to the sun.

Yes, you read that correctly: THE sun in the sky -- the 4.5-billion-year-old celestial giver of light and heat and well, life to all things on Earth, is now owned by Angeles Duran, or so she asserts after legally registering our closest star with a notary public, the global news agency Agence France-Presse reports.

Duran told the Spanish newspaper El Mundo that she decided to try to become the sole owner of the sun when she heard about how Nevada entrepreneur Dennis Hope posted a similar claim in 1980 with the United Nations for ownership of the moon and proceeded to sell acres of lunar real estate -- not exactly a traditional holiday stocking stuffer.


Read the whole story: here :)