101st BLOG! 101 x 10 = 1010 TODAY is 10-10-10

I have writTEN these TEN TENacious TENuously-linked stories to TENtatively TENderize your TENtiginous obsession with TEN.  Can you withstand the heighTENed TENsion?

1. Paddle boarding is a water sport where you stand up on a surf board an paddle around.  It's like stand-up kayaking.  It is one of the only only sports that I am better at than Trevor.  Skiing is the other one.   In both sports my superior skills don't last for very long.  Trevor took about 7 hours to out- compete me in skiing and it only took his second try for him to surpass me in paddle boarding.   After he learned from a mutual friend that I never fell off the board once the first time I went paddle boarding, he was determined to get back on the board.  (During his first experience paddle boarding, he spent most of the time in the water.) Yesterday we went out paddle boarding with the same friends and he did not fall in once and was paddling circles around me.  Oh well, the athletic superiority was nice while it lasted...

2.  There is a Danish girl from work who is going to be at the California lab for 2 months.  I am very excited about this.  One of the things I appreciated the most, was someone showing me how to use the buses and trains while I was in Denmark.  So to pay it back, I decide that I am going to be the one to show this poor girl how to use the public transportation system while she's in the states.... there's one glaringly obvious difference here,  I have never used it before myself.  How hard could it be?  At least I know the native language..... Well, needless to say, it took us about 2 hours to get to work that morning.  Whoops.  She would probably have been better off on her own. 

3.  Taking the public transit system is really like living in another country.  My experience in Santa Barbara is one thing, but my experience on a Santa Barbara bus is completely different.  Lots of Mexicans, mentally disabled people, stinky people, drooling people, people talking to themselves, and then a handful of young students with their head phones on.  The guys sitting behind us were speaking a mix of English and Spanish. Sentence by sentence, almost word by word they were switching back and forth between languages.  The hot topic of the day was when this guy was going back to county and how his lawyer got the charges dropped from 365 days to 30 days.... wasn't able to catch what he was in trouble for....

4. We went to the beach yesterday.  It was about 80 degrees and not a cloud in the sky.  Most people would love to go to a beach on a day like yesterday.  Vampire-Trevor, however, has a sever adversion to the son.  The boy hates direct sunlight.  So we have a little beach tent for him.  It's a small little tent comepltely open on one side and fairly easy to set up with just 3 of those compactible tent sticks.  While we're setting up the tent some grey-haired old man walking around by himself comes over to us and says: "Don't ya love the beach? !  I always says it takes a day to set-up and a day to pack it up.  Ya know one time I was fishing in Alaska, caught a 60lb halibut but I couldn't throw it back because the guy I was with loves fish...."Then he moved on to the next group of people on the beach.

5. There was a Rutgers football game on Friday night.  Rutgers won.  Their new freshman quarterback had a pretty sweet game.   He looks like a baby which makes me feel old:

While on the Rutgers topic, today I was bored and looked up the Alma Mater song "On the Banks of the ol' Raritan."   You guys remember that song, right?  Well apparently in the 70's there was a faculty fundraiser talent show and Richard McCormick's Dad, who is also named Richard McCormick and was a history professor at the time, sang his own rendition of the Rutgers theme song:

Your fathers sent you to Old Rutgers,

And your moms were glad to see you go!

For they had quite enough

Of your adolescent guff

And they felt it was well worth their dough!

(Chorus)

To the Banks of the Old Raritan you came

Where Old Rutgers ever since has stood

Where you found sheer delight

Beer and parties every night

For we've done the best that we could!

So sing your praise to Alma Mater

And the RU Screw forever ban!

For, as we all should know

We find kindness apropos

On the banks of the Old Raritan!

6.  Last week a dead 80 foot blue whale washed ashore on a beach in northern California.  Scientists think the whale was killed from being struck by a large cargo ship judging by her broken back.  She was pregnant when she was killed the 20 ft baby whale was expelled post-mortem. 


7.  During the summer-time in Santa Barbara, a nearby park has a summer concert series.  You bring your own blanket and the show is free.  It's very popular with families with small kids and kids of all ages for that matter.  One time we were at a show and Trevor was sitting down with his legs straight out in front of him and leaning back on his hands.  A small blond-haired blue eyed little boy suddenly jumps on his lap, straddling Trevor and is just right in his face.  A stupefied Trevor..."What the..!!??!  Who are you!?"  "Little Boy:  "Hi, I'm Sthammy" (with a lispe).  Sammy proceeds to lay down on Trevor and start rolling around.  Poor Trev didn't know what to do with this kid, but luckily Sammy's dad rushed over to grab his crazy kid.  "Hi I'm Sammy"..... whatever happened to teaching kids not to talk to strangers?

8. Trevor is back to school-mode.  Nothing too exciting to talk about there.  Although the one bright side is I feel like the quality and quantity of my blog posts are directly correlated to the busy-ness of Trevor's schedule.  Hopefully I can keep up.

9. At work we just hired a new person who is right out of college.  Although I still feel like I'm right out of college, I think I really actually forget what that feels like.  Because this new person makes me feel old.  I was telling a friend about it.  My friend is my age and she told me about a  conversation she was having with a co-worker who is 3 years younger than her.  They were talking about a 30 year old co-worker who is trying to have a baby and the younger girl said "what's the rush?"  Sally said "I dunno she's thirty so...."  At the same time Sally says "she's still young" as the younger girl interrupts "so she's pretty old."....awkward

10.  Things I did with my Mom, count em-
 ---- Bombay Bellywood Belly dancing show (1) 

 

 ---- Tasted beers at the Island Brewery (2)
 


  ----Went to the Avocado Festival (3)
 

  ----Watched the Chumash Indian Pow-Wow in Santa Ynez (4)

   ----Ate lunch in Solvang with a real Dane (5)

  ----Went on the Double Dolphin Sunset Cruise (6)

  ---- Had beers at the Creekside Inn (7)

 ---- Walked in the Botanical Gardens (8)
 
 ---- Yard Work ---boring  (9)
  ----Met her ol' college friend for a drink at the Brewhouse (10)






 

DONE!!! Check the time !!!  10-10-10-10-10-10-10-10-10-10!