Sparkpeople

[astronaut]

I'd love to meet you guys for coffee in 2013. Just name the date and I'll try to estimate how long it will take me to run there and I'll
shoot off!

astronaut

[uni]

What does everybody think of the Canada Day long weekend, 2013? One, two, or three days - lots of time for lots of coffees?! I'm ordering mine black with a shot of butter rum flavouring (is there a smiley for "slurp"?)

[paul m]

Sounds good to me. I'll bring the carrot sticks( they make great stir sticks). Take Care. paul m

[uni]

One place I go for coffee uses long uncooked spaghetti for stir sticks. Another place uses long uncooked flat twisty pasta - what do you call that stuff? Anyway, it's natural, biodegradable, and probably cheaper than plastic. Kinda fun too. BTW did you know you can't break a stick of uncooked spaghetti into two pieces? For some reason you always get three. Saw it on YouTube. Yeah I know, I really need to get a life

[uni]

Almost forgot to update my (sort of) progress on the physical front. I'm finding it really hard to get exercise in when I'm away visiting my b/f. I was gone for three days this weekend, and only managed one 25 minute walk. However, on the upside I wrote down everything I ate and did surprisingly well. I'm trying to learn portion sizes, which is difficult. The size of different plates screws me up. On a fun note, b/f and I differed on how many tablespoons in a cup, so made a little game of measuring and guess what - I won! Sixteen tablespoons in a cup Thus endeth the lesson.

[paul m]

Hello Uni. One walk is still better than none, so congrats on doing that one walk.

My wife is away for a couple of days and when she gets back I'll be trying to explain to her why she is finding pieces of spaghetti hidden behind large seldom moved objects. YouTube proof or not, when I break spaghetti into two pieces, it sometimes ends up in two pieces, sometimes three, sometimes four or five pieces. The little pieces really zing across the room at times. However about 1/3 of the time I could get it to break into two pieces. (talk about having no life)

Tell me, did you actually measure the 16 tablespoons or did you use google. Take Care. paul m

[uni]

How the h*ll did you get the spaghetti to break into two pieces, Paul? You've got put that on YouTube. Or on second thought, considering I didn't *actually* try it myself (I don't make spaghetti) maybe I should have done further research on this most crucial scientific matter.... Either way, yeah, you and I both have to work on getting lives

As for the tablespoons, we did our own full experiment using water and official tupperware equipment. Can't argue with those results!

P.S. - I forgot to mention that the spaghetti is to be held by the ends

[paul m]

Hello Uni. Gripping the spaghetti firmly at each end and slowly bending it will result in two nearly perfect halfs a majority of the time. This is not nearly as much fun as bending it quickly and watching the cat chase the pieces.

As far as putting it on YouTube, that would require skills far in advance of what I have. There is a reason why I don't have a picture on face book or an avvatar on here.

Of course I could probably spend a little quaility time reading and improving my computer skills, but bending spaghetti is much more fun. Take Care. paul m

[uni]

You are a scientific marvel, Paul. I expect to see your spaghetti talent show at the 2013 coffee meeting

My own special talent is picking sock lint out from between my toes (new socks are the most challenging). I also make envelopes out of magazine pages, and bookmarks out of junk mail, and arrange a mean fridge magnet display. You know - all kinds of entertaining stuff. I did come very close to winning a limbo contest once. (Does anyone under the age of 40 remember the limbo?) And now you know more about me than you ever wanted to.

Anybody else have special talents?

[A.E.V.]

does driving people up the wall count as a special talent? cuz boy I'm good at that! LOL

[Kaight]

Uni - regarding your Tbsp experiment - the count from 1 to 16 must have been glorious!

As for special talents of my own? How about hanging laundry to dry as though I was creating art. Afterall, all the neighbours can see it... might as well give them something to look at!

[paul m]

Hello Uni. My memories of limbo contests are pretty vague and memories of my own participation even vaguer, but I do remember watching all the young women taking part and noting which ones were especially limber. If I remember correctly you almost won the great limbo contest of 197---.

All of my talents are special and most of them are pretty unique. Which is another way of saying that I'm probably going to die broke if I have to rely on my special talents.

I can do grouchy and unpredicatable pretty good, but I have no talent for hanging up my laundry in any special way. Although that has got me curious. How do you make art out of laundry Kaight? Take Care. paul m

[Kaight]

Ha! Maybe "art" was an exaggeration! I guess I'd describe it as 3-D art, very linear, with a strong focus on repetition and color placement. What do you think?

Kaight

[paul m]

Hello Kaight. Well some days I have trouble thinking in two D(or even 1 D). But I can appreciate symmetry when I see it, so it sounds good to me.

"very linear, with a strong focus on repetition and color placement" could also be considered obsessive complusive by some people, but not by me. I figure that everyone is entitled to hang their clothes any way they please. I would normally chose to hang my clothes on the floor, but being a long time married person( and wishing to remain so) I arrange my laundry according to my spouse's wishes. Take Care. paul m

[Kaight]

Any OCD behaviour stops at the clothes line... one only need gaze into my sock drawer to confirm that!